OOC Entry 84 - The laws of physics have changed!

Some time ago I wrote a more general piece about what I dislike about nerfs, and it has become painfully obvious that neither CCP Fozzie nor CCP Rise have read it and taken it to heart.

My heart is broken now because I really like those two guys. Tears were streaming down my face and I was wracked by sobs while I read the announcements of the battleship Tiericide changes.

Ok I admit it was not all that dramatic and actually I don't mind the changes that much for the most part. Like I outlined in my other post, I have no problem with changes as long as they make sense in-universe. If you are now going to tell me that it's just a game and not supposed to be realistic, then go back to my post I linked above. There in the beginning I explain how - even in an unrealistic game universe - things should be consistent.

That is how you encourage suspension of disbelief.

Now, I can see how some redesigns of ship models will give and take. One ship gets more drone bandwidth but also a higher sig radius. Fair enough, I guess the extra drone control system strength gives the ship a larger sensor footprint. Others have one slot removed here to add another there. Well why not? After all who says the hardpoints of a modular construction can't be changed.

But then, while I sat there thinking it all through something kept nagging at me like a splinter in my mind (Thank you, writers of The Matrix, for that wonderful phrase), and then I realized what it was: The laws of physics have changed.

Yes indeed, dear readers!

Engineering principles that were up until recently capable of reinforcing a ship's armor and shield suddenly appear to be less effective. For reasons unknown, because nobody changed anything about the way how two very different ships are constructed. Both Amarrian and Caldari engineers are looking for explanations why the blueprints for the Rokh and the Abaddon suddenly result in ships with lower shield and armor resistance respectively.

The mystery is greater still as the designers of battleships in shipyards all over those two nations fail to explain why the same engineering principles have had no similar effect on sister designs.

Has Khanid Innovations bribed the suppliers of Karthum Conglomerate to deliver low grade material for armor plating? Have Lai Dai infiltrators insinuated flaws into the shield generator designs of Kaalakiota?

Industrial espionage agents of the Empire and the Caldari Megacorporations could not provide answers either, as it seemed that neither the Gallente nor the Minmatar have suffered similar inexplicable setbacks. In long nights experts pored over design schematics for Federation ships and Matari vessels to find out what the secret is. Why are the ships of those opposing nations not plagued by the same problems?

It is an enigma that can only be explained by crackpot theories of localized changes in quantum states only manifesting in certain structures.

Actually, it is rather unnecessary and arbitrary.

What's the point of reducing those resistances by 1 percentage point anyway?
It mostly introduces a change that has no basis in the game's universe for the sheer sake of 'rebalancing'.

Please don't do this. 

Pleeeeease.

OOC Entry 83 - Melting Golden Rules

It has been said that the Golden Rule of Wormhole Space is, that you don't evict serious PVP corps because there are not so many of them and to kick one out would degrade the playing experience. Others have described that principle with such words as "It's OK if I beat my little brother, but if someone else does it, I'll come to help him."

Another often stated principle of wormhole dwellers is, that they wont form permanent coalitions like the ones we see in nullsec these days

Of course such rules are made by those who are on the top of the wormhole foodchain, and they are only applied as strictly or as leniently as those most powerful alliances see fit.

If one looks at this mindset critically, it actually amounts to the formation of a sort of coalition with Shadoo style NIP Wargames. Contrary to common belief, CFC and HBC do not live in a peaceful romance with eachother. Goons are camping TEST ratting systems, some HBC members hate the CFC with a vengeance and will attack them with gusto whenever possible (just look at the battle of Asakai) and so on. They are - right now - fighting amongst eachother more than they are fighting against others because there are few others to fight against.

If you look at it in a certain way, Wormhole Space does not work out so differently, even though it has a number of significant aspects setting it apart from nullsec K-Space.

W-Space it is much more empty. Even finding someone to fight means work. You might have to collapse your wormhole exit multiple times. You will have to scan several systems for exits and search them for enemies. In nullsec, you might have to fly ten jumps before you see someone. In Wormhole space you don't even have the luxury of gates with fixed routes where you can at least be sure to meet someone in a chokepoint system, nor will the starmap tell you how many pilots are active there or how many jumps have occurred recently. You will have to scan signatures for a random draw out of scores of possible systems, most of which will be empty.

So, while the coalitions of nullsec might agree to not purge eachother from their space because it would take months of tedious structure grinding while they could just as well get on eachother's nerves in different ways (and have fun doing so), wormhole dwellers have come to a similar arrangement. For them it is not so much the endless structure grind, but the days of rolling the dice until they find a worthy target to fight, and then even more days sneaking in a significant force to even stand a chance against defenders on their home turf.

Some of those operations take weeks and even up to a month in preparation.

The effect is more or less the same: An agreement to leave eachother be in terms of structural assets for the sake of having something to fight. That is the rationale behind the Golden Rule.

Recently, however, that Golden Rule was broken.

