Operation: Colonized Ruins

[Clausewitz]

The past few weeks, I've noticed a disturbing trend.

DIGG players in o14-15 are clearing islands at increasingly-less windows of inactivity, farming them for weeks on end, and then asserting colonization rights when somebody else colonizes the isle. I know for a fact Pantheon has also butted heads with them over this issue.

My fear is that this is a race to the bottom. Whereas DIGG used to clear islands at 25-days of inactivity in preparation for colonization, they are now doing it at 15-days or less, as they compete with one another for internal colonization rights. To my way of thinking, this only stands to lead inevitably to clearing islands at 5 days of inactivity, and effectively snuffing out any new players to the game.

So I have spent this weekend parsing DIGG data to identify the "farms". So far, my tally is at 14. All scorched to 3-5 points.

The intent is to utilize this assymetric tactic to create a substantial disincentive to prematurely clearing islands, and thus allowing new players to stand a chance in these opportunistic waters.

Thus far, it has been rather discrete, with only a few select Morkin members consulted (and tactic approval granted to authorize this independent black op).

Just an FYI on the latest project in these waters...

[eproxy]

Would it be possible to get a list of EVERY single isle prematurely cleared? I would gladly initiate a pogrom/jihad to scorch as many as possible.

In my talks with fhloop (about our colonisation policy) he basically said that their members are clearing isles earlier and ealier to obtain the 'rights' to them. Aside from the fact that I have never, nor will ever consider clearing an isle prior to the tsunami as giving anyone rights it's also fairly wrong to do so. Admittedly it is fairly unlikely that old players will come back and play (more common on IKUK with the supersized storehouses) but it is possible; therefore they're attacking real players. I have already stated that our peaceful nature prevents us from even doing this (even if we 'wanted' to which I certainly don't). Of course another large hurdle for players is the fact that not everyone has access to the same information as Digg... they effectively get a headstart on all isles to be tsunami'd because of their tools.

He asked what would happen if the situation arose where our policies conflict... I simply said we'll have to see.

[Clausewitz]

Hmmm...

Here's basically how the process goes...

Enter an entire ocean into the search database. Tweak the parameters - inactivity greater than 5 days, not in a Top 20 alliance, within 50nm, etc...

Sort through a hundred or so results. Check for those with spy reports attached to them. Scorch said islands with recent spy reports revealing it's been broken into a farm.

So yes, theoretically I could find all of them, or in a few more specific oceans. But the time factor would be far more consuming than I can commit. I'm already running at 100% "personal capacity", and I have not yet finished up purging o14/15 clean yet.

Perhaps when it gets to a "sustainment level" of just doing this with rogue piracy to keep DIGG reminded it is the result of premature clearing, I can turn to some other oceans... but no promises

[Sol]

Well, no one said you had to take this task all alone.

I would be willing to help out seeing as I have no life...

[eproxy]

I can do the attacks... I just can't get the information of which isles to attack. If you can even just get a me a list of the co-ords or names of players whom are inactive I can do the spying myself.

[Clausewitz]

Alright.

Give me your primary oceans of interest, and I'll get you in the loop on this.

I am a bit uneasy about it - it started as a completely independent project, so I knew I could keep myself from being uncovered. Now you would make the third person in the action on this, and I've always been a believer that there's an inverse relationship between the size of an operation and it's ability to maintain it's efficiency...

Anyhow, I rant.

Bottom line: Give me your oceans of interest, and I'll keep an eye out in those waters. We just need to ensure that we don't get sloppy on this, and have the cat slip out of the bag.

[Sol]

Heh

Well, if you would like to keep this operation very small, I can help you in o14 since I have a couple of strong isles there...you can order me around and tell me what to do at the appropriate time.

[Clausewitz]

Boo!

Should have kept this one under my hat

Not trying to let this expand into an alliance operation by any means - just random acts of "piracy" to take the incentive away from premature clearing...

But I'll keep you in mind, Sol, if I run into any out in western o14. In some cases, I'm sure you would be able to hit them closer if it's coming close to tsunami-hour and my fleets hit that window of time wherein I can't risk sending them for sake of having them land on shores that somebody has colonized (and in effect, exposed who's doing this).

[Sol]

Alright...then I'll stay out. If you need anything, just mail me ingame, so I'll stop spamming these threads.

[eproxy]

I sent you (Clausewitz) a mail in-game but no reply yet.

[Clausewitz]

eproxy said:

I sent you (Clausewitz) a mail in-game but no reply yet.

Lies!

Or maybe I was drunk... yeah, probably just in an early-morning fog. Anyhow, incompetent old cranks like me sometimes need an extra prod Any chance you can do it again? Throw "Hey dipshit!" into the subject line this time