CSM Election Interview Series: Spectre3353

Welcome to the first of my CSM Election interview series for CSM 4. Hope you find them useful.

Hallan Turrek > My name is Hallan Turrek from A Merry Life and a Short One. Today, I'm interviewing Spectre3353.
Hallan Turrek > Hello Spectre!
Hallan Turrek > How's it going?
Spectre3353 > Very well, thanks.
Hallan Turrek > Good to hear.
Hallan Turrek > You know in the interest of full disclosure, I think it would be appropriate to mention that you and I have shared the same corp, fleets, and sometimes killmails.
Spectre3353 > Sure have.
Hallan Turrek > Also in the interest of full disclosure I must also mention that I totally kicked your ass a few months back in that duel.
Hallan Turrek > Just sayin'.
Spectre3353 > I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, I have never lost a fight ever.
Hallan Turrek > Keep tellin' yourself that. I've got the killmails.
Spectre3353 > No comment.
Hallan Turrek > Fine. Spectre, tell me what personal experience you have out of the game that qualifies you to be in the CSM.
Spectre3353 > Well honestly I'm not sure what out of game experience I would really want to bring up that would relate to being CSM. I do have experience working as a Software Developer using the Scrum methodology which would give me at least a bit of insight into
Spectre3353 > the way that CCP develops functionality and the time it takes to complete and implement functionality.
Spectre3353 > That being said...
Hallan Turrek > So you don't believe any experience is necessary to be successful in the CSM?
Spectre3353 > I have plenty of experience more directly related to Eve including a large amount of PvP experience as well as some industrial and other PvE experience. Additionally I have been writing an Eve related blog for nearly a year and a half and help to run a pirate corporation that is going very successfully.
Spectre3353 > It's hard to really have experience at being CSM as it's only been around for a few session so far, not many people really know what it entails.
Hallan Turrek > So you plan to learn on the go?
Spectre3353 > I've read the CSM meeting notes and blog posts and read many posts on the forums but it's still a pretty new role that not many people have had the opportunity to experience.
Spectre3353 > To an extent, sure. I would think that would be a desired trait of your CSM candidates is that they are quick on the uptake and not too easily flustered by taking on a lot of new things at once.
Hallan Turrek > You take any breaks in your time in Eve?
Spectre3353 > I have taken one extended break for a couple months which was near the end of last year.
Hallan Turrek > Why?
Spectre3353 > What I pretty learned is that there is no quitting Eve
Spectre3353 > To play other games and MMO's with a number of my friends in real life.
Spectre3353 > It got old fairly fast though.
Hallan Turrek > Ahh, any games in particular?
Spectre3353 > I see what you're doing :)
Spectre3353 > Yes I did play the last WoW expansion and I played WoW for several years before I played Eve.
Spectre3353 > I enjoyed it for a period but it became relatively stale beyond a certain point.
Hallan Turrek > Interesting. Lets move back to your corporation and ingame EvE experience as relating to qualities desirable in a CSM candidate.
Hallan Turrek > You're a pirate, correct?
Spectre3353 > Sure.
Spectre3353 > Among other things yes. My main character engages in lowsec PvP a majority of the time.
Hallan Turrek > Your alts tend to do what?
Spectre3353 > I have one alt that I use for probing for both combat and exploration purposes and he also just finished training to mine with a Retriever.
Spectre3353 > I am currently training him to fly a Hulk.
Spectre3353 > I also had an alt that ran Level 4 missions in a Raven for a while.
Hallan Turrek > I did notice that your platform included a lengthy section on mining. Is it safe to call you a "mining candidate" in addition to the more traditional "pirate" and "pvp" monikers?
Spectre3353 > Well I do not want to mislead people. I am primarily a candidate for lowsec and "piracy". That being said, I feel that the key to fixing/updating lowsec involves making it viable to players of all professions and security statuses.
Hallan Turrek > Ok, but how would you "fix" lowsec then in regards to making it more viable to such persons?
Spectre3353 > Well there are two paths I see really.
Spectre3353 > One that I would really prefer to see is a large scale overhaul in which lowsec is given a unique resource or role that isn't found in nullsec or highsec. There are many suggested ideas on how this could be done. Some of the best I've seen revolve around fleshing out the role of boosters and drugs better and making lowsec the place where the materials for these are mined/found and the production is done.
