Warfare & Tactics

Although the recent changes regarding plex spawning are a step in the right direction there is a long way to go in regards FW plexing to make it of interest to most 'PvP'ers.

I have some suggestions that would IMO really shake things up for the better in FW.

First of all take the rats out of the plexes. These should be pure Militia PvP zones. To occupy a plex you simply orbit the bunker and defend it against any rival Militia members.

Plexes should only allow access to capsuleers enlisted in a FW militia that is contesting the system, either Gallente/Caldari or Amarr/Minmatar. I would also make it that cloaking devices don't function once within a plex.

As well as plexes being of various sizes (affecting which ship types are allowed through the acceleration gate), they should also have random limits on the number of people allowed into the plex itself. For example some might spawn that are 'solo' sites, only one member of each militia is allowed in the plex at any one time. They would then become gladitorial arenas where people can't be blobbed by a rival faction. You could have for example 'solo' plexes, 3 man plexes, 6 man plexes 12 man plexes and Unlimited plexes.

Under this system a small defending force could put up stiff resistance against a rival faction with superior numbers in system. Also if a FW map was installed in game that flashed alerts for systems with occupying forces attempting to capture plexes, you could immediately rally the troops and move to that point hoping for some PvP. So you fly over with your six man fleet and find 4 rival militia members plexing, one is in a solo plex and three are running a 3 man plex. To defend the solo plex you could only send one fleet member in at a time so the guy trying to take the plex at least will get a fair fight. Obviouslyy with numbers he would eventually be taken down if he didn't flee but at least there would be some fun solo fights! Same with the 3 man plex, equal numbers on grid makes for more exciting PvP.

You could even add a roleplay element by making some plexes only accessible in ships of your own faction, so the FDU would have to use Gallente hulls and the State Protectorate could only use Caldari hulls.

Finally make plexing financially worthwhile - you should get AT LEAST the same isk/loyaty point rewards for plexing as you do running FW missions!

We should probably just balance the NPCs such that all factions are even. Its nice to have a defender benefit.



No way, pirates are a big part of the fun.



Did you think about how easily this could be abused? So in order to take a plex I just need 1 character in my militia and X alts in the opposing militia. I then deny my opponent the ability to enter the plex.


I disagree. This is so arbitrary and makes FW feel fake. If people want this, they should create their own sandbox (ie RvB).




Yeah, this has been discussed at great lengths in other threads.

Why do you want to exclude all the non-militia pilots who live in lowsec and how do you suppose a removal of NPCs will play out with the dominance of semi-afk alts doing a majority of the plexing?

Here is my most recent brain-fart on the topic of plexes, from an existing thread:


Point is: Tweaking the system as it exists will never make it worthwhile. Redesign the whole damn thing, only way to make sure.

Wha??!! Why limite your target selection ?

This. I sometimes sit in plexes and announce myself to pirates in the system. Depending on the power balance between the factions at the time, pirates often provide more pew than the other militia.

Rewards must *always* be linked to PvE.

Otherwise they are totally trivial to exploit with two accounts, one in each opposing militia.

For example, if killing opposing war targets gave rewards, you would just kill your other account in the opposing militia over and over again.

So, either:

1) You want plexes to be rewarding, in which case they *must* have some element of PvE in to prevent this kind of exploit.

OR

2) You do not want plexes to be rewarding.


Most want 1).