Monday, June 11, 2012

Entry One

The recent change in faction wars has definitely reignited interest in the warzone. Switching from a "Big Wardec" to a resource based system has been pretty fun. Each faction has grown due to the changes and I applaud CCP for being very balanced in they're approach to how faction wars works. Although not the perfect system *cough* defensive plexes the fights are still prevalent and actually mean more. And the war between the frogs and squids has been fierce from  the new changes. A huge game of tug of war is occurring nether side is able to gain any kind of concrete war zone control.

The current strategies being employed are short term and are meant to cash in the LP's one faction has earned for a new supply of iskies. But the repercussions of this are being felt by the Fallente by now. It seems they've burnt the supply of iskies  from the push they had this weekend. The start of friday they had an organized LP drop to get them into teir 2 but by the start of today they have been plexed back to teir 1 and had a intense week of fighting leading up to friday through to the weekend. This has something I've been exploring as far as the "Economics" of warzone control and it has lead me to conclude that teir 3 with organized LP drops to teir 4 is the most effective way for a faction to be successful as far as steady cash flow.

The reason why? look at the minmatar for example. They currently control 56 systems out of a possible 70. This is going very well for them against they're hated foes bringing they're faction steady cash but if they're conquest goes unchecked they're factional market will tank and burn a in a fiery crash. The results are already  being seen  in rens.

The tempest fleet issue market was soaring pre-inferno and if you stocked up on minmatar lp's before the expansion then you made it out fairly well.At its peak fleet issue tempests were selling for 410m-420m now look around the time of inferno given the minmatars war zone control at the start they severely depressed they're market when it comes to this faction battleship. But I calculate the minmatar's war zone control to be in the high teir 3 which is the "Goldy Locks" area of control if they are careful they can flat line (stabilize) the prices and keep them consistent.

 Now the stabber fleet issue that we have been seeing prevalent amounts of. Again we see a downward trend at the start of inferno the prices are even cheaper in jita. The minnies are again seeing a depressed market and can easily push supply over the demand for the ship if not careful. But i'm sure enough of the damn things die so demand will be up for awhile.


These are interesting things to observe the "diminishing returns" CCP spoke of. Underdogs have a means to fight back effectively with planned drops and offensive pushes an underdog faction (like the amarr) can ramp up they're capacity for war. But lets say the tug-of-war we see in the caldar vs gallente the war here is different, we have a huge warzone totaling 606 points over 101 systems. Having 25 systems to lvl 5 would mean 1/4 of the warzone is under total control and is equal to 150 points toward warzone control if you account for a tolerance zone of 15 lvl 4 systems and leaving the rest at lvl 3 and keeping the out lying systems @ lvl 3would push one faction to a very desirable teir 3. I say keep the rest at teir 3 because its manageable LP to feed the hungry ihubs. It costs one person 50k LP to bring a system from 0-3 and that equals 2 20min majors to do. But if you were to having to constantly bring a system from 0-5 or even 3-5 is taxing to do on a daily basis.

Target selection of space is crucial to a long term tier 3 goal if a faction goes after targets that are too far away from where they are staged and don't push a plex to vulnerable into a favorable  timezone they how are they gonna keep it? These short term lp drops have proved effective when a faction needs isk, but burn pilots out trying to defend systems that players aren't at, even going on a push can be taxing after seeing the efforts of the weekend shrivel and go back to where they started.

It will be interesting too see what happens next as the competition for systems reaches a fever pitch. If one faction is placed itself strategically placed in areas that are close by and have high LP values in them, and they defend those systems while only having to give low amounts of LP to keep those systems sustained they'll do well, in the market and apparently on the field. It gives me goosebumps thinking about the major engagements yet to come, don't worry frogs we'll make enough rape sauce for you too.

-SHAM

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