Spectre3353 > A more realistic and smaller scale path is to simply fix some of the outdated/unbalanced items related to timers, sentry guns, risk vs reward of mining/missions, etc
Hallan Turrek > I did want to get into that a bit more, but lets talk about the boosters.
Spectre3353 > Sure
Hallan Turrek > You didn't mention that in your platform, is booster reform something that you're planning on making a priority?
Spectre3353 > In general? Not really. As something that could be fleshed out further and made into something unique that distinguishes lowsec from other types of regions? Sure.
Hallan Turrek > How would it do so? Specific manufacture locations? More gas clouds?
Spectre3353 > I have lots of ideas but one thing I have not created a specific plan for is how that would be done.
Spectre3353 > Honestly
Hallan Turrek > Like?
Spectre3353 > There are so many good ideas out there already, I would feel silly creating yet another about how to do it....
Spectre3353 > As far as I see it, the main purpose of the CSM's is to choose topics that have been approved by the players and champion them.
Spectre3353 > If I were to get the chance to play that role
Spectre3353 > I would push for an examination and update to lowsec overall, much like Lark did during the last CSM
Spectre3353 > While pushing for smaller and approachable improvements that could actually get implemented in reasonable amounts of time.
Hallan Turrek > You mentioned the GCC earlier. You believe that's broken? Would you be supporting it's removal?
Spectre3353 > Not removal
Spectre3353 > But currently the length of 15 minutes is way longer than it really needs to be.
Spectre3353 > Additionally.
Spectre3353 > The whole issue of "buggy" (I don't know if it's technically considered a bug) sentries is a bit awful.
Spectre3353 > I would love to push for the fixing of invisible timers.
Hallan Turrek > Buggy in what way?
Spectre3353 > Well anyone who is familiar with how timers work in lowsec knows about the wacky and unpredictable way that timers and sentries behave when related to docking at stations.
Spectre3353 > Even if your timers run out, you will still get shot on undock and your NPC timers will be reset
Hallan Turrek > Yes, generally I was to understand it was a feature whereas the stations don't like criminals to dock while being pursued by the police. You consider it to be a bug?
Spectre3353 > Punishment for illegal engagements in empire space is understandable but making the punishment unpredictable and considerably longer than necessary is something I would like to be changed.
Hallan Turrek nods
Spectre3353 > Perhaps bug isn't the right word. Unpredictable and poorly expressed via the UI would probably make more sense.
Hallan Turrek > Ok, so what about "blob" tactics.
Hallan Turrek > You've expressed some disdain towards it and an intention to fix it, how so?
Spectre3353 > This one is a really difficult topic.
Spectre3353 > Well, currently due to several reasons, "blobbing" in lowsec has become pretty common
Spectre3353 > To elaborate
Spectre3353 > Blobbing = Gangs flying around in gangs of a size/power that is so large that they can't realistically expect to find an opponent who can fight back.
Spectre3353 > And things like increased population and faction warfare has caused it to grow considerably
Hallan Turrek nods
Hallan Turrek > You think that's because of nerfs to agility and speed?
Spectre3353 > The agility and speed issue is more related to the inability to fly in solo or small gangs as well as previously
Spectre3353 > Part of it is just part of the nano-nerf which did have some good results
Spectre3353 > But even past the nano-nerf they were making changes that nerfed ship align times.
Hallan Turrek > Will the new assault ship changes help with small gang warfare?
Spectre3353 > Assault ships, even after their buffs, are still overly expensive and niche ships
Hallan Turrek nods
Spectre3353 > I would rather see PvP overall balanced to still be viable for solo and small gangs rather than just for AF's or frigates.
Hallan Turrek > Back to the blobbing problem. You support "fights" more than the search of "kills"?
Spectre3353 > Yes. Not that I am innocent of ever fighting with overwhelming odds but I think a majority of pilots will tell you that they would rather have a fun engagement and lose than get a killmail in a 30 vs 3 fight
Hallan Turrek > So you're of the mind that CCP should enforce fair fights somehow?
Spectre3353 > I don't think they should try and force anything, but some tweaks to balance things back towards how they were prior to the nano-nerf might help.
Spectre3353 > I like a lot of changes that came out of it.
