Goblin Squad Member
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Disclaimer: I was waiting until we had some more detailed maps to work with but I think this needs to be brought into the discussion now. A lot of this is based on the best guess I have as to which territory is claimable, and which is not. As such it is not intended to be taken as gospel truth.
As you can see there is some tinting of some of the hexes on that map. Green, red, and a much more subtle yellow. I believe that:
Green = Settlement Hex
Red = Monster Hex (Unclaimable)
Yellow = Unclaimable Hex / Starter Area
So lets get down to it. I'm going to black out everything but the yellow unclaimables, and red monster hexes.
Unclaimables Only- It's not here to be pretty, it's here to illustrate a point.
Now we might be safe to assume the bodies of water I blacked out in that image won't be claimable, but for the rest of that black area, there is no reason to assume it won't be governed by settlements or points of interest. So I want everyone to think about that for a moment.
The NBSI Picture
So what does it mean for you if everyone goes NBSI? It means almost all of that black area not under the control of your alliance / a group you have a formal agreement with is going to be controlled by factions that will shoot you just for being there. You will not be able to go to the settlements there and engage in trade. You will not be able to go there and harvest resources. You will not be able to explore them without constantly evading the forces of the controlling factions. You will not be able to go there and sell your services to help with escalations / assassinations / bounty hunting. You will not be able to quest there. You will not be able to move through them to access the PvE content in those red hexes without evading the controlling forces. You will not be be able to move through those hexes to get to hexes that have given you rights to trade and/or reside there without evading the controlling factions
That is the life of null sec on EVE. You sit in the areas your alliance controls or those little yellow areas and do all your PVE there. If you go outside those hexes, you do so in stealth or with the backing of military force. One of the realities of living in null sec for me was that if I needed anything, it either need to be made for me / sold to me by someone in my alliance, I had to put in an order for the next time they took a freighter into high-sec to do shopping. Or I had to sneak out and pick it up in one of my covert ops ships.
If PFO becomes that, here are some career choices you can entirely cross off your list or at least be doing in a much more limited fashion than I know many of you have envisioned:
- Traveling merchant / trader
- Roaming escalation fighter / assassin / bounty hunter
- Explorer
The NRDS Picture
Now if those black areas are controlled by NRDS factions, then anyone who you do not have established hostilities with will open up their territory for you. You will be able to engage in trade with most settlements. They may open up access to or sell harvesting rights for resources they aren't consuming themselves. You will be able to explore without interference or perhaps even while enjoying protection of the local factions. You will be able to go to them and pick up work as an escalations slayer / assassin / bounty hunter. You will probably be able to quest there. You can move through them to access the PVE content in the red hexes without hindrance from the local factions. You will be able to move through them to gain access to the areas your faction controlled, and that have given you rights to trade/reside there without evading the controlling factions.
If your alliance's settlement doesn't have what you need, you can go trade with a neighbor. If you get bored with your own area, you can go explore a bit. You can go socialize a bit. You can go and interact with other players a bit.
Now I'm sure the peanut gallery is going to come in here and say "If that's what you want, do it yourself!" Here's there reality check. If NRDS is viable without any mechanics and incentives aimed to make it so:
Please point out all the NRDS groups on this map.
If you don't that black area to be as dominated by NBSI factions as it is in the map above. Then come join the discussion on how to prevent that.