It's 2022 and EVE is fast approaching that fabled 3rd decade. How about we fix bated a fleck of time to talk well-nigh the state of the game in general. How is New Eden faring and what, if anything, does EVE need to stay relevant these days? I'll preface past maxim that this commodity is not going to be massively data-driven just because I don't take that data. I would rather keep a focus on what EVE feels like to play. I think that I am justified in doing then as games are meant to be emotive experiences to enjoy. So ultimately the way the game makes you feel is the most of import matter, right?

Really, function of what brings me to write this article is my own apathy and bitterness that I have held towards the state of the EVE for some time. Put simply, I've been bored for a while and I'm honestly worried about the game I love. Whether or not this is due to what I've previously referred to as "The Bittervet Disease" I practise not know. What I can run into is that my feelings are worsened by some of the popular thespian count graphs distributed by Jestertrek and by EVE Offline.

It's hard to look at graphs such every bit these (right) and not exist concerned. The of import point to recollect is that losing a half to ii-thirds of the playerbase (compared to EVE'south heyday) means much more than merely a number.

If nosotros assume an even sample having quit the game so you could reasonably take any arrangement and cut the number in local in half. Cut the number of corps in half, the number of players to chase and fight, the number of industrialists and marketeers. You stop up with less and less action across all aspects of the game

That's pretty upsetting if I dwell on it too long and I would honey to be proven wrong. Someone tell me that there is more than than meets the center.

A Starting Point: Wormhole Space

If y'all've read my blog before and then you lot know that wormhole space is and e'er will be my abode. It's one of the few areas left to retain a modicum of mystery due to what it's similar to alive there. I feel like if there'south annihilation I can annotate on and annihilation I should be listened to about, it should be wormhole space, its players, and its problems. At the very least I can be much more specific well-nigh things. Let'south suspension it down past category.

Wormholes – PvP

For those with no feel with wormholes, they're a winding series of ~2,500 systems that are connected to one another for only a cursory period of fourth dimension. Connections between wormholes tin can be manipulated past players and the unique challenges presented create a landscape vastly different from anywhere else in the game. With the other natural belongings of them being that they act like nullsec sans-sovereignty, they have bred a very specific culture of PvP. This is one of both cloak-and-dagger style gameplay and ganking, mixed with a style of brawling alike to a gentlemen's duel.

So how healthy is this PvP ecosystem these days? Well, information technology could be better. Wormhole infinite PvP is non exactly in danger of dissipating entirely and many groups can still detect good fights weekly. It is, withal, becoming much more difficult to find that content in the first place. At that place seem to exist fewer wormhole residents and capable wormhole corps than always before and that reflects in the full general mental attitude. I surveyed several dozen wormholers and a common theme echoing across their responses was that things feel tranquillity, they feel boring. We but demand more reasons for PvP groups to live in and appoint with wormhole space.

Part of the reason why the situation sits as it is is because of the slow decline of heavy armour brawling – a common format in which wormhole corps would field armour fleets against one-another leveraging electronic warfare to win the day. Battles historically would last an hr or more and would test the skill of all pilots involved immensely. They would likewise often utilize 3 upper-case letter ships which was the maximum that could ever fit through a wormhole. It is widely believed that this turn down is primarily due to 3/4 main points:

  • Surgical Strike: This patch reduced resists and increased shut range damage massively making it nearly impossible to survive in these brawls and ending them quickly. The focus became DPS and numbers rather than skill. Note that in my first impression I was wrong and figured that it would not have the impact it did. This has since been slightly resolved with Bolstered Bulkheads, merely the damage to the PvP population and culture is done. Wormhole bushido might sound like a joke, merely information technology used to exist a common affair where honour 3v3 uppercase heavy armour laurels brawls were the standard.
  • Force Auxillary Nerfs: These capitals logistics known every bit FAXs were limited to 1 cap booster per send. This meant that information technology became adjacent to impossible to survive long enough against a fleet prepared to kill you. This led to players not using FAXs and reducing the scale of fights one time once again.
  • Triglavian Ship Power Creep: While I very much enjoy Triglavian ships, the power of the Leshak was another turn on the rack for those who engaged in these uppercase ship armour brawls. Combined with being mass-efficient fabricated them even worse for the meta.
  • Scarcity & Capital Prices: Felt beyond the unabridged game, but with no clear end in sight to loftier scarcity prices at that place is no want to hazard capitals. These massive investments are meliorate used every bit home defence and kept safely docked upwardly for years.

