So I'm still experimenting with the Naga, but so far it seems amazing. Sure, it doesn't do the most damage, but its range is unbeatable.
Oppositely, the DPS of the Talos is just plain crazy, but like all Gal blaster boats, you have to get dangerously close to do that DPS. The Naga, on the other hand, puts out a nice consistent stream of hurt while kiting enemies all day long.
In the event Drakes are actually changed (aka nerfed) this may be the new anchor of sniping shield BC fleets.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Untippable Scales
Anything made by humans is prone to error, and massive multi-player online games are prone to massive multi-layered errors. This is especially true when it comes to game balance.
The traditional mantra in online games has been pretty straightforward. If something is completely unbalanced to the point its simply game breaking or reduces overall enjoyment the best way to bring attention to the problem is not by complaining on some community message system, its not by crying about it in game, and its certainly not by blogging about it -its by completely abusing the unbalanced mechanic to your advantage. When everyone is utilizing only a few skills, characters, items, or whatever it is, people stop playing and bad press is generated. This in turn forces companies to spend resources on the game or lose revenue. Tip the scales overwhelmingly in one direction and you get a response.
Eve has proven to be a different beast entirely. The game has grown so big almost no one has actually experienced every part of it. This is especially true of PvP. Most Eve players rarely even leave high-sec. This translates into gaping holes in the PvP system not even being experienced by a large portion of the player base. The end result? Balance adjustments can't be forced by simple and absolute abuse of over powered mechanisms, at least not in any timely way.
What does this mean for us, the players? ABUSE AWAY! So lets take a look at broken mechanics that can work for you. DISCLAIMER: The following techniques well make people cry, questions your sexual orientation in local, and set you red.
ECM
Okay so this might seem obvious, but its always stunning to me how rare ECM pilots are, particularly good ones. ECMs can effectively remove enemy players from the fight at a 1:1 module to ship ratio. They are guaranteed versus frigates, T1 cruisers, and most Minmatar ships. If for some reason one module doesn't do the job just use 2 on a particularly important target... Like your enemy's ECM ship.
For new pilots ECM ships can be hard for one simple reason... You are despised by all enemies. You will be primaried and unless you know how to handle this you're going to die. When and how to use ECM properly and survive takes time and practice, but the payoff is.. well, game breaking -its as simple as that.
Boosters
You see a lot of tearing on the forums about how underpowered active repair is. When it comes to skirmish battles nothing could be further from the truth. A standard Large Armor Repairer does about 800 points per cycle. However fit on a Hyperion with the proper skills, rigs, and boosters this one repper does over 2000 points per cycle. Fit 2 reps and you're repairing 40% of your armor in less then 10 seconds. When the amount of enemies involved in an engagement is low this is simply unbreakable. Active repair assault frigates were good before the last patch... They are truly amazing now. What can I say here.. Bait, bait and more bait.
The skill books needed for boosters are expensive, but depending on the kind of PvP you're doing they can pay for themselves pretty fast. Once again, a totally broken mechanic.
Passive Targetting
This one is just wrong. A large part of skirmish PvP is about who has aggression and how. This is especially true in Low Sec. If you catch possible prey making a mistake and think you have the alpha to one-shot them passive targeting can get you a free kill. This is almost never used and can really surprise people.
This list goes on and on...
A lot of attention is given to how broken super caps and titans are (which they really are), or how unfair the Drake is, but in reality these are just the most obvious in a huge list of balance issues within the game. So I say to you! Abuse and abuse again! When you find something you think is totally one-sided you may be right!
Remember, there is no "unfair" in Eve. There are only winners and losers. Let the guy who cries after you blow his ship up think otherwise, not you.
The traditional mantra in online games has been pretty straightforward. If something is completely unbalanced to the point its simply game breaking or reduces overall enjoyment the best way to bring attention to the problem is not by complaining on some community message system, its not by crying about it in game, and its certainly not by blogging about it -its by completely abusing the unbalanced mechanic to your advantage. When everyone is utilizing only a few skills, characters, items, or whatever it is, people stop playing and bad press is generated. This in turn forces companies to spend resources on the game or lose revenue. Tip the scales overwhelmingly in one direction and you get a response.
