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I wanted to talk hybrids a bit more today, but catching up after my vacation is turning up a lot of interesting activity this week, so I’ll save that post for tomorrow. Instead, let’s talk high-sec war-decs.
Jester’s Trek: More tears formula
As I’ve said a couple of times lately, I haven’t spent any time in an all-high-sec-all-the-time corp. I was in Sturmgrenadier’s high-sec training corp for about a year, though, and in this capacity, I got quite a bit of experience with high-sec war-decs. I showed my mutant colors pretty early, though: I really enjoyed the war-decs, and cut my teeth learning how to be a PvP FC in this arena. In the process, I became more familiar than I wanted to be with all the ways high-sec merc corps and gank corps use to exploit the war-dec system.
And they are legion. Most revolve around the use of neutral toons to provide services that should be performed by combatants. Neutral scouts are the most obvious, of course, but much more egregious possibilities exist. For instance, neutral logistics ships can rep combatant ships, then jump through nearby gates or dock up in nearby stations when aggressed. Neutral Machariels can be used to bump people undocking far off station. Until very recently, neutral Orcas could be used to swap ships mid-combat, turning an even fight into a one-sided stomp-fest. Neutral command ships can provide 7-link boosting, and neutral cheap ships can provide Remote Sebos and Remote Tracking Links. And neutral fast-locking ships with multiple Signal Amplifiers and/or Auto Targeting Systems can be used as FC platforms. And all of this is before you add how ridiculously, ludicrously easy high-sec corps are to infiltrate.
So yeah, I’ve experienced all the tricks on that end of the spectrum.
What I hadn’t experienced much of was the far other end of the spectrum, the mechanics that some high-sec corps use to avoid war-decs. I was vaguely familiar with the ideas of creating new alliances or joining alliances to avoid war-decs. I was also vaguely familiar with the idea of creating false war-decs to increase the cost to the aggressor. But these tactics really didn’t hit home for me until a couple of months ago. I was in an incursion fleet, flying logi as usual, when I started repping an EVE University pilot. The game informed me the E-UNI pilot was at war and did I want to risk being part of that war. I certainly didn’t care. The high-sec war-dec’er that can catch me in a Scimitar deserves to kill me. 
I accepted the risk and got busy repping him. But I asked about it, and was informed that the E-UNI war-decs were “fake war-decs”…
…all eight or nine of them.
The apparent idea being that yeah, you can war-dec EVE University, but it’s going to cost you a half-billion ISK to do it, because each war-dec on an alliance increases the cost of the next one by 50 million ISK. I had a vague memory of this being an exploit, asked about it, and it was confirmed to me that it was, except for E-UNI, which apparently was given a special exemption by CCP due to the service they provide to new EVE players.
Well, this week, there was a very quiet “non-announcement” from the CCP GM team stating that this sort of thing will no longer be considered an exploit, nor will hopping alliances or creating alliances to avoid war-decs. There’s also a relevant public thread about it on the EVE University forums that you can peruse.
We will pause here for a moment to consider the delicious irony of CCP deciding not to bother fixing a flawed game mechanic and instead simply stating that using flawed game mechanics will themselves be considered a legal way to avoid other flawed game mechanics. Go CCP.
Now let’s skip that and move on.
Back in June on Failheap, Evil Synns wrote what may as well be the EVE Online Quote of the Game:
Remember this is EVE, where everyone counts their e-peen in level of tears.
And make no mistake: this change in policy — while extremely lazy and dumb — caused quite the little explosion of high-sec ganker tears. The irony here is palpable. Yeah, I understand that I’m supposed to take the side of high-sec mercs and PvPers here. I’m a PvPer at heart, I like PvP in all forms, and I should be showing solidarity with my bear-ganking brethren. And sure, I do. Really! I do!
To a certain extent.
But given that the high-sec PvPer industry is basically an entire EVE culture revolving around collecting the item to the left, I also get to appreciate the irony of all the whining that I’m hearing about this from them. When the Orca change was made, every pirate and high-sec PvPer blog I follow was pretty sheepish about it. “Sure, I used that exploit,” a lot of them said. “Sure, it was probably unfair for me to do so,” they continued. “But it was a tool of the trade, and I used it because it provided an advantage,” they concluded. Apologize? Apologizing for using an exploit is for the weak.
Had the Orca exploit been declared legal, the gankers would have fallen over themselves in glee over the high-sec tears that would have resulted. Now that the shoe is quite literally on the other foot, the irony of the apocalpytic rage-bombs being dropped is not lost on me, oh no.
So yeah, sorry high-sec PvPers, gankers, and mercs, but… your tears are delicious.
I’m going to conclude this post by stating the obvious: high-sec war-decs are hugely broken. There’s an absolute metric ton of exploits still remaining that high-sec PvP corps are using daily to press ganks on the high-sec bear corps that only want to mine or mission in peace. Guys, to whine about the few tools that the bears have to avoid you being declared legal is unworthy of you. Get over it, and wipe away your tears. If this stuff is what you find fun, evolve. You’ll find new ways to kill bears. I promise.
And hopefully, at some point, CCP will throw out the current war-dec mechanics and write something that makes sense for both sides.
About the Author: Playing EVE Online for more than four years, play under the main Ripard Teg. Currently afflicted with the much maligned “Bitter-Vet” disease, Ripard Teg travels through the New Eden landscape in search of a cure… and hopefuly a good adventure to share with his readers.
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what happened to the nulli future mail post riv? was i wrong, did you get trolled by ninevite?
