(Apologies if this post is a little disjointed or rambling; I’ve organized and streamlined it as best I can ATM.)
I want to start by saying that I think the Triglavian Invasion is a great idea. It brings new content, new mechanics, and shakes up the game from a mechanical and a lore perspective. With that being said, the Triglavian victories in Vale and Sakenta made me realize that one thing the Invasion doesn’t have is a proper sense of scale.
Unlike Raravoss, which only has barren, gas, and ice planets, Sakenta and Vale both contain planets with habitable biospheres; the former has two terrestrial (Earthlike) planets, and the latter has three terrestrial planets and an ocean world. With the darkening of the systems’ suns by the Triglavians, those worlds are going to be undergoing mass-extinction events that will likely render them lifeless rocks.
While the grim tragedy of New Eden means that Human life is considered cheap, habitable planets are another matter entirely. The Caldari homeworld is only marginally habitable thanks to the incomplete terraforming it had undergone when the EVE Gate collapsed, and the collapse of the Mannar homeworld’s ecosystem (look at the section titled “Doa dea Kabar”) is very similar to what the planets in Sakenta and Vale will soon be experiencing.
I realize that the core conceit of EvE is “the players make the universe”, and I’m not proposing that CCP change that, but I do think that they need to consider just what the stakes of this conflict mean for the in-universe population. This conflict may be shaped by the players, but it shouldn’t feel like the Empires are just letting independent capsuleers handle the lion’s share of the work.
At this point, all four Empires should be on a total war footing and deploying everything they have to fight the Triglavians in systems with life-bearing worlds, especially since the Caldari know just how precious habitable worlds are and the Mannar themselves are one of the most hawkish political factions in the Gallente Federation.
I’m not going to suggest that CCP creates sites with enormous battlefleets of Empire capital ships slugging it out with the Triglavians, but they could certainly do a better job of conveying how Big and Important these battles are. Our participation in this conflict shouldn’t feel like “We’re hiring you to blow ■■■■ up, business as usual.”, it should feel like “We’re calling up everyone with a ship and offering premium rates because holy frak this situation is so bad it’s not even funny.”
My ideas on how this might be done without requiring a large amount of dev time would be things like having ISD members in control of NPCs talking in local, making it clear that there are massive battles going on throughout the system between Empire and Triglavian forces, even if we may not be on-grid to see them happen for ourselves.
Tying in with my previous suggestion is something that would only happen in systems with active conflicts, but would convey how dire the situation is in a way that I think players would love. Every so often, an extremely bright flash in the local Empire’s color (gold for Amarr, blue for Caldari, green for Gallente, orange for Minmatar) would originate from somewhere off-grid, radiating for about ten seconds before fading.
It wasn’t a nova, another Caroline’s Star event, or a gigantic bomb; it was an Iapetan Titan firing its doomsday weapon several light-minutes away.
Because seriously, there are no mentions of them in the latest News Roundup, and if a cataclysm affecting multiple planetary biospheres doesn’t warrant sortieing them then what the hell does?
If anyone else has ideas on how this conflict could be made to feel bigger, I’d love to hear them!
What has that to do with consequences? Every lost system means another null sec system in the high sec cluster. Every minor victory means another lingering, remaining and unmarked invasion system in the high sec cluster. Every victory means no change at all for Edencom.