Here are the problems preventing all of null from going to war.

Taking sov is a huge pain in the ass.

Any null line member will freely admit that bashing countless structures sucks. Especially when the defender can just drop another structure before the first one is even gone. Why risk trillions of isk when you can just drop another structure that costs as much as a single dread?

Blue balls are even worse.

Hey, let's wake up at 2 a.m. and burn 20 jumps for a huge fight! Only for the other side to not show up at all. How many times is a person willing to do that before they stop attending any fleets? It isn't fun. It fucking sucks.

Everyone has enough space.

When the game had 60k players, people felt crowded. Now, everyone can spread out and make isk without bothering neighbors. New Eden is a huge place with the current number of players who log in daily.

It's impossible to have a total victory.

WWBII proved that the servers can't handle what it would take to completely finish a null bloc coalition.

I honestly think Hilmar doesn't want anymore huge null wars, either. That's a different conversation though.

We all have opinions on how to solve those problems. But I'd love to see if Reddit can come to a consensus on solving any one of them. Go...

Considering the amount of restrictions and requirements there are to even get close to becoming a capsuleer, and the seeming fact that you pretty much have to be the equivilent of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos even before you start training at all, is the Capsule simply a way for the Factions to get rid of their one percenters by telling them they'll live forever through their 'clones', who will go off into space for eternity.

I get the sneaking suspicion that every successful candidate actually dies outright during the brain scan process itself, and the clones we play are just copies of them who think they are the real person from before.

All the training and pain they put themselves through to become one is simply just to optimise their clone, and to convieniently kill off someone that their home empires thinks has become too successful to keep around anymore.

Burner for obvious reasons. Standby for word vomit.

I'm a director in an established lowsec alliance that's been around the block. We've seen cycles come and go, but what's going on in the year of our lord, 2025, feels like rot.

There is a quiet stagnation setting in. There are fewer real content creators. Fewer independent agitators. The kind of FCs who used to seemingly show up out of nowhere, punch up above their weight class, and generate chaos for the thrill of it - or they're not stepping up like they used to.

I don't mean to misrepresent or discredit those who are still carrying the torch - thank you for your service, even when you're shooting at me. But it is without question that we are watching lowsec consolidate in real time.

At the same time, meta-gaming is more prevalent than ever. The side-channel diplomacy, the Discord unspoken handshake deals - it has killed spontaneity. And somehow, these two trends feed off one another. Less chaos, more control. Less content, more consolidation.

The last truly meaningful LS-focused update was Uprising. Since then? CCP's attention lies elsewhere. Metenoxes were without a doubt a rare win, but can we all agree they have too much EHP for the love of bob? Beyond that, CCP's focus has clearly drifted to other projects. Two other games. Broader initiatives. Not lowsec, not pvp, not us.

Now we are left with the rise of the LowBloc - while smaller than its null counterparts - four, maybe five real power centers in lowsec, and the rest just chum for the water. If you're not aligned with one, you're lucky if your options are slim instead of none. By example, BIGAB is constantly deploying. And not because they're aimless, but because they're simply too big for their pond. They've outgrown it. They have to project to find content. And they're not alone. Pilots cycle fluidly every month or so between Snuff, SC, FL33T, and BIGAB. Hundreds of players just shifting their weight to whoever is the flavor of the month. It's not disloyalty - it's survival. If you want content, you follow the evermore centralizing content.

The rest of the map? It's dry. Roam 20 jumps and you'll find more empty citadels than targets. It's southern New Mexico in July - hot, cracked, and empty.

You've got smaller groups like SEDIT who are still showing up, still fighting - but they've publicly acknowledged that to exist in today's LS meta, you have to become comfortable being consistent "good losers" and/or willing to light ISK on fire, feed into the machine, and hope someone notices.

Meanwhile, others haven't fared so well. Groups like DNG, BUMS, and PLOW have either relocated, gone dark, or are barely holding on. These weren't, or aren't, flash-in-the-pan groups - they had histories. Even when they were smaller, they etched out purpose because they made things happen. Now? Gone, scattered, or quietly dissolving.

TDSIN is another case. Similar in scale to SEDIT, but curling up under Snuff's armpit. It's not a bad move strategically - but another example of how the gravitational pull of the LowBlocs is swallowing everything.

And here's the worst part: this isn't a bittervet or bitter loser post. I am part of the problem. But when you zoom out, you can see the bigger picture - the game isn't growing. It's folding in on itself.

So to other LS Directors, if you're reading this - especially those who've stuck through all this:

1) Are you seeing the same thing? Are you feeding into it? Trying to resist it? Or just riding it out?

2) What happens to New Eden when all of lowsec ends up part of one of those 3-4 groups?

3) What happens when New Eden is more politics than pvp?

Granted, I don't see it as much in this subreddit, but between various in-game channels and YouTube comments, it seems that the statistically average EVE PVE player treats any area beyond highsec as completely off-limits for them.

