Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hello capsuleers,

Edit: please take the time to read the post in it's entirety.

I would like to present to you the bubble thread. I've been getting increasingly annoyed recently while roaming at the large amounts of bubbles being placed strategically on gates of various sectors of space, to the point where it has prompted me to start this thread.

I'll be posting screenshots from here out onward of every example of 'excessive' use of anchor-able bubbles that I happen to stumble across while roaming. This isn't going to be a butt-hurt whine thread, more of an example to help build up a case study for the idea I'd like to propose.


I would like to propose that all anchored bubbles are cleared from space by the server upon downtime.


Here are some reasons why I would like to see this change implemented:

• They do not promote an active playstyle.

- Various things thought EVE's history have been nerfed / changed due the active/passive relationship not sitting in harmony, some examples of this were ghost training & datacores. I strongly believe that anchor-able bubbles tie in with this also, sure they do not directly 'generate isk' but they do generate a permanent passive deterrent for which very little input has to be applied - which in turn enables the farming of ISK safely on a longer term basis. This coupled with extensive jump bridge networks quite effectively manages to re-route the traffic of 0.0.

There is very little need for players to use stargates when there are alter whole constellations protected by the bubble barricade & they have alternative means of safe travel.



• They are tactically placed (exploit).

- The title is pretty much a given, but here I'm not referring to the gates / distances where they are anchored, I'm talking about the amount of bubbles that are anchored, often so many so that even if you're in an interdiction proof ship such as an interceptor, you're still unable to perform your role / scout for potential targets due to either the absolute blindness (see images on following posts), or the insane drop in fps performance. To give you an idea, with a GTX770 and a high spec'd machine my FPS drops to 17 in these situations. But I think everyone already knows/ has experienced this at least once in their EVE career. I think exploit is a harsh word, but this is what it is.

- Did I mention the numbers of bubbles placed? I've counted 47+ large T1 bubbles before, which can easily cover a radius of 160-200km around a gate, it's just ridiculous. Even if a passing gang decided to act upon it, the sheer amount of bubbles would just deter them, since there is nothing generated from killing them. It would also frankly take up too much time and ammo to destroy them all.



• The petition process.

- I'm fairly confident that excessive bubble use is already considered an exploit (correct me if I'm wrong). But the petition process is so long-winded that no one actually bothers to report this use of anchored bubbles, and in turn, nothing ever gets done about it. This is why I propose a change in the way we react to these situations.



• Accountability.

- I think CCP is slowly catching onto this one (re: the recent dev blog post to do with occupancy etc), however I think that for me 'Occupancy' doesn't quite hit the mark, as various articles have already speculated, it may be liable to abuse. For me the term 'Accountability' better suits. People aren't accountable for the space they live in. Not only at a senior level but at a fundamental level also. The current trend of blue doughnuts and rental alliances has created a mindset in eve where people no longer do anything to protect the space they live in at a basic level. It's too easy to anchor a metric f*ton of bubbles on various gates and just dock for 10-15 minutes while a hostile gang passes. Where's the risk / reward relationship here?

- Ok, Sure the ESS system was invented, but if you're a regular roamer, you've already seen how this has been abused. Bounties for anyone who interacts with the ESS for two or so minutes? Easy. Doing it while it's anchored at a POS or anomaly with a full forced spawn? (and often within the anomaly structure so you bounce off / cant warp) - Goodluck. Also, bounty ratio/ESS amount usually isn't even worth the locals effort to defend if it is anchored the way it was designed.



• The Counter arguement.

- The only real and valid counter argument which I have managed to come to in my head is for situations like BR- and previous NOL- hell camps where TEAM A decides to 24/7 camp TEAM B into their station, and perma bubbles would be required to keep TEAM B's capitals and locals trapped. - But if I'm honest, if an entity is to take on such an enormous campaign, they should easily have the resources to field 10-20 interdictors for 5-10 minutes while new anchorable's are being deployed for the next 24hr slot. So that argument is void.

CCP if you want people to actively use the space again please take this small step to ensure people actually use their space again the way it was intended. Removing all anchored bubbles at downtime will force players to actively have to re-anchor new bubbles if they would like to keep their system on 'lockdown', there by their safety will come at a price (ISK value in this case of re-anchoring bubbles), let's not forget that this is 0.0 and safety should cost a premium It will also weed out systems that have anchored bubbles in, 'just because we can' as they will be removed at downtime.

If you'd like to see this change implemented please upvote this post or bump it to the top. I'll be posting bumps with screenshot examples of the situations i'm talking of, if you have any examples you'd like to share please feel free to do the same.

Thanks,
Oli


Here's the first example. My eyes

If only there were nullified ships available as a counter....?!?

Thanks for the post, I did mention nullified ships in my original post, maybe you missed that section. Take a look at the screenshot I linked, let me know how useful you think an interceptor would be when you can't visibly see any of the items in a system when scouting.

Here's an alternative screenshot in case you missed the first one. Different system, different set of bubbles.

OK, so using your mindset, lets look at the average roaming gang.

<10 with what, 5k dps?
200,000 HP per bubble, times by lets say 45 (the amount -visible- in the first screenshot i linked).
You do the math, it would take the best part of an hour to get through that lot, with nothing to show for it at the end.

'btw' you're completely overlooking the fact that this system is being abused to cause framerate drops and client lag to deter scouts from doing their job.


Another example.

Just post your loss mail already so we can have a good lolz and forget about this eye swore of an idea.

If only there was already three or four threads in recent memory that were about mobile disruption bubbles.

While I'm not against your ideas, I fret about hurting the ability to rage cage a destroyed pos with logged off caps.

It doesn't bother me too much generally by there is the odd time you run into a gate bubbled in every direction for 200-500km and you can barely see what your doing anywhere near the gate which is going a bit too far.

The only change I'd make is to have it so that bubbles within say 150km or so of stargates get unanchored at downtime and no other change.

Im sure you mean other than costing your enemies half a billion ISK for no risk right?

Its true, T1 bubbles should probably cost 3-4 times what they do now in order to make bubble spam like this hurt the wallet a little more, but even so, damage to your opponent's economy uncontested IS something to show for it.

Would it help your little epeen out if they gave you killmails for destroying bubbles so your killboard could look all green?

Agreed. Bubbles are the main issue with actually getting players to want to follow me into EZ (null) sec. Think something needs to be done about them honestly. But most of the slow unintelligent dorks here will opt to keep their bubble unchanged even though it tends to only get them killed when facing competent pilots.

'no risk' - I think sitting in hostile space in among 40 odd bubbles for an hour is pretty risky don't you? It's not about killmails, I'm completely fine with no kill-mails being generated to be honest.