This concerns me, as it came out of the left field completely. Please tell me, PLEASE tell me, that when you say you plan to randomly generate district maps, you mean THE SOCKETS, not the actual maps? And you mean randomly generate the sockets ONCE, not between each battle?

The district map (not the sockets) being the actual physical layout, the geography, the placement of the different sockets. There are 3 in PC, currently. And I believe the reason those 3 were probably the only ones put in PC to start with still stands. They are quite possibly the only maps in the pub rotation that are actually any good for this sort of competitive play with such small teams, they have enough variation combined with balance to be viable.

Also, the main issue. The reason why so many districts are set to Cargo Hubs, is because you didn't make the other types desirable enough in comparison.

So, maybe instead of doing away with the relevance of the SI to the actual district, you actually rebalance the different district types and make is not desirable to only hold cargo hubs? There, problem solved, no more having to mostly fight on that one large socket. Though, replacing the gallente research facility in the rotation would probably do almost as much to add variety.

Another thing... you make mention of SIs, as in changing them costs points, but you are also saying you plan to make them meaningless by removing their bonuses and even removing the relationship between the SI and the large outpost on the district.

Then, what is the point of the different SIs? Just do away with them entirely, if they are no different from each other?

I like it, seems as if you guys (CCP) left the bar and did some work, congrats.

But I will say this; you just created the biggest and most stubborn blue donut this game has ever seen. The PC vets will merge together for spite to prove a point.

Just watch and see.

Again, nice job.

Not win-win, but slightly less lose-lose.

There will be no value to gathering intel, there will be no way to plan ahead, there will be no way to choose to play to your team's strengths.

Also, it eliminates the potential of the defender having the advantage of knowing their land, if the attacker is going in blind attacking for the first time.

No, I don't think just the act of attacking should give you the map intel automatically, but there needs to be a way to know the map (if you put in the effort) before loading in to the battle. Otherwise, we are in yet another way making PC fights not very different from pubs. If someone wants to fight on a random, unknown map, they can go deploy into a pub or fw anytime they please. Some of us appreciate and enjoy the planning and tactics involved in thinking ahead, and would appreciate the continued ability to do so.

I puked in my mouth when I agreed with Roman but;

8v8
Corp Specific
Ambush/Domination

*spits*

If you kill the core clones off a district you risk the stakes being far too high for raids. If you want to affect the ownership position of a district launch a full attack. Stopping production and regeneration of the clones/MCC seems to be a pretty good middle ground.

Let the attacker choose the size or the raid and match type. Depending on the match the stakes are raised and the rewards are different.

Raid - 8 v 8 Ambush - 1x CP
Raid - 8 v 8 Dom - 1.5x CP
Raid - 8 v 8 Skrim - 2x CP
Raid - 16 v 16 Skirm - 3x CP

The potentially rewards would scale in a similar fashion as the CP.

Steal 10% of Daily Clones
Steal 20% of Daily Clones
Steal 30% of Daily Clones
Steal 50% of Daily Clones

It doesn't need to be impossible to make profits but if you increase the CP cost of actions then you provide a strong incentive to be in the same corp during corp actions.

What I like about CP is that it opens up options like setting up a defense contract with another corp at the cost of CP.

I hate no shows as well, but I think if you make a raid cost the defender CP and they keep noshowing they'll have their CP burn out anyways. Maybe if you no show a raid it actually cost you double the CP. This way you don't get directly into high stakes ownership levels, but if a corp vanishes then you eat through their CP. Maybe if you hit 0 CP your districts become unoccupied?

Sounds like raids would be a great opportunity to train new FCs then. Also, I do really agree that these raids should HAVE to have an FC available. Your 16 won't be able to be everywhere at once and the stakes aren't extremely high.

You describing elites running amok is exactly why core ownership clones should NOT be affected by a raid.

Districts should be affected to the extent that a successful raid interrupts farming operations. If the raiders are beaten back, then back to business-as-usual. Incentives for showing up for the fight.

I would have to strongly disagree. I think something like Thor mentioned where it cost more CP to bring in ringers would be fine, but players should be allowed to freely associate even if there is a cost to that.

Corps may very well want to bring only potential recruits on a raid to try them out as well as a myriad of other potentials. Corp purity is a much lower priority than the freedom to associate in what's the only real sandbox arena in Dust.

And if the two are one and the same?