So the title of this post is pretty bold in its assertion. First before I get to “the ideas” let me spin you a little tale of yesteryear. A tale of a Eve that I had been part of. Once upon a time before capitals existed and before anyone ever heard of a jump bridge Eve was exciting. I started out in nullsec in the Querious region in a alliance called Firmus Ixion. In that time there weren’t any capitals or jumpbridges. Living in nullsec was exciting and dangerous. We depended on keeping logistic lanes safe so we could stay supplied in nullsec. This meant pipes to empire had to be controlled which also meant hotbed areas for small to medium engagements.
Nullsec entrances were/are sparse so opposing entities would jockey over controlling them daily. There would be fights and skirmishes to win the right to control the nullsec entrance. Keeping markets and pilots stocked was important in those days. Because you could beat/break an alliance as you do now but you could also starve them out. Literally siege them and strangle they’re logistics and run them out of ships to fight you. Miners were important to nullsec alliances because importing minerals wasn’t practical ( no jumpfreighters or jumpbridges ). This meant mining ops were a daily affair. Which in turn meant defense gangs were a thing and hostile raiding parties were also a thing spurring even more fights. Builders/Industrialist were important because again just simply importing everything from empire was not practical. This meant creating a safe environment so they can do their work.
You see surviving as a sov holding alliance in nullsec was like being part of a village or a team. Everyone depended on eachother to do something to help the village/team survive. There were other things during that time that were different. Alliances still had allies but you had less allies than the giant monolithic coalitions of today. Reasons being was because there were no jumpdrives or bridges you had to travel for PVP content. Nobody likes to travel an hour to find there first neutral. So typically you had regional blocks. The old south had 6 different coalitions at one point alone. You still had epic fights but conflicts were mostly smaller.
Now I know you all are sitting here saying “Manny is all nostalgic recalling the old days with rose tinted glasses “. I have been having this conversation with friends for a few years. I have been listening to the reasons my ideas won’t work even though people agree it would solve current issues. Things l have been told are “CCP will never remove jumpdrives and jumpbridges people like easy & convenient stuff too much” “If you remove jumpbridges and jumpdrives you won’t see anymore B-Rs, Asakais etc etc. CCP depends on those headlines to draw new customers” . To which I say removing them is imperative and a piece of what needs to be done to change the game in a positive manner for everyone.
So here is the problem with Nullsec now and Nullsec is important because the headlines us nullsec’rs make are the headlines that CCP uses for marketing. We are down to 2 coalitions left. It is not in either coalitions best interest to let any new parties into nullsec unless they can be subverted or be used for cheap farming at a later date ( Hi Hero coalition soz but its the the truth ). Neither coalition is going to give up space to just let some new guys come out to nullsec. The only way you are getting out here is to join an existing coalition or become a renter. All of the money from moons and renters are controlled by the 2 coalitions. We make agreements to protect those incomes so we can keep on living the “good life”. Conflict will only happen when we have to give content to line members so we can justify our existance. That conflict will be in the form of Proxy wars not full on attack. So expect once a year for there to be a war in nullsec and the rest of the time coalitions will maneuver for advantage on the next conflict. Im sorry to say but this is where we are at unless CCP changes something. Lets face it most of all the changes we’ve heard about can be gamed and only hurt the little guy.
CHANGES
Jumprdrives limited jumprange to adjacent system only. (lightyear distance is irrelevant)
- Proximity to other owned sov. So if you own a system and your other sov is not connected to that system then the cost is increased of the unconnected system.
- Pirate & Mining index affects sov cost. So if you are at level 4 or higher than there is no cost modifier. But 3 , 2 , 1 affects the cost. (levels are subjective and clearly open to debate/adjustment)
So the goals here are to take a blunt hammer to power projection without removing the shinies that people want/covet/like. We want a level playing field because adding more tope usage or things like that only hurts the little guy. We want to break up the coalitions to give room for the little guy and for newer groups to have a chance in nullsec. Because lets face it is your alliance going to keep its blue list if you literally have to travel a hour or more in 1 direction to find PVP content? Maybe so and if they do you will atrophy from lack of pvp content. O also you can’t just deploy your alliance to another part of the game thats hostile to get easy content while your blue home is safe. Because if you do that your sov cost goes up as your indexes fall and your structures become easier to destroy.
Now bringing everything in from empire to survive in nullsec is hard as hell unless you want to do freighter ops all day. So the answer is you will want miners and builders in your home to supply your markets with the goods you need/want to survive. Perhaps you are really good at producing making things. You can export those to empire or npc markets for more income. There would still be wars and sov contest but they would be more regional. You would still see epic fights over pivotal timers ( people would call in help from outsiders for important fights ) but fights would be more localized. Mercs would be very important again. I mean if you’re alliance is more slanted to industrial pursuits than say PVP chances are you will be better funded better suited to sustain a long siege and have the finances to hire people to augment or assist in your fighting capability.
This also means you will have to have mining ops and keep logistic lanes clear/free of hostiles. Which means defense gangs/fleets. Which provides perfect opportunities for small to medium size engagements. Reasons to gatecamp reasons to raid those gatecamps and mining parties. This means content this is conflict drivers. This creates tension between neighbors and gives reason to forge friendships or wage war. It means your alliance only holds what sov it can use because unused underutilized sov cost more and is easy to take.
See a sandbox thrives when you create interaction and the best way to do that is through creating dependency and by waving carrots. Anyway HTH CCP please make it so.
Feel free to discuss in the comment section below or check out the official EVE-O Forum discussion thread!
