First off I must say that I've been in big fights where it was alliance vs alliance.... See CIR vs Wambulance on hokk before L-demob nerf was pretty epic.

Secondly I will say that small scale pvp has been dieing for a while now and this is not a QQ you killed my game thread just simply stateing the facts as clearly as I can.

The Small scale/Solo PVP venture is something that I hold very dearly as I have played other sand boxes I always enjoyed being against odds or the underdog in PVP fights. Small scale guerilla tactics have a place in this game but the devs have been slowly forcing PVPrs hands to use other methods or tactics (blob) for no reasons sometimes.

Lets look back at the past patchs and what they brought to the PVP table.

• Detecter and Maskers - Both Items promote fighting in small groups but also hinder small groups.

• L-demob Line of sight nerf - This one hit home for me as a zenith pilot, this effectivly rendered L-demobs usless in certain situations also limiting the solo/small pvper to choose s-dmobs to prevent target from escape.

• Speed nerfs/buffs and various sight range buffs/nerfs - True Light E-war bots are very stealthy now 300+ masking is excelent for small/solo ops but what about DPS. Understandable you want stealth dps will suffer so its a good trade. Assaults speed vs Mech speed. wasp vs kain nuff said.

• Teleports and mobile Teleports - Instabality, protection, distance to the internal TP when you tp to another tp. All things that were looked at because people play TP games, TP games to small/solo PVPs = death when the person chasing or running calls for friends. The mechanic was never fixed its still exsists and to make it worse you can now start running when after you TP and your times are off when you reach the TP to jump again. Mobile Teleports their masking fail fail fail 4k vision on a TP really the only way on and off almost all islands are now probed and to drop a mobile teleport I basicly shoot a flare that says here I am get me. Interzone TPS.... Wow such a great item but saddly it was nerfed by a huge volume 60U must be placed in sequer at minimum has same limitations as other TPs w/ 4k vision and the fact that yes I can TP to an interanal TP that hopefully isn't probed now I'm on an island what now? how do I get off if I was spotted and the enemy just puts supperior forces on the 2 yes 2 teleports off the island. Teleport redistrobution gamma patch.... again WTF the use of scouts and probes already kills the potential for small/solo roams, having only 2 entrys to one island forces you to use safe logg (seen as exploit by some) to even have the possibility of being on an island unscouted. I could go on but I think we see where this on is going

• Walls and Terraforming - Even as I addapted to STC's use of walls I began to wonder how much harder will it be when terraforming is released. Walls were nerfed and nerfed and are still a pain to solo roamers. Terraformed walls present an even bigger problem now I must go there with a terraforming bot w/ no protection or go home. I think there are other threads on this.

• Probes - They were so bad at release they rolled back the server and gave nic back.... hello need a clue how bad they still are. See #4 but also #5 people terraforming chokepoints with a probe in a hole no way around it you will get pinged same for the walls. Pathetic exploitable and as cheap as they are spammable even with the extention / limitation per corp its LOL because I can make a trial put it in a corp and spam a few more as long as that trial is online I will still get pings.

• Spark Teleport - good and bad here but easily countered as 99% of people cry for help you will only kill one or two before the need to run because docking up flagged is not happening see #4 TP 4k vision and #1 detecters and #6 probes.

• Ewar Tunnings/ ECCMs /sealings - a gift and a curse losing a head/leg slot to make me more powerful is helpful but it goes both ways, and most likely favors blob tactics as they will be using specialized bots and roles.

• LWF and speed on the battlefield - the slower one always loses especially true if your solo as the other side will likely call for back up if you out class them. Losing a leg slot = less options which = people knowing your fits faster and will plan for you once your scouted.. again see above

• AOE explosions - the shiney star for solo and small gangs this has singlehandly won fights before but saddly it is also exploitable as people about to die desperatly d-mob and blow on top of smaller bots which are prefered buy who? oh yeah the solo/small pvper.

• Interference - not really an issue good anti blob mechanic but if there are enough for interference to be an issuse the small roam is severly out numbered and needs to run. Running see above

• Minerals that spawn - the removal of static ore spawns and a huge decrease in mining bots being blown up.
  Grabbing a miner hardly constituted as PVP but it sometimes sparked small pvp because of people logging of combat alts with their miner. Not any more roaming to the epi spots is gone.

So before I even get on to an island the odds are greatly against me and the option to grab a kill and escape are becoming a thing of the past.

Not that I don't enjoy the challenge just wondering how much further are you going to push PVP to the way of the blob.

More nerfs than ERP..... Hands doing what?

Add to list of broke please Hunter

As Topic states Please discuss or bring in ideas to help low EP players function in the game easier.

Brought over what Alexadar posted to get it started.

I remember Assaults in open beta had a bonus to damage vs mechs... don't remember the wording or the math but it made assaults a good choice in mixed fleets. As of right now I only know of a few vets who would even raise there hand if asked who wants to take their assaults on a roam and RG is no longer here so I don't count them.

I think that the price of Mk2 lights (materials) is very high for what the bot is or came from lower the mat cost,  increase the drop rate of mk2 light CTs, and buff the Mk2 light damage output and stats.

Add a demob % and range bonus on all light bots (not Ewar lights) as most new players wishing to come PVP won't be much more than bait or a De-mobber any how let them excel in that roll.

Add or change all weapon slots on lights to all types this include this on light E-wars as well. So if they want missles on a yagel why not.

Had a discussion with my other corp producers and some friends in other corps and these are the main points we came up with.

• Production of T3/4 is only made possible with a large plantation of Noralgis.

• Large plantations are easily found and burned by enemy or on alpha harvested to 0 and killed by enemy.

• Production of Larger robots had their noralgis needs increased

• Noralgis got nerfed by last patch from 160 per cycle down to 100 per cycle delta while good the fluff factor is gone and you can fit tons in your cargo its still a nerf

• Noralgis seem to grow slower than all the other wild plants tho are needed in more items

While I agree T-3/4 should be more expensive than T-1/2 the amount of Noralgis need in these items imo is very high. That combined with the nerf noralgis took with the patch is making it very hard on smaller corps to produce tiered items/bots. One Lithus takes around 40U of noralgis? really!

My opinion on ways to offset this.
Relook Noralgis in all items with the fact that noralgis has to be player planeted I don't understand how the Nian robots have t4 fit unless they have been ninjaing my nor plants.
Possibly have Noralgis be seeded in the wild not near as abundant as other plants but have some random plants pop up in areas.
Make Noralgis grow very rapidly and increase the cap to 200 on full growns.

Other indy produces and harvesters weigh in on this and keep the I killed your taters posts in CD please.