Saturday, February 20, 2016

Minority Retort

The number one feature of W-space that draws me in is the lack of a local chat. The unknown. The fact that you just have to assume that there's a cloaked Proteus watching your every move. The upsides are obvious, you can take your time hunting your prey, present a hard counter to whatever it is you're likely to face or choose whether to engage at all. But when you're actively hunting in space with no local chat and systems so vast you can't possibly D-Scan all at once, you absolutely need to know if your quarry is even online still. Who knows how many hours are now going to be wasted stalking people who aren't even logged in, never mind actually active, all because of one little change.

I can remember almost a year ago when Chance Ravinne floated this idea on the EVE Online forums. Although he's not the first to suggest it, he was summarily shouted down by most of the posters on that Wormhole sub forum. Wingspan saw it as interfering with their play style as when they camp someone's system, those being camped can know if their enemy are active in system. The easy answer would be to move system and stop terrorizing harmless bears, but no, that wouldn't do. We must change the game to suit the Wingspan style of play, not adapt to the way it is.

Well, the times they are a changing. Now it is us, the Wormhole community, that must adapt to the play style of camping douche nozzles like Wingspan. Judging by the Reddit thread I appear to be in the minority opposing this change but I suspect that's more because the Reddit community doesn't have the obvious Wormhole bias that I do. I accept that and I'll adapt. It just blows my mind that we'd elect someone to CSM to represent the Wormhole community and then sit back and applaud as he lends influence to a content reducing change to the region. Essentially, this makes watch lists redundant. You want to keep tabs on a war target? Nope. Want to know when that guy selling his Wormhole is online? Nope. Want to know if the guy that was ratting earlier is still online? Nope. I mean really, what is the point of the watch list at all under these circumstances? So friends can keep tabs on friends? Asinine.

Cue the butthurt posts.

12 comments:

  1. As long time WH pilot myself I have the same mixed feelings. I did routinely camp systems for weeks and had the full complement of characters in my contact list without them ever knowing about me. Even though it worked in my favor, I felt it was a tremendously unfair tool that neither fits into the game play (every thing has a counter) nor does it fit into the lore. And so, while this change really messes up my play style, I do think it is better for the game as a whole. Next time I camp a system, I won't know who is online, making my engagement a lot more risky for myself. Overall, I think its a good thing

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    1. When you're scouting systems looking for targets and you see a mobile depot, mobile tractor unit or wrecks on D-Scan but no sign of any ships, you'll curse not having a watch list. I can't put a number on the amount of times we've generated content just from knowing the person was online. It's the difference between continuing the hunt and just moving on to the next system. With this change you'll be faced with the choice of either camping the system with absolutely no way of knowing if your quarry is even online, or just moving on. The potential for hours wasted is enormous. Considering how hard it is to find content in W-Space at the best of times, this seems highly counter productive to me.

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  2. I'd say Chance has been voted into CSM by his fans not the wormhole community.

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    1. You're right, of course. But he still represents us, regrettably.

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  3. I'm an exclusive wormholer. Played the game less than a month before jumping into a wormhole. Watchlists are broken. They always have been. They allow you to keep a near infinite list of people on your list of "You're online" and gives you way too much information for free. If you want to know if someone's online? Use a locator agent.

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    1. 1. Locator agents don't work in W-Space.
      2. Locator agents don't tell you if the person is online.

      I get that people object to watch lists in K-space, I really do. In W-Space it's a vital tool for creating content.

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  4. I have EVE friends I only know in-game...no TS, no forums, no nothing. I can drop them a line when I see them log in. It is a handy feature in the social aspect that CCP supposedly promotes...wait, no, they only promote joining large alliances. Pardon me.

    Yeah, I have a number of Titan pilots watchlisted as well, and this gives me the necessary intelligence to engage OR not to engage. Now, I'll just have to pass always.

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  5. I supose the only counter to this at present would be for a neutral alt to send a convo request but if he auto denies convo requests you are still left in the dark. I have to agree that while it gives much information it's almost the only way to validate whether or not your target that has just warped off performed a safe log or cloaked up...no way to know for sure anymore which as you already pointed out, hinders the already hard to find content in W-Space.

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  6. As we talked before, I hope they buff the locator agents, so you could still get good idea if person is online or not. Perhaps find a middle ground like limiting number of contacts.

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    1. I'd settle for it having to be mutual after seven days. I've got no interest in eStalking someone for eternity.

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Keep it civil!