Once there was a great Wormhole Space power called Transmission Lost, but some time ago they broke apart. It was a very large alliance as far as Wormhole Space is concerned, and they were spread across several systems. Being part of an organisation which is also spread across several wormhole systems, I know how difficult it is to maintain a common culture, especially when you consider the defiantly individualistic and self-confident attitude of wormhole pilots. I guess breaking up was only a question of time.

It seems like things were not that simple, though.

Something must have happened during that breakup which ended up creating a lot of bad blood and unresolved grudges, because when the time came to make a choice, the remainder of Transmission Lost was evicted from wormhole space by their former alliance mates and a rather sizable force of allies.

There is a claim that they initially were attacked just because of the GoodFights(tm). So far so good. That has happened more often and ended with billions of ships destroyed, but then everyone was allowed to go home (or stay home) to lick their wounds after the event. This time, it ended up being a raze on a scale that could be compared to the purge of White Noise from the north, Against All Authorities from their territories, or Intrepid Crossing from Cobalt Edge ... comparatively speaking, of course, because W-Space Alliances are not that big.

So what does that tell us?

My answer would be, that Golden Rules are not necessarily broken, but they are bent and melted whenever their minters are serious enough about wanting to do so. That in the end principles and rules mean nothing when things are pushed too far.

I don't know any of the people behind this major devastation well enough to know their motivations, but I wish I knew what it took for them to go so far.

... and what it would take to get nullsec coalitions to break with their principles to such a degree, and go for the utter destruction approach despite the tedium that would mean.

Maybe you can tell me?

OOC Entry 82 - Was it Jagerbombs again?

Just today, on the website bearing his name, his smugness himself - The Mittani - wrote an article about the CSM primaries.

Usually the man manages to make his points well, even if one has to roll eyes and sigh about his staggering level of pretentiousness. Not that I expect anything else from a person who used to play Vampire: The Masquerade but it gets old after a while, and sometimes I would like to read intelligent commentary without all the contrived grandstanding.

This time, however, his article reads like he was having a bit too much to drink (it's the time of the year again).

Someone please tell me how the amount of candidates running for the election are - I quote - "a searing indictment of player confidence in the CSM and a sign of deep voter apathy."

So, if less people run for CSM that means people don't want to vote for them? I have the feeling that mister Gianturco just redefined the laws of cause and effect by turning them on their head after pulling them inside-out.

Call me deluded, but maybe less candidates means that the whole CSM process has matured a bit? The CSM 7 members have repeatedly made it very clear how much work the CSM membership means. More than ever before. Basically you are volunteering for an unpaid internship with CCP where you get to go to Iceland twice in a year if you behave nicely. So, the people who are on board with this must either be really idealistic, completely in denial, or really desperately wanting to see Iceland before they die. Is it a surprise that in the light of that information less people will stand for a CSM candidacy? Is it a sign of "voter apathy" that this number is lower?

Our smirking beekeeper proceeds to dramatically exclaim how "the sheer lack of interest for players in even running for CSM8, compared to past elections, is jaw-dropping.".

Oh the drama!

Personally I would rather call that a refreshing change.

Finally I (or any other voter) will not have to spend two hours digging through candidacy posts by people who will never even make any difference. 35 is actually pretty manageable. That becomes even better if you are a) with a large coalition which means you have no free will anyway and get to vote what your overlords tell you; or b) not with a large coalition, which will mean that you certainly wont vote for anyone who has CFHBC written all over their candidacy.

In my case, I can look at the candidate's list and immediately scratch half of the candidates. Interestingly enough only half of them. Contrary to the statement of the Lord of the Bees it's not "a sign that non-bloc candidates aren't bothering to run anymore." There is just less spam.

If the man would have put a bit more consideration into his piece, he might have reflected on the fact that 14% of the candidates are from a community that allegedly comprises only 5% of the players. (By that I mean WH Space). Compared to the playerbase they are actually just as much represented as all of nullsec. If you consider only the bloc candidates for nullsec, then WH-Space candidates are rather over-representing their constituency. Actually that makes this election rather difficult for me personally.

The self proclaimed Solar Spymaster might have noted how the only female candidate is from an independent nullsec community. Another thing that makes me think long and hard about where to cast my vote. Because of some probably ill conceived feeling of sisterhood, I like to see some female minds on the job, but I sure as hell couldn't vote for a nerdraging carebear harridan like Issler Dainze (who also ended up contributing nothing at all to CSM7 according to the more active members). I definitely voted for Mynxee despite the fact that I was a newbie, more likely to be shot to pieces by her than anything else, back when she was running.

No, Mr. Queen-Bee, this is not an election which causes apathy.

I dare to wager here and now that this election will see the highest participation yet.* After all, there are some really decent candidates from the independent factions. Mike Azariah, Ripard Teg, Roc Wieler, Ali Aras and Psychotic Monk look like serious contenders, and with one thing you have hit the nail on the head: "with so few candidates almost everyone with a vague amount of support could get one of the 14 seats."

That means of course, that it wont be a CSM safely in the hands of the nullsec hives with their single-minded approach to the game, and therefore more interesting than ever.

---

* If I win, you disband Goonswarm. If you win, I'll become a paying member of Something Awful. Deal?