As we all know, the Triglavian Collective has been invading high-security space in recent months, and following the most recent patch, they have expanded their invasion front further to include low-sec. However, low-sec areas are not the only place the invasion is progressing, despite what we all may have expected. This week, the Triglavians have brought the Era of Chaos to a new player career agent system.
The Essence system of Couster, where many Gallente new players head to do their career agent missions, is currently the center of a Triglavian Invasion. You read that right, new players taking their first step into the game are being hell-camped by the Triglavian Collective.
There is not much that a new player can do against these Triglavians, especially in the ships the career agents give as rewards.
What this means for the bright-eyed bushy-tailed new players is that their undock is a glorious scene of explosions, probably theirs, as continuously-spawning Triglavian gangs appear every few minutes to kill any unsuspecting pilots.
While there is an insta-warp out of Couster station to Planet VII, this does not help you much as the Trigs are also at the planets, and roaming around the system as well as lurking on the gate.
Rhivre intrepidly set out in a Nereus from Couster Station and the results of leaving the undock can be seen below:
For new players, there is not much that they can do while the invasion is in the system. There are other Gallente career agents in Clellinon (10 jumps from Couster) and Trossere (9 jumps from Couster), so if you really want to run the agents you might want to relocate. It does not matter which location you complete the career agents at, they are all the same. The Triglavians do not pod you, so if you leave your ship and head over to another agent you will be fine.
If you do not want to move, then the invasion will likely last for upwards of five days, unless CCP take action to remove the Invasion themselves, and we sincerely hope CCP will step in to address this massive oversight.
Unfortunately for now, Rookie Help, Local, and the Invasion channel will continue to fill with frustrated new players who are losing their entire worldly possessions on the undock and while running missions.
Drifter Onslaught—What We Know, What We Think, What We’ve Heard
Drifter Invasion: Nullsec Response
The End of New Eden As We Know It?
Bill Bones
3 years later, CCP Noproblem shows stats on how players who are blown by NPCs right as they start the game are more likely to stay in the game…
September 23, 2019 at 11:07 pmShaun Rowland
I’m a brand new player who was in Couster. Around my second day playing, I learned about Triglavians because I kept getting killed by them when mining in systems not far away. Shortly after that, I log in to a Triglavian invasion notice. I barely made it out to Trossere after figuring out there were career agents there as well. Actually, I moved somewhere else first, then learned that I should have moved to Trossere and ended up moving twice.
Obviously I’m new, so my perspective will be from a new player only. Massive oversight is a massive understatement. I’m very late into Eve, but I’m loving it. After reading various things about the state of Eve in 2019, I’m concerned about player retention because I want to play this game. This is not the new user experience that retains players. CCP should step in and do something about it. I’m guessing there is no chance that’s going to happen. If I have to deal with this again in Trossere before I’ve finished my career agent missions, that might be it for me. Probably not, but I’ll at least consider leaving. I would definitely understand new players leaving after having experienced this. If this is planned or intentional, it has to be one of the dumbest game play design decisions one could make. None of the normal players in these areas would last more than a few seconds in battle with Triglavians. I barely made it out with the ships I had acquired at that point. There is no way new players in these areas are remotely prepared for a Triglavian invasion. I would have been completely clueless about what was going on and acted even more slowly as things worsened had I not been killed by Triglavians mining and looked more into what they are.
The only plus is that I’ve more quickly learned about the game. I even found this site sooner than I probably would have otherwise. At the same time, I’ve observed yet another example of how not to do things in a game. CCP is lucky that I probably like this game more than most people would at this point. That will only go so far though.
I hardly ever leave comments on stuff like this. That’s how annoyed I am.
September 24, 2019 at 12:12 amIchinumi Tsukaya Shaun Rowland
but to be honest those are huge plusses.
also biomass gallente reroll caldari 😀
September 24, 2019 at 12:25 amShaun Rowland Ichinumi Tsukaya
Maybe to me because of how I am and my exact circumstances, but this is not a good way to get those pluses. Getting anything positive out of that experience is unlikely for most people.
September 24, 2019 at 12:36 amIchinumi Tsukaya Shaun Rowland
maybe- hard to tell without data and some studies on reactions and new player behaviour. but stumbling upon this website is a huge plus alone let me assure you. hey quick question now if it was a player instead of an NPC blowing you up how do you think you would have reacted, what would you have done differently?
