I have different opinion on those things.
The state of newly captured district being locked is a good good thing.

It adds the element of caring how well I win that final capture battle, instead of 'if I get it no matter how bloody my new district is instantly easy to defend'.

Sure, it adds more fighting. But that's not bad, is it? Worse for the game would be that it would make sense to attack under very specific conditions.

The owner of the district can change the reinforce at any time, provided the district is not locked. The change we are making is that after capturing a district either through the initial deployment or an attack, the district will be locked for the first 24 hours.

Also, I forgot to mention in my first post, but when capturing a district, there should be an immediate "change RT" option, because otherwise newcomers will be forced into places they don't want just to get an easily-managed RT, or Corps that try to work outside their usual available hours for an attack will get their district locked into an RT they can't handle long-term.

I don't think it's reasonable to use the RT mechanic as a limiting factor, because there are smaller regions with less-populated timezones which would be essentially excluded from most of the PC map simply by not having the numbers in their REGION, even if the Corp is sufficiently dedicated and capable. Australia (and to a lesser extent, New Zealand) is already getting forced out of their gaming primetime because of the inability to set RT straight after downtime. This would severely widen the area around this region of the world where the RT system is unfair. Districts will quickly gravitate towards having RTs that suit either US or EU players, and anyone who doesn't fit into those timezones will be unable to secure any districts they capture because they can't sustain the off-time play while under repeated attack from the Corps who want to keep the RT where it is.

More than ever, defenders wont stand a chance against an attacker. the result of a draw game will be A LOT MORE in favor of the attacker than the defender. Why ?

Arrow Attacker when losing a fight will STILL generate clones on its base district
Arrow Attacker will NEVER see any clone being stolen as the current game mode CANNOT justify sending more than 150 clones in a fight. So, defenders will NEVER still anythin.
Arrow Attacker will instead ALWAYS steal clone when winning as it's based on the district clone production output.

Bottomline => bad idea.

Example :

I'll use default districts, equipped with a Prod Facility.
So clone count 300 on both. Clone Gen is 100 per RT.
A is Attacker. D is Defender

ArrowLet's skip directly to first battle day. (So notice send day-2)

A attacks with 150 clones.As attacking clone movement is done instantly the day the notice is sent, its district has refilled in the mean time. so both districts have 300 Clones in stock when fight starts
A wins through MCC destruction. A Loses 100 clones D loses minimal clone loss.
A gets 50 remaining + 50 from defenders PF going back to district.
Sold => 10 Millions Pure profit
A uses dibs hour to attack again with 150 clones. They move instantly.

Clone count after first battle : A= 150 D=150

Arrow Second fight

A gets Reinforcement
D gets none.
Clone count before battle : A=300 D=150
Defenders wins through MCC destruction or clone depletion (doesnt matter tbh). D Loses 100 clones.
Attackers loses all clones. Defenders get jack clones.

A uses dibs hour and attacks again with 150 clones (why bother with more).
Clone count after 2nd battle and 3rd attack set : A= 150 D=50

Arrow Third fight

A and D gets reinforcement
Clone count : A= 250 D=150 (1 Victory on both sides though).
D wins again. same conditions.
A attacks again with 150 clones.

Clone count after 3rd battle and 4th attack set :
A = 50 D= 50

Arrow Fourth Fight
A and D gets reinforcements
Clone count : A=150 D= 150
A wins the fight and loses 100 clones. D loses district no matter clone depletion or MCC.

Why ? When defender managed to win 2 fights ? And the defender 2 fights ? It's a draw and yet defender loses ?
Imagine that for a corporation that manages to get ONE district in a few month. They spend maybe hundreds of millions to get a district with Geno Packs. They DONT HAVE any clone reinforcement each day and PAY for each attack. A very expensive price...

And then, when they got their ONLY district, they get stormed this way and WILL lose it no matter what. Even before having a chance to try and expand..... In my example, even if defenders had won the fourth game, it wouldnt be over. Attacker would just come back again. Maybe use a friendly district to cover for its low clone count after setting the attack. And even then he would still ALWAY have at least 150 clones to defend...

Attackers have WAY TOO much Clone advantages compared to defenders. A status quo on the battles on the ground should be in favor of the defender. Not the other way around. I agree this doesnt take attrition into account. But the whole point of attrition is to guarantee some kind of logic in the progression of the military campaign of the corps right ? So nobody would actually attack 4 jumps instead of securing a base allowing you to be closer to your real foe.

This stealing clone systems doesnt fix anything. I think it makes the disbalance even worse. PC is gonna be a permanent shifting of lands. Mark my words, you'd better be the one to attack and consider defending a waste of

I would add something too.

Opening ISK between Eve and Dust, and also think the way Dust Merc corp only could apply Alliances.
(see my related post 679776#) sorry I cannot add http link.

My thought is that way could help smaller corp to handle PC.

Regards
++
Linuz Vip

I disagree with the RT insta change suggestion.

1. like ccp said if u manage to get ppl for a fight on that TZ u already showed both sides can make the time. IF u didnt plan ahead for a long campaign then thats ur fault. Simple Win then change to ******** timer isnt kool and will be used as a mechanic to dodge and tbqh its too easy to win and just change the timer, ppl keep QQing about attackers being favoured and tbqh THEY SHOULD since we dont want ppl just sitting passively farming ISK like they want.

