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[Saikoyu]

I've tossed this idea around before in various forms, but I wanted to try one more time, and see if anyone would be interested.  Short version, I want to have an "arcade" mode to RP fighting where to RP enemies can OOC get together and say, "Tama, 9AM, be there," and just do it.

Long version:

My problem, and hopefuly other's (or this will be a really selfish idea), is that PvP or large scale PvE in EvE follows the real world, 99% is boredom, and 1 % shear terror, and I don't have the time in my day to wait around for the one percent (Down with the 1%!!!).  Fleets take too long to form, the inevatable excalation stretches things out, and when I've only got two hours before the kid wakes up IRL, I can't afford to wait that long.  To other's point of view, mostly FW pilots, I've heard more or less the same thing, things take too long, everyone escallates things, etc etc.  So, I present to you a hopeful solution.  I'm framing this as what I want to do with it, but I think it would be easy to adapt.

We have two sides, in this case, the slavers and the anti-slavers.  A gentelman's agreement is worked out as to a specific time an event will happen when everyone will know to get ready.  Then, when that time comes, both sides set out on a "mission" also agreed about before hand.  Lets say this time, a slaver convoy is heading out, and spies or stealth drones or something has informed the anti-slaver forces.  Also by agreement (because this is supposed to be fun), both sides are limited to smaller faster ships, say nothing above a T1 BC, or whatever, and both sides know the start and end points of the convoy.  And of course the whole thing would be in low sec so no one has to bother with wars.  Now, just to spice things up a bit, the slavers would be allowed to cheat once every few times this event is run.  Lets say out of every four time, they can choose one time to not actually have a convoy, but instead can hot drop a carrier fleet on the anti-slaver forces.  Or maybe they just don't show.  Maybe have the same sort of thing for the anti-slave side.  But that is the bones of it.

So, what do people think?  Yes this is built off of trust, but at worst it would just degenerate into what already happens.  At best, any RPers who want to have some mutual "friendly" pew pew could do this.  And I know RvB already does something like this, but I like my corp and alliance, and I want my RP, and another chance to blow away some PIE. 

[Mizhara]

I was going to respond, but then a coronary happened. Now I'm back, exhausted and I can't brain anymore today because I have the dumb. I'll respond properly tomorrow.

[Aldrith Shutaq]

Well, first off if you want to limit this to just slavers and anti-slavers, where are all the slavers? I think you'd have a hard time firstly finding people to fight, let alone get them to agree to a fight-club style match where their already flagging numbers might be hurt by ruined morale and reputation when they lose. I just don't see PIE ever agreeing to something like this.

You'd have to open the system up to anybody for it to be viable, and even then getting people to agree to mutual, set piece combat is difficult. Mistrust, backstabbing, and even griefing is a calling card to every corner of EVE, including the role playing community. What's to stop one player from bringing a sniper BS/BC to the fight and just insta-popping all the frigs on the field? Also, if it's going to be in lowsec, the defenders have a clear advantage since the attackers will need to take GCC and end up getting shot at by gate guns.

I'm not trying to shoot down the idea, but a lot of thinking and planning needs to go into it to keep it from going squiffy. Personally I think RP corps should just wardec equally-matched counterparts more often and get pew pew that way. Anyway, my two cents.

[Saikoyu]

Mix, hope I didn't cause that.

Aldrith, the slavery was just for the example, you could use any reason to fight.  That's just my reason for this. You could use the war Dec system for this as well I suppose, but that starts involving more ISK, depending how mutual war decs come out.  I suppose the real base idea is just being able to say at this time, we'll be here, no curbstomping, and people can have something done in an hour or two.

Otherwise we have what goes on now.  Let's say that you Aldrith war dec me cause I'm a lapsed Amarrian, sounds like your thing.  But if I'm usually only on at 5AM, even if I want the fight, I'm not going to get many.  But if we agree to be around some system at some time, we could.  That's what I'm trying to get.  And I'll shut up now before I make less sense.

[Aldrith Shutaq]

No, no, it does make sense, I'm just trying to work out on what kind of scale you want to do this on and what would need to be done to make it viable. Ground rules and who moderates agreements, fights, disagreements and things like this. It's a good idea, but what could (and will) go wrong needs to be worked out and planned for is all. Of course two individuals will have an easier time pre-arranging a fight than two whole corps will. When you get numbers involved, things can become a matter of herding cats, depending on the dispositions of the people.

[Ulphus]

EM used to have arranged wars with PIE I think, well before my time. I found the idea somewhat confusing when I first heard of it.
Looking through the archives, it all seemed to cause stress and unhappiness. There were accusations of blobbing, from both sides, and other people saying "I don't want to tell any pilots on my side that no, they can't come". It just seemed too artificial for some people. Someone brings a few ships, the defenders think "we can see 5, but we might be missing some. so we'll bring 7" and the attackers see 15 in local (not knowing two thirds of them are afk cooking dinner, or permanently docked up to run manufacturing or markets) and think that they're blobbing, so they reinforce until they've got 15, and suddenly the 7 feel like they're being blobbed in return, so they don't engage, or engage and explode. I'm not sure this would necessarily achieve your end-goal of reliably scheduled explosions.

There's just way too much room for people to think that the other side aren't playing fair.

Times have changed. I don't think anyone in EM management positions would even consider an OOC arrangement about how to run a war. We try to run our wars on an IC basis, and IC, we don't try to make it fun for the other people, we try to win (IC). OOC, it would be nice if the people we're shooting are having a good time too, but to be honest, when poor CaptainRonaldo gets his autopiloting badger (and pod) blown up for the third time in a few days, I suspect he's not enjoying himself all that much. Still, I can try my hardest to win a war that hasn't been organised OOC behind the scenes. I'm not sure I could do that OOC, since in my view a lot of winning a war comes down to some sort of deception, either in the number of type of ships, or the place that they're attacking. If I'm playing fair to an OOC arrangement, it feels like there are limits to the deception I can reasonably deploy, which means that it feels like I'm not really trying to win.

If I'm not trying to win, why am I there?

I'm not sure how you can address the 99% boredom/1% terrorexcitement ratio. I get the impression that some people manage a much better average than that, Ava and Kala for instance. Perhaps going looking for trouble in a small enough group not to scare off the potential prey?

[orange]

RedvsBlue?

[Ulphus]

RedvsBlue?

Other than agreeing to shoot each other, how much coordination do they do?

Do they arrange places and times to meet up for shootings?

[orange]

RedvsBlue?

Other than agreeing to shoot each other, how much coordination do they do?

Do they arrange places and times to meet up for shootings?

My understanding is that the two organizations (alliances I think) are permanently wardecced and have chosen a particular constellation/region where they fight.  My understanding is that they have also limited the tonnage of the ships they use routinely.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Red_Vs_Blue_(RvB)



So, for those wanting to arrange some OOC fun for their RP wars, RvB might provide some basis for pursuing it.

Limit the region of the war, be it Factional Warfare areas or elsewhere (maybe a low-traffic region*).

Come up with some objective other than isk vs isk for the war.  Be it dominate a particular constellation for an amount of time or take & hold a particular FW system.  Maybe it is just an amount of time.  Have the war have a defined end-point.

Push the theme,  if it is Minmatar vs Amarr, make the battles look like it.  Name your ships with appropriate lead names so that the scans can be "accurate."   IE reduce the deception.

Most importantly, make it so that to most members these agreements are transparent.   The CEOs agree to the rules upfront and are responsible for disciplining their folks internally.

Change the OOC goal from winning the war to having a good time by getting good themed fights.

*May need to import war material, but this can either be setup by having bases on the edge of the region or utilizing third-party/alt logistics.