What you see in that image is a Doomsday weapon, a superlaser that can only be fired from a Titan, the largest and most expensive ship in EVE Online. More than 50 of them were present yesterday for an enormous, quintessentially EVE capital ship throwdown between the two biggest coalitions in the spacefaring MMO.
It’s the kind of thing which EVE uniquely delivers, although to hear it from EVE veterans, it may be vastly more thrilling in the retelling. So many ships were involved that the game had to activate “time dilation” — essentially a huge time slowdown so the EVE servers could cope with everything going on. When reinforcements jumped into the system they found themselves unable to load into the battle for more than an hour, during which they could be fired upon by hostile ships already present.
The belligerents in this — the Battle of HED-GP (the system where this was fought) were Clusterfuck Coalition (or CFC) teamed with some Russian alliances against N3 and the Pandemic legion — “the kings of supercapital combat,” according to this after-action report. Pandemic’s “wrecking ball” doctrine of steamrollering opposition with overwhelming force had encountered little resistance, and until now, little will to match its force with one of similar strength.
HED-GP was worth the effort to CFC and its Russian friends, however. They brought in 1,800 subcapital ships, and 500 dreadnoughts with another 200 “sitting one jump out … the most downright punishing Dread fleet assembled in recent memory.” Backing up that force were about 30 Titans and 150 supercapital ships.
Pandemic/N3’s “wrecking ball” comprised “some 500 Archons, 100 Dreads, 170 Supers, and 70 pivotal Titans — a force of nature in its own right and the largest such fleet assembled by this group.”
The report is filled with jargon but the outcome would appear to be a decisive victory for Pandemic and N3. CFC and the Russians lost 350 dreadnoughts and the 200 waiting to jump into the system simply went home instead. At the height of the battle “the node creaked to a halt; 25 minute module lag from the [Pandemic/N3] perspective.”
Still, even losing 350 Dreadnoughts “is not coalition-breaking by any means.” The two sides will continue to skirmish, but “it will be months before we see a capital fight of this scale again.”
January 18, 2014 — HED-GP More Like HED-GG [Kugustumen.com via Reddit; image via and h/t to NeoGAF]
Comments
8 responses to “EVE Online’s Two Biggest Factions Had An Enormous Battle Yesterday”
I remember back when the first loss of a Titan occurred……. the entire eve community went into a frenzy of excitement and “OMG! INSAANNEEE” enthusiasm.
These days it seems they are thrown around like candy. Crazyness I tells ya.
/getoffmylawn
I really wish this game wasn’t so damn boring to play. The write ups always sound so damn awesome
This ^
The way EVE is explained is so much more different to the actual gameplay itself.
Click to move and as far as I know and the only controls you have were to adjust the thruster, not to mention a massive learning curve.
Though don’t get me wrong I love reading stories about EVE haha
There is a lot more to combat in EVE then just click to move and thrusters. A lot of fights come down to pilot skill and prior preparation.
Different ships fill different roles and the way each ship is fit out will significantly impact on how it performs. Different weapon systems apply damage in different ways and have individual strengths and weaknesses. Different defensive systems impact on the way your ship will maneuver with things like armor plates slowing acceleration and maneuvering. Shields increase your ships effective size making larger guns hit you more easily but allow you to remain agile.
Additional to all of this you need to manage your energy levels to be able to run thruster systems, repair modules and guns. To add to all of this ships are able to fit electronic warfare systems to disrupt all of the different subsystems on target ships.
If EVE was simply click to move and thrusters there wouldn’t be any learning curve at all. For those willing to dig a little there is plenty of depth. It isn’t for everyone, but I enjoy it.
I understand the skill or planning that goes into everything in regards to EVE
though in the end you could have the same kind of gameplay/concept in a click style browser mmo.
very keen for Star citizen
^ This.
Can’t wait for Star Citizen so a battle can be more than spending 3 months waiting for upgrades, before right clicking something and selecting attack.
^ This.
First thing I thought of was how this will be in Star Citizen! With the interest in it (and capital) I hope it will be close to as awesome as I hope it will be…..
Yeah pretty much. I’ve tried countless times to enjoy EVE. But I simply didn’t find it ‘fun’ to play. You could easily spend two hours mining asteroids to make some cash, then go one zone too far and lose all your work. I have nothing against harsh death penalties, but the game simply requires too much time invested to get to the level of play mentioned above.