Exterior of the regular complaints virtually heavy armour brawling, PvP in wormholes has seen some meta shifts over the past few years. These days with DPS beingness a higher priority, energy neuts have become less useful with players ofttimes opting to field fleets of maximum DPS and ECM (jamming ships). This reflects in how more groups seem to utilise heavy shield (low EWAR- loftier DPS) fleets and heavy armour marauders. Each of these meta shifts motility towards the idea of deleting your opponents earlier they tin repair.

Solo and very small gang content in wormholes is hard to speak of. Much of information technology revolves around the use of cloaks and jumping wormholes to run away should you exist close to dying. This is the same as it has ever been. In that location does also be a modest amount of warfare among Asteros and other ships in hacking sites, only information technology is often a one-sided thing.

Innovation in the field of wormhole PvP is non impossible and I experience that it is in a better place than much of space. We're starting to see a resurgence of Leshaks at present, and buffer Marauders are a actually interesting addition to wormhole fleets. That'south not to say that more than changes would be unwelcome though. We just need to tone downwards the say-so of pure damage to reduce those few apex doctrines which dominate all others and create an n+1 situation. (Wherein the only way to beat someone is by having their number plus one more than pilot). Admittedly, Bolstered Bulkheads goes a skillful fashion towards resolving this. We practice nevertheless need some careful attention to particularly overpowered ships like the Nighthawk and perhaps Marauders.

Wormholes – PvE

Wormhole infinite is well known for having always been a haven of krabs. That is, it serves equally an fantabulous place for players to brand money in both combat and hacking sites should they wish to confront the risk of having little intel and being at the mercy of whoever finds you. The general moneymaking process in wormholes will typically involve killing Sleepers in sites, using a mobile tractor unit to bring the wrecks in, collecting the blue loot, then moving on. This loot is sold to NPCs in highsec for a steady price.

Making money in this style means taking on some of the highest DPS and neuting sites there are in the entire game. While this is a fitting challenge, it is a one-time affair to create the single most efficient send. In fact, I am likely partially to arraign for the current ships that krab in wormhole space due to my How ii Krab series.

The bigger issue with PvE sites, withal, is that they are just slow. You must grind through the EHP of several ships earlier killing the trigger and moving onto the next wave. You can and so spawn the Out-of-stater at the end which has also been calculated and spreadsheeted. Plough your tank on, fire your guns, and walk abroad for 16-22 minutes while he dies so yous can collect your free 300m ISK. This is not especially engaging gameplay and information technology never changes from site to site.

Beyond sites in general, course-iv sites stand up out as peculiarly unworthy of histrion time investment. Their niche is that enemies spawn hundreds of kilometres from one another. This but exacerbates their effect of offering lower ISK proportional to C5s and fifty-fifty C3s.

Finally, the replacement for capital escalations – the Drifter – could exercise with another rework. Equally previously touched on, killing the Drifter boss is a simple process that needs next to no interaction from players. Due to the ease of killing him with multiboxed subcap fleets, it has become somewhat uncommon for actual capitals to participate in this replacement for capital escalations. A true rework of capital letter escalations for wormhole sites would get a long way towards encouraging players to actually pace up the risk for a worthwhile advantage.

Overall WH PvE is fine, if slow and ageing content. Much like other areas of the game (highsec missions), updates are needed to bring out its truthful potential and reduce the ease of botting and extreme multiboxing.

Wormholes – Exploration and Industry

When it comes to EVE exploration, wormholes are at the forefront of everyone'due south minds. As far equally activities go, players are able to complete data/relic sites, scan downward chains of wormholes, and hack ghost sites. Little complexity exists beyond the gameplay loop of scanning sites, hacking for loot, then selling it on the market. It feels like a missed opportunity, simply it isn't in a bad state. For players who enjoy the minigame, information technology tin can be a relaxing and lucrative activity to explore and earn in these sites.

