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| Picture I actually took! |
Over at Target Caller blog Talvorian Dex had a post called Into The Great Wide Open in which he discusses his dissatisfaction with null sec under the new sov mechanics and how he has decided to move elsewhere in EVE:
For my part, I’m not interested in sov null right now, at least as a defender. I want to search for those enjoyable fights, fight outnumbered, and use the sp Talvorian has, similar to how we did when RP was based in lowsec. As I considered the kind of content I enjoyed and looked at the time zone activity of corporations who engaged in it, one strong option came to the top.A couple days later Stabs at Stabbed Up blog posted about his first day in Faction Warfare with Brave:
Adversity. is a slightly smaller corporation with a good pedigree and the kind of activity that really appeals to me. Their doctrines are expensive, but perform admirably. I haven't even moved all my assets out yet (Archon 2.0 on the way...), but I've already gone on a few fleets with them. I've gotten to fly my dreads and T3 cruisers. So far, everyone I've spoken to has been friendly, welcoming, and very capable. I'm always impressed and energized by how friendly dirty pirates and criminals are to members of their community. We have, I believe, one blue. It’s the wild west, baby, and I should have plenty of opportunity to shoot all the things.
And while null may have had the wind knocked out of its lungs, lowsec is getting more crowded by the day.
All told I've spent about 8 hours of the last 24 doing FW and had really good fun. Of the 10 Merlins I brought down 8 are dead but I've got 7 kills and am the corp's top killer!A couple weeks ago I posted about seeing famous faces in my roams lately, like Elo Knight of former Black Legion fame.
Low sec, especially in the Caldari-Gallente war zone and neighbouring systems, is getting very busy lately. There definitely seems to be a migration from null sec to low sec this fall and I wondered exactly why that is. There seems to be a general flow of unhappiness from current null sec overlords about Fozzie Sov but as Rixx Javix on the most recent A Podcast Apart episode said, the complaints actually describe the system working as intended for the most part.
I have a theory.
As much as the null sec coalitions were unhappy with Dominion Sov, they largely adapted their social structures and operations around it. The large entities developed No Attacking Sov treaties and simply roamed and farmed each other for the "good fights". The static stagnation of null sec was boring in one sense, but offered a rich environment to make ISK relatively risk free and still have fights with each other that were all about the killmails and less the strategic objectives.
Fozzie Sov combined with Phoebe jump changes modified the environment purposely to break up the stagnation, and as much as the null sec overlords have adapted to the new rules the line members have found themselves thrown out of their comfort zone. AS much as everyone hated Super Capital Enforced Sov and wanted Occupancy Based Sov, it required a lot less effort on the part of the alliance members to maintain it the former compared to the latter. Suddenly its not just make ISK and have good fights, its work to defend your space and keep indexes up.
So these disgruntled pilots look around and what do they see? Relatively safe space and plenty of good fights going on in low sec all the time. As and former allies and enemies make their home in low sec, more pilots are enticed to leave null sec and give it a try.
But its not all bad news for null sec, oh no! Although the existing power structures have some crumbling around the edges there are still a lot of pilots invested in staying in null and maintaining their empires. And, a lot of small groups previously locked out of the null sec game are squeezing in using the new mechanics to dip their toes in null and have some fun. Additionally, a portion of the newcomers to low sec will eventually get the urge to try their hand at null sec domination once more and will migrate back. But for now, the cluster is turned on its head.
Where will you be?
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LOL!! Me? inna hole bro! Where I belong! Gods above I LOVE Anoikis and EVE!!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks for the reference; I'm glad you found it interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a clear change in the type of player that gravitates towards null-sec. As I've said before, null is becoming home to the "civilized barbarian". Like the vikings who settled Ireland and became more domestic, or the Lombards who settled Italy and created the flourishing culture we saw later, in exchange for stability, you give up some of your adaptability and fighting spirit.
Null is moving towards being populated by "citizen soldiers" rather than the dedicated PvPers that it used to hold. And that's certainly fine. One could make a very good case that it's an essential change to make null-sec into a full, rich environment.
All of those dedicated PvPers, though, find it's not engaging enough anymore. We don't want to be tradesmen and carpenters. We want to burn all the things. We can still "own" space by exerting our will in lowsec without the need to grind indexes.
But doesn't that result in a lessening of what null-sec is? If there's no place for the hardcore PvPers, don't you turn null into a sheep farm? Some might argue that this creates more variety. I argue that it actually exchanges one type of narrow focus for another. PvPers out, builders and isk-farmers in. I'd much prefer a system that strikes a balance to make null ownership appealing to both.
There are two problems:
Delete1) the wolf:sheep ratio must necessarily favor the sheep by an order of magnitude or more, or the ecosystem collapses.
2) the #1 tool of the would-be lone wolf, the "trollceptor," was just nerfed out of existence. If you can't challenge sov unless you intend to take it, guess what all the "dedicated PVP" pilots are not going to do?
3) I think Kirith is closer to the truth here. The null blocs were set up to have a few highly invested and motivated players do everything and then summon a horde of uninvested and otherwise unmotivated players when necessary. Aegis sov is proven to work if the average level of investment is high: trollceptors, it turns out, pop like popcorn when the people in the challenged system at the time actively defend it, to the point where the FCs who started out using them in Providence eventually settled on slow,sturdy entosis Drakes instead. (Using patrols to catch interceptors is like using tank battalions to catch cat burglars, and the people who complained about interceptors knew that full well, so... they had cat burglars nerfed.)
4) Low sec has always been the natural home of dedicated PVPers anyway. Ample stations, no bubbles and no bombs means a much richer meta and a much easier time for solo and small gang pilots.
As I've said on the forums, CCP Seagull doesn't want uninvested players. She wants people in the game, knowing the game, playing the game. Once you realize that there is only a barely perceptible difference between a massive ISBoxer fleet and a typical large nullsec fleet--both use ships chosen and fitted by one person and flown following an exact set of orders from one person--it's not surprising that CCP tried to get people living more in their space. Nor is it surprising that the people whose game was flying around these massive all-but-ISBoxer fleets pushed back, hard. For the record, I'm with CCP here. Uninvested players are poison to a game.
-Dersen