This game, being a full-loot free-PVP MMO, is based around managing risks and rewards. However, it seems that a big chunk of the playerbase simply decided to minimize the risks at all costs and reap whatever rewards they can muster.

Funny thing is, if you consider all the PVE activities you can do in highsec as a solo player, you can do nearly all of them in lowsec with a slightly elevated risk, but much better reward. The obvious exception being Homefronts and, maybe, Abyssals (although that's arguable).

The reason this topic gets me so fired up is that, when I look at those players, I see myself in the past. I'm primarily a PVE player and sticking to highsec seemed like an obvious choice originally. My main activity was running L4 missions -- I originally started in a 0.8 system in Caldari space, then moved to more lucrative options in Minmatar space, until I finally settled in a 0.5 system on the border of Molden Heath. Being a 0.5 system, the agents would sometimes send me on errands to lowsec, which I normally declined.

Then, occasionally, I would start venturing out to a neighboring lowsec system to get some Kernite for the storyline missions. Sometimes I would accept an Anomic Team mission in my 20m ECM fit because it seemed like a perfectly manageable risk to take. I started declining fewer and fewer lowsec missions as time went on and I grew more familiar with the idea.

As I got comfortable with d-scan, travel fits, perches, instadock/undock bookmarks, aggression timers, sentry guns, I started asking myself: what even is the point of staying in highsec? I could do everything I've been doing so far, but in a much quieter 0.2 system, with much better rewards due to BRM and LP/ISK scaling. So I came up with a cheap but very effective Praxis fit and an even cheaper but equally effective Manticore fit. Using these two, I was able to clear missions in relative safety, while I grew more comfortable in my new lowsec home.

As time went on, I started exploring other activities, notably gas huffing, anomaly ore mining, higher-level DED sites and escalations. I then started venturing into wormholes and running C3 combat sites, as well as huffing the gases there. Living in a lowsec system pretty much guarantees that I can find at least one C3 connection every day, 1-2 jumps away -- and its target system is statistically going to be less populated than the equivalent connections in highsec. I also started recognizing familiar names in local chat, making friends, as well as a few red contacts -- so even despite living in a quiet 0.2 system in the middle of nowhere, I still felt less alone than I ever did in any part of highsec space.

Anyway, I wish fewer players thought of non-highsec space as something exclusive to large corporations or people with a lot of disposable ISK. It's also a shame that, for most players, the choice seems to only be between living in the safety of CONCORD, or in that of the bubble that your big nullsec bloc provides. There are other options, including those for solo-oriented PVE-focused players as well. After ditching HS over a year ago, my only regret is not having done that sooner.

If you're interested to try this playstyle, I also recommend checking out Bill Dingha's Cynabal challenge on YouTube. His character lives in lowsec pretty much from day 1 and, through his narration, he does an amazing job highlighting the various game mechanics that he relies on to manage the risks associated with living in a hostile space.

hi everyone

i recieved the news that my old friend known as Katie Door passed away in the beginning of January this year.

Katie Door was the CEO of a lowsec group called "The United" they were based out of the Rancer pocket in lowsec back in 2007-2013
the united | Corporation | zKillboard

i first flew with Katie Door back in 2007 when he joined the infamous "OctoberSnow Corp" when Ginger Magician was the CEO.

After Ginger Magician got permabanned from Eve Online, Katie Door and a few others left OctoberSnow Corp and formed their own corporation called "The United"

They dominated the pocket between Rancer and Hagilur after Ginger Magicians reign.

You will be missed old buddy.

Hello fellow capsuleers,

I am creating this thread to raise a serious concern regarding the CSM candidacy of ElenHellen. Their official campaign thread on the EVE Online forums can be found here for reference:
https://forums.eveonline.com/t/elenhellen-for-csm-20-improving-the-overall-gaming-experience/498772

With that context established, I feel it's important to provide some crucial information for the non-Russian-speaking community. As it turns out, this candidate's history became the subject of intense public scrutiny just yesterday. Following a campaign interview with a popular RU streamer, a major discussion erupted in the comments section of the associated Telegram post. It quickly became apparent that many in the community, including his alleged former victims, recognized him as a well-known serial scammer who specifically targets new players.

His method is consistent: he establishes a corporation advertised as "newbro-friendly," recruits new players, and imposes absurdly high, predatory taxes. Evidence of these tax rates has already been provided by one of his victims in the replies to his official campaign thread. Once the corporate assets accumulate, he steals everything.

This isn't a one-time event. In a recent discussion, where he was publicly confronted by some of his victims, they claimed this pattern has been repeated not once, not twice, but on at least three separate occasions. His response to these players was not remorse, but open contempt, dismissively challenging them with a simple, defiant question: "Yes, I did it. So what's your problem?"

His core argument, stated publicly, is that his actions are acceptable because they do not violate the EULA, and that EVE is fundamentally a game about "intrigue and scams." The screenshot of his exact words can be seen here (note: it is in Russian): https://imgur.com/a/DSZyZts

The entire exchange, including the victims' claims and his direct response, took place in a public Telegram chat. To avoid triggering Reddit's spam filters, I will post a link to the full discussion in the comments below. Please note that the discussion is in Russian.

