The Torment of Sisyphus

It is said there is no recourse for the scourge of botters. Botters in EVE will thwart the most cunning devices used to stop their nefarious activity.

And yet, in the panoply of human misery that we so freely inflict upon one another there are things we can do, that CCP can do, to make the botting experience a bitterly frustrating one.

1. At random intervals, set the bot account’s SP amount to 0. They can now no longer fly any ship. No more botting.

2. At random intervals, set the wallet to 0 ISK. They can no longer afford to buy anything. No more botting.

3. At random intervals, remove injected skill books. Using skill injectors will no longer work. No more botting.

4. At random intervals, remove all the ships in their inventory.

5. When an account is flagged as a known botting account, revisit them on a more regular basis and see whether their values have gone up again so that they can resume their illicit activities? And set them back to 0.

“But,” I hear you say, “they can just buy PLEX for their account, buy skill books, buy skill injectors, buy/make new ships, and carry on.”

To which the answer is: how many times will they do that until that sum goes to zero? At what point does it become so much of a pain in the nether regions that it’s no longer worth the effort? How many times would someone sit there and click through the interface, giving CCP more of their money to purchase the PLEX to be able to carry on their illegal activities?

The point is pain. The point is frustration. Not because we want that for them but because we want to protect and preserve that wonderful universe for the people who genuinely want to engage with it, warts and all.

When the pain of botting becomes more than the pleasure derived from it, the botting activity will stop.

The Elysian minds in fair and far Reykjavik would be able to devise a cinematic that is displayed where the botting account is directly confronted with the proof of their activity, and where punishment is meted out in a swift and certain manner.

The message would borrow from the lessons of the Sisters of the Bene Gesserit, of Frank Herbert’s Dune fame, whereby the announcement of the impending punishment is in itself a punishment. “We are aware of your activity, you know it is illegal. We will always protect ourselves against the likes of you. We are looking out for you. We will be watching you. We will never relent. You will never win.”

There is no greater punishment than despair. It should be meted out with great eagerness and enthusiasm and in copious amounts. CCP wanted EVE Online to be a bleak and dark land where pain is part of the experience. Botting accounts seem like the natural target to feel the impact of the most exquisite Hobbesian hellhole in the realm of digital entertainment. 

I do not believe in the invincibility of botters. It only depends on what CCP is prepared to do to protect us from these evil ne’er do-wells. If the punishment is factored in and considered to be ‘the cost of doing business', then it’s not an effective punishment. An effective punishment is providing a disincentive to the activity that needs to stop. The fact that this is an unpleasant experience for the perpetrator is a key factor of the punishment process.

Celebrations

A weapon will be created. It is a DoomsDay weapon called Santa’s Secret Super Soaker.

It loads a gigantic snowball that when fired, literally, explodes into a million little snowballs. This ammunition is distributed at the behest of CCP for the abundant expression of the joy of life itself. Call it: Snowflake Surprise.

For 1 PLEX a specialty munition can be had that explodes into a cascade that shows the outline of all the ships of the faction the titan is a part of. Call it: Trooping The Colour.

For 5 PLEX a specialty munition can be had that explodes into a cascade that shows the outline of all the ships in EVE in a dazzling array of sparkling colours. Call it: One Big Happy Family.

For 10 PLEX a specialty munition can be had that explodes into the contours of the face of the capsuleer firing the weapon. Call it: Self Portrait.

For 100 PLEX a specialty munition can be had that displays the contours of the faces of all the capsuleers in the corporation. Call it: Home Team Advantage.  

Why? Because: immersion, baby. Zest for life. Bragging rights, representation, making a statement. It’s EVE Online, live a little!

A Winning Proposition

We cannot have an alliance tournament.

Or, so I’m told.

CCP does not want to organise them, it takes too much man power.

The player community doesn’t want to engage, it consumes too much time and effort.

No human endeavour faces more adversity than the one humans do not want to engage with. The arrow bends to the negative and nothing happens. It’s as simple as that.

Yet, on the face of it, an alliance tournament, and certainly single or (small) fleet engagements as an eSport, would seem like a no-brainer.

The important question is: why would we even want to do that? Because, dear friends, this is the era of gaming. This is the era of eSports. 

People are already becoming professionals in team-driven games. EVE Online is just about the most natural environment for such eSport to emerge from. We have to build nothing new in the way of ships and fittings. 

CCP already have experience with gaming on a global scale. 

More and more people engage with games and are enticed by the possibilities games afford to enjoy them and to make a name for themselves.

There is an enormous potential for this to be a major revenue driver for CCP.

