War

[Jayce]

I'd say it's an improvement over "your entire fleet is a sitting duck to a covops and a couple of titans".

Also, think about that statement.  "A couple of titans".  "A couple of ONLY THE BIGGEST SHIP IN THE GAME."

Titans truly are the new dread, dreads are the new battleships, and battleships are the new rookie ships.

[Murgos]

They may be the biggest ships in the game but there are hundreds of them out there.

[MahrinSkel]

30 seconds after firing before it can move, 5 minutes before it can fire again, I think it is.

So, sieged dreads are now sitting ducks to a couple of titans and a covops?

What Jayce said.  Also, with a 10 minute cool down, being able to point the Finger of Death (rather than simply flash-fry every subcap on the grid not specifically tanked against it) is not such a big deal, at that rate it will take hours to kill a significant capital force.  It lets subcaps be something besides chaff in a universe where double-digit Titans on each side is becoming routine, while still letting the Titan apply massive force at the schwerpunkt.  Actually, they probably need to drop the refire cooldown (but keep the warp/jump prevention timer).  You're 5 minutes from your last shot, do you take another and reset the clock before you can leave?

--Dave

[Sir T]

They may be the biggest ships in the game but there are hundreds of them out there.

That just shows how retarded CCPs "balance things by making you wait a real long time to fly them, and that will ensure they are rare and therefore balanced" always was. _I_ could fly a titan tomorrow. Along with a fully skilled and triaging Mothership.

Anyway in news there was a scrap over the weekend over an IT staging moon. Goons got a pretty decent turnout for the time (around 60 dudes) and we came out well ahead on kills over IT despite their bigger amount of BS numbers, although they helped by doung retarded bombing runs where they killed more of themselves than us. Lets just say that they managed to get one kill twords the end with bombs and that caused them to celebrate how leet they were in local. Lag was abysmal, pretty much at 2007 levels. IT managed to get the tower repped, so thats a strategic win for them.

[Fordel]

To be totally fair, CCP is hardly alone on the "Scarcity = Balanced!" line of shit thinking.

[Sir T]

That's a good point but it doesn't absolve them.

[Endie]

30 seconds after firing before it can move, 5 minutes before it can fire again, I think it is.

So, sieged dreads are now sitting ducks to a couple of titans and a covops?

What Jayce said.  Also, with a 10 minute cool down, being able to point the Finger of Death (rather than simply flash-fry every subcap on the grid not specifically tanked against it) is not such a big deal, at that rate it will take hours to kill a significant capital force.  It lets subcaps be something besides chaff in a universe where double-digit Titans on each side is becoming routine, while still letting the Titan apply massive force at the schwerpunkt.  Actually, they probably need to drop the refire cooldown (but keep the warp/jump prevention timer).  You're 5 minutes from your last shot, do you take another and reset the clock before you can leave?

I disagree on removing the cooldown.  Remember that we assembled 27 titans in 49-, while AAA brought a dozen into HED.  At those levels and with the current titan HP levels any but the largest dread fleet would be mincemeat.

[Goumindong]

Then again, i think it was 23 titans to insta-pop a dread fleet. 23 Titans = roughly 1.7 million raw AoE damage at 75k a pop. So its certainly better than it was then.

[Meester]

The new Sovereignty Blockade things have just been released with the new patch.

Morsus Mihi blew one up today although I have no idea if thats the first one to go down (twas a Circle Of Two one).

[Gets]

-A- went to NOL with a 50-man gang with a lot of Domis. GS greeted them with a couple of titans, carriers and stealth bombers.

http://a-kills.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=335494

Mad props to whoever updated their killboard. I really think the new colour scheme is the best I've ever seen on a killboard, and the logo is great too.

Current titan mechanic is very simple. I'll draw it as a picture if you want:

   You -> <- Titan

[tazelbain]

I'd hate to meet the kangaroo that repersents the old titan mechanics.

[Endie]

In what might be the first test of the new sov mechanics, Goons (plus some allies, but in US TZ it tends to be us) dropped sov blockers on all the gates in IT's station system then reinforced the infrastructure hub and the station.  We were somewhat confused by their timers on each - had they deliberately set them for Russian TZ because they'd given up on their huge Euro contingent or something?  Actually, it looks like they'd just left the default timers in place, having never worked out how to set them properly.

I imagine that the terrible, terrible people that run IT alliance will finally have worked out how the timer system works by the time the second timers (for armour) need set, and will time it for Sunday evening Euro prime and hold the system, but it really does show how thick some of those people are.

