Fireside Chat Transcript 19 Oct 2k19

And we just talked to the Kremlin.
So people in general are gonna know what's going on.
If people can't make it to this fireside,
they'll be able to hear it from their corp leadership.
So as usual for firesides,
we do these in Elysium@conference.goonfleet.com.
So I run my mouth, I announce a few things.
And if people want to talk or respond,
you can respond in Elysium@conference.goonfleet.com
rather than trying to talk in the mumble sidebar.
That's not gonna work.
So one of the reasons I wanted to get everybody together
is talk about something that's a little bit,
potentially a little awkward,
which is the challenges that we're seeing
in the fundamentals of the EVE Online economy
and the number of killmails
that are being generated in NullSec.
And basically to acknowledge
that there is still a problem post-blackout,
what our plans are going into Vegas,
where we stand with regard to CCP
and what we would like to see happen
and where we're going with it.
There are also a couple of changes
in terms of how we're handling DELV defense
and private moon ownership.
Or rather rental, I should say.
So we're gonna get to those.
But the big topic is the health of the game itself
and acknowledging that there is an issue
and that we in Kremlin and Illuminati,
that we are aware of it
and just being open and honest about it
rather than trying to act like everything
is hunky-fucking-dory when we can all tell that it's not.
So I don't like talking about bad news
without having a big plan or something to present to you guys
but we are at a point now
from what we've seen post-blackout
that I feel that it will do more damage to our community
if we do not openly address it
and acknowledge that there is a problem.
And I think it's toxic for people to log onto EVE Online
with only half their accounts
and see that something is wrong
and not have that acknowledged from us in charge.
I think that alienates people
if they feel like something is wrong
and it isn't openly acknowledged.
So there we go.
So let's talk about some of the changes
that are gonna happen.
First of all, we are going to be,
we have changed our PVE regulations or whatever
such that people can use their work walls
outside of the umbrella.
You can now go and rat in mine
and use whatever sort of ship fit you want.
We still suggest you use the PVE regulation fitting for it
but outside of the super capital umbrella,
you can go back to mining
and doing whatever you want out there.
Inside of the super capital umbrella,
the regulations apply.
So you need to have the appropriate fits,
you need to be logged onto ESI,
you need to be plugged into things
based upon the way we've been doing stuff
since the blackout kicked in.
But now outside of that umbrella, we're opening things up.
It's simply not realistic to force people
to not use their work walls
if they have rented moons that are like in fountain
or in areas of Delve that aren't covered by the umbrella.
People need to be able to mine their own shit
if they've rented these moons.
So open season, go nuts.
I have a question about the Dark Ochre rule.
The threads, I actually can't answer that immediately.
I'm pretty sure the Dark Ochre rule
only applies to certain areas inside of Delve
in the first place,
but there hasn't been a change to the Dark Ochre rule.
There has been a change to saying,
we are allowing you to use work walls
and do whatever the hell you want outside of the umbrella
and not have to worry about being shot
or going to stop it or whatever.
Now, one of the things about doing stuff
in super capitals or in work walls outside of the umbrella
is we can't promise to defend you.
Like we're gonna have some skirmish commander
training stuff.
There's a big opportunity to try to send fleets
in places with skirmish commanders.
But the nice thing about the PVE regulations
is inside of the umbrella,
we can make a pretty good promise to be able to defend you
as long as you're providing the appropriate fits
on your ship.
Outside that, we can't make any promises.
Sort of a, you know, at your own risk kind of scenario,
but that's where we are.
Couple of different other things relating to this.
We have had kind of a unofficial embargo
of import of exporting moon products
and ore and everything to Jita.
This has never been an explicit rule.
It hasn't been like a formal regulation.
We've just encouraged everybody on firesides to, you know,
hey, try to keep it local and do this.
That was a reaction to the blackout.
However, things have changed.
The blackout isn't there anymore.
And we also don't want goons to go broke.
So if you want to export stuff to Jita, go nuts.
One of the things that we're seeing
is that the fundamentals of the economy of EVE Online
are very weak right now, which is deeply concerning.
What we have seen on a number of,
from a lot of people,
the feedback we've gotten is that people are,
worried that Hillmar is going to go back into chaos mode.
So people have sort of tipped their toes
back into the water of EVE Online.
They've like re-subbed a couple of their accounts
and they haven't re-subbed all their accounts,
which is entirely reasonable.
I'm not saying everybody re-subbed your accounts.
I am saying that we have seen people
are kind of re-engaging with EVE Online,
but they don't trust CCP.
They're not there yet.
