| Author |
Topic |
Lord Maldoror
Amarr
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:48:00 - [ 1]
Edited by: Lord Maldoror on 28/07/2009 06:59:30
FDN is disbanding, at least in this incarnation.
The actual disbanding is simply because much of the capital power, two-thirds of the FCs and the leader and second in command are all leaving. That's the tl;dr version but for anyone curious, here's a bit about the alliance itself.
A few facts that made us a little different from the average alliance:
- Around 30 member corps at our peak, i.e. an alliance composed of lots of small corps. This was a legacy of the 'banding together & down from the hills, pitchforks in hand' nature by which the alliance formed in the first place.
- NRDS policy. Obviously never perfect; mistakes get made; overworked diplomats spend a lot of time pondering who-shot-first questions or discussing what consitutes 'hostile history'. Still, we did a commendable job of a difficult problem. It can never be perfect but it was good.
- Based in Great Wildlands (NPC 0.0).
- Known for liking capitals.
We've probably had both our share of undue praise and over-zealous criticism, but an interesting description I noticed from another recent thread was an erudite goon observation, that described us a 'butte'. Perhaps he actually meant something more anatomical but let's roll with it for a moment.
Wiki tells us that a 'butte' (pronounced 'beaut') is "(IPA: /bju:t/) an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides". Isolated? Our strange policies (by Eve standards) meant that was definitely the case. But I think killboards do record that many attackers did meet those vertical sides.
To stretch the analogy a little far, wiki goes on to inform us that such hills are formed by "erosion when a cap of hard rock, often of volcanic origin, called cap rock (hard core pvpers), covers a layer of softer rock that is easily worn away (<3 our ratters)".
At any rate, I'd like to think we were a good hillock in a game of mountainous powerblocs.
During our time in the Great Wildlands we fought people from across the different Eve allegiances, such as Veritas (several times), FIX, TCF and Red Alliance. And we 'bow out' (not that everyone is just abandoning the region, mind you) at a time of relative peace when there is no major invading force. |
Lord Maldoror
Amarr
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:49:00 - [ 2]
Ending
Probably that lack of a major invading force was a problem once RA & friends ceased to have presence in the Wildlands. Because of the Wildlands theme - and thereby some of the memberbase's understandable relunctance to lose too many assets outside GW - not everyone wants to leave but once you grow to fight a big enemy (and keep in mind RA had more corps when they invaded than they do now), people get a taste of different combat and not everyone wants to stay, either.
We did try to capture assets in Scalding but as soon as we had some prom moons in hand, XdX were on hand to back up RA & allies, which prevented any further advance. And with RA pushed back from GW and no threat present at home, it's difficult to push on, given the philosophy of the alliance and micromanagement required in an NRDS region.
So a prospect of waiting for the next major invader beckoned, whilst gradually losing key pvpers in the meantime and the lack of targets turning old friends against each other.
When the announcement was in alliance mail there was a scramble of various parties to try and change holding corps and votes and such, as corps left - but FDN is such a specific idea that when it's no longer tenable it's surely better to bow out on top and draw a line under it, at least for a little time to pass.
What of the region? There are some damn good people who will continue to be NRDS in Wildlands and also some damn good people who will now be NBSI in Wildlands (it was no easy task keeping everyone on side). I can't say what will happen but I'm certain it'll be an interesting place. I would like to think, though, that Foundation's lengthy period of GW reign will stand as an example of what can be achieved in NPC 0.0 space. |
Lord Maldoror
Amarr
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:50:00 - [ 3]
Why NRDS?
