As people have mentioned multiple times already ESS is pretty dope, but Bounty Rate Modifier is pretty crap. What we gathered from info from fanfest is that reserve banks are just being farmed by the owners, and keys are being sold for the exact extraction value of the key.
Following is a suggestion to modify the BRM mechanics to tie it in with ESS. After that is a brief idea to rework Reserve Banks so they target their intended use case more accurately.
BRM and Main Bank
Rats now always pay out between 100% and the upper limit of BRM. BRM/DBM modifiers now just affect the ratio between krabber’s direct income vs the share that goes into the main bank. Any BRM/DBM above 100% increases the rat’s value by that amount it exceeds.
The ratio between player payout vs main bank would fluctuate for the player between 20% (BRM = 0%) and 80% (BRM > 100%). Where as the part that goes into the main bank would be the inverse, 80% into the main bank if BRM = 0% and 20% if BRM > 100%.
Remember the previous part where a rat’s value is always minimum 100% now though. This means that hyperkrabbing a system with BRM=0% would ultimately give you the same income as BRM=100%, you would just have a much bigger portion of your income go into the unsafe main bank which you might have to defend more.
Systems with BRM > 100% would still get bonus to the rats value, making it more attractive to krab in, furthermore the ratio of isk directly to your wallet vs isk to the main bank would be in your favor.
Full formula’s are posted as an example of numbers below, note that these are just numbers, they’re not written in stone, it’s the idea that counts.
| Affected | Formula | BRM minimum (0%) | BRM maximum (300% e.g.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rat’s value | 100% + MAX((BRM- 100%), 0%) | 100% | 300% |
| ISK per tick to player | Rat value * MIN(BRM*0.8 + 20%, 80%) | 20% Rat’s value | 80% Rat’s value |
| ISK per tick to Main Bank | Rat value * (100% - MIN(BRM*0.8 + 20%, 80%)) | 80% Rat’s values | 20% Rat’s values |
Reserve Bank
Currently Reserve bank is missing the point pretty much and is occasionally being farmed by locals, but there’s many trillions still being unused.
So the first thing we do, is reset the reserve banks, as we would now need a slightly smarter system (oh no, reserve banks reset, anyway).
After this, reserve banks would basically generate a bond for your krabbing activities, paid out over several days. Let’s say a player krabs together 100mil ISK, main bank+direct payments. The reserve bank (RB) generates a 1million bond for you at that time which is paid out every day until that 1 million is paid out, at which point the reserve bank is empty again. Reserve bank payments happen after downtime or so, automatically.
Obviously we would have to put an upper limit on the total reserve bank, which would be able to be increased with ihub/adm upgrades if the locals so choose.
At this point, stealing your own RB is already not really in your interest, as if you just let it sit, the people who actually krabbed will be paid out, instead of the corp/alliance leaders that choose to take it.
However, letting naughty invaders run off with your RB would be really bad for you with the following mechanic: depending on how much was stole out of the RB (expressed in millions, not in %) the BRM of the system, constellation, and region would drop with a certain amount. The system itself would be significantly impacted, the constellation moderately, the region itself minimally, keep in mind this should maintain the BRM idea of above.
This adds an activity for aggressing parties as they can choose to first tank the region’s BRM by targeting reserve banks of the locals. Specifically hitting staging system’s reserve banks could be a good idea to help hinder locals from krabbing in their staging.
The final part of the equation, reserve keys should be much more aplenty. Either increase the amount that drop, or add new ways of obtaining said keys.
Thanks for sticking around this long, discuss away. Please try not to nitpick the numbers, as they are just that, numbers that can easily be changed. What I’m trying convey is a set of ideas that could hopefully make krabbing ok again. And not leave it an activity only for the botters out there.