Distant stars twinkle in the void ahead. Their beauty is a stark contrast to the depravity we’ve come to stop. Out there, among those stars, the mindless drones of Sansha’s Nation lurk. Bright people stolen from their homes and left bereft of all hopes and dreams, enslaved in service to an “ideal” they never even believed in. Sansha Kuvakei, what a depraved fool he is. It’s a criminal shame there is nothing to be done about saving these lost souls. The cold darkness of space, ripped apart in fiery explosions, is the only reprieve we can yet afford them. A sickening bandage against the bleeding wound of letting more colonists be stolen away to the “Nation”.
Amarr space. Some might say a place in Sansha’s “utopia” is a preferable alternative to the whips and shock collars of the Amarr houses. Nonsense. Even a life of servitude under the slavers is a paradise compared to what Kuvakei puts these people through. This incursion ends here and now, and we’ll expunge every last one of these ships until their Mothership goes up in flames.
“Fleet, take the gate.”
The low warble of the ship’s engines powering down as the warp drive takes over, and in a moment the acceleration gate flings my Vindicator forward into the Nation’s Override Transfer Array. One of the first in, I waste no time setting my thrusters to full, steering up and away from my comrades just about to land. The onboard computer announces their remote sensor boosters taking hold on my targeting systems, and seconds later my neutron cannons are firing out into space, tearing the Sansha frigates down to their constituent parts.
The lasers and cannons of our Marauders sing ceaselessly, one salvo after the other volleying the Nation forces off the field. The first group, then the second, scarce any time for them to get their own shots in. Our logistics cruiser pilot complains of boredom, but I turn my attention back to the task at hand. The final defenders of this complex show up, hurrying to the frantic alarms and calls to action, but they are too late. The entangling grapples of our stasis webifiers take root, slowing their fast, zippy ships to a mere crawl. Another few salvos of ear-shattering cannons, and wrecks litter the field.
“Align to broadcast,” comes the fleet commander’s call. One at a time, we’ll drive the Sansha out of here.
The following is a storied recount of the successful eviction of EVE University’s Wormhole Community from its C2 home. Slight quirks and inaccuracies may be found by those that experienced the eviction first-hand, stylistic choices made by the author to weave this story’s narrative. For an unbiased and factual description of events, readers are encouraged to check out the after-action reports linked at the bottom of this post.
14th of December YC125, 18:01 EVE standard time. Disaster strikes for the University’s Wormhole Community! The alarm rings clearly and loudly – WHC is facing a serious eviction attempt.
EVE University’s Wormhole Community makes up one of its four communities. It is set up to allow interested Unistas to learn more about the specifics of wormhole living, and helps them get their feet wet should they ever wish to graduate and specialize in such a thing as an alumnus. Since November YC114 – 11 years – it has stood uninterrupted, forming a strong and thriving community that has educated plenty of Unistas on J-space, its boons and its dangers.
Danger that can be posed by an eviction attempt. Evictions are part and parcel of wormhole life, offering the prospect of high-value loot and bounty for the evictors, and -ideally- an epic fight for the defending wormholers. Though attempts had been made on the WHC’s home before, Unistas had always weathered the challenge and protected their little corner of J-space with great fervor and commitment. And yet, the decade-old tale of the WHC’s home hole Innuendo would come to a fiery conclusion across a handful of December evenings, as the final verses of the ballad of Innuendo were written…
Ironically, the first notice of scouted enemy forces entering Innuendo came through mere minutes into the regular meeting of all University Community Coordinators. Moments later, automated corporation channels sounded the alarm of friendly starbases under attack in Innuendo. Alert Unistas immediately raised further alarms in WHC channels and the matter was swiftly escalated and brought to the attention of the Directorate. Shortly after, the aggressors were identified as a coalition of high-profile wormhole-dwelling capsuleers specializing in evictions. Their fleet of two dozen Legions and an Orca flooded Innuendo and began anchoring an Astrahus Upwell Structure to base their eviction operation out of, with all holes in Innuendo rolled. At this point, the writing on the wall could scarcely be ignored anymore – a serious attempt to evict the Wormhole Community was underway. From now on, every decision made would have lasting consequences. Outcomes could and would be determined by even the slightest scuffle in defense of Innuendo.
Behind the scenes, University staff and line members rapidly rallied to marshal a response and mount the University’s fightback. All Unistas currently in Innuendo were reminded to avoid the destruction of their pod at all costs – both medical clones and jump clones could not be used to return to J-space, and the eviction had begun hole control operations. If these were maintained, getting back into Innuendo in the event of pod loss would be a painful and difficult affair. Importantly, some prominent Unistas, including Community Coordinator Delaney Truffault as well as Senior FC Archemide who would later lead the final defense fleet, were not even in Innuendo at the eviction’s start. Luckily, with enemy hole control still loose and under initial Uni harassment, these WHC members were able to sneak in with just under a dozen people in the eviction’s first hour. From thereon out however, enemy hole control settled into its role and further attempts to get allied pilots into Innuendo were far less successful. Soon after the initial reports of attack had gone out, the swarm of Legions began an initial bombardment on The Rock, the WHC’s Fortizar home. Half an hour later, the structure lost its shields and entered invulnerability for 21 hours.
A clarion call went out across Uni channels marshaling Unistas to throw bodies into Innuendo in whichever way succeeded. The Directorate launched the Wormhole Community Emergency Operations Center for current WHC members, to coordinate and communicate the most important matters pertaining to the defense of Innuendo. At this point, mere hours into this developing situation, the fog of war still hung heavily. The opposing force had Innuendo under lock and key and information was a precious commodity, especially for Unistas not part of the WHC. Thankfully, the University’s mission of teaching and knowledge is never far away, and a comprehensive and elaborate write-up by veteran WHC’er Alabaster Crescent succeeded in answering many of the questions that were being asked by Unistas unfamiliar with wormhole life and the trials linked to it. One thing that went without question was the unwavering willingness of many from all corners of New Eden to lend a hand and throw themselves into Innuendo. Even with the tireless, unbreakable hole control mounted by the enemy capsuleer force, students, graduates and alumni asked ceaselessly how they could help – doubtless to the happy frustration of those experienced wormholers who had to explain many times that there was very little that could be done at that moment, even if the enthusiasm filled them with fondness.
