Sci-fi MMO EVE Online has always embraced the darker side of human nature, and now players will be getting new toys to indulge their space-thief ambitions.
In the latest devblog published by CCP Games, “No Honor Among Thieves – Siphon Units in Rubicon,” developer CCP SoniClover provides details of how the Mobile Siphon Units – first revealed at the announcement of the Rubicon expansion – will work.
He explains that there has been some thought given to providing a “moon raiding feature” and the passively parasitic nature of the Mobile Siphon Unit “aligns itself well with our general intent to give players more ways to affect each other’s income than just through brute force,” whilst also developing a new style of “asynchronous gameplay,” meaning that players don’t have to be online simultaneously in order to interact in a meaningful way.
The device will be small enough to carry in almost any ship and can be deployed into space adjacent to a player-owned starbase (POS)–the giant structures which are used to passively harvest and process some of EVE‘s valuable moon resources–where the Mobile Siphon Unit will automatically begin filling up with the raw materials as the starbase harvests them.
Interestingly, the device will not provoke a reaction from starbase defences or the NPC law enforcement, CONCORD, meaning that resource theft will be possible even in the safe high-sec regions of EVE Online‘s universe.
Given the creative and unexpected way most new gameplay features get used and abused in EVE Online, it will be interesting to see exactly how Grand Theft Moon-Goo will emerge.
Will we see gangs of resource rustlers making off with ill-gotten gains from previously safe industrial giants? Will that result in a boom in bounty-hunting as aggrieved (and generally affluent) industrialists look for recompense? Or does the Mobile Siphon Unit just encourage AFK griefing gameplay?
We will find out on 19th November when EVE Online: Rubicon launches.
Expect tears.
