2.6. The Plan
The Plan - Introduction
Iccyh:
Coming
into 2.5, we had one of the best rosters TDZK has ever seen and versus
Warriors, we put out an amazing war effort. However, fighting Warriors
wasn't ideally what we wanted to do and when inactivity started to hit
hard, we found we couldn't do quite what we wanted to anymore. We want
to be able to both hunt and raid effectively on our own and right now,
we can't do that. We're going to change this, by changing both how we
raid and how we hunt.
With
our hunting, we're going to need to coordinate on our designs and we're
going to need to pick our races carefully. This round, we've had a
variety of races flying a large variety of shield bubbles. We've had
virtually no other kinds of ships. This has left us weak when carriers
have come around and it's left us weak versus groups that have designed
more tightly than us. Far and away the best races for group combat next
round are going to be Zalluns and Snivs. We need to make sure we
recognize this and pick our races accordingly. Then, we need to make
sure we design our ships to compliment each other rather than having
general ships that do everything. We need to work as a team, rather
than a group of individuals.
Currently, high level raiding takes
two teams of raiders, shield and armour. This means that we end up in
situations where we can get good raider turnout but either not be able
to hit 30s due to missing armour raiders or we're not able to hit many
because of a lack of shield raiders. In order to be able to do things
most efficiently with both types of raiders, we need 10 separate
raiders per port. Given the size of our alliance (we've roughly 40
signed up for next round) this isn't something we can reasonably expect
without compromising our ability to cover greatly. So, we're wanting to
move to AI raiding. AI raiding is very, very expensive but it allows a
single team to raid high level ports very effectively. This means we're
able to get far more done with fewer people. For an alliance of our
size and skill, this is ideal.
However, parking high level AI
raiders in ports is a dangerous thing to do. They're obvious targets
and it really, really hurts if we lose them. So, we're aiming at
building a true fortress planet like the game has not seen before.
Barring people suiciding multiple level 300 ships into it, this planet
will not even begin to be touchable. This planet will make previous
fortresses like Bubblegum and Tyr look weak and pathetic in comparison.
Unfortunately,
fortress planets just don't appear out of thin air and neither do
fleets of AI raiders. This is going to cost a lot of money and in order
to get that money, we're going to need to make a real effort as a team
to try and get as much money as possible as quickly as possible. This
doesn't mean that we're going to need everyone cash trading or that
cash is going to be our only goal (far from it), but we need to make
sure that we donate, we need to make sure we sign up planet builders
and we need to make sure that we put the alliance before ourselves.
From day one, we'll be keeping this in mind.
The Plan - Stage One
Iccyh:
By the third day of 2.6, we're aiming to be
able to raid anything and everything on the map. By having a dangerous
raid fleet this soon, we'll be able to take advantage of people's poor
docking habits, we'll be able to crush alliances before they're really
able to get their own plans off the ground and we'll be able to make a
ton of money doing it. All we need is a solid early cover team, a solid
early raid team and about $6 billion dollars.
The Cover
Carriers
make for excellent hunters early on. If we have a group of about 7-10
Snivs that level to 10 and store turns, we can ship them into small
carriers. If we load up the carriers with auras, we'll have a *very*
strong cover and jump fleet early on while we'll be able to raid easily
with the correct auras.
The Raiders
If they're going to still
be around next round, we'll be using Persecutors as raiders. If they're
not, well, we'll adapt this plan accordingly but this is what we're
looking at for now. Our raid team of about 10 raiders would simply get
themselves to the correct alignment and store turns.
The Cash
The
rest of the alliance, especially our Tamaran traders, should easily be
able to make $6 billion by the 3rd day. This doesn't need much
explanation, it just means that we're going to need to be very, very
good about organizing our trading and donating over the first few days.
The Op
The
current raider design we're looking at should allow us to be able to
hit any port in the game at the time, as well as any stations. More
than that, we should easily be able to make back any money spent on the
raiders that very first day as we'll likely be raiding near a dozen of
the most packed ports and stations in the game in quick succession.
