The CSM 10 September Summit minutes have been released to the public. TMC has summarized the key points from each day of the meeting, which you can find below.
Day 1
Although there were other topics discussed on Day 1, the bulk of it centered on sov. There was a general sense of approval regarding Aegis sov, but there were a few adjustments the CSM sought to be made. A few CSMs, Sort Dragon in particular, felt that the attacker had too much of an advantage in the new system, based on how quickly an attack is able to reduce the sov indexes of a target system. Sion Kumitomo felt that sov battles in their current form happen too fast. Sion said numerous times that sov warfare should be more epic, with logistics chains, big name FCs, and grand struggles.
Currently, a sufficiently large and organized group could capture much of a region in a few days, which Sion believes is too fast. A few solutions were fielded to improve the sov system, such as each capture node having a shield that would decrease capture time the lower it is. The idea of notifying the defender sooner in the event of a capture attempt was also suggested, the logic being the earlier the defender is notified, the greater chance of there being a fight.
Apart from the recap of sov changes, a few other topics were discussed. In terms of Eve monetization, CCP is looking to add more cosmetic customization you can buy, such as backgrounds for portraits, changing booster trails colors, and the color of your cloak. There was also discussion on community-submitted ship SKINs, such as ones themed on corporations or alliances. CCP is aware of immense demand for these SKINs, but doesn’t seem focused on the subject for the moment. There wasn’t much in the minutes to suggest why this is the case, but it’s likely that CCP is reluctant to have to screen submitted SKINs.
The discussion topics that everyone wants to know about, i.e. future sov changes and capital rebalance, were unsurprisingly redacted from the minutes due to currently being under development.
Day 2
The most interesting part of Day 2 discussions centered around the purpose of the CSM itself. Sion began the session by expressing dissatisfaction on how the CSM is both viewed by the players and how useful it is to CCP. To this end, Sion suggests a reworking of how the CSM provides CCP advice. His plan revolves around the creation of closed forums where CSM members would invite those interested discussing a certain topic (sov, industry, markets, etc). The CSMs would be entirely accountable for moderating the discussion, as well as be held accountable for inviting any troublemakers. CCP seemed to like the idea, with CCP Seagull wishing to do a trial run of the system with the current CSM.
The largest topic in terms of number of words on the minutes was the “little things” session. The CSM created a rather large list of little changes that CCP could make to improve the quality of life for players. I’ll let you look at the list itself for the specifics, but many of the suggestions centered around the fitting of ships, UI changes, bookmarks, and fleet changes.
Day 3
The big topic for the final day of the summit focused on structures, primarily Citadels. The CSM had a number of questions regarding the new structures, such as their fitting and combat capabilities and the ability to manage access to services. Sion pointed out that these structures had to be as good or better than living out of a station in highsec, or else very few people would use them. CCP Nullabor suggested the ability for structures to have low volume market capabilities as an incentive. The process which CCP plans to phase out the use of nullsec outposts was also discussed. First CCP wants to release the structures and incentivize people to move their stuff into ones and live out of them. At this point CCP would then consider removing outpost all together. A similar process would be used to phase out POSes.
A few smaller topics worth mentioning included the quality assurance session. CCP Goliath presented the CSM with the possibility of a public bug reporting space for Eve. Using Daybreak Games’ board as an example, CCP considered making all submitted bug reports publicly accessible, allowing players and devs alike to attempt to reproduce and fix the issue. One wonders if it’s a good idea giving access to reports of exploits to a player base notorious for exploiting flaws in the game’s design, but Goliath believed it would help to increase the transparency of the process.
All in all, this CSM summit seemed productive. Although much of the juicy discussion were veiled behind the NDA, there were still interesting tidbits on the direction Eve’s development.
As mentioned numerous time during the minutes, expect much of the info from the missing discussions to be announced at Eve Vegas, which TMC will be covering.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Lioso.
