EVE Online: Addiction

Let's be clear here. I love EVE Online, the game you fight in spaceships. I have paid and played for years, and would like to pay and play for more years (my wife would prefer I not). I speak out about things I am passionate about - but in the end I have to vote with my dollars, because that is all CCP seems to listen to.

My subscription(s) should do three things (in this order):

• maintain the existing infrastructure and environment for the game EVE Online
• update and introduce new features to the game EVE Online
• enable CCP to expand as a company into new products and ventures

If it doesn't then I'm paying for something I don't care about. I'm pretty sure the first (maintenance) is covered, since I logged in last night. Unfortunately, the priorities of the second and third items do not seem to match my expectations, at least over the last 6 months. That is my sole concern. 

Blog Banter 28: "The Future of EVE Online, CCP and the CSM"

Recent events with the CSM Emergency Summit minutes (or lack thereof) and the subsequent dissenting CSM voices on EVE Radio, assorted blogs and various other gaming media have brought the relationship between CCP and the CSM (and therefore the players) to the fore once again.

Tweetfleet conversations later discussing the situation led to calls for a Blog Banter to facilitate a broader dialogue across the blogging community. As a result, the following questions have been asked:

"In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?"

OMG! EVE IS DYING! (again?)

Well, we've all heard it. In the almost 4 years I've been playing EVE, I've heard it a lot. EVE is dying. Usually when CCP comes out with an expansion that doesn't meet the wishes of a specific group of players. But then, we all watched the logins increase, from 20k, to 30k, to 40k, and more. And then there was Incarna. I'll admit I log in less since Incarna. In fact, I have two accounts due for renewal in the next 2-3 weeks that I disabled auto-renew on when Incarna came out. And I'm not sure I'll renew them. I've rambled about the expansions before, but looking seriously at each of the semi-annual expansions, Incarna is the first one that is absolutely nothing about spaceships. CCP claims it needs to move towards 3D character interaction (walking in stations) to move forward, but that motion is slower than maple sap in mid-December. Incarna was "released" in June 2011, with one small room and no interaction. Today (September 2011) it's still just one small room and no interaction. This room is supposed to be your quarters, but really it's only accurate if you live in a Minmatar station. So there are 3 more small rooms that haven't come out of CCP yet before we even start talking about actual interaction. And this was considered an expansion of EVE Online. So where did it all go wrong? How about missing the point completely. Here's a quote from the EVE Online website:

What is EVE Online?

EVE is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMORPG) that takes place approximately 20.000 years after our times in a galaxy on the far end of the universe. When you join EVE you assume the role of a freshly graduated „Capsuleer“, a relatively small group of elite spaceship pilots capable of controlling powerful spaceships on their own from within their capsules. Capsuleers are often referred to as "The immortals" due to the fact that the highly advanced capsules they are connected to from the inside, are capable of instantly dowloading their consciousness to a clone of themselves in the case of physical destruction.

This sounds like a game about flying around in spaceships. In fact, that's the reason I started playing back in 2007. Unfortunately, 2 of the last 3 expansions haven't really been about flying around in spaceships. Tyrannis was about planets, and getting stuff out of planets, but no interaction with your actual spaceship (unless you call a mid-space rendezvous with a static box interaction). Incursion made us hope CCP realized the game was about spaceships, and it was pretty good. Incursions are a great way to get players to work together and make a good amount of money in game. It brought some freshness to EVE, although it took several months to trickle out completely. And then there was Incarna. Incarna brought the NEX (a RMT Cash shop for clothing for your new EVE Avatar) and a single room where you get out of your POD and sit on a couch alone. Incarna also brought most standard gaming rigs to their knees with it's intensive hardware requirements and 3D engine, so much so that many veteran players disabled it, only to discover the insult of CCP - when you disable Incarna, you stare at a door. No ship. No hangar. In fact, as far as spaceships go, Incarna reduced the number of functional tools are game playability when in station. Many people took this suggestion (see the door) and cancelled their subscriptions, including myself. As I mentioned, two accounts come due in the next couple weeks. So why would I renew them?

