Devilish

Just once I would like to see NQ add something fun to the game instead of taking things away.

Maybe never.

I got the free week of Omega the other day. Aside from the HAC changes and the new UI, not much has changed; but I'm still glad I didn't give all of my stuff away because I might have to go back after all. Even though I've paid for a year on 3 characters, it's a constant struggle. I'm not sure I want to keep wasting time on a game where I can barely keep my operations afloat - never mind actually progress - without a agreeing to massive time commitment and/or joining one of the largest orgs. I just don't understand the logic behind the direction NQ seems to be taking this game. I keep hearing that they want to slow progress to the end game; but this is a sandbox MMO. The only end game is what players make of it. All these changes have done is empower large, organized groups at the expense of everyone else. It was already going to be nearly impossible to challenge the larger orgs, but now it's going to be all but impossible. They're sitting on so many resources that no one else has any chance of accessing that they'll never be dislodged from their place at the top of the pile. The game isn't even 2 months old and there's already almost no room for growth for a new player. It's infuriating, it didn't have to be this way and it's all due to poor decisions on the part of NQ. There are so many relatively easy changes NQ could make to improve quality of life, but they only seem interested in going the opposite direction. CCP took decades to lose touch with what players wanted; and they're starting to come around on that. NQ took months and they're only getting worse.

Amen. NQ needs to do something about the fact that all of the ways to make money in this game are boring, tedious and time consuming; and usually don't even bring in that much money.

Calibrating a tile over and over again was pretty cheesy, but for NQ to say it was working as intended only to disable the option without even a heads up is craptle. People made decisions based on the status quo that you set up and now anyone with a 1L tile that was only worth cheesing is going to feel cheated. It's been said before, but NQ desperately needs to start communicating with the player base. I know you have a community manager, but where is this person and what do they actually do?

You can't even make weapons without Tier 3 ore, you know.

NQ is again demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of player psychology. You can't force people into PVP zones when they don't have the tools to make a proper evaluation of the risks and rewards. People will always try to minimize their risk and maximize the reward, but PVP is such a black box for most players that few are willing to risk what is probably the only mining ship they have against a threat they don't understand for a potential reward they cannot estimate. Why would someone go out solo in a ship that is probably completely helpless against pirates, spend up to an hour hunting down an asteroid only to find that the aforementioned pirates have been waiting there to pick them off the moment they get within range? What are the odds of that happening? I don't know! That's the whole point! I don't have enough information to calculate the risks or the rewards and the cost of a miscalculation is my whole ship being destroyed in an instant. A basic asteroid in the safe zone might not make you rich, but it won't cost you your new ship unless you're a bad pilot. I'm aware that there are tricks players use (which I will not describe here) to find asteroids without quite as much risk. However, pirates will eventually adapt to that and once they do, the only rational choice players will be able to make is to join an org with mining ops well protected enough to run off or destroy any pirates that come by. Before long, large orgs will have it so that they're in a PVP zone but are at no risk of actual PVP (losses anyway) while small orgs and solo players are largely stuck sucking overcrowded rocks in horrific lag for what will soon become a chump change reward until they finally get sick of it and either join a larger org or quit entirely. And don't get me wrong: large, organized orgs were always going to get access to the best content anyway, but joining up with them shouldn't be the ONLY way to do it; not in a game that's advertised as allowing people to play however they want.