Early on January 20, CCP Fozzie posted an FAQ addressing some of the issues that players have raised over the proposed changes in the Upwell 2.0 patch.
The Standup Gravitational Transportation Field Oscillator(GTFO)
This module allows the citadel gunner to grab a 10km bubble of ships and place them onto another part of the grid. It has an optimal range of 300km. Capital ships will not be relocated if hit by the AoE but will be unable to warp for 60 seconds. The player base has raised concerns about this module, and the CSM have also discussed it with CCP. In response, the dev team are considering a range of options. Current options include removing the module completely or limiting it to High-Security space only. This second option is due to HS lack of area of effect weapons. CCP Fozzie asked for feedback to continue and has stated there will be an update to the plan next week.
Five Minute Fitting Timer
Players have raised concerns that this will make the deployment of structures too easy for the defender. CCP Fozzie and the dev team consider these concerns valid. The addition of the five-minute window was because current mechanics are all or nothing when anchoring and this was an attempt to bridge the gap and even out the survival rate of structures. Currently, the survival rate is quite low during the anchoring stage but too high if a structure onlines. The change aims to make setting up structures easier, while timer and combat changes make killing them easier. The team will look at how the combat changes play out on the test server, and keep an eye on feedback over the following weeks.
TiDi and Timers
During time dilation the game slows down but the repair timer does not. Under heavy time dilation, it becomes difficult to apply the damage needed in time to stop the timer. This heavily favours the defender. CCP Fozzie stated that while he does not rule out a change, the non-trivial nature of any changes means that it would take time to find a solution. This is because the structure timers use real time, and are tracked across several server nodes, while TiDi runs on “sim-time” and is only on one server node. Any changes to the backend code would not be a simple task. There’s also the issue then of how players would respond to the 150-minute repair timer that would occur if the 15-minute timer started in 10% TiDI. Any changes related to servers in TiDi are a difficult balance and involve few easy answers.
The FAQ posted, as well as Fozzies responses to other posts in the thread shows that CCP is taking note of concerns. If you have concerns or ideas about the upcoming changes log onto the official forums and let your voice be heard.
My question to you is, which change are you most looking forward to in structures 2.0? Myself, its moon mining in 0.5 space (an article to cover that coming soon TM)
