Monday, February 25, 2013

Answers to some Questions

"Why do you want to take way my local?"

I don't want to remove local away CCP already has lore written to how local works in the game. I just giving that lore something to make it believeable as well as making a useless skill useful and give players a tactical way of fighting each other.

"I use the sun as safe place"

Well my idea the warp point to the sun wouldn't be dangerous. The item I'm talking about would be placed very close to the sun. Besides we are talking about a ball of fusion here it, generating millions degrees of heat and radiation. Being close to this shouldn't be safe at all. I know Eve is a game that throws away a lot of logic for a space game but I think we can add some of it back in.

"Hacking stargates is too powerful?

Which is why I have a hack lock out on it. I want it to be tactical advantage to it. Maybe you know a large fleet is coming your way but you need more time. You hack the gate and give you the extra few minutes. Or hack before the whole fleet enters making it easier to kill. With that I don't want people to kill all ways of entering their space making them unattainable.



Friday, February 22, 2013

My Sov Warfare ideas



First some new items will be needed.

An item located at the sun, CCP will put this item in the game for every system. Changes to the sun will need to be applied as well. First when close to the sun it will cause damage to the ship much in the same way gas mining causes damage. Lore for this new item is already in Eve, this is the device that makes local work. It handles communication and tracking of ships in the galaxy. This item will also handle the new sov warfare ideas I list below.

This item can be hackable to knock out local for a period of time. As long as someone is actively hacking this item local will not work. In high-sec hacking will be possible but will bring concord upon you so most likely wouldn't work. In low sec having gate guns around the module will help keep its use from in check. It will be possible to keep local turned off for a very long time as long as you can stay alive.

The modular towers (POS) will also need to be in the game. With it, new modules will be created. These modules can be placed in belts, moons, gas clouds, planets and rings, if ring mining every becomes reality. These modules will raise the density of ore mined from rocks, moons, planets, etc... Lore-wise this device acts like a scanner finding denser concentrations of ore. Game wise it just changes the density type of the rocks spawned at each downtime. So each cycle of mining will bring in more ore and will help make null sec more livable.

Placable station and gate guns. When the Sov Holder holds the space for a period of time they should be allowed to place gate guns up to a set number t on gates that will open fire based on standings. Guns can come in different sizes which will affect its damage and lock times. These should take a beating but not so armored you need a large fleet to offline/destroy. Each gun shouldn't be too expensive to create but shouldn't be so cheap that they are placed at each gate in every system with ease.

How I See Sovereignty Warfare.

The idea comes from faction warfare. Faction Warfare has an Occupancy bar. Different actions in FW change this bar. I propose the same type of mechanic happens in null-sec. Sov warfare should be a give and take. Numbers listed are just rough guesses by me and might not be balanced. The basic idea is by living and working in the system you keep control. Also interrupting these actions will lower the Sov Bar so a small group of players could keep a system on lockdown in-between the large fleets who come in to weaken the bigger items. I see a combination of actions will be needed to take control of a system not just killing IHubs and taking stations. To take a system you need to get this bar to 0%. Different actions will either lower or raise the bar.

Some ways the Sov Bar can change.

Ratting/Mining/Industry will raise the bar if you are part of the Sov holding Alliance/Standings otherwise it will lower the bar. Each rat kill, ore mined, material built will only change the Sov Bar it by a very small amount. So if someone wants to invade a system they could start ratting and deny ratting from happening or mining. This means Alliances/Corps will need to use their space to keep it.

Each tower online will increase or decrease the Sov Bar by the percentage of moons controlled in the system divided by half. Example if a system has 10 moons each moon will be give 5% to the Sov Bar. So towering every moon will give an alliance 50% of the bar. Destroying all the towers will drop the Sov Bar by the same amount.

Destroying any placable module/items will lower the Sov Bar by a set amount.

TCU and IHub still exist with the same functions and mechanics they currently have though I believe IHubs should drop to only one reinforced timer instead of 2. Killing a IHub will drop the Sov Bar by a good amount. Upgrading the IHub will also increase the Sov bar by a set amount. Again upgrading and using the space should be the desired effect.

TCUs can only be killed when the Sov Bar reaches 0% and there will be a grace period after it reaches 0% so the Sov holder just can't do something quick to raise it above 0% as I expect the Sov Bar to be changing by small amounts all the time. Placing a TCU in system without a TCU will give you a 50% Sov Bar right away. Sov can only changes hands when a TCU is placed in a TCU-less system.

Other mechanics to make Sov Warfare interesting and different than just large fleet fights.

