The Issues

There are many issues in Eve that I have gripes with. Here are some of my biggest ones (in no particular order) on the list of what I will urge CCP to sort out during CSM 6. While the CSM cannot force, only suggest, I feel that many of my ideas are sound and I can present them in a compelling fashion. Please scroll to the end of each section if you want a TL;DR

Larkonis on Communication... New and Shiny vs Polish etc.

I've always said that Eve's biggest feature isn't the spaceships but the people. It may sound like ridiculous rhetoric but it's what got me into the game (reading about the GH-SC heist in a printed magazine, remember those?) and dare I say kept me playing all these years. I've made space friends, space enemies taken part in in-game events that have been reported all over the gaming press, I'm sure this has not been an atypical experience. What I've seen over the years has been CCP further ignoring and marginalising this most important of features. Without the people there would be no Eve. I've seen the most enthusiastic and dedicated players become the bitterest of unsubbed vets and asked myself 'How can this be stopped?'. Yes, subscription numbers continue to increase but retention rates are apparently becoming lower. The Eve community is remarkably tolerant and will cheer joyfully when the tiniest bone (rockets, learning skills anyone?) but I think we're rapidly approaching the breaking point where no amount of high publicity 'bones' will be able to prevent the onset of bitter vet disease. There are so many demanding issues and bugs which are simple to fix yet ignored (and some which won't be so simple and are probably rightly ignored). Expansions released with half finished content which never get a look in again. Complete lack of communication or intent with regards to certain, crucial changes ('Hey guys, we just did this, you like it?'). Continued allegations of developer/GM favouritism with regards to certain alliances. It all adds up.

First and foremost I've always viewed the CSM as a 'communication bridge', a filter which operates both ways between the players and the Devs both for raising issues and concerns and then providing feedback. Sometimes even managing to intercept ideas or Devblogs before they're published and suggesting a rewording so they appear more 'diplomatic' although it seems an embarrassing number slip through the net. Post T20 many Devs shied away from interacting with the community and the CSM was a tool that was born out of that. I hope to not only strengthen the bridge between CCP, the CSM and the players but help build a bigger one between CCP and the players.

TL;DR: No feature left behind. Greater communication from CCP and the CSM.

Larkonis on Solo and Small Gang PVP (and also a bit of Sov)

I've been solo PVPing or doing it with a small group of bros since pretty much the start of my career. For me there's nothing better than going out roaming with some e-friends and having a good, fair (within reason :)) scrap, win or lose. Where personal skill, abilities, position and timing count for more than in a larger fleet fight. Right now the situation is pretty dire both in terms of finding fights and the risk/reward benefit. I feel that engineering solutions to make it more profitable and worth while to engage in these activities is the way to go about this problem (that's not to say that certain ship types and weapon systems don't need more of a defined role or a buff here or there).

On an individual level there is simply no money to be earned unless you get lucky or camp a gate day in, day out. Pre invention was the heyday for people of my ilk, where netting a T2 fit battleship could be worth upwards of 100 million (equally a loss stung a lot more). Now, with cheap mods and the addition of rigs to the mix, the vast majority of the value of a ship is tied up in the hull. My dream would be a gradual shift in the amount of components to produce a T2/T3 ship and mods, raising the prices of modules and lowering them for hulls. How does this fit in to the solo/small gang player? Well, it's much easier to administer and distribute loot or payouts between ten men than 100. I'm not for a moment suggesting we go back to the days of more than 10 million for a turret or 20 million for a cap recharger but a nudge (perhaps gradually phased over several expansions) would be a godsend. While we all saw what happened last time T2 production was messed with (and for some of us the consequences were worse than for others) I feel that if this is properly managed and lessons learned from Dominion were applied there could be benefits that reach far further than than individual players' wallets.

On a larger scale (with regards to Sov warfare and the like) there is simply no way for a :smallgang: to have any meaningful impact on day to day operations in enemy territory beyond killing some ratters. More here: http://scrapheap-challenge.com/viewtopic.php?t=38776

There are also many issues with individual weapon systems and ships which need addressing. I'll cover these in a later post.

TL;DR: I will lobby for the introduction of greater financial incentives to PVP and also strategic objectives for small gangs operating in 0.0.

Larkonis on The Bot

If you're anything like me you'll have been worried and alarmed at the increased usage of bots over the past few years. They used to be the sole preserve of hi-sec ice belts but since then they have 'evolved' and are now found in nearly all parts of the game; PI, the market, 0.0 anomalies and, if some are to be believed, even PVP. While the bot used to be the sole preserve of Far Eastern gentlemen in computer sweatshops farming ISK to sell to fat, wealthy westerners it seems now that everybody has their own personal bot either in Jita playing the 0.01 ISK game on the market or tucked away in some dead end 0.0 system ratting away. To fight the bot we must understand the bot. For as long as can be remembered if an activity becomes too mundane or isn't worth your time then one does one of two things: You automate it (the bot) or outsource the work to some foreign chap who eats rice all day (the farmer), this is how it's always been. PVE content, for the most part, is pretty woeful in terms of reward, difficulty and, most importantly, fun. By engineering significant changes to missions, mining and the market it may be possible to both remove the need and desire for people to bot and the ability of the bot himself to operate (to an extent).

