Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Expanding on the groundwork layed out by FW.

allow pilots to sign up for one of the pirate factions (still would have the same standings requirements, which might require more epic arcs being added)

pilots who are signed up would be shoot on sight in all empire space. payouts and lp adjusted accordingly for the massive penalties associated with it.

pirate missions could be against npc's of any empire faction, or even other pirate factions, determined by what groups control the nearby low-sec.

Either add the ability for the pirate factions to contest and take territory in any of the existing warzones, or create new warzones that could be fought over by anyone.

for added fun and excitement, "low-sec" regions that include some HS could be included (like solitude) could be used, with HS regions being able to be conquored as well. but would need to contend with the empires faction police while doing so (it is possible to fight them after all, just requires more co-ordination and effort)

which would allow for some hs "save zones" to be made, and promote new regional markets.

options to prevent things being full "free fire" would be allowing certain pirate groups that have a history of working with each other to remain allies.

would also FINALLY allow for the much asked for feature allowing the npc HS borders to actually shift and change. creating a much more dynamic world.

Edit: yes I recognize that FW as it currently stands has some glaring issues that do need to be resolved. I am not suggesting that those not get worked on first, simply that this is an idea for a direction I would like things to go.

The incentives are secondary, the primary goal is to bring more content to low-sec, and to throw a curve ball at the back and forth that FW has become since it has become rather stagnant.

you do make a good point though that more than enough isk is already getting injected into the economy through null ratting.
so maybe rather than increasing the isk payouts for the pirate FW missions, only increase the LP payout, since LP store purchases are an isk sink.

the additional faucet would (probably) be fairly minor compared to the other existing ones, but the additional sink would help to pull money out. and would have the side effect of making pirate implants, and ships, cheeper (yes I know the mach has gotten absurdly cheep but this would normalize the prices of the other ones)

I think I might have actually been the person who floated the suggestion (fanfest '14)
as for your points.
first off, lore exists to support gameplay, not the other way around. lore and reasons can always be given to justify good gameplay features.


One of the big themes of the recent years has been the waning power of the empires, especially in relation to independent capsuleer abilities. your right that the empires wouldn't like it, which is why the pirate FW territories would also be contestable and capturable by the existing militias. The empires might not have the resources to spare to enforce their hold over those territories properly (If I remember correctly the angels managed to take over a republic constellation at one point, and the republic wasn't able to do much to get them out until they withdrew of their own accord)
but they could easily put out a call for their militias to reinforce those borders as well.



The pirate faction space doesn't need to be moved, having HS staging systems works well for the empires, but if your willing to work and fight for the pirates, the trade off would be not having access to HS anymore. players would need to set up their own low and null-sec staging areas (with alt logistics just like a lot of the FW groups now do) the trade off is better payouts for less security.

between the empires yes its legal privateering, funny thing with privateers though, is that even historically, what one country called a privateer, everyone else considered a pirate.
so its not unreasonable, that given the weakening empires, some of the pirate groups might make a bid for using capsuleers to more actively increase their influence.


They already gave increased payout, and even cheaper LP store pricing for the existing militia groups, and with the prices coming down more and more every day anyways, why not extend the same system to the pirate factions. and given the increased difficulties and risks of pirate FW while yes it would drive the prices down, it would probably equalize them more than anything.

Those are all valid points, but there are answers we could find, and ways to make the system work. and even in the case of some "negatives" (cheeper pirate hulls etc) we are already seeing that, and I think it would be a small trade-off for bringing more content and more options to low-sec.