What would stop people from forming 10 small fleets of 5 people instead of one big 50 man fleet?

This is probably the core of the problem. We shouldn't be looking for a way for a 100 man fleet to fight a 200 man fleet. We should look for ways for a 100 man fleet to fight a 100 man fleet, and make it matter.

Why does CCP even need to get involved?

I've seen plenty of small groups and even solo'ers do fine in null without needing CCP to step in (UK campaign in CVA space, 'nuff said). They fit these things called cloaks and actually avoid fighting the mega-blobs/camps sent after them and occassionally get kills on unwary lone or small grouped targets.

Unfortunately a lot of this is completely eliminated thanks to the ever-present Instant Information curse in EVE.

One thing I read a lot on these forums is people complaining that nullsec sucks because small groups are at a disadvantage to larger groups in combat merely because of size. Now ignoring the fact that there are ways to mitigate this, I'm curious about a few things.

You say that larger groups should not have an advantage over smaller groups by virtue of their size. First of all, this is not something you can just change because it's basic tactics that larger groups generally overpower smaller ones. This is not some variable CCP developers can go into the code and set "smallerFleetsHaveAdvantage=1;".

Furthermore, even if they could somehow force a mechanic to nullify the advantage that larger groups have over smaller ones in combat, why SHOULD they? That's basically sending a message that "we don't want you to cooperate in large groups, smaller groups are better." Where would they draw the line, anyway? Who's to decide what size of a group is "good" and what size is "bad"?

goon pet monkey.

What might that be?

What might that be?

I believe the phrase is: "Nerf Local".

sshhh... you speak of the nerf which must not be named.

Revamping the d-scanner so it picks up signature signals which could be players/anomalies/whatever which the player then have to try and identify and approach in order to get more detailed information is the way to go. And of course increasing the chances of being detected yourself if you rely too much on the d-scan (if you for instance have passive/active scan settings).

Please don't, i already spend more time then i like trying to find someone willing to blow up my ship. There is really no need to complicate the process even more, with endless amount of scanning.

Make it a null only feature, i have no problem with people wanting to play ninja in the backyard, but there is no reason everyone should be forced to do it.

The main problem isn't the efficiency of small gangs vs. large ones but the lack of any meaningful objectives for small gangs.

A smaller gang of comparable ships should always lose when engaged by a bigger gang (assuming the FCs and pilots being on par), but there's hardly a siutuation where a small gang would be the better tool for accomplishing a task than a blob.

In RL (yes - bad reference when it comes to internet spaceships), using a small task force offers huge advantages in terms of cost, logistics, flexibility and maneuverability. Eve mitigates these advantages to a large extent and even if there are things that may be accomplished with a small gang, there's no reason to not bring a blob and achieve the same thing faster and easier if you can muster it.

A small gang would be preferred if you for instance want to quickly go behind enemy lines, attack industrial ships and then fly off. A big blob would be quite more noticeable.

Well - and what would be the downside of just bridging in a blob on top of them? You kill them quicker, the likelihood of someone getting away is smaller and if the blob is big enough, you could care less if you're noticed or not because the defender can do jack about it.

Yes - you need to muster them, but if you have a bored blob and a titan at your disposal, there's no major reason to not bring it.

Currently any awake industrialist in null would already be half-way to the nearest PoS by the time any non-blue enters the system.

Right or wrong?

Just sit this in system for a few days and you'll do fine. (There are, of course, cheaper/better ways to do it.)

[Arazu, The Solution to your Mining Fleet]

Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
True Sansha Warp Scrambler
True Sansha Warp Scrambler
Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier

Cynosural Field Generator I
Covert Cynosural Field Generator I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[Empty High slot]

Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II

Are you telling me that cyno is the one and only means of catching industrial ships in null?

Is this the part where I am supposed to start laughing out loud or something cause unless I misunderstand you it sure seems like an appropriate time to do so.

That's called "Being annoying in an enemy territory". There is no way a small group can get sov that way.

Sov structures are some sort of barriers that you have to break through in order to get sov. It adds a hard cap to how many dudes you need to bring in order to grind those amounts of EHPs.

Are you telling me that cyno is the one and only means of catching industrial ships in null?

Hmmm... I dunno, but I'll take a stab: Change boosting mechanics to include a "law of diminishing returns" so that boosts give out more bonus to smaller fleets and less boost to larger ones.

So, say, a 10% boost could just up to 20% if the fleet is 5 people or less, or drop to only 5% if the fleet is over 20 people. Just an example. You get the idea. Realistically it would have to be scaled with more complex math (and I hate math, so you do it).

Justification would be simulating that it's easier to manage smaller groups than larger ones. Less strain on computers etc.

You can't easily, nor should you, make a mechanic that directly makes less people better than more people. Suggestions for such mechanics are always contrived and against the spirit of the game.

If you wanted to make nullsec more friendly to small gangs then you need to create objectives which can be accomplished by small groups, and can also be done simultaneously with other small groups. If there's only one objective to do, and the time to do it decreases linearly with fleet size, people will blob. If, on the other hand, you can do more of these objectives faster by splitting your 100 guys into 5 20-man fleets, and enough faster to make up for the vulnerability to a single large enemy fleet, you might see more smaller gangs.

Yep. The problem with that is that, of course, the small group can field N gangs, while the Larger group can field 2N gangs, meaning that, even if the small group wins every battle they fight, the larger group will win the war in smashing style, having N unattended targets for every round of fighting.

Creating important targets that can only be efficiently fought over by small gangs actually magnifies the power of a larger group.

One thing I read a lot on these forums is people complaining that nullsec sucks because small groups are at a disadvantage to larger groups in combat merely because of size. Now ignoring the fact that there are ways to mitigate this, I'm curious about a few things.

You say that larger groups should not have an advantage over smaller groups by virtue of their size. First of all, this is not something you can just change because it's basic tactics that larger groups generally overpower smaller ones. This is not some variable CCP developers can go into the code and set "smallerFleetsHaveAdvantage=1;".

Furthermore, even if they could somehow force a mechanic to nullify the advantage that larger groups have over smaller ones in combat, why SHOULD they? That's basically sending a message that "we don't want you to cooperate in large groups, smaller groups are better." Where would they draw the line, anyway? Who's to decide what size of a group is "good" and what size is "bad"?