EVE General Discussion

Rather than another whine thread about nerfing highsec I thought I'd post something with the aim of being constructive and take a look at what can be done to return nullsec to its glory days. I posted a similar comment recently, but thought it would be good to start a new thread to gather ideas of new features to entice people to null.

As a solo/small gang pvper I've noticed that nullsec has become rather stagnant over the past year or so, a lot of the old sov skirmishes are diminishing as people are seemingly content with what they have, and the footholds in 0.0 are too deeply entrenched to allow newer corps/alliances to establish themselves. People looking beyond empire are seemingly choosing to reside in WH space rather than null due to the low barriers to entry, unique gameplay and profitability so the landscape of null is not changing.

It's my opinion that currently the majority of eve stay in highsec because it is convenient, more sociable and easier to get into than nullsec with enough the features to keep people occupied and having fun. It’s possible for the average player to make enough isk in highsec to buy all the ships required relatively easily, so even the more expensive ships are easily accessible. I'm definitely not in the camp of "nerfing" highsec - this will just **** off existing residents and will not bring anything new to the game, but there needs to be a reason to explore other areas of the sandbox – currently CCP does not offer enough of a reason.

To entice players [back] into null there needs to be a big carrot and not a stick. This carrot should be unique, easy to get into and most importantly it should be fun. The problem is I have no idea what that carrot should be because I still happy out in null .

So my question to non-null sec players - What keeps you out of null, and what features would you like to see which might entice you to venture out here?




Edit - Some really good discussion so far of what's keeping people out of null.

The major frustrations seem to be:

- Lack of things for the casual gamer to participate in
- Lack of accessibility outside of major alliances
- Failure to give industrial's a meaningful task
- Too much unused, yet claimed, space
- Lack of objectives for small gang pvp
- Hard for people to actually enter nullsec due to pipe camps and bubbles

Some of the counters suggested

- CCP Soundwave - Considering swapping drone drops for bounties
- Making moon mining arrays raidable (which would be great imo)
- Limiting alliance size
- Making the cost of sov indirectly related to activity within a system
- Changing gate mechanics from appearing 15km from a gate to 150km.
- Making the cost of sov inversely proportional

CCP - It would be great if you could give your opinion on some of the counters and how implementable they are in reality (and whether you think they would be good for the game).

It's also fair to say that a number of people don't want to come to null... don't worry I don't propose we force you!

Not to be flip or anything but my answer would be: "nothing."

My game is in high sec. I've been playing for three years and have had short ventures into null and low, but I found myself choosing to not play when I had time while living in those areas. I don't care for CTAs, abrasive FCs, rules about when I can and cannot do non-corp/alliance activities. I don't care for politics and peoples' hurt feelings causing me to PvP. I don't care for mandatory operations and rules about who I can and cannot sell my stuff to or buy from.

I'm comfortable in high sec. I like highsec Eve. I may try out some WH stuff, but highsec is just what I prefer. The changes that would lead me to consider null/low would break those areas for the players that like it.

I'm happy with Eve. I'm not trying to force people into high sec. Why do nullsec people feel the need to force/encourage people to play their game? If it's just a matter of too much space and/or not enough players, suggest CCP shutdown 25% of nullsec and stir things up. But I'll just move on to a different game before I'll move back out to null. That's meant in a "meh...it's just a game" kinda way...not trying to be confrontational or anything (hence my non-null personality )

That's a valid reason to be honest - in exactly the same way that I'm happy in nullsec and a massive change would be required to get me into highsec. I guess the difference is that the number of players in my boat are dwindling, whilst highsec is (from an outsiders perspective) getting stronger - or at best stable.


The comments on why you left null are interesting - and I doubt you are the first (or last) pilot to leave null due to alliance with too many CTAs, and a constant need to pvp. I've been a part of alliances with abbrasive FCs, and whilst my game is almost 100% pvp I think that one of the major problems of nullsec is that major alliances seem to favour the ability of a pilot to CTA and PVP much more highly than the ability to add to an alliance through industry. This is partly through the mechanics of the game which mean that number and firepower will ultimately outfavour tactics and industry.

Simple. There is no consideration for casual players in null sec. I can be busy and not login for weeks at a time. The sov environment can change very quickly and is always flowing. Some people would rather not log in and find out your assets are trapped in a station someone else took.

I agree that the risk of sov changes and instability are a good reason to be retisent about living in null.

It would be interesting to think about what changes could be made to accomodate this. I remeber CCP mentioning somehwere that they were looking to introduce "habitats" or something like, which would be semi-perminent homes for small groups of players and harder to remove. I think that this would be a good change and encourage more people to at least try nullsec

What happens in nullsec that anyone who isn't part of an already established group would want to be involved in?

I've said it numerous times: An actual goal for small roaming gangs in nullsec like raidable moonmining arrays.

I absolutely loathe Blobwarfare, structure grind and timers giving the defender days of time to get their super-blob in place and there is no single strategic/financial goal to roam nullsec in a small gang except some desperate killmail e-peening.

Likewise, there's no incentive for sov-holders to defend their space against small roaming gangs - poses are safe, bots warp to pos-shields, so why bother with a couple of ants crawling around my backyard if they can't even steal a crumb from my cake?

Dominion warfare with all its structure grind and timers encourages the unpopulated supercap wasteland we currently have in eve's 0.0.

I left 0.0 well before dominion, because I was somewhat bored with the actual pointlessness of small gangs, despite having had great fights (used to be in CH back then) and left for FW, which unfortunately turned out to be completely broken.

After a while, I ended up in a merc alliance that unfortunately ended up in that arena-like abomination providence had become and left as soon as they got involved in that BS, so I didn't really get to experience dominion warfare in its full glory...

The last time, I rejoined 0.0 for a couple of months earlier this year to make sure the NC would be killed properly this time - and boy was I glad to leave after its demise was certain.

Blobs, grind, timers, blobs, grind, timers, more blobs...

Unfortunately, that's all current mechanics encourage people to do - once that's changed, I'll probably give it another go, until then, I hope for the promised changes to FW to give that another go...

Somewhere there is an Eve player tied up in the closet, struggling to break free while some nice person is posting on the forums with his account....


If you want to boost 0.0, you gotta find a way to circumvent the mechanics that makes "kill everything that moves" gameplay less convenient.

It's pretty simple IMO.

Just add more NPC regions with a high sec gate in them. Would be a good trainign ground for new comers and corps, then they can buy up ships and POSs etc and go get a system of their own

I think one of the greatest assets to eve for those who remember it was CVA controlled NRDS nullsec. This allowed me to make a relatively friendly transition into 0.0 whilst still having the adrenaline/browntrouser time of reds showing up in local. For those not in the know in days gone by the CVA alliance opened up the providence region to anyone who wanted to come, providing they were not hostile to the locals.

I personally made the transition from highsec to lowsec through the Not Red Don't Shoot system, and it allowed me to find pilots I liked to fly with, and ultimately form my own alliance and take space for ourselves.

The problem is there is no "alliance incubator" in eve anymore - so it would be interesting to understand what mechanics could be engineered to make this a reality again.