Good Morning New Eden!
I am Frozen Fallout and this is the Faction Warfare (FW) report for October. I run the Federation Front Line Report, a Gallente Propaganda Podcast. This podcast was created to keep everyone up to date on the action that is taking place in FW today. In addition, we interview those in the warzone to get their points of view regarding Faction Warfare. The Podcast episodes are broadcast live on Twitch every Sunday at 22:00 Eve Time (5pm Central Time) and can also be found on YouTube.
This report will focus on the month of October; however before we dive into the stats of each faction I would like to give some suggested improvements that can be made to Faction Warfare.
Potential Improvements for FACTION WARFARE
While I enjoy Faction Warfare in its current state, I have been asking my fellow pilots what improvements they would like to see and have compiled a list:
General Events: I would love to see more involvement from CCP in Faction Warfare and believe there should be special events taking place in FW space. Perhaps GMs could lead some fleets that would then clash with each other throughout the warzone. Or, CCP could spawn a few Dreads that the opposing faction would need to destroy before they are able to accomplish a task within the Warzone. The options are nearly endless for the kind of content CCP could create in Faction Warfare.
Front Lines: During our Interview with Harkon Thorson, Harkon spoke of the idea of a “front line” for fighting in Faction Warfare. This idea really hit home for me and I believe this would be a great change for Faction Warfare. The base of the idea is that systems can only be flipped if they are connected to a system owned by your Faction. This would create a focal point for the fighting in Faction Warfare, instead of the random plexing that currently takes place throughout the warzone.
System Capture Events: CCP should create monthly or weekly events that would create a focal point for the fighting in each of the warzones. CCP would designate a system as being crucial to the war and provide special events and rewards for participants. CCP could also give out special rewards for the Faction that wins the event, by either holding the system or capturing it during the event.
LP Store Rework: The current LP Store for Faction Warfare is the only real source of ISK for those fighting in Faction Warfare. It is currently very complicated; deciding what to buy is very confusing for new players. I suggest a full reworking of the store, with the addition of a small selection of special items exclusive to the FW LP store.
FW Complex Rework: Currently when you capture a novice complex you get the same amount of progress towards system control as an Open complex. This would be a simple change – the larger the complex the more progress you should make towards system control.
Diamond NPCs for FW: The warzone currently only uses the old AI NPCs. I would love to see either those NPCs get replaced or new complexes created with Diamond NPCs, including better loot drops and a tougher battle. Diamond NPCs have a much better AI, with operational fleet capability. These new complexes would be focused on fleet combat PvE and give players a place to test out their fleet skills on NPCs.
NPCs in Complex have points: Have NPCs in the complexes use points. This could prevent players from easily disengaging whenever another player shows up for some PvP.
Defensive Complex Rework: Defensive Complexes should not be something that can be run AFK in an empty frigate, waiting until a player pushes them off to another plex. This playstyle is too conducive to botting. It can be very hard to distinguish the difference between someone actively playing or just botting. This could be resolved with the previous suggestion that there be at least an NPC that will point you while it’s alive.
FW Tier System Rework: The way the Tier system currently works, you take a major penalty for being at the lowest Tier, a 50% penalty to any LP you make in FW. If your Faction is at Tier 2 you get the base amount for LP you make in FW and at Tier 5 you get a huge 225% increase to any LP you make in FW.
I would like to see this reward system get replaced. Or, more simply, CCP could greatly reduce the penalty and boosts you get for Tier level. Something like base at Tier 1 and a 25% boost per Tier Level.
The Tier System could also be fully reworked to give a different benefit than LP; perhaps the ability to buy upgrades for your systems. These upgrades would only work better if your Faction has a higher Tier, or perhaps they won’t work at all if your tier is too low.
Beginner Complexes: Currently the smallest complex in Faction Warfare is the Novice complex. Personally, I use Novice complex all the time to find good frigate fights. However, Novices are able to be accessed by Pirate and Faction Frigates. This causes many new players to meet their doom at the hands of a Worm or Daredevil with very little chance of winning. I believe there should be a Beginner complex that only allows T1 Frigs to enter and bars any Faction or Pirate Frigates. This change would give the new players a place to make some LP while also fighting without fear of being outclassed by a far superior frigate hull.
