Right, I suppose every system needs to be fortified even beyond its weekly limit, wasting merits beyond the cap in order to "vigorously defend" against something that may or not come. This is just a few hours before a cycle ends versus what really happened once the servers came back and is the kind of thing I'm talking about that should not become easier to do - more than a full segment coming from the sniping. The tug of war completely loses its meaning.
I'm not talking about low percentage systems because these are also vulnerable to other undermining levers (the few ones that are viable, at least) coming from a true surprise attack. Not a handing in of like 20 hours worth of settlement data collected over the entire week at the final hour, and calling it a surprise attack.
Powerplay 2 losses should not continue getting decided by a single undermining activity having such exploitable merit-hiding capability... and while at it also being the best undermining merits/hour.
"Right, I suppose every system needs to be fortified even beyond its weekly limit, wasting merits beyond the cap in order to "vigorously defend" against something that may or not come."
Aside the fact you wrote that sentence ironically, that's
exactly what you should be doing if you want to protect your systems. You also - conveniently - cheery-picked a system that is highly contested with household name recognition as your exemplar. Of
COURSE players are going to fight for
Barnard's Star tooth-and-nail using every means at their disposal! Also, the attempt to paint Aisling as the victim here doesn't wash. Barnard's Star was opportunistically taken from Archer's control following the devastation caused by Titan Cocijo; this is simply them taking it back.
Furthermore, that sentence reveals your true sentiment: you view reinforcement as "wasting merits". Given the way Power Play is structured, you may certainly acknowledge its necessity if you want to hold on to your systems. But the whole tug-o-war thing? You find it an annoying distraction, that you'd much rather claim a system and have it stay claimed in perpetuity, never being inconvenienced by having to continually reinforce it against future challenges, to include data download sniping.
In a war - and that
IS what this is, regardless of any attempt to paint it as something else - there is no such thing as a wasted effort when it comes to shoring up defenses. In real-world militaries it's drilled into soldiers' heads that the job of fortifying a position
never ends, that's there's no such thing as defenses that are "good enough". As this game is a simulation and part of that simulation is attempting to mimic real-world conflict scenarios, the comparison is valid.
If you view reinforcing your position - not
over reinforcing, but simply the act of constant reinforcing that is fundamental to any effective military campaign -
as "wasting merits", then that right there is the crux of your problem. You can't claim ignorance; you
knew your Galactic Power's claim to Barnard's Star would be challenged and would include last hour data download sniping. The opportunity and mechanisms existed for Commanders pledged to your GP to have reinforced even
more than they did, potentially retaining their claim to the system. They didn't and they lost it; simple as.
If the effort to accomplish this is greater than what your Galactic Power's pledgees are able or
willing to achieve - and this applies to
any system within the GP's territory, not just Barnard's Star - then perhaps your GP's territory is too big to adequately defend; the GP has greatly over-extended, controlling a plethora of barely reinforced systems, making itself vulnerable. And whose fault might that be?
At which point it should come as no surprise when your GP loses some of its systems due to inadequate defense against what are currently wholly valid and legitimate undermining methods per the game's mechanics (i.e.
NOT an exploit). And FDev, with the coming 5%
increase to undermining and 35%
decrease to reinforcement, have made it loud and clear they agree. They
want us fighting over systems rather than playing Galactic Garden Tender 2.0, all nice and neat in a row. And that includes all the clandestine, dirty, "dishonorable", and underhanded methods among which data download sniping is counted.
(I considered it but was too lazy