There are dozens of EVE Online podcasts, ranging from small affairs designed to be listened to by a few corporations to much larger ones which attempt to tackle the politics of the entire universe. In such a crowded pond, it is difficult to be a fish that stands out. But Crossing Zebras has managed to do just that and has gained wide renown as one of the better podcasts ever produced in EVE Online’s history.

History

Crossing Zebras first went live on April 4th, 2012, with the first podcast going out on April 8th. The podcast originated in another, more general gaming podcast known as Sonic’s Ring. Xander Phoena, one of men behind Crossing Zebras, is one of the hosts on that podcast and found that he was talking more and more about EVE Online, much to the chagrin of the non-EVE players on the team. Rather than continue forcing them to listen to tales of internet spaceships (though, really, who in their right mind doesn’t want to hear about EVE?), Xander decided he should start an EVE-centric podcast.

Thus was Crossing Zebras born. Xander spoke with one of his longtime EVE copilots, Jeg Elsker, and suggested they create a podcast dedicated to EVE. The idea seemed to have merit, so they got to work.

The team got a lot of good, initial feedback from the community. Experienced EVE podcasters like Arydanika from Voices from the Void and Jade and Rundle from Lost in Eve offered up a great deal of assistance and advice, allowing Crossing Zebras to refine their content.

However, it seemed they had very few listeners in those early days. Though the team was putting out quality material, their audience remained small. Of course, you can’t keep talent down forever, and around January, Crossing Zebras was getting mentioned in a variety of EVE-related blogs and websites. Soon, their traffic exploded and they had to rebuild their website from the ground up to handle the new influx of listeners.

The Team

Xander Phoena and Jeg Elsker, your hosts

-MORE-

Lotteries have a long history in New Eden. Tens of thousands of capsuleers, hoping to score some easy riches, have bought tickets over the years. Many lotteries have come and gone over the years, but the first of them still remains: The BIG Lottery.

Early History

The very first round of The BIG Lottery was held in the closing weeks of beta from April 14th, 2003 to April 28th, 2003. TornSoul, the founder of the BIG Lottery, refers to this as the “pilot” round – or round #0. Originally intended as a way to make a little ISK, he quickly discovered that the amount he could make was so insignificant compared to BIG’s other activities that he decided to simply give it all away.

Of course, many people were skeptical about the lottery. Many people assumed it would be a scam, but there were a few circumstances which mitigated those concerns. One was the fact that round #0 was held before beta, so few people cared if their ISK was stolen. The second was that back in the young days of EVE Online, trust was much freer. While many people these days assume any lotteries (including ones which have been as persistent as BIG!) are scams, back then it probably came at 4^th or 5^th on the list of concerns.

One of the more practical concerns that was raised by the community was the ability of one person to handle 6000 people buying tickets. One must remember, this was before the API, so everything was done manually, making it a particularly difficult potential challenge to overcome!

Of the many early challenges TornSoul faces was the ability to devise a system that couldn’t be rigged and which was transparent, so that everyone could see it wasn’t rigged. TornSoul also put a self-imposed restraint that the drawing had to be done by in-game means as well. In order to do this, he came up with the system of having participants attending the draw and being the random number generator, which led to some interesting side effects. Sometimes, people aren’t quite paying attention to the countdown. And there eventually arose an interesting “side game” of who could be the fasted in the ingame channel to produce numbers, which led to some fun and games when the drawings are done.

-MORE-

So, we have all (apart from anyone who was actually stuck inside an ice block) heard about the ice changes coming up….something like this is going to happen?

Rumours are flying, panic is setting in, people are ragefacing and quitting….the usual pre-patch kerfuffle.

Well, as a very cheesy dude once said…..Stop, collaborate and listen:

Before there is a mass exploding of pods, or ice miners start trying to mine every passing ship out of desperation, lets look at what we actually know, and what the potential implications of this are:

The important details for this come from this adorable little thing here:

What does Fozzie have to say on this matter? (Warning: Incoming forum links with numbers, so look away now if you don’t like this sort of thing.)

Well, first of all:

I am going to put this in bullet points, for tl;dr people, then have long wordy stuff afterwards for those with less attention span issues (Also :maths: after bullet points).

·         After Odyssey, High sec will at maximum, be able to provide 80% of Ice required by New Eden: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2934284#post2934284

·         This 80% requires that each ice anom be mined 5 times a day, with a 4 hour spawn time after last ice has popped. This 80% also assumes current consumption levels.

·         To have an anom of 2500 units cleared in 48 minutes, it has been calculated by smart people that it needs 24 macks with max skills and Orca boosts.

