Warfare & Tactics

I found this idea on the Mittani, which in my opinion would fix the problem with Null warfare and make eve a more enjoyable game by far. It was originally posted by a member named Sev who encouraged it's reposting, so here it is.

Strategy < Splerg Capitals

Everyone knows this, and has many different ways to "fix" it. A lot of them suck, others are complicated, and more only fix parts of the problem. My idea probably sucks too, but at least it's different. In my opinion capitals are fine, in fact - buff them - it's cynos that are breaking everything.

So I'm posting these here as my EVE accounts are currently unsubbed and I really don't feel like resubbing just to post on the EVE forums. I wrote it up a few months ago but never got around to posting it. So if someone here likes the idea then feel free to post it to EVE. CCP will ignore it, but what's new.


Idea: Change Cynos

Cynos in their current form allow instant teleportation for massive capital+ fleets with little risk / effort. This causes many (if not most) of the problems that exist in null. CCP attempts to balance this with annoying limits on capital pilots, nerfs to capitals, weird jump limiting deployables, and a bunch of stuff that just is not needed. Capitals should be powerful, they are f***ing capital ships. When they enter the field it should be like the Dominion Trailer's iconic "Burn them all" line. The thing thats breaks everything isn't capitals, it's cynos. A single Rifter can summon 1000 Titans in a few moments because of a cyno. That's broken. No matter how much you nerf capitals the ability to summon 1000 of them at once will always lead to N+1 battles. None of this is fun.

Here is how I would correct the system.

1. Cynos should have an activation time.
2. Cynos should have an effective range.
3. Cynos should have damage resistance.
4. Cynos should have mass limits (like wormholes).

(The above 4 things should all work like a balancing square, you must sacrifice in one area to excel in another.)

5. Cynos should work as charges (like probes) or be deployable.
6. Cynos should alert local when they are lit, and show up on the Starmap as a gravity well if many are lit in the same system.
7. Capitals should be able to jump to any cyno within range.
8. Capitals should no longer require fuel to jump
9. Capitals should have to wait a short 2-5 minute cooldown between jumps.


This above system solves many problems with EVE.

1. No more sudden escalation or hotdrops. When you are winning the enemy can't light a cyno and suddenly summon 1000+ capitals to wipe the floor with you. Instead they have to light X number of cynos, defend them while the activate, then summon in ~X number of capitals. This gives your fleet time to respond and either destroy the cynos, light your own, or escape. It also ensures that if your fleet is controlling the battlefield that an enemy can't just hotdrop a ball of supercaps to regain control. They now need to light cynos, defend them, and wait. Strategy.

2. Small corps could maybe survive. Since a coalition would be hard pressed logistically to deploy their ENTIRE capital fleet at once smaller corps could maybe defend themselves. Right now, it takes one cyno and 100 bored supercap pilots and any small opposition is dead. With this it would take ~100 cynos, subcaps to defend said cynos, 100 bored supercap pilots, and then ~100 more cynos to get them back home. Far more effort, and the defenders have the ability to destroy the attackers cynos and limit how many capitals are summoned. Small entities would probably still die, but at least they have the possibility of defending themselves in a manner that isn't "bring more supercaps"

3. Capitals and supercapitals could be used more regularly. Right now, no one will risk their capital fleets because one guy in a lowly Rifter can suddenly unleash a sphere death blob of Titans at a moments notice. With this, the risk of escalation is lower. To get capitals on the field requires lighting and defending multiple cynos. Capital FCs will see the Titan death escalation blob coming and have the ability to try and escape or prevent it.

4. Server load would be lower. Cynos wouldn't suddenly slam the server with 1000 pilots trying to load grid at once. Unless all of the lit cynos were timed perfectly in unison (and since we can't get pilots to fire their guns in unison) capitals won't all arrive at once, allowing the server to breath and not go into a TiDi coughing fit.

5. Creates many different cyno types to use in many different ways. You could have...

- Super-long range, high mass cynos used only for moving capitals across the map.
- High HP, short activation cynos used to get capitals into a fight.
- High HP, super-long range cynos used to get capitals into enemy territory.
- Etc...

6. It just makes sense. Capital projection should be more limited, and take more time, but also encourage fun gameplay. This system removes some of the annoying and tedious mechanics (jump fuel) and replace it with mechanics that are more risk / reward and create fights. Hot dropping a small gang with a Titan blob is not fun for anyone. Neither are the current mechanics of "bring all the capitals" to EVERY battle. Yes, it creates BIG fights but it's also horribly laggy and often the result of a misclick rather than some tactical brilliance. Wars should be won through strategy, multiple battles, and logistics. Not because of one sudden mistake that erupts into a 1000+ supercapital brawl where everyone has to be "all in" to have a chance of winning.

