Blog Banter 71: When too many is too many?

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 71st edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Too Many Ships Spoil the Sandpit?

We all like important internet spaceships right? The more spaceships the better right? Or are we getting too many to be easily to remember them all. A Mastodon on scan? That the hell is that and what does it do? Oh! Never mind!

Are we getting too many ships. Is it too complicated to remember them all and what their traits are? Do FC's these days need an encyclopedic knowledge of ship types unless they want their fleet to DIAF. With more and more ships being released each year will we ever reach "too many" or do you think there can never be too many important internet spaceship types?

Banter on!

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You can often hear people say that it's all about spaceships in EVE. When Incarna expansion, that introduced captain's quarters, was deployed back in 2011 there was a huge "storm" from player base. A lot of players were upset that they were being forced to use this feature which opened up a lot more wounds such as lack of focus on actual spaceships and gameplay surrounding them. Not to get too much into history, but CCP got the message and since then, spaceships were going to be one of their main focus. Even in the very next expansion Crucible they have introduced at the time so called t3 battlecruisers: Talos, Tornado, Oracle and Naga.

Since then we have seen a lot of new ships introduced to our universe and a lot of changes related to gameplay. Before going any further I must come out and say that I haven't flown any of the new ships since 2012. One of the reasons is that I simply haven't had a need for them. For my wormhole stalking Stratios is too weak to initiate tackle, though certainly beats Proteus on solo hunt. I haven't done any cosmic sites to use Astero and I haven't flown a ship without cloak for awhile so no new destroyers or cruisers. I considered to adopt Nestor for my doctrine, but that with that price tag it did not make much sense. But it's highly likely I will do a break from wormhole hunting and join some k-space corp at some point to fully engage in experience. It will probably feel like a new game to me.

In general, I think new ships are great, but CCP must be cautions. More ships means harder to balance. This problem existed since the beginning. Nerf hammer was going around, hitting different ships. When I started in 2010 Gallente was considered EVE on hard mode. After rebalancing blasters, drones and nerfing other races it became EVE on easy mode. With more ships in the pot it will only be harder to achieve harmony.

But if there's at least some harmony, having many different tools (ships) will make game more exciting. It certainly makes it harder for FCs to manage the field and raises the knowledge bar, but that's not a bad thing.

The only time I think adding ships spoils the sandpit is when CCP tries hard to make dangerous spaces accessible for new players. Take for instance Venture. A gas mining ship that is hard to catch, costs peanuts, and is used by everyone regardless of their age. Same ship mines most cheap and most lucrative gases. I know a lot of people will disagree and that's fine. It's just my personal opinion. If there are cheap and expensive options to mine ore, why gas sites are treated differently?

Other than that, I think it's a great time to play EVE. Reading stories about command destroyers using micro jump drive on enemies makes me really excited. Things like these add a lot of value to the game. The more unpredictable the fight is the better. I just wish they looked at battleships a bit. With so many cruisers, frigates and destroyers, I feel battlecruisers and especially battleships might be left out of all the fun. I think it's the perfect time to settle down with new ship introduction and do some cleanup and organizing in our sandbox.

Blog Banter 67 - This shit's gotta go

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 67th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

I am CCP X
There has been a catastophic accident in the CCP Offices in the style of the Robbie Coltrane movie "The Pope Must Die". A leftover open bottle of Brennivin hidden behind a filing cabinet from the last Christmas party has mutated and released fumes affecting several senior CCP staff. CCP Chair is now the CEO and CCP Cub is Executive Producer assisted by CCP Kitteh. In a freak accident your player account has just been upgraded to a senior CCP staffer leading a development team! With CCP now led by an inanimate object supported by a very young child and a fluffy cat, there is nothing to stop this from happening!

You are now CCP -Insert Your CCP Name Here- and have a team of developers eagerly awaiting your commands. So CCP X, what are you going to have your team work on?

One can dream, so why not.

I Am CCP Terminator. Today our order of business will be taking out the trash and balancing the items.

#1 Increase supply of purple loot

The situation is very sad. There are so many items that has 1pc movement a month a week or few days. I know some items should be rare, but there are no items so overpowered for such low movement. Ye ye, I know you all say officers loot would be way overpowered and I say good. If supply got increased and we had 20 people flying with purple mods instead of some random one carebear in his pimped high-sec ship I say it's a good thing. Current price makes then not applicable for pvp. Sure they give an advantage, but it's so easy to lose your ship that it's hard to justify the cost.

Now imagine you have several guys flying in the area that you know may carry nice loot. You start preparing baits, traps and putting extra effort to kill them. That's content right there. My dream is to see such mods used in action and not just read on a news site article once a year.

#2 Make storyline items not useless and make them to be easy obtainable by appearing in storyline missions and not COSMOS

They should be balanced in line with current modules, try to find a niche such as lower fitting requirements or different bonuses. Make materials to build them obtainable the normal way and not by farming poorly designed missions.

#3 Remove duplicates of deadspace and faction modules

Question: why there is multiple same modules with different names? Answer: no good reason at all. Make each module to be unique. Here's a crazy thought: reduce fitting requirements for faction items if fitted on same faction ship. Align their statistics to be on par and let the traders make sure each region is supplied with that faction items.

#4 Rebalance useless combat sites.

Those sites that noone bothers to do? Such as DED 3 rogue drone site for instance. Make them worthwhile by adding unique items. Those unrated combat sites that are insanely difficult for basically no reward? I'm looking at you Minor Blood Annex. Balance them so people actually would want to do them, by either having unique item drops or bigger escalation chance.

#5 Rebalance faction items from LP stores

Why the hell grindable items to infinity by doing missions are so good compared vs exploration drops? I'm looking at you Federation Stasis Webifier. Make them worse when compared to items obtained based chance.

#6 Remove implants from LP stores

Seriously. Why some of them can be farmed? Why not distribute them via anomalies. Make people go out of their farming systems to look for those riches. While we are at it, let's rebalance all those implants that are bought once a month. Boost bonuses so demand is on healthier level.