The Directorate met with the Senior Fleet Commanders of the University to discuss the next steps that could be taken as the eviction unfolded. Contrary to the long-standing white lie, the University did have Capital Ship-class assets in the hole, though it became clear quite quickly that not all of them were immediately usable or even remotely useful for the situation. The arms industry of New Eden is one of constant brinkmanship and strife, a massive effort that seeks to ceaselessly cycle the delicate balance between the four major factions, the assorted pirate gangs, and all those other forces who operate in our cluster. In this tumultuous environment, the ideas of doctrine, fleet tactics and the use of capital assets are a constantly shifting paradigm. The fittings of the capital assets in Innuendo were not modernized in accordance with the latest trends on warfare, and the regretful idea of their destruction became a valid discussion point. Why? Often one of the primary reasons for a wormhole eviction is the potential bragging rights that come with the destruction of so many valuable assets. By destroying the capital ships themselves, WHC denied the eviction force these shiny killmails.
Under the difficult conditions of getting more capsuleers into Innuendo, those already present there continued their constant efforts to gather intelligence on the enemy force – at threat of getting podded and potentially being denied access to their home until the conclusion of the eviction. It became increasingly clear that the eviction group was highly specialized in carrying out such operations, and notably included a handful of former Unistas, some of them high-profile. Undeterred by the betrayal of those once considered comrades-in-arms, University pilots continued attempts at getting additional bodies into Innuendo. Thera was established as a temporary staging point, with its tentacle-like network of countless wormholes providing accessible routes into the WHC home should a new hole appear and before enemy hole control could lock it down. Countless Unistas joined the thankless, boring effort of travel fleets – and yet again, this opportunity did not go to waste. Ingeniously, the more experienced University members used the opportunity of many quiet hours sitting around waiting for a mere dozen minutes of action before the inaction repeated itself, to teach classes to newer Unistas. Under the travel fleet effort, several different classes on a variety of subjects were taught, making ample use of the time given. Credit goes out to all those who were involved in the organization of travel fleets to Innuendo at any point of the weekend, and for their commitment in using this typically mundane activity to contribute their knowledge and hold true to the University’s mission statement.
As the curtain of midnight fell on the eviction’s first day, a bitter picture was starting to form with regards to the WHC’s home defense fleet. Like every University staging area, defense assets were in place in Innuendo in the event of an attack precisely such as this eviction. Yet when it was needed most, the fleet was nowhere to be found. Hurriedly, individual Unistas with access to the defense hangar scrambled to check their personal hangars. Perhaps someone had accidentally moved (part of) the fleet there during routine checks? Coming up empty-handed with an answer to this question, a sinister suspicion began to dawn – had the defense fleet been stolen? Perhaps so, given that both CEO Devalt Yotosala and then-Fleet Commander Team Manager Arps had laid eyes on the fleet in its intended hangar the week leading up to the eviction. Early in the next day, the full picture began to unfold for the Directorate as they thoroughly investigated the matter. Soon enough, a conclusion was reached – the WHC home defense fleet was stolen by an alt of a former FC Team Manager. Extensive knowledge of the University’s defenses was a gargantuan plus for such a betrayal, and it was carried out with gelid indifference, robbing the University of an earnest chance at defending the home of its WHC. Disbelief abounded among Unistas – with the opposing force already fielding such a significant fleet of ships, still they had to stoop to the theft of an (inferior) defensive fleet? If anything, it only steeled the member base’s resolve not to go down without a fight. If the theft of the defense fleet had been expected to lead to a “roll over and die” attitude, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Those in the hole began to diligently catalog what was available. Though a kitchen sink doctrine would never be as effective as a specifically-designed defense fleet, it was still better than nothing, and it would have to do. Unistas in the hole came together to check their personal hangars and deposit every halfway space-worthy ship into a central repository to be handed out for the defense effort. Battlecruisers, logistics ships, interceptors, ECM ships, tackle support and much more found a home in the Senior FC hangar, ready to be utilized. Any shield-tanked ship or anything of even remote purpose for a defensive effort was taken on.
All this time, the University’s then-Quartermaster Nexdoom Atruin had been hard at work in helping secure and suitcase University assets in Innuendo. Following this, hauling hulls from the Buyback Program were made available to WHC members to aid in suitcasing their assets. Dozens of haulers, blockade runners, deep space transports and more were handed out as Unistas tested the limits of physics, stuffing their haulers as full as one conceivably could. Every last m3 proved of use. Coordination and cooperation abounded in WHC channels as everyone pitched in to hand out spare modules and offer any free suitcase space they had for those in need.
Efforts to get more bodies into Innuendo had been continuing tirelessly, but after almost a full day of trying, the picture was beginning to form that enemy hole control was on the ball, and especially the WHC’s highsec static connection was under close watch at all times. Thus, a plan was put together. Given that Innuendo was a Class 2 wormhole, one could conceivably roll into it from another wormhole system with a C2 static. With 525 C2 systems in all of Anoikis, the odds were painfully slim, but absent a way to break enemy hole control on Innuendo’s highsec static, it was worth an attempt. Following approval of the plan, Unistas anchored a POS starbase stick and began the tedious work of rage rolling the chosen C2 static over and over and over in the hope of stumbling into Innuendo. Though eventually unsuccessful, credit is due to all those involved in setting up this effort and spending the many hours sitting inside of a forcefield, hoping to hear the triumphant call of Innuendo being reached.
