Supercapitals need buffs not nerfs.

The glaring flaws in your alarmist and badly thought out rant article:

* There are already at least 50 classes of ship that specifically counter supercaps, they're called subcaps and they're immune to all forms of supercap weapons
* Supers never die not because they're too strong, but because they're too weak. All it takes is a few subcaps to show up and you're dead. The only way a supers gets used is with 100% safety, which means no fun for anybody.
* The idea that supercaps are concentrated in the hands of "the few" is nonsense, there are thousands of super pilots and anybody can buy one
* The real problem with nullsec is something completely different. The HBC has more supercaps than anybody else, so what's stopping them fighting the CFC? Clearly it's not a lack of supers -- it's a lack of reward and/or vested interest in technetium.

so you don't actually have any clue what you're talking about

I see

Nullsec, long the public face of EVE Online, is broken.

Upon a time nullsec was about the clash of interstellar kingdoms, and the trial of wills. But it has become about risk avoidance, wallet bloat and planned PvP combat. It has been turned into NullsecDisney-«; the very theme park version of EVE that the present lords of nullsec railed against in the not too distant past.

I guess the current nullsec landlords find that EVE as theme park isn't such a bad idea if you're the ones selling tickets and collecting rents.

Happily, an elegant solution (i.e., one that displays the qualities of unusual effectiveness and simplicity) is available.

http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/03/nullsec-is-worth-saving.html#comment-form

How's the technetium over there?

I guess the current nullsec landlords find that EVE as theme park isn't such a bad idea if you're the ones selling tickets and collecting rents.

* The real problem with nullsec is something completely different. The HBC has more supercaps than anybody else, so what's stopping them fighting the CFC? Clearly it's not a lack of supers -- it's a lack of reward and/or vested interest in technetium.

**** was too much work, it wasnGÇÖt fun anymore. We had friends for strategic reasons not because we actually liked them. Internal politics was ****. Running a space empire was ****. Being on call for EVE 23/7 was ****

No, nullsec has turned into a 'blue doughnut' because everyone's too sick of grindy sovereignty mechanics to get into a major war. Any potential gains would be outweighed by the sheer tedium of logistics and grinding and alarm-clock ops. And they're busy trying to rig the CSM elections, too.

anyway removing supercaps is just as dumb as buffing them again

let's not try to steer the topic away from "i'm wrong" because well you think that subcaps are immune to supercaps and that supercaps aren't concentrated in the hands of the few when given the numbers available (1-2k titans, 3-4k supercarriers, 500k active accounts) we can figure that only 1% of players own supercaps, and it doesn't help that players who do get supercaps tend to join whatever entity is the flavor of the month

Okay, so what do you propose to do so that people actually have incentives to risk their supercaps willingly outside of "oh **** I clicked jump instead of bridge" or "oh **** I didn't align and a hostile dictor bubbled me".

Some players are simply more powerful/knowledgeable/useful than others. Either they have a big shiny ship, or they have 15 accounts, or work hard to organize others. Those players are free to move to whatever team they want, and so when one team starts winning what happens? They all join, and we end up with stagnation.

Stagnation is not the end result of supercaps, it's the end result of people's ability to swap between corporations with ease and their desire to be on the winning team. Supercaps are an easy scape goat, a proxy for the real problem: Nobody likes to lose, so the best players* (and there will always be players who are better than others) will always gang up on everybody else. That's the reason random lolcorps can't get a start in nullsec.

There is no easy solution. The best we can hope for is CCP will mix up the pot and we'll have 5 years of settling down into the new equilibrium.

* If you dislike the idea that some players are inherently better than others, then go find a different game

The solution is to make super pilots more self dependent, and less able to be rescued if they make a bad call.

* Give supers & titans the ability to defend themselves against poorly prepared subcaps (this is the main reason they don't get used)
* Add a mass limit to cynos, this makes it harder to subcap blob a tackled super and harder to drop more supers to save some idiot tackled super (this is the reason most sov bloc supers don't die even when they are facing a very well prepared subcap fleet)
* Give supers and especially titans a 50% DPS increase, to make them worth using on structure bashes (right now people will use dreads if there's even a 1% risk, but if there's a 1% risk and a 50% faster structure kill they'll bring out their supers).

