Container and wreck ownership

Container/wreck ownership, flagging and damage

How do the container ownership rules work?

Attacking a Container or Wreck

Cargo containers and wrecks are considered valid property just like drones and ships. If you damage either, you are initiating aggression on its owner. If you are not in their corporation, or otherwise allowed to legally engage, then you should be ready for a security hit and Concord intervention.

Note I: These rules do not apply when salvaging wrecks, please refer to the last paragraph of this Knowledge Base Article for more information.

Stealing from a Container or Wreck

When you attempt to take or move items from containers or wrecks in Empire Space, you will first need to disable your safety. If you do disable your safety and steal from another player's can or wreck, you will gain a suspect flag.

Who owns what, and when

Who gets ownership of containers/wrecks depends on the situation. The possible circumstances are as follows:

• When an NPC is killed by a player, the player who did the most damage to it gets ownership of any loot containers that may drop and of the wreck left behind by that NPC.
• When players are killed, any containers dropped from their ship are still owned by them. The same goes for the wreck that once was their ship.

When taking is not stealing

If you do not own a loot or jettison container, you may still have an implicit right to take from it. However, this is only if the owner of the container:

• Has given you a personal standing of 10
• Is in the same player corporation as you
• Is in the same gang as you (and is located in the same solar system as you).
• Has set their wrecks as "available to all". This allows anyone to take from their wrecks and cans without any consequences. Wrecks marked this way appear blue on the overview, rather than the usual yellow or white.
• Is a legal target to you. F.ex, if the owner of the container has been flagged as a suspect, or is in a limited engagement with you.

Salvaging wrecks:

As long as its contents are not taken, anybody is allowed to salvage any wreck at any possible time. Wrecks remain floating ship debris made out of raw materials and as such do not belong to anyone in particular.

This means that having wrecks salvaged by a third party while being in an asteroid belt or mission is -not- considered to be an exploit and is a valid game mechanic and tactic under all circumstances.