Outsourcing Pixels

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #19

With the new dev blog out, and as there are some interesting ideas being tossed around, I figured it's time for another post. Today's topic will be outsourcing, as in allowing people you're not really affiliated with to all sorts of dirty work for you as an alliance.

In the current state, outsourcing only exists in some awkward forms of renting space. Contracts are made via mutual agreements that the renter will offer services (such as billions of ISK, ships, modules, capitals) to the owner of the area, and joins their ranks in some form to legitimately use the alliance holdings. Now, this is a complex operation that requires high levels of activity in many areas as well as a great deal of financial and logistical planning. In a nutshell, it is not for the beginner player who wants to venture into null sec, because he or she'll probably be unable to support both the corporation and self. There is a very strong point in the design principles showing up time to time which is about catering to the needs of small players as opposed to the current situation where they are exploited and frowned upon.

So, let's go on to my proposal of one of the possible solution to this problem. I dub the thing as 'Outsourcing', and it should be available parallel to renting. What is this all about? The definition of outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions for the owning entity. In the real world, companies do this because the costs of maintaining the function internally are higher than simply paying for a service. What does this mean in EVE terms?

Well, it means the exact opposite that what we have now. I personally think the mechanics of making people to pay for being allowed to use your space is retarded. Moreso because despite having agreements on things, large alliances tend to neglect their part of the deal when they have pressure on them by another alliance. So let's turn the whole thing upside down. To do this, think about the needs and ends of an alliance.

1. Sovereign alliances need armaments to protect their space. Ships, modules, ammunition and fuels must be obtained by the pilots in order to participate in the activities of an alliance. Someone has to extract and manufacture the goods that keep the warmachine going.
2. Someone has to make those things locally available in vast quantities, over a long time.
3. Someone has to cater to the needs of individual pilots, set rules to allow them to make profits of their own, provide housing for their assets and other services.

These are the basic foundations of running an alliance effectively, keeping morale high and people logging in for CTA's. Now, let's take a look at the current situation.

Point 1 is usually left to the individual pilots for smaller ships, and they need a lot of income to keep up. Many alliances run a reimbursement program to relieve the strain from their pilots, absorbing most of the cost for losing some key assets. Point 2 is all about logistics and market viability. Basically, this is handled by the jump freighter guys bringing ordered goods from Jita or whatever. Alliance contracts and market orders are often a viable alternative of acquisition. Point 3 is where alliance leadership comes into play, setting the rules is a big thing on the scales of success and failure. Stations and POSes are managed by alliance people to house the 'grunts' that in return serve as footsoldiers in the alliance army. Some people just like to toy around these rules. I'd mention renting space here as a valid strategy to generate income for the alliance.

What are the problems with this? First, people have to get ISK somehow to buy the stuff that they can use in battles to keep the alliance going. This leads to them looking at space to farm it in various ways. Second, the complications that could arise from things being not available (for example, tritanium for manufacturing or station installations) can deter many people of the industrial route, accelerating the problem further. In essence, the more you rely on importing goods the more you have to, because it's just that much easier to go to Jita and haul a few freighter's worth back. Then there is the people wo are ratting. Seriously, why are those exclusively interested in PvP forced to shoot red crosses regularly in order to pay for their ships? You'd think that an effectively operating military organisation would have a way to supply them with equipment.

Ass 0.0 stands right now, you're going there for 3 things. Roaming around looking for trouble. Participating in large scale battles. And finally but most importantly to make a ton of ISK. Socereign 0.0 is a profitable place to live in, but what are your choices if you're planning to take part? You either join an alliance submitting yourself to its rules or rent space with a few buddies and try to come out in the positive.

Now, what if it would be possible to pay other entities to do some of the activities for the alliances? What would you want to outsource?

You certainly want to keep all of point 3 in the alliances hands, or don't you? For exaple, running a staging POS or a jump bridge is costly and tedious. Why don't you just pay X entity a sum and leave it to them?
Furthermore what if you could pay entity Y to manufacture / acquire ordered goods by a schedule? What if you could pay them to move your goods, handling your import / export needs? What if you could hire them for example maintain sovereignity and for example military / indutry levels in a system in your weak timezone?

The essence of this idea is that instead of generating artificial costs of maintaining and owning space, why don't just make it so that the alliances themselves have an incentive of having small holdings performing the tasks they deem too tedious, providing them opportunity to live there while inducing costs in place of the strain on leadership to get these done?

So, as a sovereign alliance, you could advertise a contract (a treaty if you will), that if the subcontractor provides ordered services, they get an amount of ISK, while penalizing them if they fail to meet the requirements of the contract. The greater the subcontractor entity, the more fee it could charge (given that higher numbers provide financial and contractual security in industry as well). The subcontractor would get the benefit of being marked as such, ability to use alliance assets (including stations, POSes, systems) to a configurable extent with or without a fee, and the possibility of making a decent profit while using them. The sov holders this way get localized market (which in turn WILL induce those of industrial mind to produce goods for it) and they can concentrate more on their efforts of defense and conquest.