Er... according to both side's killboards, they're pewpewing each other anyways. Maybe not on the terms you or I'd like to see but let's be honest here. Propaganda aside, it simply is a major pain in the butt to grind sov and I (hate myself for saying this) feel for the average HBC/CFC grunt that has to do it in otder to get anywhere in this stalemate.

The cards are on the table now with the next expansion. There's not going to be any rework of the sov mechancis. It's now up to the coalition leaders to figure out something to do with it. SOLAR&pets will not be able to hold out forever and then what?

It's then either having a go at each other properly or loosing pilots to boredom because quite frankly, WarGames/Thunderdome will kill it for a lot of people. There is no point and no thrill in shooting inanimate sov objects and there is no point and thrill in showing up to prearranged fights, with prearranged doctrines and probably prearranged outcomes to keep the enlisted happy.

It's the nullsec version of everyone gets a cookie. Don't forget though that the days of coaltions held together by friendships are long gone, these are entities created out of strategic necessity above anything else.

Give people a cookie and they want to keep it and they will come for more (especially when there's the internet spaceship version of cutting throats involved) - it's the way we work.

Yes, resources - or much rather concentrating the important ones in one area - are a problem too and yes the force projection that will kick any newbros in the nuts with DDs and fighterbombers while being insulted in local is a problem as well. However these are problems from to long of a period of peace&blue rainbows, CSM inbreed and getting fat and lazy on the riches of moon goo.

The one thing that can fix nullsec faster than anything else is nullsec themselves, period. Offline everything and have a go at each other in a massive free-for-all armageddon. Sort out the new order on the ashes of the old trash later.



CCP will have to step up their game eventually but again, the cards are on the table. It's not gonna be this summer. Hats off to anyone who is willing to stick out another year of boredom at the minimum.

Link to a blog where there is a link to a blog.

Is there any content in this thread or is it just a daisy chain?

I'm fully comfortable with the fact that some players are inherently better than others. However, it seems you're not - "abloobloobloooooo I can't use my super because somebody will bridge 50 tempests on top of me and murder me for kicks, naturally such peasants shouldn't stand a chance against me"

Sounds a bit like you don't like working for a specific employer anymore and think it's up to your boss to change your job description.

A poorly prepared subcap fleet won't manage to tackle, let alone kill, a super or titan - if they don't have neuts and dictors/hictors, they won't kill it, period. Mass limits for cynos are dumb. You have no idea what you're talking about if you think people use dreads to bash structures other than towers, since supercarriers and titans can kill a structure in less time than a dread's siege cycle and be out of there.

Don't opine on sov warfare when you're obviously clueless about it~

A well prepared subcap fleet should always win. Right now they don't. Supers bail each other out when they get in trouble, and that's one of the things that has to stop. If you just remove this safety net, people (in large coalitions) will just use supers even less. Offer the super pilots more ability to defend themselves against a poorly prepared gang, in exchange for not getting support from their supercap buddies when they get in trouble. I think that's a trade super pilots will take, and it will mean more dead supers and more opportunity for super pilots to drop on drake fleets (providing a challenging fight for everybody). What's not to like?

Be prepared for the flood of trolls from those in null and their pets as they try to get the thread locked. The article hits the nail on the head. I live in null and with the exception for the rare roam it is boaring. I refuse to do as most and create a alt just to gank hi-sec people.

We just sit and keep pumping the moon goo day in day out 23/7.

Sounds a bit like you don't like working for a specific employer anymore and think it's up to your boss to change your job description.

Haha, DNS didn't do anything in nullsec before the rise of the supercapital (or ever for that matter) so what on earth makes him think any change to 0.0 will make his alliance more capable than it is?

