
Eve Online wages largest war in its 10 year history - danso
http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/28/5352774/eve-online-wages-largest-battle-in-its-10-year-history
======
Qworg
I miss EVE but it is all consuming, especially when you're part of a great
alliance/corp.

As an member of Goonfleet/Goonswarm, I ran the logistics for the Battle of
XZH, where a scrappy group of upstarts from Syndicate waged a weeks long
insurgency against a better funded, better equipped force.

We won, at least until they "bought out" the system underneath us, through
superior numbers, tactics and logistics. We had our turn around time from
death to back on the front (fully refunded and refitted) down to less than 6
minutes. We cycled several thousand ships an hour into the meat grinder.

We kept "Ol' Ironsides", one of our space stations, up via hundreds of shield
repairing cruisers (Ospreys) and a game mechanic we didn't fully understand
yet, but would soon learn to exploit (moving the zone boundary).

Anyways, I miss EVE, but it is a second full time job at the top level, and
I've got other things to do. I'm glad it is still generating epic battles. :)

~~~
nyrina
I think it's amazing that it has kept growing more and more hardcore. I have
the impression that if I started out as a complete newb now in EVE, there
would be no way for me to get up to speed and be one of the big guys, running
a titan(?)

It's somewhat the opposite with WoW, that it's been consistently dumped down
since Vanilla. I've been playing for all 10 years, thoroughly enjoyed all of
it (although some expansions were better than others) and the time I had to
spend to grind flasks and potions for vanilla Naxx was about 10 hours of
killing lowly mobs, grinding away, just to be able to afford 5-6 flasks, which
would last me through a raid night. That's 16 hours for 1 night of playing.
And we raided every night.

Now, I have a job, I'm still raiding at the highest level, yet I can log in,
knowing my character is already fully decked and ready to go, the same second
the raid starts. I have to spend about 30 minutes each week, just getting
stuff for the remaining time.

It suits me perfectly, due to having a job and a social life (With the people
I raid hardcore with normally, so our schedules match), but I do sometimes
miss the sense of accomplishment you would get from pushing something for
several months, like in the start/middle TBC and vanilla days.

I'm happy that EVE is still able to have such an environment, for the people
that wants that.

~~~
somnium_sn
I think there is a huge misconception of how eve works. It's not really
necessary to fly one of the big ships nor train them. But then I started 2
years ago and have 2 super carriers and a titan. It's about getting into the
right corporations find the right source of ISK and play the game the way you
want it. If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less)
if you are smart about it.

However what makes EVE every unique is that a new player is valuable as a 10
year old veteran if they are willing to learn. A small ship can hold a carrier
or super carrier in place till reinforcements arrive. It takes you 2 weeks to
train into that. Hauling for your corporation in a 1 months old character can
be as valuable as having a 100million skillpoint character. It's a sandbox
after all and only you decide which route you want to go and how mcuh time you
want to spend doing it.

~~~
mathattack
_If you want to fly a titan, you can do it within two years (or less) if you
are smart about it._

Now THAT'S a commitment!

~~~
this_user
There are literally people who will invest months of their time to infiltrate
an alliance, gain trust, rise in the ranks to then inflict the maximum amount
of damage possible (a practice known as 'awoxing' after a character who made
it popular a long time ago). This has lead to a level of paranoia among
certain people that it would probably be easier to get a job at a Fortune 500
company than one of those groups.

Furthermore, the biggest coalitions [of alliances] consist of thousands and
tens of thousands of players. Some of those operations could be considered at
least semi-professional with extensive IT infrastructure and dedicated HR and
financial teams.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
I'm sorry - what? Tens of thousands of people in an alliance, logging In
daily, with dedicated support teams?

Is this a description of the future of corporations or just not supported by
server logs?

~~~
Qworg
Goonswarm six or so years ago would raise 20-30k a year from donations to pay
for colo and bandwidth. All hardware was donated from corporate IT takeouts.