At 17:00 EVE Time on the second day of the eviction, another attack run was launched on The Rock as it came out of reinforcement. Its armor was destroyed, and a two-day reinforcement timer for its hull began. In the following night, plans and coordination began with regards to the defense of The Rock’s hull timer. Absent a final decision, the preliminary plan ended up as a kitchen sink shield-tank fleet formed from the assets that had been thrown together by membership and the various departments into the Senior FC hangar. Even at this time, donations continued to pour in from generous Unistas.
Permission was given for all those assets that could not be suitcased, and ships without a use case, including some capital assets, to meet a fiery end on the tether of The Rock, signaling the kick-off of a wild and wondrous insurance fraud party. In a highly successful effort to deny the enemy force loot and bounty from their eviction, an effort that would see many an accountant faint from sheer stress, Unistas destroyed over three hundred billion worth of ISK. The Rock’s Point Defense Battery fired ceaselessly at every cargo canister ejected from the station, raining fireworks into space with every asset exploded. The Directorate explicitly put out an ask in the WHC Emergency Operations Channel to destroy all assets that could not be secured or used to fight. In the event that the battle for Innuendo could not be won, the evictors had just seen a portion of their loot be reduced to atoms.
Throughout the eviction, the University’s diplomats had been hard at work reaching out to outside organizations willing to lend a hand in defense and travel operations. To centralize and coalesce these efforts, an external channel of communications was set up with all interested parties. External helpers and Unistas ceaselessly ran Locator Agents to find enemy pilots running hole control. If they could be located in a highsec K-space system, that gave a clue to travel fleet organizers where the current highsec entrance to Innuendo was situated, facilitating efforts to run an attempt at slipping past hole control. Whispers speak of a fleet loaded with Nighthawks and support, ready to charge into Innuendo if an opening had been found. Permission was given to our outside helpers to make any attempts they deemed appropriate to break enemy hole control. In the end, these efforts were largely unsuccessful, but a solemn thank you goes out to all those capsuleers and corporations who took the time to assist the University in whatever way they could. For some, the WHC was their first J-space home, memories of their time there not easily forgotten, driving a heartfelt desire to aid in its defense.
By now, it was clear that little remained possible. The Last Stand of Innuendo rapidly approached, and when the alarm of The Rock’s hull timer blared through the Fortizar, that would signal a final valiant attempt at a defense of the WHC home. The defense Fleet Commander Archemide’s clarion call rang clearly. “It’s time. Once more into Innuendo, dear friends, once more.” With a frankenstein shield doctrine, those in the hole readied their ships for the gargantuan undertaking ahead – be that the unlikely triumph of The Rock, or a glorious blaze of explosions and burnt steel that would make Bob giddy for weeks to come. Even at this final hour, efforts to get Unistas inside were still ongoing. It is little wonder that, after days of uninterrupted hole control, the enemy pilots were likely to be caught napping, which is exactly what happened. Through the continuous efforts of the travel fleet organizers and those outside capsuleers who saw fit to help, Unistas caught enemy hole control by surprise and secured an entrance into Innuendo. Though the hole was rolled before the whole shuttle fleet could get inside, this effort nevertheless succeeded in rushing an additional two dozen pilots into the WHC home. “Welcome to Innuendo,” the call went, and as the shuttles warped to The Rock, they were greeted by the sound of blaring alarms and a station surrounded by a mass of Strategic Cruisers and friendly HAW Dreadnaughts.
Ships were quickly handed out, the Unista defense fleet undocked, and an earnest attempt at defense began. The eviction force continued their underhanded tactics (which are part and parcel of life in New Eden), warping off part of the fleet into the enemy’s claws with a spy, though no one was lost to this attempt. Over the course of more than an hour, fielding whatever flight-worthy machines were still around on The Rock’s hangar floor or in the depths of space, the fighting continued. Though all present stood valiantly against overwhelming odds with no lack of enthusiasm or zeal, it was ultimately a futile effort. At the end of the fight, The Rock’s metal carcass littered Innuendo, its loot spat out in a sea of containers, a plethora of Unista corpses strewn between it all. A gargantuan thank you goes out to all those involved in the superhuman effort that was the defense of Innuendo – all Fleet Commanders, scouts, those involved in setting up travel fleets, staking out the enemy force, handling reships, asset denial, coordinating efforts, getting people up to speed, liaising between groups, manning the Dreadnaughts, the station guns, those offering to coffin their characters inside the hole unable to get out for weeks or perhaps months, the outside groups that assisted, and so many more.
And of course, toyou – the fearless Unista that threw themself against insurmountable odds, right into the fray, to help out your comrades and do what you could. It did not matter whether you came to be in New Eden a decade ago or just weeks before the eviction. You were there, and you sat around for days waiting to find out how you could get involved. Thank you.
A plethora of lessons is to be learned from the tale of Innuendo’s demise. Learnings that will take time, effort and understanding. Already, deep introspectives are ongoing and the future is being assessed. One thing is a certainty however, no matter what – WHC will be back. Better, stronger, more prepared. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, carried on the winds of goodwill of its members up and down the hierarchy. Even now, many WHCers speak of how the eviction showed them many things, good and bad – but above all, how it showed them that J-space, the dangers of Anoikis, is the one for them. How they thrive and excel in this wild, uncharted space, and wish to call nowhere except that their home. The fire to find a new home and rebuild WHC burns brightly. Let it thus be clear…
A big thank you goes out to the Communications Department Officers for their efforts in proofreading this work, and for all those that agreed to interviews and chats with the author to make this tale as comprehensive as possible.
Early in my EVE journey, looking at the map of the EVE universe, I wondered many times if it would be possible to circumnavigate it. But alas, the newbro-fear of the unknown, was way above the stress-levels I could bear at the time. My very first SoE mission happened to be during the Triglavian Invasion. Being new to the EVE story, I didn’t know who these Trigs were, why they were there, nor where they were. Trying to get to the next SoE agent halfway through the mission – what should have been 5 jumps – turned into 200-plus jumps, just to get around all the contested systems. And then I was killed by a gate camper on the last jump. If ever you saw a panicked-newbro, that was me. But the experience taught me how to use the in-game map, as well as the ever useful Dotlan.
