Diary of a Pod Pilot

This month’s Banter lets us play Dev-for-a-day, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t have ideas for EVE? My idea wouldn’t be a new one, but rather, I’d start on implementing my favorite part of the 0.0 design goals, namely those for NPC space.

“With the Winter expansion possibly being named ‘Crucible’, it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?

For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this “patchwork” of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package “The Crucible” together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?”

As it doesn’t state how much room there is for an additional feature, I’ll take this in the broadest sense possible. While I do have experience with project management through my real life career, I’ve never seen a line of EVE code, so if a dev reads this and faints, I’m very sorry to overestimate what you can do. Consider it a compliment as my faith in your implementation skills is that strong! Likely though, this is food for several expansions.

The most basic thing, and I’ve submitted this for the “little things” thread (#littlethings hashtag on Twitter) would be that I’d like to see pirate NPC standings matter (“Owners should matter” from the design goals). This has so far always been the case for Empire factions, and was implemented into Factional Warfare as well, yet sadly does not hold true for the rats we face in missions, belts, anomalies, complexes, and on gates. As I’ve been told the framework is in place, I’m assuming unless there is legacy code involved, that this isn’t that hard to implement. Person has x standing with faction? Rat doesn’t engage unless fired upon. Simple.

What this enables is that people living in NPC nullsec and actively dedicating time to getting their standings fixed — as they are so often ruined from highsec missioning, which is something the majority of starting players will one way or another engage in — have an edge against those living in the region purely to run complex after complex and run their standings into the ground. To give an example, dedicated Curse inhabitants would be able to go into a complex, not get rat aggro, and have a much easier time to take down the capsuleer that is running said complex. This would, to a certain extent, discourage alliances who are using the region as a staging point from messing with the locals. From my experience, these big alliances know they could easily take down the usually smaller NPC nullsec dwelling groups, so making it a challenge on them is justified. It’s not quite an equal to reinforcing your system in sov space, but it’s a start. And, as a major bonus point, it implements roleplay without being intrusive or grating on those who don’t really enjoy the ‘R’ in ‘MMORPG’.

Building upon this, I’d expand the benefits that come with standings (“Local connections yield benefits” from the design goals). Some things already get cheaper, such as tax on refining. But there is loads of room for expansion here. How about less rent for an office, so that rent metagaming — making offices so expensive to rent your enemy will be forced to drop theirs — becomes less of a risk. Or how about cheaper repairs? Perhaps cheaper clones? One thing is though, if NPC nullsec gets this, I feel it would only be fair that this is implemented across the board.

One thing that is not in the design goals, but which could easily be a feature, would be that enemy rats would show up in belts, anomalies and complexes. We have this with rogue drones already, but I find it strange there is never a single Sansha to be seen in Curse, despite Catch being right next door. Now the Cartel is pretty awesome but if Kuvakei can drop his forces left and right in Empire space, I don’t think a few Sansha anomalies and complexes would be so strange. This would come with the added bonus that NPC nullsec dwellers suddenly have more choice than to run missions, which could be a huge draw for players. Sometimes we only have a little time available a day, or players are too young to be running level 4 missions, and they already fly small ships due flying a solo Battleship — because STRACS are a rather large investment — through nullsec being a generally bad idea. Expanding that, Empire rats could also be added, for those of us who really like tags and nuking their Empire standings into oblivion. But it gets a bit harder to make that really attractive unless they do not give standings penalties, or alternatively raise pirate faction standings with the faction controlling the region.

The rest of the design goals are too large to be just features, yet of course I’d love to see them as well. “Collective admin” could be tied in with letting corporations and alliances declare themselves officially loyal to an NPC faction. Just like Factional Warfare. And that then can be combined with letting alliances as a whole into that. Unlike Factional Warfare however, sovereignty of systems shouldn’t be able to be contested, although doing such may lead to finally seeing a form of pirate-FW. But it would likely clash with the “Safeish haven” and “Targeted” design goals. There are lots of options available here though, and I really hope that in the future pirate factions will be elevated to the same level of seriousness as the Empire factions are. And maybe make more of the other little factions matters too.

A last and entirely new idea, which would fit the “Safeish haven” and “Targeted” design goals, is to make NPC nullsec a hybrid highsec / nullsec, where engaging a pirate faction loyalist results in NPC support arriving on the field. This is a bold and absolute overhaul and is likely to send some people into a screaming fit of rage, but it would be sort of neat. It would, of course, only happen when being in that faction’s home region. But imagine how it would change the landscape. It would need a lot of balancing though, because it made be too little risk and too much reward. But with the added logistics that nullsec brings and the fact that it still functions as nullsec — thus, no CONCORD, only pirate faction police forces — it could create a truly new type of space. And this is something that EVE has not seen for ages.

