After reading a lot of post about wardec changes, and thinking about the new v the old systems, and then digging into my own thoughts, I keep finding myself asking: What is the point of War Declarations in High Sec?
At the core, a war dec allows Corp A to pay a penalty (isk), and in exchange Corp A gets a free pass to kill anyone in Corp B for a period of time. Simple enough, you are paying to suspend the normal rules of the game. But what is the point of this suspension of rules? It is clear for Corp A, if ship destruction and loot, or the more esoteric value of tears are considered valuable. Corp B gains very little. A change to learn how to harden up, possibly get some kills or loot, or a chance to sit in a station for a week to hopefully bore the attackers into not paying for more rule suspension. Oddly imbalanced no matter how you look at it. And if you have made it this far, I promise there is an actual point to MY ramblings on this topic.
What is missing in this whole equation of war decs is meaning. Corp A and Corp B will gain two things out of the conflict: Killboard info and maybe isk. This seems like a poor trade for disruption of the rules. I think there should be more at stake for both sides. Defenders should have a reward for actually defending. Attackers should have a reward for succeeding. You could play with this in a lot of ways. Kills could reward LP or Standings. A loss (for either side) could result in station rights or office access changes. Wardecs could become a tool to bring Faction Warfare into High Sec in a very limited way. I’m not sure what the right answer is, but it seems odd that wardecs are allowed by the Empire factions if they do nothing but act as an isk sink.
And this could go deeper into how Corporations work. Perhaps if you found a corp, your office and HQ locations become de facto Faction indicators. So if you HQ Fancy Pony Bros in Rens, you are a de facto Minmatar corp, and can only be wardecced by non Gallente or Minmatar corps. Low sec HQs would be unaligned, or choose a FW group to affiliate with. Null corps would obviously be outside the purview of faction standing. A huge portion of Eve’s fiction and story is tied to the interplay between Empire and Pirate factions.
This is obviously a half-baked set of thoughts, but I think wars need more meaning to make them matter beyond how they hit player wallets. Let’s make player corporations a part of the larger story of Eve. Let’s make wars matter when moons are not being fought over.
Flame away!
I’ve always wondered what would happen if you allowed payouts for aggressor kills in wardecs.
Such as, cruisers are worth X, frigates Y, and so on. Max total payout would be cost of the war. However, I think there will sadly always be room for abuse in the system.
I could see that working oddly. I do think the mechanism of victory needs to be more global than individual ship rewards.
It’s always struck me as odd that the Empires just allow fighting, especially with almost every non-wardec high sec combat system being so tightly controlled via both the lore and the actual game mechanics. Why would CONCORD just let people bribe them to duke it out? And why do player corporations outside null sec have so little meaning aside from tax rates?