After
the op, we'd be left with a ton of kills, a number of raids, a raid
fleet capable of hitting large numbers of ports whenever we feel like
it and a solid source of income for us while still having fun. By doing
something like this rather than just trading, it gives us stuff to do,
it keeps the rest of the game on their toes (the raid fleet should be
adaptable enough to last quite awhile) and it will mean we'll be able
to take everyone by surprise later on when they realize that our goal
for the round was to do more than just fly around with cheap ships
killing easy stuff at the start.
By roughly a month into the
round, we're hoping to have our planet mostly complete and enough money
to fund our raid fleet, with a good amount left aside for reships for
cover and raiders.
Once we're ready to fight, we've got a target
in mind to demonstrate our ships and our skills on. We'll be aiming for
a huge op to kick things off, hopefully taking out a huge amount of our
opposition while giving them no warning and no chance. We'll then
proceed to mop them up and move on.
If we're able to keep active
and pull this plan off, we should easily be able to take on the rest of
the game on our own. We'll have a virtually unraidable planet, we'll
have the strongest raid fleet in the game and an unstoppable jump and
cover fleet to go with it.
We'll take on the game and we'll win.
The Plan - Stage Two
Iccyh:
While it would be nice to think that we'd be able to make all of the
money we need through kill raiding, that would be a bit too much to
hope for. So, we've got to make sure that everyone else (meaning
everyone who isn't actively raiding or a sniv covering) is contributing
in one way or another.
Trading
This
is the most obvious thing. While we're going to have some dedicated
traders next round hopefully, we're going to also need everyone who's
not part of the op/jump team to be donating as much as possible. Keep
in mind that our non-Sniv cover are likely going to be the people
trading at this point and that our non-Sniv cover should be almost
entirely Zallun. While trading or resourcing as Zallun isn't near as
much fun as it might be, keep in mind that the only real difference
between a Zallun and any other race is the number of holds and holds
are easily upgradable.
Item Sweeping
Early on this round, one
of our best donators happened to be Baron Troskey, someone who was
mostly inactive. When he did have turns, he went around sweeping for
items, refining the spores, extracting the crystals and selling the
rest. Despite him not being able to be on regularily, he helped us a
ton. If you're not going to be able to be as active as you might like,
consider item sweeping as an option as we still need people
contributing however they can.
Planet Builders
As always, we
need planet builders. And again, as always, we don't want anyone in
Fury to actually end up doing this. Get people from other games, get
your friends, get whoever and get them set up to planet build. If we
had 30 planet builders, within two weeks of the beginning of the round
we'd be able to have 4 planets making a total of $2 billion per day all
on their own. Once again I'll be talking to my sister to see if I can
make an arrangement with her Earth alliance (explorers traded for
builders) and if she can't come through, we may try talking to other
alliances instead. We need builders.
The Plan - Stage Three
By
roughly a month into the round, we're hoping to have our planet mostly
complete and enough money to fund our raid fleet, with a good amount
left aside for reships for cover and raiders.
Once we're ready
to fight, we've got a target in mind to demonstrate our ships and our
skills on. We'll be aiming for a huge op to kick things off, hopefully
taking out a huge amount of our opposition while giving them no warning
and no chance. We'll then proceed to mop them up and move on.
If
we're able to keep active and pull this plan off, we should easily be
able to take on the rest of the game on our own. We'll have a virtually
unraidable planet, we'll have the strongest raid fleet in the game and
an unstoppable jump and cover fleet to go with it.
We'll take on the game and we'll win.
The Plan - Race Signups
Iccyh:
As
mentioned elsewhere, we really, really need to make sure that we pick
races that are going to be directly useful for either hunting, raiding
or trading (RCing as well).
Cover - Sniv
Our Snivs are going
to be hugely important for us next round. They'll be our early cover,
they'll be a huge boost on our jumps and they'll be able to drone raid
if it's needed. If you like carriers or drones, definitely sign up for
Sniv.
