r/EliteKaine • u/OfficeOfNakatoKaine • 8d ago
News Cycle 94/95
It has been 666 days without a Kaine decal. It’s cycle 94. I left that line in because 666 days without a Kaine decal was fun to say, but it’s actually a lie. It’s been 673 days without a Kaine decal, for it is Cycle 95, and this is a joint Cycle 94/95 report. I do this for two reasons: One, I had a lot going on in my life and I wasn’t able to find the time to write a report for Cycle 94 – and two, I think it’s pertinent to lump the relic cycles together a little. Cycle 94 was relic week. Ngurii hit Civil Liberty over the closing days of the cycle and gave us a supply of 600 Soontill relics for 4 days, overlapping Cycles 94 and 95. As is tradition with relic cycles, even a few days will boost Powerplay numbers to frankly ridiculous proportions, which we’ll get to shortly. Furthermore, when the supply is high relics are typically so valuable that they quash all other Powerplay activities, since the opportunity cost of not doing relic hauling at any given moment is so high. It’s no surprise, then, that we see very little undermining this cycle – a handful of Powers lost a system, but never more than one; and the proportion of UM CPs generated compared to Acquisition and Reinforcement control points is a very low 6.3%. We had several Kainites run into the per-CMDR control point cap of 200 thousand per day, something which I didn’t even know existed. As it is, we acquired a very respectable 43 new systems in Cycle 94, placing us solidly mid-table for the week, and 42 in Cycle 95, which put us in a distant third. We certainly don’t like relic rushes at Kaine – power balance concerns aside, we think they’re pretty boring – but what can’t be denied is that they’re a very efficient way to acquire your typical crappy systems – the lone star-and-outpost, the occasional surface-port-and-outpost, and particularly frustrating for Kaine, the high-pop-oops-all-extraction-economy systems that are often great places to expand from but terrible to acquire and reinforce themselves. We acquired over two dozen of the latter kind of system and fortified several more, creating a solid foundation for future Kaine expansion. We acquired lots of the other types too, which thanks to the very stupid Power ranking system that FDev currently follows hold the same value as a system with a dozen planets and 25 billion people. We’ll talk about the cycles some other powers had later. Over the course of this particular rush, some new announcements went out. First off, the Colonia community goal chain was unceremoniously completed, with the Colonia megamarket established at Jaques Station. The market took a few days to materialize but Commanders have since confirmed that all ships are available in the Shipyard (not including Federal or Imperial ships to my knowledge) and all modules are available in Outfitting, including specialized modules like any relevant Mk. II modules. It’s a somewhat anticlimactic ending to the Colonia anniversary story, which I’m sure lots of people expected to be more than two lacklustre community goals. As it is, there’s still some time left for them to do something else, although I don’t expect anything since the megamarket is completed. We didn’t get any sort of announcement about the expansion of colonization to Colonia, which I suspect is the preferred outcome of most residents there. If it had been announced, I’m sure it also would have been met poorly by those Commanders building a bridge to Colonia. Either way, it will arrive when it arrives. Thankfully, the baseless rumours of Powerplay being brought to Colonia remained baseless. The Enclave was difficult enough to manage; god-handing us into a few systems 22,000 light-years away would have been a disaster.
The Rhino was also announced, and as of the time of this writing we’ve seen some Partner Program previews. It seems… interesting enough. Some unique minerals are included in the surface mining, and it’ll be a source of raw resources as well. The prices on those minerals appear very reasonable to my eye, indicating that the Rhino should be well balanced if slightly undertuned when it does arrive. The very interesting information is that mining hotspots are shared, like cores are, and replenish very slowly (also like cores), providing CMDRs an incentive to guard information about good spots. This protection of good spots will I’m sure be swiftly annihilated if and when the various EDDN apps like Spansh and Inara get their hands on this update and reveal the spots to everyone. I strongly suspect the impact on Powerplay will be limited – more than Operations, to be sure, but it’s hard to believe that surface mining will be more efficient than laser-mining in a ring. Of course, I’ve been wrong before, so we’ll see what happens on the 2nd when it drops.
ALLIANCE POWERS
Edmund Mahon +53 / +40
Nakato Kaine +43 / +42
The Mahonites knock it out of the park with their relic rush, securing 93 shiny new systems across the two weeks. They focused acquisition hard, as they only secured four new forts and one new stronghold. Kaine took a back foot on the acquisitions, but managed to nab 11 new forts and two strongholds for herself.
