Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Hard Questions: LP for PVP in FW?

A cheer broke out on coms when CCP talked about issuing LP for pvp kills in the upcoming Faction War expansion.

This is the first time that CCP will implement something in the game that will directly give you some sort of compensation for killing other players.

And people love the idea.

I love the idea. Because I'm a PVPer and the idea that I could get 'paid' to do something I do anyway is really cool.

But, then my logical side prevails. I can never seem to keep myself from looking the gift horse in the mouth.
Will LP for PVP hurt small-gang pvp? Will people be more prone to 'squashing' fleets for the sake of LP gains rather then for getting a good fight, which is often the current motivation?

Will large groups of people join FW to farm kills for LP? Will this cause FW to have bigger and bigger fleets, with more and more 'blobby' warfare?

In many ways, I think that rewarding PVP with LP is more in danger of encouraging large-fleet fights in FW then incorporating Alliances into FW ever was.

And yet, the same FW pilots who were so against alliances in FW, don't seem to be generating the same question they did when Alliances in FW was first announced:

Will rewarding LP for FW kills really be good for Faction War?

Related Posts:

The Hard Questions: What is Faction War?
Militia Overreacts Part 2: "Lets Kill the Beast!"
What Nullsec Pilots Don't Understand About Faction War
Militia Reacts Part 1: Station Games


  1. I don't think it will... since FW LP can only be earned by a militia pilot killing and enemy militia pilot, and probably not even for hostile militia, just enemy militia (Minmatar vs. Amarr / Gallente vs. Caldari), that will keep numbers down. I hope it encourages more fights but I can't imagine it would cause uber-blobs.

    Null sec alliances can't really be bothered, and high-sec pilots can't handle the risk.

    I hope LP is divided and not given to last blow. It should be granted to all pilots on the field as well, as not to exclude logi pilots.

  2. I hope the LP for killing one ship is a finite amount. To be shared to all in on the kill.

    i.e. kill by yourself, you get it all. Kill with a friend, you split the LP. makes folks want to stamp out kill mail whoring

  3. Knug Lidi: The dev at fanfest said they wanted to use the upgraded killmails they are working on to award LP based on ship value.

    Also, they better make farming your enemy FW alt akin to botting.

    As to whether it will hurt small gang combat, I think you'll still be able to find the same amount of kills in small gangs even if there are more big fleets running around the warzones. Maybe more.

  4. I don't really think that will be a problem if they split LP evenly between everyone on the killmail. That way, there will be great reward for 1-3 guys but a blob will get so little each that it won't be worth it.

    Fingers crossed CCP follow this path.

  5. It opens an abuse opportunity. Just create a bunch of alts, enlist them in the enemy militia, put them in cheapo frigs and kill'em at your leisure. Rinse and repeat.

  6. If something gives a reward, there are always players who will try to farm it. Incursions are the latest example of that, and we've seen where it led.
    Maybe receiving some vanity items would be better? E.g. medals in your profile or some sign visible on your screenshot for everybody to see in local. Yes it's vain and shiny, but it's less likely to bring the farmers :P