Veteran's Curse

Veteran's Curse
It Can Happen To You

So, I have been milling about since my vacation in October, desperately grasping at straws to figure out, as I say to myself often upon logging on, "After more than twelve months in this game, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

• Logon
• Undock
• Shoot Stuff
• Drink Beer
• Make Merry
• Share Stories
• Entertain Friends

It sounds simple, right? Well, I had been told previously by a number of old timers, that there would be this wall I would hit, with the scope of the game suddenly laid out before me, and having experienced enough of it, I would then wonder, is there anything left, and why do I keep logging on anymore. This sounds ludicrous right? EVE is a huge sand box, there is no endgame? But at a personal level, there is. We all set long term goals for ourselves in EVE once we have had enough experience under our belts to know how to plan ahead six months or more, and when we finally reach that place we had hoped to be, and are then faced with even more planning, we start to wonder, is enough enough? Now, amazing friends to keep me entertained nightly and vice versa aside, I had always assumed this would not happen to me. There's a wealth of wonderful content to experience in this game, so surely I would not run out of steam right?

I did.

So I decided, I guess it was around the middle of November, or so, that the corporation as a whole should just take a huge load off, as we had been going hot and heavy for almost ten months straight at that point, trying to conquer the world, as it were. This was right about the time BEOR, GRIEV, and friends came on board to the AU-F. Unfortunate for them, though I could not really explain at the time, that half the officers were feeling and acting burned out and needed a nice long break from it all. So we lost them. Okay, shit happens. I can live with that, sad as it may be.

Then Dominion drops, and everyone comes back bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the world, and toss their lot into the grand scheme of things. Oh woe is the pilot and group of players who discovers all that glitters is not gold, quickly, and drastically. Dominion brought change alright, but not the kind of change we can believe in, to be cliche.

However, after mucking around in Dominion for almost two months, and having launched our immense Northern Campaign and seen a rejuvenation of corporate incentives, energy, and motivation, I personally feel as refreshed and ready to take on the game as ever before. Maybe it helps that I just purchased, fit, and dazzled at my very first capital ship in the game, my Thanatos, named Simulacrum, because I still have a hard time believing I can now pilot one, let alone that it is physically sitting in a station with my character on board, even though I have been training towards it since September of last year. Maybe it was seeing everyone rush forth to pursue the campaign up in the far reaches of space more than well enough across the entire universe from where we have lived, breathed, and died for a year or so now.

So, I am back, and I am hungry for all things EVE, but here is the catch...

You are sitting down, right? You did not have a big lunch and you do not have a mouth full of milk at the moment with which to conveniently spew out of your nose?

The Northern Coalition is evidently going to turtle their primary assets, RAZOR and Morsus Mihi space, and retreat from Geminate, in order keep at bay the hounds of Triumvirate.

Our Northern Campaign? Poof.

I already shit my pants, don't worry about me.

So what now? I really do not know, I do know that I am continuing with my own project, the empire project, which I am now calling, the Gremlin Campaign, as I am just enamored with that term militarily, merrily dreaming of a some amazing ship model ingame named the Gremlin. This campaign will base out of Caldari high security space so no one needs to throw up their hands and pick up all their PvE or mining ships and mingle back to Domain or anything. And Varian's VERSA project, being a glorious success in my opinion, will continue as planned, but the scenery may change, though I am not certain on the details as it is all being hashed out still.

So what is the bottom line? More change is on the horizon but no one should panic and pick up all their stuff and retreat en masse back to Providence. However, it is in all likelihood that we will have to regroup there, and figure out what to do next, as far as a corporation goes, esp. since we will have to consider the alliance as a whole in the grand scheme of things too. I will be meeting with the heads of the alliance this weekend hopefully, to discuss options, etc.

The next post, hopefully later tonight, or tomorrow, will detail the various competing factors we may or may not have going for or against us, as it concerns gaining access to NBSI space, or taking what we can get and being happy with it. It will help me solidify my sense of the patterns laid out before me, and with any luck, ease the concerns of anyone who is thinking:

What the french toast? We just spent four weeks on a huge campaign only to have it disappear before our very eyes! Mendolus, your untimely death shall be by my hand! Have at thee!

Hopefully to ease those concerns with calming talk such as:

Well, the campaign was only meant to last 6-8 weeks anyways, succeed or fail, so we simply had to cut it short, due to factors beyond our control.

In the end it seems Dominion has opened some doors to us demographically but closed just as many if not more.