~~~
intended
Colo in this case means?

~~~
riffic
Co-location, rented space inside a datacenter.

------
rl3
EVE can be played a lot of different ways, but the novelty in each eventually
wears off and it becomes monotonous.

This is especially true for large-scale alliance warfare, which, if you're at
the top is something like a full-time job, and if you're merely rank and file,
it's more like a part-time job.

In my opinion, the meta-game is more fun than the game itself in this context.
There's an entire ecosystem that exists outside of the game that involves
communication infrastructure, propaganda, spying, gambling, player services,
etc.

Large power blocs have to be able to control the message, mobilize thousands
of players on a moment's notice, and continually infiltrate their enemies to
glean intelligence.

It's often jokingly said that EVE is "serious business." Players who fly the
larger ships (supercapitals) typically receive SMS push notifications so they
can mobilize faster. At the very top, certain players have been known to cash
out (albeit illegitimately) on their power and wealth, earning a healthy real-
life income stemming from their activities. Think hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

Of course, as cool as all of that is, 15-hour-long battles suck. The game
client, networking code and engine are a lot better than they used to be, but
they're still woefully lacking for the purposes of extreme large scale
warfare, to the point where participating in such battles is something akin to
torture.

~~~
Tloewald
For me the novelty wore off in about an hour. Discovering that you it takes
(significant) time just to spend skill points so that you can fly the new ship
you just bought that it will take you (significant) time just to go and pick
up in a game where pretty much all the game play consists of clicking on lists
and waiting.

I think it's great the EVE has such an entertaining meta-community. I suspect
it's precisely because the game itself is so slow-paced and dull that this is
true (the real game takes place in your imagination, and the pace is such that
you can spend a lot of time chatting with other players, etc.)

[http://loewald.com/blog/?p=59](http://loewald.com/blog/?p=59)

~~~
saraid216
It's worth noting that EVE is an idealized capitalist society, with all the
realistic drawbacks that comes with that. I agree that the back story is
essentially fantasy, but what you miss is that this doesn't mean you're a
classic solo adventurer for whom the world bows down as you pass. (This isn't
a jab; in most MMOs, this _is_ the case.)

EVE is principally about market simulation, and pretty much everything you do
is either a market externality (e.g., going to war) or a market action (e.g.,
mining). Contrast with WoW, which is an adventure simulation (if you're not on
an adventure, WoW failed), EVE doesn't leave out the boring parts because
they're critical to actually simulating the economics.

Which means arbitrage. Which means location matters. Playing the game is about
figuring out what kind of entrepreneurship you want to engage in, and then
optimizing it to maximize profits.

Yeah, this is non-obvious, and EVE is notoriously bad at teaching newbies.
They've been trying to improve it, but it still comes down to finding mentors.
Your criticisms are thus on the mark without actually criticizing the game
itself; you just never got to play.

~~~
Tloewald
Interesting points, but it's sold as a space action game. And, frankly, it
could be a far more nicely put together whatever the heck it is.

~~~
saraid216
/shrug

I'm not trying to get you to play. You criticized it. I'm explaining what
parts of your criticism were off mark. You don't want to hear it, don't
criticize it where the fanboys are.

------
misnome
I played EVE for a while; actually as part of one of these giant corporations.
I'm not sure how fun it'd be without being in one, as they tend to insure you
against battle loss and it takes long enough to grind the space-mining-
simulator even with their support.

The other thing I remember is that these "Battles" were extremely frustrating,
and very long lag-minigames. e.g. get instruction over teamspeak, everyone
targets a ship and if you are lucky within the next three minutes your UI will
respond and fire a shot before you randomly got targeted and exploded
instantly (this was server lag, as the client would run reasonably smoothly).
Even giving CCP advanced warning about where we expected to have a battle they
said there was "nothing that could be done" and basically refused to
acknowledge that there was a problem.

That, plus the fact that living in the UK generally meant operations were
extremely late nights, meant I dropped it.

~~~
streetnigga
I used to play, maintained being independent up until I got my blockade runner
and some game time, then backed off to do life things. I never really did get
into the mining since the end result would having to be to trade, so I put
focus on the market and finding a niche as a middle-man in one place or
another.

