What if Local was a mechanic

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
#1

Ok let me prefix this by saying I love local, I love the fat that WH space is special in this regard, but since its downtime atm I thought it roll this around my head and see if I could come up with an idea or way it could be done that would give something to the player base so they dont feel like they/we are losing something.

What Is Local ?
Its a chat window for people in the same system, but I think it could be more than that lore wise, and this will feed into my suggestions later, but what if Local is a Concord radio bandwidth beamed to all nearby(in system) ships, and all ships beam back their transponder code, anyone talking is then just radio messages being sent round the system, in this regard local would no longer just be a chat channel it would become an actual game mechanic that we could play with.

Worm Holes in this scenario would not have concord radio towers to braudcast local transponder beacons so no one shows up in local without actually sending out an actual message into their local space and thus have their transponder+message show up in other peoples chat box.

What is LowSec Itā€™s space concord has no or much less control over and they dont activly police, so it would stand to reason that their radio towers would be slower, less well maintained and as a result low sec local would be slower to update, this could work the same way concord does for High Sec with their response fleets, the lower the security level the slower concord is to respond, So in low sec with local it could function the same , the lower the security rating of the space the less maintained local radio towers are, this could manifest itself in a delay between some one entering the system and then showing up in local, the closer to null sec the longer it takes for some one to show up without talking, but since talking and sending out a message over this system is direct and immediate you would or could at any moment decide to show yourself to the locals, ā€œHiā€

Null Sec As we all know Null sec is the wild west of unclaimed space just waiting for players to venture out and do something, and there have been a constant voice in the void asking for no local, and just as many people calling back a loud ā€œF#&K Uā€ .

So to continue this idea, players would build their own Radio Towers, power them, fuel them, sov holders would deploy their own radio/local network and for any systems its active in and functioning in, they would have a normal local, for systems where the power or fuel has run out it would rapidly start to degrade in its functionality pairing with how low sec towers work, getting slower and slower until eventually powering down, mechnically they could work like Mobile Depoā€™s be a little larger and of course look cool with a spinning radar dish on it, to fuel it just dump in fuel like a mobile depo it would use the fuel to power its battery, then once the fuel runs out its battery would drain until no local.

I think it should have the same timer setup that the depo does as well, so attacking it will drop its shield and re-enforce it for two days, after which you can kill it.

It will be on the sov holder to maintain their radio, making sure its in fuel, making sure its no re-enforced, and protecting it.

This will give a huge swath of null sec no local, while keeping it in main sov systems while at the same time making local a weapon or target that will or could play a tactical part in sov warfare, now hostiles pre attack will be sending out scouts to take down their enemies local so that they can sneak in for surprise attacks.

just a thought im sure its got tons of holes. and perfect time servers back upā€¦

2 Likes
#2

Observatory arrays are rumored to have a relationship with local just as you describe. Weā€™ll see how it comes out.

#3

2 things:

  • Why should sov holders pay for neutrals or enemies to see local? It is very counter intuitive to pay fees so that you enemies can use your intel tools.
  • If structure based local is not available for people not on the access lists, how do you counter the fact that hunting parties and attackers cannot see you in a system if you are outside dscan range, but you can see them? This would mean a massive shift in safety from no benefits to anyone to most benefits to sov holders. It would make sov null sec way too save.

Local as it is is a leveled playing field for all participants and no one can draw better or bigger benefits from it than other groups. You cannot tinker with local (unless CCP screws up, which is sadly becoming the norm rather than the exception) and everyone has the same information available. Why does everyone want a system that distorts the benefits to one side and as a result cause only harm and no overall positive results.

May I also point you towards this search because you ideas are neither original nor new. Lots of people have posted their 2 cents about this already over and over again, and in none of these other topics the questions why there should be a system that favors one side over the other or why I should pay fees for the intel tools that attackers can use against me is reasonable and logical.

1 Like
#4

@Dyver_Phycad your first point, because if gives them a fully working local like we have now and we like to see whos in system, friend or foe.

And your second point kinda does not make sense with your first point, there would not be access list based local, yeah to fill it with fuel and mess with it sure, but its functions would be system wide for all, giving us the level playing field you mentioned as all in system can see it.

I have no clue how DScan is even an issue here??

