One aspect of the new Fozziesov mechanic is troll fits, allowing solo or small gangs to cap off (entosis) or reinforce objectives in nullsec with impunity. One fit, for instance, is the Scythe Fleet Issue trollceptor;
[Scythe Fleet Issue, Trollceptor]
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Large Peroxide Capacitor Power Cell
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Entosis Link II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Medium Auxiliary Thrusters II
Medium Auxiliary Thrusters II
Medium Auxiliary Thrusters I
'Integrated' Hammerhead x2
This bad boy can permarun its MWD at 3.9km/s and has 220km lock range, allowing it to effectively kite around a station being a douche. Only downside is the 200M ISK price tag and vulnerability to, eg, a Maulus breaking its lock with a single sensor damp. Nevertheless, Q.Q has started on the forums about how evil wormholers are unfairly trolling nullsec with fits like this and can somebody please think of the children?
I will note here, this was actually a fit used by a nullsec resident to troll other nullsec residents. So don't blame me.
In case you missed the waahmbulance coming to the wormhole forums, I can confirm that CCP did indeed nerf the number of wormholes from C5 space to nullsec (aka Sort Dragon's nerf). So i don't particularly see what the problem is if wormholers (clearly everyone in wormholes is in fact the fifth major alliance in nullsec) come out and troll a station with this shit. It's 200M ISK.
What the whining really shows is that the meta is beginning to develop. It's been a week, tactics are fresh (aside from a couple of organisations who've been hammering Duality to prepare for Fozziesov) and there are people well and truly behind the bell curve in tactical forethought and preparedness.
One of the side effects of the Sort Dragon nerf is that nullsec logistics just got a whole lot harder. If you have to adapt your tactics swiftly, and it requires an influx of, eg, Scythe Fleet Issue hulls and T2 Entosis links, then getting these assets is now significantly harder. This pushes a lot more work onto the plate of the nullsec logisticians, whose job is now a real nightmare with Space AIDS and nerfed wormhole connectivity.
It makes me wonder - did CCP really take any consideration of the effects on nullsec quality of life when it decided to cave in to Sort Dragon's whiny entitlement? Did CCP sit back and take stock of whether nullsec would empty out even more than it is now, if wormhole logisticians were cut off? After all, as whiny and entitled and vain as everyone who plays this game is, there is a straw that will break the back of nullsec living and cause people to just give up. Impossible logistics, or logistics hich requires a full time day job to barely even complete, is perhaps it.
CCP has to move quickly, I feel, on the capital rebalance. These are not just powerful strategic assets. They are common as muck and the peak ships people strove for years to train into, months to afford, weeks to build, days to fit out (4Km3 logistic hassle). They take days to shunt around space-AIDS EVE. They used to dominate the strategic and tactical world of nullsec warfare but now all you need is 200M ISk and Minmatar Cruiser V and you can kick over the lazy, inept and logistically unprepared. Without a need for capitals that clearly presents itself, players won't play capital toons, maybe explaining a 50% drop in active subs since January 2015.
It's critical, I think, that Galatea sees capital rebalance getting a look-in.
As I said on the forums *assuming* the QFG works to any great extent, and given the other change ('QFG will improve connections to wormholes with PVE potential'), logistics may have got easier for some groups - if you assume 'PVE potential' maps to lowend wormholes with kspace statics.
ReplyDeleteThough that is a lot of whataboutery.
I think CCP are kind of addicted to HTFU though, and some of them have got to the point where they assume that the louder the complaints the greater the chance that they are doing the right thing. They don't seem to realise that HTFU cuts both ways (lower subscriptions? HTFU!) and that ultimately this isn't a second job for most people.
The number of groups with QFG's would be the thing. Sure, you may presume Goons, N3, PL and BL have a constellation of QFG's pushing out super connectivity into C1-C2-c3 space, and their "PVE" by which we mean logistics just got better. But they have their logistics sorted anyway. That isn't true of every alliance, and shouldn't be the objective of Fozziesov IMO.
DeleteYou shouldn't *have* to have a QFG to complete your logistics. Even then, wormhole logistics has always been unreliable and quite a lot of work for a few people. It can take hours to sort a chain which could be 25 jumps or more from Jita, eg, highsec in Solitude.
I think you have a good point about the HTFU factor. There may be a vision to make nullsec and wormholes extra hard to live in, because it's got extra easy (or that's the perception). there is an element of gaining satisfaction for ekeing out existence in inimical environments, but once you achieve that, everything else is drudgery from then onwards. to make drudgery turn into active pain is not going to win subs.
Sure, its now 75% more anoms in ratting systems, but there's only so much fun in that. So does EVE become a game of safe, boring fun with painful logistics? Seems so.