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Do The Best Choice During EVE High-Sec War

Am 13. März 2010 veröffentlicht von aiongold

Do you have some difficult when you play EVE? Do you feel hard to make a choice if you in the EVE High-Sec War? Now we'd like to do some discussion and tell you more about the game.

EVE Online can be a harsh place, and at times it is based more on player choices and emergent behavior than an inherent balance of forces. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the war system used to make PvP legal between two corporations or alliances in high-sec space. The disparity in force projection between a casual high-sec mining corporation and a diehard pirate ransom corporation gives 'asymmetrical warfare' a new meaning.

Players in corporations oriented towards relatively peaceful activities are sought out by these piratical organizations, and then the threat of war is used to terrorize and extort them. In short, fun and profit at other peoples' expense, often with a helping of teeth-gnashing on the side. Which has a place in the hearts of EVE players.

But never mind that. What's important is that when the terrible people hellbent on ruining fun come calling, the innocent high-sec dwellers understand what the options are, and don't panic. To that end, this guide.

The Psychology of The Extortionist

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The pirates are after entertainment and ISK, in that order. They want entertainment in the form of blowing you up, and they want ISK from your dropped loot and from you eventually paying them to go away.
They don't want a challenge, but that doesn't matter because you can't put up a challenge. PvP in EVE Online is pretty darn tricky, especially in EVE High-sec, and at least somebody needs to know what they are doing or you're going to get walked all over. First time PvPers trying feebly to retaliate is exactly what the pirates want, because when you lose (this point isn't really a variable, first time PvPers will lose against experienced war corporations) you will be more amenable to purchasing a quick end to the war.

Cost, Opportunity Cost, and Upkeep

Pirates can't make you undock, and the longer you go without undocking, the more it costs to maintain the war. This is your primary advantage against PvPers. All they can do is disrupt whatever you needed to undock for, be it mining, missions, or what have you. This isn't ideal, because it doesn't make them any money or provide much in the way of entertainment.

In order to make the war cost as much as possible, your corporation should be in an alliance. If not, the cost of declaring war on you is going to be a scant handful of millions of ISK, possibly as low as 2mil ISK. At least, for the first week of war. This is nothing. If you are in an alliance, the cost is more like 50mil ISK for the first week, or possibly several times that if the pirate corporation or your corporation are involved in multiple wars.

Some things can raise the cost of waging war against you. The longer the war goes on, the more it costs. The more wars the pirate corporation is involved in, the more it costs. The more wars your corporation is involved with, the more it costs. It's against the rules to declare war against your corporation with shell corporations, in order to raise the cost, though. This can be petitioned if anybody notices, and you may get a warning (or worse) from GMs.

You can't reason with them to end the war, because war is reasonable from their perspective. You can't beg your way out of a war, because whining is the chief motivation of most of EVE's pirate player base. As are idle threats. You do have some options, though, and it's best to be aware of them.

Responding By Not Responding

The best, most readily available way for a non-PvP corporation to deal with wars is to freeze the pirates out. Don't talk to them in local, especially in ways that let them know they are inconveniencing you. Don't undock to fight them, even if you think you can win --even losing fights can be entertaining for pirates, or at least not boring. And it's pretty unlikely that you will be able to win, no offense.

If you don't provide targets, by not undocking in any market or mission hubs, nor in any mining systems, the pirates will eventually end the war and search for greener pastures. It probably will take a week or two, tops. It's also possible that you can relocate yourself to a more obscure area of High-sec EVE. This is not guaranteed to work, though, as special locator agents can tell the pirates where you are. If nothing else, though, this will probably mean there are less people in local chat, so you'll be less likely to miss someone you are at war with, jumping into system.

Another way to have fun but not play into these pirates' hands is to just log onto other characters, that aren't in the corporation that is involved in the war, and go about your business as best you can, until the war is over.

Hiring Mercenaries

One of the most suggested options is to hire mercenaries to fight your enemies for you. This is unlikely to work, mostly because mercenaries tend toward the terrible side, and probably aren't going to be cost-effective even if they can somehow help against the pirates.

