I had just finished reading Poe’s post about fixing the Amarr/Minmatar geography and decided to make my own post instead of just responding on his blog.
The thing is, pre Inferno, not too many people ventured up beyond Hofjaldgund because there was no reason to other than missions. I rarely ever did a mission, so I’d never really go there.
Those who were doing missions most likely were doing them in stealth bombers, so even if the Hof gate was camped, most likely you’d make it through.
It was, in my opinion, a waste land. To do missions, you’d have to travel 16 or 17 jumps one way, so I never bothered.
Post Inferno, everything changed. Plexing started to mean something, so now all of those wasteland systems meant you got LP for plexing them.
Except, of course, we had to deal with station lock outs, so if you could manage to get through the Hof gate, you really got nowhere to park your ships. Or repair them.
Oh well.
But going back to Pre Inferno, the map was a very low priority, no one really realized just how bad it was because:
1. We rarely went there to begin with, no reason to.
2. No one really was basing up there, so you weren’t gonna get a fight anyhow.
3. Plexing was pointless, nobody cared about those systems.
We weren’t complaining at the time because there wasn’t much reason to complain about it. We were more focused on bitching about everything ELSE that was wrong with FW.
So I’m not really annoyed at Hans for not bringing it to our attention that the devs asked about the map back then, and I don’t think anyone else should be either.
What matters now is that the devs are aware of how horrible the map is in lieu of these new FW changes and that they should fix it. The sooner the better, and I do feel confident that they will get it fixed. (eventually)
***
Another thing that’s on my mind is a post Poe made on the EVE forums asking for Hans Jagerblitzen to join FW the Amarr side so that he can experience first hand what it is like for us.
I suggested that to Hans from the very begining, that he should experience all of the Factions, not just Minmatar, because that is the only way you’re really going to get a sense of what is going on.
I understand why he didn’t, he is invested in his corp and alliance and he is as proud of Minmatar as I am of Amarr.
But the thing is, at the time of his election, most of us in Faction War rallied to vote for him. He was to be our representative, to represent us all, not just the Minmatar and it feels like to some he has forgotten the people who helped him get elected.
Point in case. I open up Twitter while at work and see a few of Han’s tweets:
“…having mastered the art of distilling Amarrian tears into rocket fuel”
“Though to be fair, the Minmatar have kicked so much ass in FW that makes sense lore-wise for us to use the isk for upgrades 🙂 ”
I guess for me, just my own personal opinion, I don’t want to see any sort of trolling from the guy I elected to represent me. Maybe that’s not fair but that’s how I feel. I don’t want to see any Amarr bashing (because we get enough of that from Susan lol) from him because it just encourages that feeling that others have about Hans, that he is only in it for himself and the Minmatar- which I know is not true.
I know that Hans does truly care for all of FW.
What is the point of having Minmatar without Amarr? What kind of war would it be if there were no one to fight?
Which brings me to my last point.
Hans came to the Fweddit comms last week for a four-hour long discussion, I was there for roughly half of it. One important thing I gleaned from it was that CCP Soundwave is not the best person for FW.
To my understanding, he doesn’t ‘get’ FW. He doesn’t understand that the Amarr and Minmatar have a symbiotic relationship, that they need one another to actually have decent game play.
He doesn’t care if it’s too hard for one side, not one bit. He wants it to be ‘uncomfortable’.
I get that, kinda. I don’t think that things should be completely balanced, but the last few months…ugh.
It wasn’t just ‘uncomfortable’, it was mostly intolerable. Before Inferno hit, many Amarr corporations went to the forums to explain why it was going to be so horrible for us, they pretty much said that they couldn’t deal with it, and moved on to other things in the game.
Hans would tell me at the time ‘CCP doesn’t know how things are going to play out, no one does’, to which I would say, ‘Yes, we do know how its going to be, read the forums, the Amarr are quitting by the droves’.
And they did. Militia chat would hover around 50 players per night. Minmatar would hover between 275-300.
For MONTHS that went on. How was the Amarr supposed to come back from that? Seriously. How were we supposed to recruit people into ourside of FW when the other sides were making bucketloads of ISK? When we tried to broach the subject with anyone it was met with ‘try harder, quit complaining.’
I would bring the numbers up to various Minmatar, “Oh but most of them are farmers.” To which I’d say ‘So? Those farmers are the ones deciding the fate of the war. They decide Occupancy, they push Minmatar into T4 and T5 giving the Minmatar endless amounts of LP and ISK. Bucketloads.
It was the height of absurdity and it was predictable. It was all very avoidable, I think, but that is besides the point now. What’s done is done. The Minmatar have enough ISK to fund their PVP for years, no joke.
I guess my thing is this. CCP is responsible for our game, but lately it has a feeling that CCP doesn’t really want you to play it. They want it to be so hard that people go elsewhere….so again, how is that good for FW? How is that good for EVE? If you’re making the game so impossibly one-sided, and making it so miserable for one side….why should we continue to pay money to play this? I don’t get it.
They continue to implement things that make it difficult for one side without a thought for the other. For instance, you get LP for killing stuff in FW. Great, ya? But it is scaled, so if you’re on the winning side you get so much more for LP for the same exact kill.
So lets say someone is looking to join FW, what side are they going to choose? The one that makes them the most ISK, or the one where they have to go elsewhere to fund their PVP. Hmm. Tough choice, right?
Right now we pick up recruits that thrive off of being the underdogs, but really, how long do we have to play this role? lol. When are things going to level out a bit? What is CCP’s goal for FW, that everyone be under one militia with no one else to fight? Seriously, I’d like to understand where they are going with FW, what they want it to be.
So here’s my suggestion. CCP Soundwave, come onto our comms for a chat like Hans Jagerblitzen did. Come hear our concerns, come explain why someone should come join Amarr. It would go a long way with us, to know that you really do hear us and that you really do care, because from what we hear from Hans, CCP does not…
~ Shalee
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