NPC's Rats are Structure Bashing

[Nevyn_Auscent]

@Felyx_Ravencroft

Fear of the unknown

The issue here is that it isn’t unknown. It’s high sec space. This is highly civilised space which displays NPC’s and gate guns on every single gate, sometimes several different squadrons of ships. FOB rats suddenly reinforcing structures and gate camping in this is a massive break in immersion.
If you want this to happen then you need to change the overall feel of highsec before introducing such rats, remove the NPC’s off gates listing ‘Empire patrols are worked to breaking point so have to cut back on gate protection, trusting to the gate guns’. Then have the FOB patrols actually have a shoot out with the gate guns (or move the gate guns onto the gate itself and then have them shoot the gate for a bit to disable them, or both in order as an evolution to reduce cost from lost platforms).

This in no way reduces the unknown, but it does make the unknown logical. A 1% chance of dying every time you jump through a gate is unknown and scary after all. But it’s not interesting or controllable. And that’s important.

(And yes, I know a lot of ships can survive the FOB rats gate camping etc, but it doesn’t change the fact that suddenly we have pirate NPC’s doing things players can’t even dream of doing)

[Felyx_Ravencroft]

@Nevyn_Auscent

The issue here is that it isn’t unknown. It’s high sec space. This is highly civilised space which displays NPC’s and gate guns on every single gate, sometimes several different squadrons of ships.

I don’t see how that is in any way relevant: introduce an unknown element into a known environment, the new element is still unknown. Those who don’t want to risk, can simply avoid (yes, those on autopilot are at risk - but they already are from suicide gankers in any case), those who want to taste something different, can.

@Nevyn_Auscent

If you want this to happen then you need to change the overall feel of highsec before introducing such rats

Why? Introducing such rats does in itself initiate such a change of “the overall feel of highsec”. (Btw, I’m a hi-seccer, and I like these additions - for now, I’ll avoid them. At some point, I may decide “oh, what the hell”, or I may not and wait for details to start circulating - the option is mine, as it is every other player’s.)

@Nevyn_Auscent

And yes, I know a lot of ships can survive the FOB rats gate camping etc, but it doesn’t change the fact that suddenly we have pirate NPC’s doing things players can’t even dream of doing

Well, here’s an unknown quantity that may indeed alter my opinion, but for the moment I have not the data for that: personally, I haven’t met a FOP gang that I couldn’t simply ignore and be on my way, be it at gates or at stations. However, if they can indeed glue a player down, that does change things radically. I completely and emphatically agree that arbitrary unsurvivable random possibilities do not enhance the gaming experience, at least not for most (I would think.)

Over time, this current unknown will become known, as awareness increases and the details become available to all. This is inevitable - at some point, the various wiki and other sites will add entries with distilled findings (I haven’t looked at any such in a long time, as I prefer not to know everything in advance, so if I forget something about a particular site/encounter, so much the better! - for all I know, such info is already being published.) In the meantime, I really think it ought to be left to the player community to discover the specifics and for them to be disseminated in an organic/emergent player-driven fashion (which is, after all, a significant [some would say primary] aspect of the game as a whole.) This certainly would enhance the experience for the curious risk-takers for some time (I’m not one of them, btw, but I would certainly not begrudge them their fun), while also potentially setting up a temporary niche information market for those who may be interested (again, not my cup of tea, and again… well, see previous parentheses )

[Soldarius]

Mega vs FOB frigs won’t end well for you. Try something that can actually hit frigs.

[Agondray]

you know I got to thinking about the fobs last night, what if they were made to force players out of caldari/amarr space? yesterday alone I had 2 guys lose 4 haulers to these rats, 1 guy decided he needed to go back in 2 more haulers to get his loss from his previous hauler.

I can not jump around through those 2 empires ( I do a lot of traveling) without coming across the rats.

Also I agree if the few post above that something should have changed lore/npc wise in high sec if now we have full military forces invading doing camps, attacking stations, full mining ops (which I haven’t seen yet), setting up a full base to strike from right in the empires back yard.

[Algarion_Getz]

@Agondray

you know I got to thinking about the fobs last night, what if they were made to force players out of caldari/amarr space? yesterday alone I had 2 guys lose 4 haulers to these rats, 1 guy decided he needed to go back in 2 more haulers to get his loss from his previous hauler.

I can not jump around through those 2 empires ( I do a lot of traveling) without coming across the rats.

FOBs are in all spaces … even before they increased spawns. Why do ppl think FOBs only spawn in Amarr and Cardari space?

It could be that Amarr and Caldari systems have more FOBs than Gallente and Minmatar because its BR and GU home space.

[Rivr_Luzade]

@Agondray

setting up a full base to strike from right in the empires back yard.

Most importantly: slaughtering entire empire gate NPC squadrons with frigates and the empire NPC don’T do anything about it. They just sit there sipping tea while their ships melt away under their seats. This is ridiculous.