So, you know, the volume of Plex
that's being traded on a daily basis
is still like really low in perimeter.
And that's a big sign of a lack of economic health.
So we don't want to be strangling the game using an embargo.
And we also don't want to be strangling
our own personal line members wallets
by having some sort of export embargo.
So export to Tajita freely, if you feel like it.
- And Chaos Atama has a pretty good question here,
which is, "We still don't trust Homer
not to whip out the chaos stick."
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the problem.
I like to come to you guys with solutions.
I like to come to you with a optimistic attitude,
but I also don't like relying to everybody.
I don't think this is a situation
where you have to rely on everybody.
I think it's a situation where you have to rely on yourself.
It's not a situation where anybody needs to panic.
It's just that we can see from the numbers
that the number of kills in Null Set continues to decline
even after the blackout has been removed.
We have seen that the economy is still weak
and acknowledging it openly with you here.
Like we're not saying run around and start a Reddit thread
or yell and scream about it.
I just think it's important for us all to know
that we're not out of the woods yet
as the health of the game is concerned.
It is good that CCP has turned off the blackout.
It is good that we might actually break 30,000 PCU
this weekend.
That's cool.
But the fundamental underlying recovery
are not back to where they were before.
And we just have to be open about it because if, yeah,
I mean, it's obvious if you're looking, you can see it,
you can feel it.
And I don't wanna blow the smoke up everybody's ass.
(silence)
So a couple of different things are gonna change
because of this.
I mean, as I said already, the embargo stuff,
we're gonna stop doing that.
People need to do what's best for their personal wallets.
And also if we end up injecting more goo
into the GITA market, that's great
because maybe that'll help with the game's economy.
We also are going to be,
for those of you that are gonna be at Vegas,
we are going to be collecting suggestions,
which is something, again, it's an autocracy.
We're not gonna be like,
"Hey, people voted for something or other,
so we're gonna do this."
But I think it's now a time for really outside the box
thinking not only in terms of what we suggest to CCP
that they do, some of the things that have been talked about
is just reverting to the Dominion SOF system,
or people have talked about reverting the SOF changes.
People have talked about changing time zone tanking
by reintroducing Strontium into Citadels.
Big fundamental changes to get conflict drivers
back into the game so we can go back to engaging with it
and having the kind of big, dramatic narrative wars
that we all are playing this game for
in some form or another.
But also suggestions about what we could do
as an alliance and as a coalition.
So on Thursday, we'll be compiling that,
and Satus has taken the very brave step of volunteering
to offer up his email as a place to send these suggestions.
I want people thinking about that.
You can physically write them down
and hand them to us on Thursday,
or it'll probably be easier to send them via email.
So Satus, if you can drop that, it's satus@goonstorm.com,
rip his inbox.
Now, the reason why we're doing this is, essentially,
I don't think that launching us off
on a big tribute-style campaign
when the game is in a dodgy state would be a good thing.
Like if we went off with a big full deployment
and we had yet another NullSec war,
and then our enemies just rolled over and pissed themselves
and we had to grind through a whole bunch of structures
with no real combat in an off time zone,
I think in the fragile state of the game,
I think that would be bad for Eve
and bad for our community and our people.
So we are looking for outside of the box things to do.
Periodically, Goonstorm, throughout its history,
has come up with random-ass crazy shit
like Burn Jita or the Ice Interdictions,
or we didn't come up with Hulk again,
and we piggybacked on that.
There are various things that we can do
when they implement ACL sort of bookmarks,
where we have things that we can do in wormholes,
but that, of course, will not entertain
the entire Alliance and Coalition.
You can't shove the entire Imperium into a wormhole.
That's like a SIG and SQUAD-level thing.
There is a conflict happening up north
between FRT attacking Guardians of the Galaxy.
We can get involved with that,
but if we get completely involved in that,
everybody will run for cover
or roll over and piss themselves like we saw in Tribute.
So we're in one of these situations
where we're going to be needing to make moves
as an Alliance and as a Coalition
in the aftermath of Vegas,
after we have more data about what CCP is up to,
after we have more data about what Pearl Abyss is up to,
which is a big unknown unknown,
the one-year anniversary of the acquisition
has happened now,
and we should expect to see Pearl Abyss
be taking a more active hand
in the direction of EVE Online, at least we would think.
We still don't understand the motives
or why they purchased the company.
So there's a lot of blank,
there's a lot of missing puzzle pieces there.
I do think it is an interesting,
it's an interesting commentary upon
where we are with the player base,
that a year ago when Pearl Abyss acquired CCP,
there was a tremendous amount of concern that,
oh my God, the Koreans are going to come in
and they're going to turn this into Black Desert Online,
there's going to be microtransactions everywhere
and oh God, what do?