Nothing, he's simply another guy who wants a game mechanic change to do something he is unwilling to do on his own.

let's not try to steer the topic away from "i'm wrong" because well you think that subcaps are immune to supercaps and that supercaps aren't concentrated in the hands of the few when given the numbers available (1-2k titans, 3-4k supercarriers, 500k active accounts) we can figure that only 1% of players own supercaps, and it doesn't help that players who do get supercaps tend to join whatever entity is the flavor of the month

this was the case before dominion, after dominion, before crucible, after crucible, before the titan tracking nerf, after the titan tracking nerf and before and after whatever stupid buffs you want made to supercaps.

you also think that having more supercaps than the other guy guarantees success when it doesn't (if it did, clearly supercaps are fine, right?)

anyway removing supercaps is just as dumb as buffing them again

Who I've worked for in the past is irrelevant really, there's a lot of former nullsec players moving on to greener pastures for the reasons I stated. I have changed my job myself simply by refusing to participate.

Yes, CCP has work at their hands and according to this they are aware of the issues.

In the meantime it's up to the players that have driven this game for years to get that spirit back or fall and crumble under their own weight. That's the way things go always have and always will go. ~ Consequences ~

Supercapitals need buffs not nerfs.

The glaring flaws in your alarmist and badly thought out rant article:

* There are already at least 50 classes of ship that specifically counter supercaps, they're called subcaps and they're immune to all forms of supercap weapons
* Supers never die not because they're too strong, but because they're too weak. All it takes is a few subcaps to show up and you're dead. The only way a supers gets used is with 100% safety, which means no fun for anybody.
* The idea that supercaps are concentrated in the hands of "the few" is nonsense, there are thousands of super pilots and anybody can buy one
* The real problem with nullsec is something completely different. The HBC has more supercaps than anybody else, so what's stopping them fighting the CFC? Clearly it's not a lack of supers -- it's a lack of reward and/or vested interest in technetium.

The solution is to make super pilots more self dependent, and less able to be rescued if they make a bad call.

* Give supers & titans the ability to defend themselves against poorly prepared subcaps (this is the main reason they don't get used)
* Add a mass limit to cynos, this makes it harder to subcap blob a tackled super and harder to drop more supers to save some idiot tackled super (this is the reason most sov bloc supers don't die even when they are facing a very well prepared subcap fleet)
* Give supers and especially titans a 50% DPS increase, to make them worth using on structure bashes (right now people will use dreads if there's even a 1% risk, but if there's a 1% risk and a 50% faster structure kill they'll bring out their supers).

bad idea , supercaps are one of the cornerstones of nullsec powerprojection and one of the reasong why we train skills
only problem i have with them that there are too many of them

I sense more jealousy in the OP than genuine concerns about the game

The ships aren't the problem, the problem is the watch list. If you think local is a perfect intel tool and needs changing, you need to look at the watch list with at least equal scrutiny.

The watch list is the feature that allows supercap fleets to avoid each other, and the core reason that they are not dying in significant numbers.

If I wanted to live in a theme park I'd have joined the blue doughnut. Not like it's hard these days.

[quote=Mord Fiddle]Nullsec, long the public face of EVE Online, is broken.
Oh, and is it just me, or did Hans not have anything of consequence to add to all the words he typed in the comments to your blog?

It's easier to whine about said blue doughnut that doesn't actually exist than doing anything about it, apparently.
It's not our fault you're not trying to take our sov.

I would think it is kind of hard to see some sov null residents speak about how sov null is all about empire building, while enforcing that with mechanics that are meant to bypass those same borders and make them obsolete.

What's the point of saying "this is my area" if you can easily be across the map where your empire isn't relevant?

As supercaps being the problem with that... well, let's ask the sov residents without it being a matter of people speaking out of turn-

Sov residents, do you think supercaps help build your empire, or help ignore borders by allowing far jumps and power projection to conveniently ignore the limitations of owning that area of space?

If you can own space in the top left of sov space, why should it be possible to logistically move a force so far away?

I don't agree you lumping power projection in with supercapitals as a problem.

Related problems perhaps, but not the same one.

With a level playing field the carebear invasion of nulsec can begin. That will get Nulbears off the teacup ride and perhaps force them out of the themepark into highsec to wage a bit of war vs the highsec alliances threatening their sov.