AFK Cloaking – The Modern Eve Soap Opera
Cloaking, in Eve Online, is the ability to remove yourself from other people’s visual and scanning systems, i.e. makes you invisible. The ability to cloak is used exclusively in PVP related formats, either for intel gathering, or for first strike capacity, and also for surprise attack. It also is used to escape such PVP dilemmas.
The Modules in Question
Currently, Eve Online has three Cloaking Modules that are in common use:
- Prototype Cloaking Device I – A Tech 1 module that uses 30 CPU, and 1 MW power. Upon activation, your ship speed is reduced by 90%. Upon disactivation, you have to wait 30 seconds before you can target anything.
- Improved Cloaking Device II – A Tech 2 module that is an improvement over the Prototype. This unit uses 60 CPU, but only reduces your speed by 75% when active. When the Improved Cloaking Device deactivates, you only have to wait 20 seconds before you can target another ship.
- Covert Ops Cloaking Device II – This Tech 2 module can only be used by certain ships, such as Covert Ops frigates, Stealth Bombers, a some Recons. It has no reduction in speed and has only a 10 second wait before you can start targeting.
All of these have some additional weakness. For example, if you come within 2000 meters of another ship, it will decloak you. Another is that if you are actively targeted, you cannot cloak at all.
The Issue that Divides Them
However, all three have one very nice advantage. They can stay on indefinately. They drain no power or fuel of any type whatsoever. Thus, it has become a common practice for some enemy pilots to park their ship in system, cloak up, and go afk for hours at a time (or so one would think – there isn’t anything saying they can’t). This usually disrupts operations going on in systems and definately slows down isk profitability.. and thus.. the drama is caused.
If you have ever dealt with this issue, you know that there are two sides.. and only two sides to this issue. For some clarity on that, here are some very recent threads on the subject: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=110852 and https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=102191&find=unread just to name a very, very, very few threads that crop up out of anger and frustration. Just for clarity, here are the two groups:
- The “Its Not Broken, Don’t Fix It” Group is usually made up of pirates or pirate like characters who essentially don’t want to have to try and find a new way to gank others. Mixed in there are the ones who actually use it for strategic purposes and those generally have a pretty articulate argument that revolves around how easily it is to decloak a bomber, or how weak a bomber is in the first place.
- The second group, or the “Whaaaa! You are disrupting my Bot Mining Operations” Group tend to be industrialists, mission runners, and ratters.. the majority of which just simply want to do their own thing and not be bothered anywhere (including in WHs, null-sec, and while avoiding wardecs) by this silly thing called PVP. Imagine the audacity! Mixed in with that group are some who see the AFK cloaking as too powerful of a mechanic because there is no way to counter it.
Myself, I have been on both sides of this issue. Ursha’Khan, back during the days of Provi 1.0, used this almost exclusively to disrupt isk making operations. While I didn’t care for it, the reasons behind it are legitimate.. it was to disrupt our ability to make isk for replacing our losses. I used this tactic myself to gather intel in far off null-sec systems when we were wardeced by various alliances, so it was a useful tactic for me.
All in all though, I do find that I tend to side with the second group. Mainly this is because I don’t think a module as powerful as a cloaking device should operate without limitations. And once it is active, unless you are a complete imbecile or unlucky, there is no way someone is going find you. No other module in the game acts that way. Even the small Damage Control units have to use some cap every few seconds to keep active. All active sensor modules, all active shield modules, all active armor modules, all E-War modules, all weapon modules require either power, or fuel, or ammunition, or a combination of them to remain active and working. Cloaking Devices don’t have any limitations in their use, and in that respect, I think they are overpowered.
So, what have been more common ideas that have been put forth to deal with this?
Fixes and Wishes
The first, and probably most popular, is having a “Fuel Requirement”. Basically said, the pilot would have to have some sort of fuel (predictably ice products) that would burn off while in use. I like the fuel idea, but I can see where it really hampers long range recon when you got to fly through system after system of enemy territory. It also would degrade their combat effectiveness when used in conjuction with Black Ops fleets. Though, to what extent would depend highly on the how much fuel is consumed during use.
The second most common is actually one that seems to have some traction with CCP, and that is to have special Cloaky Hunter ships. To me, this was what the Electronic Attack Frigates should have been used for. They are currently useless and often the E-war they are paired with make them just quick and easy kills. I like this idea, but it doesn’t really “fix” the overpoweredness of Cloaking Modules, and I’m not even sure how effective they would really be in actual use.