Cover - Zallun
Even with their shield bonuses removed,
Zalluns are still far and away the most dangerous group combat race in
the game with their armour bonus and their incredibly powerful racial
weapons. Zalluns will anchor our cover and jump teams, making us
hellishly hard to beat in combat.
Raider - Zallun
No real explanation needed here, Zalluns are still the only way to go for raiders.
RC - Wraith
Going
with Wraith for our RCs allows us to use our RCs not just for repping
raiders but it also gives them the ability to get into cheap stealth
ships and help out on jumps as well.
Trader - Tamaran
Here's another obvious one, Tamaran for our dedicated traders. No explanation needed.
Others
If
you're wanting to be a race other than what's listed for the position
it's listed for, please post here or message a leader. Be prepared to
defend your choice, as with us not being a large alliance, we need
everyone to contribute and put the team first if we're going to be able
to pull this plan off. We need to get as much as we possibly can from
what we've got.
CURRENT SIGNUPS
Sniv
DCD
LotD
HLS
Octavious
FuzzyBunny
Kamui (or Zal)
Ellendil (or Zal)
Foamy (or Zal)
Zallun
Solace (hunter)
Detmer (hunter)
Iccyh (hunter)
Rodin (hunter)
NG147 (hunter)
TTBre (hunter)
AKULA (hunter)
Stainless (hunter)
Ghost (raider)
XePa (raider)
Demagosos (raider)
Danny (raider)
Ingen (raider)
Vips (raider)
Bub (raider)
Kinetika (raider)
Lilal (raider)
Daz (raider)
Nightmyre (whatever needed)
Weatherlight (undecided)
Ragiski (undecided)
Agito (undecided)
Allen (undecided)
Athrun (undecided)
Tamaran
zer0das (cash cow)
Jirnoa (cash cow)
Firestorm (cash cow)
Wraith
Blah (RC)
Ashanthalas (ERROR: SEWING MACHINE NOT FOUND)
The Plan - Finishing Thoughts
Solace:
So:
Why? Why all the meticulous planning, the preparation, the directions,
expenses and sacrifices? Why the focus in our approach to the new round?
The
reality is that in many ways, this round has been a huge
dissapointment. When 2.5 began, the Fury core was active and intact.
Talented players were joining in droves; the roster seemed to be in
better shape than it has ever been. The raid team was fielding two
squads alone, and we'd picked up good, experienced hunters from all
over the game. It was my every expectation that we would dominate
easily and immediately.
Instead, what happened? Some players
who'd joined found they had loyalties elsewhere and left. Some cited
real life issues and slowly faded away. Others simply disappeared
without a word. And activity problems rolled through the core group of
longtime Fury members. So we moved along, showed some grit, made ends
meet, and in general did what we needed to do. And we did decently.
I
have a one huge motivation for playing TDZK, and it's this: to make
Fury the best damn alliance the game has ever seen. I want to own every
round we play in and 'decently' doesn't cut it for me. I feel that
this is the finest squad currently playing and you all deserve better
than an "okay" round.
So this is why we're doing things
differently in 2.6. The idea behind The Plan is simple: to do more with
less. We don't have a huge base of players to draw on, but instead of
trying to remedy that again like we did this round simply by bringing
in players from all over the place, we're going to make sure that we
get the very maximum we can out of every player and every ship. We're
going to have a mindblowing planet to protect our assets. We're going
to have a raid team which can carry the alliance even without huge
numbers of raiders. And we're going to have warbirds as lethal as we
can design them, starting from the initial race selection.
It's
a lot to ask of an alliance. For us to be effective, we're going to
need teamwork on a scale which is almost unprecedented for a TDZK
alliance, and raising 600 billion isn't going to be easy. But it will
be worth it. The fact is, I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't have
total faith in your ability to do this. You have no idea thow much
respect and gratitude I have for those of you who are reading this;
you're the ones who have proven you can be the counted on; you're the
ones who've shown the ability to survive through thick and thin. You're
the ones who've shown the loyalty to rejoin for yet another round.
So, stick with it. You'll be glad you did, and it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.