Era of suicide ganking in EVE Online coming to a close
CCP Games has addressed the long-standing problem of suicide ganking in EVE Online in their latest dev blog, titled "Serious Security." CCP Fear stepped up to inform the player base that, yes, the devs do take the issue of suicide ganking seriously, and that they're going to take action. The proposed changes, outlined below, are not going into effect immediately, nor do they impact actions taken as part of Empire war declarations. However, they will be implemented with the next major update to EVE, which will be Empyrean Age 1.1, rolling out this Fall. The dev blog focuses on CONCORD improvements and the increased consequences of suicide ganks.
CCP Fear states: "We have been looking at suicide ganking and overall security standing issues, and how these features affect the general landscape of EVE. We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative 'no hassle' it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance to escape, nor any help from CONCORD. We want to change this."
Essentially, CONCORD has been spending far too much time at the doughnut shop while ignoring the screams of dying miners and freighters throughout New Eden's high security solar systems. Those days will soon be over. CONCORD will get buffed with a faster response time in Empyrean Age 1.1 and will lay the smack down on suicide gankers in groups of three. Two frigates will (near) instantly lock and tackle an aggressor, allowing the third ship, a battleship, to annihilate the criminal.
CCP Fear also states that the relative ease of regaining lost standings from Empire suicide ganks is not in line with CCP's intentions for EVE, and that's about to change too. Security penalties for ganking in high security space will be more severe, largely eliminating 'casual' highsec ganks. In other words, killing someone in high security space may still be possible, but the attacker will need to suffer to do so.
While the stated changes are already significant, CCP Fear also added that the differential between an attacker's and a victim's standings will impact the penalties taken. In other words, if the victim has high standings while the attacker's standings are low, the attacker will suffer an increased penalty.
For all of the suicide gankers out there, there's some more bad news... CCP Fear says, "The highly requested feature of removal of insurance in CONCORD related events will be implemented in the near future." Carebears throughout New Eden may feel the urge to rejoice at these changes, but keep in mind that none of this is set in stone just yet. A team of CCP employees -- known as 'Taskforce Doughnut' -- will be looking into the current proposed changes related to highsec ganking, leading up to Empyrean Age 1.1.
If the proposed changes are implemented, it stands to reduce risk for highsec dwellers, impose severe consequences for highsec suicide gankers, and limit most ganking to lowsec and 0.0. How do you feel about these changes? If you're on the wrong side of the law, is this going to seriously affect your gameplay? And for those who reside in highsec, do you think CCP Games is handling the situation properly?
