In agreement with your criticism: Invulnerable sov 20 hours a day is not ideal in my opinion. Currently I see 2 different ideas on how to alter this mechanic:

1. Sliding window based on alliance size. Larger alliances have larger windows where their structures are vulnerable and smaller ones have smaller windows to defend.

2. Sliding difficulty. The further away from primetime it gets, the harder it is to reinforce a structure. This difficulty could take the form of longer reinforce times (Sov Lazer has to cycle for longer) or any number of other ideas and mechanics.

The bottom line is that people, like you and I, want there to be smaller entities holding space. If we want that then we have to want some form of the primetime mechanic. Expecting a small group to be able to cover all timezones is simply not going to happen and they will lose their space.

The problem with the Entosis trolling isn't that it cannot be countered. It can. The famous "trollceptor" can all be countered by a Rifter with a T1 Entosis link orbiting the structure at 5 km, freezing the timer.

The problem is that countering Entosis trolling is so boring gameplay that you'll wish you'd still be grinding stations in Drakes. Either a mobile group needs to run up and down in the region whacking moles, or every system needs to have guards who just do nothing (or mine/rat at the keyboard) for 4 hours and respond to the ping. If they fail, everyone yell at them because 2 days later 10 nodes needs to be captured. If they win every time, they spent 4 hours of their lives at the keyboard with a handful of trivial killmails.

Again: 4 hours of focused gameplay and practically no result. At least you could watch TV between reloads with the Drake.

The attacker should commit something worth killing, so the defenders - if did their job well - go home with a nice killboard.

It happened. A Gevlon post that I actually agree with.

I think I've just won Eve.

Then party "B" has their off-TZ guys (or mercenaries) come in and RF the whole region in a night because "A" is in bed. Then "B's" mercs' off TZ guys take the whole region uncontested because "A" were dumb enough to put their region in the hands of a dummy alliance with not enough people and not enough Sov lazers and in a ****** timezone for themselves. Counterplay.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. With strontium, attacker at least has some influence on exit timer. You can either reinforce it unusually early and get a timer in 01am instead of 03am. Or you can kite the timer to get it in the evening instead of at downtime. Both of this tricks work in POS warfare, and work more or less tolerable.

The problem with the Entosis trolling isn't that it cannot be countered. It can. The famous "trollceptor" can all be countered by a Rifter with a T1 Entosis link orbiting the structure at 5 km, freezing the timer.

The problem is that countering Entosis trolling is so boring gameplay that you'll wish you'd still be grinding stations in Drakes. Either a mobile group needs to run up and down in the region whacking moles, or every system needs to have guards who just do nothing (or mine/rat at the keyboard) for 4 hours and respond to the ping. If they fail, everyone yell at them because 2 days later 10 nodes needs to be captured. If they win every time, they spent 4 hours of their lives at the keyboard with a handful of trivial killmails.

Again: 4 hours of focused gameplay and practically no result. At least you could watch TV between reloads with the Drake.

The attacker should commit something worth killing, so the defenders - if did their job well - go home with a nice killboard.

Unused space is unused for a reason, it is bolloxs. The Anom nerf made most -0.5 space pointless to occupy [I will add a rider here, yes you can still mine]. If anything I am certain the superblobs would LOVE fresh meat to take these systems ... more Brave newbies to farm.

You do realize that sov-holding alliance usually have more ISK than ~little guy~ to hire mercs? Maybe even accept them to the dummy alliance to woop sov lazers.

You do realize that sov-holding alliance usually have more ISK than ~little guy~ to hire mercs? Maybe even accept them to the dummy alliance to woop sov lazers.

What I see is a bunch of micromanagement and babysitting of sov structures. Sounds like an annoying load of crap where griefers get the upperhand.

Just some ideas to make Sov a -real thing- that actually has some significance. The ideas are limitless....

The problem with the Entosis trolling isn't that it cannot be countered. It can. The famous "trollceptor" can all be countered by a Rifter with a T1 Entosis link orbiting the structure at 5 km, freezing the timer.

