Disaster due to timing in PP

[Alexander the Grape]

As yesterday drew to a close, the Kumo Crew were locked in a struggle with the Federation over Upsilon Aquarii and Lusonda. We were winning both conflicts, just, set to drive the feds out of Upsilon while safeguarding Lusonda.

Then out of nowhere, we began seeing preparation points put into Wu Chelkin, a -20CC system 100s of LY from our capital. 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 within a few hours. A faction I won't name was spending millions over a short few days in order to undermine us from within and prevent us from expanding to a profitable system!

No worries. Our second choice system was still many thousands of merits ahead. I went to bed with several million set aside to combat this menace, and resolving to finish it tomorrow (and round up to 10,000 merits and rank 5).

Then the week flipped early.

We won the war in Lusonda and Upsilon, but thanks to the efforts of this unnamed traitor faction, instead of expanding into the 70CC profit Lalande 4165 system, instead we are expanding to a nowhere system hundreds of light years from us, with next to no income. It's not so much the undermining that is frustrating, is that our enemies were within, not willing to engage us properly, but cowardly buying their way into ranks and using that influence to protect their own petty ambitions

I don't know about you, but I feel just about ready to start a communist uprising...

EDIT: I was informed by a moderator that group naming isn't witchhunting. It is currently believed that this 5th column undermining were the work of the Mercs of Mikunn and Interstellar United, who wish to destroy the Kumo Crew so that their factions can become Powers

 

[Rykzon]

And all of this could have been resolved with ONE person from frontier giving us the exact time of the cycle. Guess thats too much to ask.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

A faction I won't name

Why not?Now I'm curious.

 

[Alexander the Grape]

And all of this could have been resolved with ONE person from frontier giving us the exact time of the cycle. Guess thats too much to ask.

Or you know, not giving us notices like "1 day to go" whereas in fact there's 6 hours to go

- - - Updated - - -

Why not?Now I'm curious.

Forum rules. No witchhunting. It's a player faction, not a power

 

[#43734]

War knows no victors!

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I did wonder how it would play out since I've seen an "Undermining" faction for virtually every power. If they are that successful I'd wonder if Frontier would consider some way for the loyal supporters to remove the dissidents from their faction.
Personally im not too fussed remaining neutral, the more chaos the better for me.

 

[Privata]

War knows no victors!

There is the alliance

 

[fademist]

its all good until the other hudson loyalist do smart choices on expansion-defend - prepare targeting systems

 

[archeolog108]

As yesterday drew to a close, the Kumo Crew were locked in a struggle with the Federation over Upsilon Aquarii and Lusonda. We were winning both conflicts, just, set to drive the feds out of Upsilon while safeguarding Lusonda.

Then out of nowhere, we began seeing preparation points put into Wu Chelkin, a -20CC system 100s of LY from our capital. 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 within a few hours. A faction I won't name was spending millions over a short few days in order to undermine us from within and prevent us from expanding to a profitable system!

No worries. Our second choice system was still many thousands of merits ahead. I went to bed with several million set aside to combat this menace, and resolving to finish it tomorrow (and round up to 10,000 merits and rank 5).

Then the week flipped early.

We won the war in Lusonda and Upsilon, but thanks to the efforts of this unnamed traitor faction, instead of expanding into the 70CC profit Lalande 4165 system, instead we are expanding to a nowhere system hundreds of light years from us, with next to no income. It's not so much the undermining that is frustrating, is that our enemies were within, not willing to engage us properly, but cowardly buying their way into ranks and using that influence to protect their own petty ambitions

I don't know about you, but I feel just about ready to start a communist uprising...

I think this faction is named on reddit.com and there is interesting exchange between the factions...

 

[Rugi]

I don't know about you, but I feel just about ready to start a communist uprising...

Way ahead of you comrade

 

[I and I Redeye]

I think Kumo Crew will have a very tough time.
It could even be the 1st power to go as more jump on the bandwagon.
There so many players pledged to Kumo that are not Kumo supporters it's unreal.
Grinding away in solo, a few show themselves in open but not many.

I couldn't care less about pve grind warz.
I dropped PP the first day after realizing exactly what it was.

 

[SkipRat]

As yesterday drew to a close, the Kumo Crew were locked in a struggle with the Federation over Upsilon Aquarii and Lusonda. We were winning both conflicts, just, set to drive the feds out of Upsilon while safeguarding Lusonda.

Then out of nowhere, we began seeing preparation points put into Wu Chelkin, a -20CC system 100s of LY from our capital. 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 within a few hours. A faction I won't name was spending millions over a short few days in order to undermine us from within and prevent us from expanding to a profitable system!

No worries. Our second choice system was still many thousands of merits ahead. I went to bed with several million set aside to combat this menace, and resolving to finish it tomorrow (and round up to 10,000 merits and rank 5).

