After the latest patch notes released by CCP, many major changes have been revealed, and the Eve community, as always, has plenty to say about it. With so many changes being implemented, we here at TMC decided to take a bit of a closer look at some of the more significant changes. One of them is the Watch List now being changed back to the Buddy List.
The Watch List in its current form was applied in the Tyrannis update back in May of 2010, and was part of a revamp of the Contact system, which replaced what was called the Buddy List. The new system allowed players to add each other as contacts with negative or positive standings, as well as to add other players on to a Watch List, which would have the EVE client notify of whether the added player was online or offline. The system has remained unchanged since then, so it may not come as a huge surprise that it is finally getting some attention.
The New And Improved (?) Buddy List
The Watch List is taking the name of the feature it once replaced, now referred to as the Buddy List. This is serving two purposes, as it makes for less confusion between the Watch List and the Fleet Watch List, and is a more accurate description of its usage after the patch. The Contact system itself will remain mostly unchanged, but the ability to see whether or not another player is offline or online will be dependent on both players being on each other’s Buddy List.
This means that if you were to add somebody onto your Buddy List, but they didn’t add you, you would see that player as being offline regardless of their actual status. For some players, this change will likely have little effect. If they use the watch list simply as a way of tracking the status of their pals, then the new system will probably be a smooth transition. There are other players, however, who rely heavily on the watch list as an intel tool, as well as in PvP mechanics.
Massive Nerf, Or Minor Speedbump?
Seeing as a large part of my interest in Eve Online is in highsec ganking, I thought I’d first check in with the highsec miner/freighter bumping community and see what their take was on the subject. In terms of highsec PvP, the watch list had a few uses, a major one being a mechanic that made it so that bumped ships wouldn’t necessarily disappear immediately upon logging off if they were watch listed. After a quick chat in the Minerbumping channel, however, they seemed mostly unconcerned with the watch list change, and more so concerned with gearing up for the Hull/Damage Control change. Though they may have to shift their tactics ever so slightly, things will mostly be business as usual for the high sec ganking crowd (much to the chagrin of many a freighter pilot).
Even the nullsec capital ship hunters seem to be less devastated and more mildly annoyed by the watch list change. Capital hunters would typically use the watch list as a way of knowing who to hunt for without wasting time looking for characters that are offline. Once a cap ship hunter had found targets to hunt for, they could use the watchlist to determine which ones to check out at the locator agents, and then send scouts to find out if the target was indeed flying a capital ship.
The watchlist changes will mean that cap ship hunters have to basically use locator agents on, and scout out any targets that are potentially viable without knowing whether they are online or offline. This could perhaps be a daunting task for the solo player or small squad, but larger corps and alliances shouldn’t have any issues adapting to the new system, and may even find that this change potentially opens up a lot of opportunity for new players to get their feet wet gathering intel.
The biggest hit, it would seem, will be to the wormhole players. Since WH space doesn’t have a Local list, players in those systems rely heavily on the watchlist to know when potential enemies may be coming their way. The watchlist changes, along with pilots being able to dock up in the Citadels coming soon thereafter will potentially stir things up quite a bit in WH space, with intel becoming very scarce. The reaction from the WH pilots was a mixed one, with some considering it to be almost game breaking for WH space, and yet others who are excited to bring a bit more of a sense of risk and unpredictability into the game.
The general consensus through the Eve community seems to be that the watchlist made things easy, and needed to be changed. Though changing the watchlist’s function will make many tasks in the game significantly more difficult, it doesn’t really render any of them impossible. It could be argued, in fact, that these watchlist changes open up a new avenue for espionage where other avenues may have closed.
One could theoretically plant spies in enemy corporations with the goal being to acquire buddy list contacts, rather than outright awoxing. Is this a bad change for CCP to have made? It depends a lot on who you ask. But if the question is whether or not CCP has broken the game with the watchlist changes, the community seems to have for the most part answered that question by accepting this new challenge with open arms.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Macky Avelli.
