EVE Blog Banter #25: Subtracting Sovereignty

Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from @Tetraetc - "Tetra's EVE Blog" - who asks: "Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modifcation of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?"

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        I believe there is a large hurdle for alliances to leap over in order to get into capturing sovereignty. Namely, playing the reinforcement game. Getting a fleet together is simple. Getting a fleet together that has the firepower and patience to reinforce a tower? Quite a significant commitment. Getting that fleet together three times in a row at different times on different days? A heroic effort.

        For those who are ignorant of the current mechanics, here's a quick explanation. Unclaimed space is claimed with a Territorial Claim Unit (TCU). When that goes online, the system is yours and you can start placing buildings - Infrastructure Hubs (IHUBs) and Stations. All three of these building types are invulnerable as long as you hold uncontested sovereignty.

        To take someone else's sovereignty, you have to plant Sovereignty Blockade Units (SBUs) at over 50% of the system's gates. At that point the IHUB and Station become vulnerable. Taking them down requires shooting them and waiting out the reinforcement timers. When those buildings are down, the enemy TCU is vulnerable. Destroy it and the system returns to a neutral state, ready to be claimed by its conquerors.

        So what happens when you start tearing that system apart, piece by piece? First of all, the reinforcement timers. If reinforcement did not exist, an enemy fleet could storm a system and capture it within half a day. SBU's take 3 hours to come online, and TCU's take 8. In the middle of that is the timeframe for the IHUB to be destroyed and the Station to be conquered. A blob of supercaps would make it easy. This change alone can make a huge upset in sovereignty holdings, as a large alliance that is slow to react can lose systems literally overnight. For working types like myself, I'm away from EVE for 16 hours in a row every day when considering work and sleep. A successful alliance defense would require round-the-clock guard shifts across all timezones.

        If taking down the IHUB and Station was not required, then the attack can be reduced to a single player in an Industrial carrying the necessary SBU's and TCU, plus a small gang to destroy the enemy TCU.

        These changes would force such delicate instability that maintaining any amount of territorial claim would require eyes everywhere at all times and a reactionary force of minutemen available to repel any attack within a matter of hours. The week-long round-the-clock siege of 6VDT-H performed by my own alliance just a few weeks ago would be reduced to a lazy Saturday's activity. That hard work could be undermined the very next day. Establishing a flourishing market and profitable IHUBs would be next to impossible.

        Breaking down sovereignty from alliance level to corp level would surely make things more granular, but it could also splinter the effectiveness of an alliance. Each corp would have its own staging systems and the coordination between corps could easily fall apart.

        So the way I see it, removing some of the sovereignty barriers would definitely cause more PvP simply by making it easier for one group to force another group's hand. But make it too easy and the ability to change sovereignty becomes trivial with a blob force, and impossible to maintain when the opposing blob force shows up, all the while draining all the fun away from building a productive home.

        So what happens when sovereignty disappears or it becomes utterly pointless? Then nullsec simply becomes lowsec without the GCC. Anarchy. A pirate's dream. All PVP all the time. Alliances degenerate into nomadic blobs or bubbly gatecamps. Lowsec becomes the carebears risking a shot at making more money versus the solo PvPers hellbent on stopping them. Meanwhile supercapital ships have nowhere to hide, and the prices of any kind of nullsec equipment skyrocket. Well, at least it wouldn't be safer than highsec.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #25:

1. CrazyKinux's Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean.....?
2. BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
3. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
4. Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You're a Chick?!
5. Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin's
6. Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora's Blog
7. Blog Banter #25 - Mad Haberdashers
8. Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
9. ...Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
10. Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
11. EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov 'n Go!
12. » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
13. Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
14. Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
15. EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
16. Who cares about Sov? - Hands Off, My Loots!
17. The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty - The Phoenix Diaries
18. Achernar: The space commute
19. Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
20. (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano's Journey
21. Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 - Crappy mechanics
22. Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
23. BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
24. Boom! Hull-Shot?: It's the End of the Eve as We Know It
25. sered's lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 - Size does matter
26. 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
27. Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
28. Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
29. Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist's Life in Eve
30. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
31. >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny's eyes.
32. Latro's Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
33. A "CareBears" Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
34. Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc's Ramblings
35. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
36. EVE Blog Banter on PVP in Null Sec « Evehermit's Blog

EVE Blog Banter #24: Whooooo Are You? Who, Who? Who, Who?

Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

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       Ah, a wonderful topic. How does my roleplay mesh with my gameplay?