Some mercenaries want you to pay for them to declare war on your targets, and probably to give them some sort of ISK allowance as well. Some will actually join your corporation to fight your enemies, which is marginally more pragmatic, but still likely to be too expensive for a EVE High-sec PvE corporation to keep up for long, at least a smaller one.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>When sizing up a mercenary corporation, you will want to look at their killboard, and to search the EVE Online forums for threads about them, to try and get an idea about how effective they are. You will also want to assess their active member numbers, to compare them against the corporation that has declared war against you.

Even the most effective mercenaries will only be a temporary show of force. If they humiliate the pirates that have been bothering you, it will still not guarantee an end to the war. Some pirates will interpret this as a fun challenge to be overcome, or an insult that must be punished, and become even more interested in your corporation, rather than less.

The Worst Option

It's against the rules to leave a corporation to avoid a war. There's no game mechanic that prevents this, but it is petition-able, and most EVE High-sec Pirates know this. Most competent pirate corporations will have some kind of list or address book folder of your corporation's members, and if they notice a mass migration going on, a GM will probably come calling. What is not against the rules is completely disbanding your corporation, and starting a new one. This is a pretty bad way to cope with a war, for obvious reasons, but for a low-key corporation without any POS and without tons of stuff scattered in various station hangars, it could a palatable last-ditch option. Of course, whatever corporation your people join, next, will be susceptible to war if the pirates are keeping track of you. And yeah, they probably are.

The Second Worst Option

Trying to muster resistance against pirates that declared war on you isn't going to go well, barring significant help. Even if you think you outnumber the pirates and you have them out-gunned, there are still any number of ways that they can turn things around on you. They could have neutral alt characters remotely repair them. They could have a fleet of backup ships one system out, or ready to log in at a moment's notice. They could have a bunch of falcons cloaked nearby, ready to pour on the ECM at a moment's notice. Half of EVE PvP is fooling your enemies into thinking that it is safe to attack. And that's assuming your fleet of mission-runners or miners is anything resembling combat ready. Hint: If you haven't been having regular PvP exercises, they probably aren't.

PvP in EVE Online is discussed and refined in numerous guides, articles, tutorials, PvP classes, and further polished through extensive in-game experiential learning. It cannot be opted into at a moment's notice, especially under the the hectic conditions of war. Or at least, you won't be very successful unless the pirates for some reason don't know what they are doing. PvP success in EVE is the result of constant striving, sharpening of tactics, and a great deal of thought. Newer players can PvP in low-sec or null-sec when they catch people unawares, or against other players without too much experience. But pit a mining or mission-running corporation against a pirate corporation, with all the cards more or less on the table, and you'll see the pirates win every time.

I don't mean to be negative, here, but I think an ounce of precaution is worth a pound of newbie player wrecks. As a new player, you should be easing into PvP under controlled conditions. That is, with a fleet of your friends, looking for kills in low-sec and accessible areas of null-sec. You don't want to "learn by doing" and feeding kills to pirates that are doing their level best to cut into your bottom line.

Bribing Them

Bribes work surprisingly well in EVE Online. If the pirates are looking to extort you, they will probably be up front about it. Usually, this kind of pirate will pepper local chat with "Only 500mil to make it end" and so forth. If the price seems reasonable enough that you might consider it, do a little research to find out if their corporation has a reputation for honoring demands or not. Search on the main EVE forums for threads that contain that corporation's name. If they have a track record of honoring or betraying ransoms and extortions, ten minutes of searching will probably turn some things up. If the corporation is mentioned in a bunch of threads with names like "dishonorable a$$hats do not pay" and typo-laced screeds from angry CEOs, paying them probably isn't such a good idea.

Nor is shelling out ransom ISK a good idea if the pirate CEO doesn't give some kind of guarantee that he won't declare war again, two weeks later. It's a gamble. Doing research can hedge your bets, but it's still a gamble. You can try for arrangements like "we'll pay you half now, and half in installments every week, for the next six weeks, if you don't declare war, again" but most pirates' terms are non-negotiable, so good luck with that.

