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.