How about we level the war points after every OB? I'm not saying literally cut them to zero, but only factor in WP gained since the last OB. This levels the playing field meaning that any squad has an equal chance of gaining the most WP before the next OB. While it's likely that the same squad could roll it out multiple times, it is still fair to the other contenders.

The Pilot should be able to choose a squad leader when they connect to the district.

The whole draw of dropping OB's from eve is to support your friends. You don't want to support random dudes in most cases. You earn a strike, you want your friend to have it.

In the case of an eve player just earning strikes for whomever... Let them pick a random squad guy if they don't know anyone in the match. They'll just be making some dust dude's day.


Also, WP-earned OB strikes should allow the eve player to shoot for the other squads too. The connecting to a specific squad leader in that regard should only apply to strikes that the eve players earn.

This I like... :D Thank you very much for the feedback!

This I like... :D Thank you very much for the feedback!

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.

Ugh. I hate the fact that any team can earn an precision strike in Planetary Conquest. An EVE player can choose 3 variants of damage (or so I've been told. I don't fly destroyers), which might be better if trying to destroy an armor tank, but every single squad can earn their own OB. The DUST side Precision Strike takes half the time to call in as the EVE Orbital Bombardment, which just makes having some EVE guys about your planet/district a waste of time for them and possibly at the risk of losing a ship or two.
That makes it pointless. Removing the player earned OBs would make EVE alliance members more valuable and strengthen the interconnection of DUST and EVE.

Unrelated, I think you need to stop giving Guardian points to someone with the armor repairer on the squad leader during an OB, and all the kill assist points for hopping into a Tank/LAV while the OB drops.

Calling down Orbitals in instant matches is almost always a "wiping the floor" measure. Only two times in all the numerous battles I can remember has it turned the tide of the battle. What's the point in having a team field 3 or 4 madrugars being able to use a orbital after they already slaughtered most of the opposition?


I can't really offer meaningful comments on FW or PC, so I'll leave that to more informed guys.

What do you think about removing war barge strikes from FW and PC?

What do you think about EVE players earning the orbital strike?

What do you think about who should earn calling in the orbital strike?

I would be hesitant at implementing the Eve side earned OBs AND removing NPC strikes at the same time. I would much rather leave the NPC OBs in place since if you implement something similar to fanfest I think it would go a long way to alleviating the current issues with Eve-side OBs.

I really would like to move away from WP based OBs for the NPC strikes and it may be that a new system for NPC strikes could be implemented and would work well to compliment the new Eve side OBs.

On a side note can we please give EVE players more of an indication that a battle is going on at a district, and who is winning? The explosions on the planet is nice and all, but it would be cool if there was some 3D HUD projected from the district like during the Fanfest tournament.

One of the really nice things about these changes is it would mean the ship doing the OB would have to be uncloaked and close to the district beacon. Compared to now where they sit cloaked, wait for it, then do it.

I didn't know that. Looks like it's time to renew my EVE subscription and fit some hybrid weapons on my Manticore.

The more weapons the more damage. Go destroyer.

The more weapons the more damage. Go destroyer.

FW should not be so casual. I think it should require coordination to get any strikes. I also think mercs should be able to join an FW faction. I never understood why game design felt that foot soldiers should not be able to commit. FW has enough pilots roaming the skies. If they had infantry in their FW channels you'd see a lot more interest from the EVE side.

Let me join the Minmatar militia. Let me wear the colors of the Republic. Let me call targets to my brothers in space and rain fire down on these filthy slavers.

Oh yea, also I would like to look at giving the EVE player in FW LP for dropping orbitals... need to look into it though and make sure it cannot be exploited or anything stupid like that. :)

That is hardly a side note and something we are very aware of. I don't see it happening this year, sucks but true. I would really like to see something in EVE that shows on going battles. Not just FW ones but the instant battles in high sec, the FW battles, and the battles in Molden Heath.

That is hardly a side note and something we are very aware of. I don't see it happening this year, sucks but true. I would really like to see something in EVE that shows on going battles. Not just FW ones but the instant battles in high sec, the FW battles, and the battles in Molden Heath.

One of the really nice things about these changes is it would mean the ship doing the OB would have to be uncloaked and close to the district beacon. Compared to now where they sit cloaked, wait for it, then do it.

I really do agree though and hope we can get something setup within the foreseeable future.

