Commander Venture
Joint Espionage and Defence Industries
Preatoriani
7
   |
Posted - 2013.10.27 10:58:00 -
[1] - Quote
Incentive-based mechanics could be implemented not only to address some of the original poster's concerns but also change the flavor of incursions. Broad strokes here, I'm sure folks will air the pros and cons of each:
1. When the Sansha influence goes down, so should site payout. This is simply risk versus reward. As the influence decreases from 100% to 0%, payout should drop not necessarily to zero, but to some minimum that makes sense given that Sansha penalties are also at a minimum.
2. As an individual pilot grinds an incursion, his ISK and/or LP payout per site should decrease. Passing some loyalty point or site count threshold should make completing further sites less rewarding; this could be implemented as a steady decline or a step function, maybe even similar to the way that grinding agent missions means less and less for NPC standings. If ever there were a finer example of beating a dead horse, it's the pilots earning a million plus loyalty points when the Kundalini Manifest goes down.
3. When a fleet completes a site, ship losses should be taken into account when calculating rewards. If one or more ships are lost in a site, then the whole fleet should share in that failure through decreased payout.
4. When a fleet completes a site, ship losses should be taken into account when calculating the effect on Sansha influence. If this is already a feature in-game, then the effect is not strong enough. When ships are lost, then the incursion community as a whole should feel it, and Sansha influence should be less apt to shrink. In fact, with player ship losses so rare, maybe the enemy's stature should not decrease but increase, and maybe by a great deal.
5. If a pilot loses a ship fighting Sansha, then public loss details should be generated, including the victim's fleet commander or declared community. Think of the Sansha leader as another player looking to kill you; maybe it's time he took credit for his work on his own kill board for each incursion spawned. If incursions serve as an introduction to meaningful fleet gameplay and PVP, then such a public feature would serve that end.
Some of the points mentioned above may be considered over the top by many, I'm sure. My biggest aim in listing them is to reduce a pilot's incentive for heavy farming, making the activity more about fleet participation and less about building oversized wallets. The incursion-related fleet activity that we have now is great player-generated content - successes, failures, drama and all.
With diminishing returns already a common feature elsewhere in EVE mechanics, it should not be unexpected for incursions. The rewards for flying incursions are a means to a social end, not an end in and of themselves. Let's not feel entitled to them.
|
Commander Venture
Joint Espionage and Defence Industries
Preatoriani
7
|
Posted - 2013.10.27 11:49:00 -
[2] - Quote
Miss Monty wrote:
I like some of the suggestions from Commander Venture. Players are crying because the sandpile gets kicked over, and they are too used to the huge amount of reward versus very little risk. Make the rewards smaller in high sec and make low and null sec more worthwhile. Bring on the tears and the contesting which is right up there with other enjoyable activities like reading Jita trade chat other fine pursuits.
PS. Who wrote / spell checked that for you?
It was Microsoft Notepad. I was hauling in my freighter, so had plenty of time to read and re-read, but thought I should cut it short before server downtime. |