[spoiler show="Editor's Note"]We contacted Ripard Teg after closely following his Jester’s Trek blog, he is one of the most active bloggers in EVE and got some good insights which goes beyond EN24 scope. With this said we are proud to announce our future syndication of some of his best stories. If you would like to read more we invite you to visit his blog here.
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Canary in the coal mine.
Back in March, I predicted that the sanctum/haven nerf was going to be disastrous for the small sov-holding alliances in EVE. Let’s see how that prediction is playing out, shall we?
Yes, I’m being sarcastic. 
I don’t think I have to lay it down for most of you: the last four months have been an unmitigated disaster for anyone not part of a 1500-ship blob. The only small alliance winners this summer have been CVA, who — thanks to the near-worthlessness of Providence — have retaken much of their pre-Dominion holdings and look set to reestablish a NRDS coalition in this area. They’re back over 1000 pilots and apparently doing fine. Delve/Querious is also — somewhat surprisingly — turning into a hot-bed of smaller-gang PvP activity. Catch and Period Basis are also doing pretty well in this regard.
These days, the message is clear: if you want small-gang fights, run southwest as fast as your warp drive can carry you.
For surrounding these five regions are the blob. From Fountain in the southeast, clockwise north through Deklein, east through Tribute into the drone regions of the northeast, south through the Great Wildlands and Scalding Pass, down into the southern Russian and AAA space in the southeast and far south, the latter touching into the southern parts of Catch, the blob holds sway.
On paper, separate alliances hold these regions, but the way they fight is the same. Goonswarm is over 7000 members at this point, and their pets push them well over ten thousand. I shall henceforth be calling the residents of the north “NC Reloaded.” They might object, but there were 5000 rat kills in the 52-JKU constellation in Tribute in the last 24 hours. That makes any objections they might make laughable and hollow. Mord Fiddle declares them pets of the Russians, and I don’t see any particular reason to argue that conclusion at this time. My opinions of the Russians across the eastern half of the map remain unchanged. Hell, I’ve pulled all of my PvP stuff out of the regions bordering Scalding Pass and the Great Wildlands over the last few days. It’s clear that unless I care to learn Russian or play EVE during the U.S. work-day, I won’t be visiting my old stomping grounds there ever again.
Will AAA be next? We’ll see over the next few months. The most recent fight was in Tenerefis. The only winner of that fight was lag.
Mord at Fiddler’s Edge and corelin at Haberdashers Run Amok are chatting about what the null-bears are going to do, but that isn’t a difficult (or honestly, an interesting) question for me. Wildly Inappropriate is now a single corp in Goonswarm. That says all that really needs to be said on that topic, honestly. Hell, it might say all that needs to be said about null-sec politics in 2011.
But no, the next canary in the coal mine are the small unbounded PvP alliances. Not mercenary, not particularly sov-holding, these alliances have been the drivers for small-gang PvP in null-sec. For my money, the most important alliance to EVE’s future right now is Merciless., currently living in Venal and holding down a small section of Tribute, spoils of war captured when NC Reloaded pushed the old NC out of that region. It’s tempting to just dismiss them as part of NC Reloaded. But it also feels wrong to do so. Merciless are a very solid small-gang PvP bunch that have moved around the EVE map pretty freely, as the winds of PvP have carried them since the alliance’s creation about ten months ago. They have a few super-caps at their disposal, but are not what you would call a super-cap alliance.
From the outsider’s perspective, Merciless. seems to be suffering. Their member count is down 30% — to about 500 — in the last month, in part due to a slow bleed, in part due to a few member corps apparently seeking their fortunes elsewhere. Garst Tyrell, the lader of Merciless., says 100 of those lost members were a corp they had leadership issues with. I know Garst has little to no interest in holding sov. And Garst both leads the alliance, and the alliance’s founding corp, No.Mercy (down 25%, to 60 members). The job of renting out or selling their few sov systems in Tribute seems to be in progress.
So what does the future hold for Merciless. (and by extension, similar small PvP alliances in EVE)? It’s hard to say. I have no predictions for you this time.
A few days ago, Garst announced they would be resetting virtually all of their blues. That strikes me as a good place to start.
About the Author: Playing EVE Online for more than four years, play under the main Ripard Teg. Currently afflicted with the much maligned “Bitter-Vet” disease, Ripard Teg travels through the New Eden landscape in search of a cure… and hopefuly a good adventure to share with his readers.
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-> Goonswarm is over 7000 members at this point, and their pets push them well over ten thousand. I shall henceforth be calling the residents of the north “NC Reloaded.” They might object, but there were 5000 rat kills in the 52-JKU constellation in Tribute in the last 24 hours. That makes any objections they might make laughable and hollow. Mord Fiddle declares them pets of the Russians, and I don’t see any particular reason to argue that conclusion at this time.
