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EVE Online: A Look at Factional Warfare
MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Andrew Wallace writes this overview of the factional warfare that was brought into the popular sci-fi game with the Empyrean Age expansion.
;)
Tama is a 0.4 system in Caldari space and has become a love shack for the Caldari and Gallente militia, with pilots from both sides trying to shaft each other there on most nights. Tama sums up the current state of factional warfare, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, though, an introduction:
The Empyrean Age expansion brought with it a major new feature: Factional Warfare (FW). Relationships between the four main factions have broken down into a two sided conflict, with the Amarr and Caldari on one side and the Gallente and Minmatar on the other. The battlefields for this war are broken down into a handful of low security regions, where players must capture complexes in order to seize systems for their chosen faction, turning low sec into a massive arena for the militias to fight it out. Every system involved in the conflict has a control bunker at its center, which belongs to the faction that currently has occupancy. Complexes are randomly spawned in each system and it's up to the opposing militia to scan them down and hold them for a certain amount of time, while fighting off the defending NPCs and enemy militia.
Bringing along a battleship fleet isn't going to be of any use for capturing these complexes, though. There are various classes of complex, which restrict the types of ship than can enter. For example, the smallest of these can only be accessed by tech one frigates and destroyers. Capturing these sites gives that side victory points for that system, and puts it into a "contested" state. If the contesting faction can get enough VPs then the system becomes "vulnerable" and the control bunker can be attacked and captured, switching its occupancy to the victors. Of course, the defenders can also capture the complexes for their own side; each one taken reduces the number of VPs the enemy has, and is the only way to push a system out of "vulnerable".
Is it any good, though? Well, it's doing what it was intended to do, by helping pilots who wouldn't normally PVP to get involved in casual fighting. FW is also a way for corporations that normally focus on empire warfare to sign up and put themselves into a state of constant war, with more than enough targets to shoot and action almost on demand, but, to the lone, inexperienced, pilot, joining FW can be a daunting experience.
;)
The militia chat channel you receive upon joining is a confusing mess of pilots signing up to random fleets and the handful that are trying to organize the masses. This leads to there being at least one massive militia fleet rolling around the area during EVE prime time, which, despite being a disorganized mess, is not something you want to run into. As much as it's helpful for pilots looking for instant action, however, militia chat is too chaotic to be of much use for the overall organization of the militia. The real organization comes from the individual player corporations, some of which have joined together to form informal alliances and chat channels in order to better fight the enemy factions. I would strongly recommend that any pilot wishing to sign up to FW should join one of the corps already involved in the fighting, instead of one of the four militia corps. Now, let's talk about capital ships for a moment. Even before its release, there was talk of FW combat being overwhelmed by the presence of these behemoths, which already have dominance in most 0.0, and some low-sec, warfare. This turned out not to be the case, for two reasons: Firstly, they are too big to enter all but the largest of FW complexes, making capitals almost entirely useless for a fleet trying to capture them. And secondly, most of the newer militia pilots coming from high sec have, most likely, never even seen a dreadnought, or carrier, before and all of them want to get in on an opportunity to take one down. Anyone seen flying around in a capital ship is very quickly identified in the opposing militia channel, which always leads to a whirlwind of pilots converging on their location in some kind of mad, anti-cap ship crusade. For the first few weeks the FW systems became a capital ship graveyard, and now they are a rarity.
;)
Generally, the bigger ships, such as battleships and capitals, aren't flexible enough to be of use all the time in FW, and this has led to one of the greatest achievements of factional warfare, the resurgence of smaller ship classes. Due to their ability to enter the smallest size of factional warfare complexes, tech one frigates and, in particular, destroyers have gone from a being a generally redundant ship class to a must have for any fleet looking to capture complexes. Out in the FW regions, you are now more likely to run into small fleets of frigates and cruisers than fleets of battleships.
