After reading Manfred Sideous discussion post (EVE-O forum link) I decided to jump in! My suggestions would be as following:
The fact that a single entity (a coalition) can hold 1/3 of the game is weird to me. The Hacking module could be a excellent module make more active in the game so that smaller alliances can poke the bigger ones for fun to gain sov. But, then you come to the point where alliances will just jump in a shitton of stuff to protect their sov without much real effort.
The solution would be to change the cost of sov. Basically, I would like to see that once you get above an X amount of systems that it will cost more to keep it. This can then function as a Stacking penalty and will directly effect the bigger guy. This will make it so that its actually cost effective to have smaller alliance hold a smaller amount of systems and it will become extremely expensive to hold as many systems as some alliances do right now.
One might even alter the sov system so that owning a region is not beneficial, but owning a constellation is. Once constellations get important enough, it will invite smaller alliances to take that constellation and then expand once they are ready. This would basically mean that within a region multiple alliances could fight over who gets what. You could also have this effect your structure EHP. Basically the more you own the more you get weaker. This will allow smaller alliances to engage into DPS races because they have less to chew while larger alliances will have to shoot through a lot more EHP when the station is owned by a smaller alliance with less space.
Eve was a lot more ‘’small alliance’’ friendly when old alliances that by have passed away. most of these alliances could simply not keep up with the increase of sizes of the fleet fights. With my ideas you will return this to the game and hopefully make it possible for new alliances to step up and maybe become the next Goonswarm / PL / Solar / CVA / Razor / NCDOT etc.
Also more alliances mean more changes for f*ck ups which will result in interesting content. It will also allow smaller alliances to take some sov and grow overtime resulting in them possibly becoming the next powerhouse. This will directly increase the content available in Nullsec on short term and long term.
I think these deserve a massive overhaul. These two structures are directly effecting small gang pvp in Nullsec. I don’t know how many times I was roaming with either a small gang or alone and that we had run from a fleet and then 5 jumps later they would be waiting on us again. Yes These 2 mods will already cost a lot of ISK but still for bigger alliances its still no problem.
You doubt that it is no problem? When I Co-led Unclaimed. We had a cyno generator and JB in almost every Feythabolis system with a station. This meant that we could defend a large region a lot easier and if a small gang would enter then our guys could be on top of the enemy within minutes after forming. An actual example of this would be the death of Masl, time after time he would escape thanks through knowing the region well but when we finally got him I can say that it was a 100% through our JB and Cyno network.
Cyno Generators also increases travel times to an extreme. A capital heavy alliance can deploy to the other side of EVE and once their region is attacked they can just simply move to their regions and sprint home.
My solution would be to make it so that you can only have a X amount of both (or one of the two) in your regiont. This will make it fair for everyone, small and large.
Why fair for everybody? Larger alliances will have more sov and with my system it would result in it becoming harder to travel around which will then result in it becoming harder to blop a smaller gang. For smaller alliances with less sov it will become easier to travel around a bigger gank making it easier for the little guy to pick stragglers of the large gang (guerrilla warfare). Basicly a small alliance sov area would become a jungle in which the small guy can move around quickly but the larger dude will get stuck. In the space of the larger dude will become a large city such as New York in which the larger dude is able to defend a lot better when a full frontal assault is happening but it will become harder for him to chase the little guy because of all the streets where the little guy could hide in.
A larger alliance could then counter this by setting up more poses with titans (basically police check points’ so that they could still move at the same speed as they would have now.) This will also allow titan pilots to become a much bigger asset for an alliance to have them currently.
I think the issues that we are currently experiencing lay with how somethings are designed but not in the way they playout. I would for instance redesign the carrier drastically. The Carrier is literally the best option for almost every 0.0 engagement – which is pretty scary. They should return to being a support vessel and keep the Supercarrier to deal the damage. This would immediately affect the ways people pick their capitals. The list would then return as following:
Carrier = support
Dread = damage
Super = able to do both
Titan = damage
Changing this will increase sub cap usages extremely which will result in more subcap fights and less reasons to escalate with super capitals or even titans.
