We disagree, and think it adds an unnecessary mechanic to a system which should reward team play within an alliance. Additionally this just screams intelligence leaks which no group in their right mind would want to give away. Also no alliance should have to be paid to support their own team. If a corp wants to play with a fleet (and DUST wants to retain members better) the there is far better proof out there which shows groups which join a good alliance which is dedicated to supporting each other have higher retention rates and login rates in game.




We Agree with this statement currently. We do feel however the precision strike from the warbarge should have a delay to bring it more in line with the ship based OB support from EVE to help drive more support to cross platform support.

lol, who is this we you are referring too. I have an EVE character which is not in my Dust corp or alliance, I would still want to deliver orbital strike for my dust corp in PC though. Having strikes limited to alliance members limits the number of EVE players who could be doing strikes. Getting a contract system in will free it up for all EVE players.

This are great ideas indeed.

The fact that we can always call a warbarge OB makes the OB itself less awesome because of repetition. Giving total control of that feature to EvE pilots is definetly a step forward in improving the EvE/Dust link.

FW OB are the most troublesome. I favor the idea that the best should be the ones calling the strikes. However, in order to make every eligible squad leader have a chance, you could generate a random number between 0 and 1, and assing each SL an interval (chance) based on total WP, so the ones with more WP have a greater chance to earn the strike. Say the best squad leader will have the interval [0, 1/2], the second (1/2,1/2+1/3] and the third and subsequent squads will have equal chances in the interval (1/2+1/3, 1].

These are just figures, i'd probably give the best squad leader more than 1/2.

For PC battles let us handle ourselves.

This is a simple idea, easy to implement, and some tweaking required at the numbers, but much more than making a contract system for orbitals

We like removing War Points...

We actually like seeing...

Bad idea. No modern military in the world would agree with this tactical option as it ruins flexibility on the battlefield for the ground commander. Any organized group would also have a problem with this and it will only get worse once larger groups are allowed to play. Any squad leader (and above when those leader positions actually get a mechanic) should be able to call in the OB based on when the Orbital becomes available. Organized groups already have this covered well tactically in game, and more skilled groups have a decentralized command and control of this. If the "highest WP" group mechanic goes live it will create a mechanic which does not reward team work beyond the squad level, or allow the ground leaders the tactical flexibility for providing mutual support to a squad under duress or press an attack.

Who the hell is this guy speaking for exactly?

Continuous fire orbital - Available from the beginning of the match as long as there is an eve-pilot with orbital capable equipment.

The squad leader places an orbital order on the map, and the eve pilot locks onto the order, and then continuously fires his weapon at that location. Dust side it would be a continuous orbital-foom foom foom foom foom foom foom foom foom foom fom foom foom foom-in one location. In PC or faction warfare the damage from this strike is FF enabled. This could be used to bombard the enemy MCC continuously, this could be used to lock down an objective. or path of travel.

The enemies could hire a single mercenary or pirate to go chase away the eve pilot and end the strike.

The following are just thoughts and ponderings, and may reflect to or conflict with previous posts.

Orbitals in Insta-battles (NPC provided)
Orbital provided to the team for every 400WP average earned across combatants on a team.

• Orbital available on a first-come basis to all qualified Squad Leaders
• Squads must consist of at least two (2) mercs to qualify
• Last Squad to direct an Orbital do not qualify (spread the load/love)
• All mercs deployed, in squads or solo, counts toward the 400WP average
• The Squad Lead is given an Assist for each killed enemy, as are any hitting or scanning/"painting" the enemies just prior to them dying from the bombardment

The 400WP is slightly less than the current 416,6 average required for a squad of 6, and since it is across the whole team, it should allow for occassionally earlier and slightly more frequent orbitals, but not incur a significant difference in the quantity of orbitals.
As it is counted across the team and available to multiple Squad Leaders, it would show less favour to the squads doing the proverbial "Pubstomp", but instead leverage the Orbital Bombardment mechanics as something available to everyboty. In turn, it also means that less experienced Squad Leaders may "miss-use" a bombardment in a rush to deploy it.


Orbitals in Factional Warfare and Planetary Conquest battles (player provided)
Orbital provided to the team, when an EvE pilot is connected to the district beacon.

