The root issue is the stupid design of the interaction. People will go around in circles talking about symptoms, but you're never going to get anywhere until you have game design that isn't absurdly stupid. It's one thing to have a design where you have conflict. That's fine. They have a design where one person is forcing another into a complete and utterly worthless interaction and then complains because so many opt out of it.
I want to deliver widgets. You want to fight me. The interaction is designed around attack vs escape. I'm not supposed to fight you; I'm supposed to run. If I win, I'm punished. I'm further from my destination and it will take longer to achieve my goal. If I lose: I'm punished. I eat a rebuy, lose data, cargo, bonds, vouchers, etc. I'm being asked to let others force me to stop spending time doing something I enjoy and spend it on an interaction where every possible outcome is worse than not having the interaction. You want me to make my ship worse at the things I enjoy doing in order to survive an interaction I don't want to spend time on AND winning the interaction is worse than not having it. The design is very stupid.
"Stupid" is a strong word; but it's not nearly enough to describe the current design. You want people to interact with. The design is built for one person to want the interaction and for the other to not want the interaction. Build competition where both want to win and neither wants to lose. You can't win without having the interaction. That would be a logical design. I want you to attack because I want to win. I want to win because winning is better than not having the interaction. Expecting me to participate when winning is worse than not having the interaction is stupid.
There's another recent thread discussing people in open trying to compete with people in solo doing a delivery CG. You don't need to pay more in open.
Make winning the interaction more rewarding than making contributions to the CG! You can only do that if you create an interaction that's worth a damn. Some want to pretend they're an element of the PvE game loop. You're not. You're a side quest. You need to offer opportunity. I'll put my current objective on hold and take a part of this side quest. It has risk but offers opportunity greater than my current objective. Few are going to be willing to accept that side quest if the rewards aren't worth the time involved. How many of you do tip off missions? Very few are going to accept that side quest when every possible outcome is worse than not accepting it. That's so inconceivably stupid. That's the issue to address.
You interdict me. We drop to normal space. This starts a mini game. I need to stay in the instance and survive for n-seconds. We both get a message from the insurance agency after that time. They're sending a megaship to some anarchy system > 100 Ly away. Go there to report the incident and the impacted party will get a reward. "n-seconds" is long enough for you to have a fair chance to destroy me. I'm not trying to make this easy for the person tasked with escape. How does 90 seconds sound? Make it however long you want within reason. Don't ask people to spend several minutes on this mechanic. I hold all burden until we get this message. At that point, you go from wanting to kill me to
needing to kill me. You will face consequence if I make it to that megaship.
You try to interdict me. I win the interdiction. There is no "n-seconds". We get the message immediately. Bothering others cannot be free. You attack me in a low/medium/high RES. I'm clean. That starts the mini game. You have "n-seconds". You have a friend than joins in on the attack. "n-seconds" becomes (n/2)-seconds. I'm playing the mini game with both of you.
The megaship will leave if I power down for any reason. I can't let you destroy me. I can't dock, reboot (powerplant, not fsd), logout, etc. We both get the message. In fact, broadcast it to the entire system chat. Now everyone knows something went down, someone that's probably taken damage is heading to a megaship and a criminal is probably chasing. You instigate the mini game. I control it. If you attack me and jump before n-seconds; the game continues. It's based on my ability to survive. Your consequence is based on completing your objective and stopping mine. It's not dependent on my ablity to destroy a combat ship because that's stupid. This is attack vs escape; not PvP combat.
Reward/penalty: We are both wagering the value of what I'd lose if you kill me: my rebuy, data, cargo, bonds, vouchers, etc. I think I'd also lose completed missions. I don't remember; it's been a while since I've died by mistake. I'm happy to increase this risk to whatever you're willing to accept; just understand that my risk is your risk. I drop a black box if you kill me. Pick it up, take it to a black market. You get the value of 50% of what I lost. They also clear your bounty. Reward victory; don't punish it. Move C&P to PvE only. If I win, I get a reward worth 50% of what I would have lost. You get a penalty worth 100% the value of what I would have lost. This penalty is from the insurance company. They're trying to recoup costs from clients that cost them money.
There are 3 additional mechanics as part of your penalty.
