Well, I know it's shocking if something like this happens. A piece of news that can be used against ones faction. About 1/3 of all news of Amarr is usually used against the Amarr by the usual player of a Gallentean, so...
I don't see why one should complain, honestly.
The aggressive sarcasm is not really needed.
Having said that, my annoyance is not really that it happened - as I pointed out, it's a mostly realistic scenario considering everything - but more the way it did. The Fed has been portrayed so far as actually caring allot for the image portrayed by their ground-based troops and their fleet forces, leading to very high standards in what is already a volunteer force. Now, I can easily believe that this kind of standard can be relaxed due to the very real fact that, say, the Caldari State - seeing service as a very, very good thing and holding immense respect for their Navy forces - likely have 5 or more Navy crew personnel for every single one the Fed has. You have the bigger Empire, but you are massively outnumbered in head-count, AND you have larger areas to cover. After all drones can only help cover so much, so you will need more troops and you needed them yesterday.
However now suddenly they introduce not just a slightly relaxation in standards, but seemingly throwing the standards out the air-lock.
Utilizing people with criminal records? Sure. As mentioned it don't have to be too serious crimes, or anything.
Allowing the use of Combat stimulants and drugs? Okay... this is the Fed after all, and while there is a long lost of banned drugs (that people take anyhow, because fuck the government, what do they know) this one have combat-useful results.
Being slow enough to react to the bad fallout from this that local civilians gets abused? Right. Ofc. This should have been a highly experimental trial. Going from no criminal records, no drugs and no lapse in discipline being allowed, to trying out new drugs on criminals who happen to be stationed in sensitive areas of the newly claimed sections of Black Rise. Yeah, ofc.
And then there is the news that for some reason I can't find, morale is at an all-time low. What for? Up until recently the Fed was even winning, HARD. Why is this such a huge problem now, so huge they would allow seemingly untested narcotics, of all things, to circulate between their troops?
It makes little to no sense to me, other than a feeling that, it was time to throw the Fed's integrity out and just grime it up with a bit more grim-dark. Very heavy-handed, at that, I think.
I can personally explain why, considering their origin, I see little to no issue with the more rugged or crude or high-numbers among the other Empire's ground troops, like Vaklears, Kameiras, State troops etc. One of the Federation's "things" was that because they have very, very few actual troops compared to a massive militaristic and dogmatic Empire, a high-population, constantly-in-conflict Republic and a warfare-and-service-is-our-way-of-life type State, (I simplify, ofc] their way fewer troops was trained to and maintained a far higher standard. Now they don't even have that.
Curse my language and communication skills, I'm not even sure I get my desired message across well enough to be fully understood. I'll try a simple comparison.
Imagine that you are a fanatical anti-gay chilling in a bar in your favorite no-gays-allowed country. You can safely say to yourself 'naah man, no gays will ever get allowed in here.' And in the very next moment, a gay-pride parade marches by your window and the news proclaim that the entire *thing* you believed would always stay true has just been changed.
I had the impression that in the Fed, your average citizen could always rely on the official Federation troopers to be at a very high standard of professionalism, integrity, code of conduct etc. and that some things would just never be allowed to happen. Now there is a sort of gap between the 'high quality, low quantity' Fed troopers and the new-ish 'high quantity, low quality' kind on the other end of the spectrum.
