Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hi there,

I've been a skirmish commander in EVE for awhile and with the recent enlargement of grids I think CCP is moving in a direction that a feature I've wanted can come to fruition: Randomly generated debris fields around static grids like stargates and stations. I apologize if this has come around before. I'm sure it has. I don't check the forum very often and I just came back from a long break.

What would they look like?
This is obviously up for debate. Questions such as "How many objects on a grid?" and "How far away should they be?" are going to have to be hammered out. But here's what I envision.

Every day during downtime the server randomly creates debris fields around a grid. The feature can start with stargates. This debris field contains warpable objects at distances anywhere from 100 to 1000 km away from the gate. When I say "warpable," I mean that you can lock a warp drive on the items in the grid. Similar to cans, wrecks, or asteroids. This provides a dynamic environment around stargates that skirmishing fleets can use to bounce around on.

As far as what these objects would be, I'm sure we can all think of some great things. Ship wrecks of various sizes, asteroids, space trash. This would also make EVE just more interesting and lively. It looks like things actually happen. Systems with higher activity metrics can have more items at further distances in their debris fields.

Where would these be?
A great place to start is stargates. Pretty much every PVP fleet moves through one of these.

If it works it can be deployed at planets, moons, and stations. Stations (and maybe citadels!) are great examples of places where activity metrics could contribute to the size of the field generated.


What will this give to the game?
As an FC one of the things that gives me a significant disadvantage in hostile space is my lack of gate grid bookmarks. It makes it very difficult to fight another FC that has dozens of bookmarks on every gate in his space. This feature helps to close the tactical advantage between local and foreign FCs. This may be enough of a tactical favor that may convince a bookmark-less FC to take a fight rather than just run.

It doesn't completely level the playing field, just closes the gap. The local FC who has a buttload of bookmarks will have many more options and can also warp to the items in the debris field.

And, they change every day! No two grids will be alike and no grid will have the same field any two days.


What are the challenges?
Some gates already have permanent objects around them like signs, clouds, and agents. I don't know if this is a technical challenge. Since EVE uses points and signature radii to abstract massive objects, I think it could work.

A lot of people will not be happy if something is generated between 2.5 and 100K from a stargate in line with another celestial. This ruins the cloak game. But, I think this can be good. If you want eyes on a gate you may take a risk of landing on or near an item in the field and decloaking.

I'm not sure if it would be computationally efficient to generate these and what the load on the server would be.



So, what do you guys think? Would other FCs like to see this?

I really don't want any effects on ship performance. That creates another barrier to entry for new FCs and null pilots and widens the tactical gap.

Once again, This does the complete opposite of what the goal is. Changing parameters and effects on ships that noobs don't understand yet only hikes the learning curve higher while creating an even further tactical gap between veteran players/FCs and new ones. I'm trying to close that gap without dumbing it down.

I do understand the sentiment about changing up the gameplay, but I think this should stay in wormholes. Otherwise, a fleet that usually could go in to null, fight, and return can now be permacamped by frigates doing almost 1K DPS.

This would also devalue null space because your activity in a system is now randomly determined by whatever the server decides to cook up that day. You may be able to rat on Tuesday, but not the next, and that is not a good feature for people holding sov.

Good idea tho I am not sold on the random movement and would prefer to have the advantage of local knowledge being able to use previous bookmarks etc

I like the decloak cloud idea. But nothing like weapons/tank effects.



If you're local you already have your own bookmarks on the gate grid. Keeping the warp points static isn't that interesting.

Jeebus H. Christ, this is a perfect example of the environment of these forums.

OP starts a thread with a fleshed out idea called A.
"Yeah, A sounds good, and I think B would be neat." says first reply.
"B sounds like a great idea!" says second reply.
"B could work, but it would be abused in this way." says third reply.
"Guys, B would undermine A." says OP.
"Removed off topic post." says ISD.
No good idea will make it out of F&I alive.

To the original idea.
10 to 20 warpable objects like Barren Asteroids, Shattered Wrecks, Clusters of Frozen Crewmen, et cetera to give both a bit of immersive atmosphere to EvE as well as helping to create a more dynamic and engaging battlefield.
I like it. Let's make it happen.

I totally understand your concern about on grid probing. I am a hardcore combat prober. Does it diminsh their role? I think it does. But! I think it gives more power to fleet interceptors and doesn't totally hamstring a fleet who didn't bring combat probes.

I think that this can be implemented in a way that still allows probers to be useful. As a side note, I would say that the items in the field should not be probe-able.

I also think that the sheer size of the new grids means that well-spaced out debris fields would still give probers a lot of work to do. This really comes down to testing and feedback if the system ever got a chance of being implemented.

This actually sounds really interesting, especially with the huge new grids. I personally think local effects from some of the debris (or whatever) would be neat; a FC could pick the terrain for their fight to try and get an advantage instead of relying only on the hulls they brought. Sort of adding high-ground to the game if you will, a spot worth fighting for that can force your enemy to make decisions about when, where, and how to engage rather than just counting logi.

This feels like a compelling point. The fields themselves still sound like a fun idea. Effects, not so much.

That all seems a bit dramatic, especially if they're randomly generated and ephemeral. Sounds like you're picturing every gate having a field of permanent tacticals built-in. My take on the OP was that any given grid might have 0-X temporary warpables generated on grid creation (downtime for things like gates and stations).