Player Features and Ideas Discussion

read and see what is fun to implement

key is make TCU the focus, no more need of other sov flipping structures like SBU

TCU enables upgrade of system resource architectures directly and it must be anchored inside a POS. TCU onlining and offlining requires 72 hours, TCU upgrade paths requires 72hours per cycle. each alliance/corp can hold on to a maximum of 5 TCUs (so in effect 5 systems max). this can be a new skill branch under leadership, or addon feature to existing skill currently in leadership tree

in order to hold 5 TCUs, each TCU in use need to be upgraded to level 5. a level 2 TCU enables the alliance to hold 2 TCU in operation max, until both TCU is upgraded to 3, then they are allowed to operate a 3rd TCU. each level of TCU upgrade also allows a system fleet wide passive buff (like the incursion debuff), shield resistance, damage etc. 5 upgrades, 5 buffs selectable, each system can be a different mix of buff.

and based on this TCU mechanism, it can be expanded into ship "license" granting roles. bare individuals can by themselves pilot a single ship, corp/alliance fleet ops have a piloting limiting factor, maximum number of cap units allowed undocked universe wide starts at 3 capital units. each TCU level upgraded adds 2 more cap piloting slots, maxing out at 13 (including freightors, roqs, orca, etc, as 1 cap unit, supercap could count as 1.5 units, a titan is maybe 3units). piloting license can be set by the generic corp leadership skill level 5, and cap piloting can be a corp level flag bestowed on pilots deemed fit to fly capital level ships (which could be added bonus to corp hangar security

a TCU-ed POS can field the option of a jump portal structure, this structure features POS to POS jumping w/o distance limits (a POS is powerful after all). the said jump modules can have a 72hr timer (so larger freightor corps will find this a nice feature)

the alliance can choose to have only 1 sov system and have only 1 TCU at level 5 and still field the max number of 13 cap ships if he has all 13 cap pilots under him.

onlining a TCU will create an auto system wide alliance fleet and system wide buffing countdown bar (opposite of incursion debuff), which after 72 hrs will give the full blown buff of whatever the alliance chief has trained for or chosen (cyno jam? mining yield? anomalies bonus? shield resistance?). pilots joining system wide fleet will need 72hrs to move from holding wing to fully buffed wings, only alliance members can join this fleet. consequently, attacking fleets must field a command ship armed with counter-TCU mod, and same rule applies, 72hrs in fleet to achieve full buff benefit.

in the actual warring system, only TCU buffed fleets will exact full damage on each other (subject to extra buffs so any ship/structure is effectively 4x more in EHP). pilots not under TCU buff of either side gets a 90% debuff inside a TCU-ed system (extent of debuff may vary). a TCU POS in the process of going online cycling a full 72hrs only get hit at a debuffed rate of damage.

addition to maxed level TCU in the POS, a last final unlock can be achieve to unlock capital POS status. this enables cyno and warp gate lock for said system and enables a 2nd POS to be anchored 100km of capital POS. such an unlock can only be done at 1 POS per corp/alliance. a capital POS also enables ability to use additional capital sized POS weaponry at reduced PG/CPU costs. the said special capital POS defense module will be special, as normal ship armaments can be inserted into said structure, and it will be amplified into a capital sized weapon. eg : large nos --> capital nos, large hybrid --> capital hybrid, item stats are multiplied accordingly to reflect slower traversal and higher damage etc.

in TCU enabled fleet vs fleet war, only 1 each of opposing fleet can effectively fight each other in a single system. max pilots 50 + 50. non TCU-buffed fleets may interfere but with strong debuff, it will take over 2500 pilots to have same effect, by which time, latency will make any play very unpleassant. POS defensive guns and other operable structures like ECM are now also listed in the system fleet view for direct access and to effectively control maximum pilot limit.

a counter-TCU buffed fleet will feature vastly buffed stats for logistics groups (yes groups, long drawn war, you need more than a few of these pilots)

now with the above
- rate of flipping sov is broken up into a longer than 24hr affair
- a TCU unit is now the main focus structure to "manage" sov/system control and effects
- a TCU can have 5 levels of upgrades and finally a capital tier.
- a TCU will occupy approx 33% of a single large POS, but a capital TCU gives a double POS anchoring expansion
- limit number of sovs per alliance/corp
- limit number of cap/super cap deplyable. reduce capital swarms
- improve defensive capability of POSs, with maximum TCU able to addon capital armaments.
- TCU resistance buffs and reduced max ship count on both sides to the extent it is impossible to single volley any sub-cap ship let alone capital ships.
- to completely wipe 5 TCUs will mean the losing side will have to restart buidling sov from square 1 totally starting from TCU level 1. so apart from TCU mechanics in play, large fleets swarming over each other are still possible, but now are limited to active TCU level limits maxing at 13 capital units per alliance fleet.
- smaller POS operator can choose to expend 10 units of this cap limitation to online a concord protection module. yes pay concord to actively protect your POS in any sec space.
- in non-null space. TCU will only affect a radius up to 300km. and running TCU is not cheap
- there is now reason to form active smaller corps and hold active sov space, AND have some variety in null space
- POS onlined defensive modules appear as units in fleet panel, including hired concord SWAT units.

