Massive EVE Online Superbattle Blocks The Stars

[Fanghawk]

Massive EVE Online Superbattle Blocks The Stars

Thanks to a lone pilot pressing the wrong button, almost 3000 EVE Online players rushed into The Battle of Asakai.

EVE Online is a very curious type of MMO. The game has <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/208-Eve-Online>a somewhat deserved reputation for being a corporation simulator, where bureaucratic dealings are arguably more common than spaceship combat. On the other hand, its players are constantly pushing the boundaries of EVE's environment to create <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103417-45-000-Latest-Haul-in-Eve-Online-Scheme>elaborate ISK thefts and <a href=http://zedrikcayne.blogspot.ca/2011/06/socratic-filesthe-ultimate-punishment.html>deviously intricate revenge plans. That's not to say there isn't room for the occasional space battle, as many EVE players discovered last weekend. What began as an accidental intrusion into Asakai VI quickly blossomed into a full-scale skirmish when allies rushed in to lend aid. All told, approximately 2800-3000 players engaged each other in ships great and small, which is apparently enough to periodically block out the stars.

It all started when a single player conducting his usual space-faring operations accidentally pressed a button that jumped his ship into enemy space. As hostile craft closed in, the pilot quickly called for backup, which prompted an overwhelming response from <a href=http://themittani.com/news/breaking-massive-super-fight-asakai-lowsec>over 700 corporations and 250 alliances. Lowly fighters rushed into battle alongside powerful Supercarriers, and stunning videos and screenshots have been pouring online ever since.

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The Battle of Asakai, as it is now being called, turned out to be an incredibly costly occurrence. Dozens of highly valuable ships were lost on both sides, including multiple Supercarriers and Titans. The total cost of damages is still being calculated, but early estimates already exceed 700 billion ISK. It's difficult to imagine either side rushing back into battle anytime soon, but I expect that the Battle of Asakai will still be fondly remembered by many for years to come.

Source: PC Gamer
Images: <a href=http://imgur.com/a/jJJE1>Imgur

Permalink

 

[Worgen]

I like that this is pretty much how ww1 started.

 

[CJ1145]

This story is very similar to how a house party gone wrong got my brother thrown in jail.

It just goes to show: pretend corporate bureaucracy is serious business.

 

[thiosk]

I thought it was pretty bamf.

The initial story I heard was that one of the more devious corporations got creamed.

If I didn't have to actually do real work, I would totally get back into MMOs.

 

[Irridium]

I love stories like this, and I love that games exist that allow these types of stories to happen.

Well, I like it at a distance. Didn't have much fun while playing it, but still really admire the thing.

 

[R.Nevermore]

MMOs can develop such interesting stories...

The great plague of Azeroth
The Eternal Conflict of the Pandemonium Warden
and now The Battle of Asakai

What else am I missing?

 

[jollybarracuda]

Wow...it doesnt even look like a space battle in those images, just a giant spider's web composed of space ships and lasers...Frakkin' awesome.

 

[spectrenihlus]

This is what all MMOs should strive to become. Don't try to direct the player let the players direct themselves.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

That cluster just reminds me of the messy battles in Sins of a Solar Empire matches.

 

[kajinking]

AWWWWW COME ON!!! I JUST LET MY SUBSCRIPTION LAPSE!!!!

 

[ROBO_LEADER]

It's precisely this kind of thing that makes me wish I still had time to play that game.

 

[juyunseen]

You know what would be even cooler with this sort of thing? Players who could board enemy ships as individual units and slowly take them down from the inside a la Star Wars Battlefront. Just imagine the comm chatter.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Man I love how MMOs allow for stuff like this to happen. So much fun and so interesting to read and hear about.

If only I actually enjoyed MMo gameplay and had large amounts of disposable income.

I'd start so many wars.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

That cluster just reminds me of the messy battles in Sins of a Solar Empire matches.

To put it into perspective, the 700,000,000,000 ISK (the early estimate of losses) converted to real world currency is 24,308.31 USD.

So that little light show burnt through allot of money.

Source: http://isk.thealphacompany.net/?isk=700000000000&conversion=isktousd&Submit=Convert

 

[Smolderin]

Watching the video, I am pretty impressed with the players coordination. All that Eve lingo being thrown around sounded like something straight out of a science fiction movie when commanders are trying to coordinate an assault of some sort. Very cool. And the light shows were pretty as well. xD

 

[rcs619]

Wow...it doesnt even look like a space battle in those images, just a giant spider's web composed of space ships and lasers...Frakkin' awesome.

This is what all MMOs should strive to become. Don't try to direct the player let the players direct themselves.

The one real downside of EVE is that the major fleet battles aren't actually fun. The game's architecture literally can't handle it.

Basically, when a bunch of players all pile into the same system, a mechanic called "time-dilation" kicks in. It slows the game down so that everyone's individual commands reach the servers in order. In the big battle, the game bogs down to unbearable levels. For example, in this battle, the time-dilation was up to the maximum of 90%. The game was only running at 10% speed the entire time. 1 minute of gameplay took 10 minutes of real-time, for example.

It's better than it used to be, when the server would just lag out or crash completely, and it certainly *is* an interesting story to read about and catch screenshots of. It just isn't fun to actually be in it, attempting to play the game in a situation the hardware just can't support. Which is something CCP always seems to neglect when they advertise EVE's huge, "epic" battles.

I always enjoyed black-ops stuff myself. Sneaking around with a dozen or so guys in stealth-bombers and recon-cruisers, ganking anyone unlucky enough to bumble into our path, before fading back into the shadows as he raged in local chat about what cowards we were >

Really any of the small-gang PVP is a lot of fun. 10-20 dudes rolling around in cruisers, battlecruisers and whatever else, shooting the shit in Teamspeak while you shoot people in EVE. Goodtimes.

But yeah, if EVE's endgame content (sovereignty wars, huge fleet fights, capital/super-capital ship engagements) were actually playable and/or fun, then I really think it would be one of the best MMO's around easily. In its current state though, it is an extremely interesting, if currently flawed, experiment in player-driven content and sandbox gameplay.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

That cluster just reminds me of the messy battles in Sins of a Solar Empire matches.

To put it into perspective, the 700,000,000,000 ISK (the early estimate of losses) converted to real world currency is 24,308.31 USD.

So that little light show burnt through allot of money.

Source: http://isk.thealphacompany.net/?isk=700000000000&conversion=isktousd&Submit=Convert

...
Wat.
That is.. the amount of.... so much...

That is a lot of goddamn money! Oh man I bet their legions of accountants are crapping themselves over this!

 

[kajinking]

Wow...it doesnt even look like a space battle in those images, just a giant spider's web composed of space ships and lasers...Frakkin' awesome.

Scary Part is that most of those aren't lasers but repair and shield beams. In big EVE fights an entire fleet dumps all their healing and support powers onto whoever is getting hurt (Hence the spider web) and the enemy fleet focuses all their firepower onto whoever is the main tank ship in order to break through all that support.

In the end you get the full power of literally 100s of ships focused onto 2-5 ships out of the fleet. It's like throwing the entire power of a thousand strong WOW guild onto a single Paladin.

 

[Orbot_Vectorman]

My god, I can only imagine how that mistake went down,

Pilot 1: Alright I'm gonna scan that ship

The ships main cannon goes off and slams into target ship,

Pilot 2: What the? Oh no you didn't!

Pilot 2 calls in reinforcements, upon arrival

Pilot 1: CRAP! *Getting on com* HELP! I'M GETTING ATTACKED!

Pilot 1's reinforcements rush in and battle starts.

 

[VoidWanderer]

So EVE Online has a 'make news event' button now?