MMORPG.com EVE Online guru Andrew Wallace writes this update on the game focusing in on the new Council of Stellar Management, tech three cruisers and more.

Although it's not recent news, the third term of the Council of Stellar Management, or CSM, is now well under way. The Council CSM is a group of EVE Online players that are elected, by the players, to talk directly with CCP and discuss any issues they have with the game, as well as having input on possible solutions.

Formed as part of the response to the T20 incident (where a CCP staff member was found to be providing items and other help to one of the big alliances) in an effort to create a greater degree of transparency between CCP and the players, as well as providing another, more direct, channel of communication (as opposed to the sea of wailing and gnashing of teeth that is the official forums).

Read Wait and See

The cost of building a T3 cruiser has kept me (and I imagine others) away from building them. I mean I can do it, but do I really want to waste that much money on a ship that may be popped shortly after it's maiden voyage? Now that components are not gonna be as scarce anymore, maybe this will change (drastically I hope)  this dilemma. We'll probably being seeing strategic cruisers more often from here on out.

I am playing eve now, but the constant ganking has taken a lot of fun out of it for me and my small corp.

I won't explore because that's just a death sentence - I'm just sitting in the space station learning stuff so maybe I can venture out one day. Right now it's not worth the monthly cost.

Unfortunately, my prediction of a June release for the new patch was a bit off and we're still waiting for the t3 component changes. :(

I can only speak about the T3 Caldari Strategic Cruisers, the Tengu, It's a solid weapons platform (missile boat.) Slightly weaker shields than the Ferox. Quite a sprite ship for it's class, and not a ship for PVP'ing and less you happen to be very rich indeed. As I always say, only lose what you can afford to replace. Right now, with it fitted out correctly. It's going to cost you about four to five billion ISK. 

Why not joining a large established corp for a while? This way you can do missions, complexes and even exploration with a group of more experienced players aiding you. (You could also join a pirate or mercenary corp but those usually ask for experienced players). There are plenty of large corps looking for new members. Sure you may lose your ship from time to time, but most corps will replace your frigate and offer free T1 fitting for free. Besides, with insurance the cost of replacing any T1 ship is negligible.

T2 and T3 can wait, don't hide in a station, get out and have fun while you train your character, don't wait till you have a zillion points, you should be learning by doing, by flying and yes, by dying. In fact, with the right group of people it is often fun to die in small T1 ship fleet encounters. I still have my best times when we do roamings with a bunch of T1 destroyers, jumping to lowsec and 0.0, and trying to be the last one standing.

Trust me, join a big corp, don't be afraid of losing your ship, and get out of there.

I wanna see them release Ambulation.    :)

Me too Teala.

I think the problem with any pvp game is making items like ships in Eve too expensive, is that is bascially makes such items something only seen very rarely and accessible only to those that are highly risk averse.  When you base an entire expansion on such items and basically preclude them from the vast majority of your audience you risk losing them.

We are seeing that in Eve right now with the T3 ships.  I have seen one T3 ship in all the time I have been playing since the release of the expansion.  I sure hope that CCP corrects this problem.

Honestly I've seen this same thing happen in other MMOs. When new shiny toys come out, they're:

A) EXTREMELY rare drops to build

B) EXTREMELY difficult to logistically obtain.

C) EXTREMELY expensive.

D) EXTREMELY rare to see players use them.

The one thing that fixes this: time. Give it time, and you'll start seeing tons of them, and people won't be afraid to bring them out anymore, and will drop the prices too. And in Eve, time usually seems to drag a little slower than other MMOs. Granted, if they increase the drop rates, and improve the portability of building components, this will help a lot. But, please don't over-saturate the market to compensate. T3 should NOT be as common as T2, just as still today, T2 is NOT as common as T1, simply based on risk of loss.

"Greater risks with greater rewards"

A statement from CCP which is practically a lie, either that or the employee's of CCP have become experts of deception.

There is indeed greater risks for wormhole space, but the rewards are pretty much non-existent.  Mission running in High-sec (safe) space remains the most profitable thing your average player can do.

And yes, Pvp is mostly boring blob fests, if you find yourself the victims far too often, then just join a bigger, better corp! Its simple really.

If your in a group thats failing in any MMO, you switch groups... Corps are basically Eve's groups, since you'd never "party" with a PUG.

Hopefully Ambulation will add some much needed variety, but there are already signs that it will be an even bigger disapointment than Apocrypha.  They've already cut out most of the features that you see in their 'ambulation' videos's.  (like seing your ship docked, or even looking out of a window into space)

I agree. I joined a larger Alliance Guild and the whole game changed. Instead of reds on the other side of those gate ganks, it was all greens and blues!  =P

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Me too Teala.

I think the problem with any pvp game is making items like ships in Eve too expensive, is that is bascially makes such items something only seen very rarely and accessible only to those that are highly risk averse.  When you base an entire expansion on such items and basically preclude them from the vast majority of your audience you risk losing them.

We are seeing that in Eve right now with the T3 ships.  I have seen one T3 ship in all the time I have been playing since the release of the expansion.  I sure hope that CCP corrects this problem.

Not sure, but it seems to me that T3 ships are really designed for people who live in wormhole space and fight the PVE battles there.  The really don't want to unleash T3 in standard PVP fights as it would imbalance things considerably.

By making them a huge risk for reward only a few will ever dare fly them.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Me too Teala.

I think the problem with any pvp game is making items like ships in Eve too expensive, is that is bascially makes such items something only seen very rarely and accessible only to those that are highly risk averse.  When you base an entire expansion on such items and basically preclude them from the vast majority of your audience you risk losing them.

We are seeing that in Eve right now with the T3 ships.  I have seen one T3 ship in all the time I have been playing since the release of the expansion.  I sure hope that CCP corrects this problem.

They are intentionally expensive and rare, albeit prices have gone down significantly now. But they are still expensive.

The one thing CCP cannot do is to make T1 and T2 (or named variants) redundant. These things happen in cycles in EVE. There were a time when almost nobody used Orcas to mine at 0.0, now they are common. Or faction ships in PvP because they were too expensive. Now you see them occasionally.

I think when you are a new player you have to make same hard decisions, especially if you want to PvP. Unlike typical MMOs, in EVE, you can PvP with relatively low-cost ships and equipment and still be effective. You just have to plan your skills (ang gang) accordingly. Flying a battleship to a PvP situation is not necessarily improvement over a low-cost frigate in EVE.