Industry is a much more than interesting area to discuss here equally wormholers accept long felt that they received the short stop of the industry stick. With moons in wormholes effectively the equivalent of highsec and with no natural asteroid belts, mining is a rarity indeed. It follows that Rorquals simply are not found in wormholes outside of beingness used to allurement fleets in one case or twice a year. Rethinking strategy on moon seeding would offering an excellent opportunity to bring more content to wormhole space overall.

Nosotros can at least talk more positively about wormhole space gas. It is well known for existence lucrative and serves every bit an easy beginner activity that many veterans will likewise partake in due to the dandy return on investment. Gas huffing is in a great country every bit it is. It even has the benefit of following up with the great T3C production line unique to wormhole space.

Finally, I can't say I tin can really comment too much on it due to lack of experience, only Planetary Interaction seems to exist in an ok identify at the moment. The main bottleneck for players hither is simply hauling the products out to sell. Otherwise, wormhole infinite isn't especially unique with regards to PI.

Wormholes – Overview

To close out this section of the article we tin consider wormholes as a whole. I would say they are salubrious-ish all things considered. They aren't doing every bit desperately as they could exist, but some item areas as outlined above could do with a little dearest and intendance. Wormhole residents really just want to avoid being the unfortunate collateral impairment of updates (eastward.k. the HIC mass change). Any updates that do arrive need to be tailored to not break this precious little customs.

If done well, the time to come offers a corking opportunity to offer feature updates to wormholes that simply make it more than attractive as a place to visit and alive beyond simply more PvE. Having better moons is a great choice that would draw player groups for example. A better and frequently touted update would exist the brand better utilise of C6 space by giving systems dual statics. This, all the same, is not the fourth dimension or place to delve into the intricacies of one idea or another.

Furthermore, the wormhole space community is divided on the general health of wormholes and this will exist down to the varied opinions and gameplay that individuals have in their own private situations. Wormhole space is vast and the life of a C2-C5/NS airplane pilot volition differ from what a big C4 corp experiences. To proceeds some excellent perspective on wormhole life from wormhole pilots themselves, please read Loroseco'due south ecosystem document and my own wormholer survey responses.

The Bigger Movie: Nullsec, Lowsec, Highsec, and Pochven

Opening up the wider world of New Eden we certainly have a lot more to discuss. I'll be writing this from the perspective of someone who has only had limited amounts of experience in the grand scheme of things. To use two examples: I have spent many many hours roaming nullsec but I accept never lived there; I take lived in and roamed Lowsec, but I don't know information technology or the politics similar I know wormhole space.

Perhaps this is where the combined experience of the CSM and of others should come in handy to atmosphere my thoughts and get a fuller view of what each area of space is truly like. To see all N+1 sides of the EVE coin. That's non this article, though. I've taken on some feedback and adapted the article, but it's mostly the way I see the world.

I don't want to spread faux news. If I am factually wrong then drop a message in the comments.

Nullsec in 2022

So I've never lived in nullsec, but I still use it as a source of content. It's still a office of the general gameplay loop that I participate in. My full general experience with nullsec is that it's total of skittish players who don't want a fight. I might non be the best at finding content, only I barely see anything out there regardless of what I do. I am about 90% confident that I could head to nullsec right now in a busy region and detect nothing fun in two hours. Well, that is until the 80-homo response fleet shows up to make certain my v-man gang goes away while insulting me.

I'm not maxim nullsec is expressionless, but if I'one thousand looking for content so information technology might too be. Organization after arrangement is only full of bots or players roleplaying bots past only participating in the aforementioned xix-twelvemonth-old combat sites that can be completed blindfolded, literally. Or at least until they get warned that I am v jumps away and so they can safely cease "playing" EVE. I am non trying to be salty here, merely this is how it feels to try a roam in anyone's space.

It's why most roams end in suiciding ships considering you become bored and don't want to feel like the final hour was wasted fourth dimension. I retrieve my sentiment is best expressed in the Isk Averse article: Wait, you lot WANT the response fleet? It's an splendid read that captures how information technology feels to play EVE for the evening and come away wishing you hadn't bothered.

