Warfare & Tactics

Bullshit.

One of the biggest problems in conducting a discussion with a 9000 man organization is the issue with when "we" is collective or singular. I say that "zim" has no understanding of mercenary realities or wardecs and its "we do" (meaning the 9000) I say that a particular goon has done something foolish and suddenly the collective responsibility is vanished. It means we literally speak different languages. Perhaps the best thing of all is that we simply remain in contention and shoot one another. Unfortunately the 1.1 Inferno wardec patch removes competitive dynamism from that option so nothing but forum angst remains.

Except we didn't actually hire anyone. We called up a favor.

Well, it's because we have friends you see.

Also, they thought it was great fun and like shooting things. Such a carefree enjoyment of internet spaceships ~

there is no [/fail] yet, S.O.B. CCP, you lied! where is o.o again? can't find it on my people and places yet, all I see is locations of porta-potties... sad face

Does that actual upset you or are you just being sarcastic?
(actually a serious point)
Do you think I should see you guys as individuals?

Well we probably could agree that different Eve players have different levels of experience with different parts of the game and nobody really "gets" all of it. But that would probably lead to another argument where somebody in your nullsec coalition started claiming to be the font of all knowledge on empire wardecs and the merc profession again and so the whole thing begins anew.

Whats left to be said now really as we move towards an extended period under the 1.1 wardec system should be disappointment in CCP for failing to deliver a meaningful iteration on empire wars and any kind of functionality to empower or encourage a merc profession in Eve. The simple raising of declaration costs, closing of loopholes and now fairly abbreviated alliance system doesn't really make the mark as a primary expansion feature.

I think many people will hope that next time Wars are iterated on we get a team with a greater understanding of these areas of gameplay able to properly roll out gameplay features that are competitively balanced for all.

(compare and contrast with FW revamp really. Its clear CCP Ytterbium gets the area of the game he's iterating on, he listens to player feedback and doesn't just produce these sacred tablet's with his own egotistical convictions scribbled in red ink.)

But those are the breaks.

Okay I'll grant you that point. Fair enough.



See I don't actually see that as a bad point. Rather than choosing dodgy evasions to avoid war (through massively ramped up concord dec fees) people instead had to accept the war and just drag more people in. It made highsec more dangerous in general, it was the "inferno" that the expansion was named for and it frankly was more fun. Back when I became first chair of the CSM I ran on a platform of "more war!" "more dynamic space combat" and all that. Inferno 1.0 meant that wars were dynamic, evolving things, that could grow out of the control of the declarer and drag in in thousands of players. I thought that was a progressive step - it needed iteration to perfect it sure, but not simply being stamped on.



And that's the difference between merc work and mayhem. Notice the word "work." If you expect another eve player to pay you isk for a service you should expect that service to have an element of difficulty and grind about it. Otherwise why wouldn't they just do it themselves? The problem with merc profession in eve (in hisec wars) is that there is currently no way to actually produce a meaningful victory through sustained effort. Nobody can ensure an aggressor drops the war (especially not a 0.0 aggressor) there is no way to limit the timescale or end the fight. Nobody can hit a defender so hard they make a profit from a war (unless the defender leaves towers or expensive ratting ships in space) - but there is no decisive end to the war.

These issues combine with the outcome you mention - mercs only really have meaning when doing particular short term jobs (like pos removal) and the mythical merc marketplace should probably have been a contract category where I (or you) as a player can put up a combat contract like "destroy X pos for y payment" or "destroy X value of Y's ships for Z payment for job complete" or even "pod kill X player Y times for Z payment" - something like that, you put up the contract, you pay the collateral to the marketplace, mercs can take the job and achieve the contracts if they think they can do it.



Well as I said, it returns full advantage to very large alliances against small targets. The costing system (exponential with 20 trillion ceiling) is a joke. I think that was a genuine troll from Soundwave most likely. And since there is no way for a defensive ally "merc" to bring the war to an end I honestly don't see why anybody is going to be paying a penny to hire allies in this system. Best case scenario would be that out of work mercs will get a cheaper wardec against large alliances by paying defenders to invite them as allies for 2 week periods. I could probably sell wardec slots against goonswarm for 200m each (representing a discount of 800m on the direct wardec cost.) And make a profit on the first six. But that won't do much for the merc market.



Well its a one step forward (two steps back thing). I've granted you the ending of the dec shield situation is a positive. But the general increase in dec fees from 10-25x pre Inferno is a step back. I also believe the nerfing of the ally system as a significant tool to allow a smaller target to oppose a larger dec is a step back. And as stated above, I don't think anything has really been done specifically to help (or rather promote interesting gameplay) for mercs.

We could certainly have a conversation in the future about the remaining loopholes (dropping corp in space, kill corp drop dec etc) but we should should probably add big alliance haulers carrying goods secure in NPC corps to the debate. I'd love to make impossible for freighter pilots to be in NPC corps - I'd like to see a genuine secondary market in trading of intel in which hauler corps were used by nullsec to bring the moon-minerals to market. I'd love to see a situation where it actually became more sensible for goonswarm to run a convoy of freighters (with 200 ships escort) once a month from null to jita - rather than simply slipped in piecemeal with npc corp alts. Heh, we can dream.

Its good of you to dismiss new players in small corps deciding to experience wars for the first time so aristocratically. Just because you are operating within an organization that has been sucking the teat of moon-mineral income for five years does not give you the right to dismiss new players attempting to make sense of the war system.

I know nothing of the kind. If a new corp wants to throw t1 thrashers at a fat target the difference between 2-50m is 48 thrashers a week. You discounting this calculation just shows you are fatally out of touch with how new players approach the wardec system.

And you accusing me of "lying" is frankly ridiculous at this point. You have zero credibility.