Originally by: Mar vel

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I'd like to see much more emphasis on small team engagements (sub 10-20 man gangs) - thinking on this a bit more I realized the issue at hand can be conquered several ways - but obviously there are architectural challenges (from an IT standpoint - game/WAN) that make almost all of them incredibly difficult to achieve: except one: change the terrain.

A fixed terrain (of stargates) makes it impossible to affect any tactical elements that would normally present themselves in a typical real-world battle (e.g. 3-D + terrain). Presently almost all fighting happens at places with no tactical explotation based upon terrain. The other elements that are being attempted to create tactical situations that can be exploited are, at best, inefficient, and more often than not, quite ineffective.

Scenario A: sit @ gate with Dictor or sm/med/lrg bubble, wait for enemy to warp into you, or jump into your camp - case closed. Shoot at individual targets en-mass, biggest ships are lost first and then on down the line.

Scenario B: fat-finger your WMD for a 30-ship kill and then smirk behind POS shield

Scenario C: Warp around tauntingly in your nanophooon/ inty / mwd af / mwd hac and then rollup to a gate and/or just jump whenever things get a bit dicey.

Scenario D: Logon/Logoff and the ever-present ctrl+Q.

Scenario E: Snipe with 12 man BS turret fleets who all have 250km range and are basically flying guns - all targeting the same object and giggling at their favorite safespot after Frapping the kill.

Scenario: ECM + NOS + Drones 4tw. He with more suckage wins.

There is an element of tactical experience that is not being experienced by combat pilots in general - and there is less and less *intelligence* that is required to engage in combat. Pick one of the above and apply.

And did I mention that *true* fleet engagements are a horrible joke? Oh, I did.
Did I mentino that the ongoing calculations that are churning on COmmand / Leadership skills and Gang Mods makes a gang over 10 impractical, if not an outright disadvantage, due to the constant threat of the impending lag-fest?

CCP: Got a lot of work to do guys - ping your combat playerbase (if you don't know yourselves, which is unlikely) - I'm sure that you'll get lots of great feedback that will VASTLY improve the game. You are fighting that battle of features (content) and playability - time to give the playability aspects some attention.

In terms of combat in general, I am finding it increasingly dis-interesting. The mechanics of combat interaction (tactical), the mechanics of travel (gates), and the mechanics of inter-system interaction/travel are (IMO) what could really change the game for the positive atm - I don't profess to know exactly what that formula is - I just know what the limiting features are atm (from my hunble perspective, ofc)

Originally by: Gabriel Karade

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Edited by: Gabriel Karade on 14/01/2007 22:40:39

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Signed for truth. These are the types of issues where Eve is in dire need of change, as opposed to the constant micro-tweak management of modules and ships which have dominated the thoughts of the common pod-pilot for years. It's not nerf/buff management that will drastically change gameplay for the better, but rather generalist gameplay concepts that alter the tactical playing field as Marvel has pointed out.