It would seem that the majority of EVE gameplay in nullsec comes in the course of mining and PvE (assuming that there are no hostiles in the entire region), or large scale battles over space and structures – the kind of gameplay EVE is known for. The kind it breaks records for. It's simply that between those big armada fights and wars there is a lot of downtime where many people break their own ship spinning records instead.

This is the style I see nullsec as an outsider, though. It isn't the way that the residents of nullsec live information technology.

From what I hear from nullsec residents, they aren't having the best time of their lives. The Dynamic Bounty System goes confronting what they want (single organization krabbing for renters etc.). I can't speak for how that feels to feel, but I can imagine that moving around and hunting for the same ISK yous had earlier is an ISK/hr loss due to travel and it adds additional danger. It feels like a failed experiment and one that needs to exist replaced with more than robust changes to the nullsec Farms and Fields.

Speaking of farms and fields, one of the things which has come up up following discussions with a few prominent nullsec players is the nullsec status quo and a lack of war in EVE. We had WWB2 just recently merely put simply, more state of war is skilful in the context of this spaceship video game. Nullsec having entered a catamenia of relative calm with few disharmonize drivers is not a good thing and does little to encourage growth beyond that of wallets.

All of this adds to a general feeling of null being quieter than e'er. Information technology feels apathetic. Things still happen and many will claim that a unmarried fight or 1 good twenty-four hour period means that EVE doesn't have problems, just anecdotally information technology doesn't experience that way. It feels like it'due south condign harder and harder to squeeze the fun from the stone.

If yous were to ask me what nullsec needs to better, there are three primal factors:

  • New players, new blood that is interested and wants to stick with EVE. CCP has long-neglected that player groups can exist one of the best tools there is for recruitment and helping people stick around. Instead, we are seeing narrative-driven content delivered slowly. It's proficient content, but I don't recollect it's what EVE needs. Ultimately, resolving this issue will result in more players for goose egg and more content to exist had. How CCP resolves it doesn't matter and then much simply to give simply an case, forcing players to work together in quick-access content right from the beginning would be a good start.
  • A rework of day-to-day content, namely in nix sites. Manufacture is already undergoing a seemingly disliked overhaul that helped decimate capital send usage. An attempt at overhauling combat and exploration sites to a modernistic standard is near 15 years overdue to brand the infinite more fun to exist and play in. This ties into some points I will raise after almost toys in the sandbox.
  • Content drivers that players appreciate and enjoy. I don't have a quick fix for this since it's a circuitous issue. Having proper content drivers that strength alliances to fight for infinite is vital. Every bit much equally players create the fights and the content themselves, there needs to be something worth fighting over. Fixing this tin can help bring new players to restart a cycle of improvement rather than the slow decease we are seeing. How about a return of passive moons?

Roaming the nullsec wasteland well-nigh makes y'all wish for a nuclear winter erstwhile-schoolhouse cap drop meta.

Lowsec in 2022

Now this is somewhere I've lived and loved. In that location are places of lowsec that I could telephone call abode if I weren't the CEO of my wormhole corp – Kourmonen and Vlillrier. I spent some time back in 2015-xvi in Gallente faction warfare followed by some lowsec pirating and such alongside Predator Aristocracy in Did He Say Jump. I think lowsec as a identify of nigh-unlimited small-scale fights in FW plexes, gatecamps to set up up to smash downwards, and roaming gangs who would engage 1 some other.

These days information technology'south a different story. The FW plex battles are all just replaced by farmers and bots, gatecamps are thin, and the roaming gangs are gone. One side of a warzone might push against another and create a twenty-four hours or two of content, just it peters out and you're back to the base level of activeness once once more. PvP content exists, but it is hard to notice and hard to take fun with these days, specially compared to the heyday of FW. I've discussed this with a friend and former lowsec CEO of mine, Julianus Soter. In his ain words "it's a shame considering I practise desire to play more and information technology'south frustrating to have to jury rig content."

Why is lowsec then thin, then? The obvious answer is the low player count that is affecting all areas of space in EVE. I've already said that one-half the players in EVE equals half the players in every arrangement, half the PvP'ers and so on. Lowsec has had a rather special handling compared to other areas though. Faction Warfare as a system is mostly untouched since its original inception.