Personally, I’m in favor of just having the cloaking device use capacitor. I think that on a full capacitor, using base skills, with no mods, that a Stealth Bomber or Covert Ops should be able to stay cloaked for about an hour. This would cut down on lazy AFK cloaking, while those actively trying to get intel could make a distance safespot, warp to it when their time is almost up. uncloak for a few minutes, then go back again. Long distance ops can still work because you are operating with the same payload and you don’t need a “fuel” to keep you going.
We’ll have to see, I guess. From what I understand, even the CSM isn’t very cohesive on this issue and we’re probably not likely going to see anything simple come out of CCP.. not when they could show off their art skills with new ships and modules. So, in the meantime, go read the drama that fills the forums on this issue.. Or better yet, do some trolling of your own. Just tell’em, Orakkus sent ya.
The Push Towards “Farm and Fields”
This is an unprecedented time in Eve History for the industrial aspect of the game. The following events have taken place, or will take place in the space of a single month:
- Player Event: Ice Interdiction – This was a plan to stop the amount of Gallente ice being mined in Eve Online by taking out anyone who was mining Gallente Ice. The operation appears to have been a financial success.
- Player Event: Burn Jita – A Player Event that had one of the most influential null-sec alliances invade high-sec, and for a day, wiping out all transportation going to the central, and biggest, trade hub in the Eve Universe.
- Player Event: Hulkageddon – Another Player Event, done annually, where pirates focus on taking out industrial mining ships. Hulks, Mackinaws, Orcas, Rorquals, are on the list.. and are not safe even in high-sec.
- Security: Bot – CCP Sreegs has been on the forefront of taking down bots of all sorts. The majority of these bots either mined or ran missions in high-sec or ratted in the Drone Regions. The materials and modules were then shipped, in mass, to Jita for sale.
- Escalation: Drones – As of April 24th, Drones no longer drop “Drone Goo”. Those unique ores dropped only by Drone NPCS, which could in turn be reprocessed into high-grade, null-sec ores, no longer are dropped.. by anything.
- Escalation: Meta 0 Modules – Also as of April 24th, no NPC in Eve will drop meta 0 items (it turned out not to be entirely true, as some things like Expanded Cargohold Is and Ship Scanner Is still appear to be dropping). Meta 0 items were used in two particular fashions: First, they were reprocessed to get to their more valuable minerals, and Second, they were used in Invention. Removal of these means that more Meta 0 items will have to be player manufactured. So instead of having a resource pool, we now have a resource sink.
- Player Intervention: OTEC – Technium is the most valuable substance in Eve currently, and it is produced only from certain rare moons.. all of which happen to be own or managed by the GooNIP (yes, say it like how Stewie says “Cool Whip”). However, this has been pre-countered by CCP desire to step away from “conflict resources”, by stating possible changes that include Ring mining for what was formerly Moon goo.
Now, let’s think back about who started the concept of “Farm and Fields”. This was a major platform for the Mittani of Goonswarm when he went into the election of CSM6. Of course, the “farms and fields” initiative had to take a backburner in order to save Eve Online from the Space Barbie fixation that CCP had gotten itself into. But the question remains, is the Mittani still trying to push “farms and fields”, even after he has been defunct?
Considering all that he has been able to accomplish in CSM 6 as well as with Goonswarm, it is a sure bet that he just didn’t say, “Whelp, guess that’s not going to happen.” And the majority of Goonswarm players, after all the success they have had, will likely do whatever he bids. Add to that the reality that I think he honestly cares about Eve Online as a whole and we have a strong group of focused players, with the resources necessary, to influence change.
Let’s look at the Burn Jita plan, which had been in the planning stages for months, seems from the outset just a plan to mess with people.. just to prove how powerful Goonswarm is. Here is his quote from his blog, Sins of a Solar Spymaster,
“The truth is that we did it because we could: we wanted to see what would happen to Jita if we hit it with all the organizational might of a nullsec bloc.”
