Warfare & Tactics

First of all, let me be clear, i really hope someone comes and shares a different experience than mines, showing me i've been unlucky and or i did something wrong.

Second premise, nope, i'm not a farmer, not by a long shot. The last plex i ran down (in my fully combat fit frig, waiting for fights) has been almost 2 months ago.





That said. We can all agree the latest changes brought hell on the farmers, which is good and fine. Problem is, it affected massively soloers too, it seems to me.

I'll start with a simple empyrical piece of info. In the last 3 days, roughly 7 and a half hours total, all of them soloing, i managed to get 2 fights, and a handful of skirmishes where i had to disengage and run because it was just bait (which is fine, mind you). Pre kronos, i could stick my head out my home system, and get a fight pretty much immediately, and not against farmers. Since the changes, i got massive cases of blueballs instead, with maybe a fight every couple hours, untill i get blown up at a gatecamp and say **** it for the night. Area, black rise and surroundings, flying anything from merlins to comets with the odd shiny or inty in the mix. Strangely, the most fights i got in a Worm, none 1v1 but eh, to be expected.

It seems to me the new plexes ****** up farmers, but they also hinder soloers too much. Having the rats re-spawning mid fight can tilt a fight if you're in a small or medium, so most people now would logically stay in their faction's plexes. Problem is, war targets aren't really kine to slide in an occupied plex where there might be also be a (or 2) rat(s) waiting. Do not underestimate it, in a fight that lasts more than a few seconds, you can easily get a 15% damage from a small rat, and i hopeyou can see how tht would be decisive in a close fight. So lss FW soloers in plexes, which means less targets for pirates too, which means less pirate soloers around because they CBA.

Secondly, the rat toughness made some fits completely un viable. You need a 100ish dps (someone said to me 110ish) to kill the small rat, and it will take quite a bit of time, might be more than a minute, and sometimes they respawn in less than 90 seconds, on pure randomness it seems. Needless to say, there's plenty of legit combat fit that can't do that. Think about LML non faction frigs, think about neut tristan, maybe some arty frigs, i don't really have experience with those.



All this to say, soloing has always been tough, between blobs, baits, cloaky surprises, but it was FUN. It was a rush. I started doing at 1 mill sp, and i still love doing it now at my still new bro-ish 8 mills. It was exciting. Now since the patch all i see around are gate camps, various degrees of blob-iness, and bait dual rep incursus in a plex with his corp buddies not even bothering to not be on d scan. Can't even see the usual names i got to know and respect flying around in my area


So, my fellow soloers, where art thou? How are you doing? Am i doing something wrong, have i been massively unlucky or did you notice a decline in fights on your ends as well? If so, what can it be done to improve it without bringing hordes of farmers back?




My simple input, which i feel would be good for soloers and not change a thing for farmers:
- make the rats respawn, and the timer stopas long as they're alive, but make them non aggressive, make it so they need to be shot at first for them to engage, this way the respawn won't affect ongoing fights (let's face it, they're an issue only for soloers anyway) and maybe some more action would be seen, while their effectiveness against farmers wouldn't be changed one bit. Also consider doing it so at least the small ones can be done by very popoular kite fits as well, p



ps. please, do not come with stuff like "go to tama or heyd" and the like. If i wanted baits and to engage a guy only to have half his corp rain on me 7 seconds after i'm pointed, i'd already be there.

Damn, thats great news. Can't wait till I got time for roaming again.

Have a go and let us know. Might just be lucky but in the last few days I've gone looking for fights four times and found solo Vexor, Thorax, Stabber Fleet, Moa x 3 and an Omen. Wish I'd killed them all - I need a better fit :)

And I've even come across four of those fancy sec tag rats without even trying.

Can i ask you how much time you solo compared to your overall activity and which areas you find most profilic for finding the fun?



You might be right, i did see a few of them around, not really great numbers but more than before Kronos, no doubt. Especially considering how many gatecamps there are lately


Still, even if i could switch to cruisers for my solo time, i'd miss frigs =(

I fkn love frigs.

The change is ridiculous. They need to tone down the spawn rate big time. I have no problem with the difficulty of the rats, lets make that clear.

Its the spawn rate that is the problem. I actually feel like I am running a mission now i kill so many NPC's while sitting in a plex waiting for a fight. I can tell its wearing thin on solo pvp'ers, because there are so few people sitting in plexes waiting on fights compared to before the patch. Its a huge deterrent for pvp right now.

When you turn pvp into pve you have done something wrong imo. That is what CCP has done to FW currently.

Again, the only thing causing this problem is the spawn rate.

I have literally killed 3 destroyers in a small outpost typing this. Thats how frequent they spawn. It seems to be every 1-2 minutes you get a new rat. Oh look the 4th just popped...brb...

I'm not a FW player but a pirate, however I spend a great deal of my time soloing in the Minmatar/Amarr border FW region. The rats obviously don't bother me at all, but I haven't noticed any reduction in the fights I've been getting, it's still the same as before the changes IMO.

This is great. I love the changes.

FW should be a group effort, not solo. If you want to do solo bring a bigger ship to kill the rats, which is easier to catch.

This only encourages PVP.

CCP should not change a thing.

EDIT: Why should a rat Aggro only when it is shot? This only encourages farmers again, and you will not need a bigger ship. Why would a rat sit silently while you are capturing territory?

OP Your solution makes sense.


At one point I thought some ccp dev said he wanted the rats to stop shooting when an player wt entered the plex. Your right the dps isn't huge but with smaller ships in solo fights everyone would love to get an extra 10 dps or whatever.





You won't be capturing territory unless you shoot the rat. That's why the ops suggestion is a good one and won't help farmers.

Ah okay. I didnt know you had to kill it first. Then i'd say its a good suggestion, yeah.

Sorry mate, but 20ish dps in a small and more in a medium do matter in a 1v1. Saying otherwise it's like saying "oh well, let's just ignore t2 guns and stop training skills at III, the dps increase is so small it won't matter".

It might be true in fights between 2 low tank gank fit frigs, fight will be over too fast for the rat to make an impact.

Not true at all between tankier boats
I'll give an example
Killmail link removed. -ISD Dorrim Barstorlode

It was a long fight, his rails missing me constantly, his dps coming from drones and the odd rail hit now and then, orbiting at 500 with TD and webs on him.
The guys was in low structure when i went boom, the rat effectively decided the fight there.

You can see why going in a plex with pretty much the certainty of having to face a rat as well can discourage a soloer to go in unless he's sure he's gonna win. It limits the meta enourmously, the thing that make sense at the moment is all out dps fits, and to the opposite of the spectrum most kite frigs aren't viable at all if you O-Plex


But, mostly, the proposed change wouldn't have an impact on the anti farming campaign, and it would make 1v1 easier to find among FW pilots (imo). I really can't see a single reason not to implement it








Boss i sure hope so xD