And here is some chat porn from their side:

<Vazsholik> now a desent time to say, huston we have a problem ;P
<Fiberwire> heh xeliya, good read
<Fiberwire> FYI everyone
<Fiberwire> hostiles are sieging everything in pnq and anchoring pos
<Buxaroo> repair servicesd are down, I am assuming they are taking medical next, SO LOGON AND CHANGE YOUR MEDICAL CLONE if you got it set to here
<Angel_Hun> Would be cool if we had a ustz
<Havocide`> useless yankie doodles
<Tar-Palantir> no one has a US TZ that = Goons. Just get used to it.
<Angel_Hun> C
<Fiberwire> well if all 160 ppl were in caps...
<Angel_Hun> It wouldnt make a difference, cant put caps on field with no support
<Fiberwire> ok not all, but like 100
<Buxaroo> well....there was over 230 in alliance......
<Angel_Hun> I blame buxaroo
<Buxaroo> well I double bubbled them and then I saw they were trying to take the station serivices out so I suicided a SB into their drones
<cflux> we are looking at 300 hostiles, at prime our fleet was 120. with correct system, no cyno troubles, etc. goons would have still taken pnq.
<cflux> only chance was if maybe they would have not gotten this many.
<Fiberwire> 300 wo
<Angel_Hun> Ridiculous
<cflux> 300 is pretty weak for their primetime super attack tbh
<Angel_Hun> And yet it countered us lol
<cflux> remember back year ago, they decked 500 without a trouble
<Fiberwire> sure, but its more than they used to
<Buxaroo> well its pretty obvious they were gonna try this sometime
<Buxaroo> well maybe we should start asking for our allies to make a show?
<Buxaroo> or are -A- still being lame?
<cflux> yeah, now we just have to ensure timers are right, and this will be repelled.
<cflux> if timers are not set, we might even have to sweat a bit
<Buxaroo> amen
<Angel_Hun> -A- dont do anything
<Buxaroo> -A- are irrelevant
<Buxaroo> they only want to shoot CVA, nothing more
<Fiberwire> they arent really allies
<Angel_Hun> Without ET they are irrelevant
<Buxaroo> exactly
<Fiberwire> we just havea common enemy
<Angel_Hun> Bobby still an emo fag?
<Tar-Palantir> we aren't a nap train and we haven't tried to unify all of Eve against PL/Goons. If we can't handle PL/Goons on our own (along with our smaller allies like HUN Aeternis, etc) we are in serious trouble.
<Tar-Palantir> and AAA aren't any better in this Tz than we are
<Galavet> god
<Galavet> it just started guys
<Fiberwire> glad to see cflux is back in action
<Galavet> lets not call in the batphone list yet
<EagleEye> ^what gal said
<Tar-Palantir> ^^^
<FlumZ> Only problem with those 2 Tar-Palantir
<Havocide`> game over man, game overw
<FlumZ> is that they are us tz
<cflux> huahua guys, chill. one not too much far posted op into ustz with skeleton crew is not exactly "not being able to take"
<Havocide`> lets quit and play tf2
<FlumZ> oure us tz is not strong
<FlumZ> just chill
<FlumZ> we time the station and ihub for EU tz and rape their ass
<EagleEye> i didnt know you were still playing hacokside
<Helfix> Yes we US TZ ppl fail/suck and we've known it for while, so we just live with it
<Angel_Hun> Heycockside is cool dude
<Yvonne_S> we could join goons.....
<Buxaroo> lol
<EagleEye> i ment havokside but you get the picture
<Tar-Palantir> I got my tone wrong - not critizing how we did. Just saying that part of the test of us as an alliance is our ability to work/win without needing to batphone. It will always be rough for us on US TZ
<Tar-Palantir> hence no need to criticize AAA
<Yvonne_S> tbh, I think us tz will be defensive no matter what your tone

I bolded the politically unwise bits.

[Sir T]

And, first chance they got, IT alliance started bieng cheating fags AGAIN. The sov blockers are supposed to be invunrable till the I hubs etc come out, but they started blowing them up this morning. But a CCP gm came in and told them to stop and the sov blockers are now not to be shot in an honour system. They also had a jammer online when they were not supposed to, but we took that out regardless.

Mad props to CCP btw for their fast responce on PLs petition on the sov blockers.

[lac]

My god, do these gentlemen have no e-honour at all?

Also, gg CCP

[jape]

I bolded the politically unwise bits.

Well... What the heck has -A- actually done? Seems like they do couple hotdrops and then get bored.