Surely you mean NCDOT are the pets, not Goons? Apart from what I feel to be a poorly-worded segment(quoted) this is an interesting read and a nice view from a bittervet. I heartily agree that small-gang PVP in 0.0 is some of the best fun in this game.
Yeah, good catch. Now that I read this again, it reads like I’m including GS as part of NC Reloaded. I’m not. NC Reloaded = Raiden/Ev0ke/NCdot and their subsidiaries, potentially including PL (though I’m willing to be convinced otherwise on that last one).
I don't see the NC Reloaded becoming something permanent, it was a coalition of outspoken "lone wolves" against a common enemy from the beginning. Yes, that was a hypocrisy and yes, they had no other chance.
So, is NC Reloaded going to part ways soon? Some ideas:
- Ev0ke packed their stuff and moved to lowsec a week ago already. They participated in freeing the trapped Supers in VFK but today roam there only. So I assume they will leave that area completely and clear their bluelist in, I don't know, 2 weeks?
- NCdot thought about leaving for the southern thunderdome loudly some time ago – not sure if they will help in the assault on -A- first but holding their northern territories depends on the goodwill of its neighbours only. Don't think they like that at all.
- Raiden. I would say is the only alliance that will actually hold sov up north – close to the Goons, their sworn enemies. But I am pretty sure that depends on WhiteNoise..
- If WN commits to defending their northern territories AND kick -A- at the same time, WN and Raiden might stay there. I'm just not seeing Raiden. standing their ground against Goons&Friends alone for long.
- The DRF(minus WN), though being committed to the fight against -A-, probably wants to keep Raiden./WN. as a buffer against anything friendly to Goons. So they will probably help against any huge incursions into Branch, Vale, maybe even Tribute.
Sounds reasonable? Help me here.
Personally I wouldn't include PL in that list as they don't hold sov in the area. Having said that, they hold tech moons instead, and they did try (and failed) to take sov in P-33 before DT last night, which I would speculate as being strategic rather than trying to establish a new home for themselves.
I wouldn't call them the "new" NC at all, in the old tribute you could could fly through with a 20man gang and easily get 100+ drakes, if sitting on station probably get that many carriers undocking, just to scrounge a killmail.
Now you can go to UMI or H-W and find at most 60 in local, depending on TZ and unless you do something VERY stupid, no more than 10 or so undock at any given time.
Also I don't think you'll see goons moving outward, i could be very very wrong on this, but goons in the past have been very content to simply have a region to make isk in and make strikes from there (i.e. roaming) to have fun. So my assesment, which could be very very wrong, is that they take back PB cloud ring fade, then just have the usual goon blobbing "roaming" gangs they usually do strike out from there to branch or wherever they can scrounge a fight.
come to curse, enjoyable small gang pvp all the way
pretty much this
as long as u dont leave curse entering scalding pass. than the red sc blob will welcome u.
lol merciless. they are terrible
Perhaps they are terrible at being large sov holders, but that's not what they are about.
I've encountered a few of them in space, and chatted with some of them in the Kiwiland channel and my impression is that they do what they do well (small gang), and are a chill bunch of dudes.
lol garst tyrell
Did anyone else find this to be ridicilous propaganda to boost up some no name alliance of little to no worth or importance ?
Just sayin…..
With a rating of -3, safe to say you've found your answer to be 'No'.
Been hearing a lot of crap about "small scale pvp", "goodfites", "resetting blues" and all that crap.
Yes, it is pretty, yes it is the ideal and in a great part "the way it should be", but its like WW one ideals of chivalry in the sky. Makes great headlines, but irrelevant to the grand picture.
CTAing or blobbing is like mining with lag, but also how CCP in its dumbness designed conquest to be. Directors plan for moons and stations and isk for reinbursements (and a new car in some cases).
Roams and small scale PVP are irrelevant in the grand scheme. Useful as a breeding ground for FCs, player training, entertainment to keep the bloodthirsty happy and distracted, a factor of attrition, an opportunity to claim "gfs". "Resetting blues" has become the new badge of courage. Meaning close enemies, frequent fights, attrition, experience gained. A sandbox, where the children play and learn and laugh and cray
In reality, a convenient way not to lose members for bloodier pastures while the alliance waits for the next shoe to drop.
Then the cat takes a good dump on the sand, the grown-ups call the children home and all those hard-bitten loner roamers who dream of reds paint themselves blue and march in step.
Remember "enemy at the gates"? The roamers could play all they want, but the decision happened out in the plains when the russkies blobbed their way over the romanians, took the system and rapecaged the main force.
Un-blob, un-sc and un-grind play will only matter again if the sov system changes and they find a way for warfare to stop being blob-fu. Until then, play in the sandbox and wait for your orders.
