Feedback and Iteration: Factional Warfare

Factious capsuleers,    

Last year we gave Factional Warfare a substantial update as part of the Uprising expansion, and Viridian gave groups in the warzone new tools to earn income and motivate their pilots. We’ve been closely monitoring the Factional Warfare ecosystem as it sought out a new equilibrium, both by examining data and contextualizing through the amazing feedback EVE’s dedicated FW communities have continually provided.

Resulting from these observations and feedback, this year's August release introduces several improvements and adjustments to this passionately-engaged area of gameplay aimed at correcting imbalances and improving entertainment and engagement for all capsuleers in the Warzone!

Factional Warfare Improvements 

Together we identified a few elements that could be improved. Smaller sites were disproportionally awarding Victory Points when compared to larger sites. Battlefield sites, which often act as major conflict drivers and require significantly more organization and risk, didn’t feel rewarding and oftentimes there were just too many sites in a system which led to avoiding conflict rather than seeking it out. Smaller sites should always be an option, but we also want to properly reward those pilots and groups who are willing to risk more. As such, we’ve restructured the Victory Points payouts such that the larger sites are more accurately represented. For Battlefield sites in particular we increased the Victory Points gained from 500 to 2,000, so when you have those chaotic skirmishes they’ll be that much more rewarding. In making these changes we seek to improve the balance of fun, risk and reward in Factional Warfare sites.

We've also taken this opportunity to restructure overall site distribution to keep things fresh and encourage higher variety in ship selection across Warzone systems, which are trafficked just as often by capsuleers seeking opportunities to fight as they are by militia pilots. To correct what has become a somewhat predictable meta, with the ubiquity of Navy ships for small sites in particular being a key target, a substantially increased ratio of ADV sites opens the door for many more Pirate faction and Tech II ships to enter the fray, bringing far more color to the FW ecosystem. Taking a navy ship should still be an option, it just shouldn’t be the only option.

Now let’s talk about advantage, specifically Listening Outposts and Propaganda Billboards: while these produced significant engagement and some incredible fights early on, their use has petered out over time – largely we understand due to cost. To address concerns and the current low supply, the spawn rate of Operations Center sites across FW space has been doubled!

Finally, bots. We’ve paid keen attention to your feedback regarding players who appear to be using automation to run sites in rearguard systems, and Team Security continues to be ever vigilant in the fight against automation. While it may be true that not every character reported may be engaged in illegal gameplay, we also agree that the notion of earning income while risking very little stands in contradiction to the spirit of Factional Warfare as a whole. Rearguard systems were designed to provide tactical objectives, not low-risk LP generation; to realign toward their intended purpose, the Loyalty Point multiplier for Rearguard systems has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.01 – drastically reducing the amount of LP yielded while preserving tactical value.

We believe these changes will address many concerns raised directly by the FW community, and will continue to monitor and listen to your feedback as a new equilibrium takes shape!

Update on Corporation LP & EverMarks   

In addition to iterating and improving on older gameplay, we are also committed to building on and evolving new content. The Viridian expansion introduced a new way for corporations and alliances to earn income from loyalty points through an adjustable tax rate, empowering groups whose primary income stream is Loyal Points to coordinate the spending of LP for shared benefit without the tedium of tracking individual donations by individual players spending far smaller amounts.

LP trading between corporations has facilitated a vibrant new market in only a short time, and we’re very happy to share that we are already expanding upon this long-requested feature: with the August release, players can now donate their Loyalty Points to any non-NPC corporation, bringing you even more freedom of choice in trading your hard-earned LP.

Likewise, as Paragon’s EverMark ecosystem continues to expand, we want to provide intuitive options for you to collaborate with fellow corporation and alliance members to foster your group’s shared spirit. Building a strong foundation for the EverMark framework is essential as we continue working toward bringing capsuleers new ways to express themselves, and as a step in that direction, supplementing the existing system of individual EM income being matched 1:1 in the corporation wallet, you can now also donate your personal EverMarks directly to your corporation or alliance executor – empowering your groups to keep its outrageous structure SKINs in space that much longer.

For full details on the recent changes, be sure to check out the full patch notes.

Watching players benefit from new tools and rise to new challenges is always awesomely fulfilling. Speaking of challenges, we’d like to commend the eagle-eyed capsuleers who have been hard at work recovering data fragments from high-ranking Angel Cartel and Guristas commanders and restoring schematics for two prototype destroyer-class vessels, the Mamba and the Mekubal – but these aren’t the only mysteries awaiting discovery. Keep an eye out for secrets yet to be found and piece together the future of New Eden; whether you choose to collaborate with others or hoard these discoveries for yourselves is entirely up to you!

Once again, we’ve been extremely happy to share in your enjoyment of Uprising’s Factional Warfare changes and Viridian's corporation features, and we hope to continue iterating on these and many other features to bring capsuleers the best possible experience as we march forward into EVE’s third decade.

Fight for what you believe in, be it Empire or Corporation – we'll see you in space!