So out of curiosity, I warped to the station, just in time to see reaper after reaper launching from the station. I thought it might be some corp organized activity for new players, but they mostly warped off in different directions. I checked the info on a dozen or so and all of them were Pator Tech School corpies, and 10 were less than a day old. They all had different names (not the kind you’d see auto generated), and different avatars.

I watched for a while more and saw more noob ships launch, and some return to station, and many of them were also less than a day old, too. There was no obvious coordination between them, which you’d likely see if they were participating in an organized activity. And I doubt they’d be alts of experienced players – they’re not likely to stay in a 1.0 system flying noob ships. I finally decided that these were simply new players in the game, likely out running tutorial missions.

Now I’m not sure how typical it is to see that many newbies all that young all logged on in one system in the same half hour period. But if this is typical for a Sunday afternoon, and if it happens to a similar degree in other capsuleer birthplace systems (what do you call them? maternity wards? hatcheries?   ) and if a decent percentage of these new players stick with the game, then I think that’s a good sign for the health of the game.

To all the new players, Welcome to New Eden!

(I’m not a pirate, but I did wonder what the reaction would be if I were to scan one down and gank it. But a trader alt in a shuttle is not the right combo for that kind of mischief. )

I’m neither a carebear nor a pirate. I have 2 toons, one of which dabbles in industry and trading, mostly to generate isk for my main, whose is a PVP character, but hasn’t done any piracy. So I sit on the outside looking in on this whole pirate vs carebear thing. Both are valid roles in the game, yet there are those on each side that show unreasonable intolerance of the other. I see some on each side pointing fingers at each other, and getting all bent out of shape by the actions of the other.

I find the whole carebear vs pirate thing reflective of our planet in some ways. There are those (not all) on each side that can’t/won’t accept the other. There are parallels out there – political intolerance, religious intolerance, cultural intolerance that happen because some have the view “you don’t do it my way, so I hate you”. This is in Helicity’s post too: on one hand he says “I don’t understand these people, I can’t understand why someone would mine all day, I need to know.”, but this is after he’s said things like “I mean I really, really hate the carebear.” and “He is diligent, he is productive, he is fucking boring as shit.” He admits he doesn’t understand the carebear, but he’s passing judgment on them anyway.

Helicity wrote “The carebear does not play the game I do, …”. So true, but this is not wrong. The carebear doesn’t play EVE the same as the pirate, but the game is designed to support both styles of play, and others as well. Both styles of play, and the others, are what give Eve it’s depth and complexity, and a lot of it’s entertainment value. Both sides enjoy playing the game the way they do, and that’s good. But some just can’t understand the other side’s point of view. Well deal with it. It’s a game – accept that there are other ways to play than your favorite, so if you can’t fathom how the guy on the other side could possibly enjoy what he’s doing in the game, just accept that he does and move on.

Some on the piracy side use the argument that its all just pixels on the screen. I don’t subscribe to that argument. Carebear players spend time and energy arranging those pixels, so it’s to be expected that they won’t be happy when their work is undone by an uninvited guest. Some venting ought to be expected. Only the most masochistic would say “hey thanks, thanks, that was fun” when ganked. I’ve been caught is gate camps where the numbers are so high that there’s no chance to get out – and I don’t enjoy that at all, however it’s part of EVE, so I deal with it. It’s natural for anyone with an ounce of competitive instinct to dislike losing a ship, but it’s part of playing the game, so we deal with it (or should), but we should also understand when someone might get upset at the outcome.

So to both sides I say “get over it”. To the carebear who got ganked, deal with it – it’s part of the game. To the pirate who doesn’t like the name calling, or other smack talk from their victim, you deal with it too. And if you do subscribe to the argument that it’s just pixels on a screen, remember that all that smack talk in local/evemail/chat is just pixels on a screen too.

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, in which I ask the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledging mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

What I hope to accomplish is to actually play Eve again. I mean really play, not just run a mission here or there. Log on regularly, with enough time to accomplish more than just reload the skill queue. To join a corp again, and contribute. To scrape the rust of my meager PVP skills, and maybe even improve them (player skills – my toon now has more skills than I know what to do with).