System Ownership Rework: Rework the System Ownership and provide options to upgrade the Ihub similar to what 0.0 alliances get to do with upgrading. The ability to spawn combat anomalies or scannable anomalies would also provide interest and ISK-making content for players in FW. CCP could also add potential upgrades to improve your defensive NPCs in the system or turn them into Diamond NPCs. There should also be a way to upgrade your system to make it harder for the opposing faction to take it.
Faction Rank Rewards Rework: Currently, you only get a Faction standing bump after reaching a new Rank in FW. I believe you should also get a package reward for your first time achieving a new Rank (Exclusive Skins, T1 Fitted ships, or special items). This rank could also provide a bonus to the LP you get for Faction Warfare activities, something like a 1% to 5% bonus per rank.
Corp LP Tax: Currently there is no top level income for Faction Warfare corps. Due to the way players make their ISK in FW, corporations cannot tax their members. This mechanic makes it hard for FW corps to provide many of the services players have become accustomed to with being part of a PvP corp. For example, Ship Replacement Programs, Citadels or other programs that requires top down funding. If corps in FW could tax players’ LP, this change would greatly improve the ability for corps and alliances to provide these services in FW.
Bounties for new Faction Warfare Missions: I would love to see a new set of missions introduced to FW that focused on ISK instead of LP. This could allow members of FW to have an activity that gave you straight ISK injections instead of having to go the LP route. This could also be as simple as providing combat anomalies similar to what 0.0 has and tie it to upgrades to the I-Hub.
Faction Warfare Expanded to Pirate Factions: Faction Warfare is currently restricted to one of the four NPC Empires. However, each Faction also has a Pirate Faction that opposes that Faction. I think it would be interesting to see these Pirate Factions becoming another factor in the war, either by opposing their corresponding Faction or maybe even opening a whole new area for Pirate Factions to fight over.
THE OCTOBER FACTION REPORT
So let’s break down how each Faction currently stacks up in the month of October.
Starting with the Gallente Federation and looking over zKillboard, we can see that as of October 31st there are about 267 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with around 53 corporations, but only one alliance. During the Month of October the Gallente destroyed 5,017 ships and caused over 374 billion ISK of damage. In warzone control, the Gallente have gone from losing the entire warzone at the start of the month to now having nine systems under their control.
The Caldari State has around 484 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with around 70 corporations and six alliances. Although the number of active PvPers have not decreased much, the number of active alliances and corporations have dropped by 11 corporations and three Alliances since September. During the Month of October, the Caldari destroyed 9,153 ships and did over 748 billion ISK of damage. That’s down quite a bit from their numbers in September, with 5000 less kills and more than two trillion ISK less damage. For the warzone, the Caldari control 92 systems, down seven from September; most of these were lost in the last 14 days.
The Amarr Empire is currently standing at around 273 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with 41 corporations and five alliances. The Amarr are racking up some nice ship kills, with 6,035 for the month of October and over 641 billion ISK of damage. The Amarr have been losing some of their hold on the warzone, with now only 36 systems under their control, down 12 systems from September.
The Minmatar Republic has had around 347 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with around 64 corporations and seven alliances. During the month of October, the Minmatar were able to kill 6,262 ships and did over 551 billion ISK of damage. For warzone control, they currently have 34 systems under their belt and have been working hard to increase that number, with six of those systems flipped to the Minmatar in the last 14 days.
*Note: due to NPCs being considered part of the faction, a small percent of the kills do come from these faction NPCs but the vast majority of the kills come from players of that faction.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN FACTION WARFARE
If you are interested in Faction Warfare there are multiple ways to get involved. The most obvious way is to join the NPC or Player Owned corps that are participating in Faction Warfare. You don’t even need to move your main character over; just create an Alpha character and get right into the action. You can also create your own corp and join any Faction with whom you have positive standings.
Then, of course, you can just third party on the warzone, like many pirates and 0.0 Alliances have done over the years. You won’t be able to capture complexes or make LP from killing enemy militia, but you will have access to the battlegrounds we all fight in and plenty of targets for you to shoot at. There are also ways to get involved without participating in PvP. Much profit that can be made by seeding the market with PvP modules and ships in systems residing in the Warzone. Systems such as Yvangier, Tama, Nisuwa, Old Man Star, Amamake are all great systems to seed to help the war efforts and make a fair bit of profit.
If you have any suggestions on how to improve Faction Warfare, please comment below.
Thank you for your time, and remember: fly dangerously!
