On: The Fires of War Burn Across Space

[TL;DR - Alliance War Decs Eve Uni. Third Molden Heath Pirate Corp to do so due to Massive Eve Uni Low Sec Camp in the area.]

My wallet burns.

CCP has changed the War Decliration system. It has had pros and cons on both sides. I, with my limited knowledge of the game, have considered the changes to be good. The main reason is because it removed dec shield. Large alliances no longer cost billions to declair war on. However, a down side is that the base cost of war raised from a few million isk to 50 million. Personally, I don't consider 50million to be much but many people have complained.

The removal of dec shield was seen as CCP supporting people who wanted to PvP over people who wanted to PvE. People swore that the war decs would multiply beyond the numbers of stars in the sky and Eve would burn with the charred wrecks of high sec.

So far, that has not happened. In fact, a loop hole in the new system is being closed. That loophole allowed the corporation that was wardeced to have an unlimited number of allies to help them fight the war decliration.

It's all a tangled mess with two main sides and a dozen shades of grey being debated over the forums and blogs that focus on Eve Online.

I had planned to let it settle down and pretty much ignore the situation in my little low sec bubble doing my little small gang PvP thang.

Then, a few weeks ago, Eve University's Low Sec Camp (LSC) moved in next door.

From their Wiki, linked above is their Low Sec Camps Mission:

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Low-Sec Camp (LSC) Mission Statement:

“Provide an educational environment where newcomers to Low Security space can learn the skills needed to not only succeed, but thrive under constant threat.” Goals of low-sec camp:

A) Teach students how to navigate low security space safely with both a solo and team-supported environment.
B) Introduce players to the benefits of Low-Security space. Provide the opportunity to run Anomalies, Signatures and wormholes.
C) Teach survival, home-defense and offensive PvP tactics associated with living in potentially hostile territory with aggressive neighbors.

These goals will be accomplished by: A strict set of procedures which must be adhered to if you intend on participating in the event.

Event Liaisons who will assist in the management of the event and ensure adherence to procedures.

Volunteers who will run drills and mini-classes periodically.

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They now live a handful of systems away. It is between myself and high sec. It is also next door to two of the three larger pirate groups that live in the system.

I've discussed before that we fight to fight. Low Sec is called lolsec and I know that some do not understand why we fight without a 'point'. Enjoyment of that type of game is not enough for them. We are silly becuase we throw ships at each other endlessly without any bad feelings throwing down.

Then Eve University moved in and things got complicated.

First, I will state that as far as I know, everyone welcomed Eve Uni. It brought more targets and a different type of fight to the area. Lots of people downshipped into frigs and destroyers since that was the size ship flown by many of the new players getting their first taste of low sec. Many explosions have happened and much has been enjoyed. Many conversations about PvP, ships, and fitting happened.

However, fighting people that are not dedicated pirates/PvPrs comes with a cost. It is a cost that we are willing to absorb and normally does not matter one day to the next. However, with the numerical weight of Eve Uni's fleets, game mecahnics that are accepted by the residents of low sec began to become detrimental.

These mechanics are the gate and staiton guns and the fact that Eve Uni does not take GCC. With half of the pirates already -5 sec status outlaws things became a bit unbalanced from the normal ebb and flow.

Gunpoint Diplomacy [RANSM] decided to war dec Eve Uni to remove the gate and station guns from the equation. Fleets were fighting out numbered every battle. It brought some balance back. They are there for the good fights, not just to be targets and punching bags.

Then things really started to get strange.

Eve Uni responded to the war decliration as if Gunpoint was one of the many corps that has declared war against them in the past. Eve Uni has a long history of people declaring war against them to have easy pickings of new players and weak targets.

This was not Gunpoints goal. Gunpoint rarely goes into high sec. Now and then they go next door and blow up a miner when they are bored. Most of the time they are in null sec and low sec fighting. But, with Eve Uni next door it was a relentless flow of people. A flow of people who were in low sec to PvP... just like we are.

