There will be an Ultimate Capital Ship Battle (3) Saturday, May 21, 2005, at 7pm GMT. Use Daylight Saving Time (where applicable) to translate the time. We will be using Scenario 2 this week.

The final rules can be found here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/7/10404

I know it’s extremely long, but I wanted to make it as detailed as possible to avoid and loop holes or exploits.

Remember these rules are final. There won’t be any more week to week changes. The rules will only change when the functionality of the cap ship changes or a major change takes place to the faction system.

Please read the rules before the battle. And remeber to register with your nation leader before the battle starts.

I'm still looking for donations for the prize money. I doubt i'll have time to raise at least 3mil credits this week. I'll give out what i can though and XP will still be awarded.

Also remember the times in the rules are estamates. If we can get all the ships ready earlier the battle will start earlier. It will never start before 7PM GMT though.

As always your suggestions, comments and opinions are welcome.

JB

By any chance..... Did you mean Saturday May 21st?

You are right. Edited above
Thanks

JB

I can't come again!!!!!

Chances are, I won't be there either.

Well miss you both (and anyone else who can't attend). It won't be the same with out you.

For all of you who didn't know the time was picked mainly because Sherpa could be online then. We need a guide to spawn the cap ships and help with any problems. Also I wanted a time when it would be afternoon in the USA and evening in Europe. I'm not sure but i think most of the players come from these to regions.

I want to thank Sherpa and Sarahanne for all there help during the last battle. This event would not be possible without the continuing supprt of the guides. Thanks again.

As always your suggestions, comments and opinions are welcome.

JB

PS. Borb i want to hire you. How much you going for this week? :)

I'm going to try and join in on this one, but I'm wondering where I can find information regarding the Nation Leaders and how to register with them.

For Itani: Jestatis Bess is our Supreme Commander for cap ship battles. Contact him in game or on IDF or IA forums.

If UIT and Serco do not post the info about their own battle leaders here, ask on your nation channel (#11) while in game.

if players go to a station and dock, they won't be killed.

If each nation leader selects a safe haven for their team myself or another guide can travel there to give out rewards.

The reason it isn't instaneous it we have to manually verify each player.

Obsidian: That’s a good Idea. I just thought it would be easier for you and take less time if we were all in one place. There is no real problem with being in the same sector even B8. People have to just turbo away. Remember you only have to be in the same sector, you don’t have to be near the worm hole or any other player.

I haven’t heard from a UIT or Serco leader yet. Leaders please contact me at least an hour before the event in game. Remember the Itani Cap ship takes off 40min early. The Serco leader should send an escort for the Itani ship to Itan K-11.

Itani Players: Please make sure you message me in game to register. I’ll assign you to a group then. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU SHOW UP AT LEAST AN HOUR EARLY.

JB

Itani defensive strategy can be found here:
http://www.itanialliance.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=193
(You'll need at least Itani-level privs to see this thread.)
Or, ask ingame when it happens. We can give you the details.

Thank you all for participating we had a great fight. We only had 12 official participants. But over 25 people participated in the battle. The UIT won the battle again :(

[05/21/05 16:18:58] [205]<Jestatis Bess> BATTLE STARTS NOW
[05/21/05 16:31:45] [205]<LeberMac> IDV Sola Destroyed by Bots
[05/21/05 16:38:54] [100]<Zet> i killed the uit ship :D

UIT: 19:56
Itani: 12:47
Serco: Disqualified (no leader)

I think the bots are getting more out of this then the players. The Itani ship was destroyed by bots (and 2 attackers) in a storm. And the UIT ship lost 80% in a storm in Latos. The UIT arrived in B8 with only about 10% health. The changes made to the bots last week has made it almost impossible to keep the cap ship alive during a storm.

The Serco were disqualified because they had no leader. Serco please organize better next week. You need a leader for everyone to register with and to give out locations of your ship.

You must register with your leader to get any reward. And you must read the rules before the battle.

Not as many people showed up but I do think everyone had fun. Combat XP and prize money were given out to the UIT and Itani who registered.

Special thanks to Sherpa and Sarahanne. Without your help this would not be possible. I also want to thank Seta Ralel for leading the UIT forces.

Thanks to everyone who participated. See you next week!!!! (Scenario 1)

JB :)

Remember the rules are posted here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/7/10404

Grumble...DSL was down all day, and I'm finally starting now to get speeds of a DSL-ish connection. (While 'net wasn't down for me, I was getting speeds akin to 1/2 of a 56k connection. :( )

Hopefully next week!

Serco need to organize themselves better?
oh-ho-ho-ho-no.
We had the best organization ever. The kind of utopia you get when you sweep all the documents off your desk into the trash can.

Participation in this was pathetic. I think everyone was off seeing StarWars III. Thanks to the Serco for being complete flakes and not even really trying. Keep it up! I think the Serco ship died first again anyway. Hehe.
I'd like to say that we need to fix a few things in the capship AI and/or navroutes. http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10446#119961
You can't escort the ships since MORE bots spawn to defeat the players who are in the ion storm sector. It's usually more effective to let the ship try to defend itself.

Hehe... no kidding, the Bot AI change made a *huge* difference. They *used* to ignore the Caps passing through (not unlike NPCs)... not anymore. Whatever other strategy is employed in the future, scouts are definitely needed to escort caps through storms.

I also agree that the participation (or lack thereof) was possibly due to SW3... I hope so, anyway.

Thanks Jestatis, SarahAnne, and Sherpa!
Seta, of the clan Ralel

I’m sure everyone knows about the Ultimate/ Planned Capital Ship Battles I plan every week. I’m thinking about canceling them because it has gotten impossible to keep the Cap ships alive.

The UIT had to escort and hold their ship for more then an hour while the Itani ship got in position. The UIT lost about 80% in the last battle in ONE ion storm. (Only 5 players were with the cap ship in the storm) The Itani had almost 3 hours of escort duty and only 12 minutes of “fun”. The Itani ship went through numerous storms. And we had to concentrate all our efforts to healing it. It was finally kill in a storm.

I know sarahanne suggested that this become a weekly event so players can experience the cap ships and have a little fun. And also new players can experience the cap ships too. Unless some changes are made to the cap ships it doesn’t seem worth the time or effort to have a weekly event.

I want to thank Sherpa and sarahanne for there help in recent weeks. There help has been invaluable. But I’m also getting lass help from them. When I needed them during the last battle they weren’t readily available. I know they have lives and don’t want to spend 4 hours on a Saturday in VO. But without them this whole thing falls apart.

Like I said I understand this is a test, but the amount of effort it takes to plan these battles and spend hours escorting our ships seems unreasonable. I started this so the players could have a little more content and have some fun. The bots seem like the only ones having fun.

I once again want to thank the developers and guides for their help. Without them we wouldn’t have a game at all.

I'll post the date and time of the next battle to the forums soon.

/me gets Jestatis' back on this one.
This is the best content in the game by far. So good I've completely forgotten about the other Serco capship. I have no idea if the "patrolling" Serco capship is even around anymore. Does it still go from Sol II to Geira?

I have 2 complaints about the current capship battles.
1. It takes too long to get the IDV "Itanic" to Sedina B-8. (Pssst! Spawn it in Jallik!) Jestatis is right - 3 hours of escort duty is even less fun than 3 hours of procurement missions.
2. The time (Saturday afternoon where I'm at) is really bad for me. :(

Thanks to JB, FM, and SA for making this last one come off as well as they could. Too bad there wasn't much of a battle.