It was an interesting experiment that changed the face of combat in New Eden for the last two years, but not in a good way. In my opinion, it has in so many ways, helped to hurt, damage and forever change the fundamental landscape of PvP to the point where there is little recourse but to end it. Now.
I have flown in T3 Boosted gangs, fleets and combat. I have flown against them as well. And I have also flown in un-boosted versions of everything you can imagine. I've watched one-versus-one fights turn strangely one-sided, I've watched Drakes exceed their potential upper speeds, I've watched ships point at ranges they have no business pointing at, and I've been on both the positive and negative sides of those equations. This really isn't the reason why it needs to end.
CCP says they want Eve to grow, to attract new subscribers. I have no choice but to believe them. Over the years I've probably given this idea more thought than most of the employees at CCP and shared openly many wonderful ideas on how this could be achieved. Some have been silly, some have been extremely profound, but this one is fundamental.
The concept of gaining advantage while NOT being present on the field of battle is at the center of this argument. Typically the T3 Boosting Alt Strategy goes something like this, a small gang forms that includes one T3 ship that will be providing boosts of one kind or another. The gang is smartly formed around those boosts. The T3 ship is usually an alt of someone in the gang, or flown by a primary pilot. Generally, given the value of said T3 ship, the pilot will avoid combat participation. Generally speaking the T3 ship itself isn't the reason it is in the gang, the only value truly being the boosts it gives the other ships. In some gangs the T3 is utilized as a scout, we did this a lot in Lucifer's Hammer. The T3 would scout, often pointing the target, while the rest of us would warp in to kill it. The T3 hopefully escaping in the ensuing fight. But staying in system for those important bonuses.
The idea of one ship being in a safe spot or across the entire system from the actual battle and having such a fundamental impact on that battle, is the core of what I am getting at. It would be like parking a Scorpion at a safe spot but still being able to jam enemy ships 2AU away. Would anyone argue that such an ability would be good for PvP? But essentially this is what T3 Boosting has evolved into.
Ah, you say, what if the boosting effect was based around an area of effect? The resulting T3 ship needing to be actually present within the gang to provide the bonuses? Now you are thinking and perhaps that is a potential solution.
There would be more combat in Eve without this invisible, almost impossible to counter, distant advantage to always have to consider. It is enough that the lone Vexor in the belt may have friends in local - but he and his friends could also be under the influence of a cloaked Loki sitting in the middle of friggin' nowhere. At the very least, if me or my friends warp in to fight the Vexor we should have the chance to fight his friends. As things stand today, one of his friends can be in an ivory tower far from the fight, outside of my ability to harm him, and influence the fight.
I am all about HTFU and the fundamental unfairness of Eve, the harsh world of live or die. But I think this specific, small unfairness has gone on long enough.
No one else is going to say it. So I just did.
(I'm back btw, so hold on to your hats!! lol)