Eve has proven to be a different beast entirely. The game has grown so big almost no one has actually experienced every part of it. This is especially true of PvP. Most Eve players rarely even leave high-sec. This translates into gaping holes in the PvP system not even being experienced by a large portion of the player base. The end result? Balance adjustments can't be forced by simple and absolute abuse of over powered mechanisms, at least not in any timely way.
What does this mean for us, the players? ABUSE AWAY! So lets take a look at broken mechanics that can work for you. DISCLAIMER: The following techniques well make people cry, questions your sexual orientation in local, and set you red.
ECM
Okay so this might seem obvious, but its always stunning to me how rare ECM pilots are, particularly good ones. ECMs can effectively remove enemy players from the fight at a 1:1 module to ship ratio. They are guaranteed versus frigates, T1 cruisers, and most Minmatar ships. If for some reason one module doesn't do the job just use 2 on a particularly important target... Like your enemy's ECM ship.
For new pilots ECM ships can be hard for one simple reason... You are despised by all enemies. You will be primaried and unless you know how to handle this you're going to die. When and how to use ECM properly and survive takes time and practice, but the payoff is.. well, game breaking -its as simple as that.
Boosters
You see a lot of tearing on the forums about how underpowered active repair is. When it comes to skirmish battles nothing could be further from the truth. A standard Large Armor Repairer does about 800 points per cycle. However fit on a Hyperion with the proper skills, rigs, and boosters this one repper does over 2000 points per cycle. Fit 2 reps and you're repairing 40% of your armor in less then 10 seconds. When the amount of enemies involved in an engagement is low this is simply unbreakable. Active repair assault frigates were good before the last patch... They are truly amazing now. What can I say here.. Bait, bait and more bait.
The skill books needed for boosters are expensive, but depending on the kind of PvP you're doing they can pay for themselves pretty fast. Once again, a totally broken mechanic.
Passive Targetting
This one is just wrong. A large part of skirmish PvP is about who has aggression and how. This is especially true in Low Sec. If you catch possible prey making a mistake and think you have the alpha to one-shot them passive targeting can get you a free kill. This is almost never used and can really surprise people.
This list goes on and on...
A lot of attention is given to how broken super caps and titans are (which they really are), or how unfair the Drake is, but in reality these are just the most obvious in a huge list of balance issues within the game. So I say to you! Abuse and abuse again! When you find something you think is totally one-sided you may be right!
Remember, there is no "unfair" in Eve. There are only winners and losers. Let the guy who cries after you blow his ship up think otherwise, not you.
Friday, February 17, 2012
That Dirty Thing Called Mining
My, my so many things to talk about....
So anyone that has read the CSM minutes, or been involved in the Eve "community" for a while knows that there has been a great deal of talk on the lack of incentives to mine anywhere but high sec, and the most insulated regions of true null. If you take a look at all the rocks floating around in Low, NPC, and true 0.0 you know this is a real fact. There are vast resources that go untouched. However, if we're going to talk about improving incentives I think we better talk about some serious game mechanics issues at the same time. One of those is mining ships.
Take a look at any T1 or T2 mining ship. They have decent armor, shields, and hull strengths but their slot load out is awful, and their CPU/PG pathetic. Even under the best circumstance how do you protect these ships? The answer right now is: You don't. There is absolutely no way -no amount of logistics that can keep these ships alive. I know this from personal experience not as a miner, but as a responder. Worse yet, they don't even have the tools to defend themselves. Its impossible to fit any kind of shield or armor tank, and fitting guns isn't do-able either.
Mining could be made the most interesting and isk producing activity in all of Eve and under the current system the only result would be mining ships exploding by the thousands. So what am I hoping for? I'd like to see groups of miners be able to fit guns, remote repair, and a heavy enough tank that they could give a disorganized group of invaders a run for their money, or least have a chance of staying alive until support can bridge in or arrive from a few systems away. Every other ship in Eve can do this. Why can't mining ships? Under the current system mining ships have such weak tanks you can bring logistics and a large defense force in and your enemies can still wipe your whole mining fleet away right in front of you.
Next time I'll take a look at some other topics around low/null sec.
