What about a fully randomized final vulnerability window for both the day and time…for sake of argument, lets ignore the WarDec issues more now.
So you drop shields/armor and then pray the final window is favorable…this favors nobody and the defender still would have auto-defense to keep the smaller annoying people like me away…
Better?
In theory, I think it works… in practice I think I would never hit another structure after the first time I put all the time & effort in to get it to hull, only for it to come out ‘at a bad time’ so never get the finish.
Having said that, I do know (going back to POSes) as attackers our group would guesstimate how people had stronted their structures, plan a crazy o’clock op to hit it so when it did come out it would suit us… didn’t always work, but mostly.
I imagine that as a defender it would be ideal to be able to ‘force’ an attacker to attack when I can best defend…
And therefore I have no ‘one size suits all’ solution for this issue 
But imagine it’s something that gives a feeling like you’re in control of things (as the attacker and the defender) even if you may not be.
Regards,
Cypr3ss.
As goofie as CCP is at times, I don’t envy them when it comes to these types of balancing issues as it’s almost impossible to make everyone even remotely comfortable…the best case is that is sucks for everyone equally maybe.
Cheers
Ok I gt it now, you just don’t have a clue.
You split up my reply and replied to it totally out of context.
As a self confessed highsec’r I can see why you might see things the way you do but the reality is - The game is played very differently once you leave the safety of highsec.
The beauty of TZ tanking is, there aren’t many groups can field a fleet big enough to take us on in our TZ. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened, we have lost our share of structures to the sort of groups no-one in the game can fight successfully.
My biggest issue with this change is, AGAIN CCP haven’t thought it through - They haven’t taken into consideration the change will not affect the largest groups ability to defend but it will allow them to take out smaller groups at will.
Sadly CCP staff don’t have a clue on how the game is played. Development is purely, throw a bunch of drunken ideas into a hat, get the barmaid to pick one and go with it.
Until CCP take a good hard look at the game and start addressing issues as professionals (do the hard yards instead of “the simple fix is cheap and easy”) nothing will change, things will continue to stagnate and the biggest groups will keep getting bigger and less vulnerable to change.
Actually I spend about half my time in LS doing boring busy work but point taken.
It doesn’t matter what sec were taking about, the weaker always are at a disadvantage…anything that artificially tries to balance the equation just turns EVE into something is shouldn’t be in the first place. Ya is sucks to be a little fish but there it is…
CCP will probably never do anything against the big groups as the blackout taught them that lesson.
I do like these changes,
But I am still in the mindset, what would really help would be to lessen the number of characters per Corp and the number of corps per alliance plus set a limit to the number of blue standings (or add a cost if above soft limit).
Instead of 10k F1 monkeys in one group, break them up into 20 groups. I believe one of the worst things CCP did was to increase the number of characters that can be in a Corp (it worked at the time, but times have changed).
The blackout had nothing to do with null blocs. As a matter of fact, the BO helped the big entities and hurt the smaller ones. Why? Again, because null blocs such as INIT, Goons, Tri, Test and such, they all have the manpower to somewhat diminish the BO effect.
Ever since the BO, CCP is releasing changes that are hurting the small groups.
More Help for the big alliances and stepping on the small guys in the between regions of space that still fall victim to these rules. Namely, NPC space.
Instead, make hacking more useful and include it in some PvP to hack citadels to adjust the times a bit one way or the other.
can also use hacking to unanchor old dead POS structures.
Im sure there are many other uses but thats two quick easy thoughts.
Can you explain a bit more about how this is “stepping on the small guys” in NPC space?
Let me sum it up for you. A bunch of NS Care Bears said it’s too hard and inconvenient for us to destroy structures that belong to corps that can’t possibly defend against us. Now, not wanting to accept any real risk or having a purpose to destroying said structures, CCP Convict said “Let me fix that for you”. Any questions? BTW this pretty much applies to anyone not in a mega entity.
Yeah, the part about it relating specifically to NPC space?
Sorry for the delay in responding, i just got back from a Christmas party. I think my last sentence pretty much answered that. If you are not part of a mega entity, you are at risk of being run over by overwhelming odds. In HS they just need to wardec you first. If you had something more specific in mind, please clarify. If you are referring to LS, I never lived there, so i can’t give you an accurate assessment of how it will work.
I mean, how is this different from before the change?
I don’t see what anything that CCP has done with this coming patch actually doing what you’re saying it does. All of that was present in the game long before this patch.
He was able to avoid the small corp issue by exploiting TZ tanking. Now when he can’t set structure timer to the opposite of his neighbourghs TZ he is going to lose it sooner or later because he cannot defend it against his neighbourghs. And that is not acceptable, can’t you see it?
I’m going to guess that you are part of a mega entity that has a strong player presence 24/7, if that is the case, then you are correct, this new patch does not really change anything for you. For those of us that are small, independent entities, is means that we will not be able to ever own a structure. With the current system, the defender can dictate 2/3 of the bashing process. Under the new system, the attacker pretty much runs the show, with token control given to the defender.
Just for the record, small corps are not “exploiting” TZ tanking, it is just common sense that i would set my timers for when I’m available to man the guns. Some corps are actually a small group of friends that want to play casually, because the game is cool. If you want to say that TZ tanking is an exploit, you may as well say that keeping your station powered is exploiting the Full Power mechanic.
I think your example is the exception rather than the rule. If at peak time there are 30K people on and at off-peak there are 15K, when would you set the timer for a station that you probably could defend in the first place? Logically it’s when there are less people on. Sure it means that you might not be able to defend it yourself but by putting it at the off-peak time, you’ve just eliminated 1/2 the potential attackers. It’s no guarantee of course but for some, this is a great option.
With the old POS system and Stront reserves, you have a point. However now that stations do not automatically shoot back, the logical choice is not peak player time, but when myself or a corp mate can sit in the “Hot Seat” and shoot back.
I’m not sure what TZ you’re in, but this is the opposite of TZ tanking. As it’s very common that structures are vulnerable not when the corps activity is at its peak (as you’d expect), but when there are far less people logged in across the whole of Eve (i.e. AU TZ). Now if your active TZ happens to match up with the overall lull in online population, that’s just a win win (I guess).
That is logical, yes, but that’s not what has been happening (afaict).
Regards,
Cypr3ss.
Maybe we actually need a requirement that your structure timers are set to your corp/alliance activity then.
I’m sure CCP could generate an activity graph and set some kind of requirement based off it.
Then every structure hull timer is going to be when the Corp is active. So no one can complain the corp aren’t online
Rather than what CCP just did which makes it possible all 3 timers land on days you aren’t online.