Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I don;t disagree. I've not once said there are no changes to be made to null, interceptors will now accelerate to warp faster and avoid bubbles, making them a lot better for catching players in null. But that still doesn't mean local should be nuked. The WH comparison in purely to show that in a WH, if you don't seal up your system and you don't watch for new entrances, and place scouts, then you can get easily caught by a covops cloakers. Null would be the same, but without the ability to seal the system, and with large groups of ships able to be brought in directly. Surely you can see how those differences would upset the balance a little?
I don;t like the idea of moving to a system that is more like WH space, but with an increased level of difficulty.
Just consider the stats. Null is already losing popularity with high sec income rapidly increasing with things like the abundance of low sec ores and the ease of finding them now, and with SOE ships it will go up some more.
But look at WH space.
So far in 2013, only 3.7% of the total ship+pod kills occurred in WHs, and only 1.25% of PVE kills occurred there. I really don't like the idea of null being made that unpopular in a single blow.
Sure the huge alliances will be able to keep their space with relative ease. I'm in the CFC, so I hardly have to worry, but it would be an instant killer to any smaller group trying to hold some space, and it would make PVE/mining outside of an intel system way too dangerous. Most alliance would use what, maybe 10% of their space for ratting/mining? Just look at the military and industry indices to see what it's like now, then imagine there's an additional cost + upkeep to keep each of those functioning.

I have a new plan.

To remove the issue of AFK Cloak camping lessen the negative impact of afk camping, I'd kindly urge every active cloaker to once in a while announce his on keyboard presence with local chat activities like:

"Hello"

or

"Nice carrier"

or

"That golem looks awefully tanky, may I see your current fitting"

or maybe even

"Do not worry, my corp cannot afford a bridging Titan"

It's the kind thing to do, it would lessen paranoia of the other pilots currently located in the same System, which in turn would ensure their physical and mental well being, relieve CCP of a lot of pressure so they could focus on more important tasks like server & client stability, exciting new features, or simply the implementation of a new heuristic algorythm for their NPC AI.

Just think about all the new pssibilities, it could be awesome.

And as an added bonus, your new best friends could even pay you if you warn them from that big bad incoming blob just 3 jumps behind you.

I know exactly what goes bump in wormholes. CCP has an API for it and everything. And the answer is nothing goes bump in wormholes, WH population is a joke.

And if you think there's infinitely more effort to scan your wormhole, then you clearly have no wormhole experience. I' mean for starters when a new entrance opens, a giant red square appears in space, then secondly, the d-scan takes a click every now and them. Some people even use ISboxer with the mouse move disabled, but the click enabled, so every time they click anything on their main client, d-scan updates on their second screen. Yeah, epic amounts of effort.

With your changes, living in null would required "significantly more effort". I'd rather look at ways of increasing null population and diversity, not decreasing it by making it useful only for your tiny group. WH isn't purely unpopular because of the no local, but to say it's not a significant factor is nonsense. Hell, I'd live in WH space if it had immediate local. I did a 6month stint in a wormhole and apart from being as dull as L4s, it was pretty straightforward to get in and out.

But how is making null MORE difficult to live in going to let more people in? Sure, it might let more roamers in, but roamers roam, they don't live anywhere. So how would getting more roamers and making it cost more isk, more players and more time to actually live in null make it more appealing?
What they need to do is make sov easier to obtain but harder to hold. Adding more roamers to the area would not do that. That would in fact make it harder to obtain by a small group and easier to hold by a large one, pretty much the opposite of a good idea.

Came home from work, found this. -.-

To build on this, I would say that null should be worth the effort.

If it is as challenging as a wormhole, then it's rewards should be on the same level.

As it is in many ways much safer than low sec, however, perhaps it is time to raise the rewards for low sec.

The low population dynamic is rather obvious there, null is both safer and apparently more rewarding, who in their right mind would not go to null instead? The math speaks for itself.

Actually, with what I've suggested you'll need fewer alts. Or at least stationing alts in neighboring systems wont give much of a benefit.



This is a conclusion that is totally unwarranted. If an intel infrastructure and turning local into a mere chat channel, then having 2, 3, or more alts wont provide much if any additional benefit. The additional effort is in anchoring an intel infrastructure, defending if necessary, and so forth. The day-to-day things like ratting may entail less effort at least in regards to alts watching for incoming hostiles.

And again I point out that to the solo/small gang cloakers roaming through null, it makes it easier, not harder. And to be honest, they already have it pretty easy and will soon have better ships to do it in.




You can't defend against a single cloaker? At all? One cloaker is going to cause everyone to dock up and never undock?

You aren't considering it seriously Andy. If you were, you'd be considering how prevalent they are instead of simply assuming they are always present on any ship that isn't blue and passes through whatever system you are in.

To me the probability that a ship has a cyno is greater than zero, but less than one, for you it is trivial--i.e. that probability = 1. You also assume, with probability 1, that there is, on average, a 75 man fleet waiting to drop on you.

Your assumptions are not the basis for a serious discussion. It would be like assuming every day I drive to work the probability I'll get into a car wreck is 1.

I need to address this section, as it implies a more limited set of options than what I feel actually exists in the game.

You are portraying players who want to mine, rat, whatever, as having two options.

1. They can expose themselves to risk, against which they have no real defense or control against.

2. They can remain in a safe spot / docked / behind POS shields, or any comparable version which equates to effective inactivity.
Heck, being logged out fits that description too.

Are you suggesting they have no other valid play options?