Philosopher, Warrior, Haiku Poet. Disappearing at the end of the last great war, riverini is rumored to be secluded in a containment chamber in deep null-sec space, where he will presumably be kept until the time comes to be unleashed into unsuspecting and complacent enemies. He also writes opinion pieces, here is one.
– I believe static resources like moons should deplete and allow for new riches. This would allow new professions to be born as a result of these new dynamics in our ever changing universe.
The quoted text above was one of my stated CSM campaign platforms, which called for the depletion of resources as a proper conflict driver for large EVE Online alliances. Please bear in mind that to me there is a big different between “Wars” and “Conflicts”. A conflict can span several campaigns, transcend even alliances and are deeply imprinted in EVE Online players’ consciousness whereas wars are the flash-points resulting from these conflicts.
Any bitter-vet can tell how it was in the old days; tales of crude conflicts, alliance-wide alarm-clock ops, power bloc rivalries and no quarters given. Those were, in the eyes of many veterans, the glory days of EVE and back then the conquering system was awful compared to the one currently in place. Not to mention the glorious paranoia, in fact, the fanfest used to be an experience of tense linings to some players – something akin of visiting rival football team’s stadium. None of this exists today, in part a byproduct of the latent camaraderie between opposing null-sec leaders sponsored in great part due to the lack of conflict drivers among them. The truth is they all eat from the same table as proven by the recently signed “null-sec” manifesto.
So, how do we get that back?
To this day, this is the fastest solution to the whole null-sec stagnation issue. A while back The Mittani wrote a piece on Ten Ton Hammer piece titled “Chronotis’ War“. In it, he elaborated how CCP Chronotis, the developer who was in charge of industry and science adjustment, turned the balance of income for large alliance power-blocs. Anything else will take too much time.
In short, by making Technetium one of the most profitable substances in null-sec, thanks to a rebalance in industry mechanics, CCP Chronotis made the North a highly desirable region. The result was the great Northern War, the rise of many of the current power-players in null and its allies and fall of long-standing alliances of the “old EVE”.
All this combined produced several years worth of content. All the result of a few industrial tweaks. Paraphrasing Gordon Gekko; “Greed Consumes Us All” and in the case of null-sec, when the self-preservation instinct kicks in, the results are nothing short of spectacular.
It is funny among all the talk on how much null-sec is death, CCP Chronotis’ long lasting influence on the null-sec scene is often forgotten. For long, I have tried to show the need for this shift in power and resources to be a constant one and this is the core issue I want to point out. As long as resources remain static, nothing will actually change. There is also the issue of renting empires, as long as everyone agrees to avoid shooting or invade the other side, the stagnation will continue. This is something I will comment more in detail on an upcoming article.
Many contended that my CSM platform proposing depletable moons could be complicated to implement and balance. An easier implementation would be to, again, redistribute the value of resources just as CCP Chronotis did a few years ago. The good news is CCP Games now have a few developers with both the brains and balls to do it. So, al boils down on how much CCP Games wishes to keep the power-blocs busy.
It is clear to me that, if CCP Games do another industry materials shake-up as it has done in the past, New Eden might witness some of the prettiest fireworks the galaxy. And surely many old faces will return from inactivity. Currently, CCP Games seems to have an interest in getting old players back, hopefully in the coming phases of their end-game revamp we might see this seed of competent planted within null-sec residents.
So what’s you take in a possible resource relocation?
if you have any EVE hot-topic you would like me to write about, make sure to write me at [email protected]