As for the flaws, one of them surfaced less than a week after it was released, thanks to the efforts of (now former) Amarr militia pilot, and CSM representative, Ankhesentapemkah, who hit the top rank for her militia in about six days. Even though they don't lead to any rewards at the moment they clearly need scaling to prevent people from grinding through them so rapidly. Also, there are no tangible rewards from taking part in factional warfare. It's like any other war, in that it's mostly about what you can loot from the wrecks of the enemy ships. Without rewards there is no real incentive to make a serious attempt at capturing systems for the cause.
Which brings me back to Tama…
;)
Most of the pilots involved in FW don't care about capturing territory; they just find the quickest route to where they action is, and fight. This is why Tama, at the time of writing this, has had one hundred and three ship kills in the last twenty four hours, according to the in-game map, overshadowing almost every other system in the region by a massive margin. Territorial fighting with no consequences has just led to most of those involved bunching up in a few systems and shooting each other for kill stats.
Now, problems aside, where can factional warfare go from here? Despite being the bare skeleton of a system there is a solid base here for future expansion, such as bringing the pirate factions into the fight. There's also the possibility of allowing player alliances to finally sign up, which was a major issue for a lot of players, as well as opening up benefits for the militia ranks.
Factional warfare: not entirely all there, but for now, at least, players seem happy enough just beating the hell out of each other, night after night.
Nice article, except that you missed two of the larger problems with FW.
1. Pirates and alliances have been wardecing the FW corporations like mad forcing many of the FW players to join npc corporations. It is a serious issue that has yet to be addressed by CCP.
2. Currently many veterans are using nano ships to make them invulnerable to FW fleets. CCP is addressing this problem with changes to the way nano ships operate, but there is not a date yet when they will implement any changes. Yes you can counter nano ships if you have enough skill points to fly some advanced ships, but most of the FW players do not have such.
Hopefully CCP will resolve such issues and make improvements in the rewards category.
On the plus side, many new players are getting a good introduction into pvp, making this a very positive addition to the game.
Well, #1 was bound to happen. From what I've heard, a few of the 'pirate' corps even joined FW to get their lulz. I don't think it's much of an issue, though. You go in looking for some pvp action, and outsiders will always show up.
As far as #2.... Well, we're waiting on CCP to 'get it right.' The most recent update shows how many bugs creep in even when they're just trying to fix previous bugs. After just a week of public testing, they found the numbers on the changes were way off on what they wanted to do. Hopefully we'll see the new ship adjustments on Singularity in the next 30 days or so. Veteran pilots who have trained properly should have advantages over newer pilots, but a new pilot can skill up for an interceptor in a short amount of time to counter some of that.
You have to realize we are seeing but stage one of FW. This will be expanded and some bug correction of course is in order. The article is right in the fact that only the RP corps are truly fighting for territory. Hopefully when they add to FW they will offer rewards only gainable through actual territory gains not just adding to kill boards.
I tried it out on the trial and all people did was camp the Nourv/Tama gate all day and it was pretty fuckign boring. Another thing I hate is you can't ever find a fair fight in this game like in other mmorpgs because all the people PVP'ing are veterans of years and most of them have 20 accounts and 60 million SP......
They need to get rid of the skill timed training and make it so you progress at your own pace because I know I could own most these guys if given the chance but having to comit years to playing a game....... no thanx I only want to play for a couple months and not wait to do anything for them couple months.
No.
You need to be smarter about your decisions, and not just bum-rush a system you know has action going on. Try planning an attack, even an unskilled pilot can do some damage if they use their head.
The whole skill-point system has to be the biggest mis-conception most single day players have about EVE. It was said well by another forum member, the only difference between many players old and new is just 5%. In most cases, your skills don't affect much more than 2% - 5% of a certain stat per level. Also keep in mind when you are flying a ship... that ship doesn't use every single skill you can train. My Assault Frigate doesn't use my 10 million mining and industry skills.... just what pertains to that ship only.
No.
You need to be smarter about your decisions, and not just bum-rush a system you know has action going on. Try planning an attack, even an unskilled pilot can do some damage if they use their head.
The whole skill-point system has to be the biggest mis-conception most single day players have about EVE. It was said well by another forum member, the only difference between many players old and new is just 5%. In most cases, your skills don't affect much more than 2% - 5% of a certain stat per level. Also keep in mind when you are flying a ship... that ship doesn't use every single skill you can train. My Assault Frigate doesn't use my 10 million mining and industry skills.... just what pertains to that ship only.
