((OOC: Given the recent heated debate re: IC/OOC in this forum, the following is strictly OOC – feel free to post how you wish, just make sure to let the thread know))
Gamespot and IGN have today posted previews of the upcoming “Notum Wars” Booster Pack. Although most of the details in those articles would be familiar to those who have read the updates, the following quote from IGN reveals what will happen story-wise in approximately three or four weeks:
“The two major players on the planet, Omnitek [sic] and The Clans, have been fighting over this very thing [notum] for more than a few years. As the story goes now, the ICC is stepping in to rectify some of the notum situation on Rubi-Ka. They've decided to come on in and deregulate the whole thing. Sound familiar? Yes and while it's opening up the market, it's also bound to cause some problems.”
Yet, this question begs asking: what can we expect over the next few weeks?
My conjecture is as follows:
1. The conditions in the Clan community will continue to degrade, both in the political and the economic senses of society.
2.(a) Omni-Tek of Rubi-Ka (“OTRK”) will announce, but not undertake, a move to reclaim the notum supplies.
OR
2.(b) Omni-Mine will announce the discovery of massive new notum reserves, in or very near to Clan territory.
3. In the case of (a), Poverty and instability will be used by the ICC to justify notum mining deregulation; in the case of (b) the ICC will declare all existing notum mines to belong to OTRK, while the newly-discovered reserves will be a free-for-all.
(Note: option 3(a) would effectively require substantial amendments to the RK Lease, whereas (b) would only require small amendments and the addition of a provision to define the new market as “free”. The latter of those two would thus be, from an ICC-OTRK relations standpoint, more politically stable. Maybe the ICC will re-extend the RK Lease as compensation from dissolving the monopoly?)
4. Let the games begin!
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I think it is safe to assume at this point that the Council of Truth won’t be returning. What this market liberalization effectively accomplishes is to allow individual Clans to become powerful, wealthy organizations – hence, it is these Clans that will shape the course of relations among the community and OTRK – and thereby eliminate the need for the CoT.
It would also be safe to assume that the ICC peacekeepers are not going anywhere. I’m unsure of the security situation in Tir et al. prior to the CoT’s formation, but absent a unified Clan council who would provide security for these areas?
As an aside, the Gamespot article had this to say:
“Funcom plans to implement several varieties of towers…[o]ne of the nastiest new towers will have the disruptive ability of disabling a flying Yalmaha vehicle”
So much for safe cross-planet travel, huh?