Mathematically, the balance on this CG has been a miss

[Rubbernuke]

Ah, but come on, we all know what happens with your thumb whilst the four fingers are busy in their new home....

You are right though, this thread has taken a little of a tangent, from the balance of the current CG. But, I think we all need to know how Freddie got his nickname. Just be glad that I didn't suggest sending Frankie "The Snake" around - there's nothing slippery about this chap. But half the fun is working out how the mobster got their name, before they show you


Edit - the pinkie finger is underrated - stick a couple on a kid's bike, and they'll never fall off again.

"Dad, why have you nailed two little fingers to my bike?"

"JUST RIDE SON, RIDE LIKE THE WIND"

 

[Stelar 7]

The side that is putting in less effort on average is 3% ahead in terms of percentage of their goals completed vs. the percentage of the Marlinist goals completed, yes, but that's not a good comparison. The Patreus goals are super easy to reach compared to the Marlinist goals, especially considering their respective participant numbers (the target for the Patreus faction is only 55.56% of the Marlinist faction target, but the Patreus faction has 76.17% as many contributors as the Marlinist faction), and as I mentioned originally, there's a discrepancy in effort being put in that's considerably greater than a 3% difference in effort. Specifically, the Marlinist side is putting in about 27.43% more effort on average per contributor. That's a fair amount of extra work to be putting in to still be 3% behind comparatively and also a full reward tier lower than the competition.

Basically, if this was a mathematically balanced CG, the Marlinist side would be 27.43% ahead of the Patreus faction right now, not 3% behind. That's a difference of more than 30%. That's a significant disparity.

There is an unwritten assumption here that both sides, "should" have to put forth similar effort.

Thing is one side is backing a major power and the other a minor power. So if that's going to be taken into account then arguably the deck should be stacked against the Marlinists.

Do we want fair gameplay or the fun of backing an underdog and beating the odds? I think the second is more compelling as it adds consequence to the narative behind the goal. With a level playing field then the in-game reasons for the activities are reduced to window dressing.

 

[Crank Larson]

Looks to me like FD judged it pretty much right.

I didn't fight in the previous CG as I wasn't going to fight against the Empire, but I also didn't agree with fighting Liz Ryder (so neither side got my support). This CG was much easier to get behind the Empire for.

As others have pointed out, the Empire is a superpower, that's moved against a system. The system is the underdog in this, by a huge margin. Player agency can only go so far, and it should require a huge effort to be able to tip that balance.

 

[Bottom Hat]

"Dad, why have you nailed two little fingers to my bike?"

"JUST RIDE SON, RIDE LIKE THE WIND"

Dad to Mum "now he won't be able to get off that bike for ages, let's discuss this thing about the thumb....."


Ps-
I like your post mate - the way you left my first sentence showing is quite funny as it bears no relationship to your reply lol!