EVE-Mag.com

POE #2: Things all players should know

Published on 11. Aug, 2009 ... written by Ecaf Ersa, Tags: Articles, Proverbs of EVE

Always be extremely careful if you choose to take something from another player’s container if they are not a part of your corporation or fleet. CONCORD, the NPC police force, considers this a criminal action although they will not act directly. Instead they will allow the owner of the container, or anybody in their corporation, fifteen minutes in which they may take retribution on you by attacking and destroying your ship.

To clarify, by container we mean a can or wreck in space, and by corporation we mean player corporation, ie. one with player leadership that you apply to join.

You can tell if you are legally within your right to take from a container by it’s colour. If it is yellow then you are stealing, if it is white then you are not, assuming of course that it doesn’t belong to a corp mate or fleet member who may also not be too happy at you taking their loot. Some cans will appear white to everybody but these are always password protected so if you do not know the password then you cannot take from it.

If a player leaves the fleet then any cans dropped by that player or wrecks of ships where that player fired the killing blow are no longer free for you to take from.

Note that whilst the contents of a wreck are the property of the player that fired the killing blow, the wreck itself is not. You may salvage the wreck without fear of any CONCORD sanctioned retaliation.

There are many players in EVE who will deliberately lay traps with cans and wrecks that are seemingly unattended, or even labelled “Free Stuff”, and their methods can be sophisticated. They may be sitting just 5kms from you in a cloaked ship and will be able to catch you if you are not quick enough. This could even extend to positioning themself between the container and the station, in which case their ship may block your attempt to warp to safety. They could also be waiting on the other side of a stargate so will not appear on your overview or local chat until it is too late.

If you are still determined to take from somebody else’s container there are a few tactics you can utilise to improve your chances. Check first that there is nobody from the owning corp in the area. You can add a column to your overview which will show the corp of any ship or container within the range of the overview. This of course does not mean that the owner cannot warp in from outside the range of your overview or isn’t watching you while cloaked. You could also be being observed by a seemingly neutral player. You can also check the corps of the players in local chat although this can be time consuming if there are many players in the system. Align yourself to a station and activate warp, then take the contents a second or two before your speed reaches 75% and you go to warp. Then wait in the station for the fifteen minute timer at the top left corner of your screen to run out. Please also bear in mind that annoying a player or corporation enough in this way could bring a declaration of war upon your corp.

There is no foolproof way of guaranteeing your safety so attempt this at your peril!

Tags: can, container, theft, wreck