The hacking skill needs to becomes more useful with more tiered skills added. Players should be able to hack gates to take them offline for a few minutes. When the gate comes back online it can't be hacked for set period of time. There shouldn't be a way to completely close a system off from the rest of the galaxy.

In High-Sec this will bring concord and they should arrive faster than it takes to hack. In low sec this will trigger the gate guns. Also the hacking ship needs to remain at the gate for the duration of the hack. If they warp away or if they get destroyed the gate starts working again and its anti-hack routines starts.

Hacking should be allowed on all structures. Stations, IHubs, TCUs, SBUs, cyno jammers and beacons to name a few. Each having a different effects. Some will change the Sov Bar and others will make it item  useless or behave differently. Hacking a beacon should allow your alliance to use it for the duration of the hack. Hacking a jammer will take it offline for a brief period of time. Hacking a station could make it longer to dock or undock. Could also turn off services for a period of time. Hacking an IHub would lower the levels for the system as well as lower the Sov Bar.

I would also like to see one time use cyno jammers. Big items that needs indy ships to carry. Note I want this limited by size not by a ship type if someone wants to load all the cargo expanding mods on a ship to carry this item it should be allowed. This would be a 1 use item that can be destroyed. When online it will appear on the overview. It will last for a set period of time then it will blow up. Once it is online it can only be destroyed.

This idea isn't complete but should get the brain working of every pilot in Null-Sec. The whole idea is people should live and grow in the space they own not just fly through it. Please let me know what you think.

Why I want to run for CSM

Its no secret I want to run for CSM my biggest problem is very few people know this. I will freely admit I'm one of the quiet behind the scenes guys but that doesn't mean I don't see and hear about whats going on with Eve. So I now submit to those of TEST and HBC why I want to run for CSM.

Some history on my Eve carreer. Started playing Eve Early 2005 I was a high-sec pubbie back then who fell in love with the openness of the game. I mined and did some mission running but eventually got bored with the game. I quit for a while cause I wasn't sure what to do in the game and back then money was tight. A few months later after reading about the game and the best way to play is with a group of people I re-subbed and started looking for a corp that I would fit in with. Found some high-sec corp that wanted to move into low-sec they did a bunch of things that I found fun so I joined. For a few months I had a blast from mining to mission running and chasing pirates down in low-sec. Then things fell apart for the corp fewer people logged in so I got bored again. I think I left Eve early 2007. I paid attention to the game had a few friends started playing and they tried to get be back into the game but they only wanted to bot mine and I really wasn't interested in doing that stuff.

Along comes Reddit a site where I probably waste a few work hours each day. I read they wanted to start a Reddit corp. At first it didn't look like it would be much but then it suddenly it grew. I decided I would try Eve again and join Dreddit a month after it was formed and been here ever since. Dreddit/TEST has made this game fun for me in many different ways. First spending almost 3 years on the Intel Map (wow its been that long) Running Recon, trying to be an FC (not very good at it). I also love hot dropping people. Nothing better then seeing a guy crap his pants when 10 to 20 ships suddenly enter a system and ruin his day.

In these past 3 years with Dreddit/TEST I started to see some flaws with EVE and would make mental notes on how things could be better. Some things either the current/past CSM saw and made CCP aware of or CCP themselves finally decided to fix. So here are the items I see needing help to keep EVE alive and kicking for the next 10 years.
  • Null Sec Overhaul - There needs to be a way to truly be living in Null Sec not living in High Sec and play in null/low. How this is accomplished I don't really know. I know industry needs to happen in Null Sec for this to really take off. This has been said by many people and its true.
  • Sov War Mechanics - There has to be a better way to take space from people other than shooting structures over and over again. This needs to happen with the Null Sec overhaul. Ideas range from hacking gates or ruining Industry. Wonder if the system used in faction warfare can be translated over. I think holding key sites and winning battles to help take over space. Of course CCP will have to make it so keys sites/items can be placed by players and be useful in some fashion otherwise why have them. I do have a more detail look at this point that I will post later.
  • POS Mechanics Overhaul - I used a pos for a week in wormhole space and damn this system needs major work. I liked the idea CCP showed us about a year ago of a modular POS system to players can dock in and use for industry. I believe this is the way CCP should head with the POS overhaul. Access control needs to change as well, so POS access isn't controlled with corp roles but at the POS level by the owner, be that either a corp/alliance/or player.
  • More access open to CREST/API - CREST is a great idea on opening API to data in game to programmers, they just need to open it more. Why can't we chat outside of game with people in game. Why can't we update our skill queue or check on the market. I agree CCP needs to watch how its used and try to prevent bots from taking over.
I should say I don't have all the answers nor will I pretend to have them. If elected I plan to enter with an open mind and try to make the best decision possible for the greater of Eve.