Objective-based small-gang PVP?

Communications Center General Discussion
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So I have been dipping my toes back into EVE, but I am somehow failing to find the spark again. I have done almost everything in the past, and while I do love PVP and the jitters it gives me, I am finding going on roams for the sake of roaming to be a bit time consuming and, ultimately, pointless.

To help understand; I enjoy first person shooters, but I have never been a huge fan of deathmatch game modes. Running around and shooting willy-nilly just seems meh to me, and that panders to those obsessive over K:D ratio / Zkill numbers. I always liked king of the hill, or capture the flag, or other game types where there was some clear goal and you worked together to achieve it.

I haven’t joined a corp again yet, but that’s because I am not quite ready to invest the time for that. I have done some public fleets with Spectre Fleet and Bomber’s Bar. They are run well, and I have no complaints, but I am somehow failing to find the point this time around. Fun for the sake of fun is a valid argument, but the nature of EVE often means we roam for a while and nothing of note happens, and I could have played other games or done other things instead of roaming for 2 hours to pounce on a careless VNI.

So, I am kind of at a loss of my niche in EVE.

Low sec has FW. I actually did enjoy that a bit since we were fighting for control of systems. It was totally arbitrary, but I did like the sense of purpose. I will have to admit though, that I like doing lvl 4 missions in high sec on occasion, and it was hard to do when you could be attacked anywhere by the other militia when I just wanted to mindlessly krab once in a while without constantly having to check local or dscan.

Null is huge fleets if participating in this or other wars, and I would prefer small gangs. And if there isn’t some sov bashing or protecting, it is usually just pointless roams.

WH is kind of right, but it does require a bit of involvement, and I am just not sure if I can regularly pay that much attention. Having to scan new chains daily was a bit of a chore, and it just felt like I could never take a couple of days off without needing to be ready to jump in to defend our hole, lest all was lost if someone decided to evict us. At least in NPC stations or fueled citadels, I could bounce back from an all-out attack.

I tried the Trig invasion (which is about to end anyway), but it was pretty much just pve other than ologi making things harder for us. I liked the idea, similar to FW, but it wasn’t really engaging and didn’t even pay well.

Anyone else have thoughts on what to pursue? I do not intent to sound negative but rather to just lay out of my thoughts and see if someone can help me find that niche that screams out to me. Something with a sense of purpose other than just shoot stuff, but also not huge fleets.

A lot of people say it’s the community that is the reason to play. I am one who maybe gets involved 50%. I participate, I am on comms, but I am just not one to go all in and have never quite managed to break in to any sort of group. I have plenty of close friends IRL, but I have never been one to make online friends so much, even if I do get along with people in the corp without any issue. But I have just never developed anything more than a warm welcome from others when I do get on comms.

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I know exactly how you feel. What people call PVP nowadays mostly seems like roaming around with a rabid dog pack. You kill every mouse and rabbit you come across, gleeful in the destruction - but devoid of any other goals or motivation.

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i like the trill of facing other human in pvp and thats enough for me to have lots of fun
i also like the pride i get from paying my plex every month as a solo pilot
eve never gets old to me

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Where I’m at is in FW with the Ushra’Khan alliance, and I get to do FW and when the mood strikes, we’ve got some sovereign null too so it’s a nice split between two different activities.

I also do a fair bit of PI, exploration via relic/data sites and I like to do a bit of trading back at my homestation of Hek.

Just so you know, Eve Online is generally what you said: time consuming. No matter what you do.

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Isn’t it supposed to be time consuming? I think that is one of its features.

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for some of us dogs, tearing a rabbit to shreds is what we look forward to.

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I know.

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we, the players, make the story. we make the goals. Fozziesov wouldn’t be a thing if players didn’t want it. The Blue Donut wouldn’t be a thing if players didn’t want it. CODE wouldn’t be a thing if players didn’t want it. We’re all part of the story. We all influence the story. We have the power in New Eden… a few choose to be little fish in a big pond, picking at the floating algae. Some try to be big fish, gulping down little fish one at a time. One or two actually make it to the top of the food chain, swallowing little fish, big fish, and whatever floats in between. Where are you, and where do you want to be? Make it happen. The world is your oyster, and all the tools to make it happen are right there at your fingertips.

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I agree with Xeux, and feel similar to OP about the pointlessness of most PvP in EVE. It’s been literally over a decade since I felt any of the PvP in EVE was worth engaging in. Mostly because I’m neither a rabid dog nor someone who needs to boost their e-peen by killing easy targets.

OP, I always felt that objective-based PvP for rewards beyond loot or e-peen waving would be an excellent feature for EVE. Of course, small-scale PvP (solo/small gang/mini war) is what FW was designed for, but its’ various implementations have never quite hit the mark. I’ve also felt that in the short term, it feels like you’re accomplishing something, but in the long term, it becomes too clear that it’s simply a grind of flip/flip-back (or with recent mechanics, don’t even bother to flip) for LP.

Resource Wars of course was a potentially quite good vehicle for setting up exactly this, but as usual because CCP can’t design, is sloppy at coding, doesn’t know how to balance risk, effort and reward, and doesn’t understand their own player base, that fell apart and was left in the dust. It was the best vehicle they’ve conceived of for what you’re looking for, in my opinion - but CCP had no idea how to implement it.

There was also that small group, PvP Abyssal feature they had some months back, that sounded like it had potential for at least an occasional fun fight. I never tried it though so can’t really speak to how well it might suit you (or even if it’s still available - I haven’t been checking on it).

Perhaps the next/final iteration of Trigvasion will offer something. Unlikely I guess, but there’s always hope.

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Even better, @Lorthien_Charov

Try out the 1v1 Abyssal Proving Grounds PVP… no wasted time roaming or forming or anything. Just senseless chaos and crashing your Frigates into other Frigates! It only lasts two more days. I’m having a blast with it and I think you should try checking that out.

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EVE is not a shooter and the combat is intrinsically dull.

You are chasing a wild goose.

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no its not
eve have one of the best combats of any game i ever played
oh wait I’m having a deja vu …

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I think I already had this deja vu.

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All this has happened before, and all this will happen again. :smiley:

I do think some people misunderstood me, but others see what I mean. Oh well. I think I will join some null sec corp for a bit, maybe in npc null. I might even try joining FW again from time to time, just for even the illusion of purpose.

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I figured out the answer in 2008. Based on what you’ve written, I’d say you’re about halfway there, maybe even closer.

At some point, you’ll come to the conclusion that PvP is just a tool you use for achieving your goals, and not an end goal in itself. You will have to mentally restructure your understanding of the game, and reconsider what you want to get out of it.

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The only reason you have to press so many buttons is you didn’t stack your guns :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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The short-lived Events (The next being Chrimson Harvest), Abyss Proving Conduits, and Faction warfare are all pretty great objective based small gang PvP.

Also, Yeet Filiments teleporting a small team into nullsec is fun… Oh and wormholing…

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Pvp isn’t quite the same unless it’s non-consensual and you can tell you are affecting someones game (by ruining their day).

Roaming is too casual and impersonal.

My suggestion is to find a small gang wardec group and fight structure owners.

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unless you are outnumbered
in amamakes gate
and you killed a csm guy
that has 2k ++ kills solo
and made his friend run away …
not that i did it…

i totaly did :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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Good dating advice too

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