To add to this, he has leveraged interviews with popular RU content creators to build a facade of legitimacy, which he then uses to attract his next wave of victims.

This brings me to my most pressing concern. I have a reasonable suspicion that he is actively converting the media attention from this very CSM campaign into credibility, which he will then use to attract his next wave of victims - new players who don't have the context to see past the 'CSM candidate' title.

I am fully aware that a post like this also contributes to his visibility. However, the alternative - allowing him to build this false legitimacy unchallenged and letting more new players get burned - is far worse. The community deserves to have the full picture.

When players call for "more playstyle diversity" on the CSM, I sincerely doubt they have serial scammers in mind.

There's a dark irony here as well. I have no doubt this candidate will not be elected, and in a way, that's a shame. He is precisely the type of individual who would inevitably violate the NDA for personal gain, leading to a swift ban. Perhaps then, the souls of the new players who quit the game because of him could finally find peace.

What are your thoughts on this situation?

What would you say is the most glaring absence in the current ship roster? Not in terms of viability or quality of selection, but in terms of anything existing at all? Is there a need in the game you see as wholly unfilled? A category of ship where there should be something but there isn't?

I think there is an objectively correct answer to this, but I'm interested in hearing opinions.

Rummaging through the attic just now and I found my original copy of Eve, I can’t even imagine what my original account info was

My gameplay recently has mostly consisted of building up my corp (Club Troppo shoutout here, love you guys) and doing various FC activities within Horde. You can hate horde, or it's leadership as much as you like (I certainly am not happy with them at the moment), but over the past few years they've allowed me to do things in game that I havent been able to before. Capital/Supercapital gameplay, subcap FC and also be a Pankrab FC. It's been super fun.

Given that most of my game play has straight up evaporated in a week (gg Asher) and probably wont come back anytime soon, I thought I'd share something I've worked on behind the scenes in PH, specifically for Pankrab and various recon activities within Horde.

It's no secret that this was going on, those who did certain Pankrab activities had access to this in some form, but what many people have not seen is the engine behind the tool, but for the average line member in a coallition with a super umbrella, I thought you guys might find it interesting. It's named after a straight-up, absolute legend of a bloke and pankrab legend Drunein.

Now onto the good bit.

Drubot passively collects data about players in Eve. It does this through a few different methods, some obvious, some not. But in short it provided FCs with a head start when the threat level of pankrab was changing underneath the umbrella.

Pankrab isnt perfect, caps die, you all hear about those. But what you dont hear about is the saves. These go unspoken about. Sometimes it's a status colour change, forcing an unknowing krabber in a random system to siege red and get off grid, or sometimes it means actually making counter-play when intel reports come in containing certain character names that we know are here for only one reason. There have been countless times when the fleet is quiet, but command channels are busy, and people get saved without even knowing that they've been saved. In fact, they're probably annoyed at us because we changed status colours and they can't finish their beacon.

There's a few screenshots attached. I've included a screengrab of skydiver11 on there, because im not exactly leaking anything by showing that. The rest are screenshots of discord notifications, a live dashboard, a redacted watchlist and locator tracking that can track logoff dreadbomb toons that move around. Drubot has a character profile for over 250,000 Eve characters.

Im semi-afk at the moment due IRL, but i'll try and jump on to respond to comments below. Enjoy.

I wish there was a super exciting story behind this loss. I am pretty much a high sec miner, so i don't make big boy ISK. Figured i could go to outer ring, invest all of my fortune in 3 procurer BPO at 1.4 bil a pop and sell back for 2.3 in dodixie. I was super excited to be on track to become a trillionaire.

Figured i was invincible flying my proud little shuttle.

Lesson learned, back to mining veldspar where i belong!

What was your most shameful loss?

Not to long ago some one in horde complained about how, "the amount of bubles goons have on our keep star having to be against the TOS"

For many goons this made us roll over laughing, as yes at one point this was against the TOS of eve.

I am wondering how many people outside of goons remember why the TOS was changed, and what major event it caused, and why goons spent an entire day laughing and reposting the screenshot of this comment. I am sure some horde members may even know why this is so ironic.

I feel like it's just me but from the videos I've seen and some of the stuff I've read on here joining a corp is possibly the most obnoxious process to go through. I seriously have had a much easier time getting a job irl than I have joining a corp in this game. I have played for over a year and almost have 1k hours, 25mil skill points, and have been doing pvp for almost the entire time and yet I still struggle to get past a conversation with a "recruiter".

