2.6. Outline for 2.7
We’re trying a
slightly different approach to this round. We’re going to try to
attempt to expand our reach into two areas of the game we haven’t
done much with in the past round and function with a more squad
based approach designed to maximize each player’s ability to
contribute to the alliance based on various factors like time zones,
connection, individual skills, etc.
Here’s the breakdown of
the teams we’ll try to field:
1. Raid
Team
A major goal is to improve and streamline the
way we op. Instead of having a huge raid team able to function at
many different hours, we’ll focus on having a smaller, more
reliable, and more efficient raid team in which none of the raiders
on the roster will have time zone conflicts. We’ll make a serious
effort to start ops on time, run them properly, and finish
quickly.
As such, we’ll be switching to one raid time in 2.7:
21:00 EST. Sorry, Euros; attempts to vary raid times this round to
include more people were frustrating and left lots of raiders
sitting around and waiting for ops that worked for them. 21:00 ops
are the best times for most of our core raid team and have the
additional benefits of having less people online and able to run,
less jump threats, and so on.
Euros who can’t make ops that
late and were thinking of raiding, you’ll need to choose something
else to do. We’re at our most effective when players focus on
activites that best suit the times they’re active. For you, this is
mid to late afternoon servertime, the most active period of the day
and the most crucial period to dominate in terms of jumps and
hunting.
Raiders will want to be Zallun.
2.
Solo Hunters
For the first time in several rounds we
are going to be encouraging some solo hunting. With interest, we’ll
be able to accommodate for the increased risks of solo hunting, and
if there’s one skill area of the game in which we could use
significant improvement, it’s there.
We have a lot of
outstanding hunters here who’ve spent the last few rounds in group
ships and not had much of a chance to show off their skills. This is
your chance to play at your best. This is also a great time for
newer players to work on improving your game, hone your TDZK
instincts, and become more competant and complete TDZK players. I’m
hoping you guys go out and make names for youselves not only as Fury
members, but star players in your own rights.
A word of
caution: I am not looking for a bunch of lazy newbbashers going for
killcounts and avoiding fights, or wasting turns, doing dumb things
and suiciding for the hell of it. What I want to see develop is a
squad of active, fast, intelligent, and lethal hunters that can go
out aggressively and dominate the tactical small group and solo
hunting aspect of TDZK combat in the same way we can dominate the
large scale jumping and raiding aspect as an alliance. I want our
talented players to have more freedom to play to their fullest
capabilities and have fun, but I don’t want EVERYONE solo hunting
just because the option is open – only the ones that intend on doing
it well and doing some real damage with it.
Solo hunters
most likely want to be Wraith or Derivan, or possibly
Kitaran.
3. Target Hunters
Something
I have wanted to do for a long time and will finally try to do is
field a small target hunting team. Target hunting is the art of
tracking down and killing specific levelers. It’s a difficult skill
to master and takes a great deal of speed, skill, time and
patience.
I am looking to create a team of 4-5 active, fast,
and dedicated target hunters. As levels and cash will play
significant roles in 2.7 retro, this team would be put into play
immediately and would be expected to track down and dispose of
certain traders, or traders from certain alliances. During wars,
this team would be the primary team dealing with enemy traders – an
area we have been lacking in the last several rounds, due to our
group combat design emphasis. We have a great target hunter already
in Iccyh, and he’ll be able to teach people who would be interested
in this but don’t know how yet.
Target hunters most likely
want to be Wraith or Derivian.
4. Jump
Squad
Much like with the raid team, we’ll be working
to refine and improve our jumping abilities. The 15:00-18:00 EST
part of the day is the most crucial to dominate if we want to jump
raids; I want to see a reliable squad of players online than can be
on for those times and would be interested in doing this. We’ll
highly specialize those ships for group combat and jumps, spend
serious money to make sure they're above effective, and possibly try
to set up a voice chat system to allow for greater speed and
coordination and more tactical possibilities.
People who
aren’t interested in solo hunting or just enjoy larger scale group
fights and can be online during this period are ideal for this. On
larger enemy ops, we’ll likely need at least 10 jumpers to have a
shot. If the right people sign up who can all be on at the same
times, this shouldn’t be a problem.
General
Organizational Goals
In general, we’ll be trying to
refine and streamline the way we operate – make ops easier, make
communication easier, reduce time conflicts and so forth. We want to
make every player be able to contribute to the team in the way that
best suits their skills, time zone, and in game interests. The
participation of every single player in their chosen in game role is
going to be critical; we’re seeking to dominate in every significant
aspect of the game and in trying to include areas like solo and
target hunting, it means everyone will need to step up so make sure
our raid and jump teams continue to be as effective as they’ve been.
We have an excellent team here. Everyone matters. Activity from all
will be required to make it work.
General Round
Plan
Fun as it might be, we’re not going to be
repeating our day three station raid spree this round. If interest
is implemented as expected, building up an early cash supply will be
critical to being competitive as the round progresses. We’ll aim to
spend a couple of weeks trading, then spend the rest of the round
living entirely off the 5% interest.
Due to Tams not having
their cargo hold advantage under 1.0 mechanics, we are NOT starting
people as Tamarans and having them restart later. In fact, it would
be good if we didn’t have Tamarans at all, as they have no
significant advantages and are not as useful for filling other
roles.
We’ll aim for at least one trillion, at max two
trillion depending on how the cash flow is and how people are
feeling at the time. If we reach two trillion quickly, we would be
is unbelievably good shape, making 100 bil from interest (and much
more if that was able to continue to build up) every day.
From the beginning, our target hunters will be sent out to
disrupt and annoy other alliance’s cash makers, as they will likely
have the similar goal of building up cash early.
Once we
have the funds needed, we’ll reship everyone and start doing damage.
The plan is, as always, galactic domination. However, instead of
going about it via a huge raiding/jumping/planet taking plan as we
attempted in 2.6, we’ll instead attempt to do it by eliminating the
competition. 2.7 will likely be a revenge round; we’ll pick off the
alliances involved in the 8002 coalition one by one. SD, XF, Ronin,
KAOS, GTG, and TPx are all included on that list, so we’ll have our
work cut out for us.
With the teams functioning as they
should, we’ll hopefully be able to bring four highly capable areas
of pressure on the alliances we target. We’ll have the raid team
striking effectively and often to kill them when they’re offline.
We’ll have our jump squad poised to deal with their attempts to
retaliate. We’ll have our solo hunters aggressively seeking out
their individual players and small groups. And we’ll have our target
hunters gunning for their traders as they attempt to relevel and
recuperate. It may not be possible to ever really destroy an
alliance in TDZK anymore, but at the very least we’ll put whoever we
target out of the game for the extent that we’re focusing on
them.
Once the round is underway and we know who’s doing
what, there will be a lot more information on the makeup and details
of the specific teams and how they'll be organized. For now, I want
to see who’s interested in doing what. Please try to keep in mind
the times you’ll be able to play, as well as your connection speed
as you sign up; there's no point in having a raider who can only
play in the midafternoon or a target hunter on
56k.