CSM9 Report: Week Eight
Xander Phoena
CSM Townhall
The first CSM9 Townhall is now in the bag and very successful it was too. Thanks to Lanctharus from Cap Stable for hosting and everyone who took the time to ask a question. As with every other Townhall I have ever listened into previously, the quality of questions ranged from excellent and well researched to, well, let’s just say ‘not so much’. But it was entertaining and interesting and hopefully gives you guys some idea of what CSM9 is all about. You can listen to the whole thing back here.Multiboxing
This one is doing the rounds again. I have chased CCP Leeloo about organising a meeting with the relevant people but between the recent CCP restructuring, Crius and holidays, we’ve not got round to it yet. My own personal thoughts on this one are simple. Isboxer and it’s variants are a symptom of the problem rather than the cause. There are certain mechanics in game that cause people to use Isboxer because otherwise it would just be too damned tedious. However – and this is a big one – there are individuals out there piloting 20, 30 man bomber gangs solo with deadly precision. These people aren’t multiboxing because of a faulty mechanic as such (unless you want to argue that bombers are grossly OP in the current meta which makes them a faulty mechanic which they probably are) but because it is the ‘perfect’ way to run a small bomber gang. So yes, the mechanics need fixed, but none of us are so naïve as to believe that’s an overnight job. I would ‘like’ to see the likes of Isboxer banned. Of course, I’m well aware that ‘banning Isboxer’ isn’t quite as easy as that for CCP. It’s a pretty messy one. What I would like to find out from CCP definitively is what is and what isn’t allowed under the EULA. My understanding is that at the moment Isboxer itself is fine. What ‘may’ not be ok is using a piece of software such as Isboxer to allow one mouse click to activate 30 modules on 30 ships over 30 clients (yeah, I know – why would you use Isboxer otherwise). I’m not going to let this one go. Soon as I can organise a meeting with the correct people in CCP to make things more black and white, I’ll report back.
Destructible Stations
This one has also been the cause of some debate in CSM9 of late. CCP went on record at Fanfest as saying they want to make as much of New Eden as possible to be destructible. The question is, would destructible stations in sov null be a good thing? Within the current mechanics, I think destructible stations would make sov null considerably worse than it already is and I don’t make that statement lightly. There would likely be an exciting few months where PL and CFC fight everyone to raze everything to the ground. Once that’s complete, we’re done – nullsec is locked down from that point. That’s how I see things playing out if we don’t see substantial changes to sov mechanics before destructible stations become a reality. (Mynnna has a great anecdote about his solution for this. I hope he shares it in his weekly update). I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one – I fully accept I could be dead wrong but if you think so, tell me why.CPM1 Elections
Some of you are going to be Dust players so I just wanted to give a shout out for the upcoming first set of CPM elections coming to a town near you in less than a month. Get all your details here. One last wee PSA – you can track all CSM9 activity either at csm9.org or at the site Noisy set up here. If you want to read our blogs or find out how best to contact us, either of those sites should work for you. We did have one meeting this week and I can tell you precisely nothing about it, sorry. You’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, Glastonbury, Wimbledon AND the World Cup are all on today so I’m off back to that.About the author
Xander Phoena
The good looking, funny, intelligent member of the team, Xander set up Crossing Zebras with Jeg in April 2012 mainly because he was talking too much about Eve on his other podcast. Playing the game for almost five years, Xander still has absolutely zero clue about how to actually play Eve but somehow still manages to talk a good game.
