Hello again

I have returned from my self imposed exile and am now playing EVE again - at least for a while anyway.

Much has changed in the 18 or so months since I last played actively. Providence, my former home, is no longer recognisable.

At the time that I left Providence was the most populated, exciting and unique region in EVE. Today it is little more than a deserted wasteland - similar in many respect to every other bit of 0.0 in EVE.

So what happened?

Providence had become too succesful and too populated for its own good. Pushed by various Holders interested in obtaining more space the CVA leadership went on the offensive against -A- (Against All Authorities) in order to obtain additional systems in neighbouring Catch.

Unfortunately this move coincidentally aligned with a -A- vs Goons war and, as a result, it looked to -A- (and much of the rest of the galaxy to be fair) that it was all part of a predetermined plot and that CVA had abandoned its traditional nuetrality in galactic affairs.

While CVA leaders had (under pressure from certain Holders) authorised the offensive they had no idea how badly it would backfire. Their intent had realistically been to obtain a handful of new systems - but to the rest of the Galaxy it looked like a fully fledged attempt was underway to kill -A-

As you can expect -A- weren't too happy with that and in conjunction with CVA's long time roleplay enemy UK (Ushra' Khan) and various other groups set about destroying the NRDS Providence block.

Unfortunately, the CVA and its Holder allies were not able to resist the leviathan levied against them (particularly after one seriously disastrous battle) and one by one the Holders lost their space and fled - with only CVA remaining in the Providence area and fighting on.

In the aftermath of their victory -A- installed a variety of alliances in Providence - the so called NIP. However this grouping did not last long as various internal dramas, pressure from CVA and friends and the fact that -A- had come under severe attack itself resulted in the NIPs collapse, with CVA regaining control over a group of Providence systems.

Since then a new group of NBSI alliances have moved to Providene (EVOKE, EWOKS, DICE, POLARIS, NORTHERN ASSOCIATES, NC. etc) and are once again in the process of evicting CVA and other NRDS corps and alliances.

True to its RP ideology and mission to extend the Amarrian Empire to 0.0 (basically NRDS) the CVA is fighting back - but once again finds itself hideously outnumbered and outgunned. At least in the short term no one in CVA expects much success in re-obtaining its space - although they are more optimistic about the long term picture and determined to make the new occupiers pay a heavy price.

Meanwhile Providence - once the most vibrant region in EVE - is virtually deserted. Systems like 9UY which once hummed with life under an NRDS system are now empty for much of the day. Raiders who once flocked to Providence knowing that they could find targets and 'good fights' stay away. Providence has sadly devolved into just another standard EVE 0.0 region.

While I can no longer dedicate much time to EVE and may not be back for long I will be doing what I can while here to help CVA rebuild 'Holy Amarrian Providence'.

I just hope that CCP realise that this game really isn't much fun when everyone is forced to play as a Viking or a Mongol in space - and that for Viking and Mongols to have fun they really have to have something other than other Vikings and Mongols to pillage...

Glorious Propoganda

In the aftermath of BoB/KenZoku's final acceptance of defeat in the 'Great War', EVE's CAOD forums has seen many of the Goonswarm Coalition announcing they are returning home...

In a way this reminds me of the atmosphere in Lord of the Rings after Sauron was defeated. It's all very melancholy with all the old friends departing - kind of like the hobbits returning to their normal humdrum life in the Shire and the Elves leaving Middle Earth forever via the Grey Havens. I guess it is the RPer in me!

To mark the ending of the war Razor Alliance PR gurus have published the latest in their series of excellent propoganda posters. I am copying it below for your amusement:



If you like that you can view the back catalogue of Razor propoganda posters here.

The Great War has endeth

Well I have been a bit slip shod with blog posts recently primarily because of real life responsibilities and commitments - but also to some extent because there wasn't actually that much exciting happening (at least publicly) at the 'macro' politics level in EVE recently...

However I did have to bring you one in important news flash and that is that

THE GREAT WAR IS OVER

Yes apparently SirMolle, the KenZoku leader, has finally decided that their attempts to regain Sov in Querious were doomed and has signalled a withdrawal of KenZoku/BoB assets from their last remaining foothold 49-UGC.

This has prompted much speculation about the future of KenZoku and where they will go now they have finally accepted the loss of their original homeland. No doubt there will be a period of 'regrouping' and 'rebuilding' in Empire space before KenZoku evolves once more.

