As spotted by our friends over at PC Gamer, CCP Games has announced 𒅌that it secured $40M for "an innovative new AAA game." According to a by the developer on its website, the studio's next project "will further the company’s mission with a new title utilizing blockchain technology." 

The new game - currently titled Project Awakening -  is apparen♌tly entirely new but will be set within the EVE universe. Speaking about the new project in the blog post, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson (CEO of CCP Games) said: "Since its inception, CCP Games’ vision has been to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life." The post continues, "now, with advancements made within blockchain, we can forge a new universe deeply imbued🎶 with our expertise in player agency and autonomy, empowering players to engage in new ways."

The rest of the post doesn't actually give any info about the upcoming game, more just explains where the studio got its funding from: "This financing has marked an exciting frontier in our studio history as we begin our third decade of virtual world ♌operations," Pétursson continues, "we are humbled by the confidence from our partners in the development of this new title.”

CCP Games definitely isn't the only game developer making use of blockchain technology lately. One of the most vocal developers making use of this technology is Square Enix who just a couple of weeks ago announced that it has more blockchain games in the pipeline. Even The Pokemon Company has quietly revealed its involvement after it published 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a job listing for a blockchain expert earlier this month.

If you need something else to look forward to this year, take a look at our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2023 list. 

Up until this week, only Omega subscribers - that is, the game's premium elite clone state which boosts skill training speed amongst other things - could play with EVE Anywhere, but it's now been rolled out to free-to🤪-play subscribers, too.

"Starting today Alpha pilots can now take advantage of EVE Anywhere, the revolutionary cloud-based platform that puts New🦂 Eden directly in your browser of choice!" developer CCP Games explained in a (thanks, ).

"EVE Anywhere has been developed in close collaboration with our trusted partner Intel, and allows you to play EVE on the go through Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge - whe💞ther you’re on a PC or tablet.

"This partnership provides EVE pilots with access to high-capacity computing power - via the cloud - as and when it’s needed. Whether you’re fighting, mining, or building an i♓ndustrial empire, EVE Anywhere can help you switch seamlessly between client and browser-based play."

This added flexibility doesn't come for free, however. If꧟ 🤪you're an Alpha player, you can unlock 24-hours' worth of EVE Anywhere in exchange for 30 PLEX, the in-game currency. That roughly works out to around $1.50 for 24-hours of browser access.

"The service will also be rolled out into more territo🦹ries later on this year, as we work towards our ultimate goal of re✤leasing EVE Anywhere… everywhere!" the team concluded.

Did you know EVE Online is getting official support for Microsoft Excel? 

No, that's not a joke, even though fans have jokingly called EVE Online a “” for years because, well, a lot of💧 the MMO involves looking at spreadsheets. In 2020, the game even got a spreadsheets-only mode, making it easier for you to keep track of massive space battles even when your computer can’t handle rendering all those sh꧂ips.

As we explained when th🌄e news broke at the recent EVE Fanfest, developer CCP Games announced that a new JavaScript API will allow players to directly export spreadsheet data into Microsoft Excel, which will "help players access and calculate everything from profit margins to battle strategy, making day-to-day EVE operations easier to execute".

With or without spreadsheets, EVE Online's million-dollar wars are the stuff of legend, even if they don't always live up to the billing.

Fans have jokingly called EVE Online a “” for years because, well, a lot of the ♊MMO involves looking at spreadsheets. In 2020, the game even got a , making it easier for you to keep track of massive space battles even when your comput✅er can’t handle rendering all those ships.

As part of the EVE Fanfest today, developer CCP Games announced that a new JavaScript API will allow players to directly exꦬport spreadsheet data into Microsoft Excel, which will “help players access and calculate everything from profit margins to battle strategy, making day-to-day EVE operations easier to execute.”

It’s an official partnership with Micros😼oft, and the devs plan to share more details later this year.

While it might sound like a meme, the announcement drew a . CCP says Excel support is “another step toward CCP’s goal of making the MMO more accessible for both casual and seasoned players.” The devs also have plans to modernize EV♏E, with audio and visual overhauls as well as an improved user💞 interface in the works.

EVE 🃏Online is also getting a series of story events called arcs which will provide years-long dynamic stories t🃏o expand the game’s NPC empires.

“With arcs, we’re setting EVE up for the next chapter with a steady stream of narrative-driven content that emphasizes player actions and decisions,” creative director Bergur Finnbogason says in a press release. “Veterans of the Triglavian Invasion may recall the fall of Pochven that altered trade routes and supply chains across New Eden - the narratives coming with arcs can have si♔milar effects.”

With or without spreadsheets, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EVE Online's million dollar wars are the stuff of legend, even if they don't always live up to the billing.

Eve Online is getting a big Doctor Who crosso🍬ver event starting Thursday, January 13, bringing ancient artifacts and the ever-combative Daleks to ♑its sprawling universe. 

Eve Online developer CCP Games and Doctor Who producer BBC Studios announced the crossover event in a joint press . The aptly titled Interstellar Convergence event will begin on January 13 an🧸d run through February 1, and like the rest of Eve Online, it will be available for free to all players. 

The event's reveal trailer is light on details – heck, it's light on everything other than space debris – but the gist of the event is that players will enter a "new, Gallifrey-themed space" in search of artifacts from Doctor Who's Great Time War. These artifacts will 🌳then point Eve pilots in the direction of Doctor Who's iconic Daleks, which have apparently invaded and which players can fight for "u💜nique rewards that they can take back New Eden." The event will also dish out more loot through a skill point login campaign and a few Doctor Who-themed items. 

"Collaborating with BBC Studios gives us the opportunity to pay homage to an iconic series that has insp൲ired us at CCP," says Eve Online creative director Bergur Finnbogason. 

"The Interstellar Convergence has been designed from the ground up to offer experienced EVE players plenty of frܫesh and captivating gameplay , while remaining welcoming to new pilots – including Doctor Who fans who are new to EVE Online," CCP games said in a blog .

Auditions for Doctor Who's next Doctor 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:have just started according to showrunner Russell Davies.

Seventeen years after its release, EVE Online made gaming history for breaꦯking two differen🌸t world records.

On October 6, players from around the world united to break the titles, which included the larg♌est multiplayer PvP battle and most concurrent participants in a multiplayer video game ♛PvP battle. The battle, known as the Fury at FWST-8, had 8,825 players participating, with 6,557 people playing concurrently at the battle's peak.

The event was officially recognized for its achievement by . The battle inဣvolved a coalition of PAPI trying to establish a beachhead Keepstar to get into the Imperium's territory. The Imperium fought back for a total of fourteen hours. Nearly seven thousand ships were destroyed in the process, and the battle's total cost amounted to 1.443 trillion ISK. 

Having been around for nearly 20 years, EVE Online is no stranger to making unique achievements in the gaming world. The battle known as The Bloodbath of B-R5RB lasted 21 hours and is recognized for being one of the biggest and most costly battles in all of gaming. The game has also 🧸been displ🦋ayed in the Museum of Modern Art to note all of the historical achievements that have been made.

Just last year, Guinness marked the first person in EVE to in the game without a single combat loss. This 𓃲is no small achievement, as New Eden has 7,805 reachabl🌼e solar systems. 

The massive MMORPG is still going strong seventeen years doꦕwn the line, giving us plenty of opportunities to see more records broken.

Find out about all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EVE Online scandals that make it the science fiction Game of Thrones.

On Wednesday afternoon, something unprecedented haꦏppened: hordes of a hitherto unremarkable NPC faction named Drifters suddenly attacked players' bases en-masse, causing widespread panic and confusion. Some thought this surprise onslaught 🃏was a bug, as the Drifters have until now been at the fringes of EVE Online as mere nuisances, only piloting small fleets. 

The developerℱs behind EVE Online, CCP, have assured players that the Drifter attacks are intentional. No-one knows why this is happening, but the biggest (and most infamous) player factions, like The Imperium and TEST Alliance, have been forced to retreat to their home stations to save them from Drifter sieges. Ongoing battles that were being raged across the system by warring player factions have been effectively abandoned as groups rush to protect their territories and properties. 

Elsewhere in EVE Online, ordinary players aജre being affected too as Drifter squads are ambushing travellers through other systems, which sounds like this NPC faction is more of a threat than they've ever been before. , EVE player Rhivre says that "it very much caught everyone by surprise… there was no warning or hint that it was going to happen, then suddenly reports came in from a🐟ll across null-sec [EVE Online's equivalent of no-mans-land] about structures being shot at." 

And as for CC🃏P, th𓃲e people behind all this chaos? All they have to say is that they've "reached out to the Drifters for comment, but they rejected our hailing frequencies." Guess we'll just have to wait and see how this turns out… 

If you're looking for another game to play, keep an eye out for the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Amazon Prime Day game deals right here, or look below to see the best PC games you can play right now!

Because EVE Online players share a single universe, when a huge amount of them occupy the same space TiDi (Time Dilation) is kicked into effect. Basically, time has to be slowed down to cope with the massive amount of people all trying to execute their own commands simultaneously. One broke down what this meant for what was hyped as the most expensive battle in EVE Online history. But although time was slowed down f🐓or the attackers, the Keepstar repaired itself in real time. 

As avree puts it, "The Imperium had to play perfectly for almost 7 hours in real-time, without screwing up for just 15 minutes. In terms of in-game time, they only needed to mess up for 40 seconds total in order to lose the fight". Which seems kind of harsh. So although the Imperium had a plan of attack they were itching to put into action, they simply couldn't do enough da𒁃mage fast enough to make a dent in t🌳he Keepstar. 

The 🎶below video created by Redditor shows exactly what happened, for those of you who are burning with curiosity.  

Original story continues below

PC strategy title 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Eve Online is a sprawling, sophisticated MMO with a dynamic economy, living commuཧnities, and a political backdrop that could fill up a library’s worth of history books, but in the next 24 hours it stands to become the backdrop to a one mil🐼lion dollar battle, involving thousands of players and an even larger audience.

The basic gist of EVE Online is this; players control ships, weapons, and resources (both material and human) in an ever evolving tug of war for control of a persistent galaxy first created by CCP Games 15 years ago. This has established a fertile ground for feuds, stalemates, and large scal✱e wars, one of which in 2013 for costing a total of $300,000 in terms of player expenditure.

But how does that amount of money ma✨ke it into a game like Eve Online? Well, players are able to purchase subscription time with cash, and sell that resource in-game for EVE Online’s own vi𝓡rtual currency, thus establishing a conversion rate that allows players to quantify the real world value of ships, items, and other resources found in the game. 

So, when players make investments in Eve Online, either with in-game currency or by spending money on microtransactions, the expenditure can be valued in real terms, and today’s potential conflict involves shi💦ps, fleets, armies, and resources worth a total of 1 million🔯 in US dollars.

Which leads u🍰s to now. Over the next few hours, it’s possible that a war will break out in Eve Online which could cost up to $1,000,000 in real world cash. If you want to know all the painstaking details behind it all, Redditor has a great, lengthy write up on the background to the war, but the core information that you ought to know is as follows. 

