Sc0rpion
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill
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Posted - 2009.06.19 07:25:00 -
[1]
I used to live in 0.0, but I've never been a "big player". I don't live in 0.0 any more, and I'll tell you why. I was driven out by game mechanics.
There's no incentive for the "little guys" to go into 0.0. There never really has been, but it's gotten a lot worse over the years. Logistics are a pain, there are too few access points, at least 50% of the systems are completely worthless, and politics tend to frustrate people.
The drone regions killed small mining corps, POS destroyed small (constellation-sized and smaller) empires, and capital ships destroyed skirmish warfare. Sure, you can still do all of those things...sort of...but why bother? It's just not worth the effort.
Where's the incentive to move a small corp into some out-of-the-way constellation for some ratting? You still have to haul your loot 30 jumps to the nearest NPC station. Same goes for mining, because the systems that have the best NPC's have all of the best ores as well, and they are way out in the farthest reaches. The situation is no better now than it was 5 years ago, except now the player alliances can sit in their nigh-invincible POS shields until they can cyno in a capital fleet to drop on your little operation.
Then there's the time investment. I know it's been a while, but think hard. Remember those 30-jump round trips to refine your bistot? Thanks to refining arrays and player-built stations, it's been about 3 years since you alliance folks have had to do one of those, but guess what? Us little guys still have to do them. That is of course assuming we can even get to the good ores, because only 3-4 out of the 150+ systems in your region have the "good stuff", and were therefore the logical locations to put your stations.
And don't even get me started on the frustration of going out in a gang of 5-6 ships for some quick pvp and getting cornered by some massive capital fleet that was until 5 minutes ago over 40 jumps away.
So you either join up with one of the alliances, or you live out of NPC stations and cargo cans. I can't speak for all empire dwellers, but considering I normally only have a few hours per week to play, and no interest in alliance politics, it's just not worth the effort.
You want more empire dwellers out in 0.0? Make it worth the effort. Here's a good place to start:
1) Give more systems a lower truesec. It makes no sense to cram the ~25,000 0.0 dwellers into the same 200 systems while the other 3,500 systems sit empty, except for the people who are travelling to and from those 200 systems (and the macro cloakers, of course).
2) For the love of all things Jove, fix drone loot so it's worth mining again.
3) More access points to 0.0. Not for any "waaah gate camp" reason, strictly for convenience. I could go into a long-winded network analysis about it, but it's easier to just say "More doors equals more traffic."
4) Something must be done about sovereignty, and the ease with which alliances are able to control multiple regions. Right now, the only way to challenge an alliance's control of hundreds of systems is with...another alliance. It is far to easy to move hundreds of capital ships across thousands of light years in minutes.
Random example: Look at "Wildly Inappropriate" (no particular reason, except their sovereignty map highlights my point). They control Germinate, but also a constellation in Tribute, as well as a chain of cyno systems connecting the two. That should be a clear indication that it is FAR too easy to move a capital fleet across the map, and it's a big reason why there are no small players in 0.0.
Anyway, that's my take on it. |