Crime & Punishment

One thing that coul help deter boredom for most PVP averse highsec players and motivate them is to have occasional wars between NPC corps.

Given that there is faction war on as well, the NPC navy corps that some new players start in should always be at war with each other. This is easy noob PVP and helps them get started. I would say they should get LP re wards for kills of other players in the opposing force too. Kind of like FW-lite. In order to curb puppy stomping tbough, the NPC navy corp would have to kick players down to non combatant corps ( that might still declare war on each other) after a certain length of time or "tour" in the navy corp.

I would also suggest that players killing other players who are criminally or suspect flagged should award a slight security status bonus to the killer. This would motivate more white hat players to interact with the black hat players.

Trade ALT's need a place in corps too . I would love to see a reason for all people from all walks of eve to have a reason to be in a corp with other people

I like much of this platform. The risk vs. reward of highsec is completely out of whack and it is directly contributing to the stagnation there, and really the whole game beyond. I don't know if it was ever perfect, but certainly now grindy, solo, and banal play is rewarded over riskier play that requires the defense, or at least real competition for income sources, and play that requires player cooperation and interaction.

CCP has painted themselves into a bit of a corner as there are many entitled players whose immediate reaction to any change is "don't do that or I'll quit - why are you ruining my gameplay?". This is especially bad in the carebear camp, but is not at all just confined to those players. CCP will need fortitude to see through any changes through the uproar of self-centered players seeking to maintain or establish an in-game advantage.

But to your proposals, in general I like them. Giving corporations persistent bonus is one way to make them valuable and worth defending. Taxing long-term residents of NPC corps is another. Rebalancing missions and mining to better make use of security systems is also a good idea.

As to Incursions, I wouldn't get to hung up on them quite yet. Almost certainly the Sansha ones will go away from highsec and the Drifter ones will take their place. We don't know how CCP will tune the risk and rewards of this new content, but let's hope they have learned from the lessons of the past. I think there is a place for co-operative PvE content, even if it is mostly free from the risk of PvP, but they have to be challenging (i.e. non-farmable) and should not pay better (including the risk premium outside of higshec) than the equivalent effort spend in low/null/WH space to prevent drawing back to highsec and stifling content/conflict in the other spaces. We will just all have to wait to see what CCP does with them.

The only change I would suggest to your ideas is using killrights to disincentivize corp hopping/folding. Players should be able to say at anytime they have had enough of a war and quit the corp - I think it is counter-productive to force them to stay in a social group they have no interesting in defending. However, that choice should come with the consequence of losing player-corp benefits, unlike now where they can immediately make or join another corp. I would suggest that upon quitting a corp under wardec, they receive a flag that lasts for 7 days (or perhaps for the remainder of the war) where if they join another corp they immediately receive a limited killright against them with a duration of the remainder of that flag. This killright is locked only to the corporation that declared the war.

This would allow someone tired of their leadership to leave a war immediately, but prevent them from shedding all the consequences of that decision limiting abuse. If they really want to join a new corp right away they can, but the war will then follow them.

Best of luck on your CSM run.

+1 for an independent bald man with a sexy voice.

I am iffy by making war costs inversly proportional to the size of the corp. Yes it helps smaller corps but it leads to cheap war decs on groups like Eve Uni and RvB. Yes those groups can fight, but their goals are not to spend all time on 3rd party wartargets. Otherwise what stops a merc group from forming say 3 corps and constantly keeping war decs on these large entities? Merc players could hop from corp to corp when a Dec needs to be dropped to reduce costs.

Perhaps there should be a new corporate skill? War diplomacy which impacts war cost based on skill, so larger groups could have the CEO train the skill to increase war costs.

Also, mutual wars... Do they count on the limit or not?

Some good points there.

I do not like the idea of caps, they are a mechanic design that is fraught with peril, and in general they should be avoided. I also dislike the concept of "waiting periods", or whatever you want to call your ideas to have recruitment cooldowns. Too heavy handed.

