Poll: The Batphone, help or hindrance in FW?

“In short, I think overall they are mostly a help but obviously they have their downsides as well. When the Minmatar first started acquiring super-capital carriers, the Amarr had little they could do to counter on their own. In order to make the playing field more level, batphones were used to try to kill these capital fleets. After the batphone is used once though, people often assume that it’s always available and are generally more cautious when deploying ships that have a big target painted over them. This goes both ways as just about everyone has someone to batphone from some random alt-corp/alliance of theirs.

I think it is a shame that sometimes fights are decided by who has the bigger null-sec alliance in their pocket. I’ve always been a fan of “fighting my own fight”, so to speak, and not having to beg some unaffiliated person to bail me or my fleet out of a fight I got us into; E-honor and all that lameness. But all is fair in love & war so in the end e-honor matters naught. I do think it’s silly to batphone in the bigger alliances like PL for only a few non-super capital ships though, and only encourages your enemies to not fight, or “blue-ball” you into boredom.

With the lingering threat of the ‘batphone’, we have seen very few super-capitals deployed in the war zone. I see this as a positive thing as their slippery-ness makes them a pain to deal with in low-sec (since you can’t use bubbles).” Eran Mintor, Amarr

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“Personally, I think it’s a bit of a hindrance. Hot drops can add a level of surprise and tactics to any engagement, but calling in outside carrier fleets could lead to it becoming a regular practice, which I think will take a level of variety, strategy and balance away from FW.” Raze Valadeus, Amarr

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“Sometimes a batphone is the only thing we can do to keep up with the Mim’s cap strength.  But at the same time it isn’t really a preferable tactic, so my feelings cancel out.  The worst is when the people you bat phone end up turning on your fleet to get more kills.” Aldrith Shutaq

“I personally hate supercaps, I think they have unbalanced the game.

On the other hand, they tend to keep carriers and dreads off the field, so we have more standard sub-cap fights.

So, I think they are generally a hindrance, but in some ways a help to keep other caps off the field.

CCP is talking about re-balancing ships in significant ways this winter (see a quote and link on my blog). I hope it’s a good balance and not just to suit null-sec alliances.” Kuan Yida, Minmatar

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“I think batphones are mean.  I know I’m pretty safe dropping my assets knowing that the Amarr can’t counter unless they (Pred) use’s batphone.

So we have to be cautious of who is online and who we are targeting :)” Silence iKillYouu, Minmatar

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“What BatPhone?  We just roll in guns blazing.” NupetievtVer, Minmatar

“There is nothing wrong with capitals in FW. The problem is the “bat-phone” and the mobility of capitals. Super Carriers are just too mobile and bored 0.0 entities have no issue flying across the universe to gank FW capitals then fly home. It becomes not about militia vs militia but who has better contacts. If Raiden. REALLY REALLY wants to stomp Gallente militia they should be able to. However, they shouldn’t be able to do it simply because they are bored and instantly get back to whatever they were doing before with no cost or penalty (ie fly across the universe in a couple of minutes, gank some ships, fly back across the universe in a couple of minutes with no risk to themselves or home space whatsoever).

If bored 0.0 alliances had to actually think about making a commitment to gank a lone militia carrier, then we would see much more capitals used in FW. I’m torn between having “hot-drop o’clock” keeping FW relatively free of capitals vs seeing them deployed much more often if the 0.0 hot-drop threat was reduced.

This is really a much bigger problem than FW. The problem is simply that the largest and most powerful alliances are able to instantly and cost effectively deploy their power ANYWHERE in the EVE universe. If this was applied to the real world, imagine the United States Army closing all international bases and bringing all their troops home to the United States. The US then gives a “bat-phone” to their allies. Their allies then walk around the world and if they get into trouble they push the button and instantly 10,000 tanks, 300,000 troops, 1,000 warplanes are instantly dropped on the enemy, who is killed, then all the troops are instantly teleported home. After a while, one of the allies gives the “bat-phone” to his son. His son gets into a school-yard fight and pushes the button. Then 10,000 tanks, 300,000 troops, 1000 warplanes are dropped on a fist fight between two 12-year-old boys. FW is essentially the school-yard fight and we don’t want to fight the professional armies of the world. Furthermore, it should not be cost-effective for those armies to deploy billions of ISK of equipment to stomp on a little boy who poses no threat to them and they could care less about.” Andre Vauban, Gallente

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“Well I think it’s a double edged sword really. On one hand you might have the oppurtunity to stop some of the hotdrop happy low sec alliances operating in the milita war front from jumping in the middle of your fight. On the other hand the idea of an opposing militia using there batphone to hotdrop your fleet, will get old very fast.” Staryed, Gallente

“If the bat phone is on your side its a help! In reality I don’t think we should be seeking outsider help from FW. Kinda ruins the fun! :)” Rigel Vex, Caldari