Hulkageddon II event begins in EVE today, miners despair
by James Egan 
Jan 7th 2010 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Events, in-game, PvP
A player-run event called "Hulkageddon" kicked off in EVE Online today, the second such event to be held in the game. Hulkageddon II is the brainchild of EVE player Helicity Boson, a pirate who flies with The Python Cartel, and is essentially a contest that rewards the destruction of exhumer (Hulk and Mackinaw) mining ships. The most recent Quarterly Economic Newsletter released by EVE developer CCP Games indicated that the Hulk is the most flown ship in the game, which provides plenty of targets for gankers in the contest.
Hulkageddon exists much to the detriment of the game's numerous miners, seeing as it's a galaxy-wide demolition derby using the very ships they pilot, but has proven very popular with other players the first time around in 2009. Although it's only been a matter of hours since Hulkageddon II began, the event's killboard shows over 250 mining ships destroyed (along with 40 of their pilots). That number will, no doubt, climb over the course of this week. Also, the tears may be just a bit sweeter given the fact that Hulk prices rose sharply in the weeks preceding Hulkageddon II, the result of changes made to Tech II manufacturing requirements with the Dominion expansion.
Whether you're interested in taking part in the contest or want to know what you're in for over the next week, here are a few details about Hulkageddon II:
- When does it run? January 7th - January 14th
- Where do I find out more about it? At the Hulkageddon site, Helicity Boson's blog, or the EVE forum thread.
- How do I "win"? Gank exhumers. As many as possible. The numbers will favor corps or alliances rather than individuals, but there are many achievements listed on the prize page that an individual pilot can rack up to win.
- What can I win? Prizes include billions of ISK, faction ships, and faction modules. The prize list is extensive and made up of donations from the playerbase. See the Hulkageddon II prizes page for more info on what can we won.
While suicide ganks are a standard tactic employed in Hulkageddon, some players are already finding more inventive ways of dispatching exhumers. Helicity recounts how the alter-ego of a Goonswarm pilot, Lady Maroon, joined a mining corp for the express purpose of scoring a Hulk kill on a corp mate, thus avoiding getting blown away by the police. Without CONCORD to worry about, Lady Maroon was able to do this with a noob ship, earning the "Skillpoints Schmillpoints" achievement and winning a Proteus Tech III cruiser. Helicity is also seeking records of what Hulkageddon II participants are doing through screenshots and videos. If you've caught your criminal acts in New Eden on film, send those shots and YouTube links to Helicity at Hulkageddon AT gmail dot com.
Note: For those less familiar with EVE Online, it should be pointed out that Hulkageddon II is a completely player-run event and is not something that EVE developer CCP Games is running or sponsoring.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Dblade said on 10:19PM 1-07-2010
Thing about this though is that it's one-sided PvP. Suicide ganking prevents the mining ship from attacking with its drones to scare the ganker off, because in hi-sec, Concord will kill them. So the ganker gets close, uses massive DPS and kills the ship before Concord kills the ganker. It may be possible to survive it if you tank your ship, but given how many miners are distracted while mining (its very dull) they are easy targets.
It's not any kind of fight, and the easiest way to avoid it is to just run away, use cheaper barges, or keep your barge docked and do something else. So the contest itself is kind of meh, and mostly for the people who find lulz in wrecking others non-combat ships for the tears.
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DrewIW said on 11:01PM 1-07-2010
"So the contest itself is kind of meh, and mostly for the people who find lulz in wrecking others non-combat ships for the tears."
That's -entirely- who it's for :D
The best part of this is the huge jump in Hulk prices since Dominion. Awesome stuff.
foofad said on 12:20AM 1-08-2010
A hulk doesn't have a chance in a fight whether he's aware or not. Even if you're packing some drones, if some assault frigate shows up and starts going pew pew on you with a scrambler, you're toast unless you have friends. So tactically the situation isn't any different, except that people are encouraged to suicide gank so even high sec isn't safe. So, yes - profits be damned; slip into a cheaper ship for a week and spare yourself the misery if you don't want to get killed.
