White Star - Your Stories

Last month we asked you to share with us your experiences in White Stars. We had an overwhelming response - thank you to everyone who wrote in! We've read everything and while we can't feature or respond to everything you wrote, your experiences and feedback have been noted and will be used to evolve the game in the years ahead.

There was one very common theme in a majority of your responses: White Stars offer a social experience that brings people together. There were so many stories of getting to know your Corporation mates, sticking together through good and bad times, learning the game as a team and passing on the knowledge to new players.

For this post we picked some representative stories to share with the entire community. Some of the featured responses have been edited slightly for brevity and clarity.  The screenshots accompanying this article were posted on our Discord channel by our players and are not related to the stories.

Many wrote in with their first experience in a White Star, and how they figured things out with their team mates. SanityNotApplied from Canada 55 writes:

"Our 1st every corp WS mission was a big win, 5v5. We started the search expecting a loss as none of us have participated in one before. We planned who would bring in miners and transports. Main plan was to secure the level 5 planet and if possible push the level 10. Our opponents pushed the lvl10 and were too strong.

With quick thinking, one of our members sent their BattleShip to the other lvl5 planet to disrupt their unsecured transport. The enemy sent only one BS to support. Ours proved victorious. Was able to destroy the BS and transport, then moved to their warpgate. By this time they sent a transport with 2 artifacts and deployed a new BS to the White Star. The victorious BS was able to reach their gate, and use EMP. Once EMP cleared, auto targeting took out their transport holding 2 artifacts. With use of our miners we got 2 artifacts home safely. Never underestimate miners. Our opponents never brought any in. Them along with the solo BS mission, won Canada 55's first White Star."

One of the goals of White Stars is to create stronger bonds between Corporation members. We're happy many of you chose to highlight how that is happening already in your Corporation.

Working together as a group to come up with a shared strategy was a very common theme.

Kenny from StarGrazers tells us:

"We find team work, communication structure, command structure, the corporation's culture, affect a team's competitive advantage. Combat experience and tactics of individual team members as well as, leadership and organisational management, are also crucial factors. There's also intelligence reports, reconnaissance, and no doubt espionage which players can take part in. But at the end of the day it's every player's tiniest decisions during a White Star which can drastically change the outcome of a White Star mission. Having to make choices under pressure and with uncertainty. To activate a module or wait for a better opportunity, to commit to a move now or wait to see if the situation improves."

bsquared from ReadyPlayerOne describes how they lay out plans:

"Our corporation discusses the starting ship placement for the star in the discord channel we keep dedicated to discussion of white star strategy.  This is complete with screenshots of enemy ship positions and arrows drawn for movement vectors, just like in american football.  Everyone pitches in and we order issues to each other.  In this way, we do our best to ensure that we can have a decent chance of winning as we work together."

Some of you described how plans changed during the course of the match.

"We had finally managed to get 20 of our members in a White Star match", writes Appollo from Pulsar Rising. "We nervously began the search and were anxious in anticipation of a WS match on a much larger scale than we ever had played before. We had plenty of ‘green’ players who had never entered a WS match so we were eager to get them into it and get them used to the difference in WS compared to RS."

"After 12 hours of searching, we received our notification of match made.. BlackStar Order. We weren’t sure of how to approach this considering the overwhelming odds in Levels and technology.. But we all made the decision to play the match to the best of our capabilities. "

Soon they realized they were outmatched, but they didn't give up. "We held our own but we knew there was no way of cracking their defence and taking a shot at their relic production/logistics. Our main objective was to then get at least 1 relic home. That to us was considered a win and decided that we would be satisfied with that. " 

"After a long and sleepless fight over the days in the match we managed to get that one relic home - they threw everything at us to try and prevent this but we did it!"
The match ended 24-1. 

Our real enjoyment and win was within the experience of playing against top level players and learning new tactics. BlackStar Order were fantastic, ruthless opponents and we would love to play them again in the future."

