Player Features and Ideas Discussion

the only problem with making links on-grid-only is then they'd only be viable for decently-sized fleets and gatecamps; the kind of gangs that can actually accommodate a big, slow command ship to follow them everywhere.

Fwar plex 1v1s might benefit a bit from removing OGBs but the real winner would be blobs and huge gatecamps

the real solution to such a fundamentally terrible gameplay element is to remove links from the game and refund leadership SP

but CCP will never do that, so we're just stuck with some ****** half-measure that doesn't fully cure the cancer that is warfare links

You pointed the issue yourself.
Dedicated-squad versus low input-required-multiboxed-alt.



Well we've got Strategic cruisers as well.
Could use cheap-ish Command Cruiser/Destroyers though.

please come alpha my damnation off my POS. This might work if you have a large number advantage and a large fleet. smaller fleets would never be able to spare the man power to achieve that feat.

Fixed that for ya.

There was an experiment done once wherein a group of monkeys was presented with a ladder, and at the top of the ladder was a basket of fruit. Every time one monkey would try to climb the ladder, the scientists would spray the other monkeys with a fire hose. Eventually, any monkey that got near the ladder was beaten to a pulp by all the other monkeys. Then, the scientists began replacing the monkeys one by one. Each new monkey that approached the ladder was beaten up by the others, and had no idea why because they had never been sprayed by or seen the hose; but they too eventually beat up new monkeys who approached the ladder. Eventually not a single monkey left in the group had ever seen or been sprayed by the hose, and yet they still beat up any monkey that approached the ladder. In fact, the hose had been removed from the enclosure after the first group established their behavior of beating those who climbed the ladder. And the moral of the story is that people who maintain a status quo just because it's the status quo are f***ing stupid.

More than three years? Not if it's a priority. I agree that they are probably working on it, but it could stand to jump a few rungs on the priority ladder.

Spaghetti code no, coding yes, albeit not proffessionally. You may want to keep an eye on what assumptions you make.

Excuses do not achieve results.

CCP Fozzie (and others, I believe) have already indicated a desire to kill off-grid boosting. Fozzie in particular has said that the capability to "flip the switch" and disable OGB already exists and the switch can be flipped at any time. The reason it hasn't been - and won't be for some time yet - is because doing so with the current way things work would swiftly result in melted servers and the alternative they're working on (brain in a box) isn't ready yet.

My take on links, repost from another forum:

Links should be turned into targeted high-slot modules with RR-like range. Details are up to discussion & further development, but here's the basic lowdown repeated for the Nth time.

This requires:

1. A new small link ship (Command Destroyer would be a pretty good candidate) to better keep up with skirmish gangs and allow use in FW
2. All link ships need 9 high slots (not 9 turret/launcher hardpoints)
3. Links need to have their fitting requirements redone to allow fitting 9 links without Command Processors
4. Links need to use a non-trivial amount of capacitor
5. Adjusting CSs and T3s to make sure they all have approximately equal (or equally non-existent) damage dealing capabilities when running links (think current Eos vs the rest)
6. Links need to have their bonuses dropped considerably, because

- targeted links of the same type are stacking penalized, but several can be activated on a single ship
- links can be overheated


This solution has the following benefits:

1. It solves the offgrid issue in an elegant way without recoding EVE Online bu using existing methods
2. It makes links scale with fleet size (one link ship can only boost a squad)
3. It removes the 100% alt account gameplay, but instead of resulting in mass-biomassing of all the OGB toons, it turns boosters into a new combat role that is actually exciting to play and emphasizes player skill. Currently nobody flies OGB as their main.


Links today are like champions/standard-bearers/musicians in fantasy strategy games, simply providing a blanket stats boost as long as they meet two conditions, be in fleet and present in system. I'd like to see links turned into "bards", that cast buffing spells on selected fleet members to improve their performance in critical situations. Basic gameplay is similar to logistics in EVE, but is more proactive in nature.

tl,dr; instead of being simple "engage links, receive bacon for whole fleet", targeted links do **** all nothing without the pilot making the right choices at the right time, while flying his ship on grid.

Adding one slot to fitting screen is hardly an unsolvable obstacle, and the fittings can be tuned so that fitting 9 medium neuts wouldn't be possible (even if it was), not that I see a neuting CS as some massive balancing issue anyway.

I'm not really interested in your fantasy standards tbh, they are used in my post to illustrate the general idea. Of which you failed to provide any criticism. Maybe because it's by far the best solution to links issue presented so far.

Are people using RR CS fleets now? Why would they use them after links were turned into targeted modules?

You didn't even read the proposal:



And no, it actually favours small gangs over blobs as one link ship can no longer boost more than a squad at a time.