A few weeks ago ‘FozzieSov’ was announced and was met with mixed reactions though people seemed to enjoy the general premise of it. However in FozzieSov there are 2 issues which need to be addressed, the first being the lack of use for Dreads/Supers post-June, the second being timezones. After discussing these issues at considerable length on comms with a vet who wishes to remain anonymous, we believe we have come up with the solution to potentially both of these issues though certainly the second. What is this solution? The ‘Mobile Timer Disruption Unit’ or TDU for short.
Above is a graph of how many people are connected to Tranquility over a 36 hour period. We can quite clearly see that Eve is at it’s busiest in the EU timezone while it tends to be weakest in the US/AU timezones. If an EU alliance wishes to attack a US alliance they need to stay up late at night, say until 2300 or 0000 eve time, in order to be in the ‘US timezone’ period and then use an entosis link to trigger the event. This is ok for EU people as they still have the possibility of going into work the next day, albeit a little tired. However when we reverse the situation the US alliance is unable to do the same. Why? Because most people who play Eve have a job. The average workday ends around 4 or 5pm so EU players are able to compete in EU, RU and even US timezones to some extent, while US players don’t get off work until at least 2100 eve time meaning they are unable to fight EU alliances within their prime time and most definitely unable to fight RU alliances. If a US alliance wants to fight a EU alliance in the EU primetime of 1900 then they would have to ask their players not to go into work which is very unreasonable and immensely impractical. This has led many to speculate that the map will slowly begin to polarize into timezone zones with the dronelands becoming Russian, the North/West US, South EU, etc. This may be a good thing as it would splinter up coalitions (as they seek content closer to home) and would make for a large variety of regional conflicts however US would slowly begin to bleed numbers as they consistently lose to EU alliances.
This is where the TDU comes in. The TDU would give attacking alliances the option to choose when the event triggers, completely bypassing the defender’s set timezone. However, a TDU can only be deployed during the defender’s timezone. The TDU would also make the entosis link take 120 minutes instead of 10 minutes. This allows USTZ alliances to properly compete with EU/RU alliances and has the potential to create exciting content. Let’s say that on Saturday night a US alliance gathers up a large fleet and heads to a EU alliance’s territory in an attempt to claim more land for their space empire. The US alliance has to form up at 1-2pm east-coast time in order to be able to do anything to the EU alliance in the first place. Fighting outside their prime time (6-7pm east-coast) automatically puts the advantage in the defender’s (EU) court, so if the US alliance is able to deploy the TDU and defend it/the entosis link for 2 hours they deserve the ability to decide when the event comes out. Let’s say they succeed and decide the event should come out at 00:00 Monday instead of 19:00 Monday (EU prime). This then allows both alliances to actually compete over the timer (US would be unable to contest 19:00 as they’re at work) with the advantage going to the US group who was able to deploy/defend/use the TDU. The EU alliance would still be able to compete at 00:00 Monday, but at a disadvantage as they didn’t properly defend their space, in their strongest timezone, when the aggressing force came in.
We could make the TDU have the EHP of a pre-Phoebe SBU which would encourage the use of capitals again as grinding will return in some capacity. The TDU cannot be re-used so it is not necessary to grind it should the defending alliance fail to kill it within 2 hours of it’s placement. Imagine if you are a defending alliance and you see a TDU placed in your capital. You would rush to kill the TDU and may even sacrifice a few Dreads to do so as if the attacking force is successful then your capital has a very real chance of being lost. This would bring back some capital engagements to some degree and would provide a significant advantage to very active alliances who live in a small area of space, which is something most people want to see.
The TDU may not be the final solution. If we’re to solve the issue of timezones in a FozzieSov world then we need to begin coming up with ideas right now. Hopefully, CCP are going to fix this issue before June when FozzieSov hits. Your voices and ideas should help inform their decisions when they decide what deploys in June.
