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Staking A Claim On Your Survival

On how to make your escape easier

So there I am shooting a couple of Hulks, but with only a single point fitted to my Manticore. I have a Tengu about to breathe down my neck, so I am not expecting to destroy both exhumers, but I am still trying to put the fear of Penny in them. I do this by cycling my disruptor between the two ships, exploiting the peculiarities of warp engines. When a ship is trying to enter warp but is prevented from doing so the engines will return to their previous mode of operation. What I am relying on is that the pilots went from being stationary to trying to enter warp directly, which when disrupted will cause the ship to ‘stall’.

Cycling the point between the two ships is a risky tactic, as it theoretically shouldn’t work. Either pilot should recognise when the engines are being disrupted and when they are not, and align manually to their escape route, engaging warp drive as soon as the point drops. But the stalling problem is compounded by another quirk, in that the escape route in w-space will often be your tower (or a wormhole, which suffers the same way), and warping to a bookmark is controlled by a context menu. Having to navigate the menu is rather more involved than rapidly punching the warp button on the overview.

Essentially, unless the pilots know exactly what’s happening and take care to align manually, their slow Hulks will never be able to get up to three-quarter speed in order to enter warp. Trying to enter warp directly and stalling the ship will reduce the Hulk’s velocity such that accelerating from zero takes longer than the cycle time of my warp disruption module. Of course, selecting a celestial object will open up the possibility of spamming the warp button, which is right next to ‘align’, another convenient button, but this is a risky move for the defender. The attacker could follow, and soft targets generally warp more slowly than pointy ships. As the defender still has to enter warp again once the celestial object has been reached, in order to get back home safely, all he has done is move the encounter.

Thinking further, using a celestial object to avoid using a bookmark to warp to could be effective if the celestial object is the moon where your tower is anchored. You still need to warp again once the moon is reached, the short distance to the tower, but anyone following will be at the mercy of the tower’s defences, making it a safer position to warp to. And you get to align easily and spam the warp button. At least, you could, if it were possible to add a single moon to the overview. Adding moons in general only makes the specific moon awkward to single out and clutters up the overview. But maybe you can add that single moon to the overview, just indirectly.

I’ve encountered a solution to adding the tower’s moon to the overview before, I just haven’t recognised it. Of course, it may not have been used as such a solution, but it occurs to me that anchoring a territorial claim unit to your moon creates a superior escape route. The TCU appears on the overview from anywhere in the system. It can be warped to, aligned to, and placed on the same grid as the tower. There will be no need to navigate relatively fiddly context menus to align or warp to a bookmark in a panic, and even though you won’t be inside the tower’s shields arriving at the TCU will provide covering fire from the active defences.

Maybe the TCUs I’ve so far encountered have nothing to do with providing a better escape route, and are anchored for completely different reasons. But it seems like a good idea to me to anchor one to provide a convenient point visible from anywhere in the system that can be accessed by standard navigation tools. The TCU may advertise the location of your tower, but that is far from a secret anyway. I’m wondering if a territorial claim unit may just save your clone.

January 27th, 2011 | Category: combat, mining, pvp, reflection, wormhole | 2 comments

More Missions Don't Mean Less PvP

On interacting with the environment

More PvE content has been added with the latest expansion to EVE Online, Incursions. This has caused a little stir amongst some capsuleers, concerned that mission runners are getting developer love whilst PvP combat is in a state of decay and in need of attention. I see it as more of a consequence of the nature of the two environments.

PvE content needs to be designed, crafted by developers, and seeded in to the galaxy. The nature of this design process makes each instantiation of the same type of content identical to the other instantiation, which is common practice for PvE. Random features can be added, but issues of balance and fairness rule out much option for a new experience each time.

The static nature of PvE makes the experience repetitive and, sooner or later, entirely predictable. Once a mission or anomaly has been explored and deconstructed it can be faced with no trepidation or concern for the unknown. Every foray in to PvE content ends up with essentially no risk and no surprises, and PvE becomes safe and predictable. The only way to overcome players knowing all the PvE content is to create new content, which itself will become known with time.

Contrast PvE content with PvP encounters. The field doesn’t need to be designed, although terrain features can create a focus and add to the complexity. Enemy ships don’t need to be designed beyond those the players already fly. New weapons or abilities aren’t needed, nor is any AI. Players provide it all. And, unlike PvE combat, every PvP encounter will be different. There is no set order as to who fires first, if a particular ship with a specific role will be present, or if the opposition will flee or call in reinforcements. There is no entering PvP combat knowing the outcome, even if it is possible to manipulate the odds heavily in your favour.

PvE content needs to be continually added for players to remain interested, as the same content remains the same. PvP content is made by the players themselves, creating infinite possibilities. There are certainly improvements that can be made, such as adding new ships, weapons, or terrain and mechanics (such as player-owned structures, or other sovereignty items), but the opportunities created with each improvement are vast compared with PvE additions. A few tweaks to the environment can lead to months of interesting PvP combat, as different capsuleers find new options and counter-options, whereas PvE content with a similar expected time-span may require dozens of missions to be designed.

I don’t think there is a risk of PvP combat being undermined in New Eden. Until low-sec, null-sec, or w-space disallow full PvP interaction—and let’s not forget that PvP is far from banned in high-sec—players will continue to fight players. The options, the risk, the uncertainty all combine to create new experiences on a daily basis. More missions and other PvE content may be added with each patch, but that’s because the PvEers need someone to make the content for them. PvPers make their own content.

January 20th, 2011 | Category: missions, pve, pvp, reflection | 2 comments