Now, if he was truly just wanting to show off, he wouldn’t have written this statement in this way. He is a lawyer, after all, so he is going to be very precise in his wording. It also helps to note that he goes on to talk about how Escalation has made mining viable again. I think the Gallente Ice Interdiction was a test case, to see if he could organize not only Goonswarm, but also others in the low-sec community. It also tested Goonswarm’s ability to weather out major events, even those of its own making. But it also was an introductory course into seeing just how much control large player organizations could exert against smaller organizations, particularly those who have little need to be concerned about game politics.
The Gallente Ice Interdiction turned out to prove to be quite successful on all the deeper issues that were behind the event. Prices for Gallente Blue Ice raised sharply on news that the POS fuel would be much rarer to get and once relatively cheap at 800isk per fuel unit, now were being sold for upwards of 2200 isk per fuel unit. This was despite the fact that the actual inventory appeared to be hardly dented at all. Goonswarm made isk on that sure.. but the real treasure was seeing just how reactive the Eve Online Industrial populace had become.
The Burn Jita project, now coupled with Hulkageddon, went after another point in the industrial complex. The Burn Jita project struck at the central hub of the Eve Online universe.. hitting everyone who ever dealt with Jita: Mission Runners, Minor Traders, Major Industrialists, Miners, Haulers, etc. The targets were picked in such a way as to discourage people from both buying and selling goods in Jita,which is why it was done on the days that Jita has the highest amount of trade. In other words, Friday going into Saturday. The constant converage of those systems forced people to more localized places, as well as put into danger trade routes that had existed for years.
Hulkageddon also served a more distinct purpose and with Goonswarm putting up tons of isk for bounties, more pirates are risking sec status losses as well as more expensive fits, to hunt down Tech 2 Exhumers.. most of which fly in high-sec, busily mining away without a care in the world until they were caught.
But let us not forget CCP, which up until recently, still had to deal with The Mittani as the CSM6 chairman. CCP Sreegs campaign against the bots was intensely pushed by the CSM. This despite many of the null-sec alliances that they hailed from were using bots or had a number of members using bots on a regular basis. Many of the updates you see coming into Inferno, some via Escalation, are changes directed and influenced by CSM 6. This includes the removal of Drone Goo and solving the problem of having Meta 0 modules being melted down for the rare minerals they house.
Finally, there is OTEC, a null-sec organization designed to manage the flow of Technetium to the rest of null-sec. A powerplay move to be sure.. but against who?
Personally.. I think its a powerplay move against CCP, forcing them to bring the concept of “Ring Mining” to Tranquility as soon as possible. The Mittani mentions it this way,
“Just like with the real world’s OPEC, ‘Everyone’ in this case means ‘us’ and ‘benefit’ means ‘ahahaha f**k you scrubs’. With discussion of ‘ring mining’ being a method of nerfing tech income, most of the organizations in nullsec that have tech moons are interested in jacking the prices as high as the market will bear, with twin benefits: making us (CFC/NCdot/Ev0ke/PL) comically wealthy at the expense of literally everyone else in the game, and making literally everyone else in the game howl in a rage about it.”
Remember, when this was developed, he was still the CSM Chairperson. I think, by allowing this particular e-mail to be, ahem, “leaked”, he is essentially forcing CCP to make something happen before OTEC becomes a real force in the world of Eve Online. Why do I say that? Because this plan goes absolutely against his “farms and fields” initiative that he thinks will save Eve Online. It also goes against what I think he hoped the lessons would be with the events that he both directly, and indirectly, interacted with.
Here is what I think are the lessons he wanted people to learn, and to work off of:
First – Gallente Ice Interdiction – Since much of the ice for all of Eve was mined in high-sec space, the Mittani had hoped to enforce the idea that, with High-sec no longer being a stable source of this resource, it might be good for alliance to start mining for that resource locally, rather than just jump to Jita, pick up what you need and go back home. At the corp and individual level in those null-sec alliances, local resources would still be harder (though more valuable) to get and so would increase the number of mining ops, as well as having local PI directed more toward filling local needs rather than just dumping whatever on the market.
Second – Burn Jita – This is the second part of the Ice Interdiction aspect. By removing the availability of Jita, null-sec alliances would be force to upend their usual logistical trade routes for new ones. These new routes might not be as useful or as profitable as Jita was and as such, might influence local industrial corps to start mining resources locally as a safeguard.