Spectre3353 > Especially the scrambler turning off MWD changes.
Spectre3353 > That being said, I feel like ship agility and align time was hurt to a point that it is now almost impossible to roam lowsec in a ship larger than a frigate and expect to survive anything that sees you on a gate.
Hallan Turrek > If you could revert one change right now, what would it be then?
Spectre3353 > Well there was a change right after the nano changes to make ships easier to catch on gates, their align times were reduced
Spectre3353 > specifically larger ships, not frigates
Hallan Turrek > And that is what you'd revert?
Spectre3353 > I would love to see that turned back at least somewhat
Hallan Turrek > You've said on your blog that the UI is broken as well. Can you give me a couple of concrete examples?
Spectre3353 > Wow I don't even know where to begin with that....
Spectre3353 > To start there is sentries and timers.
Spectre3353 > It can be extremely difficult to tell what timers you have and when you are going to get shot by sentries.
Spectre3353 > I am all for consequences for your actions but at least make them predictable
Spectre3353 > additionally
Spectre3353 > Mynxee was recently pushing for some changes to the directional scanner to make the interface use buttons as opposed to sliders and numbers which I think is a simple but great idea.
Spectre3353 > Probing still has some issues... arrows being almost invisible if you look at them from the wrong angle in certain systems.
Hallan Turrek nods
Spectre3353 > I have seen suggestions to put things like velocity and name next to targets in space as opposed to only on the overview, I like that idea as well.
Spectre3353 > The corporation interface is just atrocious and unintuitive
Hallan Turrek > How so?
Spectre3353 > I could go on forever with this one :) There are a lot of changes that could really be made
Spectre3353 > Well I can recall when I first became CEO
Spectre3353 > it took me about an hour to figure out how to have my CEO skills become applied to my corporation
Spectre3353 > Roles are very difficult to set up
Spectre3353 > etc..
Hallan Turrek nods
Hallan Turrek > So in the end, why'd you decide to run for the CSM?
Spectre3353 > Well before I decided to run I tried to ask around and talk to a lot of fellow pirates to see who else was running and what they were supporting.
Spectre3353 > I felt I saw a lack of one person supporting lowsec and it's enhancement to catch up to highsec and nullsec (especially with their upgrade via the Dominion expansion)
Spectre3353 > So i thought I would take a stab at it.
Spectre3353 > Frankly if I don't win I won't be upset as long as pirates/lowsec has some representation in the CSM somewhere
Hallan Turrek nods
Hallan Turrek > So if another pirate runs, you'd think about supporting him?
Spectre3353 > Well at this point I have thrown my hat in the ring and put significant effort into campaigning so I probably would not just suddenly back out.
Spectre3353 > But depending on who it was, who knows.
Hallan Turrek > Would you mind a hypothetical question Spectre?
Spectre3353 > Sure.
Hallan Turrek > Assume for a moment you've been given privileged information as part of your position as a CSM member. If you used it you could make yourself a lot of in game money. Tens of billions. If you could use that information and not be caught, if no one would ever know you did it but you, would you use it?
Spectre3353 > Are you asking me if I would follow in the footsteps of Larkonis?
Spectre3353 > No, i would not use that information for anything like that.
Hallan Turrek > No, I'm asking if you knew you wouldn't be caught, would you do it?
Spectre3353 > No.
Hallan Turrek > Have you ever participated in a scam before?
Spectre3353 > Yes, I have on a couple occasions attempted using market scams to make money.
Spectre3353 > I believe I actually have one post on my blog about that.
Hallan Turrek > About how much money have you made, would you say?
Spectre3353 > I don't currently partake in it though.
Spectre3353 > At most, a couple hundred million.
Hallan Turrek > You support the concept of scamming?
Spectre3353 > I think it would make sense to continue to make scamming due to poor UI something that is less common.
Spectre3353 > But
Spectre3353 > If people make mistakes due to their own oversights or incompetence, not related to poor UI or mechanics, that is part of Eve and I support it fully.
Hallan Turrek > Ok.
Hallan Turrek > Any links you'd like published with this interview?
Spectre3353 > Just my blog post announcing my candidacy and some general ideas about my platform. It can be found here.
Hallan Turrek > Alright then, it was nice talking to you, and good luck.
Spectre3353 > Thanks for the interview :)