Adobe Raide
Tribal Liberation Force
Minmatar Republic
3
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Posted - 2014.06.27 07:21:00 -
[1] - Quote
Two neutrals (one destroyer, one fleet frig or assault frig) decided to jump my destroyer in a plex. I locked them, fought, lost my ship. Scrambled... then had to dodge around the solar system till my 'hostile' flag burned off. Because attacking neutrals who are attacking me is hostile. In a Faction Warfare complex. They said "GF" in local. A courtesy I appreciate but so patently false - a good fight would have been one t1 destroyer (like mine) manned by an opponent in the Faction War - that I couldn't reply in kind. A really bold fight would have been a T1 frigate versus my destroyer. I've been in one such fight. Almost all the others follow this pattern:
1) my opponent is a "neutral". As such I take a faction hit when I attack him. He gets the jump on me if I don't. Hostile NPCs will tear me a new one throughout the fight if I'm in an offensive plex or a mission - said NPCs/mission opponents will not touch 'neutrals'. For some reason NPCs will not attack a hostile ship in a warfare zone if it is'nt flagged as part of FW.
2) my opponent will have superior numbers, and/or a better ship. Always. These courageous fellows almost never face me with the same class of ship, alone.
3) if I'm running missions in a SB I will be ganked by a "neut" in a ship that costs 3 times as much as mine (a "garmur", 200M on the market last I checked, was the last to jump in and instalock me - prior ganks were 65+ M assault frigs). This has occurred before I could complete a single mission on three occasions in the past week. All of these gankers/attackers are supposedly "neutral". The last one to attack me while missioning was ranked 37th in pvp in the game.
4) if go to a heavier ship to avoid the SBs fragility then the missions go much, much slower. Like, I couldn't complete the one I tried in the long gun fleet cruiser but that was okay because it took me so long the inevitable 'neut' had time to select his preferred counter ship - he then waded into a room with 50+ hostile ships attacking mine - and he added his point and damage to the fray. For some reason the NPCs did not attack him (that I could see). So - as far as missions - I can be ganked in a SB or I can be ganked in a Fleet cruiser. Probably I could mix it up and be ganked in a BC or BS if I had money to burn but I've heard those ships stand out as beacons to gankers. Because a flag that pops up across the solar system when you start the mission isn't beacon enough.
Having had enough of this joy I went back to deplexing tonight, whereupon the events that opened this post occurred.
A good fight is a relatively evenly matched fight, in my opinion. While I'm learning to pvp I don't expect to - on a regular basis - be ganked by top rated pvp vets strapped into 200+ M dollar ships. Occasionally, sure. But it occurs on a regular basis (when you try to run missions). You'd think they'd grow tired of easy prey. You'd think they'd want a challenge. You'd think, on the average, in the relative sanity of FW you'd be matched up against roughly equal players, roughly equal ships. You'd be thinking wrong.
The thing is these "neutrals" have the benefit of not being flagged to NPCs in either plexes or missions, not being flagged to stations in the system. They have the advantage of not being flagged with any flag... unless their status is low (which they can fix fairly easily) there is no indication of their hostile intentions until they jump into your plex (or its anterroom) or mission. They are given an advantage by game dynamics. In the FW arena, being a member of FW is a liability - by game design.
Is FW supposed to be a ruse to roll out naive newbies for ganking from the sad sociopaths that litter the veteran ranks of this game? And if that IS the intention - shouldn't those bizarre people who get off on killing beginners be obliged to at least face the same liabilities (flagging, npc's, hostile mission ships) as the newbies?
At present FW mechanics favor non-FW players. I cannot think why that's a good idea.
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