Day 220: Nipping Down the Local for a Pint

http://freebooted.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/blog-banter-44-is-there-anybody-out.html

"The local chat channel provides EVE players with an instant source of intel of who is in the system. With a quick glance you can tell who is in system and what your standings are to them. War targets, hated enemies, friends and corp mates all stand out clearly. Is this right? Should we have access to this intel for free with no work or effort? Should the Local chat channel even exist? Should normal space be more like wormhole space where the Local channel appears empty until someone speaks?"

At this rate I'm going to be answering more BB's than anything else. I must get back to posting more. Until that point, and unless I decide to write up my epic drunken idea for TrekGateWars (all the Star sci-fi rolled into one) then I'll try a short weigh in on the current Blog Banter Topic.

http://interstellarprivateer.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/unbreaking-local/
http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.ca/2013/01/getting-rid-of-local.html
http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/more-local.html

When I read these posts I was blown away. In particular I was fascinated by the ideas of Rhavas. Here was a scheme that would transform EVE combat. It would transform it into the ultimate in starship submarine combat. By the time I'd finished digesting it I was practically wearing a sweat soaked Navy uniform and looking tensely at the ceiling as if expecting depth charges. All that was missing was the ability to jettison something from the cargo bay to fake debris before warping off.

Then I thought about it. I thought about when I first went to low sec. I thought about how I could see who is in system instantly. I thought about how I could run for cover when local spiked. I thought how I could judge a system, how I could begin to learn to judge the situation. That was the most important aspect. I had a handle to start to judge the situation in the absence of experience. It made me confident enough to keep trying, to keep going back. Everything else was up in the air. No combat skills, no real knowledge of the attitude of anyone else in low sec (that was provided at the point of a gun later on).

So, what if others like me are coming through? I'm not saying the removal of Local as an intel source is definitely going to make things harder for them. Everything I've read, which sounds cool, sounds more difficult, more complex. The last thing low sec needs is more difficulty. The last thing low sec denizens need is noobs avoiding low sec because it got more difficult. It's all about the New Player Experience these days. Add more skills to that, learned in reality or virtually and gaining that required experience becomes more difficult. Whatever the solution, if anything needs to be done at all, then, well, make sure it doesn't restrict the noobs and doesn't restrict the flow of noobs to those higher up the food chain. This is for everyone and in six months I'm going to need a low sec full of fat cats I can prey on. Don't add something new to learn then I have to keep running to keep up. The Noob Tax was bad enough. Don't add barriers. Keep the Local, local. Keep it full of faces you can recognise before they appear on grid and atomise you three seconds later. Local is fun. Local is a thing. The local is where you go for a pint. It's bad for you but enjoyable. It's almost as bad as that tenuous metaphor.

What about Null? I've hardly been to Null. The cloaky problem? Rhavas already gave you my aforementioned depth charges. I've hardly been there. You sort it out. I'm just a Noob.

Woah. Too serious for me, so here is episode one of TrekGateWars

Jack O'Neill and Han Solo take Kirk aside and attempt to explain the Red Shirt thing. Unfortunately they do this by parading random Red Shirts down the corridor who Solo then shoots. Kirk doesn't get it initially, Jack shouts "crap" everytime a red shirt gets blown away. Kirk is confused and thinks the Red Shirts are all the same guy. Eventually Kirk just says "but doesn't everyone think they are the same guy?", and at that point Teal'q sticks his head round the corner of the door and says "Indeed".

Fly Random.

EVE Track Of The Day

White Shadows - Coldplay