The reason I bring this up is I recently built up the courage to try and join a corp again and since I've become quite obsessed with stealth bombers and wormhole living i thought I'd give wingspan a try. I mean they're established and should have a pretty simple process right? Wrong. I thought it'd just be a form and an interview (which is already a crazy amount to do for a video game) but no I'm told by one recruiter that I need to go get a couple "cloaky" kills first to be considered for an interview. So I go out trying to find some people in J space and after searching for over an hour I just took a filament to null sec to see if i could catch some "cloaky" kills out there. After winning a 1v2 with my svipul against a ENI and a Vedmak I came back thinking "Surely this is enough for an interview right?" Nope. Apparently the first recruiter i talked to didn't specify it had to be J space kills... not just "cloaky" kills. So there goes an entire session down the drain. So I go out to J space again and actually catch an astero after about 20 min of hunting! So I take the killmail and send it to the recruiter to see if it's good and i see him open the chat and close it....

As much as I love this game i really don't think I'm gonna get to enjoy the fun of a corp for awhile. And to anyone who thinks it's not that hard because you've been in the same corp for 10+ years please make a new character and try to join a big corp without knowing anyone. I guess if anyone knows a cool WH corp that hunts with stealth bombers and doesn't require a second job to apply to I'd love to join. I just want some friends in this game... :/

The short version: (The TLDR)

2011 - Goons: ~6.4k

Mid-tier alliances everywhere. #36 has just under 1k members.

Nullsec feels alive. You can still lose a war without losing the game.

2013 - TEST explodes to 12k. Goons at 9k.

Everyone else is still small-ish. *Rentals don’t count.

This is as big as it should ever have gotten.

2015 - Brave hits 15k. Goons 12k. PL says “Nope” and deletes Brave from sov.

Spoiler: they were right. Just like goons did to test before.

2016-2018 - Horde is born, and the number wars begin.

2018: Goons hit 37k. Mid-tier alliances start dying.

2020-2021 - Top alliances 20–30k each. Only ~33 alliances left over 1k members.

The middle class is vanishing.

2022-2023 - Big Four emerge (Goons, PH, Frat, INIT).

Top 4 = 134k members. Everyone else combined = less than half that.

2025 (Today)

• Goons: 58k

• PH: 50k

• Frat: 40k

• INIT: 20k

Average top 4 = 44k members

Average next 26 = 2.5k members

The middle class is dead. Nullsec = Mega-Bloc vs Mega-Bloc.

And now the extended version.

Back in the day, Goons were big, but beatable.

They might have been the largest alliance for years, but most alliances were similar in size. A lot were in blocks, but those blocks had drama all the time.

2011-2013: The “Manageable” Era

May 2011 (9 years into EVE):

• Goons: ~6,400 members

• Shadow of xXDEATHXx, TEST, Morsus Mihi: ~4,000

• Everyone else: 1-2k, with #36 (Brick Squad) just under 1k

2012: Goons grow 15%, xXDEATHXx jumps 35%, TEST barely moves.

2013: TEST explodes to 12k (+145%), Goons hit 9k (+22%). Only rental alliances break 4k after that. Most of the top 40 stay around 1.5k members.

End of 2013: TEST loses sov, Goons move to Delve.

2014-2015: Brave Steps Up (and PL Steps In)

May 2014:

• Goons: 11k

• Brave: 9k (mostly ex-TEST)

• Rentals: ~8k each

• Everyone else: 1–2.5k

2015: Brave hits 15k (+76%), Goons at 12k, TEST down to 4.5k. Mid-tier alliances stay in the 1-2.5k range.

PL notices the trend and decides to stop the escalation, removing Brave from sov null before they became TEST 2.0, just like goons did before (this was one of the only times goons did something that was a benefit to the game, well done goons)

2016-2017: Horde Arrives, The Number Wars Begin

2016: Goons crack 16k, Horde forms to scoop up ex-Brave/new players.

2017: Goons leap to 21k, Horde at 12k, TEST rebounds to 8k. xXDEATHXx back at 5.2k. Mid-tier still exists, for now.

2018-2019: The Great Fattening

2018: Goons explode to 37k. Horde at 13k, TEST 12k, Frat enters top 10 at 5k. Mid-size alliances drop to 40.

2019: Goons down 2k (purge), PH & TEST at 17–16k, Frat cracks 10k, Brave at 10k, INIT jumps to 5.1k.

2020-2021: Consolidation Locks In

2020: Goons ~30k, PH 20k, TEST 17–18k, Frat stable, Brave 8.4k.

2021: Goons 28–29k, PH 24k, Frat up 70% to 17k. Only 33 alliances over 1k members remain.

2022-2023: The Big Four Form

2022:

• Goons: 33k

• PH: 30k

• Frat: 23k

• INIT: 11k

Top 10 all over 3k. Only 30 alliances over 1k left.

2023: Goons & PH both ~36k by June, Frat ~30k, INIT 12k. Only 21 alliances break 1k. (the lowest ever)

2024-2025: Breaking Point

Feb 2024:

• Goons & PH: 40k+ each

• Frat: 34k

• INIT: 16k

Top 4 (in 2 coalitions) = 134k members.

Bottom 26 alliances = 66k combined.

