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[MakotoPriano]

So, mechanics-wise, I'm not sure if the old Incursion-era tools just don't work any more, or are very specific to the Sansha ships, orr.... something. Suffice it to say that right now, while we know CCP can spawn NPCs, they're the NPCs elsewhere in the game, and the type and circumstance may be limited. In this case, CCP could spawn customs NPCs, but those basically just sit there.

Notably, the new NPC AI might be a little more versatile, but I don't know if there are plans to allow hooks for live commands of the NPCs. My thought is probably yes, but it might not be anywhere near the front of the line for developer hours. I know CCP spawned what we called deathballs of Drifter battleships in an event series in this last winter/spring, but in k-space they defaulted to their normal k-space AI of, "don't kill things unless it aggresses or is within X distance of Y or Z class of beacon." Of course, that was a fair thing, because even a handful of Drifter battleships will eat unprepared subcapitals for breakfast, and a few dozen Drifter battleships will start eating prepared ships of any type. (1280 DPS per BS, so at 50 you're looking at ~64k DPS, volleying 320k EHP raw every five seconds. So, a brick-tanked apoc every five seconds.)

Naturally, we threw shit-fit Coercers at them in waves.

[kalaratiri]

I will have some :words: to write about how this all went down later today when I'm free to use my pc. It was a lot of fun and I'm thankful to both sides for showing up.

[Samira Kernher]

If I were scripting the event I would have had no RKN there at all to start, just let the capsuleer proxies fight it out.  If it were any other scenario the freighter wins and they accomplish their mission, but in this particular lore case I think they have the fight with PIE and friends, and then RKN has to show up, maybe give them a chance to leave so they don't lose ships they don't want to, and then pew pew time.

This is originally what happened, but because the Amarr fleet was outnumbered they held off for awhile. RKN started landing forces, including the Aeon, and eventually the Aeon started firing on the freighter. That was the opportunity the Amarr fleet used to try and even the odds, and they warped in and engaged at that time.

[kalaratiri]

Also looks like UK came out in force and if not for the RKN supercap overkill probably would have held the field from other players?  Well done to them, too.

So basically I knew the Amarr side were going to really struggle with numbers from the start. The 11 combat ships we ended up with was about 6 more than I expected

Pre-match conversation with Armast suggested U'K were expecting somewhere in the ~10 people range, so the 28 (13 combat BS, 3 Nestors, 5 Exeqs + 2 neutral leshaks) they arrived with was also a considerably larger form than anticipated. And, frankly, way too much for the Amarr side to contest. Especially with 3 Nestors as logi. So full props to them for an impressive form up.

So with us formed up on the neutral freeport Raitaru and Minmil on their own citadel, things were ready to go. They warped their fleet including the freighter off to an on-grid ping, and began parading it around. The Khanid event actors and Oveg Drust showed up as well, and set the minmatar fleet suspect, as well as spawning the first wave of NPCs, a group of Omens (Zealots?). However at this point I still had no intention of engaging.



This was followed shortly by a group of NPC Armageddons, and then finally the Khanid Aeon.



At this point we decide to engage with the Amarr fleet, warping ourselves to a Typhoon that had separated itself from the main Minmatar fleet. What follows is a rather hectic brawl where the Minmatar Nestors attempt to keep the freighter alive against the Aeon's heavy fighters, while the Exequrors rep the Typhoons brawling with our Abaddons. We burn through a few Typhoons and Exeqs, as well as a Navy Cane and a Firetail (a Minmil Astarte is also Concorded here, possibly to even the numbers to 1 link ship per side?), while losing a Navy Harbinger and Armageddon of our own.

Things begin to turn against us, as first Diana's Abaddon drops after tanking almost a quarter of a million damage, followed quickly by the destruction of the Minmatar freighter. This frees up the Nestors, and they warp down to the main body of the brawl. Minmil's second Astarte is also Concorded here. I call to extract, knowing from this point on we absolutely can't break anything. Another Abaddon and 3/4 Guardians are tackled and killed. An Abaddon, an Apoc Navy, a Geddon, a Guardian, and a Damnation all escape. The Apoc and Abaddon would then go back in on their own, to their deaths 

Minmil hold the field, and now somehow actually have more than they started with (now 14 combat BS, 3 Nestors, 7 Exequrors). The Khanid Aeon warps down to the neutral freeport and tethers. Minmil then gank Oveg Drust's Marshal.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/r3hlxpp2i0llh2e/2018-11-05_20-13-05.mp4

Things are called on our part, and the fleet is over. Talking happens in local.

Everyone was very sporting, U'K delaying their start time by almost an hour allowing a few more Amarr to arrive. Good fun was had by all (I think), and it was very much worth the isk invested.

[Silas Vitalia]

Thanks so much for the writeup! Good work for all participants. I had to look up what a Nestor was, neato.  Also the devs did spawn npc attack ships, that's -very cool -

Makes me sad not to be there....to shoot at -everyone-

By the by, there does seem to be an awfully low amount of uh, blood raiders for a blood raider plot? Terror bombings usually have a goal in mind?

