le souriceau: Hello, Mulligan! Thanks for joining this interview PvP session : )
Mulligan: Hello! Glad to be here. Go easy on me. I'm new to the Interview Meta!
le souriceau: I’ll try : ) I totally can’t resist to ask: what was your personal road to DU? Both in terms of your previous gaming experience and expectations from the project that made it irresistible not to try? : )
Mulligan: So like a lot of people I came to DU from the game Eve Online. I played Eve off and on for around 10 years and always loved the open world concepts. I would find myself reading stories about the different adventures people were having in the game for hours on end. Some people would be miners trying to make a living, some would be traders trying to build up wealth, and others would try to kick over other people's sandcastles. So the single-shard persistent server of DU immediately grabbed my interest and once I started playing in Alpha I never stopped! I truly love the game, everything from the building to industry to the pvp.
le souriceau: Oh, you quite a vet of Eve! Now to the org! Why “Unexplained Atomics”? What deep and arcane meaning hides behind this name?
Mulligan: Atoms are cool because they are the building blocks of the universe. What better to be named after in a game where building is so prevalent. So most orgs tend to go by their ticker and that is what most people use to refer to a certain org. For example BOO, NG, and DSI. Atom is a cool and easily identifiable tag so made it an easy choice….. Basically I just thought it sounded cool.
le_souriceau: Yep, I think it works! And while PvP focus of your organization is stated quite clearly, if we go little bit into nuances… how do you describe its general feel, mood, and maybe even RP aspects? For example some guys emulate IRL militaries, others enjoy ordered chaos culture of space piracy...
Mulligan: So Atom is a little unique in DU at the moment. We are new player friendly and don’t ask much from our members. Sort of a collection of individuals working together to enjoy the game. We mainly focus on consensual pvp and look for fleet fights over random piracy. The teamwork and coming together to beat a fleet or run a blockade really creates a fun experience.
le_souriceau: So, you are more into knightly jousting type of PVP, it's nice to have some diversity on this scene :) Free individuals or not, some level of discipline and leadership is needed in PvP. How is it done in ATOM?
Mulligan: Most of the leadership in a fleet comes from the fleet commander. They have the final say in where the fleet goes, who they engage, and how they engage. Each ship in a fleet is split into a separate comms channel so all crew members can talk amongst themselves. For example a pilot can tell the gunners when the guns are pointed in the right direction so they can fire. The Fleet commander can shout to all the subchannels to relay orders.
le_souriceau: As I know, Unexplained Atomics is a relatively small organization (do we have exact numbers?), this can be quite tricky in the realm of warfare -- big guys have more people and skill sets available, more ships, more resources to waste. In light of this reality, what do you consider your strong points in comparison to larger PvP orgs? Competitive edge for potential recruits?
Mulligan: Atom is currently a middle sized org in my opinion and we have had a lot of growth since the release of beta. Sitting at 51st for ingame character size with around 60 players. The big advantage that Atom has is that we play this game for fun and really chase the content, we don’t worry about losing as much and will take a fight outnumbered two to one and usually do really well. If we make a mistake and learn something then I count that as an absolute win. Because of this we have a lot of guys with a lot of experience and I would imagine have a lot more experience than some orgs five times our size.
le_souriceau: Cool, serious growth indeed! Looks like my info was outdated. And what is your long-term vision with organization size and scaling of the “management” system? For some orgs leadership structure definitely lagged beyond member count growth and this led to trouble.
Mulligan: The way we have the organization setup is very similar to what you would find from a corporation from the game Eve online. Members are encouraged to be independent and create income for themselves and as such very little work is required on the officer team. Most of the management comes in on the pvp and fleet side of things with a little bit of logistics involved with that. So as long as we continue to attract good PvPers and fleet commanders who are willing and like to talk shop I think we can avoid a lot of the growing pains that other orgs experience.
le_souriceau: And I’m tempted to ask… about losses, something inevitable in PvP. What is your economic model to bankroll it? Any obligations for members, in money or materials?
Mulligan: There are no obligations on any members in Atom. We are set up in a currency system. Whenever we have a fleet the ships are provided by the org and members of the fleet are given temporary access to them. As of right now the org is funded through an optional ore buyback program that pays market prices for which we then turn into elements with perfect skills and sell for profit. It’s the closest you can get to a passive income in the game right now and it pays the bills so far. We can afford to lose 4-5 multi crew ships a week and be fine. I actually don’t understand how these orgs get away with receiving all this ore and donations without getting anything in return. If I suddenly put a huge tax on ore or forced people to donate I would have a mutiny on my hands!
le_souriceau: Sounds like a good setup to bankroll fun! About the Economics/PvP DU disign combo, what is your personal stance on how much of “good stuff” must be only in a PvP-only, risk zone? How do you see perfect balance and dynamics in this regard?
