As I am the mastermind behind Operation Starfall (and therefore responsible for a lot of the headaches and controversy, here), I thought it might be a good idea for me to step in and take responsibility.
First, I would like to thank everyone who participated. The event would have been a failure if not for many things coming together in less than 96 hours. As Harkon said above, but to put a different spin on it, I was the one who provided the ships and staging, but without pilots for those assets, the event would have basically just been me solo piloting a freighter and dying. A bunch of hulls sitting in a hangar don't tell a very compelling story (or make for impressive screenshots) so, really, none of this could have gotten off the ground without Ferra, Harkon, Ushra'Khan, and those Minmatar roleplayers who decided to take a chance with us—and conversely, the Amarr loyalist roleplayers who decided to fight us despite being outnumbered. And of course, CCP, for being amazing and deploying three NPC actors, two of whom were in ships that could be attacked and destroyed (maybe we could have snagged the Aeon with another 100 Typhoons).
Secondly, and getting to the heart of the controversy, from the beginning, I was always operating with the assumption that the IC impact of the operation would be very small. Before putting everything into motion, I sent a message to ISD about what I was trying to achieve, which was basically instigate a space battle and try to create an inclusive stage for people who might be intimidated by IGS posting or channel roleplay. The best idea I could come up with under the time constraints (this was around four days before the official end of the "Crimson Harvest") was a freighter-in-militia.
However, the freighter, initially, was not supposed to survive. The concept was that: If Minmatar militia held the grid, Armast would declare that the Khanid air defenses were too strong and would initiate a self-destruct on the freighter, the debris from which might allow some small shuttles and atmospheric-capable SOE craft (as was hinted to in an earlier article) to smuggle slaves, rebels, prisoners of war, or refugees from the surface of the planet for a short period of time. And if Amarr militia held the grid, the freighter would have been destroyed and thus no "landings" could ever really take place.
Admittedly, after Ushra'Khan and GMVA got on board, I got a little full of myself and did an upward revision in a second message to ISD but they only replied to my first proposal and did so with only 24 hours left before Operation Starfall was scheduled to commence.
At the end of the day, based on my initial idea, the concept of capsuleer-backed armies landing on a sovereign planet wasn't really going to be tested. I chose not to reveal this to anyone (sorry Ferra and Harkon
) because I wanted the story to feel open-ended even if in reality it wasn't going to be. I hope that no one thinks that was manipulative of me to employ that touch of misdirection and if they do I apologize. I just felt that revealing the possible low-impact outcomes would have cheapened the stakes, reduced responses, and compromised the story—all to the detriment of what ended up being a fun event. I wanted to maintain the spontaneity of EVE pilots as much as I possibly could until the very last moment before I needed to initiate a self-destruct.
Fun fact: I was just about to have Armast type that the aerial defenses were too strong (as our fleet was pretty large and it looked unlikely the Amarr fleet would engage us on their own volition when so heavily outnumbered) when the Ushra'Khan pilots called that an Aeon was on grid. As it stands, CCP and those Amarr loyalists who warped to grid saved the day but it was a really big gamble and I recognize that.
As an aside, I believe that IC a character can make exaggerated, grandiose, and overambitious claims. Further, I do not believe that storylines or ideas should require OOC submission for vetting, approval, or feedback outside of contact to ISD or CCP when a story begins to skirt what is lore-acceptable. That all said, while I do believe that it was
possible for
some sort of landing to take place if in a weakened state, I did not
expect that the landing would be very successful if it at all occurred. And certainly nowhere near the extent that Armast was claiming in the "Operation Starfall" thread. Nonetheless, Armast, in-character,
could make the claim and lay out his entire plan, no matter how outrageous or unlikely.
Thankfully, CCP answered the question of the landing for us.
Armast is a businessman, not a soldier. There were
many flaws in his plan and he is coming to terms with that. I hope that you can be patient with me as I develop him through his flaws, failures, and (hopefully) successes as I continue to explore his story.
Anyway, any animosity or heated exchanges that occurred in this thread and elsewhere are because of my idea. I take full responsibility for my idea and own it, and again, apologize if there was any appearance that my goal was to shatter the lore of Empire navies and ground forces.
Author
Topic: Khanid Kingdom and Blooders and controversy, oh my! (Read 31001 times)