• EvE pilot to connect to district and select 1 or more Squad Leads to communicate the availability to
• Squad Leads are informed of the availability, including type and size of bombartment munitions
• 1 or more selected Squad Lead places request with location and type of bombardment
• EvE pilot to choose which request to follow and deploys weaponry
• Bombardment causes EvE pilot to loose connection to the district, and triggers a 45 seconds cool-down before reconnect
• Kills are given to the EvE pilot, while the Squad Lead gets assists, as are any merc hitting the enemy combatants just prior to them dying, or to any merc having actively scanned/"painted" them

Non-directed bombardment
When an EvE pilot is connected she can elect to perform a "blindfire" in the general direction of an objective. A blindfire bombardment is hostile to all merc in-theather, also in Factional Warfare, meaning this is a dangerous tactic, but a valid last-resort if no coordination can be arranged with the ground-forces for any reason. Location will be semi-random around either an installation/objective, MCC or a friendly Squad Lead.

I don't like the idea of eve even having power over a battle in a game that is totally separate other than story line. These are 2 different types of games and should be respected as such without penalty. It's like with the alliance setup for corps if we wanted on dust a fps to get one set up we have to hopefully find someone in eve mind u and have it setup and pass our ceo title over to some one we don't know. I like the ideas for some intergration but you guys are making dust like eve's little play toys. If orbitals were to be called it should be by the ground force that has earned it so we on the dust side stay in controll of our game. Not downing eve but if we wanted to play eve we would.

We (my alliance mates) do not feel the pilot should have to select a squad leader, as all squad leaders should be able to request fire and then the appropriate pilot can choose to fire or not based on the squad leaders request by ammo type. More than one destroyer on grid gives more than one possible ammo type available usually. If any squad leader should be able to call in three OB in succession if the mechanic determines how many OB can be called because the tactical situation dictates it good on them and better for larger scale team work.

I disagree with the disconnect idea because its an unneeded mechanic preventing the pilot from firing for more than one squad in succession if he is the only ship there and multiple squads can call in OB.

We feel limiting firing rate is unreasonable and if anything would unfairly benefit a larger fleet which shows up. If a small fleet or even one brave pilot wants to come out and fight we feel they should be able to have the option to get as many shots off as possible in a hit and run maneuver after all they are risking their ship on grid against a much larger fleet waiting for them.

I think highly of the ideas you mentioned with kill assists for the mercs marking the targets and for the EVE pilots to get some recognition as well. It would create some good cross platform pride.

I am not a big fan of the wild bombardment ideas until the battlefields get a lot larger or there is a reasonable tactical situation where that would be the better choice.

I like the fact that Eve players have to earn their bombardments by risking themselves by being undocked and uncloaked etc.

This is in line with what I was previously discussing. And think the above should apply across all of the OB mechanics. It encourages full squads and for them to have better team work, and also allows for meta-gaming mischief once on the ground which should be an option or risk at all times.

Orbitals in Factional Warfare and Planetary Conquest battles (player provided)
Orbital provided to the team, when an EvE pilot is connected to the district beacon.

• EvE pilot to connect to district and select 1 or more Squad Leads to communicate the availability to
• Squad Leads are informed of the availability, including type and size of bombartment munitions
• 1 or more selected Squad Lead places request with location and type of bombardment
• EvE pilot to choose which request to follow and deploys weaponry
• Bombardment causes EvE pilot to loose connection to the district, and triggers a 45 seconds cool-down before reconnect
• Kills are given to the EvE pilot, while the Squad Lead gets assists, as are any merc hitting the enemy combatants just prior to them dying, or to any merc having actively scanned/"painted" them

DISCLAIMER: This is a discussion about stuff that has not happened yet and is not planned to happen for at least a few months at the earliest. There was a discussion on IRC about it yesterday and I wanted to keep the discussion going. Nothing in here is finalized yet, work has not even begun on it yet. /disclaimer

Hey guys,

It is no secret that one of the things we would like to do is fiddle with the orbital strikes design. This includes a few small things like normalizing how we name everything (precision strike, orbital strike, orbital bombardment, other random names), making sure players know when they have an orbital strike available by always displaying something on the HUD instead of having the message show up and then disappear which often gets missed (I had 3 OBs the other night and had no idea... I am a bad squad leader...).

One of the other things we would like to do is make it so that NPC provided orbital strikes, the precision strike from the war barge, is only available in what is currently known as instant battles. That would mean that in in Factional Warfare and Planetary Conquest battles the only orbital support would be from EVE players. This is a pretty straight forward change but there is more we want to do.

We would like to also make it so that EVE orbitals are NOT earned via war points. Orbitals in instant battles would still be earned via WP... unless we come up with something else but at this time we are currently not thinking of touching it. For EVE orbitals though we are looking at making it so that the EVE pilot earns the orbital strike by capturing a beacon above the district. This would work very much the same way Factional Warfare complex beacons work. Also very similar to how it worked for the Fanfest tournament.

This idea however introduces a problem. Currently because it is squads that earn orbital strikes the squad leader gets to call it in. That is very well defined. If the EVE player earns the orbital strike who gets to call the strike in? There are several options to this.