At the time of writing, the last update came over ii years agone: Loyalty to Lowsec. This ironically named update increased loyalty point payouts, reintroduced a histrion-emergent mechanic (gate sliding), and added a new size of FW plex to fight in. Those are good changes and I don't hate them. But information technology was too piffling likewise belatedly as well long ago and it speaks for so many of the other changes to EVE existence the same way. Information technology's a theme that I'll come back to later, simply updates, especially in the last five years take often been pocket-sized, unexciting, or late – with exceptions of class.

Dorsum to lowsec anyhow. In my honest stance the mechanics of Faction Warfare and the electric current land of EVE mean that we're well beyond the betoken of render for lowsec in the state information technology is currently in. Any updates to lowsec space going forrard cannot be elementary quality of life updates. There is no betoken giving quality of life to that which has no life anymore.

Instead, I would suggest that a change to lowsec should be something that affects the entirety of EVE. I'm talking most (as I always practise) new ships, new modules, new gameplay, and new PvE. An update to lowsec could be something incredible. It could exist the matter that gets people to play EVE for the first time. The thought of proper integration with and fighting aslope an empire'southward navy while getting new navy equipment is awesome. I could outline something here and rant almost my idea is corking, but then game design through Reddit is a bad idea.

I am not sure there is much else to say about lowsec actually. Everything I see and well-nigh of the people I speak to points towards it beingness a shadow of what it once was. It needs work, just EVE needs piece of work as a whole.

Highsec

We've all lived in highsec at some point in our EVE career. You start out there and it'south frequently also scary, at least at first, to venture beyond the supposed condom. Rather than starting out with the issues like I often practice, what does high do right? How is information technology to alive in that location?

Looking at content alone, highsec does have a decent selection of depression-ISK earning activities, solo content, and multiplayer content. It even has PvP if you count instanced matchups through abyssal proving ground events. There are incursions that are dated, but a pretty cool concept and have a niche community around them. There are one-time data/relic sites also as escalations. You can exercise some basic industry, market PvP, low-ISK mining, xix-twelvemonth old missions and… highsec wars?..

I know enough of folk who are happy with their lot in highsec. I've met multiple people at my various jobs over the years who play EVE. They usually tell me that they're a highsec miner who hauls their ore to Jita and builds up their ISK. That's all they do and I approximate that'south fine, I just don't sympathize the appeal to be quite honest. I think what I can take away from that is that the content provided by highsec is not necessarily bad. At that place's always going to be a market for it and CCP certainly has recognised that.

What CCP hasn't recognised, acknowledged, or called to ready, however, is the issue that keeps cropping up. The content itself is dated. Missions are almost nineteen years old, incursions are 13 years old, information/relic sites are very former likewise. While it'south true that highsec has had new (indirect) content by way of abyssals, annual events, and the industry update, the ageing gameplay is at its worst in highsec. This is because a lot of highsec content can be done solo. Information technology is very much only you and the game'southward systems, often without the player-driven activities that are so frequent everywhere else.

Keeping to the topic of the state of EVE, one of the biggest issues I oft hear from highsec-dwellers is the power to suicide gank. To throw away your ship to Agree in lodge to impale someone in an surface area where people believe "there is no PvP". The topic deserves an article of its own, but if I were to weigh in on it, it's an interesting player-emergent mechanic that has a problematic effect on today'south new players only EVE would not exist the aforementioned without it. Something should exist done in <currentYear>, just suicide ganking should not be eliminated entirely. Miner assault damage controls, maybe?

I don't really want to try and suggest ways to better this region itself. Theoretically improving the balance of the game should better highsec. Information technology's primarily a market and industry area at heart and activeness elsewhere will drive that. At the very to the lowest degree, erstwhile content needs to exist entirely modernised to pave the way for new PvE beyond all of New Eden.

I don't similar highsec, just it exists to serve a purpose and it needs some love and intendance.

Pochven

Pochven, or Triglavian space, is the new kid on the block. Information technology was introduced back in October 2020 by taking a fix of 27 kspace systems and turning them into an entirely new region of their own. This Doritos-inspired region is subjectively i of the most interesting experiments CCP has fabricated in the final decade. It's a new area of infinite with unique mechanics and an awesome theme. Bravo for being brave plenty to create it.

