EVE Online News

Greetings Capsuleers!

Welcome to an update on some of CCP’s anti-cheating efforts in 2020. There is a lot of exciting stuff happening so let’s dive right in!

One of the recent changes is an automatic reply sent to all users whose in-game bot reports led to CCP taking action. This has driven use of the Report a Bot feature and added a much-needed feedback loop to make you all aware of the work being done daily to keep Tranquility healthy.

It is important to note that CCP never bans players based on reports alone, and each case is investigated and reviewed by the team.

Let’s have a look at some numbers:

• Since 1 January 2020, 107,000 reports have been sent from 13,600 EVE accounts.
  
• 27,000 of these reports resulted in permanent bans against a total of 4,600 EVE accounts.

Here is a visual representation of the year so far, in terms of amount of reports sent:



It is fantastic to see how many of you are actively helping by sending in reports! Here is an anonymized top 10 list with the number of reports individual Capsuleers sent which have resulted in permanent bans:

Thanks to everyone for their reports so far this year and please keep them coming! Of course, there is still much work to be done, but sending a report is the best way to get potential cheaters on the security radar.

If you simply can’t get enough of juicy graphs and botting talk, it is highly recommended that you watch CCP Larrikin’s talk from EVE Vegas 2019.

Plans to reward people for reporting bots are currently being evaluated.

A quick recap of how bots are handled at present:

• Punishment is never limited to the offending account; if successfully verified, all accounts that belong to the offender are penalized.
  
• Alpha accounts are permanently banned on first offense; abusing Alphas is a serious issue which CCP is committed to tackling. Do NOT do it.
  
• Generally, Omega accounts may receive a 3-day suspension on first offense, and a permanent ban on second.
  
• Some bots are permanently banned on first offense due to the methods used to manipulate the client.

The next graph tracks attempts at hiding from the law, year to date.

You can see an increase, and many people banned for botting nowadays know full well that it is against the rules. Bringing these numbers down is currently one of the key focuses.



Moving right along, this graph shows connect events from NVIDIA’s IP’s, and the teal line annotation is the launch date of their GeForce Now cloud-based game streaming service.

* Disclaimer: the gap in May should be disregarded

Using GeForce Now to play EVE Online is great and allows you to play on essentially any device if you have a good connection speed. It is allowed and not against the EULA.

This is being mentioned primarily because there were some reports earlier this year of people being banned for playing through the service that were unintentional. This should all have been corrected, but if not, please contact support to have your case reviewed.

Here is an illustration showing that bad guys are actively trying to get into legitimate players’ accounts:



The flat yellow/orange line is your baseline for a healthy EVE Online, and the spikes are attacks, where groups driven by financial motives are trying to break into EVE Online accounts. If you log into your account and check https://secure.eveonline.com/LoginHistory.aspx you might be able to see some of the activity.

So please, please activate 2-Factor Authenticator today and protect your assets. Dormant accounts are particularly at risk. Also, for your own protection, NEVER reuse passwords anywhere.

This kind of malicious activity is driven primarily by Real Money Trading (RMT). Another way to help is by not participating in such things and educating others, particularly new players, about the illegality of it in order to raise overall awareness. You especially do not want to be on the receiving end of stolen goods, whether it’s your corpmate’s brain goo or PLEX originally bought with a stolen credit card. If you purchase EVE assets from illegal third party sites, you are a part of the problem.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Commanding Capsuleers,

The Combat Command update for EVE Online is now live! Part of the Zenith Quadrant, this update introduces changes to command ships that will make more of them viable for use in fleets as key vessels, worth taking note of if you're currently involved in some serious warfare!

Acting as the start of another series of the popular regular cadence updates, the Combat Command update brings changes to command burst bonuses on attack command ships that will further differentiate them from fleet command ships.

Fleet command ship changes will focus on command burst range, with attack command ship changes focusing on command burst strength. The Eos in particular will receive a significant rework.

It's time for those under-used command ships to enjoy their moment in the limelight and take a more lasting and significant role in fleet fights when it comes to serious PvP warfare in New Eden!

Keep your eyes open for two command ship SKIN bundles coming very soon to EVE Online's New Eden Store between 30 July and 13 August, featuring stunning SKINs for the Absolution, Sleipnir, Nighthawk, Astarte, Damnation, Claymore, Vulture, and Eos!

In 2007 Azia Burgi decided that it was a shame for the corpses of capsuleers to be left unceremoniously adrift in space. Having seen a cathedral-like structure in Kor Azor, Azia figured it would be fitting for the location to also have a graveyard. Being only a couple jumps from low security space, Azia and a few friends would venture out to gather the corpses left behind from battles to bring back to the cemetery, carefully cataloguing the name and date of the person interred – and eventually even upgrading them from a ‘grave’ to a ‘mausoleum’ if enough corpses were recovered. These graves took the form of cargo containers anchored around the site.

In 2008 the way items were anchored in space was changed, and the cemetery needed to move to a POS to prevent the graves from eventually despawning – objects near a POS would not decay. At the time of this move there were over 500 graves in the site.

Azia made a forum post about her project and, over time, the cemetery began to garner a fair share of fame – becoming something of a tourist attraction in New Eden as people came to see the amassed gravesites. This attracted the attention of those who would desecrate these graves as well, and the cemetery has come under attack on several occasions – being rebuilt each time.

Over time, the purpose of the site has shifted for those who visit it. Originally a role-play burial site simply for in-game characters the site has now become a destination for capsuleers looking to memorialize friends, family and fellow capsuleers who have passed on. Even today, capsuleers still visit the site to anchor a can in remembrance, placing inside it a few keepsake items (and sometimes a corpse) to remember them by and setting a short message on the anchored can.