removing the OP mechanic that jumpbridges/jumpdrives are would mostly fix power projection and would immediately create far more gameplay in general .. the things people actually want .. pretty simple solution CCP just be brave enough too do it

I have removed some rule breaking posts and those quoting them. As always I let some edge cases stay.
Please people, keep it on topic and above all civil!

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Thread reopened after some unintended delay. My apologies for that

The catch is to change things so nullsec are not reliant to a tether to empire to survive. That means they need to be able to attract miners and builders to be able to supply them with needed goods and services. I don't think people will mind giving up jumpbridges and jumpdrives as we know them now for a more vibrant and healthy nullsec. I say that if there are mechanics to supplement for how we do things now. Or we can be self reliant in nullsec without the tether to empire.


I personally benefit greatly from the current status quo. My alliance is one of the richest and best oufitted and most powerful in the game. However I love this game and care for its welfare. The current status quo is not conducive to a healthy or vibrant nullsec that encourages player growth. Because the bar for entry is so high and the lack of content drivers is so low. Myself a 10 year veteran and willing to adapt to a whole new way of doing things if it means that we end up with a more vibrant and healthier nullsec and by extension game.

Manfred, Mynna is correct here.

First, the rental system isn't all that bad. I am looking to rent and insodoing I will have opportunities to do things that I, as a more or less independent entity would not be able to do otherwise. 'Back in the day' I would be forced to get in with a big alliance and suck everybody off for years in order to find myself in a position to where I could do what I wanted to do. The rental system adds a financial and contractual element that works in the stead of trust. If I screw anybody over I get reset, blown out of new eden, and lose the 50 billion ISK worth of crap I have out in my system. If my rental alliance screws me over I go straight to TMC and EN24 and let everybody know not to rent from my renter. And I'll tell you, the changes you suggest would make it utterly impossible for a little guy, and independent, like me, to have a system out in Paragon Soul. So the current system actually does offer the little guy some things that would go away in your miserable nerf world.

As for combat, the problem is not so much the game is that you won't take the meta to its conclusion. I personally dream of a world without Goons in it. The only person that can make that happen is you. But you flat out said you won't be fighting real wars, just little proxy ones that make the masses happy. You know, I am an industrialist and every time I mention invulnerable Rorquals or super tanky freighters the gankers always whine and throw risk vs. reward at me. Well, the super coalitions are being bad at Eve. You need a little lesson on risk vs. reward, apparently. Stop with the proxy wars and figure out how to go at the Goons at the throat.

Yes, the current meta does lead us to the blue donut. However, the blue donut is not here yet. Actually we have a situation that has never existed before in Eve's history where there is the potential for more massive battles than ever before in Eve's history. All it takes is you super coalitions deciding to fight them. I'll gladly participate in them. I'll gladly sell you ships to blow up in them. I'll have a lot of fun with this. But the problem isn't really CCP at this stage, it's you.

So we are hearing that there will be player built star gates. The sandbox will change. New futures will come to us. But let that happen when it's ready. If that weren't coming, and we were in a blue donut, then the game would be broke. However, we have some time for the biggest parties Eve has ever put together to blow the hell out of each other and actually create the blue donut (that will probably be rendered obsolete by the new constellations coming with the new stargates).

Don't fear the present. Make use of it.

So I am all for all out war but I cannot call what others want to do. I am the minority here most will want to make agreements so they have some reasonable measure of security. I think its stupid in a video game that people are so attached to pixels that they would deny themselves fun in order to protect those pixels. We aren't going to wake up anytime soon and see each coalition going at eachother in full out war. It's sad and makes me sad.

i agree

therefore there has to be a new mechanism in place that dissociates a pilot in a sov. and pilots trying to take on sov and pilots trying to make a sov. in short, break up the large swarms of caps.

the tweak has to be in the fleeting mechanism, and the sov flipping, etc

and like they say, eve has to be bold and yet not afraid to offend with new moves, otherwise in a few years, all thats left is probably 1 man playing all 1000 accounts in eve HAHAHA ... and he doesnt need to pay as he can plex it HAHAHA