What would we need in the way of resources:

1. The blessing of CCP, without which no amount of dreaming will come to fruition.
2. A dedicated cluster, but not of the entire New Eden universe. One region should be ample to host all the engagements we require. If the phenomenon takes off on a scale we had not expected the amount of available space can be expanded to meet our requirements.
3. The panoply of ships, fittings and ammunitions that are the basic requirement to even have these engagements. All of which exist already.
4. A dedicated interface to clearly distinguish from the normal New Eden environment we know and love. I have some ideas how that could be made to look. My visions are as nothing to what the Elysian minds in fair and far Reykjavik would conjure up to make that the gorgeous dance of light and delight to invite us to engage.
5. A call to arms to have those among us who are of that persuasion to engage on a larger scale and at the same time, to invite people not of our ken to meet the wonderful universe of New Eden and see if their efforts meet those of our most talented theory crafters.
6. We will want to design types of engagements to be a challenge on different levels, much like what happens now in the Proving Grounds.

What is the upside?

We build a world class eSport that resonates with millions of players who will make their own path, build their own reputation.

We make EVE Online a household name in the world of gaming as the home of massive multiplayer eSport tournaments.

There is an almost limitless potential for additional revenue for CCP to be made building non-pay-to-win (this point cannot possibly be made strongly enough) assets that can be had for PLEX. Including, but not limited to:

- Team / Alliance ship SKINs

- Team / Alliance uniforms

- Medals “Give me enough medals and I'll win you any war” [Napoleon Bonaparte]

- Trophies

- 3D models

Any number of items that enrich and enhance the experience for the players so involved. As an example: 

Wargaming.net in their World of Tanks franchise have created an enormously lucrative business model selling electronic products. I am not blind to the risk of this being taken too far, specifically with the non-pay-to-win features. 

At the same time there is no reason why CCP should not benefit from making their IP available in the form of an eSport that entices people who are not familiar with EVE Online as a worldclass MMO to get to know it better and maybe join our ranks.

What is the downside?

You tell me.

Burial Rites

  The Kronos came to rest in its berth in the station’s humongous space dock, the hull thawing in the pressurised atmosphere. Siddartha stood in the open airlock, having just decanted from his pod and made his ablutions, breathing deeply to take in the smell of space. It smelled a bit like steak. Just a tiny fraction, a hint of fragrance. Space couldn’t really smell like anything of course, there were not enough particles about that would afford space a smell. He had noticed the smell depended on what ship he was flying. The consensus is that it is the smell of components extracted from the metals in the ship that make it seem as if space has a smell.

His ship was hovering over the dock, illuminated from all sides by the glaring lights of the docking berth. Even now, as the ship was attuning itself to pressurised atmosphere, alll manner of crew and dock hands were opening various ports and cavities, to service the ship, to remove its cargo and to replenish consumables. You could tell a lot about how a station was run by the way the dock hands handled their duties. These were quiet, efficient and focused. They had established an almost effortless rapport with the crew to discuss and divide the duties each was going to perform. Siddartha was pleased with the no-nonsense attitude of the station crew. Their movement on and around the ship had more of a strictly orchestrated choreography. They clearly knew their way around his ship. Many pilots docked in this station using all manner of ships, they would have had ample opportunity to hone their skills on the multitude of hulls that came in for service.

In the cavity of the dock, the tools and machines that took care of the heavy lifting of equipment and cargo had their own kind of rhythm. Siddartha closed his eyes to allow the din of the space dock to bring forth its own music. It didn’t take long for a attern to establish itself. The drum of the hydraulics being recalibrated, the hiss of the consumables being recycled, the occasional thump when some object hit a larger object, the occasional shout as a chorus. To the uninitiated this was mayhem, chaos. To him it was the living, breathing heart of New Eden, an expression of the essence of what it meant to be a capsuleer. It was why he did what he did.

“Excuse me, sir?”

His train of thought was interrupted by the foreman whose team was working on his ship.

“What do you need?”

“Status update, sir. We want to know how you want the ship conditioned.”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“Were you planning to reship this visit, sir?”

“I might, I’m waiting on confirmation. I still want her to be ready for action.”

“Thank you, sir.” He checked off a line on his touchpad. 

“We have updated all your consumables. Your crew was going to handle loading ammunitions from your corporate hangar. Did you want to swap weapons or modules?”

“No, I’ll take this configuration.”

“Alright.” Another tick. “Some of your modules were overheated and 3 drones show extensive damage. Do you want those damages repaired?”

“Yes. Obviously, how do you think I’m going to survive the next scrap with faulty equipment?”

“It’s an item on the list, sir.” The foreman switched the context of his screen and made adjustments. Right away some claxons sounded, notifying the crew repairs were going to be made to the ship and its drones. The crew dispersed, one man barely got out of the way in time for the automated sequence to start. The foreman made a note to call in the crew member for further training.

