This will be my first time participating in this, so if I mess it up somehow, let me know…
Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
“Last month Ga’len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith “WebMandrill” Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completelyfrom EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?”
Well I learned all about War Dec’s last night, and I have to say this is the first bump in the road for me mechanics wise. And when I saw this was the month’s topic on Blog Banter, it fit.
The setup? I need to move 20 jumps to get to my corps new home. Turns out its in Placid, which is Gallente space, and right next door to a slew of Federal Customs agents. So our paths continue to coincide for now. Plus I think things have begun to get a little better structure and communication wise…but I digress.
At one point, there was talk of cynoing a carrier out to pick me up, because that 20 system line has been camped by the corps we are at war against. Even though they are high sec. So apparently this allows you to start stuff anywhere in the universe if the other guy is blinky red to you, without consequence. So…new players should stay out of corps, unless they want to get ganked everywhere, instead of just in low sec and 0.0 space?
Really? On the war dec page, it says that neither war is mutual. I asked around, and apparently when a corp war decs, the other corp can reciprocate, in which case they foot half the bill, or they can turn it down, in which case the aggressing corp pays all the bills. But nothing else changes. So…why would you ever make it mutual?
So what if I leave the corp? Well, there is a 24 hour cooldown, during which you are still considered a war target…so long as you had a role in the corporation (which I did – “Recruit”). So…why would you ever assign roles in game?
So for my two cents, War Declarations need to be replaced completely. There’s alot of loose ends to the current system. Basically, War Decs are nothing more than bribes to the Empire and Concord to stay out of your fight. Fine, but call a thing what it is and play it as it should be. Wars belong in unclaimed space…
And while we are at it, no more raising of Security Status. EVE allows players to gank and rebel to their hearts content, and then kill a few rats to smooth things over. Seriously? Once your sec status drops below zero, it should never again be able to go above zero.
Results? Corp Wars in Empire space look less like Vietnam and more like the Gang Warfare of the 20’s and 30’s. Capone and Dillinger anyone? Bribes, black market trading, drivebys. Think of how factional warfare and militias could be interwoven with this! And we acquire more of a rogues gallery. Yeah, I know, the Sec status thing is harsh, and I’m still thinking it through, but…
Anyway, both of these things are not quite in line with the rest of the EVE experience, and need a little work. Along with PLEX’s…but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.
- Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
- EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
- Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter – It’s the Scotch
- The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
- The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, “Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!”
- Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
- Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
- EVE’s Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
- Miner with Fangs, Blog Banter – It’s the Scotch
- A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won’t You Die?
- Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
- The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
- Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
- One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
- Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
- Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
- A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
- Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
- Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
- Facepalm’s Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
- Memoires of New Eden, You’re Fired
- Kyle Langdon’s Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What’s a Titan?
- Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
- Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
- I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
- Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
- Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
- Estel Arador Corp Services, You’ve got mail
- Epic Slant, Let Mom and Pop Play: EVE Blog Banter #9
- Deaf Plasma’s EVE Musings, Blog Banter #9 – Removal of Anchoring Delay of POS modules
- Podded Once Again, Blog Banter #9 – Do we really need to go AFK?
- Postcards from EVE, 2009.07.02.00.29.06
- More articles as they are posted!
Harbinger Zero 
I take it you have never had negative security status. It takes forever to get security status up even killing only battleship class NPCs. For example, several months ago I spent about a week getting my Yarr on pirating in lowsec. I participated in no more than maybe 5 kills and it took me weeks to get my sec status back to the point where I could get into high sec space and I had started with +8 security status. One pod kill drops your sec status by 2.5 points. Just that change is equivalent to a couple days ratting and thats only if you have access to 0.0 rats. If you are limited to lowsec rats you are looking at a very long haul indeed getting back to positive status.
The fact is that EvE is a game and people enjoy being able to try one thing for a while and then try something else. Making security status permanent would rob many players of the chance to try out something else once they have pirated at all.
Keep in mind that highsec is the safest part of eve not the safe part. If you have problems with a wardec against your corp you probably should have looked into their war status before joining.
I agree that there does not seem to be a reason why any corp would ever make a war mutual. As for the gang vs nation warfare I think you need to remember that corps are a lot more similar to 23s/30s gangs than they are to a government in both relative size and purpose.