Intel was inaccurate so we unlisted it, it went up for 10 mins only then we took it down.
we post about 105 articles per month, so its only natural to have our misses from time to time. Specially when many of our readers try hard to get it tru.
to this date, this is the most hilarious time we ever got trolled:
http://www.evenews24.com/2011/01/25/confirmed-x13…
i disagree, in order to allow your readres to decide for themsleves, i submit todays troll
http://www.evenews24.com/2011/10/14/mind-over-mat…
br1ck news 24, we report obvious trolls with shoddy information, you decide
I call for mintrolio to settle this!
MOAR MINTROLIO
CONFRIMIGN I NOT NO MANY THIGN OF NULLI SECONDHAND
ALSO THIS GUDERIA<3 DO SOUND VERY ANGREY.
ALSO ONE TIME I REMMEBER I DO SOLO KERZATH AND DO WINNIGN IN MINE JAGAUR BUT THAT NEVER GOT POAST TO ANY SITE AND I SUR THET HIS LEADRE DO NOT TELL HIM TO LOSIGN TO ME AGAIN.
ALSO POAST IS VER SHOT AND DO HAFIGN NO KILLBROAD LINKS SO I AM THINKIGN IS NOT TRU.
ALSO I VOCHIGN FUR RIVERWEENY – HE DO NOT LET ANY TROL TO POAST TO HIS SITE, ONLY GUD POASTER.
KEEP UP THE GOOD POASTIGN!
CONFRIMIGN ALSO I AHF NEW GOAT.
ALSO NOT TO TAKE AWY FROM RIPUP TAG POAST – HE IS GOOD TO INROM US ALLES FOR HIS VEIWS, BUT GOAT NEWS IS GOOD NEWS.
ALSO GOAT KEEPIGN ME VER BUSY, HE DO EATIGN NEYBOURS GARDEN. SO I DO TIEING UP GOAT BUT GOAT DO EAT ROPE THEN DO EATIGN NEYBOURS GARDEN AGAIN. IN UKRAINE, GOAT EAT GARDEN IS VER BAD THIGN AND MAK MANY PEEPOL VER ANGREY.
ALSO SO NOW I HAF MANY LATE NITE TO WATCHIGN NEW GOAT AND AM VER TRIED FROM NO SLEEPIGN.
ALSO I HOPE SOON GOAT DO UNDERSTANDIGN NOT TO EATIGN GARDENS. I THINKIGN ONLY 2 OR 3 MOR NITE OF BEETIGN GOAT WITH STICK DO MAK MESSAGE CLEAR FUR HIM.
KEEP UP THE GOOD POASTIGN
Ohh man.. this is gotta be the funniest shit I have ever read on this site.
Thank you Mintrolio, for bringing some reality to this discussion; your goat analogy really brings a realistic perspective to this discussion, as it is honestly a perfect eyeglass into this situation. How many late nights have we all spent 'chasing goats' ? Who amongst us has not had sleepless nights, aiding our neighbors in their plight, even if we had some hand in it? We could all learn a valuable lesson from this insightful post and take away a bit of your homegrown honesty and forthrightness from it all. Without you, Mintrolio, evenews24 would be lifeless. Personally, I think you should have a weekly editorial on the state of nullsec and eve in general.
It's time to be pedantic.
"Now that the shoe is quite literally on the other foot…"
It's not "quite literally" on the other foot because it is a figurative shoe, with reference to figurative feet. But of course you already knew that. You were just being an ironic hipster.
His shoe was on the other foot before it was cool to have shoes on the wrong feet.
My apologies for the above post. The spike strip has been removed from my ass, so I'm feeling much less pedantic. Warmest Regards to all.
I, too, would high-sec pvp if i needed the self-esteem boost!
PVPers are the biggest carebears in the game. They attack with impunity and benefit from exploits that give them much reward for so little risk.
I am so glad to hear they are crying about losing one small exploit.
How the hell are they carebears?? If they are smart enough to find these exploits they deserve to get kills for their effort. People should know, if they have been wardecced they should take extra care. If they get a neut in their mission they should know not to engage etc
They are "carebears" because they are using loop holes in the rules to engage in PvP with minimal risk. It is a lot like mission running but with the added bonus of seeing other people get upset about their loss. This crap don't work that well in null or worm hole space.
tbh null sec players are often biggest carebears, believing expertise in one area of the game, PvP makes them uber. Often expertise doesn't go beyond sitthing in ship and pressing F1 when told to by FC, then posting homophobic remarks in local.
The true sec nerf had to be the biggest tears gathering moment in history?
There is something about the tears of war dec'ers though it's true, its the accompanying 'how dare you' attitude if you actually win. The 'you just bought another week of war dec' mail is my favourite, before the dec sheepishly drops a few days later…..
I will note one exception – once war decced and thoroughly beaten around the galaxy by a war dec corp our corp kept coming back for more spankings in a bloodied but enthusiastic manner. In the last few days I started getting mails with ship fitting guidance from one of the members obviously after shaking his head at our shit fits too regulalry. An accompanying description of what I was doing wrong helped too!!! End of week we got a 'thanks for coming to fight' mail and had a good laugh in their joint channel about the war.
Please note above the only decent experience – all other war deccers basically been cunts.
When do we get the Mintrolio spotlight piece where it comes out that mintchip and riverini are sharing an account for their eve24/vidnews love.
"tbh null sec players are often biggest carebears, believing expertise in one area of the game, PvP makes them uber."
Yes and no. Null players are often the biggest carebears, that is let them lose in null for awhile without an active campaign and soon many of them will have very fat wallets. Of course that is usually so that they can have plenty of ships for pewpew.
"Often expertise doesn't go beyond sitthing in ship and pressing F1 when told to by FC, then posting homophobic remarks in local. "
That is a decent depiction of some alliances in large scale battles. However, smaller roaming gangs are much more fluid and interesting.