“Your cargohold has some valuables and common items. How would you like them to be handled?”

“I will put the valuables on the market, the common stuff will go to the corporate hangar to serve as equipment for ad hoc fleets that need to put together a working fit for non-essential operations.”

“Perfect, sir.” Another check.

“Your hold also, ahm, contains other cargo that we are not properly equipped to deal with, I’m afraid.”

Siddartha smiled. He had been waiting for it.

“We found what appear to be four capsuleer corpses.”

“That would be correct.”

“How would you like them to be handled, sir?”

“You don’t have to worry about those. I will take care of it.”

The foreman refused to display his discomfort by heaving a sigh of relief for not having to handle corpses. You never knew why the capsuleer types do the things they do. You don’t want to give them the satisfaction of showing they got to you.

“Thank you very much for your time, sir. Did you have any other questions or requirements?”

“Is this station capable of fitting SKINs?”

The foreman tried hard not to be indignant.

“Of course, sir. Our station can handle any SKIN available to you for whichever ship you choose to fly.”

“I thought as much. Do me a favor and fit this ship with the Biosecurity Responders SKIN, please.”

“Of course, sir. When the repair cycle has completed we’ll fit your ship with the SKIN.” He marked the requested procedure on his tablet.

“Thanks. I appreciate it. That will be all.”

The foreman nodded curtly and joined his team to handle the rest of the pilot’s requirements.

Siddartha made his way to his hold. The crew was busy finishing the transfer of goods. The four tanks holding the corpses had been left untouched. This was one cargo he never had to fear somebody would make off with.

One by one he opened the tanks to allow each corpse to thaw out. As soon as they were able to be handled he started working on them. He closed the eyelids of those who had been taken with their eyes open. He disengaged the connectors that were still attached to the body. He removed any clothing on the corpse and respectfully performed ablutions, straightening out the limbs and closing any wounds caused by the impact of the rending metal as the capsule disintegrated under incoming fire.

Siddartha performed these duties without haste, in great serenity. Soft music was playing in the background. He does not believe in the super natural. The universe as it presents itself is enough of a profound mystery on its own without having to invent stories about it. However, not even today, in this era of advanced knowledge, was humanity capable of saying it knew everything there is to know about the universe. On that off-chance that his perception was wrong about that, and if there was anything left of the essence that had animated these bodies while still alive, he did not want to deprive them of an opportunity to experience what little comfort he was still able to provide. And thus he played music. If not to soothe his own soul then perhaps those of these recently departed now under his care.

When he had completed the procedure he placed each body in a stasis container. He called for his crew to come and collect them. A junior aide looked at the containers with morbid fascination. Although she had been warned never to address or question a capsuleer, much less ask them why they do the things they do her mouth was faster than her mind could silence her.

“I’m sorry, sir. These corpses, they are the pod pilots that died during our recent engagement?”

Siddartha was too focused on his duties to be annoyed by the question.

“Yes. What of it?”

“I’m not sure why you would destroy their capsule and then collect their corpses and prepare them for their funeral? It seems odd somehow.”

“What is your name?”

“I’m Natalie, sir.”

“For whatever reason we entered into the engagement that ended up with them dying, Natalie, they are capsuleers. However we may think or feel about them, whatever our political inclination is, they are, for better of for worse, my kind, my people and therefore worthy to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. These bodies, each of them are vessels that souls once passed through. I feel… compelled to treat them how I would like to be treated myself. Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, sir. It does. Thank you.”

“Alright. Please transfer these to my Obolus. These 4 will fill out its cargo hold and I will need to make a trip soon.”

Without a further word the crew moved the containers carrying the bodies out of the hold, to transfer them to the Obolus.

Siddartha opened a communications channel that his alliance would find deeply problematic if they knew about it. He did not spend time making conversation with the party on the other hand. He only made them aware that he was coming, he was friendly and not a threat.

When the four bodies were transferred to the Obolus, Natalie was curious.

“Don’t people get buried by shooting them out of a tube into space in this station?”

“Yeah?”

“So… why are these not loaded into a tube? It looks like the pilot is taking them somehwere?”

The oldest crew member shook his head wearily.

“There’s so much you don’t know about how this universe works. Look at this thing. It’s small, it’s got no weapons. It’s just got a hold to store one specific cargo into it. Where do you think this is going?”

“I honestly have no clue. Launch them into space himself, by way of a burial rite? You know, out of deference to his fellow capsuleers?”

The three other crew members burst out laughing.

