Crime & Punishment

"As year of Inferno began, EVE's evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most "science fiction" of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as expansions went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species."

I had the "pleasure" to be around for the pre-crimewatch rut, the era of dec-shields and war-shedding.
It was a time when everyone just avoided conflict at any cost. (sound familiar?)
CCP did notice this and tried to fix this with crimewatch. But unfortunatly did not take into account that the flight response of eve players.
One example is the dec cost vs the cost of reforming a corp. (50m vs 5m) This made it a "win" to avoid wars and the capsuleers made use of this. The wardeccers answered by deccing more and more, just to have enough targets to support their gameplay. And it snowballed from there.

Then out of the blue, there was change/removal of a mechanic that was the last tool a wardeccing entity had to do focused wars. With no replacement. And here we are, the only viable wardeccing way is blanket dec everything and wait for the target to come to them. While corp and alliances fold with just a sniff of wars.
There was a hope Citadels would help, but from experience the target rather fold corp and sacrifice the Citadel then fight back or defend it.

My hope is that CCP will look at this once more.. like they did in 2012. Imho think the situation is worse now.
But while we wait, there a few things they could do...

1. Band-aid fix: tie old watchlist function with wardec's (not a fix for other issues)
- The main reason for the watchlist change was that it is free intel. With having to pay an ammount every week it would not be free intel anymore.

2. Change of locator mechanics to not run if offline (minimum requirement to be able to hunt with some sort of effeciency)
- Another reason for the watchlist change was privacy(?). Then... if your not online and playing, why should anyone be able to easily find out where you logged off?

3. Overall change of locator mechanic. (Could potentially fix several issues, depending on result.)
- There's several ideas on how this could work, the biggest job would be to figure out a new mechanic that covers all "issues" and conserns of everyone.

4. Observatory Stations - (major work? but in line with current "theme")
- Could work I guess.. imho would not like more structure grind and timers. Its also gonna favor the biggest blob.

5. Dont know if I dare say it.. revert the watchlist change. (I know they wont do it)
- And make sure all areas of eve is represented in CSM before just removing a mechanic without a replacement in place.

They cant disband corp with a Citadel in space, but they just leave an alt in said corp and move all stuff out of citadel with neutrals.And close corp as soon as Citadel is down. Have happen to us a couple of times now..

Hehe, I have nothing against ideas, but covering the dec cost when they sacrifice citadels(1b+) to get out of war is kinda feudal, isnt it?

Lord Razpataz your analysis is spot on. With the watchlist changing to a buddy list its been made a lot harder to fight on multiple fronts for mercenary corporations forcing them to fish at the hubs and along the pipes. Actual hunting seems like a dying skill among those that practice the fishing. Actually it's been a dying skill well before the buddy list made its entry. I guess people more often then not choose the easy route as long as it gets them a kill. Mercs are no exception. Thus the fishing gained in popularity to the mess it is today.

From someone often on the receiving end of wardecs incl. those from merc corps like yours the buddy list has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand you can't see if WT are online anymore but on the other hand neither can they see you. I didnt have a lot of trouble with it since I always asume my WT know where I am all the time, but some of my friends did since they relied to heavily on the info the watchlist provided. And I think thats where the problem lies.

Mercs and players in general relied way to much on the watchlist and now that its gone they have a hard time adapting and are bummed things have gotten harder. But I like things have gotten more difficult. Means effort, skill and a sense of accomplishment are on the increase for those that succesfully adapt.

Ofcourse I also have a PvP toon so I have a good idea what I'm talking about. With wars I always did it the old fashioned way and spent some time getting to know my targets. The whole 'Know your enemy" idea and all. And as a result I could always quickly locate a target and estimate the conditions at the target quite accuratly without using the watchlist, locators or neutral scouts. I'd like to see more people learn these things again. Back when you could see npc standings of characters you could often get a good estimate where they were living. Specially if they was missioners, right down to the individual station.

I'm sure you wont quit the pewpew and all but maybe see it as a challenge to get on top of this change and make it work for you guys. There are plenty of options.

I feel your pain brother.

You merc's never leave the trade hubs or trade routes, so it doesn't really matter, just use local.

PS: Why are you hiding in an NPC corp, if none of the war-deccing corps ever leaves the trade hub?

Surely they are harmless to you if you just avoid the couple of systems they limit themselves to? So why penalize yourself with npc corp taxes/etc for no reason?

Pffft, I'm not in an npc corp >_>

A new add on to the war system could be . If you war Dec a corp/allaince you pay concord standard fee but you have an option to pay concord say 25% more . The added 25% fee is a concord alert system where if a war target logs on or jumps into concord secured space (ie high sec) and you have him added to the bubbly list he will go green.

I wouldn't pay that on the big block alliances, but yeah I'd pay the extra fee on top of a 50m - 100m wardec in order to hunt someone I spotted.