Current mechanic is simply broken, and was introduced to reduce the usage of the capitals, not increase it.
For me those are good changes.
People who desire to live in an unknown space without a local - will still do it.
Some farming alts will move simply somewhere else.

Eve needs to be different ( for me still there is a lot of potential to make things more interesting ) and unknown space should be unknown not farmville.

That's all well and good but the fact is that this is a nerf to income and will most likely result in less people doing things in wormhole space.

That's all well and good but the fact is that this is a nerf to income and will most likely result in less people doing things in wormhole space.

if by 'things' you mean doing nothing but farming in complete safety, then youre correct.

So you prefer that people sit Citadel spinning or going out to HS to run incursions for their isk?
Despite claims it is already becoming increasingly rare for people to be doing capital escalations in EU/US prime... And you think decreasing income and increasing effort will improve wormhole space?!
Wormhole PVE should be challenging and risky but it should also be lucrative.

...Good stuff worth the beginnings of this forum...

Stuff

the time of escalations need to end. less people running escalations is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Please explain why you think less capital ships being vulnerable to attack in space, is good for wormhole and the groups whose main activities revolve around hunting them...

You talk as if CCP could take away all isk from wormhole space and people would still PVP for to love of it.

I dont get the hyperbole. If the drifter is balanced for capitals, having capital HP and damage, it would take forever to kill with subcaps, or a lot of subcaps. Same as the escalation sleepers now. People could use caps just for triggering and farm just with subs now, but do they? No, because it's terribly inefficient and drags down ISK/hour.

Yupp, that escalationwave just killed a carrier in under a minute.

We have adjusted the spawning of the new Drifter so that people who can't handle it (marauders for instance) can skip it completely.
Under the new system, a structure will decloak once the site is completed and you have the option of spawning the drifter by shooting that structure.

When I brought him down to 20% shields, he suddenly started neuting and attacking. Within seconds he had sucked my Paladin dry and another 45 seconds or so after I was dead.
I guess it still isn't intended behavior that the drifter is so passive at first... but yeah, no chance to kill it with a few subcaps now.

have large signatures to ensure that they can be engaged fully by capital ships

Thanks for your feedback so far folks!

We have adjusted the spawning of the new Drifter so that people who can't handle it (marauders for instance) can skip it completely.
Under the new system, a structure will decloak once the site is completed and you have the option of spawning the drifter by shooting that structure.

We've also done a major balance pass on the new NPCs over the weekend, upping the challenge significantly. We're very interested in hearing what you folks think about the version that is on SISI right now. As a side note, the Drifter does not doomsday in its current iteration, but the neuting power has been ramped up quite significantly to provide a significant challenge without the danger of "one shotting" people.

Hmm, seems I got the broken drifter again. Just did another c5 anom and after completing the site, the new structure decloaked. I switched one of my two Paladins to tackling Loki, then attacked the structure and drifter appeared. He moved to orbit my Paladin but otherwise does nothing. No neuts, no damage. I'm shooting him for 12 minutes now and I guess it will take another 10-15 minutes to take him down. So significant HP buff from last time.

To the other posters: Were you killed by the drifter or before by cap escalation sleepers? Because my drifter still doesn't do ****...

edit: Woah, this drifter has shields, not just armor. His name is [no messageID312281] :D

edit2: Unexpected turn of events! After doing absolutely nothing for 15 minutes, when I brought him down to 20% shields, he suddenly started neuting and attacking. Within seconds he had sucked my Paladin dry and another 45 seconds or so after I was dead.

I guess it still isn't intended behavior that the drifter is so passive at first... but yeah, no chance to kill it with a few subcaps now.

Thanks for your feedback so far folks!

We have adjusted the spawning of the new Drifter so that people who can't handle it (marauders for instance) can skip it completely.
Under the new system, a structure will decloak once the site is completed and you have the option of spawning the drifter by shooting that structure.

We've also done a major balance pass on the new NPCs over the weekend, upping the challenge significantly. We're very interested in hearing what you folks think about the version that is on SISI right now. As a side note, the Drifter does not doomsday in its current iteration, but the neuting power has been ramped up quite significantly to provide a significant challenge without the danger of "one shotting" people.

Updates based on feedback:

Thanks for your feedback so far folks!

We have adjusted the spawning of the new Drifter so that people who can't handle it (marauders for instance) can skip it completely.
Under the new system, a structure will decloak once the site is completed and you have the option of spawning the drifter by shooting that structure.

We've also done a major balance pass on the new NPCs over the weekend, upping the challenge significantly. We're very interested in hearing what you folks think about the version that is on SISI right now.

I love how mysterious and channelling wormhole space is about to become . Think i'll buy me a few Rattlesnakes... Cool game design guys! This is really inspired!

No way a rattle survives the drifter in its current form.

edit: Also, even if a rattle were able to survive, the drifter has now so high ehp that it would take forever. I shot it with a 1200 dps marauder for about 15 minutes and just brought it to 20% shields. There was still full armor and structure. Killing it with subcaps is going to be totally inefficient. Only dreads will do it in any reasonable amount of time.

If there are no changes to capital/hole mass to allow more caps through, then any static-ratting fleet will be limited to a single cap anyway.