Topic: Something that needs to be said during this flamewar...

[Julin Eurthyr]

I dredged an old post of mine up from the Litterbox 5 server, contained in this thread over on Battleclinic, which has had both sides "racial" forums completely public for a few months now...

After my shift today, I feel that I owe you some words of explanation over my actions.

The best way for me to begin is to let you know that I have a controlled case of schitzophrenia.  15 years of role-playing has enabled me to literally become my character.  And, at the end of my day, I look forward to the chance of becoming Julin Eurthyr, Veltrassi Admiral in the ISC navy, and currently in charge of all Coalition forces.

However, when I'm not on the keyboard surfing the forums in character, or on the server flying my ship, I am Stanley Kolakowski, Father of 2, devoted husband, and looking forward to the next game...

I've been around SFC fora since the days of SFC1 on Interplay.  I've watched, with devoted attention, the battles during the early days of D2, on many a boring night at work for a call center.  I've gotten, what I feel, is a good grasp of the game from 4 years of following it.

And now, today.  "Julin Eurthyr" feels the plan to sack Earth / Klinzhia is a fitting way to send the "barbaric Alliance" back where they belong.  "Stan", the follower of SFC, sees things quite a bit differently.  He sees (and remembers those days when he was in the exact situation) a force down 700 points, on a server where they cannot make any substantial gains of territory / points, that seems unable to even kill their opponents.  And they have 1 week to turn it completely around.  In order to do this, they need to
1.  Claim all 4 center VC hexes.  Nevermind that they've been trying most of the past week to do that, somehow they need to get them.
2.  Sever all Coalition VCs
3.  Reclaim their 3 VCs, and solidify 4 more
4.  Do this while maintaining an even to +1 PvP kill ratio.

Servers in the past have disintegrated at this point.  The losing team, disenheartened from their weeks of impotence, effectively begins to "mail in" the server.  If they even play, they're not putting their whole heart into it.

And you propose, in my history of watching / playing servers, what is, IMO, the worst thing that a team can do.  Attack a homeworld.  Not just a minor homeworld like Lyra or Ghidar, but a major homeworld.  Once the Alliance sees the steady march of Coalition colors deep into their space, all it does is reinforce their impotence and leads to premature pullout from the server.  Often times with hostility generated by their impotence, and taken out on us, instead of admitting defeat.

It's sad when I have to write a disertation like this because of a few nut-cases, but some of us players of SFC don't comprehend that the game is completely different from life.  They have already driven off many good gamers, and with the size of our player base, I don't want to go on record as advising, or even condoning, a situation that will lead to hostility, flames, arguments, and even one more player fed up with all that leaving.

Remember this, and even "Julin" understand this.  Next server, I'll be on a different team.  As an ISC pilot since Rook's Tavern III, I've been Organian Forces, Alliance, Coalition, Kitties, and probably one or 2 other side-names that I can't remember, and will undoubtily be them again, or maybe even something else.  I can just about solidly say that I have played with, and against, every player in SFC since the days of RT3.  I also know that I will be playing with, and against, each and every one of you again at some point as long as we're all playing.  That is the nature of the "minor race" ISC.  At the end of the campaign, I don't sign off thinking "We kicked Alliance @$$", or "the da*n Coalition has stuck it to us again".  I think "my team won / lost".  Team names are fluid.  It's the people that make SFC so enjoyable after what, close to 4 years of being here.  People that need to, and deserve, a chance to play a game, not get kicked to the curb.  There needs to come a point where the "win at all costs" attitude, or the "revenge" way of thinking, needs to end, and the fact that this is a game resurfaces.  As you may have guessed, this is where I am drawing the line, personally.

I hope this helps you understand why your supreme commander is being so strange.  Why I am advocating just about any maneuver short of striking a homeworld.  I'd rather sever their VC at 5,20 as my thrill of invading and conquering enemy space, cutting the Alliance in half.  Go to the end of the map, 2 wide, making it difficult for the Alliance to navigate the map.  I just don't want to see, personally, another "they invaded my homeworld" set of flame threads.

Stanley Kolakowski
AKA Julin Eurthyr

Reading the flamewar inspired from the "Fed sacking" on GW5 made me remember this post, cause the exact fate I foresaw (and avoided) has (ironically?) come to pass...

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

I remember that post well Julin and I think the wisdom of it has been proven.

[Evil Kraven]

ok, ok, ok, I can't let this one pass.

I guess I'm gonna get negative karma on this one.

