I have an idea about how to get more Itani playing. We need a fair fight 2vs2 or 4vs4 or what ever. How about if the Itani tell the serco how many people they have attacking or defending the cargo and the serco promise to match that number.

or better yet let it be serco vs itani this week. no uit helping on eitherside. we might still lose but at least we'll have a fighting chance.

the develpers are not going to make the game fairer for the Itani. so the itani and serco can do it together. This will at least give the itani a fighting chance and we will have a chance of winning.

Also someone send a virus to mr_spunk's computer :) just kidding :)

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"And that's the deciding factor. We can't win against obsession. They care, we don't. They win."
"I care about lots of things," said Slartibartfast
"Such as?"
"Well," said the old man, "life, the Universe. Everything, really. Fjords."
"Would you die for them?"
"Fjords?" blinked Slartibartfast in surprise. "No."
"Well then."
----from "Life, The Universe, And Everything", by Douglas, Adams

Bah! you begin with those sorts of considerations and you end up creating a Serco character to be on the winning side. No chance of winning indeed if we think that rules must be changed to let us win. And I don't think changing the rules will change players' attitude: if they want to have a better chance to win they will side with vets anyway, cause it's so much comfortable for their egos.

I don't care about losing if I fought to win. I don't care about Serco's taunting if I was of any help to those I teamed with.

UIT helped us last week more than they ever did before -even if they have almost no reward for that- and I would like to team up with them again in the future.

PS if there is only thing to fix, it is that absurd faction system that Serco use to their advantage during CtC and that many Itani do not want to use because they stick to their character's principles.

oh god.. not this again...

they do not stick to their characters principles, they see nothing important at the serco nation to buy. If the Prom would be the "uber" ship, there would be more Itani trying to gain serco faction.
Would you PLEASE drop that topic and not write everywhere
"Do not let the Serco fly decent ships!"

Serco do not use it to their advantage during CtC
SOME Serco gain Itani faction to have the SAME super-ships that Itani have. And they pay a price for it. for example: I cannot attack Itani transports or Itani in Itani space. The faction hit will let me loose my valk.

You should be lucky that this is so. Why? You will see that once I am pissed enough to throw my Itani Reps away and continously start to murder your transporters.

P.S. there is a edit button for P.S. ...

Some Serco might do it for the valk. But most that I've seen do it so that they can dart around in Itani space with no fear.

I botted my Itani standing down to -200 or so, primarily to get the Valkyrie. I ended up using it to take the VERY long route to save a Prom full of cargo.
Serco in Itani space / Itani in Serco space should not be protected, and if the Serco has CtC cargo in Itani space or vice versa the Strike Force should chase them, regardless of standing. I think that would solve some of the problems.
-:sigma.SB

Yes, NoAddedSugar, we know you think the most important thing in the game is to get a Valkyrie, and you always want to degenerate every discussion about faction into a supposed collusion to keep Serco from getting a Valkyrie. The rest of us are having separate discussions of ship balance and faction standings.

> Serco do not use it to their advantage during CtC

Untrue. Many Serco exploit the faction system as a way to gain advantage in CtC. The Itani players do not want to be forced to exploit it too.

In fact this is no discussion about factions. this should be a discussion about Itani and how to make them participate in CtC.

I have a productive post written at the place where nycblkboy started it. (in general) but he moved it to here.

I just replyed to the off-topic "do not let serco gain Itani standings".

And to let you see my original answer (I do not expect you to search for it for some reasons...) here is it again:

Copy from general:

That is a good idea, nycblkboy.

But the problem is not that the Serco have better ships (Itani have the better ships), or there are too many serco people (Itani outnumbers Serco most of the time, sometimes there are twice as much Itani online)

The main "problem" is, that Sercos experienced players (Vets) really _care_ about ctc and the dominion teams up when there is a need for it.

For example Saturday: 8 Itani (Some of them very good) fought over hours in Sedina B8. They attacked everyone in that sector. Lonely Serco trader, pirates and well known ctc combatants.
But then...
A serco convoy with 3 transporters (worth ca. 54 ctc cargoes) was announced and made its way _untouched_! Most of the Itani stayed in Sedina B8 and fought single players of other nations! Just Cybernut headed to the conv and attacked!
Of course the Serco defense made him... uhm... "leave the conv"

And do not forget, that Itani nation was in a good lead at the beginning of the week. Heck, I for myself thought, that Itani will win this week.

But whatever...
Many Itani "Vets" left their nation for good or seem to change to UIT or Serco. Do not ask me why...

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What can we do?

