Fozzie-SOV Redesign #3269-471: Merging PI with Entosis Nodes

TL;DR: Remove Entosis, Replace with Plantary Command Centers, add Capture/Destroy mechanics to PI, something something bring back Dust514 somehow, Buy my stockpiles of Orbital Ammo, PROFIT

For some reason people don’t like PI at all and I think that’s just sad. However, almost nobody enjoys entosis as-is, so I figure merging them into something people only find drudging that also alleviates some of the complaints of citadels, based on the debut post of this idea on the old forums, is a net plus for everyone concerned. Who’s with me?! Nobody? Aww… Anyways, to the meat of it.
P.S. my numbers are wrong on volume of a single person/livestock, standard is 1m3, not the 0.1~0.2m3 my figures concluded, though I’d argue that’s for berthing space and not raw drop-seat volume, code probably wouldn’t allow an item to take up different amounts of space depending on where it was stored, so just ignore that and focus on the general fluffy idea of the scale presented

Entosis Nodes no longer exist, instead Sovereignty is split between each planet in a system either evenly or based on the effective abundance of resources or the productivity of any established PI, there’s a lot of ways you can play with that alone to make the whole system interesting from an economics point of view. Whichever Alliance, Corporation, or even individual player holds at least a two-thirds majority of the “claimed SOV” in a given solar system is granted ownership and thereby sovereignty of it. There are three ways to alter the balance of power: claim any available SOV left and achieve super-majority control on merit alone; destroy the command centers of the system ruler, [sic] eliminating his control nodes; or unloading drop troops and assault shuttles from orbit (or from hangar PI based on your grid for that planet) to capture unfriendly PI and claiming the system by right of conquest.

As far as troop capture mechanics go it could range from a rehashed RTS mechanic with active control by the invader to a simple “land troops here, watch them fight security forces there, bomb that building way over there, wait until the little guys win or get eaten” ‘fishbowl simulator’. I’m in favor of the fishbowl method as it keeps players engaged in the potential orbital fight rather than staring at PI the whole time trying to keep up a decent APM against a professional in the korean e-sports circuits- that and fishbowls appeal to me on a personal level.

New PI buildings would include sidegrades to the command center or supplementary buildings to increase SOV bonuses or make capture more difficult (Capitol Center/Command Bunker/Solar Annex/SysAdmin Annex/Barracks); A sidegrade to the Launchpad to make using shuttles more effective and open up a drone-based surface-to-orbit/ots transfer mechanic, albeit a slow, low-volume one (more fishbowl stuff, for those of us who like it); and new PI that allows the construction of a larger powergrid to facilitate more expansive PI and surface defenses (Planetary Reactor, Capacitor Grid, Shield Generator, Counter-Orbital Battery S & XL variants, Ammo Dump).

Several Options for troop delivery systems, from drop pod swarms and decoy pods to several flavors of fighter-class shuttles and the slotted/rigged modules to base them off any ship, plus PI-SOV oriented industrials/freighters, open a wide variety of options for any level of player to engage in contests over SOV. Further it allows, and ideally promotes, even small raiders and mercenary forces to threaten the edges of an Alliance’s SOV zones and creates dynamic warzones with emergent depth to the both the grand strategy of a war and the local tactics employed in each system. With citadels acting as hard targets and redoubts while actual SOV is held in the weaker and more easily replaceable PI arrays, control of system might still drag on for a few days, especially clearing out every citadel, but tangible progress should be felt in both attack and defense.

I would further recommend that if a faction (alliance, corp, or player) does not have any PI in a system, and thus a claim on the SOV pool, while at war with another faction that holds sovereignty of that system, any Citadels they hold there are rendered vulnerable 24/7 until either SOV claimancy or war status changes. This conditional vulnerability would speed removal of enemy citadels from a fully secured system and place emphasis on the importance of the more nimble, and I would hope more engaging, orbital game; Citadels would become strategic emplacements instead of nigh-intractable dragon’s teeth and ought to be focused around the planets themselves to provide for their defense rather than making the gaining of new territory a purely fatal chore.

I’d think this not only promotes more meaningful war activities and makes it so more types of players can take part, but also makes it much more fun.

ED: ah, even after trimming and summarizing everything, it’s still a wall of text.

Sorry, i dont have time to read all that textwall.

I like Entosis as is.
Only thing that i dont like about SOV is the TZ tanking. But thats different.

No. PI should not be associated with sovereignty in any form beyond a given entity’s ownership of POCOs. “Fun” is no excuse for turning what is meant to be an industrial activity into a ■■■■-fest.

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I think the idea is ‘ok’ overall, but the details and method of mechanics I feel need some major refinement since we no longer have any chance of space elevators and DUST514 style involvement.

@Krysenth I feel maybe not the PI but the Command Centers might be a direction for such an endeavor.

However, maybe splitting SOV control between a major Citadel or two and whom owns the POCO’s in that system (nullsec) could maybe work better. ( I know, thats taking a step back towards an old style of SOV warfare)

I think this would be interesting, however I would add a special building, that’s necessary to be involved in the SOV claim. Let’s call it “flag” for now, this building needs virtually no resources and only can be built in null-sec. This way independent PI is still possible as long as the SOV holder not doing anything against it, without interfering the war over the system.

I do agree PI could be expanded into other fronts, but I’m against the idea of having it affect Sov in a meaningful manner.

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Command Centers ARE PI. Without them, you cant do anything involving PI to begin with. So no. Frankly industrial activities should be wholly disassociated with Sov or attempts to change Sov entirely.

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So in your opinion mining to get a better defense multiplier is a bad thing?

Does that look like what I said? Should look at it again.

Well, mining is an industrial activity that affects sov-systems, so why is it a bad idea to involve PI too?

ED:
How about this: PI doesn’t give bonus, but gets benefits if you are part of the sov-holder corp/alliance, reduced bonus if you are friendly maybe. Neutral colonies are irrelevant, but can be used as decoys to make the important ones harder to find.
However destroying corp/alliance colonies in their sov systems will reduce their industry defense multiplier, so destroying colonies can be used to weaken the defenders.