        Long story short, I play the game for myself, not for Knee. I don't play in-character and I don't think about Knee's role in things until later when I start writing. This causes some roleplay conflicts at times. I have portrayed Knee as terribly racist, with a loathing for the Amarr and a strong dislike for the Caldari by association. How could Knee tolerate working for the Caldari, to the point of killing his own brethren sometimes in missions? Such an act must be abhorrent to his character, so the answer is simple - he doesn't tolerate it at all. I make him regret his actions and attempt to atone by quitting his service to the empire. The real story was that I was bored of solo missioning and I wanted to give nullsec a try. But that makes a dull story.

        Knee's character is half newbie, half badass. A flawed hero. He grew up proficient in physical combat, but translating that knowledge into piloting a ship as a Capsuleer is a very foreign concept to him, a huge learning experience. It's fun to write about the triumphs and humble to write about the failures. In this way I can express my own little successes and failures as I play.

        Knee is a follower, not a leader. This is because of my own style. I don't want to be the FC. I want to be the loyal soldier who brings the pain. As a heroic type, Knee tries to be a good guy despite his shortcomings. But to contradict this, I've contemplated exploring the darker side of EVE. I want to participate in Hulkageddon. I want to ninja loot someone's mission and smash their carebear Marauder with a Machariel. I pod people without question in 0.0 if I am able. How can I justify such actions in-character? This forces even more creativity into the creative writing, and creates a better product. Life doesn't always turn out the way you planned. That's what keeps it interesting.

        Now, how has EVE augmented my own story? For starters, being a member of Dreddit has unsurprisingly gotten me hooked on Reddit and awestruck by all the things they have done for the common good. Just like in EVE, it makes me want to be a part of something grand done entirely by the community, without any kind of external prompting.

        I guess EVE has also made me more wary, since EVE is scam and gank central. Creating months-long skillplans is also a lesson in discipline - creating a plan and sticking to it. Now if only I could train a skill to cut my taxes by 10%. Sigh.


Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #24:


CrazyKinux's Musing - Be, All That You Can Be, And So Much More!
Where the Frack is my Ship? - Behind The Keyboard
EVEOGANDA - Real Life & EVE
A Mule in EVE - RL + EVE =
Confessions of a Closet Carebear - EVE and Real Life
The Hydrostatic Capsule - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Alt
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - Reflections
A Scientist's Life in EVE - The Other Side of the Screen
The Durzo Chronicles - Who is More Real??
A Lush in Space - Worlds Collide
Captain Serenity - Personalities
Diary of a Space Jockey - I Am Me
Freebooted - You Talking To Me?
Drifting Through The Stars - EVE and Real Life
EVE A to Z - EVE and Real Life
Fiddler's Edge - Game Face
Yarrbear Tales - In Real Life
Victoria Aut Mors - Where EVE Meets Real Life
Prano's Journey - I Am Prano
Mike Azariah, A Missioner in EVE - Who Are You, Who Hoo Woo Hoo [Great Minds Think Alike]
Roc's Ramblings - Me
EVE Blasphemy - EVE and Real Life
Phoenix Diaries - EVE and Real Life
Play the Game - Personalities In Game And Out Of Game
Progression's Horizon - Synonymous or Anonymous
Aggressive Logistics - Do Unto Others...
The Lathspell of Mithrandir - To Play Or To Live...
Wanderlust - I Am Not Who I Am In EVE
Latro's Bunker - EVE and RL
Shall We Not Revenge? - Multiple Personality Disorder

EVE Blog Banter #23: I'm Walking in Stations, Now What?

Welcome to the twenty-third installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

With Incursion giving us glimpses of what Incarna will have to offer (the the Character Creator), this month's topic, by @Minerpewpew, comes just at the right time. He asks "What are your thoughts on how Incarna will effect the current EVE Online social dynamic?" I'd like to see this questioning go a bit further. How will this affect EVE's player base? Who will Incarna attract? New players to the genre? Seduce old players back into the game? Will we see new players come in that will never leave their station? Please explore to the best of your abilities!

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        Commercialization does funny things to online games. When Team Fortress 2 began receiving class content updates, the focus of the player base was to cooperate and acquire all the achievements necessary to unlock the new weapons. Occasionally a few hats were introduced to give players some flair to wear as they were fragging each other. Then the "Mann-conomy" update appeared. All the content which was previously found through achievements or luck of the draw was suddenly purchaseable and tradeable. Suddenly the weapons which gave players tactical advantages in combat took a back seat in players' eyes. The thing most coveted in Team Fortress 2 is hats. Lots and lots of hats, traded as bargaining chips for bigger, better, more rare hats. Tens of thousands of dollars being spent on virtual items that simply look pretty. It put a standard FPS in a whole new light.

