Originally by: Hectaire Glade

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Much is being done to improve the reward portion of low sec PVE activity, level 5 missions, new encounters, exploration being a waste of time in high sec etc etc, but I prophesize that low sec will remain just as empty as it currently is after the initial novelty wears off level 5s. Unless you have the large scale organization to protect a reasonable sized chunk of low sec, right now its just too easy to get both detected and griefed when on a PVE encounter in low sec.

Having missioned in both empire and low sec, I'll give you the most significant reason I no longer bother to mission in low sec, it is far far to easy to get griefed when you are tanking a large NPC spawn. Traveling to the encounter I am at minor risk of getting caught, either in my mission ship, or in my salvager/loot ship afterwards, I run the risk of gate camps just like every other low sec traveler, I am fair game. This I happily accept as one of the risks of being in low sec, its manageable and within my control, and balanced against the increased reward.

Now here's the problem, the moment I travel through the acceleration gate into the mission I become the proverbial fish in a barrel. I am going to be tanking mission NPCs, Level 5s so far have all been full agro situations, even normal missions often carry DPS which will stretch all but the most specialized tanks. Any player who can find me in a mission has a significant ally, the NPC spawn. It doesn't react to arrival of a new player (in most cases), it doesn't realize that I am under assault from a pirate, it just keeps happily chipping away at me until either I kill it or they kill me. And before anyone attempts to propagate the myth further, it is not difficult to probe out players who are running missions.

If CCP could address the NPC-assist risk issue, you would see more people missioning in low sec, this is a good thing all round, no?

Proposed Solution: Lock acceleration gates to only the mission runner and gang while any NPCs are spawned in the deadspace pocket that the gate leads into.

Those who think its unfair should ask themselves the question, would you rather have the potential target sitting in a station/logging off until you leave completely untouchable, or have the chance to get at them while they travel between 2 points, or when they are going back for loot. Or sit and the gate and wait till they kill the last NPC, but this would put you at some exposure, which has its own implications

It reduces the risk to the mission runner slightly, maybe, just maybe, enough to attract a percentage of the empire crown into low sec. Thoughts?

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