This is the same question many have asked since the release of Incarna. People at CCP used to play EVE. Many still do, I'm sure. But do they do more than log in, flip a skill, and watch the video screen in their Minmatar Captain's Quarters? There was a time that CCP paid attention to what was happening in EVE Online and made adjustments to the game, because they recognized what their players were doing, and came up with ideas to make it better. Then there was a time that CCP recognized that EVE needed something fresh, and exciting, and they added new ships and content to the universe. But that freshness is now stale, changes have been made but not iterated on (like the never-finished nullsec upgrade Dominion), and updates to some ships have made others virtually useless.

So much bad news. So what is the future of EVE Online?

I'm going to be positive, because even after 4 years I still spend hours reading and writing forum and blog posts about this game that I love, but the reality is, CCP has to recognize the issue and act on it sooner than later. I think (I hope) that the winter expansion will bring the focus back to spaceships. Even though team BFF seems to be a small piece of the hundreds of CCP employees, they are the team that seems to actually play this game we love, and they are trying to work on the spaceship side of the game (or at least that's what they say). But as the weeks (and months) pass, more and more subscriptions (like mine) are tailing off, and the number of folks logged in is dropping. Hopefully CCP sees this trend, and in the winter expansion (or before it) they will bring back one small piece that everyone took for granted – low-impact ship spinning. So many would log into EVE, and just sit in station while using corp/alliance/chat (or now Jabber) and undock when there was action. When CCP took away that view, many stopped logging in because the heavy load of the Incarna Engine on a computer, just to stare at your ship, made it hard to do other things while EVE waited. Now, when the ping comes across Jabber, fewer folks are actually logged in, so why bother at all? By showing us the door or 75% CPU/GPU utilization to stand alone in a room, CCP has asked us not to log in and wait, so it becomes effort to log in at all, and people just don't.

The CSM knows it, and they are gearing up to try and push CCP to recognize that bleeding your cow to death isn't the wisest course of action. Posts by The Mittani, Seleene and White Tree show that the CSM is gearing up to do what CCP seems unable to without them - try and save EVE Online. Because if the current trend continues, and there isn't growth for the spaceship side of the game, EVE will die before it can become real (the fantasy shown at FanFest).

Upper management in CCP needs to look at the logs, really and make sure that the spaceships get as much attention as the spaceshirts - because if they don't there won't be anyone to wear the fashionable artwork coming into the NEX.

Incarna 1.0: less than the sum of its parts

Where CCP went wrong on 21-June-2011

It seemed normal - the summer expansion for EVE Online, this one was Incarna, the first iteration in the new direct character-to-character interaction in EVE. Even though there would be no new interaction (Incarna 1.0 was just the individual quarters), it was to lay the foundation for the next aspect of EVE, more than just a space combat simulator, a space opera with direct interaction. Oh, and they included the rudimentary Noble Exchange, which ostensibly would enable players to personalize their character (and someday ship) with a new currency in EVE Online, the aurum. There were the obligatory changes and fixes (although not many), and the random upgraded ship (although it seems this was done solely for the login screen). Just another patch day, until a perfect storm of errors led to the "pitchforks and torches" being raised in forums across the internet that discuss EVE Online. Let's hold of on the tangents until later (there are plenty of them), and focus on what is wrong with Incarna 1.0, the so-called summer expansion of EVE Online.

Captain's Quarter(s)

The solitary captain's quarter. Although there are stations built by each of the four major races (and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if there were stations built by the various lineages, but that would be even more challenging), Incarna 1.0 contains a single version of a single station - the Minmatar. Ok, it takes a long time to develop textures and variations of nurnies for variation in 3D environments. However, Incarna has been spoken of by CCP to the EVE playerbase for years. And in those years, we have one hangar (with odd DOF issues) and one hallway, and one room. If Incarna had included the 4 racial quarters, it would have at least been a resonable addition to the production environment.

