Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Everyone in FW knows that plexing is a little bit broken. Defensive plexing is not rewarded at all. Offensive plexing, on the other hand, is being 'farmed'. People can run around in t1 frigates speedtanking most of the sites, and leaving as soon as any hostiles show up.

Then they just wait for the hostiles to leave then resume the plex. Because of the aforementioned lack of reward for defensive plexing, they aren't going to stick around to close the plex.

Given these, I have two suggestions that will encourage active defense of systems, and encourage offensive plexers to stick around and fight for their plex rather than just ***** out as soon as something flashy shows up.

First off, before we add any rewards to defensive plexing, we need to stop it from being easily farmable. Plexes start at a middle point...It takes equal time for either side to cap the plex from this point. If an Amarr player spends 10 minutes on a plex button and leaves, then a Minmatar militia member will have to spend 10 minutes recapping it to the base value, -then- start capping it for his own side.

I propose that as soon as a plex starts being captured for the defending side (e.g. after it passes the middle point), hostile NPCs begin spawning, and fighting both the friendly NPCs and the player. This would require careful balancing, but in general the hostile NPCs should be tougher to force the player to do something and not just sit there tanking. Then. you can add a LP reward to defensive plexing, but it should not be as high as the reward for offensive plexing, as you're less likely to be harassed fighting in friendly space - I suggest 1/2 to 2/3 the LP gain of an offensive plex. As normal, these rewards would only be paid out for defensive plexing in contested systems.

Now, defensive plexing has a purpose. The other problem is that there's no incentive to stick around and defend the plex you've been capturing if hostiles show up - you might as well just leave and come back later, maybe go to a neighboring system and start a plex there. Similarly, there's little incentive for a player to attack a hostile militia member running a defensive plex, because in order to cap it yourself and earn the reward you'd have to undo the opponent's cap -and- then start your own.

When returning a plex to its natural, 'middle' state, the cap timer should go three times as fast. Using the above example, if an Amarr player spends 10 minutes on a plex button and leaves, it should only take a Minmatar militia player 3.3 minutes to return it to the original cap state. This means that if you interrupt someone who is plexing, it becomes worth it to undo what they did. If they go start another plex, you have time to follow them, scare them away, then continue undoing their plexing. Now, offensive plexers have to either hope no one interrupts them, or fights for their plexes.

Now, plexes are a tool that encourages PVP and not just something to be readily farmed.

Thoughts?

Of course they do. If the plex timer is down to 5 minutes why would you start again on a fresh 10, 15, or 20 minute timer?