I know a lot of people on here find the NRDS aspect to FDN baffling. When I joined FDN we were only a small group on 7q gate (a GW entry system) so aside from being civil, being NRDS was also quite pragmatic - we'd shoot those aligned to the hostile powers of the region and allow through those who weren't, in the hope that some might be impressed and join the cause (hence the 'down from the hills' aspect to the origins that I referred to earlier). Since I inherited the NRDS policy I stuck ruthlessly to it with FDN. Obviously once we actually owned the region, things became a lot more complicated - a free-for-all area where anyone could drop towers ('The Gulliver'), intricate maps of GW with different blues and neutrals divided and marked, arbitration for shooting incidents, rules on what consistuted hostile history, and so on. A lot of CAOD-ers will wonder whether all that is worth the effort, so I'd like to offer some food for thought, as to what made it worth pursuing and why it wasn't always the carebear-friendly stance it may seem to be: 1) Identity. Obviously the likes of Kenny, Goon, AAA, etc. have their own strong identity that comes across in all their doings, perhaps what makes them resilient. Likewise alliances like TCF and RA have strong national identities that bind them, based on language, geography, etc. (obviously their pvp ability also). But beyond this, sometimes the game can be an arbitrary battle of red versus blue standings. Having alliances with different Rules of Engagment adds more flavours to the mix. In a game where we all do a lot to make our alliances unique, being NRDS helped to stand out from the crowd. 2) You know your friends. Having someone set you blue is easy. Eve is increasingly divided into major powerblocs so there is nothing remarkable about blue standings. But when a major alliance tells its pilots to change their NBSI policy to be NRDS when they are in Wildlands, you know they actually respect you. In that sense it's a litmus test for who your friends are. For example after fighting against TCF (which began because they were NBSI in Great Wildlands), when that ended they told their pilots to be NRDS in Wildlands. For us that was a way of knowing they did care about future friendship and led to us joining them on some nice capital fights ( mkv / wmv). |
Lord Maldoror
Amarr
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:50:00 - [ 4]
3) There's something deeply cool about tackling a hapless neutral freighter in a Bhaalgorn on a 0.0 gate, studying his history which was hostile but not sufficiently to shoot him, deciding we believed his story, realising that his route takes him back through a dozen low-sec pirate systems, sending him on his way unharmed - and then realising that we should assault Darwin's sensibilities for a moment by making sure he gets home. But not being above using him as bait to get kills all the way there :) And NRDS GW life is peppered with lots of incidents like that. One of my favourite was an early one, before we owned GW, where I was camping the gate with my friend Valdor (a great FC who departed FDN in recent times) in a couple faction-fitted battleships. Two neutral battleships jumped in, panicked at seeing a bubble and started shooting, splitting fire across both of us. We tanked it, explained the NRDS rules and suggested they go back and try it again. So they sheepishly went back to the gate, jumped out - probably had a chat on the other side as to whether we were serious or not - and then jumped back in. This time they flew clear of the bubble and went on their way. Shortly afterwards, local next door went up with a hostile gang and our neutral friends were high-tailing it back past us, making the Eve equivalent of frantic hand signals about a hostile blob, with arms prize-trout wide (in reality we were outnumbered only 2-1). On a different day we might have died but we engaged the hostile gang and killed them. And, true, we could have had another two BS on the board if we'd earlier killed the neutrals too, rather than indulge them. But the sight of seeing our new friends looting the hostile cans/wrecks in awe probably made us feel more important than internet spaceships have any business doing  NRDS can be a strange business. But it's deeply civil. And Hannibal Lector reminds us that you can have manners and still kill people. It may be a game where you often can't kill off your enemies because they always come back in new clones. But you can certainly exasperate them by doing your own thing and enjoying it. |
Lord Maldoror
Amarr
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:51:00 - [ 5]
Final Campaign
Our last campaign was against Red Alliance (who were significantly larger when the campaign started than today). When they first attacked towers in South GW, they had a lot more dreads than we did and so we had to use some unorthodox tactics to fight with carriers against larger numbers of dreads. Gradually we built up our dread fleet and the story is told here leading up a major battle in M-M. We also regularly fielded triage tactics against them. The last major capital battle was in Y7, where we were able to again bait out their dread fleet. This gave us a period of free reign with capitals where we only had their support BS fleets to contend with and we used it to go after assets in Scalding Pass. After taking LBC's prom moon, XdX and others joined the list of Russian alliances blocking any further progress and we had to settle for having 'liberated' GW again. Open BooksWith corps given a lot of freedom, and towards the end not even pursued much for the 5mil/member alliance fee, FDN was never a rich alliance at holding corp level. Nonetheless, open books have merits and here is the wallet from the time that Loafer (then a director) emptied the alliance wallet some months ago. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
JacKDynne
Minmatar
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:53:00 - [ 6]
Edited by: JacKDynne on 11/04/2009 09:58:27All the best - was fun in GW. Can I get my shuttles out of M-M now?  |
mr passie
Minmatar
Di-Tron Heavy Industries
Atlas Alliance |
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:54:00 - [ 7]
and this barely one week after you finally blew up my sleipnir I had lying around in N-D! I know everyone will deny this but it was all PJI's doing...  Also I totally deny any accusations of sir molly-ism beforehand. all joking aside was fun shooting you guys, have fun in doing whatever you are up to. |
Tierie
Caldari
Caldari Provisions
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 09:56:00 - [ 8]
Best of luck, FDN. |
Lecnor
Amarr
H A V O C
Against ALL Authorities |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:00:00 - [ 9]
had good fun when what was left of FIX invaded with Veritas ..... well the fight outside the EO2 station was the the best moment hope you all have fun in whatever you do.. |
Karab Gerlinger
Caldari
Rim Collection RC
Kraftwerk. |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:06:00 - [ 10]
Best wishes o7 |
Rexthor Hammerfists
Caldari
Rage of Inferno
Burning Ambition |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:11:00 - [ 11]
Good luck. Ive always been impressed by how you handled the politics and kept ra etc at bay. Hopefully it wont be the last of you guys to hear. |
Lanari
Gallente
Fairlight Corp
FOUNDATI0N |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:14:00 - [ 12]
Goodbye GW and occupants it was a good run! |
edensson
Minmatar
Sebiestor tribe
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:17:00 - [ 13]
Edited by: edensson on 11/04/2009 10:33:42:( nooooo Ex-FDN...  |
Shinma Apollo
Caldari
Shut Up And Play
WE FORM VOLTRON |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:31:00 - [ 14]
A lot of respect to you guys for accomplishing your goals on your terms. NRDS usually degenerates down to "the neutral freighter aggressed us first" but from the limited contact I had with you guys, it was done professionally.