Third – Hulkageddon – A nice addition to the Burn Jita idea. Again, much of the low-end resources used for industry is mined in high-sec space, where it is quite safe to mine and ship your minerals to Jita or wherever and gain maximum profit. Hulkageddon disrupts this with a venegence and makes high-sec mining a less reliable source of resources. By adding bounties to every ten kills, Goonswarm could possibly force this to continue on even longer.. disrupting the current flow of resources in and out of null-sec and possibly making null-sec mining a more profitable and easier experience.
Fourth – Bot Removal – Bots have been seen in all sectors of Eve Online space, and the neglect of CCP to really cut these guys out has caused the eventual proliferation of supercapital ships all across Eve, and is one that will still be felt for a least a couple more years. Removing these bots has cut off a large portion of incoming resources to the Eve community as a whole, further increasing the price of all minerals.. and also making it more profitable for young miners to be viable again.. even in Null-sec.
Fifth – Drones and the Drone Regions – A few years back, in order to give new life to the recently added Drone Regions, CCP removed all drone bounties and added more drone goo to their drops. This turned out to be a gold mine to what has now become known as the Drone Russians, who using bots, both mined and blasted minerals into their holds and were able to corner the market. With the Drone Region NPCs changed, Drone goo now gone, and botting accounts being banned by the hundreds, the minerals that once flowed into Jita for all to take with ease are now gone. This has forced null-sec alliances to see revise the prices of supercapital ships.. and to see if perhaps local mining might not be a better alternative.
Sixth – Meta 0 Module Change – This change removes the ability for mission runners to also influence the mineral market. Although a minor change in the grand scheme of things, some of these Meta 0 modules could be reprocessed to give out Mercoxit, a null-sec rare ore that requires a special exhumer to mine. Now that this resource is consistantly available only through mining, there will be more reason to mine out there in the deep dark.
Now, to me, this sums up, not a war against the players of Eve Online, but an ideological battle to save Eve Online by stopping players/corporations/alliances/coalitions who are too reliant on others for support. The “Farms and Fields” initiative is still active. It still is being pushed, even as the Mittani is no longer the CSM Chairperson, he still wants null-sec to be a better place to live. And even if I am a pawn in this scheme (which I am, I don’t delude myself), this still looks like a good plan to me.
.. then again.. I could be wrong. They are Goons after all…
CSM Summaries – Discussion Points
“Jesus is Dead” is the title of Trebor’s new blog, referring to an attitude that CCP consistantly had in regards to new “features”. Those “features” were ones that would create a tremendous amount of new subscribers for pretty much little comparitive effort. Other anologies include the “Hail Mary Pass”, the home run, the defining Seinfeld episode.. etc, etc. It does highlight a very critical change in CCP’s thinking, as well as a better understanding as to why they always kept leaving recently features half done.
But, today where are talking about the other posts that Trebor has done, and that is the Daily Summaries.
Day One – https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=43700&find=unread. So little is said because they can’t project past the NDA.. but at least we can get an idea of what CCP thinks is important right now. It also tells us a bit of what the CSM is going to focus on as well.
Future of the CSM: Surprisingly little has been said, but I can’t imagine that any negative viewpoints would be aired just yet about the CSM.. even if there were any.
Customer Loyalty: This could be interesting, especially to us veteran players. Probably means more gifts and toys for us folks who have been in the game a year or more.
Economy and Plex: Trebor says things are going well and that we’ll see lots of pretty graphs. Hopefully, we’ll hear some good facts on how RMT and botting are being handled.
Security: I imagine this is dealing more with logins and accounts, but also might be dealing with RMT and botting too. Little was said, and we’re probably not going to hear a lot either way.
Day Two – https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=44200&find=unread. Day two appeared to have more game related “meat” to it and will definately have topics we look forward to hearing more about.
Nullsec: Not surprising that this is being addressed early on. Personally I’m not a fan of destructible stations simply because it doesn’t promote developing your own backyard. I do like the reasoning and there are far too many stations (think Providence) in nullsec. However, unless there is some way for the “casual” Eve player to not have to worry about losing everything because he had to be gone for two weeks, I don’t think it will fly very far. The other two subjects mentioned, the changes to Drone Loot and to Moons are certainly of importance to all players. Drone Loot combined with botting has been considered responsible for the glut of minerals in the market, keeping prices down and becoming too difficult for starting miners to make any isk at all. Moons, on the other hand, have been the big causes of both conflict and wealth disporportion. It is here that you will find out if the CSM is really going to help the game.. or help themselves.
