Grand Theft Dreadnought: EVE Online Crimeplay Rolls On
by Alphaville Herald on 06/11/05 at 1:34 pm
A dreadnought in flight
EVE Online‘s player pirates have struck again, this time in a case of Grand Theft Dreadnought, making off with one of the most formidable ships in the game in a heist that has alternately been called “brilliant,” “stupid” and, inevitably, a reprehensible “h4xploit” that should be disallowed by the game. But the gamemasters have spoken, and the theft, which took place deep in the reaches of alliance space in which no CONCORD NPC police dare fly, has been let to stand. Whether it will help turn the tide in the ongoing wars that are currently raging through alliance space, though, remains to be seen.
Stealing a dreadnought in EVE is a bit like stealing an aircraft carrier on Earth. Dreads are vast behemoths, requiring their own travel beacons and interstellar propulsion systems due to their being too big to be slingshotted from star to star by the jump gates that connect EVE solar systems.
For a sense of scale, consider the following image, in which a battlecruiser, which approaches the larger end of traditional EVE assault ships, is seen passing over the nose of a dread:
And for further scale comparison, consider this image. The dreads are the big mothers. (Note the architectural reference in the bottom-left corner.)
How does one steal a ship of such size? As Ajaya of the R.I.S.K alliance discloses in this forum posting, the dreadnought had been left unattended in orbit at a player-operated station in alliance space. R.I.S.K pilots were able to gain access to the POS either with the help of a spy or because the Phoenix Alliance, which owned the POS, had forgotten to set its security systems properly. R.I.S.K ships were then able to “bump” the dread out of the POS’s force field. (EVE ships come equipped with automatic collision-prevention systems to head off the mass destruction that would result from ships smashing into each other at station docking points and warp gates.) As a R.I.S.K pilot with the necessary skills boarded the unmanned dread, R.I.S.K warped a smaller fleet in to draw fire from the POS. Soon enough, the dread had been captured and was safely off to a nearby R.I.S.K station.
The question of security remains unanswered, but EVE sources reveal that R.I.S.K did indeed have a spy within Phoenix Alliance. The spy has now been ejected from the alliance, though what revenge PA have attempted is unknown.
While not on the scale of the epic heist that broke the Ubiqua Seraph corporation (corps are EVE’s version of guilds) back in July, dreads are typically worth 2-5 billion Interstellar Kredits, depending on how they’re kitted out, and only a handful exist in the game. Possessing a dread can make a huge difference to fleet battles and gaining sovereignty over systems in alliance space.
While the Herald applauds any example of emergent gameplay tactics like this, full disclosure obliges us to reveal that your correspondent Walker Spaight is a member of the Foresaken Empire alliance–which is currently a sworn enemy of R.I.S.K and of several other alliances involved in the war that’s now raging through the northeastern portion of alliance space. Look for more wartime updates as they develop.
Fenrisulfr Mounier
Nov 6th, 2005
W-hats play Eve, watch out!
Urizenus
Nov 6th, 2005
For those of us that don’t read the currency exchange rates every morning, what is the value of the heist in Lindens or that archaic currency: the US Dollar.
Walker Spaight
Nov 6th, 2005
ISK are cheap right now, selling for about $0.30 a million on eBay. Which means a fully kitted-out dread worth some 5 billion ISK would be worth about $1,500 in the so-called “real world” currency known as the U.S. dollar.
Not bad…
Kris
Nov 7th, 2005
Cool! How very inventive of them! Kudos. And anyone who leaves an unsecured Dread lying around is asking for it, frankly. Don’t they know there’s a war on?
Athel Richelieu
Nov 7th, 2005
So the bulkish square ships I guess in that picture of ship sizes are the cargo ships, the ones below the dreadnaught in the first left frame.
I guess seeing a dreadnaught is like seeing the Death Star or something, so massive it is breathtaking and scary. Is it the ultimate pinnacle and ship in the game or are stations more expensive?
RB
Nov 8th, 2005
Dreads in Eve are similar to EA HQ orbiting Earth.
- RB.
zurgood freeman
Nov 9th, 2005
R.I.S.K. is the SomethingAwful group in EVE. !_!
roBurky
Nov 9th, 2005
Athel: Dreadnoughts are the pinnacle of ships at the moment. The Death Star analogy would be good, if it were not for the fact that the bigger Titans are on their way, complete with super-weapons.
Dreads are more valuable than starbases like the one this was stolen from, but not as big a project to build as an outpost station.
saramago
Nov 9th, 2005
In august the first player built space station was built the operation took 2 months and is worth around £47,000 in real british sterling !! – this fact was taken from the pages of PC gamer
Ander
Dec 1st, 2005
This story was first mentioned on EVE-Pirate.com
oh.. and I was there when we stole the dread
hit and runner
Dec 2nd, 2005
now then, why didn’t they use the Dread to blast the station, and the local jump gate, to bits on the way out?