Player Features and Ideas Discussion

System security values should drift over time, to reflect Concord's ongoing effort to expand law enforcement (increasing system security) and failure to do so (decreasing system security).

The changes would be gradual, taking place over weeks/months, thus allowing players to adapt to potential catastrophic changes, which may require relocating POS's, cap ships, etc. An onscreen indicator could show whether the drift is upwards or downwards.

Whenever the drifted system security will round up or down to the next integer value, the system security indicator could show a 72 hour countdown timer, before actually changing.

Ofc, this is a non-trival change, affecdting a lot of current gameplay, but it might make the Eve universe more dynamic, esp. around the borders of high sec and low sec, and the borders of low sec and null sec. Imagine what might happen when a 0.5 system drifts into becoming a 0.4 system (and back again), esp. if the system happens to be part of a high-traffic pipe.

I was thinking that it would be somewhat random, increasing due to Concord's unseen behind-the-scenes effort to spread law enforcement and decreasing due to more NPC pirate activity.

But, it might be more interesting, however, to tie this into player statistics, too.

So, if there is an increase in suicide-ganking in a particular high-sec system, the system security could drop for a while, then rise back up as Corcord supposedly reasserts its presence.

Or, it could be based on the number of player and NPC kills in the system. If the system experiences an above-average number of NPC kills, or a below-average number of player kills, the system security would drift up. If the system experiences a below-average number of NPC kills, or an above-average number of player kills, the system security would drift down.

Both ideas have advantages and disadvantages.

I suppose that it could be implemented using a combination of both. Random change, when player activity in the system is below a certain minimum, and player-based change when player activity is higher than a threshold value. If the player activity is not sustained, over the long haul, then the system security would drift randomly again.

This would allow players to actively change the system security, if they are willing to commit enough ongoing resources to do so (say, Goonswarm). Since this would involve destroying large numbers of ships on a regular basis, it would help to keep things lively on the borders.