The rise and fall of Royal Roaders in J132037 (codename HADES)
The original blog post can be found here with a nice comment by one of our former member ;>
Happy reading!
Introduction
While on Zoom meetings and lectures, our CEO Alkatosh Moz'tazul sent a screenshot of our Pathfinder map, and on it was HADES. Apparently, our C3 static wormhole finally opened into J132037 (we codenamed it "HADES" after a certain Greek mythology entity). I felt a surge of emotions and I thought to myself: ' I have to pay my tributes to the fallen system, to what was once our wormhole'.
As soon as my lectures were over, I jumped into my Crow, flew around HADES (we still have not deleted our old bookmarks, so I was able to warp to where our citadels once stood) and finally unleashed all of my fireworks charges on our old POCOs (Player Owned Custom Offices). And as I sat in my chair, taking a trip down memory lane, a light bulb went off in my head: 'I have a blog, I have some time to spare, why not write an article on this?', and here we are, me writing you reading.
Allow me to say this in advance: this is the ramblings of a twat who has too much distractions so please excuse my feeble attempts at writing a blog post. Also this is me: https://evewho.com/character/2116006431
The beginning: [.HAX.] and Wormhole Ratting
Hollow Ataraxia (corp ticker [.HAX.]) is a Malaysian gaming community, specialising mostly in MMO games such as Black Desert Online, Elite Dangerous, Final Fantasy XIV and of course EVE Online. Around June 2019, HAX and their members expressed interest in joining our alliance Royal Roader, of which I am a member of. A few Discord meetings later and the deal is sealed, HAX is now a part of Royal Roaders, bringing in a huge boost in member count and more importantly, essential wormhole krabbing knowledge.
Just for context to those who does not play EVE Online, krabbing is an insult used to describe people like me who hunt and loot NPCs for a living. A more civillised term would be 'ratting'. Definitions can be found at: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Krabbing
At that time, I was still a relatively new player, having just reinstalled the game, so wormhole krabbing was off limits for me, and was I was restricted to scouting and scanning. During this time period, HAX showed us just how profitable it was to do PvE activities in wormhole systems, as wormhole space is lawless and competition is lower due to their inaccessibility. We ran one-day trips into several unoccupied C3 wormhole systems with high-sec statics. Although C3 sites can be done solo, a fleet of Drakes, Basilisks and Tengus means other wormholers will leave you alone. Combined with the enormous fleet DPS, the ratting crew are usually able to empty all Combat Sites within 1.5 hours.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, the influx of manpower and motivation for ISK, the Alliance decided to live in a wormhole. At first it was just an idea by our former CEO Shu Jia, and many in both HAX and our Alliance opposed to the idea of being stuck in a virtual island devoid of the markets and comfort of the Known space. But eventually, he managed to convince everyone to seed a structure in a wormhole. I was not actively involved in the seeding, planning and overall wormhole operations back then so I am a bit fuzzy on the actual timeline of things. What I do know is, a Raitaru and several POCOs was set-up in J132037 around mid/late-August 2020. She was named 'a l'ombre'.
Around September 2020, I moved into HADES with my first ever krabbing ship: the Drake, and proceeded to lose it in my first ratting session in a C2 system: https://zkillboard.com/kill/87140600/ . I was sore and angry of course, but eventually I learnt that without the necessary ships and pre-cautions, wormhole ratting is suicidal. I also learnt that in a fight, newbies usually panic and freeze up, often forgetting to perform even the most basic PvP stuff, for example pulsing your shield booster and afterburners, overheating modules and even forgetting to turn on shield hardeners. Moral of the story: don't PvE when it is not safe to do so, and keep CALM when you do get caught.
Having lost my shiny noob krabbing ship, I went back to doing even more carebear things to recoup my losses, activities like mining, hacking and gas huffing. And thus, my life as a wormholer began.
Living in HADES
It was also around this time I hit a literal jackpot: I won a Golem from the Hypernet (aka. Da Ma Cai/TOTO for my Malaysian friends). This was perhaps the single luckiest moment in my time playing Eve Online. The Golem is an expensive ship, just the hull alone would fetch for 1.3 billion ISK. Naturally I sold it off and got around 1 billion ISK post taxes. I have my initial capital and now I can finally krab.
HADES, if you have bothered to click into the link above, has a Null Sec static. Allow me to explain how wormholes funtion in EVE Online to my readers (if any) who does not play EVE Online. Wormhole space, also known as J-space, are star systems which is detached from the main map of EVE Online. In other words, wormhole space are in a separate dimension(s) from the galaxy in which EVE Online takes place. Wormhole systems are only accessible via wormhole connections. A more in depth description on wormhole mechanics could be found here. These wormhole connections can open into both K-space (the main map) and other J-spaces. A static wormhole, or 'static' for short are wormholes that are GUARANTEED to generate a wormhole connection into specific types of regions both on the 'main map' and into other wormholes. So when I say HADES has a Null Sec static, what this means is the wormhole system J132037 has a guaranteed connection to Null Security space on the main map. Clear?
