Bad Form

I was going to post about last night I used the Nomad jump freighter instead of the Orca to move some ships and supplies for a friend, and explain my reasons but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the big news of the last 24 hours in Eve.

Over at Misguided Adventurer we get the overview:

For four years, exploiters such as that had been supplying the market with the materials needed for many T2 products. The market adapts to this supply input and the exploit becomes the norm. Then suddenly, the carpet is pulled out from the supply chain and normalcy has no clear definition. With supply way the hell down in an instant, what is the market doing? It looks strikingly similar to a NASA shuttle launch. Prices for T2 items related to the minerals used by the exploiters have already jumped and some predict that the wars being fought at this very moment could soon hit a supply snag, changing the political and military fields immensely. We live in interesting times, do we not?

The exploit mentioned was that a bug in POS moon reaction mechanics meant that advanced moon materials were being made essentially out of nothing. Estimates say that over four years that multiple trillions were made by those alliances aware of the bug. Now that CCP has fixed the bug and banned those using the exploit and removed assets, the supply of advanced moon materials is going to be cut significantly, and with demand remaining the same prices will rise as a result.

Already speculators are buying up all the Ferrogel and Fermonic Condensates on the markets and buy orders have skyrocketed in price. The T2 production market is going to be very unstable for a while and I'm putting produiction plans on hold while it all shakes out. I'm not too worried, eventually the market will find a new equilibrium and profit margins will still exist.

However, I do want to admonish CCP for this debacle. The scope of this exploit caused by the bug (if the stories are true) is astonishing in terms of ISK and duration. Four years? Surely someone somewhere brought this to attention sooner than recently? Trillions of ISK? That is enough to fund multiple wars and in a game where making your opponent pay for his losses is how wars are won, having one or two alliances with essentially a free supply of ISK is unbalancing in the extreme, especially since the amount of money suggested could buy motherships and titans.

Four years. Come on CCP, that is unacceptable.