This is a very good point. The team that is in the lead is the one that gets to seriously demolish the other side. That's why I'd like to push for a tactical reason to have the strike instead of simply earning points. I have no idea how to do that in an instant battle.

Capture an objective that allows for one to be called in? Spend time and equipment to set one up that has a crazy long cool down cycle?

Have a randomly placed extra objective in one of the small sockets on a map (instead of a Railgun turret for example) . This would be in addition to the null cannons to capture.

Only the side that has control of this objective can access the OB. In matches where an organised team is dominating the null cannons, they would have spread themselves a little thinner to ensure that OB access is denied to the opposition. This gives a weaker side more tactical choices. A side could just capture the OB access point and defend it hoping to clone out the enemy but leaving the null cannons vulnerable.

What do you think about removing war barge strikes from FW and PC?
Strongly agree with this.

What do you think about EVE players earning the orbital strike?
Again, I strongly agree. It only makes sense that to be able to call in orbital support your navy need to establish orbital supremacy. Once they have that they should be able to drop strikes at regular intervals. If possible there should also be a status where both sides battling in orbit can call in strikes. A scenario where I have 100 ships in orbit but I need to wait for a beacon countdown or some other arbitrary flag before being allowed to drop ordnance would be annoying and not make much sense. Presumably this would encourage people to actually fight over a planet rather than run away when they see the enemy have them outmatched.

What do you think about who should earn calling in the orbital strike?
My preference would be EVE players get to pick who gets the strike so long as they have the required rank. Different strikes being available to different ranks. Examples:

- Precision Strike: A pin-point attack that can destroy an installation or stationary vehicle. Available to a platoon leader.
- Orbital Strike: Same old same old. Available to any squad leader the eve player chooses.
- Nova Strike: A strike that can be called in once per battle, requires a battleship (or whatever) to call in. Can destroy a null cannon on the ground. Only your commander can call this in. Has access to all lower strikes if wanted.

Other thoughts:
- Strafing runs from drones would be cool. Deployed like RDVs to do a strafe from one side of map to the other.
- Visible explosions in the sky when eve pilots are destroyed in orbit would be awesome.
- An electro-magnetic (EM) strike to disable tacnet and enemy comms for 60 seconds would be a cool tactical tool.

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?

The more weapons the more damage. Go destroyer.

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.

This I like... :D Thank you very much for the feedback!

The Pilot should be able to choose a squad leader when they connect to the district.

The whole draw of dropping OB's from eve is to support your friends. You don't want to support random dudes in most cases. You earn a strike, you want your friend to have it.

In the case of an eve player just earning strikes for whomever... Let them pick a random squad guy if they don't know anyone in the match. They'll just be making some dust dude's day.


Also, WP-earned OB strikes should allow the eve player to shoot for the other squads too. The connecting to a specific squad leader in that regard should only apply to strikes that the eve players earn.

1.let eve pilots shoot and leave us out of it.(they earned it let them use it)
Fw is dangerous just reward us for the slaughter
2.A Npc destroyer should spawn for squad Wp Orbital.
3.Eve players can shoot at Npc ship like a Rat.
4.No warbarge in Fw.
5.If eve players get annoying Wp orbital could be a interceptor Npc to attack Eve pilot.

2. Remove Warbarge strikes earned via WP, have the Starship strike via orbiting beacon but remove the need for the Starship to be in the same corp/alliance. This allows DUST only corps to call in some friends from anywhere to help out.

You want this game to be awesome and for EVE players to participate? Then let the EVE pilots pick where their guns shoot. Here's how it should go:

I warp up to a planet in my Caldari Battleship to support my faction. It is equipped with 1x Orbital Railgun and 1x Oribital Siege Module. I stop, activate my Orbital Siege Module, which has a 10 minute duration and functions like a Dreadnaught's Siege Module (I cannot move or warp away while it is active). With it active I am now able to target the district below (which takes roughly 30-60 seconds). Once targetted I am presented with the district overview map. This looks just like the overview map DUST players have. I can see troop / vehicle movements with colored chevorns over them. I know which color belongs to which side so I know friend from foe. I select where I want to fire and then click a button. Boom. My railgun sends a hypersonic slug traveing to that spot. Friendly fire is on; so it could be aimed at my enemy or I could target my own side. My decisions have consequences...

Here are the rules.

