EVE General Discussion

from Alts: The New Decshield

Ye olde wardec panel. Three issues in particular that I want to discuss.

Before that happens, I'd just like to say that I like the wardec mechanics as presented. They're not perfect, but neither are they horrible.

The new system is nothing radical. It's basically the old system, with all the holes patched up. The only new mechanic introduced is that of allies (or mercenaries.) Overall, the new system is familiar.

It's a sigh of relief, CCP is not promoting consensual PvP with the improved wardec system. CCP still carries through with the HTFU credo. Highsec becomes a tad safer, but in a manner that respects the core principle of EVE Online: PvP happens, deal with it. You don't want war, you don't want PvP, then stick with the NPC corps. Joining a player corp comes with benefits and risks. Most importantly, with the new system, CCP gives you tools to deal with problems, either through surrender mechanics, duking it out, or hiring muscle to protect your interests.

Capping Wardec Costs
The proposed cost structure for wardecs is based on the target size alone. The base cost is 20M ISK to target corporations, 50M ISK to target alliances. This is increased 500K ISK per member in the target corporation/alliance. This means that under the new system it would cost 800M ISK to declare war on EVE University, 3.1B ISK to declare war on TEST Alliance, 4.1B ISK to declare on Goonswarm.

These costs obviously need to be capped. I would suggest in the 750M - 1B ISK range. Gaming membership becomes the new exploit. Corporations will attempt to balloon membership with alts. Alts become the new decshield.

I'm not tinfoil-hatting about EVE University here. Moan about them as I have I very much doubt Kelduum would go down this road. Judging from recent comments, I feel he agrees with my assessment:


Not quite sure how CCP checks active membership (it still feels like something that can be gamed), but it's a suggestion in the right direction.

Mid-sized Corporations Get F***ed
That costs are to be based on target membership alone creates target imbalance. Large corporations/alliances get a valuable shield against wardecs. It becomes more worthwhile to leave the large alliances alone and look towards smaller to mid-sized corporations for your PvP needs.

From a story perspective alone, this is a whack idea. CONCORD is all about creating balance throughout empire space. They are the fairplay cops, so to speak. The recent and very awesome trailer shown at the end of Fanfest 2012 speaks to this precisely. The trailer brings to life aspects of the latest EVE novel, Templar One. The Amaar discover Templar technology. CONCORD is not very happy with this. It creates a mighty imbalance between the four races. CONCORD schemes how to supply the other races -- Caldari, Minmatar and Gallente -- with the new sleeper technology. Bring balance back to the ongoing conflicts.

Yet, with the new wardec system, it is no longer economically feasible for large corporations to wardec corporations of a similar size. It's cheaper and just as effective to start deccing mid-sized corporations. The mid-size corporation will become the target of most wardecs. They're in the Goldilocks zone, the price is right, the membership count is just right.

Some time ago, I proposed a system that calculated costs based on the size differential of the aggressing and defending corporations/alliances. I stand firmly by that concept, in principle (if not specifics), if membership size is the road CCP wants to travel. If they want to calculate costs based on corporation/alliance size, then they cannot simply use the target as the only calculating factor. If they want to ensure meaningful, hardcore wars, then they should create an incentive for similar-sized corps to bang it up together. Financial reasons are one such incentive.

Mercenaries
Not so long ago, I proposed an idea very similar to what CCP is now proposing. The ability for defending corporations/alliances to hire mercenaries to help defend them from war declarations. I'd like to think CCP reads my blog, but it's more than likely just a case of synchronicity.

I've no complaints with the system at all. Just wanted to comment a little on it. This development is fantastic. It opens an entire new career path for players (or at least makes it much easier to pursue the career path of the mercenary.) That CCP will allow players to peruse the entire war history of corporations and alliances will make choosing reliable and skilled mercs easier over time. Most of the scamming will likely occur in the first six months of the system going live.

I'm also going to guess that it will end up being fairly cheap to hire quality mercs. Mercs want good fights. They want a lot of them. They'll claw each other to get attached to good wars. Not too mention, if it's a good war with lots of targets, they have loot as an income source as well.

And if people had an unlimited number of them, this would be a problem. Thankfully, they are limited to a specific number of them*, so it's a non-issue.

* What that number is actually doesn't matter if you think about it, as long as it's the same number per account, for the same reason that it doesn't matter in a game if your scoring system rewards one point or ten for each goal as long as the same scoring applies consistently. The numbers are arbitrary and the result is identical either way.

When I first heard of costs being based on corp size I essentially expected them to compare attacker/defender. I'm rather sure they're going to extend on this.

Regarding issues I immediately thought of aggressors using a second friendly/fake corp to "block" offered mercenary slots, but I guess this is already covered using the proposed haggling system.

+1

Cost should be based on differential between size of attacker vs size of defender and capped at 500m/wk. Not sure why you needed so long a post to say that but ya you got it right.

Abusable. Would result in actual griefing.

This is a good idea for determining an ACTIVE character.

Does anyone else think that the aggressor should have to pick a win condition? e.g receive 1 billion in ransom or destroy 500 million in assets.

I can prove you wrong. A decshield prevents a war from going active. A ISK shield makes it pricy to start a war.

Quite frankly, if you have trouble to pay 700M per week to slaughter noobs you don't deserve to slaughter noobs. If Incursions stay in highsec your 10 man griefer corp will have no problem to spend those 700M anyway.

It is a serious nerf to all those 5-friends-who-started-to-play-2-month-ago-corps. A well established player who can plex 4 accounts every month wont have a problem.

They said something about active chars on subed accounts.

New wardec mechanics are just as terrible bad as the current ones.