The blatant ignorance of game lore and playability in the release of the Captain's Quarter. When I started playing EVE (December 18, 2007), I took the time and read every piece of lore in the Chronicles. It helps when answering trivia for Somer Lotteries, but little else, until now. Entering and exiting the pod is a non-trivial experience. But in order to force exposure to the single Captain's Quarter, CCP game designers decided to forgo 9 years of lore and have us appear, fully clothed and clean, inside a room, everytime we dock. It has been suggested many times that the proper immersing experience would be to have a "disembark" option directly above the undock button in the interface, and the hangar view of the active ship (the docked view prior to Incarna) a standard piece of the experience. Disembarking should lead to a choice of clothing, then entrance in the CQ. That seems quite logical, and immersive. Even the bittervets would probably explore the CQ at least once, perhaps dabble in it during "downtimes" if it were optional.

Having new players start in the CQ makes sense - it is an introduction to the game, and a way to find information and learn a process - but forcing everyone who docks to go into the CQ breaks immersion. EVE is not "real" with that one simple choice. Even a dialog when docking (do you wish to disembark) would be better than the current experience, and the choice of not loading CQ (staring at a door) is the biggest insult to the veteran player ever. The bitterest of vets have seen this approach as a ploy to encourage players to start spending money on Noble Exchange items, since the CQ is currently the only place to see your personal purchases in this release.

Reduced functionality. Seleene and others have discussed how the forced experience of CQ reduces the actual functionality of the gameplay, for those of you who for some foolish reason don't read or follow them, gameplay has basically been limited and functionality reduced in the following ways: right click on current ship in hangar, double click on current ship in hangar, drag and drop ship from list to hangar, and more (those three affect my gameplay personally).

Noble Exchange

I'm not sure where to start with this. This particular topic can easily digress into the tangents that occurred around the release of Incarna, but I will try to stay within the actual 1.0 release at first. The handful of items available in the Noble Exchange are outrageously priced. Want a fully fit carrier? Choose between that and a monocle - they cost about the same in ISK. A complete outfit costs more than a faction battleship hull. Oh, and these items are NPC generated only - there is no player created content or material in the Noble Exchange, and (since you are naked in your pod) they are never destroyed during combat (unless you are hauling them around in you hold). So prices. Prices are a bit off, in my opinion. Realize that the "new" player will have about 10 million ISK in their wallet after doing every tutorial mission and the introductory Epic Arc - and then realize to get a pair of custom boots they need more than that 10 million (assuming someone has reposted a pair of boots up on the market at purchase price – which is a bad assumption). Each unit of Aurum (right now) costs about 110,000 ISK, but you can't buy it that way. You can only get Aurum by redeeming PLEX, which cost at least 350,000,000-400,000,000 ISK each (and for that you get 3,500 Aurum). It's apparent that the Noble Exchange is designed to be a PLEX sink, and actually the price of PLEX ticked up during the lead into the release of Incarna - but most of the purchasers have apparently sat on their now bubbled PLEX as the price of the few items in the Noble Exchange are unrealistic. To gain widespread acceptance, users should have been able to buy a few things, perhaps a whole outfit, for less than one PLEX. That would have increased updake of these new, NPC generated items. But pricing isn't the only issue.

The community has brought up again and again how the items in the Noble Exchange are not truly part of the player-driven economy, and their indestructability more foolish than the indestructability of player deployed outposts in nullsec. Well, the indestructability is questionable. According to lore, pod pilots are naked in their goo, so clothing is irrelevant. But the monocle (which offers no ingame benefit and is outrageously priced) would be lost in the depths of space when a pilot is podded, much like the implants in their clone. That is a simple fact. By denying this simple, standardized rule of existing gameplay, CCP has broken their own set of rules for an overpriced vanity item, with no real justification or reason. Clothing in the hold of a ship is subject to the same rules as any other item, the monocle (or any other physical addition to the current clone) should be subject to the same rules as any other addition to that clone (i.e. implants). Secondary to destruction is creation. Items in the Noble Exchange should require some player-created component to make/purchase. Planetary Interaction provides us with a wealth of items that could easily be integrated into the Noble Exchange much as LP store items require Tags/Ships/Modules/ISK for purchase. This at least would integrate the Noble Exchange into the EVE economy in some small way - but for some reason a pre-existing game tool couldn't be replicated for a new game feature to maintain the player-driven experience that is EVE.


