Def Monk
Phoenix Navy Research and Development
Phoenix Naval Systems
11
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Posted - 2015.03.03 19:21:12 -
[1] - Quote
So, I like what's going on. The gameplay is interesting and spread out, and should result in some interesting fun. As someone who simply day-trips into nullsec, this is even a great way to force fights with locals, even without the intention of taking ownership of the space.
That said, my problems with it are quite similar to Greygal's:
Greygal wrote:
- Get rid of the "prime time" idiocy. Just nuke it.
- Giving defensive bonuses to systems that are actively used is Good IdeaGäó
- But you need to add a penalty to NOT using systems, so that systems that are unused eventually just drop sov, or become ridiculously easy to take.
- How about making those 48 hour timers much shorter in systems that have low activity levels?
My proposed solutions are a bit different though.
I understand the want for the 'prime time', but feel the current iteration is lacking. The hope was probably that smaller groups (people who can't be on in all timezones) would be able to be on when their space needs defending, but instead, this is just going to make it extremely difficult to take space from larger groups. My proposal comes in three pieces:
- First, make prime time a series of timeslots. The size (with a minimum of an hour, max 24), time of day, and number of slots (you could have a one hour slot, twice a day, in your two main timezones) would be left entirely up to the current owner. It must add up to a length comparable to size of the alliance though - that is, large blocs may have this 'prime time' required to add up to 20 hours of the 24 hour day (subject to tweaking numbers, of course).
- Second, prime times become entirely private. No need to show them to other alliances because...
- Third, the initial reinforcement can start at any time of day. Once it is reinforced, it randomly selects a time inside the prime times, as currently, after the 48 hours, in which the reinforcement ends and the capture event begins.
This system would still have the effect of enabling owners to effectively react to reinforcement. Now though, the initial vulnerability attack can happen at any time, and so this avoids larger groups stone-walling defense during those 'prime times' to stop reinforcement altogether. Last, smaller groups will be able to have their smaller vulnerability window that helps with their activity when it actually matters most (the capture event). I still don't feel like the mechanic is perfect, but abandoning it altogether ignores the vulnerability that comes with being unable to man all timezones effectively, so I feel this method addresses concerns.
The next piece would be, as Greygal mentioned, rewards for activity. I think a simple solution to the problem of inactivity would be keeping track of the index levels for all groups, regardless of whether they're the current owners. Then, the calculations could be made exectly the same as defenses, except helping the attackers.
To put out an example, space perfectly actively used by owners would work as proposed. That means there is a 4x time for others to capture things (40 minutes for a node). Say this attacker has also managed to use the space just as actively, either through subverting the inhabitants (small groups stealing sites and ore) or a friendly alliance living there as well (who decides to betray their friend and attack). Since they cannot gain strategic index (they do not own the system), the max they could manage would be a 3.5x multiplier. This would then be used to reduce their timers: 4 / 3.5 = 1.14x, or managing to drag the timer back down to 11 minutes, 24 seconds. The owner would keep their timer of 10 minutes.
Likewise, if the owner does not have any use of a system and has simply held it for a long time, they can manage a multiplier of 1.5x. If the attacker has been using the space as above, and has the 3.5x multiplier, it would only take 4 minutes and 17 seconds (1.5 / 3.5 = 0.4286x of 10 minutes) to capture a node, making it much easier to take abandoned space if they have been living there unopposed. If the owner still decides to show up to defend the space they're not using, they still have their 10 minute timer.
Last, if a group has no activity AND they have just recently taken the space (ie, like a big bloc taking space just because they can and moving on in a large sweep), they would have a multiplier of 1x. Another group with 3.5x results in only taking 2 minutes and 51 seconds to take the nodes, which is significantly short.
Greygal wrote:
Where are the economic improvements? Is that coming this year also? Just curious.
Last, I'd also be interested in this. All this should make for a much more fun and dynamic system for taking null, but what's the point of people taking it in the first place? I'd much rather live in another space and not have to worry about defending it against other people. Normally, I am all for WH space being the most dangerous, and therefore the most profitable, but with this new system, the individual will need much more incentive to want to have to put up with a much more involved defense, and in turn, dangerous space considering the quicker turnover (though, that could fall on alliance management to give those incentives through the top-down moon mining profits, but I feel something more COULD be done). |