JF could continue to function in the same way, for instance combat and no-combat cynos would be a possible solution. In regards to your statement on whoever field caps first wins, when was the last time you seen a cap/super-cap roam. Thus that argument is kind of mute, because no one wants to risk their cap fleet on a simple roam. It would basically boil down to what the theory stated that one side would have to light the cynos and then defend them, it would be the opposing FC's decision to light his own cynos or not, also as it stands now 80% of the time it's whoever fields a fleet of caps first wins now.

1. Spool up time on a cynos doesn't help anything, it makes low sec annoying because people will pop your cyno just for the killmail, if i have to wait and wait and wait before jumping my carrier then that is absolutely pointless to the idea of logistics, your cyno shouldnt need repairs and an escort to move 1 or 2 ships a few lightyears

2. Cynos do have an effective range, you drop within 10kms of them and they only work if your within jumping range which is determined by what your flying. So i see 0 benefit to that or even a change

3. Cynos should have damage resistance, uhhhh its called a tanky cyno ship like a maller a devoter or even another cap. If you want to use a rifter thats your risk that the cyno will go down due to death by alpha before the entire fleet jumps in.

4. Mass limits on cynos? Why? A cyno isnt a direct portal its a beacon, you know a signal in space that talks to the ships computers and it plots the jump in less than a second, putting a mass limit on a cyno does nothing because nothing comes THROUGH the cyno, cyno is a just a prelude that ships will come when they have jumped and landed.

5. They do work like charges, you use liquid ozone to fuel them, what next cap boosters?
5.1. Deployable cyno? Yeah we have that already in sov null look for the structure

6. Redundant as they already do, its called the beacon that spawns on your overview, you know the one we warp to?
6.1. they do show on the map already, no need for an animation, also why would a beacon cause a gravity well? All it is is a signal not some bending gravity to open a portal thingy.

7. they can already do this if they are in fleet with the cyno, the chance to drop on someone elses cyno turns into a clusterf**k for smaller alliances and corps who now cant use their caps for fear of them being counter dropped by a gang waiting for someone elses cyno to go up.

8. Uhhh no thats a balancing act already, it takes a lot of fuel to move a big fleet, why should that change?

9. You already do this as well, its called not being able to jump because you have no cap, you can get around this by docking but when you combat drop this is the case, usually because when a cap appears it gets neuted which also keeps you from jumping even longer than your proposed 2 minutes+


Moving on to Stage 2

10. No More Hotdrops? Nope working mechanic as such isn't going to get changed, and if you bite off more than you can chew why cant i drop 100 carriers to show you the error of your ways? Or bridge in more support if the fight goes south for us? Thats not strategy thats just easy-mode and a veiled attempt at removing fun from low and null if you dont like hotdrops go to J-Space, i hear its quite nice this time of year

11. 1 cyno per super? Yea right all this does is put more strain on the nodes by needing 1000 more pilots in system, which big alliances could do anyways, it would just be a pain. and stop saying their being summoned this isnt WOW and your not a technomancer that can summon Lvl.50 Ships on a whim for some mana or something

12. Sphere death blob of titans, if only because if this were the case more would die, nope its usually dreads or super carriers that melt your face and jump out. And that teaches you to be careful in your capital. And if this or that were the meta than under what pretense are people NOT using their cap fleets if your so afraid of a sphereical death ball of titans?

13. Server load lower with 1000 Cynos rather than like 4? Learn2servermechanics

14. SUPER LONG RANGE HIGH MASS CYNOS = I can drop my supers on you in paragon soul from fountain and you cant see it coming because were so far away. And how does it deem these are just for "moving" could i not be "Moving" my massive combat ready super fleet and you guys just had the misfortune of being there when we moved? Too bad soo sad

14.1. High Hp cynos = Read #3 plz

14.2. Same as #14 but with tank, read #3 AGAIN plx

15. Capital projection is only limited by fuel, how many are online, and how many you are willing to drop to win a fight. This isnt risk reward at all, its just...

bad

-10 / 10 Will never be implemente

An analogy:

If LP donations were to an I-Hub in FW low sec as the monthly maintenance fees were to a system's Hub in Null...

Simpler solution: Scrap supercaps entirely, nerf remote reps across the board, with a significant penalty for long rep-chains.

*sigh* it's funny how someone can post something with the utmost arrogance (see #11 response and others) and not READ the original post that says " It was originally posted by a member named Sev who encouraged it's reposting" So maybe if we relax and take a deep breath and try a bit less sarcasm, a fruitful discussion can ensue instead of arrogance which ruins any form of coming up with a solution.

Yes because that would fix what MANY have said is broke or at the least could use improvement........................*facepalm*