Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I have been playing EVE on and off since 2007. I only came back in November after a break of around two years- as many others, I was fed up with the stagnant and boring state of conquerable space. What brought me back was the promise of big and drastic changes made by CCP, supposed to break the sleeper hold the few big names have on null. Unfortunately, announcements will only get you so far. Cutting the jump ranges was fun for a spell, watching the other side fail miserably when trying to bridge and finding out they're out of range. Unfortunately, while this does dampen the omnipresent fleet hotdrops somewhat, it doesn't exactly change the strategic situation a whole lot. Personally I blame leaving open the "jump by gates" mechanic which essentially undermines the purpose of the fatigue timer. The supercap blob is something that no non-sov-holding alliance is going to touch with a 10-foot pole, whether they come through cyno or by gate. Making the supercaps jump through gates just makes them go slightly slower if they want to make it in time for the important timers. Only that doesn't matter, since ti-di will make it last just enough for the impenetrable superblob anyway. At the same time moving caps/supers through gates completely removes any need for logistics- no need for refueling or cynos, making it logistically way easier than the old way. When God closes the door, he opnes another door I guess...

The power of carriers goes hand in hand with the supers. Instead of being limited use support ships, the carriers are now 4 million hp, 1000 dps, unjammable, undampable, slightly-less-mobile logistic ships with impenetrable spider tanks... The CCP is the only entity capable of breaking down the risk-averse coalitions, yet for some reasons known only to themselves, they refuse to make any attempt at doing so. In the past a small alliance could potentially take a stab at grabbing some territory which the big guy found too vulnerable as he had to concentrate on a different area. Even if the blob wanted to keep the systems, it was possible to win, through giving your 120% in tactics, maneuvering, team cohesion, doctrines, determination. Nowadays it's so easy for the defender to defend, both through the timer mechanics and the ease with which they can maintain and replace their expensive doctrines that they can "want" everything they hold and hold it unless they themselves decide otherwise. Giving 400% amounts to nothing, since the big guys have so much resources at their disposal it's impossible to cope. Essentially the current state of null makes good on the joke "If sometimes less is more, than imagine how much more more could be"...

CCP tries very hard not to aggrevate any of their players, they don't seem to realise it's an approach doomed to fail. One side wants something, the other side doesn't want to give it to them. It's a battle in which the smaller/poorer attacker will eventually burn out and fail, that's pretty clear if you look at the numerous alliances which used to hold sov, and now they don't. How many of them actually closed down because of leadership/drama? And how many of them have been simply brushed aside by the "I take your stuff because I can" attitude? Unless CCP (and not the CSM, or this or that nullsec lobby) makes a clear statement about what kind of null sec entities they actually want, EVE will be stuck in this limbo forever. And the old player's good will will only last so long before he decides that it wasn't worth coming back afterall.

I want to play this game. I really do. But I also want to be able to play this game, and currently CCP is doing nothing in that regard.

Ridiculous. Consulting changes to the broken mechanics with people abusing currently broken sov mechanics. Makes as much sense as convicting someone of murder and letting him chose his own sentence...

You just have to post in it from time to time, to make it visible for CCP.

Blocs and ever-growing alliances are a natural consequence of the way people play these kinds of games:

1: We like to win.
2: More people = more power = more winning.
3: If your opponent keeps growing, you had better also keep growing or you will become obsolete.
4: Repeat until those many alliances from years ago have ended up as one big one.
5: I'm new to this game, but in another two:
In one of them, it became a very simple game of 'everybody gang up on the strong faction.'
In the other, conflict ground to a very near halt between mechanically declared wars because alliance warfare got so big and cumbersome (and because of the direction of the game's design), it aligned 90% to the three factions. Serious conflict eventually ended up as 2 vs 1 faction because one of them just kept winning whenever it dueled one of the other two.

tl;dr: In diplomacy games where it's all about who can bring the most firepower and best control the map, "a few big names" are going to happen, and there's not a lot to be done about it. Once people figure out how to hold on to space, things are going to slow down. Probably the best thing that can be done to keep the game fresh for not-big-names is to expand chaotic (wormhole) space and keep at least some of it playable for just about anybody.

