I get that a good chunk of the items in the game are fictional, not something like water which exists in real life. But even for something fictional, I can at least tell what it is. Take the enduring warp scrambler. “Enduring” means it is a meta module, “Warp” is describing an attribute of the target and “Scrambler” means to rearrange in a random pattern or interfere. So it makes sense that it can prevent a target from making warps or using their microwarpdrive. If you take synthetic oil and supercondcutors, what do you get? Oiled super conductors? Room temperature super conductors? Super conductors with big tensile strength? You get Ukomi Superconductors, whatever that means. So what does Ukomi mean? Maybe Ukomi is just a Japanese word… but if it is, doesn’t it have to mean something?
Ukomi is translated to uchikomi in japanese
idk about Ukomi but in martial arts Ukemi is learning to roll and fall safely.
Ukomi is a caldari corp IIRC. I guess they have really good patent lawyers or something.
Oh I see. I guess that makes sense
Just an interpretation, not based on official CCP lore, other than the fact that they were developed by Kaalakiota.
Taking my limited knowledge of napanii,
“uko” is a pronoun meaning yours
“mik” is the root verb to go
“i” is a suffix denoting an infinitive verb
One could argue that the infinitive verb would be “miki,” but the Caldari desire for efficiency abides, and dropping the -k to leave the infinitive “mi” might be a marketing choice KK were willing to make.
Based on these assumptions, “ukomi” might be a literal phrase like “yours to go” or something equally clumsy. In marketing the subject of the sentence is also sometimes defaulted to the viewer or reader, so the word/phrase might have a more open interpretation, such as “(take it back) to yours” or “to go (with) yours”.
Sounds to me like KK are trying to suggest these superconductors are already a part of your life, a nigh-natural occurence, something that’s always with you, pervasive.
Think of Ukomi like a product line brand name from a known Caldari company. Maybe the first part of the name is not descriptive but neither are the real world examples below.
Did you take a look at the ingame description?
In-game description: “Highly isolated coils with minimal friction, used in high-voltage electrical devices. The Ukomi Superconductors are a new brand developed and manufactured by the Kaalakiota corporation. Today every Caldari station has a stockpile of these highly rated Super Conductors, which are in quite high demand in most foreign black markets due to their superior technology.”
| Company | Country/Culture | Unique Brand Name | Name Origin / Meaning | Similarity to Ukomi/Kaalakiota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furukawa Electric | Japan | SuperPower® | Acquired subsidiary name; evokes ultimate energy/strength | Historic zaibatsu-style megacorp branding a breakthrough HTS wire line, like Kaalakiota’s invented superconductor sub-brand |
| Fujikura Ltd. | Japan | N/A | N/A | Family-named industrial giant with superconductor R&D, Caldari-like but no distinct coined sub-brand |
| Sumitomo Electric Industries | Japan | DI-BSCCO™ | “Dramatically Innovative BSCCO” (bismuth-based superconductor acronym) | Zaibatsu megacorp (Kaalakiota analog) with a strange, invented acronym for HTS cables, perfect Ukomi parallel |
| LS Cable & System | South Korea | Amperium® | N/A | Chaebol-style cable firm scaling HTS, like a Caldari entity but without a unique sub-brand |
| TSMC | Taiwan | N/A | N/A | Chip dominance megacorp, visionary founder (Morris Chang) inspires, but no coined product brands—more technical designations |
| Toyota | Japan | Mirai | Japanese for “future” | Keiretsu megacorp (household name like Kaalakiota) branding advanced eco-line, but has inherent meaning unlike opaque Ukomi |
| Toyota | Japan | Prius | Latin “prior” (ahead of its time) | Breakthrough hybrid sub-brand from big corp |
| Mitsubishi | Japan | Ralliart | Blend of “rally” + “art” (motorsport mastery) | Zaibatsu conglomerate with a unique rally-tuned sub-brand, somewhat like Ukomi but tied to real words |
| Samsung | South Korea | Exynos or Galaxy | Blend of Greek “exypnos” (smart) + “prasinos” (green) | Strange, made-up processor sub-brand from huge chaebol corp, pure Ukomi-style opacity |
| Hyundai | South Korea | Ioniq | Portmanteau “ion” (charged particle) + “unique” | Chaebol auto/tech giant with invented EV sub-brand, close to Ukomi’s coined tech feel |
| LG | South Korea | ThinQ | Twist on “think” + “Q” (quality/IQ) | Chaebol electronics powerhouse with strange AI sub-brand, layered on parent like Kaalakiota/Ukomi |
| Sony | Japan | BRAVIA | Backronym “Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture” | Iconic keiretsu megacorp with invented TV sub-brand, techy and opaque like Ukomi |
These real-world examples (especially DI-BSCCO™, Exynos, ThinQ, and BRAVIA) show how massive Asian megacorps create fully invented, non-descriptive sub-brands for cutting-edge tech lines—just like Kaalakiota did with Ukomi for their superior superconductors. It’s pure corporate branding flavor!
And just like in PI where generic Superconductors + Synthetic Oil get refined and combined into the premium Tier 3 Ukomi Superconductors… the highly rated ones stockpiled in every Caldari station and smuggled on foreign black markets because of their superior technology… real-world megacorps take standard raw materials and add their “secret sauce” to create exclusive, branded versions that everyone specifically wants.
NVIDIA doesn’t just make “chips” they turn generic silicon wafers into GeForce RTX GPUs with proprietary Tensor Cores and CUDA Cores. Gamers say “I need an RTX 4090”, not “any DirectX 12 GPU”, because the RTX branding = top-tier performance and ecosystem. In superconductors, Sumitomo takes basic bismuth-based tape and adds their proprietary innovations to make DI-BSCCO™ … engineers specify DI-BSCCO when they want the premium Japanese quality. Same with Furukawa’s SuperPower® wires, which promise higher critical current than generic HTS tape.
In EVE terms: You don’t just need “superconductors” for your PI chain — you want Ukomi Superconductors because Kaalakiota adds their secret sauce (that Synthetic Oil refinement + proprietary process) and brands it as the superior Caldari gold standard.