Warfare & Tactics

Why? Because it's really ******* stupid....

Imagine if null sec sov was dictated by running enemy sanctums (or whatever) to flip systems. See how stupid that is?

You should not get directly paid to capture systems. We need to have a PVE farming mechanic and a sov capturing mechanic, separately.

That is all.

I think whoever has the most Titans should win FW - just like Null Sec.

Coupling Sov Mechanics with LP payouts leads to massive numbers of fights. Fighting and farming at the same time is a good thing and keeps us in theater ready to fight.

It used to be that a corp with FW final blows around 70 per week would lead the killboard. Now, my corp is starting to hit the 140 kills/week level and we're only No. 8.

Having unfit Merlins and repping Incursuses being able to run all of the plexes non-stop 23/7 is a bad thing.

The basic concept of plexing is sound: it avoids the need for structure shooting and presents all sorts of minor but collectively meaningful objectives that allow small gangs to hurt the enemy (in theory). Part of the appeal of FW is that you don't need 50 people to get something done, and you only occasionally need to shoot space bricks.

The problem is that the whole incentive structure is borked. Trying to defend plexes is not only very difficult, but not a sound investment of time. D-plexing is only worthwhile to hang on to staing systems or mess with the opposing militia plan's. System upgrades are worthless and not worth defending. Ninja plexing in frigates is both the most efficient way to make money plexing and the most efficient way to take territory.

The FW sov system isn't really PVE, any more than shooting IHUBS and TCUs and stations is PVE. Any sov system you care to contrive will still be tedious if the other side is a no-show.

Plexes in general are a pretty cool mechanic for PvP. The real problem with them is they are farmed by people not willing to PvP at all. Plexes are supposed to be hot spots for PvP, and some times they do that. Plexes are a resource (for LP and system control) that are worth fighting for, are unlimited, and don't hurt the eve economy (arguably.). It's like having a POS or POCO coming out of reinforcement 24hours a day, they are cool. We just need to fix the people PvE farming them for LP.



Although this would be an improvement on the current mechanic, it's still very far from perfect. It would still be just as profitable to farm LP in empty systems. There would still be countless farmer alts that contribute nothing to the militia, because it would be equally lucrative to do plexes in empty systems with zero chance for pvp. Even with timers running backwards after they leave, the pve fit farmers will still warp out when hostiles warp in. In this post I propose a change that will not only get rid of farmer alts, but increases rewards for those that are in militia pvp'ing and fighting. Plexes are supposed to be PvP, FW missions are for PvE.

So, how do you see it?
"Kills = LP, plexes = sov/tier" maybe? Primitively put idea ofc, but whatever. What else?
The way plexes work will be an issue here tbh. Button spinning isn't the gameplay people sign for FW for really.

Frankly, I don't care how they do it.

It is bad design to have two related, but fundamentally different, game mechanics all working through the same functional game item (plexes).

Sov should be about long term plans and extending one's power through capturing of the enemies' systems.

Sov should NOT be a side effect of mindless isk farming.


You asked for suggestions to fix it, so I'll give some. But first I need to discuss the underlying problem.

The current mechanics allow for pilots to take sov of systems while completely avoiding any and all PVP. This is true for several reasons:

1) It takes many less SP to plex than to PVP. Therefore there will be MANY MANY more plexer pilots than pvp pilots. It's a simple matter for them to just spread around and while a few might get hassled, the majority are left alone.

2) There are a huge number of systems that are completely worthless and have no reason to capture sov. These systems are havens for plexing as noone gives a **** about them.

3) Plexing can be done AFK, 24/7. PVP cannot (unless you are Loren Gallen?).

4) Defensive Plexing leads to suicide, impotence, and hemorrhoids. As such, there is no reason to d-plex anything but your home system. Therefore, the war zone is in a nearly constant state of a huge number of systems being vulnerable (100% contested).

5) Related to #4, bunkers have no timer. With all the bunkers vulnerable all the time and with the silly low EHP they have, it's a non issue to just show up and flip a system before the enemy has a chance to respond.



That said, here are some suggestions on how to fix this mechanic, chinese menu style. You can mix and match some options to achieve the desired state.

1) Remove defensive plexing completely, change to a systems of "Capture decay" where system naturally decay to a state of uncontested. This helps to reduce some of the long term cumulative effects of plexing for isk.

2) Give bunkers a timer. Once they reach 1/4 shield, they go into reinforced. During RF, no plex spawn, contest state stays at 100%. When RF finishes the bunker become vulnerable. If the enemy kills it, the system is flipped. If the defenders rep it to 100% shield, the system constest state resets to 0%.

3) Remove sov from systems with no stations. Since upgrades only affect station services, why bother having sov in systems with no stations?

4) Make defensive plexing pay LP to the i-hub. At the same rate as o-plexing removes it.

I have argued that plexing should be made a pvp mechanic.

The "hide and plex" strategy that works so well now needs to end. Once that ends and players know where their military complexes are being attacked, combined with a possible adjustment to the timer if you warp out when a wt is on grid, it will be a pvp game. At that point fw will be fixed.

You can force them to pvp if they want to plex, but it involves undocking and splitting forces around systems 10 jumps away, and that is something new in EVE that people can not use blob.

Same gallente militia is whining now and same gallente militia will whine what ever ccp changes.

Now even npc do not have ecm, so there should be no reason to avoid plexes.

they can sure do something, they could hire better players.

Plexing is best done in a pve ship without engaging in pvp. That is the most efficient way to plex. So hiring "better" players will not make it more pvp it will make it more pve.