These are the two major components of Incarna - a fraction of the first avatar-driven space, and a fraction of the new Microtransational store. Fortunately, the semi-annual upgrade doesn't cost the EVE player any additional money - CCP hasn't started charging for these upgrades on top of the monthly subscription (yet). There is more to Incarna, but those things have been lost in the disappointment and frustration revolving around the two large components of the summer expansion.

Into the fire...

Following the release of Incarna, an internal CCP memo discussing microtransactions was leaked to the public. The timing was perfect for the "I hate EVE crowd" – This fueled an already burning anger after the recent missteps of the Third Party Licensing fees and the discussion of ships in the Noble Exchange. I will not comment on this just yet - I am going to give CCP the opportunity to finish their response to the community, but I, like many other EVE veterans, feel betrayed by the company that makes a game we are passionate about.

Thoughts on money...real money part I

I've been digesting the issues CCP has put before the community recently, and trying to determine how bad some of it is. I've posted short twitter comments, but really, that medium doesn't allow wall-of-text exposition, and some of these topics need that.

First up: Microtransactions

This one is rife with trouble, most of it revolving around discussions for a special, skinned ship, the Ishukone Scorpion. This ship would (initially) only be available in the Noble Exchange, which has much of the community up in arms, as this appears to be the first step towards cash for real items, at least to the short sighted. Of course, CCP claimed that they would not introduce items that gave an in-game advantage to this new Microtransaction store, and at first glance this breaks that agreement. Unfortunately, it's a misconception on the player's part. Let's follow the path of money (real money) into EVE online. Right now, there is only one way to "spend" real money on EVE, and that is for subscription time. You can pay a standard monthly subscription, you can buy a Game Time Card (GTC) from a CCP partner, or you can buy PLEX (Pilot's License EXtension) from CCP. A GTC is converted in-game into two PLEX, an in-game item. Today, a PLEX (or a GTC, for that matter) can be traded for ISK, on the open EVE market. OK - that's how money gets into EVE today. Coming soon: Aurum. This is a new way to get money into EVE, I don't know the actual process, whether it's only a PLEX to Aurum conversion, or if you will be able to directly buy Aurum with money through CCP (or third party authorized sites). Either way, this is the microtransaction currency. I think this is dumb, by the way. They just ought to let you buy ISK, and add the new items to the regular market. After all, you can already do that.

As we followed above, when you buy a GTC you can convert it straight to ISK (by selling it to another player) or convert it into two PLEX (which can also be sold for ISK). So you already have a path to convert real money into ISK. That ISK can be used in game to buy whatever items are available on the market, from a single unit of Tritanium to a Titan. Depending on what you buy with your ISK (think +5 implants, or better ships/modules), you can gain an in-game advantage over someone with less real-world cash, because you spent money to get ISK quickly, while someone else has to grind it in game. So what exactly does the Aurum market add besides un-neccessary complexity?

Moving money around in EVE
With the introduction of Aurum, it seems to me CCP is just trying to assuage upset customers who don't realize you already have fairly direct ways of spending real money to "get ahead." After all, Aurum comes from PLEX (you sell a PLEX for Aurum), and CCP has said that you can buy a PLEX with Aurum, so you basically have a second currency for no good reason. After all, PLEX -> ISK -> PLEX is already a proven currency flow, so adding PLEX -> Aurum -> PLEX is actually just an extension of the chain: PLEX -> ISK -> PLEX -> Aurum -> PLEX -> ISK. I see PLEX now as a new "meta currency" between the two main currencies in EVE, Aurum and ISK. So why have two currencies with an exchange? I don't know. But I do know that no matter what is for sale in the Noble Exchange, you will be able to get it with ISK. After all, if you have about 350 million ISK (June 2011) you can buy a PLEX. Now, take that PLEX and convert it to Aurum. Now buy what you want in the Noble Exchange. Turn around and sell it for a profit, take the excess Aurum and convert it back into a PLEX. Sell that PLEX for ISK. Rinse and repeat.

