Why Faction War Is Going To Suck

Next week is the launch of Inferno and if it is anything like the fanfest video promises for Factional Warfare, it’s going to suck for the underdogs.

Let me explain.

From what I understand, plexing is going to suddenly have meaning, which in theory isn’t a bad idea. It’s what most FW pilots have wanted all along, I mean, who really wants to orbit a beacon for 20 minutes for no reward other than victory points (that amounts to nothing).

As it stands, very few players plex, and those who do, do so for various reasons. Some do it merely for rp reasons (like myself), some do it to control the size of a fight and use the plexes as tactical points, and some do it merely because they want to defend their militia’s space. If you have 30 minutes and are bored, why not?

I loved plexing when I was a new player, it gave me something to do in a frigate and I felt like I was contributing to the war effort.

Later I would like plexing as I started to pvp because it did control fights- can’t get hotdropped in them.

With the proposed new changes, plexing will be rewarded by giving the pilot LP instead of the worthless VP (that I’ve accumulated so much of).

That is a good thing. Very, very good thing. I foresee many pilots jumping into plexing now.

The current plexing system is horrid in that, the map is difficult to understand how contested a system is. Little blobby paint dots across the star map, ugh.

I believe they are going to update that so that it will be easier to know what is contested and how contested is. I think, anyhow. Which is still a really good improvement for FW.

On to the sucky part.

Currently if a system flips to the opposing side, it means nothing. There are no reasons to flip it other than RP reasons or bragging rights. It means little to a typical FW pilot if a system is occupied by your enemy.

What’s going to happen now (proposed) is when a system is captured by your enemy, you cannot the dock in the stations.

“Oh great, just like null sec!” one of my 0.0 friends said to me yesterday as I was complaining about this.

But that’s the point. Low sec and FW is not null sec, and the same mechanics should not apply.

FW is supposed to be ‘fight club’, as Hans Jagerblitzen has said in the past. The majority of the FW pilots want to log on, undock and go pew pew. We aren’t interested in holding Sov, if we were, we would actually BE in null sec.

As it stands, it takes around six hours to flip a system. This means while you’re asleep or at work, your space-enemies are out there taking your systems and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

In the past this mattered little. In the future this means that I’m going to be locked out of my station next time I log on.

So what, should we not care about our real lives? Don’t work, don’t sleep, don’t have a relationship. Just stay on EVE and plex so you can access your stuff.

Okay so that’s a little melodramatic, but still, that’s how I feel at the moment.

Militia’s are vastly different from null sec Alliances. Null sec alliances have call-to-arms and work together on a single goal. They have thousands of people around the clock working together. Militia’s are fragmented. I play at night and rarely know what’s going on with the daytime Amarr militia. Can I count on those guys to be plexing and defending the stations I’m living in?

The alternative is moving out of the FW war zone, which our corporation is currently in the process of doing, and I assume a lot of other corporations are planning the same.

And isn’t that kind of ironic? To be a FW corporation but cannot actually live in an FW system without fear of losing access to your stuff within 24 hours?

The other night, our corporation with a few friends plexed to take back Arzad from Minmatar control. We did it around 3am (at which point I went to bed) By the next afternoon, the Minmatar had already taken it back.

A system shouldn’t flip twice within the space of twelve hours.

The following night, the Late Night Alliance was out plexing and took TZVI. They had 40 in their fleet. Amarr had seven. There was nothing we could counter with.

It seems as if the victors are going to be vastly rewarded when FW is redone, and the underdogs are going to be struggling as always. Which hasn’t been too much of a problem in the past, because occupancy didn’t mean anything. We could ship down to frigs and dessies and still get a couple of fights.

But now we might not be able to access our stuff if we don’t log on every single night. And it’s going to suck when trying to go for a roam because we wont be able to dock anywhere within the war zone. Already the Minmatar have ten of our systems while we hold only one of theirs. They have taken these systems for no reward other than they can.

I think it’s going to get far worse when they are rewarded for their efforts.

And then what? What new corporation is going to want to join the losing militia side? Which would you pick? ‘Oh welcome to FW, but you can’t actually dock anywhere.’ Of course they will join the winning side, which will only unbalance things even more.

I feel like if they lock us out of our stations it’s going to really hinder FW. I don’t see the benefits of being on the losing side, especially when all we want to do is pvp. We could quit FW and have access to all the stations again and just go pirate, that would be far more lucrative than being punished for not having the numbers to fight the blobbier side. (and don’t start, I know every militia blobs at times)

Even if they make it take longer to claim a system, instead of six hours, even if they make it take days, it’s going to still suck because the enemy has claimed systems under the old system, which only took them six hours but will then take us days to take back.

So I’m begging CCP, please reset the occupancy if you insist on locking us out of our stations. (though I would rather not be locked out in the first place)

What do you guys think?