Obviously Goons are jubilant and The Mittani has published two articles on Tentonhammer outlining Great War history from his perspective.

You can find those

Here: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69645

And here: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69868

I would love SirMolle or one of the other BoB/KenZoku leaders to do their own 'After Action Report' on the Great War - but not quite sure they are in the mood for that at the moment. Maybe that's why the victor always writes the history!

So now that the war has ended what happens next in the EVE galaxy. Well there are a lot of interesting questions.

Will the victors Goons/Pandemic Legion/Northern Coalition maintain their allegiance to each other? Where will KenZoku go next? What now for Against All Authorities?

Tune in for the next episode!

And now the end is near...

Real work has been keeping me extremely busy lately which is why my updates have been lagging recently.

Anyway here is a quick round up of events around the galaxy. I would suggest readers use the automatically updated sovereignty map (http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png) to get a better idea of the geography and location of these conflicts.

The Great War - Delve, Querious & Period Basis (Bottom left)

The fight over 49-UGC in Delve goes on. My last report had it firmly in Goon hands however a KenZoku(RKZ) tower spam has once again turned the tables. With -A- (Against All Authorities) and Stain bloc assistance KenZoku had managed to match enemy numbers and tighten its grip on the system. As it stands

KenZoku have 31 POSes claiming sovereignty as opposed to 12 Goonswarm. The 49-UGC system is important in that it is a transit route through to Catch which is -A- territory.

KenZoku have also laid down additional POS structures in other R.64 (systems with moons producing ultra rare and ultra valuable resources) in an attempt to wrest these back from Goonswarm. No doubt these systems and 49-UGC will see further conflict in the period ahead.

This fight from the Tau Ceti Federation (TCF is a Goon ally) - http://killboard.tauceti-federation.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=124311 - demonstrates that not everything always going swimmingly for the Goonie coalition!

Part of the reason for the KenZoku recovery is that Goons and friends attentions were - at least temporarily focused elsewhere - Period Basis. Period Basis is the region under Querious and Delve which had been held by Executive Outcomes (EXE), a KenZoku ally.

Unfortunately for Executive Outcomes they simply couldn't resist the steamroller when it was turned in their direction and the region is currently being subdivided between Killed In Action alliance and two other Goon allies.

Mittani wrote this:

Over the course of three days, EXE has been transformed from the proud defender of a Sov4 constellation to a greasy, contemptible stain in the road. Z-M5 has only one hostile tower left at this moment, and in a few hours it's likely that it will have nothing. G-Q was hellpurged and is neutral sov as of today. All that remains is the Sov4 capital system of PA-VE3. RAWR spammed the nonstation systems in the constellation several days ago, so they will flip to neutral or RAWR when the 7 day claim ticker is over. This may be quite possible the fastest that an actively defended Sov4 constellation has fallen in the history of the game.

RKZ no longer owns any R64s in Period Basis.

With the fall of PA-VE3, there will be no more 'Period Basis Front'. This will allow ZAF, KIA and RAWR - the primary coalition forces invested in this region - to focus entirely upon Querious.

Of course Mittani, as Goon spymaster general would say that, he is after all doing his job. However, it is pretty clear that Executive Outcomes have suffered a blow as these internal forums postings demonstrate:
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1065543

Whether Executive Outcomes will simply stop contibuting to the RKZ/-A-/Stain coalition vs Goons now they have lost their home region is debatable. Also debatable is the assumption that KIA and other Goon allies will continue to put their heart into the fighting in 49-UGC now that they have secured their own territory in Period Basis.

Time will as always tell!

Pure Blind (Left)

Nothing too major to report here however Triumvirate (an alliance whose power has ebbed and flowed over time) seem to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment and are attacking IRON assets (high value moons) in the region. IRON (another alliance with a big history and not so glorious present) are junior members of the Northern Coalition who are in turn currently allied to Goonswarm in the 'Great War'. While Triumvirate have on the whole stayed out of the larger war there is no doubt that there actions harassing IRON are causing some nuisance (albeit minor) to the anti-KenZoku coalition.

