Tomorrow, Imperium FC and Skyteam member Reagalan will by appearing on TMC’s The Boat Show. TMC sat down with him ahead of time to talk to him about being a Fleet Commander, how that relates to being part of the team directing a Coalition’s strategic efforts, and maybe even snuck in a little bit about the game he’ll be playing tomorrow, War Thunder.
Reagalan > hello
TMC > Heh, good morning!
TMC > I hear you are on the Boat show this weekend and TMC would like a few words from you
Reagalan > mmhm
TMC > I am aware that you are a very experienced Imperium FC
Reagalan > experienced? sure, good? lol maybe
TMC > I have in fact flown under your command myself a number of times
Reagalan > sorry for putting you through that
TMC > I had a great deal of fun!
TMC > It was back in the day when we were burning places like branch and Tenal
Reagalan > ohh that was a loooooong time ago
TMC > It sure was! I earned some nice medals, I liked those a lot!
Reagalan > neat
TMC > I’ve just been in Safizon & running aroung like a mad thing lol
Reagalan > empire space, hmm
Reagalan > i actually went to highsec the other day, did stuff with miniluv. Got more killmails, and more isk killed in four hours than i have had in nullsec for the past two months. Fozziesov working as intended
TMC > How do you feel about Fozziesov?
Reagalan > it’s easily in the top three worst changes ever made to the game
Reagalan > the whole thing is a huge incarna-level crisis, but unlike incarna, it’s not so well defined. Incarna we all had a boogeyman. We knew who the bads were, but with fozziesov, there are entities out there who still defend it. You have your mike azariahs or other pubbies who have no idea what they’re talking about and even some in nullsec, or people like fozzie himself, who seek to force a style of gameplay upon the rest of us. That being “small gang warfare”.
Reagalan > back to the history stuff, when i started FCing I always wanted big fleets
Reagalan > big fleets are best fleets, big fleets mean business. Anything smaller than 100 was just rubbish. I never liked small gang warfare for the simple fact that it was all about the skills and not about brawling
TMC > What gave you the FC bug?
Reagalan > well
Reagalan > a big ego for one
Reagalan > some of the fcs we had at the time were, well… I went on them and thought “i could do better”. But I also wanted respect, I wanted a reason for being. I wanted to be known and admired and loved and all that other stuff.
TMC > So you wanted to show true leadership?
Reagalan > i never had that shit irl either, bullied in school and all that
Reagalan > showing leadership was a part of it sure
TMC > Only Eve can give that opportunity to many of us!
Reagalan > indeed
TMC > So being on the Skyteam? That must feel fantastic?
Reagalan > it’s a double edged sword
TMC > How so?
Reagalan > our organization is run better than most RL businesses
TMC > True
Reagalan > meaning once you get on the skytam it becomes, uhh, hectic i suppose. everyone send you PMs about this or that. I’ve actively tried to be just an assistant type on the skyteam though, the few operations i’ve skymarshaled have not gone well.
TMC > I know the feeling of ‘Take a deep breath then switch computer on’
TMC > You mentioned Skymarshaling What hasn’t gone as well as you’d like?
Reagalan > well the first time i tried it i got 300 caracals killed in J5A for like a single dominix
TMC > Wow lol
Reagalan > then there was a shitshow during the ED- deployment where I neglected to tell init that the SMA ishtar fleet was not only “damaged” but more like “totally wiped out” before they committed
TMC > But if you never make a mistake? How are you going to know?
Reagalan > and then they lost like 3 carriers and 50 TFIs :l
Reagalan > well, learning from others mistakes is a key thing here. Vee has often said that an FC has to welp 1000 fleets to know everything. That ain’t true. I learned the majorty of my stuff by going on Vee’s fleets, and from Laz and Vily.
TMC > Any kind of leader will make mistakes ofc
Reagalan > oh yeah that’s a given, and yeah you do want to learn from them
TMC > Whether you are an fc, or whatever your skills 🙂
Reagalan > yep
Reagalan > that being said, if you see an FC doing a thing, after fleet, ask him why he did it. Most times they;ll tell you why, and therefore you can learn without having to make the mistakes yourself.
TMC > People will do it anyway lol
Reagalan > yep
Reagalan > comes from ego
TMC > Repeatedly!
