CAS Hot Topics: Space Oompa Loompas


One of the most compelling and thus important debates that regularly emerges among the citizens of the Center for Advanced Studies pertains the nature and status of crews on Eve ships.

The arguments range from "even pods have crews" to "none of the ships actually have crews." There is firm evidence that ships do utilize space oompa loompas, including the current tutorial which states:

"You are the ship's captain. You issue orders, which your crew must follow."

This leaves no doubt that Eve capsuleers are pilots of ships with crews. However, there appear to be exceptions to this rule as seen in this older Chronicle story which explains that the capsule technology allows "small ships" to run without a crew:

"This is a capsule," Anu said to the Caldari. "It is used to control a ship. With it a ship a big as this one can be controlled with only a handful of crew and smaller ships, like your frigates, can even be controlled by a single person."

"How is this possible?" Ouriye asked. He was obviously skeptical, even if he didn't seem as surprised by what Anu said as the other Caldari.

"The controller, captain if you like, of the ship is stationed inside the capsule. Through it, he's neural rigged to all parts of the ship. The capsule is like one gigantic computer, with the captain at the core, controlling everything." Any answered.

"But how can a single man control a whole ship?" Ouriye pressed.

"Thank you, captain, I was coming to that. As I said, the captain acts as the central unit in a highly advanced computer. This role allows him to access and evaluate data at extreme pace. He can easily handle the jobs it takes 5 or 10 people to do normally. It also makes him a better commander, he has better understanding and awareness of his environment and he's not boggled down by tedious crew management issues and frequent communication breakdowns are now history." Anu finished, looking over the faces of the thoughtful Caldari standing before him.

"So what is the downside?" Pirkotan asked. "There is always a downside."

"Not in this case, lieutenant," Anu replied. "The capsule offers greater control to ships, yet fewer crew members. As you know one of the biggest costs in maintaining a ship is training the crew, this cost is now much reduced. We Jovians are not numerous, yet we can field a very formidable fleet because of capsules."

"So what about this capsule controller? Can anybody control this thing?" Ouriye probed, obviously eager to garner as much knowledge as he could about these capsules.
This clearly indicates that pod/capsule technology can allow single person control over a smaller ship like a frigate, although some oompa loompa zealots have insisted there still must be a crew for general maintenance even if they don't directly control the ship.

Complicating matters considerably more are cases like shuttle craft where you may be transporting livestock such as diplomats, politicians or prostitutes. One might assume there are certain luxuries requiring basic oompa loompa amenities and services.

It's my belief that pods and frigates do not require oompa loompas, but that shuttles would have them. I am eager for further clarity from the developers of the Eve universe.

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