Eve Online: I have been doing everything slightly incorrectly

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Samahiel: Mar 17, 2009

Welcome to EVE Online: Space Opera as performed by Schizophrenics, Con-Artists, and Cult Leaders!

RETURNING BECAUSE OF REDDIT OR PCGAMER? CATCH UP :lesnick:

HERE

What is EVE Online?
Variously described as �Spreadsheets in space�, �A worst-in-class PvE experience�, �Sociopaths Online�, and �The game for the Nerds who are to Nerds what Nerds are to Normal People�; EVE Online is a thirteen year old sci-fi sandbox MMO published by vikings from an island that smells, by all accounts, of farts and rotting fish. In spite of having more than earned their forum emote, :ccp:

continues to develop probably the most compelling experiences in gaming.
Eve is unique in its single-sharded world. In other MMOs, servers are sharded to help balance load and otherwise scale the game. Eve takes place on a single server (unless you live in China.) Because of this, every mistake you make and every enemy you make are there to haunt you forever. Friendships and rivalries in Eve do not disappear, making things like �politics� and �diplomacy� actually matter.
That game takes place in a fully realised sci-fi universe, consisting of thousands of solar systems, interlinked by a web of interstellar jump-gates and divided into three concentric zones:

High Security space, where NPC empires enforce peace and the appearance of security. A neutral ground for players to engage in commerce and production.
Low Security space, where the tentative peace of the empires break down. Dominated by small gangs of extortionists pirates and players enrolled in NPC Faction militias; all trying their best to establish pockets of hegemony and stability.
Null Security space. Where vast, player-controlled empires rise and fall as they jostle for influence, resources, and renown.
Above, below and through-out it all is Wormhole Space, a nebulous collection of lost or distant star systems connected to known space and each other by ephemeral wormhole anomalies.

Those resources are vital, because in EVE Online all but the most basic of commodities are the result of hours of player interaction. Nearly everything of worth on the in-game market is the culmination of multiple resource chains that had to be extracted, refined, manufactured, shipped, and assembled. When that cumulation of hundreds of player hours ultimately ends up on the battlefield, if destroyed, it�s gone forever, leaving only scraps of loot and salvage for the victor to pick through.
This cycle of creative-destruction, and the ability to trade game time purchased for real money as an in-game commodity, creates a vibrant and meaningful sense of consequence and value.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kED11aGobUk

Why should I play EVE Online?

EVE is beautiful, EVE is rewarding, and EVE is deeply social.
It�s beautiful:

It�s rewarding in the depth and complexity of its mechanics; The breadth of experiences (some intended by the developers, many not) can be overwhelming at times. It�s the only game where War-Leader, Diplomat, Industrial Monopolist, Combat Photographer, Scam Artist, Day Trader, Messianic Cult Figure, Long-Haul trucker, Provocateur, Propagandist, and Spy are roles fully fleshed out and engaged in meaningful competition. Mastery of a role takes curiosity, skill, and dedication.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdfFnTt2UT0

At its core, what really makes EVE is that it is a deeply social experience. Reliable friends and knowledgeable mentors make the most daunting challenges manageable. Jealousy, greed, and bitter rivalries create struggle and competition more meaningful than any game designer can script. The ever evolving tapestry of nebulous trust, rank betrayals, and alliances of convenience is one of the richest histories and mythologies in videogames.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDVEHE10nHc

Goonswarm Federation: GoonWaffe

What is GoonWaffe?
GoonWaffe is our engine of economic, political, and military domination. A baroque construct of weaponized space-socialism intended to give you, the common goon, immediate access to everything that EVE has to offer.

Our worker�s paradise is built on the shattered remains of those who would deny Goons a place in New Eden. Over a decade of pubbie tears grease the treads of our war-machine. We have gathered the hard-won lessons of our often incompetent and comical bumbling, and dedicated them to sanding off EVE�s rough edges, mentoring newbees, and making the experiences that set EVE apart as immediate and accessible as possible.

