Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => EVE OOC Summit => Topic started by: Adreena Madeveda on 08 Dec 2012, 16:07
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I hope this is the right place to post this.
From what I've managed to gather (and what Anslo told me, thanks o/) :
Becoming a capsuleer is a very risky, expensive and frowned upon process. Only a handful of individuals is genetically and mentally fit to survive this process. And it basically makes them demi-gods, Homer style : the kind you don't want to mess with, Achilleus ganking Hector at the Troy Jump Gate, etc. Powerful enough to live outside the boundaries of the law.
And who provides this sweet technology ? Governments. In game, a character starts freshly implanted with this sweet technology, and his school of choice provides him with basic training -a school affiliated with a government, either Caldari, Amarr, Minmatar or Gallente.
If I remember correctly, the last step of the tutorial, right before the career missions, provides the character a piece of paper (in my case it was a "tribal sponsorship") which basically says "Please capsuleer, be nice with us. We like nice."
I find it very puzzling. The four galactic powers players can come from are building and training demigods and launch them in New Eden hoping they will behave ? Without any kind of safety protocol ?
"Of course they won't go rogue/berserk. We asked them nicely."
If I may : é_ô
I must have missed something, right ? Because right now, to me, not only does this looks incredibly dumb, but also irrealist -governments giving free toys and total freedom to use them, sure.
To be clear, game-wise I totally understand the freedom given to the player. And I love it, simply because two weeks into this game and I'm still not sure of what I want to do. In fact, I want to do everything. I want to build stuff, I want to build stuff that makes the other stuff explode, I want to be a cuddly carebear in Highsec, I want to roam in Nullsec, every darndest thing.
So I'm perfectly fine if there's no PF-explanation about the interrests the 4 powers have in training capsuleers, knowing that a sizeable chunk of them will do unspeakable things to the hand that nurtured them. But I really hope there's one =)
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I'm no loremaster, but from what I remember while the governments themselves have little control over capsuleers, CONCORD have a considerable amount of control, especially in Empire space.
They dictate what we can see, where we can go, what we can shoot (sort of) and basically have input in every single thing capsuleers do.
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Well, here's the thing.
When the Empires created their very *first* capsuleers, they were military officers. Duty-bound, loyal, etc. The Empires at this point did not anticipate any situation but the one they created: capsuleers loyal to an organization.
As time went on, though... some of those capsuleers began realizing that their respective Empires needed them, more than they needed the Empires. They called for greater autonomy, for the opportunity to become capsuleers WITHOUT being loyal to an established organization. Some just plain went rogue, and fucked off to the darkest corners of space, where even their parent organizations couldn't control them. Some declared their own empires, to varying degrees of success.
What we see today, is a time long after this initial period. The Empires have since realized that a capsuleer *not loyal* to them can still be valuable. Capsuleers drive interstellar trade. They define modern warfare. They invent new martial tactics and strategies. They go places where no-one else can, or wants to. They take risks that mortal people aren't capable of. Thus, for the Empires, simply "creating capsuleers" becomes more important than "creating loyal capsuleers" - their loyalties change faster than their underwear, being entirely self-serving entities, but those very self-serving desires can be channeled to benefit an Empire.
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Also cloning capsuleer brains make hell of hardware for the real military ships.
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One thing to remember is that even now, players only form a portion of the capsuleers out there. There are many more capsuleers who are trained by the empires and who then go on and serve in their respective empires' militaries, appearing to us as NPCs flying tech 2 hulls in missions and complexes.
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One thing to remember is that even now, players only form a portion of the capsuleers out there. There are many more capsuleers who are trained by the empires and who then go on and serve in their respective empires' militaries, appearing to us as NPCs flying tech 2 hulls in missions and complexes.
Esna's got it exactly right. The players of the EVE MMO represent the tiny slice of capsuleers who are 'doing their own thing.'
Someone with better lore-fu might correct me but I also think giving capsuleers more freedom was a directive from the Jove or part of the Yulai Accords?
IE the JOVE 'gifted' this technology but their were strings attached. You'll notice your pod looks identical to Jovian hulls in color and general aesthetics.
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What Esna said.
And really, the majority of PCs out there? What do they really do that the Empires would find so objectionable?
Vast majority of players are still mission runners, which basically means theyre freelance mercs for the Empires, doing what the Empires tell them to. Or they run plexes, killing enemies of the various Empires. Or they trade the market, bringing trillions of ISK in the form of various small (but adding up quite quickly) fees. Ditto with mining, refining, and manufacturing. Then theres the ones out there fighting Nation incursions, or fighting the Empires proxy wars for them in the FW warzones.