This was not a 'fail dec' as I read on Poetic Stanziel's blog. In fact, Gunpoint was quite happy to have targets and introduce people to PvP. They did not mind talking to people and discussing fits. They down shipped into smaller ships and they took on enormous blobs for the sheer joy of it.

The response from Eve Uni was that they would camp Gunpoint into their station with a massive blob until they dropped the War Dec. They will irritate with unending waves of ECM to demoralize.

Gunpoint's response was 'bring it'. There were many words in between. The general flow was that Gunpoint was tired of having to take GCC and Gateguns and Station Guns as well as fight outnumbered in huge blobs who only fought them on gates and stations.

It is a clash of culture.

I was told that Eve Uni would crush Gunpoint. That they would bring down a massive blob of hundreds and beat them with the whelp bat to the point that Gunpoint would never think to touch a member of Eve Uni again. They will camp them into their station and use as much EWAR as they can to ruin their day. Their War SOP is about denying the 'enemy' pleasure and deny it they will.

That made me blink.

1) Gunpoint is Wardecing the corp that moved next door for good fights. Not to try to destroy the Uni.

2) Pirates gonna Pirate

3) Where is the line between Eve Uni as a neutral teaching corporation and Eve Uni as the whelp stick for their low sec camp ripples?

I still think I am missing an important emotion in the 'war' thing. The war is not being taken to high sec. It is not being used as an attempt to kill noobs. It is staying where it was brought.

The other side effect, the lovely butterfly effect is that now it has expanded. The Black Rebel Rifter Club [R1FTA] also wardeced Eve Uni. Then, last night, my Alliance, Capital Punishment. [LYFT], did the same.

I had planned on debating the aspects of Eve that leaves one hovering on the edges of 'things happening' but instead I found myself swept into one of those things. It is not huge in the global face of things. However, it is going to be interesting.

I was told, today, that we will be owned. I was told that Eve Uni won the RvB war and will roll over us as easily. I was told that they will strip any pleasure we could possibly find from the war decs because that is their SOP. I was told that they are good at what they do and we will be taken care of.

It's interesting. I have friends in Eve Uni, a lot of them. I chat with them. I've laid it out that its nothing personal. I'm not going to avoid a fleet with my peeps however. If we shoot each other we shoot each other. That is part of the game. From them, I was told that we will not have our relationship destroyed over this. I certainly did not tell them that we would crush them. I simply said we'd bring the same fights we'd already been bringing since the Eve Uni Low Sec Camp moved into the area.

I was asked what our rules were during war. That made me scratch my head. "Fleet up when one is made and have fun?" was the only thing that came to mind and that is what I said.

But, I'll be damned if I will be anyone's victim. I will be damned if I will be camped into a station and frightened to death. I'm not stupid. I can't take on a 200 person blob alone. I know that. That is not destroying me.

I was asked why I am staying in my corp. I was told how, I'm not flashy red so Eve Uni wouldn't even bother me. I tried to explain that it is not about *me*. I'm not going to bail on my corp or my alliance. I'm not scared to fight. I'm not scared to go GCC. My sec status is trashed, just like almost every other pirate in Molden Heath due to tangling with Eve Uni and taking global first.

My spirit? It's going to take a lot more then that to crush.

That's why I just dropped 800mil isk into ships and fitting. I had planned to have ships. Now, I will make sure that reshipping is easier then sneezing. I've been running stuff around all morning.

"You are going to waste a lot of battleships."

Oh no, I won't. Frigs, cruisers, destroyers, battle crusiers... I'll bring them all and put them on the field. Its not just about the blapmobiles.

I won't be a victim.

Before, I was kinda indifferent. Now, while having nothing against Eve Uni and not a single trace of animosity or aggression, I'm rather eager for it. Exploder or Explosion. I'm going to bring it.

It shall be an interesting weekend.

(Blog written while tired)