I really don't think it has to. At the end of the day, Friendly Fire was turned on because it fundamentally changes the way people play and creates a dfferent type of combat scenario with much greater risk involved for all who participate. This is by design.

Faction Warfare at its core is all about the crazy chaotic bloodshed occurs when two groups collide and are incentivized by hatred and money. (Mostly money). In EVE - its absurdly dangerous, it takes place in lowsec, "purples" cannot be trusted (and frequently AWOX), and spying is rampant unless you choose to run close fleets. And even in closed fleet situations, there is no way to block random militia members from coming into your complex and affecting your game.

Of course, anyone that doesn't want to expose themselves to this level of risk is free to not participate in Faction Warfare. The same now holds true for Dust.

I've been working quite intimately with Faction Warfare reform for years now, so I'm definitely not trying to comfort anyone by saying that this behavior won't happen. In fact, I'm almost certain that some militias will start to use this deliberate intervention as an actual tactic to throw matches in order to advance Warzone control. This is also something that I see as normal and healthy. Trying to prevent thrown matches or meta-play is futile - its endemic to Faction Warfare, and if people didn't care enough to fight and win a dirty, bloody, cutthroat war, it wouldn't be the same.

Historically, however, there have been myriad ways for this kind of infiltration/AWOX/disruption gameplay to play out, and it almost never does on the scale that everyone worries about initially. Throughout the last year there were plenty of moments when everyone thought a mechanic would ruin people's attempts to fight head-on, and it ended up being a niche activity by a few people that were bored and looking to have fun.

All that to say, its really hard as someone with a lot of experience with this to get riled up at only the latest panic about how blueberries or plex farmers or noobs or whoever is going to ruin FW for everyone else... Sure, there will be some of this, but its part of the unique cocktail that FW exists as. Assuming that reward levels are sufficient*, talented players will find a way around these hurdles and adapt to win despite the risks.


*I'm not sure that they are, but this is a completely different discussion entirely.