Darth1397 from Cape Corp has a similar story of players sticking together through unsurmountable odds:

"Although we knew we have lost this white star battle, we still tried to at least fight although it was pointless.  After our ships were demolished, we still came up with strategy to at least get one relic and if that didn't work, we tried to take out a battleship and even transports.  

In the end of the day, we might have lost the battle but we [became] united as a team."

When designing White Stars, the aim was to keep Corporations isolated: In an intense competitive mode, direct communication between the competing teams can quickly turn toxic. So for example we'll never have a way in game for a player to message any of the competing players. But some of the teams have found ways to circumvent this, mainly through discord, and these interactions have been surprisingly positive.

Aesoe2017 from Apex Union describes their White Star game and subsequent interaction with another Corporation leader:

"When the star was found, we were like "$&#@!" because we were matched against a team that was ranked #2 in the top 200 WS Corporations.  I have struggled to lead my corporation and we have described it lovingly as herding cats.  We all want to be the hero and getting strategy together hasn't always been the easiest.  This White star would be like no other in testing our abilities.  Our rank #10 corp vs. their rank #2 corp."

"Most of their ships went South to Rentin, a level 10 planet nearest the white start to the East.  Their formidable army of 9 vs. our 6 ships.  Certainly it was going to be a bloodbath.  Rockets already aimed towards Rentin and flying at speed from their warp.  At Althisa, the closest planet to the west was a similar battle, except we had the upper hand there.  I made the call to attack Althisa and pull back on Rentin.  As we withdrew from Rentin, the missles rained down on the barren planet one after another, the blasts blinding the sector.  Meanwhile our ships had breached their perimeter at Althisa.  Althisa was our base of operations now.  Our aptly named "Delta squad" outfitted with Delta shields, mass battery, and teleport snuck behind the lines.  As we begin harvesting Relics, 1, then 3, 4, then 6.  We were in the lead.  6 relics to their 0 with just 36 hours remaining.  they only had 2 relics on their way to the warp.  Another relic for us, it was now 7-0 but almost immediately it was 7-1, then 8-1, 8-4, 8-5, 8-6.  If not for the harassment by our Delta squad behind the lines taking out miners and transports, we would have surely lost. " 

"Immediately after our victory, a member of the opposing corporation joined our corporation so that he could congratulate us on our victory.  I ended up running into Little Shine (the leader of the opposing corporation) in a RS6 group join channel on Discord.  We spoke at length about strategy and showed up a couple of ship builds that could counter our "delta squad" so he wouldn't lose to the same strategy.  We are now somewhat of friends although it is a little difficult to communicate through the language barrier, but fun nonetheless." 

"We may have had some battles that were more intense, although this one was pretty intense, but I wanted to share this story because I thought it was very cool that not only did the opposing team congratulate us, but I was able to share strategy with them. "

A similar story was shared by more than one members of Wrath Of Odin Corporation, from their match against Hardcore Miners. S1rfuknhel writes:

"We went into the round being 3-0 and were thoroughly out played at every turn. With the enemy team winning but that is not the story. 

This story is about what happened afterwards. We initially exchanged thoughts and pleasantries after the match and to be honest I was annoyed that the dudes that had just beat us were so cool. 

A few days later they were a few down(for their next WS) so they hit us up for extras and I jumped in. I played my role and learnt a lot from a more experienced Corp and that was that.  

Since then we are still in contact, exchanging ideas, anime, advice and well friendship.
I've played a load of games, like a load and never have I experienced this sort of community. This exchange of connection. It was a unique experience. Both our Corps are still in contact and shall hopefully remain so for a long time."

A match result changing in the final day can be fun or painful, depending on what side you are on. We got some stories about such late upsets, but not all of them went the way you might expect. Mjoo7 from Star Raiders describes their rollercoaster experience:

"It was an intense game, we were able to get one artifact back to our gate and now had to stop them from getting any back to theirs. It got to the point that they had finally snuck one transport through our attack and were heading straight for their Gate." 