Little things - FW/Wormholes: From Trebor’s information, it is clear that CCP hasn’t focused on either of these yet. Not sure what in Wormhole space needs to be fixed, but Faction Warfare needs a serious overhaul.. and that isn’t a little thing. I think this may be a point where those in Faction Warfare and those interested in Faction Warfare will probably be given a bone or two, but little else.
Game Balance: Apparently more on ship balance, which will forever be CCP’s bane. Electronic Attack Ships and Supercaps being discussed seperately. It is good to see that EAS ships are being addressed specifically as it would be very nice for them to have role worth putting in fleet. The evolution of supercaps.. well, I’m of the mind that they still need another role, outside of direct combat.
Future High Level Discussion: Dust <-> Eve is clearly still going to happen. I imagine this probably has to deal with when/if Incarna will ever be re-Incarnated.. (see what I did there..)
Crimewatch: So far, this is the only serious Low-sec discussion, and how criminal aggression and countdowns have been figured certainly have been a confusing issue. They said they really liked the new issue and I’d certainly like to see a Devblog on this sooner rather than later.
Day Three – https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=44596&find=unread. This appears to be the day where they discuss all the “accessory” stuff.
Web Cell: More information and tools. Let’s be clear, the only tool that anyone seriously wanted was the ability to change skills. Another would be a web-based EFT-like fitting tool that you wouldn’t have to install.
New Player Experience: Same ole, same ole. In other words, how do we get WoW and BF3 players hooked into Eve, without running home crying because they lost everything.. and it didn’t magically come back..
Art: After what these guys did in Crucible, just green light everything they do.. seriously.
UI: Until they talk about completely customizable UIs, then this discussion is pretty moot. No matter how cool it looks, no matter how awesome it sounds.. if I can’t import a theme that I like.. it just isn’t that cool.
All in all it sounds like we will get to see some pretty interesting devblogs.. and hopefully the minutes won’t get tangled up in the NDA again either. The downside though was that low-sec really wasn’t discussed as its own entity like Null-sec, and low-sec just has so much potential to add to the game. Maybe CSM7 will be able to bring low-sec into the success that CSM 6 has been able to develop.
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.. just hold up there. Did you just say you were going to fix Anomalies..
.. not by distributing them better, but by making them more valuable?
Feature Teams video blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInM9k3tTSw
Now, the little tidbit that I am referring to starts at the 2:56 to 3:02. It is a mere six second comment and I want you to think about the statement for a little bit. Previously the last known dev comment regarding this on the forums was here: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=219364#post219364
So, two things can be paraphrased from CCP Zulus comment:
1. The value (or isk payout) for all anomalies are going to be improved.
2. The distribution of said anomalies weren’t going to change.
With those two thoughts distilled from the six second comment, I see that the intent is to enhance a possible conflict driver. To me, this poses a problem. The current distribution of “top line” anomalies is already in line with regions that have technium moons. Those moons are already the main source of null-sec conflict as they produce billions of isk for those alliances and coalitions that have them. This change will certainly add isk to the wallets of everyday pilots, but the question is, will it give the pilots in those non-ideal areas enough isk to make invasion worthwhile?
At first, this change seems like an end-around gambit by Mittens. Anomaly changes like this would allow alliances like Goonswarm to sit pretty in Deklein space, with all their people seeing higher returns from running anomalies. Certainly such a change like this in null-sec would make many owners of moon goo regions breathe a sigh of relief, because people will be less likely to care if the leadership is skimming a bit off of the top for himself.. so long as they are making good isk too. But I am wondering if this changes affects all anomalies, even those in high-sec. I kind of doubt that this change will mean very much as far as high-sec goes, and I doubt that this will make low-sec worth populating again on its own.
But, if they were disproportionately raised in favor of high-sec and low-sec space, then it might allow low-sec and high-sec corporations to start eyeing null-sec space and this might cause more diverse groups of players to start taking up small chunks of null-sec space, perhaps giving them the opportunity to grow enough to challenge the bigger coalitions with their…
hmm… we’ll have to wait on that.
Nullsec, Lowsec, Highsec, Wormhole – How do they relate?