Eve always has been and apparently, always will be about the zerg. Its PvP is such a joke that I can't stand to even think about joining FW even on one of my alts. My main is Minmatar based, and even though I'm Minmatar, and in an NPC noob corp at the moment, if I stepped foot in Amamake, the Minmatar FW zerg fleet would smoke me so fast I'd barely have to load the screen, because they'll shoot at ANYTHING that comes into Amamake that ISN'T FW Minmatar, even if they ARE Minmatar...
That brings one word to mind:
Stupidity
PvP brings out the retardedness in people, especially in unbalanced games such as Eve.
BTW, having more skills isn't just a 5% difference... the higher skills allow better equipment to be used, which is far more devastating, as is the vast monetary gulf between a noob and a vet. Arbalest launchers vs standard launchers anyone?
Ok one thing I will never understand is that people complain that the skill training sux. Look at it this way you play wow the time it takes to get the best gear takes just as long ie ships and equipment same time. Just lacks the grind. Another thing the pvp is probably the best selling point. No its not always fast paced but when your ship is on the line or your alliance is being sieged and its a matter of your livelyhood you feel it. Probably only game you can get an adrenaline rush out of wit internet spaceships. Yes its a nerds game really is i mean you dont have to be some console halo freak to realize its not there kind of game and thats fine. I love it probably the best game I have played.
Oh here we go again. Yet another person who has completely got the wrong end of the stick with EVE's skill system and just doesnt get it. Read what Souvec said as he describes it pretty clearly. In EVE fleets can conist of lots of players with totally different levels of ability. If you work properly with your team mates then you can assist the team and make a difference. If you are flying alone in a frigate and you decide to fly head-on against someone you see piloting a cruiser then yes you will probably get wasted.....and it will serve you right for being a moron and making a stupid decision. In EVE you should pick your fights carefully and lone pilots are going to be easy pickings for larger ships and gangs......which is what corporations are for. Basicly EVE is a team PvP game so if you are flying solo into 0.0 space then you get what you deserve.
You are right though, in most other games you probably can beat other players easily but EVE isnt like other games which is what is so good about it. EVE isnt about being the best though......its about being part of a large conflict.
If you think that the only way to have fun in EVE is to win by having the biggest ship then you really should not be playing EVE and as endless people love to say over and over again on these forums and in chat channels.........(ya know whats coming).........
Go back to WOW.
Eve always has been and apparently, always will be about the zerg. Its PvP is such a joke that I can't stand to even think about joining FW even on one of my alts. My main is Minmatar based, and even though I'm Minmatar, and in an NPC noob corp at the moment, if I stepped foot in Amamake, the Minmatar FW zerg fleet would smoke me so fast I'd barely have to load the screen, because they'll shoot at ANYTHING that comes into Amamake that ISN'T FW Minmatar, even if they ARE Minmatar...
That brings one word to mind:
Stupidity
PvP brings out the retardedness in people, especially in unbalanced games such as Eve.
BTW, having more skills isn't just a 5% difference... the higher skills allow better equipment to be used, which is far more devastating, as is the vast monetary gulf between a noob and a vet. Arbalest launchers vs standard launchers anyone?
How can EVE be unbalanced when every player in the game has the choice to join any corporation they want? Its not as though there are unstoppable corporations in the game that go around picking on new players is it. No-one can get an unfair advantage as everyone can pick and choose who they fight. The only way you can get picked on is if you fly your little frigate into the middle of a fleet of big enemy ships with guns blazing in which case your a twat and your destruction wont matter any way.
PvP does not bring out the retardedness in people. It gives a good reason to play onlines games as opposed to single player ones. Besides people are already retarded anyway.......they dont need games to bring it out. We are talking about the same human race right?
