Warfare & Tactics

What you should be asking for is for CCP to fix nullsec so that smaller players can get involved. You need to get on the nerf power projection, allow more players to be supported per null sec system, "do things" to encourage null sec alliances to hold less space, "do things" to not make it worth null sec alliances time to go beat on smaller null sec alliances just because they have nothing better to do, etc. FW is not that game.

As far as your specific points...

-How is the point system fine?
There is nothing wrong with the point system. It works rather well and the pendulum swings back and forth nicely. This is a CCP design to ensure nobody wins and it is a never ending war. CCP needs neither side to ever win or lose and for us to keep coming back every month.

-How is having hundreds, if not thousands of farmers with no loyalty to any side or the gameplay itself mucking up the system fine?
There is nothing wrong with having farmers. What is slightly broken is the risk/reward and the use of cloaks and stabs. A few small tweaks might fix this issue.

-How are missions that pay out well, but don't affect the contested level of the system you run them in fine?
I agree missions are broken. They are extremely unbalanced (Caldar/Minmatar get easy mode; Amarr/Gallente get WTFBBQ). They add no "value" the the war. IMHO, FW missions should be removed completely.

-How are dust players not being able to choose the planet they fight on fine?
Yes, this is broken. However, this is a DUST514 problem, not an EVE problem.

-How is the tag market fine?
Agree. The tag market is broken after they reduced the number of NPCs in plexes.

-How is the ihub system fine?
How is the ihub system not fine? I like the current system.

-How is the intel system fine?
What intel system? Intel systems are a player created "thing". There is no CCP mechanic for intel other than chat channels and evemail. CCP could probably fix the API to add system contested percentage, but that is the only fix I can see that would help.

-How is the screening for recruits fine?
How is this any different than anywhere else in EVE? My only problem is that they dropped the Faction standing required to join FW, which makes alt spies extremly easy to create. However, at the same time this has literally pulled 10,000+ players into FW that wouldn't be there otherwise.

-How is the plex capturing system fine?
How is it broken. I think it works fine.

-How are the larger war objectives, if any, fine?
This is not nullsec. This is a free wardec, that is all. If you want grand wars and strategic goals, nullsec is the answer.

-How is the lore progression fine?
Hmmm, I guess I'll concede this point. CCP could do more here but I don't think they have the creative writer resources to make it happen.

-How are real territory gains fine, especially if they're nonexistent?
This is not nullsec. This is a free wardec, that is all. If you want grand wars and strategic goals, nullsec is the answer.

What is a war without conquest? What is war without the need for acquiring resources or territory?
This is lowsec, not nullsec. Resources are FW LP, POCOs, and moons. That is all. If you want more, lowsec is not where you should be.

0.0 is endless war too - if they choose to make it so. The FW timescale is much shorter.

The "lore" is that CONCORD set up FW as a place for all the radicals in each faction to go beat their brains into each other. Working as intended.

TBH I've run lvl 4 FW missions a lot in a merlin since BEFORE they got patched...back in Tyrannis I think. It's kind of embarrassing how easy they are, but like anything else in that profession, you have to worry about getting dropped on so being vigilant with dscan is all-important. You guys could probably run your own missions in a single-rep permastable incursus with eccm without too much difficulty. Might be worth trying at some point if you get your tier up.

"What you should be asking for is for CCP to fix nullsec so that smaller players can get involved. You need to get on the nerf power projection, allow more players to be supported per null sec system, "do things" to encourage null sec alliances to hold less space, "do things" to not make it worth null sec alliances time to go beat on smaller null sec alliances just because they have nothing better to do, etc. FW is not that game."

Already did that in a previous post. The gist of it was that they'd change sov by adopting a somewhat similar system of capturing complexes, except they'd be special DED sites full of a boatload of mercs that had to be taken down. Adding a a system where systems in sov can be contested rather than blockaded is a good starting point; the main difficulty lies with scaling it up properly.

"As far as your specific points...

How is the point system fine?
There is nothing wrong with the point system. It works rather well and the pendulum swings back and forth nicely. This is a CCP design to ensure nobody wins and it is a never ending war. CCP needs neither side to ever win or lose and for us to keep coming back every month."

The point system is broken because it is skewed more towards the upgrade system rather than the number of actual systems held, which disincentivizes the capturing and holding of territorial gains; while systems are assigned points when they are gained, they are far fewer than where they should be. A possible way to fix that in the way I was speaking of would be to increase the overall point cap dramitcally for the warzone, but have system upgrade points be roughly on-par with owning the system itself.

