Era of suicide ganking in EVE Online coming to a close
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, News items
CCP Games has addressed the long-standing problem of suicide ganking in EVE Online in their latest dev blog, titled "Serious Security." CCP Fear stepped up to inform the player base that, yes, the devs do take the issue of suicide ganking seriously, and that they're going to take action. The proposed changes, outlined below, are not going into effect immediately, nor do they impact actions taken as part of Empire war declarations. However, they will be implemented with the next major update to EVE, which will be Empyrean Age 1.1, rolling out this Fall. The dev blog focuses on CONCORD improvements and the increased consequences of suicide ganks.
CCP Fear states: "We have been looking at suicide ganking and overall security standing issues, and how these features affect the general landscape of EVE. We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative 'no hassle' it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance to escape, nor any help from CONCORD. We want to change this."
Essentially, CONCORD has been spending far too much time at the doughnut shop while ignoring the screams of dying miners and freighters throughout New Eden's high security solar systems. Those days will soon be over. CONCORD will get buffed with a faster response time in Empyrean Age 1.1 and will lay the smack down on suicide gankers in groups of three. Two frigates will (near) instantly lock and tackle an aggressor, allowing the third ship, a battleship, to annihilate the criminal.
CCP Fear also states that the relative ease of regaining lost standings from Empire suicide ganks is not in line with CCP's intentions for EVE, and that's about to change too. Security penalties for ganking in high security space will be more severe, largely eliminating 'casual' highsec ganks. In other words, killing someone in high security space may still be possible, but the attacker will need to suffer to do so.
While the stated changes are already significant, CCP Fear also added that the differential between an attacker's and a victim's standings will impact the penalties taken. In other words, if the victim has high standings while the attacker's standings are low, the attacker will suffer an increased penalty.
For all of the suicide gankers out there, there's some more bad news... CCP Fear says, "The highly requested feature of removal of insurance in CONCORD related events will be implemented in the near future." Carebears throughout New Eden may feel the urge to rejoice at these changes, but keep in mind that none of this is set in stone just yet. A team of CCP employees -- known as 'Taskforce Doughnut' -- will be looking into the current proposed changes related to highsec ganking, leading up to Empyrean Age 1.1.
If the proposed changes are implemented, it stands to reduce risk for highsec dwellers, impose severe consequences for highsec suicide gankers, and limit most ganking to lowsec and 0.0. How do you feel about these changes? If you're on the wrong side of the law, is this going to seriously affect your gameplay? And for those who reside in highsec, do you think CCP Games is handling the situation properly?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-06-2008 @ 9:34AM
Arkanaloth said...
I think these changes are awesome... high security space will indeed become "high security". Sure it's possible to ply one's trade in those areas but you'll burn for it... this just makes sense. For Concord, protection of high sec space "is just good business."
Reply
8-06-2008 @ 10:23AM
Jason said...
I agree. You can still fight in high-sec using war decs, and you can still gank if you're willing to take the hit. Let the risk-takers and gankers go to low-sec if they want to play games with expensive ships.
I like this the best:
"CCP Fear says, "The highly requested feature of removal of insurance in CONCORD related events will be implemented in the near future."
All the other features fade to insignificance to this. People will be more reluctant to try to tank sentry guns if they lose battleships and don't get reimbursed. Highly endorse this proposal.
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8-06-2008 @ 12:25PM
SgtBaker said...
Overall good changes, suiciding autopiloting t1 industrials carrying loads of valuables with couple of Caracals will still be very profitable - you just need to pick your targets carefully. No free ganks anymore. That's great.
And with some luck carebears will relax even more and think high-sec is indeed "safe" :-) Yay for 1bn ISK autopiloting Badgers between Jita and Amarr :-)
Reply
8-06-2008 @ 1:29PM
ahnog said...
I'm not sure its fair to say that suicide ganking is coming to an end. The price for doing it is going up, but there will still be room for it.
Reply
8-07-2008 @ 5:19AM
mbp said...
I am still an EVE carebear noob but I really really hope that these proposed changes do signal the end of all suicide ganking.
I believe that suicide gankers fulfil a vital role in EVE. They are the boogie men of Empire space. They are the nightmares that haunt our carebear dreams. They are the reason we need to keep looking over our shoulders even in "safe" empire space.
I can understand that the current situation is unbalanced in favour of the ganker and that the risk versus reward situation needs to be adjusted.
I just hope the proposed changes don't go too far. I hope that the most dedicated gankers will refine the calculations, select their targets more carefully and remain. I hope that I will still have a reason to look over my shoulder in empire space.
EVE without risk would not be EVE.
Reply
8-07-2008 @ 8:35AM
mbp said...
Aghhhhh .... %%&&&@@!! typo changed the entire meaning of my post. Please read the first sentence of my post above as
"I really hope these changes do NOT signal the end of all suicide ganking"
8-07-2008 @ 10:57AM
James Egan said...
mbp, no worries, your meaning was clear.
Suicide ganking will still be possible, but it won't be mindless anymore -- the gankers will need to carefully pick their targets, not just hit any Bestower fast and hope it pays off.
I wonder if it means that gankers will watch market activity and contracts, target specific individuals. (I'm sure some already do this.) Not a bunch of guys sitting on a gate and popping an indy or freighter simply because of the class of ship.
Suicide ganks aren't my playstyle, but this type of thing really needs to be left in the game. If it requires more cunning on the part of the gankers, even better.
Still, in the back of my mind, the idea is nagging at me ... does this remove too much of the element of risk from operating in Empire?