“It’s a great crock of shit, that. We see him do this regularly. He doesn’t care about his fellow capsuleers, what nonsense. He’s in it for the ISK. This is not a celestial hearse to carry these corpses to the stars. He’s not burying them, he’s selling them to the Drifters.”

=====

Important note: This story was inspired by the line “each of them are vessels that souls once passed through” which Natalie provided.

 

Obolus

 

December 31 2015 at 1:29 AM

A new ship will be constructed. This ship is frigate / cruiser-sized and holds stasis containment pods [6 to 8]. It will be called Obolus or Danake, after the coin paid to Charon for the trip to the afterlife across the river Styx.

The containment pods hold corpses harvested from space.

The corpses are sold by means of a market system to the Drifters or their faction. The Drifters use the corpses for their own purposes.

Incidental implants found on the corpses are recuperated intact because the Drifters cannot use them and return them as unwanted spoil. It is important to understand that only the Drifters can remove the implants from corpses.

Because the Drifters are a new factor in the sandbox, it stands to reason capsuleers will want to explore opportunities to interact with this new faction. Drifters are known to harvest corpses they repurpose for their own ends. Capsuleers want an opportunity to explore an emerging market for a new kind of commodity.

Thoughts?

Jewels of Jita

The EVE Online store will be enriched with a range of vanity items in the shape of jewellery that reflects the magic and wonder of the New Eden experience expressed in rare stones and precious metals.

This collection may contain but is not limited to:

1. The Pod Pilot Pendant: 24 carat gold, the universally recognisable shape in all of New Eden. A ship that is the very essence of what it means to be a capsuleer
2. The Outer Ring: an Onyx-Ruby ring with all the names of the systems of Outer Ring carved into it
3. The 47 Virgins: a head piece made of silver, with 47 pearls, representing the 47 jumps it now takes to travel from Jita to Amarr
4. The Giant Secure Container: a stainless steel pendant in the shape of the iconic container that can be anchored in space. It has a lock to safely store the picture of your loved one, a lock of their hair, a thumb drive storing all your secrets
5. The Warp Core Stabiliser: a platinum set of earrings to remind you that you can just leave whenever you want to
6. The Cynosaural Field Generator: A cobalt blue circle captured in a golden ring; if worn as a head piece, to indicate that you are friendly and open to conversation; if worn as a necklace, to indicate that you are commemorating a loved one lost, sending out a signal to guide them home
7. The Friendship Fleet: a necklace in the form of a chain consisting of a plethora of miniature ships of all factions to indicate that no matter what you fly or who you fly with, the friendship is always the best ship to fly in
8. The Permaband: a four-ring diamond-encrusted outline of the new Jita Caldari Naval Assembly Plant model for naked, unabashed, in-your-face bragging about how much of a badass pod pilot you are
9. Caroline’s Star: a rectangle pendant in white gold with rounded corners, depicting Caroline’s Star. Subtle, delicate, bespeaking a desire to travel to undiscovered, strange and wondrous places
10. Gjallarhorn: an ornate ear piece, gold and titanium, with ostentatious gold and silver elements, supporting the Horn of the Gods that dangles beneath them. You are a titan pilot and want people to know you only fly serious ships
11. Head In A Jar: a silver necklace with a head, suspended in fluid, in a clear jar. You are not afraid of the weird people in New Eden. You ARE one of the weird people in New Eden
12. The Needlejack: a platinum / gold / ruby pendant. For when you’re in the mood for the unknown. Interested parties may touch it, indicating they are looking for an adventure, wherever fancy may take it. If the interest is reciprocated you hang the pendant around their neck. Whatever happens next is both your responsibility. The pendant is recovered when you get dressed/straighten your clothes afterwards, ready to leave. The party receiving the pendant shall not assume it to be a permanent gift

Other people, better versed in the design and creation of jewellery, will have their own ideas on how to give shape to this concept and their input is greatly sought after and very welcome.

Trooping The Color

With the advent of the new form factor of super capital ships, created by the Elysian minds in far and fair Reykjavik, a new feature becomes available that corporations and alliances may want to explore for greater immersion.

These ships have holographic displays. How easy/hard would it be to use these displays to carry the corporate / alliance insignia. Within alliances it might even be possible to display unit badges for the battlegroup one is a member of.

This kind of display would greatly enhance immersion, more so for people who have served in actual combat units and for whom a battle standard is a fond and proud memory.

A mechanism would be made available through which these insignia would be designed and provided to the developers so that they could be acquired by the alliance / corporation / pilot (specific rights would have to be assigned so that one group does not use a battle standard from another alliance / corporation). The developers would find an elegant solution to that problem.

Purchasing such an insignia / battle standard would come at its own cost and might serve as an ISK sink.