Hanging out with the friendly E-UNI and participating in its many events helped me overcome that initial fear and showed me there is more help available than I thought.
Beginning to feel more confident, an event by the Desert Oasis corp caught my eye: a challenge to circumnavigate the cluster. It got me thinking. I decided to map out the route for myself using the rules as they had them set out. Although some jumps could have been shorter or quicker, I stuck to the most outward perimeter route. According to Dotlan this amounted to almost 230 jumps. Starting in Stacmon, going clockwise via Cloud Ring, all the way back to Cloud Ring and my dearest home-sweet-home.
Some estimates…
The competition was limited to 4.5 hours. So, unless you fly something faster than a shuttle, you can expect this route will take about 4 to 5 hours to complete. I did it over 2 days but adding up all the in-game time, it was almost 5 hours. When I started, I thought if something IRL happened I could always dock-up somewhere quickly. However, I saw no “friendly” stations anywhere. The only NPC stations (Blood Raiders) were in Delve. So this was a do-or-die race, with the only option to be prepared to make a quick deep space bookmark if I needed to be afk.
Some challenges…
I decided to use the cheapest shuttle I could buy, Minmatar, because I did not expect to survive the trip and being an Alpha, cloaking wasn’t an option for me. You just never really know who is out hunting and a simple shuttle doesn’t have any meat-on-the-bone worth chasing. I also did the run on a weekday to minimise my exposure to too many other players, any bubbles or gatecamps. As proof of my trip, I took a screenshot every time I came through a gate, while still cloaked and before warping off to the next waypoint. The longest warps I experienced, and there were a few that were quite long, were in Outer Passage, 8-AA98 to HZID-J (3 warps) and Archavoinet to Algasienan (2 warps). Just too far for my poor shuttle. I don’t know if someone following me for 10+ jumps qualifies as an actual chase – but that only happened once (in Fountain somewhere). He tried, but never caught me.
Some observations…
With no statistics to back it up. The ship type I saw most often was an Ishtar. Although I didn’t check every pilot in local, the profiles I did check showed very few players were pre-2019 (the oldest employment history date can tell you a lot about the pilot’s possible skill levels). But then it may have been just “that time of the day”. Most of the veteran pilots I saw though were in the southern and western parts of the universe (I’m not sure why). Sadly, I didn’t hang around long to fully absorb the wonderful views , but the most beautiful parts were in Cobalt Edge, where the purple and blue haze is amazing, and the ring in Cloud Ring seems so close you can almost touch it. Seeing all the beautiful nebula vistas en-route, I wondered if a pilot could circumnavigate one? The closest I got to a nebula was in Fountain and another in Cloud Ring – the routes start to go close then unfortunately go the other away.
Some conclusions…
I could provide you my planned route but strongly suggest you plan your own so you may discover the beauty of this universe for yourself. This was my first trial run to see how this works. So, take this as an invitation to join me for the next race around our circus arena.
One of the many great things in EVE Online is overcoming our inherent fear of failure. Know this, even if you get blown-up halfway through your venture, it is still an amazing experience and you will live to tell the tale. And best of all, fly again!
We do have our fair share of experience with highsec wardeccers, as anything else, we use these always as an opportunity to teach our members about safety protocols, such as using voice coms and standing fleets as well as organising QRFs when targets show up around our campus locations. Of course, these wars are also a great opportunity to organise bigger fleets to take out the enemy’s war HQ as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This war is going to be a different beast altogether though. RvB and EVE University have taken up their old tradition and agreed to a mutual war with some specific rules, with the most important one being: keep it classy! We are looking forward to a week full of fun fights around the clock and constant opportunities to learn for all involved parties.
Of course propaganda and banter is part of any good war in EVE, so our Communications Department (now War Propaganda Department) has created some dashing media you might have seen pop up around various channels already. Most notably this animation by Fudster:
By TheBlindWarlockBy John JuulianosBy Tam EassonBy Cryptic SharvasBy Cryptic Sharvas
Throwback to the Battle of Aldrat
We are lucky that Jalxan – a seasoned veteran who led the battle of Aldrat against RvB almost a decade ago – has recently returned to the Uni and found some time to share his thoughts:
Back in 2013, we were facing a war with RvB, with their intention of taking down the Eve University Player Owned Station (POS) in Aldrat. At the time, we were in a transitional phase, where the Ivy League Navy (an ancient predecessor to our now existing FC Team) was leaderless due to real-life commitments from its leadership, and we had no organized defense against them.
I decided at the time that I wanted to defend the POS, and requested permission from Kelduum Revaan (Eve Uni’s then-CEO) to help run the defense of the POS. In the end, I was given the temporary rank of “ILN Commodore”, to oversee the war.
From there, I got the ball rolling; after RvB put the POS into reinforced, I knew I needed to drum up interest to defend it once Reinforced Mode ended (old POS mechanics worked differently than today’s reinforcing of structures). I wrote up a lengthy heroic-style speech via Evemail, and hoped that I would get the numbers. I was blown away; by the time the fleet formation was done, we had enough to fill one fleet of 255 members, and the remainder which added together to about 450. It was – and may still be to this day the biggest fleet Eve University has ever fielded.
Leading such a fleet would not be easy, but thankfully I took the time to prepare. One of the things I organized before the battle was to split up my fleet into wings of 50 (which was based on how Eve Online handled fleets back then as well), with each one having their own individual shot-callers (to spread out the damage and make it harder for enemy logistics to protect their fleetmembers). I had most of my Wings hold at the Aldrat gate – this is where I wanted to hold them for the duration of the battle. I also had one Wing as a “firefighting” unit where they would respond to any escaping RvB members attempting to re-ship in-system (and oh boy did they try!). If I recall correctly, I was able to let logi set themselves up in their own squads, allowing them to do their jobs independently.
