I found myself pondering the question “does CCP Swift have something to read right this second?” and I assumed he had finished most all his coloring books for the day so here is something fresh! Where to begin…
The ecosystem of EVE Online is built on top of foundation composed of PVE. The majority of RPG / MMORPG video gamers play this genre due to it’s reward based or incentive based task design. At the fundamental level most everyone initially starts, and even occasionally returns, to the PVE aspect of the game – whether it be for in-game wealth generation or the repetitive dopamine release one receives from accomplishing a mission or task given to them by the game itself. PVE also forces this majority of playerbase out into the EVE Online environment. A more engaging and rewarding content package will absolutely translate into a more risky and participating playerbase. Additionally, returning to the idea that most RPG / MMORPG players play these games for the PVE content, it can be assumed that higher levels of player retention and new player interest will result from said content focus.
Why am I stating things you might think you already know? It’s obvious the ‘krabber’ culture and lifestyle has been all but abandoned by the majority of the ‘vocal players’ and even viewed as some scarlet letter to be worn. [INCOMING RANT, YOU CAN SKIP] The community has loudly screeched from on high about too much isk generation, overpowered krabbing vessels, and the ‘unfair’ safety krabs have with their daily activities. Failures in common sense, foresight, and in-depth understanding of the delicate interconnected threads weaving EVE Online’s ecosystem has fostered a more recent player base plagued with a lack of foresight and a hyperfocus on instant-win / instant-reward preferences. A prime example is the vocal group screeching about supers and rorquals not instantaneously dying every time a hunter lit his covert-cyno thus leading to overwhelming nerfs in the super ratting or rorqual mining activities. Even though those of us with more experience and wisdom regarding EVE ‘butterfly effects’ were red-alarming the mid-term and long-term consequences of such nerfs, that these ships were major content contributors to player-interaction based content, the vocal group’s lobbying efforts eventually got what they wanted – now the hunting fields have been culled to roughly 10% of what it was. Additionally, daily rorqual and super losses no longer contribute to notable mineral demand and affiliated asset costs have plunged, deadspace and faction module supply has grown tighter, and ratters have shifted to cheaper safer alternatives. This is an example of how fundamental PVE activity, super ratting and rorqual mining in this example, impacts other content avenues of the game. [END OF RANT] Sometimes I believe this community has the memory of a goldfish when it comes to the basic understanding that in order for a ship to die, the ship must first undock. Also being good at the game is a two-way street, just because you find a Rattlesnake going hard in a haven doesn’t mean it must absolutely 100% die and feed you a killmail – YOU gotta make it die, which requires skill, risk, and effort.
Where am I going with this wall of text? In summary I have been contemplating a sov-nullsec NPC anomaly system that is focused on 1.) generating balanced risk v reward, 2.) reduction with passive afk farming and introduction of more interactive engaging NPC activities, and 3.) unintentionally curbing the widespread standard botting anomaly ratters.
Is this the answer to all things EVE? Absolutely not, this is just a proposal that makes an attempt at replenishing the nullsec hunting fields while simultaneously giving nullsec inhabitants a reason for undocking ships and living there. Missions still need a desperate overhaul, Faction Warfare’s dumpster fire needs to be extinguish, and more group-based PVE content should be implemented. People forget that most of your PVP focused player base most likely started with PVE and eventually transitioned over time.
The Concept: NPC Counter-Offensive Breaches
Preliminary Statement: Most all of this concept utilizes already existing in-game content, just combining them differently and changing numbers.
Overview: Introduction of the ‘Provocation Meter’ with 6 levels. Level advancement is directly tied to system NPC kills with each level having a correlating ‘milestone’ goal / achievement (# of kills / bounties earned in an hour or similar). Each level also has a corresponding impact on system-wide NPC spawns (both anomaly and belt rat), bounty multipliers, drop rates, and NPC AI.
NOTE: NPC kill counter resets upon level advancement. The counter counts towards next level advancement goal unless current level timer expires at which case the system is reverted to previous level.
NOTE 2: Multiplier values, drop % values, spawn quantity values, etc… are all very rough “place fillers” and I have not yet mathed out in full all the different attributing values of everything.
Level 0: “Dormant”
No impact on NPC spawns, no impact on AI, bounty multiplier is 0.5. Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 0%.
Level 1: “Alarmed” – Occurs when 100 NPCs killed in 15 minutes, lasts 30 minutes.
NPC anomaly spawn size multiplied by 2x multiplier and have additional +2x EWAR ships added (per spawn wave). NPC belt spawn size affected by 1.5x multiplier with additional +1x EWAR ships. No impact on NPC AI. Bounty multiplier is 1.0x. Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 2% per anomaly or .2% per belt spawn.
Level 2: “Instigated” – Occurs when 250 NPCs killed in 30 minutes, lasts 45 minutes.
NPC anomaly spawn size multiplied by 3x multiplier and have +4x EWAR ships added (per spawn wave). NPC belt spawn size affected by 2x multiplier with additional +2x EWAR ships. System anomalies are converted into gated “Instigated Response Platoon” (analogous to Sanctum), “Instigated Response Patrol” (analogous to Forsaken Hub), and “Instigated Response Scout Party” (analogous to Forlorn Hub). Max QTYx4 anomalies existing simultaneously. No impact on AI. Bounty multiplier is 1.5x. Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 4% per anomaly or 1.6% per belt spawn.
Level 3: “Angered” – Occurs when 500 NPCs killed in 45 minutes, lasts 60 minutes.
NPC anomaly spawn size multiplied by 6x multiplier and have an additional +8x EWAR ships and +4x EWAR sentry structures (per spawn wave). NPC belt spawns affected by 2.5x multiplier with additional +4x EWAR ships. System anomalies are converted into “Angered Response Platoon / Patrol / Scouts” and an added “Angered Commander Outpost”. Max QTYx2 per anomaly spawns, QTYx1 commander outpost existing simultaneously.