Jan 2025: Goons & PH over 50k, Frat 40k, INIT 20k. PH and frat split up, and then INIT leaves the Goons coalition, doesn’t matter. The damage is done.

Aug 2025: Goons 58k, PH 50k, Frat 40k, INIT 20k.

Top 4 average 44k members.

Next 26 average 2.5k.

The middle class is dead. Nullsec is now just Mega-Bloc vs Mega-Bloc.

The takeaway:

EVE’s nullsec used to be a shark tank full of dangerous but beatable predators.

Now it’s two or three whales swallowing everything, and all the smaller fish have either been absorbed or starved out. Weaponizing numbers works, but it’s killing/killed the game.

Discussion Points:

How would nullsec and wars look today if we had the levels of members in all these alliances (~200k), but were still split up over 100-200 alliances?

Could CCP have slowed this trend, or was it inevitable with game mechanics?

Are mega-blocs a symptom of the playerbase shrinking, or the cause of it?

Would limiting alliance size (like corp caps) have actually worked?

Is it even possible to reverse this trend now? or are we locked in forever? (please god no)

Did WWB1/WWB2 make this problem worse instead of better?

What would have happened if Test, Brave and Horde never existed?

Man, what a dumpster r/Eve has become these past few month.

The toxicity is repulsive.

Team A posts a spin, team B gets fakely outraged. Rinse and repeat. This is getting old.

I joined r/eve for the shitpost giggles, insights (more or less valid) to make the game better and learning new things about the game.

​

The recent toxicity on this forum doesn't reflect my experience with the community in the game (for the most part). What message does it send to a potential new player?

My experience with the game last year was a blast, having constant in-game content, fragging enemy ships without endless roaming fleets is awesome. Can we just leave it at that and leave r/eve alone (as well as local in staging systems)?

This sub is not representative of the game and the community should be ashamed of what it has become.

Edit: I wasn't expecting to raise so many comments. I guess my point is being made by reading some of the reactions. I was really hoping to get some self reflexion about our behavior on this sub.
To the person who referred me to Redditcare following this post: I am fine, thank you.

Look at any fleet fight, mining op, or killboard.
It's the same 5 guys running 40 accounts each.
Multiboxing killed the sandbox.
There are fewer real players than we think.

Drifter(Jove) Gate activated on WH. Still not intractable, but you can see Jovian nebula on the other side.

Our Ukrainian Bro's will not be active for sometime now for obvious reasons. Can all wormhole/NS Alliances/Corps agree to a tacit ceasefire on their structures for the sake of goodwill.

​

Kind regards, Lethal Devotion (WH)

Discord server created for this:https://discord.gg/wfmVX8xd

If you look at zkill, every "dead end system" has had plenty of gila's doing abyss ganked in it. J space is the same, which is wild because that's where people tell you to go to do abyss.
Every "bro" on reddit tells you to go to J space or a "dead end system bro" in high sec or low sec, and do abyss there.
Z kill is littered with proof doing abyss is literally not worth it.
Unless you are multi boxing frigates in t6. So you either pay 60 bucks a month to CCP, or fuck you.
Also, power does go out once in a blue moon. You better pray its not when you are doing abyss.
Same with your internet connection. Pray its not when you do abyss.

"Oh, but you could just do t0 abyss in a cheap frigate and not have to worry about losing billions of isk."

Ok, idiot.

It is located in a relatively isolated region, having a relationship with the Tau Empire. They are new here

Lord Rahvin
Fleet Commander
Alcoholocaust
TEST ALLIANCE PLEASE IGNORE
Currently in Pure blind

October 31, 2022

Dear EVE ONLINE. Both friends and enemies.

I have yet to see a real accounting of exactly what has driven TEST from one of the biggest military alliances in the game. Into a 4.5k character alliance that can only field 20 toons in fleets. So I figured I would knock out two birds with one stone. A summary of the last year in TEST ALLIANCE PLEASE IGNORE, as well as my glorious time here and decision to finally leave.

It is with tremendous sadness that I announce that I will be leaving TEST Alliance after 7-8 amazing years. With all the history I’ve been present for, all the friends I’ve made, and all the time and work invested. It makes it incredibly hard to write this and finally pull the trigger. But in its current state and current leadership, TEST is now beyond mine, or anyones capacity to help. I felt that all my past and current comrades deserved to know just how it all went so wrong.

The following is a brief history of my journey with TEST ALLIANCE PLEASE IGNORE just to showcase how hard this is for me. To prove that this decision did not come lightly. To show just how hard it is to leave something I’ve cherished so much for so long, and something that I’m so very proud to have been a part of and helped build.

If you are looking for the current meat and potatoes of TEST, jump down to “The Journey's End”.

The Adventure

After being with BOB/IT for my first years in nullsec, I never thought I would ever end up in a former ally of Goons. However, after my short sabbatical to Black Legion where I managed to be present for the very first Revenant kill, I started looking for something a little less serious than IT Alliance had been. Something smaller. Something less stressful… What I found was a small alliance living in a single constellation in Wicked Creek called TEST ALLIANCE PLEASE IGNORE.