- You must have an active Orbital Siege Module to target a District.
- Orbital Siege Module works like Dreadnaught Siege Module.
- It takes roughly 30 - 60 seconds to target the Distrct (allows retaliation from enemies in space).
- EVE Overview map looks like DUST Overview map.
- Orbital Guns fire once and have a long cooldown of 3 minutes.
- Orbital Guns come in two sizes. Medium (For cruisers and battlecruisers) and Large (for battleships).
- Medium Orbital Guns do high damage roughly in the area of a flux grenade (Standard Forge Gun + Slash).
- Large Orbital Guns do very high damage in 2 times the area of a flux grenade (Officer Breach Forge + Splash).
- One Orbital Gun per ship, limited by fitting. Possible exception being the Dreadnaught which could do "Bombardments" with multiple guns at once.

- Possible limit to how many orbitals can be fired within a certain timeframe to keep large alliances from bringing 100+ Battleships to a fight and spamming orbitals because they can. Maybe the District NavSat can only have 10 concurrent connections at one time.


What this will do.

- Make controlling space mean something. You not want to be bombarded to holy hell by enemy pilots? Bring some pilots of your own.
- Give EVE players a huge incentive to show up. Clicking target district, then fire, is boring. Picking who lives and dies on the ground is fun.
- Adds orbital survelliance. EVE players could call out enemy movements since they see everything via the overview.
- Incite space fights.
- Fixes gun size scaling. Really, a small gun on a destroyer can do that much damage? What will medium guns do? Or large guns? By that scaling a Doomsday will blow up the entire planet like the Death Star.

- Plus, it will be f***ing awesome and will make DUST + EVE stand out against CoD, BF and PS2.

Unrelated, I think you need to stop giving Guardian points to someone with the armor repairer on the squad leader during an OB, and all the kill assist points for hopping into a Tank/LAV while the OB drops.

Would it be possible that whatever links a player over a district could link him automatically to the audio chat channel for the team he is launching strikes for? That could help with coordination.

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?

... well i was first :p

1) I think you should increase the wp requirement for OB's in FW and PC matches.

2) Depends on how they earn wp... if its just sitting on a beacon for a set time... i dont like it, should really have to contribute somehow.

3) Idealy we should be able to name an FC (field comander) and he has the precision stike choice, but untill then... squad leader of squad one?

one thing that would be relatively important for me:

as an eve player, i want to be able to support my buddy on the ground. not his squad, not his squadleader and not some random scrub down there.

my buddy should get the strike if i want to give it to him

Quick Question for you, would Nulli be interested in Dust corps? I'm looking for a EVE heavy alliance to join once my corp grows sufficently, eventhough Top Men do have Goons and Gents?

Doesn't the proposed change put Dust only corps at a disadvantage?

Keep in mind that not all DUst players know about EVE

There needs to be a means be which both dust and eve players can meet and form social ties. Being able to meet them in stations would assist in this.

The Pilot should be able to choose a squad leader when they connect to the district.

The whole draw of dropping OB's from eve is to support your friends. You don't want to support random dudes in most cases. You earn a strike, you want your friend to have it.

In the case of an eve player just earning strikes for whomever... Let them pick a random squad guy if they don't know anyone in the match. They'll just be making some dust dude's day.


Also, WP-earned OB strikes should allow the eve player to shoot for the other squads too. The connecting to a specific squad leader in that regard should only apply to strikes that the eve players earn.

The more weapons the more damage. Go destroyer.

i am not involved with alliance leadership, you may want to talk to one of these dudes:

EUTZ:
Totalani (EN)
Jarek Costadino (EN/GE)
Mr Majestic (EN)
Gonnaeatit (EN)

USTZ:
Guderian3 (EN)
Krullon (EN)
Superboom (EN)

AUTZ:
Jin'Mei Kim (EN)

Please note that only agreements negotiated with the listed contacts are considered valid by Nulli Secunda. (You can confirm this by looking at our alliances ingame description)

If we were allowed to donate ISK to an OB fund and then advertise the district, time and ISK reward for securing the district we might could entice some pilots to risk a 20M ISK destroyer. If the pay out is 32 M ISK ( 2M per merc, 16 mercs) for a providing support no extra currency is needed and it would provide an ISK sink for DUST.

IFor Eve side get kill mails as well and have LP scale with the value destroyed?