I guess I'm different. maybe its how I was raised, what I did in my youth, etc etc etc. I remember my little leauge managers telling us "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." they never gave up on us. no matter if we were getting are asses handed to us or not. they'd see us with our heads down and inspired us to keep fighting. "never quit!".

I remember one time when after demolishing a team 45-0 in football (remember we're only 9 or 10 here) in the rematch we went up 14-0 late in the first qtr. then our coaches pulled the starters and put the 2nd and 3rd string guys in. all the sudden things changed. "who the hell is number 85?" a kid who looks almost twice the size of some of us magicly appeared, along with 3 other "quite large" players. by half time we were down 2O-14. our heads were down. we could'nt stop them. it took 3 to 4 guys to tackle #85. our head coach gathered us together and started apologiseing to us. he told us thier head coach asked him to go easy, he did'nt want to see his kids get crushed by us agian. so after a 14-0 lead he pulled us from the game. the other team pulled other players down from the stands and switched jerseys he told us. thier were tears in his eyes as he said it was his fault, but he told us we could still win. he was very emotional. the starters would go back in in the 2nd half, "lets kick thier ass, and show them we don't give up" he siad. he inspired us. we fought like hell. I'd go head on with #85, and while he bowled me over time TIME AND TIME AGIAN, I hung on to his leggs till 2-3 of my teamates would join and we'd bring him down. down 26-20 in the forth qtr we had time for one last play. a hail mary to (I think he name was jeff minch) our tall tight end (tall lanky kid). chuck baker threw in desperation and we watched as jeff caught it and fell into the endzone as he jumped for the ball (gee, does fathers day 3 am come to mind here anyone??). it was like winning a championship. we all ran to the endzone and mauled jeff ( a huge dog pile if anyone knows what that is). as we lined up to shake hands, seems a few players were missing from the other side, one of them #85. even when we lost games our coaches yelled at us to keep our heads up! 

after reading julians story this time came back in my life came back to me and I thought I should share it.

 I was brought up this way. even as I coached football in hawaii, and for one year as an asst coach on a semi pro team. I coached the same way. I never let the kids get down on themselves. I remember one kid, who while fighting to gain a few more yards with great 2nd effort wound up getting the ball stripped from him and the other team took it back for a touchdown. he was in tears (when the game ended it was the decideing touchdown). I pulled him aside and talked him back up (I was the hard nose coach.....and a good motovater) telling him in so many words "don't you dare quit!"

back in my day as a youth only the best 11 played. except in baseball where I was coached by my father, and every kid played. I remeber getting angry at him at putting in the 2nd tier guys for a few innings as we'd lose agian. why are you putting them in I asked? I wanted to win. and he told me because everyone should get a chance to play. this carried over as I coached football. I ran the defense and I told the offensive coach to take the best guys for offense and I'll take the rest. in the begining only two or three kids would come off the field when defense came on. by mid season 9 kids came off the field. every kid was garunteed 8 plays a game (I really liked the youth leauge set up). so I coached up these 2nd stringers and taught them not only the game, but taught them character. heart. to reach deep down inside and play with everything they had. to play beyound thier abilities, and never give up. as thier coach I never let them quit, just as my coaches never let me quit. I did'nt attend the team banquet that year, chooseing instead the company of some jack danials (used to be a big drinker). I'm not real big on the show and blow(thanks been great see ya next year), season was over, time to move on. I ran into a player (john painter) and his mother a few weeks later. she came over and thanked me so much for what I did for her son. he was never interested in football (or sports for that matter) she told me, and only went out cause they made him. he was the worst player on the team. we worked with him, and I took him aside from time to time and gave him one on one instruction. I had the other assitants do the same. (at the end of practice when I had "wind sprints and the 200 yrd belly flops if they had a bad practice day......remember that bro?  at the end they'd blow the wistle like evrey time you got up lol. I had one kid who would walk away saying he had boy scouts and he had permission to leave. no one walks away from my practices. parents were told this from day one. its about "TEAM" no one is special. that kid saw the limited 8 plays and thats it). well one day this "premadonna" ran his mouth and teased this new player. I imeadiatly stood up and said that painter could beat him one on one in "challenge"( one on one blocking). I took john aside and talked him up, put my faith in him that I knew he could do it. john beat him all three times, to the cheers and encouragement of his teamates. john was voted most improved player that year by his teamates.  anyway his mom told me he became excited about playing and started to come out of his shell (he was always very shy) and that it was me that helped him. he would always tell them about "coach miller showed me this....etc etc". I thanked her for the compliment but said he did it on his own, I had to turn away because I did'nt want them to see the water that started to come from my eyes, as it is doing agian as I tell this story. it was the one experience I will always remeber and treasure from my days in coaching. I was able to touch one kid, and got him interested in the game I love so much.

