Ok, lets talk about it.
First off, and most importantly: it's way too soon to be calling it a failure or a success. Honestly.
My impressions so far are pretty positive, I think it's been quite fun--with some exceptions I think are key, key changes that need to be made:
1. Being able to scan SAP timers so exact. At any given time our corp usually knows the EXACT(sounds like I'm exaggerating but it's accurate within like 5 minutes every time) time a good 50% of the outposts in the game will have a SAP active. Preferably the whole scanning of timers will be removed completely, honestly it just makes alarm clocking more prevalent and bite sized--and constant. Removing SAP scanning will only work if we make a couple more much needed changes too though...
2. Such as how simple it is to complete a SAP. Passive SAPs are way too easy to cap, 2 and a half minutes out of a one hour window is way too short. Active hacking SAPs I don't have an opinion on yet, but if it's in line with the other SAPs so far it probably needs to be tweaked. Destructive SAPs can be ninja'd by a light EWAR and an assault in almost no time at all, they need more hit points. Specimen SAPs are just terrible to begin with, they throw the entire flow of the game out the window, and under certain circumstances will be impossible to take. I'd be all for just removing specimen SAPs all together, I think they are terrible(what do the rest of you think about specimens in particular?).
3. Letting defending corporations complete their own SAP. I'm not so sure this is a good idea, but if we drastically raise the required effort to take a SAP it could be a prety good way to go. Really it comes down to my second point, specimen aside--the other SAPs are way too easy to take in the time that they are open. With a significantly reduced gap in SAP completion time to the window they are open perhaps letting the defender actively shut their own SAP off could be strong way to go.
I see the frustrations people are having with the whole "my alliance is having a hard time doing this." But honestly, why should it be so easy to hold so much land. It wasn't easy for the British, it wasn't easy for the Romans, and it sure as hell shouldn't be simple in this game--it would break it. Here's the thing, you don't have to defend every single SAP that comes up, and you're not expected to in this new system. However, if you put any effort at all into it you should be able to maintain 70+(85+ I dont think is out of the question either) points pretty easily and strike out against your opponents SAPs.
Right now it's really hard to gauge how the system is working because it's so fresh and we have people either marathoning the game to ensure 100% SAP defense up time so they can bring their SAPs from 05 to 100 points. Give it a week or two and once some of the fatigue of compulsively needing to maintain every single SAP timer that pops up kicks in perhaps we'll see things settle down a little as some of the community sees it less like "AMAGAWD I need to be awake and at a force of 1000 men to defend every timer or this system is a failure!" Relax guys, there's some problems with it now but with some tweaking I think we are looking at a pretty fun and rewarding territorial warfare system. Let the DEVs see it in practice and get some troll-less feedback.
On a side note: We've been getting some pretty fun fights out of the system, even if we are being sucked into the whole "crank the SAP awareness to 11" type of thinking. We were fighting SovNov forces for hours last night--good stuff.
Keep the stupid Corporation Dialogues crap in Corporation Dialogues please.