Post-Scarcity Hopes

CCP has announced the end of Scarcity, stating that it will "firmly end" in Q4, and that dynamic resource distribution will be implemented. I have no idea what that means. Hopefully it means they're not breaking the game again. Perhaps that's a bit uncharitable, but CCP seems to have a hard time finding that middle road, and thus has a habit of doing things in extremes. But to their credit, CCP has been really figuring things out lately, and coming up with some great ideas.

Moving forward there are some things I would like to see, so I will outline some of these "hopes and dreams" of a more vibrant and engaging EVE universe. But first, how do the changes to resource availability and industry parse out, now that we've lived with them for a while? Were the changes good, bad, or neutral?

I came back to a Scarcity era EVE after a year long hiatus and honestly... I didn't notice much. HiSec moons had become garbage while I was away. No one was fighting over them anymore; people were barely mining them, in fact. There was no more Gneiss, Spodumain, or Crokite. This was sad, because ninja mining HiSec moons was a phenomenal source of content for me a couple of years ago. Hours long bump wars and angry threats about "friends in NullSec" from the Locals. No more. 0.5's that used to boast 30+ in Local were now... wastelands. CCP giveth, and CCP taketh away.

The next thing I noticed was that my 10b of compressed ore (the 15% moon variants) was now worth over 20b. Minerals had become more expensive (which I find strange; I had no problem sourcing any minerals I needed in WHs, LowSec, or HiSec - why were people having so much trouble, and complaining so loudly?). This meant my mining became a lot more valuable. Redistribution also meant people were venturing into LowSec, and even setting up infrastructure and fighting over territory. Being in Solitude, I witnessed a lot of these turf wars first hand. We always have new people trying to move in, and I have to go and kick them out, or get them to play nice and contribute to the region instead of siphoning wealth.

Overall I think it was all actually great. The game was becoming too bloated with assets and material. There was is also way too much ISK; inflation is actually a big problem in EVE, as there are just too many easy ways to make money. I think money should actually be hard to make. It should be relatively easy to make enough money to afford the now very cheap T1 frigates and cruisers (you know, stuff that newbies have quick access to), but once you get to battleships and tech2 hulls, I think that should require more effort. Some ships should just be special and not something you see constantly (like Mauraders... they are fucking everywhere now).

The industry changes also increased the cost and complexity of building capital ships, thus, potentially reducing the number of caps people put on field. This is a good thing. A very vocal minority of players are in disagreement; I suspect most of them are the sorts who started EVE a few years ago and skill injected/wallet warriored their way to caps. People talk about caps as the "pinnacle" of gameplay - the "endgame" of EVE. But EVE shouldn't have an endgame, because EVE should never end.

So moving forward, here are some things I'd like to see to roll back Scarcity, but keep EVE healthy:

• Retention of current mineral distribution, with perhaps some tweaks to NullSec to make mining in 0.0 worth it, but not overpowered like it was before. NullSec appears to have been disproportionately affected by not only the distribution changes, but also the reduction and in some cases outright removal of Zydrine and Megacyte from many recipes. CCP has to be careful here: due to NullSec players' penchant for creating bubbles of perfect safety for krabbing, NullSec mining cannot be too lucrative otherwise we will be right back in the unhealthy situation we were in before.
  
• An increase in the importance of moon mining for minerals: moon mining is a much more cooperative and engaging style of gameplay. It encourages corp membership or at least engagement with other players. I would like to see a significant portion of HiSec mineral sourcing moved from belts to moons. Add large amounts Tritanium to R4's, and make all the HiSec belts skimpy. I would also like to see the mineral composition of R4's homogenized and R4 rocks and materials restricted to HiSec.
  
• Consolidation of ore processing skills into three categories: Common (HiSec ore), Uncommon (LowSec ore), and Rare (NullSec ore). I'd also like to see the removal of refining skills for using crystals. Refining and mining are, in fact, two different activities. Make it a rank 1 skill that reduces the damage crystals take (or the chance of damage) by a small amount, with level V allowing the use of TII crystals. Refund the SP for all the ore processing skills trained less than V (people can allocate it somewhere useful.)
  
• Changing the mechanics of all rock mining (asteroids, moons) to be like ice mining: 1 cycle of lasers = 1 refine unit of ore. No one likes having 12 units of Veldspar spamming up your assets list. Crystals can just make your cycle shorter (which is the same, in the final analysis, as increasing yield per cycle).
  

I think these changes will streamline the way SP interfaces with player activity. No more needing to training a million processing skills on mining alts in order to use crystals, just train a simple skill so you can optimize SP to utility. Players will still be incentivized to venture into LowSec for resources and set up infrastructure there, while also incentivizing HiSec players to work together in order to maximize the resources they can harvest. So yeah. That's what I'd like to see moving forward. Will it happen? Probably not. Eagerly awaiting for CCP has in store for us.

