rootninja

Eve Online

Epic Fleet Battles

On Tuesday, Slashdot reported on the recent record breaking (and CCP server breaking) fleet battle that took place in the EVE Online universe. The Defenders IT Alliance, a coalition ahead of the now defunct Band of Brothers, decimated another fleet in a supposed one-sided battle, however, I have heard reports that there were loses of Titans on both sides. This is all player-vs-player combat and loss, not AI controlled NPC characters. CCP’s server struggled to keep up with the multitude of players creating traffic congestion in the areas of space where the battles took place. They now have a notice up when you launch the game asking players to report any plans for upcoming large scale battles.

War Assets

Even if you’re familiar with MMO or Massively Multiplayer Online games, take note that Eve is unique in that character development, research and manufacturing, and just about all aspects of the game are based on real world time. This avoids the necessity to devote hours and hours at a time to ‘grinding’ since characters skills and item manufacturing continues to take place independent of whether or not you’re actually in the game or offline. But it also means there will be a period of time where raw materials used to build ships will be in high demand, and obtaining materials is the part of the game that actually takes real playing time.

Construction of a Titan involves months of skill training and research. Currently, a Titan takes at least eight weeks to build - and that’s not including some of the subcomponents required for construction, which also take time. Titans are the largest ships in the world of Eve and the raw materials required are numerous to say the least.

Universal Economy

What I haven’t seen covered directly is the fact that large scale battles resulting in huge loses of ships create a boom in the in-game economy. You may have read in history books about World War I creating work for women on the munitions line or as doctors, or World War II putting middle class women to work in manufacturing and other jobs once reserved for men or lower class women, you may have also read that the price of metals such as copper and nickel needed for things like bullets and tanks went through the roof. These events seem to parallel the Eve universe. The reflection of the real world extends past the much-talked-about politics and into economy.

The going prices in ISK (the fiat currency in Eve) for materials used to make ships and other items are set by the players. This makes sense since it’s real people buying and selling things to other real people. Supply and demand dictate the price, but just recently, there seems to be several vacuum cleaners in the market. Resources are being sucked up, causing prices to skyrocket as each day trudges by. Miners can be heard chatting on the local channels in space about the multitude of outstanding large quantity market orders. Players seem willing to pay higher and higher prices in order to obtain the raw materials of war in a short time frame. The faster the market turns over, the higher and higher the prices go. Would-be explorers or combat pilots are now finding lucrative employment as miners and transporters, whether it be as a freelancer or for corporations. The boom in mining has caused the going price for mining and transport barges to leap. The effects of war appear to ripple through the entire singularity.