EVE's 'Orca' mining vessel facilitates suicide ganks against miners
by James Egan 
Dec 2nd 2008 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, in-game, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, PvP, News items
Among the changes to EVE Online introduced with the Quantum Rise expansion is a new class of ship, the 'Orca' industrial command ship.The ship is intended to be a major asset to mining operations in New Eden, but it's a flexible ship -- and this writer has been waiting to see what clever uses players will have for it. It looks like that day has come... The Orca's substantial cargo capacity, a ship maintenance bay, and corp hangar have made it an ideal base of operations for criminals operating in highsec, with an aim to suicide gank T2 mining ships. In other words, use fully insurable Tech I ships to gank specialized, expensive, and largely uninsurable Tech II ships.
Suicide ganking is nothing new, but one of the major changes CCP Games put into place to dissuade players from committing highsec suicide ganks was to substantially increase the security status penalties players are hit with when committing aggressive acts in high security (Empire) space. But no matter how low one's security status drops, all players can move about in highsec in their ship's capsule. It's only when a criminal enters a ship in highsec space that CONCORD takes action. That is where the Orca comes in. Criminals can board new ships housed within the Orca at a safespot and then warp in on their victims en masse, in multiple waves of suicide ganks. When their suicide gank ships are blasted apart by CONCORD, they can fly in their pods back to the Orca and gear up for the next wave.
EVE Online player Thoren Gregson recently posted about "-10 sec pirates plundering in Empire" on the official game forums, which has sparked quite a bit of discussion. It took him a little while to figure out how it was being done, but eventually he scanned his aggressors down and watched from a covert ops ship while cloaked. What he saw was a rather devious use of a ship designed for miners being used against miners. In effect, these (as yet unnamed) pilots quite likely pioneered the Orca's use as a mobile base of operations for guerilla warfare, assuming this doesn't get nerfed by CCP Games.
So then, is this a situation where player ingenuity leads to finding new uses for a versatile ship -- or is it an exploit? CCP Games hasn't weighed in with a decision on this yet. So until then, you decide.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Isanox said on 7:09PM 12-02-2008
Well there you are James.
For the first time in months I checked massively and I didn't see a pedantic article about Eve for an ENTIRE page. (From the Champions only to the FF XI discount.)
WTG there buddy, keep monopolizing the site about just one game.
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James Egan said on 6:58PM 12-04-2008
@ Isanox
As Omberjack says in the comments above, there's clearly a lot more Warhammer and other fantasy-MMO content on this site than there is EVE. And why shouldn't there be? Fantasy MMOs reign supreme in this industry. Our traffic indicates this is what the majority of you, the readers, like. Our content reflects this. But obviously you'll see more articles here on the mainstream fantasy titles like WAR and WoW than FFXI or Asheron's Call. It doesn't mean we don't like games that don't begin with a "W", but reader response (and traffic) gives us a fairly accurate picture of what people like to read at Massively.
However, despite how dominant fantasy is in the industry (and thus our coverage) in the months since I joined the Massively team, I chose to run with something different and have taken a look at EVE. It's a radical departure from the other games we cover, and yeah -- the game's just not for everyone. But the response to what I've written thus far, and of course the almighty traffic, warrants our coverage of the game. Specifically, *my* coverage of the game. (Our other writers focus on titles like LotRO, WAR, etc. That's their thing. EVE is mine.)
That's not going to change. We've got new content every hour throughout the day, if EVE (or just my writing about EVE) makes you want to gouge your eyes out -- well, I'm sorry to hear that, but we've got plenty of content here for other types of gamers. I don't monopolize game coverage at Massively (although admittedly the amount of content I write here has increased in the last few months).
If you're going to write about games for a living, shouldn't you write about the titles you're passionate about? My favorite happens to be EVE, thus many of my posts are about that game. Others on staff here don't play it or don't play it as much. Hell some of our writers don't like it at all, and that's fine. I'm sure they prefer to write about the titles they enjoy. That's how it works here. For the record though, although I focus on EVE, I do write about other games at Massively as well:
http://www.massively.com/bloggers/james-egan
Darkstar said on 6:39PM 12-02-2008
Lol, Sandbox strikes again!
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Pacey said on 6:44PM 12-02-2008
As many others on the Eve Online forums have already said. This form of attacking carebears in high sec isnt anything new, it just implements the Orca in a way that allows for it to be done somewhat easier.
It just goes to show, someones always smarter and will figure out 'unintended' uses for ships in Eve
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Dr. Spiegel said on 6:44PM 12-02-2008
I'm new to EVE, but I think this situations falls into my "exploit" book. Basically, what the ship is doing is "smuggling" wanted criminals, therefore, just like drugs or whatnot, it should be penalized in high sec.
Just an opinion of a big newbie.
