Powerplay Faction: Aisling Duval Cycle 423: Our Tanks, Your Lawn (July 6th to 13th 2023/3309)

[professor hex]

A crushing display of hauling power brought Zeta Trianguli Australis into the embrace of Aisling Duval, a +50CC profitable sphere just 40 LY from Sol. 1.24 million sealed contract merits were not answered by strong opposition. Inexperienced observers could not believe their eyes. We have parked our tanks on the Federation’s lawn.

Some underminers were fleetingly spotted and a few were shot down but the blockade was more Independent in character than Federal. Various opportunist individuals and ganker groups were fought off in addition to BGS mercs caught in the crossfire. Our PVP contingent grows in confidence, courage, and impact. Many thanks also to Talon Order, 13th Legion, and others associated with both Pan Imperial PVP and Stratcom for excellent support.

The Feds directed resources to deny Torval’s expansions in LHS 184, Jinoharis, Gran (!) and Volungu. Winters lacked the bandwidth to seriously push her own expansion Malgariji. But with favourable triggers Uncle Yuri Grom did take Eea, a loss maker but a weapon against Hudson that is a big prize in the protection it provides to ZTA. Team-work makes the dream work.

This neighbourhood is crowded: we are grateful to Granny for eating a loss of -17CC, Grom -5CC, and Mahon’s tolerance of -8CC. Hudson loses -19CC. Aisling’s haulers also completed our top and high priority fortification targets as we maintained a solid consolidation vote of 83%.

BGS took a back-seat, but please try if you can to assist our friends Elite United Worlds in their home system of Ekono. We need INF for the Union Party of Wangai urgently to prevent their retreat and an opening for traitors to the Empire Likedeeler of Michel and Colonia. Aisling applauds your awesome achievements. Bask in your success!


AUSTRALIAN HEROES

Top 5 contributors in C422 and C423. All reported merits: prep and expansion Zeta Trianguli Australis, fortification and opposition.

1. [ANGL] Mario T. Ladi 121,326
2. [AD] Danieros 117,000
3. [PRI] Nima07 104,085
4. [PRI] Sumurai8 103,254
5. [PRI] Mystler 100,950

Objectives for Cycle 424 (until July 20th)

• Vote for Consolidation! Voting is the most important thing you can do for AD, so make sure to maintain rank 2! It only takes 100 merits and four weeks of pledge time. Here's where to vote in the UI. Early votes are the best kind of votes!
• Check the Trello for dynamic fortification targets! This is updated more frequently than the in-game menu. Please, ONLY fortify systems listed on the Trello.
• Please do not prepare any systems this week. Spare media materials can be safely delivered to HIP 35209.
• Combat merits: oppose Felicia Winters’ expansion to Dongkum.
• AX: Imperial Xeno Defence targets this cycle are to defeat the alerts in Muruidooges and Fotlandjera. Counterstrike priority is Omumba.
• Join the Discord for guides, mentoring, BGS, and insight. Remember: PP UI bad, Discord good. Powerplay is a community game, so connect with us.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

You forgot your guys SPEAR. Birds of a feather. Maybe why it ended up looking like a CG.

All in all another milestone in Aisling's ongoing victory against powerplay . Enjoy!

 

[OmegaPaladin]

You forgot your guys SPEAR. Birds of a feather. Maybe why it ended up looking like a CG.

All in all another milestone in Aisling's ongoing victory against powerplay . Enjoy!

I'm legit confused - Aisling is not preventing powerplay. From what I understand, previous expansions were stopped cold by last minute fed merits People put a lot of effort into refining their turnaround time - think like Robigo runs - and we kind of ran a leaderboard.

Here's a bit of free advice (since I appreciate a worthy opponent):

1. Recruit new players. Hudson's bonus is very nice for combat-focused players, better than Aisling's BGS focused bonus. You could get subtle by promoting builds that use pacifiers. It's hard to compete with prismatic shields, but at least your aren't stuck with the mining lance.
2. Focus on motivation and excitement. I stuck around in AD because of the community. Fundamentally, that's what gets people to haul like we are giving away real-world Hutton Mugs. I don't see why Hudson or Winters can't generate that kind of motivation.
3. Review your processes for delivery reports, BGS monitoring, counter-prep to block 5C, etc. Figuring out your priorities is key. LYR managed to figure out the best way to spend their limited resources, keeping their power stable. FRC should be even more efficient.

 

[Rubbernuke]

40Ly?