-"How is having hundreds, if not thousands of farmers with no loyalty to any side or the gameplay itself mucking up the system fine?
There is nothing wrong with having farmers. What is slightly broken is the risk/reward and the use of cloaks and stabs. A few small tweaks might fix this issue."

There is EVERYTHING wrong with having farmers. The deny larger op goal coordination, they degenerate the quality of pvp in FW, and they don't have solidarity with the interests of the parent faction most of the time. They'll flip sides the moment things become better on the other side of the pasture.

-"How are missions that pay out well, but don't affect the contested level of the system you run them in fine?
I agree missions are broken. They are extremely unbalanced (Caldar/Minmatar get easy mode; Amarr/Gallente get WTFBBQ). They add no "value" the the war. IMHO, FW missions should be removed completely."

I don't think they should be removed at all; they provide a valuable method of providing quite a lot of isk to support the war effort on any side to the point of being invaluable. What could use fixing is their inherent difficulty (need to be harder for some races, easier for others), and making their completion in the system increase the contested level since they ARE a largeish military complex compared to some of the others (also another reason why I think there should be more NPC rats guarding complexes).

-"How are dust players not being able to choose the planet they fight on fine?
Yes, this is broken. However, this is a DUST514 problem, not an EVE problem."
It IS an eve problem because it directly translates to the difficulty or ease of capturing a certain system. It would be extremely helpful if both sides could pick to fight over, say, eha/oicx or some of the other front systems with planets just as rabidly on the ground as in the air. It would be invaluable for dust players dedicated to the cause to choose their battles in-line with war objectives.

-"How is the tag market fine?
Agree. The tag market is broken after they reduced the number of NPCs in plexes."
Thanks for the agreement; I made an entirely separate post about this awhile that I've been trying to garner support for. Not only do there need to be more tags accessable, the LP market for them needs to have it knocked down a bit to make the shiny items a little more available and useful.

-"How is the ihub system fine?
How is the ihub system not fine? I like the current system."
Sure you do, but it makes it extremely difficult to capture a system; you ned a lot of people fielding a lot of ships in a vulnerable situation. Having the old system of the last plex flipping the system is a better idea in my opinion, but it could use some work. I'm running out of room on this thread, so I'll continue it in a following post.

Actually Tier 3 Tengu, Proteus, or Ishtar/Deimos. L4 Gallente FW missions are a tough.

You are wasting time by thinking how to change game, how about use your time planning how to play on current mechanics.

Think small; you can sig tank it it similarly to how the merlin works, except just go heavy kin and it should work. Failing at that, you could just try going with an ishkur. Generally the merlin setup works perfectly if you run the missions where you have to drop the industrials rather than a commander.

rofl the shiny wz dom medals. XD

But in all seriousness; what would you do if you had the opportunity to a do a long, heavy push for the possibility of an epic, gigantic battle to permanently resolve it? A lot of other MMOs have high-powered events and rushes to permanently resolve running lore arcs, GW2 would be a good example as they just finished a yearlong one this week. What would your thought process be for that? What would you do if you had that opportunity to work towards?

I guess having not done them it would be presumptuous to assume there's an equivalent armor setup that would work for it. With that in mind, I would present this 80 sensor strength harpy with over 300 base dps to run it. See if this works:
[Harpy]

[High Slots]
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S
Light Ion Blaster II, Void S

[Med Slots]
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Conjunctive Gravimetric ECCM Scanning Array I
Conjunctive Gravimetric ECCM Scanning Array I
Experimental 1MN Afterburner I

[Low Slots]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Gravimetric Backup Array II

[Rigs]
Small Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

It'd basically be the same strategy I go for when I run mine; nuke the small ships then make a b-line for the mission target. If it works, you get the satisfaction of beating the odds in a little frigate. :)

That's a nice setup, sure. Thing is that we still get jammed multiple times even in our T3s - all of which have 70+ sensor strength. It's definitely a lot cheaper than our normal setups, but with about 60% the DPS.

I've not run them in a Manticore yet, but you can get 80+ sensor strength out of one of those as well. While doing 500+ DPS at 70+km. Oh, and have all the advantages of being able to move around cloaked.

Your harpy would be a disincentive to get bounced during those missions, I have to admit.