So today we attempted to Q sync to fight for the caldari faction. Armed with eve pilots plexing and providing orbital support we made all haste to take the Eha system for them. For many of us vets that have been around since replication itGÇÖs been a long time coming. We had been testing what we can and can not do in fw since 1.7 was released and found a way to use the system to get it to do what we wanted(or at least we had hoped). We had almost 10 full squads of players (and more still looking for squad) from Imps, TP, AE, FA, Rainbow effect, STB, OH, Nyain San, Hellstorm, EON, WTF, SI, etc and I probably missed a few. A channel full of frenemies if you would, and I couldnGÇÖt have been happier to see you all /me hugs dust nerds. (Shout out to the Caldari eve pilots who I will keep nameless and those willing to pay for dust mercs services)

This is where all the good news ends. It turned out to be a complete cluster **** and not for our lack of trying. Even with eve pilots in system it was almost impossible to get a eha battle and when we did caldari was defending districts they didnGÇÖt own it seemed. IGÇÖll spare you all the pleasant holiday well wishes the that was spoke about ccp in our fw channel. So now that we have had time with 1.7 and know what we can and cant do and what needs to be done I have volunteered to bring the info to you.

First I will say you donGÇÖt have a choice these changes need to be in 1.8 and there doesnGÇÖt need to be a 1.8 till these changes are in it.

1.If caldari or amarr have no districts they should be attacking not defending donGÇÖt you think? So how to solve this at this point in time I am open to solutions. In discussions with other fw players here are a few of their ideas.

a.If your faction owns under 20% system district you always attack.

b.Scale attack defend ratio based upon system control aka you own 20% you attack 80%

c.If you win a defense match you get to attack next match

2.Private contracts. Simple eve players/corps/milita can award private contract to dust corps/alliance. Roles should piggy back dust side like in PC. Players get paid not corps. Should also have defensive contract for that can be assigned private or if no one dust they become public (anyone can join). Rewards should be more

3.Rewards. At the moment FW needs isk, I understand you have a long term play with player market and trading but FW needs isk pay outs now.

4.Make more rewards for Eve FW militas (donGÇÖt care how at this point but OB support is amazing)

5.TEAM DEPLOY ( edit: this is for private contracts only, pub fw matches can be q sync'd )

6.TEAM DEPLOY

7.TEAM DEPLOY (like in PC)

8.TEAM DEPLOY (glares at CCP Nullarbor while hearing telc yell about team deploy in his head)

So I tried to keep it simple and not offer a laundry list of things. So other players feel free to add or discuss ideas above.

So what I am about to say may get me stoned out of the dust nerd club but here it goes. Turn off PC. FW is about mercs working for the factions and eve pilots. Focus efforts there please. PC 2.0 in nullsec is a different story. I know have never been a fan of PC in its current state to you can take my idea with a grain of salt. Remember with the lp system isk is less of a factor if you are limited by standing and the amount of lp you have.

Dust #1 fanboi
Free Beers

This is part of the reason why team deploy will take a bit of time to get right. We first need to be able to build the team, but then matching that team into a battle that is fun and balanced without waiting an eternity and still allowing factions to push is trickier than it sounds.

Kane i think dust players should be able to choose systems to fight on with out eve nerds. However there need to be a way for public and private contracts for eve piilots to choose a system. We should be able to see the highlighted system on the star map and if we choose to fight or defend the rewards should be greater

There needs to be choice in the system but greater rewards for WORKING WITH eve nerds

Great thread, and really interesting to see the results of this. I agree 100% we need to do 2 big things to give this the flexibility it deserves.

1. Team Deploy, we've always wanted it, we havn't done it yet because it's a lot of work but it needs to happen.
2. Queuing for a specific system to allow DUST to dictate where they want to fight. This makes the most sense to do in combination with team deploy.

We have spoken at length about both of these with the CPM including during the design of Uprising 1.7. They are both on the plan but simply got cut due to time constraints. I can't speak to whether they will be in 1.8 mind you, plans are afoot.

Great thread, and really interesting to see the results of this. I agree 100% we need to do 2 big things to give this the flexibility it deserves.

1. Team Deploy, we've always wanted it, we havn't done it yet because it's a lot of work but it needs to happen.
2. Queuing for a specific system to allow DUST to dictate where they want to fight. This makes the most sense to do in combination with team deploy.

We have spoken at length about both of these with the CPM including during the design of Uprising 1.7. They are both on the plan but simply got cut due to time constraints. I can't speak to whether they will be in 1.8 mind you, plans are afoot.

So you want to remove the only reward a player gets it will reduce players trying. I have fac war eve toons and the rewards aren't enough to really risk it so players do it out of their own want to. plexing is still more profitable and much safer then being bait waiting for OBs

FW needs contract levels (1 to 4) and mercs need to be able to choose a contract themselves (or select random if they wish).

The more desirable the district the higher the contract level. So System A (that no one is really fighting for) would have mainly level 1 contracts while System B (that is a huge front line and has been contested for weeks) would have mainly level 4 contracts.

Level 1 would primarily be the disorganized pub matches we have today, with low payout and a minute standings drop if lost.

Level 2 would be a step above the pub matches, more organized, with a better payout and a small standings drop if lost.

Level 3 would be squads only (maybe 4x 4 man squads = 16). Good payout with a moderate standings drop if lost.

Level 4 would be team deploy only with high payouts but a big standings drop if lost.

This makes it so that as you get higher standings you become more useful towards your faction taking space. It also means that as you gain standings you rise above the chaos, TKing, pubbies, and whatever in the lower level contracts.

Also, we need rankings / medals or something for FW. So that people who are dedicated to their factions get something to show off. I would love to be able to get an medal with the Caldari logo on it atop my avatar to show that I have won 1000x battles for the Caldari. Or an Inquisitors medal for the Amarr for winning 1000x battles with them.

The players who have participated in Planetary Conquest have done nothing wrong in doing so. They played the game and used the rules set up by CCP to put themselves in the best position possible. The footprints are in the sandbox already and the ISK is in the system.

Even if PC were to be shut off the fairest course of action would be for CCP to sell off the clones at whatever the Genolution purchase price was at that time and refund the cost of any clone pack attacks in process.

Back on topic though the fact that without a player market faction warfare will just wither on the vine and this is the primary issue that needs to be addressed. If the player market can't be implemented in a timely fashion then the stop-gap measure of putting ISK into FW in addition to LP needs to take place.