Facts
on the Ground Based Sov in Eve
Facts on the ground refers to who actually controls the space over which
sovereignty is being contested, rather than basing it on a “capture the flag” style
system where a piece of infrastructure or timer based “mini game” determines
sovereignty. This proposal is based on the most recent CCP outline of what they
are considering for a new sovereignty system. It expands on it, and attempts to
address some of its inherent weak points.
Basic Problems to be Solved
Eve’s servers cannot gracefully support massive single-point fleet battles with
acceptable game play. They lag out and become unplayable. At the same time,
Eve’s sovereignty mechanics encourage massive single point fleet battles. One or the other needs to change. The game mechanics can be altered with less
effort and risk and with greater potential results than making changes to
server hardware and the game software.
There is relatively
little role for small gang combat and “guerilla warfare” in determining
sovereignty. This creates a strong incentive for sov
holding entities to ignore or avoid and refuse to engage small gang / guerilla
forces in their space, reducing the overall incentive to PvP.
Isk making infrastructure is virtually invulnerable
to attack by small fleets, allowing for risk-free un-guarded operation and
further limiting the role of covert operations and “guerilla warfare” in
determining sovereignty.
Basic Sov Mechanics
Under the proposed mechanics, sovereignty is earned and held by occupying and
making productive use of space, and aggressively defending it against
incursions by hostile entities. The more
actively a sovereign entity occupies and uses their space and defends it
against attackers, the stronger their claim to sovereignty becomes.
Occupancy:
An
number of “sovereignty points” accrue for each minute a member of the
sovereignty holding entity occupies their sovereign space. Sovereignty points decrement
for each minute that a member of a hostile entity occupies their space. The
rate of accrual is capped at 20 ships in space to discourage “blobbing”.
In order
to occupy the space, the occupying player must be in space and subject to
attack. Sovereignty points do not accrue
during the time that a player is cloaked, behind a pos shield, docked, or in
warp. After a player exits warp,
sovereignty points will begin to accrue after a 90 second “cool-down” period.
A modifier
applies to the occupancy accrual rate when the occupying player is actively
engaged in making productive use of the space (NPC combat or mining). This gives the sovereign entity an incentive
to secure their space well enough that it can be put to use by non-combatants
and a role for non-combatants in strengthening their alliance’s claim to their
space.
Kills:
A number
of sovereignty points equal to a multiplier of the accrual rate per hour for
occupancy accrue for each kill of a hostile ship in sovereign space. Each kill
of a ship in its own sovereign space decrements sovereignty points by a like
amount. The ratio of points for kills
to points earned for occupancy can be fine tuned to insure that the sovereign
entity is highly motivated to actively defend their space (get kills) and a
attacking entity is highly motivated to get kills.
This
mechanic will also allow an attacker or defender to use hit-and-run tactics to
weaken the claim to sovereignty of a large force that is not particularly
combat effective and relies more on sheer numbers.
The number
of points allotted for a kill might vary based on ship type, but would need to
be carefully balanced and remain relatively “flat” to ensure that fleets were
composed based on combat effectiveness, rather than attempting to win with
overwhelming numbers. While massive
“human wave” type attacks are a valid war tactic, the reality of Eve is that
the servers cannot support them gracefully, and so the mechanics should
discourage them.
Losing Sovereignty
Once
sovereignty points decrement to 0, sovereignty is lost, and is claimed by the
entity that is accruing the most points (occupancy and kills) at the time. While sovereignty is being contested it may
switch a number of times until one side of the other gains the upper hand.
Incentives Created
These
mechanics are aimed at encouraging:
• The sovereign entity to occupy and use its sovereign space
• The sovereign entity to aggressively engage and kill
attackers
• Attackers to frequently send gangs into sovereign space both to occupy it and
get kills.
Problems Addressed
The proposed mechanics greatly reduce any advantage in massing more ships on a
single grid or in a single system than the server can handle effectively. Sovereign entities are have
incentive to spread out and actively occupy and make use of as many of their
claimed systems as possible. An attacker
occupying one system at a time with a large fleet would ultimately be
ineffective, as the defender would simply re-occupy the system when the “blob”
moved on.