Merciless isn't that amazing…i mean sure they focus on small gang pvp, but they aren't the next greatest thing, so why even mention anyone in particular. unless your just kissing ass.
ROFL???!! 5000 npc kills isn't an astounding amount. in fact its more common since the nerf, considering a single -1.0 system, at least my corps gets 13 sanctum spawns. Did you look at the Dotlan map? if the 5000npc kills = NC reloaded then the whole map is just the NC, with every region with good truesec around the galaxy reaching far above 5000 and some systems are even higher than 10000.
True, there are a couple systems in NPC fountain that have 25,000+ in a 24 hour period.
Really? I'm not seeing it…
http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Fountain#npc24
See my reply to Bitter Newb as to why I chose Merciless. Again, I could have chosen any similar alliance.
5000 isn't a lot in 24 hours for a carebear alliance, true. There are single systems in Feyth that have 10,000 in 24h. But NCdot was specifically constructed to *destroy* such a carebear alliance.
Why the fuck does anyone waste their time with this game? So glad I dropped my account months ago. I keep coming back to see what is what on this… whatever this is and all it is is nerd drama and how CCP has screwed the pooch. Here is a thought… Quit the game and forget blobs and all the other nonsense. Save a year's worth of money in a short period of time and go to Vegas.
I just don't see the appeal anymore and how a nerf with JB's and a massive Russian TZ can be any fun for fellow US TZ guys.
You quit you say?
Merciless? You gotta be kidding me. Was part of their crappy little bunch a while ago and the leadership was shit. No wonder they have "disagreements" … it's either my way or the highway (and their way sucks).
lol unclesam88
Hi sam
Oh sam….. sam sam sam…….what to do with Sam……
"I shall henceforth be calling the residents of the north “NC Reloaded.” They might object, but there were 5000 rat kills in the 52-JKU constellation in Tribute in the last 24 hours. That makes any objections they might make laughable and hollow. Mord Fiddle declares them pets of the Russians, and I don’t see any particular reason to argue that conclusion at this time."
I can see why en24 wants to syndicate your blog here. Your propaganda echoes theirs. Another voice in the chorus, it would seem. It really doesn't matter how many times you regurgitate the latest bullshit that the Mittani has issued as the official propaganda to be used in the Deklein defense campaign…("They're Hypocrites! They Blob! They Rat!")
5,000 NPC kills in a constellation in 24 hours? That would not even rank in dotlan's top 10 if it were a single system with that number, much less as the constellation that it is.
Spare us from your rank, amateurish efforts to play the pundit next article. Take the time to look up a few facts about your subject matter and perhaps communicate them clearly.
lol, 5000 npc kills is 5000 too many.
And don't talk back to your mother.
"Relevant" , "important", and "matter" are a funny terms to describe Eve alliances. To most, they mean "capable of affecting the 0.0 landscape." The thing is, who really cares about affecting nullsec politics and sov? Mostly it's a few egoist empire builders and the rest are carebears. PVPers are just along for the ride because they feel they have to blob to be successful.
Alliances like Merciless don't really care about being relevant; they really do just want the cliche'd "good fights". I think Jester mentioned Merciless because they are one of the few new alliances in this category that have had some success. Previously extant ones include Rooks & Kings, Black Legion, Darkside, Agony, C02, Hydra Reloaded, etc. Just because these alliances aren't building pixel empires doesn't mean they are shit. It means they want to have fun flying their internet spaceships instead of dealing with sov and politics.
These alliances have discovered something that most nullsec residents don't realize: you don't have to blob to be successful or have fun. It's more rewarding to be good at what you do, to fight outnumbered, to innovate tactics, to bond with a smaller group, etc. I would much rather watch a RNK video, or see Hydra in the Alliance Tournament, or read a Merciless battle report, than click refresh on the influence map and read troll posts about which corp jumped from one blobby alliance to another so they could PVE in peace.
Got it in one! As I said twice, Merciless. is an *example* of a successful small-gang PvP alliance. They're representative of the (dying) trend. I could have substituted any similar alliance, and your list of them is terrific (though you could and should have mentioned Rote Kapelle, too). I chose Merciless because as you mention, they've actually managed to take and hold a small amount of sov AND have managed to link up with larger partners when the need struck. Both are good models for future survival in 0.0, I think. AGONY is another one that have done both of these things.
What's important to EVE's future, IMO, is whether or not such alliances will survive the blob that surrounds them.
Those who focus too much on Merciless. themselves or think I'm trying to advertise for them are missing the point.
Unclesam eats his toe nails in his cheerios! DieMost 4 eva
Can offer the suggestion that if you want people to read your article, put something about what it is about that is visible in the main eve news 24 page…..
it's funy, beacouse it's true