Warfare & Tactics

I would theorically have posted this on "General Discussions", but i don't want to see the thread wasted by trolls and losing its focus, so, as i think that i'm not off-topic by posting here, i hope to attract less but more serious attention

This thread is about one of the main reasons (imho) why people don't visit null sec and a proposition to improve the situation.

We often see on GD this silly forum war between null-seccers and high-seccers.
The null-seccers complain that the high-seccers don't come to play in null-sec, which is frustrating , and the high-seccers complain that if they do so, they get gate-camped without much chances of surviving, which is also frustrating, one must admit

Being someone who loves to roam everywhere without caring for security status or sovereignties, i've been experiencing quite a lot with travelling between high, low and null sec. i won't speak here about the possibility to travel through worm holes, due to its random nature.
Never moving without first studying my map, which i set on the number of ships or pods destroyed last hour/last day, or numbers of jumps, i've noticed (one doesn't have to be a genius to do so, i know ) that to go from the central cluster to the null sec crown, you must always go though a bottleneck. You know, these long purple lines on the map.
Of course i'm just me and can only talk about my own experience and datas, but i do that since long enough to see that these bottlenecks are permanantly camped during the times most players are online (EU/US evenings and week-ends).
So unless one takes a day off or moves to Japan just to enter or exit null sec more safely, these pipes are where most ships from travellers will die, before even to really enter null-sec.
These strategic points are where most fights happen (i speak here of fights against travellers, not between null-sec factions). It's where most gate camps are, most activities.
And behind, beyond ? Nothing... the big calm...
So we are in a situation where a handful of people, null-seccers or pirates, can, by camping only one point, completly lock dozens and dozens of solar systems in null-sec where no one will ever go to play ! And they will continue to do so because it's effective, both to get easy kill mails and to prevent foreigners to enter.

But then half of the game space is not used and empty !

Of course one can always try his luck and go through anyway. If you fly a cheap fast ship or a covop it's fine, but usually when you want to go to null sec, it's to work on some serious business, so you fly a ship which is relatively big and more expensive and you think twice before to risk it's in a almost parmanantly camped stargate.
So basically, i think that the main reason why there's no one coming to null-sec from outside is these bottlenecks.
Once you've passed it, you're good, you can travel in null sec, it won't be a silly suicide. There are risks but they are balanced.
When you are in high-low sec, in the central cluster, if you see that a point on your route is hot, full of pods destroyed in the last hour, you can always find a way around. To go to null sec during the times when most people can play is much more difficult : watch your map, you'll most certainly see all of these points in orange, and then a big black sea of empty peaceful solar systems behind.

What i propose is simple : increase significantly the number of connexions (stargates) between the central cluster and the null-space crown. This way not every bottlenecks can be camped at one time, so travellers have the possibility to choose a safer entrance/exit point to null sec. And then if they are stupid enough to jump into the busy points they deserve to die as much as if it was in Rancer or Amamake , because the camped gates become avoidable.
What will happen then ? There will be much more visitors coming in null sec, as the null-seccers want, and there will be a balanced chance to survive, as the high-seccers want. The "action" won't anymore only happen at a few boringly camped gates, but much more by chasing each others in the full playground of null sec !

Thank you for readind, and i'm looking forward to read your constructive ideas on this topic

This sounds all well and good, except that your theory has one problem. There already ARE routes into null sec that aren't camped very much. Let us take Pure Blind as an example. Now, as we look we see that the EC-P8R system is blood red with kills. As of this posting there are ~100 ship kills over the last 24 hours. This is one of those heavily camped systems that you are talking about. Frankly, this gate is one of the more famously camped gates in Eve. Now, if you will look to the right a little you will see 93PI-4. This gate has 14 kills in the last 24 hours. That's less than one kill per hour. RQH-MY is another border system into Pure Blind and it has zero kills in the last 24 hours.

My point is this, the back routes that you are asking for already exist. They have existed for years. That is two back routes into one region. There are MANY more routes into Null Sec. They are rarely camped as they aren't used much and camping them would be boring.

Gate camping is not a real problem, it is only a problem in the minds of carebears. Gate camps aren't that common, you can find their general location using your star map, and you always reserve the right to CRASH THE DAMN GATE. Carebears don't come to nul-sec because they're risk adverse, not because of a perceived but non-existent problem. Get rid of gate camps,and they will just find another excuse to stay in empire.

