The other is policing your space. Most nullsec alliances don't bother, as there is nothing out & about that can't get safe quickly, and there is nothing the "small gang raiders" can do to harm your infrastructure. This NEEDs to change! There really should be some **** vulnerable enough for you to police your borders!

They shouldnGÇÿt. They should do whatever they are doing. But IF somebody shows up, there should be some chance for small scale PvP. Currently there is nearly none at all. There might be a gank, and very rarely some locals decide to fight. But this is only once every five or more small gang roamings.

The ratters with the best network would have the best income, because they would get the 5% income buff provided by ESS more often than ratters without this network and good friends, helping each other out.

CCP has to get it right, but they also have to tackle it. The current iteration of ESS has itGÇÿs flaws, but there has to be some kind of ESS.

If presented with an ESS region and a non-ESS region, I'd probably go to the region with ESS's deployed. At the same time, that means the region with ESS's deployed will have more content defending their space. While many alliances are too nullbear to desire the increased activity, there are plenty of groups out there that would welcome the action. Frankly, I thought goons would be one of those alliances!

I understand you feel that way, but disagree with you. It is an object anyone can deploy to increase their income. To benefit from it, you must harvest it after ratting for a while. It can be harvested by hostiles, too. So you must defend it or risk losing the isk you invested in it. How is this not a farms and field concept? Just because you won't risk it (because your allies will take advantage of you if you do?) doesn't make change its fundamental nature: A farms and field device that qualifies as a small gang objective.

Scenario 1: You are part of a big alliance ratting. Hostiles enter the area and are reported on intel channels. Warp to it and hit share all bounties, and suddenly there isn't very much left in the thing for hostiles to confiscate.

Scenario 2: You are are ratting solo in the system. A hostile enters system, one of you warps to the POS, swaps to an inty, warps to the thing and the hostile has 20 seconds to stop you from hitting share all and reclaiming your bounties. Sure, they may be in an inty that can warp to it too, but they will often fail to hold you as your "button pushing" inty is certainly stabbed.

Scenario 3: A random solo neut routinely attempts to steal the loot. Next time they come into system, you surprise them with a direct counter to their ship. If they turn out to be a hotdropper, you can setup to hotdrop them back....

Scenario 4: You and 3 others are ratting in a system. One of you puts a noobship alt at zero on the beacon. If a hostile comes into system, he can instantly hit share all if anything lands on grid with the beacon.

That is false.

Assume current RatBounty = 100k

Without ESS:
95k goes into your wallet.
TOTAL BOUNTY: 95k

Immediately upon ESS activating:
80k goes to wallet
20k goes into ESS
TOTAL BOUNTY: 100k

Current rat bounty - Activated ESS bounty = 0
SO after the 60sec activation time you break even by comparison to the current system.

If CCP had not mentioned the 5% nerf to nullsec income in the same dev blog, this module would be a fairly solid success.

Sounds like a Farm&Fields concept is doomed unless people don't have to defend the Farm.

As has been pointed out before: even if I accept it as a fact that any given system may only support four to six ratters at the same time, this is not the problem. Because (a) not all people are ratting at once and (b) given that inhabitants have some intel and some more time to react than the suggested 60 seconds, you will be able to have some support from other systems as well.

Sorry for not mentioning this above. The LP is from the empire navies, so it's based on what ESS was deployed.

or pod express.

* With an active ESS in system, bounties pay out LP in addition to normal ISK reward. LP reward starts at 0.15 LP per 1000 ISK and can increase to 0.2 LP per 1000 ISK as the bonus payout increases. As an example, a bounty worth 1 million ISK (total) gives between 150 and 200 LPs, based on payout level. This is to address the risk vs. reward concerns. Thanks to those that suggested using LPs instead of ISK for balance.

* Interacting with the ESS now puts a warp disruption effect on the ship interacting with it. Ships immune to bubbles are not immune to this effect. This is to reduce the feasibility of using ships immune to bubbles for stealing purposes.

Alliances can ban them, doesn't mean they still can't use them.