Eve Sovereignty Revamp Proposal
It has come to my attention that Eve’s 0.0 meta game has become extremely conservative, dull, grindy, happening on too few events with too much lag. It has consolidated down to overly large blocks with too few threats and not enough continuous content to hold the attention of the player base for long periods of time. I have a revamp solution proposal that could cut down the size and stability of major blocks, and create a system for automatic creation of new groups, restructuring everything around continuous inter-galactic sparring rather than no holds barred back breaking shows of force.
Sovereignty within limits:
Start with a new scoring system that controls borders based on continuous NPC flows into local black out hot zones. Remove haven/sanctum grinding keeping the lower-level sites, but put all the high end isk making and 10/10 escalation takes into this. The NPCs stack and fight in lines along war lanes and the players prune and change the tide. The star system where the NPCs meet opposing each other would have special rules. Local is full black and the current combat theater would have a 90 second no warp timer on landing within a radius of captured structure. The idea here is to keep constant attrition and allow for tackles on snipers with no quick warp mobility. NPCs would fight over 5 nodes. One on the entry gate, one half way to center, one by the star with heavier HP’s on the structure. The captured structures are shot through and flipped on each theater by either NPCs, players, or both. The NPC’s would fly more intelligently than normal with difficulty somewhere between haven/sanctum and incursion difficulty. The combat strength of the NPC’s would be determined by a minimum flow and can be bolstered to a point by stocking structures that produce them in your sovereignty with materials.
Roaming Structures:
The new sovereignty design would include a central Node with approximately four exterior sub-nodes, each functioning as a structure foundation with docking rights even without a facility installed. The central node would install up to a mobile keepstar, the outer nodes would install up to a mobile fortizar. The position of the nodes and the number of nodes is determined automatically by the lanes of space you reside in and the lineup of opponents your NPC lines are clashing with based on the overall map picture of Null. If the alliance chooses not to install a structure, or is too poor to do so, the nodes still exist as foundation stations that cannot dock capitals or tether and simply take the supplies to bolster production and offer sub capital docking. Every downtime a daily score is collected based on how much territory was held for what amount of time, and gross mining in your sovereignty. The score analyzes down each opponent line and sets up new borders and positions for the nodes including the central node, the structures automatically rest and travel on the nodes. Any non-reinforced structures (the ones not on the node system) can be teleported manually with a fuel cost to retreat out of hostile territory or move forward into newly acquired territory. Asset safety out of all structures defaults at 2% cost fee to the central node (if a structure is installed) to give players a cheaper in house safety before normal ones activate to low-sec.
Newcomers and Failures:
Sovereignty holders who are holding minimal amounts of space and scoring lowly are periodically shuffled out of 0.0 and their position is offered to new groups who top the list of contenders. The contender list would come from two sources. One would be an automatic Alliance formation system. After a player has completed 100 level 4 missions they are given a sign up card that asks primary and secondary language. Based on this entry a random entity is periodically born and sent into the place where the losers were failing (one or two month cycle). The other half would be player created groups. Group scoring on the contender list would tally operations as mercenary hires for timer hires with fleet travel filaments. Attendance number, timer objective outcome, and competence feedback from the hirer set the point gained per hire. Sovereignty holders, or other random objective defenders & attackers can offer contract hires for timers and pay them. Cost would be one billion isk +50 million isk per pilot with a minimum showing of 20 pilots (minimum cruiser or tactical destroyer) to meet minimum requirements. Mercenary payments go to a structure slush fund and not SRP with a restricted market tab for structures and structure modules only. CCP would have to hand select a few community heros to run this legitimately and ensure players are not ripped off internally.
Failing alliances will simply lose all sov with a partial structure module refund and fall back down to the contender list, and can choose to dissolve back to applicant cards, or join another group. Dissolving alliances split assets evenly among players. Maximum number limits per block have to be the new meta to shrink the current trend towards massive alliances and self-perpetuating blue blocks.
Avoidance and Player workarounds:
Eve has no shortage of people using its systems in disingenuous ways, and the continuity of the gameplay is likely to be shaken up by a change as radical as this. So I propose two options:
Option 1: Add new 0.0 sov space equal to or larger than the current size that interconnects with the current sov vertically. This space would be league space that follows the new structure node rules and gives new players and alliances room to enter without risk of overwhelm and over-blobbing, with sov minimums keeping them afloat for at least a period.
Option 2 (preferred): Get the current block heads to agree to the new plan and downsize, split into smaller groups, and set up contender nodes on the opposite side of the map. There would be a maximum of two zones even for the biggest alliances. If they are not agreeable in full then let feelings be hurt. They can still be friends in back-rooms after all.
Question & Answer:
Q: Abuses: People simply blue up and and shoot the NPC’s and don’t fire on one another, or people ping pong all the way from end to end avoiding conflict and switching alts to the other alliance to set up kill zones.
A: The bounty for nodes would be bigger than regular farming in terms of isk, and the risk of down scoring and losing your posting would factor in. The NPC’s are only lockable by the opposing Sovereignty holder. As for alt swapping use a hard limit of one spy account and all the rest in your primary alliance for league sov as part of the EULA. That means multiboxers could only multi-box farm one direction and spy farm the other way with a single client. If new net authentication comes down in the future use it to keep this enforced.
