A Proposal for a Game of Outposts

I’d like to transform the rules of outpost ownership from their current state: with the exception of one Castle Constellation in each region, I propose changing an outpost owner’s abilities from full access control, to setting docking fees, service fees, and tax rates. In the majority of cases, it would no longer be possible to deny docking rights in null security space.

Wait, back up; you want to do what? Why!? 

 

In broad strokes, Eve Online is a game of creation and destruction; on an individual level, a majority of players prefer as little overlap between these two states as possible. Players prefer to make their money in safe places, either in high-sec where attackers can’t get away with it, or in secluded places, where there isn’t anyone to attack them. When players aren’t in the clear to make money, there is tension. When there’s tension, there’s desertion and instability. When there’s desertion and instability, there’s the possibility of failure cascade, and in the vast majority of cases, it is not in a corporation’s or alliance’s interests to implode on itself. There is a great deal of incentive for an alliance to possess a large buffer zone of sparsely populated space.

Players living in null security space go where they aren’t likely to be found; the best defense against hostility is to give hostile entities nothing to shoot. Players mitigate risks further by fitting cloaks, staying near starbases, and staying in station systems. When you’re on the prowl in nullsec, and the targets of opportunity make themselves safe, there’s very little incentive to stick around; it’s a long trip home, and would-be targets have all the time in the world to make a bigger fleet or to ignore the threat entirely. In highsec and lowsec, there is always the option to dock, no matter who you are. It’s no coincidence that you find a lot more people in most low security systems than null security systems; when you’re looking for targets and the targets decide to ignore you, the docking managers in lowsec aren’t going to say “no.”

I want to see null security space become more like low security space. 

The burden of maintaining territory should fall on the shoulders of those who would make use of that space. The average null security system should be filled with players fighting or working to make a living, not a vacuous expanse controlled by a blob of supercapitals, thrown at anyone eyeing the multitude of vacant bastions. In lowsec, you are only ever truly in control of a situation when you’re there to control it. Low Security Space is a vibrant and dynamic place, so long as there is someone able and willing to fight; all you need is proximity and permission. I want null security space to work more in the same way. Players living around each other will fight each other; Empire building and warfare are the purposes of 0.0 space, but there does not seem to be enough battle to satisfy its denizens.

Nullsec power blocks, such as Pandemic Legion, Goonswarm and Northern Coalition., have been dropping their capital fleets on small groups in low security space because that’s where they can find action. This is not the place where this kind of activity should be taking place; low security space, which does not allow interdiction spheres, anchored bubbles, doomsdays, or bombing runs, was not designed as an arena for super capital slugfests. Yet, lowsec boasts the record for the largest capital engagement in history because there, there is action; a commodity that’s hard to find in large swathes of null security space.

 

Full control isn’t always a bad thing. 

 

Giving players full control of docking and service access isn’t always a bad thing; players like to own castles. Area denial is a potent power, but it’s the type of control that is better as the exception, rather than the rule. Each region in 0.0 space should have a capacity for one “Castle Constellation,” where one alliance can exercise full control over it. Full control of the assembly lines, refineries, and offices is an excellent reward for holding a seat of power, and that seat of power is a worthy reason to war with another alliance.

 

Farms and Fields? We already have Outposts. 

 

Much as Planetary Customs Offices supply a means for bottom up income, the Outpost is the perfect tool for supplying bottom up income for alliances. With their low construction bill, Outposts are common and capable of fulfilling that role; the one caveat is the excessive ownership costs for that role, but that’s not hard to change. Through control of rental rates, refining taxes, and docking fees, there’s a great deal of opportunity to make a buck from the daily activities of people living in your stations. The dynamics of the relationship an occupant has with the owner could be friendly, with low rates, low taxes, or devoid of fees entirely, or perhaps hostile, with maxed out taxes and docking fees that make it prohibitively expensive to harass someone for an extended period of time without taking the station from them.

When players have the right to dock, even when the owners are hostile to them, new opportunities are presented for industrious players to make a buck. A player can supply goods and services to alliances without having to negotiate in advance (while having the opportunity to do so for preferable rates). Perhaps the most intriguing outcome, a player could afford to subside entirely out of an outpost, unbound from NPC controlled territories. For the threat of denied access, and a potential lack of outbound transportation, it’s unwise to leave anything in an outpost that you can’t afford to lose. Changing these rules of the game will rewrite the storage policies of corporations, alliances, and individuals everywhere – for the better.

 

In conclusion 

 

It’s past time to give players the proximity and long term station access they need to turn null security space, and the sovereignty game therein, into a battleground for all sizes of organizations, rather than relying on super-coalitions to create conflict. Null security space needs the liveliness of multiple hostile groups living under one roof. Right now, the game’s incentives are so backwards that many PVPers would rather live in low security space for the action, than fight for the limited ground available to make a name for one’s self in null security space; it’s too easy for someone bigger to simply give someone the boot. Likewise, null security space is often so empty that it’s safer to make a living there than in lowsec. Denying control of docking services could transform, null security space into the environment I think it should be; target rich, busy, and eternally at war within each region’s borders.

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