Market Discussions

It's voting time again, and I have some serious news to report. The New Order of Highsec has no choice but to launch a Forever War against the forces of chaos and misery. Get yourself some coffee and/or crackers and we'll chat about that stuff, and then vote on how to initiate our next expansion.

OVERVIEW

I am a professional bumper and the Father of the New Order. I was elected Supreme Protector of Halaima and Kamio, two highsec ice mining systems near Jita. I require miners to follow the New Halaima Code of Conduct, which--among other things--calls for a 10 million isk mining fee to be paid each year. If miners fail to pay, they risk being bumped out of range and losing their ability to mine. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, have some links.

Previous threads:
I have taken command of the Halaima ice field: An exciting business opportunity!
Halaima Miner Bumping IPO -- Round 1
Halaima Miner Bumping IPO -- Round 2
Halaima Miner Bumping -- SHAREHOLDER REPORT #1 -- 230,000.00 % profit margin!
Halaima Miner Bumping SHAREHOLDER REPORT #2 UNANIMOUS! We're going to Kamio!
Halaima Miner Bumping IPO -- Round 3
Halaima Miner Bumping - SHAREHOLDER REPORT #3 - The Dawn of a New Kamio

Artwork by Sun Win:
HOPE
MERCY


EXPENDITURE AND PROFIT REPORT

Revenues:
366,100,000 in mining permits
88,000,000 in loot of fallen enemies
1,080,000,000 in miscellaneous donations*

Expenses:
126,000 for secure containers

Profit:
1,533,974,000

Profit Margin:
1,217,439.68 %

MINER BUMPING ECONOMIC POWER INDEX

The MBEPI is calculated by adding the profit plus all sales of stock thus far. This provides you an idea of the total resources upon which our enterprise can currently draw.

Stock Sales:
2,830,000,000

Miner Bumping Economic Power Index
4,363,974,000

KAMIO BREAKS

Last time, I wrote extensively of the resistance we met from the Kamio miners. When I arrived in that system, they were confident of victory. They would organize the miners, refuse to pay for mining permits, starve the New Order of isk, and send their Supreme Protector packing. Kamio miners styled themselves a cut above their Halaima cousins who had paid; Kamio would succeed where its neighbors failed.

At first, they presented themselves as a stone wall. During the period covered by Shareholder Report #3, none of the Kamio miners would pay a single isk. They used the New Halaima Code of Conduct as toilet paper.

But as I always say, the bumping business is a marathon, not a sprint. To my friends in nullsec, I want to explain that everything is inverted where the New Order is concerned. In a nullsec war, you blitzkrieg. You show up with a ton of ships, swat away the enemy fleet, bring in the supercaps, grind the structures, and take sovereignty. The faster you conquer stations, the better--your enemies lose strength and cohesion, and they can't do what it takes to reclaim sovereignty.

In the New Order of Highsec, everything is a matter of time and pressure. It's a slow, erosive process. Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. A spectacular show of force on Tuesday doesn't matter to a miner who shows up in the ice field for the first time on Wednesday. If the system is unpersuaded by your bumping session today, the answer is more bumping tomorrow. And the next day, and the next... In time, you break through.

In the period covered by this Shareholder Report, the miners of Kamio began to break down--no different than Halaima. I collected 95 million in mining fees, much of which came from miners who earlier had insisted they would "never" pay. There is no "never" in the New Order. In the fullness of time, everyone will join us.

STAB IN THE BACK ATTACK

During the period covered by this Report, I am pleased to say that not a single player attempted to destroy my Invincible Stabber. There were a few that gave me the ol' "carebear stare" by locking without firing, but no one tried to strike me. Perhaps they are learning.

Yet I must interrupt the so-far triumphant Report to relate a very disturbing incident, one that has implications for our future. I have received word--and have, so far as I can, investigated to confirm its veracity--that the New Order was recently the target of an outrageous, cowardly attack. Due to the bizarre nature of the incident in question, I beg your pardon as I do my best to relate the details.

The attack took place while I was offline being awesome somewhere else. I only learned of it thanks to the diligent effort of R0me0 Charl1e, who witnessed it, intervened, and traded EVEmails back and forth with me as we tried to figure out exactly what took place. R0me0 is a shareholder in the miner bumping business and has always given me accurate information, so I knew I had to take his report seriously. Here is what happened:

R0me0 was in Kamio when he saw someone say in local that he was going to destroy some cans. R0me0's instinct was correct: The attacker was referring to the seven small secure containers that I had anchored 150km from the ice field to announce my ownership of the system. According to R0me0, five members of the "Deathpitt Pants" corporation were involved in this attack, and he was able to provide me with their names: arn plunder, Jean-Luke Picard, Katherine Bruder, sarah mason, and Valda Galene.

R0me0 saw some of these assailants in destroyers smartbombing the containers. Concord did not respond for some reason, so R0me0 flew over toward them, forcing them to stop smartbombing--if they hit R0me0's ship, Concord would definitely respond. Thwarted, one of the other destroyers shot at R0me0 and got Concorded for his trouble. After continuing to block the smartbombing destroyer for about ten minutes, another member of the gang showed up in an osprey and smartbombed a can further down the line. R0me0 flew between the destroyer and the osprey, forcing them both to stop. Then an extraordinary thing occurred.

The fifth member of the gang, sarah mason, warped to the cans in a vindicator--a faction variant of the megathron-class battleship, worth approximately 1 billion isk. R0me0 raced toward the vindicator as it fired its own smartbombs. R0me0 got in range of the bombs, triggering a Concord response that doomed the vindicator.

