New EVE exploit gives wormhole corp incredible advantage
A potentially game-breaking new exploit was revealed tonight in EVE Online. The exploit was first noticed by Rooks and Kings pilots during their invasion of populated wormhole systems. Their target, a corp named Aperture Harmonics, appeared to have almost game-breaking abilities. The corporation's ships were somehow able to successfully hit their targets from over 150km away using short-range weapons like blasters and autocannons. Since short-range weapons with short-range ammo deal massive damage, being able to hit with them at distances beyond a few thousand metres is potentially game-breaking.
Aperture Harmonics and its parent alliance K162 have both maintained a strong presence in EVE's 2500 hidden star systems since the appearance of wormholes over a year ago. The corp has become incredibly wealthy by running the difficult exploration content in these hidden systems, but it was always assumed that the tactics Aperture Harmonics pilots used were entirely legitimate. Whereas other corps tackle high-end Sleeper sites with complex logistics and electronic warfare strategies, the Aperture Harmonics pilots may simply have been cheating to run the sites in an almost impossibly short time.
In a post over at the Scrapheap Challenge forums, EVE player Lord Maldoror spilled the beans tonight on the mechanics behind this terrible exploit. Thankfully, most of us can play safely in the knowledge that we won't be getting shot by pilots abusing this exploit. It turns out that it only works in hidden wormhole systems with a "magnetar" anomaly -- a background effect which reduces the tracking speed and optimal range of all ships in the system. Using a combination of the magnetar's penalty and targeted tracking disruptors, the Aperture Harmonics pilots were able to get their tracking speed and optimal range to become a negative value.
The server interprets this negative number as an incredibly big positive value, allowing the exploiting ships to successfully gain incredible tracking speed and optimal range. A screenshot was taken as proof of the exploit in action, which shows an enemy ship hitting from over 150km away using short-range 425mm autocannons. Although this exploit only works in wormhole systems with a magnetar anomaly, it has serious implications for those players who have been abusing the bug to gain wealth for potentially over a year. When the ban-hammer falls, those players are sure to be hit hard.
