As always, there’s not any specific information to share due to the confidentiality of the discussions.
Here are the two most recent CSM Meetings:
April 17th, 2020 Review of upcoming CSM election plan Extended discussion of the EVE ecosystem
April 24th, 2020 Continued discussion of the EVE ecosystem
Dunk’s Corner
One of the least helpful CSM updates, but know that a lot is being discussed about how ISK moves in and out of the game.
The changes to structures have been announced with the Forsaken Fortress update.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a good compromise in terms of reducing structure spam, managing development time, and creating reward for destruction. Solutions like this take a while to craft and refine, but I’m hopefully this a good step forward for structures in space.
Yes, there are some issues, like a few people losing things while they are long term AFK from the game. These are compromises needed to try to keep moving forward. Rather than being paralyzed by trying to solve for every possible situation, the changes are a good step forward that will give players new things to do.
Players are good at looking for the holes in new changes, and they are going to find some. In a game as complex as EVE Online, it’s impossible to make perfect solutions. Going forward, there will be more changes that are compromises between the “perfect solution” and doing nothing. Prepare yourself.
Back to abandoned structures, logistics folk in New Eden are probably doing a lot of planning about what to scoop, fuel, or simply ignore.
Personally, I’ve got some fueling to do, but look forward to some interesting explosions and scams…
Sometimes a powerful wind to push you out of the doldrums forward.
Sometimes a hurricane that smashed your ships to bits against the rocks. Always a constant force that brought some
well needed chaos to New Eden.
Lychton was an Army Ranger, serving combat tours in Afghanistan
and Iraq, who always led the way.
Helping to found Brave Newbies, literally on the first day
of it’s existence, he helped set the tone for not just Brave, but for an entire
generation of EVE players, who stopped worrying so much about killboards and
started to focus more on having fun.
A tumultuous tenure as CEO saw amazing twists and turns,
from the creation of an entirely new coalition to an infamous coup. Life with
Lychton was never dull. He brought a joie
de vivre to the game that is hard to describe.
An infectious enthusiasm for simply going out and doing things,
foolhardy or not.
He relentlessly worked to make life in New Eden better for
the newer players. During the coup, when
people in Brave were picking sides, he messaged me “We need to hold it together
for the newbies. They don’t have
anywhere else to go.”
When a bit of stability was needed more than chaos, he
handed off Brave to Nancy Crow to lead.
But those that flew with him, will never forget his laugh and readiness
for adventure.
The last year has been an honor as a CSM member, but I will not be running for election in CSM 15.
Life has gotten steadily busier at my work, with 40+ people
added to my staff and having to lead our technical response to the COVID-19
pandemic. I am stretched thin these days.
Also, I am concerned to not become cynical about CCP and EVE
Online. Once you see how the sausage is
made, it is easy to lose confidence in the developers. That’s not to critique CCP, it’s just the
reality that the way things get done in any business is messy and you’ll hear a
lot of things that make your eyes go wide.
It’s a normal reaction to anyone that’s ever been ‘brought behind the
curtain’. It’s better to step away without
becoming pessimistic.
More importantly, I don’t want to get cynical about the
players, the very people I was elected to represent. EVE players can be harsh and it’s normal to
feel antipathy toward someone that attacks you. I don’t want those personal
attacks to guide my CSM efforts with my feedback to CCP. Nor do I want to see player’s reasonable
complaints as “the same old thing” and ignore them.
I have tried to listen to anyone that contacted me and
present their concerns to CCP, even if it wasn’t something I agreed with, and
will continue to do so until the end of my term.
Hopefully my regular communication about the CSM has been
helpful in some understanding of what the CSM is doing and how it operates.
It has been an honor to represent the players and discuss
the issues with a wide array of people from all over the world with many different
playstyles. Thank you for your time and
input!
Special thanks to CCP for their support and patience with my
ideas and comments. The trust, faith, and
spending you put into the CSM is appreciated and a huge sign of your commitment
to the players and their concerns.
Regarding the next CSM election, I differ from some of my fellow CSM, and believe that new CSM members can help invigorate the process and do not require years of being on the CSM to be useful. A certain amount of cynicism builds up over the years and is counterproductive.
I recommend choosing representatives that understand the being
on the CSM is basically about being in many business meetings, being able to
present feedback in a detailed and non-threatening way, and to respond to the
wider player community directly.
Real life has been busy, so I missed a meeting report, so the last two meetings are combined.
As always, there’s not any specific information to share due to the confidentiality of the discussions.
CSM Meeting – March 27th, 2020
Discussion of 2nd Quarter Announcement
Discussion with Ecosystem Team Brief review of the recent MER
Ship Balance discussion
April 3rd, 2020
Review of Development Team plans
Discussion on CSM Summit Minutes
Review of CSM Election plans
Discussion of future CSM Summit plans
A uncomfortable amount of anime talk
Dunk’s Corner
There’s a lot going on these days with the new quadrant plan ramping up.
The ship re-balance was released today with is a good step to help increase the chances that no one moonwalks out of a fight without a bloody nose. The changes aren’t perfect and don’t touch a lot of areas, but I do think they push toward having more destruction in fights. We will see if the changes to sub-capitals have any change on the dominate meta. I would like to have a bigger shakeup, but this is a good start.
The changes to moon ore extraction and reprocessing have gone into the game and a lot more information has been released from the Ecosystem team. Hopefully people have a better idea of what the path looks like.
I do have concerns that I have bought up with the Ecosystem team. There’s a bit of disconnect of messaging that is going to players. As an example, there are changes promoting the use of battleships that literally encourage their explosion at the same time as the ‘starvation’ mining mechanics go deeper into play.
I haven’t done the math myself, but as I understand it, mining an entire Colossal Anomaly doesn’t provide enough ore to build a single battleship. As an industrialist, I see the base minerals/ore going up in price and making myself and other industrialists make choices where to use them best.
It’s not a matter of choosing whether to build a supercapital or multiple battleships. It whether to choose to focus on ships that don’t rely as heavily on base minerals overall. Building Tech 2 and Tech 3 ships, especially cruiser size and below is far more efficient in terms of usage of minerals.
I expect fleet doctrines to begin shifting to take this kind of thinking into account, which means a move away from larger battleship usage, an idea that CCP is actively trying to promote. This seems to counterintuitive.
With the grids of New Eden already full of HACs and Kikimoras, it’s hard to see this behavior not reinforced. Why bring ships that are difficult to replace when you can bring ones that are as effective and don’t have their building supplies in “starvation”.
Add in the new changes to capitals & supercapitals, it’s my concern the groups will be more conservative in their use of larger ships, contrary to the goal of more ship explosions. Rather than leading to more war and destruction, my worry is that it will lead to groups conserving their resources and “turtle-ing up”, only sending out lower cost roaming fleets.
The cost of war is high and almost never a smart economic move. I want more war in EVE and remain concerned that it’s much easier to haul in materials from Jita than to have a war with your neighbor and THEN have to mine the conquered space. That’s what the spreadsheets say, at least…
I hope you are all doing well in the quarantimes. Call your loved ones, they want to hear from you.
