The Loneliness of the Deep Space Entosis Pilot

As much as possible, the Entosis Link capture progress should reflect which group has effective military control of the grid.

CCP Fozzie, Summer 2015 Nullsec and Sov Status Report

As expected… and we did expect some revisions, didn’t we… CCP has taken in a lot of feedback on the proposed changes to null sec sovereignty capture/control mechanics the announced back in early March and has come up with some changes.  The focus is still on reducing the effort needed to take space nobody uses while giving systems that people live in a defensive advantage, so some of the changes are focused on aspects of that.

Alliances will be able to declare a capital system which will get a defensive bonus, as such systems tend to be staging systems that see a lot of activity, so nobody in their right mind rats or mines in them regularly.  There has also been some tinkering with the time zone and defensive rating mechanics as well as some work on the UI.

Activity Defense Multiplier

But for me, the interesting bit was how they plan to handle the Entosis Link module in the field.  The Entosis Link module is the magic dingus, the focus, the veritable Schwerpunkt of Fozzie Sov.

Much fun was had after this module was announced, imagining it being fit on an interceptor to troll sovereignty or on a carrier made indestructible via a web of triage support.  The system looked prime to be gamed.

CCP took all that feedback and laid down the following restrictions for the Entosis Link module:

• High Slot module with a limit of one per ship
• Requires a target lock on the structure to have any impact
• While the module is active, your ship is unable to cloak, warp, dock, jump or receive remote assistance. There is no way to get rid of the module penalties early except for losing your ship
• The first cycle of the module is always a “warmup cycle” and has no impact. If you lose lock or the module is disabled for any reason, you’ll need to go through that warmup cycle again before you can continue exerting any influence over the structure
• Other than that warmup cycle, the cycle time of the module does not impact how long it takes to capture a structure. Once you’re past the warmup cycle all that matters is that your module stays active
• Capital ships have a role penalty that increases the module cycle time by 5x
• Consumes Strontium Clathrates as fuel for each cycle

The the links themselves have their own parameters.

T1 Entosis Link

• +250,000kg mass when online
• 5 Minute Cycle Time
• 25km range

T2 Entosis Link

• +1,000,000kg mass when online
• 2 Minute Cycle Time
• 250km range

So that quote up at the top of the post looks to be a true statement, because once you activate the Entosis Link module you can’t run, you can’t hide, and you can’t get any help/heals, so the grid around the structure becomes a space born game of… and forgive me for using the term of art from my childhood… smear the queer, with every hostile ship in the system aware that you are in the staring role.

And you have to stay alive anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes depending on the various factor of defense and what not.

I am keen to see how this evolves as an operational art and what ships will end up being the module carriers and what counter tactics will evolve.  For example, it seems like a determined defender, even if driven of the structure grid, could sacrifice some electronic warfare ships to break the target lock of the ship carrying the Entosis Link module just to make like miserable for the attackers.

Anyway, we will see how this works out soon, though not as soon as expected.  The newt round of sovereignty updates will be spread across two releases, the first being the Carnyx expansion on June 2, followed by the Aegis expansion on July 7.

As for how things will work during that interim period between the two… well… I read the words, understood their individual meanings and how they came together to form coherent sentences, but I am pretty sure I don’t understand the reality of how sov will work during most of June and the first week of July.

Meanwhile, move operations continue as The Imperium withdraws within its new borders.  Some groups are still out and about, including the Reavers down in Querious.  But I suspect that we’ll be spending a chunk of may re-arranging who goes where in the seven regions.