There is possible gameplay problem with this system. It prioritizes clone count over depletion over MCC destruction since MCC destruction only does 100 clone loss, while a clone count depletion has the potential to completely win a district, or to least make the enemy take a bigger clone loss. I fear Skirmish will become a glorified Ambush battle.

There needs to be more game modes or objectives associated with planetary conquest or else it will only be a glorified team-deathmatch. Here are possible ways to add complexity and variety to the actual battles:
Attacking/defending clone storage to destroy clone supply.
Attacking/defending to steal clones by the hundreds.

That is a good point, though it won't really matter if the difference in skill is great enough; with the right difference, a corp can steamroll an apposing team and wipe out their clone reserves and win faster than the MCC gets destroyed.

This may not be the case when defenders can stack their clones to large numbers, but I would still like more variety in the game modes. I don't always want to just be capturing null cannons and depleting clones. We need objectives besides null cannons, and we need attack/defend modes.

The attackers should actually avoid taking ALL the objectives - their goal (to claim the district) is to deplete all the clones on it. This means their goal should be to win by clone destruction. They need to keep the points from being hacked from the get-go, or cap 51% of the points and hold them just so they don't lose their MCC.

Lets think of it as manpower efficiency: do you choose to attack or to defend?

GÇó defense 16 man: clones are lost, over 100 if you lose.
GÇó defense no-show: 100 clones lost
GÇó no-show takes 3 fights to flip. bad defense takes 2

GÇó attacking 3 fight timeframe,
GÇó split 16 players on 16 planets, run from defended and only afk farm non defended. you can roll approx 5 min per fight to see if defended. 1player kills 100 clones when no show happens.

In any case, directors die to the probing attacks clickfest.

You see, if there was accumulative value in keeping planets long, small groups would have their place in holding very valuable ones. Now the corps with more players grow exponentially and there is no reason to care about which planets you own - just use the clone numbers and player number advantage to spam attack weaklings.

If you move 100 clones to attack a district on a planet 2 jumps away, but only 60 survive the travel, then you lose the battle, what happens? You are supposed to lose a minimum of 100 clones.

Do you only lose the 60 surviving ones?

Or does the attacker need to send enough clones to ensure that at least 100 arrive safely?

Sorry if this has been answered already.

The question, which is mine too, is if a corp can decide to have the attack actually start to take place 1 minute prior to that reinforcement timer ending (it's understood they must set the attack 24hours+ beforehand), or if the entire battle must be completed before that 1-hour window is up, meaning the latest you could safely set the beginning of the attack for would be with about 25 minutes left in the window.

No no no...

You take a district, and you set the reinforcement timer --> the district is lock for 24h.
Just need to sync it well, as in Travian with sync attack ;) !! No one will attack us, except us ;) !!!

1 hr attack window per day

I'm coming back with my projection on the first day.

LetGÇÖs do this properly.

Mother corp = A
Sister corps = B1-B2-B3-B4-B5

A need to provide at least 21.6M ISK to each sister corps nâá 108M ISK, and 3 members each to prepare defenses nâá 15 people.

Day 1 :
Every corps take 1 district on the same planet, A in the middle (just for the style ;))
Reinforcement timer set (for an EU corp as us) EVE time :
A : 20.00
B1 : 21.00
B2 : 22.00
B3 : 23.00
B4 : 0.00
B5 : 1.00
[District are locked, but they can be attack. If they are lock, you canGÇÖt build a SI. So 24h later, each district will have 140 clones (x6 = 840)
Suppose that a corp attack one of the district, we can defend it easily with the ringer system. Just need to count on our tactical and FPS skills. But on day after, just the corp that attacked has a prerogative to attack again. But they canGÇÖt buy another clone set to attack the day after. So youGÇÖll have a window to interact.
Well, just for the example, no one attack us during the first day.]

Day 2 :
A build Production Facility nâá up to 60 clones a day. Attack on B1.
B1 sell 139 clones.
B2-B3-B4-B5 no moves

Day 3 :
A has 2 districts with 100 clones on each (follow me ;)), and build a production facility on the new district.
B2-B3-B4-B5 have now 180 clones
No moves at all (A canGÇÖt empty a district)
If we are attack on others districts, we have enough clones to defend it (suppose ;)) : ringer system

Day 4 :
A attack B2 nâá 60 clones left on the first district, the new one has 160 clones.
B2 sell 219 clones (100,000 ISK each)
B3-B4-B5 no moves.

