von Mannstein
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Posted - 2008.11.22 00:24:00 -
[1]
Edited by: von Mannstein on 22/11/2008 00:26:52
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process.
One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe.
We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better
tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement
is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.
-- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
"Looking God in the Eye"
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Imagine each tool in this quote is a ship. A new and specialised line of ships for harvesting all resources available in Eve, for processing these resources and ultimately for producing ships and items. Imagine a gang of relative newbies saving up for a half decent ratting AF, a couple of BPC's and a new frigate sized industrial ship capable of reprocessing ore, modules and rogue drone alloys, capable of producing ships up to t1 cruiser level and producing ammo, then sneaking into the Drone Regions and roaming around for a few months.
Imagine three months later this gang of 3-4 newbies are now in interceptors and blackbirds having never once docked. They have recruited a couple of new members from the local alliance, have made a few hundred million isk in ransoms and ganks throughout 0.0 and so they send one of their pilots back to empire for a new batch of BPCs.
Imagine 6 months later they are up to 50 pilots, have moon mining ships, science vessels and a large industrial production ship for manufacturing T2 warships. Most of them have never docked or been in empire for that six months and they have become a terrific force to be reckoned with localy, due to the fact that pilots require skill to hunt down and destroy or inhibit their production facilities. Imagine now BoB invades the region, looking to establish a logistic depot for a strike on some large and almost certainly doomed static alliance, what do these guys do? Well they move on, silently, and leave behind nothing that took them 6 months to build up.
Imagine two years later this gang is now a massive corporation. They have mobile shipyards moving slowly through space accompanied by a fleet of twenty specialised harvesting, production and science vessels. They have just a left a constellation that is now all but drained of resource value and will remain so for a few weeks, and ofcourse the nearby locals are none to happy about this. Imagine two mobile alliances now fighting over the resources of a region, fighting from moon to moon in T2 warships and carriers while their Titan sits in defense of their production ships. Imagine the haste and ferocity of this miniture war as the shadow of the RA looms behind them, scouting for resources for their mobile Armada.
Imagine a self replicating mobile Eve where finite and respawning resources drives a perpetual fluid conflict, where the new guy no longer has to sit and wait for death, but lurk in the shadows like a virus all the time growing and growing. Imagine internet spaceships rather than POS warfare, imagine logistics and movement rather than grind and inevitable doom. Imagine Battlestar Galactica, Homeworld 2, The Culture novels or Star Wars. Imagine no more outposts, POS or conquerable stations, only ships making ships fighting ships. |