So anyone that has read the CSM minutes, or been involved in the Eve "community" for a while knows that there has been a great deal of talk on the lack of incentives to mine anywhere but high sec, and the most insulated regions of true null. If you take a look at all the rocks floating around in Low, NPC, and true 0.0 you know this is a real fact. There are vast resources that go untouched. However, if we're going to talk about improving incentives I think we better talk about some serious game mechanics issues at the same time. One of those is mining ships.
Take a look at any T1 or T2 mining ship. They have decent armor, shields, and hull strengths but their slot load out is awful, and their CPU/PG pathetic. Even under the best circumstance how do you protect these ships? The answer right now is: You don't. There is absolutely no way -no amount of logistics that can keep these ships alive. I know this from personal experience not as a miner, but as a responder. Worse yet, they don't even have the tools to defend themselves. Its impossible to fit any kind of shield or armor tank, and fitting guns isn't do-able either.
Mining could be made the most interesting and isk producing activity in all of Eve and under the current system the only result would be mining ships exploding by the thousands. So what am I hoping for? I'd like to see groups of miners be able to fit guns, remote repair, and a heavy enough tank that they could give a disorganized group of invaders a run for their money, or least have a chance of staying alive until support can bridge in or arrive from a few systems away. Every other ship in Eve can do this. Why can't mining ships? Under the current system mining ships have such weak tanks you can bring logistics and a large defense force in and your enemies can still wipe your whole mining fleet away right in front of you.
Next time I'll take a look at some other topics around low/null sec.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Confidence and Experience
A bit of nostalgia, along with an experience in Eve today got me thinking...
Today my corp attempted to engage another corporation. We brought 3 Abbadons, and 3 Domnix. They had 2 Abbadon Navy Issue, a Mega, a Machariel, a Drake, 2 Guardians, an Oneiros, and a Chimera... They would not engage... Why?
Recently I was also looking back to some of my funnest days in Eve with the alliance Cry Havoc. This was the best alliance I have ever been in and probably will ever be in during my time with Eve. Cry Havoc had a very serious work ethic and high expectations of their pilots. At the same time everyone was friendly and easy to be around. CH did some crazy things in their time. It was common place for us to engage 50 enemy pilots with half their numbers... and win. We would take on our even numbers plus multiple carriers and multiple supers and win -really crazy fun times. Ultimately no one would engage CH without utterly overwhelming numbers. Why?
In Eve, I think 99% of all players will not get in a fight unless they see a clear and usually obvious path to victory. When any group of players can prove to their enemies that through experience, skill, and success what would normally seem like an obvious win may actually not be so, those enemies react in the only way they know how: To never ever fight you unless they can be absolutely certain of a win. And for most players that absolute certainty lies solely in massive numbers advantages.
What ultimately killed CH was the release of Super Carriers and Titan changes which made it clear CCP (for a time, at least) wholeheartedly embraced the idea that massive numbers and massive ships should dominate in all scenarios. With the game growing worse and worse, and no end in sight all of the leadership, and many of the original core membership simply stopped playing Eve -and who could blame them?
Well, luckily times have changed. CCP seems to be acting like they pulled their head out of their proverbial ass and things are much better then they been in a long time. While some parts of the game are still completely and utterly broken, it is possible through ingenuity, planning, practice, and most importantly perseverance to simply outplay opponents and win in situations that seem impossible.
So I guess the point of all this is: If you take the time to practice, learn the engagement scenarios, and understand the risks you can do some crazy things. I hope more high and low sec dwellers get a little less risk and loss averse, and go through the tough learning curve required to improve their PvP game. There really is a whole other world waiting for you right through that gate.
Today my corp attempted to engage another corporation. We brought 3 Abbadons, and 3 Domnix. They had 2 Abbadon Navy Issue, a Mega, a Machariel, a Drake, 2 Guardians, an Oneiros, and a Chimera... They would not engage... Why?
Recently I was also looking back to some of my funnest days in Eve with the alliance Cry Havoc. This was the best alliance I have ever been in and probably will ever be in during my time with Eve. Cry Havoc had a very serious work ethic and high expectations of their pilots. At the same time everyone was friendly and easy to be around. CH did some crazy things in their time. It was common place for us to engage 50 enemy pilots with half their numbers... and win. We would take on our even numbers plus multiple carriers and multiple supers and win -really crazy fun times. Ultimately no one would engage CH without utterly overwhelming numbers. Why?
