Taram Caldar
Caldari
Noir.
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Posted - 2009.06.30 13:21:00 -
[1]
TBH, in response to the OP...
The reason there isn't a 'new MC' is pretty basic.
Most pilots who want to be mercs want nothing to do with sov warfare.
It really is just that simple. With SOV working the way it does now there's really no incentive to working merc work at the sov level. It's boring, it's tedious, the risk-to-reward ratio just isn't worth it. Even MC was thinking about moving out of 0.0 and going 'back to basics' for merc work before Tortuga.
Even if that weren't true:
The days where a merc force could field more caps than a sov-holding alliance are pretty much over. Add to that the giant nap-trains in 0.0 now and it's just not feasible for a merc unit to pull what MC did in the north to D2. Especially not with Cyno Jammers combined with Jump Bridges combined with napfests that can field titans to nuke any fleet stupid enough to make a run at a cyno jammer. Even back then had D2 not torched it's relationships with, well, EVERYONE in the north they'd probably still be there.
No, the days of merc outfits that can smash up people's sov is over. Because as soon as you get those kinds of numbers you're gonna wind up taking sov yourself just so you can afford to field the caps necessary to do so. And once you hold sov yourself you can kiss merc work goodbye because defending your space then trumps any contract. It's not like you can tell an employer 'sorry dude we have to forefeit your work in order to go defend our space, sorry that screws up your attack plan'.
People enjoy bashing the fact that MC made arrangements with BOB to hold their space in Period Basis but, really, that's the only way that MC could still be a merc outfit. As long as BOB stayed strong MC didn't have to defend their space, which allowed them to be mercenaries. If BoB hadn't been covering MC's assets for the most part MC would not have been able to remain a merc force, however biased, due to having to defend their space constantly. And even with that MC had to slowly morph from an assault group that smashed enemies to more of a 'leadership' group that organized combat and led allied fleets rather than doing all the work themselves. Simply because they couldn't afford to play attrition wars against large alliances. This is even more true today than then for all the reasons I went into above.
So, in short, the days when a merc outfit could do those kinds of things are really over. Mercs can still dramatically impact battlefields just not in the way that older players remember. Mercs take a more specialized role now rather than 'in your face smashing your towers' kind of thing.
That's just my perspective.
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