Remember that aforementioned 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:$300,000 battle from 2013? The winners of that fight were a group called the CFC (it stands for something, but I’m not repeating it here), led by a player known as The Mittani. Over the course of the next few years, the CFC quickly became the hegemonic f𒅌orce of Eve Online, controlling vast amounts of terrꦚitory and a huge army that no other faction could viably challenge. 

They were kind of like the game’s own Roman Empire, but as The Mittani made a series of increasingly dubious business decisions on behalf of the CFC (now renamed The Imperium)🐟, those outside of its remit were𓆉 becoming ever more persuaded by the prospects of resistance. 

Enter the Money Badger Coaltion (MBC), an opposing force financed by a guy called Lenny, who made his money by running a casino website that allowed users to spend Eve Online currency to gam✱ble. Over a series of battles and fights, Lenny’s bottomless pockets of money allowed the MBC to quickly overcome the CFC and put them on the backfoot, taking most of their territory 😼in the process. 

Lenny has since been banned from the game, but 2017 has seen both the MBC and CFC in a heated arms race, both trying to consolidate as much power as possible in preparation for the inevitable next engagement with eac🎶h other. This cold war has been getting increasingly hotter, though, as skirmishes between the two sides has proliferated in recent months, setting the stage for a full blown war that could kick off later today.  

To be clear, no one wants to see $1,000,000 go down the drain in a single battle, so it remains unlikely that the fight will actually take place today. But tension run hot between the two sides, and The Mittani swore vengeance on the MBC ever since they overthrew his reign on the galaxy. While a continu𝔉ed stalemate remains just as plausible, then, the fog of war is an unpredictable bedfellow, and any small action from either party could be the catalyst which kicks off the spiral into Eve Online’s largest conflict yet. 

If you want to keep up to date with how the war pans out (that is, if you’re planning to be part of the war), I’d advise to keep checking back in to the as well as streams of . The fight will supposedly begin at 12PM (PST)/3PM (EST✱) today, but don’t expect the shooting to begin like clockwork. Should the threat of the war deliver on its promise, we’ll let you know how it all played out once everything’s come to pass, but the favourable conditions lie with MBC, given their terr⛄itorial dominance. 

Will you be keeping a close eye on the conflict? Who do you think stands a better chance of emerging on top? Let us know in the comments below, and keep your eyes peeled later today for mo🐭re updates as they arrive. 

“I did warn you not to trust me”. Remember that moment when your stomach dropped as you looked into Littlefinger’s ratty little face and it dawned on you that Westeros is a brutal, two-faced land where good men either die𒁏 or live long enough to turn bad? I’m afraid that if it was your first time realising that humanity isn’t all honour and loyalty then you wouldn’t last long in EVE Online. 

Set in the very distant future, the sci-fi MMORPG revolves around war, politics, economic intrigue, and - most importantly - alliances (or cutthroat rivalries) between corporations, EVE’s version of guilds. Its fascinating yet undeniably sordid history is full of play-generated stories (none of these are scripted) that could have been taken straight from Game of Thrones… if it were set in the future where corporations instead of Houses used any means necessary to acquire power. And by any means necessary, I mean any. Assassinations, betrayals, outright war, friendships cultivated over years thrown in the trash, revenge stories - it’s 🌺got them all. Here are eight of the best. 

1. RekkingCrew and Catelyn Stoneheart’s Titan: The hunter becomes the hunted 

In Game of Thrones this is basically… the Red Wedding. Complete with betrayal under the guise of friendship, a massacre, plus the main character is even fittingly named Catelyn Stoneheart. You’ll soon learn that the Freys and Boneless Steve havꦿe 𓆏a lot in common...

The story:
RekkingCrew hunt Titans. These gargantuan spaceships cost 100 billion ISK (EVE Online’s currency) with weapons that are so intimidating their name is literally ‘Doomsday🌟’. So when a pilot called Boneless Steve came up to RekkingCrew with the opportunity to take one down, they listened. The plan was for Boneless Steve (a long-time enemy of the Titan in question’s pilot) to lure them out, so they were distracted while RekkingCrew pushed the Titan out of its shields and obliterated it. But when the time came to warp in RekkingCrew’s ships, their leader Rocket noticed that a mysterious foreign beacon had been sent out. Not good. 

Before they knew it, rival corporation SnuffedOut arrived in force. RekkingCrew didn’t stand a chance. Boneless Steve - real name Catelyn Stoneheart - wa🌞s working from the inside as a member of SnuffedOut, having lured RekkingCrew to the hunt only so they could be annihilated simply because he they “walked around EVE like they were untouchable”. Bringing 88 ships with them, SnuffedOut eviscerated RekkingCrew’s force. Rocket’s words sums it up perfectly. “There’s nothing I can do, you’re all going to die,” he said. “Just try and kill what you can”. Anyone else getting visions of Rob🐎b Stark? 

2. The Battle of B-R5RB: The bigger they are, the harder they fall

In Game of Thrones this is basically… a replication of the stupidest, tiniest 𒊎mistake that ended up pushing Westeros into war: Robe🍌rt Baratheon getting drunk while hunting a boar. Getting gored lethally in the process, his death was about the biggest and most avoidable thing that pushed the battle for the Iron Throne into motion. 

The story:
It started off simple. Thanks to a bug, a routine payment from the H A V O C corporation to EVE Online’s in-game security force CONCORD failed. This meant that B-R5RB, the star𒁃 system they ruled, was suddenly up for grabs. And so it begins. The two sides - Pandemic Legion and N3, who formerly owned the star system, and CFC (Clusterfuck Corporation - no, not joking) and the Russian alliance who were trying to claim it - arrived and bega🐻n to fight. The ensuing battle cost $330,000 of real money, lasted 21 hours, and had 2,500 players simultaneously fighting at one point. 

So, it was a big deal. In th⛎e end CFC and the Russians won, but allowed the Pandemic Legion to eva💝cuate their assets from the system. Rather poetically, after the Russian bloc suffered from infighting N3 recovered their B-R5RB territory as well as most of their enemy’s dominion. Wish I could say that Robert Baratheon had the same kind of comeback story, but unfortunately he was too busy being six feet under the earth to make any sort of victorious resurgence. 

3. Darvo Thellere vs Kackpappe: Revenge is best served cold

In Game of Thrones this is basically... Arya getting revenge on Walder Frey for killing her mother and broth✤er by feeding him his sons in a pie and then slitting his throat. Ahh, revenge is so sweet. 

The story: Starting off in a game is always difficult. But for two new players named and Lunarion, who were trying to start a small corporation for newbies, it was a lot harder. Because someone called Kackpappe wouldn’t stop harrassing them, for some reason taking an immediate dislike to the two entrepreneurial players. For three months he prevented them from earning money, even when veteran players tried to help them avoid him. Kackpappe ended up leaving them alone once he tired of hounding them, but Darvo and Lunari✤on never forgot. 

Four years later, after becoming successful mercenaries they changed their names, found Kackpappe, and invited him to join their corporation. Masterfully fooling him into fleeing his old corporation with all his stuff, they lured him into a trap. He arrived eager to start afresh with his new corporation. It wasn’t going to happen. As Darvo and Lunarion’s ships opened fire, they changed their names back to make their tormentor realise the mistake he’d made all those years ago. Thus their delicious revenge was complete. Apparently Kackpappe’s last words were “fuck♒... Darvo Thellere!”. Later on he apologised to the pair. We doubt Walder Frey would do the same if he was resurrected… not least because Arya severed his vocal chords. 

4. Haargoth Agamar and the Mittani: Destroying a superpower

In Game of Thrones this is basically... Switching sides after becoming sickened with your fellow compatriots, betraying your home, and then helping your enemies dismantle it?  Sounds like a job for Ser Jorah Mormont when he de꧋cided to stop spying on Dany and side with her instead. 

The story: 

Haargoth Agamar is sick of the legendary corporation Band of Brothers. As one of EVE Online’s most famous groups, he believes they’ve and petty infighting. He doesn’t know it yet though, so he joins Goonswarm’s in disguise in order to try and infiltrate them as a spy for Band of Brothers. But turns out the people surrounding him - who are supposed to be his enemies, remember - are welcoming, 🅺and are actually pretty nice. 

So Haargoth decides to switch sides. Instead of infiltrating Goonswarm, he reveals himself to be one of the highest-ranking members of Band of Brothers. Cue jawdrops from The Mittani, Goonswarm’s spymaster. After checking his claims and finding out he’s telling the truth, a plan springs into action. Haargoth transfers Band of Brother’s assets to Goonswarm, kicks every member, and disbands the alliance. At every single station he emptied, Haargoth left a beacon that read “The Mittani sends his reg✱ards”. Sound familiar at all? To rub salt into the wound, Goonswarm then steals the name Band of Brothers so it can never be used again. Jorah Mormont hasn’t quite gone that far, but I bet he and Haargoth would have a ton to chat about over a flagon of Arbor gold. 

5. Mirial and the Guiding Hand Social Club: ten months of friendship for one assassination

In Game of Thrones this is basically... Myrcella Bara🉐theon’s assass🌳ination. It’s equal in the shockwaves it sent as well as the tone of a particularly unexpected betrayal - but thankfully Myrcella’s corpse wasn’t frozen and delivered to a client. 

The story: 

Mirial didn’t know it yet, but there was a price on her head. As the CEO of Ubiqua Seraph, she was wealthy, powerful, and untouchable. Or so she thought when she went on a voyage with her trusted comrade and second-in-command Arenis Xemdal. But Xemdal wasn’t her friend. He was an assassin from the Guiding Hand Social Club, a group of elite assassins who had inf🦩iltrated Ubiqua Seraph. Commissioned to acquire Mirial’s frozen corpse, after ten of working their way up the ladder in Ubiqua Seraph it took one word for everything Mirial knew to come crashing down. That word was ‘Nicole’. 

When it was uttered, Mirial’s ship that she was piloting was suddenly fired on by Xemdal, who had convinced her to undertake the show of strength and had accompanied her as a show of solidarity. Within minutes the ambush was sprung as more assassin’s ships arrived and obliterated Mirial and her ship. They were no more, and soon her frozen corpse was in the palms of the Guiding Hand Social Club. Other agents that had infiltrated Ubiqua Seraph stole everything in the communal lockers, and left notes behind with their corporation claiming responsibility. 20 billion ISK now filled their pockets. Like the kiss between Ellaria Sand and Myrcella, Xemdal destroyed Mirial - a𒁏nd what she thought was their friendship - with one swift act. 

6. The Judge and Gigx: Hell hath no fury like a diplomat scorned

In Game of Thrones this is basically... Tyrion becoming Dany’s Hand after Cersei turned on him. Switching allegiances so wildly vies with Haar🅷goth Agamar’s story, yet even in Game of Thrones there’s no-one who switched sides, took their illic✨itly earned cash, and then ran. 

The story: 

One lesson you should learn from this is not to interfere with diplomatic efforts. Especially when the d꧅iplomat in question has had enough of your crap. The Judge, lead negotiator for the Circle-of-Two (CO2) corporation, decided he was fed up with playing nice when he found out his notoriously short-tempered leader, Gigx, was ruining his attempts at brokering peace between their group and the TEST alliance. 

