Alright. This might be more controlled than I had at first imagined. Thank you for doing this. I made it no secret that I’m not a fan of sound-board style CSM, because I feel a representative of the player base should understand the intricacies of the game and meta to effectively communicate anything effectually without undue stress added to already sensitive communication channels.
Anyhow, here are my biggest problems with FW:
- Loyalty Point faucet from factional warfare missions is too high with the new system where each tier is given a substantially higher LP payout. It used to be a discount in the Loyalty store, but the current bonus has now made FW mission payouts retardedly higher than anything else by a huge factor that it is not even funny and it seriously plays against the spirit of pvp when this is a much more lucrative option in every aspect than spinning buttons (running fw complexes), the only other option of two available in earning LP --because let’s be realistic here, PvP does not reward LP in any sustainable way in the current payouts calculator.
I proposed a long time ago, much as the Abyssal sites have now for allowing only Cruiser type ships into this content, that FW mission acceleration gates should bar/deny access to any tech 2 or tech 3 vessel. Others know this will work, but they are too afraid to lose their own tap to an infinite source of LP, as everyone knows these are farmed by Stealth Bombers, Tactical Destroyers, Tech 3 Cruisers, and HAC’s. Does it go too far? No. Every faction has the ability to solo even lvl 4 FW missions in their respective navy cruisers. Making this a perfect balance change which brings the level of risk up to the reward.
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Not enough benefits for maintaining system control. There really is little reason for a FW group to aggressively dplex (defensive plex) the warzone. The payouts are marginal at best and the time sink is excruciatingly real. The biggest problem with bringing down contested levels is, without a doubt, that dplexing is the ONLY way to decrease system contestation levels. If you were to introduce a daily passive drop or some other means, be it by some anchored structure or mode in which the iHub can be eligible at high system tier (and can be interrupted with consequence), could make this much more tolerable for PvP focused groups that don’t want to see dplexing alts as a requirement to participate competitively in this area of the game. In short, give us better system bonuses which benefit FW groups and penalize non-FW groups living within the warzone. There is a very large swath of non-fw lowsec that is near uninhabited and waiting for nice pirate groups to pitch their tents there. They are like the panther that lives by itself as the apex predator in a valley full of prey. Of course they don’t want to move, their dinner is at their doorstep. As I’ve said before, they could consider it a commute to a good job. A mere bonus/penalty, respectively, to structure fuel consumption would be enough to do it without touching docking or anchoring restrictions for Upwell structures.
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Please introduce a new metric by which tier is calculated. As of this moment, the only thing that decides tier level is the point system with is basically comprised of every system in control (1 point) and their upgrade levels (out of potentially 5 points), which makes each system a maximum worth of 6 points each when upgraded to the max lvl 5. The total points are then compared to a percentage against total possible points, and system percentage control is figured this way. That is tier.
What it should also consider is kills. A statistics which is already gathered in the Statistics panel of the FW window. This should add a 20% bump to tier by itself, imo. Especially if you remove missions LP from the available LP bank, as donations from mission LP comprise probably 99% of the total LP which is dumped into hubs. No kidding. I would love that the hub of each system becomes more valuable the longer this system is held under occupation, making staging systems a much greater and appealing target, rather than just a kick at the hive for the sake of dispelling boredom.
That’s my spill. It’s winded, but I’ve been here since before Inferno. FW is my home and I love it. I’ve stuck around for this.