[Official Event] Operation Pesticide

[Haste]

So I was correct when I was ree'ing in-game, claiming that the event was rigged. As @Goddess Astra pointed out, morale was low on the Zoners' side.

A portion of it. Alma was never going to die.

There's miscommunication here, that's for certain, and that's our bad. And other things, like the Transports, should perhaps have been handled as "Just do your best and if Liberty can't take any down, so be it". But it's hard to judge in the moment. Ultimately, this was all just a "for fun" combat-focused event. There were some stakes, and you will see them represented going forward. Plus we're working on a "part two" where we can hopefully avoid our "rookie mistakes".

Anyhow, let me try my best to explain why I believe the Zoners here, despite their in-game showing, shouldn't/can't be rewarded with an ultimate victory:

The event was a "free for all". Anyone could log any side. The Zoners are the clear underdog/good guys so they get a large showing. Okay. That's fine, and why it was set up that way. Nobody was surprised by this. But it does mean that the in-game state of affairs here isn't representative of the story side of things. That's a choice we made. But "in reality", of course, Liberty's forces would simply be impossible to overcome for a rag-tag band of Zoners.

The alternative as I see it would be to truly rig the in-game side of the event: restrict Zoner slots to 8, encourage Liberty to log in 40+ ships. So then you've got a more accurate depiction of what this conflict might look like. But would that be any fun for anyone involved? I don't personally think so.

There's a lot we could have done - and will try to do - better, but there will always be concessions we have to make to actually make the event fun to play.

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