Security Conscious Capsuleers,
As part of the Uprising expansion, we are making some important changes that will largely affect players in Highsec. The goal of these designs is to address the following issues:
- Griefing of new players and low value targets
- Risk vs Reward dynamic of Abyssal Deadspace filaments
- Shortage of legitimate player targets in high security space
To achieve these goals, we’ll be introducing the following new restrictions and limitations:
- Limit tethering for players with low security status in Highsec
- Docking restrictions for outlaws in high security space
- Changing the security settings for Alpha accounts and removing the option to disable safety (“Safety red”)
- Updated rulesets for Abyssal Deadspace filament activation
Griefing versus Ganking
It's important to distinguish between Highsec ganking and griefing. Highsec ganking is a valid and necessary playstyle, where players will 'suicide gank' high value targets and offset the loss of their ships from the loot and salvage gained from their target.
Griefing, on the other hand, is where players 'suicide gank' low value targets (often new players) using relatively cheap ships allowing them to absorb the losses with very few consequences. For new players, ganking is very punishing as they lose their primary tool for making money and often lack the funds to immediately replace their losses.
Under the current mechanics, when players participate in such activities, their security status is reduced. Once a player's security status falls below certain thresholds, they will be hunted by the Empire faction police when entering a high security system. Any cloaking device fitted to their ship will also be disabled based on the same criteria, so they cannot cloak up to avoid the faction police.
If a player's security status falls below -5.0, the player becomes an outlaw, allowing anyone to attack them without CONCORD interference.
Limit tethering for players with low security status in Highsec
However, some players have found a way to bypass this by placing structures next to gates and then tethering to them. Empire faction police will not attack players when tethered, regardless of security status meaning other players have no meaningful way to disrupt those tethered. Additionally, regardless of security status, players can dock anywhere to re-ship or hide from would be attackers.
To ensure that security status is significant and players face proper repercussions for a negative security status, we are making the following changes to docking and tethering for pilots with a low security status. These match the current rules for faction police standings:
- Security status of -2.0 or below means they cannot tether in 1.0 systems.
- Security status of -2.5 or below means they cannot tether in 0.9 systems.
- Security status of -3.0 or below means they cannot tether in 0.8 systems.
- Security status of -3.5 or below means they cannot tether in 0.7 systems.
- Security status of -4.0 or below means they cannot tether in 0.6 systems.
- Security status of -4.5 or below means they cannot tether in 0.5 systems.
As players with negative security status can no longer tether, they will be vulnerable to both faction police and, potentially, other players.
Docking restrictions or outlaws in high security space
In addition to being attacked by Empire faction police (and unable to cloak or tether) players with security status -5.0 and below (outlaws) will no longer be allowed to dock in any structure or station in high security space while piloting a ship.
Outlaw pilots in capsules, however, will be able to dock and will not be attacked by Empire faction police. It’s worth noting though, that they can still be attacked by other players. Outlaws will be able to undock in a ship, but once undocked they will be refused docking permission.
Additional limitations for Alpha pilots in Highsec
By introducing these changes, the consequences for ganking have become more severe. To avoid players attempting to work around these new rules using Alpha clones, we are preemptively removing the ability for Alpha clones to disable safety while in high security space. They will still be able to enable partial safety in Highsec, and disable safety completely in any other areas of space.
Updated rules for Abyssal Deadspace
Currently, the majority of Abyssal filaments are activated in high security space. The balance between risk and reward is misaligned as this offers very low risk from other players while being highly profitable for the higher tiers. Jita is the most popular area in high security space for running Abyssal encounters. This is due, in part, to a restriction of anchoring deployable structures in Jita. This means that players cannot use these deployables to prevent abyssal runners from immediately activating an Abyssal filament - a previous method of avoiding player aggression.
Not only does that mean that there is no real counterplay for players who want to aggress Abyssal runners, but it also means that Abyssal runners can easily dock at trade hubs to sell their Abyssal loot with little risk of interference from other players.
Restrictions on Abyssals in 1.0 or 0.9 security space
We’re removing the ability for Abyssal filaments to be activated in 1.0 and 0.9 space. This means that it will no longer be possible to run any Abyssals in Jita or any of the other trade hubs (besides Hek, of course). To be clear, this only applies to Abyssal filaments – Signal/Noise filaments, Pochven filaments, and Proving Grounds filaments will remain unchanged.
This immediately removes several safety elements for Abyssal runners. First, they can now be disrupted when leaving an Abyssal encounter and prevented from immediately escaping by entering a new Abyssal encounter. Second, this will increase the amount of travel for Abyssal runners overall, offering more opportunities for other players to attack them, as they will be high value targets.
Added suspect flag for high tier Abyssals based on Security
Another way that we want to add risk and encourage more activity in other areas of space is to limit which Abyssal tiers can be run without triggering a suspect flag by system security.
| Security | Tier (no suspect flag) | Tier (suspect flag) |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | - | - |
| 0.9 | - | - |
| 0.8 | T0, T1, T2, T3 | T4, T5, T6 |
| 0.7 | T0, T1, T2, T3, T4 | T5, T6 |
| 0.6 | T0, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 | T6 |
| 0.5 | T0, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 | - |
This allows for new or less skilled players to be able to run Tier 0 to Tier 3 Abyssal sites in the relative safety of 0.8 space. The lack of a suspect flag plus the consequences of a low security status - means that they are less likely to be targeted by other players, as they won't be considered a high value target. Tier 4 to Tier 6 can be run in 0.8 systems, however, doing so will result in a suspect on exit.
This means that players can still run the higher tier Abyssals but will have to choose between exiting an encounter with a suspect flag, or risk moving to a lower security system.
We believe that these changes to security status and Abyssal encounters will result in a better game for all, creating more legitimate PvP targets in high security space, while reducing low value ganking and increasing risk to Abyssal runners.
o7
