EVE Fiction

I think it's sort of an in joke; evidently there's an industry tutorial involving invention of a T2 Perpetual Motion Device from a T1 Perpetual Motion Device, and then constructing it using Villard Wheels-- nonsense items with the heel referencing Villard, the chemist who discovered gamma radiation.

The reference, then, is probably both to Villard and gamma radiation, and to the invention tutorial. If the VWs are, say, frictionless kinetic energy storage systems, then calling them a 'wheel' might make sense-- but otherwise I think it's a sort of generic bobble that is salvaged to perform technobabble.

In sci-fi terms, I'm going to reference Banks's Culture series. His idea is that there are layers of hyperspace from which energy can be drawn; while there might be conservation of energy in the general sense, this allows for the perceived loss of conservation as energy is drawn from another frame of reference into this one. If we're thinking in those sorts of terms, it's possible that the new technobabble is drawing energy from different levels of hyperspace/dimensions/strings/choose-your-poison, resulting in phenomenal energy gains in this frame of reference, and catastrophic failures of research equipment-- hence the Syndicate energy burst, and the description of the covert research tools.

I don't think it is? I got back from a hiatus this March, redid the tutorials, and I don't recall the invention part of the industry tutorial. :x

That said, the shattered villard wheels are used in implant production as the one exploration-yielded good required, in addition to the PI materials cryoprotectant solution, gel-matrix biopaste, and synthetic synapses-- so they do have some immediate utility, in addition to being relatively scarce as they drop only from lowsec ghost sites.

The good that currently doesn't have utility are the covert research tools, which are bought by null factions at 500k a pop but have no known use. Given that their background is similar to the datacore background, my guess is they'll be used in some sort of nifty, new type of invention. :D

Unfortunaetly, I have Thermodynamics trained, which if you read the description on that, gives me "the ability to frown in annoyance whenever I hear someone mention a perpetual motion unit."

I'm more interested in the non shattered villard wheels, I suspect they'll be ingredients in manufacturing stargates in future expansions.

Also... shattered villard wheel 0.1 m3...villard wheel 25000 m3.... Grr!

"Shattered Villard Wheel" is obtainable in-game, through Ghost Sites. "Villard Wheel" (whole ones) take up 25,000 m3 apiece, and can be obtained through special means.

I feel like the whole ones will be important sometime in the future, both to the lore and to in-game things, maybe player stargates.

Well if we are to build our own stargates to other unknown systems then we'd need a way to get there first. Afterall you need a gate on both ends for them to work.