In Eve, I think 99% of all players will not get in a fight unless they see a clear and usually obvious path to victory. When any group of players can prove to their enemies that through experience, skill, and success what would normally seem like an obvious win may actually not be so, those enemies react in the only way they know how: To never ever fight you unless they can be absolutely certain of a win. And for most players that absolute certainty lies solely in massive numbers advantages.
What ultimately killed CH was the release of Super Carriers and Titan changes which made it clear CCP (for a time, at least) wholeheartedly embraced the idea that massive numbers and massive ships should dominate in all scenarios. With the game growing worse and worse, and no end in sight all of the leadership, and many of the original core membership simply stopped playing Eve -and who could blame them?
Well, luckily times have changed. CCP seems to be acting like they pulled their head out of their proverbial ass and things are much better then they been in a long time. While some parts of the game are still completely and utterly broken, it is possible through ingenuity, planning, practice, and most importantly perseverance to simply outplay opponents and win in situations that seem impossible.
So I guess the point of all this is: If you take the time to practice, learn the engagement scenarios, and understand the risks you can do some crazy things. I hope more high and low sec dwellers get a little less risk and loss averse, and go through the tough learning curve required to improve their PvP game. There really is a whole other world waiting for you right through that gate.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Up and Coming: Things to Watch in the Eve Meta
The Crucible expansion brought an amazing amount of changes to Eve. So many its going to take a long time for the community to sort out the efficacy of these changes. Here are a few things to look out for:
The Gallente
I've been running the numbers, as well as field tests and all I can say is watch out! Gallente ships now do as much damage with rails and drones as most other races do with short range guns... At a superior distance! Worse yet, if you are unlucky enough to actually get caught up close to a blaster fit ship the damage output is simply overwhelming.
I think once the complainers fade players may actually start saying the Gal are too powerful now.
The Naga
High range? High damage? Yes, I'll take it! Its about time there was another reason to fly Caldari ships besides the Drake and Falcon. Sadly, even with the addition of the Naga I can still count all of the Caldari's viable PvP ships on one hand.
Maybe CCP devs will get wild and give the Moa, Eagle, and Ferox this same bonus! We can always dream, right?
The Moros
For older pilots with all relevant skills trained to level 5 this ship has become the capital beast of the skies. Why you ask? Sure, Super Caps and Titans do more damage, but they can't be docked or insured -needless to say, they cost a whole hell of a lot more the a dreadnought, too. When comparing apples to apples, the DPS on the Moros is so far ahead of the other dreads right now its not even funny.
The Gallente
I've been running the numbers, as well as field tests and all I can say is watch out! Gallente ships now do as much damage with rails and drones as most other races do with short range guns... At a superior distance! Worse yet, if you are unlucky enough to actually get caught up close to a blaster fit ship the damage output is simply overwhelming.
I think once the complainers fade players may actually start saying the Gal are too powerful now.
The Naga
High range? High damage? Yes, I'll take it! Its about time there was another reason to fly Caldari ships besides the Drake and Falcon. Sadly, even with the addition of the Naga I can still count all of the Caldari's viable PvP ships on one hand.
Maybe CCP devs will get wild and give the Moa, Eagle, and Ferox this same bonus! We can always dream, right?
The Moros
For older pilots with all relevant skills trained to level 5 this ship has become the capital beast of the skies. Why you ask? Sure, Super Caps and Titans do more damage, but they can't be docked or insured -needless to say, they cost a whole hell of a lot more the a dreadnought, too. When comparing apples to apples, the DPS on the Moros is so far ahead of the other dreads right now its not even funny.
Friday, December 9, 2011
War Economy! The profitability of Destruction and Loss
Below this line is an essay I have posted to the Eve forums. Feel free to comment here, as well.
---------------------------------------------------
Greetings,
Its really fun to fight over stuff and blow things up in Eve. I am always looking for new and even more fun (and devious) ways to blow things up, or create opportunities to blow things up, or get pad to blow things up. What you will find below is a set of ideas I have been considering for a while regarding combat, loss, and ways to make it more interesting and profitable.
