Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

On the fence: Bag 'em and tag 'em

I really like most of the features in Odyssey, but there are some that I'm still on the fence about for various reasons.  Given the way that comments work around here, I'd like to list these items as separate posts.  That way you as a reader can skip over the ones you don't care about and just talk about the ones that you do.

Next up:

• A new way to increase a character's Security Status is now available -  Tags-for-security-status.
• Added new NPC pirates to asteroid belts in low-security space. They are especially wanted by CONCORD, and will drop tags when they are destroyed.
• The new tags dropped by these NPCs can be taken to CONCORD and DED stations in low security space. They can then be turned in (along with an ISK fee) using the new 'Security Office' station service. In return, you will be awarded an increase in security status.

I've written a good bit on Tags4Sec already and I think the theory is sound, workable, and generally good for the game.  But I'm not yet sure about the the implementation, specifically the spawn rates of the rats and the floor values of the tags.  I think they need some tweaking.

Right now, you need:

• four Trainer tags to go from -10 to -8;
• six Recruiter tags to go from -8 to -5;
• six Transporter tags to go from -5 to -2; and,
• if you like, four Negotiator tags to go from -2 to 0.

Now in terms of preventing repeat offender bad people from entering high-sec, the critical ones are the Transporter tags that allow you to make that all-important jump from the -5 of "barred from all high-sec" to the -2 of "high-sec bears are scared of you because you are yellow on their overview."  In my opinion, these are the ones that should be most difficult to come by in terms of spawn rates.

Instead, there are hundreds of them on the market already and the price is falling like a meteor.  As I write this, they cost 60 million ISK per tag but there's every reason to think that the price will fall by half and then maybe by half again over the next couple of weeks as profit-taking and panic take hold.  That means -- counting the CONCORD ISK sink associated with these tags -- that over time we can expect the cost to make this jump in sec status will be about 125 million ISK and will probably fall from there.

That's a cost that strikes me as too high to use casually... but still too low to be a deterrent.

Similarly, while CCP did a very smart thing by setting a "floor" to the value of these tags by making them something that CONCORD will buy directly from players, the floor price is set very low... too low in my opinion.

For the record:

• Clone Soldier Negotiator Tag has a 3.0 million ISK CONCORD value.
• Clone Soldier Recruiter Tag has a 2.0 million ISK CONCORD value.
• Clone Soldier Trainer Tag has a 1.5 million ISK CONCORD value.
• Clone Soldier Transporter Tag has a 2.5 million ISK CONCORD value.

So those are the floor values of the tags.  Theoretically as supply goes up and if demand goes down, the market prices of the tags could approach these values.  In short, at some point the tags could become far and away the tiniest expense involved in regaining sec, far outstripped by the ISK sink associated with turning the tags in.

Of course, someone could try to take control of the market and fix the price of the Transporter tag.  The question will be if the finances of the people attempting to take control will be able to keep up with the tag's spawn rate.  Maybe they can; there are a lot of rich people in EVE.  If they succeed, then the price for this change in security status won't drop to 125 million and instead will be about 325 million.  But I don't think it's happen that way; several hundred of these tags are being exchanged per day right now.  That's just for the Transporter tag.

As I write this, the Trainer tag is worth six million each (cost to go from -10 to -8, about 40 million) and the Recruiter tag is worth 16 million now, but I expect that to come down by about half over the next two weeks, which will set the cost to go from -8 to -5 to about 70 million.  In short, there's already pretty much no reason to be lower than -5 unless you want to be.  The final tag, the Negotiator, is worth about 80 million each today and it will be interesting to see what happens with it.

Finally, EVE players being EVE players, there's already a persistent rumor that each level (0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1) of low-sec space goes with one and only one type of tag.  If that turns out to be true, I think that's a terrible mistake.  EVE PvE is already too predictable.  Why make this element completely predictable?  Short version: if this is true, then find out which of the four levels of low-sec goes with that Negotiator tag...

All in all, I think this feature needs some iterating on.  In my opinion, the spawn rate of these tags was set too high and their floor value too low, and it's going to need some adjusting to become a worthwhile additional low-sec profession.  As I understood it, those were the two goals here:

1. create a viable new profession and a new buff for low-sec; and,
2. get people into low-sec asteroid belts where other people could shoot them.

Will that happen with the spawn rates and floors set as they are?  If the tag values fall too far, will people actually bother taking them to Jita?  I'm not so sure.  So yeah, I'm on the fence about this one, too.  Thoughts?
Source: On the fence: Bag 'em and tag 'em