At any rate the goal would be to increase immersion, build social cohesion inside corporations and alliances, and make this phantasmagorically beautiful game even more of a delight to enjoy.

Thoughts?

Museum

January 5 2016 at 8:38 PM 

This piece was written on the ’Typed’ blogging platform before it was taken down. Its relevance has not diminished which is why I repost it here.

A structure will be created, it will allow pilots to peruse the wonderful screenshots that have been taken throughout the years, from the comfort of their own space ship.

It could be a museum that acts like a Captain's Quarters where more than one person could be present. No shenanigans of any kind would be allowed, it would just be too much temptation. EVE pilots cannot resist temptation.

It might be a deadspace pocket, or several, where a 'hanging garden' of pictures is displayed. Much like the iconic titan in Luminaire was a tourist attraction, so would this / these place[s] be a centre of attraction for anyone who is interested in the living history of the work of art we help create every day.

Screen shots can be displayed as screen-filling artistic splendour. At that time the interface is hidden from view so as to allow the visitor to engross themselves in the mesmerising beauty of the greater New Eden demesne. 

CCP has the quality of people to make that expression look beguilingly beautiful, there is no doubt people would flock to it just to admire the thrill and beauty of all that came before.

The location[s] where the museum[s] are located are not safe space. There is no safe space. It is EVE Online, it is not My Friendly Pony Land.

Thoughts?

IN MEMORIAM

The years will acquire seasons.

One of these seasons will be for remembrance. A moment where we think back to the loved ones we lost.

We might find ourselves in Molea system, where we suspended a can above the capsuleer monument. It would be pleasing to have a means to pay tribute to our lost friend.

The memorial could display a kiosk. Into that interface we would enter the name of the pilot we wish to commemorate, together with a caption. For the price of a single PLEX a giant billboard would display the features of our beloved friend together with the caption. Multiple such billboards could be displayed simultaneously.

To make sure the image would be preserved, if such is required, a one-time registration, for 100 PLEX (or whatever the Elysian minds in far and fair Reykjavik deem fair and appropriate) could be deposited so that it could reside in a database for easy and convenient long-term retrieval.

For one additional PLEX the billboard could be enlivened by fireworks in honour of the dearly departed.

This would serve to enhance immersion, to honour our fallen comrades and friends, but most of all, to anchor within our souls the idea that EVE is real, it is our home among the stars and we all share a place within it.

Thoughts?

 

Mausoleum

Mausoleum

January 22 2016 at 1:51 AM Idea

A structure will be built. This is a mausoleum, a monument to our fallen brothers and sisters. The friendly geniuses in fair and far Reykjavik will find the proper expression of that idea. It will ideally provide for a couple of animated ways to salute a portrait of our fallen comrades.

New Eden should not be about 'safe space'. However, this is a place of reflection, it provides a space to contemplate our beloved friends, our respected enemies of yore whom we had the pleasure of flying with, whom we had the joy of fighting with in New Eden's open skies.

As a nod to the idea of risk versus reward, the place could be in a more difficult to access location, say: the original EVE Gate, such that the way towards it would be perilous, with a chance to salute our fallen friends in peace the reward for making the journey.

It is a way to increase immersion, it makes EVE that much more real, it anchors New Eden as the third place it has become in our lives. It is the last safe haven for the lost souls who are out of reach of the cynosaural field to guide them home. It is only fitting and proper that this place should be built.

To all our friends whom we have lost through the years: fly safe always.

o7

Thoughts?

== 0 ==

I went through a stack of old posts I salvaged from my first blog on the discontinued ’Typed’ service and came across this one.

CCP have now recently erected the most beautiful monument to our fallen fellow capsuleers. A very moving tribute. The capsule atop the monument seems superfluous when the basaltic rock formations, hello Iceland!, holding the lit cyno, is poignant enough as a message: we’ve lost one of our own and lighting a cyno to guide them home.

Vanity would have preferred this small post to be the inspiration for this wonderful monument but I’m pretty sure nobody else even saw the post in the first place. It’s also not a revolutionary idea, we have built commemorative structures for our dead since time immemorial.

It’s a great addition to New Eden, it is a quiet statement of support and condolence and it is executed in the grand and gorgeous style of the house. Count on CCP to do the graphics well for any occasion.

To all our fallen friends, with my heartfelt thanks for sharing this wonderful dream.

o7

    

Handcrafted

A new mini game will be introduced into the New Eden environment.

This mini game consists of a chain of missions the pod pilot can engage in. After the chain has been successfully completed the pilot receives the empty hull of a ship, it can be any size, together with a container that holds all the parts that make up the ship.