I also have one bad experience. while an asst for the semi pro team, we we'rnt very good. at the end (our last game) we we're getting trounced by the best team. we knew (the coaches) we were gonna get crushed, except for me. I said we could beat them ( never quit). as we were getting our asses kicked, the head coaches son ( a sh*tty player who reminded me of the "primadonna") kept telling our own players how bad they sucked while they were on the field. with the owner standing right next to me I told him numorus times to shut his mouth (so did the owner). finnaly haveing had quite enough I told him to go to the other end of the field and far away from me. he got in my face and said "make me" I grabbed him by his shirt hauled him in the air and proceeded to carry him to the otherside of the field. the head coach seperated us grabed me by the shirt and with shocked eyes I snapped. I pulled a buddy ryan and punched him right in the face.the players on the sideline seperated us and the owner came up to me as I started to walk towars the stands to collect myself.
while we both said what I did was entirely out of line and wrong, he had the same urges. I saw some of the players at the bar we always went to after a game. they each came up to me and patted me on the back saying about time someone did that. and would by me a drink.

I walked away and have never coached agian. maybe one day I will, like if I can watch a redskin game and not curse and yell at the TV, might be a sign that I'm ready. I don't want to berate the "primadonnas" about "have a good time at girl scouts!" as they walk away from a unfinished practice (I got quite a few visits from the AD about that). I'd rather be one to touch individuals like I did john painter. to give them confidence to be the best they can possibly be, and even go beyound what they think they can.

I was never a great athlete, or one of the best players. but I had alot of heart.

"The Evil One"
Kraven

[Dfly]

Nice stories, well put, but I see no reason for negative Karma here. ty for putting it there.   This does not mean I agree with all of it or even part of it, just glad you felt you could do this.

Perhaps there should be no one to quit this game, but I for one lost the fun in it for the last few days and have not been on.  I have had a blast playing in Dyna the last couple months, as that is the only time I have been here.  Unfortunately the fun died during the last week, for me.  I will be here for the next one most likely, but I am not a player who loves the part of beating AI for hours on end to try to flip a couple hexes.  I  love the interaction of PVP, even if most battles end in someone leaving the battle.  It is unfortunate that deaths of ships play such a big part that people cant fly and die, but fly and run, because the ship is more important than the experience or the game. 

If there is anything I would like to see in a future server, is that

1:  PVP are "TO THE DEATH". 

2:  Ships losses dont count.

3:  All battles must be 1v1 or 2v2

4:  There still be a penalty of no hex entering after a loss

5:  All ships allowed must be ballanced out, such as:  No Dreads
                                                                         Heavies are to be near equal bpv, such as 140 to 180, or 160 to 200, or some such
                                                                         in case of no heavies, do the same with lights or even frigs.
                                                                         Only dreads, must be below 300 bpv
                                                                         Or something along these lines.

The reasons are simple IMHO, to make all fights close to fair, and to make all battles actually mean more than just chasing someone off the map after say 45 minutes of fighting.

Also, Team choosing seems to be an issue to be dealt with.  I would like to see a blind draft approach.  No one would know who is your teammates till the last minute. 

One last thing, though I doubt it could be done.  I propose a server where it keeps track of hours played, not bases taken or kills per side.  Record the hours played by each side. if say the server becomes tipped to one side, post that the team with too many hours must cut down on hours.  Hear me out before screetching.  This part would most likely cancel or affect the blind draft.  One way to balance out the hours would be to allow a limited number of players to be allowed an account on Both teams.  These limited players would have to be guys who can put enough hours on in a server to offset the timeslot differential.  Most likely these players will end up playing for the same team during almost all the server, depending on which team seems low in hours.  As I said, I dont know if this is possible, but these are a few of my opinions from my limited amount of timeplay here.  If this post is in wrong place, could someone move it to where it should be please.