Since March I’ve been pursuing a dream – I’ve been building my dream place on 2 acres with a view and shoreline on a lake. I’ve been the owner/builder with all the highs and hurdles that entails. Like living on-site in a trailer, with only a generator for electricity, no phone, and limited internet. I could only play Eve when I was back in the city on weekends to catch up with normal life. So no Eve of any significance right up to about now. But I’m getting back into a normal life, so things are starting to get into a more normal pattern, and my dream place now has hydro and satellite internet (and walls, roof, insulation and enough heat to make do) so there’s possibilities for actually getting back into the game again.

So much has changed, I’m not sure what to do in game. Get into a corp and play with people again is number 1. PVP with people is second. From there, we’ll see. But I do want to play again. Eve is cool, and I’ve missed it.

(Just for the record, I wouldn’t change the last 9 months for the world! It’s been a fabulous experience. I’ve met some great people. I’ve felt that way cool sense of accomplishment of seeing a building go up, much of it done with my own hands. I’ve lost 20 lbs and 2 belt sizes with out even trying to (up to Christmas, anyway – put about 5 back on over the holidays). Gazed at stars at night, listened to animals calling, watched deer pass by, and so on and so on. There were trials and tribulations along the way, but it’s been a rush!

Based on my experience this year, if you ever get a chance to pursue a dream – do it. Do it well, though. Plan it out carefully so you’re sure you’ll attain it, then go for it.)

List of Participants (so far):

1. CrazyKinux’s Musing – A beginning is a very delicate time…
2. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility – Words, words, words…
3. My God It’s Full of Stars – What Now?
4. The Elitist – Plans for 112yc
5. Into the unknown with gun and camera – Show me the money
6. Ecliptic Rift – Enabling the future
7. Inanity and Doom – New Year’s Resolutions, New Eden Style
8. Break Vol – Blog Banter #14
9. Guns Ablaze – What Now?
10. Adventures in Mission Running – The Way Forward
11. Diary of a Pod Pilot – Things I want to do
12. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah – The Year That Will Be
13. Roc’s Ramblings – WordPress ate my blog
14. Vive Virtual – Frontier Living
15. A Mule in EVE – Next on the chopping block
16. Prano’s Journey – I Peer Into My Crystal Pod…
17. Life in Low Sec – Expanding the Franchise
18. The Light of Stars – Testing the claims of CCP
19. A Memoir From Space – A New Direction
20. The Chronofile – Blog Banter 2010
21. FlashFresh – What now for Flash?
22. EVE Opportunist – Fyreite in 112
23. Mike Azariah – Jiorj
24. Yarrbear Tales – Year in Review
25. More to come…

This month’s banter leans a little, OK a lot, on the academic side. It comes to us from xiphos83 of A Misguided Adventurer, who asks the following:

Victor Davis Hanson argues that western culture, comprising of ideals such as freedom, debate, capitalism, and consensual government, are what make western society so successful at waging war. These ideologies create a warrior who’s direct participation in government, ability to think freely, and desire to remain free, fights harder and is willing to suffer more than his conscripted foe. Though a military must remain a structured oligarchy to fight a war effectively, why in a world where military conflict is as familiar as breathing are there so few alliances that embrace these ideologies when governing their members?

Two thoughts here: One, where does the idea that alliances don’t embrace these ideologies come from and is it accurate. And two, does it make sense to compare real world geo-political societies to in-game organizational structures.

First, I’ll admit that my exposure to life in an alliance is limited, but from what I can see from those experiences, and from reading and listening to the experiences of others, I don’t see a rejection or avoidance of freedom, or debate, or consensual government in Eve. There may be specific cases you can point at, but I question the implication that most alliances don’t employ/embrace the concepts of freedom, debate, consensual government, and capitalism (i.e. aquiring personal wealth). Maybe they don’t trumpet it from the rooftops, but I’m sure the most of them live it.