Things to do in GoonWaffe

Hole Squad - On that Real poo poo. Our Elite* Wormhole PvP Backbone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeFNQGqdvEg
Reavers - If Reavers existed, which they do not, they would be guerillas in the backfield of our enemies, punishing all who would dare take arms against us.
The Ministry of Love - Our Highsec arm, dedicated to bringing the love of Goonswarm Federation to as many freighters as possible.
Recon - Be the eyes of the Swarm. Changes to the game have made scouting more important than ever.
GSOL - Truckers and construction workers in space. Be a vertebrae in the spine of our organization.
Corps Diplomatique - Yes, this game has diplomacy, and yes, it is important. Your honeyed tongue and sharp intuition deliver more damage and mend more fences than any in-game action ever could.
The Black Hand - Dedicated to espionage, sowing sedition, and controlling the metagame.
Sigma & Theta Squad - vote bag of vegetables 2016
Social Swarms - Lawyer? Gay (no, really, actually gay?) Fat? ? We�ve got you (and many more not listed here) covered.

Is There Some Sort Of Manual?
The Goonwiki is one of the most complete guides to EVE online.

GoonWaffe FAQ:
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING NOT COVERED HERE EMAIL newbies@goonfleet.com

What are the requirements to join GoonWaffe?

Are you an active poster of the SomethingAwful community? If you think you are, you're probably not and you should post more.
Do you have a SomethingAwful account of at least 3 months in age?
Were you banned/probated for some creepy MRA/Furry/Rape poo poo? Yes we kinkshame here so

Ok, I'm not a J4G, I want into Goonwaffe. Now what?
Go read this helpful wiki entry, and it will guide you through the steps to join!

Are you Vacationed and want to come back to GoonWaffe?? (This means your forum group says Vacationer on GF.com)
First you need to do the following:

Go to https://auth.goonfleet.com/manage and update your API key with an active API
After that do this:
Email newbies@goonfleet.com with the subject line Please Un-Vacation Me!
Include your goonfleet forum account name as well as your SomethingAwful account name in the email
Feel free to post in this thread, however it is optional and email will get a quicker response.
DO NOT APPLY IN GAME UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A RESPONSE VIA EMAIL

Against All The Odds I'm In Now What?
Yet again, there is a wiki page full of helpful advice. Key amongst these is to follow the advice on how to crack Eve's unwillingness to let you talk to others and open the GS_Help channel.

The Greater Goon: Retards Welcome

A Brief Orientation Video

Are you really stupid and also hate people telling you what to do all the time? Do you like picking on the smallest kid at the pool to compensate for the fact that your dad hates you and your girlfriend cheats on you? Do you like haunted houses?

Then follow the path of poverty to Syndicate, spiritual home of the mystic Groon, for whom the psychic auras of more than a dozen people in fleet at once are confusing and befuddling. The aforementioned video will tell you all of what you need to know. No sov bullshit, just fly around in small gangs, explode space ships and get high on teamspeak. No one expects more of you than that, because we all know deep down that you'd just disappoint us.

How to Join the Juggernot
Join "groonhelp" in game when you can't figure out how to auth.

Samahiel fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Apr 5, 2016

# ? Mar 30, 2016 20:43

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 13:06

Gwyneth Palpate: Jun 7, 2010; Do you want your breadcrumbs highlighted?

~SMcD

WHAT�S GOING ON, I READ SOME ARTICLE ON REDDIT / PCGAMER

EDIT: :siren:

IF YOU ARE RETURNING TO THE SWARM, GET TO OUR STAGING SYSTEM IN SARANEN, PLANET 5 MOON 9 QUAFE STATION, GET DOCTRINE SHIPS OFF OF PUBLIC CONTRACT, AND GET ON JABBER AND GET IN FLEETS :siren:

LINK ZONE
* https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BYX9nTujL320-BJdb87ixew693DUwSCvsDAuCc5acdA/edit?usp=sharing recap on game changes over the last couple of years

(Written 3/29/2016)

While the following novel is mostly aimed at returning veterans to Goonswarm, lured back to the fold by media coverage of recent events, it is a recommended read for everyone.