Insmother/Drone Regions/Etherium Reach (Upper Right)

As reported previously the IRC (Intrepid Crossing) and Ethereal Dawn (ED) alliance launched an attack on Red Alliance (RA) in Insmother. Unfortunately for them this provoked the wrath of the Goonswarm Coalition as Red Alliance were one of Goons oldest allies. At the behest of Goons the Northern Coalition (NC) reset standings to ED and IRC and NC along with other Drone Region and Red Alliance forces have launched a counter strike into Etherium Reach which is IRC and ED home territory.

I am aware of various 'good fights' happening in the area but am not currently sure if the alliances attacking IRC/ED are seriously challenging sovereignty with a view to taking the region for themselves or are simply harassing IRC/ED. Will update you when I know more!

Tenerifis/Detorid (Right)

Many formerly Goon regions were abandoned when Goons focused all their efforts on Delve in the aftermath of the BoB disbandment. As has been reported previously Against All Authorities (-A-) and various other KenZoku allies (Red Overlord, Coven, Systematic Chaos and Atlas) took advantage of this to claim swathes of new space.

Initially most of this expansion was not resisted as Goons and allies were too busy elsewhere but as the -A-/Red Overlord/Atlas bandwagon spread eastwards they started bumping into pockets of resistance from entrenched Goon allies such as United Legion and Red Alliance.

With Goons wanting to distract -A- and friends away from 49-UGC they called on Red Alliance, Solar Fleet and the xXDeathXx alliances to start putting some pressure on -A-/Atlas in Tenerifis. Most of the conflict centred on the 46DP system which xXDeathXx tried to claim. This turned into a fairly large conflict as Goon allies from Pandemic Legion and TCF (Northern Coalition) also got involved in the fighting. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned for Goon Coalition with TCF losing a Titan and xXDeathXx a Mothership and -A- winning sovereignty of the system.

Watch out for developments!

Wicked Creek (Right)

Tenerifis is next door to Wicked Creek which is home to Scorched Earth alliance who have historic ties with TCF (Goonswarm's long standing French ally and member of the Northern Coalition). As reported here a few weeks back Aggression Alliance (AGGRO), a grouping nominally alligned with KenZoku (quite a few former members), launched a bold attempt to sieze territory in the region.

Despite help from Atlas Alliance and various other random groupings based in Curse, the Aggression assault failed, primarily because Tau Ceti Federation (TCF) took a hand in the conflict despite its commitments elsewhere.

The fighting seems to have stopped now but it will be interesting to see what Aggression tries to do next!

Geminate (Top Right)

Sovereignty in Geminate is currently held by Killed in Action (KIA) Alliance who, as mentioned earlier, are currently obtaining new space in Period Basis as part of the Goon Coalition. While this has been going on interesting things have been happening in Geminate.

The United Freemen Alliance (UFA) had been operating in the region however they have recently come under attack by the Wildly Inappropriate Alliance (who are junior members of the Northern Coalition).

Anyway it seems that the pressure applied by Wildly Inappropriate paid off as a UFA diplomat made this public surrender statement: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1063200

Now I am not an expert on affairs in the North and the various diplomatic entanglements/agreements up there - but it does seem strange that UFA are surrendering their claim to a region which, according to the Sov Map, is owned by someone else entirely. Also I am not quite sure why Wildly Inappropriate (an NC ally) would be attacking a region owned by KIA (a Goon ally) when NC and Goons are in theory still cooperating against their common enemy - the KenZoku/-A-/Stain bloc.

I am quite sure that some kind of deal has been done behind the scenes - I just don't know what! Maybe one of you could enlighten me on this one!

Anyway there endeths my roundup from around the galaxy for this week. Hope you enjoyed the read and found it reasonably comprehendible!

Feedback is always welcomed!

Supporting EVE Search

Anyone who plays EVE will know Chribba.

Chribba is the god-like person who has created and maintained some of EVE's best and most popular community sites including EVE Files and EVE Search.

In my role as alliance PRO I regularly use EVE Search to monitor forum happenings. Indeed EVE Search is usually the first website I hit immediately after turning my PC on. Using certain keywords I can quickly get an overview of the EVE-O forums and then decide if anything is worth responding to (usually not).

Anyway, Chribba has recently launched an appeal for funds to upgrade EVE Search.

I have already made a cash donation but thought this worthy of wider attention!

The Great War and other EVE politics

Following KenZoku's (BoB's) successful defence of the Querious system 49- in conjunction with -A- and various other alliances Goon participation started to drop.