For what it is, it is a well developed community a cut above say, Call of
Duty. Or at the very least far more advanced at scamming.

------
pinaceae
i'll be "that guy" and fuck, i'm a gamer.

imagine that all this energy, time, effort and cash would be spent on some
tangible issue. the revolution in ukraine, a movement for civil liberties.

there are very creative minds at work within EVE, reading the mittani is
amazing. those guys would run circles around the organisers of, say, occupy
wall street.

to put it dramatically and over the top - the world is burning and the
brightest minds play games. sort of an inverse ender's game.

~~~
alex_c
Some people do both - in the most literal sense. One of the top Eve players
was killed in the Benghazi attack in Libya in 2012.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Smith_(diplomat)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Smith_\(diplomat\))

~~~
nhayden
This guy was nowhere near one of the top players in Eve. He was a pretty
normal player.

~~~
sanswork
He was pretty much one of the most respected diplomats in game and head
diplomat for at the time the largest organization in the game. That definitely
puts him in the top group as far as players go in a game where ability to 1v1
isn't the only way to win.

------
busterarm
I myself also had to quit EVE after 7 years, but I had one of the best player
experiences you can get in that game.

Highlights: Being a member of Veto. Going to Iceland and meeting long-time
friends (and meeting Mittens!). Making a best friend. Being present for the
first ever Titan kill. Becoming among the richest players in the game without
using T2 blueprints. Succeeding at ultra-high level market manipulation for
massive profits. Launching several successful manufacturing enterprises. Epic
kills that netted ultra rare item drops (prize ships, T2 blueprints). Running
multiple identities and spying on people. Playing a key role in breaking up a
large alliance through dirty politics. Plotting revenge on someone, slowly
working my way into their circle and brutally backstabbing them 5 years later.

Nothing else comes close to touching EVE.

RIP DarkElf. RIP Vile Rat.

~~~
9999
It would be interesting to read more about what you did. In particular it
would be interesting to hear the details on the 5 year long espionage plot.
Have you written about that somewhere?

~~~
busterarm
I haven't really, no. It would be interesting but also haven't played EVE in a
couple of years by now so I don't have the right level of enthusiasm for the
game anymore to really write about it, nor the time. Sorry :/

------
kibwen
If you follow the link to The Mittani:

[http://themittani.com/news/sov-drops-b-r5-immensea-
staging-s...](http://themittani.com/news/sov-drops-b-r5-immensea-staging-
system)

...you see speculation that the whole incident was triggered by a bug in the
game. Has anyone confirmed that this is true? If so, it would be very
disappointing. Given that the appeal of the game lies in delicate politics and
long-term large-scale maneuvering, having all that work undone by a bug seems
as though it would discourage players from investing the time and effort
necessary to make the game worthwhile.

~~~
Qworg
I can say that, with almost perfect certainty, that any side who loses a major
battle will complain about there being a bug. Or lag.

Bugs, mistakes and the rapid exploitation of the above are definitely in the
spirit of the game.

------
edraferi
I love that the war "started by accident," just like so many real conflicts.
I'm not to familiar with EVE, but it sounds like the game glitched and forgot
who owned a key area, which people are now scrambling to claim. is that
accurate? if so, will the developer make any kind of restitution to the
faction that list the territory due to the error?

~~~
lflux
The sovereignty claim (who controls a solar system and it's station) generates
an in-game bill that needs to be paid by the corporation owning the system. In
this case a Pandemic Legion holding corp in Nulli Secunda held the system.
Enough money wasn't in the right wallet division, or the auto-pay glitched,
and when the bill came due their claim dropped.

When sovereignty drops like that, it's free game to claim the system and
station, generating a free for all frenzy. In this case it was Pandemic
Legion's staging system with a good deal of their forward staged assets stuck
in the station that they can't access until they retake the system and
station.

Honest mistake or glitch, who knows. The corp CEO is claiming on reddit that
it was a bug and petitioned it to the game developer CCP to have the
sovereignty rolled back, but it's kinda hard to tell what's truth or just PR
spin. CCP doesn't roll back losses like this often (I think it has happened
like once or twice that they've rolled back sov)

------
davidw
It actually looks like a pretty cool game - the description reminds me of
Elite brought up to today's standards. I can't help but think of this, though:

[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/online_gaming](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/online_gaming)

~~~
mattmanser
It's nothing like elite.