In far future with Crest power I would like to see a miniature map pulled up for Eve players of the battle going on with icons and being able to lock a site on his own for a strike based on his team's intel or in a far much longer interval his own scanning tools.

and orbital EWAR support make it happen.
Tactical ECM - Jams hostile's tacnet in affected area over a period of time. Translucent Static field storm effect in area
Tactical Dampener - Lowers hostiles tacnet in affected area over a period of time. Pulsing downward rings surrounding the area.
Tactical Painter - Massively pings hostile positions in affected area over a period of time. Red Tinted area
Tactical Web - Slows vehicle movement down in affected area over a period of time. Heat Effect near ground with weak electrical current that only gets stronger if a vehicle enters the area effected.

CCP we have one Kind of OB strike in pub matches right now.
How about change the warbarge OB to the three OB strikes that eve pilots can use.
To give the pub matches a change of flavor.
It would be nice to call a EMP down and take everyones shields down with a different sound.I remember the terror I used to have at the presound of a orbital strike and I would run in terror.
How about let all Orbitals even in pub matches kill friend and foe..Bring back the terror CCP!

The more weapons the more damage. Go destroyer.

This is purely for PC:

Orbitals should get a contracts system. A Dust corp should be able to make a contract for clearance of an orbital. As I see it now there are two options: 1. contract the orbital strikes to any EVE player so anyone in EVE can pick up the contract and deliver the orbital. 2. contract the orbital strikes to an individual EVE player so only that person and his fleet can drop the orbital.

In the contract the following information should be present: Information about which corp issued the contract, information about who the corp that issued the contract is fighting, information about the system, planet and district the fight will take place on, the amount of ISK the EVE pilot will get for each successful strike/ kill. The time and date of the battle.

I highly disagree on removing the warbarge strikes as this will give players with EVE connection too big of a benefit, keep both and let the Dust player choose.

DISCLAIMER:
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.

DISCLAIMER: 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.

DISCLAIMER: 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.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.

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.

Why not just let the squad commanders get the OBs as they are now and whomever calls it in first gets it to encourage full squads to form in support of FW? Right now, we rarely see a full cohesive squad from the same alliance much less corp form on the opposing lines.

The problem with FW battles at this point is there isnt enough reward to encourage corps to really get involved and build up full squads consistently. Our FW ground teams rarely have issues getting OB support from FW pilots as we work specifically with our FW allies to coordinate with them and make it happen.

If your corp is struggling to get OB support in FW join VTS Pub channel and ask for a diplo and we will help you find FW corps to coordinate with even if they are on the opposing side.

In the mean time working some mathematical formula for something which is already suffering from a lack of manpower only puts a mechanic in place for the sympton and isnt the answer for what the root problem is. If anything it will further discourage cohesive team play. Make FW rewards for fighting in the battles more interesting and you will see more full squads and fight the wars.

I think the following chat sums up my opinion on the matter succinctly

I wouldn't trust an EVE player with my planetary conquest orbitals, where they are 10x more important anyway.

I wouldn't trust an EVE player with an overheated laser rifle...

Orbital Strikes need to have multiple ammo types and affects. While the warbage should be capable of giving operable support such as electronic warfare and the like.

Each space craft should be able to use any one of their weapons to drop a strike, however to make sure its not overpowered only spacecraft of a specific size or lower should be able to connect to the satilite. This adds the idea of going for a smaller ship for quicker weaker strike, or put in something a little bigger.

Laser weapons are all about prescion and range, so a laser strike will have a very small area of effect but carry a lethal total damage capable of destroying any vehicle or installation, but serves very little purpose against infantry. While plasma strike will be purely infantry based, even llav have chance to survive, the guy inside nit so much.

As for contracts for providibg support a faction should be capable of issue merc contracts which means for the length of the contract the affected parties will be shown as allies, information should be given via communications once the contract is accepted. Mercs should be able to take out these contracts even if they intend to awox later on!!

Well, we already have multiple ammo types for EVE-delivered orbitals, and I actually addressed the size concern in an earlier post of mine.

Say that a frigate takes the same amount of time on the "beacon" to get a strike as it did in the FanFest tournament, so around 30 seconds.

For every size up, it takes longer.

60 for a cruiser.
90 for a Battleship.
120 for a Dreadnaught.

Like that. So you can wait for a bigger strike, but the enemy might use the delay to push up and wreck you. You have to take a calculate risk on larger assets.

Well yeah but if you say it takes 120 for a dreadnaught but your getting attacked you could rush an attack for lesser accuracy

So you mean get that same attack, but it has less of a chance to land where you want if the timer's not up?

