Warfare & Tactics

History is written by the winners. So I'd listen to the GalMil, because its apparent they did something right.

They can't handle the truth.

After being in calmil on and off for roughly 5-6 years, I can say with a decent degree of certainty that you are right in regards to the overall personality of each of the factions, and it has been astounding to me how overly complex politically calmil alliances try to make things. I joined FW more or less towards the tail end of dominion and the beginning of tyrannis, and hopped on board with DCE and we fought the good fight. When WZ came out as a feature, some sharp divisions on the nature of what it was, how we were supposed to work it etc., people started bickering about it and unlike you guys, quite a few monolithic blocs fragmented and haven't come together since just over the simple fact that, yes, while we're all calmil, nobody can agree on what that means or what "direction the militia is going" with alliance head meetings and such.

Look; I'm sure you know just as well that I do that while there are a number of excellent alliances in calmil that drive a hard game and put up a good fight, Templis and Heiian conglomerate chiefly among them, there isn't a larger coordinated between them all that you guys have. What I can say though is this: Either approach doesn't really matter in the long run if we're talking about who "wins" and who "loses" as the de facto notion of an endless war means that despite territory gained there is never a victor or a loser. There is no end date or path to victory, there are only the trenches of plexes and the flocks of fleets to fight in. So the notion that one side is inherently better at the job they have to do is moot, since neither side can actually complete it.

So the question then becomes, "What's the point of fighting if we can't win or lose?" I've wrestled with that question on and off over the years and it has sometimes become agonizing considering the twin motivations of loyalty and insatiable curiosity I have for this game; specifically where those two have taken me over the years. The point in the end for both of us is that we're pitted against each other in a vast gladiatorial arena, full of vicious rabid dogs, pirates, and drunk russians.
The floor shifts beneath us, the waters of flux and chaos swirl and wash over us daily, and those of us who have invested time, blood, sweat and tears into it all come up from all of that and realize that glory is found in the fight itself; and for us in calmil who have awoken to that fact in one form or another find that the philosophy behind it is a distinctly caldari one: That strength and meaning in life are found in the swirling chaos; where all things are in flux and evolving to adapt to become something new and different, and finding common bonds in the storm we are thrust into.

I think that the question should never be "Is X side better than Y side for Z situation", it's "How much fun is Y side having throwing together a fleet and fighting against X side who has been investing their time in Z activity." We all lose ships, we all make money; the real game comes from the enjoyment derived from content.
How that content works, how the items within it are balanced, and where that content is going is where my mind always is in this game, not necessarily the next system bash or the next plex capped. It's why after coming back to the game after several weeks when I log on and fly a cruiser into low, my hand shakes from excitement, my heart pounds when I fight someone, and I feel a massive rush when I survive. I love every detail of this game; every minute spent on a plex or bit of lore picked up. I live and breathe it and no matter how the war goes or what form it takes, I will always be motivated by the simple fact that it is FUN.

Rahelis just needs a girl worth fighting for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiqmZLOaD8o
You should post this in your fleets when people start getting bored, and have a sing-along.

You don't get it. Pve ships often fit mods on their ships. Having that happen doesn't give incentive to pvp. Timer rollbacks and making it easier for pvpers to fight for plexes is how you do it.

Why don't lots of people get defensive plexing alts? Because most people find that a poor way to spend their time. Every militia has their players who do it. Minmatar had sasawong. Amarr has Cynthia Nezmor, Gallente has you and several others in the militia who have said they have plexing alts out with no intent to fight. So this is not just a problem with gallente alone. Its a problem with the whole mechanic. I even set up alt account to plex. I made great progress but after a while it got really boring, and I decided there were better things to do with my time.



If you think about it you might understand why Crosi says this:




If faction war occupancy was really great fun I don't think that would happen. Hell I could play eve every night for years if it involved great pvp. People get burned out because its not all that.

11 guys for your side? 60 guys for the enemy? Do you think this is enough interest? I think those numbers are pathetic for a game that has 500,000 subscriptions and can often get over 1,000 players involved in fights. Forget about the posts on the forums. Just open your eyes and you can see the apathy for this game yourself.

You can keep denying that the heavy role alts have in plexing is the cause of this extreme apathy. We can disagree because I think it is. But then I ask you what causes this apathy? Even when gallente were taking all the systems the numbers were not great.

Interesting how people in faction war make up rules that don't exist then expect others to play by them.

Really? Based on what? You think Caldari without plexing alts would be roflstomping Gallente?

Oh, we agree. It's just that Cerain feels they're the usnstoppable PWN button of FW for some reason.

They used to be a much bigger factor than they are now, certainly, but not even then were they a win button.

FW became null-sec lite because we allowed it to. It wasn't the changes in plex mechanics, it was our inability to think outside the box when confronted with insurmountable odds. When the Gallente were pulling 100+ pilots into a system siege, the inevitable response from CalMil was "how do we get more people here?" rather than "how do we get them out of the system?" This only fed the vicious cycle that drew more and more pilots into a single system as the number of kills increased. CCP isn't to blame for this, we are. We collectively decided that blobbing was the best answer to the recent changes in plex mechanics, stopped trying to be clever, and simply threw ships at each other until one side won. It really doesn't matter what changes are made to FW, it's how we react to them that counts. Until we begin to discourage this kind of mob mentality, the blob will rule FW.

The same can be said for defensive plexing alts/farmers, whatever you choose you call them. They're only as effective as you allow them to be, and the reason they played any role at all in the push is because we allowed them to. We barricaded the doors and ignored the rest of the warzone while the Gallente pounded on the windows and trampled our gardens. A minority saw the futility of this and attempted to do the sensible thing, but it was too little, too late, and there were negligible attempts to co-ordinate these efforts. That's why we lost. It has little to do with their numbers, or their alts, or CCP's meddling, it's because we decided to play the game on their terms rather than our own. Until this changes, expect GalMil to remain dominant.

I agree with most of this. If we field 8 assault frigates, you could easily field 4 rapid-light Caracals and take on 2 to 1 odds and win the day. The biggest difference between the factions seems to be coordination and cooperation within the Gallente, which Caldari seem to lack.

I also agree that afk-plexing alts are only as effective as you allow them to be.... Mostly. When TEST was still around, we saw hordes of stabbed-up farmers threatening the sovereignty of our home systems. To deal with them, my corpmates started holding competitions to see who could farm the most warp-core-stabs in killmails. Prizes were even given out. The triple-scram kestrel became a thing, alongside sebo'd arty thrashers and railgun catalysts. And it worked, and was kinda fun. Not nearly as entertaining as fleet action, but good competition all the same.

However, the changes in o-plexing dynamics did make a huge difference IMO. Npcs that respawn and tank some decent dps means that you can't o-plex while afk nearly as easily, and theres no taking a small or medium outpost in a Condor. Anyone else notice a severe decline in the presence of those pesky bastards since the FW changes? Light-missile kiters are at a big disadvantage due to the low dps output, and CalMil lost a great number of the plexing alts. Subsequently, as GalMil pulled ahead inTier, a great number showed up to get in on easy and profitable d-plexing.

I think this is already starting to even out, as all Gallente systems neared zero-contested and the alts moved on. Now the Caldari are pushing back, and it is good hunting again.