So although I was initially upset about the Ishukone Watch Scorpion (a special skinned ship that would be available in the Noble Exchange), I'm not anymore. After all, if I have enough ISK to convert to PLEX to convert to Aurum I can buy one, basically with my ISK. In addition, once the item exists in game, I should be able to sell it on a contract on the EVE open ISK market, (or buy one the same way), without having to deal with the Aurum/Noble Exchange at all. CCP seems to have done this to create an false wall between ISK and microtransactions, when in reality it's just adding more steps between ISK and new items. Unless, of course, those items can never, ever be traded to another player. But wouldn't that be stupid?

As for the ship itself, it's not functionally special. CCP has said it was a standard Scorpion with a special paint job - but why does that matter? So what if you can only get it in the Noble Exchange? You can take your ISK, convert it to PLEX then to Aurum and buy it. You don't HAVE to spend real money on it. And that brings me (finally) to my question. What's the big deal then?

Enter the Carrier...

Thanatos. In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the daemon personification of death.

Shortly, I will have finally given in and will be flying my first capital class ship. Even after almost 4 years, I know nothing about capitals, except that when they blow up, everyone makes fun of the fittings. Well, knowing that I will lose it sooner or later, I want to try and avoid some of those snarky comments. So I open up comments below for Thanatos fittings. I'd request that if the fitting comes in an EFIT format the name be the descriptor for the role the fitting is designed to fulfill.

Try not to pimp out too much – it is only a carrier, and hence likely to be lost sooner than later.

Here's a first cut:

[Thanatos, Standard Nullsec Carrier]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Capital Armor Repairer I

Sensor Booster II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

True Sansha Heavy Energy Neutralizer
True Sansha Heavy Energy Neutralizer
True Sansha Large EMP Smartbomb
Capital Remote Armor Repair System I
Capital Remote Armor Repair System I

Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I


Firbolg x10
Einherji x10

Ok folks - let 'er rip. Give me your Thanatos fits!

Burn out comes to all of us

Title says it all. I'm approaching 4 years in EVE, and I am feeling a bit of burnout. It's not that I've done everything (I haven't even come close), but that my life has changed over the last 4 years, and less and less of my free time can go to EVE. This lack of time is probably a large factor in the burnout - after all when you have 30 minutes at the end of your day, you need a playstyle that will support that type of time. POS management? Not a good choice. Mining? Works, but really? Log in for 30 minutes of mining? Missions? Not likely. L4s take a bit more than that unless you are just blitzing. PvP? Sure. Just log in, fit up that ship you have in your hangar, you have all the mods too right? If not, spend this session getting the gear. Next session fitting the ship (trust me here - do a couple of them). Finally a few days later you can go PvP. Quick, hop in to Anamake or Old Man Star and hope you get a fun fight and not just a ride on the clone vat express.

I'm not complaining (OK, yes I am complaining). I'm looking at my time, and wondering what I can do that is just, simply, a bit of fun. EVE is a great game, a wide, expansive universe, but there isn't a lot of fun in small doses. Last night was a prime example. I've been running L4 missions for ISK, since my wallet finally dipped below 100m recently. But L4 missions take 1-2 hours to complete usually, including loot and salvage (and if you are in it for the ISK that's sort of required). That means (if I'm lucky) I get to run 1 mission during an EVE session. I've been working a 5-mission arc for more than a week (yes, really), and I still have one to go. Thank goodness each time you complete one stage the 7 day tick starts again for the next mission stage.

I started contemplating getting some cheap(ish) solo PvP ships into NPC nullsec and doing some solo PvP, but I've found (in recent experience) that I'm not very good at that, and I'd lose them fairly fast. My corp is fine (well, it's an industry corp, and even though the title is about being a closet carebear, I've been out of the closet now for about 5 months, and I don't think it's where I want to be), they are active enough, and there are things going on there, but not 30-minute heart-pounding PvP fun. Time to start looking for something fun to do (once I rebuild that wallet, anyway).

DED Complexities, or "Why the Anomaly nerf isn't the end of the world"

I've been contemplating this more and more over the last couple days since the detailed devblog from CCP Greyscale, and I wonder if there isn't a different motive, regardless of what CCP Grayscale says. The introduction of the Haven/Sanctum upgrade to Dominion created a new, vast raw ISK faucet in the large bounties for the rats in these now-rapidly-spawning plexes. Unlike L4 missions, exploration, or WH ops, you can create/introduce a lot of ISK into the economy (rather than the NPC wreck -> salvage/loot -> ISK conversion). The folks who make similar money in L4 missions are not just shooting the ships for ISK, they are salvaging, looting, converting LP to items, and many other balanced ISK conversions.

