Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sarum Prime/Meves Event Speculation

Today, CCP made this news post. They have given use a few clues as to what it might be, but have kept mum for the most part. Now, to speculate: Sarum Prime and Meves are the locations of the event in question. Sarum Prime is an Amarr system, one jump from Amarr itself containing two stations. Meves is a station-less system, one jump from Dodixie. Both Dodixie and Amarr are major trade hubs[1], second only two Jita in their daily trade volume. This is the probable cause for the event to take place in these systems. My belief is that the reason that CCP chose to place the event so close to trade hubs is because the players will either be losing ships, or  certain modules while be required to interact with the event. 
The next tidbit is the reason Concord has given for their CTA (they used the words call to action, but same abbreviation): "any capsuleer that wishes to protect civilized space" should come. This implies that this event will be an interact with uncivilized space. Whether this is wormholes or NPC null is unknown, however, I believe wormholes are more likely in based on this information alone. NPC null has at least some semblance of civilization, albeit pirate led. Wormhole space is about as uncivilized as you can get in New Eden. 
The most interesting part of the first paragraph of the news is the third to last word: "departure". The event will probably not be taking place in the rally point systems. However both systems are surrounded by high security systems. Furthermore, they at both a minimum of four jumps from the closest low security systems. This points towards wormhole as being the method of travel. The largest implication from this is that either the enemy, or Concord have a method of creating wormholes where there previously were none. The only parties that have access to this technology are currently the Jove and the Sansha.

The next paragraph is the Concord representative, Mallen, stating that this is a one time deal, and that future efforts will largely be Empire lead and manned. However, this paragraph calls this event an "assault". This means Concord is on the offensive, leading me to the conclusion that Concord is the one with wormhole generation tech.
The other interesting thing in this paragraph is that Concord is discouraging capsuleers from interacting/taking elements set adrift by this event. The relevant definitions here is "distinct subset of a group", "the smallest unit of study" or "distinct part of a device". The last definition is most likely: during the assault, Concord doesn't want capsuleers getting a close look at what will be destroyed. This means the goal of the assault is the destruction of whatever research, experiment or technology is contained within the facility.

The final paragraph is mainly in-universe speculation. This speculation is mainly: "Is the target Sansha?" or "Is it related to the unusual explosion?". The unusual explosion in question is from this news post. The obvious connection is the experiment that occurs in the Rubicon Chronicle[3]. The subject of this research is the destruction of Villard Wheels and that teleportation may be caused by this destruction.
Some back story on Villard Wheels. In real life, Villard Wheels are a design for a perpetual motion machine from around 1230 (hint, it doesn't work). In Eve, they are a construction component of Perpetual Motion Machines and Deactivated Station Key Pass Blueprints. In a recent dev blog[4], Shattered Villard Wheels are revealed as a component for the first player made implants. These implants increase warp speed. Based on this information, it is probable that the loot will in someway relate to Villard Wheels.

Based on the above information, the event will be an assault on some NPC null facility, that is research and/or performing experiments upon Villard Wheels. The attack will take place through a Concord created wormhole, and during the destruction of the facility, some Villard Wheel related tech or components will be able to be found in the wreckage. There might be the chance that capsuleers will be able to side with the pirates, but I find that unlikely as it is possible that pirates like capsuleers even less than they like Concord.

The event starts 18:50 eve time. See you there capsuleers.

[1] http://onjita.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/top-10-trade-hubs/
[2] http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/item.php?type_id=27274
[3] http://www.eveonline.com/rubicon/chronicle/
[4] http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/ghastly-hotbed-of-spaceship-trauma/