Separately, an RvB spy reached out to me, and helpfully provided me the name of the enemy FC; this was pivotal in the early minutes of the engagement, as their FC’s had to keep rotating for quite some time until they switched to out-of-corp ships. Eventually, RvB arrived.
At the time I thought they had numbered 150, but recent days I learned that they had at least 250, based on newly dug-up footage of the battle I found from the RvB side. Equipped with decent ships versus our kitchen-sink fleet of whatever we could pull together (back then we didn’t have doctrines nor SRP), it wasn’t going to be an easy fight.
I mostly-silently oversaw the battle, and allowed my Wing Commanders to make their shot calls, while I listened in carefully, giving boosts to the entire system in my Vulture 350km off-grid but within visual range of the battle (back then boosts worked system-wide). Occasionally I would interject with special orders (ie. “Spread your points” to the tackle, giving orders to my “firefighting” squad, giving priority targets against the enemy FC’s, etc). The battle raged for quite some time.
That being said… don’t be afraid to take risks either; after all, when I led the Battle of Aldrat, I had never FCed any fleet with more than 50 members before, and I was honestly going by the seat of my pants. I may have led the Battle of Aldrat and some other battles to victory, but I’ve also lost some as well. And that’s okay! We’re all here to learn.
If you’ve never done PVP before, this is a great time to learn it. This is also a great opportunity to sign up for the FC Team! It is not often when we get to fight a war with terms, instead of having to defend ourselves in a war with none. Expect lots of good-fights, and expect lots of explosions! Don’t forget the SRP program, which means your losses will be covered if you follow doctrines.
The candidates for the CSM 16 have been announced yesterday on CCPs stream.
EVE University would like to wish every candidate good luck for their campaign! As always, we remain neutral and therefore do not endorse or field any candidate for the election.
Read the statement to our members by CEO Jilokari Kurvora below:
CSM stands for Council of Stellar Management. It is a group of players who are voted into the position, liaise with CCP as advocates for the player base. CCP consults the CSM on game features and takes their input into consideration.
Every player has their own interests and biases, which is good when providing feedback to CCP from a wide range of playstyles. But it does mean that it is in your interests to ensure your own playstyle is represented by someone on the CSM. This is why I would really encourage members to read up on the CSM candidates and cast their vote when the voting opens.
A lot of the major nullsec blocs do bulk voting by asking all their members to vote for a particular candidate. While a few alumnus of EVE University may be running for CSM this year, as always EVE University does not endorse, or ask our members to vote for any one candidate. We think you should make up your own mind on the best candidates to represent you and your individual playstyle.
Voting will open on 8th June 2021 for one week (closing on 15th June 2021).
Voting is done by a Single Transferable Vote. This means you can select up to 10 candidates, in order of preference. Your vote is transferred to the next as the candidates are either elected or eliminated.
Before the voting period opens we recommend that you do some research into the candidates – read their forum threads, listen to any interviews they do over the coming weeks and most importantly when the time comes, go out and exercise your space democracy.
Originally posted on our public AAR forum by Arin Mara, newly adapted for the blog.
Consume the World! Alliances of New Eden, hide your Pods, hide your Ships for the Interceptor swarm has come to devour you all!
Get Your Fleet On! by Razorien EVE
The goal of this report is to showcase the F.U.N. Inc. community, prepare prospective capsuleers and set expectations for their events, lavishly praise, thank and show gratitude towards others’ hard work and analyze the Event and its Fleet Commander in hopes of replicating and improving the same.
If you want to try out the Event for yourself, check their NPSI calendar, where you can also find fleets by various other NPSI groups.
Background
Every month or so I go out into the wild carrying the Torch of the University in an attempt to shake hands with different communities in New Eden. Fellow Unistas Marek Holmberg and Tolerin Escipion told me about the ShrinkWrapped Event, where everyone flies an Interceptor, run by Fleet Commander keacte of F.U.N. Inc.. Marek had nothing but praise for the Event and its Fleet Commander. He described keacte as “one of the best”, “professional and pleasant” and “fearless and relentless”.
I approached F.U.N. Inc. via Discord about attending the ShrinkWrapped Event and was immediately warmly welcomed.
F.U.N. Inc. is well organized. I had no problem finding all the necessary information about the Event: goal, duration, Ship Fittings, form-up location, how to connect to F.U.N. Inc. Mumble. They had everything from an in-game channel “EBWF public” to a Forum post on our own EVE Uni Forums. 🙂
All the loot belongs to F.U.N. Inc. and is given away during festivities. There is no Ship Replacement Program.
Ship Fittings are designed for full fitting skills Level V skilled capsuleers and the ShrinkWrapped Interceptor costs about 70M ISK. I struggled to board the Ship because I didn’t have enough Powergrid to support all the Modules. I had to buy an Implant and turn off a Module to get the Ship to work.
Form-up
As we were fitting our Ships, the Fleet Commander told us to quickly fill out two forms, lest we wanted to be kicked from the Fleet. One of them had a table titled “EWAR” that lists “… Track, Paint, Logi, Probes” in rows and a scale of 0-3 in columns. I had no idea what that meant. Marek pointed out it was asking “How many EWAR Modules of each type do you have fitted?”.
The Fleet Commander explained to me that the purpose of the forms is to expedite form up and balance EWAR. The hurry was meant for the capsuleers who already had a Ship, not for those who are yet to board one. By filling out the forms, the Fleet Commander was able to better allocate EWAR to capsuleers who still didn’t have a ship.
A very verbose capsuleer in Mumble couldn’t fill out the forms because, to them, they appeared in Czech. We had a good laugh as, according to the Fleet Commander, this was the first time that happened in more than fifty Fleets. 😀
Travel
When we undocked the Fleet Commander set the destination over Mumble as “Nourv on the Tama Gate”, but posted “Oinasiken” as destination in Fleet Chat. Because the Fleet Commander pronounced only the first five letters of an unpronounceable Caldari State System, because I was taking notes for this Report and because it was my first time attending the Fleet, I got lost. Thankfully, another fleet member wrote what was said over Mumble in Fleet Chat and I recovered my bearings. 🙂
As we travelled to the Wormhole leading to Thera in Oinasiken, with the intention of jumping into Null Security Regions, the Fleet Commander instructed us on who to include on the Watchlist, delegated intelligence gathering tasks, forbade the premature destruction of enemy Capsules and reiterated the dangers of not adhering to Standing Orders.