Exactly the whole point of nullsec changes should be state similar to this days where every one could find something he could call "my own". We had many groups holding sov, more borders that where constantly contested and changing.

CCP must go in this way , as current state is bad , not only because it is boring , but also because servers are unable to maintain so many players on grid.
Counter is capped at 10% Tidi, but in reality things happen slower and slower.

This is nonsense, as battle without TIDI is taking 20-40 minutes ( and this is acceptable) but under TIDI ( 3 and more HOURS) this is game, and you not always where will be blob fight.

Currently still the best practice to block any engagement is to drop 100+ archons 20+ motherships - as there is no counter to this kind of fleet.

In theory there are many , but in practice no one will do nothing , as NODE WILL JUST DIE.
Apparently every one except CCP remember the HED- battle, when you clicked jump and :
- you got your own KM still in warp tunel
- where people got disconnected , and where landing on grid for the next hours without ability to logout.
- you jumped in , but was unable to activate any hards weapons, or disable them
- where siege cycled , and was still working without stront,
- where you could not jump out even when you had cap, fuel

Remember that this was not just some random fight, but something that CCP was prepared, they reinforced node.

But it can be easily abused by local people to negate all movement.
CCP where are the sov and nullsec changes you promised?

Well remember that jump drive nerf did not solve any issues related to empty null space.
Yes there are some ownership movements , but those are still mostly done by big blocks.
Small groups don't have big chance to do any thing - when the super capital thug arrives.

Grinding timers takes more time than moving capitals by few regions, additionally blobs prepared them self by buying , and seeding capitals around NPC space so they can move in subcaps , and reship on site.

Old groups have alt pilots, assets and income.
New pilots have will , and courage.

Yet they cannot achieve nothing.

You would be surprised how many times older players protested , when big blocks wanted to hit and erase FPR.

Agree and disagree at the same time.
Poses in Normal space are expendable.
In Wh they hold sometimes most stuff that belongs to you - people need brake from time to time.
RL first.

Quite easy solution is make Moon Harvester outside pos shields , and make it destroyable , like normal gun.

Towers also have their RF timer defined by amount of stront. So you arrive at different hours.
Kite tower for few hours keeping it below 50% of shield.
You have some ability to modify timer.

In case of all sov structures you cannot do nothing. You will get usually 2-5 AM timer for your TZ.
Week for whole system timers ...

Think how game would change if each timer was defined by strontium , and each respective timer would consume more and more strontium.

Let say that final ihub timer just to initialize one require full freighter of strontium , and all timers 2 freighters?
The same for stations.
Think how much this simple change could affect eve game play?

2 freighters to have full timers on ihub or 6 jump freighters!
You don't refil ihub after pumping it up ? Well no timers for you , or you will get just 1 timer.

True enough, though it is core EVE mechanics that make Sov a winner take all scenario.

All Sov contests are in and out in a few systems of conflict, then it becomes an issue of Evac and watch everything burn in structure bashing. In the opening battles, the morale is highest, the largest fleets, the best fit fleets, the strongest resistance is brought to bare. Whatever side loses those fights has signed off on all future, lesser efforts to hold their Sov and begin Evacuation.

In truth it's the most realistic way to go. Kursk determined the Russian front in world war two. It was the fatal blow that pushed to war to the gates of Berlin but in a game environment where the end goal is not peace but eternal war, that's a horrible model to be using. If Sov is to be a prolonged conflict affair, it can't be defined in absolute battles that turn in to grind fests because we are all fully aware of the process.

Scenario: I gather 2000 people we go claim Sov. Fun, fun, fun for everyone. For a battle or two at least. Then comes months and years of grind to get the space to a working status with Indexes in the 4 and 5. Done by the PvP crowd that took that space? Nope. Everything about EVE contradicts everything about EVE. The Sov system is jut a pronounced example of it. Grind or Gank, Gank to grind.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=406411&find=unread
Another set of ideas.

We did not forget CCP.
Sov / Null changes.