[EmeraldEdge]

Quite frankly I tend to stop playing on a server when it's one sided, where my own team heavily outnumbers the opposition.  I like it to either be even or stacked against me, that's where I thrive.  Otherwise, what's the point?  Victory is almost certainly ordained from the get go.   If you can snatch victory in the face of almost certain defeat, that's where the real glory is.  I recall a server where most everyone dropped, it was down to Swoopinghawk and myself, and a couple of others who would accasionally drop in, but mostly just the two of us.  We fought our hearts out though, and it was fun.  I don't even mind being outnumbered in a mission.  Sure, being 3 to 1 all of the with heavy battlecruisers or better and your is a light or low end heavy is lame if it happens a lot, but I certainly don't mind (and kind of like) gettin' the 2 to 1 with relatively equal ships.  If you can come out of that, you have to feel good about it (and that's why I play games.  I'm told my family is very competitive, though.).

Personally I've been thinking about creating an alternate universe mod (no trek races) that would tend to even out the playing field, and stretch the tech tree out a bit, so that parties who wish to play this type of game (SFC style tactical gaming) wouldn't feel so tied to one race or the other and things might level out again, and racial boundaries and grudges might wane.  I've got a couple more ideas on map design as well, but we'll see if I get around to the first part.  I think some folks take losing in totally the wrong way.  Now, you could probably be upset if you outnumbered the enemy and they still won.  There could be some arguements about unfair tech advantages of certain races or whatever, but on the whole I love being outnumbered (I guess I should have signed up as fed on this one, but I'm just used to them always outnumbering everyone else) and outgunned.  Builds character.

[Grim]

If there is anything I would like to see in a future server, is that

1:  PVP are "TO THE DEATH". 

2:  Ships losses dont count.

3:  All battles must be 1v1 or 2v2

4:  There still be a penalty of no hex entering after a loss

5:  All ships allowed must be ballanced out, such as:  No Dreads
                                                                         Heavies are to be near equal bpv, such as 140 to 180, or 160 to 200, or some such
                                                                         in case of no heavies, do the same with lights or even frigs.
                                                                         Only dreads, must be below 300 bpv
                                                                         Or something along these lines.

The reasons are simple IMHO, to make all fights close to fair, and to make all battles actually mean more than just chasing someone off the map after say 45 minutes of fighting.

Also, Team choosing seems to be an issue to be dealt with.  I would like to see a blind draft approach.  No one would know who is your teammates till the last minute. 

One last thing, though I doubt it could be done.  I propose a server where it keeps track of hours played, not bases taken or kills per side.  Record the hours played by each side. if say the server becomes tipped to one side, post that the team with too many hours must cut down on hours.  Hear me out before screetching.  This part would most likely cancel or affect the blind draft.  One way to balance out the hours would be to allow a limited number of players to be allowed an account on Both teams.  These limited players would have to be guys who can put enough hours on in a server to offset the timeslot differential.  Most likely these players will end up playing for the same team during almost all the server, depending on which team seems low in hours.  As I said, I dont know if this is possible, but these are a few of my opinions from my limited amount of timeplay here.  If this post is in wrong place, could someone move it to where it should be please.

In response to:

1: I dont agree with your idea of "pvp to the death", primarily because of the situation where you are outgunned, fighting to death when you are clearly outgunned is a waste of effort and on most dynas a waste of points. Players should be allowed to disengage if they want and the other players should respect that.

2. I agree that some ship losses shouldn't count, thats why i dont personally like the idea of points for every ship kill, it just pisses off the new players who maybe inexperienced, those that feel they arent good at pvp and those who dont purely play d2 for the pvp aspect. I like the current system where some ships generate points for kills or disengagement.

3. From past experience i've had some great 3v3 battles it would be a shame to restrict battles to 1v1 2v2, 3v3 battles can be rare  (due to the stability of d2), but from past experience they have been good fun.

4. Agreed, the time time restriction currently being used is working well imo.

5. I think dreads should still exist in some form of another, probably best to be restricted to a limited amount or a restriction of how many can be used at any given time on the dyna.

From looking at your initial comments  it is clear you prefer the pvp aspect of d2, you need to take into account that not everyone flys d2 purely for pvp. If you wanted to play purely for pvp thats what quite frankly gsa is for. When playing d2 you need to take into account that there will be times where you will have to fight ai, become outnumbered or outnumber your enemy,there are many aspects to d2, not just purely pvp.

I give credit to see that your comments are trying to seek the creation of balance, well to be honest i dont think balance can ever be achieved. The game wasnt made to be balanced, some races have advantage over others, and in different eras. For example there is the constant debate over fighters, some people complaining that they hate fighters and they should be nerfed or greately restricted on some dynas, what some people dont realise is for some races or in particular some ships they are vital, there are many hydran ships that need fighters as part of their firepower, so there is plenty of balance issues/debates going on within the d2 community. I just dont think its possible to achieve balance...