From then on, we consumed every single Ship that failed to run away…
Timeline
18:30 – Discord ping reminds everyone the Fleet will form in an hour in Jita
19:30 – Fleet forms, Xs go up in “EBWF public” in-game Chat Channel
20:05 – Destination set as Thera Wormhole in Oinasiken
20:10 – Watchlist and Message of the Day set, D-Scan and Local Chat intelligence gatherers assigned
20:20 – Two Wormholes inside Thera collapse after Scouts went inside them, but before the Fleet could enter; Scouts recalled
20:23 – First kill was a Bustard inside Thera; due to the Gala Event, it dropped 90% of the loot
20:30 – Took the third Wormhole from Thera into Null Security Region of Catch, loot has been stashed away successfully
20:46 – Contact made with a hostile Battleship, but it aligned, used the Micro Jump Drive and warped away
20:48 – Fleet Commander authorized the use of a Micro Jump Field Generator to prevent a Battleship from escaping, but the target jumped through the Stargate; Fleet movement orders around the pair of Stargates were confusing; we did destroy the Apocalypse in the end
20:50 – Fleet Commander immediately acted and divided the Fleet into three equal Damage Dealing Wings, assigned Wing Commanders and ask the Fleet to remember their Wing number
21:00 – In GE-8JV System I’ve found a Level 1 HZO Refinery, Amarr Empire, COSMOS Mission Agent Galhar Lahara flying an Impel 😀
21:05 – Fleet of fifty three members failed to overwhelm a Saber’s spatial distortion field
21:15 – pulverized an Orthrus and their expensive Capsule before it could jump through the Stargate
21:20 – Criminal Gnosis, Sabre and Oracle escape through the Stargate; Fleet Commander relentlessly pursued the Oracle; I thought our engines would give up 😀
21:27 – Smashed a Cerberus, but their Hugins and Sabre companions escaped
21:28 – Moved from the Catch to the Providence Region
21:30 – Dismantled a Jaguar who dared approach us
21:32 – Atomized a Drake and their expensive Capsule for fun
21:44 – Set a Cerberus ablaze, but not before they retaliated against Otto Deitrich, killing them instantly
21:48 – Fleet Commander asks how we are liking the Event; I state that the only thing that could make it better is a break; Fleet Commander responds to me directly and grants me my wish, yaaaaay 🙂 🙂
22:03 – Break over, Fleet undocks
22:16 – Vanquished a Malediction that was slightly too brave
22:20 – Took apart two Exploration Asteros because they gave us the evil eye
22:30 – Hostile capsuleer ejected from their Jaguar and escaped in a Capsule possibly because they had expensive Implants
22:41 – Landed on a large Fleet and scared to death two Exequrors and a Manticore as at least six other ships escaped because we failed to scramble their Warp Engines
22:50 – Sunk two smartbombing Typhoons without a single casualty; Fleet Commander thought the Fleet was splitting damage, but the Typhoons were smartbombing each other 😀 Fleet Commander apologized for criticizing the Fleet
22:53 – Cruor send into the oblivion from whence it came
22:56 – Fleet Commander offered Fleet Members to leave the Fleet through the Stargate to an adjacent High Security System; I left, but not before thanking the Fleet Commander, the Logisticians, Scouts and the Fleet for a great night 🙂
And as soon as I left a multi-billion ISK Marauder appeared in the System. For Yto and Marek’s Nullbear Hunt regulars, this occurrence will be par for the course. 😛
Assessing the FC and Fleet experience
keacte of F.U.N. Inc. came highly recommended. They swore twice and no more than ten bad words were uttered during three hours of intense combat; the Fleet Commander assures me that they are seldom PG18. They insisted, twice, that there are no dumb questions and encouraged Fleet Members to speak their mind.
D-Scan and Local Chat intelligence gathering, Scouting and making a novice Logistician speech to Fleet Members were all delegated. Align, Jump, Warp and Kill command were repeated thrice.
They withheld the ultimate Null Security destination until we jumped into the Catch Region from Thera.
Letters were spelled out in English, rather than phonetically.
The fleet used many tactical bookmarks the FC had prepared around Null Security Stargates to catch idling ships.
They were relentlessly bloodthirsty and wanted to kill everything from exploration Frigates to smartbombing Battleships.
The FC regularly reminded Fleet Members to repair their Modules and reload Charges, generally emphasizing the importance of tight, precise and clear communication and made a habit of praising Combat Probers, Scouts, Logisticians and other Specialists Fleet Members.
F.U.N. Inc’s keacte organized a public 50+ Interceptor Null Security Fleet and made it run like clockwork: form-up took 30 minutes +-5 minutes, commands were given precisely and predictably, issues were calmly dealt with on the fly within minutes. We warped to and shot at every ship. When our guns were empty, we took a ten minute break to buy more ammo. There was no bait too big to swallow, no vessel too small to catch.
Being able to join a fleet with keacte as an FC, with fellow Unistas Marek and Tolerin by my side, was exceptionally enjoyable and their corporation, F.U.N. Inc., is truly worthy of the name. 🙂
This year’s historic FFA in Ouelletta was attended by many pilots of EVE University. Three of them share their own stories and impressions of the event as well as screenshots of pretty explosions (all embedded pictures done by the respective pilots, if not otherwise stated).
Fudster’s story
Low Security space in EVE is dangerous: death awaits you in many ways. Pirates and well trained pilots await your entrance into their protected lairs. The flashing yellow skull of a suspected pirate on a pilot’s name is a badge of honour. You live by the pirate code or you die.
