Destination SkillQueue
Are We There Yet
6601
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Posted - 2014.09.19 07:00:00 -
[1] - Quote
Ssabat Thraxx wrote:Jur Tissant wrote: In our own universe, powerful nations control lots of land - but smaller nations still exist and maintain sovereignty. In EVE, null should be open to everybody who is dedicated to claiming their own space - this isn't to say it should be open equally to all parties. Well, the problem with trying to emulate sovereignty in our universe is that many of these smaller nations maintain their sovereignty solely due to a potential aggressor nation's fear of repercussions from "the International Community." For example, there are some Nations that would like to see the nation of Israel completely destroyed, but what would happen if, say, one of these nations invaded Israel? Not only would the US be all over it, so too would many other nations. The parallel in Eve would have to be a small nation belonging to a "coalition" that would come and defend them, and if they're in that kind of position of safety and backup, they're not really one of "the little guys" but a power bloc themselves. The real "little guys" without backup are still left dangling and at the mercy of the big guys.
Many small nations also maintain their sovereignty because the cost of taking and maintaining control outweighs the benefits gained. You can't just roll your military over theirs, plant a flag and go home. You need to have boots on the ground and even then start to win hearts and minds or you'll continue to bleed troops and resources. This aspect doesn't really exist in null and probably never will. EVE isn't capable of fully imitating RL dynamics, so it needs to create game mechanics create its own vulnerabilities, which means making disrupting/resource bleeding tactics viable by providing meaningful targets for small entities to attack.
This needs to happen to create a dynamic where the big coalitions are always nipped at the heels by small entities, expanding without maintaining regular active presence in the area just costs you to bleed resources and steady activity in general matters more then the ability to do large one time operations and plant/bash structures. It should empower smaller entities by making them feel they can make a difference and at least contest things in their own back yard, while not crippling larger entities artificially. They still have the resources and numbers to maintain large areas under tight grip, but it should open up new cracks here and there for smaller operators to elbow their way in.
Ssabat Thraxx wrote: wrote:
Groups should be able to control as much space as they are able to effectively police and utilize, to the extent which they are able to police and utilize it. For a small corp, this might be a system. For a coalition, it could be a region or two. Getting rid of sovereignty mechanics would be a good start. Renting would still be possible, but only if the coalition actually dedicated resources to enforcing their de facto hold over the area.
Yeah, I tend to agree here. Also, I think some fundamental changes to lowsec mechanics would make things a little more "fair for the little guys." There are all sorts of places in lowsec where a small to medium-sized corp or a small alliance can (and do) police, control, and claim as "theirs" clusters of systems, constellations, etc. However, currently residents of lowsec are literally punished for engaging in PVP by way of the loss of security status for doing so. This makes carving out a niche in lowsec less desirable to some, and an outright hassle to others. I'm kind of leaning in some ways towards an opinion that the way to fix nullsec may begin by fixing lowsec.
Lowsec is not null though. It belongs to the empires, so carving out your own territory there should cost you sec status, since the space isn't yours to take or police. You're just the local criminal gang forcing their own brand of justice on others without any legal authority to do so. Maybe there could be a way to assign governing of a lowsec area to a corporation, but I'm not sure what responsibilities and rewards would be needed or how an NPC organization would choose who to give the area to or how they would lose it to another corp. I guess there is potential there, but it all depends on the details. |