The non insta change makes it so that the defender has a 2nd chance to launch a counter and regain the district. Who ever heard of ppl conquering a city etc and able to setup defenses in 1 night. Only after possible threats are dealt with will u have the time to properly setup defenses aka ur timer

And lets face it if u lose while u were defending ur district AND fail the counter attack then yea u deserve to lose that district.


PC should always favour those that take risks over those that just want to passively farm and claim to be #1 because of a Donut Fest.

If PC favours attackers then guess what? time to go attack some peeps since this IS a FPS and we SUPPOSE to be shooting each other in the 1st place, more fights and conflicts is what ppl should be striving for in an ideal PC setup

BlueDonut will kill DUST

My Corp has people based all over the world with pretty variable timezones, but I have friends in Aus/NZ timezone Corps (I'm NZ-based myself). This WILL screw Aus over even more than they already are by the downtime and post-downtime locked hour.

Lets just ignore all that for now, though.

Lets pretend there are US and EU Corps with US and EU timezone RTs. Now lets imagine that one of the US Corps wants to invade a district held by one of the EU Corps because it's the last district in the way of them having complete control of their own planet.

They plan, and arrange for 3 days where they can field a solid team. That's all they're going to be able to spare, but they're sure it'll be ok because they can win the battle maybe on the first day with a bit of luck, and definitely on the second, giving them a day of turnaround to secure the district properly. More than half the Corp will be at work on that 4th day though, so they NEED to have it stable by then.

So they attack, and sure enough, they win on the first day.

The defeated Corp, who have support from EVE, know their attackers are crossing timezones, and know they just need to press the attack for a few days to reclaim "their" district, because until they ease off, the defenders can't reset their RT to a suitable time. They ask for a billion ISK loak from EVE-side, and repay the majority of it 3 days later when the defenders can't field anyone to defend, because the game is rigged to make cross-timezone attacks impractical.

Now, when you consider the viability of such an obviously out-of-universe "strategy", it makes it clear that the Aus/NZ local Corps will be locked into a district or two with no ability to expand and minimal ability to even hold onto their own territory and keep the RTs in a comfortable range.

Something NEEDS to be done for this to be sustainable as a worldwide playing field.

as for splitting fights between EU and US thats more your concern since pretty much all the good EU corps are in ur alliance.

US is more split and will still has enough EU presence on the US heavy sides to attack EU. U winning a fight and auto switching the timer means there is no other big name EU corp to even challenge u whereas US has to worry about other US and ur guys cuz u guys do make fights on both US and EU TZs

take the couple days off from work

Even if it's reasonable to expect a Corp to set aside several days to capture, defend and secure a district before they can reset the RT and really call it their own, it's even more reasonable to expect a Corp who were defeated on their own terms to have to match their opponents' timezone if they want to reclaim the lost territory.

If you're pushing outside your comfort zone to invade, then you DESERVE to do the same to the people who lost the fight.

I think the opportunity to counter attack might be the only 'fair' thing about this.....game. Oh wait, no its not...or is it?

Setting the timer immediately upon capture might be relevant to the upstart corp that wants to take a snapshot of their one territory before it gets ripped from their hands while being shoved off the boat.

Lets be realistic in real life. Timer or no timer, only the handful of 'kaiju' corps will ever redraw any borders. Out of those, the ones with the 'kaiju' EVE alliances on their side will have the lions share of the dots. Just like EVE.

Since this is the nether realm, let's try something unlike real life. Lets try a true free-market economy where everyone can compete for some share of the market. The upstarts share is of course going to be smaller and less valuable at first, and yes, they may be ran out of the market from time to time by competitors. But with proper regulation there could be a level playing field where as the aspiring entrepreneur could realistically gain a significant share of the market meanwhile opening the market to another optimistic corporation.

Dang it! I'm wasting my time talking about timers and such because I'm one of the 99%ers that is never intended to own my own business nor create any wealth in the current system.

Decide then WHAT is more important to you then... Sorry, but in this world you can't eat cake and still have it uneaten
When people get involved into MMOG they really are commiting their RL to it. It cease to be separated...

Okay. Most people are unhappy with the way how the District-losing Corp (L) would be able to use their own favorable RT day after day after day against the Winning Corp (W).

The newly captured district being locked from any actions of it's own is a good thing. It would be a pity to give up that just because of abovementioned reason.


Background:
It is clear and intended way that capturing a district is going to take multiple days (barring cases of opportunity when sniping weak districts).
Multiple fights on RT of (L)'s choosing before (W) takes a district.



[SUGGESTION A:]
Keep the newly captured district in the state of 'Under attack' still 24h AFTER being captured. Or create a new state 'Captured'.

That would mean that captured district couldn't act in the first day (good) but it couldn't be attacked before it's next RT is gone. After which (W) directors could change RT if they have faster fingers. Note: they would have to choose whether to transfer in more clones or change the RT - a choice which is always a good thing.




[SUGGESTION B:]
Let district go onto an unlocked state after victorious battle EXCEPT right after being captured. That way after one won defence, it's possible to change RT. Earn the change.

After capture, one more battle to win on old timer. Just one.

note: this does have implications during initial attack - defender could play RT games

This is basically the suggestion I made in the first place. The "loot district" option seems like a nice addition though, that could really mix up the playing field. And it would make a way for non-landholder Corps who don't have the manpower to have an impact on the starmap.