This entire argument is built around and by what has always been a crap game mechanic. These gates. These “fatal funnels”. Been seeing threads like this for over a decade with the same arguments for and against. That’s a good sign of a bad mechanic.
Were it up to me™ I would have done it differently.
Let ships dial in a system to system warp as is done in just about every damned other sci fi genre.
Pilots can target not only the adjacent system but a given celestial body in the system with accuracy based on hull type, skills, etc.
Give interstellar warp capability a cooldown/spin-up time based on ship mass. Effected by hull type, bonus, player skills/implants/drugs. Make it compete with the amount of time it would take to scan a ship out with Combat Probes which are also effected by hull bonus, player skills/implants/drugs.
Cannot enter warp when under attack as it disrupts the temporary wormhole field generation.
By whatever mechanics, be it special hulls, modules, etc.
Do this, and space feels big. Hunting is actual hunting instead of camping a gate, which is just as punishing for the camper as it is for the players who get caught in them. Under the Herzog Plan if you want to camp a system you have to patrol it using D-Scan and combat probes and be ready to spring into action. Just like how we had to do it during the Sansha live events where we knew they were going to appear through a “violent wormhole” but not exactly where.
Or don’t do this, and it’s business as usual. Business does not appear as good as it used to be.
Well, according to the lore, stargates can connect to multiple adjacent systems instead of having just a single destination like they do now. Maybe CCP could finally make that an in-game thing?
Come to think of it, I’ve heard that the gate network got reshuffled back around 2006 or so. Is that what it was like before things changed to what they are now?
Wait, wut?
I smuggled some fuel from Delve to REDACTED (where my cloaky camper was) and did nothing else than ‘warp>cloak>jump>’. That was about 70 hops through a variety of null, low and high. Then jettison the fuel and pick it up with alt. Then go back and did nothing else than ‘warp>cloak>jump>’ about 70 more times. I had to avoid one gatecamp and waved at one GSF fleet that was wrecking it’s way through REDACTED space.
So yes, I needed a strategy “Muh fuel! Pickup here, smugglez there and drop off. And come back!”
Besides that I needed tactics -not strategy- to avoid gatecamps. You do know the difference between them, right? Because I see you using that word here so much but i’m certain you are not understaning what it means.
The risk? Just a ship and fitting so cheap I’d laugh it off with #AlreadyReplaced (multiple times) by my rorqual.
The art? Well, eh… 70x ‘warp>cloak>jump>’, jettison cargo, 70x ‘warp>cloak>jump>’ I guess I’d make a video of it and display it here (Tate Modern | Tate) . Your posts however are very artistic, you must be a comedian.
Looking back at my deaths in null, I’ve realized that most of them happened when I was just travelling somewhere without any valuable cargo. I’ve lost haulers and explorers, yes, but most deaths happened when I was just trying to get from point A to point B.
Since that’s the case, I’d like to repeat my suggestion from earlier:
I have assets in several different regions of the cluster, and they’re pretty spread out. Getting quickly from point A to point B without needing to worry about bubbles is a convenience that I’d like to have if I decide to go play somewhere else.
The ships I’m proposing would only be useful for getting around, they’re too delicate to serve as a scout and with no cargo hold they can’t haul low-volume, high-value cargo like BPOs. But when all you want is to get somewhere without being interdicted that can be pretty useful.
Blockade runners are already perfect. Yep it can get dicey going through a well set up gate camp, but that’s as it should be. They also have the remarkable ability to be Black Op bridged across an entire region with the help of a couple friends to completely avoid the camps and save time.