Over the next week KenZoku and allies started winning back key moons in Querious, Delve with Executive Outcomes holding the front line in Period Basis pretty comfortably.

This prompted Goons spymaster Mittani to post the following 'morale' post on Goons forums:

-------------------

Low-intensity strategic warfare is a bitch. The objectives tend to focus on assets which are critical yet incomprehensible to the average goon.

What do moons outside of stations have to do with the alliance? What does 'r64' even mean? Can I shoot dysprosium? Do we care about Querious? What about Period Basis? What's going on? Ooh, a wormhole!

This confusion is mostly the fault of the senior leadership. Darius, myself, Karttoon et al have been swamped with various real life issues - this is not an excuse, but an explanation. In the past week, Dabigredboat, Jaroslav, Brennah and many others have picked up the slack while your fearless leaders have been picking their noses. So, belatedly, here is an update to let you know precisely what the fuck is going on.

tl;dr: The war in Querious is a slow quagmire which we are presently losing, though every day of delay in Querious brings us closer to Sov4 in Delve. However, unless we turn our shit around in a serious way, all of our efforts will be for naught.

QUERIOUS FRONT:

Two weeks ago we had a pair of serious welps. After our stronting fuckup decisively lost us 49-, we suffered another station-level welp in 3BK where offline RKZ towers had been left undestroyed. They were fueled, turned on, and an additional pile of Red.Overlord, -A- and other shitty pet towers blocked out the rest of the moons in that system.

Both of these losses can be blamed on organizational-level burnout, as they took place at a time where virtually every system and station in Delve and all of our R64s swapped to Sov3 at once, which meant that a host of jammer towers and an entire bridge network was being thrown up in a herculean, sleepless effort by our logistics team. Shit got missed.

Since that time, we've managed to mostly secure our R64s. R64s provide our alliance-level income. The first step when attacking an alliance (unless you have total military superiority) is to cut their R64s off. Initially we lost four of them before they swapped to Sov3, largely due to stront timing issues - we had a stupid setting for default stront, and most of our R64s had been thrown up in a rush, as we took 25+ R64s over the space of 4 days. After yet another massive push, GSOL put jammers and bridges at all of our R64s, significantly impacting RKZ's ability to attack them.

Then we killed Kenny's capital fleet.

Without their capital fleet, RKZ's allies have been reluctant to do serious siegework on RKZ's behalf; the conflict has shifted from a station contest in 49- to tussles over R64s, most recently in Q2-. Unfortunately for us, many goons do not understand the significance of R64s or why they should care about something that isn't a station, so our participation has been crap. That, or it's the fact that no one has been providing a high-level overview of the war, so there's a feeling of confusion and a lack of clarity; take your pick. Or blame taxes.

The big problem is that, while the pace of our losses has slowed dramatically since killing the RKZ capital fleet, we're still losing; We lost our R64s in Q2- even though that system was jammed. While we initially lost 49- due to a stronting fuckup (ie, our timer got whacked), we proceeded to lose an additional ~10 towers in timezones where usually we don't worry about tower losses. Because goons are not showing up, we're taking hits where we normally would have uncontested system control; our counterattacks are faltering because we can't summon massive goon turnout in our primetime to do a hellpurge.

PERIOD BASIS FRONT:

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Period_Basis

Slow progress here. KIA, ZAF and Morsus Mihi have been chewing on EXE and RKZ soverignty. RKZ has a number of R64s in this region, almost all of them owned by DICE, which is presently the most functional corp in RKZ - as they have cash. All of them had been guarded by Sov3 and jammers, but as the map demonstrates, KIA/ZAF have spammed those systems and snapped the Sov3s on a number of them.

EXE at one point had a substantial bridge network in Period Basis that led to Delve but that has recently snapped with the loss of HIX4 (and, earlier, 1-2JP4 and 0-NTIS). That bridge (from the EXE stations) took them to the doorstep of TN25, a Frontal Impact station 1 jump from HIX4 where Morsus Mihi has been engaged in a spam war with FI.

In sum, while Period Basis is a vastly lower priority than R64s in Delve and stations in Querious, it's moving in a positive direction.

DELVE FRONT:

On 4/21, we get Sov4 in the W-4 constellation, where the bulk of our stations are. Over the next few weeks, the rest of Delve flips to Sov4, including the NOL constellation where we built two new outposts. Essentially all of Delve is Sov3, jammed, and connected by jump bridges. We have a working empire bridge network from NOL -> A2-V27 -> Empire.

