The majority of the server since release has had a strong disinclination to PvP. As a result M2S are doing everything they can do force people to PvP who live on Beta, if they don't then we'll take all of their capturable assets and deny them their desires as much as possible.

Novastrov/Domhalan/Norhoop don't like this so they've banded together in a server-wide coalition to try and stop us.

Corporations such as 62nd aren't part of this coalition and are roaming beta islands as an independent force quite frequently.

The political alignment of new corporations such as nWar, AET and FOOm is yet to be seen.

That's it in a nutshell.

M2S = 13/15 Outposts.
Server Alliance;

ADLN
ALF
Blood
CIR
ToG
ROME
DEAPR
Axe
CHAOS
F-Navy
SK
IBS
RING
NUTY
TRIBE
AFF
XXSIXX
RG

=2 Outposts

14 Corporations in the server alliance against M2S then.

Hey Nid

Let's call it an ideological war with two major power blocs and a handful of independents.

On one hand, we have M2S who want pvp and don't care what we do (trolling, griefing, harassment etc) to get it. The one thing we will refrain from is deliberately trying to outnumber our enemies, because we see ourselves as highly skilled and well organised. While we care about the success of the Perpetuum we aren't going to spend all our time trying to make the server a better place for everyone. Because we're playing a game of survival of the fittest. As an example, this week we have camped F-Navy in their own outpost, causing many of them to post that they are quitting the game. Despite this, we don't see our role as instigators of 'interesting times' as detrimental to the server, whereas we do despise the blob mentality.

On the other hand we have Designated M2S Enemy of the Month. Formerly that was the Norhoop Alliance, who have now been replaced by the Soviet Novastrov alliance, headed by CIR. CIR's stated preference is for skirmishes, not intrusions, and by declaring that they would go to war with any corp that signed up to take their chosen outpost of Darnachov they pretty much guaranteed the course of the current conflict. Because, of course, that's exactly what M2S proceeded to do. CIR then instigated a NAP with the remains of the Norhoop Alliance which allows them to bring considerably more numbers to the field than M2S. They care more about projecting a morally just image than M2S, but are just as heavily into the metagame.

Since both sides consider the other's behaviour 'dishonourable' and not in the best interests of the game, the war is becoming one of survival, and will probably continue for a few weeks more.

I will be very interested to see how it turns out.

In addition to the power blocs we also have a handful of smaller 'pirate' corps such as 62nd, FOOM, nWAR who are not directly involved. In a way it's the smaller corps whose activity I'm most worried about, because their chosen pvp (roaming) isn't very rewarding at the moment, partly due to low game population, and partly due to lack of incentives for players to live on beta islands.

Well when I go to work these days people keep expecting me to do work! I can't believe it. Really cuts into my forum posting time

Nope, when Infestation (M2S + allies for any newbies reading this) and Domhalarn (CIR + allies) joined up together, our numbers roughly equalled those of Norhoop in the intrusions that I attended. I think one of the early morning intrusions we turned up to (Uria) we completely outnumbered them, when only HUN logged on to defend.

They seem to vacillate between threatening to quit and vowing to stay in game and grind as much as it takes to fight us, with more of the former than the latter until the other day. Which is why I phrased it as I did. "Bomb into oblivion" implies they defeated us beyond hope of recovery - actually we lost a squad when they made a suicide run with the contents of their corporate hangar. But if they are going to stay in the game and put up a fight, I'm glad to hear it. Win-win, as it were.

I don't actually know much about the other CEOs, but having seen how CIR operates previously I'm quite willing to believe that CIR leadership is suggesting the strategies and the other CEOs are just nodding and casting their "yes" vote.

This is where Styx thinks you lack ambition. I think you would be perfectly happy to dominate the server, but you don't want to come across as the evil empire. So you just waited for M2S to be the aggressor.

I'm happy to be corrected on this, I can actually believe that RG suggested it.

Thanks for the replies. Ill try to summarise.

Most of the people are united in fighting M2s, despite this M2s holds the vast majority of the outposts. That seems an odd situation, how can you hold most of the outposts while being so horribly outnumbered?

There are several independent corporations that are striking out on their own so far they havent claimed outposts yet.

The current coalition is formed against M2s and has no interest in staying together after M2s has.....lost/given up/left the game/sought peace?

technically there are two sides and possible some more sides in the future if the fledgling corporations are allowed to flourish.

its interesting for new players to read about the current political climate

So far people from all sides seem friendly and willing to explain the situation both here and in PM's, Thank you for that.

Nidhogg the Chosen from Warhammer and Nidhogg the CIR token carebear diplomat from Mortal Online, so yes. Nice to see you again!

The m2s members summarized it accurately nid.

There is no point in going for an outpost now, as you can get resources easily via beta excursions.

Our corp remains independent. If a server needs to group to take on one small entity, then it's showing lack of pvp skills and orginization by it.

A nice handful of members from the brotherhood have joined us, but there are still lots in IBS,RING,LK still, so correction on that point.

The "small entity" cheated and thereby got a advantage in resources and research all other corps dont have.

Most corps cant defend their outposts because of the way the intrusion system works.
Some cant cover all timezones effectively and m2s is exploiting that by attacking at times when their enemy is weak.

Yes.

Surely that works both ways? if M2s can do that so can other corporations. Attacking when your enemy is weakest sounds like a good tactic to me. Not sportive perhaps but effective.

To bad that outposts dont really give a bonus to the owner. At least tell me that they are better to have then Mortals e-peen extenders; the keeps

Newbie explanation inc, Nid...

Weak timezones are supposed to be covered by protection tokens. You get 1 protection token when you take over an outpost, and 1/3rd of a protection token for every successful defense of your outpost. If someone signs up for an intrusion on the outpost, you can protect it by using up 1 token. The deadline for this is 8hrs before the intrusion goes live. People need to sign up to an intrusion over 12 hrs before it goes live.

Benefits of outposts. If you own an outpost you get a 50% NIC reduction on the use of facilities inside. Facilities that cost NIC are things like repairing items, reverse engineering items and producing items. If you own an outpost, and someone in another corp uses the facilities, they pay the full price for using the facilities and your corp wallet gets 50% of that revenue. In an outpost that's regularly used it amounts to a few million a week. It's not much.