The Judge discovered his leader’s meddling when he was about to fly to Iceland for the annual Council of Stellar Management meeting between elected EVE Online players and the game’s developers to discuꦉss EVE. Bad timing, right? Not in Aryth’s eyes. As rival corporation Goonswarm’s ‘puppetmaster’, he knew he could flip The Judge to come and work for them. What he didn’t realise is just how far The Judge was willing to go. 

Not only did the Judge steal every last penny from CO2’s vault, he transferred its citadels to TEST alliance’s control, and sold the Keepstar citadel - CO2’s main base of operations - to the Goonswarm for 400 billion ISK. When you add everything up, The Judge’s profit is about 1.5 trillion ISK. Trillion. W🍸hich comes to roughly US$10,000 (although it’s worth pointing out that this ca🐓n’t be converted into real money). 

It didn’t stop there. Gigx was understandably quite miffed when he found out about The Judge’s treachery. So, deciding not to take a step bဣack and calm down, he not only asked for The Judge’s address and real name in CO2’s group chat, bꦍut also wrote “The Judge feel free to use your hands by typing here - while you can”. Yeah. Gigx got permabanned shortly afterwards. The Judge happily joined the Goonswarm Federation and proclaimed to "I've got plenty of money to fly whatever I want for as long as I want," he laughs. "I don't have to worry about that. Now I can play the metagame or I can go around and fly in faction warfare space. I can do whatever I want”. Let’s hope things end just as happily for Tyrion.

7. Scooter McCabe and the newbies: Assassination turned rescue mission

In Game of Thrones this is basically... Dany freeing the Unsullied and Astapor’s slaves from the slavers, obviously. Except there are no dragons in thi✃s example. Unfortunately. 

The story: 

Starting off in EVE Online as a newbie is hard. So, to help out beginners, veteran players offer to recruit them. At least, that’s they’re meant to do. Some just run outright scams. Like Scottmw15, who lured newbies to lawless outer space - where they facꦚe certain death if they left the safety of his territory - and made them kill respawning NPC ships for cash. Which Scottmw15 got most of. Just to confirm that he’s a tyrant, he also made people click on ads in dating sites he owned to generate revenue, and generally acted like the most unhinged of dictators. 

Unknown to him, a spy was watching his every move from within this hellhole. Using an alternate account, Scooter McCabe - getting revenge on Scottmw15 for calling one of Goonswarm’s friends a rather unpleasant na🐈me - had infiltrated the ring under the name Neerah, feigning being a new player. He’d play mind games with Scottmw15, repeating the information he heard from the inside while shooting down every ship that undocked as Scooter, sending Scott🍒mw15 into a frenzy. He accused everyone inside his corporation of being Scooter, even as using his illness as a distraction technique. 

Upon realising Scottmw15 was a despicable human being, Scooter decided he had had enough. Now he was leading a rescue mission. Allying with multiple other corporations, he arrived with a ton of ships and brought hell down on Scottmw15’s head. The tyrant didn’t take it very well. 🍨A mutiny started in the chat, with any players who criticised him booted and effectively left to die at the hands of circling pirates. Scooter to the rescue. He revealed his true identity to his fellow newbies, “We’re the Goonberets and we’re coming to liberate the oppressed. Russians, if you undock we will fucking kill you. Scottmw15, you had this coming”. He escorted 25 players to safe sܫpace and most of them joined the Karmafleet, Goonwarm’s own corporation for new players. As for Scottmw15 - he logged out in fear and hasn’t been seen since. Poetic justice. Daenerys would be proud.

8. SirMolle and the Titan: Know thy enemy

In Game of Thrones this is basically… the Unsullied going to Casterly Rock in season 7 to ambush the Lannisters… when really 🧸the Lannister forces havཧe anticipated their every move and are sacking Highgarden. In this case, SirMolle is the Lannisters. Not Olenna Tyrell (rest in peace, you glorious schemer). 

The story: 

SirMolle, back then the leader of Band of Brothers alliance, had a point to prove. He had never lost a battle, wanted to conquer the entire space system, and just heard that a superfleet from his enemies RedSwarm was on its way. They had found out that SirMolle was building a Titan, one of EVE Online’s most powerful ships. But SirMolle🧸 wasn’t scared. Oh no. He had a plan to show he was still one of EVE Online’s most formidable leaders - one that even Cersei would nod approvinglඣy at. 

What Redswarm didn’t know is that . While one was genuinely building a Titan, there was another that lay empty (even though construction was well underway, the two looked identical). RedSwarm didn’t know which one was building the Titan, so Sir Molle took the biggest risk possible. He set up all his defences - that’s 300 ships vs RedSwarm’s 1000 - around the vacant shipyard, predicting that his enemies would take the bait and assume that one had the Titan in it, leavi🔜ng the other one well alone. If he was wrong, his Titan was left defenceless and would have been destroyed quicker than Cersei can down a bottle of Dornish red. 

He was right. The RedSwarm fleet fell for his trick and attacked the empty - but heavily defended - shipyard, and to complete the ruse SirMolle fought back with all his might against the attack. The structure was destroyed. The next day, SirMolle announced that his Titan had been annihilated and RedSwarm rejoiced. What they didn’t notice was that it was April Fool𒉰’s Day. Of course, SirMolle informed them of their tragic mistake the next day, proving his tactical acumen and undoubtedly enjoying the sight of his brand new Titan. 

At its core, the Battle of 6VDT-H centered around the defense of the system’s central station. Several days befo🗹re the battle, GoonSwarm pilots had damaged the structure to the point that it entered “reinforced mode,” a temporary state of invulnerability. This mode allows the station’s own𒁃ers time to assemble a defensive fleet and gives them some control over what time the station will become vulnerable again. The CFC commanders had not expected TEST to mount a defense and were surprised when TEST set the station to exit reinforcement mode during the US afternoon instead of very early in the American morning, when most Goons would be asleep and N3’s Australian Bloc would be active. The US-friendly exit-timer indicated that TEST was going to make a fight of it.

The CFC decided it would take no chances with the battle. For many hours before the station exited reinforced mode, CFC pilots prepared the battlefield to suit them rather than their foes. With minimal TEST interference, CFC fleets destroyed any structure that might provide TEST pilots with safe harbor during the battle. Then, when the day of the battle arrived, the CFC deployed its forces--over 2,200 pilots, mostly in baltecfleets--to 6VDT-H more than two hours before the station was scheduled to exit reinforced mode. When TEST and N3 forces arrived on the battlefield, they found the CFC deployed in a sphere surrounding the station, and the fighting began in earnest. Almost immediately, CFC bombers forced the Allied ships to warp to the center of the CFC’s sphere of battl⭕eships.

For the next five 🍌hours, more than 4,000 men and women duked it out for control of the station. Webs of logistical ships distributed energy to ships reporting low capacitor (EVE’s equivalent to mana) so other pilots could focus on repairing damaged hulls. Many players reported severe lag spikes despite EVE’s “time dilation” mechanic, which literally slows time so the servers could keep up. Players described the battle as a confusing mess of hostile, friendly, and neutral ships. Some explained that they needed to adjust their graphical and UI settings so they cou🧜ld simply find their designated targets amidst the chaos. Sometimes the strain on the player's PCs was great enough to crash the EVE client.

As the battle wore on, CFC Megathrons mauled Allied fleets until the CFC--sensing victory--brought their capital ship fleet into the system. With the appearance of the CFC carriers and dreadnoughts, N3 evacuated the system. TEST had other plans. Rallying its remaining forces, TEST flung itself into the mass of CFC battleships, dreadnoughts, and carriers. The charge was brave, but ineffectual--over 200 TEST, N3, and Tribal Band ships sacrificed themselves to destroy a sꦛingle CFC dreadnought. It was a statement. If you’re curious regarding why TEST would launch this forlorn hope, remember that the Battle of 6VDT-H wasn’t really about winning for TEST. As Ingen Kerr said: “We needed a final note for Fountain. It didn't need to be a victory."

Aftermath 

With the Battle of 6VDT-H decided, major military activity in Fountain faded. As TEST and Tribal Band retreated south into Delve, the CFC captured what territory it did not already control. On August 5, 2013, the Mittani announced the end of the Fountain War and granted CFC forces a two-week vacation--though not without warning his followers to be ready to resume hostilities if another faction attempted to contest Fountain. Shortly after announcing victory in Fountain, the CFC introduced the very rental syst꧋em it had invaded Fountain to avܫoid.

While N3 returned to the southeast for yet another attempt to pacify SOLAR FLEET, TEST found itself besieged in Delve. Constant attacks by Confederation of xXPizzaXx and Black Legion kept TEST’s fin𒊎ances under heavy strain, and after the Battle♈ of 6VDT-H, many of TEST’s few remaining fleet commanders left for greener pastures--including Ingen Kerr, who followed Beffah into Pandemic Legion.

Faced with another defensive 💝war against the CFC--for which TEST was even less prepared than it had been when the Fountain War began--BoodaBooda responded in his usual style: “fuuuuuuuunk that." TEST chose to abandon Delve, seeking relative safety nearer the galactic core instead of facing another grinding war. Following that decision, many of TEST’s member corporations left--some even defected to the CFC. While TEST probably won’t completely dissolve, it remains to be seen whether TEST will regain its former glory.

Analysis 

While there was never any guarantee of CFC victory, it would have required a great deal of luck and an incredible effort on the Allies’ part to maintain control of Fountain. The CFC stood as a unified group with a unified command structure and a huge war chest ready to resupply ships as soon as they were destroyed. CFC logisticians expertly arranged cꦏhanges in fleet doctrines when their pre-war theories proved untenable, like Tengufleet.

In contrast, the Allies fought as three distinct factions, and of those three only TEST had a def✤inite stake in 𓂃the outcome of the war. N3 and Pandemic Legion joined the war for the chance to fight Goons, not to save TEST. N3 did its best to maintain the war effort but was constantly troubled by issues on the home front, and Pandemic Legion left TEST to its own devices as soon as better entertainment came along. It’s ironic, therefore, that it was Pandemic Legion and N3 who bore the brunt of the fighting. N3’s dominance of the Australian time zones helped stall the CFC advance, and it was N3 and PL fleet commanders who led the Allies’ most successful operations.

What doomed TEST in the end was spotty participation rates. Though it is significantly larger than N3 or Pandemic Legion, TEST rarely managed to bring many ships to a fight--and participation rates were especially poor during the crucial period after the CFC breakout in mid-July. During this time, sources reported to GamesRadar that full N3 fleets were supplemented by fewer than 100 TEST pilots--shockingly low figures for an alliance that claims nearly 12,000 members. In defense of the TEST line member, it must be remembered that many of the important defensive operations were scheduled for the Australian time zones-🙈-very e🤪arly in the American and European morning. Perhaps Ingen Kerr--who left TEST for Pandemic Legion shortly after the war--put it best: “It became a simple question of numbers and commitment. In both cases they, the CFC, had more."

Acknowledgements 

The author would like to extend his gratitude to the Capsuleers willing to discuss the Fountain War, including: Hedliner, Elise Randolph, Vily, Ingen Kerr, Beffah, Just Fearless, and Belalol💝. Special thanks go to Wilhelm Arcturus for graciously providing many of the📖 excellent images of the war.

