The headline isn't exactly accurate.

In short, someone forgot to pay the rent on their space station. This led to people being able to invade them, or something like that. I don't play EvE, so I don't know exactly how this works.

Anyways, a couple of alliances teamed up and attacked. The owner of the space station pulled their own fleet in to defend, and it turned into a battle that involved over 4000 players, and saw enough ships destroyed that the total cost of the war was around $200,000.

The biggest previous large scale encounter wrecked a total of 12 Titan class ships. This one destroyed 75, plus hundreds of smaller craft. One Titan alone was worth $5,500.

The costs are based on the exchange rate between $ and PLEX, which is the EvE in game currency and can also be used to pay for a monthly subscription (which is why we can work out an exchange rate).

It's really kind of amazing on how the game is living and breathing to where a single battle becomes huge and truly will affect the online world (or galaxy? whatever.)

It's definitely impressive, but also a good example as to why EVE will never be a game for me.

The thought of playing for months on end only to lose it all at some point and start from scratch is enough to make me say no thanks. (And I've heard plenty of agonized cries from guildies over the years when they lost their ship on that game)

It's definitely impressive, but also a good example as to why EVE will never be a game for me.

The thought of playing for months on end only to lose it all at some point and start from scratch is enough to make me say no thanks. (And I've heard plenty of agonized cries from guildies over the years when they lost their ship on that game)

I couldn't agree more. I used to play EVE and I had spent months collecting enough cash to purchase the skills and equipment necessary for a battleship. I thought hey I'm pretty BA now let me ask the corp(guild) if I can run some pvp with them. They said sure! Well to my suprise i was not even close to being a bad ***. My Battleship was destroyed by a small cruiser within seconds- SECONDS! 6 months worth of work permenantly GONE in SECONDS! I immediately activated my clone (There are no respawns if you don't have a clone that has a higher skill point threshold than the current amount of skill points you have you lose some of your hard earned skill points) and jumped into my battle cruiser. Once again I got popped with in mere seconds. At that point the keys Alt and F4 were the last two key strokes that game saw from me.

While it might sound like the losses are huge, and they are, there is an old saying in EVE. "Never fly anything you can't afford to lose". All those Titans? They flew them into battle knowing they would not come back. The players live for this stuff and while you can certainly exchange PLEX into gametime, hence sort of money, it's a rather poor reporting to not explain just how much PLEX these huge alliances generate in-game from mining and manufacturing.

For those who don't know, CCP allows players to openly sell gametime cards in-game for in-game currency or whatever else one might want in exhange. So you can't REALLY turn mountains of in-game money into rael money instantly.

While it might sound like the losses are huge, and they are, there is an old saying in EVE. "Never fly anything you can't afford to lose". All those Titans? They flew them into battle knowing they would not come back. The players live for this stuff and while you can certainly exchange PLEX into gametime, hence sort of money, it's a rather poor reporting to not explain just how much PLEX these huge alliances generate in-game from mining and manufacturing.

I think they didn't report how much people can make because it's not really related. Anyway, my point was that I'm not into losing $5000 in one battle

I think they didn't report how much people can make because it's not really related.

It is related. All wealth is relative. If you lose $500,000 on a wager with a $40,000 annual salary and not a lot of assets, you're screwed. If you lose $500,000 on a wager and you have a multi-billion-dollar fortune, it's a drop in (from?) the bucket and, while annoying, won't be all that painful.

So yeah, just throwing out the USD-equivalent in PLEX of the ships destroyed in a given EvE engagement is useless, partially because PLEX and USD don't convert to each other that easily (and isk is involved anyway) and partially because big corps can absorb a loss of assets on the scales being reported reasonably easily.

Why be glad to not play EVE right now? I am thinking of activating my account cause of this message... Mineral prices are going to skyrocket for a few months and a professional miner can make a small fortune in its wake

LOL.. I was just thinking the same thing.

