The War for Lugh started when Federal President Jasmina Halsey declared war against the Crimson State Group of the Lugh system on March 13, 3301. The Crimson State Group had been seeking to take control of Lugh and declare its independence from the Federation. Halsey decided to send the new Farragut-Class Battle Cruiser FNS Nevermore to fight in Lugh for its maiden flight.[1]
The Crimson State group had lobbied for help from the Alliance of Independent Systems, to provide military aid and combat ready pilots. Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon refused to aid the Crimson State Group, arguing that Lugh was legally ruled by the Federation, hence the Crimson State Group did not rule a functioning independent state that would be a legitimate target for Alliance military aid.[2]
Core Dynamics postponed the maiden flight of the FNS Nevermore following an embarrassing systems failure. During a weapons test, its systems opened fire on Hudson Dock instead of the target drone ship. This caused the station to automatically fire back. The result was dozens of deaths and hundreds of millions of credits worth of damage to both structures.[3]
The Federation received false intelligence that Éamonn Uí Laoghire, leader of the Crimson State Group, was aboard an unarmed refugee convoy near Lugh 6. Halsey ordered Federal pilots to attack the convoy. An estimated 9,322 innocent Federal civilians died in the attack. Halsey's approval rating fell to 26% and Shadow President Zachary Hudson swore there would be an investigation into the attack.[4]
The Crimson State Group took control of Hartsfield Market, the station with the master controls of Lugh's military defence network on 24 March 3301.[5] The next day, Congress decided to withdraw the Federal Navy from Lugh. [6]
The Crimson State Group won the conflict, taking control of the system and freeing it from Federal rule.
Events[]
The conflict was completely player directed. There were 5 different Community Goals run simultaneously.[7]
Federation[]
- Fighting goal- represented the frontline fighting against CSG.
- Trading goal- represented the supply line to the military.
Crimson State Group[]
- Fighting Goal-represented the frontline fighting against the Federation.
- Trading Goal-represented the supply line to CSG.
- Stealth/Pirate Goal-represented infiltration and sabotage by CSG.
Outcome[]
The Trade Goals and the Fighting Goals were attached to each other. If your Trade and Fighting Goals rose in synchrony, then each station's ownership would rise, fall, or remain the same depending how each side maintained their respective CG's. The Stealth/Pirate goal was actually over the ownership of the main station in the system. This involved pirating goods out of Federation military ships.
There was a written decision tree the developers were following for each of the possibilities of station ownership as each level was reached and its related outcome, since each station was up for grabs. The changes to a given stations win/lost/blocked states was predicated on how the trade CG and the Fighting CG rose in level. The war would be over when either side completed both the Fighting CG and the Trading CG.
The community failed to understand the interconnectedness of the Community Goals, which created an interesting outcome.
Since the Federation players failed to work diligently on the Trade CG, they lost opportunities to flip stations. The Crimson State Group, being outnumbered 2:1 through the whole fight, could not match the Fighting Community goal rate so focused on the Trade and Stealth CG's. Once the Trade Goal was finished, they switched and started working on the Fighting Community Goal. These decisions also had ramifications of station/outpost ownership.
The Federation players felt that since the Fighting Goal was won, they had finished and Crimson State Group had lost. The Federation Trade Goal moved slowly. This allowed the Crimson State Group to move it's Fighting Goal, but the Federation Trade Goal was moving faster than the CSG Fighting goal. The end of the war looked like it was going to go to the Federation.
The mercenary force of the game started to come into play. Since there were no credits to be had for the players that wanted to fight, they started working on the Crimson State Group Fighting CG. The efforts of these people put credits into their pockets and actually allowed CSG to finish their Fighting Community Goal, roughly 4-8 hours faster than the Federation would have finished their Trade Goal. This immediately ended the war, and prompted the removal of the Federation military, as well as some minor political changes to the game.
References[]
- ↑ GalNet News - 13 March 3301
- ↑ Alioth Warns Lugh They Stand Alone
- ↑ The Nevermore Not Ready for Duty
- ↑ Galnet reports from the day of the strike on the Federal Refugees
- ↑ Galnet reports from the day Hartsfield Market fell
- ↑ Navy Withdraws from Lugh – Fighting Continues
- ↑ Behind The Scenes Of The War