Basically, most of the PC capsuleers are happy to dance to the Empire's (and CONCORD's) song.
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The apparent complete failure to indoctrinate the capsuleers culturally is one of the problems that a roleplayer faces when starting to delve deeper into the PF of EVE.
With the POTW that Gottii brought up, is it really the case?
Feeding the demigod delusion to your blood hounds is a small price to pay for the empires for what the capsuleers are actually capable of doing.
Which is really not that much.
On top of that propaganda and indoctrination has never been averse to lying.
Why would it be any different with capsuleers?
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One thing to remember is that even now, players only form a portion of the capsuleers out there. There are many more capsuleers who are trained by the empires and who then go on and serve in their respective empires' militaries, appearing to us as NPCs flying tech 2 hulls in missions and complexes.
You sure ? They seems pretty punny for capsuleers... :/
I thought the only one in a NPC form was Dagon... It's a real boss (for beginners ofc).
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I always think of respawning, named NPC's as other capsuleers. OK, fairly crap ones. But capsuleers all the same.
Maybe they give up skill for the ability to manifest at the same time in hundreds of missions all over the cluster? :lol:
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I'm not sure if the chron got pulled or not when evelopedia got deployed but I distinctly remember one stating that there was a group of capsuleers that petitioned/protested CONCORD to grant them greater autonomy which the Assembly finally did only in YC 105.
Just noticed some other older chrons from '03 and prior are no longer available?
But to me, the role that capsuleers fill in New Eden is something akin to government/corporate deniable assets that can be hired and which grant the hiring organizations a degree of plausible deniability (mission running), acting as war fighting proxies (FacWar), or as a source of profit through the sales and taxing of armaments in an artificial war economy (BPO sales, SCC taxes, broker fees and the maintenance of supply/demand through perpetual capsuleer conflict).
Just because player capsuleers are not by and large loyal does not mean they don't fulfill important roles as freelancers in the order CONCORD maintains.
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You sure ? They seems pretty punny for capsuleers... :/
I thought the only one in a NPC form was Dagon... It's a real boss (for beginners ofc).
I was assuming those hulls were capsuleers simply because we know from old news posts that certain T2 hulls (assault frigate, HAC, and interceptor iirc) are explicitly designed to only work with a capsuleer commanding them. I don't think it's a stretch to say the others are in a similar state?
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Who says they are T2 hulls to begin with ? They are called "elite" and do not even share the same color schemes. They could be T2 of course, I am not denying that, but with the current things being so vague I have a hard time to figure out a clear, concrete, undicutable answer.
Also, I didn't know some old pieces of news stated that only capsuleers could use them. That's interesting to know. The only thing I know of is that their skillbooks are mostly of SoCT origin.
But my view might be biased by the fact that I really, really don't like them being capsuleers. They don't look like much for capsuleers. :/
On the other hand I would like to see factionned capsuleers in missions (empire as well as pirate aligned capsuleers). But real capsuleers that give you a hard time since they also are capsuleers on an equal footing with you. Meaning that one could be a danger to you, and two might very well kill you, depending on the ships involved of course.
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Who says they are T2 hulls to begin with ? They are called "elite" and do not even share the same color schemes. They could be T2 of course, I am not denying that, but with the current things being so vague I have a hard time to figure out a clear, concrete, undicutable answer.
I tended to assume they were T2 due to the serious resist increase on the 'Elite' hulls.
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Who says they are T2 hulls to begin with ? They are called "elite" and do not even share the same color schemes. They could be T2 of course, I am not denying that, but with the current things being so vague I have a hard time to figure out a clear, concrete, undicutable answer.
I tended to assume they were T2 due to the serious resist increase on the 'Elite' hulls.
Yeah that is true, the thought also crossed my mind often for that reason as well.
Tbh it could be a good time to ask CCP lore crew a bit more about military capsuleers as well as elite NPC in missions.
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Well to be fair there are thousands of player capsuleers that are easier to kill and less intelligent than your average NPC or Sleeper AI. :P
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I hope this is the right place to post this.
From what I've managed to gather (and what Anslo told me, thanks o/) :
Becoming a capsuleer is a very risky, expensive and frowned upon process. Only a handful of individuals is genetically and mentally fit to survive this process. And it basically makes them demi-gods, Homer style : the kind you don't want to mess with, Achilleus ganking Hector at the Troy Jump Gate, etc. Powerful enough to live outside the boundaries of the law.
And who provides this sweet technology ? Governments. In game, a character starts freshly implanted with this sweet technology, and his school of choice provides him with basic training -a school affiliated with a government, either Caldari, Amarr, Minmatar or Gallente.
