I know you have focused your argument on “Agent Missions” specifically, but thats irrelevant because if one wants to “grind for plex” it’s his own fault if he focuses on non-optimal payment sources. Back in the days when PLEX were cheaper, Abyssals didn’t exist. Now they do. They earn a lot more ISK/time than Missions do, what gives people the option to grind for PLEX as fast as it was possible years ago, or faster.
Also CCP didn’t directly increase Mission payouts, but they added insanely OP Marauders which cut mission times in half compared what they were back in the days when I started. Which is more than doubling the income for L4 Missions for a maxed out runner. And they added Burner missions which also return insane ISK/hour if you learn how to run them.
So, from which ever angle you chose to look at the scenario, PLEX prices aren’t a problem, it’s probably easier to grind a full month of PLEX than it was 10 years ago.
With or Without ganking, mining ships are already fitted for max yield with no regard for tank. Haulers are fitted for max capacity with little regard for tank or align time, and would be flown across Empire space on autopilot, loaded to the gunwales. Mission runners bling fit their marauders and chain-blitz L4s.
In my experience, GRIEFERS (many of not most are not gankers) don’t go after these NEARLY as often as un or barely armed miners that are given no recourse or way to defend themselves. I get your point, and it would apply if they were going after those targets more then defenseless ships. Bully gonna bully, and enabler gonna enable though, right? And what happens to games that support griefers? Not many people play or stay. Stats aarent hard to find. As old as this game is, and the base is so little?
This. Especially the part about the Exhumers and Rorqual. Its my whole point. YOU CANT DEFEND YOURSELF IN HI SEC. I would say make it more realistic. If your sec slips below a certain point ban them from not just jumping around, but from everything and make them die to Concord immediately at whatever gate they show up at instead of pinging everyone their pop up warning and letting them do what they want anyway (basically). It’s BS. I barely ever even come to hisec any more, and these sociopaths, as someone called them accurately, still annoy me lol Pathetic cowards, all. They can’t make it in lowsec or sov space, so they go pick on people in hi sec. So I say to those sociopaths: what in your life makes you so vicious and hateful? I dunno lol
EDIT: to be more specific, say a negative security of 5, and you are banned from hisec. THEN they would have no choice but to try to fix it in low/null. Let’s see how good they REALLY are…
I don’t disagree that griefers exist, nor am I going to argue that said griefers don’t often go after poorly tanked Ventures with <5k EHP. But that Venture also doesn’t make for a juicy KM at less than 800k ISK. For those who chase ISK value vs kill count in their KB stats, they’re going to hunt the blingier kills (exhumers, T2 haulers, freighters, and faction-fit marauders). That may be a subset of gankers, but I don’t think it’s a tiny minority.
Given the current ganking status quo, miners, haulers, and to a lesser degree, L4 mission runners have to weigh survivability against efficiency due to pressure from gankers. If that pressure were removed entirely, everything would just be fit for efficiency (eliminating the risk v. reward decision). Do capsuleers currently make the decision to fly max yield/max haul/no tank? They definitely do. That’s their choice, and it’s all fine and good until their luck runs out.
Personally, I tend to mine in a Skiff (122k EHP) and I deploy T2 combat drones instead of mining drones. I could certainly mine faster in a Hulk or carry more in a Mack, and increase my yield by using mining drones, but I take the trade-offs for a little firepower and 3x-4x the tank. I’ve been dropped on in a belt before and watched as those gankers either warped off again or picked the guy mining next to me in an untanked exhumer. And only because, in my case, the juice wasn’t even guaranteed, much less worth the squeeze.
I think there’s definitely a conversation to be had around making sec loss more impactful and harder to recover from, but I think putting an end to ganking in hisec is a bridge too far. My opinion, YMMV.
Sadly there are security status tags that can be bought for ISK, so managing security status simply becomes a ‘cost of doing business’ or in other words, a function of money.
Or earn them from doing something time consuming like an Epic mission series or something.