The only way to understand their way of thinking is to smash yourself in the head so many times that you basicly become a vegetable. They seem to have forgotten about all the ganking that occurs in level based games but then thats kind of understandable as death in those games really doesnt matter. In EVE it actually does which is why the bad losers whine so much. They also seem to have forgotten that there is always a wonderful tactic that everyone can use when they meet a bigger ship.......its called flying away.
Unbalanced as in, there's never an enjoyable battle between two similar fleets.
Its 6 on 1, 15 on 6, 30 on 15, etc...
/yawn
Doesn't take much skill to PvP that way.
lol all EVE requires is lots of time to be good at it and tbh the whole thing of saying a noob can come in and kill a veteran if he picks a route is wrong because it takes like a year to train all the skills that give you the max damage and speed etc etc that the veterans already have not to mention you need 20 ALT accounts aswel to compete with their gangs of ALTs.
Another thing I hate is how repetive the game is....
Repetitive backgrounds
Repetitive jumping everywhere
Stations
missions
mining
etc etc.
To get anywhere in EVE you have to not play it while your skills train and to get money in EVE you just have to do the most BORING tasks ever its like grinding on SWG mission terms......... YAWN.
Like Yahtzee they made space BORING.
The whole intelligence doesn't come into play too because its fact that an intelligent mind wants to discover and keep on doing new things because they're curious. In EVE however its geared towards the stupid side of the spectrum because its just about doing the same thing over and over which would bore and intelligent person.
Eve always has been and apparently, always will be about the zerg. Its PvP is such a joke that I can't stand to even think about joining FW even on one of my alts. My main is Minmatar based, and even though I'm Minmatar, and in an NPC noob corp at the moment, if I stepped foot in Amamake, the Minmatar FW zerg fleet would smoke me so fast I'd barely have to load the screen, because they'll shoot at ANYTHING that comes into Amamake that ISN'T FW Minmatar, even if they ARE Minmatar...
That brings one word to mind:
Stupidity
PvP brings out the retardedness in people, especially in unbalanced games such as Eve.
BTW, having more skills isn't just a 5% difference... the higher skills allow better equipment to be used, which is far more devastating, as is the vast monetary gulf between a noob and a vet. Arbalest launchers vs standard launchers anyone?
Please.
You can use arbalest on the same ship you can use standard. That's all about cash flow, and anyone with a brain knows the diff between an arbalest and maybe a malkuth is what, 3%?
Meanwhile, you can tech 2 out an assault frigate in less than a month or two tops, if you know what you're doing with a premade. Or you can make a new character and be in an assault frigate in a week.
People seem to forget eve is balanced that small ships can take out large ships. The balance is nowhere near what you think it is. It is indeed a 5-10% difference, per relevant skill of course. How hard is it to get to that 5% difference though as opposed to per skill? VERY easy. Maybe a week tops to get to equivalent of people who've been playing for years. Sure you won't have ECM, cloaks, but you can still kill people and contribute and get better.
I am glad eve you can't just magically jump in and devastate people...I am glad long term players are the only ones who can fly the biggest ships, because all they are is a liability. Because eve is balanced, flying a big ship makes you the biggest target, not like playing wow where you can pop divine shield and just keep whacking at people. Such a thing does not exist in eve. Big ships are slow, good at taking down other big ships, useless on small fry. etc.
If you step into a gate camp solo of course you're going to fry, what is that, a surprise?
"Hi, I'd like to step into your gate camp *pop goes ship/egg*" come on now. However, if you come through in a fleet? No way, that won't happen that way. I've been on both ends of that spectrum defending CVA space against goon squad and AAA at the same time, as well as watching them steamroll us.
Do you know what? In a way I kind of agree with you as quite a bit of what you say is true if you look at it in a particular way. I think the problem is that you are talking from the perspective of "me vs him" or "me vs them". EVE is about "us vs them" so I think you just have the wrong perspective.
