Warfare & Tactics

Uhg, had to read through eight pages of arguments, half of which is people arguing about semi-unrelated to completely unrelated Meta-Game actions.

My views?

Cloak Ban: It will hurt people who are cloaky predators in plexes, this is basically a direct nerf to the Astero and all those quirky Solo-Bombers. Will it hurt farmers? Hard to tell. For one, the disincentive to leaving a plex and staying gone is too small plus the farmers are still stabbed. Mine, and the community favorite implementation of timer tickbacks(timers that reset to a neutral point once someone leaves) will be talked about later. I personally believe farmers will still cloak up in plexes. One pulse of an MWD(Which I think most of them can fit) can take them out of any cloak-blocking buffer far faster than most people will be able to lock them to prevent it. It will prevent some of the more lazy plexers, possibly even some bot programs too, but not nearly enough to make a difference.

I personally think a better implementation would be to give people a ten second buffer on warp-in to cloak up. After ten seconds the bunker(which could be turned into some sort of turret entity to save on coding time) would simulate the effect of you being locked. Thus meaning you can no longer cloak. Same thing goes for people who cloak and then de-cloak in the plex. You get 10 seconds before you can cloak again. Predators, and scouts, and anyone NOT interested in running the timer can still be cloaked, anywhere in the plex. But farmers, who are interested in running the timer and must be not cloaked, un-cloaked? de-cloaked? For more then ten seconds or whatever a fair time on the effect is, would be unable to simply cloak up immediately.

Rat Waves: Again, Marginally effective in reducing farmers, but usually only the ones who cannot kill the weak rats and have the rats cleared by a more skilled alt. Since most farmers can still kill even Cruiser rats with minimal damage the effect will also be minimal. Prepare to see more stabbed Catalysts and things out there running the mediums, which are where the most impact against farmers is going to be. It will still be more effective then the cloaking buffer though. And all the dessies except the Dragoon have a max of three lows so those of you who are forced to go around in double scram fits to kill farmers will see a slight buff.

Large Plexes: I don't think most farmers can kill a BC rat, most won't bother fitting a cruiser with stabs to kill it easily either. No real effect on farmers here. Personally I like the change. Sure we probably will only see a BS brawl in a large every half decade or so, but fights in small-medium sized Battlecruiser gangs are now at least possible and will probably happen every now and again. And I haven't checked Large Plex Mechanics recently, but I thought you could not light a Cyno in one. Hope this is either true or will become true. More places for fleets to be safe from an Insta-PL butt **** surprise is always a good thing.


And now to peoples proposed changes.

Stronger Rats: The waves should deal with most cases in the medium, the large should be mostly immune, and these would be where the disparity is biggest. Trying to find the goldilocks zone where buffing small, and novice rats does not effect Low-DPS kiting fits, and Low-SP characters is, in my opinion, an impossible task and so should be avoided at all costs. This was one of the reasons we have the current weak rats, to provide a low entry barrier for newer players, and to ensure that PVP fits are able to participate instead of wholly dedicated PvE fits.

Tickbacks: Couple things
1. Does it make taking a plex harder?
Answer: Depends on what side of the timer your on. If you force someone out of the plex, you no longer have to sit on it to bring it to neutral meaning that it is easier for you to take, and the inverse is true for the person you forced out.
2. Gives an advantage to the defender.
The one or two people who are arguing this position seem to be focusing on the fact that a defender only needs to keep the contested percentage from increasing. Meaning that simply leaving a plex unfinished is a win for the defender.

Is this true? Yes. The thing that you guys are missing is that this is true regardless of tickbacks or not. If a defender forces me out of a plex in the current FW they still have the advantage of maintaining the status quo. The real question you must ask is, does tickbacks amplify this to unfair levels? The answer, I believe, is no.

Why? Because tickbacks cut both ways. It does not matter who is forced out of a plex, it will reset to neutral for each side. If an attacker is forced out the defender gains time he doesn't have to be in the plex and vice versa. The advantage of maintaining a status quo and all other defensive advantages, as stated above, will remain. Tickbacks or no. They may be magnified, but that magnification is tiny. And if it means less time ANYONE has to spend plexing, which will include all true FW players by the way, that's great as long as the changes are not game breaking.
3. Won't be effective
The decrease of button-sitting on its own makes the change worth it. And it will directly effect the profitability of farmers, who by definition, will never be able to fight for a plex.

Warp Core Stabs: I am really sad that, according to Ves's description, no one bothered to mention Warp Core Stabs at the round table. I am not going to go into detail because I have said it several times before. But WCS are at least 1/3 if not half the problem when it comes to farmers. And need to die.