So, having obtained large sums of money by sheer luck, I proceeded to spend half of it on a ship known as a Gila. Westerners pronounce it "Hee Lah" or " Gee Lah" but I prefer it the Malaysian way: "Gila", which in Malay means crazy. The Gila enabled me to do PvE activities in Null Security space, specifically Gurista and Rogue Drone combat sites. I do not want to get too much into ships and fittings here but it is worth mentioning that the Gila is a monster of a ship, being able to PASSIVE TANK a Combat Site in Null Sec in a cruiser is pretty crazy when you think about it. Long story short, my activities in HADES was essentially 3 things: Null Sec PvE when I am free, mining and gas huffing when the Null Sec static has no good sites, and scouting for others when they are ratting.
Eventually time passed and most of HAX and the active groups of Mineski Infinite has moved into HADES, bar a few vocal critics of living in J-space. 2 new structures are installed in HADES, an Astrahus (essentially a space station to store our jump clones in) and an Athanor (a space station optimised for moon mining and resource processing) as the single Raitaru we are using up to this point, being a space station optimised for industrial activities, was not well-suited for the all the other activities we were doing in HADES. All in all, excluding the POCOs, we had 3 structures in HADES, the last of which is installed around November 2020.
My time in HADES was an interesting one. As I started to get familiar with the members of the alliance, a few pilots stood out to me. There was Wong, who is an outspoken and sometimes brash, pilot. He is quick to anger, likes to trash talk pilots from outside our alliance and oftentimes provided us with entertainment whenever PvP happened. Ultimately, he is a very good pilot and possessed many blingy implants. There was HAX's CEO Buffed Up Moose, an experienced FC whose calm and positive attitude during fights made fleet ops thoroughly enjoyable. Maybe it is just the lack of experience on my part, but I recall Buffed to be exceptional in timing fleet warps and making calm and clear calls everytime we had PvP in HADES. On that note, our own alliance's Furikanzen is also another FC worth mentioning. He possesses the qualities of Buffed, being an exceptionally experienced FC, but what stood out was his way of explaining things and his understanding of fleet composition. It is Furi who theorycrafted our WH doctrines, but due to the lack of active pilots, said doctrines was not adopted by most of the residents in HADES.
However, after the fall of HADES, these exceptional pilots would be inactive. EVE could be rough sometimes, and real life events matter more so it is understandable that most pilots would take a break from the game after a heavy loss, but more on that later.
The Industrialist
Before I proceed, just allow me to say that this article is not written to point fingers or insult other players. This is merely a documentation of HADES from my perspective, so please do not take the next sections too seriously.
So moving on, an interesting character, who shall remain unnamed to protect his fragile mental health, which we will now refer to as The Industrialist, set up shop in HADES. He is an indy player through and through, and was once a part of a larger Korean corporation. Said Korean corporation was also once a part of our alliance. However, due to his playstyle, more of which will be discussed later, he had a falling out with his Korean corp-mates, and the typical EVE backstabbing / betrayal took place. What was not typical though, was he claimed to have been threatened in real life. As I haven't started playing EVE Online when that took place, I could not expand on the situation any further. All I know is, this group of Korean players eventually splintered off from our alliance. The remaining Korean players who stayed subsequently became relatively inactive.
After the fall of Pakkonen, he moved into HADES after taking a break from EVE Online, wanting to enjoy the game in the relative peacefulness of wormhole space, away from the harassments of his old corp-mates. He had a very laser focused playstyle, a playstyle which would eventually be his downfall, again. What I am referring to is his lack of diversity in regards to his industrial products. Taking just Planetary Interactions for example, he would only produce one specific P4 product, instead of having a more diverse portfolio of say multiple P3 products. For the uninitiated, Planetary Interaction is essentially the extraction, processing and manufacturing of planetary resources by installing colonies on the various planets found in each system. We would often see 6-8 Epithals in HADES whenever The Industrialist is out doing his Planetary Interactions, which means he was potentially making huge sums of ISK, and more importantly, producing a large quantity of a specific commodity. I am not an economics expert, but I do know that suddenly dumping large volumes of a specific commodity on the EVE Online market will lower the price of said commodity. And what this means is The Industrialist unknowingly made many enemies everytime he touched EVE Online. And therein lies the reason why his corp-mates hated him. He wasn't the competition, there was no one to compete with him. His pursuit of wealth was in a way hampered by his lack of consideration and mental fortitude.
And that was only Planetary Interactions, not accounting for his manufacturing activities both inside and outside HADES. One player having that much wealth, and being able to lower market prices by pumping out such large volumes would only mean one thing: other players taking you out. Although a wormhole system is, in my humble opinion, far safer than any low-security space due to its inaccessibility, people can still find you and kick you out of a wormhole system if they are determined enough. We call it evictions. Essentially, we had a ticking time bomb on our hands. As The Industrialist ramped up production, the more worried his enemies would be, and the more pressing it is for said enemies to stop The Industrialist in his tracks.
