Hello my friends. There are no promises with these kind of things, but I’d very much like to take a comprehensive document to Iceland with me at the Winter Summit this year, it’s looking promising through preliminary discussions that an FW session is possible. I highly recommend you join the Cross Faction discord channel as it’s probably the best place to have discussions.
I really want a list of suggestions, with a perceived difficulty for CCP to implement, from Overhaul (Game Designers needed, new mechanics, revamps to existing mechanics), Fixes (Generally low level game design that is mostly just changing current numbers etc.) and Tweaks (Very small changes).
Once the list is populated. I’ll poll you all on how you feel about each issue (This is terrible to this is a great idea) and how much impact you think each change will have on your gameplay (This wouldn’t change much to PLEASE OMG) etc.
You can also post in this thread too of course, I’ll be actively monitoring it. I’d really appreciate blog posts or well written long posts about these issues too so I can link them in the document as an addendum.
Small suggestion and changes are probably what is in the scope of what I can push to get changed. So I really want your FW little things. Removing the MWD chase ability from rats in FW plexes as listed in the document is a good example of this, small but removes a frustration.
I’m also checking out the other FW threads on the forums and will be populating the document as the weeks go on.
Thanks Suitonia, we need this badly. The problem is that there isn’t that much low hanging fruit left. The problems in FW and LS are now down to pretty major issues. I’ll sign up to the Discord but at a pinch some of the concerns are (badly formatted brain dump!)
FW Warfare system capture rewards
Citadels have broken the no-docking meta; We need a real reason to take a system. Perhaps Sov Null type anchorable structures, other mechanical advantages (e.g gate guns in captured system won’t shoot at pilots of that faction)
Citadel vuln changes have improved the situation and we’re seeing citadels getting knocked over at a decent rate now but it’s still too easy to stage in an enemies system. Advantage has gone to the attacker as a result.
FW plex fighting
Sliding is no longer a thing (appears to have been broken recently; Was this intentional by CCP??)
WCS changes just moved people to ventures, as we predicted. Make de-plexing a task that involves shooting something too, at least that way farmers will need to fit weapons. If that’s considered too extreme we have options for things like plex timers resetting over time and systems slowly de-plexing in a similar manner to
Suspect timers for non FW pilots entering plexes (Supported by all sides, including pirates)
General LS/FW issues for consideration
Give us some more flavour options that differentiates LS from Null
L4 Mission Running at high Tiers outpays nearly any other solo money making activity in Eve. Should probably be looked at.
The LP stores between the four races are nastily unbalanced. Gallente especially, however a good deal of that is due to the VNI. Nerf Galmil slightly, buff others.
A Concord Equivalent mechanics ship for pilots at -10
The big scale fights have gone from LS with the moon mining changes. It’s unrewarding and high risk to mine in LS, so moon income has essentially just disappeared from LS. Having some kind of top-down replacement in LS (I know this was a change lobbied for strongly by the NS chaps) would create motivation for the old Snuff/Suddenly Spaceships type bigger fights.
Industry - Low Sec industry isn’t the greatest sell in the world. You can do things better and cheaper in Null and HS is worth the (very small) extra outlay for the huge increase in personal security. So let’s have a little more carrot and less stick in this case. Having less legal goods (eg. boosters) for an RP reason seems to have met it’s end with CCP changes (unfortunately from my perspective) so that’s probably not a route worth investigating. Using the tax system to reward LS production and to potentially hamper incoming null built goods would be interesting and would reflect the empires protecting themselves in the same way that an economic union would in the real world (Eg. the EU import tariffs) could really help LS goods be market competitive … however as Citadels have removed tax from the equation, we’ve got a ball of knots to unravel (Citadels with zero tax are a horror show) to get to anything like this.
Uniquely LS events/sites. Why is LS actually LS? More flavour around the empires doing underhand things in their official grey areas would add romance and intrigue to an area of the game that people tend to see in black and white. I’m not saying don’t have events throughout eve, just have more specific content which is compelling in each part of space.
More (carefully considered) structures designed for particular parts of space. Although we’ve got a small amount of this, let’s use the existing tech to open possibilities for further differentiation. Eg. You want to make caps? Null it is. You want to produce large fleets of smaller ships, perhaps you’re better off with the partial support of the empires in LS.
Making borders mobile. The eve map is pretty static. Moving the boundaries of LS/HS and perhaps even NPC null based on player activity would be a very interesting mechanic - Perhaps also difficult to implement but one that might drive desire
…Oh and what happened to the Navy Battleship balance pass that was mentioned at Fanfest? At the moment they don’t have any niche to fill in the game and are generally undercut and outperformed in all ways by their pirate equivalents. Let’s see the love here.
having some form of empire faction incursion where players have to defend/attack constellations at a time might prove useful… but probably a big addition that…
how about border problems? whereby if a system is ‘owned’ by a faction for so long neibouring systems can become lawless?
yeh… that would probably be a big change too; and ccp do love to keep things very static.