Enraged over the abrupt ending of the Battle ꧂of Z9PP-H, CFC forces renewed their offensives. Z9PP-H and its neighbor EI-O0O 🧔finally fell to CFC attacks on July 9, exactly one month after the CFC invasion began. With the fall of those two systems, CFC forces finally secured their beachhead in Fountain. They would not be pushed out.

Nearly a full week after Z9PP-H BoodaBooda released a “State of The Alliance." The address recapped the war up to that point, and discussed the events at Z9PP-H: “It could’ve meant the end of TEST capital fleets for weeks, or maybe months" The speech was also remarkably candid about TEST's financial woes, explaining that TEST would have to request private donations in order to continue the war. Finally, BoodaBooda plead𝐆ed with his fellow TESTies to log in and fight

“If we’re going to continue enjoying the hell out of this war, everyone in TEST has to want it. We need to be intensely focused, we need to be as strong as possible, we ALL need to give this war 100%."--BoodaBooda

Despite CFC victories behind the front, Allied forces were still able to🌼 prevent further CFC advances by virtue of N3's supremacy in the Australian time zones. However, increasing activity by SOLAR FLEET threatened N3's ability to remain in Fountain. Worse still, the annual Alliance Tournement began drawing off many of Pandemic Legion’s best pilots and fleet commanders.

Goons on the Move

The CFC breakout wasn't the only bad news for TEST. N3 was again forced to defend their southeastern territory against SOLAR FLEꦐET. What’s more, Pandemic Legion essentially left Fountain altogether--but not before recruiting Beffah, TEST's military leader. Despite its claimed 12,000 member, TEST proved to be a bit of a paper tiger--few of TEST’s pilots logged on to defend Fountain during the CFC’s breakout. Without the aid of N3 and PL, TES🐭T proved unable to field any significant resistance. In the face of overwhelming CFC advances TEST leadership decided to make a symbolic last stand at TEST's historic home: 6VDT-H.

Prelude to 6VDT-H

Tormented by real-life computer issues, disappointed by poor participation rates, and disquieted by what 🐲she described as a “cult of personality" centered around TEST’s leader BoodaBooda, Beffah resigned as TEST’s military director. She joined Pandemic Legion on its way out of🎉 Fountain.

Her replacement, Ingen Kerr, ꦰdid not make any serious plans to defend Fountain. Indeed, by this point the war was going so badly that TEST leadership dismissed the idea of saving Fountain entirely--but they could still give it a hell of a send-off. Kerr rallied TEST’s flagging members to make a symbolic last sta🔥nd at 6VDT-H. Two days before the battle he laid out his plan:

“We’re forming and under no circumstances are we standing down. If we are outnumbered 50:1, still we’re going in. We've been told that forming for this timer is stupid, that this is exactly what the CFC wants us to do, that we are--to turn a phrase--exactly where they want us . A smart alliance in our situation--12,000 facing off against three times that number--would probably look for other options. But we are not a smart alliance. We’re TEST. This is what we do."--Ingen Kerr.

Next Time: The largest battle in EVE Online's history takes place (and the servers don't even crash or nothing).

The story concludes in EVE Online's Fountain War - The largest battle in gaming ❀history and its aftermath!

A Defensive Quagmire

Small scale skirmishing had been going on in Z9PP-H for the whole war. The system had changed hands several times in June, but on July 4 TEST attempted to entrench the system by adding defens🌱ive infrastructure. A CFC force deployed to the system in order to destroy the new s♕tructure, and to save their entrenchments TEST countered with a fleet of carriers. Sensing the opportunity to destroy the capital ships--EVE players draw a particular satisfaction from destroying their opponents’ most expensive toys--CFC leaders began demanding players log in and deploy to the fight.

As CFC reinforcements rushed into Z9PP-H, it became apparent that TEST’s carriers were ꦯin real danger. With the carriers trapped by CFC special ops pilots, the CFC battl🍌eship fleets could slowly pick them apart. Scrambling to save their valuable carriers, TEST leadership doubled down on capital ships instead of proper support fleets, bringing more than 80 carriers and dreadnoughts into Z9PP-H. No sooner had they arrived than they found themselves trapped as well.

Z9PP-H served as a live field test of the CFC’s latest fleet doctrine. Disappointed by the lackluster performance of the Tengufleet and needing a cheaper alt𝓡ernative to expensive Tempestfleets, the CFC began deploying “Baltecfleets" shortly before the battle of Z9PP-H. Based o𓆉n the battleship-class Megathron hull, Baltecfleet derives its unusual name from Baltec1, a Goon notorious for flying Megathrons in nearly any fleet, regardless of doctrine. Both powerful and versatile, Baltecfleets proved so effective that they became the CFC’s preferred weapon for the remainder of the Fountain War.

🍒CFC forces continued flooding into the system, bringing the total number o📖f pilots to over 2000. It appeared that TEST's blunder had doomed a huge portion of their capital fleet. Such a blow would place incredible strain on TESTs already troubled finances, possibly knocking TEST out of the war. TEST needed a miracle. It got one.

The Fortunes of War

As the battle passed its seventh hour, all 2200 players in Z9PP-H were abruptly disconnected from EVE Online. Their ships vanished. In an instant the largest battle in EVE Online sinc🐽e Asakai simply... ceased. While CFC forces rushed to reconnect, TEST leadership broadcast that members were not to log in under any circumstances until the CFC had dispersed.

The outcry was immediate. CFC pilots flooded to the internet, howling with rage and accusing CCP--the developers--of intervening to save TEST. Rampant sp🍷eculation bounced around Twitter and the EVE-focused forums, including the hysterical accusation that the tech-savvy redditors in TEST had hacked their way into CCP in order to crash the server. Later that night, CCP apologized and gave their official explanation: an attempt to ease the strain on their servers mistakenly disconnected all players connected to the battle. A fluke mistake--a typo--had saved TEST’s capital fleet from destruction.

CFC leadership was understandably dis𝓰appointed, but said it harbored no ill will. That said, CCPs mistake proved to be useful fodder for the CFC’s propaganda engine--anger is a great motivator. Robbed of their victory, CFC forces harnessed their anger to fuel renewed offensives. The Goons were on the march.

Next Time: CFC figures out how to bypass the frontlines and TEST appears to crumble.

The story continues in ౠ澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EVE Online's Fountain War - The July Offensive!

Stalemate

Despite diplomatic and military victories in the early weeks of the Fountain War, CFC advances ground to a halt in the middle of June. Though it had captured the beachhead at J5A-IX, CFC forces were bottled up by dogged Allied resistance in neighboring EI-O0O and Z9PP-H. Choosing to bypass the Allied strongpoint, CFC forces began capturing the surrounding systems in an attempt to remove t🎀he strain on J5A-IX and 4-EP12. However, inferior tactical doctrine♛s and an inability to compete with the Allies in the Australian timezones limited the ability of CFC forces to capture and retain Allied territory.

While the Allies were abl🏅e to prevent a CFC breakout from the front, CFC dominance in the American time zones prevented Allied forces from ejecting CFC forces out of Fountain. Instead, Allied forces decided to adopt a defensive stance at the front and foc༒us on recapturing the five systems Sort Dragon had “gifted" to the CFC. By early July, Allied forces had recaptured all of the lost territory but 4-EP12, while keeping the CFC bottled up.

The Home Front

EVE Online's players are nothing if not opportunistic, and with the majority of Allied and CFC forces concentrated in Fountain ente🃏rprising groups of players jumped on the chance to capture territory elsewhere. For the first weeks of the war CFC moons and systems in the east were harassed by Black Legion--eventually causing the CFC so much trouble that that the CFC simply bribed Black Legion to join the attack in Fountain.

Unfortunately for the Allies, their own problems could not be bought off. TEST's ability to fund a protracted war wit✤h the wealthy CFC had always been questionable, but when the event came TEST proved even less prepared than expected. Without a steady stream of income, TEST woul🦄d be unable to replace their losses, threatening TEST's morale.

One major source of income for TEST were the natural resources mined from the moons in Fountain and Delve. How🔯ever, nearly all of these moons were at risk, either from the CFC or from TEST’s southern neighb🦂ors. The day the war began, the CFC had been making efforts to disrupt TEST's income by raiding--and even capturing--the moons in Fountain, while TEST's income was further hampered by attacks on their southern moons by Confederation of xXPizzaXx. Some suspect that the CFC paid Confederation of xXPizzaXx to mount the raids against TEST’s main income source, but no confirming evidence could be found by the author.

Propaganda

No large-scale war in EVE would be complete without propaganda. Throughout the Fountain War, BoodaBooda would constantly--and falsely--reassure his soldiers that TEST's finances were solid, that there were no delays in replacing ships. However, a backlog did accumulate, only to be erased when TEST asked for p♚rivate donations to fund the war effort. TEST's morale plummeted, as did the number of pilots logging in each day, f𓃲orcing N3 and PL to shoulder the brunt of the war.

Cloak and Dagger

On July 1, 2013 N3 lost control of over 200 of its core systems in the southeast of New Eden. The former owner of those systems, an N3-affiliated corporation named S2NCitizens, was infiltrated by an unknown 𒆙player, who was able to rise to a high position in the corporation. At some point, this player approached the CFC with an offer to disband S2NCitizens--forfeiting all the territory it controlled--and steal a vast amount from N3ꦦ’s treasury. The CFC lept at the offer and at the chance to remove N3 from the war. The operation mimicked a legendary blow GoonSwarm inflicted on Band of Brothers, their rivals during the Great War. In fact, the player disbanding S2NCitizens recieved assistance from Band of Brother’s destroyer, who was a GoonSwarm diplomat.

Unlike Band of Brothers, however N3 survived the loss of territory--mostly through luck and the heroic efforts of N3’s large capital fleet. Forced to temporarily withdraw from Fountain, N3 and PL quickly deployed their entire capital and supercapital fleets to the southeast, and began working to recapture the lost systems. N3's usual rivalsᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, such as SOLAR FLEET, were not able to capitalize on the opportunity CFC presented them, leaving N3 and PL free to recapture the lost ground without significant opposition. With the massive capital and supercapital fleets of N3 and PL working in tandem, N3 was able to recapture all of the l🔯ost territory in a matter of days.

Back in Fountain, however TEST found itself alone and without N3 and PL to prop it up, TEST’s weakness began to show. The CFC began winning small engagements around Fountain, and while it gained no new territory the victories boosted CFC morale. With the PL and N3 capital fleets deployed to the southeast, CFC commanders felt they could safely⛦ deploy their own capital ships, further boosting morale. Eventually TEST was forced to respond in kind, and its inept use of capital ships would lead to one of the g♈reatest blunders of the war.

Next time: The largest battle in months takes place and TEST's Capital Fleet is saved.

The story continues in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历🍒史查询:EVE Online's Fountain War - Miracle of Z♔9PP-H!

Early Fleet Doctrines

In large-scale warfare of this type, the combatants rely upon specific tactical doctrines. The doctrines give each commander a solid grasp of what the capability of his fleet is--long-range artillery ships must be handled differently than heavily armored brawlers. Commanders are able to ensure that their pilots follow doctrine by invoking a clause in each alliance’s Ship Replacement Policy: if a pilot's ship does not match the specifications laid out in his or her chosen doctrine and that pilot’s ship is destroyed, that pilot will not be reimbursed and the ship wil✃l not be replaced.

