This ship could make a significant different in the current total large fleet battle clusterfack that is eve, It won’t be popular but it will be damn effective. Extractor is just a working name You can also cal it an “Abyss Field Modulator” or whatever.
The ‘Extractor’ is a ship type that has one simple function - it can install an “abyss module”. The best type of ship would be a battleship, but ideally there should be frigates that can fit “extractors”. Essentially an extractor allows for a fitted ship to target one suitable sized enemy vessel (generally same size or smaller) and involuntarily transport it to an abyssal space pocket. This technology wouldn’t work “predictably” against fleets as it would also have a side effect of transporting a number of random fleet members of a targeted ship to the same abyssal pocket.
Yes, I can almost hear the screams of anger and moral outrage by established players who are currently abusing the tie-die mechanic to win large wars and frankly I don’t care. Bigger alliance would be vehemently opposed to this as they are effectively controlling the battlefield by just adding more newbs in FY frigates to cripple territorial disputes,
But if you would be able to surgically extract, say, one or several targeted (or random ships that target YOU) from a TiDi innundated mess (basically,CCP throwing up their hands and stating they are unable to service their customers with existing server/connectivity technology) then you can make the over-all game a lot more playable.
This basic premise would completely change fleet battles- it would force back logistics (and simiar “vulnerable ships”) from the primary exchange. It would keep large concentrations of ships from occurring, for fear of being ‘abyss bubbled’.
One way of escaping such aggressive acts of “abyss bubbling” would be to burn away from being dragged down into an abyss. Activation time for such an attack might be something like 30 seconds in-game (subject to TiDi) allowing a fairly easy defense against it. The attack might also be “resistable” with warp core stabilizers.
I won’t argue the minutiae on how to implement it, or how to balance it, I just know I personally viciously despise TiDi and this would be a very sexy way on how to resolve it.
Implementation Tips for CCP
- if it’s implemented, call it a Khannea Module, lol so people can hate on me personally
- make the module/ship/skills expensive you don’t get cheap ships extracting expensive strategical vessels
- create modules in several size categories, i.e. S,M L extractor modules. Each module affects a certain size component - so smaller ships working in tandem can extact one larger ship by working together. And yes, larger ships can extract smaller ships into Abyssal space, but if so the smaller ship arrives a fair bit earlier, say 15-45 seconds.
- Most such abyssal pockets would be empty but some others would not be empty.
- There of course should be defensive systems against abyss extractors.
An alternative idea would be the creation of a black bubble in space, akin to a sinister opage black sphere. Maybe a black hole. Once its forming you can escape it, but it drags in al nearby ships with an increasing force, and it collapses after a few minutes. If you are dragged into such a “black hole” you are involuntarily dropped into an abyss pocket.
Plot twist
These abysses are not deadly. Ships that are extracted into abyssal pockets are vomited out after 5-10 minutes in some random system in the same region with a large warp energy sigature (which means - somewhere where there are very few nearby ships with a warp system signature.
Give me all your hate. I need your hate.
