History of EVE University

Introduction

Eve University is one of the oldest corporations in EvE. Unfortunately, the nature of the Uni -- 90% of the Uni's members have been in for under 2 months -- means that the history of the corp is quickly dispersed to a hundred other corporations. My hope is that we can collect some of the stories so people know what the Uni has done and been, and how it's changed over the years.

Morning Maniac gave a two-hour history lecture in March 2007: Eve University History, Past Present and Future. It covered the history of the Uni from its founding as a chat channel. Time passes, though -- half the Uni's history happened after this talk.

Founding

Eve University was founded 15 Mar 2004. MM had been answering questions in the Help channel, and wanted to provide something that was more helpful than 'Help' had become. The heart of the operation was the Eve University public chat channel.

Early on, the principle was established that the Uni would remain neutral, so that students can have the widest possible choice of future corporations.

The Big Blue Era

Eve University was, with NAGA, the Four Horsemen, and others, one of the founding corporations of The Big Blue alliance. The Big Blue (always with the definite article) was founded in October of 2005, and lasted until August of 2006. During this busy year, the alliance built two outposts in Geminate: the Blue Pill in BWF-ZZ, and Masada Station in 8MG-J6. In June of 2006, the Mercenary Coalition declared war on BLUE. A month later, The Four Horsemen withdrew from the alliance, removing much of The Big Blue's PvP power. Subsequently, attacks by Euphoria Unleashed and others rendered the situation untenable, and NAGA and Eve University dissolved the alliance and withdrew from the region. An interesting historical consequence is that the Uni's teamspeak server was hosted with NAGA until late 2009.

BLUE was interesting in that it maintained NRDS and a non-aggression policy -- a rarity in 0.0 space.

Subsequent to BLUE's withdrawal, BWF-ZZ has developed a reputation as a cursed system, which no group can hold onto for very long. Currently, Wildly Inappropriate holds BWF-ZZ.

It's also worth noting that BWF-ZZ is quite near the Uni's subsequent home in Korsiki, though a visit would be both dangerous and a violation of the Uni's rules.

see also Eve History's page on The Big Blue

And this "looking back' thread from 2007.

Formation of TGRADS

At the time the Uni retreated from Geminate, a group of Uni members wanted to remain in 0.0, allying with ISS, an organization which itself maintained neutrality. The Uni as a whole felt that this would nevertheless undermine its neutrality. Twenty-six Uni members left to form The Graduates (TGRADS), and take over the Cassini outpost of ISS in EC-P8R.

Unfortunately, this outpost was isolated from the rest of ISS. TGRADS was forced out of the region, and joined with the Uni in forming the Ivy League Alliance. Subsequently, they maintained POSes in NPC 0.0, under the IVY flag. The difficulty and expense of maintaining these POSes, and the disparity between the Uni's primary mission and the 0.0-ward desires of TGRADS, put strain on the relationship between the two. Subsequently TGRADS left IVY to join BRUCE, then an up-and-coming 0.0 alliance. After BRUCE dissolved, TGRADS joined Morsus Mihi. They are currently the largest corp in MM, and still recruit preferentially from the Uni.

See also The Graduates' history page

• 18 Sept 06 -- Romble no longer in Uni (TGRADS).

• Privateers (corp) war 24 Oct 2006. (Privateers founded 6 weeks previous). TGRADS in <ISS> at this time. <IVY> at ~700 members, though this includes some inactives. See [1]

The Drone Regions

The drone regions of space were added to the EvE universe in November of 2006. At some point subsequent to leaving Geminate, until about April 2007, the Uni held space in the drone regions (S-R9J2), while remaining headquartered in Korsiki(?). In spring of 2007 (end of April?), Invictus attacked, and eventually forced IVY out of 0.0 again. Invictus got sov 1 on 28 Jun 2007, per evemaps.dotlan.net.

• ~18 Jan 07, TGRADS rejoined IVY.

• Privateers (alliance) wardec 14 Jan 2007. (50 parallel wars for PRIVs at this time. [2]

• This privateers attack was hired; speculation at the time was that the hiring body was Multiversal Enterprises, Inc.

• Romble's overview class predates 14 Jan 2007.

