Topic: Nerf it all! -how to create a game that's fun for the losers-
I'm going to postulate what kind of game would be fun for the losers as well as the winners. Or at least not quite so horribly unfun as now. Then I'll delve into how to make that happen with everyone's favorite thing - NERFS!
First I'll state that I don't PVP in this game. Or ever have in any other game. I have played an awful lot of crafters in PVP games though - only PVPing / PVEing when necessary to advance my crafting skills. I've seen games come and go. I've seen some horrible design choices. I've seen whole games empty out in a couple months because the devs didn't fix them fast enough. I've seen devs limp on with bad design for a while then suddenly fixing things and watched populations explode. I've even seen a few devs leave bad design choices in the game and succeed modestly because there was no real competition way-back-when.
I'm posting from experience - not as a ganker but as an observer of trends and design and populations and sometimes victim.
In order for the game to be least painful for the losers of a battle two things need to happen that do not as of now:
1) The losers must be able to fight back or flee in some way.
2) The losers must be able to inflict some degree of losses on the winners if they choose to fight.
3) The losers must have some hope of escape or mitigating their own losses if they choose to flee.
This game fails big time on all 3 fronts. If you get into a fight one side or the other is almost guaranteed a complete kill, especially if they outnumber/outEP the other side. The losers are often so jammed/suppressed/ENWared that they can't fight back. Or the winners are so RRepaired that there are little to no losses on the winner's side. Teleport nerfs and demobs have almost completely removed the ability to flee from a fight.
To fix this? So the losers don't lose by as much and the winner's don't win it all with no losses? Nerf things. A lot of things. I don't know the numbers but I can identify the cause of the problems.
1) Ewar/Suppressors - either of these makes fighting back impossible for the smaller party. The counter to sensor mucking is to sensor muck the other guy first or more. It's got a little bit of 'stunlock' in that the first to ECM the opponent is likely to win if numbers are even, and if not the one with more ECM is likely to win. This is a classic game design mistake - nothing should prevent any person from interacting with an opponent.
I propose drastically buffing ECCM and nerfing suppressors to only affect opponent lock time. Slowing down their damage delivery is fine, preventing it is not. Or you could just remove ECM entirely - it should never have been added like that in the first place.
2) Enwar - this is Ewar once Ewar/suppressors are nerfed. If you can't do anything because everything requires energy and you have none then you are completely nullified. Nullification BAD!
I propose changing Enwar to an effect that increases energy drain of each module you use. So you can still fight, but each action is more expensive - thus you can fight less often or for less time, but you can still fight. Drainers could have a lesser cost-increasing effect but each time the opponent uses energy you get some of it - thus they have to decide if they are going to give you energy or do nothing.
3) Remote Repair - if you nerf Ewar and Enwar this is what you're left with to negate everything the enemy can do. It will need to be nerfed to allow the loser to inflict some damage on the winner - important for psychological coping with losing the fight.
I wouldn't nerf to completely - just drastically so that it takes 3+ bots to negate 1 bot's damage. In compensation it would need to have it's EP cost drastically lowered - it would become the 'newbie thing' that they do until they can get their damage skills up. Perhaps also treat Ewar and Enwar the same - something somewhat ineffective for newbies to do while they train up.
4) Teleports - you want the enemy to have some chance to escape with at least some of their forces, so that a loss doesn't become obliteration. Total losses should be reserved for those that invite them or are unprepared - gamma bases perhaps. With beta as a stopping point on the way there - lose access to your stuff but don't lose the stuff.
I would simply remove the flagging mechanic for using mobile TPs. Perhaps increase the between teleports cycle time of armored TPs so that they can get less of their bots out, but can still get some of them out.
I agree with Syndic that stacking tuners are overpowered. They need to provide diminishing returns - rather than only allowing one. I don't think that will nerf the problems enough though - you want a good fun game base rather than leaving something in that can be abused if they just work it hard enough.
Full EP refunds for all affecting skills should be provided, of course.