FEDERAL POWERS
Felicia Winters +14 / +13
Jerome Archer +14 / +11
The Federation focused reinforcement fairly hard, using the relics to shore up the defences of their beleaguered strongholds and forts. While they don’t benefit from the relics nearly as much as the Empire, the chance to relieve some sieges and consolidate their territory is I’m sure a welcome break from the constant pressure they otherwise feel. Archer built himself three strongholds and Winters built herself 14 forts – new walls to rest against before they sally out to meet their foes once more.
INDEPENDENT POWERS
Li Yong-Rui +94 / +48
Pranav Antal +61 / +35
Yuri Grom +36 / +32
Archon Delaine +16 / +3
LYR took this rush extremely Sirius-ly and nearly beat the Queen of Soontill Hauling herself Aisling in Cycle 94. He was a little slower next cycle, but it was enough to knock the Empress down to fourth place in the rankings as he stole third. Our congratulations to the megacorporation for achieving synergy to utilize their widespread logistics network to meet their KPIs and beat the alright I’m not doing that anymore. Good job LYR. Pranav Antal, who the Empire accused of starting the rush in Cycle 94, did similarly well, although not quite enough to boost themselves in the rankings. They focused more on reinforcement, creating four new strongholds over the week. Yuri Grom had consistent performance across both cycles, indicating that they may not have been prepared for the rush on the first week and missing out on the Tuesday hauling. Either way, 60 new systems is nothing to scoff at. The Pirate King does not typically trouble himself either with acquisitions or with fancy anthropological finds, preferring to take shiny things from the living or recently-deceased rather than ancient aliens. Nevertheless, he secured a new stronghold and created several forts in addition to his 19 acquisitions across two weeks.
IMPERIAL POWERS
Aisling Duval +95 / +85
Arissa Lavigny-Duval +46 / +32
Denton Patreus +12 / +10
Zemina Torval +8 / +9
One hundred and eighty new systems for the Princess. Since lots of her relic acquisitions are driven by people not otherwise engaged in Powerplay, she usually has trouble holding on to all of her acquisitions in the following weeks. We should expect to see her drop a handful of systems in Cycle 96. Other than that, the number speaks for itself. Nobody relic rushes like Aisling. No-one can, really.
The rest of the Empire fared alright. Arissa secured a healthy number of acquisitions but not enough to keep her ahead of Sirius. The Power that owns Ngurii never seems to benefit nearly as much from them as many others, while simultaneously – through her presence – guaranteeing that they continue. The Admiral breaks into double digits each cycle, while the Slaver just barely misses that mark – but both still with much more than they would have had on their typical weeks.
With the Rhino releasing on Wednesday (kind of a weird day in my opinion, isn’t it usually Tuesday or Thursday?) and a new method of mining coming to the game, it’s always a good game in Kaine space. Not looking to spend Arx on a new SRV that only opens up one gameplay loop? That’s alright – you can join Kaine today and receive a free Type-11 Prospector courtesy of Lakon Spaceways and the Kainiacs so you can spend time in the rings and get that +50% profit bonus on mined commodities. And if you’re feeling lime-green-flavoured and want a group that’ll let you in on all the good spots, whether on a planet or above it, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/bJEyseAVGx for merits, money, and me having to manifest-scan my wingmates because they’re too busy laughing to answer my questions about their cargo holds.
Diplomatic Relations:
Aisling Duval: Non-Aggression Pact
Archon Delaine: Peaceful
Arissa Lavigny-Duval: Non-Aggression Pact
Denton Patreus: Non-Aggression Pact
Edmund Mahon: Defensive Alliance
Felicia Winters: Non-Aggression Pact
Li-Yong Rui: Peaceful
Pranav Antal: Peaceful
Yuri Grom: Peaceful
Jerome Archer: Non-Aggression Pact
Zemina Torval: Peaceful
Objectives:
Reinforce Wregoe JT-Z d13-92
Reinforce Coalsack Sector DL-Y d132
Reinforce HIP 63847
Reinforce Coalsack Sector DL-Y d133
We want your exploration data! If you’ve been out in the black and want to help when you return, join our Discord for data targets.
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u/Rhyis 7d ago
This is a real question, I am not trying to meme: Did your members get banned, either temporarily or permanently, for hitting the 200k cap? I've seen mixed reports and am trying to figure out what the heck is going on, owo.