You have hit the nail on the head. I have not had much use for LP unless I want faction ammo or implants, and see the bling ships as a big target to shoot at that looks good on a killboard. For instance, Megathron vs Vindicator, I would pick the Vindi as my target rather than the Megathron. There is way too much value put on the faction items without having a way to sell them are we going to actually want to buy them?

Fox, Jackal, I like both of your ideas, but wonder, are mercenaries going to want to spend the SP training manufacturing skills? I have seen numerous posts on ideas from mining to PI to manufacture but can't help but think that New Eden is already reliant on capsuleers for minerals, PI products and research as well as manufacturing.

With such a strong base towards all these things, doesn't it make sense to give Eve players a reason to care about what goes on in the Dust areas? I see little interaction with the Dust players in so far as to not feel rewarded in one bit for successfully dropping an orbital, and while it helps Dust players to have the backup in space there is no payoff for Eve players to do this.

A kill mail doesn't pay for a ship that drops the orbital and it is silly to think that having an Eve fleet of Battleships, Battlecruiser, Cruisers, destroyers and Frigates even at low tech levels and often at higher tech levels, could pay for itself. Where is the benefit to losing a 300mil isk ship, even just one, to make sure the fleet can get the orbital off. Where is the benefit to losing even a 10 mil isk ship to get the orbital off? There is none other than to Dust players.

This interaction of being able to destroy equipment and gear and then sell it to the same person is what makes New Eden great. Only allowing mercenaries to manufacture the equipment used detracts from the interaction that many of us long for and hope for. One of a symbiotic nature rather than just being ants on the ground to be crushed, the lifeblood of a new economy, one that strengthens both parties and binds them together.

In conclusion, I respectfully submit that you both are being shortsighted in your desires to contain the market to the Dust community, there is a bigger universe out there with opportunities to bring new Eve pilots into your corporations and teach them about the other half of New Eden. Don't you want to manufacture your own equipment with the support of your Eve pilots bringing their considerable industrial might to bear?

I can see that you have a hard time believing that this is possible, but NASA landed on the moon with 640kb of Ram, couldn't CCP do better? Do you play COD?

Don't run for CPM, you don't want to fix things. If you did you would offer ideas, rather than just saying it can't be done.

Ok because I am not sure anyone in Dust understands the Yulai Accord, it outlawed mining the planetary surfaces. Players strip mined the planets for minerals causing wholesale destruction of people, animals and the vegetation of the planets.

I am not suggesting that anyone repeal this law, but rather suggest there are better ways to acquire minerals, for example Miners in Eve have vast resources, can do it better and faster than anyone on a planet ever could. I also think that extracting mins from salvage and giving parts of the pool to mercs would not help anyone and would rather make the market process for mercs more complicated, with less isk to go around.

Manufacturing large quantities of items is something that Eve pilots have become great at, have whole skill groups dedicated to and would be more than adequate to provide for Dust with little effort on their part involved.

Having Dust stand on its own as a game really isn't that difficult to do. For instance, Eve player contracts, and real benefits for players to acquire districts, would allow us to become a necessary part of Eve and not an afterthought. I thought we were supposed to be Mercenaries, not boardroom traders and industrialists.

In addition to this, PC battles could actually move the available PC districts up in number, spreading the conflict to the surrounding solar systems, and help Eve players maintain control over their PI while massive attacks from drones come to harvest the in place extraction materials.

Another benefit to PC battles could be the ability to deploy to districts owned to explore them, root out drones to kill and practice basic teamwork as well as make encroachments on other people's districts, areas they do PVE in and ambush them to cause tears, and I know CCP likes tears.

Including salvage from Drones found on planetary surfaces as materials for weapons, equipment and dropsuits would be a great way to make Eve players (again manufacturing items) dependant on the Dust market for their manufacturing processes and would help keep the fluctuations balanced.

Keeping the manufacturing processes in Eve would mean we could keep product transportation in the hands of Eve pilots as well, a task they are quite suited for and have adequate ways to do this.

Original plans for Dust included troop transport by Eve players. This would remove the inability to move from station to station to acquire goods remotely. Another option is allow the players to make Jump Clones, allowing instantaneous transport between systems. I could see Jita quickly becoming clogged with Dust players looking for a deal and recommend building a new market hub for Dust Items or using Rens or Hek as their main trade hub as the local population usually doesn't go higher than 1000 players at any one time that I have seen in my trade trips.

On top of all this, there has been talk in the past of giving mercs the ability to take to the stars, to go attack Eve ships with boarding modules and take them over for Eve players, transporting a Dust player may become necessary if this were to happen, rather than destroying a ship (something that fuels the market currently). This would become especially useful in Null Sec as I am sure there are some pilots with their eyes on other Pilot's Titans, Carriers and Rorquals not to mention High Sec Gankers looking for an easier way to move their spoils of war through capturing whole Freighters or Orcas being used to haul goods to market.

This would essentially turn Dust into an Open World game, for the most part giving us other avenues isk gain, tears, and providing a manufacturing line from supply, to manufacturing and market. I really don't think that Dust would be unable to stand on its own as a game, it was meant to be a part of New Eden, not separate from it.

One Universe::One War

I am just suggesting that going with their original plan may be best, to build their own engine from scratch, something they have proven that they can do, as show with Eve, Eve Valkyrie, and that Vampire game they were building. I hate how everyone thinks that CCP can't do this or that, look at Eve GodDammit its a masterpiece.

Indeed, I mentioned that if it were not possible within the existing one that there are alternatives to be explored, not that it had to be done now. You still have missed the topic though in almost all of your posts, One Universe::One Market.

This market endeavor needs to be pursued more fully and it requires certain things to be complete, I fully realize this. I also notice that there are several things even just as recently as this last patch that didn't need to be in place for this to happen, such as all the new faction items.

This massive influx of "new gear" that replicates what the old does, is not necessary, but it is here now. I assume from the move to complete the asset list for all classes is at the moment more important to CCP but I still think we can have a viable connected market if they chose a direction and started on their way down that path.

It still seems a very long road to travel with only an NPC market and so many industrialists in Eve able to produce gear for us just waiting and watching to see if CCP connects the games in a way that makes a difference to them. This would do it.