When I lived in 0.0, I didn't think it was really that underpopulated, just the population was condensed. Pretend there are 100 pilots in a region in 0.0, well they would split into 4 groups of 25. Where as in FW low-sec those same 100 pilots would split into 50 groups of 2. You are much more likely to get some action with 50 groups of 2 roaming a region than you are 4 groups of 25, even though it's the same number of pilots. As power blocs and fleets get bigger, 0.0 will seem more empty even though it's not.

Part of the boringness of nullsec is the ability for even idiots to be 100% safe (it being that God level idiocy is required in order to die, so there are some Super Saiyyan Idiots out there for sure).

Lets see.

Local? For nullbears.
POSs? For nullbears.
Masses of bubbles on gates? for nullbears.
Cyno jammers? For nullbears.
Jump bridges? For nullbears.

Every time there's been a change to the game which increases risk to Super Saiyyan idiots, the forum clogs up with Q.Q faster than a toilet at a chilli festival. lets see:

Reducing the on-board scanner time? "OMG u hate my ratting carrier?!?!"

nerfing blap Titans? "OMG noes! How can I rat with my Titan?!? Uh, i mean, PVP, of course. Its a PVP ship, hahaha who would rat in a Avatar?"

nerfing supers? "OMG noes! How can I rat with my supercarrier?!? Uh, i mean, PVP, of course. Its a PVP ship, hahaha who would rat in a Nyx?"

Changing the Jump Bridge spam? "OMG noes! Nullsec logistics is finished! We'll all be ratting in Velators with Civillian guns cause we won't be able to build anything!"

Threats to change Local? "I'm going to quit this game! I won't be able to rat in my carrier/Nyx/Avatar safely, baww! Its so unfair, people will cloak and I will have to watch d-scan! i stopped watching d-scan as soon as I started carrier farming, I don't know how to set up my overview except by sorting by ISK per hour!"

Such is the way it goes. Of course, a few changes to PVP here and there to encourage more interaction are also met with Q.Q. But by and large, none of these changes has really reduced the safety of null security space to the point that it is unprofitable, totally unsafe.

The biggest thing making nullsec boring is the player blocs which are getting bigger and keeping the Small Guy down. I used to live in Delve before TEST and Gons owned it. it was the Thunderdome. Sure, the alliance I was with was run by idiots, for idiots, and we all got shafted. But at least you'd get 50-150 kills per day in MO-GZ5 when TEST came trolling, and we were fine with that. Now? I could literally have autopiloted from Stain via Delve and Querious to Efa.

CCP's idea in changing the truesec to allow the small guy to grow up in nullsec was fine, but until either the rent scales with number of systems under sov, or the moon goo changes occur, nullsec is going to get more boring as the number of power blocs consolidates. Or, you know, they make Local delayed.

The main problems of Null-Sec are these:

1. Small ships (e.g. frigates) are of almost of no use for any PVE content in 0.0 (except for the SteathBomber for belt ratting) because rats do too much damage or can tank too much damage. This means you have to come with something large with enough tank and dps.
2. Unfortunatelly large ships have real issues with getting caught at gate camps, so you have to go for cloaky ships.
3. Since Force Recons don't have enough dps you have to go Tech 3 Cloaky. Which means you have to do great investments before you get any result.
4. Being forced to do great investments mean, if you go to 0.0 you will go really risk averse and thus run whenever it gets dangerous. Especially since you always have to fear the blob which makes any fight non-sense for a lone traveler.

Having said this, low-sec is much more fun to play. You can fly small and cheap stuff, you can make a lot of money with FW plexing without crazy need for DPS or Tanking... and you get a lot of PVP opportunities which you can try because there are a lot of lone wolfs running in low-sec. What else do you need? Why should I even bother going 0.0?

I heard that you can't do this. It's been proven by Cearain that you can't get a fight within 10 minutes.

Seriously Check dotlan and compare Pure Blind to Caldari/Gallente FW zone for kills in last 24 hours. No contest.

Null sec is where you go to rep up your sec status. Just checked Syndicate - seems to be a happening place too.

Confirming that flying into random WH's can lead you into null space real, real quick.

You....

Losec checking in.