Revamp of NPC Null

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

Greetings fellow capsuleers.

I’ve bounced in and out of EVEOnline across the years - with my main account - and got to enjoy it a bit these last few months. My experience is limited time playing with LowSec and WH corporations, let that shape your understanding on my proposal.

Reading up on game mechanics I don’t see much distuingishing NPC and player owned Null Security systems. Aside from sovereignty gameplay elements, of course.

My limited time in EVE Online and EVE Echoes gave me some familiarity with the Syndicate region, and I’m going to use the Intaki Syndicate corporation in my examples.

The changes proposed

  • Guns at gates
  • Guns at stations
  • No bubbles at gates
  • No bubbles at stations
  • Delayed local

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to convert the regions to Low Security systems.

Mechanics working with these changes

For NPC Null space I feel the highest enticing gaming elements would be those tied to factional and corporate standings. And each faction controlling NPC spaces of Null would own the gate and station guns.

On positive standings with Intaki Syndicate (above 1.0) a player would be defended by the gate gun if attacked by another player. Similar to Low Security engagement rules near guns.

Criminal and suspect timers received in other pockets of a solar system (mining, exploration, etc) would have no negative downsides. You wouldn’t be gunned down just because of your timer.

Players that don’t have good enough standings with space owning NPC, aside from lacking gate gun protection, would have delayed local. Those in good standings wouls have the “realtime” local.

What gameplay am I after with these changes

Venturing into NPC null would be more interesting, and more opportune for new players and alpha accounts.

The most punishing mechanics for new players are going to be gate and station camps. They still can happen with suicide ganks, or on player owned stations, but at least removing the element of bubbles creates less restriction on travel and exploration of dangerous areas.

Bubbles could still be used in these systems to catch players that jump gate to gate without bouncing of celestials and other bookmarks, but not for free.

This would make it feel like you are in your “trusted neighborhood” and you are part of the extended lore of a NPC corporation.

Those with standings bellow the protection requirements would have the negative standings flag and free to be shot at near gates and stations.

“Money talks” in standings

What I’ve proposed above is something that I think can be done with less headache than the following. What I think would be more engaging follows.

Given the Intaki Syndicate is all about the kredits - for protection - players would need to make deposits at the Intaki Bank Vault.

I don’t know the economics in EVE as far as player wallets go, but I could see myself paying 1mil a day for security within Syndicate, if I don’t have good standings.

If such payment protection scheme would be implemented in the region, then I could see max faction standings being a threshold which once reached you never have to pay. I can imagine people living permanently there grinding their standings while paying their daily security tax.

I hope we can a fun chat around this proposal, and I’d be happy to hear what other would propose as “lore accurate” standings gains possibilities for the other factions owning nullsec space.

2

I think it died at “delayed local”…

3

What you say and what you propose don’t match.

How are you not trying to convert the regions into LS?

All beside delayed local are LS rules that you wish to apply to NPC null. I’m only missing a ban on bombs and security status drops when attacking players, but you’re functionally bringing most of the LS rules into NS with this.

Why not play in LS if you wish to play with LS rules?

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4

I was thinking some kind of other benefit and delayed local seemed nice.

5

I believe anything with “local” will be kind of a sticking point, ie: delayed, none (“Blackout”)…

6

I can only see your argument if I only reason of things in terms of black and white, not with nuance. It’s somewhere in the middle of the two security statuses.

Playing MMORPGs is also about the stories we experience in game. And benefits thanks to faction affiliation can be rewarding in themselves, and not purely for the LP grind.

With this particular example, with Syndicate, if you look at it from an angle, it would serve as an additional training ground from LS to sovereign Null.

And if it wad not obvious, the suggestion comes in terms of reuse of existing mechanics, because that makes things simpler. Did I forget to mention it would bring the region closer to the lore?

The Syndicate wants their space to be relatively trouble-free, so as to encourage people to visit and spend their money. With empire policing infrequent, they employ their own police force to enforce the peace.