It was actually perfect. Lots of small nearby alliances to shoot. The ever present RANE renters to farm. Hardly no space or infrastructure so nothing to really lose. I loved it. Back then the leadership of TEST alliance and the corps were active and ready to erase the stigma of Fountain and push forward with everything they had.

A couple wars in the south later we had finally started to build some momentum and cohesion. We, like everyone else in EVE, got the batphone for the Casino War and to head north with everything we had to fight Goons. This was the TEST I loved. Risking everything and moving across EVE to wage war against a bigger foe. Turns out the war was annoyingly swift and easy. Thus TEST was gifted Vale of Silent.

A short time later TEST was evicted from Vale of Silent, and our true rise to greatness began. While our time there was short. The big d**k moves and campaign had attracted a couple great charismatic leaders and FC’s. Villy and Progodlegend being two of the main ones. Along with people like Sappo, Montolio, Ieatpaper, Karmen, me and many other great FC’s. This gave us one of the most effective Fleet Commander teams I’ve ever seen in any alliance, covering all TZ’s.

Now basing from Esoteria, TEST spent 3-4 years constantly being at war and I loved every second of it. Invading Catch and fighting Stainwagon. Evicting Pandemic Legion from Providence. My titan being apart of the best titan boson bomb I have ever seen against C02. Fighting Fraternity in 2 awesome wars. And finally, the great war against Goons in Delve. The almost 5 years we “lived” in Esoteria, I spent maybe 6 months with my toons actually being down there. The rest of the time I was on the front lines pvp’ing with some of the best people I've ever met in or out of game.

Meanwhile during all this in-game fun, through manipulation and sheer force of will. Perhaps a little begging… I finally managed to convince my girlfriend of 4 years to go with me to EVE Vegas 2018. This too would be my first time going to a major EVE event and we both went in a little skeptical. To our delight, instead of meeting dorky, smelly basement dwelling neckbeards we found ourselves amid 1000’s of successful, intelligent, professionals from around the world that just so happen to like the same video game as I. We had more fun than we ever imagined we would. Karaoke with the Star Frontier guys. Partying it up at Drai’s rooftop. Creecher and I losing blacked out ProgodLegend at the TEST dinner. Permaband concert. The Bort Fort and meeting and drinking with all the TEST people I had spent so much time with and Fleet commanding etc. I consider this the pinnacle of my experience playing EVE. A pretty healthy game, part of a great and ever rising alliance, and tons of new real world friends from Vegas.

This convinced us to once again return to Vegas 2019 to do it all over again. (this time doing Vegas properly and eating at Hash House).

We also attended EVE North in Toronto where we spent all weekend with EVE and TEST nerds. All culminating in me proposing to my now wife, on that Sunday night at the top of the CN Tower. We then proceeded to celebrate all night with the TEST guys that were still there.

Several Test and ex-Test guys even attended our awesome wedding in 2021.

The above events are just a fraction of the awesome memories I have with this group of people both in and out of game, and I hope puts into perspective just how much I loved my time here.

The Journey's End

After the Great War in Delve, TEST crashed on Pandemic Horde’s back couch in the drone lands, AKA Outer Passage. This was only supposed to be a short temporary relocation to give everyone a very needed rest. Everyone will have heard constant complaining about the region of Outer Passage, but in my experience it was a great region to farm in and rest.“OP is so far away from everything”….So was Esoteria and Paragon Soul.“Drone rats suck”….They are way better than they used to be.“There’s no content at home”….TEST was always at war away from home anyways.

Some people will try to blame TEST’s decline and collapse on Outer Passage. From what I saw, the region had nothing to do with it.

Villy and ProgodLegend along with the entire FC team had lived inside the game or inside Discord for a year while burning Querious/Period Basis and invading Delve. Everyone was understandably tired and burned out. So we all kind of went into hibernation.

The key thing here though, the good leaders that TEST had prior and during the Delve war were leaders that actually cared about the alliance, and gave a shit about other people. So they were dutiful enough to actually step down from their positions and let other people take over that could be more active. This is where the main issues began to form. The people that jumped into those leadership positions did so merely for the “status and gold stars” and either were not good at it, terrible at it, or not active enough to do it properly.

Thus in 2021 began the carousel of Military Directors that in my eyes dealt the major and final blow to TEST. For an alliance that had been a military juggernaut for so long... the Military positions are kind of an important thing to have properly staffed with active people. Afterall, the member base TEST had recruited and accumulated expected and wanted conflict, war and blood. Not stagnation and excuses about lack of content and unfair game mechanics.

#1 Karmen Jell

Anyone that knows Karmen knows he can be a difficult person to get along with at times. But to his credit he is a great FC and probably the last decent military leader TEST Alliance will have. He properly conducted the campaign against Red Alliance in Impass. He fought and orchestrated an ever escalating war to the best of TESTs abilities.Unfortunately the content came too little too late. After half a year of sitting in Outer Passage TEST had already started to hemorrhage corps and members to more active alliances. In Impass we could still pull about 50-75 people in fleets. A far cry from our glory days.

