sharpscg
shiva Northern Coalition.
19
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Posted - 2017.02.21 18:16:20 -
[1] - Quote
The purpose Warp Disruptors fulfill Before looking at how to tweak mobile warp disruptors, lets first extablish how they are currently used. I know this is not an complete list, but I am confident to say these two cases cover at least 90% of all deployed bubbles.
1. Gatecamping Static gatecamps are camps, where the camper has no intention to move. Only a single gate, or a small collection of adjacent gates are camped. The static nature of mobile warp disruptos perfectly assists in this task. A low number of bubbles is deployed for the camp, and protected by players for the duration of the camp. After the camp is over the bubbles are often left behind.
2. Protecting system entrances An entity might choose to deploy a large amount of bubbles on a gate to protect the local pve operations from intruders. The bubbles are not actively defended, and are meant to stay in space for long periods.
The Gameplay Problem of Warp Disruptors Being interrupted in travel activities by mobile warp disruptors is not fun. If the bubble is part of an active gate camp, you probably loose your ship, but that is fair game as conter play exists in the form of scouting/intel/etc. If the bubble is not part of an active camp, they are a big annoyance. It takes unnecessary time to fly out of the bubbles. Counter play exists in this situation as well, but is primarily an annoyance instead of a fun and engaging gameplay aspect.
The Solution The solution laid out by Fozzie is obvious: put a decay on the bubbles. This way both of the outlaid uses of warp disruptors are preserved, while limiting the encounters with left behind and long abandoned bubbles. However, I think the proposed decay timers are not enough. A 2 day timer on T1 bubbles is far more then necessary to support gatecamps. I think T1 and T2 bubbles should be cheap deployables for gatecamps, with a decay time similar to the average length of a gate camp. This way, the annoyance caused by landing in abandoned bubbles in busy pipes would be significantly reduced, while not impacting gatecamps negatively.
As for the second use case of bubbling the hell out of ratting pockets, a longer decay time is necessary. I think the syndicate faction bubbles should fill this use case. If you want to be safe while crabbing, you should pay up for these premium bubbles and the safety they provide.
Additionally, I do want to stress that i find the option to scoop bubbles is important. Having that one bubble you put out every time you camp and bring back home after the camp lets you grow attached to that item - definitely more fun than throwing out a new bubble each time. While scooping and redeploying bubbles would introduce the "exploit" of circumventing bubble declay, I do think there is value in this option.
Related note: The cost of syndicate bubbles is ridiculous! At the very fair price of 2k isk/lp for nullsec mission rewards we are looking at well over 100m for a faction large bubble. I think the lp store price should be reduced. |