The problem is that countering Entosis trolling is so boring gameplay that you'll wish you'd still be grinding stations in Drakes. Either a mobile group needs to run up and down in the region whacking moles, or every system needs to have guards who just do nothing (or mine/rat at the keyboard) for 4 hours and respond to the ping. If they fail, everyone yell at them because 2 days later 10 nodes needs to be captured. If they win every time, they spent 4 hours of their lives at the keyboard with a handful of trivial killmails.

Again: 4 hours of focused gameplay and practically no result. At least you could watch TV between reloads with the Drake.

The attacker should commit something worth killing, so the defenders - if did their job well - go home with a nice killboard.

The problem with the Entosis trolling isn't that it cannot be countered. It can. The famous "trollceptor" can all be countered by a Rifter with a T1 Entosis link orbiting the structure at 5 km, freezing the timer.

The problem is that countering Entosis trolling is so boring gameplay that you'll wish you'd still be grinding stations in Drakes. Either a mobile group needs to run up and down in the region whacking moles, or every system needs to have guards who just do nothing (or mine/rat at the keyboard) for 4 hours and respond to the ping. If they fail, everyone yell at them because 2 days later 10 nodes needs to be captured. If they win every time, they spent 4 hours of their lives at the keyboard with a handful of trivial killmails.

Again: 4 hours of focused gameplay and practically no result. At least you could watch TV between reloads with the Drake.

The attacker should commit something worth killing, so the defenders - if did their job well - go home with a nice killboard.

Ultimately this is a griefers system, small groups of disaffected or bitter-vet(tm) can mess around with sov in unused systems but when it comes down to it they will not have the stamina or numbers to plex their way to victory.

Part II of my post (What I would do with Sov if I were king):

I agree, fundamentally, with what a lot of people are asking (and thus implying): GÇ£What is the benefit to holding Sov?GÇ¥ A 25% reduction in POS fuel, slightly increased NPC spawns, and your name on a little map just isnGÇÖt cutting it.

Gevlon, aren't you contractually obligated to never say things the rest of us agree with?

Can I ask of the Devs what happened to 'option #2'?

As I understood it, there were two general ideas going forwards for 'Sov', which had been mentioned in CSM notes somewhere, some months back (so I'm paraphrasing a little here):

Replace the Dominion era system with a new mechanic (which this appears to be), but still have 'Sov' structures e.t.c

Get rid of 'Sov' mechanics altogether, and pursue a 'free-form' model (the players 'write' the map)

So, given from an outsider perspective, #2 is technically simpler to implement (we had this with the very first alliances, before in-game alliance mechanics existed and before Starbases contributed to 'Sov'....), and in many ways, far more immersive, why didn't it make the cut? You even mention in the blog, the best multiplayer game systems involve simple mechanics...

So, I also have to ask again, why do we even need 'Sov' at all?

The UN doesn't collect revenue nor enforce laws, the sovereign entity does.

The Entosis trolling will be insane if put into effect right now. Speed tanking will be the best defense with them, especially since any cap ships trying to use them will just get piled on since it takes so long for them. The Entosis needs an effect like siege and triage mods that force the ship to remain stationary, or at least a huge movement penalty.

Also, in many ways this makes Dreads only useful for POS grinding and anti-carrier ops. Carriers can at least triage and support with fighters, but Dreads, and in some ways Titans, are almost obsolete. I always saw dreads as the ultimate structure grinder, but if that doesn't happen anymore, what's the use of them?

One thing you didn't think about: Entosis trolling against a prepared defence is the same amount of boredom as defending against it; therefore they won't troll a prepared defence unless their objective is to break morale.

Why bother orbitting the same defended point for 4 hours when there's more than likely going to be some undefended ones elsewhere in null?

Why don't you escalate the fight?

It's only boring for the defender if the attacker wants them to be bored (and is willing to take the same boredom themself).

why should you get to contest sov without even putting a t1 battlecruiser at risk? the issue isn't being unable to respond to an interceptor fleet, it's that an interceptor fleet has no risk whatsoever to its pilots

if you're too much of a coward to even risk a single t1 battlecruiser you have no business in the big leagues