A player in EVE Online flew valuable cargo worth approximately $5,000 through space. However, he was ambushed and his possessions were destroyed. It appears that the attackers were waiting for him deliberately and with meticulous planning. They had even allowed him to pass before.
What happened? The player Lactose Intolerant has been playing EVE Online for 16 years and has collected many blueprints that are very valuable in the MMO.
He wanted to fly a large part of his possessions from one location to a larger trading hub to exchange them there for currency. During this, he was attacked and lost his ship along with blueprints worth more than $5,000. The blueprints were particularly valuable because most of the 800 blueprints had already been fully researched. This increases their value even more.
The authors of the English site PCGamer spoke with the player and the alleged attackers. According to this conversation, it seems the ambush was meticulously planned.
Alliance is laying a trap for the player
What do the attackers say? One of the attackers, who wishes to remain anonymous, reports that they had observed Lactose Intolerant several times flying carelessly:
Lactose Intolerant was stubborn and didn’t care about it. On at least two other occasions, we stopped him in the game and could have destroyed him with extremely valuable loot.
But usually, I often let someone go to see if they continue to transport even larger amounts.
Aggressively Average, the alliance behind the attack, decided on that Monday evening not to let Lactose Intolerant fly by again.
Such ganks on known trade routes in EVE Online are difficult, as NPC police quickly appears to attack the attackers. Planning and the use of simulators beforehand were therefore particularly important.
The plan for such ambushes is as follows: One group destroys the opponent, then gets taken out by the NPC police, but a second group of pirates is already at the spot to pick up the loot.
What did the attackers benefit from? The attackers benefited from the ship choice of the EVE player. He used an Orca ship, which is large and can carry a lot of cargo. However, it has little chance in battle.
That’s why players resort to ships for such transport actions that can be so heavily upgraded with mods that they can flee extremely quickly and are hard to target.
Although Lactose Intolerant is said to have equipped his ship well, the attackers were also significantly superior thanks to a numerical advantage of 17 to 1 and their planning. They say:
There is no amount of armor you can put on a ship to make it invulnerable. Groups like ours will always find more people. It will just take us longer.
Contrary to initial assumptions, Lactose Intolerant did not fly with an autopilot, but the choice of ship was definitely a mistake.
The loss might be a reason why he continues
What does the victim say? Lactose Intolerant admits to PCGamer that he made a mistake. He only wanted to sell the blueprints and pass the proceeds on to his corporation.
He was burnt out from EVE and wanted to turn to a new game. He takes the whole situation with humor:
I would have preferred to liquidate the BPOs in a different way, but just look at all the ISK [in-game currency] I’ve saved on transaction fees.
What will happen to him next? While EVE Online offers grief counseling for newcomers, Lactose Intolerant will probably not receive this. Because the player is an experienced trader, and his reputation in the game is especially important to him. And that reputation has now suffered, as the victim of the attack has been harshly mocked in recent days.
The player initially wanted to quit the MMO, but does not want to give his attackers the satisfaction:
I have to admit that I had trouble sleeping in the next two nights [after the attack]. I want to keep playing and not give my attacker the satisfaction of driving me away.
It’s just that the reactions I’ve received are hard to bear, and I hope they wear off soon.
With the reactions, he refers to mockery and derision in the forums and on Reddit. Many other players express themselves condescendingly about Lactose Intolerant.
But usually, such a story doesn’t last long because in EVE another news soon causes unrest:
- For instance, players declared war on the developer in 2019. This caused chaos.
- There were headlines about how EVE banned entire corporations that were allegedly botting.
- And some players even profit from DDoS attacks greedily.
