EVE General Discussion

I don't think they should be disallowed in lowsec. It should be the responsibility of the players to get rid of links in a system if they don't like them. But at the moment the mechanics are balanced too far toward the defence of the booster ship. Hence the earlier suggestions:

1. Activating links give a weapons timer to the link ship. Note that this doesn't change aggression rules but just prevents station and gate hugging.

2. Activating links increases signature for combat probes. The sig radius of an ECCM T3 is too low atm, such that perfect characters (implant sets included) are required to probe them down.

I doubt that either of these changes would seriously affect fleet game play. They would just make hunting links down in lowsec a practical possibility.

As someone who has used a booster alt with my old main for a long time.

For one, it is almost a zero risk tactic. I have used t2's and t3's for this in high sec and low sec. In high sec, I used mine mainly when I was in Marmite (lol no risk pvp to start with), or had a friend use his. The only real threat is moving the ship through gates. When you are at a safe, one has to be flat out drunk, or just very bad to loose the booster alt. Regardless of what is in system.

Not many ppl probe out ships. And if u do see combat probes on dscan, just cloak up again. And in most case's in low sec, I would use a T3, so just cloak up and warp off. lol

The argument I have seen the most when it comes to keeping the system the way it is now, is ppl just say to probe it out and kill it.
Well? It dose not work that way, the booster alt will be cloaked till needed-main engaged in a fight/about to start a fight. So there is no way to hunt the booster before the main is ready to fight.

Lets set a trap? Bait the main so he has to use boosters? Dscan-probes go up, cloak goes on. The booster ship is usually worth far more then the ship the main is flying. But not always.

Not many ships require the long point bonus, as nice as it is. So boosters will not be active till right before the fight. Some kite ships benefit from this, but meh. We can figure it out other ways.

My opinion on a fix. Make boosters have a 50k 100% bonus range, with diminishing returns with increased range. Make them part of the fight, not a babysitting alt that cant get into trouble, remove the use fitting of cloaks if boosters are fitted, other then covert cloaks. T3's should be better then t2's in some aspects.

A example of how little risk there is to them. I have lost one t3 booster alt in the 2.5 years I used one. And he was lost to RVB, they suicide ganked him on a gate when I was being very lazy, and very drunk. They got one hell of a kill, with pod-it was worth more then the t3. Love those guys, balls of steal they have.

But I am training a Booster again, in the hopes CCP makes them on grid ships, but here's to hoping.


Thank you OP for bringing this up. It has been a issue for a long time. I will admit I abused the crap out of it for a long time, and would guess almost 1/2 of the 4k kills my main had was a direct benefit of a no risk alt I used.

Edit-I think ppl misunderstand this issue as being a 1v1 no fair fight issue. Though for some it may be, but I think it is fair for even a solo pvp'er to be able to judge his fight from what is on grid. When a solo player goes into a fight he should be able to figure the fight out from the information given to him on grid. Us non blobbers are not asking for a reach around, just a simple hand shake.

When I helped Derp Durrr run pvp tournaments, we made a decision to run full links and require contestants to be in fleet, to avoid this issue. Requiring everyone to be in fleet was enough to ensure links weren't an advantage to individual players, but we ran links to avoid the objection of not having them. If 1v1 PVP is a need for players, and something they want in the game, I'm of the opinion they should get to have it with some consistency (rather than having to camp out for the perfect fight, isolated in local with just 1 other player). Dojos were meant to address this, right? Of course, dojos aren't even on Singularity.

I run links and multibox, and that makes me happy. Still, I get it. Solo PVP. But the other point I want to make is... sometimes you have to adjust to the rules that are available to you. Otherwise you'll be waiting for a long time for something to change. In this case, meeting EVE half way between 1v1 and link mechanics would look like running your own links. If the point is fighting 1 ship on predictable and equal terms... chances are they have links, and having your own will make the fight equal. Chances are.

Of course, everything after this point is what brings the resentment, like 'why do i need a second account.' But basically, EVE is a multiplayer game, and some players game harder than others. If you want to include those other players in a particular type of gameplay, you kinda gotta meet them half way in this case.

It's a case of fighting the tide, I think. Join a 1v1 PVP league where you can be in the same fleet, is my other thought.

Probes only. Being able to warp to boosters freely is just way too imbalanced of a counter. However, probing shouldn't be nearly as difficult as it is right now.


Solo players, not solo pvpers. There's a massive difference there.


If both fleets either have or don't have boosters, then the proportionality of the power power balance remains the same. If only the larger fleet is able to retain boosters because its dps is so high that it's able to instantly pop the smaller fleet's boosters, then the larger fleet becomes disproportionately more powerful. See my post here.

The biggest flaw in the premise of 'something must be done about links' is engagements can be avoided for the most part. FW-> no bubbles right, and you're able to see people coming pretty much all the time? And gate fights don't usually happen due to gate guns. Basically don't take fights that you don't know for sure are link-free. You're really expecting a lot to change to accommodate -your- playstyle, which is other players, who have just as much freedom to play this game how they want.

I'm not saying anything about your opinion mattering less by virtue of number of accounts, but to accommodate in this situation would be to placate. By way of massive game mechanics changes, on-grid boosting and disallowing links during duels being the minor end of those changes.

It's true that nerfs to links would be nerfs to everyone across the board, but that's expecting a lot for the sake of this scenario of the unknown. Can you even be sure the other player had links, and that's why you lost? Even if they have a link alt, and they were in local, do you know they were undocked and running boosts? Is this remotely petition-able?

If links are such a problem in lowsec (FW), perhaps links should be disallowed in FW, or lowsec. And that would be the best compromise for this situation. Just keep in mind that you're talking about a game-wide mechanic, yet a very isolated low-stakes case of 1v1 PVP.

I can answer that. Because everyone I know has at least one link alt. Anyone who does anything that matters does too.

I see. Do you know so many people that they number a statistically significant sample of the playerbase as a whole?



Is that a quantifiable fact or a subjective Opinion?

Sounds like Goonspeak to me. And you were always one of the nice ones, too.

I am disappoint.

U don't fw much do u? lol

And it is not for the sake of 1v1, don't use that as a scape goat. Is a fleet problem also. Risk vs reward. Attackers vs defenders-Mattani pets of all ppl should know fights change in a instant, and a no-risk alts should not be effecting a fight.

yes.


no. because it's mindless and goes nowhere and your environment changes not one bit. might as well be grinding high sec missions for standings and ISK. kills, they mean nothing. might put my market / high sec character into FW, though, for some mission grinding (for the promotions -> faction standings -> market transaction tax savings).

yup u never have done FW, your response reflects your perception based on your experience in 0.0. poor thing