Warfare & Tactics

Unwardecable corp/alliance is somewhat good idea.
But at the same time this corp/alliance need to have big downsides :
- no structures of any kind ( poco / pos / citadel )
- tax is going to NPC wallet
- all capitals in higsec that undock from a station are instantly suspect : ( freighters, orcas, etc) or delayed concord intervention by 5s in every sec stat system.
- inability to gain standings to any faction
- inability to hold any type of SOV

New capsuleers are in need of a player run corporation to engage in the game and socialize with chosen friends. NPC corps are not providing a satisfying social experience.

I like the idea of player owned npc corps: you have the same kind of constraints with living in a NPC corps but you can construct your teamstory and social group. It provides no benefits over the actual gameplay of joining a NPC corp but enhance the game experience.

Ah cool we got a second idea forum, thx for bringing that up to me.

But to the idea:

If you want no wardeck --> NPC-Corp use the Group chat funktion
If you join a Player-Corp accept the risk.

-1

tl;dr Current mechanics already let players dodge wardecs. These suggestions cause no difference, mechanically, or from the perspective of an outsider, but allows the players more choices, more ability to develop their culture within a corp, and gives them a definitive counter play to war decs, placing the burden of combat on the aggressor in order to enjoy immunity from concord. The 1st change is specifically aimed at the New Player Experience, and the 2nd Suggestion is aimed to create meaningful counter play against station camping war deccers.


So the two suggestions are really aiming at 2 separate problems.

The 1st is aiming at the New Player Experience, specifically, characters who are trying to foster their own community within EVE. NPC Corps are great homes for Alts and future spies, but not very conducive for building up a culture. Chat channels are currently the only option for people to have an exclusive group while remaining relatively safe from hi-sec pilots. But I think we all remember our early days in the game. Seeing all the hype about being a pilot in a corporation in a alliance, etc. that does great things. Unless they make a trailer that romanticizes having a private chat channel, new players are going to make the constant mistake of making their own corp or joining someone else's crummy corp, and get blasted apart by war deccers until they get frustrated and leave.

Obviously, any experienced pilot in EVE will have 2 cents to throw around, but the point is that these players just don't know any better. As long as a player corp grants the pilots no advantages over an NPC corp, why not let them "have some fun," if that is even a part of EVE anymore. In the beginning, it was these trailblazing CEO's who helped build EVE's great player communities. Now, these same folks are being squashed at the starting line. Obviously, there will always be new players who are too big for their boots who will make themselves a target. We can't protect someone just because they are new. But this game thrives on the abilities for our CEO's to build communities and cultures within the game.

Again, if these player corps offer no advantages (or services, etc) over an NPC Corp, I say they might as well have the same blanket protection. I'd rather see a high sec full of various social microcosms than the 12 or so bland, boring, soul crushing NPC Corps.

The 2nd Suggestion is not aimed at buffing or nerfing any playstyle, hopefully. The aim is to widen the scope of the sandbox.

In short, the playstyles of wardeccers, be they station campers or l33t pvp hunters, can only be countered by moving industrial pilots into the NPC Corps. There is nothing technically wrong with the way they play the game. They take advantage of the fact that not everyone is able to threaten them if they play their cards right, and this forces the defenders into 2 options.

1. Deny the enemy kills by remaining docked up for weeks on end.
2. Dissolve corp and move back to NPC.

There is sometimes the third option of fighting them off, but lets consider the perspective of the people who are incapable of fighting back, and the tactic of "strategic blueballing" that the wardeccers use whenever they face anything other than defenseless miners and haulers. Lets also assume isk is no problem for them, and they are either rich enough, or make enough isk off of the defender's mistakes, that they can keep the wardec up indefinitely.

In any other area of space, such a group would not be able to camp a group into their own home station, either because the aggressors are weak, or because the targets are too far away for a group based in high sec to bother travelling to them. However, we are obligated to travel to them, because they camp on the market hubs that we cannot live without.