Not sure i agree with you on the hours played per side in terms of deciding who essentially wins, it would be a very difficult system to implement, and telling players on a specific side to stop playing until hours are balanced will cause friction, we shouldnt be forcing players to stop playing in order to achieve balance in numbers.

[Dfly]

If there is anything I would like to see in a future server, is that

1:  PVP are "TO THE DEATH". 

2:  Ships losses dont count.

3:  All battles must be 1v1 or 2v2

4:  There still be a penalty of no hex entering after a loss

5:  All ships allowed must be ballanced out, such as:  No Dreads
                                                                         Heavies are to be near equal bpv, such as 140 to 180, or 160 to 200, or some such
                                                                         in case of no heavies, do the same with lights or even frigs.
                                                                         Only dreads, must be below 300 bpv
                                                                         Or something along these lines.

The reasons are simple IMHO, to make all fights close to fair, and to make all battles actually mean more than just chasing someone off the map after say 45 minutes of fighting.

Also, Team choosing seems to be an issue to be dealt with.  I would like to see a blind draft approach.  No one would know who is your teammates till the last minute. 

One last thing, though I doubt it could be done.  I propose a server where it keeps track of hours played, not bases taken or kills per side.  Record the hours played by each side. if say the server becomes tipped to one side, post that the team with too many hours must cut down on hours.  Hear me out before screetching.  This part would most likely cancel or affect the blind draft.  One way to balance out the hours would be to allow a limited number of players to be allowed an account on Both teams.  These limited players would have to be guys who can put enough hours on in a server to offset the timeslot differential.  Most likely these players will end up playing for the same team during almost all the server, depending on which team seems low in hours.  As I said, I dont know if this is possible, but these are a few of my opinions from my limited amount of timeplay here.  If this post is in wrong place, could someone move it to where it should be please.

In response to:

1: I dont agree with your idea of "pvp to the death", primarily because of the situation where you are outgunned, fighting to death when you are clearly outgunned is a waste of effort and on most dynas a waste of points. Players should be allowed to disengage if they want and the other players should respect that.

2. I agree that some ship losses shouldn't count, thats why i dont personally like the idea of points for every ship kill, it just pisses off the new players who maybe inexperienced, those that feel they arent good at pvp and those who dont purely play d2 for the pvp aspect. I like the current system where some ships generate points for kills or disengagement.

3. From past experience i've had some great 3v3 battles it would be a shame to restrict battles to 1v1 2v2, 3v3 battles can be rare  (due to the stability of d2), but from past experience they have been good fun.

4. Agreed, the time time restriction currently being used is working well imo.

5. I think dreads should still exist in some form of another, probably best to be restricted to a limited amount or a restriction of how many can be used at any given time on the dyna.

From looking at your initial comments  it is clear you prefer the pvp aspect of d2, you need to take into account that not everyone flys d2 purely for pvp. If you wanted to play purely for pvp thats what quite frankly gsa is for. When playing d2 you need to take into account that there will be times where you will have to fight ai, become outnumbered or outnumber your enemy,there are many aspects to d2, not just purely pvp.

I give credit to see that your comments are trying to seek the creation of balance, well to be honest i dont think balance can ever be achieved. The game wasnt made to be balanced, some races have advantage over others, and in different eras. For example there is the constant debate over fighters, some people complaining that they hate fighters and they should be nerfed or greately restricted on some dynas, what some people dont realise is for some races or in particular some ships they are vital, there are many hydran ships that need fighters as part of their firepower, so there is plenty of balance issues/debates going on within the d2 community. I just dont think its possible to achieve balance...

Not sure i agree with you on the hours played per side in terms of deciding who essentially wins, it would be a very difficult system to implement, and telling players on a specific side to stop playing until hours are balanced will cause friction, we shouldnt be forcing players to stop playing in order to achieve balance in numbers.

1.  Fighting to the death when clearly outgunned does actually happen in Dyna now and then.  It is another tactic to tie someone or 2 up while others run missions under you, or while your team cuts off the LOS.  I am not stating that these ideas will all happen, only they are a couple ideas that some players(like me) might like to see in a future campaign.

3.  only reason I did not include 3v3, is this also allows 3v1, and was just trying to avoid the ganging up thing.  I would expect that most servers, if not all, could never really control this or would want to.