[Murgos]

Yeah, but when your back-up plan to counter the Goon invasion is, 'get -A- on the bat phone and beg them to come bail us out.' you probably shouldn't go around shit-talking -A-.

[lac]

If this snippet was in any way indicative of their intentions it would hint -A- was rather lukewarm to IT's proposal to entertain goons while IT invaded fountain, a proposal that makes a lot of sense from IT's perspective, they'd been really stupid not to at least entertain the option.
It also hints to ET being 'yeah, good plan but my people don't really feel like it atm' which would both be true and good excuse for ET to stay somewhat neutral and not alienate his 'electorate', which never has been very BoB minded. BoB's still pretty much BoB for -A- too.

It most likely wasn't ever close to being a solid backup plan/shared invasion. After all, as long as Goons/PL vs IT go to the meatgrinder, -A- wins by making no move at all. And if they made anything clear in the last years its that they are quite happy with where they are and who's borders they share.

[Comstar]

SYS-K has launched a diversion attack on TPAR, the same weekend as Goonswarm has fully supported SPLOT vs IT.

[Endie]

SYS-K has launched a diversion attack on TPAR, the same weekend as Goonswarm has fully supported SPLOT vs IT.

Aaaand they're dead.  Sys-K got beaten around the system by the people who weren't even in Fountain yet.

It was a nice enough idea in theory.  But even if they'd brought AAA, ROL and Atlas it would still have boiled down to whether they could alarm-clock for US peak TZs on Saturday, Sunday and then Monday mornings in a row.

[setar]

Where's all this talk about ET coming from? He hasn't been active in 6+ months, let alone handled any diplomatic convos ;-)

[MahrinSkel]

AAA seems to have realized they have all the territory they want, plus more strategic depth than they need, and nobody who represents an existential threat to them.  They're going to stack money, stockpile ships, and try to keep things stirred up, but they're not going to go on any serious campaigns until they have a better grip on how post-Dominion strategy shakes out.  Even then, they may be in for a cycle of simple decadence, which will eventually lead to the usual civil war fun and games.

--Dave

[Phred]

Where's all this talk about ET coming from? He hasn't been active in 6+ months, let alone handled any diplomatic convos ;-)

From that excerpt from local and reading the recently released IT forum archive, it would appear that the perception, right or wrong, within IT is that ET is their only real supporter within AAA.

[Endie]

Where's all this talk about ET coming from? He hasn't been active in 6+ months, let alone handled any diplomatic convos ;-)

From that excerpt from local and reading the recently released IT forum archive, it would appear that the perception, right or wrong, within IT is that ET is their only real supporter within AAA.

I dunno if that is there perception, but the AAA alliance and corp forum leaks over the past year, together with the public posturing from members on Kugutsumen and caod.ru, tend to suggest otherwise.  Obviously, people that post on forums are not representative of those who do not, even if their opininos sometimes coincide, but it seems to me that what AAA lack at the moment is charismatic and firm leadership (and perhaps internal, pro-IT propaganda), not anti-Goon sentiment.  As I understand it, the internal opinion about Goonswam drove a fair number of their pro-Goon membership into joining PL a while back, although I'm sure that there will have been a wider variety of reasons than that, ultimately.

Also, Dave's right.  There's a lot to be said for combatting AAA by simply letting them stew in a sea of blue.  After all, resulting from their perfidy, it's the punishment they chose for themselves.

[Comstar]

Whelp, IT got enough people in fleet to easily counter Goonswarm. PL barely showed up. IT has won this round, and continue to keep the system and their 1 station.

[Phildo]

After saving the staging POS in PNQY, Goonswarm's capitals went and beat the crap out of Vanguard. whose capfleet was presumably sieging another PL tower.

Heh.

[Comstar]

... but there will be. In a new format. For now, make do with the fact that Fountain is burning. 5 station systems are contested, more to follow. Fights have been scarce but entertaining, as the defenders are conviced that bombers will defend their space.

The goon invasion in PNQ got halted for now, their lonesome POS still lives, so expect more fights over that one. SOT and PL are tagging along more or less, but no real offensives. Most likely that will change.

Tune in again.

The spelling mistake I left in. I was hoping he'd say something more like "The pathetic goon invasion in PNQ has failed for the time bring,  their insignificant little POS still lives, but will be dealt with soon enough. Everything is going as I have foreseen...". I think he's lost his speech writer since the end of the 2nd Great Eve War.

The link goes to a fairly non-interesting CGI(?) video. I'm not actually sure who was supposed to be shooting who, but someone spent some time on the explosions at any rate.