The combat involved in this battle is sorting a list by name, double clicking
a square and then pressing F1. Once that square disappears, double click
another square and then press F1.

Oh, I forgot, you might align your camera in a direction of a different
square, which represents a local planet, and double click.

Occasionally, and especially if your name starts with an a, the whole screen
will start flashing indicating you're the square the enemy is targeting. Then,
unless you have spent an extremely unhealthy amount of time playing the game
and are in a titan, you will die instantly.

~~~
JonnieCache
I've heard it described as excel with a 3D engine bolted on the front of it.

Maybe one could market a tool that turns mundane corporate data entry into an
exciting battle for galactic domination, and make your white collar peon
employees battle each other mercilessly to increase shareholder value. If you
die in the game, you get fired.

EDIT: actually, please don't do that. unless you do this first:
[http://www.richardkmorgan.com/novels/market-
forces/](http://www.richardkmorgan.com/novels/market-forces/)

~~~
lmm
The irony is that for all Morgan's anti-corporatism, the privatization of war
for profit has greatly served to reduce violence, from England's Glorious
Revolution onwards. Corporations are better at avoiding war than monarchs, not
because they particularly care about people per se but because war is just so
wasteful.

~~~
JonnieCache
The books are _good_ though. Hopefully someday somebody will have the stomach
to film Altered Carbon.

------
gojomo
I wonder, is this sort of war good business for CCP, the Icelandic company
running Eve? (Do they want more of them, or battles of a particular
size/character?)

On the good side, I see:

• adds excitement/unpredictability/plot

• generates outside publicity

• ups demands for in-game goods

But on the bad side, perhaps:

• destroys long-cherished items/positions, weakening interest/attachment

• losing side feels sting of loss, faces upcoming grind of reattaining lost
status: a likely quitting point

• winning side feels a sense of completion: also a likely quitting point

People who've quit: was it after some big reckoning battle, of either victory
or defeat, triggering a re-evaluation of your participation? Or did big
battles make you hungry for more?

~~~
inopinatus
The first time you jump into a major fleet battle the adrenaline pumps so hard
you'll think your heart is going to burst outta your chest. You spend the rest
of your Eve career looking for that feeling again (it does come from time to
time).

CCP love this stuff and encourage it. They've scaled Eve to support ever-
larger fleet battles; nonetheless it's no wonder that an engagement of of this
size meant significant lag for some. The players will always be pushing the
envelope of what the servers can support.

I had to stop playing Eve because I needed my life back. But for some, yes, a
significant material loss in Eve represents such an investment of personal
time and energy that they will quit in despair. As a result there is no other
MMO with such a richly woven player-driven plot. Nothing else comes even
remotely close.

Once you've played Eve, every other MMO seems to be developed for those who
need their PvP plotted out for them, conducted in a padded cell of safety
where no-one ever really loses anything significant. And tremendously
uninteresting as a result. c.f. the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online.

EDIT (addendum): I should add that even reading about this battle sent me
running to pull out my old and dusty Eve navigation charts, check on the
sovereignty status of my old alliance, rewatch a few old Eve war vids and even
confirm that my long-dormant accounts still exist. Maybe if I had to spend six
months in hospital I'd subscribe again. But otherwise, no, I have a life now
and it's an itch I can never scratch.

~~~
gojomo
Thanks! Any good war vids you'd recommend for a total outsider?

