Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Intent of this post:
I am merely throwing my hat into the ring, trying to address the issues with nullsec (lack of meaningful PVP, boredom, vacant systems, the blue donut, power projection, farming in hisec to pay for nullsec SOV, etc). These are just ideas, please comment and be decent.


For all of my suggestions below to work, we must first nerf down all anchored structure's *BASE* HP's and POS GUN damage, etc. Nerfed to a base of 10% of what it is now. Don't panic, please read on.

I am proposing a new mechanic called "INFLUENCE" for now (I can't think of another name atm)
INFLUENCE is gained/lost based on real ACTIVITY in systems where your corp has a POS.

INFLUENCE starts at 0% when a POS is anchored.
INFLUENCE ranges from -100% to +100%

INFLUENCE is gained by doing these things *in system*:
Alliance members Killing NPC's (weighted by rat bounties)
Alliance members Clearing Anoms
Alliance members Mining
Alliance members Clearing complexes
Alliance Members clearing escallations
Alliance members Killing neutrals (weighted on Bounty and value destroyed)

INFLUENCE is lost by doing these things *in system*:
decays naturally at 5% per day
Non-Alliance Killing NPC's (weighted by rat bounties)
Non-Alliance Clearing Anoms
Non-Alliance Mining
Non-Alliance Clearing complexes
Non-Alliance clearing Escallations
Non-Alliance killing Alliance members (weighted on Bounty and value destroyed)

The above impacts should be balanced assuming that 10 players can have fun for around 10 hours per week *IN SYSTEM* in order to keep their INFLUENCE at 100%. Obviously, this number is a wild guess from me, but should be scaled to the average NULL inhabitant, but not grossly giving advantage to the solo player. It may need to be capped on a per *ACCOUNT* base, such that one account can only generate a maximum of 6% INFLUENCE per day or somesuch.


What is INFLUENCE used for?

All anchored structures (POS, guns, JB, etc) Hitpoints and damage output is modified directly by INFLUENCE value (calculated each night behind the scenes). Also, a new fitting type can me manufactured in nullsec POS (see bellow). These fittings' strength is also modified by *current* INFLUENCE (calculated nightly).


Current fitting meta works like this (simplified):

Civilian(m0)-->T1(m1-m4)-->T2(m5)-->Storyline/Faction(m6-m9)-->Dedspace(m8-m14)-->Officer(m10+)


I propose a new classification of fittings called "Sovereign" that will be similar to m5 at base, but is dynamic in power and can be larger according to a few factors.

First, the fitting gains a name according to CORP and REGION produced such as:
"Awesome Tech's Catch Region EM Ward Amplifier". Stake your claim in the world and leave a legacy!

Soverign fittings can only be made in a POS in nullsec, that is at 100% influence.

Soverign fitting strength is +25% stronger if the character is in the corp that created it.
Soverign fitting strength is +10% stronger if the character is in the alliance of the corp that created it.
Soverign fitting strength is +X% stronger according to how much "INFLUENCE" their corp has in the region it was created. So, if the corp has 60% influence, then the fitting is +6% effective (or some ratio that makes game balance sense). Fittings should always retain power equal to T2 fittings at bare minimum, so negative INFLUENCE does *NOT* destroy the value of the fittings entirely.

New raw materials in NULLSEC:
All belts in nullsec will have a new material that is required to be used for all Soverign fitting manufacturing. Let's call it "Farmium" for now (no better name comes to mind).

Farmium has new qualities and a new mechanic. Farmium has different strengths according to the region it was farmed in. So, some Farmium mined in the Catch region might look like this:

Catch Region Farmium
+10% EM Damage and Resistance
+5% Thermic Damage and Resistance
-10% Kinetic Damage and Resistance
-25% Explosive Damage and Resistance
+0% ECM strength
--etc.

These modifiers are the same for every piece of "Catch Region Farmium". The modifiers would impact any Soverign fitting made with them. This *should* cause territory to matter even more than it does now and provides diversity to regions. I could see the border regions being even more contested (yay?).

