EVE Search - Our Christmas present to FW

chatgris wrote:

Feffri wrote:

I agree with op that fw is pretty crappy about now but I disagree in that there is anything ccp can do. If op believes that there is something ccp can change to make it better i would like to hear what those are. As I see it (and i can't speak for the amarrians) caldari's problem is we have less players, are not as well funded (we've never had a titan) and there is only a handful of small corps and alliances that work together.

I don't see anyway ccp can change this. Even before all the changes to fw all caldari fw drew was carebear alts to run missions for isk for their main who was in gallente or in null sec. For whatever reason caldari cannot draw the amount of dedicated corps/alliances that stay in fw and build. I mean hell one of the most balanced times was when we had wolfsbrigade and 4 horsemen and wolfsbrigade is just sotf's lacky's. Basically you had to put a gallente corp in caldari to make it balanced.

Nothing you do can change the fact that caldari for whatever reason cannot draw substantial pvp corps/alliances. Taking all the systems or giving us all the systems wouldn't change a thing to make better pvp. Say we had all the systems all it would mean is there would just be more farmer in caldari not anymore pvp pilots. I think the only thing you could do is put wolfsbrigade back into caldari then at least you would have them to fight.

Anyway would like to hear what gallente thinks would fix these problems or what they see as the problems and fixes.

I think that the fix where if no-one is running a button it counts down to the start state (not capture, just the beginning state) is greatly needed to curtail the influence of farmers, and CCP does have it in their backlog. That way, a single pvp chasing around a farmer (or famrers) would make the pvper more efficient at plexing than the farmer, unlike the current situation.

As far as the ISK differential - pre retribution changes it was pretty awful for the losing side because it was more expensive (in ISK!) to get items than high sec mission runners. It was so bad some items were cheaper to buy off the market than to buy from the LP store. I don't think it is that bad now, but I wouldn't be against increasing the losing side's LP payouts/decreasing the winners if it's demoralizing the losing side.

As far as the caldari drawing a smaller amount of significant pvp corps - it has been this way for a long while, but only recently with the changes to plexes has this affected the occupancy war - for a long time the occupancy war was fought solely by a core of pilots in the crucial after dt timezone, and then after that the rats still heavily favoured minmatar/caldari and you saw both of them crush the occupancy war because of the flood off farmers in gunless frigates (when I was in the amarr/minnie warzone running every single plex in an AB pvp fit condor was hilarious).

I don't think it's a numbers issue, but rather a turnover issue. The caldari militia has been wardeccing itself and full of drama for a very very long time, while the gallente corps, while definitely having their share of intercorp/alliance drama, tend to stay away from the wardec button. With all that drama, it's not that surprising that a lot of corps choose to move on rather than stay.

Finally, for the most controversial and unsubstantiated part of my post: If there is one factor I think contributes the most to the Caldari's downfall, it's damar. His "unique" style of forum posts turn a lot of people away from the caldari miltia, and he's been involved in at least two internal wars between major players in the caldari militia (his name isn't an anagram of drama for nothing!)

Anyways, you asked for a gallente perspective, and there it is! I'd like to see farmer influence decreased even more, but Retribution is helping - at it's height the Caldari militia used to farm 70k+ LP/day, now it's down to 10-20k for all sides.