Spectre Fleet, a Not Purple Shoot It (or NPSI) organisation has been leading the way in running open fleets since January 2014. Originally conceptualised by co-founders Jayne Fillon and Nonnak Sverin to fill a gap in the open fleet community. At the time the most prominent open fleet community was Bombers Bar, who have for many years provided open fleets for the unique and interesting gameplay that Stealth Bombers provide which generally allows smaller groups to perform hit and run attacks. Understanding that there was a place for more varied fleets which would accommodate small and large numbers of participants the Spectre Fleet Public Fleets were set up. It wasn’t long before CCP ran a community spotlight on the group. As the months progressed Spectre Fleet built up a reputation for more relaxed style with loose, all inclusive ship doctrines and a goal of providing an evening of fun PvP. The popularity of Spectre Fleet’s roams grew.
Now nearly two years later Jayne Fillon is an elected Council of Stellar Management representative who ran on the platform of promoting NPSI groups, Spectre Fleet has formed an out of EvE gaming community with (according to their website) 150 Staff and over 7,000 members.
As its name implies, Spectre Fleet has always s remained just that, a ‘Spectre’. An organisation that places itself apart from the meta of EvE by cutting ties and politics in favor of all inclusive neutrality that the NPSI fleets require.
As of the evening of the 10th of October Jayne Fillon announced on reddit and via the Spectre Fleet website that an Alliance was to be formed. In his announcement he writes:
For the last two years Spectre Fleet has existed as a channel based community dedicated to hosting public PvP fleets that anyone and everyone can join. What started as a small group of friends running the occasional cruiser fleet has since grown into the largest and most active public community in the entire game. We’ve camped gates, killed supers, and flown everything from destroyers to faction battleships with triage – all without a parent corporation or alliance.
However, there are limitations to what we can accomplish as a channel based community. So today, I’m proud to announce the future of the NPSI playstyle – the Spectre Fleet Alliance!
No, the Spectre Fleet channel is not shutting down, and no, we are not going to stop running public fleets. However, a large number of people who participate in the NPSI communities rely on these groups for the entirety of their PvP content, and we want to provide a home to those players who may not have one otherwise. Also, the format of Spectre Fleet currently favors large fleets, and small gang PvP is generally impossible. It would be nice to provide an outlet for people to conduct small gang or solo PvP while in the same social environment. No blues, no structure grinds, no sov warfare, no politics… just good old fashioned spaceship combat.
That’s our promise to you.
We want this alliance to be a home for anyone who is passionate about PvP, whether you’re a brand new player with lots to learn, or a bittervet with more skillpoints than brains. Now, joining this alliance won’t put you on the fast track to PL, nor will it allow you to rat safely in Deklein, but at least we can promise that you’ll never have to grind sov in Atrons. What makes the Spectre Fleet Alliance unique? Simple. This alliance will operate using the same NPSI rules of engagement we always have! If you’re not in fleet, you’ll be considered a valid target regardless of whether you’re red, neutral, blue, or green.
For more information, check out our website or join the in-game channel Spectre Fleet. If you’d like to join as an individual, either contact the recruiters of any corporation within the Alliance or wait until we create a Spectre Fleet Corporation. (SoonTM!) If you’d like to join as a Corporation, please contact Jayne Fillon for details and requirements. If you currently partake in Spectre Fleet activities through our channel and are happy with the Alliance or Corporation you are currently a part of, then nothing will change for you.
All of Spectre Fleet’s major events and activities will remain open to the general public.
Fly dangerous~
The comments on reddit have been mixed from the positive to highly critical with many concerns centered around how an alliance will be able to maintain open neutrality in an NPSI environment and if such an organization risks compromising the values on which Spectre Fleet was founded on.
In return Jayne has stood resolute that this will not effect Spectre Fleets overall ability to provide open fleets and the organization will be analogous to the highsec PvP group Red Vs Blue. There will be no requirement for a corporation to to join the alliance nor will people be required to join any affiliated corporations within the alliance should they choose. Instead Jayne indicates in a reply:
This isn’t directly contrary to the goals of NPSI simply because it isn’t replacing the channel. We’ll still run the same public fleets we always have, and they’ll always remain available for everyone and anyone to join. The major change here is that we’re going to create an Alliance that allows people to fly together in different ways that Spectre Fleet can currently support. One of the worst parts of Spectre is the super long form ups, and tendency to form huge blobbing fleets. You have to wait for people to buy their ships at a trade hub and then fly to the staging system. Hopefully this will cut down on that time sink for the smaller fleets, and encourage smaller fleets in the first place.
Furthermore, RvB, Stille Gewalt, Cruisers Crew, Agony Empire, and others have all operated this way for many years quite successfully. With the decline of RvB and Brave, there is a niche that we can fulfil by creating this alliance. The alliance itself will never have any blues or reds, and fighting alliance mates (with few restrictions) will be allowed as a means to encourage solo and small gang PvP.
The no recruiting rule will stand. People who participate in the channel, and who enjoy their current corporations or alliances, will see no change in how they interact with Spectre Fleet. The alliance is specifically for people who want to participate in this play-style exclusively, and is in addition to the Spectre Fleet channel, not a replacement thereof.
You can keep track of Spectre Fleet and participate on one of their roams by visiting their in game channel ‘Spectre Fleet’, via their website or via Spectre Fleet Stream.