September 24, 2019 at 12:43 amShaun Rowland Ichinumi Tsukaya
When killed during mining, I thought it was a player at first. But NPC or player, that’s fine. I went out and mined again. I paid more attention, which is obvious, but we’re talking brand new player who is learning a lot of stuff at once, including what the ship types are, how to effectively use the scanner, what NPCs I can easily take out and… well, mining in the first place. That part didn’t bother me. I ventured out six jumps away. Still high-sec, but not quite as high. But the idea that a Triglavian invasion in what is essentially a newbie “zone” where people are doing initial career agent missions makes sense seems like an extremely dumb idea.
September 24, 2019 at 12:53 amShaun Rowland Ichinumi Tsukaya
Maybe I didn’t answer fully. From what I understand, there is a pretty serious security consequence for PvP in such a high-sec area. There is some idea of balance. One can debate that perhaps. I am not in a position to do so. My quick view is it seems fine. If I were in a newbie area like that and faced constantly being destroyed in something like 10 seconds when venturing out to do anything, yeah… that would be a dumb game design as well. I doubt anyone would play long in that sort of environment. Don’t get me wrong. I have no issues with PvP. It’s about balance. This event is not balanced at all given what I understand is the normal player base in the career agent areas. Again, I’m a new player, and that’s what I see.
September 24, 2019 at 1:03 amIchinumi Tsukaya Shaun Rowland
sure but just reroll caldari and enjoy superior lifestyle in the glorious Caldari state 😀 triglavians doing u a massive favor
September 24, 2019 at 7:31 amShaun Rowland Ichinumi Tsukaya
Ha! I’ll consider that for a second character maybe. 🙂
September 24, 2019 at 7:58 amLibluini Shaun Rowland
And then the next Trig invasion will be in Caldari space. 🙂
September 25, 2019 at 3:33 pmArrendis Shaun Rowland
From what I understand, there is a pretty serious security consequence for PvP in such a high-sec area.
School and Career Agent systems are off-limits to non-consensual PvP (ie: non-dueling) People might even get banned for it.
But yeah, Trigs in rookie systems is probably a big ‘we totally didn’t think of that…’
September 24, 2019 at 2:44 pmRhivre Shaun Rowland
I am pleased you made it to Trossere. I saw a lot of frustrated new players when I was in Couster last night.
I barely made it out of the undock in my Nereus (as you can see in the picture), and I sort of know what I am doing in space.
I do not think you will run into them again in Trossere, it would be incredibly unlucky for them to be in 2 Rookie Career Agent systems at the same time.
Personally I do not think they should spawn in the Rookie systems as the main effect of that is a pile of frigates and industrials on the undock, and new players logging off for a few days. Unless they manage to find out that there are other Career Agents and feel like running them again from scratch.
September 24, 2019 at 5:43 amScott Wilson
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuu man, they weren’t kidding. This game IS hard. Wow. No wonder they talk crap about how hard this game is.”
September 24, 2019 at 12:29 amScott Wilson
Eh, they would have lived if they were shield supers.
September 24, 2019 at 12:33 amGanthrithor
IDK who in CCP are in charge of these AI experiments, but at a fundamental level the notion of NPCs floating around space that spontaneously appear on top of you for no apparent reason and blow you up with zero counter play is just fucking dumb and frustrating.
Not related to the Trig stuff, I know, but after writing a bit about EVE PvE in past eras, I decided the other night to see how belt ratting felt in 2019 just as a comparison to the kinds of PvE I’m used to (anom-running in carriers, Rorqual mining). I built an Abaddon and warped it to the nearest asteroid belt I could find. On landing, I saw that there was literally ~*nothing*~ in the belt– just a warpin beacon. No rocks, no ships, nothing. After a few seconds sitting there wondering WTF, some NPC mining barges warped in next to me. I thought that was strange given that there were no rocks, but as that thought occurred to me the barges turned and warped off. Floating alone in space again, I decided maybe belts weren’t really a thing anymore and flipped open a browser tab to look up combat anomalies and see if there were any that looked solo-able in a conventional gunboat battleship.
A moment after looking away at my browser, I see like fifteen hostile NPCs warp in right on top of me, several of them scram me, and they begin to obliterate my ship. I try to kill the tackling frigates with drones, but the NPC gang have three or four frigate tacklers all of whom are being repped by logistics cruisers while cruiser and battleship NPCs beat me to a pulp. I overheat every tanking module I have and ended up tanking for a solid minute or two, but with guns that have zero chance of hitting frigates and my paltry light and medium drone damage easily being tanked by the logi reps, there’s no way to escape. My ship explodes.
