With another glorious year of EVE now drawn to a close, we’d like to bid YC126 a fond farewell by sharing some EVE Online 2024 player highlights. We’re not sure whether two articles counts as a tradition yet, but we published EVE Online player highlights 2023 this time last year, and on both occasions your stories have exemplified the diversity of value that EVE Online brings its players. It’s significant that the game not only means so much to so many people, but that what it means to them differs so much. Check out these quotes, each from a different EVE player, for a taste of what’s to come:
“It felt like the culmination of a dream.”
“Without a doubt, it was an incredible year.”
“EVE and its community always have a way to up the ante.”
“I found a renewed sense of inspiration.”
“I wanted to scream with joy. I loved that moment.”
Before we get too soppy, let’s get onto the EVE Online 2024 player highlights from our community of dedicated players.
Standout kills
Fans of our weekly kill contest Killmail of the Week will know how much we like watching things go boom. For Shanna Alabel, one takedown stood out so much that they named it their finest EVE Online moment of 2024. We can only wonder if their Komodo-less pal felt the same way.
“By far my best kill this year was, unfortunately, my friend’s Komodo. Flying with AKC and coordinating drops is always a highlight of my year. Killing trillions and baiting out response fleets? You can’t beat it.”
A little bit of everything, and a lot of fun
For Sturmer, the magic of EVE Online in 2024 can’t be captured in a single moment, but is instead in the culmination of emotions that the game can bring. But it was rediscovering EVE’s fun factor that really stood out. It’s cause for celebration, and what better way to mark a celebration than with fireworks?
“YC126 was a year full of events for me; some small, some big, and even some outside of the game itself, like fanfiction, tournament analysis recaps, and a lucky Twitch points jackpot. However, during a year-end community event, I found a renewed sense of inspiration and a reminder of just how important fun is in this game. I created a tribute cinematic video to capture those emotions and share the experience:”
For more pyrotechnics, check out the fireworks section of our ultimate collection of EVE Online screenshots.
A dream fulfilled
Rixx Javix is one of the most recognised names in EVE. Having contributed much to the game over the years, it’s especially meaningful that Rixx describes his 2024 player highlight as “a dream come true”. So what was that dream? Finishing work on the upcoming EVE board game: War for New Eden.
“If last year's highlight was the rush of starting work on the War for New Eden board game and seeing the prototype at Fanfest, then this year's highlight was finishing my work on the project. Although technically I'm still working on certain last-minute pieces, such as the illustration above which is for the inside cover of the main rulebook, my part in the project officially ended in August. But the year included a first for me: working with T'Amber on the exclusive board game-related skins that Kickstarter backers will receive with their game orders:
“The skins represent the first piece of art that I've designed and created that will be seen inside of EVE Online itself, which is a pretty incredible highlight and something that I'm extremely proud of. Plus, the skins look incredible and working with T'Amber to create them was an amazing process. We've known each other for almost two decades now and we've worked on many projects over the years, but nothing like this. It felt like the culmination of a dream.”
“The game will be released around March 2025, and I'm truly looking forward to seeing everyone's reactions when they start getting it into their own hands. I look forward to talking about the game with everyone at Fanfest in May. I hope to see you there!”
If you’d like to learn more about the project, read our EVE board game interview with Rixx and Titan Forge CEO Roman Lakomiak.
The growth of a corp
Regular Just About readers will have seen our recent article on the pros and cons of joining an alliance or corp in EVE Online. Another mark in the ‘pros’ column is the joy of watching your corp flourish and perform. Luka Zaharin felt that joy deeply, especially when his corpmates - flying Condors, Scythes, and a Bifrost - sent their first enemy T2 battleship - a Marauder - to its icy grave.
“Thinking about my highlights for this year, I can only choose the development of our small corp. We had so many good times during 2024. I thought about making a recap video, but seeing as we’re sharing our one player highlight of the year, I chose this video instead. It’s one of the first videos I’ve made and shows the first-ever T2 battleship we killed in our fierce little frigates. You should have heard the comms when it finally went down!”
A steadfast defence
We’ve heard from some EVE veterans, but what about the newbros? JHenckes sampled the thrills of EVE PvP:
“I'm definitely an EVE noob. I ended up playing a lot because I'm always with friends in EVE, which is when I really have fun. That's why my highlight this year might not seem like such a big deal, but I thought it was amazing! It was when, for the first time, I defended an Athanor with my corporation in a high-risk battle in Lowsec!
“We were outnumbered and outgunned, facing a mercenary group with T3 cruisers. The first thing I thought of was imminent death, but this time we managed to properly control the use of our weapons and the cooldown of the shields, and the battle started turning to our favour! My team was then able to use ECM drones, scramblers, and other tactics to isolate our enemies and put an end to their strategy!
“In the end, our structure stood. With all my heart, I took a deep breath at the end of that battle and wanted to scream with joy. I loved that moment. It happened halfway through the year, and since then I've been able to learn a lot more about the game.”
His tale reminded us of one of the first articles we published here at Just About EVE, in which players recounted their first EVE Online PvP kills, Shakes and all.
A new family, forged from stardust
yan57436 is one of those friends Henckes was referring to. They too fought in the great YC126 Defence of the Athanor, but seeing as that 2024 highlight was already taken, they instead spoke of the pride they have over the development of and interactions in their corp. When they started, they were all but lost: “99% of the time, we were outnumbered and mercenaries meant the end of us.” Yet over the year, they’ve come to understand “what the game was really about.”