The winning
strategy would be to occupy many systems at the same time with as few ships as
required to be combat effective. It
would tilt the balance of power away from brute force, which the servers cannot
effectively handle, to player skill.
Battles would ebb and flow across multiple systems simultaneously with
defending and attacking forces being positioned and repositioned dynamically.
The
proposed mechanics eliminate fixed, predetermined points of attack that
encourage blobbing. Sovereignty more or less reflects which entity is actually
in control of a system, constellation, or region.
Time zones
are naturally accounted for with this system, and require no artificial
mechanics. Sovereignty points accrued for occupancy will tend to offset for two
entities in different time-zones contesting the same space and winning or
losing sovereignty will come down to kills and losses in the “border times”
when the two entities come into conflict with each other.
System,
Constellation, and Regional Sovereignty
Acquiring sovereignty over a constellation requires
holding sovereignty, either outright or by treaty, in the majority of that
constellation’s systems. Acquiring regional sovereignty likewise requires
holding sovereignty in a majority of that region’s constellations.
Sovereignty points for constellations and regions begin to
accrue when sovereignty over the constellation or region have been
secured. An attacking entity must
decrement region sovereignty points to zero before sovereignty points on the
constellations within the region begin to decrement. Likewise, constellation sovereignty points
must be reduced to 0 before system sovereignty points begin to decrement.
This means that attacking a region would be a full-scale
invasion, with the attackers occupying and maintaining a positive kill to death
ratio in enough systems that the balance would tip and sovereignty points for
the region would start to decrement.
They would have to then continue their offensive until regional
sovereignty points were at 0. They could
then begin to reduce sov points in individual
constellations to 0, and then finally individual systems. Sovereignty would begin to drop from the
“bottom up” with systems being lost first, then constellations, then the
region.
Taking a constellation, and especially a region, would
require a sustained full scale invasion that encompassed many systems
simultaneously. It would be a massive,
widespread war, but it would be played out as many running skirmishes over a
wide area, rather than a series of one or even a few single point,
pre-determined battles that result in fleet sizes that the servers do not
gracefully support.
Border
Defenses
The sovereign entity will be able to
install border defenses at system, constellation, and region gates over which
they hold sovereignty, including manned guns, neut
towers, webbifiers, warp scrams, etc.. Region gates
will have the most grid/cpu, allowing for the
installation of the greatest defenses, followed by constellation gates, then
system gates.
Treaties
Through treaties, an entity may aquire constellation
or regional sovereignty by agreement with other entities that hold sovereignty
over constellations or systems within them. These treaties will be like current
contracts, and will spell out the terms of the treaty, including payments,
collateral, etc.
An
alliance would agree to hold sovereignty over a system or constellation within
the claimed space of another alliance in return for specified considerations
defined in the treaty. This will allow a
large space holder to delegate the maintenance of sovereignty to smaller
alliances who are interested in actively occupying and defending the space.
The loss
of sovereignty by a party to a treaty could obviously effect
the sovereignty of the constellation or region holder. Treaties may therefore specify minimum
sovereignty holding requirements (i.e. net sovereignty point gain over
time).
Infrastructure
Changes
Infrastructure (POS and related modules and station services) would be changed
to discourage blobbing, and eliminate “AFK” isk
generation without risk. The automatic “reinforced mode” would be replaced with
a timer system that allows the infrastructure owner to put the infrastructure
online and in “reinforced defensive” mode on a regular schedule.
When the infrastructure is “online” is it always vulnerable to being attacked
and destroyed. When it is in “reinforced” it is invulnerable to attack, but its
modules do not function. 100% efficiency bonuses are given to infrastructure in
sovereign space to make them as efficient as their counterparts in
non-sovereign space when operated 12 hours a day. Additional bonuses might be given to
infrastructure in sovereign constellations and regions to encourage “empire
building”.
Isk
generating modules such as assembly arrays and moon miners would be modified to
work outside the POS shield, to make them vulnerable to being attacked and
incapacitated by roaming gangs.
These
changes are intended to eliminate fixed points of battle that are known far in
advance, and the large fleets that assemble to fight them, while providing a
greater role for small gang “guerilla” warfare in depriving a sovereignty
holder of economic gain from their space.