I have long wished that EVE Online would expand the "Sand Box" element of the game by giving players the ability to be real Pirates or even just petty criminals.
In the past EVE has had many "Criminal" enterprises, things like Jita Scams, Lottery Scams, Investment Bank Scams, and at one point you might even say Can Flipping.
Today Can Flipping is dead, and Scamming is boring and hit or miss as to whether you succeed or not because it's not really part of the game, it's something players have added to the game themselves.
As a Null Sec PVPer and sometimes Low Sec Pirate, I have always wanted Piracy to be more profitable, but the mechanics of the game made that unlikely except in a few situations. If you kill a 3 billion ISK Marauder, you would be lucky to get a few hundred million ISK in loot if the drop is good. Since the value of the ship it's self is lost for good you miss out on a very large percentage of the value.
So I propose a new Mechanic, that will allow you to steal the other players ship from them by forcing them to eject. The way this would work is that you would damage them until they had less than 10% Structure remaining (very carefully) and the right click there ship and select "Force Eject" which would send the players pod out into space and leave an empty but heavily damaged ship behind to be stolen.
This mechanic would have some fun tactical considerations like the ability to Deny the ship by uncloaking a sniper or bomber and killing it while empty or just after it has been boarded.
Most importantly, this would make Piracy more like Piracy and less like salvaging a boat that has been sunk. Pirates steal ships and cargo for profit, they don't salvage.
This would have a few draw backs, notably that fewer ships would die and instead be stolen, which would have a market impact.
The next idea, is to allow some form of High Sec Theft. With Can Flipping gone, there needs to be some way (other than ganking) to make High Sec dangerous and not a 100% Safe Haven. Naturally this would Suspect Flag the perpetrator.
Perhaps, a module that was based on chance or skill that would steal a percentage of another ships Cargo. The cycle could be long 2-5 minutes so it would only work for people not paying attention.
If you agree with me, then I encourage you to forward this article you favorite Devs on Twitter, the Forums, and on Twitter.
View Comments (19)
How about an incentive to eject?
Consider the current situation: when you destroy a ship to nothing you then go for the pod. Imagine if the person ejected, they would have a bonus of some seconds of complete invulnerability, even bubbles, to escape. That way, if they have some killer implants they can either preserve those to re-ship by ejecting, or stay until the end but likely lose their pod as well.
That would definitely be a good possibility. Perhaps give people with implants a chance to to survive if they give up their ship. The result would be many more people using expensive implants.
Wow... I had no idea how intense some peoples emotions are about this issue. Since posting this article I have received several emails opposing the idea. Including one that called me a F****** C*** and F****** Scumbag because evidently he lost his freighter. (I don't gank freighters so don't blame me)
I can understand that new players need an area with more safety and that is high sec. But at the same time, without danger and the incentive to advance beyond high sec they are likely to quit in less than a year due to boredom.
But in the end it's just an idea. I leave it to CCP to sit down and decide how and if other peoples ideas can or should be implemented.
As a peace loving care bear that is more intrested in collective progression with friends and allies withing pve/industry i've made this conclusion.. nullsec is safer for mining & ratting/missioning then high sec because in nullsec you know who is the enemy and who is the allies in high sec everyone is nuts and you can rly dock up every time you see a neutral in local leaving you vounerable for potential suicide ganked.. the general way to deal with this is just to tank my mining ship better which only goes so far before u need to slam on shiny mods which just makes u a huge target and now matter how good your skills + ship is the enemy can always just bring in another catalyst.. there really isn't anything to do about it in high sec. While in null all you need to know is "when neut/red in local = dock.. when local is blue = pew pew away"
I agree... If you use some basic safety measures Null Sec is safer than High Sec in a lot of ways. A 10-30 second local delay in all null sec would be a good solution to that.
I never understood why Null Sec (the areas without the infrastructure of the empires) had the ability to see everyone had come into the system. It would be nice if Alliances had to build a sensor structure to see ships and then you could get around that by jumping in. Certain activities could "broadcast" you presence, like sending out a transmission, or being spotted by an allied ship or structure, etc.
That's something I've wanted for a long time. At very least a delay to null sec local so that macro miners and bot ratters could be caught more easily. As it stands now, the deeper you go into sov null, the more botters you find and the moment you come into local they warp to a POS.
Like the idea. How about a special bounty tied to the total value of the ship?
As for nul sec, I really, really wish they would get rid of the free local Intel and apply the same system as for WH space. Once you run the nul entry system gate camps, nul is actually pretty boring. WH space is just a much more challenging place that going back to nul is very no hum now.
Crime does not and should not pay.
It's bad enough that ccp allows bullying in the game but to reward piracy as you suggest would be wrong on so many levels. If you want to be rewarded for blowing up ships go run some missions. Try bounty hunting etc. I admit that bounty hunting rewards are very low and need to be at least doubled to be worthwhile.
As for you being a F****** C***. I would have to agree.
EVE is not safe. Never will be.
Piracy is not "wrong" it is just another part of the game. When you play GTA is it "wrong on so many levels" to steal a car? Or when you are playing a FPS and shoot another player?