~~~
inopinatus
There are two kinds of Eve videos:

1\. Video art made using well-composed in-game footage that may not be
entirely representative of the general experience. Most of the official
promotional videos fall into this category. Since Eve is a visually sumptuous
game, it lends itself well to this form. It is practically machinima, although
I'd be surprised if anyone has modded the engine as many machinima artists do.

great examples include:

    
    
      "Dreams of Yasur"      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ_UiIYarhg
      "Lacrimosa, Tortuga"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYEaPLCCIrY
      "Empyrean Age Trailer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKdTJjDnYzE (official promo)
    

2\. Capture of a real battle. Here lies the real nostalgia. Unfortunately they
tend to be less visually sumptuous and more hundreds of variously coloured &
labelled objects in a highly technical 3D HUD that is almost incomprehensible
without some Eve experience. They also tend to be long. Ideally accompanied by
fleet voice battle chatter because otherwise they are not only dull to watch,
you'll have no idea WTF is going on.

recent good samples include:

    
    
      "the Battle of Asakai" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLqb-m1ZZUA
      "Anatomy of a fight"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMFahR4wXTg
      "Everlasting II"       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMU2SsF0IZk
    

and just to compare and contrast the fleet battle experience, here's an early
Titan-class ship kill, from two opposing perspectives:

    
    
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymdSjCYK_PI (GS/PL)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nalljAJPe8U (BoB, teamspeak only)
    

But in truth the two I was looking at were much older. They were the two
movies that persuaded me to try Eve in the first place:

"The Fallen". Apparently from 2005. You will have to forgive the typos and
grammatical blunders to get to the somewhat emotional core, because the whole
thing is touching "I miss you" letter. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmKB-
LlIdMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmKB-LlIdMI) and read
[http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=485027](http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=485027)
afterwards.

"Bhaalgorn vs Nightmare". Must be from around 2004. Two vicious-looking and
rare ships duke it out for a few minutes in what looks like a high-stakes
stand-up fight. At the end it becomes apparent that this is, in fact, a
promotional sales brochure and both ships are on the market. The realization
of what that meant for the whole structure of the game is what attracted me to
Eve in the first place. [http://dl.eve-
files.com/media/09/Bhaalgorn%20vs%20Nightmare....](http://dl.eve-
files.com/media/09/Bhaalgorn%20vs%20Nightmare.wmv)

------
dccoolgai
When I played EVE, I don't remember being directly affected by these
things...I never joined an alliance, just sort of hung out in isolated systems
and explored wormholes and tried not to bump into too many people..it was
great fun.

------
kriro
It's the videogame that reminds me most of "Ready Player One" which is a
pretty fun read.

One of my life goals is to do some studies on EVE (most likely economics).
I'll convince someone it's a good idea eventually :)

Edit: Maybe do a study on terror cells and get military funding :P

~~~
Cthulhu_
Fun fact: intelligence agencies actually got funding to infiltrate into MMO's
because there might be terrorist communications in there. Or something.

[http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/09/tech/web/nsa-spying-
video-...](http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/09/tech/web/nsa-spying-video-games/)

Eve is a valid subject for an economics research though. It'll be doubly fun
if you can join up with a large corporation and engage in market schemes; pump
& dump, blocking supplies / trade routes, social engineering, or doing your
own ponzi scheme. The good part is that none of these are illegal in Eve, so,
knock yourself out.

------
kmfrk
In slightly related news, $37.5M has been raised in pledges for a space
simulator that still has yet to be released:
[https://robertsspaceindustries.com](https://robertsspaceindustries.com).

There has to be something about space that makes people toss money at
videogames.

~~~
aaronem
EVE Online and Star Citizen both happen in space, but they're not a lot alike
aside from that; the former is a point-and-click tactics 'n strategy simulator
where a "skill" is something your character eventually levels up and becomes
able to do whether you've been playing the game or not, and the latter is
(will be) a first-person joystick-and-throttle space flight simulator in which
things like combat and trading depend on the skill of the actual player,
rather than an updated modern equivalent of rolling a d20 to see if you can
beat a number on your character sheet.