“Angered Commander Outpost” is a gated anomaly w/ up to destroyer sized ship restrictions and not impacted by system-wide spawn size multiplier. “Angered Commander Outposts” are the same / very similar to Team Anomic mission spawns (names are different, Angered Bloodraider Commander & Angered Bloodraider Commander Support for example). Each commander has a 10% chance give a standard faction spawn drop table. This anomaly spawn 2x additional ships per destroyer class and 1x per frigate class vessel that takes the gate with a 50/50 chance of that additional ship being either another commander or support. Example: if you take 2 destroyers and 3x frigates in the anom you’ll encounter the base spawn of commander + 2x support AND +4x additional ships due to destroyers AND +3x additional ships due to frigates).
Only “Angered Commander Outposts” have AI improvement in which the existing anomic burner AI is utilized. Bounty multiplier is 2.0x. Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 8% for non-gated anomalies and 3.2% per belt spawn, 25% increase in faction loot table drop chances.
Level 4: “Infuriated” – Occurs when 750 NPCs killed in 60 minutes, last 90 minutes.
NPC non-gated anomaly spawns maintain “Angered” level size multiplier except 25% of spawn is converted to diamond NPC version with escalation factor 25% of what diamond NPCs have normally. NPC belt spawns maintain “Angered” level size multiplier as well but 25% of spawn is converted to diamond rat NPC but with only 10% reinforcement escalation capabilities. Max QTYx1 per anomaly spawns and QTYx1 for commander outpost existing simultaneously. System anomalies are converted to “Infuriated Response Platoon / Patrol / Scouts”.
“Infuriated Commander Outposts” anomaly replaces “Angered Commander Outposts” with ship restrictions increased to cruiser size vessels allowed. Along with a team anomic spawn they also have 1x anomic burner cruiser (commander), has same response-spawn with team anomics but .25 chance to spawn anomic cruiser per cruiser vessel that enters site, additionally there is a 20% chance of double spawning its counter-escalation ships. Each commander has a 50% chance give a standard faction spawn drop table, 10% deadspace drop table.
Diamond NPC AI is added for all diamond NPC spawns except gated anomalies (i.e. commander outposts which operates under anomic burner AI). Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 16% for non-gated anomalies and 6.4% per belt spawn, 50% increase in faction loot table drop chances. Total simultaneous anomaly spawn amount in system is the same as before.
Level 5: “Enraged” – Occurs when 1000 NPCs killed in 90 minutes, lasts 120 minutes.
All non-gated anomalies are reverted back to “Instigated” level spawn size multipliers but 50% of spawns on diamond NPCs with escalation factor 75% of what diamond NPCs have normally. NPC belts revert back to “Instigated” level spawn size multipliers but 50% of spawn is converted to diamond rat NPC but with 30% reinforcement escalation capabilities.
“Enraged Commander Outposts” anomaly replaces “Infuriated Commander Outposts” with ship restrictions increased to battleship size vessels, baseline spawn is 6x anomic burner frigate 2x anomic cruiser (commander) and 1x NPC dread (commander), has second wave of spawns. “Enraged Commander Outposts” have the same escalation response spawns as “Infuriated Commander Officer” but elevated .75 chance to spawn anomic cruiser per cruiser level or larger that enters site as well as .25 chance to spawn additional NPC dread with 30% chance of double spawning. Second wave spawns baseline spawn w/ additional anomic team per frigate size and larger, an additional burner cruiser for cruiser size and larger, and has .5 chance to spawn additional NPC dread per battleship. The second wave also has a 3% chance to spawn an NPC titan or .15% chance to spawn an officer.
Diamond NPC AI is added for all diamond NPC spawns except gated anomalies (i.e. commander outposts which operates under anomic burner AI). Faction spawn chance / deadspace escalation = 32% for non-gated anomalies and 12.8% per belt spawn, 75% increase in faction loot table drop chances. Total simultaneous anomaly spawn amount in system is the same as before.
Level 6: Invasion Breach – 1500 NPCs killed in 120 minutes, lasts until downtime.
All anomalies go way and a beacon shows up on the overview which is the “Counter Offensive Forward Staging”. All NPCs are 100% converted to diamond NPCs with exception to faction / officer spawns. The “Counter Offensive Forward Stagine” is an NPC Fortizar anomaly that acts the same as the NPC Sotiyo events but the Fortizar has no reinforcement period – you gotta eat through shield, armor, and hull. New spawns & reinforcements occur when armor is reach and at the moment hull is reached. The armor spawn has a 25% chance to spawn an NPC titan, 12.5% chance to spawn double NPC titans and 6.25% chance to spawn triple NPC titans. The hull spawn has 50%, 25%, 12.5%, 6.25% chance to spawn single, double, triple, or quadruple NPC Titan spawns as well as 5% chance to spawn an officer. The fortizar has a chance to drop faction structure modules. Perhaps .01% chance of dropping a core that converts normal fortizar into old school station forts w/ original bonus?
Once an “Invasion Breach” has occurred it will not go away until downtime. As long as the Invasion Breach is active the system is 100% diamond NPC spawns roaming around (w/ exception to faction or officer) meaning they can, and will, reinforce any and all structures they can if any are in system. Yes, theoretically you could guerilla rage krab in hostile space and force an ‘offensive’ style Breach against your enemies.
TL;DR - I’m interested in your feedback and critiques, please actually read. I’m gonna haze anyone who shitposts or provides half-assed knee jerk uneducated commentary like the illiterate smoothbrained mouthbreather you are… you ■■■■ on me I ■■■■ on you.