OOC Entry 61 - Another nullsec is possible

A few days ago DNSBlack - the man who sank the Mittani with Jägerbombs at FanFest 2012 - wrote an open letter to the CSM where he urged them to drive forward an agenda of removing Titan Bridges from the game.

For those who do not know what that is: In a nutshell, you can use a portal generator on a Titan to cross large distances to a Cynosural Field that has been activated. Other (non capital) ships can then jump through that connection, unrestricted by gates or the number of starsystems in-between the Titan and the destination, but based on the distance in lightyears.

Of course his suggestion brought a flood of catcalls, insults and doomsday prophesies about the end of nullsec if that idea were to be implemented.

The general "argument" against it goes more or less like this:

Oh my god if they would do this then how do we jump 300 people fleets all the way from home to any point in nullsec or lowsec we choose and then win every fight because we are the largest coalition in game?! Also, how are we ever going to get any fights if we first have to fly for an hour through that vast empire we and our allies control before we meet any actual hostiles?! Last but not least, how are we going to control two thirds of nullsec without Titan Bridges?!

The answer to all those questions seems to be: You don't.

Of course that was exactly what DNSBlack was getting at. His whole letter is based on a nostalgic feeling for the good old days when you could still do your own thing in nullsec and it required effort rather than relying on the established massive infrastructure of your mega-coalition.

While I have not been around in those good old days, I can see where he is coming from. It seems, though, like a lot of the younger generation of nullsec residents have absolutely no idea what it means to really have to put some effort behind your campaigns.

Of course there is still work to be done these days, like getting up at 03:00 in the morning and logging on together with 250 other people to shoot at a structure for ten minutes until it enters it's next reinforcement timer. Or wait around for three hours until your 500 man fleet is finally formed up so you can then effortlessly kill your opponent's 100 man fleet according to the orders of your FC.

Lost your ship or most of your fleet in the engagement? Nevermind, there's more where that came from.

It may be inconceivable to many nullsec players these days (and it seems the older generation isn't telling them) that there were large alliances which held many regions of space, either by themselves or through pacts, before Titans were put into the game. It is the historical truth though.

Guess what, people back then also had fights and wars and big campaigns where they were going against each other. As a matter of fact, some of the larger and more epic conflicts of EVE history have happened in those days, including the ascendency of Goonswarm.

Even today, there are roaming gangs like Bombers Bar or solo PVP pilots, who do not have the benefit of Titan Bridges but still see a lot of action.

More interestingly, off in wormhole space - just after DNSBlack wrote his letter - this happened.

Can you believe it?

In an evironment without Titans, without Supercarriers, without Cynosural Fields, where routes are determined randomly and where you can not even bring as many ships as you want, people managed to have an actual large fleet battle.

Not only that. During the whole long hours of that series of engagements the tide of the battle turned several times. The outcome was never certain. It was not a question of when the massive allied force will jump in, but if they manage to arrive at all.

All of that happened in a region of space that has almost as many starsystems as the whole of nullsec, but less than a quarter of it's population.

So do the people involved complain and moan about being unable project force in a way that made it possible for them to win? Are they complaining about not being able to have a massive empire spanning many regions?

Not at all. For all the effort that went into this engagement, everyone came away with wild-eyed exhilaration. Even the people who never made it to the last battle felt great about having contributed to the outcome.

That great experience was not something occurring regularly in wormhole space. You have to put in a lot to make it happen, but that makes it even more special and spectacular.

What if nullsec were like that?

A place not ruled by those who have the Titans to send their legions all across the galaxy and the ISK to replace all the losses. Where even the largest superpower - what am I saying; especially the large superpowers - would have to spread their forces to control their space. Where you could not just rest comfortably on the achievements of the past without having to do much today except add more numbers to your fleets. Where cooperation would be much more between smaller scale fleets which means new FCs could learn the trade and don't get held down by the dozen or so "bloc level FC" primadonnas. A place where achievement means so much more than being a little cog in the vast juggernaut that just crushes all opposition.


There might even be more people coming out to nullsec.

Why? Because there would be open space for them to claim. Room to maneuver between the big players. Build your own little alliance up and make allies on your own terms with more than just two choices of who you can join.

Think about it.

P.S. If you think this whole piece of mine is anti-Goon or anti-Test, then you're mistaken. I am not against those alliances as such. If any other alliance had made most of nullsec into a glorified version of Empire Space I would think no differently about them.