When it becomes clear that you have no chance to win a game, you are then presented with three options. You can continue to play and hope that your opponent makes a critical error that turns things around. You can flip the table so no one has any fun, as DPC did. Or you can accept defeat and move on, so both your and your opponent can stop wasting your time when the outcome is already certain.
I've been writing this post in my head all day, and it's gone through many revisions. In some versions, I was quite angry, calling out several people I believe are responsible for Discovery's decline. In others, I was quite depressed, blaming myself for basically everything.
But ultimately I came to the conclusion that I have no reason not to do this. This was, I must confess, a liberating thought.
I had fun with the Natio RP. But ultimately, not much else. Everything else (and a fair bit of that) was work, and with no payoff in sight. Even when I tried setting up other characters, I'd fly through five systems before finding people unless I stayed in Liberty, where I'd have to deal with hostile caps regardless of which ship I was using.
So, about that RP. What happens from here?
Natio Octavarium: The planetary colony is still running. Raider forces have fallen back to a purely defensive role, to ensure that no uppity pirates decide to raid. Suborbital infrastructure has improved considerably, meaning...
Seasons Base: Has been sold to the Junker Marauders.
RHA: Has received the data and full blueprints to refit a Hel-class Interdiction Cruiser into a Huginn-class Operations Cruiser (the Black Cloud project). They should be able to adapt this to a Vidar frame easily enough. Additionally, they and the Bundschuh have received all data on enhanced encryption, jamming, and communications security that this project provided. Sorry, I meant to play out at least some of this in-game, but it was not to be.
The Raiders, by command agreement, are hereby disbanded.
With that, the only reason I had to remain is gone. So, I'm leaving again.
Wulverine got my only valuable ships. Cap8 Bison with BS scanner, cap6 ATrans, some snubs.
Anyone who'd want to contact me already knows how, and I'd hope the rest of you can figure it out easy enough.
The final decree of VR command is thus: The only people that have permission to revive this faction are myself, Kazinsal, or Dream Theater/atlantis2112.
Last time I left, I was gone for about two years. If Discovery lasts long enough, perhaps I'll return. But not for a while.
As of now, Thexare and I are disbanding the Vagrant Raiders faction. Neither of us have the motivation to continue maintaining an in-game presence on Discovery, and we can't seem to lead our people well enough to generate activity. It's sad, and I personally feel like I have failed as a faction leader by allowing this to happen.
The truth of the matter is, this game just is not fun any more. There are many reasons for this, but I can think of one big one: It's no fun playing a game when everyone with any form of power shafts you. I don't even have an issue with people not logging but because that was a direct result overall of the faction getting stepped on over and over again, like it was the first time, and the second. And when we finally got something we wanted, it was so distorted that it wasn't what we spent months requesting over and over at all. By the strictest definitions, yes, it was something along the lines of what we requested. But was it what we asked for? No. Not at all.
This seems kind of selfish, but god damn, guys, come on now. An official faction can not be expected to uphold a higher standard of roleplay and interaction on the server if we're being actively restricted from what we *can* do on the server. I don't know how many of you guys have actually read the Vagrant Raiders ID, but for those of you who haven't, it's... pretty awful. Incredibly limited ZoI, which we tried to have swapped around to reflect different diplomatic positions and got incredibly negative (very little overall though) response. A tech chart that makes the Xenos look fortunate. And then there was the inter-faction drama that we didn't want any part in.
I'm also resigning from the forum staff. There's nothing left here for me to do. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the people who run this place.
No, you cannot have my stuff. It's already been given to a faction that I believe is one of the best on the server and which I hope finds much greater success on Discovery than my own has.
So there it is. I give up. You win, Discovery. You got the better of me, and instead of trying to fight to get it all back just to lose it all again, I'm done. You've got no more grasp on me. I'll see you in Broken Bonds.
"So it goes." - my partner in crime who posted above me
Wow. Amen.
Been here 1 1/2 yrs. Absolutely loved it at first. 80 + hrs a week. some 30+ hr stretches.
Had friends and lots of good interaction. I'm a Junker, so I know about how you feel. Everyone got fed up and went. Now no reason to log. I may have 4 hrs the last month. Just have better things to do. That's life. Let's hope SC ends up being as great as they say. Let them have this, and "we" can move on to new pastures.