And now that I’ve broached titans. Titans should return to being a ship that can actually do something other than live in a pos to bridge somebody. Titans are a big investment and I think they should be possible to at least fight something off. Yes, its time to say it: bring back the Tracking!
It used to be an issue that bigger alliances (cough) would have problems with 30 titans dropping on their 40 man battleship fleet. The modern idea of tracking titans equates to them destroying subcaps with little risk. In reality, equal amount of dreads or sufficient subcap damage is easily enough to chew through a titan – especially one with as little tank as a tracking-fit titan.
Returning tracking titans to the game will not mean that it will return to what it used to be (thanks raiden xD) because right now alliances will just return the favor far too quickly in either dreads or their own low-sig doctrines. But, it will allow individual titan pilots to do a bit more with their investment.
Now on to fuel. Fuel is definitely in no need of getting more expensive or more used because it will affect smaller alliances far more than larger alliances. Bigger alliances simply increase their fuel budget and do a few more runs to and fro Jita. Changing ships that use isotopes will affect the game a lot more than just increasing the usages.
Lowering prices of hulls won’t change much either. its all about giving larger alliances a reason to pick subcaps over carriers. Look at last night; that event is a prime example of a smaller alliance being able to ”dunk” a much larger (nullsec) alliance. It’s not about the assets you have but your competency in using them. Corps like Tempest Legion (and Black Legion) are known for their dread fleet. Even though they lived in lowsec they were still able to potentially cause a lot of damage to alliances such as PL/NCDOT or other alliances who are caught off guard. If the change was already implemented by CCP, then I’m sure that this fight would have gone different.
Supcaps:
Now on to the topic of Subcap fleets. What is the true issue with them and why will nobody pick them when escalating a fight? Your answer is Bombers. In my mind the ultimate subcap escalation fleet should be battleships. But what is the battleships main disadvantage? Indeed the Bombers. Bombers are able to wipe an entire battleship fleet simply because a battleship fleet is very slow.
My Ideal solution would be to change how bombers work. The idea of bombers are really interested to me because its a very fair tool to use for small alliances but my issue with them is it that they can deal a lot of damage within a short period of time. The way to change them would be to let them function like a Ghost in Starcraft 2.
A Ghost is able to shoot out a nuke (Bomb for the bomber) and is able to cloak. In order for the ghost to fire his Nuke he must decloak and a timer starts. It takes 20 seconds for a ghost to shoot out a Nuke and if successful it will cause a lot of damage to the enemy units. This is exctually the way that I think Bombers should work (although the amount of time it takes can of course still be looked at)
This system will allow battleship fleets to atleast try to do something against a bombing run. I think that we can increase the damage output of the bombs if you use this system because it will take more time and therefore be more dangerous to the bomber fleet. In the end I think if you Up the damage but increase the time it takes to launch then it will be balanced out correctly.
I have always believed that you should have reasons to go somewhere in EVE. You should make it interesting for both Nullsec alliances and highsec industry corps / alliances to work together. You could have make it so that you get Ratting / Industry constellation. In these industry constellations you could get bonuses to producing / mining so that the isk for risk increases a bit more. This will then increase the reasons for other alliances to start hunting these constellations and tada you get content.
By doing this it will become a lot more important for an alliance to have a strong industry backbone which then results in more highsec industry guys going to nullsec. I would also nerf Highsecs industry and improve lowsec and Nullsec industry as a result.
I would also change it so that Orcas are not allowed in highsec. The Orca bonuses and carry capacity makes Highsec a good option for people to hang out in and AFK mine without any dangers other then a few gankers. Turn the orca in to a cheap option for lowsec and nullsec alliances (corps) and you will immediately see a spike of interest in these areas.
just something I could come up with after browsing through everything