The issue is that if they go with the precedent set by Templar One, "danger close" would be 900 meters. I don't think a reduction in accuracy would stop you from pasting whatever you aimed that kind of firepower at.

1: Yep remove warbarge strikes form FW/PC, or cut the WP needed for Orbitals. Either is fine by me.


So onto some thoughts and ideas for Orbitals and Eve-Dust Link in general.

1: Make orbitals more substantial. Currently it doesn't FEEL any better than a Warbarge strike. Hard to convince people to use the Orbital if they don't see the point.
2: Damage patterns. Allow the Capsuleer to set how the orbital strike lands, such as a line, a spread or all in one small cluster.
3: Intel map when connected. Give the Capsuleer a window that has a map with icons on it representing where all the Dust stuff is located. Only has to update with server tick's. GIves the capsuleer something to do while waiting.
4: Orbital repositioning. Nothing sucks more than an orbital that misses everything. Allow the capsuleer to adjust, up to a point, the precise strike location.
5: Allow the Capsuleer to deploy corp assets such as Tanks himself. Offload some of the strategic logistics. All assets dropped this way have to be donated to the Corp from Dust beforehand.
6: Indirect strikes. Split the map up into grids and allow the Capsuleer to bombard a section randomly. NO precision with these, they just drop haphazardly. Could force a certain minimum time bombarding a section, like say 45 seconds. A way to earn WP for a capsuleer.

I'm late to this party and haven't read any of the other replies yet.

1: Yep remove warbarge strikes form FW/PC, or cut the WP needed for Orbitals. Either is fine by me.


So onto some thoughts and ideas for Orbitals and Eve-Dust Link in general.

1: Make orbitals more substantial. Currently it doesn't FEEL any better than a Warbarge strike. Hard to convince people to use the Orbital if they don't see the point.
2: Damage patterns. Allow the Capsuleer to set how the orbital strike lands, such as a line, a spread or all in one small cluster.
3: Intel map when connected. Give the Capsuleer a window that has a map with icons on it representing where all the Dust stuff is located. Only has to update with server tick's. GIves the capsuleer something to do while waiting.
4: Orbital repositioning. Nothing sucks more than an orbital that misses everything. Allow the capsuleer to adjust, up to a point, the precise strike location.
5: Allow the Capsuleer to deploy corp assets such as Tanks himself. Offload some of the strategic logistics. All assets dropped this way have to be donated to the Corp from Dust beforehand.
6: Indirect strikes. Split the map up into grids and allow the Capsuleer to bombard a section randomly. NO precision with these, they just drop haphazardly. Could force a certain minimum time bombarding a section, like say 45 seconds. A way to earn WP for a capsuleer.

For PC at least, I think it's worth keeping the NPC Precision Strikes. Not every PC-capable Corp in DUST is going to have EVE support on call. For now, most do, and in future, most will, but not all, and not forever. I understand (and agree with) encouraging the EVE-DUST link, but this isn't encouraging, it's forcing it. DUST-exclusive Corps need to be capable of functioning - if at a slight disadvantage - without the reliance on EVE players. Corps with limited EVE support need options when their Capsuleers are unreachable.

And on that note, for PC, I think there should be a WP limit on squads calling in Orbitals, AND a limit on EVE players being available for them. So you need to capture the beacon so your team has access to an Orbital Strike, AND the ground forces need to build up their WP to call it in. When a squad has called in their first strike, they need more WP before they can call in another, making it more likely that other squads will have the WP and that top squad won't any more. If it looks like the space battle is turning against you, Precision Strikes are still available. If your team can't capture the beacon and you need urgent support, you can also use a Precision Strike instead of waiting. The EVE support would be more effective/powerful, and ideally you want to wait for that opportunity, but that won't be the only option.

---

Faction Warfare is less likely to have these problems. You're automatically being targeted on areas in which there's an active space battle, which means there will usually be ships present fighting for both sides. In this situation, the elimination of Precision Strikes is more reasonable, and helps to make FW feel more like it's empire vs. empire combat rather than the player-owned Corporations or the regular NPC Corps going against one another.

