Warfare & Tactics

How about this.

System 1:

No rats in any plex (they are useless anyway). Increased timers may be used to offset this.

Every time a player begins to run down the timer in an offensive plex, a message appears in a special Militia Complex Channel where automated messages appear, informing players on the opposing side of what plexes are being run and where.

If a defender touches the timer when there is nobody else on it, it immediately resets, undoing any time the offensive plexers put into the plex. You can further give the defenders an advantage by having the timer run down faster for them, or by reducing the time needed for a defender to capture the plex.

Defenders are motivated to fight to protect their systems and are aided by automated intel and the ability to ruin the day of plexers who are not willing to fight by instantly undoing all of their work.

Attackers are motivated to fight for financial gain and to prevent their hard work from being undone by lone pilots just trying to give them a hard time. They will be motivated to form fleets that are large enough to fend off enemies trying to defend their territory, but will be limited by the motivation to keep their LP reward ratio high.

Small gang PvP results. Simple, clean and efficient.

Me likey

THIS is the kind of brainstorming that would be really healthy for the community to be engaging in, coming up with systems like this and discussing the pros and cons. Luckily we have plenty of time before the work would actually begin, so lets make the most of it and think outside the box (or the button timer).

Like I said, they sky's the limit as far as I'm concerned with pushing for plex reform. I'm not lashing myself to any one mechanic that needs to stay or go, other than I refuse to make FW sov about a structure shoot.

I'm also not going to bombard CCP during a time they're *not* working on more NPC stuff (about to start their summer break) with a list of proposals, but I will happily take whatever system players are advocating for that we can come up with before fall and make a strong push for iteration on all aspects of the plex, not just NPC's.

I was already talking to them at the summit about the need for a revamp of the plex tiers themselves, providing a dedicated place for tech 1 and navy frig combat, opening up more options for BS fights in FW, and streamlining the nomenclature so its clear what you can bring into what plex.

That's just *one* element needing of work. NPCs are certainly another, as is the capture mechanic, if a button is to be replaced by something better. We might as well tackle the plex as a whole, in my opinion, and not get too myopic with regards to NPC AI.

The faction war community has traditionally had difficulty agreeing on much. From the time of Ank some people in faction war were very keen on requiring us to keep shooting red crosses.

I think if ccp implemented the 3 items I listed above, faction war plexing would be a pvp mechanic - or at least much closer to that goal.

But there might be some who would not like that. They like having alts farm plexes. Or they like feeling like a hero because they can chase a Battlecruiser with an assault frigate because they know the Battlecruiser has to be pve fit to deal with the npcs.

I think many of these guys will talk about how they want fw to be pvp but then they will never support any sort of proposal to actually decrease the importance of the npcs in this war. Push comes to shove they often argue against decreasing the importance of npcs in faction war.

Specific tweaks to the timer system are open.

You could have the timer automatically count down back to zero if nobody stays on the button.

Another idea is to have two separate timers, one for attackers and one for defenders, and whoever runs down their separate timer first wins the plex. This way nobody will have to wait 40 minutes because someone on the other side was running the plex before them.

You could also combine these two mechanics so that if someone abandons a plex, the timer they were running begins to reverse while whatever opponent is now inside does not have to undo all of the time the first player put into the plex.

Further ideas on plexes themselves:

1.) Increase the button size to accommodate the range of most fights. This will make plexes more like fighting arenas, where one side must secure a large area before they can claim control of the plex and keep their timer going. I suggest 20-25 km for minors, 30-50 km for mediums and 60-80 km for majors.

2.) Introduce a fourth 'Fortress' complex, which features incursion-difficulty rats and take about one to two hours to complete. Battleships and logistics will be required. Have only a few of these spawn in a warzone, at a random time of day and system to keep things even. Have a huge LP payoff and impact on system contested-status should one of these be complete.

3.) Probably a silly idea, but you could have some plexes not only limit ship sizes, but also how many ships of a particular side can be inside at the same time. This will prevent blobbing and make every body in the plex count for a lot, making for intense, even fights.

Ideas on battlefield control, overall LP payouts, ect:

1.) In order to motivate the players of a losing side to offensive plex and the players of a winning side to keep systems, a system of diminishing returns for offensive activity needs to be put into place for those who control more territory. The more systems a side owns, the less LP an individual offensive plex will pay out. Conversely, the fewer systems a side owns, the more an offensive plex pays out. Discounts and WZ control will work the same, but combined with the system I suggest here, a push-pull pattern will be encouraged in FW. That is, a losing side will gain a lot of LP for plexing, but their inefficient LP store will discourage them from spending until they are able to gain more WZ control. A winning side's economic momentum will slow down, discouraging profit-minded pilots from sticking around or putting as much effort into plexing, as missions become a more viable way of making LP. However, they will be highly motivated to maintain WZ control for their side to keep the discounts, even though their income has slowed.

2.) Add more unique items to the FW LP store. The galaxy would wet itself for Navy Issue BC's, and if you can only get them from FW people, the cluster will care about who is winning and who is not.

3.) Have system upgrades do more to PvP'ers, as currently the upgrades make very little impact on our 'give-a-crap-o'-meters'. The only useful outcome of upgrading systems is to have more WZ control. It seems a bit silly to have incentives for industrial players when no industrial player in their right mind would try to set up shop in a bloody conflict zone. For example, increasing a system upgrade level should do things like add NCP spawns to defend plexes, gates, and stations, increase timers for offensive plexers, decrease the amount of contested status a completed plex produces.