The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) headed up by Sugar Kyle with CCP Developers CCP Larrikin, CCP Delegate Zero, CCP Fozzie, CCP Nullarbor and finally CCP Mimic held a CSM Town Hall that was set up on an open team-speak with the goal of obtaining feedback and opinions on the Phoebe Jump Changes. Specifically, Jump Fatigue, which has been probably one of the most divisive mechanics introduced in recent years. This Town Hall was anticipated to be a hot one.
With the Aegis release and the new sovereignty system now in place, CCP now has the opportunity to begin looking at some of the recent changes and to see if they are ‘working as intended’. The town hall was to provide an open forum with which players can share their experiences and thoughts on how the current mechanic stands so CCP can take them away to use as part of their planning for the next series of changes. You can listen to the whole town hall on sound-cloud below.
Writer’s note – for those who would prefer to read, the content of the town hall has been summarized below. Please note that this is not a direct transcript of the recording and should not be treated as such. Comments and questions around a similar topic have been grouped together for ease of reading. Comments not directly related to movement around the universe, jump fatigue and its direct consequences have not been included in this summary. Also please note that any interpretation of the summary below should not be construed as evidence of a commitment by CCP to develop or implement any changes in any way.
CCP are currently looking to review jump fatigue at the initial goals of the mechanic have been achieved. These original goals included the reduction of power projection to allow more local content flourish. One of the dominant problems of Null Sec warfare was always the ability for large groups to project their power at whim, which suppressed smaller groups. This is apparent in the increase in activity in low sec capital ship usage since the changes. Currently, if a group wishes to go to war there are now logistical and strategic considerations that were previously not there, making large scale sovereignty warfare a more meaningful task. Additionally, from a technical standpoint the ever increasing size of battles put ever increasing amounts of pressure on the hardware, this resulted in a lot of negative feedback from those involved. While large fights are still possible, the changes have made it so that they are less likely and will form under different circumstances.
CCP is also happy that the reduction in jump ranges have created choke points in logistical supply lines based on geography. These in turn met one of their secondary goals of making geography matter. One question was raised that due to the layout of some regions it was difficult to assault them due to the current jump ranges. CCP’s response to this was that the diversity of regions was important as it creates areas of space which are more desirable than others and ergo promote conflict. If all regions of space were all the same this would probably not be case. Additionally, as capitals can use gates CCP are willing to consider looking at the gate connection to help promote movement into regions for the purpose of conflict if it is required.
Overall CCP are happy with most effects of the Jump changes, but are aware that the mechanic as it stands has room for improvements and tweaks. CCP also commented that based on player feedback Jump Fatigue mechanics have impacted different groups in different ways with lowsec groups providing mostly positive feedback, but at the same time large nomadic groups providing mostly negative feedback. Other groups somewhere between positive and negative depending on their own circumstances.
A question was raised that currently it is too difficult for people to move to find content while at the same time being able to protect home space. CCP’s responded by indicating that this was a false dichotomy, everything players in eve do is down to their own ingenuity on how to overcome such obstacles with the tools they have available.
However, one area CCP is looking into a potential defensive bonus to fatigue for local Sovereignty and infrastructure that provides bonuses to jump fatigue. CCP are however cautious about the implementation of such a mechanic as it may make it over-complicated or could very easily make it overpowered, negating the original goal of reducing power projection.
Currently the main weakness of the mechanic is that it is very difficult and time consuming for players in certain situations and can feel punishing. One particular situation that CCP is aware of is that of the players returning to the game after an absence, as they can find it difficult and frustrating to catch up with their friends who may have moved, this is something they want to address. CCP also said they had been involved in post Phoebe move operations and generally feel that currently it is too time consuming to move large distances. Additionally, CCP is not happy that fatigue may in some instances discourage players from playing.
There were a number of questions about the fatigue mechanic itself – The fatigue cap of 30 days was discussed and CCP confirmed they are reviewing it based on player feedback, CCP don’t have a figure to change the cap to at this time as CCP want to keep their options open before they take a plan to its design phase. There are no plans at this time to implement fatigue reducing modules, implants or skills. It has been suggested to CCP a ‘move mode’ for capitals, but these changes would come with their own balancing issues.
With regards to modifying fatigue and jump ranges of specific ships, CCP state it is currently difficult doing so as it may upset the balance of the ships themselves and while they are open to suggestions, it’s something that has to be approached carefully.
CCP are keen to ensure that the promotion of local conflict is a key goal of Jump Fatigue, CCP want groups of similar sizes to be able to assault each other but they are aware that Jump Fatigue linked with Aegis sovereignty mean that current powerful groups are even harder to attack, but CCP do not wish to influence this as it is part of the dynamics of Eve’s sandbox. All CCP can do in return is reduce the more powerful entities from being able to project their power over much larger areas which, if they were still able to, may stifle the development of new small groups. In the same vein, they are also aware that currently it is difficult to force fights as risk adversity increases. CCP however is open to options to improve and change this, but this is always an ongoing challenge and has been since the game began.
Currently Black Ops ships are a class of ship that CCP wishes to review along with their current jump fatigue ranges or bonuses. CCP also answered a question on if it would be possible for a differentiation to be made between Covert Cynos and regular Cynos which CCP agreed would not be trivial, but is possible to implement.
As far as logistics and industry is concerned CCP is still keen to make sure that Jump Fatigue will make alliances more reliant on local industry to add an additional strategic layer where a reliance on High Security trade hubs is lessened. CCP see jump freighters as a key block on this reliance and they may be looked at again while at the same time reviewing how local resources can help support null sec groups to become more self-sufficient.
A concern was raised that the jump changes have affected players numbers negatively, however CCP stated that there are many things that have had an effect on player numbers but the jump changes were not a large contributor to this in comparison to other areas where there have been much larger effects.
When asked, CCP confirmed that the town hall was part of the future capital changes that were announced at Fanfest earlier this year and any changes to the Jump Fatigue mechanic will form part of these balance changes.
Wormholes became a subject when the question: “Does CCP consider Wormholes a circumvention of the Jump Fatigue mechanic” was asked, to which CCP responded by saying that they are no more a circumvention than gates and are. But wormholes are one of the more interesting ways of moving around the universe that has come about in part due to the jump changes. There are however no plans at this time to change how wormholes work but are open to feedback from the player base.
On the subject of super-capitals, CCP indicated their goal was to make them fun and enjoyable to fly but they have no plans that are ready to be announce at this time.
