Okay.. Cool Vids from CCP and a Glimpse of Eve Online’s Future

First off, let’s go classical.. Very classical:

Then, let’s do history.. Ancient History:

Both are very, very sweet for their own reasons.  Probably the best one of the classical version was Merchants, Looters, and Ghosts.  But still going through it to make sure I don’t miss any nuances.

Now, as you have probably seen, CCP Games has been really, REALLY been focusing on getting the Lore of Eve Online more.. real.  More alive.  As far as RPG MMOs go, Eve Online has had a real tough time in the past making the story of Eve compelling.  The lore of Eve really didn’t answer the question of “Why are the differences important?”  Even if it is purely cosmetic, it generally does need to feel somewhat like the choice you made for a particular character is important and not just some cookie cutter persona.

Well, CCP has seemed to finally understand that in order to bring in new players, you need to bring some individuality, some story, to make the game more personal.  What CCP  has done is address this situation in five different ways.

First was Incarna.  Like it or not, it was a very intelligent idea that has the potential to bring a HUGE and AMAZING amount of diversity and content into the next decade.  If you don’t think so, sorry, you are dead wrong.  There is almost limitless potential for content and game mechanics once Avatars are truly released into the game.  Of course, that last part is the devil in the details.

The Second was Aura.. or rather the fixing of Aura, which then with the Jita Riots because the fixing of hundreds of annoying bugs and concept failures and even then become still more with the re-iteration of new game mechanics that is still on going.  Most outstanding of these has been Faction Warfare changes and Tiercide.

The Third was the Eve Online books.  Predictably they were going a bit out there with them, but I’d say they are no worse than your typical HALO or Battletech book either.  They have continued with this and morphed it into some very powerful ideas, where the players actually do write up the stories that will get published.

The Fourth has been the re-introduction of consistent live events, headed by Team Illuminati.  While they are still working on getting more players to become involved, the events are regular and announced on Twitter and on the forums.

The Fifth aspect of this the re-introduction of the Store.  While it certainly is an obvious way to make money, it still plays on a player’s loyalty to a particular group.  In effect, the store can’t make money unless CCP makes it more desirous to be a part of one group or another.  For CCP to re-establish the store indicates a PERMANENT intent to develop the backstory, the history, the Lore, and the character of Eve Online, which will also entail DUST 514 into that context.

Yes, it will be very interesting in the next year.

Side Effects

So my wife has some medical issues that she has been dealing with for a little while.  Fortunately we have pretty decent health insurance and this has been a benefit because we have gotten into a situation where my wife’s health problem hasn’t been very easy to figure out.

We’ve since figured most of it out and in the process found out that all of the doctors we visited were right, despite having differing diagnosis.  And subsequently, all of them were equally wrong as well.  Funny.  Not “Funny Ha-Ha”, more like “Funny, This Should Be Illegal.”

Part of finding this information out was that my wife had to have an Endoscopy.  If you are unfamiliar with the procedure, it is basically where they drug you up, lay you on your side, then slide a very small camera down your throat to look into your stomach and intestines.  Pretty easy right?  Well, all except for the part about not being able to eat for half the day prior to the procedure.  And when you do that procedure at two in the afternoon, that pretty much cuts out any meals after last night’s dinner.

Yeah…

So my wife is awake and she seems somewhat lucid, though the doctors remind me that she may get dizzy from time to time as the drug wears off.  No worries I say to myself as I walk with her arm in my arm through the hospital.  Sure, she’s a bit disheveled, but she doesn’t seem to be concerned about that (which should have been a clue right there..)

As we pass the cafeteria, I ask my wife if she’s hungry.  My wife gives me the answer, “I’m just a little hungry.”, which in the past meant that she could wait a little bit before she really needed to eat.  Being the dutiful husband I try to be, I decided that we’ll skip the hospital food and try to find a nicer place.. a place with much better food.  So we continue to the car and leave the hospital.

Did I mention that it is 6pm on a Wednesday?  No?

How about the fact that the hospital was in downtown Seattle?  I missed saying that, didn’t I?

Now you see the flaw in my logic.  I’m not a bad city driver, and I am certainly better than most Seattle drivers as most Seattle drivers think that speed limits posted on all two lane roads are 10-20 mph too fast. That is until there is a passing lane whereupon they will easily do 90+mph to make sure you don’t pass them (it has happened to me far too often for me not to believe that it isn’t taught as part of their curriculum).  However, at 6pm you don’t have a lot of wiggle room to get into the lanes you need to get out of Seattle.  It took me two tries and some impressive sign language skills to finally get myself on the interstate going East.

The traffic, however, is still pretty bad and as I dodge drivers who are driving badly while illegally discussing their daily events on the iPhones and who are putting all their effort in driving in my blind spot, I only viscerally notice that my wife’s mood is getting more and more sour.

