Assembly Hall

This is a proposal I decided to make it's own thread for since it was part of another thread I made and seemed to be the only popular proposal of the 3. I also had this thread in the original forums and it seemed to be split in terms of support. I will try to be a little more clear on this proposal.

So the idea is to have AoE damage from ships exploding in space from combat damage. It was brought up in the previous thread that self destructing your ship should not cause AoE damage. I agree with this and a good reasoning would be that a self destruct is a "controlled" explosion achieved by purging your power core. When it comes to exploding from combat damage taken an AoE explosion similar to a smart bomb would occur. The explosion itself wouldn't have to be too different from a smartbomb in itself in fact.

Damage type would be based on the faction of the ship that is exploding. Damage radius based on ship size. Amount of damage also based on ship size. Smaller ships would be able to mitigate the damage better than larger ships thus taking less damage total. Distance from the exploding ship and also your own ships speed would also be a factor in damage mitigation. The further away you are the less damage you take and the faster you move the less you take. The damage itself should be enough to do decent damage but not enough to take any ship from full shield to gone. I wouldn't say the damage should even be enough to do 20% of a ships main defense in damage.

One main concern is that of this occuring in High Sec with pirates mass killing people in Jita and what would happen with the resulting GCC. This one is simple. No AoE damage in High Sec. This is already done by the fact that you cant use smartbombs. This will prevent pirates and gankers from using their ships to mass kill people in Jita. No AoE damage in High Sec. Very simple.

When it comes to Low Sec however we could either apply the same rules as High Sec or allow it and assign the GCC from each explosion hitting another player based on the last person who hit the exploding target. Whoever got the killmail gets the GCC for each person that exploding ship hit with its explosion. Personally I am for the latter train of thought as it is Low Sec. Killmails themselves should also be assigned to the last person to hit a ship in cases where a possible chain reaction of exploding ships occurs in large fleet fights. So it would be possible for one person to get 2 or more kills with his final blow on one ship. That part I am sure is highly debatable.

This damage is not meant to be a tool for doing massive AoE damage but instead another dynamic part of the game to mix up PvP and separate the blob a little.

I am looking for constructive feedback and opinions on the issue.

Thats actually a good and valid question. One which I knew would come up. Before someone had brought this up and suggested something along the lines of Concord placing some magical tech device that supresses ship explosions so they do not effect other pilots. I believe at that time I suggested this only be implemented near stations and gates so that GCC and damage from exploding ships could occur everywhere else in a high sec system but just not within a certain range of gates and stations. I think I was thoroughly shot down on that idea for some reason. I still feel it is reasonable however.

I didn't say it was a good "lore" idea. I said it was something suggested by someone else in the previous thread. Frankly for the lore aspect of it I could care less. The mechanic would only be in place to prevent the massive carebear tears in high sec that would ensue. Did you have a better idea Jack? I wouldn't mind seeing it if you do.

Couldnt gates and stations in highsec be outfitted with an anti-AoE device that has been stopping smartbombs so far but now also ship explosions?

I love the idea of AOE explosions. the bigger the structure/ship the farther away you'd better be. having said that, an explosion in null is the same as an explosion in the magical fairy land of Empire, so .. not supported.

And the problem with limiting AoE explosions in Empire is that it would create an imbalance.

High Security space is just that "High Security," meaning it is heavily patrolled by Faction Police, and CONCORD will respond to criminal actions and deal with it in short order. It is not "Absolute Security," nor is it meant to be. New Eden isn't a place that is meant to hold your hand. It is cold, ruthless, and ever-changing. Adapt or die.

+1

For those interested in facilitating an explanation within the lore:

In this game we have lasers, ships that can cloak, cyno's, and wormhole travel to say the least. If all of that is technically possible in the game, how farfetched would it be to have a system designed to mitigate the issue with highsec AOE damage?

"Concord has recently developed a system protocol, AEGIS™, designed to sense the physical disturbance of the compromised integrity of a ship's structure. Microseconds from explosion, sensors developed by Kaalakiota and configured into the highsec stargate network will determine the area of effect and place a force field around the compromised ship. As the ship explodes the force field contains the blast mitigating any damage to nearby ships."

Alright.. Physics majors, tweak this and make it factual, since EvE is RL....

Hey let's nerf close range weaponry and small ships to cut down on blobs guys. Hey hey hey, it's a good idea, hey.

In truth you can tell when one side is horribly outnumbered when they end up doing a lot more exploding than the blob. Also the smaller group will have more ships exploding right when they all warp in before they have time to spread out. Now not only are you outnumbered and exploding faster than the other guys, you're also taking damage from being outnumbered and exploding. Heh.

Oh, also also it'll end up doing things like blowing up dictor bubbles paradoxically making a rout LESS lethal by nerfing the main method of tackling dudes.

Also also also they'll end up blowing up bombs, making an already tricky anti-blob weapon even more difficult to use effectively.

Because just like Concord isn't interested in protecting you in Lowsec and Nullsec they aren't interested in investing time and money for station and gate upgrades.

Again I will state that I am not personally opposed to the explosions damaging players in Highsec but there is the obvious problem of exploiting this kind of mechanic to the benefit of pirates and gankers. Most freaked out about it on the old thread so this was the solution to still allow the mechanic change without changing life in Highsec for the bears.

+1