Yes you might meet an opponent who has better equipment than you. He might also have just come from a battle with someone else and might be damaged. You might have a team mate with you who can assist in the fight. You might also meet someone who is not as well equipped as you or have you ever considered the idea that a ship you encounter might not be equipped to deal with your ship effectively. What if you have a fast and manouverable ship while his weapons have a slow tracking speed. You might be able to actually outmanouvre and ultimately outlast him. I could go on listing all the endless situations you could come up against but I think you get the point that anything could happen.......which is why EVE's PvP system is so good. It gives you the freedom to plan and react however you choose. Unlike games such as WoW things are not so straight forward and predictable. Remember you are working with other people in this game.......and if you are not working well with other people (or at all) then thats your mistake isnt it.
You're right though about how many aspects of EVE are actually boring repetitive tasks. Mining is dull as f**k and the missions arent too thrilling either. They are basicly just there though as a means to earn money to sustain you in the PvP battles and outfit your ships. What I find amusing though is that the "boring PvE content" in EVE which is merely there as background fluff to support the PvP action (what the game is actually about) isnt really that much more boring than the main content of most other mmos........and thats ALL they have to offer. In EVE you grind away doing boring tasks knowing that your efforts contribute to something while in other games such as WoW and EQ2 the grinding IS the game and it only leads on to more grinding.
The whole intelligence paragraph sort of makes sense but then it can be applied to every mmo ever made and in fact to most computer games in general actually. Name a game where you constantly discover new things. I cant think of any. They all follow a particular pattern. Basicly the things you find yourself doing at the beginning of an mmo is pretty much what you will be doing all the way through it........and dont even think of saying some crap like "Oh at least I can explore in games like EQ2" because holding your finger on the W key and watching the graphic of a ruined tower appear round the corner of a mountain doesnt exactly make anyone Christopher Columbas. In all of these games you do the same thing over and over and yes they do bore intelligent people. Welcome to world of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. Besides what "new things" would you want to be doing anyway? The only things anyone ever does in an mmo is kill things, make things and chat to each other in various different way. EVE allows you to do those things in more variety than any other mmo.
Anyway a truly intelligent person wouldnt be sitting around playing computer games all day long. He would be building them.
Oh right so what would you propose? How about EVE includes battlegrounds like in WoW where only a set number of ships are allowed and then they can fight matches like a game of football. They can all line up neatly opposite each other and a timer can count down from 10. Then a little message flashes up saying "Begin the match" and the ships can just fly straight at each other and shoot each other until one side wins. Oh wouldnt that be fun.
War is not fair. It never has been and it is never meant to be. Its called realism which is what EVE does well. In EVE the entire universe is the battlefield so if you can catch your enemy unawares and crush them then thats tough luck for them for not being aware of whats going on on the battlefield.
Oh and it does take a LOT of skill if you're force is outnumbered and you end up decimating your enemy through use of superior tactics and organisation and also making the right decisions at the right times. Unlike in WoW you dont simply win by having a more powerful "toon".
Typical, I want i now post. Sorry this game is not for instant gratification types. The game REQUIRES you to actually think. It also has quite a learning curve. Sorry if that is too hard for you, but there are tons of other games where thinking is not required. Bashing a game because you can't take the time to learn it is certainly in bad taste.
I'll grant you that Eve's gameplay is boring in and of itself. It's boring much the same way Risk or Chess is boring though. In fact, it's even more boring than those games because the game does not even set victory conditions other than for meaningless objectives like missions, factional warfare, etc..
If you think Eve is made for stupid people though, I think you need to get out of your house a bit more. The abilities necessary to understand Eve, much less excel at it are pretty damn rare in this world unfortunately.
The human mind is hard wired to emotionally reward novelty. Everyone seeks new things. The ability to ignore that impulse for something new is a test of willpower and I'd say a much better test for intelligence. Those continually driven to seek new things are behaving emotionally, not logically.
Eve always has been and apparently, always will be about the zerg. Its PvP is such a joke that I can't stand to even think about joining FW even on one of my alts. My main is Minmatar based, and even though I'm Minmatar, and in an NPC noob corp at the moment, if I stepped foot in Amamake, the Minmatar FW zerg fleet would smoke me so fast I'd barely have to load the screen, because they'll shoot at ANYTHING that comes into Amamake that ISN'T FW Minmatar, even if they ARE Minmatar...
