Player Features and Ideas Discussion

i think i'm missing something. why is syndicate so 'bad' for making isk? my two years there were easily the most lucrative times i've ever had in eve, nothing else has come close.

The space cannot be upgraded because it's all owned by The Syndicate, so there is no constant stream of income in the form of Anomalys or anomaly belts to mine. The space itself is low truesec, you won't see anything above a 1.4 million isk spawn in the majority of Syndicate. The belts for mining are no better than those in lowsec. Although this discussion is about the Syndicate LP store and not Syndicate space directly.

Unlike the other 'fringe fraction' LP stores, the Syndicate LP store doesn't really have anything that is well-sought after, Mordus has the Mordus legion ships, legion modules/implants are very niche but maybe useful to a dozen pilots. Sisters of Eve has faction ships, faction probe launchers, faction probes, Virtue implants. Thukker Tribe has Nomad implants, and a few useful niche modules like shield extenders and micro auxiliary power cores. ORE has some mining swag stuff with more range (the ORE store could probably use a Revamp too!).

A great deal of the Syndicate items are either far too niche (Edge implants), or are not very useful.
I will Analyze and breakdown every Syndicate LP store item, and tell you why they are either far too niche, or not useful.

1. Syndicate Gas Cloud Harvester.
This module is identical to T1 & the rare named versions in every aspect except fitting, which is shaves 4 CPU off from the best named version. Since it mines less than T2, any serious power-gas harvester has no business in using this module. The Syndicate Gas Cloud Harvester costs 24million isk, and 36,000 LP. The Best Named versions of the Gas Harvester are already incredibly niche, most fits utilizing Gas Cloud Harvesters can already fit 5x (or 2x on Venture/Prospect). with ease+tank they need to perma-tank the hostile spawn in wormholes. The prices of the best named versions also cap the price of the Syndicate Gas Cloud Harvester in a lot of situations, making it difficult to make a decent buck of your LP Conversion rate.

My Suggestion: Since CCP have expressed a need to make all named modules useful, let's move the Syndicate module away from fitting bonuses over T1 (And let named gas harvesters fill that) and more towards the T2 Version. What if the Syndicate version mined 20m3 every 45 seconds instead? This would make it harvest less than the T2 version, but give it fitting adjustments which make it closer to T1 to fit (best named would be easier to fit, but mine less than Syndicate). This would give it a role for people who don't have Gas Cloud Harvesting 5, but want to maximize yield without using T2, and also to those who want to maximize yield but need a bit extra fitting room. I think it will be much more useful in this state.
Alternatively, if we don't mind potentially obsoleting T2 for the rich, you could just give it identical stats to T2, with slightly less fittings.


2. Syndicate named bubbles.
These modules have 50% more effective hit-points than T1&T2, but sit in the middle of warp disruption range of T1 & T2. They cost approximately 5x more than the T2 variants. They share the reduced anchoring time of T2. I think the issue here is that HP is not a factor many people care about with bubbles. (If someone wants to remove your ****cages/safety on entry gates, they're going to do it). Usually you only need 1 dude in your group to be the anchoring dude to set up the T2 Bubbles, for most solo/fleet ops T1 is usually fine, usually only used for slings/drags.

I would recommend bringing their warp disruption range up to the same level as T2. This would make them more expensive T2 bubbles with 50% more HP which can be anchored by people with lower skill level. Another cool thing we could maybe do with Syndicate Bubbles is to Half the Volume of them (So they would be an option for Fleets/solo PvPers to carry them in their cargo holds when roaming space), Giving them reduced anchoring time (maybe a further 10% off of T2 as well) and I think this would make Syndicate bubbles niche but attractive options.