Promotional Graphic by Rixx Javix
There is a myth that many living pirates in EVE become worshiped icons. The gods of Amarr are secondary to these monolithic leaders of looters and vagabonds, and none more so than A Band Apart’s central figure of low security piracy, Rixx Javix. The nicknamed “King of low Sec,” Rixx rules with a gentlemanly efficiency of killing any pilot that ventures into unprotected space without protection. You’ve been warned!
Every now and again, King Javix shows mercy on his subjects. He toys with his fortune and feeds us poor mere mortal capsuleers with events in his honour. To mark the year YC 123 of his rule, Rixx Javix announced his annual frigate free for all in Ouelletta and welcomed New Eden in for spoils and kills. Each pilot would be fed copious free ships for use on the battlefield, where everyone was a primary target until none remained. At 16:00 the lawless feast would begin with fireworks, but end in death.
So here I was, a high security pilot with little solo pvp experience, navigating through copious wrecks and discarded drones, targeting anyone that was untethered and in range. We’d only been at it for 2 minutes and already the battlefield was filling up with aspiring pirates. Many had died already and reshipped while Ouelletta had swelled to over 600 pilots in the system, growing as the word had got out over New Eden. The gates into Ouelletta were flashing with bursts of new and veteran players entering, including the prestigious CCP, looking for targets and killmails.
Within those quick minutes, I managed to get my first target in my Punisher. Brawling them, I swung in underneath, manually twisting and diving to keep range, but also trying not to get hit. I broke my victim’s shields and armour very quickly, but then it became apparent, I wasn’t fighting them alone and I was also now being targeted… by many pilots! As soon as my target went down, I too became fodder and was stripped of my victory dance and left naked on the battlefield in my pod. After having to wait out my naughty pirate person timer, I docked up and was promptly handed another free ship. Like a gazelle, I leaped back out into space and… died before I could even get a reasonable hit on an enemy. Confused and bewildered at how quickly I had died was soon explained when I looked at my screen to see a little circle ⭕️ appear. TiDi (Time dilation – a server slow down mechanism to prevent server crashes) had appeared to curb the pilots in the system and my ability to fight back. Docking back up and receiving a new free ship, I promptly found this event was like no other and I was having one helluva time.
Punisher tethered up at the beginning of the event, ready to engage
With Ouelletta swelling to 900+ pilots, it was time for the King to announce his presence in system. Flying out into the middle of Ouelletta in a Naglfar dreadnought class ship, Rixx Javix ushered in his minions of admirers and objectors to shoot their webs and many weapons at him in his honour. We appeased with gusto, however, our meager weapons were only scratching away at his shields. After a few more pilots arrived, including many from Eve University, Rixx succumbed to Bob and lit up the system with a beautiful orange explosive salute. The first big capital ship in Ouelletta in the event had been taken.
An overview look at the carnage of debris lying on the battlefield within the first two hours. Rixx Javix’s Naglfar begins to explode after defeat
Meanwhile, CCP members were playing their own part of sacrificial duties by enticing the event’s participants to come and play. Many obliged, including our own Unistas. The glorifying kill of a CCP pilot is one thing, but to scoop their dirty unwashed corpse from the clutch of the void for exclusive bragging rights. Eve Uni’s own Hikaru Sakai was eager to the cause and scooped the CCP corpse from the many other pilots burning to get their cargo bays filled with this prize. Hikaru’s excitement was hard to contain on mumble comms, justified and commended by his fellow envious Unistas. Hikaru had joined the illustrious group of owners of a CCP corpse. The trophy cabinet had its coveted prize.
Even though TiDi was still prevalent in the system, many more capital ships were taken to the slaughter. A sacrificial Revelation capital and Kronos marauder fell in the carnage while almost 6000+ frigate ships had been handed to eager capsuleers. The seismic destruction was relentless in the 4 hour event. The death toll of ships sinking in the seas of piracy kept rising, eventually topping 10,000. Wrecks and abandoned drones littered the battlegrounds in front of the Astrahus Toothpaste Fish like offerings to the monolithic leader.
As the event closed and ship supply ran thin, the seas of piracy still ran thick with the explosive sounds of battle. Rixx announcing the end of the event was endorsed with the salutes of over a hundred pilots and victims alike. The beautiful destruction was a complete success and will be discussed at length in many a corporation’s comms channel for weeks. As a pilot with limited experience in low security, I have a reignited confidence and respect for entering low security. Pirates are dangerous and destructive, but united with chivalry and respect to their enemies; the pirate code seems both welcoming and terrifying in paradox. Rixx Javix proved this within his wonderfully crafted event and I can’t wait to be a part of it again next year.
A Test Alliance Revelation receives damage as it is sacrificed in aid of the event.
Hikaru Sakai’s Story
The Frigate FFA on March 6th was my first FFA and the first time I experienced time dilation. It was a struggle to move around – but I actually enjoyed it. It gave me ample time to pick my targets and maneuver, preventing me from tunnel visioning. Throughout the chaos, I was able to get myself on 35 killmails and only lost 14 ships while also having a 0.5 drop in my security status.
Rixx’s Naglfar from a distance
It was nice to see so many people in one system, as lowsec tends to be a ghost town. Many Unistas attended the event, and were having fun as well – Mumble was always lively. I arrived in Ouelletta 2 hours early, but there already were more than 100 people in local. It was heartwarming to see new players asking questions on the details of the event, and other players answering them to the best of their capabilities.
When I first undocked in a Tristan, my client lagged. It was trying to load hundreds of frigates, drones, and wrecks – and I could feel my frames going down. My overview felt like a mess because so many neutrals had clogged up the “combat” tab. While tethered to the Astrahus, I took a look around my ship to find who was close by – and found a Merlin to shoot. After destroying the first Merlin, I found another – but was blown up soon after. The next ship I flew was an Atron, and killed two Kestrels in it.