Short version: We are at war. Agitators have galvanized literally the rest of the entire population that plays Eve Online: Noted Space-themed Spreadsheet against us. Recently, they convinced one of our allies to turn traitor against us in a failed bid against our supercapital fleet. We�ve been forced to cede one region, half of another region belongs to the traitors, and yet more may fall as we engage in a painful journey of self-discovery with the new Aegis sovereignty system. There has never been a better time to return to the swarm.

:ducksiren:

IF YOU HAVE CAPITALS OR SUPERCAPITALS ANYWHERE BUT OUR CURRENT STAGING SYSTEM, DO NOT TRY TO MOVE THEM YOURSELF. :frogsiren:

Jump ranges have been cut to five light years, and jump fatigue limits your ability to move. Get your access and roles restored, then talk to the relevant handlers to arrange a move-op. More than anything, the enemy wants your capitals and supercapitals dead. Do not allow them to take what belongs to you.

Long version follows.

First, we must lead with some history. After winning The Bloodbath of B-R5RB, we retired to relative peace. In the interim, perennial enemies of ours, Northern Coalition. and Pandemic Legion retired to rebuild their lost supercapitals and lick their wounds. CCP, in two separate game expansions, introduced Jump Fatigue and Aegis sovereignty (affectionately dubbed �fozziesov� in honor of CCP Fozzie, the man who was in charge of communicating the details of the new sovereignty system to the public.)

BACKGROUND: Jump Fatigue affects any jump drive travel; capital jumps, blackops jumps, blackops bridges, and even use of Titan bridges and Jump Bridges suffer the Curse of the Blue Mushroom. (Look at the icon in-game and you�ll get it.) Performing a jump accrues a quantity of Jump Fatigue commensurate with not only how far you travel, but how much fatigue you already possessed. The current value of Fatigue institutes a recovery timer (orange mushroom) that you must endure before you can jump again. Some hulls, like industrials and blackops battleships, enjoy a reduction, but everyone else suffers 60 minutes of fatigue for executing their first five light year jump, and must wait six minutes before jumping again. This patch also reduced Jump Freighters to a max of 10 LY per jump, blackops BS to 8 LY, and all other capitals to 5 LY. Repeated jumps make your Jump Fatigue (blue mushroom) increase geometrically, up to a cap of five days.

BACKGROUND: The Aegis release radically changed the face of sov in Eve. In fozziesov, as it is lovingly called, sovereignty is no longer contested by structure shoots. In its stead, you fit a module called an Entosis Link to a cheap, disposable ship. This module prevents you from warping or receiving remote assistance while active, and capital ships are burdened with a hefty multiplier to its cycle time. Using the entosis link on a sov structure (infrastructure hub, territory control unit, or station) eventually causes the initial reinforcement phase to complete. Once the RF is up, instead of returning to the structure to contest it, Command Node anomalies spawn throughout the constellation of the reinforced structure. These nodes must be captured in a game of Benny Hill style grab-rear end by attackers or defenders in order to destroy an ihub or TCU, or freeport and then subsequently capture a station.

The new capture system has a few caveats:

The only people allowed to count as defenders in the system are the alliance who owns the structure. Everyone else counts as an attacker. This means that coalition allies can lend only limited support to defense.
All defensive structures will slowly auto-complete. This means that uncommitted attackers do not immediately endanger your stuff.
How hard nodes are to hack are dependent on strategic index (how long you�ve had sov,) military index (ratting,) and industrial index (mining.) This means ratting and mining are now directly relevant to sovereignty security. This puts absentee landlords at a disadvantage; systems that aren�t being ratted or mined are comparatively trivial to flip. These factors sum up to create a figure called the Activity Defense Multiplier, or ADM.

With this in mind, fast-forward to October 2015. One of our allies, SpaceMonkey�s Alliance (SMA) stole a fairly trivial amount of ISK from �I Want ISK� (IWI), an Eve gambling site. As a measure of revenge, IWI hired some fairly non-noteworthy lowsec-dwellers to camp SMA�s sov in the region of Fade and reduce their ADMs. This continued for some time with mixed success. However, this action, more than anything, put the chum in the water; other players became attracted to Fade. Most notable of these was Pandemic Horde. Pandemic Horde is an organization belonging to Pandemic Legion, born out of their castration of Brave Newbies Inc. following B-R5, notable for its �everyone allowed, no questions asked, no APIs required, not even from Dabigredboat�s alt named �awox mcshootblues.�� With their numbers bolstered by Pandemic Horde�s thousands, ADMs in Fade quickly dove off a cliff and sov began being hacked all over Fade.