        I can hear the jealous wail all the way from Iceland.

        Despite the claims from diehard capsuleers that The People are not interested in Incarna, I will argue that EVE players ARE interested in vanity, and CCP can harness that vanity in Incarna. Simply look at those who feel the need to stockpile every ship in their hangars with Test Dummies, Spiced Wine, Tobacco, Pax Amarria, and Exotic Dancers. Those same players will be scrambling to get together a proper winter ensemble for their avatar when the weather outside gets chilly.

        Another guaranteed way CCP can generate interest in Incarna by capitalizing on players' vanity is through rarity. There is a common thread between MMO's and Trading Card Games. They both thrive due to items that not everybody can have. EVE is not a stranger to rare items. Three Frekis were lost by Circle of Two during Alliance Tournament VIII - mere frigates with street values of over 30 billion ISK apiece due to their limited-edition rarity. Imagine the adornments CCP can conceive which will cause people to part with their ISK and even PLEXes due to being limited-edition items. In a year we could see an Alliance Tournament award medals of valor for the winners which can be affixed to their avatars.

        So we've established that Eternal Pursuit of the Shiny will cause some people to enjoy Incarna. What about the people who don't care about that? How will Incarna change the social game? That part is a bit trickier because the story essentially hasn't been written yet. Harken back to Mynxee's recap of the October CSM Summit and you will see that they point-blank asked CCP if there will be gameplay in Incarna, and what is planned, and CCP basically responded, "Hmm, good question. Why don't you tell us what you want?"

        This reaction is a very dangerous tell. CCP has stated before that they are making Incarna in order to fulfill a self-imposed desire to diversify. Through what medium? They don't know, just as long as it sells stuff via microtransactions. The problem with that is that you cannot force a game into existence without knowing what its content is going to be, and still expect it to be fun. Look at Spore - a game that had the most potential of any concept imaginable, but ended up completely lacking in depth and substance. A game has to be compelling on its own without a need for the concept around it. This is why Incarna is going to be extremely difficult to create. CCP's purpose for building Incarna is to generate a social following. To that end it has to attract people into a social context. Think Facebook. What draws people to it? Making new friends, keeping in touch with existing friends, social networking, blogging. And then there's Farmville, Bejeweled, and Texas Hold-Em Poker.

        EVE Hold-Em is already a player attraction, and an Incarna version that cuts out the middleman would surely gain a following. That has a side benefit at least - the ability to play for ISK. The other games are just gimmicks. Remember that you're in EVE. You're already playing a game. Why play a game within a game? There has to be incentive. In fact the most important requirement for Incarna to succeed is if it's fun to play WITHOUT leaving the station. It has to compete with EVE itself. There has to be a compelling reason for Incarna's existence to create social interaction beyond what already exists in chat channels. Looking at avatar bling is not enough. Creating and selling avatar bling, now that's something that has potential. In order to compete as a chatroom-with-benefits, Incarna has to rival the likes of Second Life as a social gaming platform, which already has the advantage by sanctioning RMT through an in-game currency exchange. Imagine selling ISK for cash through EVE's website. That'd elevate the scamming incentive by quite a bit, I'd bet.

        How will Incarna affect the rest of EVE? Let's say CCP does everything right and Incarna develops its own entire player base. There is still outer space to contend with. Just like item logistics, you gotta get to the station in order to attend the party going on inside it. With this in mind, I don't think the core player base will change much. EVE outside of stations is still the cold, harsh universe it's always been, and new players will not appreciate the callous admonishments when their sparkly new ship goes poof because they thought 0.4 security space was safe. Despite the potential for social enrichment, I think most station-dwellers will be primarily worrying about their chances of winning an all-in with pocket Kings so they can buy their next PLEX. Or hats. Hats are purty.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #23:

I am Keith Neilson - Incarnal Desires

Bob From Marketing - Incarna

Confessions of a Closet Carebear - Who Enters The New Incarna(tion) of EVE

OMG! You're a Chick?! - Nobody Will Use Incarna - The Remix
An Amarrian Capsuleer - Incarna
Interstellar Privateer - Depth of Vision
Latro's Bunker - Incarna and EVE's Social Dynamic
EVE A to Z - Incarna
New Eden History Student - On Incarna
Blastrad Tales - Incarnate
Tai One On - Incarna
Serenity One - Force Fed
Roc's Ramblings - Shiny
Aeroxe's Assault - Stretching Your Legs
A Mule in EVE - What Comes With Incarna
Ardwulf's Lair - These Aren't The Legs You're Looking For
Progression's Horizon - These Legs Are Made For Walkin'
CrazyKinux's Musing - Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, Neither Was New Eden
Drifting Through The Stars - Topic: Incarna
Diary of a Pod Pilot - The Incarna Effect
The Hydrostatic Capsule - Generations
Aggressive Logistics - 'Tis The Season To Be Shiny