I find it really funny, personally.
Dblade said on 12:24AM 1-08-2010
Yeah, but it's kind of dumb. The bad side of EVE PvP I've been noticing is how often it just turns into picking fights with someone with little to no chance to fight back. This is another example of that. It makes it hard to cheer people on doing it when it's like that.
It's sad because I can see the potential for good fights in the system, and the people can be organized to do so, but the actual fights are usually so imbalanced and affected by numbers and metagaming that it just takes a lot of the fun out.
SgtBaker said on 1:17AM 1-08-2010
Meh, tell me this - What would you bring to the fight:
a) a cool setup that would make "interesting" fight
b) a setup that wins
I know what I'd pick. People who complain about "numbers" are just hypocrites or carebears who don't know much about PvP.
Ps. Hulkageddon is awesome!
Dblade said on 1:40AM 1-08-2010
I'd rather have more even fights and fun in the game than 20 people camping a gate and being 3% damage on the killmail of someone's t1 frigate. Or killing someone in seconds by primarying him. Or can flipping a noob then coming back to fight him in a t2 ship. I know enough about PvP to see how it goes down in the game.
Winning is important, but people make it too srs business. For all the talk of hardcore or not, a lot of EVE PvPers really hate risk as much as the carebears. Hence, ganking mining ships for the lulz. Which they fail at btw, I've counted 20+ hulks happily mining away, and seen zero suicide gankers despite sweeping the belts from amarr to Nourvukaiken.
Kevin said on 1:24AM 1-08-2010
I was in an Ice Belt picking up the remnants of some exploded Mackinaws when about 15 red Destroyers warped in on a group of afk miners. It was amazing to watch the Macks explode, and then the destroyers explode soon after.
The result was a fleet of over 100 concord ships orbiting in a tight circle. Then I warped over and salvaged all the wrecks and took the ice. :D
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Plastic Rat said on 1:34AM 1-08-2010
Wow... classy...
I'm so glad there is a place where unmitigated douchebags can run free and frolic with others of their kind. Far from the rest of us.
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Graill said on 2:02AM 1-08-2010
This is beyond classic, this is pure EVE, self destructing CCP devs and even more brainless players. Lets hope they stay where they are. You folks enjoy your super duper last 2 year avg of 27k players, hope they pay the bills.
I understand they are foreigners but who doesnt want they game to grow? Apparently not CCP. These folks need a doctorate paper done on them, i might even read it.
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Kast said on 2:23AM 1-08-2010
You do realize that EVE is one of the only (if not the only) MMO not named World of Warcraft that has grown each year in subscribers? Also, the game averages 30k people online, but has over 300k subscribers? Also, CCP itself has grown as a company to have offices in 3 different countries? It's also developing 2 games outside of EVE, 1 mmo and one console FPS?
So it's obvious those "27k players" more than pays the bills. You can hate EVE as a game, but you cannot deny the success CCP has achieved with it.
You sir, fail at trolling.
SgtBaker said on 3:28AM 1-08-2010
My carebear senses are tingling - detecting delicious tears.
Dash said on 7:31AM 1-08-2010
Actually is things like this that make EVE vey fun. And just so you know, I'm a miner, not a ganker, so no bias here. It's a nice incentive for people to try new things (this week I parked my hulk, got a Raven and started to blow things up).
Just go with Mistery Science Theater 3000 mantra. Relax, it's just a game. Have fun and explode some things
Carson said on 6:47PM 1-08-2010
Guys, it's obvious that Graill is in it for the lulz.
Every single Eve story that ever gets posted here, he jumps in on the first page and confidently declares that the game will never grow and never be a success due to its poor design.
Of course, everyone knows that Eve has been growing and succeeding for a longer constant period of time than any other game in the history of the MMORPG genre, so of course, we can see that he's trolling, not posting an honestly held opinion.
