Another badly thought of idea from CCP that has backfired in the most previsible way.
Introduced in the game as a way for players to anchor them on enemy skyhooks in order to drive PVP content, very little people are actually doing this because nobody wants to camp some nullsec you don’t live in and come back later for timers.
Instead, null groups are just anchoring them themselves on their worst skyhooks and killing their own dens and tracking down their own local timers within their systems as a new source of passive income.
Badly implemented idea, CCP stop yeeting content you didn’t think through into the game PLEASE.
I wholeheartedly agree. Mercenary Dens was one of the most stupid ideas I have seen in my entire life. To the Bad Ideas trash bin with them… as soon as possible please.
What exactly am I supposed to look at in the zkillboard link you provided?
Is it the few kills where groups kill their own dens? Are these a sign that this idea has backfired?
Have you considered that groups not only fight enemies over these dens but also destroy their own unattended mercenary dens when these dens go unattended too long and create anarchy? While I haven’t had the time to setup and defend these dens myself, I’ve seen the coordination that is involved with these dens and to me it seems like these dens create a lot of PvP content in hostile space but also in friendly space, which I think was the goal of the dens.
In what way did this plan to create more interaction between players with dens ‘backfire’?
Their primary goal wasn’t meant to sabotage our generate fights in hostile space. That was just something they could do possibly if a player wanted them to.
Their main goal was lore injection and a different way to populate new ships.
The primary intent is for you to put them on your own hooks and maintain them
I definitely disagree with this wholeheartedly. The Dens were not designed for creating anarchy and fights. Though this happens regularly. They were created as a way players can access and purchase the deathless ships with Infomorphs. Now, while I disagree with the way they decided to implement this, I do think they are useful. You actually have to run the Mercenary Tactical Operations to be able to advance these dens and make them more productive. Horde has done a fine job putting dens in our systems and tried to disrupt our workforce. There is nothing that benefits the skyhook with a Merc Den. So putting it on the worst skyhook makes no difference. Now, we as a whole, do and will kill our own dens when a player doesn’t do his part and keep the anarchy under check. So far I am enjoying this aspect of the game and the anticipation of when I will get my next Cenotaph.