This tactic continued for a number of weeks, causing rapid evolution of our military doctrines and staging systems (which eventually settled on the lowsec system Saranen in adjacent Lonetrek.) Results were mixed; a few systems were lost, but quickly reconquered. However, more than anything, the amount of chum in the water increased, drawing more and more actors into theatre. As hostile morale started to break, they began looking for alternate targets. Eventually, they settled on our eastern border and began to attack Vale of the Silent, primary home of Get Off My Lawn (LAWN) and The Bastion, with a notable single constellation held by Circle of Two (CO2). Keep that last name in mind for later.

Hostile forces began amassing a significant amount of numbers. Favors were called in; previous grudges pardoned and other hypocrisy abounded in order to cause the conglomeration of the single largest anti-Us force in the history of the game.

Here is where the lessons on jump fatigue come into play. Due to the geography of solar systems in Eve, it is very difficult to reach Vale of the Silent from anywhere else in our dominion. Abuse of lowsec systems in Black Rise and Lonetrek allowed us to cover the regions of Tribute, Deklein, Fade, and Pure Blind, but Vale of the Silent required at minimum one bridge for subcaps, and two jumps for capitals to even get to the border systems. These jumps come at the cost of a large quantity of the dread Blue Mushroom of jump fatigue. Because of this, when hostiles began to attack Vale in earnest, it quickly became apparent that a proper defense was impossible. Vale of the Silent has 118 systems, making it one of the largest single regions in nullsec. As such, ADMs in Vale of the Silent were, at the time, complete dogshit. The call was made to abandon Vale entirely and evacs began.

While goods and subcapital ships are easy to evacuate using the almighty Jump Freighter, capitals and supercapital assets are quite another. Due to the hostile activity, the prospect of moving supercapitals out of Vale was a tricky one, to put it lightly, especially with the supercapital forces of NCdot and PL recently arriving in theatre. Enter CO2 -- they reached out to LAWN and Bastion, and offered their assistance to cover the evac of supercapital assets. Towers along a specific route were provided to allow supercapitals to safely wait out their Blue Mushroom fatigue plague.

On March 28th, 2016, two timers for CO2�s main staging system, M-OEE8 were due to begin; the station first, then the infrastructure hub. The station timer was defended uncontested. After the station was saved, an evac op for LAWN/Bastion supercapitals occurred. Kcolor, the FC of the move op, elected to take a different route than the one CO2 had offered due to factors that are not yet determined. (Ignorance of the offer, fatigue management, gut feeling, random chance are all potential reasons. What comes later, however, was not.) The move-op was fairly uneventful and supercarriers were safely moved to Saranen. However, the circumstances of the move-op were unusual; NCdot had their entire supercapital force online, in range of the path the supercapitals took to Saranen. Yet, they didn�t engage. We�ll come back to this later as well.

Time passes and the IHUB timer comes due. In one of the largest Time Dilation tarpits in months, 3000 people were press-ganged into the constellation housing M-OEE8. While the M-O node was reinforced, the neighboring systems were not, and as the fight spilled into those systems, the server promptly began making GBS threads itself. However, not only were hostiles losing ground on the capture of the sovereignty contest, but NCdot and now PL once again had their supercapital fleets online. This is unusual because of fozziesov; supercapitals cannot meaningfully contest command nodes due to their cycle time penalty and their inability to meaningfully interdict typical entosis link ships. As the fight raged on, more curiosities emerge; PL drops triage carriers with entosis links fitted to contest nodes, despite the capital penalty to them. High profile members of the hostile community are doing the scutwork of contesting nodes. Hostiles are making almost no progress on the actual contest, despite outnumbering us 3 to 1. Nothing about the fight makes sense. Then, a metaphorical cyno beacon is lit on Reddit�s Eve subforum: CO2 To Reset The Imperium. CO2 performs a classic backstab in the middle of the conflict, and CO2 defense hackers quickly abandon their nodes, allowing their own IHUB to fall.