Q: The current blocks will not agree to break standings and will work around every feature
A: Win the chieftains over as competitors and allow for bigger alliances who hold higher numbers and max out on scoring to run two zones one where they are currently located and another elsewhere randomly on the map. They will have to take an ego hit at the highest level, however the mid level players will find fresh leadership opportunities in these groups and it will improve overall game health including ships destroyed, demand for ore & materials, overall good-fight stories, ect…
Q: Blue blocks will surround other groups and make pet alliances that only feed the NPC kills.
A: The league system has to be designed to hard set standings on long wave intervals (2 weeks or so) If CCP chooses to design some amount of permanent blue setting maybe set up industrial lane features (convoys & material multiplication) that could be interrupted between internal industrials and outlaying fighters. I don’t recommend allowing more than one blue lane, and this mechanic is more of a sparring system on a cycle so the blues could be enemies later on in the cycle.
Q: Capital pilots will feel left out to dry without their swarm of max number friends around them and will be upset.
A: That attitude has shuffled more players into EVE retirement than any other. Putting capitals out there is a big risk and a big reward so let’s find ways to see them around in lower numbers and different situations. I’d like to see more fights with less time dilation involving capitals anyways. Use of Super Capitals for their AOE webbing ability will likely see them out there in low number in conjunction with the 90 second grid hold on landing.
Q: What about entosis mechanics and modules?
A: I think a hot zone always in action is more interesting than simply waiting around on grid and the jam-off mechanics favor boredom and frustration rather than brawling. If you choose to go with a special zone for this then entosis could function normally for the big-cat groups in the non-altered space.
Q: What will Structure nodes do without structures on them
A: The mobile nodes hold minerals and resources used for t2 production and automatically print them at a boosted rate when serviced. Larger ships (Battleships and Battlecruisers) flow out from the central node and smaller ones (Cruisers, Destroyers, and Tackle) come from the outer nodes. Back farming in someone’s territory is possible. The empty nodes do not allow structure gun defense or capital docking, and reinforce with much less HP.
Q: How do timers work with Structure nodes. Can I reinforce the main hub?
A: Once the outer node is reinforced a 6 hour delay begins (1 hour with no structure). NPC’s continue to be formed from the central node the smaller ships begin forming there on that lane. After the lane has been pushed from outer node to center, the central node can be reinforced. Each reinforce is a huge score for the point system (even if the structure is defended on the timer).
Q: How does the point system work
A: Nodes held per time, Ore mined in space, structure reinforces, structure destructions.
Q: How does NPC Travel work in non-contested systems?
A: NPCs will not just move gate to gate, they will have to warp node to node and travel 100km along a 50km radius sphere. They will move in reinforcement groupings waiting to warp as a unit. Each sphere will also have a 400km radius 90 second hold on landing zone. The gate nodes end 120km off gates with the central point 70 off gate in a random direction. Players entering the no warp zone centered near gates would be exempt and can warp normally after jumping in. Back farming will be a big element in player decision making as they will encounter battleship and battlecruiser sized NPC fighters with large bounties, no points and webs, and can choke off the combat power from flowing to the clash point. This will give people holding the field a nuisance to be dealt with while winning ship to ship engagements, and forces the groups to manage multiple objectives. Dominant fleets will have to decide how to move to cover pesky moves from smaller fleets that may be doing multiple back-farms and playing evasion.
Q: Won’t people just back farm and avoid conflict?
A: This is possible but the close proximity to the opponents’ home will temp titan or black ops drops on a flash form. Your name will show in local when not on the clash zone. The lust for kill-mails will suffice here.
Q: Why can Structures teleport now?
A: With borders changing based on the outer nodes daily, it makes sense for people to make easy retreats or to occupy new found territory without hassle. If the structures are reinforced then the teleport will not work. Also the fuel payment is after the teleport (to make retreating easier) but if the fuel amount isn’t deposited within 24 hours after move, the structure explodes.
Q: Can I put smaller structures than keepstars or fortizars on nodes?
A: Yes.
Q: What ship types will my NPC fighters come out as
A: The alliance leadership can select one of 8 or more option templates that require different base material amounts. Templates are changeable but have a 10 minute swap over time where there is no production or deployment. Some Templates might counter others, but generally it will be fodder. Templates will offer different range control strategies and e-wars and should include some player intelligent moves like MJD’s.
Q: How hard will the flow of ships be to a player? Will there be NPC logistics?
A: A single marauder will just barely hold up against the minimum NPC flow but if the buildings are stocked, a singe marauder will not hold and a fleet will require logistics support. Small NPC ships will tackle and point. NPC’s would have very small quantities of logistics but it would mostly just be a combatant flow. You will be able to repair friendly NPC combatants.
Q: Won’t players use spy alts and logistics blobs to stack friendly blobs of NPC’s into a stacked wall that will obliterate the incoming trickle?