Also for FW, it might work better to have sequential orbital requests. Availability could determined purely by EVE players controlling the beacon, and the highest WP count for a squad would mean they get priority on the strike. If a squad uses the strike, they become ineligible for another strike until all other squads have had a chance. Or they have their accumulated WP total reset for purposes of determining priority on an Orbital. The former option would mean that you guarantee to "cycle" through the squads during the course of the match, with the "best" players getting the first orbital, and the team's lesser-skilled players providing support later in the match. Using the other option would allow a particularly dominant squad to take all the orbital support themselves, but they would have to be performing a LOT better than the rest of the DUST Mercs on that side of the conflict.

I still stand by my original post in the thread, as quoted below. I'd want to edit a few typoes, but I'm half asleep and can't be bothered right now.

imo they should only be earned by controlling a radar station or the like. Right now it's so simple ugh. point A B C

What about defense relays?

Or Radar jammers?

Just have more stuff for us to fight over, for instance, you need to hold the jammer for 2 minutes in order to open a window for an eve strike.

If the jammer is taken out with heavy tank fire , or remote explosives on the console INSIDE then both teams can have orbital support every 2 minutes.

How about OB support cuts into your paycheck that way OBs are an act of necessity instead of opportunity. Of course then there would have to be some benefit to winning other then a minor increase in pay out and a bigger epeen.

1) I agree with removing the warbarge OB from PC.
FW is too casual, it's better to keep the warbarge precision strike, i suggest to raise the number of WP needed for an orbital, with a team of 6 is not that hard to gain one.

2) I have no experience of EVE, i suppose i have nothing against it.

3) You can let all squad leaders set an objective for the OB, then the EVE pilot will choose.

A Corp that's trying to do PC with no EVE players should suffer for that.

Most Corps are forming alliances that also have EVE Corps, which was part of the intention of this game all along: to have us both cooperate.

If this has to wait until those orbital cannons can be finished, then fine, but NPC strikes just eliminate any interest in working with EVE players for orbitals. Even though our strikes do more damage, people will still gravitate toward the "easy" and "safe" option, even when it makes no sense to do so.

Re-read my post.

Precision Strikes don't have advantages under my proposed system. The only arguable advantage is the result of the "smaller blast radius" disadvantage - they have less collateral damage and can be used with less risk of friendly fire in mid-range combat. Also, if there's a cooldown on the use of the Precision Strikes, then EVE Orbitals will be able to "fill in" when a Precision Strike is still on cooldown, meaning EVE players can provide more consistent fire support.

The devs have directly stated that they DON'T WANT TO FORCE players to rely on the EVE/DUST link. I agree that it should be encouraged, and should give an advantage when it's used, but I disagree that going without should totally gimp your Corp in one of the primary aspects of being a Corp.

EDIT: Also worth mentioning, I think there needs to be a delay between calling for a Precision Strike and the Warbarge actually firing. That would negate the one area where people can legitimately argue that there's an advantage to Precision Strikes.

Oh yea, also I would like to look at giving the EVE player in FW LP for dropping orbitals... need to look into it though and make sure it cannot be exploited or anything stupid like that. :)

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.

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

What do you think about removing war barge strikes from FW and PC?
What do you think about EVE players earning the orbital strike?
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.

I almost think the EVE player should decide which squad leader to give it to. Let them decide over comms. The in game voice comms work fine, and so does third party software many of us use already.
That said this is less important, and can be done many different ways.

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.

Just gonna repeat myself from here... but....

Personally, as an Eve player, it is BS that we cannot fire unless the ground team accumulates so many war points. We are not part of the game, but rather we just facilitate "Call of Duty" style rewards for killing a large number of people. If you want me to give a darn about providing support it needs to work more along the lines of when I arrive at the planet I contact the peole in dust and they paint a target/give me a code. I fire immediatly, regardless of their WP total. I am there to turn the tide of battle, not to keep the winning team in the high seats.

Just gonna repeat myself from here... but....

Personally, as an Eve player, it is BS that we cannot fire unless the ground team accumulates so many war points. We are not part of the game, but rather we just facilitate "Call of Duty" style rewards for killing a large number of people. If you want me to give a darn about providing support it needs to work more along the lines of when I arrive at the planet I contact the peole in dust and they paint a target/give me a code. I fire immediatly, regardless of their WP total. I am there to turn the tide of battle, not to keep the winning team in the high seats. Let me shoot when I arrive so I feel like I am actually doing something! You could add a cooldown or a sensor reclairation time or some kind of other B.S., excuse to prevent me from shooting constantly. Even a "Lock on Time" of a couple minutes might be intersting, because it would make me vulnerable to attacks rom other ships . But either way I should be able to fire at my enemies so long as they do not have emplacements or allies in space to stop me! Doing it based on War Points is unfair to the players of Eve!