For bonus points, I’d like to think of Crucible as a Neocom software update. It fits why space suddenly looks a whole lot better, why we have a new font, and even why there is time dilation. Expanding upon that, I can see the various NPC corporations in EVE using this wonderful advancement in technology to release new ships, advances in POS fuel technology, additional modules, due the old Neocom just not making them possible. As for better looking ships, well, their design teams were just twiddling their thumbs and needed to be put to work.

This storyline could be specifically used for new players by marketing it in the way that EVE is sprinting to catch up and overtake other MMO’s. See WoW which slowly is upgrading it graphics, but has yet to see an 100% overhaul of the initial looks. Fairly sure EVE is close to 100% when looking at the first final release. And since this expansion is about listening to the player base, it could also stress that bit. Because — forgetting the faults made in the past here — I’ve never been part of another MMO where players had this much impact. And EVE went way beyond the usual with changing the Jita monument. That’s not just listening, that’s honoring your players, which is why lots of us love EVE and even started to play it, and this would be a great trend to continue building upon.

Bah, summer is so busy, I’m way behind on writing about interesting dev blogs. The recent design goals for nullsec development however are just too great to pass on. If only because they are right up my alley. Or well, some of them at least. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Mining

I have a mining alt, and I’ve played bait miner as Myrhial before (that’s -still- a running gag within the alliance), so I can totally talk about this subject. I started my alt, Faber Demaunier, as a mining alt because I liked the idea of semi-passive income. Sometimes, even missions are just too much effort, or time does not allow for it, and then breaking out a Hulk and munching roids in a belt can still give you at least some income, where as doing nothing gets you nothing.

Mining for income currently is pretty crappy, even down in nullsec. So I totally agree on making it more profitable. Few people really do it because they like it, because it is boring as hell. In fact, I’d love to see the profession overhauled. Make it more fun and engaging to do. Reward people for being there rather than dragging ore to a can / Orca every so often. Giving mining a purpose could help also, but still, I can imagine in most cases ways around it. May just be simpler to import ore from somewhere else. As for investing in mining, I have no doubt that will be done, if income and purpose are addressed.

Removing ice is interesting, but there is the risk of mining turning into a dead profession in high sec if you take too much away. If some things are moved to lowsec, it may boost that area a little, but to be honest there is much more still to be addressed before lowsec is fine. Considering we keep seeing iterations on nullsec, I do hope this will get some love too. Not to mention factional warfare! But I disgress.

Industry

Considering that is what Faber does most of the time now, I have something to say here too. For one, I’d totally move her down to nullsec if it were worth my while. However, right now, operating out of highsec with a POS to copy and invent at is just way better, because the only way to get things like moon minerals is to go to Rens and buy them there. Or Jita for large bulk orders. I like the idea of being self-sufficient but it is not just the low end stuff that is a problem. It’s that there isn’t a market for anything down in Curse. If anything, low end stuff is in abundance due to mission loot refining.

That also has me a tad worried when they say that T2 will move down to nulsec. Prices are already high, losing a Recon or a HAC puts a good dent in my wallet at least. Good point on the hidden costs and being lucrative, but eh, unless all resources are available this will drive T2 building into the niche of pure industry corporations and alliances with sov enough to have a good moon network, or work with suppliers. They did note they want it accessible to all, but I see a lot of contradictions on this subject.

Movement and logistics

Power to the small and mobile gangs I say. Nothing quite has a whole region dock the hell up when some big alliance rolls a big ass fleet through it. And if they like, they can chase your little roaming gang around too. Which is pretty stupid, bigger ships running after smaller ones and keeping up. Not to mention they large group can just easily roll about wherever the hell they want. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fight, but there is no getting a good fight out of a large blob when you’re a tiny little fleet. I want to be fighting other tiny fleets, or picking of targets of medium fleets, not get run into the group by yet another blob. As for the rest, well, I don’t have too much to say about that.

Exploration

If I ever retire as CEO and don’t do it because I am moving on from EVE, I’d love to explore more. Or heck, I could see it as something for Faber to do. I’ve always loved the idea of going around space and explore all these interesting sites. It’s why I love COSMOS, and why I follow the few good travel blogs the EVE blogging community has. The thing is indeed that right now for nullsec exploration you need a strong enough ship. Nothing wrong with group content through plexes, but still, the nomadic lifestyle does have a certain draw to it. And that does not mix well with big ships. I don’t mind neeeding a ship or two to get the job done, though a single exploration platform could be interesting as well. It would also add to immersion and give this feeling of a sci-fi movie, where an exploration ship travels through the void in search for its next adventure. Hah, I bet that would keep me writing too!

