EVE blog banter #8: Killing in the name of

Welcome to the eighth installment of the EVE Blog Banter , the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here.

This month's topic comes to us from Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks: "What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

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What I would like to see is an extension of two current game mechanics, namely factional warfare and faction standings + some further balancing to make it all work.

Currently faction standings mean access to higher levels of missions, jump clones, and an LP store. What I would add to that is that +5 faction standings with criminal factions means the rats stop shooting you, just like you need to stay above -5 to enter sovereign space.

Then factional warfare: Make it so that not only the Amarr and Minmatar (for example) fight over a region but also add the rats in that region into the mix. Or expand it even further, make all space that cannot have player sov captureable in the name of any faction you can join up with.
To make up for the cons of joining a faction -- though a huge target list is considered a pro by some -- give each FW corp some unique LP store items. Things that are useful in FW, preferably. Would likely need some revision of the FW missions though as I keep hearing hardly anyone bothers with them due to danger and no unique rewards.

It is possible to get locked out of the outlaw power blocks and this is an issue that should be addressed as well. Sell yourself out as a spy sounds like a nifty mechanic. For balancing issues this would only work with high standings for one faction, and too low to work for another faction.

This is all promoting my own agenda for sure, as I loved our campaign Bold Harvest where we preyed upon the Amarr and Minmatar militia. How neat it would have been if we could have not only destroyed player ships in those plexes but also capture them in name of the Cartel. That aside I feel FW should be expanded upon no matter what. It is too good of a concept to leave it die a silent death or hope it will go on forever in its current form.