EVE Fiction

Like, plot holes? General inconsistencies? flawed logic? bad grammar, syntax?

Or worst of all;

A complete lack of EVE Lexicon and / or any attempt at phonological assimilation between the 5 races?

AK

Haven't read them to be honest and have no intention to do so, so I was asking a series of questions based upon my fears of what could be contained within the pages of an EVE Novel, written by an organisation to further monetary gain of an existing IP.

Every time this happens, the results are flawed - I would trust a fan novella more, and apologies to anyone who may get offended by that statement, but I ran out of coffee this morning and Seagulls to throw stones at.

AK

He is talking about the general handwave that takes place when you consider the dialectal disparity given in the fiction.. I think..
Our Neocoms automatically translate between the many dialects of New Eden.. Yes, there are MANY.. Technology is the answer, and I would assume that many capsuleers are fluent in several languages, as well, when you consider the resources we have at our disposal..

Though English is generally the "Trade Language" of Eve, there are many languages chosen out of convenience for the individual players.. New Eden would have a similar language that most everyone would know, if they travelled regularly, just as in the real world. Concordia, maybe..

Gallente use French, or some pseudo French descendant.. Likely sounds nothing like modern French, but, why not French, or any other modern dialects progeny? The Ammar could speak a Latin spawned amalgam with Arabic or Japanese? We do hail from a planet called Earth, perhaps this "Earth" had a slightly different history than that which we call home?

Fiction is pure speculation.. It really is as simple as that.. What if?

Greatly reduced crew compliments.

Invented by the Jove, as they have few people in their populace and therefore ship losses were impactful.

I always assumed that there is no crew present on any other ship other than carriers, unless you actually choose to keep people. Reason being: to have any kind of crew on a ship which is inevitably going to be destroyed would be INSANELY expensive. So the only crew are the people which you purchase off the market. Carriers specifically because they have fighters which do have people to pilot them. The other reason i think this way, is that when doing missions our ships are vastly superior to the staffed ships, and the justification for our superior power is the connection between captain and ship. A staffed ship will take longer to react and does not work as fluently as capsuleers. This results in far poorer accuracy, lock time, speed, and tank. So the reason we never see any interaction between a crew is because there is non.

if someone wants to imagine that their space ship has a crew, then LET them. if they want to imagine that their pilot talks with the other "normal" pilots, LET them. if they want to imagine that their character actually walks around their ship, LET them. it's NOT up to YOU to decide what people imagine their character do or not. if you want to imagine your character as a non-communicative person, then he or she IS a non-communicative person. stop hampering people from using their imagination. stop yelling at them for having an imagination. do your thing and let them do theirs.

i personally imagine that my pilot "shoots the breeze" with the Concord Toll personnel, that he walks around his ship smoking and drinking Quafe and talking to his crew, ready at a moments notice to get back in his pod and take control of his ship.

but, that doesn't mean i want everyone else to do the same. nor do i care what others imagine what their character do or do not do.

In game mechanics =/= lore. I don't understand why people seem to think this, in many other MMO's as well. In-universe, ships have a crew, altough it is not reflected ingame. It's up to you of course to ignore them if you will, don't matter to me none.

Nikotium; If you want to write fan-fiction, or roleplay, then you need to know the world you're writing about. I'm all for imagination, but when you're playing with someone elses universe, well, you should play by the rules and guidelines they have set. Again, you're free to imagine your ship however you like, but I think most people would expect you to acknowledge certain things as fact if you try to roleplay with them, or have them understand a story you've written. Just my 2c.

Hello! New here, and this is the first time I've ever been interested in replying to some of the many forum post I've read. I have a somewhat basic level of the game's lore and fiction, as much as many people have of their own country's history, so what I say could be completely off-base. However, I still want to at least give my opinion on the matter:

EVE wormhole collapse and colony failure: I consider this period in Eve lore to be similar to the European's colonization of the New World. The establishment of a colony generally requires a settling population with the skills to somewhat sustain themselves, but they would still be heavily reliant on frequent resupply ships from the homeland. Even still, some early colonies still failed due to environmental factors, starvation, harsh climate, etc. Many of Eve's earliest settlers would have experienced this same phenomenon on some of their planets. This was a "new" universe with new plagues, diseases, and challenges to overcome.

Now imagine if Europe suddenly disappeared and those fledgling settlements or colonies had to rely on themselves without the resupply missions from their homeland. More than likely, many colonies would fail simply because the likelihood that those colonies had all the necessary skilled colonists to pick up slack for the sudden drop in resupply is ... doubtful. While some space stations and ships would have probably been trapped in the Eve universe after wormhole collapse, they would probably also eventually fall into disrepair and used for scrap simply because most of the shipyards would have been in the Milky Way (MW). Lore also says that it was the corporations in the MW that wanted to expand to the Eve universe, and corporations want to do things the cheap way. Is it cheaper to build the entire infrastructure needed to support your colony on a new planet? Or is it cheaper to use already existing facilities in the MW and ship it through the wormhole? The colonies were more-than-likely meant to serve a purpose (i.e. mining) for the particular corporation that sponsored them. And the independent colonist groups? They probably didn't have the financial backing. Just some things to think about.