A: The NPC’s will fight on each node for about 2-3 reinforcement waves. If it is a standoff they will simply move along at that point (assuming the disturbance is made by players). Only a massive group with hard points one each individual ship could accomplish this. Also friendly NPC’s that are pointed will turn and fire on the friendly alliance temporarily while pointed so you would need both a tackle fleet and friendly logistics to tank the friendly fire to make a friendly wall. NPC’s stop firing on friendly’s after leaving that grid zone. NPC’s will move out of and avoid bubbles when moving on from distractions.
Q: If NPC’s are shooting node structures to flip them over will they stop to shoot incoming waves as they come?
A: Half of the structure shooters will turn to fight, the other half will keep shooting the structure (think Desert Strike on Starcraft II). This will keep the natural back and forth unless players are there to intervene. Player entrances reset this cycle, and all NPC’s focus on ships when players are on grid. Node structures do not do anything other than mark a side of ownership and provide hit points to chew through. Flipping structures gives players on grid and de-cloaked and engaged a bounty reward.
Q: What about POCO’s, Jump bridges?
A: Let POCO’s and Jump bridges teleport to friendly space as well with the same fuel deposit after travel. The structure foundation system will have special Jump bridge rules. Structure foundation nodes will allow alliances to exceed the max number of a jump bridges in a single system. This will allow in system jump bridge to jump bridge travel from central node out to the outer foundation nodes. If the maximum range is exceeded along this route to the outer foundation structure nodes, then midpoint exception positions are automatically designated with the maximums being “lane count number” in the central system and two in every midpoint system. Jump brides elsewhere function normally and can be moved every 24 hours to friendly space. The jump bridges travel with the exception designation nodes automatically, and if there are extra jump bridges, and you lose the need for a travel midpoint, then they simply go off the nodes and remain there to be moved or deconstructed.
Q: Will I have to pay for my all my friendly NPC’s to be built?
A: The default trickle will be free with the Sov Status. The Structures will have 5 tiers you can fill up to increasing the numbers of ships coming out at a time. The cost would be multiplied along this curve so tier one would have the most efficiency and least ships where 5 would have the most deployed and least efficiency. There would be slots for each material and the structure defaults to the limiting minimum full vat tier. The Vats would include all minerals and base materials for t2 production (refined moon goo & P3 PI).
Q: What about TCU’s and Sovereignty bills?
A: TCU’s would no longer be installed by players and simply denote the systems ownership per day. Sovereignty bills would go away and be replaced by the material requirements to keep lane pressure up. This keeps the fees once eaten up by game mechanics flowing into markets and being destroyed on the battlefield creating content and kill mails.
Q: What happens if an alliance is losing on all fronts constantly but the lose out swap cycle hasn’t come up yet?
A: The losers space would condense down to a sort of minimum allowing some breathing room and chance to rebound. If a certain location is seeing many very poor results from multiple new groups then CCP could simply wash that location off and re-hatch the new contender nodes somewhere else. The holders at this new location would hurt less with structure relocation and retreat available. Conditions during these transitions should reflect breathing room for movers to get ready so maybe a four day cease fire for swap over & retreats and new installations. Perhaps special filaments could be incorporated to give newly installed alliance’s and strike-out alliance’s a limited ship move direct to high-sec during these transitions.
Q: What about Ihubs? Won’t it be frustrating managing upgrades with the sov changing around so much?
A: Ihubs will always be vulnerable like stations without the old SBU system renewed. Increase the shield size some to help make them defensible on attack. With the structure moving system you will be able to have two Ihubs in systems with full SOV timer protections. Think pre-entosis Ihubs with timers. That way you can store your upgrade installations. If you need to store more than two in one system then the third Ihub is full vulnerable structure (no timers) but will still store the modules for you. With Haven/Sanctum removed or drastically reduced, ihubs will be more about mining and wormhole upgrades as the mill grades which will only affect 6/10 escalation site level farming. Perhaps military upgrades could also make a small affect on structure resistances in system. Ihubs have a 24 hour period after sov is lost before the timer protection leaves to give the alliance a change to retreat jump the structure to somewhere safe. Ihubs will also have a small fuel bay for storing fuel payments: storing around two max range jumps.
Conclusion:
The objective here is to set up smaller continuous and more casual play that revolves around mixed PVP and PVE environments and drives demand for products. Let the farm and fields be bloody, filled with glory, and scored on a non-biased system over all of the day and night. Valuable assets like moons will change hands frequently and borders will shift on a daily schedule instead of a monthly or yearly one. This will keep null sec hot and active and train many more players in small and medium sized tactics and FCing.
With a contender league system and a mercenary timer reinforcement system built into eve, groups without a foothold will still get to participate in some action above their commitment level and see if they like it. Perhaps the contender system could have an opt off for sovereignty to just work as mercenary fighters using filaments and build up structure capital funds until the time is right. Groups will shuffle faster, and new players can assume leadership positions easier with less down pressure. I think this is a major winning plan for EVE.
Pacolipse / JetCanPlumber
*Pacolipse / JetCanPlumb is an EVE veteran Dual-Boxer from 2009 who saw his first fighting in the downfall of the Northern Coalition in 2010 (not to be confused with NCDot alliance). He plays off and on in various communities in game including Null & Incursion play. DM or mail for feedback or discussion.