When it was announced that POS’s would eventually be phased out of the game there was some concern for the future of this site, and about a year ago we presented a plan to replace the current POS with a more permanent memorial.

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The new monument is made of earth like materials (basaltic columns) which serve the purpose of guarding our fallen capsuleers, represented by the two figures leaving the pod in a ray of light at the center. Every so often a ball of light builds around the capsule before ascending upward towards the stars.

We’re happy to announce this new monument is finally live on Tranquility. And worry not, just like the existing POS, cans dropped within 200km of the site will not despawn - although they may still be destroyed or looted. Should you wish to pay your respects, venture out to Molea, anchor a can and perhaps you will be lucky enough to witness the ascension of light effect if you visit at the right time.

To all of our capsuleers who have ventured onwards,
Fly safe

With the introduction of the new Proving Filaments this week we thought it would be the perfect time to stage a huge event: CCP and our amazing streaming community will be teaming up to bring you some epic 2v2 PvP action!

On Saturday, July 18 from 19:00 to 21:00 UTC/EVE time the streamer + dev teams will be running the Proving Filaments on Tranquility in their best* T1 cruiser fits, streaming the action live and looking for fights!

You can tune in to watch your favourite streamer or just cherry pick from any of the many concurrent streams that will be running. Or of course you can just grab a friend, log in to EVE and run the filaments yourself during this time - you'll be guaranteed to get some good fights and you might get matched up against one of the many streamer + dev teams that will be active during this period and gather some highly coveted killmails!

Here are the confirmed teams and where you can watch them:

CCP Fozzie + 404HD CCP Deadlift + Mirandalorian CCP Signal + DTM135 CCP Rise + Rahne CCP Paradox + Suitonia CCP Dopamine + Pando CCP Burger + Torvald Uruz CCP Aurora + Andy Virus CCP Trash Panda + Xtrasquishy CCP Convict + Elise Randolph

Of course if you can't decide who to watch you can always keep an eye on the multistream link to see where the action is going down! 1 | 2

If you want to fly out to meet us then remember that the 2v2 Proving Filaments for the opening event of Quadrant 3 are restricted to the Omen, Caracal, Thorax, Stabber, Maller, Moa, Vexor, Rupture, Arbitrator, Blackbird, Celestis and Bellicose hulls.

We'll see you on Twitch... or in the arena!

*Fits may actually be super bad.

With the arrival of the Abyssal Proving Grounds in New Eden and an exciting quadrant full of conflict ahead of us we’re inviting capsuleers to vie for fame and glory by announcing Champions of the Abyss!

Over the course of Quadrant 3 there are nine Proving Grounds events planned. Each event will have its own unique filament which will work only during the period that event is running. Your victories for each event will be tracked on leaderboard and these leaderboards will be reset before the start of the next event. For more details check out the recent dev blog about the new Proving Filaments feature.

THE CONTEST

At the conclusion of the final event of Quadrant 3, the number of victories of the top 100 pilots from each of the Proving Grounds events will be added together, and the top 10 characters who have racked up the most wins across all events will be declared the Champions of the Abyss!

The formats for the first three planned events are as follows but may be subject to change:

July 16 - 28: 2v2 Tech One Combat, Attack, and Disruption Cruisers
Ship Types: Omen, Caracal, Thorax, Stabber, Maller, Moa, Vexor, Rupture, Arbitrator, Blackbird, Celestis, Bellicose

July 31 - August 2: Five Player Destroyer Free-for-All
Ship Types: Coercer, Dragoon, Cormorant, Corax, Catalyst, Algos, Thrasher, Talwar, Sunesis

August 7 - 9: Amarr Foundation Day Special Format: 3v3 Imperial Navy Slicers
Ship Types: Imperial Navy Slicer

The preliminary schedule for the rest of the Proving Ground events in Quadrant 3 are as follows (formats TBA):

• August 14 - 23: Event 4
  
• August 28 - 30: Event 5
  
• September 4 - 6: Event 6
  
• September 11 - 20: Event
  
• September 25 - 27: Event 8
  
• October 2 - 11: Event 9

HOW SCORING WORKS

Each victory in the Proving Grounds counts as a single point on the leaderboard regardless of the format of the event. So a victory in a 3v3 fight during one event will count as a single point for each member of the victorious team, while in an individual contest such as a 5-way free-for-all, only the overall winner of each battle will receive a point.

The final score used to determine the Champions of the Abyss will be the total of all wins recorded by a given character across all events during quadrant 3. The number of draws and losses will have no affect on your final scores.

Your pathway to victory may lay in complete dominance in just some of the events or consistent performances in all events across the entire quadrant. The ongoing leaderboard for Champions of the Abyss will be tracked in this forum post and updated at the conclusion of each event until we have our final winner.

THE REWARDS OF GLORIFICATION

Similar to the Champions of Lowsec event from back in Quadrant 1, there are some cool rewards for the glorification of the combatants who prove their mettle in these abyssal arenas.

The top 10 characters on the final Champions of the Abyss leaderboard will receive:

• 1000 PLEX
  
• A unique medal commemorating their achievement added to their in-game character sheet

The top 5 characters will also receive:

• a US$50 voucher and free postage for a single order from the EVE Online Gear Store
• Their names up in lights on an in-game billboard advertisement celebrating their prowess for all of New Eden to see

In addition to that the top 3 characters will also receive:

• the EVE Online ship model of their choice from our friends at Mixed Dimensions. The stand for your model will be signed by the development team who worked on the Proving Grounds feature.

And finally, the identity of the overall winner will no doubt become a very hot topic amongst the population of New Eden. That capsuleer can probably expect the most prominent news outlet in the cluster to feature them prominently in an episode to air sometime after the conclusion of Champions of the Abyss!