Combined with an actual blue print, the pilot then has the opportunity to assemble the parts into a working space craft.

There are a few things to keep in mind:

- So long as the parts are being assembled they can be rearranged

- There is no feedback to indicate a particular part has been improperly installed

- When the pilot is confident they have followed the instructions properly, they can lock the parts in place

- Once the parts are locked in place the configuration is considered to be completed and this process cannot be undone

- When the parts are installed and locked, a button ‘Startup’ will become available

- When the ship was properly assembled, the ship will boot up in a graphically pleasing way (nobody has to teach the Elysian minds in fair and far Reykjavík how to do that), the genius in the sound studio will give that a proper expression

- The ship is now a fully-functioning space craft, subject to all the circumstances that apply to any other ship

- When the ship is improperly assembled, the startup sequence will go through its cycle but the crunching of metal parts and/or distressed electronic sounds will indicate something went wrong

- When something went wrong, the ship is now disabled and cannot be repaired. The timer that started when the ship was booted up will act as the countdown timer for a container in space. Although the ship can be salvaged, when that is not done in two hours, the ship will disappear from space

The pilot will need the skills required to fly the ship. It is not a surprise what the ship will be. The assembled ship only produces the working hull of a ship, it does not come with weapons, ammunition, modules or rigs.

The process of assembling the ship and starting it up occurs in a dead space pocket. This pocket can be accessed or scanned down and is subject to the usual rigours any New Eden capsuleer endures during operations in space. There are no freebies in New Eden. A ship can and will at some point be stolen ‘after all that hard work’.

Some people love completing puzzles and this is a means to provide that experience to anyone inclined to complete a puzzle and fly away from the experience with an actual space frame they assembled. It adds intrigue, excitement, risk, reward and immersion in the best MMO in the known universe.

Thoughts?

Sovereignty

There exists in New Eden an injustice. That is hardly going to be a controversial statement because injustices are perceived in every nook and cranny of this vast universe and most people have their own interpretations for what the word encompasses.

This injustice however impacts all pilots alike. And yet, it will gather exceedingly little support.

This is the injustice: the pilot is not the sovereign master of their ship.

How is that? When they initiate the self-destruct mechanism of their ship, they cannot choose to detonate the charges immediately and they have to wait 2 minutes. 2 Minutes in a fire fight is an interminable amount of time.

Why is that important? A pilot might choose to deny their assailant a kill mail resulting from the destruction of their ship and/or their pod. A self-destruct sequence that triggers the destruction of the ship immediately before any hostile fire lands, would deny them a kill mail.

Consider the following: any pilot in space may be attacked anywhere, at any time, by any party, for any reason. Their ship is subject to destruction. The ship is, typically, not returned. The loss is permanent. The pilot suffers the real consequence of existing in New Eden’s space. It is not this author’s opinion, nor should it be so construed, to deny anyone the opportunity to engage with any other pilot for their own purposes. Life in New Eden is harsh and brutal and losses can be exceedingly costly, this is how life presents itself to the average pod pilot. The victim bears the brunt of that loss. The loss may or may not have strategic consequences, depending on who was engaged, when, where, why and how.

What it boils down to is that pilots are subject to the play style of other pilots who choose this kind of engagement. And they should never be discouraged from doing so.

However, and here is the crux of the argument: nobody should inflict their play style on anyone else without there being a consequence. In this case: denying an assailant a kill mail. It would be just as important to deny an assailant (here intended to be read as: one or more people engaging in non-consensual combat) a kill mail as it is for the assailant to acquire one. For precisely the same reason.

Why is it the victim’s place to only suffer all the downside of the engagement without an opportunity to fight back even in a mostly abstract way? An insta-pop self-destruct would allow the pilot to have the last remaining moment of control over their own ship: the ability to destroy it instantaneously and to deny the assailant the prize of the ‘honour' of having killed the ship and receiving a report card for it.

Lest it needs to be pointed out: the pilot performing the self-destruct sequence is not winning anything. Rather, they lose their entire ship, fitting and the content of the hold. And, maybe even their capsule. Hardly an occasion to triumphantly rejoice.

It would be trivial for the makers of all this phantasmagorical beauty to reconfigure the self-destruct mechanism such that the pilot could choose to self-destruct immediately, thereby denying an assailant a kill mail.

By making this exceedingly small change to the environment, the pod pilot can be granted the ultimate in self-governance: the ability to destroy it instantaneously and in this way to ‘fight back’ against their assailant by denying them their prize. In so doing an injustice would be rectified and the capsuleer would gain the ultimate sovereignty over their own ship.

Home

Capsuleers will be able to build a home for themselves among the stars.

