It was always going to be an uphill battle for a Faction Warfare rep to get elected with only 10 seats available, even if all the militias united behind him. But I'm still disappointed in the makeup of the CSM which sports 7 null sec members, 1 hard core wormholer, Fuzzy Steve who is unclassifiable, and a youtube video maker, only the last of which has an interest in a vibrant and dynamic low sec environment, and none that require faction warfare to be thriving. If FW were the gateway for new players (both Alpha and Omega) to be introduced to PvP before having the option to going to null sec or wormholes, then I'd feel like those candidates have some common interest with me and my alliance, but EVE is not a zone progression game and those other areas of space wisely setup their own new player organizations like Pandemic Horde and Brave Newbies to gather up the recruits. On the other hand, FW can be a destination and not just a stage for pilots... as long as its healthy.
I've discussed previously how structures have changed the warzone:
What this means is that NPC stations are quickly losing their cachet as homes for militia corporations and alliances, and they are being replaced by home Citadels that they cannot be locked out of by plexing enemy fleets. Furthermore, as faction warfare moves to concentrate on attacking and destroying enemy citadels, this provides upward pressure on fleet size and more frequent bat-phoning of capital heavy nearby entities top provide more firepower for destroying these large structures or counter-dropping firepower as deterrent for enemy fleets. No longer can a militia remain agnostic to the politics of the low sec entities that they share space with.
And threw out an idea to start to address it:
So I propose we extend the station lockout mechanic that currently applies to NPC Stations in faction warfare systems to anchored structures in said systems.But the problem is not a problem for anyone outside of low sec (or even outside of the militias to a large degree) and any solution probably will have little to no impact on anyone outside of the militia pilots so the likelihood that any of the CSM 12 members will push to address it or be able to advocate well should CCP bring up the topic is low, and that is disheartening.
Without intervention, Faction Warfare is going to wither and die. Right now its quickly becoming only a farming mechanic with some jostling over tier levels and no strong desire for open direct conflict outside of meaningless good fights. Far more engaging is the emergent play over structures like POCOs, citadels, and engineering complexes as well as the refineries and moon politics next year, none of which has any hook into faction warfare. You might as well not be in a militia unless you roleplay or your members need the mechanic to make money. And that's sad.
It is often said that Faction Warfare suffers from "good enough" syndrome in CCP, but at some point we need to tell CCP loudly that FW is no longer good enough but is indeed dying. Do they want to save it?
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