Etc, etc, etcGǪ

So for each sister corp, itGÇÖs 2 days to capture their district, keeping enough clones on each to defend them, earning ISK for A selling clones, capturing new district without fighting, members of sister corp wait 24h until join mother corp (what else ?).

So ok, this system is weak the 1st day, and maybe the third. After that, itGÇÖs just syncGǪ

Once again, donGÇÖt really know if itGÇÖs realistic (at least, it is to me), but it does need a simulationGǪ


Edit : on day 4, A become A1 and A2... A week or 10 days max to have 6 district without fighting...

Corp C attack A with a 100 clones stack bought to Genolution.
C failed, can't buy another stack BEFORE the starting game so CAN'T attack the day after (and C is the only corp who can attack the same district on 2 days if I understood all well)... There is a window ;) !!!

The first to do it grabs a region and foritfies the bottlenecks with said alt corps. Then expands safely inside the region by giving it over to main corp by selling clones before fight, which is forfeited. If planets are anything like current nullsec with bottleneck, the alt corps allows a delve-style fortress creation within weeks.

20 million for the starter pack. 5 million if you kill all 100 clones and let none get wasted in the MCC. The final 6 mil comes from the district producing at max cap 60 extra clones, cause if it lost the fight, it would lose those clones and the dummy corp is preventing the district from losing. Total net lose. 20 - 5 - 6 = 9.

EDIT: Note this scenario could be used to protect a money farm located behind the district being locked and/or delay while reinforcements showed up.

Good morning! New day, new effort. All in good spirit :)

Since I haven't really gotten answers to the core issue I think I see with this split corps thing, I'll further elaborate by posting what I feel is an issue. I'll start with two analogies to explain what I feel is wrong or possibly just bad design. The core issue is capping the usage of manpower through an artificial limit that can be bypassed. Possibly this only applies to the first month of the game, I haven't run any simulations on clone numbers. If it's a negligible thing, then excellent, but I want to be sure this is not the inevitable short cut to dominance of a few planets. I want to be sure it won't be that when nullsec planets are opened for PC.

Thanks for the response.

1) My issue with catering to small corps, leading to alternate corps etc. is just that every big corp that wants to play big needs to do it to stay in pace.

2) I don't get the getting attacked part. Of course you will, and that's where you can use your merc numbers. That's the whole point: to not have 16 mercs fighting a 700 merc's battle, but instead have multiple fights going to expand quicker. The main corp can eventually tip off the districts from the placeholder expansions you managed to secure after the initial struggle, without clone loss to main corp doing so.

3) I must be missing a mechanic that's in place. Defender gets to choose timeframe, and you get the empty district you land on. Spam corps, get districts, put timeframe to when you will defend them. Instead of using 16 players at a time, you can use multiple times that if your corp's numbers allow.

4) EDIT: the day one into mother corp part doesnt exist. You play multiple corps normally, and eventually give over to mother corp so that it wont lose clones on expansions. You play multiple corps, because your size allows it and it's the reasonable thing to do with the mechanics.

Will these structures on planets cost ISK from our corp?


GÇóCargo Hub: Provides a 50% bonus to clone storage
GÇóProduction Facility: Provides a 50% bonus to clone production
GÇóResearch Lab: Provides a 50% bonus to clone travel efficiency



Just wondering because some of us will have to pay taxes since there is no option. Giving a lot of isk to the corp so we can provide these structures.

Wait, what? I thought you only produce clones if you win?

An important question:

Defender positioning. Will defenders start with NULL cannon control? Will they start at a near location to bases as opposed to attackers who need to find a way in? Will defenders control all installations in the beginning of skirmish?

Anything else than the above scenario feels unintuitive and odd to me.

NO BATTLE happens as it's not been a full 24h since the first fight Don't know if you guys took that into account but it's important. Or at least that's the way i understood that part of the wiki