Opposition

The first war was met with opposition from multiple Alliance groups in the area who were concerned that the PvP Hub would interrupt their efforts for Edmond Mahon, whose power play is in San Tu. Luckily the PvP community isn’t the griefers and gankers everyone makes them out to be. Rinzler o7o7o7, Bazinga!, Yamato2012, StarfuyXI, Tempest, Mini_Watto, ryan_m17 and other PvP CMDRs from multiple groups worked with the alliance factions to put their minds at ease.

The main issue the Alliance groups had with the PvP Hub was the location, it was in San Tu, a system controlled by their leader Edmond Mahon. The second issue was a little tougher to overcome, their misconception that all PvPers are gankers and griefers.

Big Thank You to all the alliance group representatives for hearing out the PvP community and coming to an agreement for the betterment of the galaxy!

The second issue isn’t just a case of stereotypes, it’s a symptom of a larger issue in the Elite: Dangerous galaxy:

The Lack of Infrastructure for PvP to be a Viable Playstyle.

For PvP to work in Elite: Dangerous you have to take into account multiple factors:

CQC

Size of the Galaxy

The sheer size of the galaxy plays a huge role in how PvP happens. With no central location for PvP to occur, CMDRs have to use the only infrastructure available to them, Community Goals.

This leads to what most of the community calls griefing or ganking, which are entirely overused terms. If a Federation CMDR goes to an Empire CG and kills an Empire CMDR supporting the CG, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. That is not griefing or ganking.

But we do understand that some PvPers go to CGs to gank and say they are opposing the CG. This leads to he said, she said and doesn’t get anybody anywhere.

Without designated areas for PvP, the time it takes just to meet up for a fight can be hours. That’s just not viable. So CMDRs get itchy trigger fingers and go on the hunt.

Motivation

The motivation behind PvP is crucial to its success in Elite: Dangerous. For most PvPers the motivation is simple, NPCs don’t pose a challenge or they simply like fighting live targets. That’s it.

That motivation gets lost on the victim more often than not. You see most PvPers want a challenge, an unarmed Type 7 is not a challenge. So if you got killed in your trade ship by another CMDR in a combat ship at a CG, it was most likely a CMDR who thinks he’s good at PvP, but really hits more asteroids than long-range PA shots.

This actually happened to one our CMDRs in a Type 9 during the war, the attacker isn’t really worth mentioning since he doesn’t represent the PvP community and frankly can’t hit the side of a Coriolis station with fixed pulses.

But we understood the nature of PvP and that it inherently attracts some bad apples, but to paint the entire PvP community with that broad of a brush does a disservice to everyone and to the spirit of the game.

3 Separate Play Modes

This one is a biggie. The fact that entire groups of CMDRs play in private completely fucks over any chance for huge PvP space battles. If the Background Simulation was only affected by the actions of players in open, PvP would be much more of a valid playstyle in the Elite: Dangerous galaxy.

The way it is now, player groups “attack” each other like thieves in the night. Never actually seeing their enemy face to face. For a game called Elite: Dangerous, it’s complete BS. We’ll never get the epic space battles we’ve always dreamed of.

But now with the PvP Hub, you can jump in on fast-paced and exciting 4v4 wing fights 24/7 and even get pointers from the best players in the game after the match. They’ll even take the time to watch your video and tell you what you need to improve on. Real griefers, these PvP CMDRs, lol.

CQC

Oh boy. CQC or Close Quarters Combat in its current state is completely separated from the main universe. Frontier even tried selling it separately, that’s how disconnected it is. Don’t get me wrong, CQC is a lot of fun. But there simply aren’t enough people using it.

We suspect nobody uses CQC because it doesn’t help further your in-game CMDR in any meaningful way. If CQC victories gave you crack(cracked industrial firmware) or if CQC took place at the current installations in game, it might be a different story.

Good thing the new PvP Hub system, San Tu, has a scientific installation perfect for pseudo-CQC battles that can be organized through the discord bot.

Conclusion

Nova Force took the lead on flipping San Tu to anarchy for the PvP Hub for one simple reason, it was the right thing to do.

The PvP Hub not only makes room for a valid playstyle it also helps to keep PvE players safer in open while at CGs and all over the galaxy.

The PvP Hub will not put an end to shitty pilots picking on defenseless targets, but we hope it will help to make open a little bit more inviting to those CMDRs who think all PvPers are griefers and gankers, which they are not.

It was our honor to flip San Tu to anarchy, but the admins of the PvP Hub deserve all the credit.

Big Thanks to Rinzler o7o7o7, Bazinga!, BreakfastMelon, and Ryan_m17 from the PvP Hub for starting the PvP Hub!

Fly safe o7,

CMDR -Boston-