Player Features and Ideas Discussion

3.) Overhaul POSes (to let them do a bunch of neat things)
The claim: a POS exists to extract and process moon goo, build supercaps, and park supercaps.

The fix: A bunch of things. First, you can "moor" ships at a starbase. When your ship is moored you cannot activate any of its modules, however, it is invulnerable and unable to be boarded from a pod for as long as the POS is online. Interfacing with a POS can only be done while your ship is moored (unless you have trained remote management skills). Structures anchored at a POS are now centralized - while moored at a POS you can view all existing research and manufacturing slots, similar to the NPC station interface. Additionally, all POSes come with storage bays that are similar to corporation hangars, but with reduced size based on the size of the POS. Finally, create a POS module that provides flawless mineral refining in exchange for a long refine time, or ice products such as heavy water or isotopes.

The effect: industrial and research slots throughout space are dramatically increased, by virtue of a POS now behaving as a mini outpost. Factory and research slots can be managed the same way that outpost and POCOs are now - access can be granted, denied, or taxed. Mooring to the POS removes bumping mechanics, but ships can still be destroyed if the POS is disabled first. Meanwhile, the archaic POS interface is streamlined for all players across the universe, making POSes a much more worthwhile investment for owners to lease or rent out to other players.

4.) Nerf Highsec Industry, Now That POSes Are Nice
The claim: buffs to player owned starbases do little to discourage players from using NPC manufacturing slots. Manufacturing from an NPC station is still an attractive option for players, when it should be an activity that requires significant investment.

The fix: double (maybe even triple) costs and times for NPC manufacturing. Halve existing manufacturing slots. Disable shipbuilding and Tech 2 manufacture in NPC stations.

The effect: a POS is a somewhat expensive piece of hardware, especially for a newer player or corporation. But anyone doing manufacturing in a station should be wishing that they had a POS to work at, or rent from someone, and looking to stop building at NPC stations ASAP. Think about the current state of blueprint copying and research in NPC stations but with higher costs. Combined with fixing POSes, it becomes viable for an enterprising corporation in highsec to anchor several POSes and lease them out to players, furthering social interaction between players of the game. Meanwhile, manufacturing in nullsec becomes more appealing, with the increased minerals granted from superdense asteroids and streamlined POS mechanics.

5.) A Mobile, Supercapital, Factory Spaceship
The claim: the downside to a POS is that it’s a fixture. It doesn’t move very easily. What if there were a supercapital, similar to the Rorqual, that was geared towards manufacturing functionality instead? And what if it had subsystems?

The fix: introduce a supercapital manufacturing ship. It has factory slots, between 100-200, and can build anything that’s subcapital. It has a perfect refinery. Give it an internal storage bay the size of a handful of freighters, around 4-5 billion m3, and the capacities of other capital ships like a clone vat bay and a ship refitting hangar, and what you have is a massive, mobile, manufacturing center/base of operations in the field. Make it out of wormhole parts and give it some customizable subsystems, and you have the flexible Tech 3 supercapital platform that Titans could have been, but with an eye towards supporting the PvE aspects of living in null-sec space. Put the price point somewhere between 10-15 billion ISK to allow smaller sov-holding or roaming nullsec alliances to own one, yet keeping it expensive enough that it’s a very protected asset.

The effect: it’s a floating factory! Build stuff on the go! Use it for hauling! Give it the immunities to EWAR of a Titan and let it jump around with cynos for the absolute best means of high-volume hauling in nullsec, while at the same time providing a mobile assembly platform for long mining ops or trips away from home. Essentially, it’s a free-floating POS, with all the amenities of a starbase coming at increased mobility and risk of loss.

So those are my ideas. A few of them I’ve seen here, and a few of them are my own. I would like to hear what people think – I have no experience living in nullsec myself beyond what I read in blogs and on the forums, so I may not have things correct.

I'm am sorry to post the same tired topic, but I wanted to see what people think of these ideas.

Discouraging people from playing solo for long periods of time may sound noble and good on paper to you, but it's probably not a good idea in reality. MMOs are social games, and one must be mindful that not everyone is equally interested in being social. Some people don't want to log in unless there's a fleet of 50-100 others to roam with, some people want to do everything with a small gang but not a large fleet and some people are equally happy doing things with others as they are doing things alone. Some people want to interact with others now and then, perhaps only in chat channels, but largely prefer to play solo. There's no good reason to disallow or discourage this, as long as someone's interacting with others at some point then I don't see how there's anything wrong. Every MMO has these varying levels of social engagement among its players, and every player's contribution to the game world is just as valid as any other player's. Moreover, I fail to see how the presence of this particular demographic in any way hinders the ambitions of others who prefer to be grouped up for everything.

As it stands, EVE already has a number of things that you simply cannot do alone, or can do alone but only at great difficulty / ISK expense / time expense / much reduced efficiency compared to a group. I am in no way advocating that more things should be soloable, as I am a firm believer that no MMO should be 100% soloable, but rather I'm pointing out that the way things are currently does give a hefty advantage to the groups and team players.


The rest of your post I will leave untouched for various reasons I'd prefer to leave undiscussed.

Replying to pertinant points.
1. Buffing Rats. If you buff rats you have to buff the reward. If they are going to Web/Ewar/Point/Scram, then the reward needs to be the same anywhere. 'High Sec' rats shouldn't have a magically lower bounty. If anything High sec rats 'Should' (Though I don't actually want this) have a higher bounty, as they are threatening the big industries more since they are closer.
The 'income source' you worry about is irrelevant, since the 'biggest' regular solo income source in high is lvl 4 missions. And BC rats in belts are not going to ever replace that. So.... same bounties.

2. Mining. Magically creating more m^3/hour in null only is not a solution. Why not allow a Capital mining ship with 8 strip miners? Thats basically what you are asking for.... or depending on your believed ideal ratio.... 16 strip miners, 24 strip miners etc. If mining is too low income in Null, then it is too low in High also, as Null miners make significantly more per hour than high sec miners do. So the only real solution to mining income is a general buff to how much strip miners take in per hour. (My prefered solution is drop all miners cycles to 1/3rd & cap use to 1/3rd of what it is now & fix the 'problem' childs of Spod & Omber).
This 'should' result in a price drop in minerals, meaning isk wise miners will not make tripple what they do now. But a lot more volume being traded meaning a return to earlier prices. Since there will be more supply.
Also note that there is no such thing as an AFK Ore Miner, never has been, it's a pure myth. You go AFK, your roids pop and you stop mining.


5. Uh, say what?
So I have a PoS that vanishes any time I log off, but will continue to build and research for me?
So... it's like an Invulnerable High Sec station that moves systems with me 99% of the time, only really at risk from an AXOXer?
You do know Titans despawn when the pilot in them logs off right.......


4 & 3. Meh, CCP aren't interested in PoS Revamping. They've said not enough demand.