Attack of the Pods [Eve]

Player generated content sets Eve apart in today’s cadre of MMOs, and sometimes players come up with something new. While there are missions that equate to quests, and incursions that are similar to raids, a lot of the actual content, particularly in null sec, is player generated. When you look at events in Eve, you are often told stories of epic battles where thousands of players engage in far flung battles that stretch across systems and sectors of space. Tales of titans using their doomsday weapons and supercarriers launching waves of fighter bombers are common in the large scale history of player interaction in Eve. Sometimes, though, small events carry as much interest as the galaxy spanning sov warfare. Such was the case for the attack of the pods.

The basis of the attack stems from the fact that each player in Eve actually flies his or her ship from within a pod. These pods are tied to the ship until the ship is destroyed, and the capsuleer gets ejected in their pod to flee for safety. Typically, in the course of battle, the destruction of a ship is the only time you will see pods on the field, as a player is not really safe in a capsule – they have very little in the way of shields, armor, or hull, and they have no weapons. So why, then, would a fleet of 20 pods assault a station?

The fleet actually started as a frigate roam through null sec heading in the direction of the home station of our current enemies. I flew out with my alliancemates looking for trouble, but the ‘bad guys of the month’ were not interested. They were happy playing station games and basically ignoring us – even though they had over twice as many players logged into the system as the fleet I was in. So the fleet flew around from gate to gate, gate to station, planet to station, etc and generally had more fun chatting on comms that we were having in game. Until someone came up with the idea of the pod attack.

I don’t remember who mentioned it first, but the idea was that if we couldn’t get a response from twice our number in simple frigates, maybe they would come out to shoot us if we showed up without weapons at all – in our pods. So the plan was hashed – we would all find a safe spot, eject our pod from our ships, and then, on queue, warp to the station. There was no way we would not get a response – at least one brave soul would undock and shoot at a bunch of defenseless pods wouldn’t they? But you know what happened…

We flew to the station in our pods and spammed local with insults trying to draw out the enemy. We flew in circles around the station, we bumped into the station, and we formed a conga line around the station. And there was not one brave soul who came out to play with us. We had a lot of fun – everyone was laughing and a little giddy on comms, but the enemy was again a no show. Sadly, after about 10 minutes, we warped back to our ships – it was fun hearing the surprised comments when people got back in a different ship than they started with (not able to use t2 weapons or such), but our fleet was done. We headed back home without a fight.

Those of us who were there will always remember the attack of the pods. It may not be the high point of any war and songs will not be sung about it, but it was sure an enjoyable addition to the player generated content of Eve.