In the MMORPG EVE Online the invasion of the Drifters is in full swing and has escalated to a new level. After players were initially shocked, they became annoyed and wanted to sabotage the economy of EVE Online – then CCP struck back.
This is what is happening in EVE Online: Last Wednesday, an NPC race from EVE Online, the Drifters, suddenly launched an attack in Null Sec on the structures and ships of the players. Something like this had never happened before.
Players reacted in two ways:
- Casual players of EVE thought it was great, finally some variety
- The leading alliances were more annoyed by the attacks, as it kept them busy and prevented them from engaging in the big PvP wars.
Players wanted to sabotage trade to harm EVE Online
This is how the mood shifted: As reported by PC Gamer, the mood of the top players changed quickly. At first, they coordinated to intercept the Drifter attacks and were excited. But by the weekend, it became frustrating for them.
The attacks were described as “tedious and boring”. The NPCs always attacked in the same way, triggering the same defensive strategies every time.
Quickly, the alliances had the “Drifter” problem under control, and it was no longer that exciting.
Top players had figured out that while the Drifters bark, they do not bite. They were apparently not really out for destruction. However, since the Drifters had not been announced or tested beforehand, the alliances had to take them seriously. This was annoying after all.
This is how top alliances wanted to take revenge on CCP: Apparently, some of the major alliances in EVE Online planned to express their displeasure with CCP by intentionally disrupting the game.
It is said that the Imperium and Fraternity initiated a trade war to weaken EVE Online by imposing an embargo against important trading hubs like Jita.
The message: If CCP spoils our PvP fun with PvE, then we will strike back. By disrupting the trade of EVE Online – essential for many players – they wanted to force CCP to relent.
Such protest actions happen more frequently in EVE Online.
This is what has happened now: Since the current maintenance a few hours ago, EVE Online is once again in chaos. As stated on reddit , the Drifters are now more aggressive and numerous than before.
Since the new update, they spawn not only in 3 systems per region but in all of them. In 6 hours, they attacked 200 structures from TEST. They are now “fully aggressive.”
Before the downtime, Drifters could achieve 1 kill per hour, now it’s 120.
In the reddit forum, many see this as a somewhat defiant response from CCP to the trade war. Apparently, the claims that the Drifters had been “decoded and were no longer a problem” were a bit premature.
Officially, there are no statements from CCP regarding the Drifter invasion in EVE Online.