Ships in EVE-Online are generally divided into classes based on size. In order from smallest to largest are: frigate, destroyer, cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship, Car𒀰rier/Dreadnought, supercarrier, titan. Carriers, dreadnoughts, 𒁃supercarriers, and titans are collectively referred to as “capital ships.” All others are “sub-capital.”

At the o꧅utset of the war, the CFC focused on three standard fleet docওtrines:

• Tengufleet--Cruiser-class Tengu hull. Relies on high speed for protection.
• Techfleet--Battleship-class Tempest Navy Issue hull. Long range, powerful weapons, slow reload. Very expensive.
• Caracal--Cruiser-class Caracal. Fast missile cruiser. Relatively noob friendly.
• Fuckyoufleet: Cruiser-class Celestis hull. Noob-friendly electronic warfare platform, used to hinder enemy target designation.

Each of the Allꦰies relied 🌞on different doctrines, but the main fleet compositions are:

• Dominix--Battleship-class Dominix hull. Simple to use, heavily tanked. Relies on remote drones for damage output.
• AHAC--Cruiser-class Loki and Legion hulls. Similar to Tengufleet, relying upon speed to avoid taking damage.
• Rokh--Battleship-class Rokh hull. Versatile, jack of all trades fleet.
• Blackbird--Cruiser-class Blackbird hull. Noob-friendly electronic warfare fleet.

In addition to the standard ships each doctrine focuses on, about a third of the members of a fleet fly logistics. Their functions vary from fleet to fleet, but they generally involve repairing armor, replenishing capacitor energy (essentially EVE’s version of mana) and “tackling” enemy ships to ensure th🌌ey can’t warp out of danger.

In addition to the fleetsও listed above, both sides relied on heavy use of bomber fleets. Bombers are fast, cloaked frigate-classed vessels mounting smartbombs--one of the few area-of-effect weapons in EVE Online. A well-organized bombing run can inflict ꦕcatastrophic damage on a tightly packed battleship fleet.

As the war progressed, each of🏅 the doctrines above would b༒e reassessed to determine if their performance warranted their continued use. However, the first great victory of the war came not from force of arms, but from one player’s desire for vengeance.

A Dish Best Served Cold

On June 9, 2013, TEST abruptly lost control of five systems deep within Fountain.. TEST leadership quickly realized that these systems had been owned by Sort Dragon, former head of the Honey Badger Coalition. Under a special arrangement, Sort Dragon had been allowed to maintain control of these systems when TEST left the coalition. Apparently bearing TEST ill will over the HBC’s demise, Sort Dragon abandoned control of 4-EP12, PXF-RF, R-BGSU, XUW-3X, and ZUE-NS--butﷺ not before alerting the The Mittani of his plan.

The CFC was ready to take advantage. Within hours GoonSwarm logisticians had secured four of the five systems, capturing the final station two days later. Though isolated, these five systems would draw Allied resources, block Allied ꦺlines of supply, and complicate Allied logistic𒉰s as the first waves of the CFC invasion arrived in Fountain.

The Battle of J5A-IX

The first major battle in the Fountain War began three days after the conflict was announced. Three CFC fleets attacked TEST infrastructure in J5A-IX in an attempt t꧋o capture the system. As the single connecting point between Fountain and CFC home territory, cಞapturing J5A-IX was an essential step in any planned invasion. If Allied forces could hold the J5A-IX choke-point, they could deny the CFC a beachhead in Fountain.

When Allied forces responded to the CFC attack on J5A-IX, the CFC quickly found itself outgunned by the combined fire of TEST, PL, and N3 forces. Eventually the Allies chased CFC forces out of J5A-IX, and attempted to capture the CFC staging system of B-DBYQ. However, Allied forces quickly found th🍎emselves overwhelmed with the prospect of attacking the CFC's central supply depot--every CFC ship destroyed could be replaced in seconds while Allied supply lines were stretched thin. Aft🅠er taking heavy losses, the Allied fleet retired to J5A-IX.

The battle continued for five more days before the CFC forces managed to finally secure ownership of J5A-IX. Even at this early stage in the war, it was clear that time zones would play an important role. While American CFC pilots could gain ground, they could not hold it against Allied counterattacks once the Americans went to sleep and N3’s powerful Aus𝄹tralian bloc logged on. This pattern repeated itself for nearly 3 weeks as CFC advances in Fountain ground to a halt. The Fountain War was locked in stalemate.

Next Time: The Mittani tries to break the deadlock with diplomacy, propaganda, and even (interstellar) subterfuge.

The story continues in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EVE Online's Fountain War - Breaking the d⛎eadlock!

EVE Online's massive Fountain War is one of the largest player-versus-player conflicts in gaming's history. In this six-part series we explain the conflict in full, detailing the amazing battles that made up the war with information from the players who participated.

Every few months, the men and women who play EVE Online conspire to achieve feats so incredible that the rest of the world is forced to take notice. The gaming press--sometimes even the general press--shine their spotlights on EVE's smꦅoky halls for a few days and new players flood into the game. Then, when the next big story comes along, EVE sinks b🌄ack into its shadowy obscurity, only to repeat the whole process six months later. The Battle of 6VDT-H was one of these moments--trumpeted around the Internet as “the largest battle in the history of gaming.”

Yet precious few of the thousands of words written about 6VDT-H attempt to explain the context in which the battle occurred. What is a battle outside of the war in which it was fought? What significance does Gett🍒ysburg hold if you don't know who Abraham Lincoln is? How can one discuss Market-Garden without knowledge of Overlord? The Battle of 6VDT-H was the climax of two months of constant warfare between the most powerful player-factions in EVE Online. Like any other war ever waged, the Fountain War had its share of victories, defeats, coups, and setbacks. Unlike ꦛother wars, everybody involved was in it “for the lulz.”

Overview

In the most general terms, the Fountain War was a large-scale invasi🐼on of the region of Fountain by the ClusterFuck Coalition (CFC). Located on the western edge of EVE Online’s fictional galaxy--called “New Eden” in game--Founta𒈔in is rich in natural resources, which the CFC planned to exploit. The owners of the system, TEST Alliance, Please Ignore, mounted a defense of their territory, with significant assistance from N3 Coalition and Pandemic Legion (PL). Hereafter, the combined forces of TEST, N3, and PL will be referred to as the “Allies.”

Every Ship Counts

Though the CFC has many member, the largest and most important is GoonSwarm Federation. Originally base🍰d out of the Something Awful forums, the Goons rose from humble beginnings to become one of New Eden's major players. The Mittani, GoonSwarm's symbolic head and self-styled “Emperor of Space,” is probably the most powerful player in New Eden--even though he rarely logs in to the game itself.

From its inception in 2006, GoonSwarm's aggression and deep love of trolling earned the ire of the largest, most powerful factions of the time. After waging two prolonged wars--appropriately named the First and Second Great War--GoonSwarm emerged holding the wealthy northern regions. GoonSwarm quickly made peace with its neighbors and allies, formalizing their cooperation by forming the ClusterFuck Coalition. Taken as a whole,ꦿ the CFC was the single most powerful entity in New Eden, fielding more pilots, building more supercapitals, and holding more space than any other single group of players.

After losing its cash cow, CFC leadership found itself facing a choice: begin a rental program or invade another wealthy re꧂gion to control the flow of natural resources. The Mittani chose war.

The Best of the Worst

Though it was considered a powerful entity in its own right, TEST Alliance, Please Ignore owed much to GoonSwarm and the CFC. For reasons known only to Goonkind (perhaps the Goons saw TESTies as younger, less experienced versions of themselves), GoonSwarm allowed TEST to move into Goon space and fly in Goon combat operations. Later, when TEST became large enough to stand on its ow🍰n, Goons helped TEST carve out their own territory in the Fountain and Delve regions.

However, once TEST was out from under t⛄he CFC’s thumb, TEST/CFC relations soured. Unwilling to be seen as GoonSwarm’s “pet,” TEST leadership began making diplomatic overtures to factions hostile to the CFC. TEST/GoonSwarm rel💎ations took another blow when TEST joined Northern Coalition and Pandemic Legion to form the Honey Badger Coalition. But hopes for a TEST/GoonSwarm rehabilitation survived, until TEST mobilized hundreds of ships to destroy a strategically valuable CFC fleet during the now-famous Battle of Asakai.

Though it won the battle, the Honey Badger Coalition was not long to survive Asakai. When Sort Dragon--the head of the HBC--demanded TEST abide by HBC guidelines or face punishment, TEST decided to strike out on its own. It was joined by its neighbor and ally Tribal Band, and the two became very tightly linked. And although Sort Dragon was able to arrange for diplomatic control of several systems within TEST space, the exodus left TEST under attack from its former all🎃ies. The decision to give Sort Dragon control of those systems would have unforeseen consequences.

The Enemy of My Enemy

The two months leading up to the Fountain War saw TEST embroiled in a conflict with its partners in the HBC: N3 and Pandemic Legion. The fighting was largely a result of ⛦boredom; none of the factions involved were on bad terms, but with no external force to fight, the ex-HBC members fought amongst themselves.

N3 is a large PvP-focused faction holding territory on Tranquilitiy's southern edge. Created by the formal alliance of Northern Coalition., Nulli Secunda, Nexus Fleet, and other smaller alliances, N3 fields one of the largest, most well-disciplined supercapital fleets in EVE Online. Traditionally on bad terms with the CFC and their Russian-speaking neighbors SOLAR FLEET, N3 put aside its conflict with TEST to join the defense of Fountain. When given the choice, N3 preferred to shoot𝓀 Goons over TESTies (yes, EVE's community is a fan of puns).

In contrast to most other major powersও in EVE Online, Pandemic Legion does not bother holding any sovereignty in New Eden, preferring to draw income through mercenary contracts and mining operations. Highly disciplined, well-equipped, and composed of some of the most skilled players in EVE Online, PL is a force to be reckoned with. For all its power, PL can be capricious--it goes where the fights are, and does not scruple to abandon would-be allies if its members ꧙can find more fun elsewhere.

Declaration

The Fountain War began on June 06, 2013. In a “State of the Goonion” address, The Mittani announced that the war had already begun--CFC forces were engaging TEST forces in the eastern regions of Fountain. Dispensing with any moral casus belli, The Mitt🎐ani explained the reasons for the war as a function of economi𓆉cs:

“Odyssey has come--♛and it has left us destitute...Who is right and who is wrong doesn’t really matter: if we do not invade Fountain, someone else will--and they will enjoy the kind of wealth that we once had, while we wallow in wrenching poverty.” -The Mittani

During the speech, The Mittani specified th🐻e tactics that CFC forces would be required to adhere to and described the logistical mechanics of moving the CFC military into its staging system of B-DBYQ. The Mittani closed his speech by warning his fellow Goons that the upcoming conflict “may be a long war. We have growꦦn soft from too much peace.”

TEST's official response came later that same night. Beffah--TEST’s military director--kept her me🌟ssage on point: If you have valuables in Fountain, move them somewhere safer. She finished with a challenge to TEST's membership: “TEST isn't just a conglomerate of random pubbies...If the now horribly destitute goons want to take what's ours? We'll make them bleed every step of the way.”