·         Highsec currently provides 98.4% of Ice in Eve, whilst it uses less than 15%. https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2955377#post2955377

·         This means, even if every anom in high sec was mined out 5 times a day, lowsec/0.0 would still have to increase their production from 1.6% to 20% of total.

·         This also means, if every single POS in highsec was pulled down, AND every belt in highsec was drained 5 times a day, it would still need Null to increase their production from 1.6% to 5%.  Whether or not the price is “right” for them to mine it.

·         It is unlikely that every ice anom will be drained every day 5 times, although, as with ore belts, the popular systems will be drained fast.

·         There is more than enough Ice in null and low to supply New Eden. https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2953922#post2953922

·         Miners are not being pushed out of highsec, but, sitting at an icebelt all day is in the past. Prices will rise, and you get to mine more than 1 thing a day, even if you never leave your system (As I expect many miners to do, or at most, do 1-2 jumps)

So…..now I have whacked some bullet points up there…

Let’s start with getting the numbers out there, so you can yell at me for my calculations:

Amount of Ice able to be provided by Highsec: 80%

Amount of Ice currently provided by Highsec: 98.4%

Where is the decrease coming from? Likely from the removal of many sites in Amarr, Amatar and Khanid space, where there will only be 24 systems with ice total. (Source Devblog…if you haven’t read it yet, then wtf are you doing here?)

At present, there are ca. 72 ice belts in Amarr/Ammatar/Khanid space in high sec.

Thanks to someone who is more awesome at programming stuff than me (Big hugs to Chribba!), I can tell you that there are currently 917 ice fields across Eve.  Fozzie nicely told us that there are 8 times as many belts in null/low as in Highsec: “For the people asking about supply in other areas of space, there are aproximately 8 lowsec/0.0 ice belts for every highsec belt, and those belts are a bit larger. This means I am not the least bit worried about us hitting the limit of our supply anytime soon.”  https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2953922#post2953922

So, dividing 917 by 8 gives us approx 114 belts in highsec currently…

Tallying in Dotlan gives me 68 ice belts outside of Amarr/Ammatar/Khanid.  So 140 total. I am going to go with the higher total, as the 8:1 ratio is an approximation.

We know that will reduce,  so, if we use the numbers from earlier, there will be:

Ca. 92 ice anoms in highsec. (I say circa because I tallied the numbers for amarr by hand, and so may have double counted, or missed, and some of the 24 systems have multiple belts)

Now, if we take the figure of 24 Macks per belt for clearing in 48 minutes, there are a couple of options:

Scenario 1: Each miner mines 1 anom repeatedly and then moves onto Ore in between spawns

Scenario 2: Each miner moves around.  I think, allowing for system jumps etc etc, 3 anom per 4 hours is doable, provided that the anoms are not too far apart.  This scenario either requires moving a fleet, and finding new anoms, or having a scout, and a spare set of ships in each system you are interested in.

I believe Scenario 1 to be the most likely, with the addition that miners in systems with multiple anoms will move between anoms if they are up.  My reasoning behind this is that miners do not care about the supply of ice, they are not thinking “If I do not mine this ice, New Eden will not have enough”, they are thinking about isk/hr, and warping between systems reduces that.

If we use Scenario 1, and take that as an upper figure, we get 24 macks * 92 anoms, mining 24/7

This is 2208 macks, just for ice, assuming max skills and orca boosts to all of them….

Now, from CCP Diagoras tweet last year (Thanks Cores!) “Most activated modules on Sunday 22nd, #9: Modulated Strip Miner II – 640k activations.”

I am going to assume for simplicity that this is from hulks (most popular at the time), which have 3 modules, so we can divide that by 3 to give ~213k active.

Each hulk has a cycle time of 3 minutes, unboosted (and, I am going to assume that the majority were unboosted).  There are 10 activations per hour (if we assume that there were no breaks for docking etc…which there would have been 3 of). The 10 activations per hour assume ca. 2 cycles per asteroid, allowing for time swapping targets etc. (Thanks Dave Stark!)

Each hulk would have therefore had 240 activations over 24 hours….so this give us ~887 Hulks.

Now…of course, not every module was on a hulk, so allowing a bit of leeway, we could say ~1k hulks. Performing all types of ore related mining.  This does not tell us directly about ice mining, however, we also know that Hulks were more popular than Macks in 2012, when the Mack was the ice mining boat. “Exhumer production in 2011 by type: Hulk 68,519, Mackinaw 32,293, Skiff 4,290.”

(Source: https://twitter.com/CCP_Diagoras/status/179538630732292097)

Now, there are many factors which play into the numbers, hulkageddon, suicide ganking, war dec AFKing etc, and some people have multiple hulks, so lets take a 1.5 ratio (Random number lower than 2x, pulled from ass), which would give us:

591 ice miners.