That brings one word to mind:
Stupidity
PvP brings out the retardedness in people, especially in unbalanced games such as Eve.
BTW, having more skills isn't just a 5% difference... the higher skills allow better equipment to be used, which is far more devastating, as is the vast monetary gulf between a noob and a vet. Arbalest launchers vs standard launchers anyone?
Whoha, hold you horses.
I have played EVe since the start and Amamake has akways been a pirate infested hell hole with gate campers every where. This is not happening any more. In fact Amamake and the surrounding systems have turned into nice areas to operate in.
I do gas harvesting there quite safely, even though that requires me to sit still and harvest gas in the middle of low sec space for hours. I have yet to see even a scanner probe trying to nail me down, nor have I been attacked once when transporting the huge loads of gas (20000m3 or more) out of the constellation.
BTW. It takes the same skill level to operate an arbelast and a standard launcher. The difference is in price.
Whoha, hold you horses.
I have played EVe since the start and Amamake has akways been a pirate infested hell hole with gate campers every where. This is not happening any more. In fact Amamake and the surrounding systems have turned into nice areas to operate in.
I do gas harvesting there quite safely, even though that requires me to sit still and harvest gas in the middle of low sec space for hours. I have yet to see even a scanner probe trying to nail me down, nor have I been attacked once when transporting the huge loads of gas (20000m3 or more) out of the constellation.
BTW. It takes the same skill level to operate an arbelast and a standard launcher. The difference is in price.
......and that highlights the fact that the gameworld of EVE changes through the actions of the players which rather sets it apart from other games that pretty much stay the same regardless of what the players do.
Oh and the bit about the launchers (and this applies to all equipment actually) is also a good point as well. Yes a player with more money could afford to use better equipment that would give him a slight advantage but can he afford to lose it?
Eric_w66 is clearly rather stupid and doesnt even seem to realise basic things like this. Back to themepark games for him then
Yes, factional warfare is a blessing for low sec industrialists like my self. Gone are the gate camping battleships and capitals, because they would be a fat target for the roaming frigate gangs. And those gangs will rarely touch you either as the gate and station sentry guns are more than capable to lock and whack frigates nearly instantly. So its a win-win situation for me.
Not to mention the drastically increased sales of frigate sized weaponry and ships at outrageous prices I am having in low sec.
Tama is 0.3
LOL - this post shows your short sightedness and total lack of using what is available in FW to get balanced fights. I was in the Amarr Militia for 3 or 4 weeks. I had just started to learn how to be an inty pilot. O I have 55 million skill point and just started to learn how to be an inty pilot. I died over and over again, so please throw the skill point issue out the window.
That being said, you want a fight, don't zerg the 'camped' gate, use what FW has given, the plexes where only certain ship types can enter. We did this in the Amarr militia and we got fights on our terms every single night I logged on. Now, the Minmater had the number advantage and that was fine, they had to come to us in ships sizes we dictated. We won some and lost some.
As others have mentioned Eve is a thinking persons game, ship types, ranges, damage type, location ,numbers and mod loadout. A FC that is thinking is formidable challenge to beat even when numbers are not on their side.
I must say, this is the perfect expansion for me & my corporation.
The economics of the game have changed dramatically. Suddenly manufacturers don't have to wait till they can build Battleships before they have the potential to staunch a market hemorraging T1 Frigates. Suddenly I'm seeing low-sec alliances who mine 500 mil isk a week actually IMPORTING ships and equipment into Empire! The dynamics have changed to the benefit of the newer players. And especially the newer players who do NOT engage into Factional Warfare themselves.
For us & them, the Factional Warfare fulfills everything it was meant to. It allows us to send a clone into pvp combat, no matter the skill level or the size of the wallet. If all we can afford is a T1 Frigate, then huzzah! It introduces PvP combat to the casual players who would have NEVER risked it before.
-Score
CEO The Businessmen
And you base this on.....?
Im not sure what to say about this subject myself.
I have played eve for a long time and for myself because im in an 0.0 alliance this really has not affected me, only positive thing i noticed was less camps getting back into high sec.
Regards,
Jay