Out of the blue she pipes up,”I’m sick.  I get sick when I’m hungry!”  Her face is suddenly a cross between bitter rage and a pout.  It’s not cute and it is the first time I actually understand that I am in big trouble while doing 35mph on a 70mph highway in bumper to bumper traffic.  I ask her what she would like to eat.  She responds in an angry pout, “I don’t know?!”  Sensing that I am not doing well at all, I notice that there is an exit for the carpool lane, which we can move into.  Traffic suddenly speeds up, and I look to my left, then to my right, then back to my left to turn..

And I miss it.  About fifty feet after the missed exit, traffic slows down to ten miles per hour as we go into one of Seattle’s many tunnels.

We emerge from the tunnel about five minutes later, still going an astounding 10mph.  I notice the carpool lane as cars zip by at 60 to 70mph and disappear up the road in the same amount of time it takes for me to sigh.  I’ve stopped talking to my wife because the response I usually get is just an “I don’t know.”, or a glare given to me in the same manner as when a little kid pouts when she doesn’t get a toy.

We keep moving slowly over the bridge and into another tunnel when traffic starts to pick up.  Soon we’re doing 35 then 70 and I notice that quite a few people are exiting off a ramp and it looks like there might be some restaurants in the area.  So I make my way and take the off-ramp, somewhat relieved that we might finally find a place to eat.  My expectation is heightened when I see, from the overpass, that there is a “Subway” nearby.

I ask my wife, “Do you want eat at Subway?”

Her reply comes back, “Noo.. “ The way she says it sounds like “Nooo-wa”, with a little tear at the end.  So I drive on thinking that, with all this traffic, I should soon be able to find a restaurant to my wife’s liking soon…

…forgetting that I am driving in Seattle.

See, Seattle has some crazy driving dynamics to it.  One of those dynamics is that, just because a lot of traffic going through some areas.. doesn’t really mean that someone has put up anything useful, such as a restaurant.  Sure enough, I follow traffic on the road, drop into a residential area where there were zero restaurants.  Block after block of schools, churches, parks, houses…But no restaurants.

So I have to turn around.  In rush hour traffic.

Making my way back to the interstate, I notice a small turn off going towards the “Subway” joint I saw earlier.  I take it in desperation because my wife is really “unhappy” at this point.  I use the term “unhappy” in the same way that getting shot is “uncomfortable”.

Now the turn lane that I take, while looking completely legitimate, turns out to drop me into a Volkswagon dealership instead of a normal road.  However, at this point, my stress aura levels were such that every salesman inherently felt that it would be a bad idea to be in the car lot right about then and specifically anywhere near a blue SUV.  While I am driving through the car lot, I see a Dairy Queen.  I ask my wife if she wants to stop there.  Another “no.”  I see a Teriaki place, and a classic American Style joint.  “No.” again to both of those.

My own personal desperation and frustration levels are nearing an all time high when I hear my wife say, “Let’s go to that Chinese restaurant.”  Sure enough, in between rows of cars and buildings I see the letters “ESE” written in the “American Standard Asian Lettering Specific to Chinese Restaurants” font.  Her comment is followed shortly by, “I think I am going to throw up.”

Quickly, while endeavoring to follow at least one traffic law, I cut into traffic, pass through an intersection, and stop in front of the restaurant.  My wife promptly exits the car, runs behind it, and pukes.  Talk about good timing.

Fortunately, the amount that comes up is tiny because she hasn’t had anything to eat.  So, I take my wife’s arm and walk her into the restaurant.  We get seated fairly quickly as there is no one in the restaurant.  We’re sitting down when the waiter comes up and starts to talk to us about what to order.  I say “starts” because he doesn’t actually finish.  My wife is clearly not feeling her best right now and the waiter isn’t sure if I just finished beating her or if she is just some scary American hick from the sticks.

Our waiter at least gives us some glasses of water and I quickly order a couple of appetizers.  Apparently he now sees the desperation in my eyes. He leaves and starts yelling at the cook in the back.  I don’t know Chinese but it sounded desperate and panicky, so I thought I had conveyed my situation accurately.  My wife then states that she had puke in her hair.  She doesn’t try to wash it out.  Within about five minutes my wife has her first food of the day with BBQ Pork and Crab Rangoons.  The waiter swiftly takes our meal order and, seeing that the world is still not right, proceeds to again yell at the cook.

Now BBQ Pork is one of my favorite dishes, but on that day I feared for my hand each time I reached for a piece.  I think I had only a third of the dish before my famished wife devoured the rest.  She had also eaten three of the four Crab Rangoons that the waiter had brought.  As she finished the third one, she looked me straight in the eye, in a way that was reminiscent of the standoff at the OK corral, and said, “You better have one of those Rangoons.  They are really good and if you don’t eat it, I will.”

Meekly, and with some fear for my life, I picked up the remaining Rangoon and ate it.  Sure enough, she was right.  One of the best Rangoons I ever had.  It didn’t help, however, that she was watching me eat every, single, bite.

