Heckelgruber
Quam Singulari
    |
Posted - 2008.08.06 12:07:00 -
[1]
This is a multiplayer game and if brute force doesn't work then you probably aren't using enough as someone's sig used to say.
Regardless, the forthcoming speed changes look as though they will strengthen the power of larger groups of ships to wipe out smaller gangs with minimal losses. I think that whatever the problems with "ludicrous" speed, the likely effect on small-gang PvP is a shame as this is how many play the game.
With ships generally travelling considerably slower, range will become more important and the game of dictating range is going to change.
My anti-blob suggestion is this: why not change gang warp-related mechanics to penalise gang size? Specifically, the larger the gang the less accurate either a Gang Warp or Warp To Member is.
If you want to drop 100 ships on a target like a shotgun you can, but the likelihood is that you'll end up with vulnerable snipers all over grid, support ships in disarray and people out of remote repair range.
If your small gang wants to drop on a target, no problem.
I think this idea has many benefits:
- It makes battles less like trench warfare, based on the grinding attrition of tank vs. gank.
- "Speed" setups post-nerf will have more use as it is harder to concentrate a LOT of force in one place and ships fitted thus can still run faster and pick off targets.
- The idea doesn't limit how many ships you can bring it just means you have to be more organised (i.e. run multiple gangs, multiple warp-ins).
- It makes sense for larger forces to be harder to organise.
- It's easy to justify in a sci-fi way that huge groups of ships affect warp accuracy.
- There's no way to escape the mechanic other than not be in gang, which could be a significant disadvantage in its own right.
- The effect could be somewhat mitigated by gang modules/implants/skills, adding more content to the Leadership-based skill tree.
- On the face of it it wouldn't be hard to implement as warp accuracy is already a variable affected by skills.
Obviously it is still possible to blob, especially if you set up first. You can't ban people from sitting on the same grid and all primarying the same target. All this does is puts an organisational hurdle in the way of unskilled blobbers that they need to overcome in order to concentrate fire effectively.
Apologies if the idea has been suggested before or there's a childishly simple objection that I haven't thought of. Flame away, my friends... 
|