TL;DR: The following mechanic is nothing more but a mere example of what is described in the general section below it. The idea is more about the general section, less about this specific example which probably has its flaws.
Just to get hated by Nullsec and giving them some action:
Original Version before discussions (read only for context)
One disruption % per constellation, fed by two independent inputs.
1. PVE Disruption
- Hacking/combat sites spawn anywhere in the constellation, open to anyone (explorers, small gangs, rival alliances).
- Good rewards for aggressors, regardless of whether it ever leads to a sov flip.
- Completing a site as attacker raises disruption %.
- Penalty rate on reversal: 1% gained costs 1.5% to undo. Partial progress isn’t free to erase.
- Multiple sites run independently, defenders must triage the whole constellation, not just clear one system and move on.
2. PVP Disruption
- Real kills against the sov holder’s members anywhere in the constellation add to the same %.
- No active reversal, just passive decay as hostility cools down (for example by sov members clearing hostiles in their own space).
- Can’t be gamed: kills only ever add to disruption, never subtract.
5-Stage Escalation Ladder
| Stage | Name | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unrest | Sov index starts dropping · minor EHP/resist penalty (barely noticeable) to structures · subtle “disrupted” map indicator |
| 2 | Strain | Reinforcement timers shortened · EHP/resist penalty increases · moon/skyhook extraction slows |
| 3 | Breakdown | Bubbles weaken · jump bridges intermittently fail · sov index/upgrade effectiveness drops further |
| 4 | Collapse | Jump bridges fail outright · bubbles disabled |
| 5 | Corrupted | Cyno jammers offline · local chat degrades to WH/Pochven-style · extraction bottoms out |
Those are examples of possible effects. Nothing more, nothing less. Actual effects can differ in kind and variety.
Revised Version (after discussion with Gerard)
Two problems came up with the original version:
- Rewarding only attackers for clearing sites left defenders with nothing, decreasing disruption was their only incentive, which felt unfair.
- The PVP Disruption input can be gamed, not the way I first assumed (sacrificing out-of-alliance alts to fake battles and lower disruption doesn’t work if PVP can’t decrease disruption in the first place), but in a subtler way: to avoid ever raising disruption, defenders would only undock when a win is guaranteed, bigger ships, more numbers, safer fights only. On top of the usual “don’t red our killboard,” you’d now also get “don’t increase our sov disruption,” which pushes toward more risk-averse play, not less.
Revised approach, reframed as an update to the existing ADM system instead of a separate parallel mechanic:
- PVP Disruption is dropped entirely.
- Defenders/holders doing PVE in their own space increases boni and adds positive effects for that system/constellation, same as it works today.
- Attackers/aggressors doing PVE in that same space decreases boni and adds negative effects, this is the new part.
- Both sides get rewards for completing the respective sites (type/amount can differ)
- The 5-stage effects above were only examples and can be replaced with better/more useful ones.
This moves it closer to the suppression/corruption-style mechanic we already know, just scoped specifically to sov-holding and driven purely by PVE activity from both sides.
Sites can also be designed in several scales, 1 person, 2 people, 5, 10, and so on, each with a different scaling effect. This keeps it accessible solo or in a small gang, while still giving larger groups a reason to bring more numbers for a bigger impact.
This is meant to add guerilla warfare tools for small to large groups, harassment that actually costs the holder something if left unchecked, opening a window other blocs can exploit if they want to. It’s not enough to take sov outright, that still needs real numbers and capitals. It’s enough to make comfort expensive, and to let small groups participate in a much bigger picture. Even if they can’t take sovereignty themselves, they could be the drop that causes the overflow, tickling someone else’s sense of opportunity that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.
And now a more general thing detached from the proposal above:
I believe EVE needs more mechanics that work for groups of different kinds and sizes, and content shouldn’t be gatekept behind having a certain group size in the first place. Mechanics can scale, with the scale of the effect scaling alongside it.
A lot of PVE still works like this: take L4s as one example, run them against NPC ships, collect ISK and salvage, maybe get ganked on the way home, and that’s it, nothing else happens. No effect on anyone, no effect on the world. Same with data sites, relic sites, combat sites. Sure, they give loot. But that is their only reason of existence. Take the loot away and those activities become useless completely. You can have PVE activities giving loot AND having effects on players or the environment around them. Maybe this also takes away the feeling to go for the best ISK/h activity, if activities bring more than just pure money.
I’m fully aware L4 missions as they exist won’t ever affect other players or the environment, that’s just their nature. I’m not saying PVE activity should cease to exist, it should have visible effects for players and the surroundings.
That’s the point: content like that should be phased out and replaced with something better, not kept around forever just because it’s familiar. Every action a player takes should affect other players or the environment in some way, at whatever scale that ends up being.
This should apply to PVE same as to PVP. Example: overmining the same system over and over could deplete it, reducing its normal resource output and forcing miners to actually spread out to other systems, some safer, some less (lucrative for PVP in lesser safe systems). The overmining state would decay passively over time, slightly faster than it builds up, so 5 Ventures mining daily barely move the needle. A full Orca fleet with 10 Hulks grinding the same system daily pushes overmining up faster than the passive decay can offset, and the system actually starts running dry.
Make the world react to what players actually do more. Make it a more living thing. Why? In the end the players wrote the best stories for this game so far.