Right Message, Wrong Ambassador

CCP Fozzie recently announced the addition of a medium micro jump drive with Kronos, and pretty much anyone who does any sort of legitimate PvP is freaking the hell out.  And that’s not just from a certain segment of the population.  EVERYONE with an interest in PvP is unhappy with this addition.

Of course, I’m right there with them.  The addition of the MJD and the changes making interceptors bubble-immune were terrible ideas.  Regarding the former, it was the first step down the road of obliterating long-points from effectiveness, a step that wasn’t terrible in and of itself, but more because of what it represented.  And those fears were evidently completely justified, as the same filth is being spread to battlecruisers too.  Between Ventures, FW pilots fitting stabs, and MJDs, why don’t they just officially change the category to BvB: brawler vs. brawler?

In case it’s not clear, let me state the ideal of PvP I hold: a small group of skilled, coordinated PvPers should be able to defeat a blob of less-skilled, less-coordinated, or less-suited ships.  The reason you praise Napoleon’s or Caesar’s skill is because they were constantly outnumbered, yet outmaneuvered and outfought their enemies time and again.  The reason you sneer at Pompey’s “skills” is because he only won when he outnumbered his enemy decidedly.  This is not a coincidence.

So, yeah, I’m less than enthusiastic about this change, and I’m not alone.  Bosquit of Tempest Legion, who I’ve never heard of, said, “I don't know, this just feels really dumb as a mod, it's like giving the risk averse more and more ways to run away, which seems bad for pvp.”  Michael Harari of Hydra Reloaded joked, “"Oh man I just fleet warped my entire rail naga fleet into the enemy bubbles. I guess we are all dead, sorry for derping the fleet.  j/k, everyone just align and run your mjd on landing, we will lose like 5 or 10 guys that they manage to scram in 10s."

Grath Telkin of Pandemic Legion added, “This is terrible don't do this, you're making it increasingly easy to avoid combat in a game where picking a fight can already be an extreme challenge.”  He repeated it on Twitter, “It’s hard enough to get a fight as is.”

Yeah, he’s right… wait… did I say Pandemic Legion is worried about getting fights?  Okay, not the best spokesman.

Yes, I agree entirely with his stance – the MMJD is a bad thing for PVP.  But the game itself isn’t the reason “it’s hard enough [for PL] to get a fight as is”.  I personally refuse to fight them unless it’s a sov battle… after all, a sov battle with full tidi is already no fun, so going against PL can’t possibly make it any worse.

Is this because of their tremendous elite PvP skills?  No, it’s because I don’t trust them to come at me fairly.  I have no faith that “what I see is what I get” against PL.  And I don’t think I’m alone, either.  Everyone “knows” PL will drop a cyno fleet on anything that moves, overwhelming their enemy and obliterating any chance for a fair fight.  And that fleet will almost assuredly be a hard counter to what you’re flying.  They don’t even attempt to put themselves in uncomfortable or uncertain situations.  Basically, they seem to actively avoid the “stumbled on” fight that small gangers tend to treasure.

Is that true in every case, with every fleet or every pilot?  Of course not.  But we’re dealing with a reputation here, and that’s based on impressions.  PL has a well-deserved reputation for bringing an ICBM to a knife-fight.  Sure, that makes them feared when an enemy FC considers bringing in capitals.  But it also means many pilots have no interest in fighting them for fun, since they believe the fleet of 15 PL ships will cyno in reinforcements, regardless of how the fight is going.  The perception you yourselves cultivate is your undoing here.

If Eve was the real world, this would be extremely valuable.  In the real world, every fight brings the possibility of some of your guys being killed.  And not in the, “Whoops, need a new clone” way.  I mean D-E-D.  So a reputation of winning at any cost is a good one.  But Eve is a game, two fleets avoiding each other is relatively easy, and the point of playing is to get in the close fights.  Curbstomp people with overwhelming force all you want, but don’t cry poor mouth when people start blue-balling you as a rule.

The phrasing of Grath’s two comments are quite telling.  In the forum thread, he said, “picking a fight” can be a challenge.  In the tweet, he said, “getting a fight can be a challenge”.  I disagree with the latter premise… between faction warfare and the boosting of T1 frigs and cruisers, I actually think PvP in Eve is pretty healthy; it’s just happening in low-sec. 

But as to his former phrasing, I’m sure this will make it harder to “pick” a fight, cyno in a hard counter to your enemy’s comp, and obliterate their entire fleet while taking no losses to your larger fleet.

In other news, the British are noticing a decidedly smaller number of fishing fleets that challenge their entire navy to a fight.