Frankly, I like the idea of the ESS, but find the response window too low. Locals need time to form up and defend it, and 60 seconds is not enough time.

I mean the basic thing I think about this is it's a neat idea, but I think the risk/reward balance is skewed,

Increasing the drop-isk-tag window from 40 seconds to 3-5 minutes will give the locals plenty of time to react and blap theives.

I've formed up many a response gangs, and a 3-5 minute response is extraordinarily fast (unless your just warping in ships kitchen sink like, or already have a response fleet formed). Really, you want a 6-10 minute window for a proper response fleet to form up. (this is why I requested a 3-5 minutes to activate the ESS, and 3-5 minutes for the ESS to process your drop-isk-tag request). Then these will be conflict drivers.

Putting them on a station, or on a deathstar POS will destroy the conflict driver potential of these, because the homefield advantage of engaging on these grids essentially means it is suicide for a small gang to engage. Pull it away from POSes and Stations and Gates, and more ships die, which is a good thing!

As they stand right now the 'time to rob' is about 75 seconds from when an interceptor appears in local. 30 sec to land on the unit, 40 to rob it, and 5 (on the outside) for human error. I'd estimate a defender's time to get to POS/station in ratting ship, swich to pvp ship, warp to bubbled ESS, lock interceptor and point at around 90 seconds *minimum*.

Based on feedback, we're looking at three things:
- Time to get loot - lot of good points that the time needs to be increased
- Interceptors too good - we're looking at ways to decrease the efficiency of using an interceptor to steal
- Too effective as warp bubble - we're looking at making it less viable

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any test feedback from Sisi would also be much appreciated.

Missing point:
- The low gain is not worth the risk & hassle with that structure in my opinion. And that even without factoring in Interceptors.

to your 2nd point: Link the "Take All" button to a hacking game that is difficult enough to be unfeasible in an interceptor.
-áGP¬ People have been longing to use hacking devices on non-NPC structures for ages.
-áGP¬ It has been suggested many times in this thread
-áGP¬ It just feels logical

Oh, exploit found. If I scoop the item, which is instant, it doesn't destroy the bounties in it while it's in my cargohold. Then, when hostiles are gone, I wait the minute to launch, and bounties are still there. The good news is that it's bound to the system, not the ESS, so you can even just drop a new one.

CCP and the CSM agreed about the need for more small gang activities and targets to disable (GÇÿFarms and FieldsGÇÖ) - not necessarily more structure shooting, which is boring. Stealing moon goo from harvesters was one idea.

No. No it isn't.

For the record, small gang roams are the greatest fun I've ever had playing Eve. Defending against small gang roams is pretty high up there, imho. Too much home defense however bleeds fleet participation over time, and gets you, the roaming gang fewer counter formups. And you know this to be true.

It has been shown multiple times in this thread that properly fit interceptors are literally uncatchable due to the way server ticks work.

- Interceptors too good - we're looking at ways to decrease the efficiency of using an interceptor to steal

Did you actually read the 20 pages? They have mostly been people explaining why this provides no disruption to null sec isk generation above and beyond what small gangs already do just by existing.

I accept the premise that null-sec income generators should gather together to defend against roaming gangs in return for extra rewards, but I do not accept the premise that ratters should do so. Right now, the two terms are identical (for all practical purposes), which is the problem. The whole point of farms and fields is that there are ways to generate personal income outside of ratting, which is exactly the mark that this deployable misses.

I'm still not seeing a good reason why I should deploy one, and I still very much doubt it'll have any effect at all beyond the old AFK cloaker, and I'm not really seeing anyone seriously trying to convince me otherwise.

My problem with the ESS is that it is indicative of 1) a poor choice in direction for deployables as a category that doesn't support long-term use other than quality-of-life deployables like the MTU and Mobile Depot, 2) a fundamental breakdown of the channels CCP uses to communicate with the player base, and 3) a complete lack of understand of how null-sec personal income generation works and what can be done to make it more palatable to/enjoyable for players.

Or it can be hacked, and be offline for x hours or whatever, I don't care.

The problem is that the part where some of the bounty can be stolen by blue, neut or red (or even inadvertently by the guy using the structure hitting the wrong button) is a bullshit mechanic which will not help in making the "small gang objective" initiative or "farms and fields" initiative reach its goal, because overall it'll be a lot better to just not erect the ESS in soniclover's current form.

Solution attempt: if you're online and in a system that's having its ratting bounty thingy incapped/hacked, regardless of whether you leave or go offline between the time they start and the time they actually incap/hack it, you're marked with the coward flag and given a bounty penalty in that system. You can go to a different system and still receive full bounty, but in that system you didn't defend, you're not going to get full bounty for x period.

If my goal is to make isk to do something else, why would I light a "pvp here" cyno beacon begging for someone to come screw with me?

I never said I shouldn't have to defend my ratting space. I never said I deserve CONCORD levels of safety.
But if I have to defend my fields, they damn well better be worth defending. And they need to be substantially more profitable than they currently are for that to happen.

Or alternatively, make it an ihub module, like the station modules, and enable people to hack it. To restore bounties, unhack it. Voila, problem solved, and nobody should care if it was hacked before they logged on. vOv

Farms and fields isn't hard to make work in nullsec

Or you could just realize that the problem with the module is that it's a schizophrenic mess.

Who said anything about more security.

If YOUR goal is making isk to do fun stuff, what would YOU do, make isk in some place where you are easily interrupted and where you have to fight against unknown or crazy odds? our would you simply supply yourself in a less irritating place and just take the isk and go have fun?