Below this line is an essay I have posted to the Eve forums. Feel free to comment here, as well.
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Greetings,
Its really fun to fight over stuff and blow things up in Eve. I am always looking for new and even more fun (and devious) ways to blow things up, or create opportunities to blow things up, or get pad to blow things up. What you will find below is a set of ideas I have been considering for a while regarding combat, loss, and ways to make it more interesting and profitable.
Steps towards Something Greater
Recent updates have brought changes that, while seemingly small in scope, have the power to change the fundamental economic drivers of Eve Online. The first, and perhaps most powerful of these changes was the ship insurance payment changes.
Insurance reimbursements for lost ships are now paid based on the actual value of materials required to build them. This implies an extremely powerful concept: The ISK value of items within Eve can be derived and refined into a single clear number based on aggregated market data. This also implies that such a value can be determined for any item sold via the market. Simply by tracking the ISK value of materials required to build items, the market value of the items themselves, or some combination there of, anything from Meta 1 Scramblers to a Tech 3 Cruiser can have a mean ISK value. This is a key concept for proposals given further in the essay.
The second of these recent changes was the addition of many faction items to the market. The actual ISK value of these items has quickly become clearer since their addition. Some faction items can still only be bought and sold through contracts. While contracts are perhaps useful for rarer items, common items can be tracked more easily through the market. There is also much more price fluctuation in contracts. Multiple items being sold in one contract also makes determining ISK value for items with no market equivalent near impossible. As stated above, determining ISK value is key.
Finally, the most recent update has brought the ability to see what implants were lost when “giving someone a quick trip home”. This is truly the crownpiece of any aggregated ISK value calculation system. We can now know everything lost upon ship and pod destruction and therefore determine down the very last cent (or ISK in this case) the value of all assets involved.
Together I believe these changes warrant a serious rethinking of bounties, kill rights, and factional warfare. An incredible new world of opportunities to enrich the game play experience within Eve Online lay before us. Systems where destruction and loss have clear value, and more importantly, clear rewards are now possible. There are many possibilities –many more then I can relay here and keep my essay any reasonable length! I will try to hit on a few of them below.
Bounties that mean something!
Instead of silly pod destruction Empire generated bounties could pay out a percentage of the target’s assessed losses until the total bounty prize was depleted. Players could freely add their own funds to such bounties as they desired. Private bounty contracts would not only be possible but desired! Two parties, be they single players, corps, or alliances could enter into a contractual agreement where by a third party’s assets were targeted and destroyed. A percentage value of the destroyed items would be paid out to the aggressors.
Under such a system payments could only occur for items which were destroyed, not dropped. However attackers would now gain from both drops and destruction. No more cursing the wicked drop fairies because your targets faction modules did not drop! (At least not so profusely)
Its also interesting to consider pricey “uninsurables”, such as T2 ships under such a system. So you finally caught that annoying nano fit Vagabond? While he gets 30% of the value of a tech 1 stabber for that loss, you on the other hand are operating under a private bounty agreement and get some portion of the actual value of his T2 hull. Lucky you!
Killrights
Within such a system kill rights could be updated to allow destruction of the aggressor’s assets up to the assessed value of incurred losses. This also begs for a reconsideration of transferrable kill rights. That however is not within the scope of this essay.
War Declarations revisited
Instead of a flat fee to attack any given corp or alliance, limited destruction rights within empire space could be purchased. Mercenary corps could no longer endlessly attack groups of industrialists for a flat weekly fee. At the same time attacks which serve a specific purpose could be executed more freely for considerably less isk. (Caveat! I am not supporting one system over another here, just giving some possibilities. Troll for life Brutha!)
Faction Warfare could be truly profitable!
With a more granular loss calculation system in place Faction Warfare payments could be expanded beyond simple Loyalty Points. Cold, hard ISK could also be paid out. This would allow a new income stream in Eve for FW participants! It might also help balance out some of the disparities between opposing empires that currently exist. More opposing FW targets would mean more possible profit and more danger!
Suicide Yarr!!!
Did those guys who just trashed your freighter in high sec with a suicide gank do it for the “LOLs”, or because they were paid off? Anyone really dislike you? You may never know. I like to imagine this as a nice replacement for the recently lost insurance payments.
As you can see there are many possibilities. I believe the examples given above only scratch the surface. The key to all of this is an aggregated market evaluation system capable of giving an arbitrary value to each and every item bought and sold.
The Value of Conflict
The goal here is to create a War Economy: A system where destruction and conflict have value -not only an immediate value, but a speculative one as well. Conflict is what drives Eve Online and makes it the engaging experience we all love. I believe such a system would give players the tools to fight with one another in new rich and robust ways. It would give us new excuses to blow up important internet spaceships. And most important, it would be fun.