(Note: This post is intended for those new to Eve, to clarify some of the deeper issues that are before the CSM and CCP)
There you are, sitting in an Ibis. You’ve just joined the game after hearing about all the drama, the epic fleet battles, and amazing ship heists. You’ve decided that this space sim is where it’s at. But where, really, is “here”? And why so much drama between those that live in High-sec, Low-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space?
First off, it is important how three particular things interact with each other. Eve Online is a game where the vast, vast majority of items found on the market are player made or player introduced. From shuttles to ammo to ships, etc. Only skillbooks, as a group, are introduced outside of players. This means:
Isk (also includes Loyalty Points), PVP, and Industry are interconnected with each other.
- If you have no isk, you cannot PVP because you cannot purchase or build anything. Named and faction items will also not be introduced into the game
- If you have no industry, then no modules or ships are built, therefore no way to effectively grind for isk and no way to PVP.
- If you have no PVP, then industry stagnates as need for modules and ships dries up when players get more effective and efficient.
Second, it is important to understand accurately what some of the driving motivators to Eve Online are.
Major Economic Motivators:
- Technetium Moons – Technetium moons, often called “Tech” moons, provide material used in Tech 2 module construction. Each moon provides billions of isk monthly to those who hold them. As such, control of these moons is a major source of conflict in Eve.
- PVE Combat – Mission running and belt ratting (hunting NPCs that show up in asteroid belts) are one of the most common sources of income for Eve players. As players gain access to harder missions and belts with higher classes of NPCs, pilots need better modules and better ships. It also requires them to replace those tools should they make a mistake.
- PVP Combat – Whether it is pirate ganking or major fleet actions, PVP combat is a staple of Eve Online. As such, a wide variety ships, modules, and ammo are required to mount such combat operations. A continued supply of those items is also required to keep up with people’s PVP needs and increased skill.
- Distance (at an individual level) - Eve space is huge. It encompasses almost 8000 systems between known space and wormhole space. As such, it is difficult to move individual fleets around for the various reasons one would. Therefore, in order save time, players will often buy multiple ships, modules, ammo, and other equipment and store them at several locations.
- Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite – Better known as ABC ores, these ores contain the highest proportions of the most valuable minerals in Eve. These ores are found only in 0.0 and Wormhole space, though the availability of these depends on the quality of system.
- Tritanium – The most prolific mineral in the game, but also the most used in production and industry.
- Supercapital Production – Supercapital ships like the Titan and Supercarrier pretty much represent an “I win” button to any who can field them in fleets. Since fleets of these are now the standard for 0.0 alliances to have, production of these is at a peak.. and the materials needed to make them are vast.
Minor Economic Motivators:
- Human Nature for “Home” – Wormhole and Null-sec space are the only locations where an organization can make a “home” as it were. Null-sec has an official sovereignty mechanic, while Wormhole space control is determined by the defensive ability of those living in the wormhole.
- Skill Training – With improved skills, better ships and modules can be purchased and used.
- T3 Production – Wormhole space is the only location where T3 components can be retrieved. The large number of wormholes and the overall difficulty in capturing and maintaining that space, though, allows for some security.
Now there are quite a few other things that influence the going ons of Eve, such as blueprint usage and availability, political changes, game changes.. but overall, I think the above lists are fairly accurate at this time (though if commenters wish to add some, I certainly will consider their request).
So, how do all the spaces relate to each other?
Well, as mentioned above, there are quite a few economic motivators that influences the political sphere of the game, and these in turn influence the combat aspects of the game.
High-Sec or “Safe” space
High-sec, or High Security Space, is the most policed of Eve Space. Since this area of space is low-risk and centralized, industry and extensive mission running (along with COSMOS sites, anomalies, etc.) tend to make this space very lucrative financially. The safety aspect of this also makes the area a boon to industry because there are few hurtles to getting your goods to market. Naturally, this also allowed for trade hubs to be established, most prominently Jita. As more and more modules and ships got sold, the need for materials to build them increases as well. Since High-sec corporations can build items and get it to market consistantly, it becomes much easier and cheaper to contruct those items in High-sec and ship them out to Low-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space.
Three of the major concerns which the Eve Community seems to be at odds with in regards to High-Sec is that:
- The individual financial rewards of running Level four missions outwiegh the financial rewards that can be had in Low-sec and Null-sec space. A recent Anomaly nerf, made all but the best null-sec space worth less than running Level 4 missions or Incursions in High-sec space.
