Shooting for Score
“Heavy Modulated Energy Beam I misses completely.”
I was getting really tired of seeing this. I had found myself in a kiting Omen doing some belt ratting as a result of shopping decisions made while inebriated. Since the ship was already insured, I thought the best way to get my money back was to fly around lowsec, and wait for an interceptor gang to stumble upon me. Until then, I figured that I may as well recoup a bit by ratting. But the lasers kept missing, which was frustrating.
I opened the fitting window, clicked show info on turret, and looked for tracking numbers. I looked again and foundthis entry instead: “Weapon Accuracy Score: 11.88”
My beloved Radians per Second were nowhere to be found. To say I was frustrated is an understatement. To understand why requires a bit of back story.
I am a director for the Gold Angels corporation in the Sixth Empire alliance. In addition to dealing with applicants, bills, and critiquing the Space Pope’s robe designs, I do a lot of fit and skill development for the smallest famous alliance in Eve. We have several new players who joined recently, and I try to give advice whenever I can. It happens a lot. From indy vets wanting to learn how to PvP, all the way to new players enjoying our Gate to Wealth program of free, fully fitted, Magnates for exploring, hacking and looting. We try to cover all aspects of the game with recommended fits and tactics.
One common question I get is about PvP piloting. Manual piloting allows you to keep your orbit and velocity in the optimal range for your guns, and out of your opponent’s. A huge factor in this is your gun tracking. If your Tracking Speed (TS) is higher than your target’s Angular Velocity (AnV), your guns hit for damage. That is calculated off of distance, signature radius, signature resolution, and a randomization factor CCP throws in for good measure. This is how I explained it until the Citadel release. Since then, these properties have been rolled into the Weapon Accuracy Score, and the raw numbers are hidden.
Now I have no way to tell my new pilots why their shots are missing.
I’m going to let that sink in.
Got it? Good.
CCP has done such a phenomenal job with improving the new player experience that it’s no stretch to say that it’s a different world from when I started 3 years ago. The opportunity system was a great change, as was the introduction of the Venture, to say nothing of the frigate tiericide making cheap ships far more effective. But this change prevents people from learning what tracking is, and how it functions. That leads to more frustration, and the data has shown that this is one of the things that drives new players off. From my end, as a teacher, I have started referring people to missile boats. Their application is far simpler, now that I can’t explain the “if TS > AnV, fire” formula. And while you can break down the numbers to get turret tracking, this adds an extra step, which needlessly complicates an already complex situation.
Fire for Effect
So there are the problems. What is the solution, though? I see several.
First: revoke the change. Okay, it was hard for new players to grasp sometimes. I get that, but Eve, by its nature, is complex, and this makes it more so.
Second: keep the score system, but put in the tracking figures as an aid to combat pilots like me, and the new players who want to PvP.
Third: add an active analysis system to correlate these figures to combat. This would actually be quite nice to have. You would have a weapon score displayed, the system would analyze sig radius and angular velocity of your target, then give you a readout of hit chance. It would require more developer time though, so implementation could be slow, thus leading to further frustration until rollout.
Fourth: leave it be. Let the new players get frustrated at not hitting things, and not knowing why. They will either leave, struggle through, or just fly missile boats.
Final Shots
I hope this puts things into perspective for some folks. I try to help new players, and I see this as a bad thing for them. We work hard to train and retain, and this change turns something simple into a guessing game. I see that as bad for New Eden as a whole. I hope this article can start a debate on the subject, but most of all, I want to see CCP comment on this change. Their silence has been deafening, and I believe much good would come out of some transparency before the internet gets up in arms over it. But I will be staying on top of this, and add updates as more info comes to light on our newest frustration.
May WASgate pass swiftly.
