Ori Blake
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Posted - 2010.07.26 19:27:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: chatgris
Originally by: Ralnik
Edited by: Ralnik on 26/07/2010 18:25:46
I'm just of the mind set that mixing PVP with PVE is never going to work. They shouldn't balance the NPC's they should get rid of them altogether, IMHO. Even if the NPC's were balanced they will still cause fights to not happen due to one side having the advantage of NPC's and the other not.
If you remove NPC's and place a structure of some sort, with EHP changing by the size of the plex and maybe even the DPS being fired at it. It's still boring, but at least it would solve the issue of single frigs running every plex and it would solve the issue of un-balleced NPC's all in one go.
I agree with the sentiment. I think we need to step back and ask "why did CCP put rats in there?". "Why are there timers" etc. Without really knowing CCP's intentions (I'm sure it wasn't "lets make it so the bulk of plexing is done by low sp alts in t1 frigates while the main pvp happens elsewhere"), it's hard to propose counter mechanisms.
This is all assuming CCP will give a toss about FW even in 2 years when they are done with incarna/dust.
I think it's easy to understand the intentions.
For the timer, its to pin plexing ships in place, allowing defending forces time to form up or arrive for an assault. The timer is also a mechanic where fleet size doesn't matter at all: piling in more ships wont speed it up, so it enables small gangs to plex.
The reason why shooting a structure wont work is because it naturally favors huge fleets. Even with frigs, the more ships you can get, the faster you take the plex and the less likely you'll get people challenging you. That's the way it is when you flip a system now.
The NPCS are trickier. I think the idea was to add difficulty to the offensive plexer so that they simply wouldn't camp the incoming entry point and have an advantage over any defenders. It's just CCP's dumb aggro A.I. prevents that. They tried to stagger the enemies in waves to make it harder though.
If they got rid of them entirely it wouldn't be much difference because of the kiting mechanic, but both are bad because it lets the offensive plexers make the entry point from the accel gate a chokepoint where they can set up at optimals. Ideally the NPCS were supposed to disrupt that but aggro mechanic again.
I think it's a problem with no real solution. If FW occupancy is PvP related its whoever brings the biggest blob wins, and there's little reason not to.
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