This is paradise. However, it's going to be on fire if we don't turn things around in Querious.

Already we have lost an R64 in Delve itself, in A-E which is NPC sov and unjammable. RKZ has spammed 1-SMEB and EXE has spammed M0O as possible bridge/cynobeacon routes.

THE FORCES AGAINST US:

Our primary enemy in this fight is not RKZ, which has begun to have serious systemic issues, but -A-, ROL, and their associated pets. Their numbers and timezone coverage have allowed RKZ to stumble forward, zombielike, and staunch their losses:

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/alliance/KenZoku

As you can see, RKZ has stabilized at around 2660 members, where before they had been steadily losing. This is a natural consequence of them having retaken 2 stations from us.

-A- has been pingponged somewhat between the 49- front and 9-98, 46DP, and eastern Tenerifis where XIX has been making inroads. That front is being distracted by ED/IRC's invasion of RA, who had been helping XIX vs -A-. In general, however, -A- turnout has decreased markedly over the past few weeks. If we can get goon participation back to normal levels, we should be able to overpower them. However, until -A- is pried away from supporting RKZ, we're not going to see a RKZ failure cascade, which is our end goal.

OUR STRATEGIC GOALS:

* RETAKE OUR LOST R64S: A-E, Q2-, ZAU, 5V-, 49-, C-7
* RETAKE 49- AND 3BK STATIONS
* DEFEND DELVE UNTIL IT HITS SOV4 (4/21 ONWARDS)
* BREAK RKZ FOREVER AND HARVEST THEIR TEARS

WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Show up on ops.
2. Show up on ops.
3. Show up on ops.
4. Show up on ops.
5. Show up on ops.
6. Join the GIA.
7. Why the fuck are you still in NPC Delve? No one should be in 319. 0-H is for formups.
8. Help GSOL with push butan duty.

-------------------

Somewhat predictably this was leaked to KenZoku/BoB who then used Mittani's comments about the war in Querious being a 'quagmire' in their own internal propoganda to boost the morale of their own members and associated allies.

Unfortunately for them Mittani's call to arms seems to have provoked a response and Goons have gone back on the offensive. Rather than wait for BoB spies to do it Mittani has subsequently been posting updates on the war in Delve/Querious/Period Basis on CAOD (Corporation and Alliance Discussions) and I have to say they make a very interesting read. Obviously Mittani is making a political point - the war is after all going well for Goons at the moment - however they do give an insight into the conflict which is I have to admit more eloquent than my own!

You can view the relevant updates here:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1054371

While obviously biased to present the Goons and allies in the best light (and as such they tend to gloss over Goon & allied losses (the Pandemic Legion Titan loss being the most significant), they do provide an interesting overview of how the war is going.

Elsewhere

Fountain:

Most EVE wars end not because an alliance has been defeated in space but because of internal drama, usually resulting from differing egos, goals and objectives within alliance. Defeat on the battlefield and enemy infiltrators can help bring such differences to the surface but to be exploited the flaws need to exist.

A good example of an alliance 'failcascading' is Puppetmasters who recently launched an invasion of Fountain - threatening Pandemic Legion and Sons of Tangra assets and 'pet' alliances.

When resistance toughened and Puppetmaster stopped making progress internal divisions leapt to the forefront in the alliance resulting in this insightful post by Arimathea Anthelas.

Drone Regions/Insmother:

Intrepid Crossing (IRC) and Ethereal Dawn (ED) have continued their war against Red Alliance despite being set upon by various Northern Coalition sub-alliances (Wildly Inappropriate/Majesta etc)

With Goonswarm and the main Northern Coalition alliances focused on finally finshing off the war vs BoB/KenZoku in Delve/Period Basis/Querious and with the other local powers (xXDeathXx & United Legion) focused on hitting Against All Authorities (-A-) and Atlas in Tenerifis in order to divide their forces and prevent them helping BoB/KenZoku, it seems that IRC and ED have avoided being steamrollered and continue to take offensive actions against Red Alliance and their other enemies.

However pressure must be mounting on IRC ED and this is surely indicated by desperate sounding posts like this one. I bet IRC/ED diplomats and propogandists winced when they read that one!

Despite this IRC/ED are continuing to put up a fight as this thread indicates.


