So I was in the shower this morning cleaning the better bits of me and an idea sparked into my mind. What if the EVE sov system was just simply simple.
Keep It Simple Stupids
The ultimate purpose of sov should be to show who lives where and who dominates the territory. That was what was in mind when player first started declaring territory even before there was a system in place to reflect it. So a sov system should reflect this. It should have nothing to do with upgrades or isk or whatever else.
The sov system should be tied into the map. It should be broken into 3 types of sovereignty. What 3 types of sovereignty? Yes 3 types and yet it’s still simpler than the current mechanics. You could even tie it into Concord for RP purposes.
Type 1 : System Residents
The map should reflect what alliance collects the most bounties issued by Concord and what alliance harvests the most resources. Whoever this is it should be reflected on the map.
Why?
The reasoning for this is that it is entirely possible with the current mechanics for alliances to “own” large swaths of space and never use much of it. This lack of use should be reflected some how so that upcoming alliances can see what parts of space are actually unused vs areas that are heavily farmed.
Type 2 : Constellation Proprietors
The map should reflect what alliance has deployed the most infrastructure in a given constellation. Citadels and the like are not relegated only to those who own them and can be shared with the public or chosen allies. This would reflect who has skin in the game so to speak out side of mobile assets like ships.
Why ?
It is entirely plausible that there could be regions of space where the infrastructure is owned by a different entity than those who actually live there and use it on a day to day basis. This distinction should be noticeable and made. For example currently in Providence space PL has been taking sov for the purpose of lifting the faction stations once the update takes place. As far as anyone living there can tell they have no actual plans to live there as most of the residents of provi continue about their day to day affairs mining and ratting inbetween fleet pings. So how can it be said that PL holds sov in the area when they actually don’t use or have any intentions to use the territory?
Type 3 : Regional Dominance
The final way to analyze who actually owns territory would be to see who has the greatest capacity to exert force over a region. This could be determined by the number of positive killmails generated by an alliance within a region. I leave it to CCP and whoever else to determine if isk lost or number of kills or some combination or other factors could be used to determine who is labeled as the dominate force in a region.
Why?
Because its again entirely possible that a region occupied by various residents and proprietors could be overshadowed by a greater military force and the map should reflect this reality as well.
Summery
I believe that the sov system should be simplified to only reflect on the map who uses the systems (Residents), who owns the most infrastructure in a constellation (proprietors) and who dominates the region (?Autocrat? I dunno you come up with something).
The Sov system should be removed from upgrades to systems and all the other things that are tied into it now such as the ability to deploy jump bridges.
I believe the problem with the current and former iterations of the sov system is that it is trying to do to many things at once. aka upgrades, structure mechanics, timers, etc. All of those things should be aside from who lives there owns the infrastructure and dominates militarily.
If you disagree without productive criticism then please refer to my better bits.