Posting a response in the same forum thread, TEST leader BoodaBooda added “WE ARE GOING TO KILL THE FUCK OUT OF THESE NERDS IN FOUNTAIN, AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO KILL THE FUCK OUT OF THESE NERDS IN DEKLEIN.”

In other words, the war had begun.

Next Time: Missiles start flying, a traitor is discovered, and time zones become an issue.

The story continues in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史🌳查询:EVE Online's Fountain War - Fir♕st shots fired!

EVE Online's massive Fountain War is one of the largest player-versus-player conflicts in gaming's history. In this six-part series we explain the conflict in full, detailing the amazing battles that made up the war with information from the players who participated.

While weve played games on the Rift before, none ever felt like they were actually made to embrace the new form of consuming media. EVE-VR, CCPs proof-in-concept for a virtual reality game, totally changed our perception of virtual reality. While the Xbox controller provided a familiar taste of gamings past, the headset had us gazing into the future, looking around the cockpit and staring into 🔯space. Flying around was exhilarating and we couldnt help but bob and weave our bodies when enemies fired lasers at us. The best element, though, was the rockets, which actually required us to look at our target to lock on. The right analog stick was useless, wed actually have to hold down a trigger, turn our head to the ship we wanted to obliterate, and let go, launching missiles with our eyes. It was incredible.

CCP calls EVE-VR a sliver of a game, using EVE assets to prove the potential of virtual reality. If this is a sliver, we cant wait to see the whole thing--we were skeptical about the practical uses o♛f the Rift before playing, but after go🎉ing hands (or, rather, eyes-on) with EVE-VR, were ready to embrace the future of gaming, whenever it may fully arrive.

Check out the following slides for additional images and more information.

The expansion will be by a precursor patch, a series first that'll go live on April 24. This'll pave the way for the gameplay and interface overhauls planned for Inferno, as well as cosmetic upgrades such as new shaders and decal-space for the game's spacecraft. You can see a few of the upcoming graphical enhancements in the trailer abov♔e. CCP also plans to support Inferno with a 1.5 patch come August, as well as incremental fixes as and when they're called for.

CCP Games, the Icelandic developer of EVE Online, has announced that stretched resources and tight economic times have forced the company to dismiss around 20% of its staff. The company's output has been divided between EVE Online, the MMO/FPS Dust 514, and White Wolf tie-in Wor✱ld of Darkness; this week's announcement includes news of a renewed focus on EVE, with rꦿemaining staff reshuffled to meet the company's commitments to its other properties.

Layoffs will be focused mainly on the company's Atlanta, Georgia premises, wit🦄h some redundancies at the Reykjavik HQ as well. Calling the decision “difficult for all those involved and extraordinarily sad for all of those whose lives are affected,” CCP has pledged to make “eve💫ry effort within our means” to help dismissed staff find new positions.

Above: Gritty shooter Dust 514 will still find its way to players as a PS3 exclusive, CCP promises

Players should see the results of this decision within the coming months, with staff redeployed to strengthen development of upcoming EVE expansions. CCP stresse💧s that its flagship title continues to see positive yearly growth, pledging to rectify the “mistakes and poor communications” that led to a drop-off in the title's peak user-base this year. “A significantly reduced team” will continue work on World of Darkness, while work continues on bringing Dust 514 to PS3 players. CCP says its longer-term plan for EVE and Dust 514 involves an “ambitious and challenging plan” to unite the two in a persistent online world.

Oct 19, 2011

Source: via

“'Persistence' is the key word here,” wrote Egan on the, explaining, “The world of Dust 514 doesn’t spawn when you fire up your PlayStation 3 — it’s always there and always being experienced and influencedཧ by other players in the EVE universe. When you take part in events in the EVE universe through combat in Dust 514, you’re taking part in something greater than your own individual experience of that world.”

Accordi🌳ng to Egan, players' actions in Dust 514 will have immediate repercussions in EVE Online, shaping economies and entire systems with every hostile take-over and intergalactic conflict.

“Your actions have significance. The EVE universe is made up of thousands of s꧃olar systems, each with a number of planets within those systems. Those same planets seen in EVE Online, where the MMO players create various planetary structures and colonies, are the potential battlegrounds of Dust 514,” he added.

As for community integration, Egan noted Dust 514 will be able to link up with their EVE Online counterparts through the game's social networking portal, EVE Gate. That said, Egan admitted CCP integrating a whole new player base into an💯 existing 8-year old hierarchy won't necessarily be a cake-walk, adding, “There are definitely challenges ahead, with a unified console and PC gamer community each influencing a shared setting through their respective types of gameplay. Rivalries, alliances and, dare I say, even some drama. Interesting times.”

Dust 514 has been taggedfor a Spring 201⛄2 release. Expect further details (and inevitablebitching from the EVE Online PC cr🍎owd) as that date approaches. You can also read all of Egan's early rundown of the EVE-Dust Link at the

June 7, 2011

“Well, at least I remember to pay my bills🍷 on time...” Noah Ward hides his widening grin by taking a sip of wine. A series of good-natured ooooh’s ripple out across the table and conversations cease as everybody pauses to see how the two men sitting on either side of me are goꦇing to respond. We’re eating a fancy meal at a classy Italian restaurant in downtown Reykjavik, and two EVE Online players just got called out for mismanaging internet spaceships. That kind of chatter is unusual enough to hear over a plate of prosciutto, but they weren’t merely being called out by some random joe on the forums - this particular ribbing was delivered by Noah Ward, EVE’s lead game designer.

For most gamers, sitting down to dinner with the developers of their favorite game lies firmly in impossible-dream territory, but for the nine EVE players sitting with me at the table, it’s very real - and over the past two years, these meetings have become an essential component of the game itself.

Every six months, elections are held in EVE Online to elect nine players to the𓂃 Council of Stellar Management (CSM). And in an appropriate parallel to the kind of tactics players deploy every day in EVE Online, these seats are won through rigorous campaigning and corporate politics. The elected player representatives then work with the rest of EVE’s 330,000 players to develop a list of issues to be discussed when developer CCP flies them to its headquarters in Reykjavik, Iceland to sit down with them face-to-face twice per year.

Above: The player-elected Council of schemers

After four months of talking with constituents, poring over forum posts and debating the relative merits of one issue over another, the Council members have finally arrived in Ic🍷eland to meet with the developers at CCP. And it’s obvious they’re loving every second of it.

Oskarsson’s own credentials are in the form of a 21-page paper that established the impetus behind, th🌄e justification for and the implementation of the Council of Stellar Management. The report went so far as to analyze the theory of the evolution of societies and how EVE went through each step, citing ♛the works of philosophers and social theorists, including Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes.

Above: Office building mullet: professional up front, party in the back

But the economist works at the macro level and doesn’t intervene in cases like that of Goonfleet, which had been one of the largest corporations within EVE🐟 Online until its leader forgot to make routine fund transfers before leaving on a real-life vacation. As a result, just weeks before the summit, Goonfleet lost most of the facilities and planets it controlled due to an inability to pay the maintenance fees. When the leader returned to a group on the verge of mutiny, he looted what little assets Goonfleet had left, fired everyone from the corporation and fled to another part of the galaxy.

So Ward’s friendly wisecrack had to have stung a bit for at least a few players at the table. In fact, after a bet😼rayal like that, I expected Ashe🐭r Dratel and John Zastrow, the two members of Goonfleet on the CSM, to be seething with bitterness and anger. But they hardly seemed phased by the loss, and were eager to rebuild their alliance under a new banner. They laughed with everyone else at West’s prodding and happily told their side of the story.

This might strike most people as a little weird, especially considering that many other MMOs shenanigans like these could result in real-world litigation. But every EVE player is comfortable with this dichotomy. On the one hand, EVE is dark and dangerous: nobody can be trusted, everyone has their price and a swift, merciless death awaits you around every corner if you’re not careful. But on the other hand, players are optimistic, cooperative, entrepreneurial and often downright brilliant in the ways that they find to bend the game world to their ideas a✨nd purposes.

EVE’s society is always on the verge of anarchy; most alliances function in the sectors of space where there are no ruling government bodies or police force to restrict playe📖rs’ actions. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes things go wrong. But there’s very little centralized authoritarian control applied in most MMOs that establish what can or can’t be done. In EVE, players collaborate with developers. Just like they’re doing now, around the dinner table, as everybody exchanges their favorite stories from a digital world still just a few years old. Stories that seem to emphasize that EVE Online is breaking out of its original mold and becoming whatever players want it to be.

Stories about CCP itself - not all of them flattering - were passed around the table just as merrily. I had flown into Iceland knowing little more than that you didn’t want to do your banking there𝕴, but by the end of the CSM, one thing was very clear: If Reykjavik was a college party town, then CCP would be the biggest frat house on campus. Yes, it’s a very serious developer of fine games, but just look at the facts: the majority of employees are young males; breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner are served in the company’s cafeteria by two grandmotherly Icelandic women; free snacks, sodas and energy drinks can be found in every kitchen; and “I was drunk” is the only excuse needed for showing up late in the morning.

Above: The CSM represents this entire galaxy

And that’s not even taking into account the sheer number of “this one time when I was drunk” stories that everyone💙 at CCP seemed to have on hand. The raucous, booze-fueled mayhem even extends to official CCP events, and this spirit - both laid-back and slightly crazed - contributes to CCP’s innovative development structures that incorporate player feedback with unprecedented efficiency. Where Blizzard is the buttoned-down suit assuring players, “Don’t worry, we’ve got everything under control” (and they do), CCP is the hung-over rock star smashing guitars, trashing hotel rooms, using excessive amounts of pyrotechnics and crowd surfing at every opportunity.

1.CSM members talk with other players and among themselves to develop a list of 10 is🅠sues they want the CCP development team to address.

2.♏The CSM sends the list to Petur J. Oskarsson, who presents it to the development team.

Above: CCPers having fun between sessions

3.The𓂃 development team estimates how many development hours each of the projects would take and sends it back to the CSM through Oskarssoꦐn.

4.Taking into account the time required for each of the changes, the CSM arranges the issues🧜 into a prioritized list and returns it to Oskarsson.

5.Oskarsson presents the final list to the developers and makes sure that they are considered and included in the developmen🦩t process. Oskarsson reports back to the CSM as progress occurs.

John Zastrow, the only returning CSM member, jokingly referred to himself as “the George Washington of this CSM,” and he may not be too far off.♎ If their plans are successful, years from now game developers could be looking back at the members of this year’s council as the Founding Fathers of a development structure that, for the first time in history, incorporated player feedback in a deep, meaningful way.

But the meeting certainly wasn’t spent entirely on lofty beard-scratching philosophy - it was still about a videogame, after all. This meeting, and all the meetings throughout the week, for that matter, were marked by the odd juxtaposition that exists in EVE: it’s a very serious, business-driven game that’s riddled with outrageous memes and the nothing-is-sacred irreverence of the internet. CSM members introduced themselves to CCP employees by saying, “Hi, I’m a space councilor!” in silly voices, and pictures of Kitlers (cats that look like Hitler) were brou൩ght up on projectors alongside flowchart diagrams that broke down the game’s development process.

