Monday 22 February 2016

Watching Me, Watching You

Over the weekend a photograph of a slide at EVE_NT has left blog friend Bex with a very sour taste in his mouth. Normally I'd fan the flames and enjoy his tears but after pondering the image and thinking about the repercussions I can't help but agree with Bex.
 
 
This change is terrible. Not just for wormhole players but all players.
 

What List

 
The watchlist is an in-game feature whereby you can add a character to the watchlist and when they come online or go offline you will receive a notification. It does not tell you where they are only that they are online or offline. It is primarily used as a basic intelligence tool providing details for those in wormholes and pirating for finding out if targets are online who can then be found (if in known space) via Locator Agents.
 
It is a useful feature.
 
I currently use it for getting an indicator on whether or not bumpers and/or gankers are active when I'm moving cargo. If I see characters online then my scout, who has them watchlisted and added as contacts, will be able to see them quickly and I can either dock up or I can proceed with my journey. It works and I've avoided a few ganks I'm sure thanks to this.
 
I used to use it to monitor cyno droppers and reds in Providence when I lived there and I know a few people who use the watchlist solely to monitor known supercapital and titan pilots.
 

Friends Watching Friends

 
The watchlist will now only show whether someone is online if both you and they have watch listed each other. No longer can I watchlist a ganker and know when he's online and take defensive measures now I have to hope I've registered on his radar enough that he adds me.
 
But what if he adds me on an unknown alt not his main, well nothing. The watchlist won't work.
 

Rest In Peace

 
Congratulations CCP you've taken a working, albeit broken feature, and changed it enough that it will now will not work at all and will never be used by more than a small percentage of players.
 
RIP Watchlist.
20xx to 2016
 
Not sure when it was introduced but you get the idea.

1 comment:

  1. Both sides have strong arguments, but as you say, it does provide very powerful intelligence, up to crazy level. There should be some middle ground, like limit the number of contacts or something (similar solution to drone assist, where they kill abusive large fleet behavior, but left mechanics for the little guys). Also buff the locator agents.

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