So here is one of the major problems with Eve, especially in relations to new and newer players, especially the ones who cannot generate large sums of isk to replace loss ships. This is something I have talked about with numerous players and literally everyone I have talked to is in agreement on the first 2 points and most agree with the 3rd point.
- There is no SERIOUS consequences for ganking in hi-sec.
What do I mean by this? Simple, there isn’t any real, lasting, serious consequences for people who go around ganking players in hi-sec whether it be they are running missions or as in my case ganking expensive mining ships.
What happens to gankers in hi-sec? Basically nothing. They take out very cheap build ships that can produce insanely high damage output to gank higher cost ships/builds/drones. A perfect example of this is what happened to me last night. No, this is not whining about it, it’s an example that happened to me. I am out in my Orca which I busted my arse for 2 months to get to and was using augmented drones. On average those drones cost 50 million each, 250 million isk total give or take a bit. A CODE player comes in with a cheap catalyst build with a bunch of smart bombs - 8 of them - and before I even noticed him in the system or even getting near me he basically warps right on top of my drones, drops a bunch of bombs and blows them all up. My loss was insane compared to the whole 2.5 million isk loss he had on his ship. This is absolutely insane if anyone thinks that is remotely fair and not a move done to simply be a prick. This is in addition to losing about half a dozen other ships myself and seeing several dozen other ganks to them while mining. Yes, mostly retrievers or covetors which again they can take out with easily a sub 10 million isk build and they get a nice 30 to 50 million (depending on build of course) kill mail. So they lose a VERY cheap ship as consequence number 1.
What else? Again, nothing serious. They get a small hit on security status which again has NO serious repercussions. It does not keep them out of hi-sec even if they are at -10. They still can roam around freely and only need to duck into a station to keep concord off them if they are in criminal status, use alts to scout for targets, and then warp right on top of those targets to take them out.
What else does it cost them? Nothing from what I can tell
Most of the time they are not doing this for loot purposes but simply to, in my opinion and I’m sure many others, be complete and total asses to other players. To interfere with their game and cause them misery. I do not care what all the old time players say that Eve is essentially a PVP based game. No it is not. PvP can be one aspect of it but this isn’t even pvp. Why? Read on.
- It is COMPLETELY imbalanced in favor of the gankers.
Even when they are known gankers and people playing in ganking corporations you can do NOTHING to them until they act first. Why? Because if you do you will get killed by Concord just as they would. With the exception of if they are already criminal provided you can catch them. The criminal ones just simply run and hide in stations until scouts pick out targets for them to warp on top of. So a security hit is no real consequence.
- It WILL drive new/newer players out of Eve.
For myself I have been playing the game now almost 3 months. At the end of my Omega account on the 25th I can guarantee you I will not renew my Omega subscription. If I can plex the account I may continue on this way but I have no desire to be in a game where I have to mine, or do any activity really, 10 to 12 hours a day to earn enough in game currency to get premium game play. Since the field is massively stacked in favor of those who have subscriptions or support the game by buying plex from players who pay this makes playing as an Alpha simply not any real fun. Now this is perfectly fine it is stacked in favor of paying players, that’s not the point of this statement. But playing as an Alpha is inherently severely limited on what you can. Can you have fun? Yep, you can. But you are limited in your choices.
I have personally talked to a few people who have quit eve as newer players because of these ganking issues. They see the amount of time it takes to earn isk and how gankers can destroy days, weeks, or even months of play time in an instant setting them back to essentially zero. Yes there is the addage of don’t fly what you can’t lafford to lose. Well when a decent ship costs 100 million plus to do pve in and your isk rewards for pve in general are fairly low people don’t want to go take that shiny new ship out and get it blown up just for some pricks pleasure of saying they killed xxx person and they lost 100 million, 200 million, etc isk.
This is a game. It should be fun for everyone, not just a select group of people. If you want to passively mine in hi-sec vs low or null, or do missions, or any other activity - then you should be able to do that without having to constantly look over your shoulder. However, the rewards shouldn’t be as good for doing those activities as what you can get in low sec or null. Risk vs Reward.
So how do you fix this?
First, make the risk of doing activities in low sec and null sec much higher than what you can get in hi sec.
Second, make some serious and real consequences for people ganking in hi sec and make it far, far more expensive for them to do it. So you can’t change the cost of ships so you apply a massive penalty to them for doing it so they actually have to think about it. Perhaps equal to the loss of the player being ganked. Is it worth me destroying that 40 million isk retreiver, 250 million isk Hulk, 250 milllion isk worth of drones if I am suddenly going to have to pay fines for ganking that player?
When they lose security status and become a criminal it should be instant death upon landing in a hi-sec area, no warnings to leave. Just boom, you’re dead by Concord. Make it so that being a criminal actually has consequences to it. Also make it so that you lose massive amounts of security each time you gank to the point that if you’re a new character you are a criminal within say 10 ganking kills. Make it so that they are limited to low security space and even there not safe from Concord if they linger more than a few minutes out in the open based on the actual security status. Make it so the only safe place they have from the authorities is in null.
It also needs to be made extremely difficult for them to regain their security status to be able to enter hi-sec. Something like you kill one person, it takes 50 times the effort to regain that lost amount of security in missions so that again there is a real consequence to the action.
Make it so that known gankers, before they are criminal, at a very low threshhold like -.5 security, are able to be targetted and killed on sight. Or if they participate in alliances such as CODE (only using because they are wwell known) that anyone in those types of alliance becomes fair game upon joining. What stops them from forming new alliances? Nothing. You set up a system that flags corporations in alliances every time ganking happens and after xxx amount of ganks the whole alliance is put on a permanent hit list in hi-sec.
I’m sure there are other ways this could be addressed to make it so there is much more serious consequences for ganking in hi-sec. You want to keep newer players in the game, people like myself that would gladly pay to play this to have access to content I otherwise won’t, then this needs to be addressed. To all the elitest old time players that don’t agree with this, move on. I have already heard it from the elitests in game that this is how the game has always been. Just because it’s always been this way doesn’t make it right or the best way to keep players coming in and staying.
Risk vs Reward. There is no risk for gankers and their rewards are high.
really? This is extremely immature, honestly.