Remember EVE is a video game and your spaceship is just an assortment of pixels.
Imagine how terrible the game would be without PVP or Piracy or Danger... Like playing an FPS and just going around hugging everyone else.
Guys leaving because they rage quit after unfair agression.... not because they cant afford pvp. Piracy is just a question o massive guys/vessel/dps on a poor victim unlucky to go thru a system, no need skills or something just group to kill the unlucky.
The comments I have read hear have made me change my views slightly. I think that trading Ganking for a new more reasonable danger may be the best way to go.
A year ago we were around 40k players/accounts online in same time.. actually its more around 20K. The killboards are not slow down, that just tell the carebear/newbie have left the game.
80% of the player are in high sec and dont want to be involved in combat.... you can deal with that or force them to leave.... but in fact guys leaving because pve is repetitive and pvp is a just a question of number.
I you want the game to be fair, high sec must be safe and low/null totally free.. why a gate deny me an access in null (because i have a combat flag) its just stupid.
Eve is about risk vs reward. Please explain to me how you justify risking a bunch of 2mill Catalysts against someones 2bill Marauder and think that balances up? No way. Simply noone gets to make billions for a few minutes work. The odds are already stacked against non pvp players in that they can be ship scanned and fitted against as well as tracked via locator agents. Making ganking mote profitable would I feel undermine the variety of play in eve and create such a toxic environment that no one would fly anything but t1 cruisers.
I would not support forced ejections in High Sec and the theft I would like to see in high sec would be much smaller than 2 billion ISK Marauders.
High Sec Ganking is another issue. Right now people can gank with very little penalty. A couple cheap Catalysts can kill a 200 million ISK mining barge, then wait 15 minutes and do it again with no real recourse for the victim. Fixing the Bounty system and kill rights system would be the best way to fix it.
As it stands now bounties aren't even thought about beyond "oh look he had a bounty." In fact a few days ago me and a few other guys killed a Devoter with a 380 million ISK bounty. We each got 6 million ISK for our effort and no one really cared. If we would have received the full hull value of the ship it would make us more likely to hunt high bounty pilots, corps, and alliances.
Kill Rights are also mostly ignored. If someone puts a 10-20 million ISK kill right on me, I will just pay a friend to activate it and kill me in a worthless ship. They only work when set at a high level like 50 million or more and then attackers have to weigh whether or not it's worth it. Even worse, Kill Rights serve no purpose in Null sec. If a pilot lives in Null Sec, uses an alt to resupply, and only ventures into low and high sec to kill/gank people, there is no recourse.
Perhaps Kill Rights in null could be used to force eject pilots from stations? lol
My point is that CCP needs to balance Criminality with Enforcement and provide mechanics for people to become Bounty Hunters, and Kill Right Enforcers. Doing that will be difficult but will discourage and punish people who are criminals.
It's a nice idea, I been for long waiting for them to add some new content to the pirate side. When I started playing EVE I expected to be able to make piracy as a career. A way of actually earning a living in the game. However, I soon realized that it was impossible.
I tried to even ransom people but it's just a huge waste of time. Besides, most people not paying you. Most fight in low sec are between small ships that die in a matter of seconds. You can't really stop and ask for a ransom and most people don't even pay them.
I wish, but only wish they actually added a similar feature. But since 2005, they really never innovated anything, I doubt that they will now.
I am seeing so much anger about high sec ganking lately that I think a built in form of piracy may be the solution. Remove high sec ganking in return for a new form of theft that was more reasonable and could be defended against.
Then for low sec a forced ejection or even a ransom prompt option that would guarantee the victims safety. These would provide a solid income for pirates without putting unrealistic pressure on new players.
The problem like many things in EVE is implementation and is it exploitable. For example if paying a ransom grants immunity pilots will use it on them selves to safely travel through dangerous space.
I hope CCP does something to make it more about income and less about griefing.
I hope you are right. Well, it's true that CCP has been hearing their player base more now in days.
I do agree that high sec ganking needs some drastic changes. As it stands now, flying a hauler with +200 mill isk is a certain way to get sooner or later ganked. One of the main reasons why I decided to train my alt for t2 hauler. Yet, I still get attacked time to time.
The worse part is the offenders really don't have a huge penalty. They can easily drop their negative status using a few clone tags, which at the moment are pretty cheap.
Anyway, I really enjoy reading your content. Keep up the good work. Thanks
I'd actually like to see ship boarding. It would be cool if they could incorporate some FPS ship/station battles for control of the ship, station or POS. However, I realize that would be a major game remodel, so I'd suggest a potential hijacking mechanic: utilize Space Marine Drones as a boarding party to force ejection from a ship based on speed. You could limit the drones speed (to 200m/s slower/faster T2?) to prevent jacking perfectly good, fast combat ships. It would require fitting ships for the purpose (at least having the drones in your drone bay). Then the newly acquired ship auto-pilots to a predetermined location (system, station, POS, bookmark). As a defense, those worthless Marines, Militants, Soldiers, etc that you pick up in missions, or buy as commodities (why? who knows?) could prevent the boarding if they are carried by the defending ship. It would give those infantry type items purpose for sure. Food for thought.