While I do like many of the ideas presented, those two stuck out at me as potential pitfalls.

Bronson,

1. Overhaul wardec mechanics.
1A. Cap aggressive wardecs.
I can go with this. I personally like the current wardec system (it's straightforward and simple), but a high cap may not be too bad. Maybe 20?

1B. Change wardec fees.
This is not necessary because it was never about the money in the first place. Additionally, merc corps will simply add this to their fee.

1C. Change corporation behavior.
No thank you. EvE is complex enough as it is. Please do not add unnecessary layers. If a person does not want to fight, then they don't have to. They're still being sufficiently harassed and denied access, forced to run from corp to corp. Isn't that enough?

2. Overhaul Player Corps.
I don't agree that player corp provide limited benefits. 0% tax, wardecs (this is benefit imo), and structures. These are all great imo.

2A. Tax NPC corps.
I have always been part of a player corp. Corp management was probably one of the first skills I trained. In fact, I have Empire Control V even though I've never managed a corp bigger than 20 people. I have not had much trouble with wardecs in my career. The times I have, it's because I've overextended myself and took a risk, but that is my fault, not the system's. I consider NPC corps to be purgatory; please don't make them any worse than they have to.

2B. Player corp "history".
This is what I would consider an unnecessary layer.

3. Adjust hisec agents.
I currently run level 4s out of a 0.6 system. They are not the problem, please don't change them.

4. Remove hisec Sansha's Nation incursions.
Content that encourages players to work together is a good thing. Working together is what will get a carebear into lowsec. Baby steps.

5. Adjust hisec mining.
5A. Limit higher quality ore variants.
I can go with this. In fact, if you wanted to remove all highsec ore, I would be fine. I would be interested in seeing how the sandbox would adapt to this. Keep in mind that I've spent the last few months mining about a billion isk in ore in highsec. In a retriever. Fit for tank. By myself.

5B: Shift the ore/security scale.
Sure, whatever. I'm not going to take a bullet for highsec ore.

5C: Balance the Procurer and Skiff.
Keep your ****ing hands off my ****ing procurer you ****ing piece of ****. Mechanics are not the issue. Player MENTALITY is the issue. We focus too much on isk/hour, and we're so afraid of losing virtual assets that we deny ourselves the opportunity for fun. Mechanics can't change this; if it could it would have happened by now.

If you want players to change their behaviour, you have to take the first step. Maybe we lay off on wardeccing mercilessly, or cut back on the low sec gate camps. Will a miner ever take the risk of going to lowsec when they know everyone is foaming at the mouth to kill them?

Bronson, you mentioned that you're 100% independent. What business do you have running on a platform of wardec and corporation changes when you yourself do not work with a team? 1v1 Thunderdome competitions are not the solution.

Free tip: Start small. If you can get everyone to honor their ransoms, you can fix EvE. Think about it.

I spend a lot of time bearing; however can't find much wrong with this platform.

The entire "us vs them" scheme is whats out of whack. New players are introduced into a false sense of security from undock 1; beliving that high security space represents a supposed safe zone, when the reality is quite contrary. EVE and "safety" should be explained (and shown to be) mutually exclusive terms at the outset. NPC corps should be defaulted at war just like FW. This will accustom new players to the certainty that eve isn't safe anywhere no matter what. No matter what side of the coin you are on, that is a fact. I think the core problems we have are brought about by players thinking the contrary.

Everyone needs to make ISK. Bearing isnt a bad thing. Expecting to print ISK with no risk is the bad part.

Remove highsec incursions. There is no baby step here as running these gives zero reason to ever go anywhere else.

Agree with reducing ore in highsec, ice too, and make ice scannable again.

Personally id like to see a bit more motivators for highsec war. Standings, LP, or something to get people interested in actually fighting. Agree with the caps and scaled costs.

Tax the **** outta npc income.