There’s nothing wrong with Galmil L.P. store. Problem is with drone auto aggression and their auto AFK target cycling. Basically THE reason VNI is used as the go to ship in nullsec ratting. Fix the problem without breaking the tools.
First I just wanted to say thanks for bringing up FW so early on even before you where chosen, it seems others have jumped on board because of it and FW is getting the attention it deserves :].
I would think that FW would need more time dedicated to it than quick fix’s but if quick fix’s is all that is possible at the moment then I would vote for:
Smaller difference’s in lp reward’s/losses between tier’s, becuase it has such a massive difference it’s only natural to boost one side as high as posible farm the lp then jump ship to the other side push it the other way and farm that side while the other side’s lp becomes worth more. Which is not really rewarding loyalty.
Maybe something like T1 - 10% T2 -5% T3 base line. T4 5% T5 10%:
Then + % depending on FW rank so that earning a higher rank is worth doing, so more reward for personal achievement’s and less on going with the zerg.
Also I would suggest changing the way one gains FW rank, maybe have it slowly decrease over time and the only way to push it back up again is by donating LP, this makes it so that everyone is donating instead of only a select few, which should make things more interesting for everyone.
I would not like ranks to be associated with donation values, or even FW missions at any rate. I know a lot of great content generators that don’t make a lot of L.P. but do make a lot of killing.
I would not like a passive drop in rank either, as I would honor veterans and the breaks that they occasionally take from the game. Their return makes me smile, as I love seeing the old faces of my comrades.
I’m really not sure we should advocate for changes by CCP to lowsec, FW. Lowsec atm survives only because CCP ignores it, it’s not in perfect health but it still lives. If you make it too valuable to live there, all what happens is, that the big nullsec cartels just grab it like they did with the highsec markets.
Oh another one suggested in Corp - Potentially a quickish one
Another motivation for system flipping could be that the LP granted as a reward when the iHub flips could accumulate over time, so that a long held system would be worth much more when captured than a flip-flopped system.
We have a capture the flag like system here in FW. But what about TAG. or please bare with me for the harsh of the name but its what we called it, smear the queer? You know where you have a ball or object and who ever has it, is primary. lol
Tag could be interesting too, gotta get them before they get to the goal or safe area, Just some basic cat and mouse, run and hide, concepts. Hope this helps fuel some brainstorming.
Yea IDK… Imagine you just conquered Dal. and in your celebration, you and your fleet mates decide another. Instead of it being the way it is now, where you would just fly to the next system and sit on the button… You have to acquire an object in the first system claimed, then, take that object to the next while claiming it. If you are captured or that object is taken… then you have to get it back. For system that are in limbo, or in the between “sovereignty” this could be an interesting way to boost a claim.?
There are many ideas people can have to achieve a spring of action into FW gameplay. Gotta make new requirements, and have new challenges, and something that brings people together, like a focal point, in physical space, where everyone comes together to defend or offend a claim. Sitting on a button in a SB is boring. There is NO challenge to FW imo. and TBH the rewards aren’t so great either. I mean the LP is nice, and when you get the tier to lv 4… sure… its awesome. But that could be improved. I am sure.
I really appreciate that you are taking a thought out, intentional agenda to the next CSM. Having said that - I also think that you need numbers to back it up. Maybe an online petition of support of players that support the final draft of the changes you propose. The ideas shared and to be shared can be great - but what does that look like player wise is it 15 peeps or 500. They assume its there in null because of the sizes of the Alliances etc… In FW I think its just a faithful few who want change. Just a thought.
Instead of just qualitative data (opinions or gut feelings or well liked ideas) lets share quantifiable data ( number of players that are active and participating in FW and want actual change ).
As to small changes…
a) Bring back gate sliding. Its loss in my opinion is far more harmful than even dealing with stabbed farmers (don’t really want them back either tbh).
b) One issue I have always had is the grind that is orbiting Kevin Beacon. After awhile the slog becomes boring as hell - even with the purpose of eventually capturing a system. In addition - the rat/player interaction is meh at best. Might I suggest something to spice up the scene and is similar to what has already been proposed.
The technology to bring about what I am going to propose already exists in-game (and tbh is begging for what follows). Why cant the NPC factions launch occasional Faction AI offensives in random opponent controlled systems. These FW incursions would not happen a lot - but would allow for each attacking factions non-npc players to support the offensive, and would force opposing players to counter the offensive. The key would be that at its conclusion - if the offensive is successful, the contested system would immediately flip. Conversely, If the defense is successful - then maybe some reward in addition to owning the field.
I don’t know what the exact mechanics would look like - many of you are better game designers than I.
Would be like water in the de-plex/o-plex desert that currently exists - and would allow occasional system turns to happen quicker. A prize to be contested - and that would propel fighting for these hot spot systems to the fore.