Above: The moderator was essential in keeping the discussion focused

Considering the anger directed their way at times, as well as the occasional angry accusation from a CSM member that someone else’s opinions, statistics or responses were “bullshit,” I was impressed with the completely unshakeable composure CCP employees constantly maintained. At times, even I was ready to leap over the table and take one or two CSM members by their collars and let them know that they were acting like jerks, but the developers (represented in each session by department heads and rank-and-file employees across a wide swath of departments, including Programming, Design and Community Development) always maintained an impe❀🎶rturbable stoicism, like Greek heroes holding their ground against a lethal hydra of nerd rage.

It’s not easy to stand there and take a verbal lashing from your harshest critics, but instead of banning dissenters from the forum and retreating to their development cave to pr🌄etend that the naysayers don’t exist like some de𓃲velopers (you know who you are), CCP flew some of the most vocal critics to Iceland to let them scream in their faces so they could understand their concerns, and every player there respected them for it.

The occasional emotional brush fi🌠re notwithstanding, the atmosphere of the meetings, now past the halfway mark, was overwhelmingly positive - two groups with different perspectives coming together to understand why the other side felt the way they did, and trying to figure out how they could synthesize both perspectives into a concrete policy or game mechanic that would improve E🐎VE.

CSM rep Tim Heusschen told me that he was particularly impressedౠ with how seriously CCP took the CSM meetings; his favorite moment was seeing two developers grab pens to write down a suggestion he made. In fact, the developers took away a lot of good ideas, including one that a dev told the Council “is so good on so many levels that it arouses me somewhat.”

This is revolutionary; in one swift move, the CSM went from what could be considered a glorified focus group to what CCP considers to be a “stakeholder” in the company, give🌜n equal consideration with every other department in requesting development time for a project. That means the CSM - and the entire playerbase it represents - has as much influence on development projects as Marketing, Accounting, Publicity and all the other teams outside of the development team.

This is, of course, the stated intention. But has any developer gone to such lengths for its fans? I’ve spent a week observing CCP, taking i꧒nventory of concerns and complaints from even the most aggravating of griefers among its players; there seems to be little question that CCP genuinely believes in the importance of the players’ feedback through the CSM, and the step to incorporate it into the company’s internal process goes a long way toward proving that their belief in player-driven experiences is no mere gimmick or promotional device.

If anything, EVE Online appears to be achieving what many social virtual worlds backed by millions of d𝕴ollars of capital - including There and Second Life - have failed to do: to create an automous, player-drive♍n society in cyberspace. This is what CCP believes produces the absolute best games, and it’s willing to take extraordinary risks to prove it.

The last day: 3a.m.

Walking between bars in the wee hours of the morning ♐on my last day in Reykjavik, we ran into a group of Icelanders singing and dancing down the street while another group threw beer bottles on the ground in the alleyway next to us.

It suddenly hit me that EVE Online could only come out of a place like Iceland - a place where packs of friends wander the streets drunk until 6 a.m., doing pretty much whatever they want; a place where the only government presence I saw all week was an information center; a place where the people pretty much monitor themselves. CCP adopted this people-centric culture inside their company and inside their game, and now they’re proving that giving the power to the players can work for game development as well. Self-governance has never looked quite so sexy.

May 17, 2010

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澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: The new wave of indie MMO gaming
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澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: How to fix what's wrong with PC ga🐷ming
The platform is powerful but flawed - here are 12 thing💙s that require a reboot

EVE Online has always had a bad reputation for being overly complex. But with Apocrypha’s "New Player Experience," CCP plans to ease in plꦦayersput off by the game’s steep learning curve. Now, g﷽etting into the game is easier than ever.

Before, players were forever stuck with the attributes they first selected for their character. Finding out that the character build you were going for just isn’t working out as you intended after investing hours in the game was frustrating, to say the least. Now, players can change their attribute skills once a year. It sounds like a minor fix for a major problem, but the end result is a more streamlined and straightforward character🧸 creation system that gives you an avatar that complements how you play the game more closely.

After you launch into New Eden with your race-specific ship, you must undergo a newly redesigned tutorial that will teach you how to navigate through space and shoღot down your enemies🏅. New players now have the advantage of having their first million skill points gained at an accelerated pace, so they can get their hands on a broader range of equipment with much less space-grinding.

New in Apocrypha are wormholes that provide random pathways to uncharted areas of space, giving you a true sense o🐟f exploration. By scanning areas of space, you’ll find these wormholes swirling open for an undisclosed amount of time, letting only a few ships pass through beforethey close.

Not all wormholes lead you to unknown territory.Some will lead to known space and could prove helpful in finding new trade or smuggling routes. Entering unstable wormholes is best tackled with a crew, since you never know w🎶hat could be waiting for you on the other end. Who knows? You might run into some Sleepers, Apocrypha’s deadly new NPC race.

Apocrypha also introduces a new class of ship called Tech-3. This class allows for a ton of customization options, helping you tailor your ship's defenses, as well as its overall look, to your liking. Each Tech-3 ship is composed of five new subsystems: defens🍨ive, offensive, electronic, engineering and propulsion.

Almost all✃ materials needed to build Tech-3 ships can only be found by traveling through wormholes. For example, the blueprints needed to construct the chassis and hull of your Tech-3 ship can only be obtained by reverse-engineering ancient relics found in wormhole space.

Epic mission arcs are EVE’s answer to branching storylines like the ones found in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Throughout your time in New Eden, you will encounter agents who will offer you missions, which in turn are part of an ongoing storyline in which your decisiܫons will affect the outcome, as well as your progress in the game.

The missions𓆉 are all about introducing the world of EVE Online, familiarizing you with everything you learned,and giving you a choice on how to leave your mark on the universe.♎ In future expansions, CCP plans to expand on themission arcs by including some of the EVE lore to set up future events, giving veteran players a reason to tackle Apocrypha’s epic missions even though they're meant for beginners.

So if you’ve grown tired of elves and goblins and are looking for a change of scenery (or justanew MMO experience), Apocrypha's added featuresmean a lot of cool new reasons fornewbies and vets alike to enter the fray. You can try EVE Online: Apocrypha for free by downlo🍒ading a 21-d൩ay trial from.

May 6, 2009

This war is being fought right now, between two mighty factions, in the outer reaches of EVE space. On the one side we have the mighty♏ Band of Brothers, elite pilots pumped up with power and success. On the other, we have a grand coalition: the Russian players of EVE Online,🤪 focused around the Red Alliance, have joined forces with the comic collection of Something Awful forumites known as the GoonSwarm. Something Awful forumites aren’t just there to play EVE. They’re there to maintain a reputation - as the gaming world’s premier jokers and griefers. They’re the lunatic geniuses behind the floating penises in Second Life, the same group that managed to kill their own faction leader in WoW. They’re not playing EVE to win. They are, as one forumite put it, “in it for the lulz”.

The Russians and the Goons created the RedSwarm Federation, an ultimate alliance of hardcore combat pilots and internet griefers. In the 🥀space of a year they would become unstoppable. Two years ago, however, Band of Brothers were in the ascendant. They ruled vast swathes of EVE’s 0.0 space. EVE is set up like a giant doughnut. In the centre is high-security space where players are free to go about their business trading, mining and ratting (killing the game’s AI pirate factions for loot) without too much threat from other players. You can shoot at a friend or an enemy, but the AI security forces (Concord) will almost immediately step in; you won’t last long under a sustained barrage from Concord’s lasers.

Player combat thus shifts to the outer ring of EVE, the 0.0 space. In 0.0 space, there are no AI p🍌olice forces, and no chance of salvation if ambushed. Fights are brutal, and to the victor go the spoils. It’s a dangerous place to be: survival demands tactical planning, and many, many friends. Why venture into such a place? Out of the desire to become rich. 0.0 space is full of vast mineral deposits 🍒that can be mined and turned into hard cash. And such space can be owned and claimed; vast space stations deployed that project power, serve as home bases to player fleets and act as a refuge and point of defense. 0.0 space is dangerous, sure, but the risk is worth it.

Over the years Band of Brothers had carved themselves a nice slice of 0.0 space stretching from Fountain to Period Basis. They were in what many thought was an insurmountable position - their 2,000 battle-✃hardened and well-equipped pilots had trounced all opposition. GoonSwarm had originally joined EVE as a small group of just a few hundred, and began colonizing a small portion of 0.0 space: Syndicate, within striking range of BoB territory. Like others before them, they were routed by BoB’s pilots. Their newbie ships were exploded in the thousands.

Having had enough of this, BoB moved on to other things. They were soon to begin a campaign against the largest military-industrial bloc in the game, Ascendant Frontier. Despite their size and wealth, Ascendant Frontier (ASCN) were a weak and ju✃icy target. Using the vast fortune that ASCN held, their leader, Cyvvok, had built himself a giant trinket - EVE’s first Titan. The Titan was EVE’s largest ship, a behemoth valued at around $8000 (£4,000) in real-world ca⛦sh. BoB attacked en masse. Even Ascendant Frontier’s hundreds of combat pilots couldn’t hold them back. ASCN began to crumble, the empire falling apart as the peaceful traders and mining corps that plied their trade under ASCN’s protection fled to safety. In the final humiliation, BoB claimed the first Titan kill, in controversial circumstances. Cyvvok was offline as his Titan went down.

With the highest-profile kill of all time under their belts, BoB were riding high. With Ascendant Frontier defeated, BoB were able to begin setting themselves up as Roman-styled imperialists. With a nod to the classic tactics of history, vassal alliances were created in the conquered territories. Xelas battled insurgent Fountain, FIX looked after Querious, and where Ascendant Frontier once stood, alliances such as RISE were installed as regents. Vassals could play peacefully alongside -♎ and expect protection from - BoB’s vast armies, as long as they paid tithes for access to stations.

By the start of 2007 the military masterminds had dominion over eight regions, which was the largest single empire since the opening months of the game. The money poured in. Band of Brothers had cemented a reputation for being the most effective fighting force in the EVE universe. While the vassals made money and the industrial corps produced capital ships, the drilled, trained BoB military began to look for another target. They were regrouping and re-arming, readying for yet another conquest. BoB were so wealthy, so powerful (and had won so many𝕴 alliance PvP tournaments) that they seemed unstoppable.

Meanwhile, the GoonSwarm had been contacted by Red Alliance and the two hard-bitten corps had decided to pool their resources. Back in the summer of 2006, much of the rest of the game had aligned against the Russians, and Red Alliance had been pushed back to a single station by a conglomerate of aligned pilots, including ASCN. In August 2006 that alliance (consisting of perhaps ℱten thousand pilots) fielded a 500-man fleet to take the system.

I was actually part of that fleet. It was an awesome sight: several hundred people in the same Teamspeak channel, as well as dozens of capital ships heading out from a single station. The fireworks were spectacular. Watching a dozen dreadnoughts arriving to pound on a single tower was an astounding sight. But we lost. After a weekend of fighting at the ‘siege of C-J6’ my alliance withdrew. The game mechanics, they argued, made th🐼eir losses too great to continue. The lag and disconnects produced by a massively 🥂multiplayer game desperately trying to keep up with the movement of so many players took too much of a toll.