The home will come in the form of a pocket of space, quite similar to the Triglavian Abyssal deadspace pockets.

The home will be accessible by a key, similar to the one that gives access to a Triglavian Abyssal deadspace pocket.

The home will be player-built and will consist of components that can be bought and sold on the market, or for which BPOs will be made available.

The home has no pay-to-win features. However, it will have many creature comforts, among which:

- memorable screen shots commemorating significant events in a pod pilot’s life

- a dressing room where the various pieces of attire can be worn and admired

- military uniforms for Faction Warfare pilots with their ranks insignia

- Corporate / Alliance uniforms with the pilot’s medals

- a display case that has all the pilot’s medals in it (the medal interface will receive some tender loving care so as to do the idea justice

- a display room where the corpses of fallen enemies can be admired

- a display room where fallen brothers-in-arms can be remembered

- a space to display the avatar of one of our beloved friends who left us too soon

- a 3D display of our favourite ship

- the home can serve as a backdrop for those among us who are active in the Twitch (or other similar service) environment

The home structure will have a race-dependent architecture, and the various components will determine its geometry.

The home is not intended to be attacked, since that would place an undue burden on the pilot to keep defending it, which cannot be a winning proposition.

However, the home is not free. Resources have to be arranged such that it can keep being ‘active’ and accessible. The pilot would be required to supply fuel to maintain the home. If the supply of resources lapses, the home will go into a ‘maintenance mode’ where all components persist but are no longer active. The home can be reactivated using a specific procedure that will cost significant resources. Proper balancing will be required.

Every component in the home is sourced from the New Eden environment and will require appropriate logistics efforts to provide for and maintain.

Corporations and alliances cannot build a home, they have access to structures in space. These structures in space (Astrahus, Fortizar, Keepstar) may be retrofitted such that they can be fitted with similar features as in a home, for the purpose of securing a home for the corporation / alliance.

Pilots who build a home will acquire an official address where people can send items to. The Interbus service would acquire an interface that people can use to send packages, like a mail service. It is not the intention that this serves to send materials and components to maintain structures that currently require logistics operations, it cannot be a way to circumvent the risk of running these operations as they are typically conducted. For instance pilot A could send non-strategic products to a friend’s home to help them build components of the structure once the address had been established.

The main purpose for the home is to give the pod pilot in EVE a residence, which they do not have at present. It serves to create immersion and to anchor New Eden as a ‘third place’, a home away from home.

The market will be seeded with products and services pertaining to the maintenance of the home, The New Eden Store can provide products and services that serve to increase immersion. It can be a new revenue stream while at the same time it is not a pay-to-win feature.

Pilots can be ‘at home’ in New Eden. However, when home, they are not able to interact with events in space. Being home will require modules to be ‘active’, which carries a cost of upkeep that can only be properly serviced through direct interaction with the universe.

Pilots are warmly encouraged to suggest added features and functionality to make the home fit their needs better, keeping the aforementioned in mind.

Javelin

A ship will be constructed. It shall be named ‘Javelin’.

The purpose of the Javelin is singular: it is designed to kill super capital ships.

Constructing a Javelin is not a trivial matter, it will take substantial mineral resources and capital components to build one.

The Javelin is a single-use vehicle. It can only lock onto super capital ships.

Its efficacy is determined by the pilot flying the ship. Per skill level applied the chance of a hit increases 5%. It is never 100%. This means that even though the Javelin successfully locks a super capital ship, there is no guarantee that it will hit its target.

However, if it does hit its intended target, it will destroy the ship in one shot. There is no defence against it. A positive hit on the target results in a one-shot kill. The brilliant minds in far and fair Reykjavík will give this an artistically pleasing expression, preferrably an intrusion of the ship’s interior with an explosion from within the core of the ship outward, resulting in total, irrevocable destruction.

The Javelin is, of course, subject to attack and has not extraordinary defences that will prevent its destruction against determined opposition. In that aspect it is exactly like any other ship in New Eden.

The Javelin being single-use, will eject the pilot in a frigate after the Javelin has discharged its main (and only) weapon, just like current battleship pilots can eject from their ship when it is destroyed and continue the engagement in a frigate-sized ship. 

The spent hulk of the Javelin will then be available for salvaging purposes.

It is important to understand that outside of its primary goal, the Javelin has no other uses. It will not have a hardpoint that can accept anything other than its primary weapon. The ship cannot be reconfigured for any other purpose.

War Vault

A ship will be constructed. It looks like a humongous vault, it flies about as elegantly as a bath tub with an elephant in it that you carry down the stairs on your back. It has no weapons but can be fit with shield modules.