PVE

Solo stuff? Hell yeah. It breaks my heart when during spells of low activity, be it on the alliance side, or on a players personal side, people go back to highsec to earn income, because it may be their only option, especially when hostiles or neutrals are prodding around our home.

Risk / reward balancing is a no-brainer too. The Cartel and Serpentis LP stores do that for us, two missions and you have a Dramiel blueprint, which is 40 mil profit after what you pay the LP store, is pretty damn sweet (please do not all apply for the PRETA at once now you’ve seen these numbers!). And the Daredevil, while less popular, gives even more profit per. Even with the upcoming Dramiel nerf, these things are bound to stay in demand. But that’s pirate space. Sov space doesn’t have that shiny stuff, not unless you murder a ton of Angel rats (boo, hiss!). I’ve been informed that income there is pretty solid though, but still, this is how it always should be, not something situational due to FOTM. They may be less awesome, but other pirate factions deserve love too.

For ship classes, I absolutely fucking LOVE the epic arc. It’s so much fun to mission in an Assault Frigate or Interceptor. Whoo! Not even thinking about the sexy faction standings and rewards, I’m totally raving about it. So yes, please god yes, more of this good stuff. It’d be even more kickass because when in slightly hostile territory, now that the era of the unprobable Tengu is mostly over (RIP), that there are alternatives to being a sitting duck in a battleship.

As for rewarding groups, yes, you totally should. Because while I like to make a little ISK on my own when nobody else is about, it’s just tons more fun to get everyone on Teamspeak and go shoot some stuff and spread the standings and ISK love around.

NPC nullsec

Oh! Totally my section, this! Safety? Well, there’s a reason sov holders who get their asses kicked tend to often roll into Curse, and then not just because it is that pesky thing inbetween you need to put staging POSes in. Besides, being a sov holder isn’t for everyone, but some of us do like the mechanics of nullsec. Even though we will cuss about bubbles at times!

Owners should indeed matter. Right now, other that station benefits, and mission access, there isn’t really that much of a drive to serve the Angel cause when in Curse. Same thing with story, unless you run the missions, you won’t get much of it. Also, I wouldn’t mind that my high standings would suddenly get me benefits. I took risk to get them this high (corps at 9, faction just a smidge below 8), and since public standings showing has been nuked, I’m not feeling so special anymore. Not to mention that logically it would make sense for the Angels to be all nice to us. Not just because of roleplay, but also because of taking that and putting it to practice. It would be nice if my pilots had some incentive to work for the Cartel other than to make me happy or fill their wallets.

Collective admin sounds intriguing. Right now, another group may very well be almost as good Angel loyalists as us, doing a ton of missions too, but unless they want a NAP or become allies, you’ll just be shooting at each other. And while it is nice to have some targets next door, I do think it is a bit weird to fire on other “would totally be loyalists if they wanted to roleplay it” groups. Not to mention that I won’t say no to something that would give those of us who are here to stay a little edge against those who come here to bittervet about losing their sov or just farm Dramiel prints for income.

Also, unless I dreamt it, I could have sworn there was something written in this section about NPC rats no longer firing upon the loyalists. But since I can’t see it, please CCP, pretty please with sugar on top can we have this? I’ll have your babies if you make this come true. I mean, it’s so totally unfair that Factional Warfare has this (so you do have the mechanics) and we don’t get it. It’s no fun when you have to tell another group you fly with you can’t shoot the damn gate rats because you’re friends with them. Also, it’d make my nice and high standings feel more rewarding. But do please put public standings showing in again. Because I’d love that back too. But if I had one wish, not having rats fire upon you past a certain amount of faction standings would be quite lovely! Please?

In the same line with that, it’s all fine and dandy that you have NPC rats of the sov holding faction, but it’d be nice if it were more of a split. Sansha space isn’t too far out. Send some toasters into our space, as exploration options and in the belts. Yes, I know, we have rogue drones, but ugh I hate cleaning up drone poo, there are no bounties, and no faction loot! Yuck. May even send in some Empire rats, like you have in the missions. I did not want those Gallente and Minmatar standings anyway, nor those CONCORD standings. Oh wait, I’ve in fact done enough DED blockades to totally nuke that past Diplomacy V, and the others aren’t too far off either.