Then the week flipped early.

We won the war in Lusonda and Upsilon, but thanks to the efforts of this unnamed traitor faction, instead of expanding into the 70CC profit Lalande 4165 system, instead we are expanding to a nowhere system hundreds of light years from us, with next to no income. It's not so much the undermining that is frustrating, is that our enemies were within, not willing to engage us properly, but cowardly buying their way into ranks and using that influence to protect their own petty ambitions

I don't know about you, but I feel just about ready to start a communist uprising...

EDIT: I was informed by a moderator that group naming isn't witchhunting. It is currently believed that this 5th column undermining were the work of the Mercs of Mikunn and Interstellar United, who wish to destroy the Kumo Crew so that their factions (AKA boring aristocrats and Sirius 2.0) can become Powers

Goon's, just messing another game up.

 

[withnail]

There should at least be some mechanic to combat this.

It is not unreasonable for a faction to want to root out such people and deal with them (even if it just the ability to kick them from the power).

The fact that this is all done in solo means that it is impossible to stop.

I imagine this has annoyed a lot of people who put their own RL time into developing the other expansion opportunity (myself included).

 

[Roybe]

Goon's, just messing another game up.

Neither of these groups is goon related. Goons are doing the same thing...but this type of game play is to be expected. This is completely expected by FDev, and is stated, as such, in the rules within the PDF they provided.

- - - Updated - - -

There should at least be some mechanic to combat this.

It is not unreasonable for a faction to want to root out such people and deal with them (even if it just the ability to kick them from the power).

The fact that this is all done in solo means that it is impossible to stop.

I imagine this has annoyed a lot of people who put their own RL time into developing the other expansion opportunity (myself included).

There is no defense within the confines of the FDev galaxy. You cannot defend against anything, because of the design of this game. If they added some kind of defense, people would be screaming about mandatory grind. These are the rules...this is the game design. If you wnat to tilt at this windmill, come to the Open vs. threadnaught. This issue has been discussed to death over there.

 

[rightsideupsidedown]

I didn't pledge and I haven't participated in pplay. My screen looks like this. Is this part of the update?

 

[Tythan]

There should at least be some mechanic to combat this.

It is not unreasonable for a faction to want to root out such people and deal with them (even if it just the ability to kick them from the power).

The fact that this is all done in solo means that it is impossible to stop.

I imagine this has annoyed a lot of people who put their own RL time into developing the other expansion opportunity (myself included).

In a way i like the fact that these people managed to do that, because it shows how terrible the idea to connect the Open with Solo was.

Up until now the problem was masked because the game did not really have clear goals, but now with powerplay more and more people will see their efforts gone to waste because an invisible entity is undermining their efforts and they cant do anything to stop them

 

[Exil]

In a way i like the fact that these people managed to do that, because it shows how terrible the idea to connect the Open with Solo was.

Up until now the problem was masked because the game did not really have clear goals, but now with powerplay more and more people will see their efforts gone to waste because an invisible entity is undermining their efforts and they cant do anything to stop them

This was done in Open though. The majority of traders were spotted in Open and if I heard right they even tried to stop them from delivering the cargo. The basic idea is that the PP system at its core is broken if you have no control over who can be in the power. Any group can pledge to a power and decimate it from the inside, if there was control (ie a group voting out the offending group) something like this wouldn't have happened.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

i wonder how it ends for him...
will we defeat the common enemy first? or will he manage to survive and we destroy someone else instead?

to be honest...my guess was on Mahon since he is completely alone in his alliance.
would be interesting to know if the independent factions share the "dont kill ships from your faction" rule too, like empire does.

 

[Tythan]

This was done in Open though. The majority of traders were spotted in Open and if I heard right they even tried to stop them from delivering the cargo. The basic idea is that the PP system at its core is broken if you have no control over who can be in the power. Any group can pledge to a power and decimate it from the inside, if there was control (ie a group voting out the offending group) something like this wouldn't have happened.

You are absolutely right.

That being said i have absolutely no problem with espionage or with the concept of trying to destroy a power from within.I believe it creates very interesting scenarios as long as there are meaningful game mechanics to combat such actions when spotted and not just more grind

 

[withnail]

There is no defense within the confines of the FDev galaxy. You cannot defend against anything, because of the design of this game. If they added some kind of defense, people would be screaming about mandatory grind. These are the rules...this is the game design. If you wnat to tilt at this windmill, come to the Open vs. threadnaught. This issue has been discussed to death over there.

No thanks, I'll give that thread a miss - I'm not an evangelist of either proponent.

I understand the rules, but I struggle with a side allowing itself to be undermined because of them.

This will result in a metagame of undermining each power from within. I wonder if Frontier intended this, rather than allowing a more straightforward contest?