EVE Blog Banter #22: Corporate Loyalty

Welcome to the twenty-second installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version:  Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

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        I've been playing EVE for nearly nine months now, but I still feel like a newbie. Call it a disciplined newbie. My initial corporation was a real-life group of coworkers playing together. We made a pact to train up characters in specified roles and kick some ass as a tight-knit group.

        That was the plan, anyway.

        Turns out that many of my coworkers were either too impatient, too bored, or too disinterested to continue playing EVE. My CEO moved on to join Dreddit, and left the corporation in my hands. I continued on solo. I became a decent mission runner, eventually able to handle Level 4's alone without a problem.

        Then I hit a mental brick wall. What was I trying to accomplish? How the hell did I end up here? As a solo pilot with his own corporation, there isn't much to accomplish. Running missions is about as boring as grinding daily quests in World of Warcraft, which I wasn't about to pick up again. I kept telling my bored coworkers that all they needed was a good large-scale war to pique their interest, but I wasn't taking that advice myself. Then my former CEO contacted me and invited me to join Dreddit with him. All I needed was a Reddit account. I figured, what the hell. I've had enough of highsec. Let's make it interesting and jump straight to null. So that's exactly what I did. I sold my highsec assets, I resigned from my corporation, and I flew to nullsec in a Reaper with nothing more than the ISK in my wallet.

        Out here I've had a blast. But the question brought up in this banter interests me. Is my loyalty to Dreddit solid? For the moment it is. I won't consider myself a decent fighter pilot until I have a year's worth of additional Perception skills under my belt - right now I feel inadequate because I can't fly the ships I want and I can't fit them the way I want. Dreddit allows me to feel relatively safe in nullsec, with it currently being the largest single corporation in the game. It's like EVE University with a vengeance. Would I ever leave it? Maybe, but not for now.

        Overall, I feel that EVE corporate loyalty is a lot like real-life company loyalty. If you're not happy with it, it's hard to get them to change things, and you're usually better off leaving; though it's never wise to tell them that.

        Of course other cultures have other views. The Japanese are fiercely loyal to their companies, to the point that the ultra-capitalist Caldari are modeled after their practices. A salaryman is referred to his job title before his name. They stay in the same company for life. They take care of their company, and their company takes care of them. Rather than fire a bad employee, the company is compelled to work things out with them and come to an agreeable solution.

        We Americans are much more selfish. A bad employee is a liability to a corporation, and they will gladly cut their losses. A person working in a job that does not treat them well or pay them well will seek out another.

        EVE is much more harsh.  You can do a lot more damage to an EVE corp than you can to a real company without being sued for it - theft, espionage, sabotage, conflicts of interest, corporate coups, convincing other employees to leave, working for competitors after you quit, etc. Likewise, a vindictive corp can wardec you after you leave it, or even hire a mercenary group to ensure you never have a safe trip outside a station again. Loyalty goes both ways.

        My personal view on corporate loyalty is that EVE is primarily a game meant to entertain me. Thus my corporation must be entertaining and engaging. However I will not be able to devote a lot of time to it. I already did the game-feels-like-a-second-job thing with World of Warcraft. EVE is a social game, so it is both the individual people and the group mentality that will be judged by my loyalty, combined with the ambition of what I want to do. If all of those match, then things are cool. I'm in a learner's corporation with plenty of people who have similar attitudes. I feel I'm in a good place so far.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #22:


Nitpickin's: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and Why?
The Elitist: Corp Loyalty (Oh how original)

A Scientist's Life in EVE: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?

Evil Silents: Corp Loyalty

Progression's Horizon: Loyal til Underverse Come
Chocolate Heaven: Arise Lady Chumpington
Diary of a Garbageman: Corp (dis)loyalty
Interstellar Privateer: Not a Nice Game
Sarnel Binora's Blog: Corporation Guilt?
EVEOGANDA: Corp Loyalty
Free 2 Kill: Where Does Blood Run Thickest?
A Mule in EVE: Loyalty Isn't For Sale
An Amarrian Capsuleer: Corporation Cooperation
A Merry Life and a Short One: Lie Back and Think of England
The Reformed Anti-Pirate: Loyalty
Drifting Through the Stars: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?