It was that journey from disparate lost causes to unified kin that meant the most to Yan:
“I’d like to highlight as a positive point that we never banned anyone. In fact, we managed to create a family, albeit a very small one. That period served to solidify that the game is a part of my life now. It is no longer a temporary endeavour; we have specific days of the week to play and our own WhatsApp group solely for interacting about the game.”
Getting quizzical
FirestormGamingTeam's EVE Online 2024 highlight was also corp-related, but it happened out of game.
“Ours is a fairly short one: one of our characters is in a large newbie corporation. We were recording and decided to try a spontaneous quiz in corp chat. It quickly took off with us offering 50-100mil rewards for correct answers to questions on EVE history. We spent roughly four billion ISK in one night, with older players sending us ISK to keep it going. Each question had a two-minute answer time and we ensured they were very obscure, of course with some easy questions thrown in too. We ended up with about 100 people taking part. It was a very real community moment for us, so I'd say that was our 2024 team moment of the year in EVE Online.”
Fancy your hand at the questions themselves? FirestormGamingTeam sent us a few examples. If you know any of the answers, add them to the comment section! Warning: they’re not easy!
Which corporation was the only corporation in EVE Online to tank CONCORD, triggering a GM response?
What group was made famous for putting up neutral stations?
What is the leader of Band of Brothers' actual character name, not his PR name?
What was the ship name of the first titan killed in-game?
Who piloted the first titan killed in-game?
Becoming a master of industry
If there’s one trait that will take you far in New Eden, it’s ruthlessness industriousness. orik Kado's highlight of the year came with this exhibition of the word’s most literal meaning:
“Without a doubt, it was an incredible year filled with new challenges to face. However, I want to share what was, for me, the most important achievement of 2024: building a small but competitive industry.
“I now have a modest number of assets that I can manufacture from scratch and sell at reasonable prices, which benefits my entire alliance. Members can now both buy my products at better prices and have buyers for their minerals and other production materials.
“My goal for 2025? To increase the variety and volume of items I produce and offer added value to all the alliance's pilots. A year from now, I hope to share whether I achieved it.”
Stay tuned for next year’s edition of EVE Online player highlights to find out if Orik pulls it off, and let us know in the replies what your EVE Online goals are for 2025!
Collaboration and empowerment
Like Sturmer, Kshal Aideron struggled to pick a single highlight. Taking a look through their shortlist, it’s easy to see why:
“After such a great 2023, I didn't think 2024 could top it. But, EVE and its community always have a way to up the ante.
“Personal highlights:
“I was a presenter at EVE Amsterdam, talking about how to empower communities. Following the presentation, a lot of players have reached out for advice for their own communities or collaboration with Eve Rookies.
“Even though I didn't make it into CSM19 myself, I managed to use my platform to interview 27 of my fellow candidates during the campaign period. Several of the candidates have stuck around to get involved with the community, which is amazing.
"From those interviews, Voices of New Eden (VONE) has been born. The concept is interviewing players no matter how big or small they feel their role is in our universe. Through VONE, we find out who players are, why they started playing EVE, what they do, what their pain points are, and other things.
"And of course, getting to serve on CSM18. While I don't play in SOV null, I believe I was still effective as CSM, especially when it came to helping with a timely problem that occurred within the incursion community during the first half of 2024."
“Eve Rookies highlights
“We started paying FCs for their time running fleets and paid out over 70 billion ISK in 2024.
“We hit 3,000 members on the Eve Rookies Discord.
“We created two player corps (Eve Rookies Industry and Eve Rookies Academy) as well as the alliance Eve Rookies United.
“We took over a headquarter incursion community that was shutting down after previously claiming we'd never run HQ fleets. Since our May takeover, we're putting on about nine-to-12 HQ fleets a month.
“Our industrial wing built a structure entirely by themselves, which we laid down in November.
“We hit the 100-player mark on the Eve Rookies leadership team (FCs, ambassadors, advisors, etc).
“We only banned three people from the entire community across all of 2024.
“And there are already some big things brewing for 2025.”
Erroneous adventures
We’ll finish with one final new-player tale from 2024. mypets learned that - as in life out of game - often the biggest screwups lead to the greatest stories:
“I started playing EVE Online in 2024; I had (and still have) a lot to learn. On this learning journey, I ended up making beginners’ errors that led to some remarkable stories. Here’s one of them:
“In the rush to explore, I decided to explore an unknown region with my corporation, already feeling capable of finding great riches and challenges. While scanning space, we found an unusual cosmic signature, which eventually led us to a sleeper cache. We then encountered a hostile environment full of drones, but we still went ahead. Laughing nervously and filling the chat with commands, we faced countless enemies before reaching the core. Everything seemed to be going well - I found a module that could generate me a lot of wealth - but the joy was to be short-lived; a PvP gang tracked us down.
“We narrowly escaped, but that adrenaline rush served as a lesson for me to learn to take it easy when exploring. But I won't deny that it was a fun experience nonetheless and still keeps me coming back to space.”
For more cautionary tales, check out these EVE Online lessons that players learned the hard way.
Of course, we have a few EVE Online 2024 highlights of our own, like getting to read your EVE Online fanfiction, watching your EVE Online cinematics, and discovering the incredible winning entries of Katia Sae’s Grand Tour. Which are your favourites? Which of your own memories from the year would you like to share? Tell us all in the comments!
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: Razorien on Flickr.
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