And now a year later,
the reaction is much more hopeful,
like, hmm, I wonder what Pearl Abyss is going to do
because it'd be better than this chaos crap.
And that really speaks to kind of the scenario
that we find ourselves in today.
So yeah, I mean, it is easy to say,
hey, we're just going to deploy the alliance
and we're going to go somewhere and blow a bunch of shit up.
However, after Tribute, we know that if we try to do that
when the game is in a fragile state,
and if you have eight accounts,
but you've resubbed two after the blackout
and we do a big campaign and it doesn't turn out to be cool,
then that's very risky for us as a community
and for the player base as a whole.
So think suggestions, email them to say this.
We will be talking about this all through Vegas,
and it's starting on Thursday for the big Imperium dinner.
And the general idea is, yeah, like shit's fucked.
We know shit's fucked.
Shit is less fucked than it was during the blackout.
Things are getting better,
but we're not out of the woods yet.
I personally would really like to see CCB present
a roadmap of some kind,
any kind of public statement from CCB saying,
"This is where we are going to try to go,
"that we have a goal and we have a plan."
I think one of the things that is so toxic
about the Chaos era is the open and repeated statements
that CCB has no plan and they're just trying random shit
and fucking things up and teeheehee isn't that great.
It's not great.
People don't like Chaos.
They want a plan.
They want a roadmap.
Give them a fucking plan.
It's not that hard.
I have a question here in the wrong place,
which is in Mumble,
but it is such a dangerous question
that I'm gonna answer it anyway,
which is, "Can't people mine in Rourke Halls
"with their own fit within the umbrella
"on the basis that they can't call for help
"if in trouble?"
No, absolutely not.
One of the reasons why we have regulations
about PVE fits in the modern era is herd immunity.
If you're an anti-vaxxer and don't believe in herd immunity,
then you've got much more problems
and are probably gonna die of a preventable disease.
But one of the reasons why we do have the PVE regulations
is that it defends everybody within the umbrella much better
if every single target is a hard target.
So we are not changing or backing off
any of the rules and regulations
that we have fought so hard to get into place
and get compliance with.
And people, by and large, are perfectly happy with it.
If you have to be a special snowflake
and you want to be so cool that you have your own fit,
you can totally do that outside of the umbrella.
And we'll point a laugh at you
when you die horribly with a dumb fit.
(silence)
There's a lot of questions about,
does Hilmar know what he's done to the game?
I do think it's notable that he was creeped shortly
after the rollback of the blackout,
but we really don't know.
We're engaging in wild speculation here.
(silence)
Okay, so yeah, that's basically where we are.
Again, like I say, kind of an awkward thing.
I don't like coming before you guys and saying,
"Hey, I don't have a perfect,
"I don't even have a immediate solution,
"but I also don't like acting like everything is fine
"when we can all see that things are not fine.
"Things are not nearly as fucked as they were before,
"but we are not out of the woods yet."
And so we have been pulling people together.
We got the Kremlin together.
We've been essentially talking about this all day.
And over the course of the last week or two, really,
it's been a constant, what is CCP doing?
What is Pearl Abyss doing?
Do they have a plan?
Do they realize that the fundamentals
are as bad as they are?
Because we now know from the CSM minutes
that CCP's estimations of what segment
of their player base is involved with NullSec
were completely off 'cause they had bad numbers.
And they thought that all of our,
everybody who had a GDAL basically counted
as a high-sec player.
So many of their decisions were based upon bad data
if they were making data or evidence-based decisions
in the first place.
And who fucking knows, really?
That's kind of the scenario we're in.
However, we, at the very least,
will be advocating for CCP to release a roadmap
when starting on the Meta Show today.
And then certainly when we hit the ground through Vegas.
And hopefully we will find out more details
when we are collectively on the ground in Vegas.
And between now and then,
I want people thinking outside the box.
Like, what are crazy things you'd like to see from CCP?
What are crazy things that you'd like to see
from the interim?
Is there some wacky campaign where we go back
and do an ICE interdiction like we did before?
Where we run around with a bunch of LeShaks and high-sec
doing random ass crazy shit?
Your idea might just get ignored.
Well, it won't be ignored, it will be read.
We will be going through these things
and sifting through them.
I can't promise you that your idea will be good enough
to actually be implemented,
but this is one of those opportunities, I think,
in a time of uncertainty to pull our brain trust together
in order to choose our next steps very carefully.
