Federation Front Line Report - Eve Online Podcast

Today we take a look over what happened over the last week.

Today we review the Warzone and look over the up coming Expansion Revenant.

Frozen Fallout theme song created by https://www.twitch.tv/moon_wolf83

Today we get to talk to the streamer of Eve Vegas!

https://www.twitch.tv/hoppy432

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWVfc0_oLgD0T6PILSihwZQ

Happy Halloween

Today we talk about our adventure at Eve Vegas!

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/rots-mijnwerker-for-csm-19-your-0-0-non-bloc-and-pi-change-candidate/463110

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/luke-anninan-for-csm19/462976

Hi, my name is Luke Anninan. After two previous terms (CSM17 and 18) I am applying for my third and final term on CSM19. If successful upon completion of CSM19 I will be “term-locked” and have no intention of running when that expires.

Below I have summarised my EVE experience, thoughts on the current state of the game as well as the skills and knowledge I can bring if I was re-elected to the CSM. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to comment on the post, find me in discord (I am in most of the EVE community discords) or mail me in game.

My EVE Story:
I committed to EVE in 2018 (I had tried it on and off before but it had never really stuck). Spending the first couple of weeks in HighSec then later on moving to scanning Wormholes for exploration sites. After about a month of this I decided to take the plunge into NullSec and joined an ill-fated alliance called Deus Vult. At about the time Skillu evicted them from Wicked Creek, so it was time to find another home.

My corporation moved to Fraternity in December 2018 months before the second war with TEST kicked off. It was the most fun I have had in my entire EVE career, yes TiDi was awful but there is nothing like the fights that you are invested in. I became an FC (albeit not a very good one, but found a knack for the planning side of things.) flying with all the friends that I had made. For six months we fought tooth and nail to hold Detorid. The end was always inevitable though but I like to think we put up a good fight and didn’t just give up. During this time, When I wasn’t in fleets I spent most of my free time running and learning about incursions and other methods of generating income while our home was camped.

As is always the case with the loser of any war we started the migration to our new home towards Oasa and Perrigen falls. Those corps that had stayed for the war, burnt out and most went to find new pastures outside of Fraternity. Being too stubborn to quit (and maybe a glutton for punishment) I took on the role of director in Fraternity looking after the non-Chinese speaking corporations (even if there were only a few of us left at the time).

Slowly rebuilding after the war, one by one recruiting new corporations and FC’s, it taught me about a lot of the sides of the game that you don’t always get to see. How to manage large organisations of players, ensuring there’s always something for them to log in for, understanding how sovereignty and income generation works as well as the complex industrial chains required to have the big fights people log in for.

It was about this time I created my own corporation, Into Oblivion and started recruiting both veteran players and new players alike. It was a great insight into the new player experience and how they found the NPE, how to foster new players and support their journey in Eve. Also, along the way, pointing players at other areas of the game that they may find more enjoyable when/if they decide the NullSec life may not have been for them. Most of all though creating a place where people can just hang out, chill and play the common game that brought us together as a community.

Back when the now resolve BRM changes hit there was a clear need to diversify gameplay from just NullSec activities and expand into LowSec mission running, Pochven, Incursions as well other things like NPC burner missions and exporting to markets etc. which led my alliance and me to Vale of the Silent, an area steeped in constant small gang fleets, and LowSec shenanigans.

Now most my time is spent on leadership of my alliance and corporation ensuring that pilots have everything they need to prosper in Eve Online...

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/kazanir-for-csm19-on-de-blocification/463213

The following text is quoted from a player on one of a few PvP-focused EVE Discords which I lurk in, which I think summarizes the feelings of a wide slice of EVE’s playerbase:

"Fisk Hrin Hakuli: I think what most of this server actually wants, is a null that isn’t held largely by 3 groups - most of us think that the fact that PH holds the insane amount of regions that they do is incredibly bad for the game, and not just for us, but for the null holders that want to go and PvP. It also essentially blocks smaller groups from being independently living in null, especially close to these big null holders. I personally think that a lot of the issues that we complain about would also be fixed, and it would generally be much healthier for null, which is why there is such a big uproar over skyhook changes and ansi changes - we thought that if we interacted with the skyhooks in the gangs we normally play in, along with the ansi nerfs that were introduced at the start of equinox would be enough for the big players to give up a decent amount of sov for other groups to step in and use that space to a much greater degree than they were. I’m saying this all to say, does CCP and the CSM agree at all with us? Do you guys think that the current state of null is where you want it, or do you want much more medium sized independent alliances holding sov and using it actively? Because that’s all I think most people on this server want, at the end of the day."

