def some good points made, why so much QQ about shipboarding?

It always puzzles me as well, especially since its been confirmed already.

My favorite part is where they talk about all the reasons shipboarding isn't feasible and lack of tactical control, and then go on about how Warbarges with mercs onboard are soft targets that can be ganked before boots even hit the ground.

Inconsistent much? I hope we see some compromise so this gets added soon. This is the kind of interaction that makes the gaming media fall in love with Dust again.

[shipboarding has]... been confirmed already.

Ship boarding and/or shooting down warbarges doesn't need to be decided right now. How about we start slowly. Something like the battle in B-R5RB that happened ~2 weeks ago.

It was touted as the biggest battle in EvE history, amounting to nearly $200,000 in destroyed equipment. (Not all of this was dollars spent, most of it was time to farm ISK, which happens to have a conversion to USD. Think of it more like $200k worth of man hours in EvE)

Anyway, the B-R5RB system has 9 planets and 66 moons. One of those planets is Temperate.

How much space debris do you think fell onto that Temperate planet? I bet a lot, considering at least 50 Titans bit it during that fight.

I would think a squadron of DUST Mercs is the perfect security and extraction team for very valuable salvage. Raw materials for making a Titan. The materials they happened to be carrying before they were destroyed. Maybe a fully functioning (or mostly functioning) module?

Dust mercs go in, and fight over the salvage. Winning teams get to keep pieces from the wreckage, then go back for more. DUST battles wage for days in the wake of an EVE battle.

Then, if we had a working market, we could sell their own destroyed ships back to the Capsuleers. It would give DUSTers a reason to care about space wars. And would give DUSTers their first profession: salvager. We can work on pirates, industrialists, etc... later.

Saying you talked with a Goon is like saying you talked with an Englishman. There's a lot of them. Doesn't mean much.

I think in the grand Goon hierarchy being the CEO of Goonfeet is just above Spai and just below Good Spai.

These guys were at least approved by higher leadership. I don't think they wanted another Cerebral Wolf or whatever his name was.

Are we talking about the same Goon leadership that very nearly elected a large box of melting snowballs as Commander of Euro Squad?

Saying you talked with a Goon is like saying you talked with an Englishman. There's a lot of them. Doesn't mean much.

I think in the grand Goon hierarchy being the CEO of Goonfeet is just above Spai and just below Good Spai.

Yes.

I'm sure Mrs. Nature and Mr. Hiel are so very offended by your jab at their relevance. Surely you have crushed goon dreams on this day~

Please tell us more about relevance oh mighty space warrior(-ess?)

Uh-oh, someone has hurt feelings.

Saying you talked with a Goon is like saying you talked with an Englishman. There's a lot of them. Doesn't mean much.

I think in the grand Goon hierarchy being the CEO of Goonfeet is just above Spai and just below Good Spai.

Woah, easy there buddy. You're gonna need a source for that.

I myself am a Groon spai. Para is just the bitterest of great war bittervets. She still has PTSD from Shrike's Titan, and thinks Cavalry Ravens are a thing.

Edit: If you really care about 'True Goon' purity we are that rare commodity, non-J4G SA goons with reg-dates more than 3 months old.

This should be tackled by CCP ASAP. It would just require a voice over on top of some art and that would be more than enough (and I'd assume the majority of the art would be recycled from other uses, meaning it wouldn't even take resources away from the art team). Realistically a handful of employees could bang this out over a weekend and then one other person would spend some time editing it and that small addition would make an immediately huge impact on the way the EVE universe gets interacted with by the traditional player base. And hell, they don't even need to pull DUST resources away to accomplish this if the video is also shared by EVE. They can just set someone on the EVE team into banging this out no problem. Imagine a new video every month explaining the current ongoing changes in the EVE world, going into some backstory, and generally just coloring the lore. Easy win all around.

I'm sure Mrs. Nature and Mr. Hiel are so very offended by your jab at their relevance. Surely you have crushed goon dreams on this day~

Please tell us more about relevance oh mighty space warrior(-ess?)

You're right.

No one should be compared to an Englishman.

Interesting. They don't want mercs ship boarding but view the future slaveminers, ahem, mercenaries as just as a labor force and that being their only chief commodity? If we are good for labor, we are good for sabotaging their ships. It's only fair we have that ability. Not to be only given the option to be their slave workers.

Alot of times, I disagree with Goonfleet perspectives.

My main issue is that EVE battles are spontaneous, unpredictable, and fast. I don't feel mechanically that a Dust battle can be properly staged with two teams forming, deploying, and fighting in the time your typical titan gank takes. Maybe for a battle like HED or 6-VDT where everything was staged ahead of time and based around a timer, but in heavy time dilation a typical twenty minute dust match's effect would be applied 3-4 hours later. Furthermore battles like B-R and Asakai were based on spur of the moment exploitation of unpredictable mistakes.

What I said was simple. If EVE pilots wants us to be their slave labor to mine goods masked in the dressing of skirmish match to obtain goods, we should also be able to attack stations in EVE. In other words, it seems that from the interview, its okay to benefit from the mercs but anything that causes disruption or affect the EVE universe is frowned upon. I've read that many times when it comes to EVE players viewing Dust mercs...just a commodity and nothing more. We should be able to instigate matters in space and affect them as we choose. Not to be just common workhorses for capsuleers that's dressed as some common objective game when really we are just mining for goods. Allow both universes to affect each other.