#5

It is either or: Either the sov holders pay the fuel cost and everyone can use the service, which makes no sense from the sov holder perspective as described above. Or only the sov holder sees local thanks to the service, which in turn means you destroy PVP and hinder attackers, which makes null sec even saver than it already is. The first scenario is unfair to the structure owner, the second destroys the leveled playing field.

#6

Does abyssal space have a local? :thinking:

#7

Iā€™d love to see some extra mechanics for Local. Things likeā€¦

  • High Sec functions as normal

  • Low Sec is pretty much normal, but uses the 5 minute rule. This would be refreshed by speaking, docking / undocking, passing through a Stargate, or being on grid with any ā€œofficialā€ NPC ships or structures (Navy pilots or Station sensors report you, but Pirate ships would not). Otherwise if you remain ā€œhiddenā€ for 5 min, then your name disappears from Local.

  • Null Sec has no Local by default. Deploying a Sov structure allows the holders to enable Local for that system. Names only register if they have spoken, docked / undocked, or passed through a Stargate in the last 5 min. If you enter the system via Jump Bridge, you will not automatically appear (so no more watching for spikes in Local).

#8

Does it even matter, your the only one in there.

#9

I would make the mechanics a bit more complex:
The radio towers would have 2 channels: ā€œpublicā€ and ā€œfriendlyā€. The friendly channel basically works as hi-sec, the owner of the structure can set people, corps and alliances to have access to this channel. The public channel can be set to function either as hi-sec (no delay), lowsec (some delay) or null (hidden until you talk), if there are multiple radio towers, the most open applies.
The structures in my opinion should only be visible on grid, and need combat probes to find. Anyone can set them up, and can have multiple in the same system. An attack in null would require the attacker to destroy the sov-holderā€™s radio towers, while at the same time setting up their own local.
This way you wonā€™t allow enemies to use your local, unless you want, but you can use it to make your system safer for the chosen people - as long as you can fuel it.

#10

What if chatting was removed entirely from the game?

Reasons:

  • EVE is on automated bot control
  • Nobody has main characters anymore
  • The alts of the bot-alts of the spy-alt of the alts of the alts grandmothers alts donā€™t talk anyway when they are in primary school and the bots play with themselves
  • Nobody wants to talk at all, so you donā€™t give away your alts presents in the first place
  • The cloaky alts of the spy alts of the bot alts that are auto-farming infinite isk with sooper doopers only need to be on screen 659237824794 to see the region is clear of the alts of the bot-alts that could gank the afk-alts of the alts that live there
  • The market bots want a local to spam their scams with their scam alts of the spy alts of the alt accounts
  • If you report the alts of the bot alts of bot-goons Onlineā„¢, you will be kicked from goon space

Conclusion:

All chat is a deprecated mechanic that mains used to use to talk to other mains. Since all mains have left, there is no reason for chat channels to be there.

#11

And this misses the point entirely and changes nothing on the actual problem. Sov null sec does not need more security from hidden local for neutrals.

#12

Butā€¦ I am a mainā€¦ are you saying that Iā€™m a nobody?

#13

Honestly, Iā€™m not involved in the sov-space battles at all, I only see people arguing about the local there, Iā€™m just trying to find a way to turn this to an actual game mechanic that has pros and cons to most of the people involved.

Another thing that could be fun is making the radio towers hackable, and if you succeed, you will be added to the friendly list without notifying the owner. You can be removed, but that requires actual interaction with the structure other than refueling.

#14

Blockquote
Null Sec has no Local by default. Deploying a Sov structure allows the holders to enable Local for that system.
Blockquote

So what does this do to NPC null?

#15

This feels like a lot of programmer time to ā€˜fixā€™ a non-broken system.

-1

#16

Honestly, Iā€™d treat it like W-space. Nobody shows up unless they speak, and they vanish after 5 min of silence. Enabling Local would require someone to claim Sov and set up the doohickey that runs it.

#17

No silly, I know you are a main. The point I was trying to make was that ā€œthe localā€ used to be used as intended but paranoia and fear made it into this fountain of doom.
I donā€™t know if you remember but whenever in highsec, people used to talk to each other and used the local to help each other out or just talked and formed a corporation later.

Good times.

#18

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