Ok, so, the number of ice miners may have increased a little, but even combining miners + ice miners, there are not enough to drain the anoms 5x daily in high sec.

If each miner does 3 belts, 5 times a day, this means we would need 736 ice miners in highsec.

Just to keep producing 80% of the ice in New Eden.

I find it unlikely, with these numbers, that at least initially, highsec will be producing 80% of ice.

Now, one of the things I have heard from players is “null miners will swap to ice when the price is right”…to me, the price is irrelevant.  Even if we pulled down all the POS in High sec, and stopped use of ice products there completely, and mined all the ice every day, Null would still need to increase their production from 1.6% to 5%, just to keep consumption at current levels.

They could of course, use less Ice products in Null, but any upcoming Wars etc would both increase the useage, and reduce the supply, so putting more pressure on Highsec to produce the goods.

Corps in null, regardless of price, may swap their mining ops to ice from Ore to ensure supply, and encourage members to do the same.

What does this all mean?

1)      Its not the death of ice mining in highsec.  Or any other mining for that matter.  You will have to move around either within your system, or a few jumps, and 100000000 miners crowded in one system will not work anymore.  However, the price is likely to rise, at least short term, and I expect long term, so, ice mining just became more lucrative, and since belts deplete, it is not the snooze fest it is now.

2)      No one is being forced to null or low.  You may be being forced out of your current system, especially if you are in Amarr, but, there are more ice anoms than miners, and unless we suddenly think everyone is max boosted in fleets, it is unlikely that all belts will drain.

3)      Null production of Ice will increase.  I do not see people mining more ice than currently in lowsec, there is not enough incentive for it.

4)      If prices do in fact increase, this would push up prices for products further along the food chain, those pos owners will pass the costs onto the market.

5)      There will be some crazy times on the prices just after patch…Expect a bumpy ride, with prices spiking, then crashing until they finally settle at a new equilibrium, higher than today.

Finally….Expect lots of angry poasts on the forum just after June 4th, along the lines of “WTF CCP, WHERE DID MY ICE GO!”

Events have been heating up across New Eden as the four empires deal with their own internal strife and growing tensions between them. The Battle of Caldari Prime was one of the biggest events in EVE’s history, with thousands of people in space and on the ground, doing battle on behalf of the Caldari State or the Gallente Federation. However, conflict between the empires is not limited to Live Events and missions. Players have been carrying the flag for the factions since the very beginning, forming their own power blocs, waging their wars, engaging in politics, and most of all having fun.

These players, who are invested in the backstory of EVE Online, have long gathered on the EVE Backstageforum, where they discuss fiction, debate their interpretations of stories, and form their own community.

-MORE-

[problems with npc functions in the economy]

Fixed price economy

Unbeknownst to most there is an invisible hand influencing New Eden. This cold hand has been influencing the economy of EVE since its earliest beginnings. Most never imagine or consider these small facts of EVE life. When you have grown up in water, you do not notice it at all. Way back in time some might remember the very obvious planned economy problems, and how they were eventually removed, in a Glastnost and Peristroika like public demand. This was the npc price floor. First in the lifeblood of EVE, the mineral markets, and later in the public transportation monopoly of the shuttle sellers. The walls have not fallen yet, we are still fully drenched in the filth of the nepotistic and tyrannical planned economy of the faction overlords.

All your bases are belong to us.

In every station of New Eden we can see the planned economy at its finest. We have a price fixed system that lets no man have the freedom to compete equally on a free market of services. Rental is a ghetto like system with landlords that are not allowed to change the rent of its clients. Its first come first served and for everyone else its empty storefronts with queues all the way back to the ancient gate in the system New Eden. People dreaming of days before the Second Genesis, back when populations were fewer and service was available for almost everyone. Even from the first era the populations rose too fast for the state operated services to keep up, and the empty stores have been a problem since then. You can not rent facilities for research into resource efficiency, if we didn’t know better we would think it was controlled for the purpose of keeping consumption of raw materials high to uphold a big labor force of servants. First this was controlled, and fixed price office rental problems, causing congested stations, and no market for small and medium businesses. Most were held by old family mobsters and oligarch. This was eventually deregulated and a more healthy and natural price and market developed. The State conscripted and monopolized researchers however are still held in an iron grip and no effective way exists to break this duopoly, between state and state endorsed old corporations.

Strawman land

These old corporations are enjoying huge benefits in the current system of governing. They defend the current illusion of free markets, and claiming they are sharing their profits with the shareholders. This all while not being openly traded, and not allowing proper oversight to the public and the people at large. They are old oligarchical structures, old family wealth prancing in the guise of liberal markets. With these opaque operations anything resembling responsibility and accountability is obliterated. When they need to avoid scrutiny they merely collaborate with the faction state entities as strawmen. Thus totally externalizing any potential losses and consequence.

