Yesterday the Mittani announced that Hulkageddon will last forever. There had been rumors to this effect going for some time. To me this represents nothing more or less than an attempt to drive the price of technetium as high as he can, not to mention reap a harvest of tears as bountiful as possible.

The response has been pretty hilarious to date. People threatening to rage-quit, whining and bitching and moaning about how the metagame is messing with their game. I’ve said it before, Mittens has said it very loudly recently, emergent content makes EvE unique. Hulkageddon is one of the largest pieces of emergent content not just in EvE but likely in MMO gaming entirely. This is a public, player created, player run, player driven event, where you are automatically paid a reward for “Killing Ten Rats” by a player entity.

CCP is highly unlikely to nerf ganking and kill off this event. How many games have a player-run quest system? Seriously now.

They might nerf it a bit. Catalysts are OP as hell with the guns they have. Battleship level damage from a frigate is just a bit insane, however that alone wont kill Hulkageddon. So let’s fight fire with fire. Emergent content is the name of the game. Hulkageddon isn’t new, neither is the counter: Defending yourself. Here’s a great way for a solo miner (with a hauler alt) to mine in peace as long as the Mittani keeps up the pressure:

[Rokh, Can’t Stop the (mining) Rokh] 8x Miner II 3x Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

2x Large Shield Extender II

Survey Scanner II 2x Mining Laser Upgrade II

Mining Laser Upgrade I

Expanded Cargohold II

Co-Processor II Large Cargohold Optimization I

Large Core Defense Field Extender I

Large Processor Overclocking Unit I 5x Warrior II

Pulls 935m3 of ore a cycle, cargo bay contains 916m3 of ore a cycle. You actually have to pay attention. Deal with it. Stagger your lasers a little, enjoy the fact that anyone trying to alpha you needs to break 91,650 EHP with Caldari BS 5. You can actually tank a little more AND get another mining laser upgrade, but that nerfs your cargo a bit. With a hauler alt paying attention and a transfer can this ship will allow you to mine in safety at a rate of 15.59 m3 / second. A well tanked hulk set for surviving? With T2 crystals you get 23.92 m3 / second. With T1 crystals you get 22.21 and with T1 lasers you get 20.50 m3/second. Yes you lose out some productivity. You also lose the vulnerability.

Now you have fought fire with fire. You have met the enemies emergent content with your own, using a ship for unconventional purposes to gain yourself an advantage, yes a mining Rokh is something of an abomination, but if you are solo mining, especially in an NPC corp in highsec, what are people going to use on you? 15 or so catalysts? More? Harsh language?

EvE is an evolving game. Players can evolve with it, adapt their playstyle to the circumstances, or be left behind. If you’ve invested the time and effort to get a hulk surely you can invest time and effort to keep up with the curve, rather than just throwing a tantrum.