Bottom post of the previous page:
The CFC were the very best position after the jump changes. The CFC relied far less on bfeing able to project capital forces across the map then PL and N3. The very proof of that is the fact the CFC is enaged on multiple fronts and handling it tidly. Where as N3 and PL can no longer rely on each other/other allies to drop the hammer from across the map if they drop their own super capital fleet. The CFC have assloads of people. This means that objectively speaking, they will beat any opponent in a game of attrition. People like BL/PL/NC can field numbers to match or beat the CFC in a fight. But when you have fight after fight for weeks, these smaller, "elite" alliances don't have the stamina to compete. That's because they need a very high % participation rate compared to the CFC to match them, and you can't expect people to be able to show up for every fight. With the CFC, they don't need to.And yeah with Tech, Mittani went out of his way to point out how retarded it was having this one rediculously valuable moon mineral, which has a natural geographic monopoly. Then sat on most of it and proved the point, telling CCP at every turn to fix it, until they did. Pretty ironic, considering the moongoo change was done supposedly to shake up the old game of 'only R64's were valuable'. Now the CFC make bank on the renting empire.
And Anon, you misunderstand. I don't fly in big fleets, ever. Even if I wanted to I don't often have the time to do it. I only do small scale fighting, solo'ing with my slicer or roaming with my corp. That or kill nerds in my aeon. I just can't be assed sitting in game doing nothing, partly because my laptop gets hot enough to boil an egg. So people just ping me on jabber when shit is happening.
Removing goons, or never having goons in the game wouldn't have helped anything. It's only logical in a game like this. If you want to beat someone, you need either superior doctrine, or better numbers. Ideally both. Goons are very successful because they have a very robust leadership structure, and somethingawful is a steady supply of new recruits. You saw a similar thing happen with Test, but A: Reddit is cancerous, and B: They had shitty leadership and loads of fair weather members.
So anyway, with or without goons, it's only logical that an alliance with friends is more likely to win then one without them. Those that don't have friends, that cant escalate the fight, lose. They keep losing, moral breaks, and the alliance disbands. Alliances that have friends, that are able to throw the bodies and the ships into the fight win, and get stronger. Then there is no logical reason to let new comers into the null game, without choosing a side. The logical end to this is less and less groups, but them getting larger and larger.
Basically EVERY party involved has AGREED that this is not good for the long term health of the game, but just like technetium, or tracking titans and every other winning mechanic, just because people think it's fucking retarded from a game design standpoint, doesn't mean they're going to crucify themselves by not taking advantage of it.
The jump changes have helped, but we'll have to wait for the sov changes to see how successful CCP will be with tackling this problem.
