Thursday, March 21, 2013

for Kane 2

In reply to a journal entry made by Kane,

I feel like I'm in a similar rut to the one you've found yourself in.  I decided to take a break from the game late November after giving Planetside 2 a try, and came back in February looking to see how the rebalanced T1 frigates, dessies and cruisers were affecting the game.  I really hoped that I would see more activity in lowsec and NPC nullsec where I've traditionally found the bulk of my action.

Empowering low cost ships didn't have a lasting effect on the population of solo or small gang PvPers from what I saw.  It didn't drive players into lowsec or nullsec to try their hand at combat.  While the metagame shifted to accommodate these more powerful ships, and established PvP organizations employed their abilities, joe solo/small gang pvper's experience of PvP has remained constant: it's stagnant. 

Piracy, or living off your PvP earnings and ransoms ceased being a viable profession for all but an insignificant population of players around 2011.  Changes to mission running mechanics with agent quality, incursions in highsec, coupled with players migrating to nullsec for cosmic anomalies, better paying missions and ratting removed much of the targets pirates thrived on.  Static complexes were the last bastion where players could find casual small scale fights, and be rewarded, fight or no, with the chance at some deadspace items to keep them going fiscally.  They provided motivation to roam, and a sense of accomplishment regardless of the PvP outcome.

With them gone, the systems that held them and surrounding constellation have become as lifeless as the rest of non-faction warfare lowsec.  The PvP community that based their livelihoods around their existence seems to have the choice of joining faction warfare or ceasing to exist.  Alternative lowsec PvP play styles of camping gates or hunting exploration runners or the odd mission runner, which frankly requires at least one alt account doesn't appeal to many of the static plex PvP community.  These were very small gang, primarily solo PvPers that were ousted by CCP's decision to remove these sites.

I don't know if I'll be able to recapture the magic of moving back into lowsec to try out solo PvP for the first time, and finding myself captured by the challenge for the next 4 years of discovery.  Joining faction war seems like giving up, but I honestly don't see any alternatives in either lowsec or nullsec for my solo/small gang PvP desire.  I'm in regular contact with the MH.net PvP community, talking to others about returning to the game, but the question I can't answer remains: return to what?

PS: Kane, if you're interested, shoot me a PM on the MH.net forums with some contact details.  Perhaps sharing notes will help in finding inspiration for the next EVE Online shindig that will carry us into the game's second decade of life.

4 comments:

  1. Oh wow a Sard Caid blogpost!

    The decision to remove the DED complexes is still baffling me to this day. I can't even begin to comprehend how many possible small gang and solo pvpers will be lost because of this foolhardy decision. Not to mention communities lost and corporations gone to dust. Ghost towns. Nothing to do there, no reason to visit.

    It kind of reminds me of when a work experience kid enters the workplace fresh from college, into a higher management position, and here he is in the company of a bunch of grizzled old timers ... and he starts making decisions like changing this and changing that and the bad guys on the shop floor they just know it is going to end in tears but they can't get the message across and they just look each other in the eyes and they nod and they just know .... and sure as hell, the college kid chops his dick off or something cos he removed all the safety guards. I dunno what I am trying to say but I think that makes sense.

    FW is a poison to lowsec. Please don't join FW I think you'd be only adding to the problem. Pussies running from fights at all costs. Multi stabbed Daredevils, cloaked frigs and the mentality of get out must farm the loyalty points. This is a bad breed of dog, a fucking mongrel of a species and the worst part is ... these are far worse farmers than the ones who used to chase the bright Gistii lights.

    Paradise lost.


    MB.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Sard. I agree with you that the removal of static DED plexes caused more harm as the fix was worth. But CCP just released a few hints of the next expansion and exploration seems to be a core theme of it... something makes me that this was just a cleanup before a planed addon. Maybe they come back in one form or the other.

      As of FW. Yes there are farmers and yes many of them are completely risk averse. However, it is IMO still the best environment for solo pvp eve currently offers. I am in FW for 2 years already and i am not the only one who joined for pvp and not for LP. I fly solo most of the time and the environment of FW complexes is very similar to ded plexes.

      I lose about one T2 frig a day and its a lot of fun... try it out if you consider coming back.

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  2. As a FW player and former 2/10 plex circuit runner, I know which one gave me better fights and a more rewarding experience.

    PS. It is not FW.

    The stabbed daredevils, cloaking slicers, and so on do not add anything to the experience. CCP should have removed loyalty point gains from plexing, not the losec statics.

    Similar rut, trying to figure out what to do.

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  3. I feel a lack of purpose, too.
    Been online barely. I feel confused.
    It's strange how such a small change can
    send big ripples.

    They do add some lowsec rats with tags
    but will those be worth it?
    I doubt it.

    ReplyDelete