Harmless, Aiming for Elite.

Does anyone solo any more? I took a few roams around over the weekend and either encountered lots of small gangs of three, or people who just ran. I didn't get one fight, closest was a Daredevil who ran from my Rifter -.-

I wrote the next bit a couple of weeks ago and its been saved as a draft since then. Yesterdays roaming was a very similar story.

-o0o-

First session was so quiet it was almost pointless. I flew around system after system not finding any fights at all. Either people ran, or had a Griffin with them. I spent 30 minutes muttering curses to myself and logged hoping it would be busier later.

Later on I took a Thrasher out and after finding the surrounding systems very quiet again, I took a run up to the home of Stay Frosty. Due to my crap TZ there were only a few SF about and all docked up with none in space. There were three Caldari Militia there but they were all together in one plex. I headed back down the pipe. Every solo destroyer I came across ran off. Frigates, yeah they should run so cannot complain there. The rest were small groups or dudes with a Griffin. Why are Griffins so popular currently? In the end I went back to Kedama and sat in a plex waiting for someone to come at me. A Jaguar came at me and I was all excited until it appeared on grid and it was an Alliance member. Next up was a Hookbill. I loaded EMP and got ready. He entered the plex and as he got point his mate in an Imperial Navy Slicer suddenly arrived. Their combined DPS was just enough to kill me before I was able to kill the Hookbill. He was in about 20% structure as I popped. So close!

Anyway I podded back home, reshipped and headed south. In Pyne I warped to a plex just as a pirate Tristan landed. I engaged in my Kestrel... and five seconds later his two mates arrived. The Tristan was in low structure as I popped. So close again!

At that point I rage-logged as I was getting frustrated and knew I'd probably end up Leeroying more ships just trying to get one kill.

Can be so fustrating when you are soloing and you keep getting outnumbered.

-o0o-

Can anything be done about this? I doubt it. Eve needs to be an open sandbox. Whilst frustrating for the solo roamer, to put any sort of mechanics or restrictions to help them 1v1 would be out of character with the game. I may hate it when I tackle the bait, but that is a legitimate tactic and whilst I may die too often, it should be allowed.

So how can we encourage 1v1 and less pointless blobbing? Titles!

BattleClinic awards points for your kills. However the points awarded are adjusted depending on how many people are with you and the ship types. Kill a cruiser when its you and 4 mates in battlecruisers, you'll get single digits. Kill a dreadnought, solo and in an interceptor, you'll get close to 700. What if we had that scoring system in game. Remember Elite? Even if you don't remember the original (Oh I loved my rubber-keyed Spectrum 48k with tape player) you may have seen Elite: Dangerous which is currently in development. What if pilots had 'titles' or ranks based on a scoring system. These are the titles you get in Elite based on number of kills....

• Harmless
• Mostly Harmless
• Poor
• Average
• Above Average
• Competent
• Dangerous
• Deadly
• Elite

Eve could have a similar system with titles based on a BC type scoring system. The scoring could also be based on average score per month age of character. That way vets don't benefit to the detriment of newer players. Want that prestigious 'Elite' ranking? Well you are going to need to solo or small gang a lot more. Blobbing ain't going to cut it!

Of course this helps with the stagnation too. A new challenge for players (and something more useful that that Isis Mastery Level). Just look at Titanfall and all the players generation levelling.

Then again on the other-side, will visible rankings deter people. Will those with high ranks find that people will not fight them? As with everything in Eve, every idea comes with drawbacks.

Just an idea that would need a lot more work.