EVE Online: Retribution adding hard logout system, no crime toggle

Whoops. I accidentally discharged my cargo of extremely sharp eating utensils through my missile tube right at a nearby police frigate. As I yet again contemplate my utter incompetence at playing EVE Online, I can't help but look forward to the noob-friendly services the incoming Retribution expansion provides. In a dev blog posted yesterday (via Massively ), CCP Designer Greyscale detailed the safe logoff and criminal action toggle systems deploying alongside Retribtution's bounties and new ships on December 4.

Safe logoff immediately removes your ship from the game world upon the termination of a 30 second timer. This prevents marauding pirates or malevolent asteroids reaping a free kill from idling ships after the player exits the game. "If, while you're in the process of logging off, you see some dastardly pirate/noble upholder of justice flying over to end your ship's meager existence, you can abort the process and defend yourself," Greyscale explained. "This should ensure that you'll never (again) die because you logged out a minute too soon and got podded while the client was closed."

You can't simply instantly vanish at a single click, however. Safe logoff only works if you avoid the following activities:

You have active modules
You're ejecting from a ship
You have aggression from players or NPCs
Your ship is exploding or self-destructing
You're issuing movement commands
You're launching or jettisoning objects
You're joining a fleet
You're deploying or reconnecting with drones
You have a target lock or are targeted
You're warping
You're decloaking or under gate cloak

The three-tiered crime warning system is particularly interesting. Switched on, the system ensures "you cannot commit illegal behavior without deliberately switching off your safeties first," paving the way for far more blunder-less sessions and space cowboy chest-bumps of "Imma burnin' my safeties."

At maximum safety, the game simply disallows you from performing any action constituting a crime in secure areas. The partial setting flags you for suspect activities—blowing up ships in low-security space, for example—while turning everything off jets you right into stealing-from-babies territory. You rogue.

"The upshot of all this is that you can never just do something illegal by accident," Greyscale wrote. "You always have to deliberately go and disable your safety settings first. On the other hand, if you're out to cause trouble, you'll never be bothered by last-minute pop-ups again."

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?