Eve Online a night of PEW PEW in the Vale
I recently re-upped my subscriptions to Eve Online. No, that’s not where I’ve been for the last few months, and I was fortunate enough to run into some old friends on there that were still flying. They had joined an alliance that lived in 0.0 space, where players make the rules and the law, in a place called the Vale of the Silent.
As it turned out this group was part of a group of alliances collectively called the Northern Coalition that occupies a good chunk of the north of Eve Online. Pretty cool.
Last night we formed a fleet to assist another alliance with a job. I won’t go into detailed specifics, only people that play the game would know what it means anyway, bottom line a large group of players got together to go blow something up and fight other players, in the Eve community referred to as PEW PEW. I really don’t know why its named that.
All told more than 130 people answered the call and we sailed out for deep 0.0 space. Not too long after a group of bad guy scumbags came after us, also players, that happen to be part of an alliance called Pandemic Legion. They were roughly thirty or so strong. They were mostly flying HAC’s, that’s heavy assault cruisers, which are tech level 2 ships. Basically means they are better than starter ships.
Our fleet landed on a gate, gates being the transport system of Eve, in the system where our job was. Our spies in the neighboring system told us that the bad guy fleet had landed on the opposite gate, where our gate jumped to. Our fleet commander, oddly named after a cat, gave the command to jump the fleet in and start some serious fighting.
Let me say here that this is why Eve is a bad ass game that nothing comes close to touching. Honestly, after this battle, I find myself thinking that STO, Star Trek Online, ever being able to challenge Eve was just farcical. What was I thinking? Eve is polished, brutal, realistic and down right fun.
When our fleet jumped in we immediately bubbled up, a device used to stop other ships from warping (moving really fast). Our FC gave targets and our ships began firing. I was in a ship called a Scorpion. Mostly used for electronic warfare. It jams other ships from being able to target. Well, I do that really well. When I jumped in the FC told the scorps to jam the Guardians, another class of ships. I did. Two of them. About one minute later 17 bad guy ships locked on me and began firing. I guess I got their attention.
Scorpions are wicked battleships. They can essentially end your ability to fight instantly without so much as having to lift a finger. Well a click of a finger anyway. My ECM, electronic counter measures, disabled their biggest ships and allowed my allies to blow them to hell and back.
Of course, I didn’t last so long with 17 HACs firing on me. Took about 2 1/2 minutes to rearrange the ship I was in from a Scorpion to a wreck of twisted metal. Such is life in Eve. As I sat there in my pod watching my allies dismantle the rest of the PL fleet, I smiled. At least we won the battle even if I lost a ship. Not to mention I didn’t get podded, having my pod destroyed, which is always an accomplishment!
The PL fleet eventually turned tail in run. They were just too badly out numbered. Our FC congratulated the group and we finished the job and flew home.
Today, the day after, I look at the map in Eve and ponder this sandbox game. I look at the sovereignty of systems, constellations and whole regions with wonder and a little awe. Somewhere out there sometime soon another PL fleet will form and come back looking for revenge. Rumors are flying of an invasion by the mighty IT alliance, formerly nearly all powerful BOB, an alliance that controls three full regions of space. Just another day in null space.
Then it hit me. Eve isn’t just a sandbox game anymore. Its a universe unto itself. CCP, the company that made the game, doesn’t really control it now. Sure they make updates, patches, decide content. But this game is run by the players. CCP recognized that and even made a council of players that regularly meets with the company. There’s history here of constellations falling to one alliance after another. Of deals and treaties made and broken. Ask someone in game how BOB fell and they will surely tell you all about the GOONS.
The power and allure of this game isn’t that its just a sandbox and you can do anything you want. It’s a vast political landscape. There is history here. Legends of massive battles where Titans fly and die at the hands of hated enemies. There’s a rich heritage of the interactions between the corporations, alliances, the people that play this game. If only it were chronicled, what a story it would make. Its really as if we are living in a fictional novel where empires rise and fall in a vast universe, only we are the ones writing the story by living it! Oh wait, we are..
Enemies or friends we’re all capsuleers. Pilots of Eve. This is our universe. Dare to join?
