HERO is currently engaged in a gigantic fight in HED-GP versus Pandemic Legion, with Black Legion, Provi and many other alliances in assistance.

http://www.twitch.tv/themittanidotcom

Kite Co is currently on field. Updates coming.

10:58pm PST NCDot has brought approximately 15 Aeons to join the fight, not sure what side they're on. Local currently has 1626 co-current players in this system.

11:03pm PST NCDot assisting Pandemic Legion.

11:30pm PST Black Legion Erebus titans have left the field. BL supers still on field.

11:54pm PST Black Legion supers are leaving the battle.

12:01pm PST Brave caps are all off field. Hero starting to stand down.

Fleets in Action

Preliminary Battle Report

https://zkillboard.com/related/30001161/201412050600/

Note, this will take quite a while before it's accurate.

PL Losses

- 1 Ragnarok Titan

- Many smaller ships

Best guess ISK loss (from Battle Report + Titan) - 140,219,243,208.08 ISK ($2465.75 USD)

HERO Losses

- Many caps, unknown numbers

Best guess ISK loss (from Battle Report) - 66,273,741,048.93 ISK ($1165.42 USD)

ISK Totals from approximately 11pm PST.

AHHHHHHHH EVE IS REAL!!!!!

My screen is so bright

I go and do dishes and this is what I miss. Worst luck ever.

Doing dishes for 3 months?

I feel bad for supporting Provi and not really caring much for HERO.

@marokai: U WOT MATE

@avaren: I know, I know. SORRY.

Kite Co make me proud.

A shot from the fight, I'm the tiny ship in the middle. The horde back there is a mass of Titans everywhere.

@marokai: Eh, as long as you guys are warping in and helping kill PL supers ATM, we really don't care.

Holy shit guys, this is amazing.

HERO is popping capitals like they're tictacs. Hard to see our losses while in the fight.

No idea what I am looking at. I am super interested into doing the occasional spectating of huge events but I am so lost when it comes to EVE.

Does this game still do that thing I once read about, where when shit is popping off, time slows down to a crawl and everything plays out in slow motion?

Go Go Kite Co!

I'm not going to pretend I know what is going on in those screenshots.

Yup, we're crawling through it right now.

@sadisticwolf: I've been watching the twitch stream linked in the OP for 15 mins and I don't understand any of the words, nor the pictures. I think I need an EVE-watching coach!

There are a bunch of railroad spikes suspended in a bunch of bubbles, I think. And people are talking about some sort of Ragnarok and I only know that as a Thor/Norse reference. I am very out of my depth here, you guys.

@whitegreyblack: Bubble Spikes are the first sign of Ragnarok. Everything you've heard contrary is a lie. Because what gods would allow bubble spikes to exist?

Also this is awesome. Looking forward to seeing the after-action stuff about what happened overall.

@capum15 said:

I knewI was on the right track. Shit, this EVE stuff is EASY.

How long do you think this event will last? Hours? Days?

It's starting to wind down now. When HERO didn't have any caps or supers on field, it was basically done.

There'll probably be an hour or two of mop up, but it's wrapping up.

I always wonder, when it comes to EVE, whether it is even possible to dumb down an explanation enough for a total layman like me of an event like this, without losing all the zest and nuance necessary to keep it interesting?

I mean it definitely can be boiled down to a pretty good sci-fi battle write-up. At that point, though, it arguably loses the spark that separates EVE from other games. The personal investment you have into what's going on makes your blood pump the entire time you're in a 6+ hour fight. The whole time you're there it's your stuff on the line and you're righting for survival. It's a pure, visceral feeling.

@whitegreyblack: It is. A lot of these large capital fights come down to whether or not someone can out escalate your commitment of ships. That's true of these sprawling capital battles as it is of small groups of dudes in frigates. In this case our allies called in everyone who was willing to listen and appeared to have gained the critical mass of ships needed to possibly kill every supercapital ship PL had on field. However before we could kill the heavy, we had to kill the medics, so the allied fleet began to chew through PL's carrier repair ships in order to begin killing the supercapitals (which were supply PL's damage). As we began to plow through the 30-40 carriers (or slowcats as their better known in EVE), PL's allies, Northern Coalitiondot showed up in their own supercapital force. At that point the allied fleets were not going to be able to win and so allied supercapital begin to extract from the fight. In heavy time dilation, weird things happen, and so the allies were able to kill a few more carriers and a pair of dreadnaughts before PL's weight could be brought to bare. Op Success.

Um... someone just dropped the n-word on that twitch stream. That might be enough EVE for me, right now. Too hot for TV.

I think there's definitely a way to write it without major EVE terms. Mid-fight it's tough, but if you explain some basic things, you're good. The hardest thing is the ship classes, but there's decent equivalents to actual naval ships.

As far as I know, the basic explanation is that Pandemic Legion had an earlier fight with HERO and brought in capital ships (basically like Aircraft Carriers and other large ships) to support that fight. HERO won that earlier fight and tackled those capital ships, removing their ability to leave the system. After calling in Black Legion allies, HERO held that tackle for hours. Black Legion showed up, then Pandemic jumped in Titans and huge fleets of capitals and supercapitals (If a capital is an aircraft carrier, a super is the SHIELD Heli-Carrier), teleporting them directly to the fight.

@sadisticwolf: I am pretty sure I understood all of that! Thanks. Appreciated.

Yeah, not cool. Was not expecting that, nor for them to keep him around. The guy is Grath from Pandemic Legion, dude's kept going since that. They need to kick him off.

What are these "mollusks" (mollusks? Maulus?) the twitch guy was saying the new players were in, and being tossed into the fray and causing havoc with the flow of the fight? I did not understand what the term was or how it affected the battle.

They are electronic warfare ships. They jam the enemies systems to prevent them from locking on to targets.

I really appreciate you folks explaining this stuff to me. I find it fascinating. I hope I have not hijacked the thread completely.

New players were being put into debuffing ships to act as force multipliers for more experienced players. That way a new player can contribute just as much as an older player, just in a different way.