Operation Hidden Giant

[mwerte]

So, some thoughts. I'll try to organize them, but it's 1am and my brain doesn't work great at the best of times so...

(for those who don't know, I was there as Wilde.Wesen)

General;

I had fun, it was different from the normal "log, sit in space and wait for a trader/military, shoot, repeat" flying that I've done for most of the last decade. I got to see new systems, blow up some evil humans, hang out with some people I wouldn't normally, and generally had a good time. Considering I saw the server at 100+ pop for the first time in a long time, I'd say other people were interested in the event too.

Obviously the server was going to crash. It's a 15 year old game that wasn't designed for what we are using it for. We know it's going to lag and crash. Deal with it and move on.

I think I had 30+ people shooting at me all at once. I could barely see my ship there was so much incoming fire. Felt like the good ole days.

Order;

Of course it was the Order that the Nomads were sitting right on top of as they popped out of the jump hole. It wasn't intentional or planned that way. I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to interact more, and I know if I was in your shoes I'd be annoyed. But from our perspective, there's only one thing for a Nomad force meeting an Order force to do. Add to that a time limit where if we don't kill you quickly, we're going to be facing 5 fleets and we have an opportunity to take you out quickly, well, that's what I (the player) would expect you (the player) to do if the situations were reversed, because that's how it would go in real life. If you guys want to do some less shooty roleplay events PM me with ideas and let's see if we can't work something out.

Admins;

Thanks. I had fun. I know these events suck to do. 2 thoughts for you guys. The more preparation you do ahead of time, the better off you'll be. I know its overwhelming having 20 people PM you the same question. The more information you can get out to team leaders ahead of time, the better. For these events I'd suggest having one person on each side be the team lead, all communication has to go through them.

Second, you guys know, or should know, that the Nomads aren't cap-heavy. They're never going to be able to field a force that can go toe-to-toe with 10 battleships/carriers. There needed to be an incentive for the humans to shoot each other. I tried to get KNF to have a vision of BAF shooting their battleship but that got interrupted by the first server crash. Would have been nice, but oh well.

Third, unregistered caps should have been beamed home or to Bastille, that would have helped a lot.

Camera guys

Hope you got lots of pictures.

KNI

Stop. Dodging!

Nomads;

Stop complaining that you're outnumbed. I'm going to go full "old man yelling at clouds" on you for a minute. Remember when I said "being shot at by half the server felt like old times" above? Yeah, I'm not kidding, 10 bounty hunter battlecruisers chasing my lone Scorpion was a regular occurrence. RM/RHA/Bounty Hunters/Blood Dragons/GMG would create huge posses to hunt down two Wilde in the Sigmas/New Berlin.

We are the bad guys from the story line. We are the boogie men, the nightmares, the thing that terrifies humanity into working together. Part of the time we're the last thing some poor trader or miner sees. And that's awesome. But the flip side of the coin is that we get hunted by everyone. If you can't handle that, you shouldn't be roleplaying as a Nomad. That's a basic fact about them that you won't change.

From a literary perspective, the bad guys lose. You don't see to many James Bond villains walk away. Again, basic fact of Nomad roleplay, if you can't handle that, find a different role.

So what does that mean for these events and playing a Nomad? It changes the focus from "have to win" to "provide a good story for my fellow players". Be a good opponent, fight hard, don't give them an easy victory. Play your role well. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in how many people said "We're going to lose, so there's no point in joining." Yes, we're going to lose (probably), but come make the humans earn it. Help them have fun and polish your dodging skills.

And really, what are you losing? Some credits? I'll refund whatever you lost today, and I lost all my bank accounts and am down to a Clydesdale with 20 million. Bats/Bots are cheap. Lose the event? Who cares? It's a video game. Lose the Suncrusher? See above about being the bad guys. Draw up a new series of events and see if that one works.

General;

I saw a lot of whining today. It's easy to sit back and complain. Grow up and help be part of the solution.

Again, I had fun. I'm looking forward to the next event.

tl:dr; I spent the time writing it, go read it.