Big arse conflicts are always good for the resource market in EVE. Keeps things fresh and moving in the economy.

While it might sound like the losses are huge, and they are, there is an old saying in EVE. "Never fly anything you can't afford to lose". All those Titans? They flew them into battle knowing they would not come back. The players live for this stuff and while you can certainly exchange PLEX into gametime, hence sort of money, it's a rather poor reporting to not explain just how much PLEX these huge alliances generate in-game from mining and manufacturing.

 

For those who don't know, CCP allows players to openly sell gametime cards in-game for in-game currency or whatever else one might want in exhange. So you can't REALLY turn mountains of in-game money into rael money instantly.

/Agree.

I couldn't agree more. I used to play EVE and I had spent months collecting enough cash to purchase the skills and equipment necessary for a battleship. I thought hey I'm pretty BA now let me ask the corp(guild) if I can run some pvp with them. They said sure! Well to my suprise i was not even close to being a bad ***. My Battleship was destroyed by a small cruiser within seconds- SECONDS! 6 months worth of work permenantly GONE in SECONDS! I immediately activated my clone (There are no respawns if you don't have a clone that has a higher skill point threshold than the current amount of skill points you have you lose some of your hard earned skill points) and jumped into my battle cruiser. Once again I got popped with in mere seconds. At that point the keys Alt and F4 were the last two key strokes that game saw from me.

Like you and Callaron, I don't think this is the game for me either. I don't mind investing some money in a game I enjoy, but not to the tune of thousands upon thousands, and especially like you say, to lose it in a matter of seconds.

The heartbreak would be enough to make me stop. It would be too painful. I get attached to my little avatars and belongings and losing them in a snap of the fingers...holds no appeal for me.

I couldn't agree more. I used to play EVE and I had spent months collecting enough cash to purchase the skills and equipment necessary for a battleship. I thought hey I'm pretty BA now let me ask the corp(guild) if I can run some pvp with them. They said sure! Well to my suprise i was not even close to being a bad ***. My Battleship was destroyed by a small cruiser within seconds- SECONDS! 6 months worth of work permenantly GONE in SECONDS! I immediately activated my clone (There are no respawns if you don't have a clone that has a higher skill point threshold than the current amount of skill points you have you lose some of your hard earned skill points) and jumped into my battle cruiser. Once again I got popped with in mere seconds. At that point the keys Alt and F4 were the last two key strokes that game saw from me.

And yet people claim that they just love hardcore games and bemoan MMOs like SWTOR that are too casual friendly and way too easy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The game you are looking for absolutely positively exists: it is called EVE Online. That is truly what hardcore is all about.

Why are you guys not playing it?

That is what makes EVE unique. I have been in these kind of fights in EVE, both in sub capital ship and in capital ship. You can't just jump into the biggest ship and hope to kill everyone. No. Fights in require you to think. It's like chess, sacrifice your pawns to let your Knight take out their Queen.

Send in your tacklers (CC them) on their support ships, warp to zero on them and then kill their support ships. Tackle their capital ships, send in your capital ships, kill their capital ships, tackle their Super Capital ships, but here. Here it gets exciting. The more you put on the table, the chance of a greater loss you can have.

Do you send in your Super Capital Ships or do you stick with capital ships? Since there are alliances in EVE, the group of people you fight in one system, can be the bait, for another group of their Super Capital ships. So was their Super Capital ships only a bait? probably. Fight escalates.

First time in PvP for me, an adrenaline rush. Not like PvP in swtor. You know that you could lose your ship and money wise it can cost you a lot or little. You can PvP in a frigate (which is the smallest and cheapest kind of ships in EVE).

And yet people claim that they just love hardcore games and bemoan MMOs like SWTOR that are too casual friendly and way too easy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The game you are looking for absolutely positively exists: it is called EVE Online. That is truly what hardcore is all about.

 

Why are you guys not playing it?