So we're a year and a half into the experiment that is Pochven. How is it doing? From my own expeditions there and my discussions with some of the long-term residents, information technology certainly has developed its own civilisation and manner. This is a big large win in my book. If Pochven had released only to exist a copy of Thera, wormholes in full general, or simply like a null region, so it would accept failed. Instead, we have some very distinct Pochven enjoyers who make utilize of the space to accept part in their own content under their own Triglavian identity.

One of the all-time things about Pochven, I'g told, is that you can brand a hell of a lot of ISK there. Information technology is 1 of the primary reasons that people choose to live there, much in the same way that people choose to live in high-class wormhole space. This comes nigh thanks to the extremely lucrative site, the Observatory Flashpoint. It works out to most 230m ISK per person per 10-minute site. If you tin can multibox these fifteen-man sites, it's even meliorate. Even without multiboxing, though, that enables ISK generation beyond what C5 wormhole space volition give y'all with even more safety and no limit on sites.

The resident will and then use this ISK to fund extremely blingy doctrines for some high-quality heavy armour brawling in a generally cap-free surround. That means battleships are rex and we have a super interesting meta that is quite singled-out from most nullsec or lowsec PvP. Continuing with the theme of the state of EVE, as of April 2022, this heavy armour PvP style has been starting to see a shift. The incursion of larger zippo entities and possibly an amount of apathy on behalf of Pochven content creators has caused it to decline.

This points me to another facet of Pochven which is that – with it having such a pocket-size community – Doritoland is quite susceptible to small numbers of players having quite the sway over how much activity at that place is and what form information technology takes. This is no mistake of CCP, information technology but is what it is. It's a region of 27 systems then the smaller groups living there will nigh ever exist reliant on a small number of content creators to make anything at all happen.

So overall regarding Pochven, I would say that it'southward… fine? Information technology seems to accept worked in isolation of the effects on New Eden around it. The Edencom crowd are still angry that they didn't get a slice of the triangular pie and CCP shoehorned this story in with a disguise of player choice. I'thousand not certain nosotros tin can exercise much about that at present other than to accept that CCP's "role player choices" are always going to be predetermined decisions.

Furthermore, despite the heavy armour brawls that occur in Pochven and the niche community, it can accept plenty of opportunities for new players. They can teleport straight there using inexpensive filaments and many of them will find practiced opportunities to loot both NPC and player battlefields for first-class spoils of war.

The one thing that CCP still has in their pocket here regarding Pochven is that the floor is still wide open with regards to farther abyssal lore, Triglavian ships, and the potential to do something with the Triglavian abode systems and their Anchorages. Regardless, Pochven these days is pretty cool.

Rounding It Out: Crowd Control Productions + EVE

And finally, we movement on to the core of EVE. Frequently described by CCP every bit the core beingness the playerbase, I would fence that a second, every bit important core is CCP Games itself. While the players play the game and exist equally EVE's chirapsia heart, CCP is responsible for the update cadence, for keeping players interested over the years, and for charting a course of growth. EVE Online is a live service game and it must exist properly supported to avoid stagnation and pass up.

Herein lies what I take been about worried about for a long time now. While the previous sections take spoken on the health or status of various parts of space, I am truly well-nigh concerned with the future health of EVE. People may accept been saying that EVE is dying since 2003, but for the kickoff time, it seems existent. Now don't get me wrong, I'm non maxim that I recollect EVE will popular out of existence tomorrow. It'south going to accomplish the third decade. It's just a matter of whether the ship can be turned effectually before information technology's also late. Nobody wants EVE to exist the next Ultima Online or Everquest II.

EVE Online's Update Content & Cadence

Ane of the most important parts of ensuring that your live service game stays healthy is to keep players excited and to keep them feeling similar they have something to do. One of the many benefits that EVE is that its unmarried-shard server is already full of players willing to get at each others' throats over infinite pixels. All yous demand to do is enable them and avoid boring them.

