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EVE Evolved: Getting people to actually fight
EVE Online has always been strongly focused on PvP, from the obvious activity of smashing ships together to the more subtle cutthroat nature of competitive market trading and corporate politics. EVE is testament to the fact that if you put enough people in one place and ask them to share and play nice, pretty soon they'll be tearing each other's eyes out. Though the lack of direct flight controls and steep death penalty turn a lot of people off trying EVE, I have to admit that I've yet to find a better PvP experience in any MMO -- when I can actually get a good fight, that is. Everyone who engages in PvP regularly will have stories to tell of some of the awesome fights he's had, but in truth they're few and far between. For every fight so spectacular that its story is retold for years, there are hundreds of quiet nights, failed roams, and encounters that end in disaster. Lowsec is particularly troublesome as the lack of warp disruption fields can make it hard to deprive enemies of an escape route and get them to actually fight. Warp bubbles bring their own problems, so what can be done to add more PvP opportunities to lowsec without allowing players to use area-effect warp disruption? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the factors that prevent good fights and stifle PvP in lowsec.
EVE Online balancing effort aims to return ships to proper roles
Has it ever seemed ridiculous that in the setting of EVE Online, where technology has opened up the vast potential of the galaxy, there are still aspects of being a capsuleer that are completely ghetto? The ship and capsule technologies in EVE enable you to traverse solar systems in mere seconds, unleash hails of destruction that vaporize space stations, and provides immortality through cloning... but you have to stow prostitutes, slaves, marines, and livestock in a single cargo hold? Sloshing around in there with your fuel, no less. While the commingling of your livestock with the military forces you've rescued is hardly ranked as a critical issue in the game, not having enough room in your cargo bay for jump drive fuel is. Today's Apocrypha 1.5 release made significant changes to ships capable of using jump drives. We knew this was in the works but CCP Games didn't reveal any of the details until yesterday's dev blog from CCP Abathur titled "Regular or Unleaded?".