Tenerifis

As mentioned above the former Goon region of Tenerifis is now being fought over by Atlas and -A- on one side and United Legion, the xXDeathXx alliances and other assorted groups. Tenerifis was one of several regions which Goons abandoned when they moved wholescale to Delve in the aftermath of the BoB disbandment and was one of the regions siezed by -A- and other BoB/Kenzoku allies.

With -A- now being the main obstacle in the path of final victory over BoB/KenZoku it is clear that the Goon coalition is trying to distract their attention away from Querious by attacking assets at the opposite end of their empire.

As with the Drone Region/Insmother war, the war in Tenerifis seems to be generating significant cap battles. In this one an Atlas Mothership (supercap) is killed whilst an xXDeathXx Titan escapes by the skin of his teeth.

Curse

Danish capital killing specialists x13 (formerly BoB/KenZoku allies) have just joined the Krautbreak alliance that is based in Curse. Krautbreak is a conglomeration of renowned German cap-heavy corp Evoke and Outbreak (who were once regarded by many as the best PvP alliance in EVE). While x13 is not a huge corporation it is extremely capable and cap heavy. Its addition to Krautbreak substantially strengthens that alliances' capabilities. Are they going to focus on securing Curse and continue doing their own thing - or is the addition of x13 a sign that they are about to reengage in the 'Great War' and possibly take a hand in the fight in neighbouring Wicked Creek?

Wicked Creek

It seems that things are also starting to heat up in Wicked Creek where Aggression Alliance (who seem to be aligned with the KenZoku/-A- bloc) has launched an attack on Goon allies Scorched Earth and Tau Ceti Federation, with the backing of Atlas and -A-.

It seems fairly early days in this conflict but those who are interested can follow happenings in this Scrapheap thread.

That's about it from me for now!

Ode to the joys of NRDS and space diplomacy

One of the big stories on Corporations and Alliance Discussions (CAOD) over the past week has been the disbandment of Foundati0n (FDN) alliance.

Regular readers of this blog will know that Foundati0n are an NRDS (Not Red Don't Shoot) alliance based in the Great Wildlands region and were involved in the recent Ethereal Dawn (ED) and Intrepid Crossing (IRC) assault on Red Alliance which subsequently came off the rails.

This was interesting for me as FDN were the only other entity outside Providence who operated NRDS. The multiple reasons given for FDN's disbandment can be summed up simply as 'internal drama'.

It seems not all FDN's corporations had the patience or discipline to maintain their NRDS policies. The systems required to police NRDS and handle the resulting 'diplomacy' can be complicated and time consuming. It requires real commitment, dedication and buy in from the whole alliance to maintain the necessary structures and it seems that some FDN corps simply didn't have this! Hence the internal drama!

Anyway, shortly after this 'drama' my alliance noticed a lot of Foundati0n pilots in relocating to Assah - a system in Derelik - on CVA's Providence border...

As Foundati0n had blue standings to CVA at that stage I decided (as any good NRDS diplomat would) to touch base with FDN diplomat and find out what the state of play was.

Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

XXX > Well for the moment we're definately NRDS, we aren't shooting you providence guys. We'll have to look for the new alliance though. Alot of people are bored of what we where doing in GW =)
Hardin > Okay I can understand that
Hardin > But as we have you blue we would hope that at least for decency sake that you inform us if you do decide to change your view on CVA and Provi
XXX > Yes. We definately would =)
XXX > We're always trying to be the Gentlemanly type ==

----------

All fairly amicable and straightforward! However when I wake up I find that one of the FDN corps has started attacking people in Providence. Another CVA diplomat has the following conversation with another FDN representative:

XXX > o/
Amandi Casimi > What the HECK is going on again?
XXX > we are nbsi and shooting neutrals
Amandi Casimi > That official?
XXX > yes
XXX > have you read the FDN announcement in CAOD?
Amandi Casimi > Alright... consider yourselves KOS then.

----------

I immediately sent a mail to the FDN diplomat whom I had originally contacted and got this mail in response:

2009.04.12 08:39
I need to shout at some people clearly. There's not been any official standings change to my knowledge.

Will get back to you with something definate on that and apologies if i was the one to mis-interpret the situation =)

----------

I sent the following response:

Well I am afraid we will have to keep you at KOS until we get some kind of 'official' explanation!