Historically, CCP used to run a twice-yearly release schedule. Expansions such as Incarna would exist announced, hyped upward, and launched every six months. They were a mix of all kinds of updates including balance changes, graphics improvements, new features, bug fixes, and more. In 2014, ex-executive director CCP Seagull shifted this to a v/six-calendar week dart cadence with the aim to get exciting updates into players' easily as soon equally they were available.

For the nearly part, this fast-release model has stuck ever since with a slight shift at outset towards monthly updates before quietly becoming the numbered releases we know today (i.e. twenty.04). It was shortly prior to this that Quadrants began to be released at a rate of four per twelvemonth. These were aimed to represent the overall theme for the coming months alongside some headline features. While a expert thought at first, I feel that Quadrants accept fallen apartment and were not properly aligned with the monthly release schedule. They audio heady as a concept, but in reality, they have become restrictive, forcing development to be less aggressive. After all, yous probably shouldn't release much-needed PvP balance changes during an extremely PvE-focused Quadrant, right?

As an armchair-producer, I call back EVE needs a alter focused on edifice excitement for what's coming. Having observed the releases of other games such as WoW, FFXIV, Bounding main of Thieves, and many more over the concluding few years, edifice that hype factor is important. I would dear to meet a render to an expansion model with mid-cycle residue adjustments. This could even be congenital in every bit a hybrid Quadrant expansion. Imagine if Quadrants remained just as big, but with one large three-monthly release that is hyped up like expansions used to exist. Go players talking most what is to come and planning for an exciting drib of content as opposed to a boring drip of changes without a clear roadmap.

EVE Online's current trajectory is unsustainable. As for what CCP could or should exercise to turn it effectually, it's difficult to say. What is certain, however, is that whatsoever form it takes needs to be exciting and needs to somehow recreate the growth period of 2006-2013. I've non washed the enquiry to figure out what that truly means, but I hope someone at CCP has.

CCP'due south Priorities & New Actor Retentiveness

Ultimately, CCP is motivated by money. Their goal is to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life, and they do so to make a profit. This isn't greed and it isn't surprising, they are but a business organization. They need to generate that profit to justify existence. This is something yous have to keep in listen when considering their business decisions around EVE Online. The need for money should justify the constant stream of packs and offers, right? I don't call up so.

My problem with the current strategy every bit it appears is that it is myopic. Information technology is almost like the sentiment is "if nosotros simply get new players in, it will solve everything." And that's true… kind of. 89.74% of new players quit the game within a calendar week. This comes after the 50% dropoff from registration to kickoff login. These figures are from 2019 and I hope they are better now, but I accept my doubts. The problem is that we shouldn't just be looking for the raw number of recruits for EVE. The retentiveness issue must be approached from two sides toward a common goal. Work to meliorate new role player retention by improving veteran sentiment and word of rima oris ad.

I detest to refer to some players equally being of a higher quality than others, but information technology's a good way of describing what I believe EVE needs to become back. Imagine if, like myself, the reason you started playing EVE is because a friend regaled you with the tales of their wormhole adventures. You log in, join them, and become involved before weaving your ain story into New Eden. Now imagine that y'all heard about EVE and jumped in because information technology popped upwardly on Steam. You log in, consummate a forty minute New Player Experience, then sit mining in a Venture. You tell me who is more likely to stick around.

The key departure between these two hypothetical user stories is connexion and commitment. You need one or both to become socially or monetarily invested in EVE. From there, the story writes itself. This schoolhouse of thinking is likely what inspires the packs aimed at new players so information technology definitely makes sense what CCP is trying to exercise. Players who purchase something for EVE are more likely to stick effectually to get their value. After all, there's a mutual marketing phrase: "If Content is King then Conversion is Queen." And I would argue that CCP is focusing too much on the queen rather than the male monarch.

What I am actually maxim here is that CCP is missing the second half of the approach to retaining players: the content. In my opinion, the content that has been produced over the terminal few years has mostly been lacklustre. It'south my biggest gripe every bit a veteran player that I often have so niggling to go excited most. There are balance passes hither and there such as the recent Bolstered Bulkheads update, only information technology feels so sluggish and frankly unimpressive. The meta e'er tends to evolve quite quickly until, like we always do, we solve information technology and it becomes stagnant. Players go back to their Munnins and back to their xix-year-old PvE sites.