• Privateers (alliance) attacking Korsiki ("invasion fleet"), (15 Mar '07, 3 April '07.) [3]

• 11 Apr 07 -- resupply fleet op to 0.0 [4]

• 22 Apr -- the heroic call to arms! [5]

Battle Summary -- defense of S-R9J2

• 23 April 07 -- battle with Invictus.

• 24 April 2007 -- Trouble with Invictus "not over yet". [6]

During this time, TGRADS was organizing at least some 0.0 ops for Uni members. [7]

(I'm working on it, Kassie Kelmar. Give me time.)

Return to High-Sec

After leaving 0.0, the Uni settled at Korsiki. By the end of 2006, there was a precursor to the present ship replacement plan, though it only covered frigates -- and destroyers. At the beginning of 2007, as noted above, TGRADS joined the IVY alliance. And the first of the Privateers wars began.

Formation of the Low-sec Apprenticeship Group

In mid-2007, the Low-sec Apprenticeship group was formed -- possibly in a fit of absent-mindedness. Master Akira, who was involved in the group from early on, has written a short personal history of the group's first incarnation, found here.

After Master Akira's departure from the Uni in mid-2008, the group was reorganized under Dlardrageth. Division 6 grew out of a subsequent reorg.

Unfortunately, most of the records of the low-sec group were archived for various reasons and are unavailable to anybody except directors. (J'accuse, Dinsdale Pirrhana!) If a director has the inclination and the time, could you please put together a short history of the group? Alternately, can anybody with personal knowledge help?

1st LSA Pirate Hunt (14 Aug 07) on (not) shooting macro haulers

Murder-Death-Kill (27 Aug 2007)

MD-K declared war on IVY, having first taken the trouble to set up a POS in Korsiki under an alt corporation (Vajayjay), in which they could shelter completely safe from attack -- in high-sec, shooting at the 'neutral' POS would be a CONCORD-able act. They also used the tactic of putting neutral alts in among their drones, to prevent smartbombs attacking their drones. Both of these were seen within the Uni as dirty tricks.

Background of MD-K

MD-K was a ~60-person corp at the time, composed of veteran PvP'ers. They had recently left the Triumvirate alliance, and had at one time advertised as mercenaries. It is not known whether their war with the Uni was hired by a third party. Interestingly, MD-K had apparently absorbed a corp of former Uni members, Direct Intent, a few months previously. This caused some internal conflict for MD-K, as a number of their members refused to fight the Uni.

forum reference

Uni wardecs Vajayjay (29 Aug 2007)

The Uni made a rare wardec, in order to attack the POS in which MD-K was sheltering.

Departure of Ivy League Research Foundation [2KNOW] from IVY (30/31 Aug 08)

Soon after the wardec, MD-K attacked the POS in Korsiki. The attack was beaten off, but barely, since the POS was not configured for defense. 2KNOW decided as a defensive measure to remove the corp from IVY immediately; that is, to remove the POS from the wardec. Unfortunately, this caused some trouble.

POS Ejections

At this time, it was apparently common practice for players to log off at the POS, to avoid being camped in at stations. The departure of the POS owners from IVY meant that some Uni members were ejected from the POS on login, with no warning, into the waiting guns of MD-K. Others bounced off the POS shields to similar effect.

Wardec against Ivy League Research Foundation (2 Sep 2007)

MD-K next wardec'd 2KNOW, suggesting strongly that their primary target in this war was the Korsiki POS.

forum thread

Significance of the POS Assault

MD-K's attack was particularly significant, since the Uni had a capital ship array anchored at the POS in Korsiki. Game changes had made it impossible to re-anchor such an array in high-sec space, so an irreplaceable asset was under attack -- a rarity in EvE.

CCP, with no warning, unanchors all high-sec capital construction arrays (3 Sept 2007)=

At this time, CCP unanchored all high-sec capital construction arrays, preventing any more capital ships being constructed in hisec. Their stated reason for doing so was that the advantage given to the owners was unfair. Using a capital ship in hisec for war purposes was eventually made a petitionable action.

2KNOW Rejoins IVY, (5 Sept 07)

After the removal of the highsec capital arrays, the MD-K war quickly wound down, and 2-KNOW rejoined <IVY>.

Racketeers Wars (~1 Jan 2008)

• Mercenaries discussed, but not contracted?

