Warfare & Tactics

I also support the notion of the "kill all npcs to finish plex" requirement. The removal of EWar solves nothing.

In connection to this. it is interesting how the ecomomist guy on Fanfest talked about the need to siphon more ISK from the economy, because there is much more coming in than coming out. So regardless of logic, what do they do? They put in another way of effortless farming for skilless individuals. Way to go.....

Sure, it takes away some ISK by additional cost and taxes. But it also creates value from almost nothing. You give 500k for nexus chip, you buy Tristan for 500k or so, you add some effortlessly gained LP and you have a 27 million worth of Comet. Maybe my reasoning is flawed as I may be missing some important morsel of logic there, but to me, it seems you generate value out of almost nothing.

What you're missing is that the economist guy is talking about overall money supply of the entire universe, not overall value of items in game. FW activities are mostly isk sinks. They emphasize LP/LP store items at the expense of isk. LP stores are one way to suck isk out of the economy every time you purchase an LP store item.

The way I see it, the problem is that you can't hunt those nanoships down since they can be in any system they want. Also, it makes no sense to invest LP into the systems because they can be plexed so easily. The system as it stands now favours PvE, but doesn't let PvPers catch them.

It might be a long shot, but here is a solution I have been working on.

Don't change NPCs too much. Let players use their nanofits if they want to.

BUT: Only allow sov-changes within the border-systems. Yes you heard right. Only systems that are bordering to the other faction may be flipped. The idea behind it is to funnel all those PvE people into a bunch of systems that are numerous enough so people can plex them in peace, but predictable enough so that PvP fleets can hunt them down more efficiently. By extension, any fleet that wants to seriously flip a system needs to protect the plex fleet, which leads to bigger (and real) fleets.

As to the LP stealing, sure leave it in. But make the minimum level to which LP can be stolen dependant on the amount of jumps to a border system. A system 2 jumps away from the border can only be reduced to level 2, etc.

What I am hoping from these changes is:
1) give PvP people a better chance at catching the PvE people without serving them on a plate
2) Motivate people to actually donate LP with the knowledge that, as long as they defend the border regions, they can't be taken away.
3) More battles and pewpew since fleets are more likely to patrol the border regions and maybe even bump into each other by accident.

You still have a timer: You have to complete the timer AND kill all rats to capture an offensive plex.

You only have to complete the timer for a defensive plex.

Someone in R1FTA popped a Merlin in a gallente FW plex in placid with almost the exact same fit.

The best part? When he came back not 5 minutes later and got popped again.

I'm not sure being required to kill all NPCs would discourage plex farming. Its quite easy to take a minor plex with a T1 destroyer and in my opinion it should be. Newbies to FW should be able to contibute by capturing and defending plexes. However, I accept that being able to speed tank a medium or major plex with no guns is a bit ridiculous and the mechanics of that need to be reviewed for all factions.

I think you should just remove LP for plexing in FW altogether (or at least reduce the amount earned to only a token one). After all, the ultimate reward for plexing should be seeing that little system status bar move up or down. No...?

Instead you could keep the standing increases and promotions for plexing but just reward FW PVP with LP (missioning would stay as is). The LP rewarded for each PVP kill could then be multiplied based on the total warzone control of the relevant faction. So, more warzone control, more LP awarded for PVP kills and vice versa.

That way you remove the financial incentive for plex farmers, encourage PvP in FW, but still have an overarching incentive to plex (the warzone control multiplier).

"Killing all rats" limits the damage to minor plexes. LP should be given to plexing in FW, but in proportion to effort involved.

L1 = 1/2 L2 = 1/4 L3 = 1/8 L4 would be one way to do it. Especially if a "kill all the rats" requirement were put in.

But it takes a lot of effort for me (an acknowledged noob) to cap a minor offensive plex. Speed tanking is a legitimate tactic in EVE. Should tackling a major be only limited to someone that has the fire power to eliminate all NPCs rather than someone who tries a different tactic and fits their ship accordingly? Purely requiring someone to kill all NPCs would just mean our elite plex farmers buy bigger ships and bigger guns.

It seems to me that the reward for plexing is the central issue. Last night, members of the Amarr militia were using Minnie alts to offensive plex Amarr systems and were then complaining on local when we tried to shoot them! The only reason Amarr militia are doing this is because the rewards of plexing as a Minnie are so lucrative (this isn't a whinge - one day when the balance of power swings back it will be too lucrative for Amarr pilots too). Part of me sees the perverted logic in this when so much easy isk is in the making, but from a FW game mechanics perspective it is f***ed and needs to be 'fixed'. I don't think these guys are going to stop doing this just because they have to kill all NPCs.

I don't mean to kill the goose that lays the golden egg but if you remove the rewards of plex farming then you remove the incentive to do so.

I like the idea of having to kill all the rats first, it's what I do in minors anyway. Maybe they could go one step further and add small LP bounties to the faction rats or even tie the LP rewards from capping to how many of the rats in the plex you've shot at? That way if one guy turns up and flies in circles while another does all the work he gets nothing.