So I posted a few days ago about "the big battle" and it seems that it didn't all go to plan for the attackers, or at least they didn't achieve all they set out for. The citadel repaired and was promptly damaged again, the timer coming open in a little under 3 hours from now.
Avaren has another stream up,where you can watch the battle with rather excellent commentary, here:
Simply put - citadel mechanics involve timers. A citadel is vulnerable for a certain number of hours per week where the shields can be taken down. Once combat starts the attackers have 15 minutes to do all of the damage required or the citadel become protected again. By doing a minimum amount of damage constantly the timer gets paused so the defenders can only protect it by driving off the attackers for the duration of that timer.
Once the shields go down, the next day the armour timer opens - again for 15 pausable minutes.
6 days after the armour goes down is the hull timer, the big one. If the hull is destroyed then the whole citadel dies. In this case the citadel is a keepstar, the largest in the game currently (there is one larger but no-one has managed to build one yet), and worth 300bn for the hull alone. For reference 1.5bn is worth ~£10 so this citadel is worth £2'000. Add on the rigs, modules and everything stored inside it and that's a CONSIDERABLE amount of money on the line. Well over $10'000.
Then there's the fleets actually fighting. Expected to be over 5000 pilots, yes 5000 players at the same time in the same game, in ships worth anything from 20 million to 100bn or more. There is easily 10tn ISK on the field in ships (discounting those who lose a ship, get into another ships and come back) - worth an estimated £67'000.
Records are expected to be set tonight...