Steps towards Something Greater
Recent updates have brought changes that, while seemingly small in scope, have the power to change the fundamental economic drivers of Eve Online. The first, and perhaps most powerful of these changes was the ship insurance payment changes.
Insurance reimbursements for lost ships are now paid based on the actual value of materials required to build them. This implies an extremely powerful concept: The ISK value of items within Eve can be derived and refined into a single clear number based on aggregated market data. This also implies that such a value can be determined for any item sold via the market. Simply by tracking the ISK value of materials required to build items, the market value of the items themselves, or some combination there of, anything from Meta 1 Scramblers to a Tech 3 Cruiser can have a mean ISK value. This is a key concept for proposals given further in the essay.
The second of these recent changes was the addition of many faction items to the market. The actual ISK value of these items has quickly become clearer since their addition. Some faction items can still only be bought and sold through contracts. While contracts are perhaps useful for rarer items, common items can be tracked more easily through the market. There is also much more price fluctuation in contracts. Multiple items being sold in one contract also makes determining ISK value for items with no market equivalent near impossible. As stated above, determining ISK value is key.
Finally, the most recent update has brought the ability to see what implants were lost when “giving someone a quick trip home”. This is truly the crownpiece of any aggregated ISK value calculation system. We can now know everything lost upon ship and pod destruction and therefore determine down the very last cent (or ISK in this case) the value of all assets involved.
Together I believe these changes warrant a serious rethinking of bounties, kill rights, and factional warfare. An incredible new world of opportunities to enrich the game play experience within Eve Online lay before us. Systems where destruction and loss have clear value, and more importantly, clear rewards are now possible. There are many possibilities –many more then I can relay here and keep my essay any reasonable length! I will try to hit on a few of them below.
Bounties that mean something!
Instead of silly pod destruction Empire generated bounties could pay out a percentage of the target’s assessed losses until the total bounty prize was depleted. Players could freely add their own funds to such bounties as they desired. Private bounty contracts would not only be possible but desired! Two parties, be they single players, corps, or alliances could enter into a contractual agreement where by a third party’s assets were targeted and destroyed. A percentage value of the destroyed items would be paid out to the aggressors.
Under such a system payments could only occur for items which were destroyed, not dropped. However attackers would now gain from both drops and destruction. No more cursing the wicked drop fairies because your targets faction modules did not drop! (At least not so profusely)
Its also interesting to consider pricey “uninsurables”, such as T2 ships under such a system. So you finally caught that annoying nano fit Vagabond? While he gets 30% of the value of a tech 1 stabber for that loss, you on the other hand are operating under a private bounty agreement and get some portion of the actual value of his T2 hull. Lucky you!
Killrights
Within such a system kill rights could be updated to allow destruction of the aggressor’s assets up to the assessed value of incurred losses. This also begs for a reconsideration of transferrable kill rights. That however is not within the scope of this essay.
War Declarations revisited
Instead of a flat fee to attack any given corp or alliance, limited destruction rights within empire space could be purchased. Mercenary corps could no longer endlessly attack groups of industrialists for a flat weekly fee. At the same time attacks which serve a specific purpose could be executed more freely for considerably less isk. (Caveat! I am not supporting one system over another here, just giving some possibilities. Troll for life Brutha!)
Faction Warfare could be truly profitable!
With a more granular loss calculation system in place Faction Warfare payments could be expanded beyond simple Loyalty Points. Cold, hard ISK could also be paid out. This would allow a new income stream in Eve for FW participants! It might also help balance out some of the disparities between opposing empires that currently exist. More opposing FW targets would mean more possible profit and more danger!
Suicide Yarr!!!
Did those guys who just trashed your freighter in high sec with a suicide gank do it for the “LOLs”, or because they were paid off? Anyone really dislike you? You may never know. I like to imagine this as a nice replacement for the recently lost insurance payments.
As you can see there are many possibilities. I believe the examples given above only scratch the surface. The key to all of this is an aggregated market evaluation system capable of giving an arbitrary value to each and every item bought and sold.