[8]

LOLS and TRAPS (2-15 April 2008)

TRAPS, then a corp in the Privateer alliance, war-dec'd the Legion of Lost Souls. LOLS had history with the Uni and IVY going back to The Big Blue. LOLS refused to pay ransom to TRAPS, and joined the IVY alliance for mutual support.

Chip Mintago talks with the Privateers

Wardec thread

Wardec thread

Ibn Sahl, Open-I (26 April 2008)

At this time, the Uni was dec'd by a one-man corp. The Uni's membership was about 1200. The diplomatic team contacted Ibn Sahl to see why he wanted to take us all on. The answer: Honor.

Chip writes:

Ok, so after Kelduum oked it today, I asked Ibn Sahl of Open I why he'd declared war on us.
It could probably have gone better. Chat log follows

Chip Mintago > Pardon me
Chip Mintago > I notice that you have, by yourself, declared war against Eve University,
to which I belong
Ibn Sahl > Honour permitted no other response!
Chip Mintago > Uhm, ok
Chip Mintago > I just hoped maybe you could let me know why
Ibn Sahl > What?
Ibn Sahl > Because I could stand the insult no longer
Chip Mintago > Wait, as sec, ... sorry, I'm not up on the details
Chip Mintago > Did we do something?
Chip Mintago > What is the greivance?
Ibn Sahl > I have made six attempts to communicate now
Ibn Sahl > I first sent mail to Kelduum Reevan, your diplomat
Ibn Sahl > When I received no response I sent a follow up
Ibn Sahl > With no response to that I sent another follow up
Chip Mintago > We've been busy
Ibn Sahl > Who is my corporation that your diplomats haven't even a moment to discuss
an offer of skill materials that I made them?
Chip Mintago > I'm sure it's just been overlooked
Ibn Sahl > I then spoke to members of your corporation three times on your
Eve University channel
Ibn Sahl > Three seperate occassions
Ibn Sahl > On the second, Ixxc told me I would receive a response from your diplomats
Ibn Sahl > Still nothing. Six contacts. And with an offer to donate to you. I have a proud
nature. I can no longer stand the insult. What course is there but war?
Chip Mintago > Ah
Chip Mintago > So, ... wait, this is because we uhm didn't talk to you?
Ibn Sahl > What would become of a man who no longer had any reason for defending
himself from insult?
Ibn Sahl > What affects does he keep if he has lost those in which lie
his weapons of defense and attack>?
Chip Mintago > Ok, but uisn't this expensive?
Chip Mintago > I mean, what do you get from fighting a thousand people
Ibn Sahl > Must I profit materially?
Ibn Sahl > Can you see no reason for action but profit? Should all morals be based on
what serves your purse?
Ibn Sahl > You smell of the shop!
Ibn Sahl > Of course I cannot prevail
Ibn Sahl > I am not a servant of my purse
Ibn Sahl > I abhor the vulgarity of the view that everything must be done for money
Ibn Sahl > Would you establish all galactic intercourse on the basis of mutual services,
so that every action appears as a kind of payment for something?
Ibn Sahl > These are the moral values of the old galaxy
Ibn Sahl > It is in the soil poisioned by these values that our galactic culture now withers.
Chip Mintago > Ok
Ibn Sahl > If you can genuinly not conceive of action based in honour,
then the situation is worse even than I had imagined
Chip Mintago > look<br>I'm going to go...
Ibn Sahl > The parochial narrowness of your principle repels me
Ibn Sahl > This is why we require aristocractic segregation from the masses
Ibn Sahl > From the Chip Minargos that would barter even matter matters of life and death!
Ibn Sahl > It is the clear, instinctive and fundamental basis of any noble man
that he will fight to avenge insult
Ibn Sahl > It is not a question of your profits and losses
Ibn Sahl > Have you never put your life in danger over honour?
Ibn Sahl > Haven't you wished to leave behind your accounting room,
your merchant's ledger and indulge the passion to defend your honour?
Ibn Sahl > Greatness of character does not consist in assembling property, Mintago!
Ibn Sahl > Throw out your ledger. Train for the arts of war. Give in to your passions.
Chip Mintago > It's just something is burning on my stove
Chip Mintago > I'd like nothing more than to talk about this some more,
but I'm going to have to go
Ibn Sahl > Have you not even the courage to confront me? Say you are leaving like a man!
Ibn Sahl > Say that you abhor me, or that you will not talk to an enemy
Ibn Sahl > Where is your soul?
Chip Mintago > I can smell the smoke from here. I need to go
Ibn Sahl > Even in conversation, can you only blather? Can you only say we are friends?
Chip Mintago > No I like you. I sure am not in any way someone you should hunt
or anything like that
Chip Mintago > I just need to get some sleep you see.
May I say what pleasure it has been to hear about your positions on these matters
Ibn Sahl > Your talk is cowardice. If you were bolder and stronger
you would openly confront me with the contempt you must feel
Ibn Sahl > Where is your pride
Ibn Sahl > I call you a coward and you just blather?