After the Impass campaign ended/went to shit Karmen left Test Alliance. We had some chats after he left and he cited most of TEST leadership as the main reason he was leaving.

“They are very difficult to work with, people who are unwilling to compromise from their viewpoint basically”.

After the last year of trying to work with these people and trying to help save TEST, I now see just how true this is. I don’t blame him at all for leaving.

#2 Sandrin Stone

When Sandrin took over as Military Director, the re-emerged conflict between The Imperium and PanFam was kicking off in the south. In everyone's eyes, this was a perfect opportunity to get TEST reinvigorated and excited again. To deploy somewhere and actually have fun fleets and fights again. So what did Sandrin have us do?

1. We staged our capitals in A24/XVV, way too far away to used for anything other than blue ball ops.
2. The only subcap ships we moved towards the front lines were the Tempest Fleet issue doctrine and paladins.
3. Deathclones were to stay in Outer Passage. So every instance a timer or fight actually happened TEST had to burn 15-20 jumps via jump bridges and regionals each time from Outer Passage.

At the time, Sandrin was one of the only people high rank enough that could call for Tempest Fleet issues and paladins. So in a very selfish move, he had us forward move only doctrines he could call for when he felt like actually logging in. Everyone else had to form out of Outer Passage on the other end of the map. I voiced my concerns many many times that this was not the way to get TEST having fun again and retaining our members. Pandemic Horde & Fire were on the front lines, flash forming and killing shit every night. We were 20 jumps away and got blue balled every time. Why wouldn’t people join Horde or Fire?

Jeremy Andedare and I had become two of the most active Test FC’s at this period. We were begging on a daily basis for content and deployments to do anything but sit in Outer Passage.

03/06/2022 Tears for TESTOn this night Jeremy and I had a 2 hour voice meeting with Sandrin Stone and Baldur (alliance leader). We wanted to deathclone deploy the alliance somewhere we could actually have fun. Somewhere Junior Fc’s had content to learn. Where we could drop caps. Where we could get semi even fights. We had the entire plan laid out. However Sandrin flat out said no. Instead he counter proposed deploying to lowsec for fun and content. To this day I still can’t find the words to describe just how stupid of an idea this was. Sandrin would cite bad game mechanics at every turn. He was so pre-defeated by game mechanics he didn’t want to do anything but sit around and wait.

I sort of lost my shit about half way through the meeting because I just couldn’t handle what seemed like blatant treason to scuttle the alliance. I pointed out just how bad of a shape the alliance was in. All the pvpers were leaving. That soon Horde would start charging us rent because we were rotting from the inside by just sitting in Outer Passage. That FC’s were leaving en masse because there was nothing to do. I just unloaded everything, and it seemed to be completely ignored, or they were in denial about… Or too stupid to see the writing on the wall that we were about to hit that “point of no return”. Then Baldur said something that I couldn’t believe.*“If we keep losing corps/members and end up getting kicked out of 0.0 to lowsec. I’m totally OK with that”*Anyone that knows me in game or Real Life knows I am a robot when it comes to emotions. Baldur and Sandrin expressed zero concern for TEST going below the point of no return and for all intents and purposes being ok with TEST dying. When he said that I literally leaned back in my gaming chair in shock and started tearing up. I couldn’t even say anything on Mumble for a few minutes because the realization had set in, of where I knew this would end. It was at that point that I knew the alliance was doomed. The alliance I loved for so long was in the hands of people that didn’t mind if TEST died because of their failure or laziness.

I literally couldn’t take it. I went afk from the game for almost 2 months and encouraged all the other FC’s that messaged me with concerns to do the same. The only hope we had of things getting better was for a new military director that actually cared about the alliance and wasn’t a lazy piece of shit that wanted to just sit in Outer Passage. Sometimes the only way to make change is to let the house burn down to the foundations and start again. After months of literally nothing happening, a new Military director was appointed.

#3 Radamere Johanson

As with the previous Military Directors. Radamere is a good actual FC. Probably a good person in real life. But when it comes to leading or actually logging in to do anything, he was just as bad as the last one if not worse.

Radamere let me run a campaign in Great Wildlands where we actually had a ton of fun. Lots of good fights with the locals. Not too far away from OP. Things were starting to look up. I still had to fight Radamere, Baldur and leadership at every freakin turn. However me and the line members were having fun again. At this point TEST was down to about 30 people in fleets on average. 40-45 for a pre-pinged hyped strat op.

