Assembly Hall

It’s really the entire reward system, and not just high-sec income, that needs tweaking. The system should reward people for:

1.) Dynamic Risks (based on the likelihood of losing your ship/pod to NPC's and/or Players).
2.) Investment Risks (be it raw isk, time, and/or structures in space).
3.) Social Risks (reward working as a group, especially if violating the social trust results in losses).

Most of the time, the Risks from NPCs are much less than the risks from players, and this needs to be heavily accounted for.
On the surface, our system attempts the above, but has enough skewed areas to throw the current system out of balance!


IMO, high-sec incursions do provide too much reward for their risk when compared to most lowsec/nullsec opportunities. They essentially break the risk vs reward paradigm that encourages players to venture into lowsec and nullsec for "bigger" rewards. However, they also provide an extremely beneficial service to EvE by creating an environment for teamwork. And lets be frank, learning to play in a team is pretty much at the core of living in lowsec and nullsec. And I fully support game mechanics that encourage teamplay, meaning there should be definite advantages and rewards for doing so. Personally, I think the primary nerf high-sec incursions need involve truly randomizing the spawn triggers. Make it so people blitzing them in the minimum-sized groups have serious risks to earn their dough. Alternatively, they could run them in much larger groups, maintain their safety, but sacrifice their rewards in doing so!

Mission running is very much a solo activity.. It's also the standard pathway for characters to earn money and gain mock combat experience while they grow pubic hairs and venture into the more PvP oriented regions of EvE. It is also an important transition activity, where players can build up isk reserves while they transition from one area (or Corp) of the game to another. Again, actually randomizing mission spawns and probably revamping the mission tiers so the difficulty levels of missions better reflect the combat and tanking ability of today's combat vessels would be appropriate. Unfortunately, given today's classes of ships, most missions really have very little risks.

I have very little experience in lowsec, and don't feel qualified to accurately depict how things should change from how they currently are. I think that low-sec rewards should probably be just as profitable as nullsec rewards, albeit in a different manner. Meaning, I don't think low-sec should have the crazy anom-spawning income of null, but they should have very good-paying missions instead.

True nullsec rewards should involve significant investment risks as well as dynamic risks. Currently, the sov upgrade system allows for a nice investment risk, but the ability to capture any system anytime is somewhat out of line. The dynamic risks in nullsec also need review; specifically afk cloakers and hotdrops. Null-bears are typically whiny morons that make high-sec carebears look like hardcore bittervets. Just look at all the "wah, wah, afk cloaker in system prevents me from ratting, wah, wah, wah" threads. I live in nullsec, I don't have blues, and a hostile in system doesn't prevent me from ratting. Dealing with a few nuets in system should be something every nullsec capsuleer overcomes by grouping up and/or flying smart. Altering hotdrop mechanics so locals can better assess the danger a neut represents is reasonable, but either leave AFK cloakers alone, or replace local with an intel tool that leaves some pilot ambiguity before nerfing cloaks. Then, and only then, should nullsec anoms pay out better than lvl 4 missions! The point I'm trying to make with all these jabs at different game aspects, is that the risk paradigm in nullsec is should be a high-paying, but high-risk. The truth is, most null-bears want the pay, but don't want any real risk and they don't want to work in groups.