Even if CCP won't admit that as a reason, they can't seriously just cripple the income stream for the largest number of nullsec pilots and alliances to repair a broken ISK faucet. And in fact, they really aren't.

OMFG I can't afford my system anymore

What does a fully upgraded system cost these days with iHub + Pirate Array installed? According to the EVE Wiki it costs 180 million ISK every 30 days to maintain sovereignty. There are no monthly fees for an iHub with Military or Industrial Upgrades installed - only the initial deployment costs. I'm not going to go over the Sovereignty Upgrades, as they all have additional cost, on the monthly scale, and should't be installed in every system anyway. That works out to 6 million ISK/day in sovereignty costs, which means (with a baseline 10% tax) pilots need to earn a cumulative 60 million ISK day per system to pay for basic Sovereignty.

The discussion as to how much you can earn in an anomaly ranges from a pittance to several hundred million isk (when using assigned fighters or titans). Let's get real though, and just pretend we don't have any Havens or Sanctums now. That means we get the Faction Hub as our cash cow. Reliable sources have the average ISK/HR for a Hub at about 15-20 million ISK/hr. According to the EVE Wiki, an iHub with Pirate Array 1 will spawn 4 simultaneous Anomalies (in any 0.00 system), and the Pirate Array 5 will spawn 20 simultaneously.

Based on 15-20m/hr raw income per Hub (the highest anomaly in those low truesec systems), with only 4 Hubs (not Havens or Sanctums) and one pilot ratting in each (for 10 hours a day total) you've covered your sovereignty costs. In addition those pilots are taking home (net divided by all of them) 540 million ISK, which seems to be about 15 million isk/pilot/hour (if my math hasn't completely failed).

((4x10)x15)= (600*.1) = 60
600-60 = 540/10 = 54/4 = 14.5

So you can still afford sovereignty if you have 40 total hours of ratting per day and a baseline 10% corp tax. OK, that's covered.

The individual pilot can't afford a T2 cruiser on that budget, but for a couple hours ratting they can have a T2 Frigate or a T2 Fit Standard Cruiser.

But what about my Faction/Deadspace Fit Tengu?

DED Complexes rediscovered

For some reason everyone is missing the other side of this argument. Any old roaming gang can fly into your space, pop open the directional scan, and get into your anomalies and farm your ratters. But it takes time, a little effort, and a specialized ship and skills to get at your Cosmic Signatures (also known as DED complexes). Everyone has ignored these (mostly) because the Havens and Sanctums were quick, easy money, but a smattering of DED complexes exist if you purchase and install the Entrapment Array. This hasn't been too awesome, because if you aren't in the cool faction space, you didn't get a full range of DED complexes. But wait - isn't this also being changed in Incursion 1.4? Why yes, yes it is.

New DED Complexes belonging to various pirate factions have been discovered, with returning capsuleers often proudly displaying never-before-seen modules obtainable exclusively from the most challenging foes in these complexes.

In a previous blog, CCP Big Dumb Object mentioned that they would be filling out all the higher end DED complexes (and adding a bunch of module drops). Remember this one? Out of the Shadows. Suddenly all the various faction DED sites exist in the most difficult (and most profitable) types, and they are going to drop more faction modules, some for the first time ever. With the Entrapment Array (still only a one-time purchase cost per level) now you have these DED complexes which have rats, possible faction spawns with a full suite of new faction module drops on top of the anomalies in the Pirate Detection Array.

Oh, wait a minute...

So CCP is reducing the value of the easily accessed Cosmic Anomalies, but really it isn't the end of the world, since you can still make a little bit of ISK there, and they are expanding the range of Cosmic Signatures and the loot drops from those signatures. Overall what I see is a move from a raw ISK-only stream (bounties) to a more balanced object-based ISK stream (loot drops). I also see safer space to work in, since every roaming gang isn't always going to have a combat/core prober in fleet (and even if they do it's a lot easier to look for probes now too).