The very fact that it’s a game played by people of their own choice, and using their own money to pay to play, makes avoiding or denying those concepts difficult, if not foolhardy, if you want a successful alliance. People are paying to play, and play implies enjoying your game time. If you don’t run an alliance (or corporation) such that the majority of the members are getting satisfaction from their play time, you won’t have many members for long. How can you know what’s needed to meet the players’ needs if you don’t open up lines of discussion and communication? Members won’t be much help if they can’t pursue their own financial gain so they can bring the ships, modules, taxes, etc needed for the alliance goals. Players not comfortable with the alliance goals won’t readily contribute and be active, if they remain in the alliance at all.

Comparing western geo-poliltical societies to in-game organizations is an apples to oranges comparison, at best. Societies are comprised of people who generally are born into the society, and have limited, if any, ability to choose an alternate society to live in, while alliances in Eve are populated by players who have chosen the alliance (perhaps indirectly through their corporation) and can move or drop out easily. Societies are comprised of vastly more individuals than alliances in Eve. Western societies require a representative democracy system where people choose a local representative to exress their interests to the society leadership, but Eve alliances are much closer to a direct democracy where members can state their opinions directly to alliance leadership (although perhaps through one level via their corporate leadership). Individuals in society might have to wait years to use their vote to get a change in leadership or policy, but in Eve pressure from alliance membership can promote change much more rapidly.

Western societies can play the ideology card (i.e. defending freedom)  when facing foes militarily, but this would be preposterous in Eve (except in specific roll-play situations). In Eve alliances are generally imperial in nature – it is the nature of the game to be so and acquiring new territory by force of arms is what many players want. Western societies are not (generally) out to conquer new territory by force of arms, and their populace would likely reject any suggestion to do so.

So it’s really not a good comparison to look at alliances in Eve and western societies and look for ideological similarities. However to say that western ideologies are not present in Eve alliances is also wrong because the organizational structures for players in Eve combined with the voluntary contribution and participation of those players makes recognizing and employing those ideals almost unavoidable.

Here are the blog banter 10 participants so far:

1. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility – “A government of the Capsuleer, by the Capsuleer and for the Capsuleer…”
2. A Mule in Eve – Culture and Choice

Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

“Last month Ga’len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith “WebMandrill” Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completely from EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?”

I wasn’t sure what to propose for this banter, but Roc’s post on scramming and webbing reminded me of one my my pet peEves – maximum speed in space. The physics of space don’t limit an object’s maximum speed unless acted on by some other force (eg, gravity, collision). So an Eve spaceship should be able to fire up it’s engines and accelerate as long as it wants to.

So any ship could go at any speed, you ask? Yes, sub-warp, in a straight line, until it hits something.

Now this would break the game mechanic for smaller ships being faster than bigger ships. Well, there’s a way to keep this balance that’s more consistent with space physics. Each ship would be given a “maximum safe speed”, which would be higher for smaller, lighter ships. At or below this speed your ship can perform all maneuvers safely – in particular change direction. Above this safe speed there is strain put on your ship to change direction, which is harmful to some degree depending on the speed and the amount of direction change. The harm translates as strain on the ship structure, and structure damage.

The UI would change a bit. You’d have similar speed controls up to the safe limit, so you can set “max speed” and your ship will accelerate up to that speed just like now.  And no change to the direction controls.

If you want to go faster than your  max safe speed, you can. The UI would show you two bars – one for your speed beyond your maximum, and one for the strain on your structure. If you’re going straight, the strain gauge would be 0 (zero). But if you execute a maneuver, then the strain gauge would go up depending on the extent of the maneuver and the amount over max safe speed, and the duration of the maneuver. If the gauge goes beyond a certain point, damage to structure occurs – the farther beyond the point the faster the damage occurs.

So, when over the max safe by “not too much”,  a small course correction would put brief strain on the ship and then end, resulting in no damage. The strain gauge would go up briefly, then back down. A big course correction would put high strain on the ship, and if going too fast, result in structure damage. The strain gauge would go up rapidly and into the red and some structure damage would occur (depending on speed – if you’re only 1% above max safe speed, you’re likely not taking much damage, if any). An orbit above max safe speed would also put strain on the ship. The strain gauge would climb up and up as the orbit continued. The tighter the orbit, the faster the gauge goes up, eventually leading to structure damage unless speed is reduced or orbit is stopped or lessened.

