This is a complex issue and one which needs addressing. I’ve been hesitant to post about this, partially because I feel it’s a waste of time. But I think this needs saying so screw it here goes.
I’ve seen a lot of people comparing these changes to the phoebe jump fatigue changes. As I was pretty intimately involved in the alliance some would argue those nerfs were specifically targeted against, and probably had a hand in making those nerfs happen in the first place, I want to compare them to make my argument.
I want to start by saying it is my belief that projection pre-jump fatigue was actually significantly less broken than it is now. I also think the changes made in Phoebe went too far. I don’t think anyone could argue something needed to be done back then, but the changes that were made in Phoebe were more far-reaching, specifically targeted, and completely shut down the mechanics PL were using as force projection tools.
Compare that to today with the ansiblex changes. Ansiblexes will still be here, they will still allow long range movement over huge areas of the map, and many of the larger alliances have somehow managed to dodge the major changes in favour of nerfing the smaller ones in the form of ACL removal. To put it bluntly, the proposed changes to ansiblexes are not far reaching, not targeted at large alliances, and will not shut down the kind of large scale projection FC hope they will to anything but a negligible degree.
Phoebe actually had two very specific nerfs to prevent projection. Everyone talks about jump fatigue. The game hadn’t had jump fatigue for 12 years up to that point. It wasn’t just fast jumping that PL exploited. Everyone could do that, and many did.
What PL implemented was a network of corporate offices in NPC stations spread in a web which could connect any region to any other region through cyno chains. Then use those corp offices to rapidly place cyno chains anywhere across the map. That’s why I say it was targeted. Phoebe removed the ability, quietly, to deathclone to ANY corp office. The reason for this is I, amongst others, spent an inordinate amount of time and effort seeding cyno ships and corp offices in every NPC station we could possibly get our hands on that might possibly be used as a link in a cyno chain to anywhere. Then anyone with a character in our cyno corp could deathclone to that office, pick up a cyno ship, and light a cyno within seconds. We spent a LOT of isk doing this, our corp office bill was astronomical. The corp we used I founded, it was called backuplegion.
Nobody else even tried to do it, it was incredibly tryhard, and CCP categorically shut down any chance of using those mechanics to any effect. It destroyed that method of projection.
Comparing these changes to Phoebe is comparing a fart to a hurricane. Comparing the ease of setting up an ansiblex network then setting your autopilot to the high effort, pre-emptive planning and execution it took to set up fury road then use it effectively without dying in a fire every time is a joke.
Ansiblexes are so easy to set up and use, you generally have structures in every system with an ansiblex in them. It’s easier and safer than gating, and even with the changes, the only people who are going to be significantly effected by them are small alliances with blues. Unless the capacitor requirements for use are set so high as to make long distance high volume travel completely impractical unless carried out over DAYS or more, you might as well not even bother.
And the projection issue is STILL going to be significantly worse than pre-phoebe mechanics.
Okami says in his blog that he considered the idea of removing ansiblex altogether. Why not? Do you think it would cause too many people to unsub? To put it bluntly, this game is stagnating. It’s getting boring, people are sick of N+1 fights where 600 idiots in anything from battleships to svipuls showing up on your doorstep in 20 minutes and ruining any chance for an engaging fight to happen by brainlessly killing everyone. Something drastic needs to be done, and the only people these changes, in principle, are going to drastically effect, are the smaller groups without the sprawling sov capable of supporting massive ansiblex networks. Those groups can and will adapt to this very quickly. Smaller groups will just be stuck in their own pockets of space, without the ‘lever’ of political intrigue that eve is so famous for which makes them capable of moving around being available to them any more.
As a side note, I think the capacitor thing is clunky as hell. I think similar things could have been achieved through workforce management being tied to ansiblex efficacy but im not a dev so I can’t be too critical. It just feels like another patched on gimmick to a system that doesn’t really work properly in the first place.
I could go on, but I won’t. In short, these proposed changes are probably going to end up doing the opposite of what FC claims to want to do, and have dangerous potential to make things significantly worse, not better. Removing ansiblexes altogether would have been a better step, and while it would have been more drastic for some, it would have been no more drastic for the smaller groups which FC and the null CSM members (who all seem to be in large null alliances btw, funny that) claim to champion.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
E: I forgot to mention the absolute elephant in the room. Alpha accounts. There is absolutely nothing stopping these large blocs from staging fleets of alpha accounts at the peripheries of their space in strategic locations, they already do it. Nothing says ‘were nerfing projection’ more than 200 dudes in alpha maelstroms showing up and glassing your 40 man sov warfare fleet 3 regions away from an alliances capital system. Mark my words, unless you remove the ability for these empires to sprawl, they WILL find a way to circumvent it like this. The only way to do that is to drastically curtail the utility ansiblex have for the average member to use them. These changes don’t do that at all.
then stop whining, if you are right and nothing will happen, you have nothing to fear I guess. Rest assured, CCP/FC will find another screw to tighten up then. And another. And another. Until it works.