The Value of Conflict
The goal here is to create a War Economy: A system where destruction and conflict have value -not only an immediate value, but a speculative one as well. Conflict is what drives Eve Online and makes it the engaging experience we all love. I believe such a system would give players the tools to fight with one another in new rich and robust ways. It would give us new excuses to blow up important internet spaceships. And most important, it would be fun.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Smart people working hard for Internet Spaceships
Seleene, a current CSM member made an excellent post on his blog here. What started out as a simple reply quickly turned into something too long to post as a comment so I decidedto just drop it on my own page.
From a purely business perspective CCP's choices make a great deal of sense. "We have standardized and unified our code base. We are expanding our product line. We are creating new environments for consumers to experience over our entire product line, and testing these environments in our current products." All this sounds really good, and to a large extent is. However from a creative perspective these choices are mediocre at best. Its like spending years creating the best canvas possible but never getting around to actually painting a picture on that canvas. Also, all these choices do little to keep consumers interested in their flagship product, the one that actually pays their bills. To rectify these problems its going to take a complete rethinking of what CCP is about, and perhaps a change in management.
Unfortunately there is very little historic precedent for such radical paradigm shifts without major crises. Whether it be within individuals, vast empires, or some mid-size company in Iceland, such large changes in culture and thinking do not come easy to our species. Is this to say its impossible? No, but highly unlikely. Sadly such a crises would probably come from CCP being unable to pay their bills as a company and ceasing to exist. It is exactly this scenario the passionate player base is trying to avoid. Ironically, I think this is exactly what CCP is trying to avoid as well, but addressing the problem from a completely different perspective.
I personally do not completely disagree with the overall choices CCP has made. I think there has simply been a tipping of the scales too far in the direction of business oriented decisions and away from creative iteration. All of the original creative ideas in Eve have had many years to be tested and retested. It is time the results of these years of testing and experimentation be used to rethink some of the underlying core mechanics of Eve that are seen as broken and inadequate by all parties involved. To put it clearly, the limited resources of CCP need to be shifted back in the direction of significantly improving their current product. I really think this is all it would take.
The answer coming from company management for along time has been "Yeah, we will get around to fixing that stuff..." By the time they get around to it there may not be a game left to fix. Irregardless of the CSM or outcry from a devoted, and perhaps dogmatic consumer base, the gamble is theirs to make in the end.
EDIT: All of these thoughts and much more is clearly and articulately expressed in this Eve Radio Chat.
MJ
From a purely business perspective CCP's choices make a great deal of sense. "We have standardized and unified our code base. We are expanding our product line. We are creating new environments for consumers to experience over our entire product line, and testing these environments in our current products." All this sounds really good, and to a large extent is. However from a creative perspective these choices are mediocre at best. Its like spending years creating the best canvas possible but never getting around to actually painting a picture on that canvas. Also, all these choices do little to keep consumers interested in their flagship product, the one that actually pays their bills. To rectify these problems its going to take a complete rethinking of what CCP is about, and perhaps a change in management.
Unfortunately there is very little historic precedent for such radical paradigm shifts without major crises. Whether it be within individuals, vast empires, or some mid-size company in Iceland, such large changes in culture and thinking do not come easy to our species. Is this to say its impossible? No, but highly unlikely. Sadly such a crises would probably come from CCP being unable to pay their bills as a company and ceasing to exist. It is exactly this scenario the passionate player base is trying to avoid. Ironically, I think this is exactly what CCP is trying to avoid as well, but addressing the problem from a completely different perspective.
I personally do not completely disagree with the overall choices CCP has made. I think there has simply been a tipping of the scales too far in the direction of business oriented decisions and away from creative iteration. All of the original creative ideas in Eve have had many years to be tested and retested. It is time the results of these years of testing and experimentation be used to rethink some of the underlying core mechanics of Eve that are seen as broken and inadequate by all parties involved. To put it clearly, the limited resources of CCP need to be shifted back in the direction of significantly improving their current product. I really think this is all it would take.
The answer coming from company management for along time has been "Yeah, we will get around to fixing that stuff..." By the time they get around to it there may not be a game left to fix. Irregardless of the CSM or outcry from a devoted, and perhaps dogmatic consumer base, the gamble is theirs to make in the end.
EDIT: All of these thoughts and much more is clearly and articulately expressed in this Eve Radio Chat.
MJ
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