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My name is Hallan Turrek. This is my blog.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Making Low-Sec More Attractive: Pirate Gates

No, not that way...


I've decided to flesh out(teehee) my smuggler gate idea a bit more thoroughly this week. Lets dive right in.

Derelict gates would sit in the middle of nowhere, and need to be probed out. I think this should tie into the developmental index ideas that people want to institute for low sec, but could stand alone as well. The concept is simple, once a certain threshold of kills per day is reached, the abandoned gates in a particular system activate(in addition to the gate it's connected too, of course), and get manned by the local pirate faction. There would be gate guns that are just as deadly as normal gate guns, with a major difference.

These gate guns would treat outlaws like normal gate guns treat normal players. In addition, those who aren't outlaws would be treated to a face full of hurt if they fire on an outlaw in range of the guns.

So basically, we're taking the old gate gun rules and flipping them around for the new pirate gates. These pirate gates would allow shortcuts across low-sec, into null-sec, into a few wormhole systems, and even into and out of high sec. Anyone could gain access once they'd bookmarked them. Only the gate gun rules would be different.

Now, onto the ultimate question, would something like this bring more people from high sec to low sec? The answer is simply: Not enough to be a solution for the terribly low population most of low-sec suffers from. The presence of hidden gates from high to low-sec would of course bring the occasional curious care bear, and a few more seasoned ones looking for a fight or a profit. The vast majority of care bears will stay in high sec though. This alone will not solve the many problems facing low-sec.

What this would do, however, is offer some benefit to the lifestyle choice of low-sec living. It is in dire need of some true motivation. If you don't enjoy the lifestyle for it's own sake, the concept of being a space pirate, or the friends you've made... the game itself has no real incentive to play as a low-sec resident.

Making it more fun for the outlaws would be a fantastic start.

6 comments:

  1. Not sure about wspace or hisec, but the others (low/null) are great. This could be just the thing for giving the locals 'their own' part of losec.

    At least when first released, I'm not sure it should take ppl more than 3 jumps or so. Though once it comes into it's own, something akin to development might take it up to 6 systems.

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  2. I like the concept, but really don't think they should be taking people to wormhole space, that section of EVE is balanced in a very particular way, and allowing gate travel there, would really disturb that balance.

    Would it bring more people to lowsec? No. Nothing will make people that live in highsec move to low, people play there BECAUSE it's highsec, and would continue to do so even if you moved all the L4s out.

    Ultimately lowsec has to offer the non-pirate something other than "Come to Lowsec, Get Ganked".

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  3. I've always been in favor of black market stations in low-sec with no taxes. Its not much of a benefit, but it does add up.

    I'd also like to see more sites with sleeper-type ai, as it would put but the person running it and the person invading it at risk. This might change the risk equation just enough to slightly increase the number of people running missions in low-sec.

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  4. I would seem that CCP wants to make EvE as realistic as posible, in the future sense. So it would stand to reason that "outlaws" would have some sort of network that they could move through or hide in that the "Law" wouldn't be able to find them in or would have a difficult time in find them. As far as I can tell, there is no reward system for being good or bad. Other than the ability to freely travel through High Sec (if you're "good")

    It is my belief that, in addition to the above post, there needs to be a system which propurtionatly honors the good and the bad. And I dont mean strictly High sec for the do gooders and Low sec for the evil doers. Each region would offer advantages and disadvantages; but not drastically limiting one way or the other.

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  5. I like the idea of low sec rules in high sec systems. The problem with low sec is the access through gates, which are perceived as being a risk by the player. Eliminate that risk by having planets controlled by low sec factions; so the planets system(moons, asteroid belts) is low sec(no C&C) and boost rewards(ores, sites, black markets) and there may be an incresase in traffic.

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  6. I was getting at that idea in my post about low sec for the blog banter, but I don't see that I specifically stated it. Still.... I can see where I was wanting to say it in that post and where it just didn't get put. Hate it when I type slower than I think.

    I think it's a GREAT idea, personally.

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