Life in Solitude: The Taste of Victory

The Good Guys Win

NOTE: Due to OPSEC, this was published after the events described had come to pass. The blog is written from the perspective of 07/09/2021. 

After a 3 month long campaign of griefing, trolling, and harassment against them, the last vestige of <STFU> - it's AUTZ presence, [QUOKA] - has decided to leave The Crown. I have no definitive information regarding the reason why. Of course, [QUOKA] has their narrative. The egotistical side of me wants to take the credit. My friends support me in this, assuring me that Solar Winds was the key reason. This makes sense: Solar Winds has made the space [QUOKA] was squatting in nigh but unusable for them. They couldn't even huff gas without their Ventures being chased and camped. Moon mining was out of the question. Their HiSec mining was quickly scouted and camped. All they could really do was krab in Placid a bit and do industry with cloaky haulers. As soon as our conflict started, their activity levels fell to nothing. The number of NPC kills in Straloin and Toustain attests to this; once we were reset and the shooting started, the amount of NPC kills fell to 1/3 it's previous level, and never recovered.

Whatever the reasons for it, one fact remains:

Solar Winds' objective has been met. [QUOKA] is leaving. That's right: after throwing a temper tantrum and attacking everyone that allowed Solar Winds to dock at their structures, Cryin' Andy has decided to leave after all.

I wonder what Padrick must be thinking now? He burned the relationship between Solar Winds and [QUOKA], and now [QUOKA] is leaving anyway. GSC activity is way down. I barely see them online and when I do, they dock up and log off. It's history repeating.

Old Friends and Newish Enemies

08/02/2021 - <WBHOO> is now firmly established in Solitude. We have been working with them on a regular basis and providing content and support to each other. It's only natural; I used to fly with [TDSIN] and, in my honest opinion, they are one of the best groups I've ever been a part of in EVE. I've also met many of them in real life at "EVE New England". So when their diplomat asked if we would like to work together, we decided that we would probably accept. It would complicate things a little bit for us; due to NAP's and standings between <WHBOO> and other groups, it would decrease the amount of targets we have in Solitude - but that is probably okay. The benefits outweigh the costs by far. Plus, Solitude has been fairly quiet with [QUOKA] gone, and there's really nothing to report on the <GSC>/<N.E.S.T> front.

It would mean becoming blue with blingdenstone, who we are currently shooting. blingdenstone [PIITY], a corporation in the Manifesto alliance <.M.> used to be part of the <STFU> coalition. We all know how that story went. After leaving Solitude, [PIITY] moved somewhere else, but due to mouthiness and general Local sperge got evicted by an assortment of groups. [PIITY] then decided to move back to Solitude. I had reset them once <STFU> was dead because they'd left the region, so when they showed up in Local again I didn't even realize who I was shooting.

I was out on a hunt and found a neutral Venture mining a moon. So of course I killed it. Surprisingly, this got a response from <PIITY>, and they began undocking combat ships to attack me. That hardly ever happens, so I got really excited and immediately engaged. I killed their tackle (+ a 1b ISK pod), and I guess that discouraged them because they changed tactics from combat ships to combat words. Then I noticed their alliance tag - Manifesto! (They're not the besto). 

Before long their "diplomat", Reason Redemption, showed up and convo'd me, asking that I leave them alone so that they can mine in peace. I asked them the obvious question: Why should I? What's in it for me in doing so? His answer was simple: Nothing, just give us what we want. He followed up by stating that he would "pay no tribute nor provide me with the content I seek", and began disparaging my killboard and insulting me. I told him that he should reconsider his choices carefully; it would not end well for him.

It didn't.

 

Our diplomat reached out and gave them very simple terms: Stay out of The Crown, and we'll leave you alone. But they refused, because The Crown has 2 ice systems (there's another ice system, Cadelanne, just a couple of jumps away...). So <PIITY> began operating in The Crown, and we began blowing them up. And then two events happened that clued Reason Redemption in on just who he's dealing with:

1. Reason Redemption found out that I often fly in Fwagon fleets. He threatened to AWOX me during a fleet. I told a close friend of mine in Fwagons about this. Within an hour Reason Redemption was apologizing to me profusely for making such a threat. Later that evening he was noticeably absent from the fleet.

2. While I was in Local I got a random convo. "Who's Gnosis is that?" I explained that it was Reason Redemption, sitting on the Anckee gate - suspect flagged. "Let me know when he aggresses you." Okay sure thing bud. I got Reason to aggress - suddenly an Enforcer decloaks, tackles him, lights a cyno - and lo' and behold, my friend in Dock Workers, one of the groups that's been fighting <.M.> - jumps in a Widow and melts the Gnosis.

Now [PIITY] is super flustered and worried - who the fuck is Xuixien? Is she a Fwagon alt? A Shadow Cartel pet? Did she 'batphone' Dock Workers? Who else does Xuixien know? Word is Reason Redemption is now on "hiatus" from EVE for the time being. Their leadership have become leaderwrecks.

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