Kalsius Dakalsai wrote:I totally agree with this part!
I would also like to clarify our slightly differing view on self sufficiency. Right now, you are not self sufficient, to the extent that buying mins and establishing trade contracts is better for you. This is what I want more of in the game. My definition of self sufficiency is, not relying upon any external parties for production or resource gathering. I differentiate complete self sufficiency from production self sufficiency and resource self sufficiency.
However, what you are saying is that in order to maintain your self sufficiency you are willing to spend time doing a less profitable activity, that requires more logistics and means spending less time doing your primary activity (PvP). This seems like madness to me.
If you hold a beta island, and can buy/sell more profitable items to trade for less profitable items, why would you move 20+ people for titan day? Surely doing "Epri 2hours", and then paying someone else to do "titan day" for you, means you get to do more of your primary activity?
P.S. I prefer communist type models and we operate one currently, this however does not mean we do not trade with the capitalist dogs to maintain a level of production self sufficiency
You misread me Kalsius. Our contracts & ore purchasing will end pretty much as soon as we wrap up the last few tidbits we need; at that point the only thing to do in-game will be mine, produce, and PVP.
It is a question of content; and the ultimate reason why corps like ours are thriving where corps like M2S are dying/hibernating-waiting-new-content. Currently there is what, 200-300 people actively playing the game? You can't only do PVP with those sort of numbers... The sheep have been all but eradicated, already the wolves are tearing each other apart for more PVP.
There is no "less profitable activity" in my mind... People spending 5 hours of their life to participate in a titan mining op, or in an epriton mining op; that holds equal value and should be celebrated as an achievement in the corporation, those people deserve every pat on the back they get for a job well done. That is our content... creating team-goals and moving to achieve them together. Yesterday it was the tech-tree, tomorrow it will be something else.
Look whats happened already with the mentality of "lets make mining more involving", by nerfing things and spreading out the fields. On paper in ideal conditions for the theorycrafters feeding the Devs via MSN/Skype whatever, it makes sense. Give people an incentive to spread out. In reality it works differently with the human factor; nobody spreads out. They just stop playing. Like in that topic, why should someone go out in a 40 mil mining fit to a remote location to mine? The only thing they will see is blips on the radar, followed by some sounds and then they'll be in the station looking at the screen wondering what just happened. Where is the profit for a 40-mil riveler mining something far away from the outpost? What happened to risk-vs-reward?
If you want people to spread out, then you stagger the refresh rate and yield rates so they gradually increase the further away you get from an outpost. So near the outpost you have enough to keep 1-2 miners busy for a bit, 1k from the outpost you have 25% more, 2k you have 25% more, etc etc.
The game is being balanced around ideal theoretical conditions, the theorycrafting supplied by the few Closed Beta people who got in tight with the Devs. It has not worked so far, it is not working now, and Im fairly sure it wont work in the future because doing the same approach 3 times and being proved wrong by the statistics doesn't mean it is going to work for the 4th time.
The market will not magically ressurect UNTIL the server average technology level advances to the point where the mentality "Im not selling my tech to supply my enemy... let them wallow in T2-T3, I'll have advantage with T4" is irrelevant. Then there will be a reason to sell high-tier mods, in order to buy low-tier ore.
Until that happens, all you will see is self-important non-factors prancing about deliberating how the game should be balanced in ideal conditions to ressurect the market, spread people out, balance PVP in ideal conditions etc. None of that will happen, simply because of the human factor that is consistently NOT being taken into equation.