[ Gooder Eve is a series of on-going articles that examine ways in which Eve can be made Gooder. Some are serious, some are not, but all are intended to create debate, dialogue, and discussion. So enjoy! ]
[ This concept comes from my Deputy CEO Angor Mau who was gracious enough to let me run with it here.]
There have been many ideas bantered about for "fixing" Eve, from nerfing Jump Bridges and SuperCarriers to police forces in Low Sec. There are as many ideas as there are stars in New Eden. But this idea cuts to the heart of the matter, is simple to implement and would effectively distort the normal parameters of Eve in a way that would be beneficial to everyone... eventually. Now that I've prepped the room, let's get down to it shall we.
So here's the deal. There would be ONLY six states of possible standings - Corporation, Alliance, Faction, War, Fleet and Neutral. That's it, no more shades or orange, light blue or possible ways to set red or blue standings outside of those six settings. And ALL of those standings are set automatically by Eve depending on your status and membership, so no one can personally set standings. In effect, all of Eve suddenly (for all intents and purposes) becomes neutral to each other.
Corporation - If you are in the same Corp you are blue to each other.
Alliance - If you are in the same Alliance you are blue to each other.
Faction - If you are in the same Militia you are blue to each other, likewise enemy factions are red to you.
War - War declarations mean you and the opposing party have red skulls to each other.
Fleet - Anyone in the same fleet is purple to each other. (Anyone)
Neutral - The natural state of most pilots in New Eden.
I can hear the lamentations now, but sit and think about this for a moment. Such a change doesn't kill Eve, in point of fact, it revives Eve. Huge dominating power bloc coalitions would be impossible to maintain under such a system, Eve would naturally splinter back down into manageable chunks of space favorable to its pilots and its servers. You'd still have huge space battles involving thousands of pilots, they'd just be more rare than they are today. Which is how they should be. Operating bots would become much more difficult under such a system, Low Sec would be more open and alive, and the universe would become an even more deadly and fun place to be.
Such a system is not without hardships certainly. Suddenly the ends of universe become much more difficult to live in, but shouldn't they be? Chaos would reign but eventually things would regain a balance that is much more favorable to playing and living in this universe than it is today.
At least that's the idea. It is simple, clean and easy to implement. Never again would you be able to muck around with settings to favor your own ego, your friends or your fellow devs (cough).
As always, I'm curious to hear your thoughts.