CSM9: 2 Weeks Down

2 weeks of CSM9 have come and gone, and things are off to quite a start. NDAs are in, meetings are happening, and your Comrades of Stellar Management are getting right down to work.

Having 2 lowsec reps on the council has worked out excellent so far, and we've had some lively discussions with our nullsec counterparts. Of course I can't get into specifics, but suffice to say that the mechanics are different enough between the two areas of space that someone from one doesn't always fully appreciate how something will affect the other. 2 weeks in and having lowsec representation has already made a difference, and Sugar Kyle and I have made a good team so far representing lowsec interests.

Now on to some specifics for Kronos. To my knowledge, both Sugar, and Mynnna have posted up their own parts of this stuff as well:

New Mining Frigate:
The prospect is going to be a Tech 2 version of the Venture. It'll be able to carry a cov ops cloak, can be Blops bridged, and will have twice the ore hold of the venture, but no built in stabs. It looks like it will end up being the quintessential ninja miner. It'll be extremely easy to move these things around lowsec, and with blops bridging, it may even be a viable option for ninja mining in nullsec. The yield and capacity aren't close to what you can get with a barge, but you get what you pay for. With CCP expanding on mining ships lately, I can't wait to see what might be next.

CSM8 likely had the lion's share of the feedback on this ship. My own involvement has been nil.

New Mordus Legion ships:
Overall this is looking to be a huge boost for lowsec. the lions share of BPCs for these ships should be dropping from special NPCs in lowsec belts. Lowsec belts have been virtually dead lately, especially in FW space where people looking for pew pew generally hit the FW complexes instead of trawling belts. Now folks will likely be doing both, especially early on. I expect this will lead to more content and more fights.

Overall, I'm really happy with the stats on the cruiser and battleship. Like many others, I have expressed concern over the 28k lock range of the frigate, as I think it severely limits it's use as a light missile platform. CCP's public response to this is that they feel that the additional lock range would make the ship too "oppressive". We'll have to see how testing and real world application works with these ships. If the lock range ends up being a broken leg, we can renew calls for it to be extended and see if CCP can be won over on this. Tweaking a number like the lock range on a ship is fairly easy to do, so this isn't much of a concern just yet if it ends up being to short.

Wormhole K-K Connections:
A much increased chance to fine wormholes in lowsec linked to other lowsec systems as well as null is disliked by almost no one. Given the random nature of it, I don't see everyone in lowsec running out to buy probing alts, but this could prove for a fun distraction now and then to crash a party in some random section of space far from your own. It won't draw the crowds that the Mordus ships will, but some people will use it, and I can see no real downside. Ship it.

In Space Popups:
There's been a lot of mixed reaction on this. The change hit just as CSM9 was taking office. Unlike previous UI changes, like radial menus that don't have to be used, this change affected anyone who actually flies in space. I personally find it about as annoying as when CCP moved the damn undock button, but I've gotten used to it's new home now.

I don't really see how it's "better" than what we had before... maybe a little more boxed in with opaque backgrounds? Kind of reminds me of how my wife likes to move furniture around sometimes to freshen the place up, and then I'm getting a glass of water at 2am and smack my toe on something that wasn't where it was the day before. Annoying, but if it helps the noobs, maybe I'll get used to it. At least I can find the undock button again.

MMJD:
Oh boy, this one set off a bit of a firestorm. I like them for the DSTs. I don't mind them for CBCs, and backed up Sugar Kyle on her 75 km suggestion because I think a shorter jump range would be more useful for them and give more viability to medium rail, beam, and artillery platforms. 100k pretty much puts you right outside the optimal of every medium gun, and asking people in small ships to bullrish a line of medium long range weapons is not going to end well, and that makes a 100k jump little more than an escape mechanism. This may be one of those cases where lowsec does not see eye to eye with nullsec.

For sniping ABCs... ugh. that's all I have to say on that. Not a fan.

FW Changes:
I've gone into these at some detail already. The only thing I will add to this is that these were the first thing I jumped on once I got my NDA sorted, and Fozzie was extremely quick to sit down and talk about what these changes were, as well as the intents and expected results. That discussion is not something I can get too specific on, but I can say that I am satisfied at this point that the changes have merit, and I'm looking forward to see how they work in practice. If they don't work as intended or there are unintended consequences, we can re-open discussions on how to fix.

Deep Space Transports and Blockade Runners:
I'm very happy with Blockade Runner changes. The ship class didn't need much help and didn't get much. A couple of nice tweaks between potential cargo and the 2nd high slot.

DSTs I'm mixed on. I still don't see much use for them in lowsec, but their implication in highsec are definitely improves and people should now have a solid reason to fly them over T1 haluers. With their horrid align times, running into any sort of organized fleet will still mean certain death for them, and there are enough roaming fleets especially in FW low that it's not a question of if, but when you will run into one and lose your ship.

Freighters and Jump Freighters:
This is a hot topic this week and I originally had a lot to say about this, but given renewed discussions, it's best I hold off on talking about these for a few days.

Industry Changes:
I'm quite pleased to see CCP take an extra 6 weeks to test and release the new industrial changes. there is some writing on the wall here, and I can see why it's important for them to get this stuff right on the first try.

If you look at the way the flow of goods works for much of lowsec, and I would assume a good chunk of null, it looks something like this:

Materials gained primarily in highsec ----> Goods produced in highsec ----> Shipped to highsec major market hub ----> Purchased and shipped to low/null for either resale or personal use

That's a very simplified flow of course, but looking in those general terms, we seem to be headed in the direction to promote buying and producing locally, rather than importing almost everything we use. With more valuable ore deposits in lowsec, and better refinery yields (slightly in low, and more pronounced in null) along with an anticipated spike in jump fuel consumption and costs, it would seem that importing goods from highsec may become slightly discouraged.

If you think about this in real world terms, why would someone buy an import at a store when a comparable locally produced good is also available for purchase? Most of the time, it would be because that import is cheaper, mass produced  by people and machines working for next to nothing. Now, in the real world, quality may come into play, with local stuff being fresher, or better quality than mass produced crap, but in Eve one Warp Core Stabilizer is just as good as another.

What you do have though, is that if the imported good becomes less attractive to buy because it is more expensive, especially after having to ship it in, then you would likely just buy local goods. More people in your local area, seeing the chance to actually turn a profit and be able to compete with cheap imports, may also open up shop, increasing your local selection.

So in Eve, if the cost of shipping goods is increased, and the means to produce things locally in harder to reach areas like low and nullsec are made more viable and able to compete with the far less risky industrial capacity of highsec, we might see more industry in places like lowsec where it is riskier. Money that would otherwise be lost on refining, building and shipping from highsec could be rolled directly into profit, or even used to slightly undercut imported goods if competition became a little stiff.

Anyway, I think this is part of what CCP is trying to accomplish if you read the blogs and proposed changes, and start to put them together to form the bigger picture. With that in mind, it's pretty obvious that this needs to be done right the first time.