Y So Sirius?

Now this must be the one of the best example yet of how badly factional warfare is broken.

The Gallente Militia Corp, Sirius Fleet, is getting incoming war decs from a number of other Gallente (and.... erm.... Minmatar) factional warfare corps!

Why? What did they do?

Did they shoot blues? - Not that I know of.
They been smacking in local? - Not that I've heard.
Are they a Caldari alt corp? - Don't think so.
They been griefing other players? - I don't know.

So what have they been doing that necessitates numerous war decs from corporations who are supposed to be fighting with them on the same side, within the same/allied militia?

They have been capturing Caldari systems!

OH NO! Oh the utter basta....

Hang on a minute, this is war. Isn't it supposed to be about capturing the other factions space? Isn't that how victory is usually achieved in war? Conquering? Well yes and no.

Currently owning space in Eve Online Factional Warfare gives you very little bonus. In fact owning space makes it difficult to make oodles of cash! You want to own the system you live in so you can dock in the station. But other than that, there is not much point. Better to be surrounded by enemy systems, as in enemy controlled systems you can farm loyalty points and save them up. Then once a month (or sometimes twice in one night) the whole militia dumps LP into the systems you do hold, upgrades all your space for a few hours, hits tier five for and everyone cashes in.

The actual bonus' for owning space are pretty laughable. Firstly it's only station systems that really count. Reduction in clone costs? This is low sec, podding is relatively rare. Extra factory slots? Erm do we look like industrialists? We're PvP'rs not carebears! The bonus' for conquering space are all fairly pointless other than the bonus LP's you get for high tier's and of course the LP store discounts. But it is so easy to knock the enemy down to T1 even that cannot be counted as a proper bonus as it's just a bonus for an hour or two per month.

So what you really need is just enough systems owned so that when upgraded you can hit war zone control level 5, but there are still lots of enemy systems to grind LP's in.

Apparently Sirius Fleet aren't "playing by the book" or whatever. They are capturing these systems making it difficult for members of the Gallente and Minmatar Militia to farm LP's.

Sad state of affairs currently. Roll on Winter and the "fix" for faction war. I say "fix", look what happened last time FW was fixed/itterated on......

Got to say I'm not happy about the situation. Yes, I'm a FW bitter vet. I'm here for the PvP.

Before you ask, yes I am plexing and taking advantage of the ISK faucet.... but.... and it's a huge but.... I do it in a ship with guns. I kill the rats and then swap to T2 ammo and hope for some WT's to come and try and interupt me. But it doesn't happen often, because they are all flying around in ships with no guns. But I'm ready to fight, even when out plexing and milking the FW cow for all its worth!

CCP are looking to fix it. But I'm still not sure they "get" faction war. They are going in the right direction in some respects, but they are well off the mark in others. For example offering industrial/manufacturing bonus' for war zone control. 99% of FW players get their goods from high-sec either directly or JF'd in. Not a lot of industry goes on in the warzone as far as I can see. For a start you need to get minerals and who mines in low-sec war zones????

Currently FW is about milking a mechanic with no heart or soul in the core gameplay. It's Farmville, it's a grind. I'm hoping it is fixed in the Winter expansion but I have my concerns. Hopefully Hans Jagerblitzen is shouting at CCP his pre-election mantra -

"Low-sec is fight club!"

More of this please CCP!

P.S. Yay! The revised Vagabond has its frill back!