Small combat

This is our style of combat. And I agree with all the points outlined. There should be a valid alternative to the blob, and it should be fun too. I really love guerrilla warfare. And it would be quite interesting to take this beyond our home region and go poke around the nearby sov to stir up some trouble and get some good fights.

Large combat

Probably not something I’ll ever have much to say about. I’d love to be in some for the epic scale of it all, but I don’t like being a number. I do agree it should be fun for those who like to do it, and make them feel less of a number in the process too.

Small-holding

Oh look, a polite term for renting. I guess some people do take offense to it when you call them renters or pets. Which I always find funny, because it’s a pretty smart strategy, but well some egos are only satisfied with the best I guess.

I’ve pondered with the idea of renting in the past, and should we ever grow to the size of being able to support a single system, or well rather see the risk diminished that Big Bad Alliance decides they want all the pie, I wouldn’t mind dabbling into it. Having a system that says Naraka. on it and claim it for the Cartel, that’d be pretty nifty. Sadly, it brings all kinds of headache, and not enough benefits. So if that were to change for the better, who knows. Maybe we could do it just for a little while, and always have a home in Curse to return to. I think that would be pretty cool.

Territory and Conquest

Lalala, skipping right over this. Or well, mostly. I’ll just add that I don’t think this is it for me. Nor do I have the illusion that suddenly there will be a massive interest in joining an Angel Cartel roleplaying alliance. I think CVA and U’K (did they ever have sov? I think so?) are bound to stay pretty unique in that regard. Would it be cool to have? Sure. But still, even if I poured all my heart into it and could make it work, right now, the whole sov game just doesn’t appeal to me. Too much work involved, too big a risk to lose it all, and rats easily jump ship when things go bad. No, I rather keep my smaller alliance, where we are all friends and on the same page, and here to stay.

Intel

Ah, the game within the game. I love intel. Knowing who is who and being able to predict them by the knowledge you hold, or use that against outsiders. It’s fun for me. And I’m blessed with like-minded individuals in the alliance. We’ve got a good enough framework set up for it, but with Curse being ever-changing, we sure know about keeping info up to date. I’d like it if this could become almost a mini-profession, but I’d also appreciate it if it didn’t keep me doing paperwork so much. It’s the second worst after diplomacy at times. And I like to have time to actually shoot at stuff!

Home

Considering that I plan to stay in nullsec and preferably in Curse forever (strong word, but still, this is what I’ve always wanted) and keep it playing a major role in what we do, yes, making things feel like home is to be encouraged. Could help with people running back off to lowsec or highsec as well.

Submissions are open for the EVE is Real contest. I must say this is a brilliant turnaround from the drama we’ve been having lately regarding NeX, the Incarna rollout and CCP’s poor communication skills. Time to focus on what makes us all play internet spaceships to begin with and all the things CCP in fact does right. Or I should say the EVE community, and CCP seems quite prepared with this initiative to celebrate its greatest marketing tool, namely us.

For my submission I’ve selected something that was not made by me, but rather something that really got my EVE carreer rolling. The Angel Cartel (Push Eject) by Kyoko Sakoda, aka that recruitment trailer everyone loves. And damn right that they do, it’s an excellent piece of work, even now. For those of you who’ve never seen it before, I’ve included it at the end of this post.

So why does this make EVE real for me? Well, this trailer reminds me of the time when my time in Apex Unlimited was coming to an end and I spent a good while on my own before finally taking the plunge. And from there on, for those who’ve been following Myrhial’s / my story since the beginning I slowly rolled into the position where I am now, CEO of Ghost Festival, Executor of Naraka. and the person who took us from Derelik to the Amarr FW area, over to Goinard, and now finally into Curse. My, it’s been one hell of a ride and we’re still going, with so much more to come.

And that’s what really makes EVE real for me, the fact that every day the work I put in matters to many people, and that they keep amazing me with their input, and that through all these years there’s been so much I’ve gotten out of the game that goes beyond the limits of what is virtual. Just look at my interview at Fanfest, or just Fanfest as a whole, my blog of course, the tweetfleet, and the RP community. And there is so much more I am sure I am missing out on.

The funny fact is that Monoclegate, for lack of a better word, really made me realize that if EVE were to die there would be so much I’d end up missing. So much that is being taken almost for granted, and so much things that haven’t been realized yet. I seriously hope that time won’t come soon, but it is also a good reminder that we should not be scared and live our lives here and now, both the real and the virtual ones. Cut the crap and focus on what really matters. And don’t wait until tomorrow with what you can already do today.