Cheers

Hardin

----------

A few more incidents followed leading to another CVA diplo talking to several FDN pilots. This led to this 'alliance' mail being sent to FDN members:

2009.04.12 12:36
I had a discussion with Equinox Daedalus of CVA today regarding standings.

Due to several recent incidents, we are giving conflicting signals to CVA. They have asked us to avoid their space until we sort our new alliance and our new standings. I think this request is reasonable as we will are still in the old alliance and have not changed our standings to anyone outside GW.

We'll be NRDS in Providence until our glorious leader says otherwise (hopefully today lol).
Actually - its best to just not go to Providence until we are properly sorted, and in a new alliance.
Once that happens, safety off... fire at will

TLDR version: DON'T GO TO CVA SPACE AND SHOOT PEOPLE (yet).

----------

Shortly after the pilot who sent the mail returned to CVA space and was ganked by a CVA gang. Leading to the following convo:

[13:30:44] XXX > why hello there
[13:30:55] Keown > Hey. Equi is afk, but just noticed your comment in local.
[13:31:09] XXX > yes we had come to an arrangement with equi
[13:31:18] Keown > I was just curious why you came to providence 1 hour after your alliance mail about staying out of Providence?
[13:31:47] XXX> the mail said: DON'T GO TO CVA SPACE AND SHOOT PEOPLE
[13:31:51] XXX > we were not shooting anyone
[13:31:54] XXX > just passing through
[13:32:14] XXX > here is another quote from the mail
[13:32:23] XXX > We'll be NRDS in Providence until our glorious leader says otherwise
[13:32:29] XXX > oh andplease stop shooting hans
[13:33:13] Keown > Let me read your convo with equi one more time, but from what I remember you were told you where set KOS until your leader decided what to do. And for that reason where adviced to stay out of providence.
[13:33:25] XXX > I will send you the alliance mail
[13:33:29] Keown > i got it
[13:33:41] Keown > im a diplo and got access to the info.
[13:33:48] XXX > the arrangement was a temporary nrds in providence
[13:34:00] XXX > there was nothing said about 'don't go through providence'
[13:34:28] XXX > well I did say its best 'not to go' but didn't forbid it.
[13:34:52] Keown > Ok. let me re-read the post.
[13:35:02] XXX > CVA is currently blue to us and we shot no blues in our earlier engagements
[13:36:03] Keown > Equinox Daedalus > well can i ask that you avoid prov until you decide.
[13:36:11] Keown > thats from your convo
[13:36:34] XXX > ok we'll leave it at that then

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He then agreed to stay out of CVA space until FDN leadership decided what they were going to do. Unfortunately this did not last and now the ex-FDN corps (they left to form a new alliance) are KOS in CVA space.

The main reason I have recreated this entire 'drama' is that it is actually a good example of the kind of diplomacy that is required if you are going to operate NRDS successfully.

Now some would say why do it? It is after all a rod for our own backs and right old pain in the arse to manage...

From my perspective there are two main reasons:

1) CVA is a roleplay alliance. We see Providence and lo-sec Domain and Derelik as extensions of the Amarr Empire and 'piracy' is outlawed in the Amarrian Empire. We view agressions against CVA, its Holders and law-abiding neutrals in our area of influence as 'piracy' and such we will 'police' the area in the same way that Concord polices Empire space (albeit with a slightly slower response time)

2) From a pragamtaic standpoint NRDS has proved extremely rewarding. Providence is the most populated and highly developed 0.0 region in EVE. While the natural resources of the region are poor our markets are strong - providing lots of opportunity for ISK generation. In addition, those neutrals who do move to the area and start exploiting its resources and markets develop their own stake in the region and its wellbeing - providing useful intel and assistance in the event of significant raids and invasions.

NRDS (and our non-expansionist stance) does create the same tensions in CVA which eventually pulled FDN apart. However leadership in the CVA actively works against such pressures by only recruiting corporations that are 'down with the programme', that understand our roleplay history and are already aligned with our 'vision and values'.

Unlike many we do not recruit corps simply because they can bring X number of Capitals to the alliance or because they have impressive killboard efficiencies. Even more importantly we only recruit Corporations that have already lived in and helped defend the region for a significant period (over a year in some cases).

This waiting period mean that applicant corps have an understanding of what NRDS is about and will have demonstrated their activity, ability and, more importantly, the patience and maturity of their leaders and members.