I have, no doubt, that if they wanted to CCP could, with a wave of their hand, eliminate the vast majority of bots in a heartbeat but at the moment are content to limit their activities to the RMT trade, mainly from a legal standpoint (many RMT accounts are set up or funded with stolen credit card details) but also because they compete with the biggest RMTer of them all... CCP. Don't get me wrong, I think PLEX are absolutely great, not only giving players a means to fund their accounts legitimately through their in game efforts but also putting a massive dent into the RMT market. The question is the knock on effect of doing so? How many subs would be lost and from a player's perspective what would be the knock on effect on the economy? A mass banning could have far reaching consequences. I would like to see a very steady cull of bots, a phased banning if you will so that the percentage of 'known' bots is gradually reduced as a means to wean the economy off it's reliance on the bot while at the same time introducing the aforementioned changes to game play.

And what are these changes you ask? I'm no game developer but there are multiple suggestions out there (ranging from excellent to horrible) on how to improve PVE content both in terms of fun and anti bot measures. At the other end of the scale changing local (note, I'm not in favour of a blanket removal of local in 0.0 ala wormholes) and scanner mechanics will empower players more to defeat the bot and perhaps make things more interesting in 0.0 as a whole.

TL;DR Lobby CCP to deal with the bot.

Larkonis On Low Sec

If you were to give New Eden an enema you'd be sticking the tube in a Low Sec system. Devoid of meaningful resources, a massively skewed risk/reward ratio and a lack of any real requirement to go there it's no wonder that it's empty. I'll go and throw out a 'story' I was asked to prepare as part of a low sec focus group (apparently it's the way things are done in the industry).

My name is Larkonis Trassler, outlaw, murderer, pirate. The fringe of Empire space is my home, where I ply my trade. My fellow cut throats and I kill, ransom and steal what we need to to get by, it's a living, somewhat profitable at times but life is hard, a challenge.

Things have picked up here recently. Eager to fund their war machines the Empires have dramatically increased levies and taxes on everything from refining to private contracts. Many merchants, scientists and builders can no longer afford to operate within the tightly regulated confines of high security space so they come here where the eyes of the four empires are slightly more myopic. Some are willing to take the chance and pay for 'protection'. Others take a different chance and occasionally find themselves on the wrong end of a blaster cannon.

Talking of myopia the local authorities in these parts are more than willing to look the other way for the right price. It's amazing what benefits a fistful of credits, a crate of expensive booze and a favour here and there will get you. There's nothing better than being able to operate independently without repercussions within a system (or a constellation for those with enough influence) as long as you don't make too many waves or throw yourself about in something which will get noticed.

Tensions between the empires and raids by other pirate forces have forced the navies to send out more patrols off the beaten track. It can get slightly 'hectic' to say the least if a patrol comes across your fleet as you idly camp a gate. They can be driven off or even destroyed with some effort. This won't enamour you to the powers that be but the rewards can be... substantial.

It's been getting harder to recruit. Seems many of the locals around here took no notice of the 'Winners don't do drugs' slogan. The major pirate factions shut down their booster operations in the depths of 0.0 and moved them closer to the Empires for more 'market penetration'. I must say it's worked. Even with regular forays into their sites, where we burn their labs and steal their product for later 'redistribution' there seems to be no stopping them.

The major pirate factions have brought one good thing with them. They have built a number of specialised stargates linking hard to reach and far flung pockets of low security space. Access can be gained if you grease some palms and are on the wrong side of the law, I guess honour among thieves isn't such an outdated concept after all.

It's not all sunshine and roses. Caught between the empires and any have a go hero capsuleer life out here is tough, but I was never one to back down from a challenge.

I'm sure that you can gather some of my intentions from this.

TL;DR: I shall work hard to improve Low Sec.

Larkonis on Supercap proliferation and Power Projection

I think these go hand in hand. Space is meant to be big. Space in Eve is anything but that. I may be showing my inner bitter vet here but in my day we didn't have jump clones, warp to zero, jump bridges or capital ships.

These are all GOOD THINGS. However, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I think there needs to be a serious review of how these time saving measures operate in 0.0 and whether or not they contribute to the sprawling power blocs we see in the game. As it stands the way the game is designed brings about conflicts which are bigger than current technology can handle. Things are getting better every week and I've been on the front line of some of the largest battles seen to date. While this has been a very interesting year in terms of conflict and the ever changing Sov landscape I can't help but wonder if engineering means to bring about smaller, intra region conflicts are the way forward, it would certainly make things more interesting and enable smaller entities to get a look in without aligning themselves with a power bloc.

It's human nature for some people to want to team up with buddies to feel safe and make space friends. However, huge, bloated, stagnant space empires shouldn't be so stable. While Eve is built on this concept of the 'social sandbox' it's also built on the concept of violence and destruction. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to add or take away toys from the sandbox or change some of them.

Reference Supercaps. One measure of an alliance's power is the number of active Supercaps it owns. Again, this is no bad thing. However, as it stands there are far more being built than being destroyed (by an order of magnitude at my guess) and many groups are unwilling to commit them to fights. Much like the dreadnoughts of World War I era Europe they rarely engage one another in large scale engagements. The requirement for Supercaps to be competitive in the Sov game isn't the problem, it's the sheer number required as of right now and the difficulty in removing them from the equation.

TL;DR: Sov needs looking at as does power projection, mobility and Supercaps.

I remain, as ever open to ideas and suggestions here, in game or on the forums.

Thank you