The coalition designed to drive Red Alliance from the game had failed. Now the hard-working Russians capitalized. GoonSwarm had joined them, and the experienced and hardened Something Awful forumites were growing into a force to be feared. The alliances that had previously been aligned against both groups soon began to fall. By Christmas 2006 RedSwarm had found their stride and valuable station sy🃏stems were being captured weekly. Station by station, their enemies faltered and then fell. Once-great alliances such as Veritas Immortalis and Lokta Volterra were stripped of their territories and forced to retreat. RedSwarm’s borders were expanding, toward the fringes of BoB space.

Band of Brothers were preoccupied. They’d begun roaming around, preparing for their next action. EVE watchers have suggested that this is the point at which BoB could have saved themselves. If they had joined the fight against RedSwarm immediately, ꦜthere’s a good chance they could have beaten them back. But it wasn’t until RedSwarm began to actively encroach on the territories BoB had taken from Ascendant Frontier that BoB deꦍcided to counter-attack. The war had begun.

To📖 understand why BoB eventually lost, you have to understand how other EVE players felt about them. This allian🅷ce, supremely assured in its talents, had come to be seen as arrogant and worth fighting simply because it was in a position of power. What started as a small independent opposition, with GoonSwarm and Red Alliance mounting resistance, turned into a snowball of uprisings. At the height of the war, more than half of EVE’s PvP players were allied against Band of Brothers. It’s estimated over ten thousand pilots were fighting BoB in skirmishes across the galaxy. Yet, vastly outnumbered, BoB held.

When the Northern Alliances opened a se♕cond front in the spring o👍f 2007, led by the powerful D2 corporation, Band of Brothers shrugged. Their pilots decamped, moved homewards, and took them on. And won. D2 deployed their Titan and lost it. They fragmented and retreated back into the north. It took months, and the exhaustion of BoB’s fighting troops, before they returned. Nevertheless, soon RedSwarm were to see some success. They began to press their attack, and stations began to fall. The BoB blue began to disappear from maps.

How did it feel to be outnumbered and outgunned? Tristan Day is one of BoB’s most senior commanders. He saw that there was a political gold rush going on: that all the major corporations had aligned against his alliance. “The most interesting thing has been watching groups♊ of people taking the ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ mantra a bit too far,” he said. “There are people aligned against us🐓 that are [allied] to each other that really do not like each other at all. It’s quite amusing.”

It’s understandable. There is a third front to EVE’s vast conflict: the propaganda war fought on the forums. The arguments, trolling, and general lunacy has seen gamers put about as much effort into🐽 BoB-war threads on the forum as they have into the game itself. EVE’s players have become obsessed with the machinations of their PvP elite, and each announcement or battle-cry is seized upon by enemies and allies alike. Each Titan death or announcement by BoB’s SirMolle caused threads dozens of pages long. Everyone wanted their say. It was propaganda and spin, in fact, which largely decided BoB’s position. RedSwarm managed to pull alliances such as the Tau Ceti Federation, Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate, and Against All Authorities onto their side. BoB managed to sign up some big corporations, but the overall forces on their side were never quite the same.

EVE’s history has begun to repeat itself. Like Band of Brothers before them, RedSwarm have begun to install vassal corps in the wake of their victories. Momentum is everything: few will stand in their way. Meanwhile, the RedSwarm ply their message: 🅷Help out the Federation and you’ll be rewarded. Band of Brothers, as a territorial power, are massively reduced. They own a fraction of the territories they once did. Their pilots are exhausted. Their resources are stretched. And betrayal follows them everywhere. Their former allies are deserting them.

Just after Christmas 2007, BoB’s strongest ally, the huge consortium of pilots-for-hire known as Mercenary Coalition, declared BoB’s second▨ home region of Period Basis (the other being Delve) to be their own independent state. Mercenary Coalition, along with megacorps KIA, Outbreak and Evoke, took the region for themselves. The territory tore a giant hole in what was left of BoB’s central powerbase. As I write, BoB have been forced back into a single region. They’ve lost most of their territory to the zerg of Northern and Goon forces. The fighting, as intense as ever, could see Band of Brothers lose it all.

What’s most fascinating about the continuing war is the stream of stories - the tales of commitment and tenacity from both sides. Whoever you talk to, on either side, will have a story of how their fleet mounted a 48-hour continuous defense of a single system. How they set their alarm clock fo🎶r 4am so they could be up in time to finish off an enemy installation. Or how they tricked the enemy into losing some priceless piece of hardware.

EVE is about more than just combat tactics. It’s about organization, camaraderie and morale. How do 🅺the commanders leading these troops keep players coming back night after night? These aren’t grizzled combat troops - they’re gamers, subject to the same whims, commitments and emotions as all of us. It doesn’t always feel like fun when you spend hours waiting for something to happen, or when your assets get blown up because your fleet had to go to bed.

BoB commander Tristan Day told me that much of what his alliance learned was focused on how to manage large groups of people and keep morale high, rather than simply mastering the game itself. “Primarily you need to keep participation up, which is critical for space holding and conquest. You need to keep 🥂EVE fun. Whilst we run a very militaristic chain of command in BoB we make sure that we remember that EVE is, after all, ‘just’ a game. The best game I’ve ever had the honor of playing, but a game nonetheless. If anything you must learn not to get attached to your virtual assets - you can’t take them out of EVE, after all.”

How did RedSwarm rally quite so many players to their cause? The Goon commander Isaiah Houston is fairly forthright in his opinions about this. “BoB’s sense of arrogance and superiority ended up killing their more worthwhile and useful allies,” says Houston. “At the same time we were able to unite with Northern friends and work for a common goal.”Houston is pleased with the way his once-wild horde of Something Awful forumites handled itself in the war. “There have been some minor strategic mistakes along the way, but nothing absolutely critical. I really feel as though we’ve done an exemplary job throughout this war. You have to understand, at the beginning things were very much not in our favor; BoB was the oldest, richest, and had the most experience at this sort of t♐hing.”

So: was the war simply a🍰bout GoonSwarm getting revenge for those initial lost conflicts in the early days of EVE? Perhaps, but Houston says the Goon motivation was more about carrying out their general mandate as the gaming world’s griefers. “It was about griefing the oldest and most estab﷽lished players in the game. Making them eat their own words just happened to be the best way of doing that. We’ve had some scores to settle along the way, it’s true, but really the impetus has just been us staying true to our roots as Goons.”

Nevertheless♏, despite their current dire straits after a year of war, Tristan Day is philosophical about Band of Brothers’ position. “At the end of the day the end result is the same: we’re getting a lot of combat without having to do any travel. We’re having more fun now than at any time ever before... so we’re not complaining.” And would our BoB commander do it all again, given the chance? “In a heartbeat,” says Day. “Only better.”

May 15, 2008

Opening with Scott Walker singing ‘Jacques Brel’ signals Walsh’s camp aesthetic, which builds up to a crescendo of naked limbs entwined in the beach-house of star-on-the-slide Joe Scott 𒁏(Craig), who applies balm to the remnants of his career with coke-snorting threesomes. Craig brings a wired, desolate energy to early scenes that rev with hazy paranoia, scoring blow wraps from his 💙dealer Sister Jean or asking his unimpressed assistant Ophelia (hip-hop star Eve) to feel a lump in his chest in case it’s breast cancer. He’s also charismatic and very sexy, Walsh’s camera showing off his physicality in a way that will thrill fans.

After a bad lunch with his agent, Craig lies back and thinks ♈of England, and it’s straight from wanker to wanking as adolescent Joe (Harry Eden) and his friend Boots (Max Deacon) tug one off in a spo♛ok house. But Walsh flatters to deceive in flashback. Having prologued his tale with a bonding session between the pair – and using Boots’ death as the prompt for a memory jog back to England, 1972 – Walsh establishes expectations he struggles to fulfil. Boots is elbowed to the side to make way for a neighbour (Jodhi May) who reels Joe in for lusty encounters and then tragedy. It’s like a cuckoo’s egg that’s been dropped in from another film. Young Joe isn’t developed much beyond a sex-mad juvenile and with the disjointed structure failing to gel, the third wedge – when Joe returns home for Boots’ funeral – is left with hollow pieces.

Although Walsh delivers some terrific sequences, ev𒅌eryone would have been better served by making more of the fool and less of the flashbacks.

EVE TV, which proudly declares itself "The world's first virtual world television station dedicated to an MMO" has gone live.

Dedicated to CCP's space-based MMO Eve Online, it broadcasts weekly and offers "the very latest in-depth news, in-game skirmishes, market trends, human interest stories, exclusive interviews and game-related features in a professional and entertaining weekly production" explains MMM Publishing Ltd, which has co-launched EVE TV with CCP.

Oliver Skelding, MMM Publishing's MD, says EVE TV is the next level in ground-breaking virtual media.

"It's a world first, providing communication to a community on a scale never before seen, giving players a platform to communicate with each other beyond mere web forums and podcasting. EVE TV is focused on player-led news and events and provides unparalleled access to behind the scenes information about the game. EVE TV is designed by the players, aꦅbout the players, for the players," Skel𓆏ding added.

See more .

June 25, 2007

While we'd like to be able to say🔴 that there's never been a better time to try EVE Online, we can't. The truth is that 💞if you're going to try EVE Online, you should do so right now, because it's hard to say how long it's going to be this good.

Red Moon Rising is the l⛄atest large, free expansion for starship MMO EVE. While other games provide new realms, new lands or new dungeons, EVE is becoming more detailed. Developer CCP claims it's growing 'inwards'. It created a galaxy and all the subsequent expansions are an effort to fill that vast tract of virtual space.

One of the things that will soon fill it are even bigger spaceships. But here's the thing: if you start from scratch, this instant, then it would s♓till be the best part of a y🉐ear before you could fly one of them.

That's a pretty sobering thought for anyone who just wants to fly 17-kilometre-long Titans. Luckily, ther💎e's a lot of other stuff going on before you reach that advanced stage, all of which has been carefully expanded and enhanced by Red Moon Rising.

Sta꧑rt-up players now face a more diverse set of objectives and NPC ships have been overhauled, making them a new challenge for players at all levels. This is a big step, and one that might either drive away players from 'ratting' (hunting pirates) or make the bored NPC-hunters wake up and make even more cash.

EVE also contꦇinues to refine its incredible economic and manufacturing sub-game. Pilots can now access their industrial processes (both manufacturing and research) from space.

Less accessible, but far more exciting, are the new ships. There are new Interdictors,💜 which should make the capture of enemy ships easier. There are Command ships, which will buff your whole gang, and there are Recon ships, whไich bring stealth and jamming skills to the larger Cruiser class.

And then there are the Capital ships. These giants could change the way the game is played. They enable play๊ers to respawn and carry spare ships for those players to pilot. The gigantic Titans can tear a hole in the very fabric of space, dragging whole fleets with them across the galaxy.

They are also armed with formidable Doomsday devices, which will d꧂eal tremendous damage to everyone around them, not to mention being mind-bogglingly expensive to build.

EVE is a cruel mistress, but the more you play her,ꦛ the more you feel convinced of her genius.