If you pay ransom and the pirates betray you and keeps attacking, you're pretty much out of luck. The best you can do is head over to the Crime & Punishment sub-forum on the main EVE Online forums, and post a thread as a warning to others not to pay that corporation ransom. That sub-forum is sort of like an impotent Better Business Bureau for PvPers in EVE Online. Cold consolation, I know, but still better than nothing. And maybe the next guy won't pay the ransom.

The Best Defense

EVE Online's mechanics are designed to incentivize mixed corporations that have PvP-specialists, and PvE specialists, or at least to have players that are moderately competent at both. Every corporation in EVE should have PvP training ops to raise their general PvP skill level, and to get their players used to working with each other. Even the most "carebear" organizations in EVE should do this. Otherwise, your options are going to be pretty damn limited when the pirates finally notice you.

If you have any problems of EVE High-Sec Warduring the game, please don't hesitate to tell us, we will try our best to help you solve them in the shortst time. Do you also interested in Aion game? It also a good game I think, place an order for aion gold here to experience the game, you will enjoy yourself more.

Stichwörter: EVE, High-Sec, Warduring

EVE Real Money Traders On GDC 2010

Am 13. März 2010 veröffentlicht von aiongold

This year's EVE Game Developers Conferenc has opened now. And it is with that in mind that we sat in on a lecture given by EVE Online's Lead Economist, affectionately known as Dr. Eyjo. While we're most used to hearing the good doctor (PhD, not MD) talk directly about the game's economy, today he was talking about EVE Real Money Traders and the various strategies that CCP has been using to combat them.

The talk began by looking at three basic questions about real money trading:

Why does it exist?
Why go after it?
What is the best way?

The answer to the first question is disturbingly simple. Players want stuff and to get stuff, they need money. EVE Real Money Traders exist within games because of basic supply and demand. When there is a demand for something, there will always be someone that steps up to fill that need.

The answer to the second question is a little bit more complicated, but no less obvious to people who spend a lot of time playing MMOs. First and foremost, it breaks the gameplay. The most popular way for sellers to get their hands on the product that they're peddling is to use bots to farm or abuse exploits. Neither is a case of the game being played as intended. RMT also hurts the in-game economy. By bringing in extra resources and currency, it simply changes the relative scarcity of items, and thus alters their price. Then there's the fact that RMT dealers also often engage in illegal activities including credit card fraud and hacking. Finally, and possibly most surprising at least from a player's point of view is the fact that RMT dealers actually put a noticeable strain on a game's resources and systems both human (Customer Support) and hardware.

EVE Online, we were told, combats these RMTers in a number of ways. First, by trying to work toward taking the demand away by adding 30 day pilot's licence extensions, otherwise known as PLEX. PLEX is basically an EVE Online 30 day time card which can be purchased either within the game, or directly from CCP. These PLEX codes can then be bought and sold in-game using in-game currency.

The result is that players who have a lot of time to dedicate to the game and to earning ISK (in game currency) could use their hard earned money to buy more game time, thus essentially playing for free while at the same time, players who might not have as much free time are able to use their real money to earn ISK in a much more structured and sanctioned way. The key point here is that in this way, the players who were creating the demand for the products that are made available by the RMT dealers are able to satisfy their demand and the game's economy is left unscathed.

EVE Online, as a game that relies incredibly heavily on a player driven economy is especially interested in fighting EVE RMT in their game. To do that, they needed a good battle plan, and the tools to make it work.

In the end, the team at CCP began a program that they called pUnholy Rage,q a campaign designed to take the RMT element out of their game. To do this, they had to dedicate GM, research and software resources to the cause. This allowed them to research and analyze behaviour patterns, create tools to detect and remove RMT elements then to continue to monitor and analyze the data.

In the Fall of 2008, CCP took this program for its first test drive, banning over 3,000 accounts. On June 22nd, after revising their strategies, CCP banned a further 6200 accounts. Since that date, they have handed out over 30,000 bans under this system. It should be noted, however, that many of these 30,000 bannings were repeat offenders who had to be banned multiple times.

In the end, CCP has seen their CPU dropped 30% for the 2% of the population that was banned, players now have better access to and experiences in systems that may have been completely overrun by farmers and bots, and the economy has been strengthened.

