Home in the stars

Lukas Rox Blog Banter, EVE Online, Games , , ,

This post is a reply to Blog Banter 39: Home

Welcome to the 39th Blog Banter – the community discussion that stretches across the many communities of EVE Online through the use of arcane bloggery. The conversation is open to all and readers are encouraged to visit all of the entries that will be listed below as the discussion progresses. Be sure to leave your thoughts there when you do.

For enquiring minds who would like to know more about the Blog Banters, check out this short explanation or read this overview of the subjects covered in the last year.

After a some heavy topics in the last few editions, this time we’ll be taking a more relaxed trip through the thoughts of the blogosphere. The origins of this month’s concept come from a suggestion from EON Magazine editor Richie “Zapatero” Shoemaker.

“Some say a man’s home is his castle. For others it is wherever they lay their hat. The concept is just as nebulous in the New Eden sandbox. 

In EVE Online, what does the concept of “home” mean to you?”

The definitions of home

Many players will reply that they consider home their current base of operations, be it a system or region. In that sense I’ve had several homes in my EVE career. At times when I was in null, “home” was just a POS: a large  Tower with several other structures floating nearby. When my alliance had been pushed from our space, home has become nothing more than just a hangar, in a station, somewhere in low or high security space.

IRL people will call home the place where the loved ones are. In EVE you can find good friends of course, but it usually gets down to a common base of operations.

But over the years I have accumulated a sizable amount of ships: I tried to get at least one of every ship I can fly, including tech I through III and pirate variants as well. It would be stupid waste of time to haul it everywhere I go, so they stay safely docked in one of the stations in Gallente space. I could say this is my true home in EVE now: the place where my ship hangar count is in hundreds (until Inferno and its awesome features I had absolutely no idea how much they are actually worth).

But I would like something more

So we have two definitions now. To be honest, I’m not happy with either one, because neither of these places which I mentioned is really yours; only the assets are. I would like something more: a real home in EVE. A station perhaps, or a small hangar array, something I own, something more personal.  I could have anchored a POS, but POSs burn fuel. It’s a waste of ISK if the POS does not do anything more than storing ships and assets. Space would also quickly get crowded, if everyone could put their space house anywhere.

EVE lore also states, that ships made of Tritanium are not fitted for atmospheric flight, because Trit quickly destabilizes in higher temperatures. So player owned “home” should be either in space (there is plenty of room in empty space, you know), or… on the surface of moons. Majority of these large space rocks don’t have an atmosphere, plus they are pretty easy to find in space. It would also be very cool to undock from an underground hangar (your own hangar!) straight into space.

The idea I have outlined above raises plenty of questions:

  1. Should this home be destructible?
  2. Could someone just hack the door and rob my hosue of ships and goodies
  3. Could it be placed anywhere, or just in high sec?
    (it would be pretty annoying in null, because when someone jumped into your system you could simply dock in your “space home”.)
  4. How would I call my neighbor players on the same moon? space homies?
  5. How much cargo space should it have?
  6. How much should it cost?
  7. Should it be a one time expense or some kind of monthly fee (like rent or fuel, for example Starbase Charters in high sec)?

While I think about it, it would be even better than working “walking in stations”.

What about walking in stations?

Establishments in fully working Incarna environment could also be considered our own home in EVE. Unfortunately since CCP is busy with launching DUST 514, I really doubt we’ll get functional walking in stations before 2014. And even then, customizable or not, Captains Quarters are not yours. They are more like a hotel room, a property of the station’s owner.

I’d really like that underground hangar 😀

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