Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As it looks currently, an XL Citadel is basically a titan that can not move, which many people will know exactly when and where to attack it. It is very likely that the top 3 forces in the game will take great interest in roaming the galaxy with 40+ supercapitals, with the sole intent on head shotting an XL Citadel over a short deployment belonging to a defender with no hope to face off against that kind of force. Reminiscent of brave in catch against PL. XL Citadels are a huge investment, these sandcastles should require a little more effort then station grid control with an apex force. Yes, eventually with enough effort they should win, but the engagement itself should be more fulfilling then a simple timer battle, and allow the defender with some opportunities.

I have thought of a few suggestions that would make an XL citadel battle more interesting and challenging for both attackers and defenders. Note that medium and large citadels won't play by these rules, they are just reserved for the XL.

*The XL Citadel will be invulnerable indefinitely until the conditions are met:

The owner of the XL citadel would need to not hold a TCU in the entire constellation. This means that the attackers would have to remove all the defending TCU's in the constellation if they wanted to start an attack on the citadel. Once this happens, the citadel could either become vulnerable at a set time every day while this condition persists, or immediately, which ever option CCP likes the most.

Should the defender manage to retake a system in the constellation, replacing a TCU, then their Citadel would have to be repaired before it can become invulnerable if it has been under attack. The attackers could still keep it going through it's reinforced cycles as long as the shields remain below a certain percentage.

*Removing all of the defender's ihubs in the constellation would have a profound effect as well:

If the attacker can manage to win every Ihub timer in the constellation, then the Citadel's vulnerability window could become corrupted. Meaning that while the defenders hold an ihub, then the RF timer will always come out at a set, very narrow time frame. Without any defending ihubs, the window can become much more unpredictable.



This is just a simple outline, but I think it would accomplish the goal of making these massive structures require a severe commitment by the largest forces. They would probably want to take systems nearby the defenders to stage from, over a decent period of time, rather then being nomadic and heading in only a few times for the head shot. Not only that, but defenders that have capital ship stockpiles in the citadel would be greatly encouraged to hold the field in surrounding systems as part of the initial defense, and they could be lured into traps, or into victory! The TCUs would provide a wall, and the Ihubs a utility. It would make for some amazing fights that many members of the attacking/defending forces could partake in over an epic campaign! :)

If an entire constellation is too much you could consider just it and the surrounding systems which would place greater emphasis on strategic placement when building too.

I am not saying that they should be easy to defend against an overwhelming force, not at all. I was just trying to suggest an added layer of protection in order to breach one for the sake of a hard fought battle being required to get to the inner keep rather then a quick timer coming and going, probably while many of the defenders are offline and not seeing it coming, in too fast of succession, resulting in the content probably just being a quick evac by the last timer, barely after the given campaign even started, not even requiring the enemy to stage assets nearby. This would probably be the case if n+1 wanted to come by on a roam to your staging system. Many people wouldn't even see the first RF cycle happen, if they are not in the vicinity of their computer during the vulnerability period. Adding a layer of protection using TCUs as wall would give ample time for every single member in that alliance to be on notice for the entire time that this structure is vulnerable.

Highsec citadels would obviously not operate under this ruleset. but there could be some things requiring entosis to make a highsec XL vulnerable as well, with a wardec required. Like deploying an XL citadel in a highsec system, will place structures in adjacent systems that would need to be entosis simultaneously for a given amount of time for the structure to leave invulnerability, giving notification to defenders. Definitely no nodes there though. idk really, but they could be exciting with some kind of similar rule set, or even just leave them as citadels are currently planned. It would be nice though for them to be defensible to the point where they can not even enter a vulnerable state by keeping the surrounding systems in check against any wardeccers. :)

I agree with this. My idea is more for the approach of having the process being more exciting and requiring an attacker to commit to a wider campaign in order to destroy one.

Yeah, we will see! :) Just throwing it out there!

I believe that is still the case. However, it probably won't make the attackers bring any lesser force to be contended with...it just commits their massive cap fleet onto the field for a minimum time frame, about 30 minutes if I remember correctly from the presentation. Hopefully enough time to send out some pings with enough people logging into the game and flash forming a fleet on the initial attack.

I feel that by having the attackers have to contend with the constellation or surrounding systems before an initial attack on a sov XL should make the initial attack on the citadel itself a set engagement, which is really the whole point of my idea making it a campaign rather then depending on everyone being active and available in the vicinity at the same time every single week for just a remote possibility of direct initial attack. The sov mechanics them self serve that purpose of keeping the empires from over extending or living too far away. It would also encourage attackers to have to set up a staging point for the attack, preferably by taking a nearby system and setting up there, giving the defenders an opportunity to counter attack, rather then form the attack from far away to win a couple timers.

I don't think that the RF timers alone serve enough purpose of being the walls around one of the greatest castles an empire could build. It isn't too much to ask that the TCU's and Ihubs play a role, whether it is just the ones in the system, the surrounding systems, or the constellation. This I feel would make the process potentially much more bloody and fun. =) It would give moderately sized entities more time to react and council over an impending attack by a superpower as the first TCU is attacked that is tied to their XL showing a beginning to a large scale commitment. This may lead to epic battles that would put Eve back on major news sites!

But again citadels are not SOV and can be placed anywhere



and your claim about ppl not being around for the first RF cycle however last i looked the duration of that timer has not yet been decided so how can you know this

batphone?

You call your allies.

If you are stuck in a XL citadel, then you start showing from the safety of your citadel.

Why are people so shock that a larger, better prepare group, should win? Just do what Pandemic Horde does, moment they get tackle, they batphone everyone to save their 20 man fleet... Nothing new there.

I am more interested in the campaign aspect of destroying one, the content generated