As part of the run-up to The Mittani‘s announcement on Saturday, the following rather interesting thing was posted on EVE News 24, presumably by one of the CFC corp CEOs or other alliance leader. I don’t know who wrote it and would welcome information about who did in comments. But to me, what it says is actually more interesting than who actually put fingers to keyboard. Here’s the relevant bit (sic here and there throughout).
I’ve had a few folks come to me with concerns lately about whether or not the CFC is ruining the game for ourselves by taking over the galaxy. I would like to put that to rest with some explaining. 🙂
First off, the CFC leadership talks often about how NOT to ruin the game for ourselves. A lot of people have the misperception that the CFC owns half of the galaxy atm. That is completely false. PL/N3 currently own MORE systems than the CFC and our Russian temporary allies in the south COMBINED. Obviously that disparity in income is bad for us (most of the sov is renter space, unlike CFC sov). By destroying a majority of what N3 owns and then letting the southern russian coalition move in, we hope to set up a 3rd powerbloc in the game to balance out the remains of N3/PL as well as the CFC. This will make the game more interesting, and thus funner to play. At that point the CFC will go home and deal with problems like the Fountain Core residents which are poking hard at the CFC’s side.
So don’t let your folks get discouraged that we’re ruining Eve. We’re aiming to make it better without getting the CFC killed off in the process.
On FHC, Marlona Sky put out an updated version of his light blue/amber/green/white map over the weekend. Here that is.
And another one is promised for next weekend. Needless to say, I’ll share it here when it’s posted.
But both the written statement and the map simplify a lot of points that really deserve more nuance. If I were to modify Marlona’s map, I’d make it look more like this:
When we have elections in the U.S., there are invariably “fact-checkers” who put the statements of candidates into some scrutiny, looking for statements that are true, false, misleading, or some combination. There are some things in the written CFC statement that deserve the same sort of look.
A lot of people have the misperception that the CFC owns half of the galaxy atm. That is completely false.
This is true, but misleading. This statement is built on the false assumption that all null-sec is created equal. Ever since CCP Greyscale got his hands on it, that is not the case. Deklein, Delve, and Fountain are premium null-sec regions each of which is worth much more than the average region in the galaxy. What would you rather own: three small flawless diamonds or a dozen larger pearls? I thought so. Unsurprisingly, the CFC feels the same way.
PL/N3 currently own MORE systems than the CFC and our Russian temporary allies in the south COMBINED.
First part: true, but misleading. Watch for the CFC to continue to combine “PL/N3” into one entity for a while to come. In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, upon which Game of Thrones is based, a captured or beaten enemy is made to “bend the knee”, which includes a pledge never again to take up arms against the victor. PL isn’t quite in that situation, but after the embarrassment of B-R and the agreement they made with the CFC to evacuate after it fell, they’re damned close. Don’t expect to see PL and N3 acting in concert any time soon.
The second part of the statement is true, but still misleading: the east is much more dense in terms of the number of systems than the west. But again, not all null-sec regions are created equal. Detorid, where the hell-camp in 0-W is going on, for instance, is one of the most dense regions in null-sec. But most of it is -0.34 sec or worse; there is not a single -1.0 system in the region. Later in the statement, it’s stated that “most of the [eastern] sov is renter space.” That is a true statement. It’s also code for “it’s not space that anyone who is ~relevant~ would want to live in.”
By destroying a majority of what N3 owns and then letting the southern russian coalition move in, we hope to set up a 3rd powerbloc in the game to balance out the remains of N3/PL as well as the CFC.
True, and also quite telling. Look at my modification of Marlona’s map again. That’s where we’re headed: light blue for CFC, dark blue for the southern Russians, and cyan for entities that have formal treaty relations with the CFC such as the B0TLRD Accords. You might even call them Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The writer is stating that the CFC’s expectation is that once the hell-camp is done, cyan and dark blue will finish the job of crushing the orange of N3 between them (with maybe a few refugees allowed to remain either with PL or in Stainwagon).
Why do these two power blocs get to live while N3 does not? Because neither of them are existential threats to the CFC. N3 theoretically is, or at least publicly declared itself to be so. In so doing, they signed their own death warrant.
The PL bloc doesn’t have the will to press a major campaign to conclusion. The southern Russians don’t want anything the CFC has. And both of these power blocs have now shown through their actions that they are not serious threats to the CFC. Only with CFC willpower driving them have they been able to mount successful super-massive scale campaigns the likes of which it would be needed to dislodge the CFC. So they get to live so that the game can be “better without getting the CFC killed off in the process.”
This will make the game more interesting, and thus funner to play.
Now then, you tell me if this is true.
I revert back to my previous statement: once this war is done, the CFC will be doing everything necessary to ensure that any potential existential threat will be strangled in its crib long before we see another super-massive scale war or another risky huge super-cap fight. Sure, Eastasia and Oceania might ally to attack Eurasia, or Eurasia and Eastasia will ally to attack Oceania. But just as in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the B0TLRD Accords will ensure the home regions of each of these powers will remain inviolate as they squabble in carefully partitioned “buffer zones”… far from the income-generating lands of any of the three powers.
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