But but but.... now there's no reason to go to GW unless you're farming for titan implants. |
Anubis Hothyck
Minmatar
Trans-Solar Works
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:39:00 - [ 15]
 Originally by: Rexthor Hammerfists
Good luck. Ive always been impressed by how you handled the politics and kept ra etc at bay. Hopefully it wont be the last of you guys to hear.
Well Myself and LM want to go onto do some different things in a smaller and more organised way. But you'll definately continue to see us. I think we've already got a lot of plans braintstormed and video ideas and things. Fighting in Great Wildlands has been fantastic. I got the opportunity to command these big fleets to fight Red Alliance and TCF in more sandbox style. We've been DD'ed, had our towers sieged by alliance's twice our size and twice as organised but somehow managed to maintain order in an NPC region. One of my favourite quotes was by a G00DFellas member on CAOD "Fighting in GW is like robbing a bank, you grab what you can and then run like hell before the cops arrive." Using the example i'll admit i was actually sad to see Nano get nerfed because of the roaming gangs it bought to the region from far off. We never had much trouble fighting them, neuting typhoons with webs and sentry drones did an awesome job. Silly CCP ruined my fun abit there. It's really been the innovative fleet tactics that have carried such a hodge-podge alliance forward in my opinion (and you can see in Lord Maldoror's videos). But as has been said - It's time to end on a high note especially given tinfoil hattery had begun to set in. But I speak for Lord and myself when i say you will be seeing us around in the future one way or another.  |
Morris 159
Caldari
Free Space Initiative
Republic Alliance |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:46:00 - [ 16]
Edited by: Morris 159 on 11/04/2009 11:18:19
Someone should realy post the true story of the breakup part.
@ Lord Maldor: You have done some great things for the alliance (FDN). However your pride, ego and stuborness were the reason it broke down. You were blaming someone to do a kiwi, and now you are pulling a Loafer yourself, reflect on that.
Morris 159
Edit: Directed my commnet to LM and added an inside joke |
Kushan
Caldari
Taggart Transdimensional
Virtue of Selfishness |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:48:00 - [ 17]
Great post(s). Thanks for that. A pity an alliance with a history as rich as yours is fading out... but I suppose that happens to us all, in time. It's how you spend that time that time that makes it worth it. And it sounds like you had fun, so it was worth it :) |
xOmGx
Gallente
24th Imperial Crusade
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:53:00 - [ 18]
Edited by: xOmGx on 11/04/2009 10:53:09
Soo FND is ower?
That's bad news.. :(
NRDS - wery strance politicy for 0.0, basicly because you newer know who you seeing on the field, soo it is much more easy to have NBSI just shoot everything what shows up in Overview xD
PS.
You had an oppotrunity to be oon the Star map, consider your capital fleet and willing to use Triage carrier support on the field.
07 |
c0rn1
Minmatar
Body Count Inc.
Against ALL Authorities |
Posted - 2009.04.11 10:59:00 - [ 19]
Hi lads!
Sorry to hear that.