I'm not playing it because permadeath sucks, and I think the guy you quoted wasn't asking for a hardcore game. There are other ways to make a game difficult than to just make you lose everything forever.

I'm not playing it because permadeath sucks, and I think the guy you quoted wasn't asking for a hardcore game. There are other ways to make a game difficult than to just make you lose everything forever.

I don't think Lium was talking about the poster he quoted specifically, but rather about the haters that occasionally come here to scream they need to turn this game into a real hardcore thing.

Like "he-who-shall-not-be-named" that exploited the friend referrals to get access to the forums again and that made it a habit of posting his nonsense every day. (And who I suspect was on the receiving end of Eric's +10 Banhammer )

I'm not playing it because permadeath sucks, and I think the guy you quoted wasn't asking for a hardcore game. There are other ways to make a game difficult than to just make you lose everything forever.

Permadeath? wut? It's more like a repair bill. Granted, it's a bit on the expensive side, but you don't lose you skills nor your implants if you have a clone.

Permadeath? wut? It's more like a repair bill. Granted, it's a bit on the expensive side, but you don't lose you skills nor your implants if you have a clone.

And how do you get a clone?

And how do you get a clone?

By buying one? You buy a clone and it makes a copy of your current character and stores it in a vat on a space station of your choosing. So, if you know you're going into a battle where death is more likely than not, simply get a clone ready and you lose nothing.

There is also insurance, so you can get an insurance on your ship to coup some of the losses back. At least I seem to recall there being one, it's been awhile.

Oh and one more thing, losing your ship doesn't mean you automatically die. You leave in an escape pod and in large battles, going after an escape pod isn't something that's really done unless the enemy wants to grief you. If you're just out doing missions for money, I don't think NPC enemies kill pods.

There is also different security levels in sectors. You can get your feet wet in high sec systems and just run missions against NPCs if you want to. You don't *have* to start the game and fly into the wild west from the get go. In high sec you are relatively safe as most people can't be arsed killing newbies there because the po-po will kill them if they do and your ship isn't worth the trouble.

It's definitely impressive, but also a good example as to why EVE will never be a game for me.

The thought of playing for months on end only to lose it all at some point and start from scratch is enough to make me say no thanks. (And I've heard plenty of agonized cries from guildies over the years when they lost their ship on that game)

Everyone there chose to be there.

they knew the risks.

By buying one? You buy a clone and it makes a copy of your current character and stores it in a vat on a space station of your choosing. So, if you know you're going into a battle where death is more likely than not, simply get a clone ready and you lose nothing.

 

There is also insurance, so you can get an insurance on your ship to coup some of the losses back. At least I seem to recall there being one, it's been awhile.

 

Oh and one more thing, losing your ship doesn't mean you automatically die. You leave in an escape pod and in large battles, going after an escape pod isn't something that's really done unless the enemy wants to grief you. If you're just out doing missions for money, I don't think NPC enemies kill pods.

 

There is also different security levels in sectors. You can get your feet wet in high sec systems and just run missions against NPCs if you want to. You don't *have* to start the game and fly into the wild west from the get go. In high sec you are relatively safe as most people can't be arsed killing newbies there because the po-po will kill them if they do and your ship isn't worth the trouble.

Your thought is correct NPC's don't PK

Everyone there chose to be there.

 

they knew the risks.

Oh, I'm aware of that - and I even see where the appeal is for some (real stakes and all).

I was just saying it's not for me. (hence me being here and not over there)

You should be crying that you WEREN'T there! It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. 21 hours of a dust-up because someone forgot to pay their sovereignty bill (or didn't have enough money in their auto-pay guild account).

Like you and Callaron, I don't think this is the game for me either. I don't mind investing some money in a game I enjoy, but not to the tune of thousands upon thousands, and especially like you say, to lose it in a matter of seconds.

