CCP's Structure Plan: The Unification of Deployables

During Fanfest, CCP released a new devblog talking about their plans for the future of castle-building throughout all space, but particularly in null-sec.

Digesting all of this was a daunting prospect, and I admit I wasn’t eager to dive into it.  It’s dense.  There are a lot of consequences I see.  And I knew I’d need time to sift through it all.

CCP's goals fit into the categories, “Be engaging”, “Be valuable”, “Be simple”, and “Look Awesome”.  These all make sense, but honestly, if something was missing from a list of goals as large as this, it’d signify serious problems.  Which of these is a priority over all the others?  I suspect “enhancing existing gameplay” will be the key element that wins out, but it will do so in a way that ties in nicely with the new sov mechanics.

While a lot of folks will likely focus on the new fitting function of these structures, to me that’s a needed by not particularly interesting element.  Every pilot in Eve is familiar with ship fitting after their first week, and it seems quite reasonable to utilize that same system for deployable structures.  It creates options without forcing players to learn yet another interface setup, and it should reduce the player-knowledge barrier to entry for deployable mechanics.

The Spice Must Flow!

What do you do when your source for isk suddenly dries up?  How long do you go before adapting?

With Repercussus’ move to Goonswarm, we had the inevitable adjustment period while we all move our ships to exactly the right place, find new homes for everything we do on a regular basis, and generally find ourselves a nice groove.  This happens at both the corp and individual levels.

It hasn't been hard to find PvP content.  RP is stepping up even further to keep the content flowing for the corp, and GSF is great at providing a range of options even during a relatively dull time (wars winding down, holidays, etc.).  Logistics take a little longer as our logi pilots learn the new routes and danger spots, but it’s still flowing pretty well.

But, for me, my isk has generally come from cosmic signature ratting.  Lots of scanning practice (which has a clear PvP application) and high-yield time actually spent ratting.  But we’ve gone from an alliance of 3,000 to an alliance of 12,000, and the time zone focus has shifted to our TZ from the EUTZ, meaning there are a lot of competitors for those sigs.  So many, in fact, that it’s not viable any more.

I’m sitting on a good pile of isk, but dropping 5 billion on three months’ game time for two accounts throws into sharp relief the fact that I’m going to need to create some new revenue streams within the next year or face a significant cut in my net worth.

My Sov Null Solution

In my last post, I spoke about how the Null-Sec Statement was a demonstration of “dogs and cats dancing together” to make a point about the importance of CCP taking this opportunity for a soup-to-nuts change to sov mechanics instead of simply slapping a bandage on it and calling it a day.  I don’t believe CCP has the wiggle room to get it wrong out of the gate and slowly fix it (maybe).  The null-sec membership base is already plummeting.

To be quite honest, I really didn’t expect anyone to take out of the Null-Sec Statement (or my post!) that the “solutions” proposed were complete and sufficient.  I interpreted them as general concerns, not fixes.  Because, you know, they aren’t a complete fix.  Just enacting those three points wouldn’t fix null-sec.

Alice Karjovic called me out in corp TS and thought I was endorsing the statement in full, as a complete and sufficient solution.  Not so, but if a writer is misunderstood, it’s the fault of the writer.   So here’s my list of solutions to the null-sec problem, to be clear.  I talked about this in the context of drawing players from high-sec to null-sec last November.  This time, I’m talking about fixing the mechanics themselves.

Don’t worry.  Scroll down to “Summary” for the TL;DR.

Constantine. Can't Be Trusted

Just a quick one.  My alt made a deal with Constantine. to buy two Cadmium moons in Indregulle (P8, moons 9 & 10) from them, with some money up front and a monthly fee.  I figured that giving them something to earn - some skin in the game - would make them more inclined to honor the agreement, instead of taking my money and running.

Constantine. is a merc and low-sec pirate corp, and those two activities depend on being considered honorable.  No one's going to contract a merc corp to, say, destroy a competitor's moon if that merc group is going to turn around and take it for themselves.  No one's going to pay a ransom to a group who can't be relied upon to honor it.  So, while it was a risk, I figured it was a limited risk, both for the reputation aspect and the monthly fee I was offering.

Well, they decided to scam me instead of honor the agreement.  It happens, and I walked into it knowing the risk.  Isk can be earned back.  I salute them on a good con.

It seems a bit short-sighted to me.  They made a little isk, but most intelligent pirate and merc groups know reputation is everything in their business.  That's the reason Sky Fighters has a strict "honor agreements" policy.  It's simply good business to stick to them.

But be advised: the corporation Constantine. [eeeee] cannot be trusted.  The specific character who dishonored the agreement is Bodiil, who has an alt named LobiB.  They are currently part of the Ninja Unicorns With Huge Horns alliance.

I wouldn't recommend contracting them as mercs, nor would I expect them to honor any ransom agreement.

No tears, but no tolerance, either.

Bombers, Caracals, and Talwars, Oh my!

While null sec gets most of the press on TheMittani.com and Eve News 24, CCP knows full well that most characters in New Eden spend their time exclusively in high-sec.  Now, many of these characters are market, trader, hauler, and mission alts of null-sec players, and these characters will likely never leave the protective womb of CONCORD.  Yet there are thousands of players who were turned off by the risk factor of null-sec.