If I remember correctly, the last step of the tutorial, right before the career missions, provides the character a piece of paper (in my case it was a "tribal sponsorship") which basically says "Please capsuleer, be nice with us. We like nice."
I find it very puzzling. The four galactic powers players can come from are building and training demigods and launch them in New Eden hoping they will behave ? Without any kind of safety protocol ?
"Of course they won't go rogue/berserk. We asked them nicely."
If I may : é_ô
I must have missed something, right ? Because right now, to me, not only does this looks incredibly dumb, but also irrealist -governments giving free toys and total freedom to use them, sure.
To be clear, game-wise I totally understand the freedom given to the player. And I love it, simply because two weeks into this game and I'm still not sure of what I want to do. In fact, I want to do everything. I want to build stuff, I want to build stuff that makes the other stuff explode, I want to be a cuddly carebear in Highsec, I want to roam in Nullsec, every darndest thing.
So I'm perfectly fine if there's no PF-explanation about the interrests the 4 powers have in training capsuleers, knowing that a sizeable chunk of them will do unspeakable things to the hand that nurtured them. But I really hope there's one =)
Two points to add to all the ones already made.
- If i recall correctly you had to have a genetic link in order to become a capsuleer, which some people postulated was a segment of Jovian DNA. I don't remember the source chronicle ("The Jovian Wetgrave" perhaps?) but it was implied to be rare, with the possibility of mind lock making it rarer still. In medical terms rare usually means <= 1-2% of any given population for statistical purposes. The empires might have been banking on numbers in conjunction with CONCORD safeguards making the societal impact of capsuleers containable
- The history of human technological advancement usually is backgrounded by one group attempting to gain some kind of advantage over other groups - tribes, nations, civilisations, war, business, fire, the wheel, gunpowder, flight, steam power, nuclear power, the space race, right up to Steve Jobs and how he rebranded the smart phone as his own iDea. Capsuleer tech wouldn't be the first time the pressure of conflict with one's neighbours and competitors has seen governments rush an innovation into mass production without fully considering what effects it might have in the long term.
TL;DR Capuleers are rare, PC capsuleers rarer still. Governments can be dumb and typically focus on short term gains, often to the neglect of long term planning.
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Empirically, the majority of player character live in Empire space. Which, of course, doesn't mean that they aren't terrible monsters, but probably means that they are terrible monsters working for the Empires (either via agents or by industry). Also, if some of them go mad and butcher the entire civilian population of a colony, then at least that was one of those dangerous "free" capsuleers and not one of the white knight heroes of the empire. In the Outer Regions (i.e. nullsec) capsuleers do significant work for the empires by culling the regular pirates. Some of them even mine the more valuable types of ore, bringing some back to the Inner Regions. What really doesn't match (in my opinion) is lowsec, perhaps with the exception of the privateers in FW warzones.
But, it's a game.
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Well to be fair there are thousands of player capsuleers that are easier to kill and less intelligent than your average NPC or Sleeper AI. :P
Because they are on their own, but in the case of an empire they have support, logistics, setups, and all the materials they need to be effective. I bet their stuff would even be more effective than ours since they might also have an easy access to navy stuff and the likes.
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What really doesn't match (in my opinion) is lowsec, perhaps with the exception of the privateers in FW warzones.
What about lowsec troubles you?
We don't have the mini-empires that the null-sec groups do but I think you can make a case for sizable collections of brigands and outlaws causing havoc for passersby.
As lowsec is still technically in the Empire controlled regions it has some nice opportunities for fiction regarding how we interact with the local authorities. Dodging or occasionally cooperating with, etc.
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Thanks for the answers =)
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What really doesn't match (in my opinion) is lowsec, perhaps with the exception of the privateers in FW warzones.
What about lowsec troubles you?
We don't have the mini-empires that the null-sec groups do but I think you can make a case for sizable collections of brigands and outlaws causing havoc for passersby.
As lowsec is still technically in the Empire controlled regions it has some nice opportunities for fiction regarding how we interact with the local authorities. Dodging or occasionally cooperating with, etc.
Actually I did just figure several possible "fluff" explanations for lowsec. The most disappointing is "Jove did it" (for whatever purposes they might have). Others include wanting space where CONCORD / central authority doesn't monitor things (doesn't seem to really work for Amarr Holders, at least in Kor-Azor - but possibly works for the Intaki, Caldari megas and some tribes) as well as simply CONCORD having limited funding and being unable to monitor space everywhere. Interestingly, all of these reasons would make lowsec pretty much the place to be for a well-enough independent capsuleer (excluding of nullsec) or a dissident but still somewhat benevolent capsuleer (possibly excluding non-pirate NPC nullsec, though not that the "light grey" factions would be good).