Also of note is that Star Citizen is helmed by the same person who was the
driving force behind Wing Commander, which all of us space combat sim
aficionados remember fondly as the game which got us into the hobby -- a hobby
which has been experiencing a severe dearth of new titles for most of a
decade, now, more or less. Given all that, it's not terribly surprising what
happened when Chris Roberts showed us a pre-alpha video of the game we've been
dreaming of playing for most of our lives and said "Here's the game I want to
build. How much is it worth to you to be able to play it?"

(Sources: I've had friends who played EVE Online, and investigated the game
fairly thoroughly a while back with an eye toward possibly getting into it;
I've donated $140 toward Star Citizen so far, and will probably buy another
ship or two before launch.)

~~~
e12e
In addition to Star Citizen, also check out the new Elite by David Braben:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-
danger...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous)

(Didn't realize he was also a co-founder of the raspberry pi foundation till
just now)

~~~
aaronem
Apparently it's railroading time! I'm delighted to see my favorite gaming
genre finally getting some love again, and especially now that we've got the
computing hardware to really make a proper go of it -- Tachyon and Freespace 2
were great, but that's been 15 years ago now, and it's about time we had some
new games to play.

------
motdiem
Related: this episode of TLDR "RIP Vile Rat" has some tidbits on the
diplomatic system in EVE, and interviews with the Goonswarm leader.

[http://www.onthemedia.org/story/tldr-11-rip-vile-
rat/](http://www.onthemedia.org/story/tldr-11-rip-vile-rat/)

~~~
YokoZar
I do wonder to what extent the massive outbreak of war can be blamed on Eve
losing its top behind-the-scenes diplomat.

------
mguillemot
Shameless plug: if you think you'd enjoy EVE but are put off by the time
necessary to get "into" it, or are just curious about alternative MMOs that
are not WoW clones, I encourage you to check my game Gangs of Space, currently
in playable alpha:
[https://www.gangsofspace.com](https://www.gangsofspace.com)

I'd be glad to provide alpha access keys to any curious fellow HNer (contact
info is in my profile, or on the game website!).

~~~
wtracy
Looks cool! What are the system requirements for this thing?

~~~
mguillemot
Any PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) sold in the last 5 years should be fine (might want
~600 Mb free RAM when a lot of players play at the same spot, but that's all).
Up-to-date graphic drivers do help, especially on Linux.

------
shultays
>An exact real-life currency figure of the in-game damage is not currently
cemented, but unconfirmed estimates put the amount at more than $200,000

Always wondered how much virtual money generated during a day and what is
estimation for real $$. What percent of that $200k is real money?

~~~
alcari
The game's subscription model is actually implemented in such a way that you
can have an item (a "Pilot's License Extension", PLEX) that represents a month
of account time. PLEX can then be bought and sold by players in-game, at
whatever price they're willing to agree to. There's a fairly active market for
them, so a USD -> ISK (ingame currency) conversion ratio can be calculated.

Of course, there's no (officially sanctioned) way to convert PLEX back into
USD, so such comparisons speak more to CCP's profits than anything else.

~~~
Zolomon
There is, almost at least[1]. You can go to their conventions in Las Vegas by
paying with PLEX.

"Regular price is $200 but if you have 15 PLEX..."

[1] [http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/eve-
vegas-2013...](http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/eve-vegas-2013/)

------
lazyjones
Usually, reported EVE player numbers are a lie; it is dishonest to mention
player numbers when account numbers are what is actually meant (and everyone
knows that regular players involved in alliance warfare have and use multiple
accounts more often than not).

~~~
650REDHAIR
This is generally true for small-medium scale engagements, but when 2000+ are
in local you can safely bet the majority are "real" people. We had engagements
where our own alliance would essentially DDOS our VOIP server with 800-1000
people on.

------
ChuckMcM
Interesting coverage on themittani site [http://themittani.com/news/b-r5rb-
biggest-battle-all-eve](http://themittani.com/news/b-r5rb-biggest-battle-all-
eve)

Eve irritates me because I really enjoyed World of Warcraft. I would have much
rather Blizzard had stayed on target rather than make many of the changes they
did. The advantage of a place like Eve is that space is really really big, and
in a planet based environment it sometimes is hard to be that big.