I just have to wonder: how is this meant to be a positive experience for players? I’ve been playing EVE for years, so I’m accustomed to losing ships from time to time (although I try to avoid it), but this loss got under my skin moreso than any PvP loss I’ve ever encountered: it felt like I’d been robbed– no enemy players in local, zero warning, just suddenly an entire gang appears on top of you and blows you out of the sky and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
When you lose a ship to players, it’s usually because you did something stupid or lazy and there’s typically some kind of relevant lesson to be learned from your loss. When you undock and get randomly zapped by NPCs you didn’t even know where there, it just feels like the game is punishing you for logging in. If I’d jumped a brawling battleship into a gatecamp and lost the fight, I wouldn’t have felt bad. If I’d warped my Marauder into a 10/10 with an experimental fit and been blown to bits, I wouldn’t have felt bad. But having a massive gang of africanized rats appear in a puff of smoke to assassinate you in an empty asteroid belt for no apparent reason doesn’t make the game feel hard, it just makes it feel like a stupid waste of time.
September 24, 2019 at 3:49 amBill Bones Ganthrithor
My spider sense feel that CCP’s answer to your experiecne would be:
“why where you playing alone? Nothing would had happen if you had a
friend/alt to assist you!”
Which is dumb but then it’s CCP what we’re talking here.
September 24, 2019 at 8:07 amGanthrithor Bill Bones
Don’t diamond rats dynamically escalate their response fleets based on the type and quantity of ships you bring to fight them? So bringing friends would be counter-productive?
See above post: I thought belts were supposed to be the lowest of low-end PvE content in nullsec in the modern meta, so I’m not sure why they’ve got the scariest NPC spawns. It doesn’t make any sense.
September 25, 2019 at 4:23 amArrendis Ganthrithor
Ah, the diamond rats. Yeah, that NPC fleet warped in because the miners saw you, you have bad standings with their faction, and they called for help before they ran away.
The africanized rats are basically intended to make PvE more like PvP. If you see a mining group, and they act like you’re hostile, GTFO or get friends.
As an addendum: Diamond rats care about standings. Diamond Blood Raiders will treat someone who does a huge amount of BR missions and has +5 or better, for example, as a friend. If you and someone else with really good standings with those rats had been there… they’d have repped their buddy, too.
September 24, 2019 at 2:48 pmGanthrithor Arrendis
I learned all this after the fact. I’ve really only mined for the last few years since it’s been by far the most scalable and least-carpal-tunnel-inducing way to actively make ISK, so I wasn’t really familiar with diamond rats. I’d heard stories of people shooting NPC miners and haulers and triggering response fleets, but I also remembered seeing diamond rats show up as yellow/orange on other characters and not aggress. Odd, since no characters should be over +2.5 standing with a pirate faction without deliberate standings work being done, no?
Anyway, it’s whatever. I read a whole google doc about diamond rats, I’m still not sure what the point is in having them in the game / how they benefit anybody. Who is going to “PvE” these formations? Don’t they automatically escalate based on your gang size as well? I’ve never heard of them having fantastic bounties or dropping coveted loot. Why would anybody engage in this, “content?”
It’s also a direct hindrance to the game in that it seems to remove asteroid belts as a source of low level PvE content and/or little PvP encounters. Newbies who weren’t equipped to do anomaly PvE used to be able to belt rat or hunt faction spawns. Having rocks in there meant that players could go mining without having to hold sov or grind indices. Belts were a cool place for small-scale PvE and a decent venue for hunting those little PvEers. Now I guess it’s not a good place to do anything unless you’re >+3 to the pirate faction: the rats suck up all the rocks and then fill the belts with massive patrols that actively hunt you down. Belts seem more dangerous than high-end anoms or complexes. Why?
September 25, 2019 at 4:21 amGarreth Vlox
LOL so much for attracting all those new players to replace the vets quitting. I think this proves it once and for all, Hilmeth isn’t accidentally killing Eve, he’s burning this shit to the ground before he walks out the door.
September 24, 2019 at 11:25 amAlot
Well… Definite improvement on that mission where you supposed to go get yourself blown up so you less fearful of losing a ship. May adversely affect the rest of the intro though.
September 24, 2019 at 1:19 pmSquinty McBlindy
This has happened not just once, but at least FIVE TIMES in the last few weeks.
September 27, 2019 at 12:33 pmCouster seems to be a magnet for Triglavians.
CCP have dropped the ball.
Rhivre Squinty McBlindy
That is interesting. I had heard rumours about other rookie systems being hit, but didnt know it was repeated.
September 27, 2019 at 8:33 pm