When I first read this report, nothing about it made sense. First of all, I knew from experience that smartbombs do not damage containers and wrecks. Second, my understanding has always been--and I believe it is conventional wisdom--that if you do smartbomb a non-war target container/wreck in highsec, it will nevertheless trigger Concord. (During my orca hunt, I always positioned myself just out of range of neutral containers so I could smartbomb the miners' pods.) Third, why would anyone put a smartbomb on a destroyer? And most importantly, why would someone risk suiciding a vindicator to attack some 9,000 isk cans?

I asked R0me0 to confirm that the smartbombs had damaged the containers and had not triggered Concord--possibly there was some kind of exploit in use. He could confirm Concord had not been triggered by the attackers' use of smartbombs against the cans, but could not say whether the cans had been damaged. He also remembered seeing some Concord wrecks of destroyers, so possibly the attackers had originally attempted to shoot the containers.

Upon further investigation, we discovered that in fact Concord is not triggered by smartbombing neutral cans. But nor are the cans damaged by the bombs in any way. I then went to Kamio to see if there was any evidence of the attack.

Three of the containers had slight damage, and a fourth had significant damage.

Unlike giant secure containers, which are essentially indestructible in highsec, smalls have 50,000 structure hitpoints. As best as I can tell, the attackers originally used a destroyer or two to shoot the most damaged container. After Concord was called, they then tried shooting the other three containers with damage, but were quickly blocked by Concord, so only a sliver was inflicted.

Then, perhaps because smartbombs could theoretically hit multiple cans, and because smartbombs can be used while Concord jams you, one of them fit a small smartbomb to a ship and tried dealing with the containers that way. Upon finding a lack of Concord response, he invited his corpmates to join in. It's possible that because the containers already had a little damage, and because he was using a small smartbomb, he may not have realized he was failing to do damage. R0me0's efforts to block them may have heightened their resolve to carry forward with the mad plot. Then came the vindicator with the large smartbombs, assuming he was safe from Concord.

VOTING PROCESS

Here's how this is going to work. The current shareholders will vote to determine which two ice mining systems will be brought under New Order jurisdiction next. Each shareholder will name a "primary" target and a "secondary" target. If you hold 10 shares, for example, the primary you named will get 10 points, the secondary 5 points. At the end of the voting period, I will tally the points. The system with the most points will be liberated first, and the second system will be liberated second. This vote will authorize me to act as Supreme Protector of the two target systems and all systems along the route from Halaima/Kamio to the target systems. However, the secondary target and the systems on its route may not be officially annexed for some time.

The voting period will last 48 hours from the time of this posting, but you should not feel the need to vote immediately. You may wish to engage in some discussion in this thread about the strategic merits of going for one system or another first. I will also allow you to change your vote during the period in case the discussion causes you to change your mind; votes will only be tallied after the 48 hours are up.

You may vote with a reply in this thread, or you can send me an EVEmail. As always, those who do not own shares will not be able to vote, but are free to offer their thoughts in the thread. Again, for reference, here's the modified Dotlan map.

PLEASE SELECT A PRIMARY TARGET AND A SECONDARY TARGET:

- Kino
- Niarja
- Sirseshin
- Uotila

If you do not wish to vote, you may ABSTAIN.

Voting Period

This measure will be open for voting until August 6 at 19:30 EVE time.

Current Shareholders (2,830 total shares)

Theangryhobo -- 727 shares
R0me0 Charl1e -- 510 shares
Revnan Gregwell -- 200 shares
Tash Avrat -- 200 shares
Caelis Boirelle -- 100 shares
Jori McKie -- 100 shares
Rykker Bow -- 100 shares
Shiule Hanaya -- 100 shares*
terzslave -- 100 shares
Umaga -- 100 shares
Viivi Brisvalis -- 100 shares
Mortimer Montague -- 50 shares
Paul Casey -- 50 shares
Tabane Shinonono -- 50 shares
Zelous Mandible -- 50 shares
Qaren Otsolen -- 30 shares
Jocindus -- 25 shares
Campl3r Athonille -- 20 shares
CorInaXeraL -- 20 shares
Drago Wolfbane Skorvalk -- 20 shares
Nathan Omega -- 20 shares
Private Pineapple -- 19 shares
Mungug -- 15 shares
Tecear -- 15 shares
Bubbles Vuld -- 10 shares
Charles Baker -- 10 shares
Haulter -- 10 shares
Havoc Zealot -- 10 shares
Kailean -- 10 shares
Max Wager -- 10 shares
missus rockhunter -- 10 shares
Sun Win -- 10 shares
BadAssMcKill -- 5 shares
Darth Gustav -- 5 shares
Malick Andedare -- 5 shares
Richard Sole -- 5 shares
Collin Dow -- 2 shares
Angelis666 -- 1 share
EnslaverOfMinmatar -- 1 share
Gargamel en Cedoulain -- 1 share
Kael Attrell -- 1 share
Kuehnelt -- 1 share
Marcion Cravik -- 1 share
Matries -- 1 share

* This investor has an order for additional shares, but they will not be purchased until stock is open for sale again.

VOTE RESULTS

Kino: 1,605 points
Uotila: 1,324 points
Niarja: 200 points
Sirseshin: 5 points

Primary: Kino
Secondary: Sirseshin

Primary - Kino

Secondary - Uotila

Primary: Niarja
Secondary: Kino

Primary - Kino
Secondary - Uotila

Primary : Uotila
Secondary : Kino

Primary: Uotila
Secondary: Kino

Primary: Uotila
Secondary: Kino