Anyway thanks for the read. Fly safe!
Hmm, well the not being able to raise your sec status would cause a lot of grief. There’d be no way to get back into empire if you ever lost too much sec status. And there are newer players who don’t really understand the impacts of losing sec status who’d be permanently affected. Like the one where the noob locks the station and fires “just to see what happens’ – instant loss of sec below 0! And no way to recover? Seems a little harsh to me.
I think some method to improve sec status is needed.
Hmm, perhaps I wasn’t clear. I’m not opposed to allowing players to raise their sec status, I just dont think you should be able to go back over 0.0 status once you have dropped below it. That should still allow you time in Empire without retribution right? Many players hit that 8.0 status mentioned just to be able to kill again, in an infinite security yo-yo. Everything else in EVE has permanent consequences, why not this?
I’ve been with the corp several months, but even in my small corp, I have no say over war decs, policy, or diplomacy. Should rookie pilots jump corps everytime one war decs? I do agree that corps are more like gangs – this is why I think their conflicts, at least in Empire space – should more resemble that style of conflict. So you bribed Concord to not take a security hit when attacking me, fine, shouldn’t I be able to bribe the local Amarr sentry guns to help me out when you jump me? (-:
Thanks for the comments both, I’m off to read your blogs now!
I actually understand your thinking. It would be CONCORD saying, “you’ve been a pirate before why should we trust that you won’t do it again?”
As a pirate I wouldn’t care if I couldn’t go above 0.0 again. Maybe a threshold so new players aren’t affected. Perhaps under -2.0 you can’t get your sec status above 0.0 again.
Pingback: Ripe Lacunae » The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
Pingback: The Captains Log » Blog Archive » Blog Banter # 9: Cloaks and Missiles
Bribing sentry guns, I like it….
I like your idea of a more permenant “security hit” but I’d hate to think that something I did back in 2004 would affect me.
For those “reformed pirates” how about being able to get to -0.1 sec status, and then forced to wait out a “cooldown” period of 3-6 months?
Pingback: “Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!” | The Wandering Druid of Tranquility
Pingback: Epic Slant » Blog Archive » Let Mom and Pop Play: Eve Blog Banter #9
Pingback: Thoughts from an Accidental Minmatar Revolutionary » Blog Archive » EVE Blog Banter #9 - Aggression timers, WTs and Stargates
You totally ignored the other reason for wardecs, extortion. Also not calling something for what it is. Ask those who might know, what was the reason given FOR the wardecs your corp got, did you make someone angry? or did they just want the mininhg areas you were using? or were they followed up with ‘for 300 million isk this can all go away”
mikeazariah
We were the ones doing the war dec’ing. Yes, I did not think about using it for that end (is that really financially feasible?) But you make my point for me – as you said that’s extortion, not a declaration of war. Let’s call it what it is.
Pingback: You’re Fired « Memoires of New Eden
So your main gripe, if I understand correctly, is not so much the War dec mechanic – but instead, the name? What name would you suggest to replace it? When gangs fight in LA, they are called wars by about everyone I know…
This EVE blog banter was about removing a mechanic,so my main thrust is: war decs should be removed, not renamed or changed.
If that’s not going to happen (and its probably not), then it would be a start to change the name, but there needs to be more than that. Look back in my post at the three “loose ends” in the current system. Just doing a name change would not help with any of those.
Pingback: EVE Blog Banter #9 – F**k Da Police | I am Keith Neilson
Pingback: sceadugenga » Blog Archive » EVE Blog Banter #9:
Pingback: Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey « Into the unknown with gun and camera
Pingback: Industrialist with Teeth » EVE Blog Banter #9
Pingback: EVE Blog Banter #9 ›› EVE's Weekend Warrior
Pingback: EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without « Facepalm's Ramblings
Pingback: [OOC] EVE blog banter #9: Because of Falcon « Diary of a Pod Pilot
Pingback: EVE Blog Banter #9 – F**k Da Police | Keith's EVE Writing
Pingback: The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9) « Long Point
Pingback: "Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!" « The Wandering Druid of Tranquility Archive
Pingback: The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9) | Long Point