Greedy Goblin makes a good distinction between two types of players, competitive and objective-oriented.  I refer to them as experience and achievement players, but the dichotomy is pretty much the same.  I’d hazard a guess that most high-sec mission-running players are achievement-focused.  Calling them carebears and leaving it at that is a great disservice both to them and to null-sec players.  After all, someone has to fill and empty the POS, run industry, etc.  If it’s not an achievement player, it’ll have to be an experience player, and the latter would much rather spend their time killing folks.

One of the CCP’s objectives with the Retribution expansion was to make PvP more accessible to the larger Eve populace, namely these achievement players.  And it worked like a charm, drawing a whole new set of players into PvP.  It’s easier to try something new when you only have to risk a lose a Stabber than a Vagabond.  Rebalancing the T1 ships made them viable again, and lowered the cost of entry across the board.

Then Odyssey came, and with it came moon goo roulette.  The CFC, Test, N3, and pretty much everyone else lost their minds as they did the region shuffle.  Wars were pandemic (see what I did there?), supercapitals were welped, fleets of AHACs and Rokhs were wiped out.  In Fountain, the CFC and Test Bros adjusted their fleet comps to counter their opponents…

…by choosing talwars, caracals, and bombers?

Wait… what?  Extremely wealthy alliances are fielding T1 cruisers and destroyers, along with stealth bombers?

I suspect this development is a problem for CCP.  A while back, they revealed some stats about player wallets, indicating that players were earning more isk, but were hoarding it rather than spending it.  I know I’m also building a cushion in case something catastrophic happens to my hangar.  What that *something* is eludes me, but I’m clearly not the only one doing it.  After Retribution, most of my hangar shifted from T2 to T1.  It simply doesn’t make sense to risk 3x the isk when I go solo roaming when I can get more fights – and ones I can win, at that – with the T1 variants.

Alliances, on the other hand, have been nerfed significantly by the Odyssey moon goo changes.  Ship replacement programs are in significant jeopardy now.  Two alliances have asked for donations from their members (donations!).  The CFC switched to caracal and bomber doctrines.  Test is fond of Talwars.  I’ve gone on several Tornado roams where Razor runs into T1 fleets.  Normally, we decimate them, but when we don’t it only takes a few Tornado losses to make the engagement isk-neutral or unfavorable.  I have to imagine this has made some alliances (those interested in isk-efficiency) risk-adverse to using their own shinies.  From the way doctrines have gotten less expensive, I’d have to guess that this has already started to happen.

Why does this matter?  Two reasons.  First, I wonder how long T1 frigates will interest null-sec players, and even low-sec players for that matter.  I doubt a group like Goonswarm will be discouraged (they’re famous for grinding structures for weeks and months on end), but is that true of everyone?  You can only spend so many days killing Caracals or Talwars before you start to burn out and yearn for the sexier kills.  My heart skips a beat when I kill a T3, an Armageddon, or a carrier because of the value of the kill.

And it’s definitely true that Eve matters because the losses are significant.  A 250 mil ship loss hurts a lot more than a 40 mil one does.  When I engage some hapless pilot with my Cynabal, my heart starts pumping and the adrenaline kicks in.  By the end of the fight, my hands are shaking – even if I’m only killing a hauler.  It’s not the fight itself, but the possibilities… it could be a Battle Badger with a cyno and I could lose my pretty little slug.  A gate camp could be waiting on the other side.  When I’m flying a Stabber?  Meh, I just don’t care that much.

Faction warfare is already a good refuge for players who want constant, cheap PvP.  And Retribution provided a huge shot in the arm for faction warfare.  It’s great, if it’s your sort of thing.  But the changes to moon goo in Odyssey have already undercut the high-risk PvP that draws a lot of people to null-sec.

And that brings me to my other concern.  CCP has a vested interest in providing the drug we’re all addicted to.  When an Asakai, Burn Jita, or a large wormhole fight happens and billions of isk is destroyed, some portion of that will end up being replenished with PLEX.  Granted, ship replacement and wormhole loot will replenish most of it, but not everyone is as patient as that, and some folks need isk immediately (especially after a Burn Jita when mission runners need to replace their expensive ships before they can earn more isk – that event wasn’t all about jump freighters!).  When the thousands of engagements happening every day turn from 250 mil Cynabals to 40 mil Stabbers, CCP loses.  Fewer players feel they need their ratting alts, so they unsubscribe.  Fewer players suffer huge losses, so they stop buying PLEX.  And – to some extent – fewer players get the same thrill from killing T1 throwaway ships and Bittervet Syndrome becomes more prevalent.

I want CCP to make money, particularly in ways that players can opt into and which don’t generate a pay-to-win situation, like PLEX.  The more money CCP makes, the more developers they can hire and the more advertising they can do to thwart player bleed.  I’m curious which has a larger effect on the total amount of isk lost in the game: the increase in the number of ships lost or the decrease in the individual value of those lost ships.  I’m sure CCP is watching PLEX sales and isk loss very carefully, and I suspect the T2 rebalances – and iterations of it - will reflect those discoveries.

One further side note: there’s a lot of talk about CCP doing away with moon goo as a passive income source.  I sincerely hope they don’t, because all it’ll do is eliminate most ship replacement programs and encourage null-sec alliances to further down-shift their doctrines.  I shudder to think of a null populated by slap-fights in ships that can literally be replaced by the hundreds.  A much better option would be to help better distribute those moons – both by smoothing out the distribution and introducing some advantage for living near the moons you own (which could mean reducing the cargo size of silos, perhaps?

I like an Eve that has low, mid, and high value PvP available to us pilots.