The Conversation

The Uni Thread

Privateer Wars (Spring? 2008-2 Jun 2008)

In March of 2008, the Privateers announced on the Eve forums that they would be accepting contracts against the Uni. It was widely believed that senior leaders in the Privateers had developed personal grudges against the Uni. For the following two months, the Privateers maintained continuous war against the Uni.

• Privateers CAOD post, 4 Mar '08

• forum reactions to above

Nature of the Privateer Alliance

The Privateer Alliance was founded in order to facilitate hisec PvP for its members. Wardec fees at the time scaled only with the number of simultaneous wars the defender had; this made it possible for Privateers to maintain a large number of simultaneous wardecs. Prior to April 2007, they typically had 75 to 80 simultaneous wardecs -- which provided them with wide scope for shooting people. The wardec fees were sustainable because of the large size of the alliance, which spread the cost around. Privateers' corporations were able to sustain themselves from the loot of their kills, but the system depended on having a lot of valid targets in hisec.

The Revelations 1.4.2 patch in April of 2007 changed the calculation of wardec fees to factor in the number of wars the aggressor was maintaining, so that huge numbers of simultaneous wars were no longer practical. This changed the nature of the Privateers' operations.

Battleship Loans

Lack of DPS in Uni fleets has been a recurring problem throughout the Uni's history. After over a month of war with no break, a battleship loan program was started to get more battleship-capable pilots flying the big boats in war fleets.

The Decshield (25 May 2008)

• Decshield removed (23 Jun 2008)
• Privateers declare war again (23 Jun 2008) [9]
• Privateer Alliance internal disputes and interest in faction warfare end in wardec retraction (1 Jul 08). [10]
• Collapse of Privateer Alliance(?). [11]
• Subsequent reformation under B.C. Hastings.

Effects of the Wars on Wartime SOP

Special Privateer SOPs

One of the effects of the extended war was greatly tightened wartime SOPs. The general war rules had for a great while allowed mining and missioning as long as it was done several systems away from the Korsiki-Jita pipe, and in quiet systems (i.e., not major mission hubs). It was thought that people would see war targets enter local and have time to dock up before the enemy could find them.

For the Privateer wars, that was no longer considered sufficient. Since an essential part of the war strategy was to deny the enemy kills and loot, first mining and then missioning were banned altogether during Privateer wars.

5 Apr 08 TRAPS/ Privateer War Rules

24 Jun 08 Privateer War SOP

One Man and His Drake ( 18 August 2008)

(forum thread)

Seppuku Warriors

It's been pointed out to me that this section needs significant factual correction. I hope to revise it in the next day or so; meanwhile, don't rely on this for your homework. --JH

Discussion on this article is currently happening in this forum thread.

Destruction of the Uni POS

Seppuku Warriors had declared war on the Uni simultaneously with Dynaverse, a larger corporation with no previous interaction with the Uni. The war opened with SW suicide-ganking haulers before the formal onset of hostilities, which should have been a hint. SW assured Uni management that they wanted a clean war, and that they weren't interested in the Uni POS. So it was a bit of a surprise when 50+ battleships arrived to assault the POS.

The war had been timed to fall during the final exam period of many real-life universities, which limited the Uni force available. The Uni leadership present at the time decided that they couldn't contest the Dynaverse-SW fleet, and ordered a total lockdown to prevent losses. The POS was put into reinforced mode, and the battleship fleet left. SW insisted that of course they wouldn't blow up the pos -- they just wanted to teach the Uni a lesson. They also expressed regret that the Uni hadn't come out (in a largely frigate-and-cruiser fleet) to fight. (Remember that at this time, the Uni had very few battleship-capable pilots).

