Player Features and Ideas Discussion

...another thread about suicide ganking...

Currently the game mechanics allow for ganking at a large scale with minimal cost to those doing the ganking. This has led to players and their corps specializing in it as a 'trade' and lots of tears.

Essentially I dont have an issue with suicide ganking, i've done a fair bit of it on my main, i think its a legitimate form of income, lols and punishment for the stupid. EVE is a sandbox with a steep learning curve and should be retained as such.

However i do have a problem with the SCALE that suicide ganking seems to be going on. Gankers killing empty freighters, shuttles on autopilot etc with no financial reward or worth with little of no cost to themselves. A cost thats obviously the victims to bear but also at a cost to the game.

And yes there is a cost to the game. Yes the bear is stupid for using autopilot, yes there are other ways to transport goods and travel but i am sure that suicide ganking costs EVE members for its player base. (Other mechanics not withstanding of course. I remember when EVE had a LOT more players than it has atm and I for one would like to still be playing it 10 years from now.)

The changes i propose as as follows;

1) Increase the sec hit for ganking. A toon that does a suicide gank loses the vast majority of his sec status in a single hit, example -1.9 goes to -8.6 or the like. Clone tags allow for this to be purchased back with relative ease and this applies to the 'guy who accidentally goes GCC using a smart bomb in Motsu' and the like as well.

2) Any toon under -5 cannot activate weapons in high sec.

Actually quite simple if u think about it. A gank then has to be worth the tags/isk that replace the lost sec status. The Jump Freighter still dies dropping goodies for all whereas the afk Garmur has more of a chance (maybe) and the autopilot providence lumbers to Jita unmolested. Burn Jita would still be possible (just really expensive) and Hulkageddon the same. This would see a return to CCPs own description of Suicide Ganking from EVElopedia; '"Suicide ganking" refers to the practice of intentionally attacking enemies in high-security space, with the expectation of losing one's ship to Concord. Some targets have very valuable items equipped and/or very valuable items in their cargo, and killing them and recovering the items that are dropped will pay for the costs incurred in losing the ships necessary to kill it.' These changes reduce vastly the ganking for lols and the return of ganking for profit.


Side note: CCP seems to have the habit of siding with its existing player base rather than a new or emerging one. (Just to clarify, I've been playing since 2007 and I fit in the 'bitter vet' category comfortably) Too often the tendency is for Dev's to laugh along with the other vets at the stupidity of a player who loses something expensive, gets scammed of all their isk and the like. It gives the clear impression that the existing players and current game play being very unforgiving as of utmost importance rather than growing EVE Online and retaining new players being more so. I want to advocate for an EVE experience that immerses new players in the sandbox and retains them via subscription for the long haul, not one where a new player loves the game, dies a few times, rises to the challenge then loses all their assets to a soft game mechanic (suicide ganking, bubbles, blue donut sov mechanics or smart bombing) and un-subs never to return. Catering to the existing player base is important (money money money) but they burn out, lose interest, get married, or get disillusioned and the game needs fresh faces to replace them.

I like the idea of GROWING THE GAME, more people to shoot, more people to shoot back when i do.

"Solution" implies the existance of a problem. Suicide ganking is not a problem.

Didn't read the rest, because:

16. Redundant and re-posted threads will be locked.

As a courtesy to other forum users, please search to see if there is a thread already open on the topic you wish to discuss. If so, please place your comments there instead. Multiple threads on the same subject clutter up the forums needlessly, causing good feedback and ideas to be lost. Please keep discussions regarding a topic to a single thread.

Because: already exists

Yeah, no. Posting in a poorly-stealthed "remove suicide ganking" thread.

I did. That's why I felt it necessary to report you instead of just ignore you or post a snarky comment.

In before lock, by the way.

IIRC the last statement from CCP said it was at an historical low.

Most suicide gankers are already -10, they don't buy tags, everybody can shoot at them and the Faction Navies chase them when they undock, their playstyle is already limited by the mechanics in place, they've adapted to it.

Congratulations you just killed highsec piracy as a profession, you've also just penalised everybody that participates in lowsec PvP who also uses highsec, as well as the people who actually enjoy fighting off/ farming the Faction Navies.

Locked. There's already at least one thread about suicide ganking here