Sakura Nihil
Stimulus
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Posted - 2008.09.06 17:39:00 -
[1]
Directed towards specifically towards Greyscale...
First off, nice to see some dev interaction again, its been too long.
However, with regards to a wardec system that "offered no additional avenues for griefers in hisec space", I have reservations. First off, this game is the ultimate sandbox, who are you to determine whether or not a war against another corp has a valid purpose, or is griefing?
I'm not trying to be an ass here, but it is a valid question. A group of vets might declare on a mining corp, and on the surface appear to just be looking for cheap ganks... but what if that mining corp is taking their minerals and selling them to a real enemy of theirs at discounted rates? Collaborating with the enemy warrants interference, many people would argue... or, what about a group of players declaring on a bunch of mission runners? Again, on the surface griefing, but by denying the ability of a group to make money in space, you give your own mission running alts more economic leverage, as it will drive up the prices of the products they can get (like CNRs and faction items) via supply and demand.
Furthermore, why should this be an issue? With the new CONCORD response system to discourage suicide ganking, people in highsec are already the safest they've been in a long while (if ever), and all that's left to worry about is wardecs. Attempting to constrain these will only serve to make highsec even safer - how does this mesh with risk vs. reward? It doesn't, someone running highsec L4 missions receives a substantial amount of cash in the face of negligible danger, even while in a player corp - if wardeced, dock up or take a break from the game. Even worse still is that there is a significant portion of the highsec population that is nigh-invulnerable, those people still in NPC newb corps after years of playing the game, able to run missions or trade with no threat of consequences, while affecting the economy in potentially severe ways (see macro miners or farmers).
This leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I realize the devs have a vested interest in trying to prevent griefing, as the nature of your playerbase has changed with time, but it goes against the sandbox nature the game has thrived on. Time and time again, threads pop up with newbies asking for help against people randomly decing their new and small player corp, and the vets give them advice - fly cheap ships, swarm their expensive ships and try to take them out (and win on ISK), get friends to assist you, et cetera. Hell, a similar situation happened to me three years ago, and it actually drove me into PvP after I saw how much fun could be had...
The TLDR point I'm trying to make? Wardecs are fine, if you want them to be less about griefing and more about combat bump up the fees a bit, rather than revamping the system to be even more protective of a section of players that are the safest they've ever been.
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