So, the next time you ask yourself if companies are really doing anything to get rid of those pesky bots, know that it effects their bottom lines to have those folks in there and they want them gone just as bad as you do.

Check here for more EVE Real Money Traders as often as you can. By the way, we have tons of wow gold with the lowest price and the fastest delivery in stock, place an order here to save your money and have more fun in the game right now.

New Details Of EVE Planetary Interaction

Am 12. März 2010 veröffentlicht von aiongold

We all know that EVE Online's new expansion- EVE Tyrannis, has released for a period time, and how much do you know about the major missing component of EVE Planetary Interaction from EVE? So what exactly it is? Look at the details below:

CCP Hammer kicks things off with a bit of backstory, explaining that CCPhas wanted to do EVE Planetary Interaction for some time, and teasing us with the progression of EVE from interacting with planets as players will come Tyrannis, down to the boots-on-the-ground experience of DUST 514, and inside stations with the release of Incarna. The goal is for EVE Online to be the "ultimate sci-fi simulator."But as Hammer admits, he is getting a bit ahead of himself.

Whoa, we're half way there. You might be wondering why I'm spouting Bon Jovi lyrics. It's because much like Tommy who worked on the docks and Gina who worked in the diner all day, we at CCP are also half way there. Half way to bringing you Tyrannis, the next free expansion to EVE Online. I'm CCP Hammerhead, Lead Game Designer of EVE. Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear.

The Singularity Test Server should be updated with the latest in-development code by the time you read this. That means enterprising young hackers will be poring over the latest code and raw game data in an attempt to theorycraft the latest scoop about Tyrannis. Well in the spirit of transparency and in an effort to manage your expectations I'd like to tell you about the Planetary Interaction feature which is coming in Tyrannis and which you will be able to spot bits of if you really dig around on SISI (SISI is the test server's nickname). This is a no holds barred trip into where we're going and what you can get a tiny glimpse of and then watch evolve over the next months.

But before we get into that I would be remiss if I didn't give a modicum of back story. Interacting with planets is something we've always wanted to do. We have even shown a rough prototype of planetary flight at the first FanFest. Well, a lot has changed since that first FanFest but our desire to explore these thousands of worlds has remained unwavering. The EVE universe is such a rich and interesting place it's been a shame we haven't been able to immerse ourselves deeper into it. Until today where we are witnessing the first baby steps out of space and into the place where the rest of the inhabitants of the EVE universe live. Steps which will soon be followed all the way to the ground by a link into DUST 514 and inside stations with Incarna. Our final destination being an all encompassing sci-fi simulator where you can experience any sci-fi experience you desire. But I'm getting ahead of myself; we're here to sing 80s tunes and talk about Planetary Interaction EVE.

A little about what Planetary Interaction is; PI is a feature in which industrial minded pilots can now take advantage of the resources on planets which had previously been laying dormant. To do that one simply opens the planet browser, finds a suitable planet via a scanning interface then plunks down various things we have internally been calling PINs (planetary interaction node), links those PINs together and then configures routes for all of the stuff moving between the PINs. PIN is just a working title and we've got our highly trained sci-fi experts on the task of renaming everything so you should expect the name to change by the time they reach Tranquility. Our ultimate goal being to create a nice additional revenue stream for people that's wrapped up in a sexy UI with lots of sci-fi feeling content that eventually ties in seamlessly with DUST 514.

So now let me go a little deeper into the feature and tell you about what is and isn't going to be visible on SISI. I'll take it from the high level and move deeper into the granularity as I feel that's the best way to wrap your head around the game mechanics. The first thing we had to do was come up with a method of distributing all of the resources to the various planets. We need to do this both globally and locally. By that I mean we need the resources distributed so there is a landscape to the regions including risk vs. reward balance of hi/med/lo sec space then that the individual planets also have resources spread across them in a way that looks natural when viewed from the planet viewing UI. This system for distributing resources is getting close to ready on the back end but no authoring or balance work has taken place yet. So on SISI the most you will could possibly get today is "1" of certain test resources. We're currently using our special development server dev hacks to put resources where we want them for testing and balancing on our local servers.