Caleb Ayrania

“Habemus concilium”

It’s election time for the 8th Council of Stellar Management and as a helpful reference tool, this Community Spotlight will briefly look at each candidate, summarize their platform, and provide a brief bio. Additionally, many of the candidates have done interviews with the Crossing Zebras podcast discussing their candidacy, platform, and credentials. These podcasts have been linked to provide you with additional information should you choose to listen!

Click here to vote on your selected candidates. For more information to match a candidate with your preferences, check the CSM Vote Match tool.

Disclaimer: All candidates were asked to provide their bios and platforms. If a candidate chose not do so, ones were written for them, either as direct quotes from their official threads, or via a summary of official statements made or other publicly available data. All items contained within quotation marks are statements made by the candidates; some minor editing may have been made for brevity or to correct spelling or style errors.

-MORE-

Ever since alliances first started conquering space, players have wanted a way to visualize it. Today, one of the most popular resources for seeing who owns what are the Verite Rendition Influence Maps, created by Verite Rendition.

Overview

The Verite Rendition Influence Maps, which have been published since August 19, 2007, are territorial maps of New Eden, showing the expanding and contracting power and influence that alliances hold over space. Not merely just an indication of who holds sovereignty in specific systems, the Verite Rendition Influence Maps use a complex formula to determine which vast swaths of territory are actually under dominion of alliances. Different systems generate different amount of “influence” which are then transmitted to nearby systems. Whichever alliance is credited with the most influence on a system is then determined to be the owner on the map.

The map is published daily at 16:00 (with some exceptions for extended downtimes) and hosted on EVE Files. The latest version can always be found here, while historians wishing to explore the evolving face of sovereignty over the years can find the daily archive here.

He has also been able to expand into mapping other aspects of the game. The recent activation of API services on the EVE China server (Serenity) means that he now does an influence map for Serenity – it ended up being quite a different beast due to the small number of massive alliances, and the much slower turnover in sovereignty as a result. He was also able to expand into doing an influence map for Factional Warfare, which gives a basic overview of how much control the various factions have taken over their respective FW regions.

Since the map launched, it has far surpassed the expectations of its creator. He never expected his map to become as popular as it has become. It has grown to be far more important and more widely referenced than he ever thought it would be. In part, he attributes this popularity to the apolitical nature of the map. As it is automatically generated, it cannot be accused of bias, which in the highly charged world of EVE politics makes it possible to create something everyone on all sides can agree is roughly accurate.

-MORE-

The EVE Online universe is incredibly huge, filling a volume of more than 210,000 cubic light years. It contains tens of thousands of planets and countless known and hidden locations. Some of these locations mark the impact of massive player events, many other sites are tied to the living background story of EVE Online.

Exploring and charting these sites may appear to be a daunting task for some people; for others it means pure excitement and a challenge. What can be found out there? Which secrets will be unveiled? Will I be the first to find this site? Are there any deeper connections between some locations or is everything nothing more than a random occurrence in an entropy driven universe?

The EVE community is brave and extremely curious; naturally we’ve seen many deep space explorers and travelers around the universe, but only few have such an outstanding record of stories and articles as Mark726 and his EVE Travel.

-MORE-

Tournaments in EVE Online have a long history. Since the earliest days, the EVE community as well as CCP organized spectacular, very popular tournaments where groups of players compete against each other in a well-defined environment to determine the most clever and skillful group or person.

Beckoning with fame, prizes and challenging opponents, tournaments attract experienced PVP groups as well as new, eager teams trying to prove their value.

Over the past we have seen CCP organizing the popular Alliance Tournaments as well as the recent New Eden Open Tournament; tournaments organized by the EVE community itself are beyond count which proves again the high popularity of this game play style.

This time however, the proven idea of tournaments is taken one step further and converted to a full scale league with regular matches and tournaments. We are excited to present you in this Community Spotlight theSyndicate Competitive League!

-MORE-

Are you new to EVE Online? Welcome to the world of Brave Newbies Inc. then, a group of people that is mainly also new to EVE Online. This group is organized in the typical EVE Online manner as corporation; a corporation which sprung into existence on January 31, 2013, just a few days ago before these lines were written. On that day an individual person started playing EVE Online, decided to give it a try and to enjoy this game universe with its infinitely rich player-created content and social interaction.

Little did that person know that only a few days later he would lead one of the largest corporations in EVE Online.

Join us to explore not only this incredible story, but also to discover the very heart of EVE Online and the power that gives birth to everything in this universe.

-MORE-