Darth Squeemus
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
1
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Posted - 2015.11.14 17:08:57 -
[1] - Quote
I think hisec ganking is balanced well enough as it is. The ore that's available to miners in HS isn't very valuable, so gankers don't get very big returns from miners. The most valuable thing HS miners usually have on them are their T2 Strip Miners (if they're even using T2s). One T2 strip miner is roughly enough to replace one gank-fit Catalyst (might not even replace the hull + entire fit, depending on where you sell).
Contrary to popular belief, not all gankers gank indiscriminately. You have to pick between a target that will go down quickly, so that you know that you will have a drop to pick up, and a target that has a chance to drop better loot but also has an improved tank. If the tank is too strong, it's not a good target because CC will be on you before you get the kill.
So Proc/Skiffs are out because they only have one high slot, not to mention it takes too much time to burn through their tank. The Ret/Mack have the largest ore holds and the weakest tank, but have only 2 high slots. So if the ganker is looking for a kill, these are the good ones to go for. Decent chance to drop at least one of their two strips, and a decent amount of whatever the miner was mining. Then there are the Cov/Hulk. If I'm not mistaken, they have the smallest ore hold, but have better yield than the Ret/Mack, and have a tank that lands somewhere between the other two barges/exhumers. If the ganker is going for profit, he will likely go for a Cov/Hulk because it has a chance to drop three strips and a little bit of ore on the side. However, the ganker might consider fleeting up with another ganker, or maybe a few others, to take one of these down, which will mean that he is obligated by default to split the profit evenly between all involved parties. Then there's the sec status and criminal status issue, which really does complicate things, as you will know if you've ever been -5 or lower.
From the miner's PoV, they have to choose between a ship with heavy tank, one high slot and a not-so-impressive ore hold, a ship with a sharty tank with two highs, low yield, but a big ore hold, and a ship with three highs, high yield, and workable tank, but the smallest ore hold of its' two respective counterparts. I think that the risk v. reward relationship between miners and gankers is pretty well balanced. Especially considering that, according to a few people I know, you can mine in a Proc/Skiff in a 0.5 system, making you a worthless target for gankers, and you can still mine most, or at least a large chunk of, what you you need for your industry or whatever you're doing. It just takes a little bit longer.
Your proposal would force me to finally agree with the miners' argument that there isn't enough risk to gankers for their potential reward. Nobody would gank Covs/Hulks anymore because the greater reward would come from sites that spawn based on how many ship/pod kills have happened. So all the gankers would go after the Rets/Macks, the ones with the weakest tank, because the gankers aren't looking from profit from their miners anymore. Instead they'd be looking for profit from the sites that will spawn. Meaning that they get to pad their KB AND they get to run sites that spawn based on their activity. And you can't balance it by locking gankers out of the sites because 1) the server doesn't know who is a "ganker" and who isn't, it only knows who killed what and where the kill happened, and 2) because the gankers would just log in on an alt and run the site.
I like the idea behind your proposal. Lore-wise, it would make sense for npc pirates to take advantage of the fact that CC is distracted by more threatening activity, but it would make a huge loophole for gankers and would throw the risk v. reward out of balance. Sorry, I have to -1 this. |