Once the resources are in place it would be nice to have some tools to find said resources. Well we're working on that too. The way one goes about this is to launch a satellite over the planet they are interested in, then pick a specific resource in the new EVE Planetary Scanning window and get a graphical representation in the form of a heat map of how that resource is distributed on the planet. We use sexy colored spherical harmonics to represent hot spots for the best resources. The "scan planet" button currently only prints "mouseClicked" to the log so sorry you can't use it yet. You can Google image search for spherical harmonics to get a preview. Our version is so cutting edge it's only running on one computer in the whole world.

If your scanner worked or if you have fancy slash commands and GM menus you would be able to find a good spot to put down your Planetary Command Center. The PCC is your base of operations for all of your infrastructure on a given planet. Skills will likely allow you to have PCCs on multiple planets. After your PCC is down on a good location the next thing you want to do is start placing extractors in good locations based on your survey results. Extractor PINS pull the various resources from the planet be they solid, liquid or gas depending on which type of planet you're prospecting on. There isn't really anything to extract on SISI currently unless you're a dev but trust me, it's amazing.

When you've got an extractor and PCC placed you're going to want to do something with all those lovely resources and my recommendation to you is to add some storage PINS to hold your stuff while you're offline. Although you won't be able to move your stuff from the extractor to the storage without making some links. Links have (or will have) various levels of bandwidth. We've currently got only one test version and it's called Highway to the Danger Zone. Once everything is linked up your next task to use the route designer (GM only for now) to set the resource flows around you network of PINS.

By now you should have a network of PCC, extractor and storage PINS on your imaginary planet (because you've been doing this in your mind as you read the blog). You might be thinking it's time to get this stuff off the planet and onto the market BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Why waste valuable storage space in your rocket or space elevator (more on that later) when you can do some processing dirt-side and just send up the good stuff? I thought the same thing. This is why we have process PINS. All kinds of process PINS for all kinds of processes which use all kinds of schematics (subject to change of course). You will be mixing and matching various resources and commodities based on those schematics to come up with intermediate commodities to eventually create final products. Some final products can be produced entirely on one planet but most will require transport to other planets to be produced. Nothing on SISI is currently balanced and you most likely won't be able to get this far without dev hacks anyway but this would be a boring story if I just stopped halfway through so let's continue.

Are you wondering about the Space Elevator I mentioned earlier? I am at this very moment. We call our first test version Stairway to Heaven. The Space Elevator is the best way to move things off of a planet. It is so good in fact that many planets won't even have them and we're not even sure if players will be able to build them in EVE Tyrannis. Wars have been fought over access to these Space Elevators. I know because I've seen it. It isn't the only way to get rid of your stuff though. Each command center can launch cargo rockets on occasion and there is a space port PIN that acts as an upgrade from the command center. There is also trade hub PIN which lets you buy and sell commodities from your neighbors on the planet. With a trade hub and a trade agreement setup it's possible to create more complex networks that facilitate more advance process trees. THAT MEANS MORE FUN AND PROFIT! But of course you can't do that yet on SISI as it's technology from the future that hasn't been invented yet.

So I hope you will join me in impatiently waiting for May and the launch of Tyrannis. Check out SISI now for a first glimpse of PI but also be sure to check back in 3 weeks to see all of the progress that happens during a single sprint. I know you can't be here with me wandering around the office bugging everyone to work faster but I can assure you that's what I'm doing. Should I sing Power Ballads until Tyrannis is out the door? Sing with me; YOU LIVE FOR THE FIGHT WHEN IT'S ALL THAT YOU'VE GOT WHOOOOAH WE'RE HALF WAY THERE!

Big hair bonus round: As a treat for everyone who read all the way to the end of the blog we've decided to give you a special something. CCP Nimbus, one of our QA engineers on the Planetary Interaction team drew up some concept art for the basics of how the UI and functionality in PI works. What follows is the unedited results of his labor. We hope you enjoy it and that it helps you visualize the complex structure of the PI feature.

We will continue to focus on EVE Planetary Interaction and offer more news which you interested in for you. We also a professional seller for wow gold, and we always provide the cheapest and the fastest delivery gold for our loyal customers, place an order here you will save more money and have more fun. So stop looking around now, we will never let your down!