Capsuleer and crew: As for the "human's reproducing" thing that everyone seems to think is the limiting factor for why ships wouldn't get recrewed so quickly.... remember that all the empires (and pirates probably too) have cloning technology, and in fact, the Caldari use it extensively (as my guy IS a tube child). Earth currently has 7 billion people. Consider how many populated planets there are in the Eve universe. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of them have way more than 7 billion people. There are probably no short supply of crew members. Let's take a mathematical example!

If every player of Eve (assuming 20,000) flew a Titan with a maximum crew of 145,000 people:

20,000 * 145,000 = 2,900,000,000 crew members

2.9 billion crew members if everyone flew a Titan really isn't that much in the universe of Eve with all the planets and people. This number is assuming 100% mortality rate and maximum crew count for all races. The website linked discusses the differences in empire mentalities about war. Caldari are highly militarized, therefore no shortage of crewman. Ammar have more automation than people assume, and even if they didn't, religious zealots are more than willing to give their lives serving for their Empress and God. Gallente have low crew counts, but they make it up with the most automation. Minmatar have high crew counts because they are fighting for a cause and rely on less automation, and fighting in the name of "freedom from oppression" that can be a powerful motivator to get crews aboard your ships.

And as for a capsuleer caring or interacting with his crew, why not? When I go into these missions, I know that I am taking the lives of my crew and the people who work on this ship into my own hands, even if I can't die. I also know I need to make the money to upgrade my ship, to better protect me, my assets, and my crew. In real life, being with a crew longer usually increases ship overall efficiency due to the crew "knowing" each other, and this is actually something I wish CCP would include in the game mechanics (i.e. the longer you haven't had your ship destroyed, general ship's efficiency would increase by like ~1-3% in some areas). I imagine that the crew make money as well for serving on these ships, although it doesn't come out of my ISK.

Lore and fiction-writing: I will never, ever criticize someone for expressing their creativity and thinking outside the box when given a rigid set of rules to follow in order to conform to "lore" of a game. Eve, however, has a general lore background that seems open-ended and promotes exploration of the fictional universe. It is silly of us to assume that the lore is "illogical" or "logical" based on our own interpretations of it. Religious crusades have killed people for less! The fact is, Eve is played by people from many different countries, each with their own cultural and personal ideas of "logical" and "illogical". Our own history, as it has been pointed out before, is riddled with plotholes and misinterpretations. History is written by the victors, and in this case, CCP is the victor because they literally own the universe that we participate in.

So what I say is: Write your stories however you feel it should be. Not everyone will always agree with your interpretation of it, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that YOU enjoyed writing and sharing it. Personally, I enjoy reading different perspectives on game lore.

Anyway, I have to end it soon. Running out of characters. This was just all my opinion. See you in game!

Also a valid point. Touche, my friend. :)

I feel like, "We do not write lore, we write fan fiction!" should be made into a t-shirt or poster. Lol.

I would like to thank everyone for their thoughtful contributions to this discussion. This is by far my most successful thread. It would have been nice to get a dev comment in here, but then again, I think we have been doing a pretty good job without one.

As the summer months quickly approach, I'll likely begin my writing project in July. I will certainly be using some of the insights expressed here as part of my story telling.

@Viktor .... Stealing Ships, is somehting I was not thinking of. How does a Capsuleer take control of the crew of a ship he/she captures?

* Crew Compacency = "I don't care who is piloting this ship, as long as I get paid"

If we buy into the idea that capsuleers are universally disliked, feared and or worshiped, then the "little people" couldn't care less with whom is piloting the ship.

* Crew fear = Capsuleer Announces: "I am now your captain, follow my instructions or I will vent all of your asses into space, and get a new crew at the next station."

This could of course be an idle threat, but we get back to the "capsuleers are universally disliked, feared and or worshiped", and the crew won't take the chance that he/she is bluffing.

Will a crew be all that loyal?

The Amarr have an Empire, an Empress and perhaps even a Religion that Amarrian crews might be loyal towards.

The Caldari have Mega Corporations, but no real "National or Imperial" identity. They are essentially, all mercenaries or private contractors (if you like the description better).

The Minmatar have their Republic, but as is the case with all republics it is fragmented. Minmatar tend to be more loyal towards their tribal affiliation than the Republic as a whole.

The Gallente have their Federation, and they seem to be pretty loyal towards it.

So the question stands, how would crews react to having one capsuleer abandon ship, to be replaced by the capsuleer that forced him to flee.