My apologies if you have seen this text before, but I find that repetition is often a crucial element to driving change. I have previously posted several suggestions of how Faction Warfare mechanics might be altered on this r/eve post I have also shared these thoughts directly with CCP. I would appreciate if the CSM would give these suggestions (or other FW-focused suggestions) serious consideration:
Over the last few years, CCP has received numerous suggestions for changes in mechanics from the FW community. I understand that CCP, equipped with a finite staff of developers and financial constraints, is not always able to accommodate these requests. I also realize that for suggestions that require extensive reworks of existing systems, the time required for a developer to implement that change is generally greater. I appreciate that even seemingly minor tweaks to mechanics can require a complete rework of the code that supports it. Thus, proposals containing suggestions involving extensive changes are less likely to be seriously considered.
With these limitations in mind, I have prepared three specific and relatively minor (I think) alterations to FW mechanics. I would appreciate if you would seriously consider these proposed changes. What the FW community needs more than anything, I think, isn’t any one specific change – but a sign from CCP that FW is not a completely abandoned facet of the game. Implementing one or more of these changes (or other changes associated with FW) would be a good step towards renewing player excitement and interest in FW:
1.)
Context: FW complexes (colloquially referred to as plexes) come in 5 flavors: novice, small, medium, large, and open. Without getting bogged down by specifics, smaller plexes take less time to capture and have ship restrictions for smaller ships. However, despite the smallest plexes having the most extensive entry restrictions and shorter timers than larger ones. Running the plex timer down to zero for one’s faction changes system contestion level in favor of that faction by 0.66%, irrespective of the size of the plex. Plexes of each size respawn 30 minutes after they are completed (a novice which completes at 01:00 eve time will result in a novice spawning at 01:30 eve time). The consequence of this flat contestion reward across plexes with different timers is that novice and small plexes are prioritized over medium / large / open ones. PvP and fleet fights are therefore often avoided in favor of down shipping and running smaller plexes to achieve system control.
Suggestion: Alter the percentage of system contestion change from capturing a FW plex from 0.66% per plex (irrespective of size) to 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% for novice, small, medium, and large/open plexes, respectively. Alter the time to capture to 10, 15, 20, and 25 minutes (or some variant on these with progressively larger timer / contestion delta for larger plexes), respectively. This will shift priority from the smallest plexes to the larger ones, and will therefore appropriately award the faction willing to field hardier doctrines to hold larger plexes, as they award more delta contested level per unit time. This will encourage pvp and fleet fights as a necessary part of FW conflict as opposed to aggressive down shipping and conflict aversion, as is appropriate. Increasing the contestion delta will reduce substantially the number of plexes required to push a system to the “vulnerable” state (100% contestion). However, I think this would be a satisfactory outcome in the context of the suggestion bellow:
2.)
Context: FW complexes can be run for either the defending faction or attacking faction – defined by the faction that currently owns the system being the defender. To run down a plex timer for the defending faction, one needs to only have a character enlisted in that faction present within 30km of the plex beacon. To run a plex for the attacking faction, the above criteria must be satisfied and the NPC which spawns to defend the complex must be killed (usually several times, as it respawns). The relative ease of running a plex defensively (d-plexing) is one contributor to bot proliferation and extensive use of alt accounts which are able to run a plex using a hull with no modules fitted. A single individual operating a host of low-sp alts during a lull in pvp can effectively counteract hours of active oplexing done by dozens of individuals. Knowing this, FW fleets have been known to be stood down rather than engage the opposing faction with the explicit plan of undoing the opposing faction’s progress with ease after its pilots log off, bored into submission.
Suggestion: Instead of having each plex guarded by a single NPC aligned with the faction that owns the system, have each plex guarded by two NPCs (one per faction), seemingly engaged in a perpetual stalemate. Set their damage to almost 0, such that they are unable to break one another’s passive shield regeneration, buff their passive shield generation such that more DPS is required to overcome this (to balance years of DPS creep through introduction of triglav ships and buffs to close range weapon systems). Lock the plex timer for FW players until the opposing faction’s NPC is destroyed. This will reduce the utility of very low SP characters in dplexing efforts and will hopefully encourage pvp.
3.)
Context: Unlike nullsec, where a primary source of corp / alliance income is tax from ratting “tics”, there is no analogous method for taxing player-generated currency in FW lowsec. It is therefore relatively difficult for FW corps and alliances to afford structures, fuels for those structures, or fund a ship replacement program (SRP). As a result of this difference (along with many others), the relative size, complexity, and success of FW entities has historically been limited relative to that off nullsec alliances.
Suggestion: Implement a corp tax for LP. Add an LP section for corp wallets similar to what currently exists for player wallets. Implement a modifiable tax rate analogous to the tax rate setting that currently exists for ISK bounties. Allow corps cash out LP by selecting items from corp hangars installed in NPC stations with LP stores.
Again, thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I reiterate that appeasing any one of these proposed changes is relatively unimportant. More than anything I think, FW-aligned players just need some reassurance that they aren’t being left behind.
Best,
Mikal Vektor