OR ... if CCP is even brave enough ... HAVE NO MORE SOV ... you only have POSs. and you limit fleet battles in each system to a max of 5 capitals and 50 pilots and 1 fleet each. introduce a concord war fleet register to limit swarming fleets. then NERF all corps and alliances to a max of holding 5 POS max and limit inter-corp POS sharing by removing the allow POS to be shared amongst other corp option. so only pilots within your own corp can use your own facilities.

but i dont think ccp will do it. because they are using EVE as a real life simulator for real world statistics somehow

however on the other hand the purpose of null is to be able to do anything out there, and this trait is being over exploited to the detriment of the game for other to enjoy, i wonder if CCP takes this game enjoyment seriously for all the players

I dont know Manny my friend. I agree 100% that something needs to be done. Somehow I just cant believe the changes you suggested would make it any better. Quite the controverse.

As I am and have pretty much always been on the smaller guys alliance, I have some experience on that. However I am so new to this game, that I have not seen the days w/o jumping ships and w/o the JF logistic backbone. Somehow I see it nearly impossible to think this game could have any fun in it anymore without said logistics tools.

But so frustrated I am in the current state of eve, that I will back you up anyway, beacause this is after all the best thought thru plan I have seen so far. I will throw few smaller change ideas to the soup as addition to your ideas though, as the points I am about to represent are something that I as the small guy have been forced to fight constantly against.

- If system has online SBU's on more than 50% of the gates, IHUB goes to anchored mode and thus will stop all sov upgrades from system. Once SBU's are destroyed it takes the 3 hours to online the IHUB again and everything will go back to normal again. Also, if system have a anchored SBU, anyone should be able to pick it up.
--- This would stop the retardation of defencive SBU's, this would force the sov owner to actually defend their system from the getgo of an invasion. Yes, this would be abused by roaming gangs, but then again the current system is abused by sov owners. Maybe increase the SBU price by tenfold or something to lessen the abuse factor.

- To your idea of sov cost limit, I had an idea, that every next system you have sov in doubles the price from the previous system. So first system could be the current 84m/2weeks if I remember correctly. Next would be 168m/2weeks, then next 336m/2weeks, etc. This would ofc divide us into even more smaller alliances, who each hold 1-2 systems. However, it would leave a LOT of space w/o sov. And all those sovless systems would be on the plate for the small guy. Yes, as soon as someone notices the small guy got sov, the big guy comes and cleans it up again, but if the small dudes does this much enough / often enough, the big guy eventually is forced to a) take sov there or b) just leave the small guy to be. With time this would I believe lessen renting aswell, as the small guy actually have a chanche to gain sov on their own.

- Jump bridges could IMO excist, but only to owning alliance usage. No standings usage to JB. Also they should be IHUB upgrade, not pos module. Thus jumping into them blindly would create a lot more content, as you could not use them blindly and safely by deafault, but need to scout them, or have a ship, that can handle the possible unknown threat on other side.

- Finally the stations. Make the destructable. When a station pops, it leaves a indestroyable wreck, that has loot in it. This would give the sov owners an actual reason to fight for their assets. This would create a lot of conflict in form of "lets see if that station is a loot pinata".

However, I am in a state in eve, where something needs to be done and needs to be done FAST. The game is broken atm. The game I love so much is nearly unplayable.

-U

I guess Ezwal's sweeping was a little bit to throughout. CCP Fozzie had posted in this thread, that even though there's no dev response, they would still read topics. Guess, Ezwal forgot to untick the check box. Or Fozzie remove the post himself ...

I have been gone from game some 3 years now and I just got back. If my suggestions are outdated please have some understanding. Constructive critisism appreciated.

1. Remove AFK income for alliances. Remove the r16, r32 and r64 minerals from moons all together. Insert them again in PI, Hacking and deadspace mining sites. And obviously they can still be refined from lesser materials.

2. Reduce the usefullness of supers in sov-war by making sov-structures invunurabe to the supers-only weapons.

3. Make system cyno-jamming part of the sov system. When sov drops, only then does cyno jamming go down.

4. Make titan jump bridges work like pos or covert jump bridges. Fuel consuption per weight jumping through.

5. Make sov in a system dependant on a number of node structures placed around the constellation. Say 3 or 4. If one of them is active the sov structure in invunurable. Nodes can be hacked (inactive for 10 mins) or reinforced (inactive until repaired). Nodes can be scooped or destroyed if sov in the "mother" system drops or changes.

6. Ramp up the cost of having more then 3 or 4 sov systems by ALOT. As promised some 15 expansions ago.