It's obvious that Molle didn't consider the SYS-K diversion in the south worthy of thanking, but seeing it didn't do much I can't really blame him.

However, this time his post did not coincide with a public relations or strategic disaster as his previous ones did, so perhaps things ARE looking for the ITies.

[Phildo]

I don't believe that the Sys-K attempt at TPAR was part of any scheme, I'm pretty sure they just wanted a fight and didn't expect anything to come of it besides that.

[tgr]

So I wasn't the only one peering at the video and thinking it looked decidedly CGI like.

To be honest, that video sucked. No information in it, the "it has arrived" chorus was annoying. Music was good, the intro wasn't half bad. But again, I'm left with the question "exactly what were they trying to convey with this?".

[Sir T]

So I wasn't the only one peering at the video and thinking it looked decidedly CGI like.

To be honest, that video sucked. No information in it, the "it has arrived" chorus was annoying. Music was good, the intro wasn't half bad. But again, I'm left with the question "exactly what were they trying to convey with this?".

Intimidation

In the alternate universe of the BOB world, everyone is really scared shitless of Mollie and the gang. This is their version of psychological warfare.

The other thing is that Mollie and they guys were working on a CGI movie of eve. Then for 5 years they kept alts bumping the promo of this movie saying "wow this is epic/ best movie ever/ whens it coming out" Sadly it never did. I guess that they still want to keep the myth alive that they are brilliant cgi movie makers

[Predator Irl]

The other thing is that Mollie and they guys were working on a CGI movie of eve. Then for 5 years they kept alts bumping the promo of this movie saying "wow this is epic/ best movie ever/ whens it coming out" Sadly it never did. I guess that they still want to keep the myth alive that they are brilliant cgi movie makers

It's not that that it was a myth... they just can't film on location anymore and are not able to finish the movie 

[Meester]

Looks like at the moment the NC is up against it.

You have Atlas Alliance, Triumvirate, Circle Of Two, White Noise, Phalanx Alliance and the odd AAA/ROL guy fighting them at the moment. Have they been too complacent in the north by allowing their enemies to surround them? Tau Ceti Federation seems to be a shadow of its former self. The Ruskies in the drone regions are also not particularly NC friendly.

You also have IT Alliance attacking Fountain, AAA on the Querious border, ROL in Feythabolis, Atlas in the former Red Alliance bloc and Stain Empire, Systematic Chaos and COVEN in Esoteria and Paragon Soul as well as Stain. Has Goonfleet & allies been as complacent as the NC?

[Pennilenko]

You also have IT Alliance attacking Fountain, AAA on the Querious border, ROL in Feythabolis, Atlas in the former Red Alliance bloc and Stain Empire, Systematic Chaos and COVEN in Esoteria and Paragon Soul as well as Stain. Has Goonfleet & allies been as complacent as the NC?

Don't mistake complacency with keeping the borders hot enough for good action.

[Endie]

Yep, Goonfleet is, to put it simply, getting perceptibly better at PvP as the months go by thanks to the constantly available gangs, whether it be fleets, roams or the steady stream of Homeland Security gangs.

Contrast that with someone like the deep-southern entities, drowning in the deep blue sea.

As regards the NC, I know what you're saying, but what should they have done about having hostiles on their borders?  Expand those borders yet further?  Fill more regions with yet more terrible, third-string alliances?  Ultimately I think that it'll boil down to resilience and, with their record after losing virtually all their space to the MC-led attack, then after their response to the Max Damage campaign, not to mention their record of always eventually winning over Tri, I suspect that they'll deal with this, too, even if they lose border territory.

But that's a good thing.  Having Vale, Outer Ring, Geminate etc occupied by hostiles gives us people to fight.

Re Fountain, I kinda think that IT will eventually fail.  I honestly believe that they have about 2400 people that can't take a prolonged defensive campaign.  Of course, PL are in a mess right now and if this continues to be a GS vs IT fight (but with euro timers on defence) then they'll get somewhere, but in the event that PL and the worthless dross which is SoT get their shit together then IT will be looking to invade the north soon.  Which they would have done already if they had any sense, just to get space and a solid win under their belt.

[tgr]

And just to spice things up even further, SirMolle posts another CAOD thread. Only this time, it's actually useful.

Long story short: set IHUBs to come out during DT, and they're never going to be taken/destroyed, as they're completely reset to their original state.

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1234029 (if it isn't deleted by the moderators)

[ajax34i]

Yeah, they'll probably label that as an exploit.