After being involved with FW for a few months, I like the capturing set up mechanic. If a second Edencom / Triglavian war is going to erupt, I suggest Small, Medium, Large and Open Compounds + the always enjoyable Battlefield be added to a system that is being contested. Just like the FW mechanics, certain sized T1 ships, Navy and Edencom or Triglavian ships would be allowed into sites while others wouldn’t be allowed to enter the site.
With the new Edencom/Triglavian mechanic, Capsuleers could earn LP points that could then be used to purchase Edencom Navy ships (Navy ships based on souped favorite T1 ships flown by Edencom) and Triglavian Navy ships.
From what I can see, FW is meant to onbord players into pvp. The ship restrictions are perfect for that.
That said, triglavian ships are basically pirate ships in terms of power. You can’t really do restrictions in a conflict involving them.
The rest of the op’s idea is solid though. Anything that takes the battlefield mechanic and expounds on them is good in my opinion. We need more large areas where people are forced to fly around instead of warping from place to place. And not just in pvp scenarios, but in pve as well. Imagine exploration… that actually made you explore.
Lowsec is not a newbie zone, nor a “staging” for null as some like to look down on it, it’s a playstyle on it’s own for all kinds of players new and old. Actually it’s the only living space in low, everything else lowsec is basically dead.
The old granularity was fine except with some tweaks (pirate ships and recons). if you create an environment where you can hide from T2 ships without losing out on anything, those ships won’t be used anymore.
IMO micromanaging players need to stop. EvE was fine without doing it for 10+ years with overall more players, so this is proof it’s not needed except for the laziness of devs.
While I agree it’s not a “newbie zone”, by it’s very nature of not needing to join player corporations, FW is accessible to the wider player base. This allows it to function as an on boarding mechanic to pvp, as all faction based mechanics in mmos do.
I really don’t see this as a problem for the faction war between the empires. Players new to pvp need a place where they can participate without having to deal with being hot dropped by caps. And the lesser forms of it where they have no chance in being useful or being hunted by people in multiple billion isk ships.
What we can do… is create a fw like mechanic between the empires and pirates that doesn’t limit ship choice. Perhaps only removing precursor tech from the sites.
And then you can do the same thing for edencom / triglave to allow all ships.
The fact that FW is so hot right now… proves the devs are doing fantastic things in the FW space.