3. Syndicate plates. Absolute trash. They have identical fitting stats to Federation Navy (Which are much more easy to obtain coming from the FW space militia store) but more mass. They also much more isk over the FW variants, for example Syndicate 1600 plate cost 8 million isk more, and 18,000 more LP vs the Federal Defence Union Store fed navy plate. At the moment, T2 offers more Armor, at expense of CPU, Federation Navy offers same armor as best named with reduced mass, Imperial Navy offers the same as best named but with improved fitting, best named has less grid cost than all faction/t2 varients. The Storyline version of the plate is the only thing which gives grid saving over best named

My Suggestion: Perhaps we could give Syndicate Plates the same HP as T2, but with reduced fitting/mass (but not as much as IN/FN navy). They are more expensive than the other LP store items. And having a pimp plate for people who want raw HP could be nice. Alternatively, we could maybe give Syndicate plates more HP than T2, but with same fitting cost, and more added mass so they would be slower. I'm not really sure what we can do here without making them straight up better than T2, or putting them into a terrible niche, although this would still be much better than absolutely useless which is what they are now.

4. Syndicate Reactor Control Unit. Meh Generic, It gives same stats as True Sansha, Ammatar, Dark Blod RCUs.

Not sure what you can really do here, there are lots of different RCUs in the game. Could perhaps lower the CPU cost by 2, and make it a best faction RCU, but that would obsolete the others.

Finally, Edge Implants. I think we should change the bonus that Edge Implants give entirely. The bonus to booster side effects is just at such a terrible niche, more often than not if you have the isk to spend on a set of Edge Implants, you can just as easily buy Crystal, Snake, Slave etc. Implants which will be much more useful. I honestly can't think of a single situation where you would be better off running Edge Implants over another kind. The more I try and think of a situation where Edge implants might be worthwhile, I think another type of pirate faction implant is just much better for the situation at hand, and many more other situations.

I propose changing Edge implants to give a bonus to 'heat damage' taken by modules

LG: 10% reduced heat damage taken by modules
MG: 15% reduced heat damage taken by modules

I think this still fits the theme of 'edge'.

Taking less damage from overheating is a much more universally applicable bonus which is useful in a lot of situations, which doesn't overshadow any of the current faction modules at what they do best currently.

This would be an excellent way to make Quafe Zero an unlimited item and makes the constellation with quafe stations in syndicate very valuable. It would also tie in with the flavor of the intaki syndicate's booster related items excellently. I however didn't suggest this since my alliance has effectively held that constellation for quite some time and above all else, I wouldn't want to suggest something that would only benefit an area I live in.

Clockwork is not a member of the CFC, nor should CCP be basing their changes on who already lives in a constellation. Leave the political stuff out of this thread, tia.

^^ No, I won't, because favoring 1 group in the game over all the others is even more detrimental than the current state of Syndicate.

And GROON is clearly a member of CFC, no point in denying it.

Derailing is easily done with CFC's attitude towards the game. I don't see anything wrong in preventing just that. And your last paragraph's content is making my point all the more valid, as the Syndicate Quafe L4s are too concentrated. 2P- has worthless Quafe agents, BY- has 1 L4 Sec and LSC4 has 1 L4 Sec. Your constellation (you are still with GROON, which solidifies my other point), on the other hand, has 2 L4 Sec, 2 L4 Distro and 4 L4 Mining agent, in addition to a plethora of lower level agents. Even if we ignore the politics, some agent shuffeling would do the Syndicate Quafe with the suggested LP store additions good in order to provide more content for more people without the need to blue too many folks.

Bump for boosting The Syndicate LP store. And yeah, reshuffle the agents it's never a good idea to have all the eggs in one basket.

I have no objective other than to offer suggestions which may restore life to one of the games coolest regions, and in the process give new players another way, rather than dry L4s in Hisec.

Every NPC corp LP store, in every pocket of Syndicate, should have better potential income than any hisec ones. When market people are exporting Intaki/Quafe/Whatever goods and importing ships and modules to feed small gangs, the region will become what it could be. I have no ulterior motive here, I only seek to see wrecks lining every gate, and local filled with smack talk, which is what any honest Syndicate resident wants.

This thread requires dev's attention, up we go.