[Mizhara]

Minmil hold the field, and now somehow actually have more than they started with (now 14 combat BS, 3 Nestors, 7 Exequrors).

Arrived late. I was literally rebuilding the computer as things were going on after having waited a week and a half for the new motherboard to arrive. Only arrived in time to tackle and kill Kithrus (SFRIM/ARC not being at war with most on grid), then snag/whore the Aldrith Killmail.

[Samira Kernher]

By the by, there does seem to be an awfully low amount of uh, blood raiders for a blood raider plot? Terror bombings usually have a goal in mind?

Omir has been awfully silent this year. Probably for the best, makes him actually feel like a serious villain.

Also the goal is probably to create chaos in Amarr. Which they're doing a very good job of.

[Teinyhr]

Gotta say this whole Kahah thing has been phenomenal really, altough might entirely coincidental, you guys roused Graelyn from his slumber, people have been all over this bit of news happening, and the Operation Starfall by all accounts seems to have been a success with both sides fielding more pilots than they expected.

Additionally backstage has been more active than it has been in months if not in a couple of years. All in all, my thanks to CCP and all the players who've been involved in this so far.

The Kahah situation is not entirely over I think, but looks like CCP is wrapping it up by their latest newsposts mentioning that only Kahah III still has some active rebel cells active and most interlopers have been killed off.

[kalaratiri]

Now the Crimson Harvest and the Deathglow event is over I imagine it will be wrapped up fairly soon, yep.

[Silas Vitalia]

https://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/world-news/kahah-situation-escalates-to-mass-violence-in-space-khanid-forces-and-concord-respond/


Extremely interesting!

It would seem our news writers share the general opinion about landing craft / planetary assault, etc but I think this was handled well by everyone on all fronts.

Also interesting that they spoke to the slave / freighter suiciding?

I'm personally happy that Kingdom stuff was getting this much attention, but this is the most active I've seen them on the RP front for a long time? And backstage in general, to boot. 

Did we even get any Omir mustache-twirling at the end of 'crimson harvest' *eyeroll*

[MakotoPriano]

Honestly, I'm with Sami on the Omir thing: having Blood Raiders set off a crisis and then creep into the background, watching gleefully as the Empire tears at its own faults...? Much creepier than Omir striding around, laughing with cartoon villainy.

[Silas Vitalia]

Honestly, I'm with Sami on the Omir thing: having Blood Raiders set off a crisis and then creep into the background, watching gleefully as the Empire tears at its own faults...? Much creepier than Omir striding around, laughing with cartoon villainy.

Were they hinting that one of the Khanid npcs had blooder ties or something as well?

I'm always generally happy the less we see and/or hear from Omir, as well. 

[Samira Kernher]

It's long been implied that the Khanid might have ties with blooders (Cruor police ships). Specifically with regards to the Khanid NPC, Alar Chakaid was the guy who picked Khanid's succession trial candidates for champion, and one of those was an out-and-out blooder character. This was pointed out, and it became a big scandal, but he stood behind the decision (and the Imperial succession trial coordinator backed him up, which raised red flags).

Furthermore, when that scandal was brought up a few weeks ago, he responded with threats and within a few days both of the people that had been accusing him had had their families bombed with Deathglow attacks.

Either he's aligned with the blooders, or they used the opportunity to make it look like he had in order to create chaos between the Empire, Kingdom, and Mandate (and also between the Amarr bloc and the Republic and Federation blocs).

[Isha Vuld]

Well, it does look like the Amarr Empire and the Khanid Kingdom got played pretty hard.

I mean at the end of the day a hell of a lot of damage was done. Diplomatically, everything has gone to hell, bridges between Minmatar and Amarr capsuleers got quite thoroughly burned, and materially several planets got massacred, causing God knows (pun intended) how much material damage to the settlements and resulting in God knows how many Khanid deaths who got caught in the crossfire, many many Amarr ships got wrecked, especially in the final battle, along with some Khanid navy vessels (including a general, hahah!) and an ungodly (pun intended again) number of civilian vessels who where trying to help.

There is also considerable damage to the Minmatar, but far less, to be sure, as most capsuleers employ mercenaries and the Rens attack ultimately cost "only" twenty-three or so lives. There was that fleet lost. But that, along with the freighter and troops, wasn't even paid for by Minmatar forces, but was bankrolled by an -Ammatar-, an Amarr vassal. It also took a ton of Amarr assets down with it along with-...

..Oh yeah. The very authority of CONCORD itself got defied with the loss of a CONCORD battleship.

As far as sowing chaos goes, it literally could not have gone any better. It's bound to have ripple effects for a long time to come in the form of retaliatory strikes by both sides and an ever decreasing respect for the laws governing capsuleers in the first place.

And on that note I am convinced that the party responsible for the Deathglow IS chakaid, because the Khanid danced so thoroughly to a Blooder Tune, it seems inconceivable that they would have if the person directing them was not in on the conspiracy from the start.

[kalaratiri]

A lot of the Amarr ships weren't paid for by the Amarr either 

Total Amarr losses in the fight over the freighter were less than 1b.