Player Features and Ideas Discussion

One aspect of gaming I enjoy in pvp combat is that an intelligent player can use the surroundings to his advantage. I have been playing WOT and enjoy being able to manipulate a hill, rock, building or tank hull to help me win against the odds or just reduce the amount of damage I normally would have taken had my only option been to have a slug fest in the open.

Now I appreciate Eve is not WOT in any way. Eve is in space, and there is an abudance of it. Space that is. However, I cannot help thinking combat could benefit from some extra environmental factors which could affect the outcome of an engagement for those who can use it best, or even by accident!

This is a bit of brain dump so apologies for that.

Gas Clouds/Nebulas

- Perhaps your getting smashed up and need to hide. Run for the gas cloud to disappear and repair for a moment. If a ship follows you and gets too close you become visible again.
- Perhaps some clouds actually allow you to recharge your shields/armor (cloud dependant) faster by harvesting its energy.
- Perhaps the cloud cloaks you but causes you some damage, which is worse, the cloud or the enemy? Delay tactic for friends to arrive.
- Snipers could hide in clouds and when shooting become visible.
- Scouts would now have to start doing exactly that, investigating possible hiding places instead of jump. Covert Ops might not be the only hidden ships near by.
- I guess this is almost like a temporary mobile cloak fixed to the environment.

Wrecks/Objects

Line of sight in Eve does not really exist so I suppose this is a much bigger change, but sitting behind a huge rock/wreck should really prevent you taking damage if said rock is between you and the target.
- It allows more tactical positioning.
- This could potentially make gates very well defended but if the defender is a lot smaller than the attacked through a gate it also might help to change the course of the battle, the FC would need to decide if he has the fleet to deal with it. What if the wrecks were destructable? Destroy their cover first then go to town.
- Dont want the wrecks/object getting in the way, destroy them before the engagement and prep the battlefield. If an attacker/defender wants to make use of them they need to act quickly before they get destroyed.
- Putting objects around would affect cloakers and interceptors making them have to pilot a bit more carefully to avoid getting stuck on an object.
- Blobs are not quite so effective against a well positioned defence and guerilla warfare becomes more viable.
- Brought a short range fleet to a long range fight? Can you use the wrecks for cover to get closer to your opponent without taking so much damage?

These ideas are not new in Eve, combat in asteroid belts cause issues for getting stuck, and clouds are around some places but only for visual effect. Lets make them useful and introduce something new to combat.

The overall aim is provide some more dynamic combat, not just circle each other/keep at distance until death. Add some options to both sides which can help change the tide of a battle by using the available scenery. This could also help to move combat away from gates.

I am not suggesting every gate/system has this, far from it. The things spawn randomly at DT and are scattered about. They may never get used, but occaisionally it might just give an intelligent FC the upper hand in a fight they had no right to have.

Far from a well thought out idea but I think something around this would enrich combat.

Flame away.