I was chatting with several people about the industrial changes coming this summer on Twitter yesterday, and mentioned that removing the slots in industry also means removing some upgrades in FW.
Right now, upgrade a FW system doesn’t just count toward
warzone control –it also means additional industrial slots, among a few other
system upgrades.
However, I’m a practical sort of person. CSM9 candidate
Sugar Kyle introduced me to the term ‘paper mechanics’ –ie: mechanics that
sound good on paper but are much different in reality.
The FW industrial nerf is what I would call a paper problem.
It sounds like something we can get all worked up about, but it is far from being
an actual major problem in real militia gameplay.
The reality is that the upgrades, perhaps with the exception
of the research slots, were more or less worthless to begin with. Empty manufacturing
slots are almost always available in most places in low-sec, so giving players
additional slots means nothing. And taking them away will mean nothing.
Now, CCP has an opportunity when it comes to FW upgrades under
the new industrial system. Instead of giving more slots, the upgrades could
simply affect the cost of setting up orders –countering some of the new cost
structure being implemented.
This wouldn’t just ‘readjust’ the system to ‘work’ with the
new stuff. I think that in many ways such a change would be a buff. Especially
if the upgrades give a significant decrease to the price of manufacturing and
etc.
What was a worthless upgrade before could actually be
somewhat beneficial for people to invest in.
I create capital BPC's in FW regions, at quite cheap prices. The slot availability and low price are due to the difficulty and risk of running around in those low sec hot spots. That entire business advantage is now gone, thanks to these changes. If you seriously think copying costs, even in low sec hot spots, is not going go up many many orders of magnitude, you are mistaken.
ReplyDeleteOh, and though I don't doubt that low sec copying costs will be given a base level bonus over high sec copying costs, null sec bonuses at null sec sov stations will dwarf even the low sec bonuses, and the cartels will be able to outprice everyone else in the game.
Yes, I totally agree with you that in many cases upgrades are nothing more, but a buff, which only creates some inconveniences to users. I just was going to write a term paper on Twitter role in life of adolescents and it looks like this feature could make my work much harder.
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