Warfare & Tactics

Just a random thought I wanted to put out there for fun, not to say that Sov needs changed, or that this would be better... So if your going to take this thread too seriously you should probably move on...

Still here? Okay, well the other day I was thinking about Sov and how things are now... with super-coalitions controlling the vast majority of space where basically you can rent from them or whatever but the only real hope of getting a new group into nul is basically to join them. or wait for one of them to break into 2 new groups. And again, for the record, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that.... But just for fun... here's an alternative. :D

Premise:
Imagine you as a corp/alliance/whatever, are limited to sov only 1 system.... but once you have it you can begin to build a new kind of station called a Stellar Nexus, this sort of "super station" is built on a star rather than a moon or planet.... anyway once you build the most basic heart of it (which would be cheap but highly upgrade-able/expandable) you could then start to sov connected systems. Branching out. As long as your nexus is upgraded enough you can control more space so long as your systems are connected back to the nexus though systems you control.

The Nexus:
Nexus are like stations, they are dockable and once upgraded offer many if not all the services of regular npc stations. You can even allow other corps to dock at them if you want and charge them tax on what services they use (market, repair, etc) like pos's they would have reinforce stages, initially they start however with 0 (this is to prevent small 1 person corps from spamming difficult to destroy nexus's all over nul to lock up space)... once upgraded then can achieve more reinforce stages beyond 1. So a very large alliance could have several stages of reinforce preventing their entire sov being destroyed by a single or pair of assaults. Nexus would consume fuel of some kind... and also require very expensive parts to upgrade, once upgraded the fuel consumption increases. But as states earlier they increase the maximum sovereignty limit of your corp/alliance. Nexus's are also stronger the more systems you control.

You are limited to 1 nexus per corp.... and 1 nexus per alliance. So if you have a alliance with 3 corps... you can have 4 nexus. But keep in mind your corp nexus's cant surpass your alliance nexus and your alliance nexus if defeated offlines all the other nexus's. Naturally Alliance nexus's can then in a sense break the direct connection rule via remote corp nexus's. Having corp nexus's also helps aid corps who perhaps decide to secede from their alliance and fend for them self. Also... Keep in mind, simply leaving the alliance while the main alliance nexus is being reinforced wont spare you if it goes down... Only leaving while the alliance nexus is at max will prevent your nexus from being offlined in that case.

Another key benefit to a nexus is that it serves as a permanent cyno for your alliance... Allowing jump freighters and jump capable ships to travel between them at will (as long as the nexus's are in jump range of each other). EXCEPT when they are under attack... In that case you can jump TO it... but not away from it.

New Tactics:
Being tied to a nexus that you have to connect to would offer new war tactics in nul. Cutting pockets of systems off by breaking their sov chain back to the nexus for example would allow you to break sov on several systems at once thus weakening their nexus since part of its defensive power comes from controlling more systems. You could try to take on the nexus directly to essentially evict a corp/alliance however this would require several days of siege deep in enemy territory with its defensive power at max. Convincing nexus holding corps to defect would also be an interesting tactic.

From the perspective of a defending corp who recently lost a chain of systems restoring that chain is as simple as restoring the lost connections.... Doing so will re-establish sov in any system is was lost in so not long as it was not the direct target of a sov switch... Example you control N(exus) linked to star A B and C in a pipe... if you lose A, B and C go offline in terms of sov and you lose 3 systems from your nexus pool as far as its defensive power contribution from systems goes... But if you fight and regain sov in A, you also regain sov in B and C, unless of course those systems were invaded and flipped individually.

Implementation:
So how would this be implemented now.... since it would take time for say goons to build a big enough nexus to not lose a lot of their systems overnight? Well... I would recommend that the nexus be build-able but not required for a extended period of time for existing sov holding corps/alliances this way they could begin construction knowing what they have to do by a certain date in like 2015. Then once the deadline is up the new sov rules are applied. New corps/alliances headed into nul would be under the new rules right away. Existing corps/alliance if they choose can apply the new rules before the deadline if they choose.

Anyway like I said, just a fun game design exorcise maby its stupid I don't know. Let me know what you think or contribute or whatever.

Well like the only reason you can only sov 1 system in the beginning is because you have to establish basically a home base... the actual nexus core could be cheap and low skill.... so like... 10k isk and like..... anchoring level 1... as you add to it you need more skills, and as soon as you slap it down it immediately grants you say.... 4 additional sov's. Thats why its only 1 to begin with... More of a formality requiring you to establish a home base.... Of course this also means the core nexus is effectively useless since at that price and without any upgrades it wouldn't have any benefits other than existing.... no cyno core, no dockability, no services, all that comes as upgrades... (these upgrades are more like starbase upgrades they don't increase the consumption of fuel or the number of sovs... but the core level of the nexus does upgrade the power core and cpu, as well as the sovs and fuel consumption... More upgrades capacity for more services.

Well clearly you didn't read the whole thing... Or any of it really...

The OP is right. It is a super idea to give null sov more benefits. It's not quite as snug as a bear in a rug yet. More free stuffs and boni please!!! (ok ok that's sarcasm)

Fix Null Playbook:

1. Get rid of all cyno jamming ability (seriously - this will fix a lot of things over time)

2. Deplete moon goo - every 8-12 months the moon you're mining runs out of the stuff you're mining. It gets 'discovered' on a different moon in some random (that's random, it's NOT regional or per constellation.... just plain random) moon. You get 8-12 good months of free income and then you have to go take a new moon somewhere else and restart. If you want to really make this super.... remove moon goo data from the api pull and make null overlords actually go and find the new deposit (scary stuff isn't it)

3. (Just cuz I'm bitter at the fozzinator taking a dump on wh mechanics) Make the mass based jump thing also true for cynos. The more mass you put through they cyno/bridge - the more spread out the result is at the end point. 2 carriers through the cyno/bridge = 10km spread. 50 carriers through the cyno = 100km spread. You get the point.

4. Drone assist - just get rid of it. I garantee you no one will be complaining about it going away in 6 months. (garantee)

5. Make more rats in null anoms scram. Not 1 or maybe 2 per site. If you warp to a haven you should get 10 - 15 points on you per wave just like the sleeper sites.

Will they drive null to more conflict - check
Will they break up the overlord fairy rainbow candyland themeparks - check
Will they devour the blue donut - check
Will they put the teeth back in null living - check

Double dog dare fozzy... double dog dare.

Because the fuel cost of having 2 nexus for say... 20 solar systems is way way more than the fuel cost of 1 nexus for 30 systems.... also that means that each smaller nexus is much easier to destroy and kick large portions of your sov offline rather than having 1 super nexus that is very difficult to defend.

Sure you could upgrade the defense of each smaller sov but to do so you need to increase its fuel cost which also allows more systems of control and therefor its fuel cost...

There is no way around having less highly upgraded nexus > smaller nexus's unless your going to pay billions and billions in fuel.

You mentioned carriers. Carriers can't go through a titan. Cyno up, first 3 carriers jump in at short range and light their cyno's. Then 9+ more jump in at close range. And so on. Subcaps have way less mass than a carrier and can move around once on grid. Having your 50 subs come out 15km apart wouldn't matter. At all.



If you consider 300 dudes hitting a tower owned by guys who dock up because they can't field more than 50 people to be "a fight"...



I'm not sure if you have ever moon probed before, but it's a long and painful process that involves warping between moons in a cloaky hauler for hours on end. Highly not-conflict.

And lower tier moons already are accessible to smaller groups.

Complexity for the sake of complexity is bad.