Blog Banter 44 - Local, the Universe and The Rest

The echo chamber is reverberating loudly with the subject of Local Channel these days, and Seismic Stan decided to put the subject out there for a Blog Banter.

"The local chat channel provides EVE players with an instant source of intel of who is in the system. With a quick glance you can tell who is in system and what your standings are to them. War targets, hated enemies, friends and corp mates all stand out clearly. Is this right? Should we have access to this intel for free with no work or effort? Should the Local chat channel even exist? Should normal space be more like wormhole space where the Local channel appears empty until someone speaks?"

Many others have already responded and there are opinions a-plenty.

I will take an entirely in-universe approach here. You will read points and arguments others have made already, but I hope I can still add something.

To begin with...

It has been stated, that capsuleers are registered with their Pilot Licenses by CONCORD. Along with that license, CONCORD keeps a file of the capsuleer which is in the public domain (how else would you get info on another capsuleer at all). As others have pointed out, that information is sent across the system by the stargates as soon as a capsuleer jumps in.

That concept works perfectly in Highsec and Lowsec but it quickly falls apart everywhere else. I will address the in-universe aspects of the different regions.

Lowsec

Lowsec systems are generally held by Empire factions. Those are bound by the Yulai Convention which established CONCORD and a number of other general rules of conduct. CONCORD has limited authority there. They still register security status violations, for example. That would also extend to the provision of a local channel information network to keep the playing field level for the contesting parties.

NPC Nullsec

Here we still have gates and they can register capsuleers, but CONCORD holds no authority there. The only authority is held by the local faction, be that the Thukker Tribe, the Guristas Pirates or Sansha's nation. Would they have any reason to provide information to capsuleers about roaming brethren?

Well, for some they would.

Capsuleers who have sufficiently high standing with a local NPC faction could actually be granted access to the gate transponder network. The game mechanic that regulates this would be the corporation's standing. If your people ran enough missions for the Serpentis, well then the Serpentis will let you know whether potential enemies enter. For everyone else local would work just like in wormhole space: A pilot only appears there if they actually say something. As for the rest, happy dscanning.

Sovereign Nullsec

Sovereign Nullsec belongs to nobody until someone sets up sovereignty structures. CONCORD also has no authority there. Gate operators would not have any reason to provide jump records to others except if those third parties have established full control.

In terms of in-game mechanics, such a solar system would function just like wormhole space does, until some faction actually upgrades the system to provide a local channel for themselves. This would require a specific sovereignty structure or an upgrade to an existing one like an Infrastructure Hub. The local channel would work only for sov-holders and allies, others will see an empty chat window until someone actually speaks there.

As with other sovereignty structures, I would argue that the necessary upgrades should be open to hacking attacks. A ship with a hacking module should be able to basically deactivate local chat for everyone and revert the system to wormhole-space levels of obscurity.

On top of that, I would argue that black-ops ships' pilots should not appear in local no matter what. After all they are moving in covertly with a covert cyno field. That should be worth something.


But, but ...!

I know, all of this has a lot of pitfalls and problems. For example, it would benefit the defender of a Nullsec system a lot, especially in NPC Nullsec. It would also introduce even more cost to the maintenance of sovereignty. Neutral small-gang and solo PVPers will have a harder time roaming through Nullsec.

I just wanted to take a look at the issue from the in-universe perspective, but not everything can and must make sense in that context.