So rather than waste our time fighting an enemy who does not really want to fight, we move our industrialists into npc corps to avoid the hassle. Our industrialists are immune, unless they do something stupid that would make it worth suicide gankging.

So we already have war-dec immunity, and it is not a very interesting or satisfying mechanic. There is no change that we can make to make our pilots even safer than they are.

So why does it matter to create a mechanic that would let our pilots be immune to wardecs, without having to leave corp. This is much more exciting gameplay, where we fought and won the war, allowing our freighters to sail triumphantly from market hub to market hub. Conversely, when we refuse to fight for our immunity, the pirates can brag and gloat about how they beat us in battle, and they had to put real effort in order to reap the rewards to shooting defenseless pilots.

For the rest of hi-sec, this creates a compelling argument to attempt to fight. Why would someone declare a war if they do not intend to fight? The miners and haulers need not worry as long as their combat pilots can defend the beacon. If they win, it is the same effect as if they dropped corp anyways. They are immune to the war dec. If they lose the fight, they will have a chance to fight again, or they can drop corp and dodge the war dec. Neither result is mechanically different from simply dropping corp from the start, but the pilots had a choice to fight!

For war decs to be effective, the burden of combat lies on the aggressor. They should not serve as some hunting license to allow one group to threaten another group all over high-sec without some way for the defender to land a decisive killing blow in return.

There are already a plethora of newbie friendly player run corps in the game, off the top of my head:
RvB
EVE-Uni
KarmaFleet
Pandemic Hoard

There are many others.

Certainly with KarmaFleet and Pandemic Hoard you get access to bloc level Ship Replacement Programs which is one of the best things a newbie can get access to.

You would only immune t o getting shot in space as long as you defend the beacon. Also, the defenders would not have open season on the attackers unless they are also open season for the other side. Initially, they can only shoot each other on the grid with the beacon. So how is daily fights over a beacon less exciting than blue-balling the aggressors for a week?

Now, this won't change wars where the target capitulates before the 24 hours is up, and it won't change if the defenders never bother to fight over the beacon. But it creates a new possibility where a corp can actually fight back.




This is true, and thees corps are all doing really great things. Some new players want to start their own corporations. There is a problem where newer players form corps in High-sec that get hazed by pirates. Obviously, if they are using their corp to make a lot of money then they should be vulnerable to wars. If their corp is nothing more than a social group, perhaps they shouldn't have to deal with pirates.

This is a beyond stupid restriction to put on these corps

Increasing safety will only increase the demands for more safety ...
... while reducing the liberty of all those who do not need or want this safety.

Any unwillingness to defend ones self, which includes learning how to defend ones self ...
... leads to being removed from the gene pool by natural selection.

Protecting the weak only weakens the genepool as a whole.

Players can already kill other players in highsec, and they don't need a wardec to do it.

This all stinks of nullsec entities wanting their alts to be safe in highsec.

Oddly enough that isn't such a bad idea.

Would be interesting story line opening if a window opened to take a NPC faction out of the game. Make it be in a truly insane scale such that it would make the fountain wars look like a Sunday school pageant. Give players in the NPC corp the chance to jump ship of course (yes it is a sop to carebears but really it wouldn't be viable otherwise) but offer high value rewards to those who sign up on the side of the beleaguered NPC group.

This could tie in nicely with the frostline and jove stories as well.

Pros.
Exciting new hisec game play that would require the work of large numbers of players.
Potential for pilots to sign onto the defenders side for significant rewards for putting themselves at significant risk.
Big shake up to the status quo.

Cons.
Would almost have to be managed at a nul bloc level to herd enough cats.
In order to make it worthy the scale would require a lot of participation, and if people just ignore it then the whole thing falls apart.
It could become exploited in similar ways that incursions are to farm the rewards by mutual agreements.

And last but not least, the evere present law of unintended consequences.