This week I'll be doing a series of posts about some of the problems I see with high-sec warfare in EVE. I would like to make it perfectly clear that I believe war decs have a definite purpose, and that they should not be removed from EVE. High sec should never be a perfectly safe place. However, the current mechanic and implementation has some drawbacks.
Part 3: Cost
Simply put, the costs associated with a war-dec are obsecenly small when compared to the ease in which isk can be gained in eve. Wardeccing a corp is a few minutes worth of work for a single mission runner, and the funds to dec an alliance can be raised in 2 hours of missions. The base cost for a week of war needs to be dramatically raised so that it is a decision of some import.
In addition to the base cost, I would prefer to see several other changes to wardecs. First, the way that war-dec costs scale with additional wars is far too exagerated. I can understand the need for an increasing cost for each additional war, but would be much more comfortable with 20% to 50% higher for each war, instead of the current pattern. If an organization wants to have 20 wars going simultaneously, it should be economically taxing, but possible.
However, I would like the changes in escalating costs for additional wars combined with several other factors. First would be a size difference multiplier to the base war cost. The sizes of both entitites (aggressor and defender) are compared, and used to change the war dec cost. If the size difference is a factor of 4, you'd pay twice as much. A size factor of 16 would be 4 times as much, up to a hard cap of 10 times as much (factor of 100 difference). This would make wars between dissimiliarly sized wars possible, but encourage wars between more equally matched adversaries.
Additionally, I believe war decs should have an escalating cost factor for each additional week of war. This would help focus wars on actually being fought, instead of being maintained for easy ganks week after week. War deccing corps could choose to pay the higher cost, or just move on to a new target. When a war is ended, a timer is begun that is equal to two times the war length. A re-dec during the time causes the war to start back at the same price point it would have been. If the war was 1 week long, a re-declaration within 2 weeks will jump in with the same escalating cost as if the peacetime hadn't occured. If you wait longer than 2 weeks, war costs would reset to the base cost again. A 4 week war would have an 8 week cost cooldown, etc...
Any thoughts on these suggestions?
It is certainly far too cheap to dec a corp. I find it rather surprising considering the nature of war and the proportion to capsuleer incomes. I'm not sure if the cooldown idea would take hold. I'd hardly want 2 weeks for cooldown. It would halt operations a bit too much. But great points and great ideas. Definitely going in the right direction
ReplyDeleteThe cooldown only would apply to wars between A & B. If A decides to stop the war with B and dec C, its the original price.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I like "goals" as they are kinda artifical imho. I for one would prefer an interlinking of wardec mechanics with the market and money side of Eve. I haven't thought it through and think it is unlikely to be implementend like that but basically I for one would like to have wardecs mean something. Like:
ReplyDeletea) Members cannot drop/join corps once war is declared
b) corps and members cannot use safe means of exchange anymore like "give money", "trade window" and "contracts" only the open market and trading stuff in open space (which is interceptable). That way a corp would have to rely on itself to win the war.
c) have some kind of trigger for interactions with wartargets to have ooc characters enter the war.
That way a corp would have to haul the stuff they want to use themselves, no use of ooc haulers/traders/money makers.
There still would be ways to circumvent that, either shut off the market as well in war or have think of something else :)
Additionally I would love to connect the market with standings so you would have to pay higher broker fees (or whatever) if you trade with people with bad standings. Being at war maybe even shutting that off. That way it would matter who you buy from (at least within a small range). High profile traders might even pay/be paid for standings...
I am still pretty new in New Eden, but on thing that I have noticed in the wars against E-UNI that have not been retracted is that there seems to be a flurry of activity and then a petering out on the last couple of days. One thing that may make wars better is to make them need to be re-activated after 72 hours.
ReplyDelete