EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Jeff Woleslagle: I’m going to turn it over to Reuben here who has our first question (from the audience).

Reuben Waters, Ten Ton Hammer: Ok, I’ve got a question from Wetdog. He asked: we learned that we can anchor player owned stations in wormhole space. Since it’s so mysterious and dangerous out there can we expect sleeper attacks on player stations?

Arend Stührmann: That is a very interesting idea, it’s certainly one that was bandied about. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen just yet, but I personally think it will be a great way to deal with anything that gets left abandoned for too long.

Jeff Woleslagle: Over to Ben for our second question.

Ben De La Durantaye, Ten Ton Hammer: Is the connection between wormhole and known space completely random by area, or is one wormhole system more likely to connect with a certain area of known space than another, like a certain constellation or region?

Arend Stührmann: It is completely randomized. Apart from the fact, as I mentioned before, depending on from where in known space you travel into wormhole space, you will enter at different difficulty levels. So the distribution in the known space universe is entirely randomized, but if you find a wormhole in high-sec, you’ll end up in the lower difficulty level wormhole space. If you find a wormhole in 0.0, you’ll end up in the higher difficulty level.

Having also said that once you’re in these wormholes, we’ve divided up the difficulty into sort of six levels, and from high-sec you’ll find level one, and level one wormholes will lead to level two. From low-sec you’ll get level three, level three will lead to level four, and 0.0 you’ll get level five and that leads to level six. So there is definitely an advantage to exploring further than the first wormhole system you find from known space. The deeper you get, the better the rewards.

Reuben Waters: I’ve got a question here about lore. Metal asked: with wormholes, have you stuck to the lore of them? As an example, you can go through a wormhole where you end up in a place that is in a different stage of life that you have passed, however it’s the same year, date etc. – but not time travel, more of a delay if you know what I mean.

Arend Stührmann: Ok time – we threw that concept around quite a bit when we were putting down the basic design for wormholes, and it didn’t quite make it in this time. No pun intended. (laughter) It’s a good idea, but putting that into actual implementation, the big challenge there is how do you let someone know that they have actually travelled through time? Because so far there aren’t really any set landmarks or evolving environments that you could have as a definite sign post to the fact that you’ve gone 300 years into the past, or 1,000 years into the future.

So as we evolve the EVE universe and look at maybe putting things like that in, then we can sort of think about time travel trough wormholes, but for now you’re only going to move in space, not time.

Ben De La Durantaye: The next question comes from TheAtheist, he asks: how well can a two man group do in wormhole space and epic mission?

Arend Stührmann: Well, epic missions, at the moment a two man group will be able to do quite well. In wormhole space? That depends on your skill level and the ships you’re flying. We’ve certainly skewed some of the content towards smaller groups that are flying less expensive ships, or how we say, less well equipped ships. Expensive does not always equal good, as many a Caldari Navy Raven pilot with a faction fit has found out to their disadvantage.

So there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to, if you keep your wits about you and play the game right and figure out your good strategies, then a two man group should be able to survive quite well in certain circumstances. But, your mileage may vary!