Warfare & Tactics

I made this a few weeks ago. While where you think connectioins should be may differ, it really highlights the distinct issues with the Amarr/Minmatar FW map. http://i.imgur.com/aM9Ir.jpg

The biggest issue with FW's longterm health is attracting new players for PVP and new player retention. Things were great just after Inferno with many new groups joining the pew, if one group wouldn't fight, you could find another one. Unfortunately its regressed quite hard since then. David mentioned that so-called "dominance" (having more numbers) is boring, and it is. US TZ Amarr faces this problem at times and its led to much of the new players leaving because fighting the same group gets stale and if you put the other side down for the night, theres not many more targets to be had. I'm not trying to chestbeat here, just stating facts. Unless FW can come up with meaningful changes that attract and retain new players for PVP, things will continue to regress until its back to the diehard FW groups. Soundwave completely missed the mark with the players will join the loser for the PVP opportunities. New groups join for the targets, then leave or go fight elsewhere when they realize they don't have the numbers to handle them and can't make money either.

The tier system doesn't promote fighting for much other than actual staging systems and even with the new tier system, unless you can push a solid amount of the warzone AND hold it, you're just giving the other side more space to farm. Also, the effectiveness of a singular group to hold an area is much more limited than people realize. If the entirety of TMFED or I.law moved to Metro, I imagine they would be able to hold no more than a single constellation MAYBE two against farming alts and against single groups in off timezones...which isn't that much when you consider the significant chunk of the Amarr miltia they represent, despite their smaller numbers. In a typical US TZ night, I.law literally represents a third of the logged in Amarr numbers. Even then, the crippling lack of PVP and severe isolation from the rest of the warzone would just decay activity levels over time and overall you're just taking numbers from one side and moving it to the other. Its not like Amarr numbers are exactly saturated on the Amarr side of the warzone to really capitalize on groups spreading out.