I’m a big fan of understanding the theory behind our universe. Maybe its because I’m a physicist by trade. Who knows?
Anyway, the Goons have outdone themselves in this field. GARPA – I assume this stands for Goon Advanced Research Project Agency – have produced a manual for manipulating the in-game grid. In simple combat situations the grid is never really considered. It is simply the area of space in which a set of objects will be rendered by the game engine and appear in your overview. When you are talking about large fleets, however, the grid becomes more important.
Loading large numbers of ships creates lag. This slows down the response time of a fleet as it lands on grid and allows opponents to seize the upper hand while the landing force is orientating itself for the fight. By manipulating the grid it is possible to create a large grid where the force can warp in out of range, load grid, and then move into combat positions fully prepared. A sneaky commander could manipulate the grids so that he could hide a large portion of his fleet when conducting a defence. Even at close range the established grid would seem to be invisible even though the reserve fleet is only a few kilometres from the fight.
This document is now in the public domain and can be accessed in PDF format here. You can also read the Eve Online forum thread.
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May 26th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Just read it and holy crap is it crazy what the prepared can do with the grid.
May 26th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Just finished reading it. Loved the idea of hiding support and repair teams behind grid walls but only 1km away from the rest of the fleet!
May 26th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Um… wow. I just love this game. I hope this isn't going to be considered a bug but instead just a method of preparing a battlefield.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Finally found a use for all those corpses hanging around in the battlefield.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
can you drop corpses without jetting a can?
May 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
As far as I know, yes. In fact I don't think you can put them in a can at all.
May 30th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I love this thing, it is really funny to read and to explore. Will have to try this with my high sec denizens sometime!
July 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
sounds like cheating (using the game mechanics to gain advantage) to me