Was always fun fighting you :)
Cheers
c0rn1 |
Princess Aricia
Gallente
Fairlight Corp
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:00:00 - [ 20]
Edited by: Princess Aricia on 11/04/2009 12:14:47I have been living in GW for years and now it's time to go with my corp to find some new things to do. I have loved it in FDN for almost 1 1/2 years. Made some good frieds and some bad enemys I don't think you can be a pvp'er without stepping on someones toes now and again  And I don't mind stepping hard  A great time has come to an end and some new fun will start. I wish everyone that stay behind in GW the best of luck. Remember to have some fun |
159Pinky
Caldari
Trans-Solar Works
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:11:00 - [ 21]
Sad to see FDN end, it was my first encounter with pvp and I've started to really like it. But then again, all thiugs change and for some of us it's time to move on. As Morris posted: this is but one part of FDN. True, some will actually stay in GW. I want to thank some of those guys for the great times we had in FDN. And I wish them the best of luck in their efforts to keep GW safe from evil Russians . But I, like some others, feel that it's time for something brand new. So we set of on a new journey into the vast space that is EVE. Let's get the party started |
Mobius Q
Caldari
War-Machine
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:12:00 - [ 22]
Originally by: Morris 159
Someone should realy post the true story of the breakup part.
You have done some great things for the alliance. Your pride, ego and stubordness however were the reason why FDN ended.
Morris 159
This lol "We are NRDS", more than happy to shoot purples tho |
Mystafyre
Caldari
Deep Core Mining Inc.
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:13:00 - [ 23]
Originally by: Morris 159
Someone should realy post the true story of the breakup part.
You have done some great things for the alliance. Your pride, ego and stubordness however were the reason why FDN ended.
Morris 159
He made a total fool of himself with that utter bull**** post and by kicking corps out last night he made sure that he is the last one to post. We sure have all the posts from forums and chat logs too to give some insight. However, the sad part here is that Lord Maldoror and his pets are leaving Great Wildlands, but they are taking the alliance with them leaving the real Foundati0n members with nothing. There is lot's of now ex-FDN members who would like to continue the alliance without Lord Maldoror and his followers and who are the right owners of the alliance name. They have fought for the name and indentity. Too bad that Norsey and others didn't have chance to react fast enough. I am sure that someone will post the real story behind all this. |
Muad' Dib
Gallente
Beyond Divinity Inc
|
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:22:00 - [ 24]
Edited by: Muad'' Dib on 11/04/2009 11:23:02
GL in EVE. Having you as enemies in MH was certainly ... interesting. :) |
Jackaryas
Caldari
Trans-Solar Works
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:25:00 - [ 25]
Was a pleasure flying with everyone in FDN, we had some good times and good campaigns, but alas, it is time for FDN to finish. Gl to all ex FDN pilots and may you kill Red alliance wherever you go  07 Fly safe all |
yarrmarr
Amarr
Trans-Solar Works
Rooks and Kings |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:37:00 - [ 26]
Originally by: Muad' Dib
Edited by: Muad'' Dib on 11/04/2009 11:23:02
GL in EVE. Having you as enemies in MH was certainly ... interesting. :)
no worries, we'll drop a carrier on your thorax again soon (tm) |
Siobhan
Amarr
Imperial Dreams
Curatores Veritatis Alliance |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:39:00 - [ 27]
Sad to see Foundati0n go tbh. As a CVA member it is always nice to see other groups raising the NRDS banner.
Indeed many of the 'issues' you faced with NRDS are issues we also face - and the situation is certainly not helped by the fact that the NRDS option is actively discriminated against by CCP (lack of 'red' standings slots for example).
Nevertheless death often brings new beginnings and I hope that in its demise former Foundati0n corps and members will spread the NRDS philosophy across the galaxy wherever they settle!
Fly safe o7
Siobhan (aka Hardin) |
Frogzuk
Gallente
Missions Mining and Mayhem
Chain of Chaos |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:39:00 - [ 28]
having flown against and with FDN just wanted to wish you the best of luck Lord Maldoror, some good memories fighting you (deploying of dgf pos in gw comes to mind as one of the most memorable moments for me in eve) ....
good luck guys and girls <winks @ princess>
froggy |
Space Penguin
Caldari
H A V O C
Against ALL Authorities |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:46:00 - [ 29]
Was with FIX when we came to your space ... good fights for sure ... hope you guys do well whatever the future hold for you ... fly safe o7 |
Waagaa Ktlehr
Amarr
Evolution
IT Alliance |
Posted - 2009.04.11 11:47:00 - [ 30]
Loved the videos, the ideals and the under dog.
All good things come to an end, good thing you did it on a high.
Don't fly too safe! o7 |
Screenshots & Art
All Channels
FDN: signing out o7 (Fairly NECRO & probably needs a lock now :P )