But the cool thing about Eve is how much amazing depth has evolved in that
game and how "easily" you can just jump in and be part of something huge.

~~~
coolsunglasses
I played Eve for over 3 years, including as part of large alliances in some
(now historical) wars.

It never stops being tedious & boring and it never stops being an economic
grind.

My dream is for a space game that's actually fun to play and explore in, but
allows the same richness of player interaction/cooperation.

Maybe someday.

~~~
chrizz
Star Citizen from Chris Roberts:

[https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-
game](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game)

~~~
coolsunglasses
I follow and am already bought into every kickstarted/crowd-funded space game
likely to come out for the next 2-3 years.

Star Citizen is promising but not the kind of space game I am talking about.

------
97s
Eve is one of the best and worst games ever made. I joined Eve years ago as a
newbie from a friend invite, within months I had mastered small gang combat.
My mentor put me into tackling ships at day 1 and I was a pirate -10 by 5 days
into it with over 100 kills.

This whole idea that you can't play unless you have invested years is complete
nonsense the most important role in the game is tackling and scouting, which
you can do on a day old character.

Eve is a game where you make your own game goals. If you want to be a
billionare and give away stuff and be e-famous you can do that. If you want to
be one of the best solo pilots out there you can do that. If you want to be a
spy and steal massive amounts of information or take down an alliance through
meta gaming you can do that. Eve is basically a softer version of real life
because you can change who you are within a few clicks of a button by buying
and selling characters.

If you wanted to learn how to manipulate people and companies, then Eve is
your training ground. It is basically the best sandbox game in the world. The
spaceship part has nothing to do with it. If you want something to express
every part of yourself you can do that in Eve.

I played for 3 years as a 10 man pirate corp. We set our goal to be the best
PvPers in our area, we would constantly fight gangs 2-3 times our size and
loose nothing and kill most of them using cunning tactics and game mechanics
that most didn't know. It was fantastic, but also terrible, because once you
become known, people only bring stuff to kill you, and being smart and
scouting 8 systems out you know your not going to fight that. So at times
there would be months with no good fights.

Eve is wonderful, I miss her, but I dont.

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Zenst
I've played since 2003 and done the big alliance stuff, have mroe fun in
smaller gangs/fights personaly and whilst I have a over 200SP PVP char who can
fly capitals I never wished to go beyond dreads or carriers as being stuck in
a boring big ship just did not seem fun to me and most have dedicated super-
cap/Titan accounts/chars for that aspect alone.

Still, however many such fights are very much a lag-fest whoever you spell it
out (bullet time or not) and the live stream I saw of this engagement was like
watching a animated GIF downloading on a 300buad dial-up modem effect.

So sympathy allround to those involved in what should of been epic fun.

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mvkel
I know nothing about Eve, but it seems like the cool parts of Ender's Game
come to life. Is that a fair assessment? I love the strategic aspects, but
don't appreciate that it seems impossible to enjoy as a casual gamer.

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pyrocat
A more accurate headline would be "Eve Online sees the most expensive battle
in its 10 year history"

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iterable
This is huge

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wnevets
EVE: spreadsheet the game.

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streetnigga
Jita my dear, I miss you.

There was a period were some alliance set siege to the gates in. System time
was slowed to the extreme.

Heavyweight traders dropped out, I ran my Minmatar craft about making enough
coin to pay for several PLEX. After the siege profit margins slimmed back to
their normal percentages.

Lovely game.

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streetnigga
Eve Online is a place where you literally see people grind away to make money
for a living, but you don't care because you are working some angle against
their trades while battling effing pirates gate camping at Amamake. No one
really shouts racial slurs in anger, more disinformation or propaganda while
shooting the shit. There is power alliances you cannot reckon with, there are
trolls you cannot defeat.

Boring bits for certain professions aside no other game gives you the depth
EVE Online does. Spreadsheets rule everything around me.

~~~
busterarm
S.R.E.A.M. Get the ISK! Jump out to a clone, y'all.

