Cayl's Message to Fury in Round 4

This is a mail sent by Fury Executive Cayl to Fury members in the first half of Round 4 when Fury were coming under heavy pressure from the rest of the universe.

Greetings fellow Fury,

These last two weeks have been filled with hard fought battles, late nights, and low morale. The boards are filled with propaganda, and for once our members don't seem to have the answers.

For Americans what I am going to quote will be very cliche. But I think it applies quite well to our situation.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.

--Thomas Paine --The American Crisis

This was of course written during the American revolution in 1776. So what does it mean to us, now as we fight Legion? Those who were with Fury when we were on top and winning now have to reconsider. It is actually possible to be attacked. It is possible to lose asteroids. Those who value nothing so much as their personal scores and asteroid count will now shrink from the task of fighting VeX. They will abandon their friends and seek any middle ground that will allow them to keep the little binary bits in a data field labeled "asteroids".

Those of us who stick with it and fight this war will realize that the real purpose of Fury is not Planetarion. The game has been flawed for at least 8 months. Every round seems to get worse than the last. But what we have created is a community of friends. When you quit, or worse, decide to outright spy on us, you betray the trust put in you by real people who called you friend.

The war is not going as badly as Legion would have you believe, or that you have talked yourselves into believing. Every night we seem to lose asteroids. What you don't realize is that we are indeed giving as good as we are getting. Legion does not have an endless supply of ships, and by working with our allies, we regularly deplete their spider supply and steal their asteroids.

Even when we do face a military defeat, the result is a largely blow to our pride. The most you lose in 3 ticks is 30% of your asteroids. With the combat rules of this round, you rarely lose your entire fleet. The asteroids that left so easily can be recaptured.

The unhappy fact of this game is that the action takes place at the backup. Poor planning and coding means that there are quirks in the ticks. Fleets can move a long ways towards a target in just a few real time minutes. Unhappily for most of us, the backup is at 0400.

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly."

Round 3 was too easy, we obtained the top almost effortlessly. We mistook our place on the top almost as divine right, we did not come into this game ready to make the sacrifices it required.

The real question is, are we hungry for the top? Are we willing to get ourselves up at 4 am and launch attacks. Are we willing to stay on til 5 am and defend our mates from the same type of attacks by VeX?

Legion has answered this question. They are willing to stay up until whatever time it takes to beat us. We will either rise to this challenge or we will be ground down and beaten. It has to be a personal choice made by each and every member.

I hope that we, your leaders can regain your confidence in us and yourselves. In several ways we have let you down. I hope that we are correcting our errors and can once again lead you to victory.

You may contact me with any questions or concerns at [email protected].

--Cayl Fury Executive