Gwyd said on 5:19AM 1-08-2010
This is just an mechanic to try and rise the price of raw materials and Hulks on the open market, I have to laugh at "so called" pvp player dancing to the tune of the Industrials ^^
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nyttyn said on 6:01AM 1-08-2010
In all honesty, any serious miners wont be in hulks for the duration of the event.
soullords said on 8:12AM 1-08-2010
I'm an eve player and lately I'm just a carebear. I spend most of my time either running missions or mining in a hulk. This doesn't bother me in the least Infact I find it down right funny. I plan to spend the time I can't mine in my alt to run mission to boost my standings and/or sit in ice fields in a transport ship stealing the drops from all the hulks and macs. The only people who will be mining in empire this month are afk miners or dumb as a box a rocks
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TeaDaze said on 9:20AM 1-08-2010
In many games PvP is optional. Eve is not one of those games, not only is PvP prevalent in every part of the game (even buying and selling on the market is PvP) but it is frequently without your consent. You can't hide behind a PvE flag till you are ready to fight back ;)
Whilst empire space is protected by a police force you are never truly safe when undocked. If somebody wants to shoot you in empire they will lose their ship but you might still lose yours.
Remaining in an NPC corp to avoid being war decced (a mechanism where two player corporations can shoot each other freely in empire whilst the police look the other way) while mining, mission running or AFK autopilot hauling between systems is also a valid game mechanic. However players frustrated with watching alts or (in many cases) macro bots doing this day in day out developed a solution - suicide ganks.
To those who think this is unfair, I have bad news. Suicide ganking is a valid game mechanic. Is it unfair? Some would think so.
For the moment empire miners would be advised to keep an eye out or even better take the opportunity to try other areas of Eve. Rather than being a target get some friends together and go out and shoot other people. You might even enjoy it :)
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Rambie said on 2:19PM 1-08-2010
"However players frustrated with watching alts or (in many cases) macro bots doing this day in day out developed a solution - suicide ganks."
TeaDaze, this event isn't about ganking the Macro-miners. If it was I'd be cheering them on wholeheartedly as AFK & Macro miners are annoying and I applaud any solution to stopping them.
This is a great time for the miners to try out other aspects of EVE. My corp lives in WH or low-sec space 90% of the time so these event isn't much to us except in market prices.
mpdivo: "the fact that those shot down by concord get their insurance payouts"
That's the only thing CCP should change in this, that won't prevent these events from occurring. T1 fit Dessy isn't that expensive anyway.
Jammie Dodger said on 10:08AM 1-08-2010
TeaDaze coundnt have put it better.
I am a Hulk flying industrialist.. and like many others who actually pay attention to what is going on in EVE have taken the opportunity to try something different that staring at asteroids for hours on end. And you know what? I've been having a blast.
EVE was never intended to be a "safe", there is no non-pvp option... and part of the draw to this game is pirates.... and sorry to burst everyones bubble, but pirates do nasty things.
Personally I give kudos to Helicity for shaking the game up a bit for everyone across New Eden.
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TeaDaze said on 4:39PM 1-08-2010
Rambie says
"this event isn't about ganking the Macro-miners. If it was I'd be cheering them on wholeheartedly as AFK & Macro miners are annoying and I applaud any solution to stopping them."
You can't support ganking one type of player and at the same time complain about the same thing happening to others. Like it or not Eve is a sandbox and I'm happy to see the Community of the year 2009 (according to TenTonHammer) running events of all types.
And in this case at least there is (some) public awareness of the event which is more notice than the usual suicide gank targets get.
That said, the CSM voted to look at removing or reducing insurance payouts for people involved in suicide ganking - not to make it impossible (it is a valid game mechanic as previously stated) but to make it a bit more risky (ok a fleet of cheap destroyers isn't going to break the bank but anyway).
Look on the bright side, people will need to buy replacement hulks from players who will have to build them using materials purchased from miners ;) Lots of opportunities, the butterfly effect in action.