- Ore mining in High-sec space is too profitable both because of hidden belts, but also because the need for Tritanium is so high that a miner has little need/desire to move out into 0.0 for more profitability.
- Ice Mining in High-sec space is just as profitable (if not more so), than ice mining in 0.0 or low-sec.
As regards the first point, I wholeheartedly agree that the current financial mechanics for 0.0 is pretty poor for the individual pilot. Technetium moon profit in typical EuroAmerican-style null-sec alliances tend to put these profits toward sov expenses and capital ship production. Thus, systems with better anomalies will give their pilots a better ability to keep up their PVP fleets and weapons. Whereas systems with poor anomalies aren’t able to keep up with the attrition that PVP and Sov control brings.
Proponents of Low-Sec think that moving the profitable High-sec Level 4 missions out into Low-sec will force more people to move there and become a necessary in-game isk sink. However, my experience indicates that this ignores some key points. First off, profitable mission running is necessary for corps and alliances to have enough collective isk to venture into null-sec space for holding sov. Moving those missions into low-sec will reduce individual and corporate profitability, making it much more difficult to jump into null-sec space. In addition, “forcing” people into low-sec to make isk will likely result into two things: either a.) they merely continue to run level 3 missions, b.) change from mission running to another profitable, but high-sec based, venture, or c.) Leave the game entirely. All three options result in an overall negative outcome for the game.
The other two points I am really not qualified to discuss on.
Low-Sec or “Pirate” space
Low-sec, or Low Security Space, is generally considered the most dangerous of Eve Online space. Whether this is true or not, the perception has forced much of low-sec to remain underutilized. Some industry does take place here as it is easier for corporations and individuals to maintain POS structures and NPCs have higher bounties. Capital and Supercapital ships can also be built there. A recent change to missioning agents, though, has made that space less frequented by mission runners. Mining in low-sec is usually ignored because the ore it offers are not of higher quality than than high-sec ores, and the risks of losing your mining ship as well as shipments is greater than the risks in Null-sec.
The nature of Eve mechanics, coupled with some incomplete ventures like Faction Warfare and the simple reality that anything you can do in low-sec can be done either better or more efficiently or safer in null-sec and high-sec, Low-sec hasn’t been a real driver in any economic way. Capital ship production and some faction war and piracy based PVP add to the overall industrial flow. Those who operate in low-sec do try to make it a driver in a social way, but this has not really taken off simply because the view of risk is too high for most people and the rules for operating in an effective manner are difficult to comprehend quickly.
Some of the current (and longstanding) issues with low-sec are:
- Unfinished expansions – Faction Warfare in particular is an unfinished mechanic that was hoped to bring new life into low-sec. As this has not really happened to any serious extent, there is significant rage against CCP for not really having a plan that involves improving, or even giving purpose to, low-sec space.
- Safety – This subject is all over the board, with industrialist pilots saying that the safe is too dangerous for it to be profitable and with pirate and PVP pilots saying that its just a perception, not a reality.
- Relevance – High-sec, Null-sec, and Wormhole space all have aspects that are unique to them. Low-sec doesn’t and while there are plenty of suggestions, CCP seems either unable or uninterested to make changes at this time.
All three points really boil down to the third: Relevance. Low-sec space needs to have some unique aspects for making isk and for industry building that give more dimension to gameplay. Pulling things from High-sec is not the way to do that. Null-sec space, on the other hand, does have quite a few unique features that could be moved, in whole, into low-sec without disrupting game play.
Null-sec or 0.0 Sovreignty Space
Null-sec, or 0.0 space, is the dynamo of Eve Online. Without the PVP battles that happen, industry all over Eve would grind to a halt. Much of Eve Online’s combat happens in 0.0 space due to raids and sovreignty conflicts. Null-sec though, while not having gate guns or Concord, is still considered safer than low-sec due to more flexibility in using defensive and offensive fleets. Rules of engagement are totally based on alliance policy, and not just shoved in somewhere in between Concord rules.
However, it is not as safe as high-sec, and player made outposts have a limited number of manufacturing slots. This forces corporations and individuals to put up POSes for manufacturing. Those operations, in turn, require operations to get materials and fuel, either by mining or by transporting them up from nearby High-sec trade hubs. Additional expense is added for the various costs of holding sov space, which either comes from moon reactions or from player taxes.