I signed up for the war, not to mine goods for EVE players to profit on. Give us more meaning than your common footstool.

But seriously how can you say manufacturing and mercenary in the same sentence? The two don't even go together. Mercenaries commonly work below radar and do the dirtiest of war, committing to contracts that provide a nice paycheck when you complete a job that no other law abiding military faction would do.

So how come we need to manufacture? That's morphing from a merc fighting for his sovereignty or money gain to EVE's common workhorse. We are designed for the purpose of war...anything else, we just seem like the Arcadians in 300, bringing farmers to intense battles

Why do you say that. Our merc companies are called corporations for a reason. We can be part of alliance and conglomerates, why If we felt competent enough would be not stake out a planet or asteroid belt, harvest its goodies and in our own manufactories produces weapons and armours?

I know I certainly would if I were a merc....as it happens I am not.

Was thinking: solution might be to start shipboarding in PVE against NPC ships.

'In the aftermath of some of the best discussion ever on the Dust forum [aka the thread that wont go away] Our blog recently had a sitdown with the infamous Goons and talked Dust, good times were had by all. Bombs were dropped. See our blog tomorrow for our sitdown with TEST.'

read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/kk4c8mm

What I said was simple. If EVE pilots wants us to be their slave labor to mine goods masked in the dressing of skirmish match to obtain goods, we should also be able to attack stations in EVE. In other words, it seems that from the interview, its okay to benefit from the mercs but anything that causes disruption or affect the EVE universe is frowned upon. I've read that many times when it comes to EVE players viewing Dust mercs...just a commodity and nothing more. We should be able to instigate matters in space and affect them as we choose. Not to be just common workhorses for capsuleers that's dressed as some common objective game when really we are just mining for goods. Allow both universes to affect each other.

I signed up for the war, not to mine goods for EVE players to profit on. Give us more meaning than your common footstool.

Because I don't want to be just some EVE's players workhorse. I want respect from EVE pilots and right now they view Dust mercs as commodities. That's no different than a toaster oven in your kitchen. I am a mercenary. I came here for the war and to kill...not to mine for goodies. They have other people who can do that. I'm pretty sure that they do. Because, you know, miners mine goods, while mercenaries just fight for contracts or certain beliefs.

OH! and that titan building thing you guys do. Maybe some kind of game mode where the mercs have to sabotage/steal the materials from a shipyard that can be instigated quietly(like from one of those fancy black-ops ships) with a minimal number of clones(like a sqaud or two). if the ship or clones are spotted, then the owner of the station gets an alert, if it goes off without a hitch, then they just log in to missing parts. if the clones or ship are spotted, several defensive gates get put in place that have to be either hacked or blasted open, and automated defenses(small turrets) are activated and they can hire their own mercs to fight.

Because I don't want to be just some EVE's players workhorse. I want respect from EVE pilots and right now they view Dust mercs as commodities. That's no different than a toaster oven in your kitchen. I am a mercenary. I came here for the war and to kill...not to mine for goodies. They have other people who can do that. I'm pretty sure that they do. Because, you know, miners mine goods, while mercenaries just fight for contracts or certain beliefs.

Capsuleers look at each other as commodities... Stations/POSes seem better than ships in the sens that they're more manageable, and the one's keeping the servers up...

That still doesn't excuse how often times we looked upon as insignificant commodities that are workhorses for pilots in space.

That still doesn't excuse how often times we looked upon as insignificant commodities that are workhorses for pilots in space.

EVE pilots are weirdos(Myself included) getting their respect doesn't bother me getting paid (or given gear as reimbursement) does, that's why I joined Top Men, we're decent DUST side but EVE side we're at our full power. trust me a Station would be more managable of a battle than would one on a ship especially with Ti-Di.

In the end, it's not about one side being better than the other, it's just that there needs to be some kind of symbiosis between capsuleers and mercs. We don't steal their ships, they don't start exploding planets with titan bombardments.

And yes, we do provide the raw labor part of the economy, the labor is killing things and hacking stuff. They need to implement the "new eden feel" into it as well, that fundamental feeling of "can I trust this guy or am I going to end up shivved and stuck behind enemy lines in nullsec with titans being hotdropped on my ass". That well, sabotage. Entire wars have been won and lost based on single ships getting destroyed because they got separated from their escort, or entire alliances collapsing due to a single poorly timed logistical failure.

We could be that logistical failure. Imagine a titan pilot trying to get back to his safety bubble only to find that some punk mercs shut it off only moments before? That kind of crap would make headlines! The QQ would be enormous! Imagine the kind of pay you could rake in for (in the idea I posted earlier) robbing a shipyard blind. Hell, imagine the demand for work from EVE since they'd be getting a direct benefit from it.

But then again, all I've ever done is trial accounts and single combat when I either had the drop on them or massively outgunned them, and had the drop on them. at least in the small ship game, it's not necessarily about "sustainable" dps, it's all about being able to punch them into the foorboards on your first volley, before they can activate any of their modules.

Was thinking: solution might be to start shipboarding in PVE against NPC ships.