As a follow-up to this post, I hopped on SiSi to go and take a look at the more finished results, as Incarna is hitting on June 21th! Yes, I know, some of you don’t really feel that CQ equals Incarna, but it’s a pretty damn nice start.

Sticky shadows graphics glitch

I’m logged on a few minutes and already breaking things! The shadow layer sticks to the screen, as if burned in. Tabbing out fixes it. Hope this one will be eliminated in the final release, even though the fix is not too bad, it’s pretty freaky to watch.

Archon hovering happily in dock

Let’s take a look at the biggest ship I own. Looks like it was built right inside of the station, and nobody thought what would happen if I’d like to undock with it. I hope the ceiling opens or something, because awesome as it is to see, from an immersion point of view this is interesting to explain.

Docked Tengu, for scale comparison

The Tengu looks a little less silly when docked. I do wonder if the Archon was scaled down to fit in the station, because seeing both undocked the latter looked smaller next to the carrier.

Even the smallest hulls are impressive on the new display

Here’s another snap, of a Crow this time. This shows really well that even frigates are humbling to the individual pilot, as prime fiction does outline them to be as big as a jumbo-jet.

Oh hey, so that's where my undock button went!

Just because it has become a running gag that my undock button is broken or lost when I am finding myself lost under a pile of CEO work again!

My pod in dock, waiting for its pilot

Ok, I really love how they added the pod to the station interior. Shame you cannot walk all the way up to it, but that’s just a gorgeous detail!

Ship spinning is now automated, so capsuleers can chill on the sofa and watch TV.

The screens are now actually showing information and are interactive. I hope in the future we get to customize them. I didn’t find the market ticker option yet, hope that is still coming. What I’d really love though is being able to watch EVE related movies (trailers, fan work) on the screen.

Myrhial admiring her pretty self in the mirror

Caldari dresses. Oh god yes! This is exactly the kind of stuff I envision Myrhial to be wearing. Can’t wait for the uniform style stuff from the Aurium store either. I have this dreadful feeling though that soon all my ship funds is going to be poured into vanity items.

I'm a sucker for details like that.

No, this picture was not an ass-shot, look up! It’s a small detail, but things like that just really complete the feel for me.

Front shot to show off pretty Caldari outfit

I can’t get over how awesome my character looks, sorry! Please continue to the next picture.

Epic Arc warning

I really love how the screen shows all kinds of useful informative tidbits. There is also sovereignty info, incursion warnings, a warning from Aura when you do not have a skill trained, certificates that are available, market data, and blurbs of in character news. Yep, I’m totally happy to give up ship spinning for this.

Wonder what it says.

One last thing I noticed, there is something written on what I assume is the door locking mechanism. I tried to zoom in as well as I could, but I can’t seem to read what it says. Anyone have a clue?

As announced in the latest dev blog, Captain’s Quarters (CQ) are now available for testing, alongside with the New Player Experience (NPE). This post is going to focus just on me squealing over finally being able to run around as my character and my take on the initial-still-very-much-under-development hands-on experience.

Can you find the button?

This is the first thing in the room that caught my attention. A nice big holoscreen displaying useful tidbits of information, well expect there was not much sov information to be shown. Not sure if that’s because we’re in NPC space here, or there just ain’t sov on Duality. There seems to be incursions though!

A larger view of your home

Here’s a bit of a larger view. Do ignore the textures still missing and the lack of light sources here and there. At least you’re not exposed to the flickering of shadows. The screen on your left is the corporation center, or recruitment for those still looking for a corporation. The one on the right takes you to PI.

Sitting down on the sofa, ignore that she is actually floating in front of it

Closer look at the sofa and table. The little holoscreen is the agent finder, unfortunately not yet available. One of those features that pique my interest. I expect some sorts of eve-agents equivalent. The thing on the right opens fitting and hangar, and is what will contain a little ship model. Not sure if that is working already or just broken for STRAC’s.

Tengu looks terribly small from way over here

Speaking of STRAC’s, that lump of metal way over there is my Tengu. Looks weird from way over here. Didn’t have any other ships on hand to swap out to though.

"Goodness, this is all quite impressing", Myrhial thinks to herself.

And that’s Myrhial, looking impressed and a little confused as well. I don’t blame here, it is a lot to take in.

At this point, there is only one direct wishI have to express: Add strafing as well as mouse turning, please. The current movement feels very counter-intuitive and clunky. With such realistic models we need fluidity to go with it. An option to run wouldn’t be bad either. If only because walking up and down the bridge takes a bit, and might discourage people from using the CQ interface when needing to remain combat-ready.