Zoner whales.

[Blodo]

News flash: The much maligned "powertraders" are just going to go elsewhere. Basic reason: The bigger ships and top notch equipment are expensive. For a server that wants to promote rp, the elements of grind are oddly dominate. The mantra "We'll be able to control the powertraders' rp better if they're doing the corporate routes" is naive, at best. Good luck with that one.

I am surprised you do not realise, that was in fact the whole point.

Two of the major reasons over why the Zoner faction was hated so much from the start of 4.85 were OORP ones:
One of it was the constant cheese and whine over Zoner neutrality unsurprisingly constantly brought up at the table by a few bad apples and trolls that the Zoner faction happened to contract, yes.
But the other, more obscure reason was this: the Zoner power trading routes drained traffic from the houses. They drained it so well in fact, that house piracy was no longer viable. Many factions such as the Rogues, Gaians, GC, Unioners? Any faction that operates purely within the confines of a house. These factions suddenly had nothing to do. Sure, they could go out hunting for navy and then get lambasted on the forums over their lack of piracy. Piracy of what? All the traders are out in the edge worlds grinding credits for their Order carriers.

As we all know traders bring pirates, pirates bring lawfuls, lawfuls bring activity. No traders, no activity, no anything. Rheinland, Bretonia, Kusari? All pretty much empty in favour of Zoner power traders else where, who are dictating other players RP by flaunting their neutrality like a cheap excuse to escape pirates left and right. Many factions previously fairly popular end up semi-dead or dead altogether. Corporations are even less popular than they were in 4.84, further killing the RP of factions reliant on them. Lawfuls end up with nobody to fight, and the house depopulates in favour of Liberty or Omicron Minor. Hell, even the Corsairs depopulated in favour of Order lol wuts. It goes to show how bad the situation has become.

This wasn't a case of screwing over Zoners. It was a case of 10+ factions and three whole houses being screwed over by Zoner routes. Thus, the fix was applied. The fact that most Zoner players have no clue or idea what their RP is, or what their RP is meant to be was just a small part of the reason. You can tell us that we are dictating your RP for you, but unfortunately this server does not allow you to do anything you want. Thus, we have that right, and the admins have the right to enforce it if your RP is out of bounds of mod lore or good gameplay. And in this case, to add to the above, the good of the many superseded the decadency of the few. That's the bare truth. Now, the lot of you can stop moaning about the changes.