I’ve had an interesting Idea to solve a Problem, and it seems to solve an other Problem that is much bigger so let me share it. ( And it’s a mechanic that fit’s into the universe ^-^ )
The problem for small industry corps in Highsec is wardecs by groups like P I R A T and other “High Sec Pirates”, where the small corp is outscaled by very large amounts to respond in any way.
What about this idea:
What if you could PAY the empire for protecting your Structure with a really beefy NPC Battleship Fleet?
I’m a RPer and from my perspective it would totally make sense for the empires to accept this kind of deal, because Structures = business = economic growth in the systems. The wardec is authorised by CONCORD, but the empires would have an interest in securing their space that might be different
It fixxes two Problems:
Small corps are not pushed around by those Highsec pirates.
It creates a really big ISK sink into the game, since ransoms, that would maybe be paid to the Pirates are now paid to the empires.
The mechanic for NPCs to shoot just some alliances/corps should be already implemented in the game code. The cost of the NPC fleet could be dependent on corp/alli size and there could even be multiple options like small, medium, large fleet.
Shooting the NPCs could also resolve in a standing loss for that empire. And of course, NPCs can be attacked by all capsuleers. So this opens some interesting options.
Prices could be dependend on structure type, so the big fleet would always cost as much as the structure, so while Raitarus are pretty cheap, Azbels are not.
It should be only possible to order a fleet in some special cases, to not prevent “fair wardecs” from happening for example:
The attacking corp/ally is bigger then x* the size of the defending corp.
Or you could do what most of us do - put your private structure in holding corp and make your operating corp war ineligible. As long as you keep the structure fueled it’s an unattractive target. A lot of effort for little reward and if someone does kill it, they’re cheap enough to be considered disposable. You should have a business continuity plan so you know how you’re going to proceed if the holding corp is wardecced.
If you are a “small industry corp” unable to defend your stuff, you should be living in NPC stations or renting space from other players who can defend their structures. Or cheese the system and deploy a structure in an alt-corp and consider it disposable.
There are enough ways for players dodge and evade conflict with the current mechanics they are like a sieve and barely functional. The last iteration had the aggressors put some “skin in the game”, so perhaps it is next iterations should work to plug some of the gaping holes and create some real incentives for industrialists to deploy and then defend their stuff?
You mean like better bonuses if you are in the same Corp perhaps. Closer to null sec bonuses.
Or moon mining making anyone outside corp/alliance suspect.
Or are you in fact just proposing large sticks to high sec structures that already aren’t great.
What about if we just turned the cost structure around and make it more expensive to attack smaller corps and cheaper to attack bigger? That will fix all the things people complain about: Small corps have a little bit of a break from regular war decs because the attackers now need to have a clear target to profit from if they want to spend 500M+ for a war against a 1-man corp. Wars against smaller groups require a clear target if you don’t want to waste your ISK. Bigger groups are much more engageable for smaller war dec groups that don’t want to dish out 500M to attack Goons or TEST and thus have lots of targets to shoot.
Of course it fixed things. It stopped it being more desirable to target small groups due to cost.
And it did so in a way that can’t be gamed to decshield your structures by having 1 per holding corp using alts resulting in a 500 million isk bill to attack a single structure the way you are proposing. Your proposal is horribly flawed, and relies on CCP backtracking, making everyone deccable again despite the very clear message they gave that social corps are here to stay in some form.
Hardly. The cost for small corps increased from 50M in the old system to 100M in the new system.
They did not introduce a social corp. They just made every corp not wardecable that does not hold a structure, which is not turning a corp into a social corp. Besides, that system is being gamed as well with holding corps for structures that 20k chars strong alliances use, which you cannot war dec.
But it costs the same to target a small corp as a large corp now.
The old system a small corp was far cheaper and therefore made for a more desirable target in many ways.
Eh, who am I kidding, you don’t care about any logic here, you are just crying because you want to wardec social corps.
There are no social corps in EVE. CCP never introduced such a thing. All they did was introduce a gamable system that gives huge groups all the benefits without any of the downsides. You complain about my suggestion being gamable, yet this system is even worse. You complain about my lack of logic, while you are even more illogical.
And that is why I said it needs to be turned around. You can also have additional factors influencing the war dec cost. For instance, if your corp holds a structure, the cost goes down considerably as you are deemed to be a competent corp with ressources to defend itself.
cues “You have to come up with crutches to make your system work” lamentation
The Idea behind this feature is simple. While the outcome might remain nearly the same, both sides of players would get a benefit:
The Pirates get an interesting fight against some OP NPCs and can still kill the structure if they are good enough.
The Owner of the small corp doesn’t feel that helpless and alone if he/she can order some Empire-Battleships. Probably his structure will die, but not to something like 3 RR Domis if he pays the price ~_~
So both sides profit from it. Eve should be fun right? And the current situation isn’t fun for anybody, because some Corps won’t anchor a structure, because they know 100% they cannot defend it, and Pirates get nothing to shoot, because there is nobody who want’s to interact with them.
Let’s be clear… Pirates will always have the advantage, because they force their way of playing onto other people. Just imagine if it was reverse. “To shoot a target you first have to mine 100mil veldspar” would that be fun for pirates? probably not.
And since eve is a game and not a full time job, some players might never archive their dreams of owning a citadel, because they are just not social enough…
Which is exactly as it should be. The reason success in EVE means something, in dramatic contrast to most other games, is that failure is always an option. There are many obstacles in your path, and a lot of players are unable to overcome them and do not achieve their goals. But when you do overcome a challenge and earn your success it feels like a genuine accomplishment that keeps you engaged with the game.
Take that away, start from a design premise that it isn’t ok that players aren’t able to achieve their dreams, and you kill everything that makes EVE special.
Just imagine if it was reverse. “To shoot a target you first have to mine 100mil veldspar” would that be fun for pirates? probably not.
But it already is that way! To shoot someone you need to have a ship to shoot them with, and ships have to be manufactured by players using resources harvested by players. Unless you’re RMTing ISK it absolutely is a prerequisite that you do some form of PvE or industry before engaging in combat PvP.
First off, I want to point out those you consider “The Pirates” don’t all consider themselves “pirates”. Some are mercenaries, some are pirates, and some are people that got ticked off by actions of other players, like maybe somebody hogging all the ice.
Not all war decs are initiated for monetary gain, sometimes it is simply for revenge.
Secondly,
PVPs are not always interested in fighting “some OP NPCs”, actually they’d be doing pve, if they wanted to fight op npcs. In fact, there are players such as myself who are not at all attracted to fighting npcs. I want to match wits with other players.
So, your proposal holds no benefits for a player such as myself.
Thirdly, why not hire player mercenaries? That can be done now, without rewriting any code on CCP’s part right now. Or, are you proposing the OP NPCs be so cheap to hire, that hiring OP NPCS entirely eliminates a player profession? Cause, if that is the case, that your proposal has the end effect of eliminating a player profession in game, I am against it.
They need to backtrack on that message because it was a terrible idea. The concept of a “social corp” should not exist in a competitive PvP game. If you want to chat with people you can form a chat channel, you don’t need a special war immunity shield against PvP.
What about if we just turned the cost structure around and make it more expensive to attack smaller corps and cheaper to attack bigger? That will fix all the things people complain about: Small corps have a little bit of a break from regular war decs because the attackers now need to have a clear target to profit from if they want to spend 500M+ for a war against a 1-man corp. Wars against smaller groups require a clear target if you don’t want to waste your ISK. Bigger groups are much more engageable for smaller war dec groups that don’t want to dish out 500M to attack Goons or TEST and thus have lots of targets to shoot.