Local was an important tool during the event, as intel of ship traders and locations of valuable ships were given. Without that intel, I may not have realized there was a Naglfar or a Providence in system. Somehow the Providence made itself more expensive than the Naglfar by having more than 3 million copies of the Amarrian bible.
Hikaru’s Kestrel engaging Rixx Javix Naglfar
The Naglfar was piloted by none other than Rixx Javix, the organizer of the FFA. The first time I attempted to engage, I warped in about 90km away from the dread – with my prop mod on, I burned as fast as I could hoping that I wouldn’t be shot on the way. There were many others who made the same mistake I did, and we all zoomed in a straight line to Rixx. Unfortunately, my frigate was blown up – but with a quick reship into a Tormentor, I returned to the fight and was able to take some sweet screenshots of the dread explosion.
Boom! Boom #2!
Once the Naglfar went down, a Revelation became the new primary target. I shot the dread for a little bit in my Rifter, while dealing with a pesky Punisher that made an attempt to take me out. However, I decided to leave the area for a much more valuable target – CCP. After shooting CCP Convict’s Nergal, I was close enough to take out the pod and snatch the corpse. My hands were trembling as I spammed the warp button. I knew my cargo was valuable and was lucky that nobody scrammed me before leaving the grid. I quickly docked up and stored the corpse in an NPC station before yeeting the Rifter into PvP once more.
Hello there, CCP Convict 🙂
I don’t remember much about what happened after that – according to zkill I had reshipped into a Merlin and blasted a Rifter out of space – but the FFA soon came to an end. I learned later that there were an Orca and Moros that I had missed out on shooting at. There was so much going on, my brain needed a break from constant PvP and I relaxed inside a station.
I’m so glad that I was able to participate in this event and get to say that “I was there”. The community is what brought me back in 2020, and ties me down to the game. Once again, thanks to Rixx and all of Stay Frosty for the production of all of these ships – from hulls to ammunition – and hope to participate again in 2022.
Hideo Date’s story
What an event!
I was pretty hyped when Rixx Javix of A Band Apart announced the 7th Annual Frigate Free For All to take place in Ouelletta, just two jumps away from the EVE University Highsec Campus. As more details were published in the week leading up to the FFA, I got more and more pumped. I prepared a stash of ships in the freeported Astrahus as I had loads gathering dust anyway.
When the day came I knew I would only be able to jump in for a little bit at the start and maybe some more towards the end. So the plan was to quickly get all my little frigates killed first and maybe undock a few meme ships later. My first choice was the Atron.
The undock of the Astrahus Toothpaste Fish early in the event
I undocked and marveled at the astonishing amount of ships all over the Astrahus and observed the TiDi kicking in – which never was too bad throughout my time at the event.
Then I scanned around for flashy or criminal targets as I wanted to avoid tanking my sec status too much. I shot at a bunch of other frigates but nobody shot back. For a solid five minutes I was able to basically sit at the undock and kill with impunity. Didn’t get much in the way of last hits, but got on a few killmails. Only after going on to ten minutes was I finally killed. Shame, I was really hoping to burn through my ships faster 😉
Punisher Vs Revelation
After dinner and family time I came back and undocked the Punisher. A Revelation was getting tickled to death on the Astrahus and I joined in. As it seemed to hold for now I decided to try my luck at a couple plexes. Surprisingly there wasn’t much going on. I had really expected there to be more fighting throughout the whole system but it seemed heavily concentrated on the Astrahus and 5-5 station.
But in the end I managed to die. As I reshipped I decided to go directly for my cruisers to get back to tickling the Revelation. A Moros had joined in as well and I was able to see both Dreads break apart. Lost my first Rupture just as the Moros spiraled out of control.
Revelation exploding with Moros in the background
Looking around the huge mess I decided it was time to help with the cleanup, so I undocked my shiny salvaging Magnate and looked around for valuable wrecks to vacuum up. I was mostly ignored – again to my surprise – and seemed to also be amazingly safe within the tether even when salvaging. The only thing worthwhile I was able to get was an elite battleship wreck, otherwise a few elite frigates. All in all I managed to salvage about 10M… sadly no one blew me up in the process.
After tidying up the place for a little bit I undocked a Griffin which I used to annoy a Hecate gang and a few others. Again to my surprise, I was ignored for quite a while until some random frigate finally put me out of my misery of flying a despicable ECM ship.
Smartbombing Thanatos
My second Rupture was used on two Thanatos’s, one of Rixx – who cowardly docked back up, running away from the might of the rust – and one of WER4, our good ol’ wardeccers. After I was able to do the obligatory “cool kids don’t look at explosions” shot I was really expecting to be immediately focused on, as I had the slowest and biggest ship on grid at the time. But I had to beg a Flycatcher to take notice of me and show my dusty arty Rupture how to clean up.
Rupture giving the Thanatos the cold shoulder
To round out the evening I took out a Rifter, a Tristan and ultimately a Thrasher. I was again looking for fights around the system.
My Rifter found a few people engaged around a Plex and there was a lot of flinging of ammunition in all directions.
I generally find the Tristan to be overpowered, but in my hands – as someone helpless with droneboats – I found another pilot who showed me how to dispatch this mighty little ship.
My Thrasher was heavily outclassed by kitey ships, so that I couldn’t actually fight back.
At this point, the local and general activity had died down significantly, and looking at local chat there weren’t any more ships available to give out. So I was expecting most pilots to not be able to continue fighting.
It was a shame I didn’t get my neuting Maller into action or my arty Claw…now I have to find some other way to blow them up gloriously.
It was a great change of pace and a wonderful event, I deeply enjoyed taking out so many ships one after another and experiencing so many different engagements. Though I really expected to die a lot quicker than I did. Maybe I overestimated the bloodlust of my fellow capsuleers 😉
Huge thanks to Rixx and the wonderful ABA crew for organising and preparing this FFA! Looking forward to next year! o7
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can find out more information on what cookies we store and why below. Fine with meRead More
Cookie Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