Some disclaimers left: this should in no way be exclusive to other methods of setting up small holdings in null sec. This should be tuned in a way that both entities benefit but it scales to a desirable level. Alliances should be given enough income to be able to make choices in this matter.

I don't think this will entirely fix null sec, nor do I think there's one golden move that will. But maybe... magybe ginving players incentives to actually employ other people than oppress them will incite many more people out to experience the 'land of opportunity and adventure'.

Sessym out.

The Capital Question

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #11

 This year's first CSM Summit, where the not-quite-pixel people travel, we elect to represent our internet spaceships needs, and in the 'Ask any question, devs answer' thread, an interesting concept seems to unfold. Namely, the matter of capital ships. In short, CCP is looking at capital ships as a whole, and talk indicates there are plan in place to redesign this layer of the game. Let us dwell into this today.

So, I was not here when capitals were introduced but the concept is pretty clear. Basically we have these assets as a tool for pixel empires to battle each other more effectively. Capital ships are meant to be strategic, military powerhouses that entities with sufficient wealth to support them can rely on to keep their territory intact or conquer more. This sounds great, but as always, devil's in the details. Again, I'm no expert on the history of capitals, so I will defer from recounting past changes.

The current situation however is pretty obvious to those that spent a good chunk of time in sovereign 0.0 space. From the top down, we have Titans. These ships allow alliances to drop entire subcapital fleets on a cynosural field, essentially teleporting them many jumps away. Furthermore, they possess impressive firepower in both capital sized weapons and the Doomsday Device, which allows for instant extermination of one ship, and is hard to counter with fittings even on the beefiest ships.

Next down the list is the Supercarrier. Previously called motherships, these things were transformed into an anti-capital ship with the introduction of fighter-bombers. Essentially, these were meant to be the counter to Titans, with their massive amount of hitpoints and jump range. We will touch on this a bit more further.

The most used and reliable capital ship is the Carrier. These class of ships are the packmules of EVE. Not only are they able to travel far with their jumpdrive, but their abilities in remote repairing, carrying a multitude of assembled and outfit ships as well as ammunition makes them invaluable for not only 0.0 corporations but many individuals. For a high-end player it is almost mandatory to have one. Just by owning a carrier you gain a self sufficiency that can help you weather the worst of times. For the same reason, losing one is a loss that you really can feel.

Then there is the poor old Dreadnought. These once loathed ships are now only used when the fighter bombers of supercarriers cannot reach the target. The main reason for this is their expected lifetime. Since siege mode, wherein they are most effective locks them in place with no remote repair allowed, a dreadnought is perceived to have a life expectancy of a tackler frigate. If there is a major encounter, it will be targeted and will go down quickly from the insane DPS of the fighter bombers.

The main roles of capitals right now, based on the above, are logistics, repairs, and infrastructure warfare. The problem here is, you have 4 ships for 3 roles. What should be done, then? There are many concepts, so I would like to share mine.

Let's get to  the generic changes first. We need them to be used in serious situations, not hotrops. And therefore, let's reduce their jump range, while retaining the fuel statistics. This means they are capable of bridging the same distance but with twice the planning. Second, balance tanking ability so that any capital can actively tank one another, but a few smaller ships (like, 3 battleships) will break them. This will provide the need for the support fleet.

Let's proceed with the roles then. First of all, we need a ship that provides logistics, as in spare ships, clones, ammunition, fitting. For that, bring back the mothership. Cloning bay, ammo bay, fairly large cargo, ship maintenance hangar that can carry about 10 battleships assembled, and allow it to jump the longest from the list of supercapitals.

Second, we need a ship that can provide capital repairs to those in need. The carrier is a fine example, its ship maintenance hangar should be tweaked to accommodate only smaller ships, but maybe more than the cubic meters allow. This is necessary

The third role is infrastructural warfare. The Dreadnought could make a return here, being cost effective and providing damage output to stationary objects and structures without being pinned down. An XL weapon tweak might be needed so that the siege nonsense is either not required or is no longer a nonsense.

What about the Titan, you may ask. Well, it should become the ultimate weapon against other capitals, with the DD allowing to break through the carriers' repairs on anything.

To keep the existing content, new capital ships could be added. For example, a black ops capital that can bridge a fleet just as a Titan can right now, or a sleek assault carrier that has low hitpoints but is agile, has versatile fitting and can field fighters and bombers alike. Think of it like a capital arbitrator. There could also be AOE EWAR ships that belong into this group and perform things like the projected ECM burst. Once you free up the capital ships from the sovereignty grind, the possibilities open up.

Despite all the speculations though, CCP will likely implement it in a way that no outsider can think of right now, or I hope so they will.

Sessym out.