As things remain stagnant on the Delve front even the narrative wars have started to sag, falling back on a few key points.
With the Siege of 1DQ six weeks in, the Imperium narrative has been bolstered by PAPI’s lack of progress against “Fortress Delve,” which turned out to be just the O-EIMK constellation.
Some Cyro Huren propaganda on that topic
PAPI has been pushing a line that the Imperium is “contained” and “no longer a threat” while the Imperium points to kill mails both in and out of Delve as a counter. But both sides are stuck with the stalemate. If PAPI breaks up, the Imperium immediately starts attacking in Delve. But if PAPI stays together, there isn’t a lot of action to keep line members interested. There is barely even any drama, just each side trying to egg the other on into attacking for the “good of the game.”
Basically, the Imperium has nowhere else to go and PAPI, or Legacy at least, knows there is no negotiated peace to be had that will end the war cleanly. So the war goes on.
Okay, there was one bit of drama. The corporation Imperial Federation left TEST to join Goonswarm and the Imperium. Not the first time a corp or alliance has decided to join the allegedly losing side. That brought 400 players into the Imperium ranks. However, the CEO apparently did this without consulting their membership and a majority of those members voted with their feet, returning to other organizations within Legacy coalition.
Imperial Federation and the downward slope
Meanwhile, the rumor is that Vily has been backing off the well publicized “extermination” plan as a war goal, as he has every time PAPI has stumbled. He even allowed that The Mittani might be tolerated in the game. But extermination is always back on the table as soon as PAPI makes any progress, so this is just posturing unless he has a concrete proposal.
Delve Front
This map of the front lines in Delve remains as accurate as it was back at the end of Week 43 when I first posted it.
O-EIMK Constellation – June 13, 2021
After dropping and losing 27 Azbels in attempts to gain a foothold in the O-EIMK constellation in several time zones, PAPI has given up on that tactic. At the June 6th town hall Progodlegend promised the Legacy line members that there was a new strategy coming, but it failed to materialize mid-week as promised.
There was a bit of mid week excitement as the Imperium reinforced a few ihubs in the F-I56R constellation in Delve, but there was no follow up. The Imperium has done that again since, but they are more of an annoyance to provoke PAPI than any serious attempt to retake systems.
The campaign stats for the region show there was actually a slight uptick in destruction over week 48.
Delve Campaign – Week 49
Other Theaters
In Esoteria The Bastion and its allies held on to their remaining territory.
Esoteria – June 13, 2021
Deeper in the region TEST appears to be handing ihubs over to Evictus (IOU).
In Feythabolis the FI.RE coalition has gotten the upper hand over ICG and has mostly evicted them from the region, while Red Alliance and The Bastion now find their holdings under attack.
Feythabolis – June 13, 2021
Then, off in the dronelands, The Initiative has gone back to harassing PandaFam in Etherium Reach and The Kalevala Expanse, reinforcing ihubs now and again, but otherwise not doing anything that would make me feel like I have to throw another map into this post.
My Participation
I did not go on any operations that resulted in combat. I did get out my Ninazu and joined a couple of stand-to operations.
Taking my Ninazu through the Ansiblex
That involved carriers putting fighters on the gate in 3-DMQT because the enemy was forming up. We were ready to welcome them to our space.
Fighters streaming to the gate in UI only view mode
Faxes were just there for support in case a real fight broke out, but that did not seem likely.
As such, my losses for the war remained:
- Ares interceptor – 18
- Malediction interceptor – 7
- Drake battle cruiser – 7
- Crusader interceptor – 5
- Atron entosis frigate – 6
- Rokh battleship – 5
- Scimitar T2 logi – 5
- Ferox battle cruiser – 4
- Cormorant destroyer – 4
- Jackdaw destroyer – 4
- Purifier stealth bomber – 3
- Guardian T2 logi – 2
- Scalpel T2 logi frigate – 2
- Scythe T1 logi – 1
- Raven battleship – 1
- Crucifier ECM frigate – 1
- Gnosis battlecruiser – 1
- Bifrost command destroyer – 1
- Hurricane battle cruiser – 1
- Sigil entosis industrial – 1
- Mobile Small Warp Disruptor I – 1
Other Items
The CSM16 elections kicked off on Tuesday. There are still a few hours left to vote as of this post going live if you have not done so already. Polls close on June 15th at 11:00 UTC.
CCP also pushed out the patch on Tuesday that introduced mobile observatories, the counter to cloaky camping. The patch also brought four new gates to New Eden, including the long asked for gate from low sec to the Stain region. And CCP also fixed the annoying message in the middle of your screen when you put your client in UI only mode, making the screen shot above with all the fighter brackets possible.
CCP also pushed some proposed black ops battleship changes to the test server.
In addition, as part of E3, CCP has a spot on the PC Gamer Show segment and was listed as a sponsor along with Pearl Abyss, so I thought there might be some big news coming. Instead, it was just another promo for EVE Academy, which we had heard about weeks ago. I get that player retention is still a target for CCP, but going to E3 with the news that they’re still trying to explain their 18 year old MMO to new players perhaps wasn’t headline worthy news. Seriously, where do you think that news ranks?
Blizzard: Here is the Diablo II Resurrected launch date!
Square Enix: We’re remaking every Final Fantasy ever!
CCP: We’re taking another shot at a tutorial of sorts.
I had to dig around to find that VentureBeat coverage, and I think they only got that because CCP was a sponsor.
Also, I expect CCP will follow their usual process and immediately ignore the whole EVE Academy thing until it becomes outdated, then quietly remove it. I am a cynic, but only because CCP has made me one.
And, speaking of player retention, the PCU was down again this past week, with the numbers never getting past 28K over the last seven days. Summer must be here, or the war must be really getting dull. We’re a long way from the weeks that were pushing 40K regularly.
- Day 1 – 38,838
- Week 1 – 37,034
- Week 2 – 34,799
- Week 3 – 34,692
- Week 4 – 35,583
- Week 5 – 35,479
- Week 6 – 34,974
- Week 7 – 38,299
- Week 8 – 35,650
- Week 9 – 35,075
- Week 10 – 35,812
- Week 11 – 35,165
- Week 12 – 36,671
- Week 13 – 35,618
- Week 14 – 39,681
- Week 15 – 40,359
- Week 16 – 36,642
- Week 17 – 37,695
- Week 18 – 36,632
- Week 19 – 35,816 (Saturday)
- Week 20 – 37,628 (Saturday)
- Week 21 – 34,888
- Week 22 – 33,264
- Week 23 – 33,149
- Week 24 – 32,807 (Saturday)
- Week 25 – 31,611
- Week 26 – 39,667 (Saturday)
- Week 27 – 34,989 (Saturday)
- Week 28 – 34,713
- Week 29 – 35,996
- Week 30 – 38,323
- Week 31 – 38,167
- Week 32 – 37,259
- Week 33 – 35,886 (Saturday)
- Week 34 – 35,626
- Week 35 – 35,379
- Week 36 – 35,085
- Week 37 – 34,394
- Week 38 – 36,319
- Week 39 – 35,597 (Saturday)
- Week 40 – 35,384 (Saturday)
- Week 41 – 33,708
- Week 42 – 33,521
- Week 43 – 33,731
- Week 44 – 33,742 (Saturday)
- Week 45 – 33,758
- Week 46 – 31,768
- Week 47 – 29,898
- Week 48 – 31,462 (Monday)
- Week 49 – 27,914
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