Combat boosters revamp (CSM)
Contents
Stats
- Raised by: Dierdra Vaal
- Submission Date: 24 October 2010
- Issue ID: tbd
Summary
Combat boosters exist in Eve. However, their usage is limited. And with a very low usage also comes very low market activity and limited production activity. K-space gas cloud products (raw materials for boosters) are nearly worthless and all products involved with booster production have a very low trade volume. This is aggravated by the fact that many alliances do their booster production in-house.
A big reason they are not used much is because of their side effects (ignoring Synth boosters that give only a small benefit and are ignored by a lot of people because of it). For most players, the chance of having your play time messed up by unfortunate side effects outweighs the benefit of greatly increasing one stat. This means combat booster usage is mostly restricted to specialised pilots in specific situations.
I am quite fond of boosters and the edgy, dystopian image they represent. I think they fit Eve perfectly, and would like to see them used more. This proposal suggests a solution that aims to increase booster usage, and with it booster production.
Solution
The solution is split into a core component as well as several optional suggestions. While I think they all complement eachother, the optional suggestions are not strictly necessary for the idea to work.
Revamped booster mechanics (core)
The core of this solution is a change to the way booster penalties are applied. Currently, there's a chance for any of four penalties to be applied for the duration of your booster. This means that if you're very unlucky, the penalties undo the beneficial effect of the booster.
Instead, I propose to delay the penalties until AFTER the booster (and it's beneficial effect) wears off - similar to the 'come down' experienced after using real life drugs. The benefit is that someone can be certain of beneficial effects when they take their booster. They also know that when the booster wears off, they will suffer the penalties. But you can plan for that. Maybe you log off, maybe your op only lasts an hour anyway. Or maybe you take another booster!
When you take a booster, any negative effects from previous boosters are removed. However, once this second booster wears off, the negative effects will return... worse! With a longer duration and possibly also higher intensity. It is like going on a really long coaine/xtc binge, the eventual crash will be much worse than if you only take one line of coke/pill. Side effects could be 'normal' side effects as a reduction in shield/armor hp or tracking speed. In severe cases it could also be a temporary reduction of stats which would cause slower skill training.
This mechanic will encourage the casual use of boosters, as you are guaranteed a strong positive effect for the duration of the booster without any penalties... until the booster wears off.
This mechanic will also mean some pilots may develop actual addictions, where the total penalties of their repeated booster use have become so great they have to keep taking boosters or accept a very long detox time. This also allows for the development of a special detox booster that does not offer any stat boost but only decreases the intensity or duration of the negative effects (like methadon for a heroin addict).
Low sec is booster central (optional)
As 'the slums of empire space', I think Low Sec is has the perfect profile to match drug manufacturing. This can be encouraged by seeding certain booster raw materials ONLY in low sec. This would most likely require some more components to be needed for booster production. Additionally, booster BPCs and materials should become more abundant through low sec exploration sites than they currently are, to allow for more trade and to handle the increased demand. Again, low sec is a great place for that.
Additionally, allow booster production in 0.4 space. The current restriction on 0.3 or lower seems to have no good justification as 0.4 space is not any less dangerous than 0.3.
More boosters (optional)
To further promote the use of boosters, more boosters could be made available. As mentioned above, a detox booster could be made. There could be EWAR related boosters, energy warfare and tackling related boosters. There could be boosters to increase cyno jump range, mining yield and invention success rate. You could also add a tier of boosters between Synth and Standard. Still illegal but not as expensive (and not quite as strong) as Standard boosters. All of this would be player produced and player marketed. The possibilities are endless!
Pros
- More booster trading means drug manufacturing/smuggling can be a real profession
- More variation in ship abilities through booster-improved setups
Cons
- Boosters may become 'standard' for pvp, similar to rigs. Players may need to be drugged up to compete
- May require rebalancing of existing boosters to balance their cost/effect vs their new popularity
Relevant Forum Threads
Votes
- Dierdra Vaal: Y
- Mynxee: Y
- Vuk Lau: Y
- mazzilliu: Y
- Trebor Daehdoow: Y
- Korvin: Y
- TeaDaze: Y
- Elvenlord: Y