The King a long time ago went to LTT 874, a place only 15Ly from Achenar to say hello to Empz.

Plus:

This neighbourhood is crowded: we are grateful to Granny for eating a loss of -17CC, Grom -5CC, and Mahon’s tolerance of -8CC. Hudson loses -19CC.

Good job the other Powers don't fight back and eat whatever Aisling does....

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

40Ly?

The King a long time ago went to LTT 874, a place only 15Ly from Achenar to say hello to Empz.

Plus:


Good job the other Powers don't fight back and eat whatever Aisling does....

They're self-contests.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

So, disappointingly my original response to an earlier reply was removed on grounds that I'm forced to guess centred on a latent accusational tone. So I'll try to temper that out.

I do however think that the two threads that I included are of undeniable relevance to the current situation with the powerplay playerbase - I include them now (here and here) as a direct and logical response to the post above around improving player numbers.

The poster gives perfectly good ideas, the gist of which is to focus on one's own improvement, rather than pointing fingers, but there are factors that make the task more difficult than the poster believes. The threads are also very relevant if indeed there is a powerplay rework in the pipes. Ignore the parties involved, but consider the damage that can be so easily done to a feature by leaving it with deep mechanical weaknesses, for years. And note that the resulting outcomes do not share themselves out fairly - why would they? That has implications for the significance of those outcomes and for mustering engagement.

 

[OmegaPaladin]

So, disappointingly my original response to an earlier reply was removed on grounds that I'm forced to guess centred on a latent accusational tone. So I'll try to temper that out.

I do however think that the two threads that I included are of undeniable relevance to the current situation with the powerplay playerbase - I include them now (here and here) as a direct and logical response to the post above around improving player numbers.

The poster gives perfectly good ideas, the gist of which is to focus on one's own improvement, rather than pointing fingers, but there are factors that make the task more difficult than the poster believes. The threads are also very relevant if indeed there is a powerplay rework in the pipes. Ignore the parties involved, but consider the damage that can be so easily done to a feature by leaving it with deep mechanical weaknesses, for years. And note that the resulting outcomes do not share themselves out fairly - why would they? That has implications for the significance of those outcomes and for mustering engagement.

Thank you for the reply. I did not see your earlier reply.

For the record, if I ever saw evidence of 5c stuff from Aisling, I'd raise hell. I have not seen such evidence myself. 5C is sometimes hard to tell from random module shoppers going with the flow. LYR had a real hard time with bad expansions for a while. I recall a few counter-prep races earlier in my time with Aisling when the consolidation vote dropped.

As for a powerplay rework, I'd be happy to see it. Even if it just made some convenience fixes or made it less of a money pit, or made it easier to understand for a new player. As it is, your new player pledging to your faction is likely to hurt your interests. FDev really, really needs to visit some of their old game sustems.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

Thank you for the reply. I did not see your earlier reply.

For the record, if I ever saw evidence of 5c stuff from Aisling, I'd raise hell. I have not seen such evidence myself. 5C is sometimes hard to tell from random module shoppers going with the flow. LYR had a real hard time with bad expansions for a while. I recall a few counter-prep races earlier in my time with Aisling when the consolidation vote dropped.

As for a powerplay rework, I'd be happy to see it. Even if it just made some convenience fixes or made it less of a money pit, or made it easier to understand for a new player. As it is, your new player pledging to your faction is likely to hurt your interests. FDev really, really needs to visit some of their old game sustems.

Aisling is a funny power, you get more organised people, more unhelpful roleplayers, more module shoppers, and maybe more people that hate the power than for other powers, and it's hard to tell malice from bad choices - it can lead to unwanted preps either way. We get them too but a lot smaller.

Proof of engagement in 5C is nigh impossible to come by but did you read the two threads I linked? You can read the Hudson guys refuting arguments that it was randoms. But it's also explained how the massive UM op would not have worked (and so could not have been justified) without a blanket fort of his systems for weeks (35, 36 systems, some distant, that no-one wanted forted? Can't remember but randoms don't exist on that scale or organise in that way). The AD reps in the threads can say they didn't do the 5C but they don't seem concerned enough about how they came by the success of the op to offer a believable scenario. In fact there was considerable celebration and trolling about it subsequently iirc. Subjectively, for us the optics are "we don't care, we got what we wanted" - at best. Sorry to keep banging on, I'm tired of it and thought this was done and the linked threads would cover it. Anyway, going forward, we have what we have.