So, I've been enjoying time with the family since the weekend down in Ocean City, MD (and all the beaches nearby, honestly). My hotel Internet connection is spotty at best. I haven't really been able to engage with Eve very much this vacation.
That can actually be a good thing, from time to time. Every so often, we need to recharge our batteries and engage in something other than Eve. We only know what we value when we notice it's absence, right?
But there is one area I'm interested in hearing more about: burner missions. Has anyone tried them yet? I personally hope they continue being developed in ways that bridge the gap between PvE and PvP. Hopefully, they can encourage high-sec solo players to give the other areas of space a try.
I assure you that this desire is intended to drive the health of the game and in no way meant to boost the potential readership of a blog dedicated to PvP, and newer players in particular.
So, if you have any experience with the burner missions, send me a comment. I'd love to get your thoughts on if they can help bridge that gap and - in and of themselves - how you find them.
They aren't supposed to introduce people to pvp. Fozzie stated this many times. They are simply a way to encourage players to create their own fits that adapt to their needs. In a way that is similar to PVP I guess.
ReplyDeleteHaving to cope with scrams, ewar, and ships at least as powerful as your own? That sounds like pvp training to me.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, CCP's bottom line depends on getting people into pvp to ensure long term engagement. What Fozzie says doesn't change the fact that a) players will quickly min/max these missions, making and novelty quickly wear off, b) the mission description tells you how to fit your ship to counter it, and c) these missions have no purpose EXCEPT as pvp training/shortening-the-gap measures.
You don't have to 'deal' with any of that.
DeleteFozzie has said it a million times, this has nothing to do with pvp. It is just a different type of PVE. Most ideal burner fits are something stupid like no propmod, triple passive tanks etc.
And those missions are level 4s, that require offgrd boosting and pirate frigates. They are nothing to 'introduce' pvp to a new player.
DeleteHonestly if they stay as-is they're liable to end up being called "burnout missions" because right now they are more frustratingly difficult than any PvP with only a meager reward. Meaning, the sort of reward you would get for running a level 1 mission. (Note: I couldn't tell you what the loot drops are like because so far no one I know or read about has ever finished one.) The rewards are eventually supposed to scale up as more people accept / reject the mission offers, but they will have to get pretty big for it to be worth anything more than an interesting challenge to the average hisec mission runner.
ReplyDeleteUntil someone writes guides for completing them, everyone doing burner missions is guaranteed to lose a lot of ships. This might appeal to a certain subset of hisec dwellers, but if the average carebear gets told that this is what PvP is like, it's more likely to turn them away from PvP forever.
TL;DR: Burner missions are absolutely not a good way to turn anyone on to PvP. The trusty "fly ten frigates and get them blown up" method will teach them more and they will have more fun in the process.
Tried one with a buddy. I have two mediocre frig pilots in Highsec, he has two fairly skilled frig pilots. Burst, griffin, kitsune, dramiel.
ReplyDeleteWe lost. It wasn't even close, if you don't land jams you need a hella tank to last more than 3-5 seconds. The Burst could keep the dramiel alive, but we couldn't break tank so we waited for aggro to switch off the dramiel (the kitsune evaporated before the burst could lock it).
Once aggro switched to the burst the dramiel and griffin bailed (missed jam cycle).
So, probably 2-3 assault frigs or a kiting ship could make it happen - but the DPS is insane.
-Noxisia Arkana
finished two, using dual asteros + hyena fitted for armor RR.
ReplyDeleteI tried one and got dunked. I took on the Guristas kiter that flies a Worm. I had an ishkur handy so figured it would be a good choice since it has strong native kinetic resists. The battle starts with the rat over 100KM away from you and proceeds to accelerate to ~4,500 m/s which he uses to kite you at a range of ~43 KM or so. Did I mention the rat can keep you pointed from 43KM while applying heavy DPS? Well he can...
ReplyDeleteI never had a shot at getting a web at him, my rail guns could not land a hit due to the extreme transversal and he very quickly killed my drones (he was able to one-shot each drone). I am a reasonably experienced PVPer with a decent skills using a T2 fit Assault Frigate and I literally got owned.
I did find on youtube a video of a guy defeating the Gurista kiter. He was able to do it in a Harpy that was able to accelerate above 4,500 m/s (I assume he had boosts). He webbed the rat down and then brawled with it. He won, but it looked like a very close match. I do not believe it is possible to defeat the Gurista kiter rat solo without using boosts (or possibly a Snake set).
Now its nearly May 2015. New Burnout missions have been introduced. My assessment is that no one gives a shit about these absurd "missions". As CCP had previously announced that the average ISK in a toon's pocket is around 350Mil, most people can't afford to run them. While searching online, there is very little information and most of what is there is bogus loadouts that seem largely ineffective. While searching in-game, I couldn't find 1 single group of people that either know how to defeat burners nor care about them to begin with. The most common response to burner missions was "fuck that, I can't afford them." This seems to be a terrible scam to try and sell more plex. A failed plan at best. CCP, how about coming up with something that is actually FUN for players instead of something to amuse your staff? I can see some folks rage quitting if they were to lose all their ISK and their first pirate faction frig to a lousy NPC. Not surprised to see the average number of pilots in space is less than it was 3 - 4 years ago. Eve is dying the slowest death I've ever seen in an online game, and all the staff changes did NOT help the problem at hand.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, unless you have a stack of pirate frigs and officer mods that you will not be bothered about losing then don't bother with burner missions because they are all risk with 1% chance of reward.