• Any squad leader fighting for the same faction as the EVE pilot gets to call it in. This however leads to all the squad leaders rushing as quickly as possible to call it in as the EVE player is probably going to fire on the first target to appear. This means that often times they may be wasted and experienced players will probably rage... a lot.
• The squad leader of the squad with the most war points gets access to the orbital strike. They are the ones with the most WP and so probably the most deserving of it... but that will probably snowball in a match and no one else would ever get it.

In a Planetary Conquest match we could open it up to all squad leaders and say "hey, your match control your people" and that would be the end of it. However in a Factional Warfare match you don't control who gets in and who doesn't so it's not fair to say that and we would like to have the same system for handling this with both types of battle.

We are currently favouring the idea of giving it to the squad with the most war points, but as said above nothing is final at this point.

The three things I am most interested in hearing about are:

1. What do you think about removing war barge strikes from FW and PC?
2. What do you think about EVE players earning the orbital strike?
3. What do you think about who should earn calling in the orbital strike?

That of course does not mean don't discuss other things relating to orbital strikes, but I would prefer to keep that discussion focused around those 3 points.

So please, let us know what you think.

Really? The game is full of bugs and you want to feck about with the orbitals?

*sigh* ok my 0.02 ISK:

Leave the system as is for now, not all the corps are guaranteed to have EVE players and may not want to deal with that

What I WOULD like to see is various typesof them

Only way Ican see it working atm : SP into orbital targeting system with a choice of dif ones to go to;

IE precison strike that we already have, but its a war on a planet so why cant we have called in artillery strikes as off map support?

Also as an Orbitalwhy not a Missile/torpedo strike option?

DISCLAIMER: This is a discussion about stuff that has not happened yet and is not planned to happen for at least a few months at the earliest. There was a discussion on IRC about it yesterday and I wanted to keep the discussion going. Nothing in here is finalized yet, work has not even begun on it yet. /disclaimer

OS need to destroy ANY tank , thats my ONLY complaint about OS

Eve pilot should do the targeting. If he kills a lot of blue dots should it affect his faction standings?

(8:00:16 PM) Samahiel: I haven't figured out my stance on that OB devblog
(8:00:43 PM) Paradox: I haven't totally either. I'm glad they are thinking about it, but, I'm not sure what I feel about it.
(8:00:52 PM) Samahiel: I like the idea of the EVE pilot offering the orbital and picking a squad commander to give it to.
(8:01:26 PM) Samahiel: I also like decoupling it from war points, because it becomes a more tactical tool instead of just a reward.
(8:01:36 PM) Paradox: I like the better idea of having a 'phantom squad position.'
(8:01:38 PM) Samahiel: also removing npc strikes
(8:02:04 PM) Paradox: That position is the EvE Pilot. You can invite them as a phantom seventh.
(8:02:10 PM) Samahiel: that way a team could be losing the warpoint game but might turn the tide because they have orbital support, instead of one team just strengthening their advantage.
(8:02:15 PM) Paradox: That way they can hear comms if they (god forbid) have EvE Voice.
(8:02:37 PM) Samahiel: I refuse to enable eve voice
(8:03:04 PM) Paradox: My question, really, apart from all this is how do -we- intergrate EvE / DUST for when it comes around.
(8:03:15 PM) Paradox: Do I just Skype/Mumble Call you and yell across my room?
(8:03:22 PM) Paradox: (cus I can do that?)
(8:05:37 PM) Samahiel: Three big questions, Why do corporations matter, Why do districts matter, Why does EVE matter. You answer those and DUST is compelling to the average player. I'm not sure CCP has that answer.
(8:06:52 PM) Paradox: Well, on the other hand. The average player is [redacted].
(8:07:51 PM) Samahiel: I mean frankly there isn't much you can do in corps that you can'd do solo. Cept talk to non-**** lords. It's not like MMOs which have content geared towards organized groups. All the district does is give the corp a pittance of income, and since the corp can't do anything for the player why does the player care about the district? And the EVE connection barely exists.
(8:09:21 PM) Paradox: I agree with you there. But, on the other hand, I like being ready for the eventuality.
(8:09:40 PM) Paradox: That you'll need EvE Support. but, like, the go-betweens won't be there.
(8:11:33 PM) Paradox: So, my question would be how to prepare for the CCP Reality
(8:11:39 PM) Samahiel: true
(8:11:52 PM) Samahiel: it'll probably be shout over mumble or type on jabber in a laptop
(8:13:15 PM) Paradox: I mean I can shout at my computer from where I sit and you'll hear it. But, there -has- to be a better way.
(8:13:42 PM) Paradox: The gnawing realization is that there probably isn't.