Resource Wars had the potential to be a good change of pace for most PvE activities but it got some flaws that made people in general to not bother with them. the following proposal envisions a series of changes to improve the system and put it in a more familiar situation with regular missions. at least to see if it generates more interest for the players:
1. Time to completion changes:
one complain given by players in the forum was that the times to complete the sites in the high tiers were somewhat insufficient for the amount of mining ships permitted to run the mission. the following changes should provide a wider window of oportunity for teams to finish the sites properly
L1: 10 min -> L2: 12 min -> L3: 15 min -> L4: 18 min -> L5: 20 min
2. Replace the NPC Haulers with a Static Container:
another complain provided was that the Orca stationed in the site was bugged in some cases. while the idea that players had to provide the ore and put it in a hauler was good, there were some issues with the container ship. perhaps changing this to a static Warehouse (like in some regular missions) could do the fix. with players having to defend the site while filling it up.
3. Friendly Response Fleets removed:
players pointed that the response fleets were for the most part, incompetent at their job. they sometimes focused on hunting the rats but they weren’t very adept fighting. the best option in this case would be to remove them and make players do the defense work. the Response Fleet could still warp to the site as a cameo once the mission is finished (as securing the storage warhouse while people warps out)
4. LP Store Rewards changed:
this was perhaps the most important turnoff for Resource Wars in the playerbase’s eyes. the system of lootboxes filled with basic T1 sets wasnt something that could provide a profit for the amount of LP and money spent on them. the limited nature of the few skins obtained were also another turnoff as they had to be obtained all over again if loosing your ship while doing something else.
in this case the 4th point of the proposals suggests removing these lootbox rewards and adding typical LP store contents as seen in other corporations, with the present Skins and apparel rewards present as permanent and tradeable purchases. with proper ISK and LP cost changes and potentially adding some more diversity of skins avaliable for this gameplay (including mining ships, which were somewhat left behind in the original version).
5. Increase the amount of players that can enter the site (optional):
with response fleets gone and the completion time increased it may be possible that the system will require more people to help defend or mine the amount of ore quickly so, perhaps increasing the player cap to 2-3 more participants could be a proper change.
other features that may be potentially looked at:
-change enemy waves: in the case the removal of response fleets doesnt ■■■■ things up, there could be a revision of the enemy waves in order to ensure people cannot solo these sites and require an actual group of defenders, with proper timing for preparing between enemy assaults. this is put as an optional point in case people complains about it.
-ISK and LP mission reward changes: depending on the main points this may require adjusting the mission rewards to ensure this doesnt become too much of an isk faucet
-rare spawns: not sure if this happened with the original version but perhaps have the chance to see a faction spawn in the site to spice things up. in addition you may want to remove Incursion NPCs from arriving to these sites (i learned it the practical way once).
all in all, the Resource Wars only needed light changes in order to make them a workable activity, Abyssal Deadspace was probably way more consuming in terms of development so i dont see why the devs couldnt keep looking at these other PvE activities that were already present.
thus i propose to take this in the next CSM meeting.