For two years I have been on a long campaign to try to illustrate the needed mechanics which would support the goals in the above quote – largely focused on the much maligned “passive income” that EVE’s original map game was built on. This may sound odd, as I principally represent one of the large blocs: full of krab power, the Imperium is not the group that requires this type of gameplay to be available. But it is true, and consistent with Goonswarm’s policy dating back at least 15 years: we are not here to ruin THE game – only YOUR game.

And I really want THE game to last for another few decades, without suffering from the cycle of stagnancy that has always afflicted it.

The mechanics required to actually achieve this, though, are counterintuitive at best, and we aren’t there yet. But the launch of the Equinox expansion has provided a framework where this is actually possible in nullsec – where before, it simply was not. Why? Well, before Equinox, there was essentially no map – with the exception of truesec, any given nullsec system was essentially the same as any other. In this environment, it is impossible to provide real rewards simply for conquering a star system – there’s no way of deciding how much reward any given system should be worth! This is also the exact same reason why Dominion-era ihubs could simply install any upgrade – there was no way to limit them or decide “how much” any given system could do. Whoops.

Equinox fixes this, by providing a matrix of resources upon which sov nullsec operates. Many mistakes have been made along the way, but this ultimately should be everyone’s goal: If Equinox can also support a full-on Conqueror playstyle over time, it will force open a path by which the big blocs can be meaningfully threatened, made to suffer for ignoring their borders, and their best PvPers even baited into striking out on their own, and subsequently rewarded for doing it...

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/mick-fightmaster-for-csm-19-a-whole-ass-wormhole-candidate/462419

Hello friends, I’m Mick Fightmaster. As my good friend Mark’s grandpappy would say, “Never half ass anything – you have to go whole ass,” so I’m running as the Whole-Ass Wormhole candidate for CSM19.

My EVE Story:

I’ve been all around different places and playstyles in EVE. I started out in high sec running missions with my friend who recommended EVE to me. That slowly snowballed into trying out things in low sec when I experienced a cyno for the first time. I messaged the player in the Chimera (shout out to Tomaz, but he’ll never see this) and he invited me to his corp out in null, so my buddy and I joined his group. After getting to know that group of guys, we left null to start wormhole life. That’s when I realized I had finally found the ingredients for my favorite playstyle: No local, no gates, no intel channels, and absolute trust in your POS mates.

While in wormholes, I spun up alts where I tried out Faction Warfare, low sec small gang and mid-scale PVP, non-bloc sov warfare in nullsec, and a small few week stint of wardec/merc work. Regardless of the type of playstyle I was trying at the time, I always came back to wormholes. Real life kept me away from EVE from late 2014- early 2016 when I joined Sky Fighters and took the plunge back into wormhole space. Since 2016, I’ve been a member / leadership in No Vacancies, Hard Knocks, Lazerhawks, and now back to No Vacancies after reclaiming the 5/5 Pulsar homeland.

Throughout the years since I’ve had the pleasure of flying with the most experienced and knowledgeable names in WH space, taking part in incredibly challenging, multifaceted fights, and some of the most destructive wars wormhole space has ever seen. I’m happy to call many of the members of the groups I’ve flown with friends, including those who would be so brave to have my alts in their corps. Shout out to Sven Holstein, Proxay, Stu Brainsurgeo, Darius Caliente, Crizwoo, and Sandy Freir for the opportunity to expand my skill set and knowledge base outside of wormholes into areas like Pochven, low-sec, and non-bloc nullsec sov warfare.

Areas of Expertise:

Why me?

To put it bluntly, I want to be the voice in the room that can easily articulate and explain how CCP’s proposed changes would have an impact on wormhole space. Wormholers are a niche and small minority of the EVE community. The isk fielded and destroyed in wormholes can sometimes easily surpass null sec fights with 1/10th of the total players involved. This space is where even the smallest changes can have a serious impact on wormhole life as a whole.

At the end of the day, we have to remember that this is CCP’s game and they will drive EVE in the direction they want. It’s up to me as your hopeful wormhole CSM candidate to make sure those directions don’t drive players out of wormhole space, but encourage them to come in and experience what wormhole space has to offer, whether it’s for an hour, a week, or permanently!