Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Systems currently have a fixed security status throughout Eve. Security Status in 0.0 defines the value of that system because of the number and types of sites and ore that can be found in that system. This has also made some regions significantly better than others, but at the same time made them oddly unbalanced. Paragon Soul for example is one of the furthest out regions, yet has one of the worst average sec status for 0.0, Cloud Ring almost isn't 0.0 the Sec is so bad.

The way security status is set currently, encourages people to group around the best systems, deploy safe towers to sit bonus ships just outside, or to simply hide in if hostile come near, and thanks to stations it means very little need to venture outside of these systems. Meanwhile poorer systems, which do not spawn high end ores and rats, tend to not get used.

Recently we have seen a much bigger influence and focus on RP, and how this shapes the game. With ghost sites, and all of the sleeper fun. So from an RP standpoint, why would my evil faction of NPCs keep setting up shop in a system that an alliance has decided to stage from, and keep destroying what we have, why would we not just move to a system that alliance doesn't use.

Introducing, Fluid Security Status.

The aim of Fluid Security Status, FSS, would be firstly to reballance regions, give some love to regions that have clearly been needing some better systems, and secondly to encourage pilots to move around more, forcing them to be less clumped, and more spread out. 0.0 should not be safe.

OK so FSS, Each region will be given a 'pool' of security status. Which is spread over the systems in that region. Systems that a large quantity of NPC kills happen in, will force those NPCs to move to a system where less NPC kills happen. This will in turn change the security of that system. A system that is -1.0 and has a large number of NPC kills, might drop to -0.8, as the NPCs move from this system, into a system that is -0.1, raising that system to become a -0.3, if pilots continue to heavily farm the NPCs in the now -0.8, it will drop further, with the drop being added to the pool, and then added to other systems within the region.

So the reasons for why this should happen! Discourages Alliances/Corps/Pilots from clumping up into single systems, bubbling a gate with 60 bubbles and hiding as soon as hostile enter the area. It encourages pilots to venture out, and find the better systems to gain resources from, with pilots venturing out, it adds a higher level of danger to 0.0, pilots roaming might catch more people on gates, or catch more people rating or even mining, due to systems not being as secure, you can't just warp to a station, unless its Provi, or run to a POS as the system might not have one.

Most importantly, it will hugely drive conflict, not just with roaming, but if several alliances share a region, and one or two of those alliances heavily NPC, it will drive the NPCs into other space, what do you do if another alliance holds the space with the now higher level NPCs, but happens to not rat as heavily? It will also drive the market, with alliances wanting to get the most out of space, by providing iHubs with upgrades, more of these will be required.

Overall the idea is to introduce some more changing landscapes to Eve. Security status is something that really hasn't been touched in Eve, yet it is something that could easily drive a lot of conflict, and encourage more movement between pilots, and less bunkering down in a single system. Note that whilst I have mostly talked about NPC's, this could also be used to change industry, with security status changing, the belts in those systems could also change.

This isn't aimed at LS or HS, both those areas from a RP standpoint and a game standpoint are fairly well balanced.

This idea isn't about improving or making a system worse, the idea is to encourage movement and conflict. Currently it is too easy to be in a dead end system, throw 20 bubbles on a gate, put up a POS. This type of gameplay is too easy, and makes 0.0 too safe. The only real way to get people in those type of systems, is to spend endless days cloaky camping and hope they are stupid.

Lastly, Security status has a massive impact on the quality of sites you can get from upgrades in an iHub. This idea is to encourage movement throughout a region, to make it so a region is worth something, not a few single systems, to drive conflict, to make alliances use systems that currently dont get used. It will also allow for some regions to get a slight buff.

Where is the encouragement to roam space where people are too easily protected, systems you dont bother going to because of bubbles on gates, or oh they will just POS up or dock. Roaming is very painful these days, almost all kills I have gained have been people travelling, and using gates, movement means kills, making space more fluid, encourages movement and conflict.

0.0 should not be safe, but it should be rewarding. The encouragement to stay in 0.0 is another issue entirely, given that the best incomes in this game are near passive, and done in empire anyway.

0.0 is ment to be punishing, but with high rewards.

Here is an example of Dek for the past 24hrs

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Deklein#npc24

You can see that pilots are ratting, and clumped around the better systems, and obviously key market hubs, but you can see a lot of systems that are barely touched. Half of the region is almost pointless, unused and of no value. Would a system that allows for more systems to be used an unwasted be better?

Would a system that punishes people for ratting close to where they can keep their ships, where they need to go for fleet formups, and where the defence fleets are based out of encourage people to stay in nullsec, or to move away entirely?

Look at the sec status of those systems. What do you see? The systems with the best truesec are not the ones with the highest NPC kills. The systems close to the hubs are. Where the defence fleets run out of, where people need to go for fleet formups, or to buy ammo/drones/etc, sell loot, stash ships etc etc. Why do you feel that punishing people for ratting in the places they do is going to encourage them to stay in nullsec?

If you, as a roamer, are going to complain abut people ratting in range of home defence gangs, maybe you should try bringing something that is actually capable of fighting these gangs? Is that not why you're roaming in the first place?

Highsec can, given certain activities (incursions, L4 blitzing, burner blitzing etc) already pay out more than null. You are proposing to make null a worse place to live. Please, explain how this does anything except push people back to highsec.