DED: Bigger Questions

Image ©2012 Marvel Entertainment
Hidden deep within the Patch Novel for Retribution was this gem: 1/10 and 2/10 static DED complexes have been moved to the exploration system.

You can read the resulting forum thread here.


I support the effort to keep this from happening in Low-Sec systems. As low-sec denizens we have enough problems without making even more for ourselves. De-populating our section of New Eden even more dosen't help anyone. And without an obvious pathway to help low-sec grow, removing these things is pre-mature and unnecessary.

Having said that, how pathetic is that? That we are forced to support the existence of several stupid static warp-in points to keep things moving in our neck of the woods? More than anything, this is what makes my blood boil. The mere fact that we need these things floating in space AT ALL!! We shouldn't have to rely on artificial points to encourage PvP among people willing to PvP. But we do.

Yesterday I went on a long solo roam and visited about 50 systems. Not a single ship in a belt. Not a single ship at a planet, or a Sun, or picking up PI, or doing anything other than being docked, sitting on a station, or running a mission somewhere deep in space. That was it. I eventually returned home and lost my Sentinel on my home gate when a Thorax/Keres landed and the gate refused to work.

We used to have this tactic when jumping into a new system. We called it the Shotgun. When jumping into a new system we would each warp to a belt in the order we appeared in fleet. First ship first belt and so on. If there were more belts than ships then you'd warp to the next one after you landed. Odds were, if anyone was in local, they might just be ratting in a belt. Once someone got tackle we'd all warp over to help. Or, sometimes, catch multiple ratters.

How quaint that sounds now.

It is now the exception rather than the rule. The only ratters are young players in systems right next door to hi-sec. That's it.

Now, I am no fan of ratting. But this situation illuminates the fundamental issues that low-sec space is currently falling apart under. The issue isn't that we don't have ratters or miners ( lol! Miners, don't even get me started on the last time I saw someone actually mining anything! ) but that no one needs or wants to do these things.

Fixing low-sec seems simple and straightforward to me. It has for years. It seems so obvious that I still wonder why it hasn't already happened. Low-sec needs something that no one else has. We need a rock or a Rat or something that you can't get in Null Space or Hi-Sec. And because I am an extremely fair person, I also believe those sections of space also need something like that. ( which they mostly do already )

Let's call this thing "Vibranium" for lack of a better word. In the Marvel Universe Vibranium comes from one small, remote country in Africa. That's the only place it can be found. There is a Super-Hero that exists only to protect that country and keep the Vibranium safe. Lots of adventures happen as a result. Low-Sec space needs its version of Vibranium.

If we had that we wouldn't need static DED complexes to warp to. People would have a reason to venture into low space. And venture deep, because the lower the sec status of the system the more Vibranium it has.

Now, wasn't that easy?