Some might fence that the content consequence is remedied past events in this living universe such every bit The Hunt and the Guardian's Gala. I say otherwise. Spending that resource on revamping our mean solar day to day gameplay systems, dungeons, and ship copse. Additions such every bit the abyss, Pochven, and Precursor ships are skillful examples of the content I'm talking nigh. Give me something to be truly excited almost. Make veteran players excited with content and they will convert new players for you.

While I yet take the chance to talk about selling ships, SP, and the argument of pay two win, I want to state that I am quite firmly confronting it and non in the proper name of the encarmine economic system. I don't think that "send in a box" packs beingness fabricated by players solves the problem at all. The real trouble is the perception of any game offering such microtransactions and the slippery slope information technology leads EVE down. Now that the official response has been "lamentable, nosotros removed it, we'll do information technology again on a bigger scale later on" I approximate nosotros just have to wait. I merely hope to never meet it become too far.

EVE in Modern Times

I want to talk a little bit about EVE itself in 2022. For one, it'due south incredibly impressive that EVE is nearly 19 years old and even so breaking records. But that comes at a cost. The mountain of tech debt sitting behind such a codebase must be phenomonal. A spaghetti mess glued together with POS code sauce. The video below shows just how massive that codebase is.. and this was 5 years ago.

1 of the big problems that EVE is facing is that despite all the transformative updates and content that we've all seen, EVE can't change it's heart. It is a space "submarine simulator" with the same UI style as ever. I can only speculate that a lot of people drop the game because of that noise betwixt what is advertised and what it feels like to actually play. Once you really go playing, the 1s tick speed and 10s session change timers hit you hard and they still injure to this 24-hour interval.

At the very least, Photon UI and the UI unification projection are steps in the right direction of EVE modernisation. Photon feels and looks good, it's just extremely unpolished in the beta country right now. Perhaps nothing else could or should be done to EVE's core mechanics unfortunately.

Another key point that is oft raised about EVE in modern times is just how long it takes to do anything. A 2-hour gameplay session in EVE can hands exist filled by warping around systems or sitting somewhere waiting in a fleet for nothing to happen. In many ways it is inevitable when your opponents are man and they are afraid of the take a chance that comes with fighting you. And that content can be worth the payoff.

It'due south for that reason that I have to actually applaud CCP's efforts to make events and content that are somewhat piece of cake to spring into. Abyssal PvP and PvE likewise equally easily-accessed event sites are prissy to have. Every bit are Needlejack filaments, even if they are problematic in crafting the decline of nullsec entry organisation content. These systems are aimed at giving people means to play EVE speedily and easily. Make more than of them, just try not to make it instanced!

Finally, I want anyone who reads this to sympathize something that even I have a difficult fourth dimension accepting. EVE has inverse and – assuming it lives on for years to come – it will go on to modify. It is, rather interestingly, in a unique position where some of the ancient EVE players could have gone from single and 21 to a young grandparent. Few other games take that kind of generational challenge to content with. Somehow, CCP needs to retain those veterans while being hip and down with the new generation of players – all without losing the essence of EVE. It'south a tough one for certain.

Because I wasn't sure where else to say information technology, allow me just use this gamble at the finish to add to the rallying cry for construction SKINs and cat ears. Monetise the players in the style that they want and you'll make so much cash. To exist honest it'south less about the cat ears anyway. EVE doesn't really needs true cat ears, it needs the weeb dollars.

In Closing

Ultimately I wrote all of this less to create a detailed report and more to document my sentiment towards EVE right now. Hell, I barely even touched on scarcity or industry at all. There are dozens of issues that I have barely scratched the surface of in this massive game, but this is a snapshot of how I see it.

Does my sentiment mean that yous can't have fun in EVE Online? Of form non. Extracting fun from EVE is like squeezing blood from a stone, only information technology can produce some of the best gameplay experiences out there if y'all get it right. I take forged bonds dissimilar any others through EVE and one of the main reasons I still play today is because I see my corp, Foxholers, as my family unit.

Only still, the question remains on my mind. Volition EVE race triumphantly into the 3rd decade, or will it limp in that location instead?…