Long standing veterans of faction warfare are used to the ebb and flow in the warzone. One faction will be on top and after a while things will change and the opposing faction will be on top...
And so it goes.
 |
| "damn they plex so much they can't even keep up with the bashing" ~ Meo Fafard |
The Minmatar militia went from majority control of the warzone in December 2017 to "only" 28 systems (out of 71) in Minmatar control currently.
What's more, at the time of writing no fewer than 7 systems are vulnerable and likely to be flipped soon (see table below).
7 Systems happens to be 10% of the total war zone and a quarter of what Minmil currently control.
Even the most casual of observers would find that a spectacular decline - or rise - if your vantage point is from an Amarr militia perspective.
Indeed dear reader, looking at the table below one might be forgiven for wondering what in the world happened to Minmil? Another civil war? (No). They went into hibernation? (No). Their morale was crushed because the likes of me joined their cause? (No. Ermmm... well maybe, but I don't think so).
Well what about the other side of the equation? Did the Amarr do anything special? (No). FCON joined Caldari milita? (Maybe, but not directly). Suitonia's project is paying off? (Don't know, according to zkill the guy spends most of his time in 0.0, and credit where credit is due, the momentum started swinging towards the Amarr long before this group showed up).
Now any and all of the above obviously contribute in some way shape or form, but the real reason for the very rapid swing in fortunes is farmers. Farmers? Yes. Farmers.
 |
| Farmers are the nicest people |
As a relative newcomer to faction warfare I have to admit I never realised the extend to which the farmers influenced the war zone.
Whilst Minmil controlled the war zone I also did not notice many farmers as I don't warp in on blues in plexes.
Since the swing in fortunes, boy have we been inundated by streams and streams of warp stabbed farmers.
Your author killed two of them and was rewarded with the nice comments in the image to the left (by no means an uncommon occurrence - both the killing of stabbed farmers and the insults) .
This particular person has three farmer accounts and by the looks of it farmers are universally despised as zkill shows they are killed by Minmatar militia, Amarr militia, as well as the local pirates in the area.
Suffice to say Demone* is not the only stabbed farmer in the war zone.
To this end the news from fanfest about stabs being disallowed in plexes in the future is most welcome. Certainly a step in the right direction but due to the sheer number of farmers I am of the opinion it will not matter much - for any one of these kills the toon in question probably ran 10 or more plexes before he got caught.
Such is the nature of the LP payouts that a player will "earn" enough LP completing even a single novice plex to pay for 10 or more of these ships at 600k ISK each.
It is also worth noting that these farmer alts can be very low SP alts - and this is the reason why so many systems are vulnerable and not flipped. By-enlarge farmer alts don't have the SP to be worth anything in an I-hub bash. Nor does an I-hub bash directly provide any ISK.
What exactly the answer to this farmer problem is, I do not know. Indeed one would surmise that had there been easy answers CCP would simply enact them.
There are a couple of suggestions from the self same suitonia on his CSM election forum. There are other people on other forums that also have opinions. For the time being your author has neither the time nor the energy (or the wherewithal) to come up with solutions himself and will simply play the ball as it lies.
What exactly the answer to this farmer problem is, I do not know. Indeed one would surmise that had there been easy answers CCP would simply enact them.
There are a couple of suggestions from the self same suitonia on his CSM election forum. There are other people on other forums that also have opinions. For the time being your author has neither the time nor the energy (or the wherewithal) to come up with solutions himself and will simply play the ball as it lies.
In his corporation, Schneckt corp members are warned to not be overly concerned with the state of the war zone and systems - no doubt by seasoned veterans that has seen this before. Schneckt is but a small corp and it simply does not serve to burn oneself out for this purpose.
Against these numbers of farmers there is not much that we as a corp can do. We also had a citadel to defend (more on this in the future) and some other adventures in the offing (also possibly more of this in the future)...
In the mean time we concentrate in plexing Lamaa (where we live) down. We are under no illusions that we would hold it under any sort of sustained pressure - no, purely as a driver of conflict and for the time being, a small source of pride...
As always we try to have fun. See you in the war zone!
