Update and how I learned to love the Grey

Hi there (and you Corv coz I know you’re reading)

 

I’ve done a couple of things in the last 24 hours and it’s been something of a topsy turvy time of it (ugh alliteration). The alt in the new corp did a hail in corp chat to find out state of play. Was accepted without any interview btw, which I found a little unsettling after the general paranoia of EvE, but there you go. Anyways, apparently they don’t have voice comms sorted yet. Hmmmm. Try again later. Did note someone in there who I used to fly with a loooong time ago, so we shall see.

 

Also met with some disappontment regarding the Arek’Jaalan initiative that Mike Azaria has mentioned. On two separate occasions I spent some time in one of their chats and on getting no response at all from a hail…. twice… I’ve decided to give that away. I don’t have the time to fart arse around, and if you guys can’t be bothered even saying hello…. So, it’s not looking good. We’ll see if the incursion peeps have their crapola together, though I have to say they’re most likely the ones I’ll spend time with.

 

So, I’m home it’s 6 am and writing a blog. All I will say is that small children are involved. Sleep? Who needs sleep? Haven’t browsed the blogs for a day or so and was doing some catch up when I came across THIS ———> !

 

I don’t swear that often but, HOLY CRAP!! This is utterly BRILLIANT!!!! I know it’s a roadmap. I know you have disclaimers out the wazoo, but this is made from pure awesome, plated in solid platinum, launched through the heart of a star and burnished to a fine glow using the rings of Saturn! The whole thing is win tbh, even if you ignore all the rest of it, the exploration stuff has me bouncing off the walls:

 

• Mystery
  • Exploration needs to give a strong sense of mystery, exploring unknown areas and so on, without completely negating its other key role as a steady source of income for many players.
  • For further discussion. “Deep space” exploration (ie, more than 10AU from celestials) should be geared towards mystery, problem-solving and the unknown, while “near space” exploration (less than 5AU from celestials) focuses more on delivering reliable content.
• Not just combat
  • There should be the option to be engaged in exploration in smaller, more agile (or even non-combat) ships and achieve something. You should not need a battleship or similar on hand to get something out of exploration.
• Nomadic option
  • Exploration should cater towards (among others) those wishing to live in nullsec on a more nomadic basis. Players should be able to feel like they’re getting value out of exploration without committing to a fixed base of operation.
• Chance-based income
  • Particularly for more mystery-oriented exploration, but to a lesser extent for the other sort as well, income should be more hit-and-miss – large periods of relatively low income can be balanced out with the occasional jackpot. This provides more possible variations in gameplay motivation without ruining exploration’s financial competitiveness, and works thematically and in terms of the sort of players we want to attract with “exploration.”
• Dynamic and challenging
  • Even more so than other PvE, exploration content should provide a new experience every time, and should offer up all kinds of challenge (thinking as well as shooting). “Exploration” is meant to evoke ideas of freshness, unexpected events and the danger of the unknown.

 

Wow. And all of the various sections linked to a comment thread so we can submit stuff. I wantz! I wantz it NAO!!!

 

 

FS

 

H