King Rothgar wrote:Your proposal is long and needlessly complicated. It also throws out the very essence of what FW and low sec is all about. Most of us in the militias and in low sec in general once lived in null. We left because of the mind numbingly boring nature of it combined with blobtastic lagfests. FW and indeed low sec in general should not be viewed as a stepping stone to null. They aren't, never have been and hopefully never will be. Low sec is more of a pvp arena and that arena-ish style is what draws virtually everyone to FW currently in it. It would be a dire mistake to attempt to change that.
So with that in mind, what's really needed are smaller tweaks and additions. For starters, the mission system needs to be trashed. I don't think anyone will disagree with me on that other than the mission farmers who never pvp. The LP should be tied to pvp and plex capping. Plex capping should require the eradication of the npc's in it, whether or not we keep the timer is debatable. I also think the LP/reward payout for said plexes should be set up like it is with incursions. Not the amounts mind you, but the style of how different sized groups impact it. Obviously the npc's in them need some balancing as well. As a final note on plexes, they need to be less dependent on DT. Currently the system sucks pretty hard for anyone who isn't playing 5 minutes after DT.
The current LP bounties on ships are very much a joke but I know they were set so low as to make profiting off killing your own alts impractical. I think the LP bounty can be increased by 10x without causing any alt farming issues. This would have been too much originally but with the insurance nerf it should be fine. It could go even higher for t2 and faction ships as those are basically uninsurable.
As for perks for system occupancy, free repairs and clone upgrades for the owning faction would be rather nice. I don't think locking opposing players out of npc stations would be a good move but denying them the station services would be alright. There could also be a tax rate imposed on all income (including LP) in the empires. Its rate determined by how much occupancy they have. This tax would apply to everyone in game with income in one of the major empires regardless of their neutrality or corp taxes. I wouldn't make it heavy handed, just enough to draw attention. I'm n too sure on this part though, just a thought I had while typing this.
As a final idea, I'd like to see the pirate factions brought in on it. There are no shortage of players interested in joining the blood raiders, angel cartel or any of the other seedy groups around. This does present some balancing issues with npc null however so care must be taken.