Pardus Rant - War in Artemis

Oyyy... This is like... what, the 5th war that the Federation has been in out of all 5 wars we've had on this server? I was thankful that we didn't have this 5th war during Christmas season like how we had the previous 2 years, but still, I was hoping that we can sit by the sidelines and watch a war between the Empire and Union for a change. This time, I'm not even in a fighter ship either, so I'm having to pick up the slack on traders while everyone else is out there, getting war medals.... or getting killed. Whichever. Regardless of me mostly staying within FHC, I've picked up a shield and packing some missiles in case I get attacked, or to participate in ambushes or something, if I'm available. It certainly does hinder my trading capabilities though with how much space these equipments take up.

So why is it always the Federation that's getting in wars on this server? I ended up leaving the Federal Congress due to there being a lot of... drama.. ? Er... just petty bickering is more like it, last I checked, and also demanded that I participate more in the forums, but with all the bickering about "illegal purchases of goods from a private stash" or some other thing that I'm not directly involved in, I'm not entirely sure if I want to get myself involved in something like that either. So I've been quietly following orders from whoever is in charge, which certainly made things simpler for me. In fact, given that I am more active and involved in Kingdom of Loathing than I am on Pardus, despite using my APs all the time, usually not letting it reach the max 5000, I do feel that this works out better for me. Although, that's when war isn't in effect.

Being that my trade routes are usually close to our Federation borders, a breach in our defenses usually means that I'm one of the first few targets they could catch, which certainly sucked during the first war that I was in. I was low skilled, weak ship with mediocre equipments, so getting podded was inevitable. And it's not like you know when the attack is coming either; this is all real-time, and being that this is a global game played by people from all around the world, time zone differences can mean that you can get attacked while you're sleeping. I can't even sleep in peace during war, it's ridiculous. The penalty for getting podded or dying is no laughing matter either, so it's really fighting for survival and our safety against war-mongering, medal-collecting, high-skilled people. I don't know how bad everyone else has it, but this isn't something that I'm too thrilled about, considering these wars take over a month or so.

Also, please keep your comments to yourself about me being a whiner or whatever. It may sound like I'm whining about the increased danger during war, and everyone (involved in the war) has to deal with it, but I'd like to have a life too, outside of Pardus. =/ War time pretty much demands more time from everyone, and that's what I dislike about it the most. With my girlfriend wanting to go out more-often, and now that I have a smartphone that I can play FourSquare with as well, I'd like to step out and do things (within my unemployed budget), but guess what? During the hour or two of going out to eat can mean a breach in our defenses and all hell breaks loose. Buildings raided and/or destroyed, economy ruined by food dumpers, ships exploding left and right, and possibly getting my starbase hijacked too. How little of a life do you have to live to be "hardcore" enough to not whine about a situation like this? If I should care less about it, why even play the game at all? I'dno, all I ask for is for the Federation to be on the sidelines for once, and not have to stress over getting attacked by enemies during war.

Honestly though, if there were more players involved to help out with the economy by trading, or to build better defenses for ourselves, war isn't so bad. But due to there being a shortage of players that can keep the economy going with most people going out to fight in the war, it just seems like it's even more of a chore it is for traders than before. Wish my supply of stim chips were still well stashed... Meh, I hope this ends soon. I need to go around and see if I can get a job somewhere still.

Edit: I forgot to mention that despite being here for the war, the best thing I could do is to sit and ambush choke points, and not run out of AP either. Which means, sitting around, carefully calculating what I am capable of, and sitting around some more, but still having to stay alert, in case an attack DOES come and I have to react to it. Usually it doesn't come though; I have to wait around in standby the whole time. That's a whole lot of fun. =/ I have plenty of better games to entertain myself with, (or try to gain a profit with Diablo III), and here I am, constantly checking Pardus to see if I get attacked because my updated FireFox isn't compatible with the Message Alert script to tell me that my ambush triggered. Why are Pardus' scripts never up-to-date? Kingdom of Loathing usually doesn't have that issue when I update FireFox, although that might be a Greasemonkey thing.