 

The heartbreak would be enough to make me stop. It would be too painful. I get attached to my little avatars and belongings and losing them in a snap of the fingers...holds no appeal for me.

I think they didn't report how much people can make because it's not really related. Anyway, my point was that I'm not into losing $5000 in one battle

Almost none of those people lost any REAL-WORLD money. Someone may have short cut something here or there and bought PLEX and sold it in-game for quick isk, but 99.99% didn't lose anything more than a few hours of their life in a fight that they will remember for the rest of it. PvP at it's best.

Remember when everyone started crying about the cost of repairing gear? It's the same thing here, except you replace as well as repair. You can't die in the game. You just lose things. It's just sometimes the thing you lose is your body. Worry not, you've got at least one other in a cryo-tube somewhere ready to wake when the current one gets lost.

HERE is the info on the whole thing right from CCP.

I'll take out the best parts

7,548 total combatants from both coalitions.

Counting all combatants in the main dust up, plus the support skirmishes and gate camps to ambush reinforcements. 2000+ players in a single battle makes 24 man Ops look like child's play.

This wasn’t the largest single battle in terms of numbers of participants in system at once. That record still belongs to the battle for 6VDT-H, which reached 4,070 pilots in system.

Totals destroyed:

 

• Titans – 75 (74 in system, one on its way to the fight) N3/PL lost 59 titans and CFC/DTF lost 16 titans

• Titan losses by type: Gallente Erebus – 37, Amarr Avatar – 25, Minmatar Ragnarok – 13, Caldari Leviathan - 0

• Supercarriers – 13 (12 in system, one as it tried to escape the system)

• Dreadnaughts – 370 (356 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)

• Carriers – 123 (109 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)

• And lots more smaller ships and probably a bajilion drones and fighters

Google some vids on this. Watching is a struggle as it is slowed due to an enforced lag to basically prevent server lag. This way everyone experiences the same time dilation and the fight remains fair. Look at it as EVE bullet time. Think of how much you can do when the time dilation is 10:1 (every ten minutes of real-time is 1 minute of game-time). I'm surprised that I could not find a converted vid showing the fight in what would be real-time. Someone did one, but got the time conversion incorrect. They went to 100:1 rather than the 10:1 ratio.

Frame of reference for the uninitiated.

In comparison, the previous record for largest single battle Titan losses was a tie between battles in “O2O” and “Uemon”, with 12 total Titans destroyed in each.

 

Approximately 775 doomsdays were fired, which is about 24% of all the doomsdays fired in the last two years inclusive. The Battle for HED-GP, which preceded this one in the Halloween War, had about 200 doomsdays.

 

The Economic Impact

11 TRILLION ISK.

According to some PLEX conversions that could equate to approximately $300,000-$330,000 USD.

In the end, CCP is putting a permanent in-game monument to the battle at that site called "Titanomachy". Anyone know if EA put any in-game monuments to any one action or event held by players? Hell, my character, along with @ a half-million others will be permanently etched into stone in a real world monument in Reykjavik, Iceland.

So do you still wish you weren't playing EVE online?

If anyone wants to get a 21 day pass to EVE, send me an email.

Fly safe! o7

 

In the end, CCP is putting a permanent in-game monument to the battle at that site called "Titanomachy". Anyone know if EA put any in-game monuments to any one action or event held by players? Hell, my character, along with @ a half-million others will be permanently etched into stone in a real world monument in Reykjavik, Iceland.

 

So do you still wish you weren't playing EVE online?

If anyone wants to get a 21 day pass to EVE, send me an email.

 

Fly safe! o7

Meh, they put "Remember Fray" on Ilum, but it was game wide and didn't really make sense for my server since we had a decent Pub-Imp balance.

Regarding this recent EvE thing, it looks like the total damages are actually $400,000 not $330,000 thousand. So that's one AMAZING battle.

And the monument reminds me of Asheron's Call "Harry."

Oh, God. I wish I had been there for that.