This is the first in a series of articles in which I will delve into the issues which matter to me the most. Hopefully these articles will also open a broad discussion on the mentioned topics, which overall would be good for the EVE Online community.

RVRNI+CSM7 – The Care Bear Nation – Rats, Incursions and Miners.

Before I do go on it is important to once again make clear the role of the Council of Stellar Management: it is a sounding board, not a source for ideas, but a special interest group who can help focus CCP’s efforts on the most pressing issues of the player base.

What I am about to describe are my views and proposals for PVE mechanics, later on this week I’ll focus into new player acquisition and player retention, Null-Sec and other pressing issues.

This is the Care Bear Nation

The term ‘care bear’ is an EVE specific term, derived from a long running children’s cartoon where everyone gets along. It is a derogatory term used by PVP-focused players to rile up players who tend to live in High-Sec or relatively safe pockets deep within null-sec and focus nearly exclusively on grinding for isk. The term has nowadays evolved into any activity which provide a revenue to the player and is usually intermixed with the commonly used racial slur: Jewage. So we now have moon-bears, incursion-bears, belt-bears, wormhole-bears, whore-bears, northern bears, BFF and the list goes on.

To me a carebear is a person who makes proper use of in-game content, either for profit, novelty, or standings goals. This would lead me to the generalization that in some way or another, every player engages in a carebearing.

The Realities of PVE

In my view the realities of PVE, with the exception of Incursions and WormHole sites (I’ll get to the why in a second) boil down to this:

- PVE is Boring as hell.
- The novelty of EVE PVE wears off quickly as it becomes tedious and repetitive.
- A bot is more efficient at PVE than a player as it requires very little thought and a lot of repetition.
- It lacks excitement and the constant presence of random danger that defines the rest EVE.
- In it’s current state, it is detrimental to the game.

Tin-foil hatters would be quick to point out that these shortcomings might be left there by design.  That is, to increase the likelihood of a player simply saying “I am buying a PLEX”, thus increasing CCP Games’ revenue. However, the isk has to come from somewhere and this is to suggest CCP is not just condoning, but promoting botting and what has come to be known as gold farmers in other MMOs.  While these aluminum-headed, armchair analysts might have a point (by remaining passive about the problem, CCP is accepting it), it doesn’t change the fact that sooner or later, no matter how much real money you are willing to pour into EVE Online, ‘content’ or the grind has to be done in the game.

Reinventing the Wheel

In my view PVE needs a massive overhaul and is it is the aspect of the game which requires the most work in term of iteration in the short run.

One of the only PVE components in Eve that is enjoyable, not a grind, and (as far as anyone can tell) not bottable right now is Incursions.  The mechanic for PVE that CCP came up with for incursions should be iterated upon and mimicked in other parts of the game.  I would strongly advise CCP that if they want to be the cutting edge, excellence focused, ground breaking, envelope pushing, LEADER of MMO companies (as stated on their website), they need to stop following (badly, in my opinion) the PVE mechanics of other MMOs (missions, grinding, instance dungeons, grinding, and did I mention grinding?) and focus on their other claim, and what is truly the draw of Eve: “true human interaction.”

I would urge CCP to re-evaluate the old PVE mechanics and implement more of Incursions-style PVE content, something new that is as engaging, and simply get rid of the PVE content that can be found elsewhere, and is usually better designed in the more linear MMOs.

We should always keep in mind the key factor to Eve Online’s long term success is player to player interaction. I seldom hate PVE in a game. As I mentioned, Eve’s PVE is boring and repetitive.  However, in my own experience, once you involve two or more pilots in a task, the tediousness of even the most repetitive tasks (I’m looking at you, structure grinds) is dramatically reduced.  Call it a placebo, or what ever you want, but the human factor side-steps the issue of building engaging content.  More than that, it could easily become the basis for a form of PVE content that other MMOs would try to mimic, rather than the other way around.  It is what makes Eve fun and this should should be the core mechanic that CCP Games should iterate upon.

