Warfare & Tactics

I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on these ideas.

Preface
A lot of people are upset about links. Unlike most I feel that the problem with links is not what they do, it is the risk vs reward ratio. You get massive rewards for almost no risk. Often a link ship is the most valuable ship in a fleet, both in terms of isk and as a force multiplier, but it is almost impossible to punish their use. Link boats should be a viable target for the enemy, and here is how I think that could be implemented best, in terms of fairness. To keep options open to those of us who use links, and those who wish to have some recourse against them.

#1. Give link modules a sig penalty when active (like an MWD not sure on what exact percent should be) This makes it possible to probe them without having perfect probing skills, as well as probe implants. It also forces a decision on the link user, how much risk they are willing to take? Do you need to have 3 links active? Or will just 1 be enough for the current situation. Give command ships a bonus that removes the sig penalty. So they are not punished for providing on-grid links.

#2. If the ship providing links does not have kill rights (or is at war with ) the player who is being attacked by the player receiving links the linking ship will get a PvP timer and suspect flag, (NOT a weapons timer, they can still jump, or dock) meaning they WILL be attacked by sentry guns. In high sec they will receive a criminal flag. So in high sec the link character must be at war with the person being attacked, or concord will blow it up.Also the opposing players have the ability to kill it, if they can catch it, without concord interfering.

This serves several other purposes and fixes several issues. For example, in situations such as engaging a war target in Faction warfare, if the link ship is a neutral (not in the war), it loses standings, because the ship receiving links is engaging a target that the linking character is not at war with or does not have kill rights on. Which also means that the link boats will no longer be able to sit on an undock or gate and be untouchable if the linking character is neutral. Anyone will be able to attack them because they will have a suspect flag. Gate guns will shoot them because they have received a standings loss. So if neutral in low sec they will want to link from a safe, but they can now be probed easier because of the sig penalty.

If the link character is at war they can link from a gate, but they run the risk of being tackled, gate guns will not shoot war targets trying to tackle them. (but the link ship will not have a suspect flag,or receive standings loss) so gate guns will defend the link ship from neutral tackle but not war targets.

As it is now, the link ship can just dock, or jump through a gate if threatened or attacked while linking. It is almost impossible to punish their use. (which is why most people using links in low sec just sit the link ships on a gate or undock) The gate guns defend the link boat (because it is neutral) and the people who attack the link ship lose standings, get shot by gate/station guns, and since link ships are always covert ops fit, it is extremely unlikely to catch the link ship even if the group attacking the link boat are set up on both sides of the gate. Any frigate that points them gets popped by gate guns almost instantly.

In low sec, link users will have the choice of either keeping the link character neutral and linking from a safe spot (where it can be probed because of the sig penalty added to active links) and then tackled and killed by anyone without penalty if it has a suspect flag. Or the link user can put the linking character into the same corp or alliance as the fleet it is boosting, which means the opponents have free reign to try and catch and kill the link boat any time it is spotted, without the attackers of the link ship being punished by gate guns or standings loss, because the link ship is a war target. The link ship will not have a weapon timer, so it can still jump or dock at will.

#3. NO links should not work inside deadspace areas, unless the link ship is inside the dead space area and within 100km of the ships it is linking. This help with a lot of ganking and brawling shenanigans that occur in missions, faction war plexes, and sites.


A side affect of all this is that in many situations, a person being attacked by a link user will be able to better asses the threat against them. Link ships will either be in the same corp or alliance to share the wars,have to come inside the deadspace area or they will cause extra hassles for the link user because of standings, and danger of linking from a safe with a sig bloom,and not always being on a gate or dock to retreat.

TLDR:
High sec: link boat must be in the war (or have kill rights) because otherwise concord kills you for linking someone, who is attacking someone, that you don't have rights to attack. (Criminal)

Low sec: if links are neutral, link from a safe, be a suspect, be probable. (links now have sig penalty like MWD's)
OR in Low sec, if link boat is in war, link from anywhere, no suspect, be careful as hell because gate guns won't protect you from war targets.

In null sec, links can be probed easier, links must enter dead space areas to be used inside that deadspace area.

I tired to strike a good balance for links being viable, but not risk free. Links are still just as strong, but now you can be probed, now the link user will have to make some decisions that will affect their risk. Covert ops link boats will still be just as slippery as ever to catch on gates, but gate guns won't be their best friend anymore.

I think that covers all the issues with links, what do you all think? Did I miss anything?

EDIT: NONE OF THIS APPLIES TO MINING LINKS

Simple solution really, Commandships need the same abilities as a booster tengu, loki etc. They also should be toughened up and be able to defend themselfs, more hit points ,more tank.

Edit: waits for the Blob fans to ***** & moan post about this now

I don't even support "small gangs". But when the reality is not people using links to engage superior numbers, but using links to ensure they have superior numbers, then it is time to kill the whole thing. Especially since most OGBs are used by so called "solo pvpers" to gank a single target.

Only a matter of time until this tired old straw man showed up.

If this was only true,

Fact is that the OGB are used by the blobs all the time, making small gang warfare even harder.

In short off grid boosting should be removed.

OGB need to be removed period.

It should be on-grid ,within a range (example boost is effective up to 100km from the ship) and it should be seen as a hostile act giving a boost to a ship in combat. Want your T3 boost, fine ,but bring the ship in the fight.

I have mentioned this before as a fix to boosting, but it should be based on how far off you are from said ships at the time of aggression. Now I am not literate in the ways of coding/game design so I am not sure how hard it would be to do that, but I assume it could be done.

You would get 100% boost if the booster was on grid at the time of agro, 50% boost if the booster was 100k-200k off, and 25% if the booster is off grid.

This would make it so people would actually want to have boosters on grid. It would also not make off grid boosting completely useless. Making off grid boosting completely useless would **** many people off as leadership skills take A LOT of time to train up, and require a remap too. Command ships, and to a lesser degree t3s, also take a very large amount of time to train. Removing off grid boosting completely would ruin a good 8-12 months of skill training for people. At least this way you get some boost if off grid, but would make people want to have a command ship in fleet/on grid.

With that suggestion I would also like to see a battleship line of command ships. Maybe give a new skill to use them called Fleet Command Ships. Require lvl 4 BS, advanced ship command 5, etc, etc.

Thats a very good point Zarnak - ''re understanding why'' - and not one id given thought to. Point completely taken.

Again > I agree that CCP should do something to OGB, i just disagree the borderline hysteria surrounding it.

Give links a 250km range, then adjust Command Ships. Allow a Field Command to fit 1 link without hurting it's current DPS output, then allow a fleet command ship to run 3 links while producing mild dps and buff both their tanks. Seems like it would work to me

Did i touch u somewhere? With my ship?