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Hammerhead said on 6:47PM 12-02-2008
Don't forget that once your security status drops below -5 you're fair game for anyone to shoot regardless of the security rating of the system.
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Pacey said on 6:50PM 12-02-2008
/me hands Dr. Spiegel his flame suit
They arent smuggling the -10 prats in the Orca. As stated, pods are allowed in empire even with a sec status of -10. The Orca is being piloted by a neutral player and is launching ships into space. If someone wants to do that in Eve, thats fine and not an exploit.
I realize its your opinion and your welcome to it, but it always seems to go back to two phrases with Eve.
1) No where in Eve is completely safe. Empire space is only 'safer'.
2) Eve is a cold dark place. Get used to it.
It's things like that use of the Orca that makes the game so unique. Someone looked at is and said "Hey, lets try using it this way' and it worked. I like the idea of the game allowing unintended uses of things. And If you think this is 'bad'...
Just wait until T3 is released.
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mandrill said on 7:36PM 12-02-2008
I think CCP should leave well alone apart from flagging the Orca/Carrier so that players can gank it themselves with impunity.
If nothing else it makes the suicide ganking issue a tad more pressing and may encourage the Carebears to go out and do their own policing. (I'm for hire in that regard if anyone is wondering.)
I foresaw this use of the Orca the moment details of its specification were released. High-sec miners will just have to think outside the box to combat it.
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Wjowski said on 9:46PM 12-02-2008
It's EVE. If the involved parties weren't expecting this they're playing the wrong MMO.
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Erbo Evans said on 11:35PM 12-02-2008
Once again, Gibson is right: "The street finds its own uses for things."
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Ga'len said on 8:05AM 12-03-2008
Yup, saw this coming. I called it first!!!
http://www.eve-druid.com/2008/10/27/the-orca-how-will-pirates-use-it/
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jdmc said on 10:34AM 12-03-2008
I really wish I could get into eve to take part in things i read about but the godawful interface makes my head explode everytime I try it.
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Reader said on 12:54PM 12-03-2008
Unless you have an enormous amount of spare time and dedication, EVE really isn't worth getting into. Playing casually and having fun don't really go together. Best you can do in an hour of time is run a mission or mine a little bit, never get to do anything fun.
halfcaptain said on 10:40PM 12-08-2008
Just wanted to respond to Reader's comment above ("Unless you have an enormous amount of spare time and dedication, EVE really isn't worth getting into."). As far as I'm concerned, not true. In fact, the opposite is true. Unlike a game like WoW, or City of Heroes, as much as I enjoyed the latter, you're not forced to grind around killing NPCs for experience points. Instead, you buy a skill, then you train it in real time. This means you can - gasp - not play for long periods of time with no real penalty to character development. Obviously, making isk is hard when you're not at the computer, but your skill training doesn't stop with the NPC grind, like other MMOs. This is pretty much the best reason that Eve is a great game to play casually.
Jacob Mei said on 11:34AM 12-03-2008
This is nothing new and I have to say I saw this coming the moment it was said that the Orca could transport assembled ships in high sec. Anyone who didnt think the Orca was going to become a feared pvp asset was really not thinking right.
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Syme said on 12:37PM 12-03-2008
The problem here is that there is no way to deal with the Orca without jeopardizing one's own sec status. The AI is too dumb to allow you to retaliate as you should be able to. EVE is a cold, dark place, unless you are hiding inside a neutral ship in high sec; then it seems pretty cushy.
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Graill said on 12:44PM 12-03-2008
I love how mentally challenged folks still label one side as "carebears" verse their what? Ignorant. If you dont play like me...insert label here, pathetic kids.
That aside, i have a question on the writers piece, where is the consequence for the ganker? I'm sorry you say, there is none.
Lets be real for a sec, the only content you can report about eve that would be relevant are subscription numbers and the multiple accounts held by single folks boxing in the game for whatever reason, with all the flaws in this game the constant spin to try and validate EVE as "the" space MMO is a joke. Hell, i think i will start reading spin about WOW now.
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Pacey said on 5:24PM 12-03-2008
Grail, i use the term carebear cuz I am one. Industrialist first, Combatant second. Carebear started as a term meant to be derogatory that has been embraced by some to mean something completely different. It's almost as bad as calling someone you don't know 'mentally challenged'. Oh, Wait...
halfcaptain said on 10:46PM 12-08-2008
@Graill
"Hell, i think i will start reading spin about WOW now."
You might as well start reading something, because every time you expose your hate boner for Eve in a thread, you make it painfully apparent you don't really know much about the game you purportedly hate with so many good reasons.
Sorry if this gets marked as spam. I've just seen enough of this guy's low-class, ill-conceived rants in Eve threads before.
Graill said on 12:48PM 12-03-2008
LOL, i commented about that a few months ago, i thought this site was the EVE fanboi review board. They must be getting some big gravy as a sponsor to spin EVE as much as they do.
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