So, I have decided that the current 0.0 is not for me. I have dropped roles on my current corporation and am waiting through my stasis time for it to end. I want to explain why I am leaving. It is not that my corporation isn't good. Dissonance Corporation is a great bunch of people. Friendly, loyal, helpful are some ways that I would describe them. They are not the reason I'm leaving. It is the current state of 0.0 space that gets me.
In another life I spent quite a bit of time in 0.0 and quite enjoyed it. It was dangerous. Logistics were difficult. I remember always staring at local, wondering when another fast gang would come through while I was ratting. Things have changed lately, and in my opinion, not for the better.
My first complaint is with jump freighters. Jump freighters are very, very convenient ships to have. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are pretty much a requirement now. However, they reduce the logistics problem down to just jumping stuff from empire up to 0.0 space. As long as you have someone scouting the jump areas there is pretty much no risk in moving a jump freighter into 0.0 space. Some may wonder how people did it in the old days. The simple answer is that people usually either built what they needed in 0.0, or they hauled it up themselves. The corp I was in had a freighter when those were released and we had monthly runs down to empire with the freighter. Granted, this wasn't the most exciting duty, but it had dangers all its own. You needed scouts, you needed protection. You needed people to operate as a team.
The second issue I have with 0.0 space is the jump bridge system. Being able to travel from a ratting system to your station space without having to go through any gates makes this a fairly safe proposition. It is a reduction in risk. 0.0 space is supposed to be risky. It is supposed to be difficult, not trivial. When I ratted in 0.0 space before it was always risky. I was always checking local. This latest time.... I wasn't even paying attention to local half the time. I traveled semi-afk quite a bit of the time. It was safe. I didn't feel threatened. I wasn't excited by the thrill of not knowing if someone was going to blow me up. Again, trivialized.
Finally, there is one mechanic that was changed long ago that I believe should have been done a bit differently. People that have been in game for quite a while will remember that there originally wasn't a warp to zero. It was warp to 15km. This mechanic allowed for ships to be engaged prior to them reaching a gate. It didn't take long for people to figure out that they could fly PAST a gate about 10km, make a bookmark, and then warp to 15km at the bookmark and end up right on the gate. However, this little work around ended up causing massive lag. there were literally thousands upon thousands of bookmarks that each pod pilot carried. People literally did not travel in 0.0 if they didn't have them. Empire people also used them as they were so useful. So, CCP made a descision. There would be no bookmarks near to stations or to gates. This is something that I agreed with as it massively reduced the lag at the time. The other thing they did I disagree with. That would be them making it an option to warp to zero. I must admit, I am with the remove warp to zero crowd. I believe it would make ALL space more dangerous and make Eve a much more cold and heartless world. Granted, this would make some people lose more ships. In fact, I think there would be a massive increase in ship losses.
I also think there would be a fringe benefit to low sec space if this were implemented. Remove warp to zero, and kill the gate guns, I think you would have a very enjoyable low sec experience. The only other thing to do would be to put more things that are low sec only to draw people into them. Make the reward in line with the risk. I'm not quite sure what the reward should be, but it should be something simple, within the game mechanics already. Something that can be implemented without much issue. Perhaps moving ALL Level 4 missions to low sec would do the trick?
I'd like to hear people's opinions on this. Please comment.
