Okay, to state the obvious, caps got buffed in the last patch.  Before I say anything else, I want to say that I think that was a GOOD thing.

At any rate, when I first read the patch notes some months back, I was very pleasantly surprised, but didn't think it would affect gameplay mechanic much, if at all.  I thought it would be the same old gameplay, with some nice little much needed buffs to caps.  Then slowly but surely, I started seeing online play evolve to the new capships.  Carrier cap opens, dual carrier cap opens, triple carrier cap opens, carrier cap rushes, etc. (also the use of the akkan instead of the "automatic" marza - GOOD).  And then, slowly but surely, I've seen people build even MORE caps as a "standard build philosophy."

However, until yesterday and last night, I was still in "old school mentality" regarding capships, i.e. NEVER BUILD TOO MANY.  I was on the extreme end of this mentality with the old version of the game, only ever building one cap, and if it ever died, not rebuilding it (and sometimes even opting to not build the free cap - yes I thought capships were that bad in the older version of the game).  I thought that all this new building of duplicate caps, triplicate caps, etc. at game open was a "gimmick" of sorts that was simply "catching people off guard" because of the newness of it all, but at the end of the day, people would figure out how to counter and smash it, and gameplay would then revert back to the standard, tired old "build one capship, MAYBE two in a standard online game, and play the game with tons of frigates."

This view of mine as multiple capships being a "gimmick" that would eventually be smacked down is one reason why I purposefully didn't evolve my gameplay and kept it largely "old school" (except for some attempts to counter multple halcyons/sovas with multiple skirantras of my own).  Also,  I've always thought the devs didn't like capships and didn't want powerful capships, and once they realized they made a huge "mistake" (in their eyes) by buffing them, they'd re-nerf them, and I didn't want to have to switch gameplay philosophy to new style, and then have to switch back again.  Comprehende'?

Enter yesterday and last night.  I haven't had a chance to play much at all the past week or two because of all the holidays.  So I haven't seen any action for over a week.  What I was surprised to see was usage of EVEN MORE CAPSHIPS in skilled games (folks with clan tags and "recognized" names).  How many capships?  One Advent player maxed out ALL his capship slots in a game (I think it was a 4v4).  I saw a TEC player build quadruple sovas one after the other, then an akkan and a couple of dunovs (other than that he just had scouts for the first hour or so of gameplay).

What's more, when I tabulated the results at the end of the day, the people who went cap heavy were the winners.  The people who went cap light were the losers.  As of last night, a "switch" went off in my head, and I changed my thinking from "this is a gimmick that will be slammed down soon enough" to "uhhh... I think this new gameplay mechanic might actually be for real?"

The old school of play was that CAPSHIPS SUPPORTED THE FLEET ("fleet" meaning "frigs and cruisers").  The school of play I witnessed yesterday and last night was FRIGS AND CRUISERS SUPPORT THE CAPSHIPS.

If this really is "for real," I'm all for it.  I always thought the old gameplay mechanic was backwards, i.e. the interesting capships sucked and took a back seat, and the boring frigs were churned out by the hundreds.  The new gameplay mechanic seems much more interesting (even though I haven't tried it).  But my question is, "is this really for real?"

Questions:

1. Has the new gameplay mechanic become "the fleet supports the capships?"  Or is there still a fight going on between "old school" and "new school?"  Who's winning the fight?  Based on what I saw yesterday and last night, "new school" has taken over, but did I just experience weird games or what?  How viable is this?

2. If the new gameplay mechanic is indeed "caps rule," is it here to stay?  What are the odds the devs will change it back again if they find out what's going on?

I like the new role of capships, but I've been extremely hesitant to switch my gameplay mechanic because I've either thought "uhh... this is a joke or gimmick, right?" or I feared the devs would just change the mechanic back again.  What are your thoughts?  Who's switching?  Who's staying the same?  Who thinks this is here to stay?  Who thinks it is a gimmick that will eventually be proved non-viable?  Who thinks the devs will revert the gameplay mechanic back the other way (caps support the fleet)?  Your thoughts?