wormhole-heist
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EVE Evolved: Temporarily fixing starbases
With its exploration-focused Odyssey expansion on the way, EVE Online is about to be hit with a deluge of players (new and old) venturing into the unknown. The expansion will introduce the yet-to-be-revealed Discovery Scanner and will add a ton of new exploration content all across New Eden. Odyssey aims to follow the lead of 2009's Apocrypha expansion, which saw hundreds of corporations lead lucrative expeditions into uncharted wormhole systems. We don't yet know whether the expansion will open new systems for exploration, but when Odyssey goes live, the race will be on to find and lay claim to all the goodies hidden in deep space. With no stations to dock at in wormhole space, corps currently have to store everything in destructible starbases that aren't really up to the task. Player-owned starbases were released in 2004 as sandbox-style tools for tech 2 industry and alliance territorial warfare. They were never intended to be the sole base of operations for an entire corporation, so they suffer from some pretty severe security and usability flaws as a result. Theft from ship and item hangars in wormhole space is commonplace, setting up corp roles for them is a nightmare, and living exclusively in a starbase provides a daily dose of frustration players could seriously do without. CCP has been planning to completely overhaul player-owned starbases for years, but some of today's issues can't afford to wait any longer. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the chronic problems faced by starbase-dwelling explorers and how CCP plans to temporarily fix some of them for Odyssey.
EVE Evolved: The great wormhole heist, part 2
One of the most common things I hear from people who don't play EVE Online is that they don't like the game itself but they absolutely love the stories that come out of it. There's something inherently brutal and visceral about the stories players act out every day in EVE's colossal sandbox. Tales of high-profile thefts and political intrigue occasionally creep into the media and grab our attention, but stories of that sort are a lot more common than you'd think. Last year, we told one such story of a player's descent into criminality and revenge taken too far. In last week's EVE Evolved, I began to tell the true tale of that same player in one of his biggest heists to date. If you haven't read the first part of this story yet, head back to last week's EVE Evolved before reading on. A matter of time Having discovered an opportunity for theft much greater than expected, Scott recognised that he would need help to pull off a successful heist. With the wormhole corporation's assets within Scott's reach, a sense of urgency began to overtake him. Based on discussions with his new corp members, he knew that the group's wormhole tenancy had just begun and that they were still in the process of clearing the starbase up following a frantic move-in. This explained the secure containers littering space -- a temporary measure to be used until an adequate hangar permission scheme could be created. In this week's conclusion of the story of the great wormhole heist, Scott discovers allies in some unexpected places and finds out first-hand whether there really is no honour amongst thieves.
EVE Evolved: The great wormhole heist, part 1
Several years ago, EVE Online's Community Manager CCP Wrangler made a statement that I felt really crystalised the sentiment behind the game. He said that "EVE isn't designed to just look like a cold, dark and harsh world; it's designed to be a cold, dark and harsh world." Although most of us are content to indulge ourselves in PvP, market games and other traditional modes of gameplay, a criminal underworld runs beneath that innocuous surface. A significant few carve their own illicit destinies from the void, stealing and cheating their way to the top. Whether these space-faring cyber-criminals are in it for fame and riches, political influence, or their own personal goals, the stories of their actions in EVE's colossal sandbox never fail to grip us. High-profile thefts like the Guiding Hand Social Club heist of 2005, the closure of EBank, and last year's Titans4U scandal have been made very public, and smaller-scale crimes occur every day in New Eden. Last year, we brought you the true tale of one player's revenge taken too far -- a story of corporate infiltration, social deception and utter destruction. Although this was Scott's first foray into criminality, it was most certainly not his last. The events in this week's story are true, but the names of the players and corporations involved have been changed. In this week's EVE Evolved, Scott returns as I begin to tell the true story of his huge wormhole heist.