Some of the current issues with null-sec primarily involve:
- Sovreignty - The game mechanics that were released with Dominion were supposed to be better than the previous way of gaining Sov. However, this new system proved to do the exact opposite of what was intended (which was to make it worth while for smaller alliance to try and get sov). CCP again contends that reasons for conflict need to drive the constant struggle between the haves and the have nots. The Eve Community has thrown up hundreds of ideas and some of CCP devs appear to have some good options for fixing the current state, however the Eve Community as a whole is on the fence at to CCP’s willingness to stick to making changes.
- Logistics/Industry – Currently, it is easier to bring some materials in for construction than it is to mine them locally. It is usually cheaper to bring in modules and ships than it is to build them locally. This reliance on High-sec, which was a fairly reasonable outcome, has increased the difficulty of bringing in miners and builders into “dangerous” null-sec or even low-sec. This is especially true given the amount of resources needed for the most powerful ships in the game, the Supercapitals. But this problem goes deeper due to CCP view’s of how null-sec should operate is in direct conflict with the human nature of people who do industry. People who do industry prefer stable, safe locations to build from.
- Botting – This takes on the form of automated programs to do, mundane but critically important tasks, either mining large amounts of ore, by attacking belt NPCs for isk. There is conclusive proof that such programs exist and are actively being used by current 0.0 alliances. Much of these funds have been used for purchasing and building supercapital ships or for Real Money Trading (RMT). Past indicators showed that Russian, European, and American based null-sec blocs also operated bots to help pad either the supercapital ship program or their own leadership wallets.
My opinion is that how Sov space is handled certainly needs to change, but CCP needs to step away from its current viewpoint and adapt a stance of “Easy to raid, hard to conquer”. Not having the option to “raid” or steal supplies, without affecting Sovreignty is really detrimental. Right now you either leave it alone, which means no PVP, or destroy it, which means massive fleet operations. Null-sec industry can never flourish to the levels it needs to be because industrials cannot develop the stability necessary to provide products consistantly. I’m sure that if an industrialist knew that once he sits a POS on a moon and that it will be there and that he will have access to it for six months, he wouldn’t be all that bothered if a part of a batch goes missing out of every 5 or 10 batches.
And as far as mining goes, mining in general needed to have an update for years now to make it more engaging, more challenging, and more rewarding. Once you make people WANT to do it because it’s enjoyable, then people will risk more to try it.
Wormhole Space
The final type of space, Wormhole space, is something of an enigma. CCP surprised the CSM by indicating that included Wormhole space as part of Null-sec space and because of that, it did have some features of null-sec space like ABC Ores. The problem is that CCP’s viewpoint isn’t entirely accurate and the CSM viewpoint wasn’t entirely wrong.
It is true that Wormhole space is indeed null-sec space, but only in regards to there being no Concord or Nation security status to worry about. Outside of that, the two are night and day. Wormhole space does not allow for stations to be installed and also does not have an active “local” channel. The space itself can modify ship attributes, both positively and negatively. There are planets, but belts need to be discovered to be mined and the NPC’s found there have an advanced AI that mimics real PVP combat. Accessing Wormhole space is more difficult and both entry and exit points change on a regular basis.
Wormhole Space also has a unique industrial relationship to the rest of Eve. It is the only location where T3 components can be found and harvested. Corporations that operate in wormholes tend to operate rather self-sufficiently so as to minimize the need to use up the unstable exit and entry points.
Oddly enough, there is currently only one point of contention with Wormhole space, and that has to deal with “ABC” ores. During the latest CSM meeting with CCP, the CSM found out that some “ABC” ores could be found at lower-tier wormholes. This was news to all but two CSM members, both of which are active in wormholes and the resulting conflict from the other CSM members seems to be very disproportionate to the problem. The amount of ABC ores in those low-tier wormholes are minute, so small that some even contend that they aren’t worth the effort to mine them and are too small to be a serious threat to any local trade hub, much less to all of Eve. The ABC Ore issue in Low Tier wormholes feels like a made up political issue designed to hide more serious issues like botting, which the alliances of some of the CSM are certainly involved.
Conclusion
So, that is how all the space in Eve relates to each other. And here you thought you were just going to shoot little NPC rats…
(Note: For those of you reading this blog and you believe you have something to add or more information you want me to expound upon, or if you think I need to correct something feel free to post that in the commments below along with your full reasoning behind it.)
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