Eviction
At around November 2020, our sister corp Hollow Ataraxia went into, as their CEO Buffed Up Moose puts it, went into 'winter mode'. Most of them became inactive due to real life issues and generally became disinterested in the game. The few active pilots around this time was our hardworking member Nuhdi Izia, future CEO Alkatosh, Buffed Up Moose, The Industrialist and myself. Although Buffed assured us this was a normal phase in their corporation, and has anticipated this event in advance before HAX even joined our alliance, HAX members remained inactive, even until now. Apparently they started playing Elite Dangerous, then Black Desert Online thereafter. This perma-frost is quite saddening, given that we had the potential to be capable wormholers due to the number of experienced pilots we have with us.
In early January 2021, things have not been well with me. Having spent the majority of 2020 in perpetual lockdown changed my attitude and outlook towards life. I was terribly addicted to gaming, not just EVE Online but Dota 2 as well. Of course, things happened that made me reflect on my actions, and I decided to take a break from gaming in general, only returning if I am able to regulate my gaming behaviour well enough. This is why I have missed out on the happenings of HADES from the time period between January 2021 to early June 2021.
As I have missed out on the eviction event, I have to depend on what my corp-mates told me. On a side note, I did manage to take my Gila out to HS thus cutting my losses by quite a bit.
On the attacking side, we have Bunny n Bears , The Industrialist's old enemies. They are Koreans so the main traits such as toxicity, tenaciousness and great strategical prowess are present. On the defending side, is our alliance made up of a mix of new players, old players and inactive players (me) who has limited skill points and awkward schedules. Naturally, the defending side decided to get the fuck out of HADES. Allow me to just say Pochven filaments are a godsent. Instead of having to self-destruct in Wormhole space when you are trapped or want to prevent your shiny ships from falling into enemy hands, you can now just use a Pochven filament to jump out. So, my corp-mates initiated the GTFO sequence after the structures are reinforced by first sending a few brave souls out through the null-sec static. Their mission is to purchase enough Pochven filaments for everyone in HADES. The rest of them loaded up their Deep Space Transports with valuables and assets that they are not willing to sacrifice to Bob, and waited for the filaments.
Eventually the filaments arrived, and most of the valuable assets are shipped out of HADES. An exception to this are ores, gasses and other bulky resources. We left them behind as sacrifices for our wormhole entity who works in mysterious ways and wielded ungodly powers, Bob.
Aftermath
Before the eviction event, Buffed and Alkatosh have seeded a C4 wormhole (the soon to be Troy) and have began moving into it due to the better PvE activities it offers, as well as better security. Many lessons learnt in HADES were applied to Troy, mainly hole control. Hole control is a very, very important aspect of living in wormhole space, as it helps to deter unwanted visitors and makes it harder (although not impossible) for other players to seed and evict us again. Most of us also know how to roll wormholes now, so if another 'winter event' were to happen again, we could roll off any wandering or incoming wormholes to minimise unwanted attention.
The Industrialist recently restarted his industrial machine, and had plans to move his production into Troy. Having learnt from our mistakes, we barred him from doing anything remotely related to industrial activities. Given the wealth of The Industrialist, it is entirely logical to assume that he would be able to cover our losses in the event of an eviction. Heck, he even offered to anchor a Sotiyo, with the relevant modules and fund the fueling cost for all our structures in Troy for free, but we rejected his proposal nonetheless. This is not because we have risen above the common vice of all humankind, ie. greed, but simply because the risks of having The Industrialist and his extremely laser-focused playstyle around outweighs the collective benefit of all the members of the Alliance. To quote our current CEO Alkatosh, 'EVE Online for me is a hobby, once it becomes a job I will quit the game. For me I like what I am doing currently. (The Industrialist) can keep his money to himself.'
Reflecting on this, I think it is fair to say that EVE Online is not a game of acquiring wealth, nor is it a race to see who holds the most power in the game. For me, it is a game that tests the very limits of every man and woman's moral compass. For the uninitiated, they will think I am talking crap but let me ask you this, are you the type to risk the livelihood of 20 corp-members in pursuit of wealth (as The Industrialist have done), or do you want a band of brothers who can stick together come rain or shine (as Alkatosh, Nuhdi and many others in my corp has demonstrated)?
For me, I would forgo the billions of ISK the former offers, in return for something that holds infinitely more value: trust.
Thanks for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it, but if not, well be sure to contact me for any constructive criticisms.
Killmails
Astrahus: https://zkillboard.com/kill/92982975/
Athanor: https://zkillboard.com/kill/92984039/
Raitaru: https://zkillboard.com/kill/92986484/