As the dust settles, we begin to piece the situation together.

CO2 approached LAWN and Bastion, offering them a highway to evac their supers. We find out later that CO2 allegedly seeded the safe towers offered with logged-off interdictors. CO2 also suggested that LAWN and Bastion stage in the system of TVN, which is notable for being a complete deadzone in terms of capital geography. Any forces staged there not only would be vulnerable to bubble-supported hellcamps, but would be completely unreachable from neighboring lowsec. Due to kcolor�s serendipitous decision to avoid CO2�s route, the LAWN/Bastion supers do not use dictor-seeded towers, and evade the eyes of potential hostile scouts along their cobbled-together route. In effect, kcolor affected the Eve equivalent of the Miracle of Dunkirk by extracting supers from what should have been a complete shitshow and out from under the notice of NCdot supers, which have been logged on and in range since the station timer.

The decision to contest the IHUB rather than the station is also strange. M-OEE8 is CO2�s primary staging system; freeporting it leaves their assets extremely vulnerable. Conversely, M-OEE8 is CO2�s designated Capital System, and any such system enjoys 33% of the maximum ADM handed to it for free. Destroying the IHUB in this system only has a moderate effect on its defensibility as a result; mining and ratting contributions to the system�s ADM were nil. Yet, more than 60 alliances showed up to M-O�s theatre to contest one of the least important timers in the war.

The choice of tactics for the IHUB contest were also strange. Dogpiling 3000 people into one unreinforced system is a poor tactic for winning a sovereignty contest; nodes spawn in systems across the constellation battlespace and creating a gigantic fuckfest from which no one can escape is stupid, at best. This also makes their triage capitals a poor choice for hackers; one such triage carrier was rapidly evaporated by the 125 man machariel fleet that skirted along the edges of the Time Dilation tarpit while any potential support was stuck therein. Supercapitals from NCdot remained logged in, and were joined in being logged in by PL�s supercap fleet. Supercapitals can only provide limited support to a node contest, and shoving them into the tarpit would have been extremely risky, with node death already occurring.

CO2, for whatever motivation they had to execute a backstab, chose a very strange time to do it. Positive progress on the node contest had been made; constellation control swung up as high as 70% before the backstab was made public.

After we fit all the pieces together, we come to a horrifying conclusion: the events of March 28th, 2016 were designed to ensnare our entire supercapital fleet and murder it, satisfying vengeance for our victory of B-R5RB. CO2�s suggestion to restage LAWN/Bastion to TVN would have made their ability to contribute to their own defense hampered. CO2�s evac route towers were seeded with interdictors. The plan of the hostiles was simple: tackle LAWN/Bastion supers along CO2�s route, to bait a response from our supercapitals, including support from CO2. Once we bit on the bait, CO2 would log in dictors, bubble our fleet, switch sides, and slaughter our supercapital forces along with NCdot and PL. However, this tactic did not come to pass; the Miracle of ~~Dunkirk~~kcolor, and an IRL meeting by Dear Leader The Mittani with LAWN/Bastion leadership in San Diego, on what was a completely unrelated social call convinced them to reject the TVN staging plan in favor of ceding Vale and evaccing their members to Saranen along a route counter to CO2�s suggestion. The cost of this betrayal could have been much, much worse -- not only would we be down one region, but we�d have no supercapital fleet. The strange peacocking behavior in the M-O IHUB fight was an attempt to salvage the earlier lost opportunity; again, we failed to bite on the bait.

This brings us to today. Even now, as of this writing, hostiles are rallying to strike into our remaining Tribute holdings and increase pressure in our inner holdings. We are on the back foot and poo poo hasn�t been this real since Darius JOHNSON called for the abandonment of the southeast to strike Band of Brothers in Delve. I, Querns, author of this post, have stood up once more to be counted amongst the defenders. Won�t you join me?

Gwyneth Palpate fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Apr 1, 2016

# ? Mar 30, 2016 20:43