There are some well-organiced guilds at the Itani nation.
Perhaps some IDF or ISP people could suggest some ideas about how to make ctc more interesting for Itani again?
(Beside this dumb "give Itani superior ships/Do not let Serco fly in decent ship" topic of course)
Because this might be not a thing the devs could fix. There is no bug here about that.

We as the player have to find a way...

For the game!

P.S. wylfing: Although I do not like how you say it...
You might be right. I will not post anymore about the valk-topic.
Just to explain my engagement in this:

I do not care for having a valk so much, I care for having the ability to explore/trade Itani sectors. I like this aspect of the game much and hoped that there will some smuggeling or diplomatic missions in the future.

And english is not my main language so I tend to accidently use too harsh words for it.

sorry if my first post wasn't clear. What i'm sayinging is that there are far more serco ctc online most of the time then itani ctc players. Yes there might me more itani players online but most of them are new players who don't have the skills for ctc.
I for one just started playing ctc 2 weeks ago and i was excited, but now after the last 2 weeeks i know that is i attack or defend a convoy i'm going to be out matched at every turn. i'm sure the serco find it boring to attack our convoy with 6 serco and only 1 or 2 itani defending it. im just saying lets make it so the itani can acually win some fairly, if the itani send 2 players let the serco sendd 2. The serco will at least not have overwhelming odds and the itani players might acually be able to win a battle or 2.
i for one don't really want to do ctc anymore its 2 fustrating and stressful to lose almost all the time.

btw: i moved this post myself to suggestions because i didn't want my post to be off topic. The serco won last week, congrats

Sounds to me like your saying *Serco should not try*

What you should be saying is, Please Itani, TRY MORE....

hold on a second yoda, He is to a point asking serco to not try, but on the other hand he does have a point. the itani do have a significant experience gap compared to the serco, and in a skill based combat system, experience means A LOT.

I personally would be willing to limit the number of serco ATTACKERS to be the same as the itani defenders, -IF- the itani actually want to try to defend. I dont believe that we need to limit the number of serco defenders, but I do play CtC for the challenge, not because I feel that i'm somehow better if we get the cargo.

More importantly, I hereby volunteer my services to any Itani (or UIT or new Serco) that wants to try to learn some of the finer points of combat. just /msg me in-game and as long as you dont expect me to come deep into itani space(not gonna happen, i like to live, and your defbots like to make sure that i don't), i'll try to help you out.

I also think it would be a good gesture if other Veteran players (of ALL nations) did this as well. We vets all have a lot of time and interest in seeing vendetta succeed, and helping new players gain ability and enjoy the game is the best way to make sure that it does.

yoda and spellcast i never siad not to try all i'm saying is give us a fair shoot at attacking and defending. the way it is now no itani can even come close to betting the serco with odds like 10to 1 or 2.
we need time to train new players to do pvp and ctc. right now no itani really wants to join ctc if they know they won't be able to win at all.
i know the point many serco and fellow itani are trying to make is that we need to try harder but we don't have trained ppl yet. we can't try harder with people we don't have. so all i'm saying is give us the time to train new people and at least give the people who are doing ctc a chance o acually win for a change.
all i'm asking is for a fair fight

I had fun watching this tonight, over a few convoys.

The first time I got ingame, We were just idling around. A few Itani (totalling 4) and some Serco, just random incursions around Sedina L2, B8, O6 and Odia B13 ... in, out, a few shots fired and boost away. No real fights..

The convoy is announced, We scurry up and hold incursions. While this happens, the convoy is dead within seconds of reaching B8, Very effective strike. I'm delayed in the warp, get there, and join the battle. At this point, the Itani are spread out, noone has the cargo for the person who got the kill is dead from jackhammers within seconds. Noone covers the wormhole, noone follows our carrier.

The fighting continues in the sector, Itani convoy is announced... The fighting continues...

At the time the convoy launches, there are no Itani defenders there, We have it down as it enters Bractus E2, unopposed. The itani are still around Sedina, fighting light incursions in 1vs1 or 2vs2 fights.

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My second tale was of the Itani who wanted to pick a fight. In channel 100, slightly after the Serco convoy was announced. Started to go on about killing Serco Scum and so on. We took the bait and told him we'd be about. Seems just about every fighting capable Serco got interested in a duel with the nondiscriminating Itani. All seven of us met up to see our convoy home.

The reaction when first one.. then two.. then seven serco, and the transport, warped in was very interesting.

Unfortunately, our convoy died as it reached Latos. :-/

Good strike, there.

Exploit? Exploit the faction system? I'm sorry I just find that hilarious :)

How about we get other things to do in Vendetta OTHER than ctc? The new cap ship thing sounds like a good start. I still want to see more though...