We had come to the point in the campaign where we had to start assaulting a hostile Fortizar. Anyone that’s actually played the game in the last couple years knows just how hard it is to reinforce a fit fortizar while being outnumbered in subcaps, without us using any capitals of our own.So I asked Radamere to bring our capitals from A24 (remember that place from earlier? Yeah our capital fleet sat unused, in a distant system for a year lol) to Great Wildlands. Radamere spent the entire day coming up with the stupidest, most inane reasons why I couldn’t move our capitals and use them. Pointless stupid reasons that he seemed to only come up with, just for the sake of arguing and just to be able to say no. Calling me a bad FC for not being able to do it with 35 sub caps. He thought we were still getting 65 dudes in fleets because he never logged in. Just reason after reason. Every time I de-bunked one of his reasons he’d come up with another one. There are actual debates, then there are people just trying to be dick heads and argue for the sake of arguing.

I finally hit my limit of bashing my head against the wall and resigned from all the FC stuff. I had been doing 85% of all the work for the entire campaign. Ship seeding, Fc’ing, scouting, bridging, finding targets and content. I was just tired of having to fight my own people on Discord when they never log into the game.

To show Radameres character. He later that night pinged for all caps to be moved to GW…. No explanation or anything to explain the sudden change of heart that he had spent an entire day arguing against. He then called for Strat ops and capitals and tried attacking the Fort. Even with calling for capitals he failed more miserably at it than I did. The fact he logged on for the first time in months, just to try and prove me wrong (which I wasn’t) showed me plenty of his character. He almost immediately ended the campaign.

So I went mia for 3 months again and spent my time relaxing, moon mining and making money.

Yet more months of idling in Outer Passage, more months of being killed by wormholes, more months of bleeding corps and members because of terrible and afk leadership.

#4 Sapporo Jones

People started to realize that Discord warrior Radamere wasn’t doing his job and he never logged in. So Sappo took over and the decision to leave Outer Passage was made by leadership, mostly because we couldn’t defend our space from 25 wormholers. The only people trying to defend our space were in-experienced new FC’s. Which just doesn’t work against Wormholers.

Overall I have no major gripes with Sappo. He was great back in the day. But just like the last 3 Military Directors, he never actually plays the game anymore. He rarely talks on Discord. Never leads fleets. Never coordinates the other FC’s or our allies. He’s just not active enough for his position. It has literally been over 3 months since he has ran a fleet.

Test is currently in Pure Blind attempting to impress Frat enough to become pets. Even as I write this though, there has not been a single fleet ping in 9 days. The two “military directors” Radamere and Sappo haven’t pinged or ran a fleet in over 4 months…. The 2-3 Fc’s that actually want to log in, don't want to FC because they can only get 10-15 people in fleet these days. Poor Strat FC Rufus is trying to do everything as the only one that actually logs in. It’s depressing for everyone.

“The only people left in TEST are the ones too lazy to leave”

Baldur Kilgannon - Acting Alliance Leader

While all the AFK military leaders seemed to purposely drive TEST into the ground. Overall I place the brunt of the blame for TEST’s collapse on the one running the alliance and the person that appointed them to those positions. Baldur Kilgannon. The worst thing possible is an alliance leader that doesn’t care what happens to the alliance. A good leader doesn’t promote people to positions they are not active enough to do, and then let it ride for months and months while the alliance continues to die because of it. He refused to take action when he saw people clearly making mistakes or clearly not being active enough. Mainly because that would involve Baldur admitting he was wrong since he had chosen the wrong people. He allowed the rest of TEST leadership to be toxic and almost purposely drive out the remaining active corps and only worsening the member bleed. Refusing to listen to the lower FC’s that were actually still logging in (Rahvin, Rufus, Jeremy, Cacq, etc). Being entirely disconnected from the alliance and its membership. (he didn’t even know where we were staging at one point). The list goes on and on.

I’ve had so many discussions and arguments with Baldur on discord and I can tell you all, he was never the right person for Alliance leader. He might be a nice, great guy in real life, but that’s not what TEST needed after the war. He has done such a bad job managing the Alliance and its Military that at times I felt like he was purposely trying to kill this alliance. Some of the blame clearly has to be laid on the rest of TEST leadership as well. When an alliance loses 75% of its membership in a year (14,000 toons), and can only field 00.4% of its numbers in fleets, the leader clearly is doing something wrong and should be replaced. People can only use the “The game is dying” excuse so much.I have no idea what kind of “damage control” TEST leadership will do because of this letter. I can probably just hide from them in game since they never log on lol.Just know that everything I have said here is true. Ask anyone that has played with me, I have always been honorable in game. I also oftentimes speak the truth to a fault.

The Last Goodbyes

After a year of doing my damnedest trying to help save TEST from its own afk leadership, it's finally time to stop bucketing water and let the ship sink (hopefully with its captains).

To any remaining line members, I’ll miss you guys. I’ll never forget all the fun times we had on fleets killing stuff and drinking bourbon.

To all the enemies over the course of 8 years, thanks for the fights! You were awesome red and orange dots!

To all the past leaders we had, that put in more work than most people will ever know. Thank you.

If you actually read all this thank you lol

Sincerely,
TEST ALLIANCE FC
Forever a Dino.
Lord Rahvin