NO, THIS WILL NOT CAUSE OB SPAMMING:
Factors Already in play that would limit OB spamming:
1. When you show up to OB your location gets broadcasted on the overview to everyone in system, i.e. you become a target.
2. Eve ships are MUCH HARDER TO GET than Dust Dropsuits.
3. Only Small class guns can fit OB ammunition, meaning you have little protection unless non OBing ships are guarding you, meaning a fleet will not normally consist 100% of bombers.

My changes:
1. Activating OB weapons would take 10/20/30 seconds to "Acquire a firing solution" based on ammo, and therefore based on radius of blast. With the smaller blast radius (laser OB) taking less time to still allow some level of accuracy while the larger blast (projectile OB) taking a full 30 seconds and hybrid landing in the middle.
2. During this time you would not be able to move--or if you could it would be just barely. Not being able to shoot is a given, as your guns are shooting groundside. All together this means you are a sitting duck.
3. Ground troops would throw a piece of equipment similar to a drop uplink, but with a low scan profile, meaning it would only be visible if you were practically right on top of it. This equipment would be 1 time use per fit, with no reloads (just like drop uplinks are a 2 use with no reloads). Needing to physically be at OB location prevents spamming and gives scouts a greater level of importance. Alternately they mighty have a painting laser they need to hit a target with for a few seconds before a firing solution can begin to be calculated, or maybe they must paint it the entire time (in which case for balancing purposes the laser would need to be long range or OBs would disappear completely as nobody is going to stand point blank with a hostile tank for 30 seconds. And the long range variant would improve the role of snipers). Possibly a special kind of ammunition you can fire that acts as a homing beacon? Regardless it would require ground troops to specifically FIT for OB support, limiting greatly who can call one in and limiting his equipment for the ability to do so.
4. Friendly fire would be enabled for the OBs, lessening chance of spamming.
5. Only 3 or so OBs could take place every 5 minutes, any further OB attempts would be met with an error message saying something along the lines of "due to debris from recent strikes you are unable to calculate an accurate firing solution at this time."

Allow both teams to fire OBs at same time instead of beacon capturing. that way ship that are OBing become primary targets, and people have to choose between OBing with OB ammo or shooting the gys in the space conflict with normal ammo.

What do you think about removing war barge strikes from FW and PC?

What do you think about EVE players earning the orbital strike?

What do you think about who should earn calling in the orbital strike?

I agree and posted something similar here:

https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1156018#post1156018

Things I would change.

1. Make the OB ships in EVE require bigger guns with the current OB system we're used to requiring Battleship sized weapons.

2. Give OB guns a LONG cooldown. 2-3 minutes for small, 3-4 for medium and 4-5 minutes for large guns.

3. Allow the EVE player to see a screen similar (or exactly) like our DUST Overlay Map. When the EVE pilot wants to fire (and his guns are not on cooldown and he's locked onto the district) he clicks a location on the Overlay and boom. Death happens. FF is always on.


If nothing else please lose the stupid "killstreak" mechanic. I think it's silly for a game set in New Eden. Nothing is free so either have us pay ISK for orbitals (THAT will get pilots there) and make WP's apply towards ending payouts or let the EVE pilot shoot where they want to shoot.

As others have said the current "killstreak" mechanic only rewards the team that's winning and makes squads shy away from strategy and focus on farming WPs so they can get the next OB. This is New Eden. I may be one guy against a squad of the best players in the galaxy. But if I have a thick wallet I should be able to convince the pilot in orbit to shoot my enemies instead of me... for a price.

1. Not just FW or PC but IB as well. Often there are players floating around in HS that are playing mind the mining frigate and bored to tears. Maybe this could bring a beginner aspect to the OB game.

2. Let them scorch the ground just because they are there with no beacons needed and no time requirement for orbiting a beacon, this is silly.

3. Let all squad leaders call them or allow us to appoint a general, or leader for all the teams, maybe the pilot of the warbage, hint hint.

Orbiting a beacon should cause fights to spawn there so people in space don't have to do 13+ jumps to some randomly selected district.

Let us fight over a particular system. imagine the fights over those beacons in space - with the invaders jockeying for position to try to spawn more fights so the mercs on the ground can cap districts and help make the system vulnerable.