Warfare & Tactics

pre-inferno Miltia was fiilled with mission farming alts as well. In fact, a lot of players had joined the Militia only to feed their mains with ISKs. Getting ISKs through plexing or mission running.... what's the difference ?

I don't know how much people earn /h from running minior complexes but if it's lower than what people used to earn
in pre-inferno Militia it's fine by me (300kk / 2h with almost no risk involved - pre-inferno ...).

FW has always been a farmer's paradise ...

My suggestion to reorient plexing towards pvp;

1. Entering a plex there is a small spawn of NPC. This spawn is superficial and can be swiftly dealt with while starting the timer (but has to be cleared due to reasons i will outline further on)

2. Timer runs down with no further NPC spawn until 1 - 3 mins before end of timer (depending on plex size). This gives 9 - 17 mins where there are no NPC and the plex is an arena for PVP.

3. Once you hit the last 1 - 3 mins (depending on plex size) a final spawn will appear. This spawn is more substantial than the first and has to be killed before the plex is complete even if the timer counts to zero.

For example;
- in a minor final spawn comes at 1mins before completion of timer. It could take a solo dessy/frig 1-2 minutes to kill spawn and complete plex
- in a medium final spawn comes at 2mins before completion of timer. It could take a solo cruiser 2-4 minutes to kill spawn and complete plex
- in a major final spawn comes at 3mins before completion of timer. It could take a solo BC 3-6 minutes to kill spawn and complete plex

However;
- in a medium it would take a solo dessy/frig 4-8 minutes to kill the spawn and complete plex
- in a major it would take a solo dessy/frig 6-12 minutes to kill the spawwn and complete plex (perhaps the main BS rat can tank most lesser frigates)

Should you expect PVP to arrive shortly before the last spawn you can simple leave the capture point and halt the timer, delaying the spawn until the PVP is done.

This could encourage people to team up in larger plex to complete the plex faster come the last spawn and should mean people only do plexes that are appropriate for their ship size / dps. It will make plexing a less passive activity so afk'ing multiple clients becomes more of a pain. And since everyone has guns and the plex is for the majority of the time clear of NPC people might feel more confident and defend their plex.

IMO, the plexing system should
(i) offer good rewards to those who participate, since they're going out and putting their ships in harm's way
(ii) strongly encourage people to run plexes in size-appropriate ships rather than using t1 frigates for everything
(iii) strongly encourage the person who opens a plex to stay there and defend it if challenged

The current system does very well on the first point but falls down on the other two. To address these issues, I propose the following changes to the current plexing system:

When you enter the plex there are some token hostile NPCs that can be killed in less than a minute in a site-appropriate pvp ship without significant difficulty.
Once these hostile NPCs are dead, an NPC transport ship belonging to your faction spawns next to the plex button and starts the plex timer - you could have some RP fluff here about it being a troop transport disgorging marines to storm the hostile facility or whatever. No further hostile NPCs spawn for the remaining duration of the plex.
If the timer runs to completion without interruption, the plex is captured and you get your LP payout as occurs at present.
If a hostile player warps in, the timer continues to run down. However, the hostile can shoot and blow up the transport ship (which should have maybe 2x the EHP of the payer ship class for which the plex was designed, so perhaps 15-20k ehp in a minor plex). If the transport ship is blown up, the attempt to capture the plex fails and the hostile player gets some kind of reward, whether it's loot from the transport, LP, or whatever. Obviously, if the hostile is shooting the transport while you're still in the plex, you should be able to kill him without issue...


The idea is that you have to fit your plexing ship for combat to clear the initial few NPCs, and if you choose to run rather than fight when a hostile comes in, they can quickly negate your work and get a little reward for themselves. However, because there are very few combat NPCs in the plex, they can't significantly distort the outcome of any fights that happen inside it nor do they take a long time or an excessive amount of ammo to clear if you're in a site-appropriate pvp ship.

I agree with one and 3 but not two. I also think trying to promote 2 will prevent 3. That is if the rats are so tough that you need a larger ship, the rats will likely discourage you from staying to pvp. If someone wants to run a plex in a af that allows battlecruisers in that is their choice. I will be happy to fight an af with most of the bcs I fly.

Ok this makes more sense.

I still do not think using an "appropriate ship" should be a goal.

I think ccp should focus on one goal: Make the plexing mechanic one that produces frequent quallity pvp.

I don't really care that people want to fly smaller ships. If someone wants to bring a knife to a gun fight that is thier option. The problem is the enemies often don't even know where this pilot is, and therfore no fights happen.

I don't see flying my pve BCs with a cloak and mwd as involving much more risk than flying a frigate. Having people pvp in these pve bcs and warping out doesn't improve anything.

Again the focus needs to be on making plexing a pvp mechanic. If people want to fight bcs with frigates I don't mind. The problem now is plexing doesn't involve any fights.

Ok saying plexing doesn't involve "any" fights is wrong. I should have said the vast majority of plexing doesn't involve any fights.

If the mechanics were such that people expected to get a fight or 2 in each and every plex they ran then you might get a fight from the merlin - or that merlin pilot might be in a destroyer. If it was a drake you might have run and likely wouldn't want to go in a major with a destroyer. But if you want to I don't mind.


Although with the npcs amarr have to face the thrasher just has to hold the drake for a bit and the rats will kill a drake. Thats sort of my point. If they make npcs tough so you have to use a bigger ship you will still need to run in that bigger ship when a pvper comes. Thats the problem with the current mechanics most times when I am in a major plex with a bc my tank is so close to breaking I do need to run if even an af shows up.

If you really wanted to make FW about the pvp, then you'd have to award VP for pvp kills, and only VP moves the Tiers. LP can still be used to upgrade systems, and you can still flip systems, but system control doesn't move the Tiers. That way one side could actually have all the systems and farmers, but never cash out, because they don't pvp to move the slider.

Its the same solution that was proposed since fw started and players realized plexing is a silly a pve game.

Let players know where and when plexes are attacked. Its not my solution it was suggested before i was even playing eve.

What does the playerbase think? Lots of them like it- mainly those who like lots of pvp. Of course a few others who like using alts to pve their way to winning the war aren't thrilled. There is allot of isk to be made by alt plexing you know. Others like fighting pve ships in their pvp ships and so they aren't thrilled either. they are happy they have more deer to hunt with the current pve set up.

As for what is quality pvp. I think most people who have done allot of plexing agree that teh plex fights are almost always quality fights. Yeah the off grid boosters can be a problem but compared to eve as a whole plex fights are top notch.

I never could figure out how to play this game other than to make sure my skill queue had something in it.

From this thread I have figured out--
There are two kinds of Plex both called plex.
If I take the guns off my rifter there is someplace I can go to earn LP.
LP is not the same as ISK.

So my question is, what screen do I look at if I am in Hek in my rifter without any guns to tell me where I can earn LP?

yours
SeaSaw