I wasn't expecting this on here.
Some background infor for the non-eve players:
Moons can be mined for particular raw materials. The materials are fed into a reaction silo, activated, then left to simmer for a while until eventually (after a few reactions), advanced components used for the production of Tech 2 are produced.
Reactions from raw material to final product should be two to three. The exploit allowed people to skip not only the mining of the material, but also the required pre-reactions.
The reaction that was most exploited produced Ferrogel, a product that is used in the construction of Tech 2 ships specifically. Ferrogel can only be produced with access to the R64 moon class, the rarest in eve (1 in every 500 moons is R64, and they are only in very specific areas of space), thus it is one of the most expensive T2 produce. This is why it was exploited most.
OK, from what I have gathered with my many ties, the fallout of this has resulted in the following:
> Firstly, the only T2 prices likely to rise at all are the Ships, because most other T2 items do not use the exploited material. The actual price rise will be low because Ferrogel is only used in one or two of the items required for T2 ship production.
> Eventually, T2 ship prices will fall. This is due to the introduction of Alchemy by CCP (this was introduced before the exploit was officially recognised) which allows the use of a large number of more common moon minerals to substitute a small number of rare ones. This was brought in to help the Tech 2 market, which was still dominated largely by those who had access to legit R64 moons and Tech 2 Original Blueprints (only copies can be produced now).
> Only those in direct contact with the exploit were banned. CCP are taking the stance of plausible deny-ability, basically saying that the average T2 ship and material buyer was most likely unaware of the ill-gotten source of the wares.
>Only one or two of the major alliances were effected. out of the two, one of them has effectively closed down due to most of the members being banned. The other only had three or four who actively knew about it. Despite rumours, BoB were not very effected, as their profit comes from production of ships, the sale of loot and gathered from payments of rent. I believe only three BoB members were banned.
>CCP have changed their petition systems numerous times over the last five years and as of yet have been unable to confirm that it was reported 3 or 4 years ago. The people I have been speaking to said they don't know what the reaction will be if they find out somebody conveniently swept it under the table when it was originally reported, but they pity whoever it is when they catch up.
>CCP and the CSM (Council of Stellar Management - the EVE players officially backed council) have both confirmed that no CSM or CCP members have any relation to this exploit, or the use of this exploit.
Welcome to EVE
I find it interesting that people really dislike EVE but as soon as something that simply can't happen in another MMO appeared, everyone is staring at it through the bushes!