The War Vault will be stocked with modules and munitions concomitant with fleet doctrines. For any x number of suitable modules and munitions stored in the War Vault, n amount of suitable ships can be equipped with that doctrine fit. Pilots whose skills are insufficient to use a specific module will, as per usual, see that module be fitted and unavailable.

The War Vault fitting interface will show which doctrine fits are available, how many individual fits are stocked in the War Vault. Pilots will dock their ship, only see the fitting interface and dial the required fit. The fit will be installed instantly after which the pilot can undock. There is limited space to store modules and hold content of the ship that was just fitted.

The War Vault will be able to accept returning ships' doctrine fit and swap out any stored content if applicable.

The War Vault will be able to transport a very large amount of non-assembled ships so that pilots can switch ships and doctrines as required by the fleet commander.

By the very nature of the ship it will be huge and require titan supercapital-class resources to build one. Used properly it will be a force multiplier for well-managed fleets. It will also be a very big target containing strategic alliance-level assets that are vulnerable in space.

A log will be created to see how many pilots accessed the War Vault and which ships and fits they consumed. This will inform corporate / alliance management as to how best to use this resource for optimum use.

Edit: The A Band Apart alliance which hosts the Frigate Free For All initiative, a hugely popular engagement involving thousands of pilots, would benefit from a slight tweak to this design such that the ship would list how many ships of each doctrine were available. A selection of which could be made through an interface toggle that would spit out a ship of the desired specification, if it is still available. Because of the nature of this event, this could easily be used to distribute ships to participating pilots without requiring the need for handing out ships manually through the transaction interface.

It will be necessary and an option available in the interface governing the use of this ship to restrict asset distribution to a list of eligible parties, typically corporation / alliance members, as the case may be.

GALLERY

A structure will be built.

This structure will hold a curated, yes: curated, you know full-well why! set of art created by pilots.

Over the life time of EVE a great deal of art has been created by pilots all across the cluster. Some of these works have become icons.

The structure under discussion would allow pilots who are keen to display their wealth of talent to the wider New Eden constituency.

Each work of art will be presented in a fixed format so that it can be properly admired. If the artist is known they may enter a caption below the piece, naming it and providing context with regards to why, when and how it was created.

A Steam-like interface may be provided such that these works may be 'purchased' as a file that can be printed. The artist may affix a message to the buyer, a unique number and even an autograph, identifying the piece as a genuine article presented by the creator.

At certain times curated content may be displayed in a 'vernissage' setting, where art from one specific creator is displayed, or artwork centring on a specific event or cultural phenomenon in EVE.

Creating this structure in EVE would add another string to the rich tapestry of New Eden. It would be a tourist attraction, it would be a conversation starter and it may serve as a conflict driver, depending on where and how it was deployed.

RELATIVITY

Consider the Caldari Badger industrial. Its warp speed is 4.5 AU/sec. This means it travels at 675.000.000 km/sec, which is 2250c (rounded).

Consider a 15-jump trip, say from Jita system in The Forge to Colcer system in Everyshore.

This trip takes 6 minutes and 30 seconds in warp. Some leeway is applied for timing issues with starting/stopping the stopwatch. 

- The relativistic effects of the spool up time to warp are not considered. 

- The timer is stopped when the ship has reached the star gate at the far end of the system even though the warp drive is still active at that point (the ship was not on auto-pilot, it did not warp to zero, it was instructed to ‘jump’ on reaching the star gate at the far end of the system). 

- The relativistic effects of crossing the Einstein-Rosen bridge, the star gate, are not considered (even though the argument can be made that the transfer is not instantaneous point-to-point and the ship is crossing a divide of multiple light years, which very likely has profound effects).

In Einsteinian space this trip takes 390 seconds of time in warp. At 2250c, times 390, this trip takes 243.75 hours or 10.15 days in Newtonian space, one way. The results will obviously be different for other ship types moving slower or faster and depending on the distance traveled. It seems there are obvious implications with regards to contracts and manufacturing as well as the duration of conflict timers.

More importantly, and vastly more significant on a personal level, is that pilots will see their family and friends, relatives and associates, age rapidly the more time they spend in warp versus those people who do not travel at relativistic speeds.

Pilots spending a lot of time in fleet roams, insofar as they are not camping a gate, will see their time-spent-in-warp increase the more active their fleet operations are. 

The psychological effects on their lives as they are structured around classic human relationships deserves thoughtful and profound research and specialized care should be made available to all pilots and their loved ones so affected.

Thoughts?

This post was first published on the ‘Typed’ blog service on 4 July 2016, but that service was discontinued for lack of a viable customer base. I gladly paid for the service, but there weren’t enough people like me to keep it going.