  • Intaki Space Police description

NPC null is rather bland conceptually. Creating mechanics that relate to the controlling factions would make it more interesting. For me.

I haven’t read of too much on Mordu’s Legion, ORE, or other nullspace controlling NPC factions but there’s room for subtle lore related adjustments too.

For another example within this same frameset, consider how ratting in Syndicate would be a problem when killing Serpentis faction because there is a close in lore tie. And having closer tied derived standings would pose interesting questions.

To me it seems there are interesting lore-based approaches and environments to be built with simple mechanics tweaks in these particular systems. And I could easily stack more ideas on such a foundation.

I could enlist a couple emergent gameplay behaviours if broader feature development where on the table. But unless there’s any other exploratory or interested comment, I will abstain.

7

Why does NPC null have to be a training ground for sov null?

And why can people not do this ‘training’ as you call it in LS where the features you want already exist?

If someone wants to live out of NPC stations with station guns and no bubbles at stations and gates, this playstyle already exists in LS.

If someone wants to play in such an area as a ‘training ground’, they can do that in LS.

So why does NPC NS need to change?

Before we start talking about nuance I would like to know why NPC null needs to become more like LS when LS already exists for players who wish to have that sort of gameplay.

Just because you haven’t convinced me yet that change is needed at all doesn’t mean the ‘nuanced solution’ is somewhere halfway the change.

As far as I can tell EVE has various different parts of space with HS, LS FW, regular LS, NPC NS, sov NS, Pochven and WH space.

By turning NPC NS into more regular LS the game would lose variation in playstyles, which I do not see as a good thing for the game.

So please explain why the game needs this at all.

8

Just throwing it at the fan, to see what sticks…

Why not a whole low-sec region or two?

The empires are led by ruthless leaders who seek to expand their empires.

9

Isn’t the main difference that NPC nullsec has NPC-stations that cannot be destroyed, so people can use them as “invulnerable” staging station to start their ops from? Which allows even smaller or medium groups to do some unrestricted (combat rules/tools / secstatus) PvP without the need to defend own structures…?

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10

Look here my man (woman, or dog). In your comments you took a myopic view at what I was proposing, while attributing intent and putting words in my mouth. Which seems in conflict with this forum area’s rules.

I didn’t ask or request Null to become LowSec, but to make mechanics fitting for the in-universe lore.

I had the wrong assumption, which I’ve come to learn since, that one cannot catch with a bubble players mid-flight, only if placed near the landing destination (something something 500km). With this particular region example I was imagining a possible cat and mouse game to which hunters could learn the safe spots and paths of new frequent travellers and catch them mid-flight. While at the same time with the lack of bubbles at gates and stations would have allowed Alpha clones that don’t have cloaks available to dip their toes in some Nulls to learn bookmark based travelling.

But that idea is moot, given that I had the wrong impression of this mechanic. I’ve made it known in my preamble that EVE is not my second job, yet your approach had no benefit of the doubt given.

I politely ask you to not reply to any other thread I create on this forum, if I create one, because your approach to discussing is detracting rather than additive.

11

I’m sorry to have assumed you knew the mechanics you suggested huge changes for, but knowing now that you did not know the details of bubble mechanics does shed some positive light on your suggestion.

It would indeed have been a unique different type of space between NS and LS if bubbles in NPC NS could not be placed at gates and stations but could catch unaware players who warped straight between the two.

But as you learned, mid-warp bubbles are not a thing.

I’m glad you have realized that blocking bubbles at the only two main locations where bubbles can be used essentially makes the space bubble-free and that this in combination with the main other LS characteristic of gate and station defences does make NPC null practically the same as current LS mechanics, as I said.

It is not unlikely I will read other threads you make here and if the topic interests me I probably will reply.

If you want a constructive discussion it helps to know some of the mechanics you propose changing, but you can always ask for help on those details as people here (myself included) would happily have explained how bubbles work.

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