For those of you who don’t know, Warp-To-Zero was not always a thing in Eve. It used to be that the closest you could warp to things was 15km.
Then people figured out how to create a bookmark ‘past’ or ‘beyond’ a gateway or station, and warp to that bookmark and ‘land on’ the station or gate, an ‘insta.’ Instas for stations are still made in some places.
This lead to people creating bookmarks and selling them. Corporations and alliances would create large portfolios of bookmarks and give them to their members. Which meant a lot of copying, and the way that bookmarks were copied and maintained back then, it was causing huge problems for CCP’s servers.
I’m sad to say, I’m one of the people who advocated for “Warp-To-Zero” back in the day, if the old forums were around, my post would be there.
So, CCP deleted all the book marks with-in 100km of a gate (and maybe of stations?) and gave the players “Warp-To-Zero!” Which seemed like a great idea at the time.
By allowing everyone to instantly get from gate to gate, it made travel so much easier, and (as I’ve mentioned in other posts) all the low-sec pirates dried up.
There used to be pirates in low-sec that would ransom you. They had reputations. You would get warp-scrambled and webbed, and they’d give you a certain amount of time to pay them or be destroyed. You could get on your corp chat, be it a newbie-corp or player-corp, and ask, “Can I trust this [Pirate]?” and people would tell you, “Yeah, you can pay him.” or “No, don’t pay that one, they’ll blow you up no matter what.” or “I don’t know.” - They had reputations, and there were player-pirates that prided themselves on their reputations.
With warp to zero, now low-sec was much safer. You had to catch ships coming out of a gate, instead of approaching it. Things got more difficult for the pirates, and the hunters in general. That 15km to the gate forced a fight. Now you had to be fast on the lock, and fast moving, to have a chance.
CCP added in warp disruption bubbles, which helped in null-sec, but this left low-sec still a land for people with quick reflexes. Character skills were important to get the fast lock, but you also had to have fast fingers for your keyboard and mouse.
It wasn’t just the gates though, players were and are able to warp to stations at zero as well. This changed things for the miners. In the old days, if you were mining, and nuets or hostiles showed up in system, you couldn’t warp to a station and dock up or tether, because you’d only get 15km away and they could still attack you. Of course the stations in high-sec and low-sec had guns, in null-sec not so much.
While those 15km were inconvenient, in a lot of way… It created a battle-zone outside of every gate, every station. If you wanted to travel, you had to cover that 15km at each gate. Travelling was more difficult in many ways. But, this created a more vibrant, and alive community. Because, if you were going to travel, you traveled in groups… Or you really faced the consequences.
Sure, sure, travelling alone you can still get caught and die… recently I lost over 700 mil travelling alone, without a scout, because I was tired (it was ‘one last trip before bed’) and lazy (I didn’t use an interceptor to travel in), and apathetic (‘If I lose it, I really don’t care [that much]’). Losing that ship hurt my pride more than anything else, and I got over it in a couple of days.
There used to be gate camps all over the place, because if you traveled, you had to cross that 15km. Oh sure, you could fly an interceptor and burn for the gate… and, you’d make it, most of the time.
I have a strong feeling that if CCP made it so you couldn’t ‘land’ any closer than 15km from anything, with or without bookmarks… not only would the Eve community freak out, and have a fit over it, but that after the chaos, and the un-subs which CCP can’t afford, the game would be better for it. The people who played would ultimately enjoy it more… and, if it were able to survive all the un-subs, it would probably attract more players and be a larger stronger community for it. - But, I doubt CCP could survive the un-subs from such an action, so I’m not advising it. Though, I do miss it.
I don’t think ships would be as cheap as they are, ISK would be deflate as it is, etc. If the game had kept and forced the 15km warp-to range as the closest a ship could get. I believe the ransom-pirates would have remained. High-sec gankers might not have become as big of a thing as they are, and Eve would be more fun. Sure, sure, you reading this might think, “It’d be less fun if it took me longer to get around.” - But imagine all the content.
Yeah, freighter pilots would need escorts. The costs of everything would go up. But… if a ship costs more, then you’d get paid more for selling it wouldn’t you? The risk would be higher, but so would the rewards.
Below is an example of some low-sec pirates ransoming a guy:
(Video is at 14:40)
So, not only could you ask in corp, but there was a channel dedicated to it (no surprise really…)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/6o4gfg/join_channel_ransom_for_pirates/
Here’s a discussion about piracy being dead…
And more reading materials:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1rn523/how_to_ransom_successfully/
Do a search for the word, “Pirate” and/or “Ransom” in here:
http://www.eve-academy.eu/kainscionofbalance/JobGuide.html
The Eve Compendium v1.5
[Eve Online] Guide to Piracy 2.1
Another pirate hunter like me (when there were pirates to hunt)!
These are videos of me auto-piloting through low-sec on the day of this post.
THESE VIDEOS ARE BORING: I RECOMMEND SKIPPING AHEAD.
Pirates in low-sec means pirate hunters in low-sec, means content!
