EVE online is the best Massive Multiplayer Online game, because "INTERNET SPACESHIPS." (google it!)
There are several more reasons than this sentence, and each one might take a whole post to describe; maybe some other time (hell, this guy wrote a book about it). Today, I'll just give some context related to this fractal.
In EVE there are solar systems with suns, planets, moons, asteroid belts, starbases, mineral extractors, etc. You travel between them via a network of stargates connecting nearby systems. Some regions are high-security zones, where combat between players is hard to engage in, and punished by the authorities.
Other regions are low-security, where the presence of authorities is minimal and players engage in thrilling combat with each other, solo or in fleets. In such regions, traveling between systems is risky because player fleets may camp the stargates and as soon as you use them, they drop on your ship and blow it to smithereens! In-game, these are the notorious gate-camps the most fearsome danger a solo player may face.
But, the need for resources is great; whatever you do in the game, you'll certainly need resources: ammunition, guns, lasers & rocket launchers for your combat ships, materials for your industry projects, blueprints for building your own modules & formulas for reactions, armor & shields for your all ships, electronic upgrades for your exploration vessels, etc. So, you go to a market hub and the friendly merchants provide happily whatever you need. Then, you load your freighter ship with all those goods and set off from a market hub starting the long voyage home. The last thing you need now is to fall prey to a gate-camp and loose everything.
"But, Nyarlathotep," you may be thinking, "how is it possible to avoid a gate-camp with a non-combat slow-moving freighter ship???"
ENTER THE PRORATOR!
image from EVE's UNIWIKI
A lovely ship, indeed, with large cargospace to accomodate your hauling needs; fast and agile, it can align quickly and get into warp speed before the hateful gate-campers lock it in their blasters; but, on top of everything else, this beauty can equip the Covert-Op Cloaking Device, and become invisible to everyone! You got to love that space-science, don't you?
In my last post, I started from scratch and step-by-step a fractal was created. Imagine a Prorator going into warp speed -- it is hard to miss the similarities, right? ;)
Enter the Prorator!
by @nyarlathotepA fractal made in JWildFire
Originally rendered in 4000x2500 pixels, it took more than 22 hours to reach a quality of 22000 which is pretty high for JWildFire standards. I hope you like what the step-by-step process produced, or at least you got a bit warmer for trying out the best MMO ever! If you do like it, then check out these details too:
The Stars are -almost- right!