The Uni leadership kept its plans quiet, but the student body was spoiling for a fight.

When the POS came out of reinforced mode on 9 May, 2009, a large Dynaverse fleet again showed up to attack it. Uni fleets responded, and a battle royal ensued. Dynaverse/SW showed a number of cheap tricks in addition to their superior firepower (parking neutral alts in shuttles in the middle of a drone swarm, for instance). This led to perhaps the lightest moment of the day -- Dierdra Vaal, who had used smart-bombs to clear the enemy drone swarm, running away from Concord at high speed, toward low-sec. Dierdra's security status had dropped instantly from +5 to -6 as the "neutral" shuttles and pods got destroyed.

Unfortunately, the POS was destroyed in the end. A replacement POS was donated to the Uni by the members of D6, so the material loss in the end was mitigated -- but the emotional impact on the Uni membership was enormous.

Move to Aldrat

Subsequent to the SW/Dynaverse war, the number of 'real' wars decreased. However, a huge number of 'faildec' wars were declared in this time period -- 7-10 member corps who'd show up for a day of fighting, lose a ship or two, and then hide for the rest of the week, causing the Uni membership to spin in station.

Uni leaders suspected that a large part of this problem was being a very large corporation located in the highest-population region of space. A number of solutions were considered, and it was decided to move the Uni to a quieter region of space. They looked around and decided on Aldrat -- a quiet region near Hek, but not so near as to cause trouble. Aldrat is also near the infamous pirate system Rancer, which has greatly increased PvP learning opportunities for students. It's also at the head of a cul-de-sac in space, which has certain practical advantages.

The move to Aldrat has decreased the number of wardecs the Uni has had, though cleaning the low-grade pirates and can-flippers out of the region occupied people for quite a while at the start of the move.

The (Re)Opening of NPC 0.0

Because Aldrat is also near NPC 0.0 space, Uni leadership took the experimental step of opening NPC 0.0 to students. This seems to have worked out pretty well so far -- students can dip a toe into 0.0 without the political repercussions of entering sovereign 0.0.

Departure of Morning Maniac

At the start of 2010, Morning Maniac announced that he was stepping down as CEO of the Uni, after almost 6 years at the helm. Kelduum Revaan, the former Director of Operations, has replaced MM as CEO. Morning Maniac remains a Uni member and Director Emeritus.

Stuff that needs to be fitted in somewhere

• Ivy League R&D Foundation (Eskona?)
• Sabre A
• D6
• Zulu
• Battlegroups
• SPS-es (Summer 2007)
• Uni fight club (definitely active Nov '07)

• What was the Rampart project? [12]

• Cruiser replacement started Nov 2007

Uni-related FW corps

• Thukk U

Other ex-Uni Corps

• Direct Intent
• others?
• Internal Anarchy (BG 1)

RUSE /TDROP/

There have always been players in the Uni who don't like PvP, or can't join fleet ops for practical reasons. Over the years, Kelduum Revaan started a couple of corporations to accommodate them. TDROP was the earlier of the two.

April '08 wardec on RUSE

RUSE was in use until mid-2009, approximately, when another series of wardecs caused the Uni to stop using drop corps for the moment.

TDROP was active in the MD-K period -- Aug '07. At some points, there was a waiting period to get in, as the CEO was still training corp skills.

Kelduum writes: [13]

The Dropouts [TDROP] was formed by myself as a 'safe haven' for members during war - basically maintained by an alt, the idea was to keep a few of the members together and let them know how the war was going. Eventually, it got wardecced pretty quick, so was dissolved. If you check Keldalt Revaan's corp history, you should be able to find the time it was founded and closed.

R.U.S.E. [RUSE] was the second incarnation of TDROP, and the name was chosen by a poll on the forums here. Officially "Rafe Udall Spacelane Enterprises", after the CEO (again, an alt of mine, and you should be able to find the info in my corp history), unofficially the name stood for "Respite Until Shooting has Ended". Eventually this also attracted wars, which lead to its dissolution and closure, and the reform in channels, starting with "Eve High" which became Chat.E-UNI and similar.