There could be ‘empire’ level pve content spanning sovereign space that simulates pvp strategic level warfare but to a lesser degree so that empires have to invest time to defend their systems from attack from all angles which should hopefully create an ISK sink (both in the fact there are no real rewards except salvage, no fonts of ISK from these attacks and they consume player stuff, requiring logistics and constant vigilance against these threats)
The lore rational could be that since the capsuleers who have renounced their loyalties to the empires have elected to rule their own petty kingdoms, CONCORD have decided to remove all bounties from destroying the pirate fleets besieging their structures and responding to capsuleers because CONCORD has no sympathy to those in sov space
I would fully expect the pirates who occupy ‘claimed’ territory to object to the presence of capsuleers pilfering their sites. There isn’t much dynamic to pve at present and largely null sec is only really the place of pvp. I think it’d be an interesting environment if we were more a presence in a world that exists rather than the stagnation that exists today with no real variation to how the game has been played over the last ten or so years.
CCP tried this with the aggressive Drifter attacks, the ones that would even ignore Damage cap on structures. The collective consensus of the overwhelming majority of “empire” players was that it was very bad idea and CCP stopped it in less than 2 weeks.
You’re effectively advocating a “man-hour” tax to maintain Sovereignty in space. This would just force everyone into larger nullsec blobs and discourage actual PvP since so many people would be dedicated (and subsequently burned out) to fighting against an NPC menace that can strike around the clock, never runs out of resources, and requires a substantial number of people holding round-the-clock watches.
Every time someone includes “I think it’d be interesting” in their post, it’s a red flag for a terrible idea. This rule has been shown to be true yet again.
Why would you want to add an inferior simulation of PvP when you have real PvP already? EVE is a PvP game where the content is supposed to be driven by the players, not by the NPCs.
I’ve heard this repeatedly across EVE Online but even so other players can take advantage of the dynamic, EVE is a PVP game but Faction Warfare exists (and is massively exploited), protesting this mantra is nonsensical because it ignores the vast amount of farming and PVE. It really isn’t the case that it’s a PVP game - it’s like saying a car tyre was intended for being used by a car so it can never be a table.
PVP in EVE doesn’t really exist as a social environment until there’s something to demand it, no one really actively PVPs and they are mostly forced to engage in it from their actions. The idea is to push people into being active instead of defensive or farming and could be part of breaking farming (like with trig invasions).
PVE is as much of the game as PVP is but the problem is the model has stagnated to the point where improvements and additions have to be carefully built. Another part of this idea could also be that NPCs involve themselves in player fights in sov space or NPC space (pirates or police elements of NPC factions, given standings). No game should be reliant on one part of what makes it a game