Reagalan > if you’re a know-it-all or act like one, and unwilling to learn, no matter what happens you won’t ever be a good FC.
TMC > I’ve seen many try!
Reagalan > yep
TMC > What would you say is your secret for being a good FC?
Reagalan > a very difficult question, i don’t consider myself to be a good fc. acceptable, yes, decent… not good.
TMC > Is that maybe why?
Reagalan > possibly. In the other games i play, if i get into my head. “damn, i’m good” it becomes a major distraction because good players are expected to play well.
TMC > You understand you have an ego & want to prove yourself, but smart enough to learn from mistakes & think about the impact of them on line members?
Reagalan > the impact of bad FCs?
TMC > I mean what it does to the guys/girls in the fleet
Reagalan > they just get smaller fleets, line members don’t really want to follow bad FCs, that phenomenon is universal to the game
Reagalan > sorry, i don’t understand the question
TMC > Sure-wtf I’m bored & I’ll die lol. Those kinds of fleets
Reagalan > that situation is kinda unique to us. not entirely, there are exceptions to everything. but since we have a stable state that redistributes income via reimbursement, our line members are much less worried about losing ships.
TMC > I get you 🙂
Reagalan > and therefore more willing to go on ops
TMC > Or just have fun
Reagalan > yep. top-down income sources like money moons are very good for the game. a shame CCP doesn’t realize that
TMC > Can you tell me about this War Thunder wossname you are doing with Boat?
Reagalan > so, most guys are familiar with world of tanks and wows, and the guys who made those games even made a world of warplanes. Wargaming.net. Well. war thunder is similar, but made by a competitor, gaijin entertainment. WT started as a response to world of warplanes, you fly airplane around, shoot the other team
TMC > I may have WoT somewhere lol
Reagalan > there are very few who haven’t played tanks at some point
Reagalan > war thunder is in the same style, 15 vs 15, fly airplanes around, shoot down enemies, get points, grind new ones. but right from the start WT was always a way better game
TMC > So a PvP team game?
Reagalan > yep. On the surface that’s it, but the nuances go far deeper
TMC > How so?
Reagalan > They’re both free-to-play games, but gaijin’s approach to it has been less heavy-handed than WG’s approach to their games. Like in tanks, you have those slots, gotta pay gold to get more, or sell off your tanks. Warthunder, you buy it it’s yours forever, no need to sell stuff, or retrain crews.
TMC > That sounds massive fun!
Reagalan > they have single-player missions, but they’re more for fun than actual progression. Special events, so it’s not just the same 5 maps over and over
TMC > Special events?
Reagalan > yep. Like on the anniversary of the Battle of Midway they’ll have a special Midway event, where the planes are restricted to the historical ones which were there, so you get Wildcats vs Zeroes. The WT guys also work very hard to make things historically accurate.
TMC > Wow! I’m sorry I can’help but think of BoB! The series ofc
Reagalan > one of the main criticisms of WoT was how some stats were just made up, and lots of accusations of “russian bias”. WT has those accusations too of course, but they’re pretty damn wrong here. There is no russian bias.
TMC > No?
Reagalan > well good luck convincing your average forum pubbie of it 🙂 But i haven’t found any.
Reagalan > there’s tanks and airplanes, I have never really gotten into the tanks though. There’s also three different games modes: arcade, realistic, simulator. Arcade is derpy, good for beginners, simplified flight model, very much a pick-up-and-go. Realistic uses the simulator flight model but lets you use arcade controls and 3rd person cameras, it’s the mode i spend the most time in. It’s a decent compromise. Simulator is literally a flight sim, you’re in cockput view only, stick only. I doubt boat would be willing to do that mode.
TMC > My next question was to ask, so what will guys get up to tomorrow?
Reagalan > i’m hoping to get boat to do some realistic matches with me before the show. Because that shit is extremely fun in pairs, can cover eachother and do some nice tactics.
TMC > It sounds like a really fun stream! Its not a game I’ve played, but half the joy is listening to you guys having a great time!
Join Reagalan on The Boat Show when he and Dabigredboat sit down to play some War Thunder at 2200 UTC (6pm EST / 3pm PST) on Twitch!
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Feiryred.