I *believe* this will help in multiple areas:
#1: Nullsec should see increased traffic of people doing things other than blobbing each other
#2: Using hisec to generate cash for your nullsec POS really isn't as good a strategy anymore
#3: Cool new fittings! I love new shiney stuff; and these have names that will go down in history
#4: POS grinding: attackers could simply hit PVE targets or angage in meaningful PVP to make POS destruction easier (and more fun). Bringing an enemy to 0% or even -100% influence would make structures cake to destroy and more important to "defend".

Go easy on me, these are just ideas!

Wardecs are not what I was trying to solve? Oh, I see what you are referring to: you could easily swap where I said "Corp members" with "Alliance members" or whatnot.

That was me just typing too fast. I apologize for that confusion.

Yeah, but you're talking about war targets being able to affect hostile sov. War targets implies wardecs, which are irrelevant in null.


And really, can you imagine any alliance sending out calls for a fleet to go and...erm...rat in someone elses space?

Where is the fun in that?

I prefer ratting, running anoms/escallations and engaging in pvp way more fun that POS bashing.

Right, okay. Personally, I've only ever seen war targets used to refer to highsec wardec targets. In Null, we usually just call them reds or neuts.

Now. Let's say you hold a system, and you have an ally. your ally rats in your system, and this hurts you. Why is that good?

Where is the incentive to actually fight? Ninja ratting in stealth bombers is suddenly much more effective a way to drop sov than actual conflict. On the other side, you can just game the markets to shove the value of a ship up, bring it in with your alt at the helm and kill it to increase your own hold on a system.



Also, systems like this just encourage botting, surely? What better way is there to ensure you have a nice, high amount of rat kills to keep your sov index up?

It doesn't take long to kill a BS rat or two with a bomber, and if you think a handful of cloakers are going to pull people back into null, you're wrong. Some groups, like the CFC and the HBC already use their space actively, the way to bring the rest in would be increased rewards, surely? If you can make more money in highsec with literally no risk, why would you do anything in null?

I wasn't talking about alliance members. I was talking about allies. As in blues. As in other alliances that you are friends with. Non alliance members implies everyone, would you exclude blues? If so, what stops an alliance setting some guys messing around in their space to +0.1 to remove any effect they may have had, and if not, why not?




Have you ever even tried to live in nullsec? You have no grasp of even basic terminology that a day one newbie would understand. You also talk about POs as if they're a part of the sov system, make no mention whatsoever about doing away with the things that make up the ACTUAL sov system, and I'm not even going to begin to tough the items thing.

Things I don't like about your "influence system"....

--- Limited in Scope.... Manufacturing, PI, Science, Marketing, etc all are major EvE activities we WANT to enhance in nullsec.... and you leave them out...

--- It kinda requires PvE in a system to keep sov in it... and you don't seem to realize that this is not feasible or appropriate for all systems because each system has unique utility... (Logistics, Staging, PvE, etc, etc, etc)

--- It's awkward...

--- It's limited to the owning corp only... I don't care who uses the system as long as it's being used!!!!

--- The new modules are just... no thank you...

Could we work within the framework we already have, using the indexes we already have in game (and which already give benefits to the system owners).

I'll call it the Sov Index....

Sov Index == The sum of all System Indexes in All your Systems (Strategic, Military, and Industrial) / (4x The number of Systems you have).

It's an integer less than 4.

Change the number of RF on all Sov Structures to match your dynamic Sov Index....
If you have a Sov Index of 0, you don't get any RF timers and anyone can instantly destroy your Sov with a critical attack...
If you have a Sov Index of 1, you get 1 RF cycle in your system.... etc, etc, etc... (max 4)...

This hinders (but doesn't prohibit) rapid expansion and/or owning lots of space you don't use... It also is simple, easy to tweak, and encourages people to use their space without forcing them to use EVERY SYSTEM to PvE...

interesting ideas here... the way i read this, you are trying to create a 'ground battle' that happens below the level of the cap pos bashing. sounds interesting.

it would be nice to encourage pvp fleets to do something other than roam for weak targets, camp stations/gates, etc. this would give meaning to small gangs running out intoborder systems and ratting/mining/etc.

Precisely. I am also assuming it would be best to "weight" the in-system pvp kills as having the *most* impact to the INFLUENCE value. The only reason I include things like mining and belt ratting is just so that *everyone* in the corp/alliance can have an impact and pull their weight (and do so while being *in system* instead of in hisec). Surely some things can have greater impact than others.