[In the time honored tradition of Eve online, Sugar
discussed things she doesn't know anything about in the most random way.]
I know that no one
is tired of hearing the endless streams of topics about the various major bits
of drama that have gushed all over the game of late. After what seemed
to be a quite Fall and sleepy holiday things went wild. Retribution was
fun and appreciated but the rage with bounties, tears of mission runners and
new joy over the cruiser changes were mild compared to the plethora of frothing
over the CSM minutes and my own personal tears over the BC changes.
Thankfully, some
people have not abandoned the habit of discussing things they know nothing
about and suggesting terrible ideas for change. Knowing that I do
not participate enough in these instates, often too busy hiding from my own
Legion or bouncing around in frigates and blockade runners, I felt that it was
time to do my duty.
I started to
wonder… what about peoples stuff?
You see, one of
the negatives of a war in null sec is that stuff gets abandoned. Yes, I
know that people will say things like ISK and structure grinds and timers and
CTAs and other such things. But really, what about the hoards of
abandoned stuff? The stuff that sits, waiting each day for its owners to
resub only for them to find out they have been torn from the sweet piles of hoarded
clutter that they once loved?
One of my issues
with Worm Holes are that they are not secure. The POS can be robbed.
The POS can be destroyed. Everyone can lose the wormholes entrance
and find themselves disconnected forever from their things. A problem in
Sov null is the same. People have stations but they risk the change of
being locked out of their stations. A fast, devastating back stab from
inside of the corporation leadership will render them stuffless.
The terrific pain
of losing one's stuff can be enough to make one risk averse. Unwilliness
to invest to heavily of one's life in an outpost that might be torn away
happens. This leads to messy bedroom like asset lists. These lists
are full of page after page of stuff. The issue with this, beyond horrifying
the neat freak in some of us, is that if stuff is spread across a vast distance
of NPC stations due to the complex need to not fully trust the outpost then it
decreases the efficiency of someone responding to things. People will do
things like fly Gunless Naga to go and get their guns in their half fit Naga
and respond to a CTA because people are people even when you give them mutating
drugs and radiation.
But, being tasked
with the job to solve issues I have never had to deal with myself by absolutely
no one but my own wandering imagination, I started to wonder: What if people
had personal eject buttons for their stuff What if they could send their
stuff careening into space for a pickup? Then there could be stuff rescue
fleets!
Instead of stuff
abandoned for the possible forever there could be a chance for freedom.
And like someone climbing a barbwire fence while running from wild dogs
in the jungle, that chance for freedom would be worth it to some.
As I understand
it, there is currently an ejection system in the game with PI. It spits
your goodies into space for you to retrieve. If one were able to do this
to stuff (all or nothing I guess because like multiple girlfriends, you may
love some more than others but you can’t admit that) and then have a vast stuff
rescue fleet it might be interesting.
In the grand sense
of poetic scale logistics maneuvers bulk haulers and freighters would descend.
A legion of jump freighters (because I’m sensible and know that’s all
that it would be at the most) and carriers and mother ships would arrive for
the Red Cross of Stuff Rescue mission pinned to their sleeves. Stuff
would be scooped up and the rescue forces would retreat from the natives down a
wild white water rapids of high adventure as cargo holds full of T2
modules squealed in glee and arrows thunked just short of their
targets.
Thanatos would
sail into deep space as probers frantically searched for them and pilots raced
to board the empty ships.
Ahh, such sweet
dreams.
[End Random]
[End Random]
Brilliant! EVAC ops are go! Cloaky EVAC intercept maneuvers are go!
ReplyDeleteI like it! Mind you, all I have stranded in station are six Rifters, and I don't really care about those, so I'm not in a position to judge this from personal experience, but it sounds great!
ReplyDeleteIt's fairly common sentiment among wise Eve players that you should consider you ship lost as soon as you undock it. That way, when you lose it, it doesn't sting. "You don't fly what you can't afford to lose." It would be wise to extend that to "you don't *buy* what you can't afford to lose."
ReplyDeleteRisk-averse people will be risk-averse. That's just the way of it. Eliminating the possiblity of losing access to stuff (or just losing it outright) doesn't make those people more apt to take risks; it simply removes the risk all together.
Ownership of outposts actually means something. It's something to fight over. The challenge of any sov-holding alliance leadership is to present a strong enough image to their membership to convince them that they should invest in their space. That they should fight to defend it. And if they lose it, that they should fight to get it back.
We need more good reasons to fight over space (other than tech moons), not less.
Or is there an increase in risk to be able to retrieve stuff if not space? Would it toss people out into dangerous waters for a retrieval or cause them to place even more valuable items into a situation where they may be able to retrieve them?
DeleteAt some point, if they have said the loved "I didn't want this pace anyway" and functioned on the foreknowledge that all stuff was forfeit they are still at the spot of not having a good reason to fight.