This shift would have newer players mingling with veterans, providing a healthy environment for pilots to bond and their horizons in the game as they search for new goals.

High Sec Incursion Needs to be Buffed Up, Let Alone Low-Sec and Null-Sec

Incursions also need to be iterated upon. Instead of nerfing them, as some have cried, I propose to buff them. Now before you jump onto the “are you ****ing crazy” band-wagon, I will explain the how and why.

CCP Diagoras had provided a statistic recently regarding incursions which shocked most players:

Sun 12th: 1.27tn bounty prizes, 401bn Incursion rewards, 98bn mission rewards, 94bn mission bonuses

Incursions bring in less than a third of the income that is made off bounties (so ratting is still hugely dominant), and less than 20% of the isk faucet of the game.  It is increasingly possible, in my opinion, that the primary threat that Incursions pose in the game is to botting and RMT.  The mechanic is fun.  They are run by humans.  Iteration, sure.  Adjustments (and I’m staring at you, Vanguard sites), sure.  But more of the content needs to be like Incursions and less of the content needs to be like missions.

I also feel is a extremely immersion breaking for high-sec incursions to have Concord begging players to drive off the Sansha menace (because they are supposedly overwhelmed) but react with an astounding steadfastness, ignoring any Sansha ships on the field, to rush in and concordoking a pilot if he attacks another player.  The easy, immersion-based, solution would be for the sec status of a system to drop.  However, that is a huge can of worms on many levels.  I would push for CCP to come up with a solution, and happily brainstorm with them on this if asked.

Regarding the null-sec and low-sec incursions, I feel the pay-outs should greatly outweigh the high-sec ones.  I feel low sec needs far more incursion activity.  Incursions in low sec promotes player-player interaction even more than in other parts of the Eve universe.

Mining: The Bastard Child of PVE

Now, mining! The bastard child of Eve. We need to dramatically enlarge the cargo bays of the mining barges. It is in my desire to see a shift in the drone region from Alloys to Bounties. This will dramatically encourage mining, but keep in mind, it could crash the market. Wondering why Tritanium prices soared these past weeks? The drone regions were at war – this show how much minerals actually comes from the drone regions.

There are hundreds of different ideas out there to improve mining.  To make it more enjoyable and less an AFK activity.  I’m not completely against parts of mining being AFK-type activities, but if we are going to accept them as AFK, then CCP needs to redesign mining with that in mind.  But, high end ores should require more engagement in the game.

Some ideas I’ve seen:

An area of effect mining tool: Youtube /chuckles

The mining minigame: Puzzle

But, again, if CCP wants to be a leader, they need to lead not copy.  I will press this point home strongly.

Minding the Isk Sinks

I also feel the insurance payments should go according to the security status, higher pay-outs in high sector versus lower pay-outs in low-sec and null-sec and none in wormhole space. This should serve as a much needed isk-sink for alliances to ponder every time they chose to wage war. While I’ll dedicate a full article to my views on how to bring the hard-core back to null-sec I’ll hint my wish for alliances to be the ones running (and paying) the insurance services to their players, automating the whole ship reimbursement process.

To do this, I will push for alliance-level income sources to be changed.  Less moon gold, more tax-based.  More activities should be taxable by players/corps/alliances.  Bounties really should just be the start.  Sales tax.  An actual income tax could be conceivable (it really shouldn’t be hard for CCP to run through all income to a player at the end of each day, and take out an income tax as set by their alliance or corp).  I would push for alliance and corp income to be more bottom up than top down (as is currently the case).

I wish to encourage corporations to open the gates and actively seek new players, monthly fees for characters (just like alliance bills) should be an option for corporations and alliances. I will expand on this in an upcoming piece regarding player acquisition and retention.

In Closing

For the moment I want to state the ideas above aren’t written in stone, but they do represent the direction I would like to push towards regarding PVE.

Also I invite you to show your support by liking my CSM thread, it takes less than a minute and every like makes a ton of difference.

Remember to +1 riverini’s CSM Candidacy post at the official EN24 thread.