5. The dreads are already pretty restricted on the servers per side, just used those combos to try to have near equal ships fighting at all times is all.

You are right, I do love the PVP aspect more than hex flipping.  I have done my share of hex flipping and I know to play here you must do that.  As far as GSA, I have flown there many years, and felt I wanted to try this for a bit, since some of you guys did come to the PBR. 
As per balance of different races, I know that wont happen.  I was only looking for maybe a balance of ship size.  I was initially a Hydran pilot(2+years), so I understand fighter issues.  I was a Klingon pilot for over 2 years, so I understand the drone issues.  I am a Gorn pilot for a year now, so I understand now the plasma issues.  Because you may not have seen a lot of me, this does not mean I am new to this.

In terms of hours played per side, I am not stating that players must sit and wait to play if their side is up in hours.  This is why I suggested having a few specific players who are designated to switch to the less hour side to boost those hours.  There can still be an imbalance,  but this would be an attempt at evening it up.  My original thoughts on hour control was to allow the team with better tactics a better chance to win by keeping the total hours about or close to equal.  Figured if each team is allowed(only for example here) say total flight hours/24 hours of 100, that after each team has put in their 100 hours, you would see which team has better tactics by the space contolled, and not by the amount of extra hours they got to put in.

Thx for putting your ideas forth on my ideas.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Replied on other thread to this post but will repeat here   

As far as all fights needing to be to the death, I don't see this happening with the exception of a server where the shiplists are identical.  Certain ships/races just don't balance well vs other ships espite relatively equal BPVs.  How do you balance out ships with PFs and fighters?  What if ai appears in the mission?  Just too many issues regarding what constitutes a balanced match.

Now what might work is a "Death Zone".  Basically what I mean by this is an area of space similar to the concept of the "Slot".  The "Slot" was a map area reserved for smaller ships so that players liking these boats would have a place to fly without worries of being constantly drafted by larger boats.  What the "Death Zone" would be is an area of space that is a natural arena where attempts to leave a hex would cause a ship to become vulnerable to a point where it was easy destroyed, thus no disengagement from an enemy.  This could be due to the instability of space in the region, or the intervention of a super advanced race who liked combat and would bet on the outcomes forcing the ships to be their "gladiators", the winner rewarded with life, the loser getting death.   If things were not balanced in such a match it would be tough luck as all knew the risk entering the zone.

[Corbomite]

Replied on other thread to this post but will repeat here   

Boy, some people will do anything to get their post count up. Wait.... Oh crap!

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Replied on other thread to this post but will repeat here   

Boy, some people will do anything to get their post count up. Wait.... Oh crap!

LMAO!!!.......Wait......oooops!

[Dfly]

now cut that out guys, your posts counts are high enough.        OOPS

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

now cut that out guys, your posts counts are high enough.        OOPS

I'd have to agree.....Doh!

[Dfly]

one more like this and i would have 200, hmm,  OOPS

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

Bump! Oh heck! wrong thread. 

[GDA-S'Cipio]

And you propose, in my history of watching / playing servers, what is, IMO, the worst thing that a team can do.  Attack a homeworld.  Not just a minor homeworld like Lyra or Ghidar, but a major homeworld.

Right! that does it Frog Boy.  Next server, you *so* have to die.  Don't think I won't be hunting for you.

Gentleman, you have no hope.  Prepare to use your time.  I'm going to set you up the bomb.

Remember this, and even "Julin" understand this.  Next server, I'll be on a different team.  As an ISC pilot since Rook's Tavern III, I've been Organian Forces, Alliance, Coalition, Kitties, and probably one or 2 other side-names that I can't remember, and will undoubtily be them again, or maybe even something else.  I can just about solidly say that I have played with, and against, every player in SFC since the days of RT3.  I also know that I will be playing with, and against, each and every one of you again at some point as long as we're all playing.  That is the nature of the "minor race" ISC.  At the end of the campaign, I don't sign off thinking "We kicked Alliance @$$", or "the da*n Coalition has stuck it to us again".  I think "my team won / lost".  Team names are fluid.  It's the people that make SFC so enjoyable after what, close to 4 years of being here.

 

Now this part I agree with completely.  You get a very different picture of things when you are on a different side virtually every other server. 

I don't know if I'd ever apprecite finding out that the enemy took it easy on me when I was down; but nevertheless I can see where you are coming from with the rest of your post.  Other than with that first insult, of course.  You still need to die for that.

-S'Cipio