Imryn Xaran
Coherent Light Enterprises
33
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Posted - 2011.10.19 13:36:00 -
[1] - Quote
From what I understand the main problem with super caps isnGÇÖt that they are individually too powerful, itGÇÖs that when they blob up they are effectively unbeatable. It seems to me that decreasing the strength of the individual ships will not address that main problem at all GÇô in fact it will acerbate it.
Someone else already suggested imposing GÇ£maintenanceGÇ¥ costs on these ships, and I like that idea but I would take it further. I would make it a daily cost imposed on the alliance that the owner is a member of, and have it double for each additional such ship the alliance has. For example, Alliance A has a titan and gets charged 10m isk in maintenance for it. They add an SC and the charge for that ship is now 20m isk, making a total of 30m isk. Adding another Titan would cost 40m isk, for a total of 70m isk And so on. The numbers are representative only, and should be aimed at severely limiting the number of super caps that even the biggest alliances can afford to operate.
To allow alliances to have the ability to maintain some sort of strategic reserve / deterrent I would implement a new feature whereby it was possible to GÇ£decommissionGÇ¥ and subsequently GÇ£re-commissionGÇ¥ super caps. The process of decommissioning a super would take 24 hours to complete, during which time the ship would be immobile and unable to activate modules, launch fighters etc, and would be vulnerable to attack. The process could be halted at any point before completion to allow the ship to be used as normal, but the decommissioning process would then have to start from scratch again. Once a super is decommissioned it is stationary, inactive, un-boardable and invulnerable to attack. In this state it does not incur any maintenance fees. The re-commissioning process is the reverse, but takes much longer GÇô I suggest 2 or 3 days. You would need a password (specified during decommissioning) to initiate the re-commissioning process and the alliance would start to incur maintenance fees as soon as the re-commissioning process commenced. The ship would be vulnerable to attack while it was re-commissioning, would be immobile and unable to activate modules, launch fighters etc.
These changes would severely limit the number of super caps in everyday use, whilst still allowing alliances to keep large strategic reserves of these ships. The presence of these reserves would provide some excellent gaming (and meta-gaming) opportunities. To give a quick example:
Alliance A wants to attack Alliance B, but knows that Alliance B has a huge strategic reserve of super caps. Through excellent use of intelligence sources they identify the system where Alliance B has situated its reserve fleet, and launch an all-out attack to capture that system and neutralize the enemyGÇÖs reserve fleet. Is their intelligence accurate? Can they punch through and capture the system before the reserves are re-commissioned? Has Alliance B anticipated the attack and started re-commissioning in advance?
Anyway, by making these changes it becomes too expensive for alliances to operate huge numbers of super caps on a continual basis, but they can call up a reserve fleet that they can then afford to operate for a limited period. The super cap blob will cease to exist in most peopleGÇÖs daily lives, but the big alliances can still apply overwhelming power when they need to (and when they can afford to).
The key is to set the super cap maintenance fee high enough that operating more than half a dozen on a permanent basis is only possible for the biggest (richest) alliances, and when that alliance calls up its reserve fleet it can only operate it for days (a week or two at most) before going bankrupt.
If an alliance fails to pay the maintenance bill for one of their super caps the ship immediately starts to decommission. To halt this process the bill must be paid and then the pilot can give the halt command. If the pilot is afk / unavailable the process runs to conclusion (assuming the ship survives), the pilot is ejected and a system generated password for re-commissioning is sent to the pilot via evemail.
For super cap pilots who are not members of an alliance, and cannot afford to operate their ship under the new system, I suggest there should be a limited time option when the changes are implemented for them to reprocess their ship, either back to the base minerals or back to components.
TL:DR Impose an operating cost for super caps. Make it double for each ship after the first. Make it so high that the biggest alliances can only afford to operate half a dozen continuously. Allow for a reserve fleet to be called up, at ruinous cost. |