Returning to EVE Online with a Bang
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2025 9:44 am
It's been years since I seriously played EVE Online, at all. So long, that the systems have changed to the point where you can't even train skills on an old character, unless you pay monthly. Which, for the longest time, turned me off. But, when it comes to space MMOs, and space games in-general, that are actually alive, and actively being worked on ... EVE is the only game. You know, aside from its Frontier counterpart that's not developed enough to consider an actual game just yet.
Why EVE Online is the only consistently updated massively multiplayer space game is a question for another discussion about the industry and sci-fi concepts overall, but I wanted to specifically write about my return to EVE. A return that is both eerily silent, and with a few explosions.
You see, back in the old days of 2010 and 2011, I was an AFK station spinner. I mostly logged on to chat with corporation members and watch the numbers go up. That was, until one of them perceived a slight from one of my messages and booted me.
This prompted me to create my own corporation, that still stands today, named, "Belligerent Underpaid Tactical Team," or B.U.T.T., for short.
I didn't stay there, though. This corporation became a buffer between my play states. If I was going to be away for a while, or a long time, I put myself back in the BUTT.
I've participated in many things. Things I don't even remember the name of, like this player "event" where we all flew around in Thrashers ganking as many people as we could in high sec. If I recall, this only lasted a few hours, and was done for a couple of days, but I got a few kills.
I was also a part of the Pandemic Horde for most of 2016, and this, coincidentally, is what guided my first actions upon returning to EVE. You know, aside from subscribing and setting up a skill queue, since I am, afer-all, a 47.6 million skillpoint holder who hasn't been in the game for eight years. At that point, there isn't much you can train on a free account, unless you want pointless stuff that'll never benefit you.
But I noticed that, in my notifications, I had numerous warnings that assets I had stored away in nullsec, were moved to a "safe" place in lowsec. About 200 or so million ISK worth of assets.
These must've been things I used during my time with the Pandemic.
Suffice to say, I currently live in Friggi over in the high security systems, and retrieving these things would be relatively simple, aside from a few low security systems I would need to jump through in order to get my stuff out of cold storage.
Unfortunately, they were being held in multiple systems, and all of them were over 30 jumps away. But, that wasn't going to stop me, so I hopped into the smallest, cheapest ship I still had, fit with shield boosters, webifiers, and some guns, and I started off.
Everything was pretty smooth, until I entered the second to last system, and got blown to pieces.
Thankfully, I anticipated that this would happen, unlike the time 8 years ago where I was transferring 2 billion ISK worth of assets around highsec, and got blown to shit.
Before my ship popped, though, I managed to get some damage out, and almost ate through half of this guy's armor. But, as you can also see, this was two people. I'm almost certain I would've survived if it would've been just Kronqubot (which, I'm really hoping wasn't an actual bot, and just one guy dualing two accounts).
Since I've been through this before, I easily got away in my pod, hopped into station, setup a contract for my items to be delivered for me, because no way am I hauling expensive things on my own.
Haha!
No.
And then I hopped into a Merlin and began my trek to the next system.
You see, when you're flying around lowsec, and you aren't interested in doing any combat, you should at least get into a ship that you can use as a shield.
And what I thought would happen, did.
I do hope she at least enjoyed the spoils of my 32,000 ISK equivalent ship and single piece of tritanium.
But I eventually arrived at the next station, and contracted my things out.
Then I returned home and bought an extremely expensive Cruiser.
The Stormbringer.
Do I plan to use this to hunt down pirates?
I don't know.
What I do know, is, just about every single person I knew in-game 8 years ago and beyond is gone. I'm not even sure the Pandemic Horde is active anymore, and I think the GOONS were finally run out of nullsec. So, where do I go? What corporation do I join?
Do I sit in highsec, as a pilot who can nearly jump into a Doomsday ship, and mine ore? Do a few missions?
We'll see.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/gaming/2025/07/22/eve-returnal/
Why EVE Online is the only consistently updated massively multiplayer space game is a question for another discussion about the industry and sci-fi concepts overall, but I wanted to specifically write about my return to EVE. A return that is both eerily silent, and with a few explosions.
You see, back in the old days of 2010 and 2011, I was an AFK station spinner. I mostly logged on to chat with corporation members and watch the numbers go up. That was, until one of them perceived a slight from one of my messages and booted me.
This prompted me to create my own corporation, that still stands today, named, "Belligerent Underpaid Tactical Team," or B.U.T.T., for short.
I didn't stay there, though. This corporation became a buffer between my play states. If I was going to be away for a while, or a long time, I put myself back in the BUTT.
I've participated in many things. Things I don't even remember the name of, like this player "event" where we all flew around in Thrashers ganking as many people as we could in high sec. If I recall, this only lasted a few hours, and was done for a couple of days, but I got a few kills.
I was also a part of the Pandemic Horde for most of 2016, and this, coincidentally, is what guided my first actions upon returning to EVE. You know, aside from subscribing and setting up a skill queue, since I am, afer-all, a 47.6 million skillpoint holder who hasn't been in the game for eight years. At that point, there isn't much you can train on a free account, unless you want pointless stuff that'll never benefit you.
But I noticed that, in my notifications, I had numerous warnings that assets I had stored away in nullsec, were moved to a "safe" place in lowsec. About 200 or so million ISK worth of assets.
These must've been things I used during my time with the Pandemic.
Suffice to say, I currently live in Friggi over in the high security systems, and retrieving these things would be relatively simple, aside from a few low security systems I would need to jump through in order to get my stuff out of cold storage.
Unfortunately, they were being held in multiple systems, and all of them were over 30 jumps away. But, that wasn't going to stop me, so I hopped into the smallest, cheapest ship I still had, fit with shield boosters, webifiers, and some guns, and I started off.
Everything was pretty smooth, until I entered the second to last system, and got blown to pieces.
Thankfully, I anticipated that this would happen, unlike the time 8 years ago where I was transferring 2 billion ISK worth of assets around highsec, and got blown to shit.
Before my ship popped, though, I managed to get some damage out, and almost ate through half of this guy's armor. But, as you can also see, this was two people. I'm almost certain I would've survived if it would've been just Kronqubot (which, I'm really hoping wasn't an actual bot, and just one guy dualing two accounts).
Since I've been through this before, I easily got away in my pod, hopped into station, setup a contract for my items to be delivered for me, because no way am I hauling expensive things on my own.
Haha!
No.
And then I hopped into a Merlin and began my trek to the next system.
You see, when you're flying around lowsec, and you aren't interested in doing any combat, you should at least get into a ship that you can use as a shield.
And what I thought would happen, did.
I do hope she at least enjoyed the spoils of my 32,000 ISK equivalent ship and single piece of tritanium.
But I eventually arrived at the next station, and contracted my things out.
Then I returned home and bought an extremely expensive Cruiser.
The Stormbringer.
Do I plan to use this to hunt down pirates?
I don't know.
What I do know, is, just about every single person I knew in-game 8 years ago and beyond is gone. I'm not even sure the Pandemic Horde is active anymore, and I think the GOONS were finally run out of nullsec. So, where do I go? What corporation do I join?
Do I sit in highsec, as a pilot who can nearly jump into a Doomsday ship, and mine ore? Do a few missions?
We'll see.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/gaming/2025/07/22/eve-returnal/