"According to the time machine they weren't gonna make it. They were late by 30 minutes. We felt that our first win was guaranteed." 

"All of a sudden they dropped in a miner which had time warp on. Once they started it up they were gonna win." 

"That's when a little miracle took place, whoever owned that miner thought it was a good idea to go gather some hydro, which then took it out of the transport's range. Winning the game for us. We were so grateful!"

By far the most frequently mentioned upset moment in all White Star was a moment from Anla'Shok vs BlackStar Order. ApatheticEnigma from BlackStar Order describes what happened:

"Like his user name implies, Black Death 436 utilized the Leap and Destiny modules to annihilate all of the transports stationed at a planet, destroying the relics that would have ensured our victory. A carnage so great had not been seen since the first Black Death."  

But for the full log of the events that lead to that moment, Lunareo has the full story in the form of a Captain's log. We end this piece with his full transcript, since to edit or shorten it in any way would be doing it injustice:

"White Star WCW-7989

Captains Log Day (1)  

Upon warping into the system our scanners picked up traces of Anla'Shok Corporation. I knew then and there that many of the brave men and women under my command would not be returning home to their beloved families. Anla'shok has been at the top of the galactic corporations listing for years. This wealth was reinforced through their fielding of some of the latest and greatest warships/battle technology available, without the emergency sanctuary modules no less. Most of our battleships paled in comparison, seeming no more a threat to there mighty warships than a civilian transport. The scanners also picked up a unidentified energy signature, my gut instinct tells me it's some new form of technology that we have yet to encounter. A sleepless night of war preparation awaits, already summoned the greatest tactical minds of Black Star Order for this exercise.  

Captains Log Day (2) 

Knowing full well how out classed we are, the tacticians all agreed that the best course of action would be to capture and hold a single planet with all our forces. For this purpose all our miners labored tirelessly to clearing out countless sectors of asteroids that may have given enemy forces travel lock on coordinates. Our convoy safely landed on the closest planet available and began its excavation/extraction efforts under the blue umbrella of the countless planet barriers.  

Captains Log Day (3) 

Anla'Shok had no intentions of letting us collect these mysterious relics and made a hard push onto our planet with 7 Heavy Battleships. If not for our miners preparations this could have been the end of the battle for us. But in response we quickly evacuated the convoy with whatever it has already collected. Leaving a squad of emp Battleships to engage and trap the enemy on the planet as they had no lock on targets for activation of teleport. Heavy on my soul is the massive missile barrage I called in to eliminate there trapped fleet. Lacking the Emergency Sanctuary Modules thousands of souls perish in the flashes of light that followed. Scanners confirmed no survivors.  

Captains Log Day (4)  

Our convoy traveled to a different slightly further planet. We had exhausted all the closest hydrogen source and had to seek fresh clusters. Excavation effort take a tremendous amount of fuel. 

Once again the convoy landed safely and the planet barrier gave the workers reassurance of protection. Anla’shok sent in a lone ship directly at the planet under our control. I could see no clear way of this ship to threaten our work. But I can't brush of the feeling that something is very wrong, like the calm before a storm. 

Captains Log Day (5) The Great Disaster 

The convoys excavation went without a hitch and the convoy was about to extract to return to the warp gate. But that lone Anla'Shok Battleships was a much greater threat than I had ever imagined. As it approached closer to the planet we attempted an intercept maneuver. In a split second our convoy and battle fleet was hit with a massive blast. Computer simulations confirmed it was a planetside destiny teleportation effect. We theorised that the unidentified energy signature was a new highly long range teleportation device which requires high energy output nodes for accurate targeting. An energy output similar to one given off by battles or emp use. 

The enemy teleported across the entire system and the planets gravitational field attracted the teleportation, bypassing our planet barrier. The convoy is nothing more than scrap metal husks now. With the sun's supernova imminent I sit in my cripple Battleship await arrival back to the warp gate. I have notified the higher ups about this terrifying new weapon, they have begun negotiations to acquire it and arm us properly so this disaster never repeats itself. "