Euripides Salamanca
Aldebaran Eclipse INC
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Posted - 2013.05.30 17:55:00 -
[1] - Quote
While not being much of a forum warrior and rather new to EVE (although I kept reading posts here and on various other EVE related sites long before even starting to play) I strongly feel that constructive feedback in this case, from as many players as possible, is crucial in convincing both CCP and our CSM representatives that - what they conceived and approved as improvement - is not going to work in current shape.
Many posters above already nailed it on the head. Rob Crowley, Naomi Hale, Kel Hound, Von Keigai and excellent summary post by Andreus Ixiris express what my thoughts are on the subject - so excuse me for creating yet another wall of text.
I'll try to keep it as concise as possible. I'd also like to point out that it feels universal for both solo and group play as well as stays outside of the ISK/hour or "balancing amount of loot" discussion.
- "Loot pinata" idea is contrary to design objectives for EVE presented by CCP during Fan Fest 2013
Those were: accessibility improvement for new players, getting rid of elements which are unnecessary, and apply thoughtful streamlining to create "involving and easier to get into, but still complex and hard to master" environment.
I'm relatively new player and it's hard to accuse me of being either bound to the "good old ways" or having 10 years trained "muscle memory" - and still "loot pinata" feels like exactly opposite of "accessible" . I know at least few people who are under 5mil SP or don't play longer than, say, 6 months, who had similar impressions after either trying this feature on SiSi or from watching this feature on stream.
- New players also don't feel comfortable with "loot pinata" - it feels awkward, confusing and inconsistent compared to everything else they start to learn about interaction with objects in EVE world.
Assuming that it's good and fun design which will be loved by new players and easy to get used to for those who agree to adapt only because new players don't complain (as opposed to "stagnant veterans" voiced concerns) is invalid. Because, lets face it, how many new players bother to check new features on SiSi, post outside of New Citizen Q&A forum or even watch FanFest or developers streams?
- The way how player interact with the game world and how objects interact with each other makes it impossible to rely solely on "twitch" skills even for very agile players.
When I'm being faced with challenge where scale of my (or team I belong to) success depends on my actual agility, I expect to get most precise tools to achieve that goal. Which basically means as close 1:1 translation of movement between my hand and its "extension" in the game world - my avatar. In shooter or simulator it's input latency reduction for example.
EVE plays like RTS rather than flight simulator, though. We can only decide where we want our ship to go but how fast and what route it will take to get there is decided by two main factors: ship stats and pathfinding. And we know both factors are far from being consistent: - big and heavy vessels with otherwise slow turn rate can do instant 180 degree spin when bumped by much smaller ships or when colliding with nearby objects; - collision boxes on collidable objects don't match up exactly with shape we see in game (which leads to either being bumped in random direction or ship taking different path than we would expect it to); - while our ship can clip through some massive objects it can also get randomly stuck on tiny debris and slow to a crawl; - instead of free 360 degree camera its jaw axis movement is restricted to some arbitrary invisible "horizon plane". While all those issues have small impact on "normal" EVE activities (either PvP or PvE) they often happen to be a deciding factor in high precision minigame, creating - instead of challenge to test reaction and ability to cooperate - frustrating struggle.
- Only EVE activity where unexpected technical issues lead to complete failure If connection to server is lost ship automatically warp out if ability to warp was possible. Very often if connection is established soon enough even disabled ship can survive to finish its task - is it mining, PvP or PvE combat ship can come back to the site and still collect reward, salvage or loot. Not after successful hacking attempt though. Site cleared, containers disappeared. Nothing.
- Feature discouraging multi-boxing but provoking other even more unwanted activities instead?
While I'm one of those anti-alt purists applauding every change leading to reduction and viability of multiboxing I don't buy that argument. Apart from surprising sudden twist from actively promoting multi accounts (Power of Two campaign etc) it seems bringing alt instead of friend will be common practice - because hacking minigame makes other person obsolete and alt can act as "scout" good enough. Real issue here, though is that "loot pinata" looks like activity which just waits for automation by some 3rd party "utility". If there are bots able to recognise which asteroid to mine and docking and undocking multiple ships then writing script simulating left clicks on screen position if pixel changes colour from yellow to green sounds like exercise from "C++ for Dummies "
I even had some ideas to post, to make it look less moan and groan. Imagine how one tiny feature can spoil the day if you care, and leave you with only 44 remaining characters...
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