Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Typical "fixes" to what is now widely referred to as the "power projection problem" are very blunt.

They include, but are not limited to:

Make jumping and/or jump fuel more expensive

Nerf jump ranges

Nerf jump frequency

Nerf titan bridges

Nerf this

Nerf that...

I propose a more elegant solution. I call it: Dynamic Subspace

Allow me to explain. Subspace (according to some sci-fi canons) is what spaceships travel through when travelling "faster than light". It's a shortcut from point A to point B through a 4th spatial dimension that ships without a jump drive are unable to access.

So here's the meat behind my idea:
When ships jump into or out of a system, they cross the barrier between subspace and normal space.
If too many ships cross that barrier too quickly, they start to destabilise it!
Each solar system would now have a "subspace polarity" which takes values from -1.0 to +1.0
The default being 0.0 for all systems.
EFFECTIVE Jump Distance becomes a function of ABSOLUTE Distance and SUBSPACE POLARITY DELTA
At DT, subspace polarity in every system moves a little towards zero to prevent permanent damage to the space lanes

Example (arbitrary numbers are just for sake of example)
System A and System B both have subspace polarity of 0.0
The subspace polarity delta for a jump from System A to System B is therefore 0.0 - 0.0 = 0.0
Player 1 jumps a ship from system A to system B, at the extreme limit of his jump range.
Jumping out of System A decreases its subspace polarity by 0.01 to -0.01
Jumping into System B increases its subspace polarity by 0.01 to +0.01
After the jump, the subspace polarity delta between systems A and B is now 0.02
The ABSOLUTE jump distance between the two systems has not changed...
but the EFFECTIVE jump distance has increased by 2% due to the change in subspace polarities

Result
Player 1 cannot now jump back into System A directly because the EFFECTIVE jump distance increased
Similarly, Player 2 cannot now jump from System A into System B for the same reason



EFFECTS OF THIS CHANGE
Projecting one's power throughout New Eden would still be possible, but it would leave a lasting impact on the face of the universe. The very space through which power is projected would become treacherous and fickle. It might not let you jump your entire fleet. It might let you through, but not let you back! It would add an entirely new dimension to warfare in Lowsec and 0.0

Someone posted it before me so it's their credit, I'm just parroting.

Reverse the location of the bridger and the cyno. So you jump FROM a cyno, not to one.

Job jobbed.

I'd say, make it take several minutes to spool your jump drive (and it consumes the normal 75% of your cap as it spools). Once it spools, you can jump.

As an added bonus, if you are within 1 jump of a system under TIDI, your drive spools at that systems TIDI speed.

Make it so you can still spool the drive while cloaked.

This is doable with the current engine without huge changes. It wouldn't break jumping or power projection, it would serve just to slow things down a bit.

...and when you are undocking jumpable ships that means you can no longer just jump wherever. You need to get safe and spool up before you can jump.

You can't abuse this either by jumping into another ship because you'll have to start spooling from scratch again.

So...whoever jumps their caps or bridges their subcaps into a system first wins, right?

I mean, if the opposing force cannot jump caps in to combat them, nor bridge in subcaps to bypass the by now camped gates...

Would covert cynos have the same effect? Just to really ram home the 'get to the system first or there's no point in undocking' theme you have going here.

And it'll just encourage the larger entity to escalate first, surely.