And speaking of not being foolish with your roll calls,
we're doing a roll call survival training class
from Gooniversity, which is pretty cool.
And that is in two weeks from now.
So just after everybody gets back from Vegas,
there's a signup sheet for that.
Please check that out.
All right, so we are now going to do a roll call.
And I'm going to be talking to a couple of people
who are now going to take questions.
I've announced all of the things to announce.
Many of you I will be seeing on Thursday,
which will be cool.
When are we adding a research copy
and invention on blueprints in the main staging Keapstar?
I don't know, that's a GSOL question,
but I'm glad you asked because maybe GSOL can answer it.
Do we have a locust fleet tomorrow?
I think we were spending too much time talking about CCP
and Vegas in the loom meeting to talk about locust fleets.
Yes, we do have a locust fleet tomorrow.
Thank you, John Hartley.
And thank you for bringing that up, Killer Co.
So yeah, locust fleet tomorrow.
Speaking of being able to get Moongoo and then export it,
again, exports are fine now because the Eve economy
is in a place where we don't want to fuck with it too badly.
Feel free to export your stuff to Jita if you feel the need.
Are any wars coming up anytime soon?
Well, we're not gonna talk about future plans about that.
We are obviously considering a number
of possible arrangements.
Just a few minutes ago on the fireside,
I was talking about how there is the FRT
versus GOTG thing up north.
But our concern is we don't want to launch
into a tribute style campaign where we get people fired up
and then they're disappointed
when they're already like skeptical about Eve Online.
So any sort of thing that we're gonna do
in terms of big deployments or major campaigns
obviously aren't gonna be happening
until after we get back from Vegas.
So you can plan around that.
We're gonna end up with a shitload more information
about things and facts on the ground
once we just get on the ground in Vegas.
You can get so much information
just by reading the body language of the CCP people
and getting a sense from that
as to how they feel about the state of the game
and where things are headed.
And we're just gonna know a shitload more
probably on Thursday than we will right now.
(silence)
Times I'm taking is when I'm not gonna be able
to talk about the game.
I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So I'm gonna be talking about the game
and the fact that it's not gonna be available
on the market for a while.
So the reinforcement timers, you should burn stront.
So we could have kind of like during post-warfare,
you had these methods of taking structures
that were time zone tanked
and dragging them into a time zone of your choice
if you did the kiting thing.
There's a lot of shit that could be changed in the game
to add conflict drivers back,
to mitigate time zone tanking
and to generally allow for more fun warfare and conflict.
And I would like to see ideas in that direction
because I play this game for war and murder.
So yeah.
And yes, Quarrens is a hero
for being responsible for that cheat.
With everybody who also scanned all that information
and added it to that spreadsheet.
Is there gonna be a meta show tonight?
Yes, I am back from Michigan.
I am in my battle station.
So there will be a meta show in about half an hour.
Any opinion on the Ilosek faction war status?
No, I mean, I think it's a sign of where things are
in the game that you're seeing player groups organize
essentially to try to solve or highlight problems
that CCP has failed to address.
I think it's fascinating that you saw,
I believe it was the Amar and the Minimatar
basically set up an embargo in faction warfare
to highlight the problems of faction warfare
and to try to deal with those issues themselves.
And that's kind of the same scenario
that we in NullSec are in.
Ever since the chaos bullshit kicked off
and the creation of the NullFirst Discord,
I think that we have realized as a player base,
not just the Ilosek faction warfare guys,
not just the CSMs, not just the people in NullSec,
that there is a deep lack of understanding
on the part of CCP about how the game is actually played
in terms of ground truth, not just in NullSec,
not just in faction warfare,
and that it is up to us to put our heads together,
come up with solutions, and then
aggressively advocate for those positions as need be.
Even if the embargo there isn't holding,
the fact that the leadership of those factions got together
and discussed doing something like that
is sort of an unprecedented level of organization
for faction warfare in and of themselves.
All right, so.
I think that's basically it, guys.
We will see many of you in a few days in Vegas.
And again, say to us at goonsforum.com
if you have ideas or just spend between now
and then thinking about it.
Work walls and supers and anything outside the umbrella
is unregulated, go nuts.
Don't expect to be saved,
but those regulations have already been changed.
And don't worry about the high-sec embargo
because the game's economy is so fragile
that we are afraid that if we keep embargoing high-sec,
you know, we're having to make lots of decisions
for the good of EVE Online
and the health of the game as a whole,
given the state that CCP has put it in.
So that's where we are.
Thanks for hanging with,
and I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can,
hundreds of you, which will be badass as hell,
in just a few days.
So thanks for coming, and I'm at a show in half an hour.