Mulligan: I’m obviously a little biased being from a PvP org, but in my opinion you need to have a good balance of both. The majority of the playerbase will never be serious PvPers so fostering cooperation between the groups is important. Leaving a large safe zone such as we have now with multiple planets is important but I would like to see more rewards to the people who are organized and have the resources to live in the PvP zones. I would also like for most of the conflict in the game to be more war and org focused rather than individual pirating. There's a lot of ways NQ could accomplish this such as making it easier to blockade a planet to lock down that planet's unique resources or creating new sources of materials.
le_souriceau: And do you have an official HQ/main operational base? Or planet you call home?
Mulligan: For now our main base of operation is Alioth. Easy access to nearly every item in the game at the markets and with the cheapness of warp cells we can warp our pvp ships anywhere we want in a few seconds. Subject to change when territory warfare comes out or another reason to live somewhere else.
le souriceau: Many PvP orgs take great pride in their ships. And, for some players designing best PvP ships is even more fun, then actually using them. What is your “ship building doctrine”, any funny ideas, crazy experiments were conducted?
Mulligan: So most of the ships that Atom uses were designed by individuals. They will come up with a design and if it is good the org will buy the design and run it for the org. Most of the crazy experiments and ideas get fleshed out with an internal practice fight where we pit ship vs ship to see which is better. These kinds of thunderdomes really iron out the kinks of the ships and help us iterate quickly to a good design, while being fun to do. After that we will use them in skirmishes with other orgs to a real feel for how they do. New Genesis has really been good about that and seems to always be down for a fight. So shout out to those guys.
le souriceau: Fights! Let’s jump into real action! What is your best combat encounter so far, a battle that brings a proud smile on your face every time you recall it? Total victory? Heroic defeat? Bloody draw?
Mulligan: It’s hard to pinpoint one so I would say our most recent one was really a ton of fun. Over the weekend Atom noticed that a popular DU streamer and previously a governor of DSI, Spreeezy, was streaming a blockade of Jago. Atom couldn't turn down a chance at some good content. Outnumbered and outgunned we took the fight with three xs cores vs three xs cores and one M core. The following fight resulted in the loss of one of our ships and a scramble to try and disrupt their salvaging operation. Overall was a ton of fun and like always, Atom enjoyed the content.
le souriceau: Yep, it's always fun to participate in wider world events. Sweetest thing in the whole DU concept. I saw plans for mercenary jobs in your forum org presentation. Is it still a valid thing? Like joining someone's war with blood quanta? : )
Mulligan: Absolutely! Atom is not currently affiliated with any other orgs or alliances so it makes it very easy for us to accept contracts. So if an org or alliance out there needs a few more ships and bodies to tip the scale in a fight hit me up! Our prices are very fair ;)
le_souriceau: Great! About this wider world with all orgs, alliances, blocks and intricate web of politics. Some people envision DU following Eve steps in this direction. Yet Eve interactions while emergent, are also quite brutal, both in game and outside it. Do you think this is quicksand we eventually fall too or is our community somehow inherently different?
Mulligan: DU will probably become very Eve-like in the politics department if it manages to last 20 years like Eve has. It will really depend on the direction NQ pushes the player base with specific mechanics and such. With open world communities there always tends to be a grouping of people and it’s very hard to make a game where the group with more people doesn’t win. At the end of the day though what really makes or breaks these kinds of games is the community. The group of people you play with have a massive impact on your experience and playing with your friends really makes the game more enjoyable.
le_souriceau: Probably most passionate DU players have some “crazy feature idea” they hide deep in mind : ) Do you have one to share?
Mulligan: Haha i don’t have anything too crazy. To me the only thing I want is something to fight over. There's already lots of ideas floating around everything from asteroid mining in the pvp zone to space stations that harvests resources on a planet. Anything really, just give us something to fight over besides shipping lanes to catch greedy players and I will be happy. Preferably space based =)
le_souriceau: A last question that’s a bit of an ambush type! : ) What is your favorite sci-fi alien character and why? Or two, if it’s hard to decide.
Mulligan: My favorite would probably be Thel 'Vadam i.e. the Arbiter from Halo 2-3. I absolutely loved those games and played them a ton back in the day..
le_souriceau: Yep, this dude is cool : ) Thank you very much for answers! I wish you all luck in your space adventures and battles to come!
Mulligan: Thanks for having me! Fly safe!
Special mega-thanks to Kurock for proofreading!