Afterburners and MWDs give your ship more engine power, and you accelerate/decelerate faster.  They enhance ship systems such that the max safe speed is increased when the module is active. Speed implants, boosters, etc. enhance the pilot’s ability to manage ship systems and can also increase the max safe speed.

Webbers don’t slow you down, but reduce your ability to accelerate. Webbers versus ABs also reduce the ABs max safe speed bonus, so if you’re going in a fast (above normal safe speed) AB orbit and get webbed, suddenly you’re going above your max safe speed and you’re strain gauge starts climbing. Webbers reduce the MWD acceleration, but not the MWD max safe speed bonus. Scrams shut down the MWD, eliminating it’s acceleration and safe speed bonus.

If you shut off your AB or MWD, your ship will decelerate safely to the normal max safe speed. If your AB or MWD gets disabled by a webber or scram, you have to reduce your speed yourself.

If you’re going above max safe speed, and you get too close to something, your ship’s collision avoidance will kick in, but since you are going above max safe speed, there’ll be strain on the structure and likely some damage.

These changes would enhance tactics on the battlefield. A targeted ship would have more options to escape. It could align for a planet and hit the gas and run, and not have a max speed limit. If webbed, it would take a while to accelerate but it could still get above it’s max safe speed. Eventually attacking ships might have to break off orbits to avoid structure strain If not webbed, the target could web it’s pursuer and maybe escape scram range and warp off. The target could escape larger attackers that can’t match it’s acceleration curve. Smaller, faster attackers would still be able to keep up, though.

Exceeding the max safe speed would assist with getting into the fray from a distance. If you warp in too far out, you can burn it in a straight line to the battle with no strain on structure. Once there, drop back to normal speed.

You’ll have some tactical options when orbiting. You can play speed and orbit distance to keep the strain gauge just below the point of damage. This is analogous to overloading a module – you have to manage the module’s heat. Here you overload the speed, and manage the structure strain.

Making speed in Eve more consistent with space physics by eliminating the maximum speed limitation while adding realistic consequences to exploiting the option to go real fast would add interesting tactical options for ship navigation.

Here’s the list of Blog Banter participants (at the time of this post):

1. Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
2. EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
3. Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter – It’s the Scotch
4. The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
5. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, “Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!”
6. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
7. Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
8. EVE’s Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
9. Miner with Fangs, Blog Banter – It’s the Scotch
10. A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won’t You Die?
11. Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
12. The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
13. Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
14. One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
15. Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
16. Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
17. A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
18. Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
19. Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
20. Facepalm’s Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
21. Memoires of New Eden, You’re Fired
22. Kyle Langdon’s Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What’s a Titan?
23. Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
24. Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
25. I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
26. Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
27. Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
28. Estel Arador Corp Services, You’ve got mail
29. Epic Slant, Let Mom and Pop Play: EVE Blog Banter #9
30. Deaf Plasma’s EVE Musings, Blog Banter #9 – Removal of Anchoring Delay of POS modules
31. Podded Once Again, Blog Banter #9 – Do we really need to go AFK?
32. Postcards from EVE, 2009.07.02.00.29.06
33. More articles as they are posted!

I’ve thought that the intel functions of local represent quite a bit of work to do manually – that is to have someone watch a gate and record who comes and goes and enter it into an intel channel somewhere. Any kind of surge of activity would overwhelm such a manual process very quickly. But players seem to want some way to limit the pervasiveness of local channel intel, especially in lower security systems. At the same time, local channel intel is quite useful to carebear types in high sec, and they’d not want to lose that ability. So here’s a proposal that gives some cake to everyone, I think.

First, local reverts to being  just a chat channel – you only show up in it if you start talking in it.

Next, a new intel probe is created, and this probe can be deployed in space and it will record the pilot info of anyone entering it’s range, and publish that info in a selected channel.

