Sometimes EVE Just Breaks

So last night I had some time to do some solo PVP. I had some interceptors fit up and ready, and headed out to Brave's new home in fountain.

At first, it seemed like the game was being extremely unresponsive. I would try to manually pilot and the client was hearing none of it. I was watching some PVP streamers on twitch and they seemed to be having similar issues--maybe just the server acting up, I thought.

However, I noticed later on the forums that others were experiencing a similar issue, and CCP confirmed it as a bug and are currently working on a fix. It appears that spamming buttons while changing state (e.g., going into warp) causes the client to not respond to input from the player, such as hitting "jump" on a gate or manually piloting. CCP stated that:

"We have been able to track down the issue, and it has to do with spam clicking a button that is changing state, that is going from inactive to active. We are working on a fix and can hopefully deploy it soon."

It isn't often CCP acknowledges bugs on the forums, so you know this is a legitimate and serious bug. Unfortunately, I died at least 2 times, potentially 3, as a result of this bug, all 2-3 times in an interceptor in Fountain. In the first fight, after killing a merlin in a claw and running from a BRAVE fleet I was unable to warp or manually pilot away. In the second fight, I warped 100km off a Black Legion cyno, from which dozens of tengus poured. I hit warp, I tried to manually pilot, I tried to stop my ship, but it was as if my mouse and keyboard had suddenly disconnected, and I flew directly into the BL. fleet. The third fight was pretty much the same as the first, though I am not as sure it was due to the bug. In all three of these losses, though, I at least killed someone before dying, so all was not lost.

This acknowledged bug got me thinking, though: What is the error rate in EVE's processing? In other words, how many errors really do occur on CCP's side? I often feel that the servers do not receive 10% of my inputs--module activation or manual piloting clicks or the like. I think many other players have the same intuition, when you see them spamming every button and spamming clicks in space when manually piloting. I think many players have the sense that EVE sometimes just does not receive your inputs. Sometimes, cap boosters do not reload. Sometimes, even though you click reload on some modules, the game seems to ignore it. Sometimes, the game seems to take a 1 minute smoke break.

But there are other bugs beneath the surface as well. How many losses, I wonder, are due to bugs or problems on CCP's side? I know for sure I have died at least 5 times when CCP servers have crashed, insofar as they publicly announce server problems. I would estimate that 2-5% of my 530 losses (or, around 5-25) were due to bugs or problems on the server's side. There are less bugs in EVE, I think, than in any other MMO I have ever played or researched. However, I think EVE has its fair share of bugs lurking beneath 11+ years of old code...

Okay, the real point of this post...

In light of this information LET IT HERE BE KNOWN THAT THESE 3 DEATHS ON MY KILLBOARD WERE DUE TO BUGS, NOT BAD PILOTING.

...my other 525 losses? well, probably just bad piloting...