- You lose your rebuy privilege until you pay. You lose a ship if you get killed while you have the penalty
- The insurance company is going to send really annoying NPCs after you until you pay. Every couple of minutes, your comms is gonna be like, "the eagle is in the nest!!" Maybe one of those spec ops ships from CZs. They're going to be constant and immediate. Drop in normal space and they're going to be there bugging you. They're not going to be some crazy ATR level threat; just enough that you can't ignore them and keep playing your normal game. Stop everything and go deal with the penalty. They're wanted and have great bounties. Fight back.
- You temporarily lose access to your other ships and modules if you die while you have the penalty. You're put in a sidewinder. Pay the penalty and you can have your stuff back. It's not a bounty or anything. Just a penalty from the insurance company. You can fly around with it if you want; but it's going to impact your game. Attack whoever you want; but don't lose the interaction. You need to stop what you're doing and go handle the penalty.
To make this clear: If I'm running around with a billion in exploration data; then we're both wagering a billion credits for a chance to win 500 million. You don't know you're wagering a billion credits; but you are. You're not forcing me into a worthless interaction; you're offering a lucrative opportunity. Your consequence is based on the interaction. We're not asking a trade ship to destroy a combat ship to get a reward for the time they're being forced to use. That's stupid. Your objective is to destroy me. My objective is to survive and then escape to safety. Winner gets a reward. Loser is punished. The reward/penalty may not be all that significant. It may be some insane number. You'll find out after the fact.
You lose a ship if you have the insurance penalty and get destroyed. Change that if it's too harsh, but the penalty needs to be harsh enough for people to not exploit it for the reward. I like the idea because it would give a reason for criminals to switch to ships that don't have as much of a time investment. That puts them at a disadvantage if they have to deal with players that want to be bounty hunters.
Destroy someone with the insurance penalty. You get 75% the value of their death penalty and 50% the value of the ship they just lost. The first person to kill the person with the penalty receives one more bonus: 25% the value of their penalty. Going back to my example. A criminal attacks me while I'm carrying a billion in data. I win. I get 500 million. A bounty hunter shows up and destroys the criminal. The bounty hunter just earned 250 million. That's 750 million in rewards given out. The criminal is paying a billion in penalties. Unlike the 'pay more in open' concept; no magically free money is created here. You're creating game play for 3 groups of people that all tie in. Mouse vs Cat and Cat vs Dog
Now add modifications to the reward/penalty concept in different scenarios.
Attack someone at a CG and win. You get an extra reward. You get the normal reward plus an extra 25%. I think the criminal should get more. Again, I don't want to dissuade criminals. The game is better without them with the current, stupid design. I'm trying to give them value and need people willing to participate. Have some criminal faction running a counter CG. Top 10% of murders get some huge monetary reward. This isn't based on the number of kills. It's based on how much cargo you stopped from getting delivered. Killing the guy in the sidewinder 50 times isn't as valuable as killing shieldless T9 guy once.
Get attacked at a CG and win. You get a multiplier added to all CG contributions. You deliver 100 widgets. You get credit for 100 + 100*.15. Win again; 100 + 100*(2*.15). The attacker needs an additional penalty worth that level of reward.
Have a similar modifier for powerplay:
I'm running around with 10k merits. You attack me. We're wagering the normal stuff as well as 10k merits. Kill me, I lose them all and you take half when you turn in my black box. I also lose a rank. You get an extra reward based on the rank I lost. You get a huge bonus if I went from rank 5 to rank 4. You get a smaller bonus if I go from rank 4 to rank 3. If I win, you lose however many merits I had and a rank. If I had more merits than you, you lose 2 ranks and have negative merits. I earn 50% of merits and a bonus based on your rank penalty. If anyone is pushed to below rank 1 they're kicked out of powerplay for a couple of weeks. You get an extra bonus. You just caused an enemy faction to lose a supporter for a couple of weeks. If you have negative merits when kicked out then you have more weeks added to your 'exile' (based on how many negative merits you have) and your power will hunt you during this time. 1 extra week for each merit you owe? Not sure how that math would work. Maybe a cap of getting kicked out for 8 weeks. No exploiting with an alt.
Attack someone and fail when you're not involved in powerplay will have some massive penalty. Don't do mess with people in powerplay unless you're pledged. You get the normal reward if you win.
This type of design places value on the interaction. It's not just a worthless waste of time for one party. You keep all the other stuff. Be the risk. Make the galaxy dangerous. Just know you have risk that's actually based within the scope of the interaction.