In high sec, CONCORD runs these and puts them in sentry guns at gates and stations, and the intel is published to a common system intel channel. The probes don’t give their location, only what they see (so you don’t know which gate/station someone is at, just that they are in space somewhere in the system. All CONCORD probes record in one common intel channel. If you jump out, the probe at that gate would record that and remove you from the intel channel. Stations could have jump clone monitoring to record in/out clone jumps in the intel channel, too. So in high sec, you have the equivalent of the current local intel but in a different channel.

In null sec there are no CONCORD intel probes, so no auto local intel. But players can launch their own intel probes and configure them to report to a private intel channel, which can be open to their fleet/corp/alliance, as they so choose. Multiple probes can report to a single intel channel, or each probe to it’s own channel. Probes can be placed anywhere – by a gate, POS, jump bridge, anywhere. Since each probe can have it’s own channel, you not only can learn who is in the system, but also where they are at (if they are in range of an intel probe). Private intel probes would be vulnerable to attack and destruction, but might be hard to find, if placed carefully. Private probes might have a limited lifetime, or be tied to the one who launched them – so if they leave, log off, or are killed, someone else will have to put up a replacement. But the idea here is that you can have as much or more intel than local gives you, but you have to put some effort into getting it. But not the onerous effort of having someone sit there and try to manually pass on the info of who is coming and going.

In low sec there’d be some middle ground between high sec and null sec. Perhaps station and gate probes but not inside sentry guns, possibly attackable (if you can tank the sentry guns). Private probes would be available, but maybe only to common intel channels, so if you put up a private probe everyone in the system can see it’s intel – or maybe just the local residents.

So there’s my idea. What do you think?

Eve, to the game’s credit, offers a wide spectrum of activities for players to participate in. A number of these are generally non combative, but still enjoyable to a large number of players. Eve doesn’t give these players a risk-free environment, rather they are still open to being war decced and attacked by other players, even when they choose not to follow a PVP path. High Sec space is there to reduce their risk, but not eliminate it. Local channel is an important tool for High Sec/carebear  residents. It gives them a way to see who is in the system with them and helps them identify risks quickly and easily.

Taking Local away from the carebears will require them to spend more of their time trying to find out which of  the players in the system might be a risk to them. This will cut into their time to pursue their preferred carebear activities, and when you only have an hour after the kids go to bed, you want to spend it productively.  If your game experience deteriorates because Local is removed, you might stop playing. I think Eve would lose carebear players if they had to do without local. Don’t say “who cares”. In Prisen’s series in the Tribune, he wrote “Sad as it may seem (especially to a pirate!), but carebears make EVE a viable gaming world. Miners, mission runners, and industrialists provide the momentum in the economy.”  So making the game less attractive to carebears could impact the game economy, if enough quit.

Frankly, I’ve never really been bothered by Local. Eve is a high tech universe and the Local mechanic is in keeping with that technology. You enter and leave a system through a star gate or a clone vat, it makes perfect sense that your arrival and departure are automatically recorded and updated in an open data base or broadcast. It also makes sense that your ship’s computer can highlight the list in Local to show you who’s friend and who’s foe – that’s what computer’s are for, high, low, or null sec. In a busy high sec system (or even low sec), no one has time to go through the list in Local to check corps and alliances manually. If you’re a small corp (say under 25) whose been decced by a large corp (hundreds), do you really want to manualy check everyone, and everyone entering system to see if they’re a war target or not? Not me – that’s what computers are for.

(There’s one time I think that your arrival should be shielded from Local – if you enter a system by jumping to a cyno, then you haven’t been “seen” by stations or gates, so you shouldn’t appear in local until you get on-grid with a station or gate or other NPC entity, or engage someone. Same for jump bridges. But cynos and jump bridges aren’t in high sec, so that’s not really relevant to the Local in Hig Sec discussion.)

I can’t see much benefit to High Sec residents from removing Local, and I can see some detriments that could impact the game beyond just the mechanics of navigating without Local, so I favour keeping Local as is, at lest in High Sec space.