The strange and eerie standoff was thankfully broken when our main course was delivered.  My wife’s mood slowly starts to change as she eats.  She even asks how my food is, which was pleasantly spicy, and she did it while not looking like something out of the movie, “Kill Bill, Vol. 2”.  I did halfway expect the Five-Finger Heart Exploding Death Punch though (that is why I was thankful for the wide tables). I eventually felt safe enough to ask her if this was what she wanted, whereupon she states:  “Yes, this has all the flavors.  I needed to have all the flavors.”

Yes, you heard correctly, apparently Chinese food has ALL of the flavors.

The rest of the meal went on uneventfully as my wife’s normally good humor returned albeit still somewhat drugged.  We left and got her some of the over the counter medicine that the doctor told us to get and soon we were once again on our way east, back to home.

We drive through the curves going up through Snoqualmie pass without incident, stopping for gas on the way.  We head over the pass back down onto the plains and everything goes along merrily as my lovely wife leans back and goes to sleep.  The drive was quiet and uneventful.

Until my wife yells at the top of her lungs, “WATCH OUT!!” and hits me.  I frantically look in every direction for whatever is coming at us, slowing down the SUV, checking every mirror, looking over my shoulders…

And see my wife sleeping soundly in her seat.  “What the he..?, is all I could say.

I calm down a bit and continue to drive on the interstate as we go by the town of Ellensburg.  Ellensburg is interesting because the interstate skirts around the town before heading off to Spokane, allowing you to have a scenic view of.. well.. truck stops and fast food restaurants.  There isn’t a whole lot to see really.

And as such I quietly enjoy passing the town, thinking to myself how close to home we are, and driving on a nice straightaway when I get hit hard by my wife who again yells out “WATCH OUT!”  Having seen accidents on this particular stretch of road, and knowing that local cows sometimes get out, my mind goes into overdrive.  My eyes scan the road as I slow down and look for whatever my now snoring wife… yes, she is snoring.

I relax.

Then she hits me again screaming “WATCH OUT!”, causing me to swerve the car.

I spend the rest of the drive hunched up near the door, driving slowly home muttering, “Dizzy?  This is what they call “Dizzy”?!

Blog Banter 46 – Time to Open a New Playbook

“EVE Online is a unique piece of science fiction that is ‘participatory’.”- CCP Seagull, December 2012

EVE Online is heading into its Second Decade with renewed vigour and a new development strategy. At the CSM Summit in December, Executive Producer CCP Unifex and Development Director CCP Seagull explained how future development and expansions will be broader in scope than recent “collections of features” stating that CCP “want to create something more inspirational, that players aspire to play.”

With the return of Live Events such as the Battle for Caldari Prime, clearly the prime fiction of EVE is back in favour as part of this new thematic approach to expansions. However, EVE’s story is very much a tale of two playstyles, with an entirely player-driven narrative unfolding daily in parallel to the reinvigorated backstory. Often, they do not mix well. How can these two disparate elements be united or at least comfortably co-exist in a single sandbox universe?

 

An interesting Blog Banter from Stan.  So, I did this interview..

Which was ALL about what we are discussing right now.

I got that interview because of this post.

In that post I show that both can exist, and even support each other.  But you gotta drop the old playbook.

What is the “old playbook” you may ask?  It’s the book where the following things happen:

• The event starts in one location
• Everybody is invited
• The ending is pre-determined

The is Eve.  There is every reason to up the game, to trash the old playbook in such a way that game like WoW or Lotro will NEVER be able to compare or compete.

The old playbook doesn’t work here because, as I mentioned before:

• In other games, it takes a few minutes to go from where you are to the event site, then a few minutes to get back again.  In Eve, that’s just not reasonable.
• In other games, what you are in is good enough.  That again doesn’t work for Eve Online, because ships have different roles and a big battleship isn’t the best ship for everything.
• In other games, what you are currently doing isn’t so important you can’t step away from it.  In Eve, that is certainly not the case.

To see what the playbook could really be, check out my original post.

Fighting Back in Curse

So Kraken. is starting to feel at home nowadays in its little corner of Curse.  Our forces are well known in our sector of space.  Well, more like known of in our section of space.  Are we some massive train of destruction causing fear and trembling at the mere sight of one of our shuttles..?

Latest Curse Stats for March

Not quite (though it would be cool to see how they got that info..).

However, we were able to add a tad more fear to the locals by our successful raid into Immensea.. and all that.

So, um, FEAR THE KRAKEN AND ITS THRASHERS OF.. well, I could say Doom but that is a bit cliche right now isn’t it.

FEAR THE KRAKEN AND ITS THRASHERS OF.. well, inconvience, maybe.. perhaps?  Maybe another “I” word.  Incoherience?

Thrashers of Despair?

Thrashers of Uncomfortably Bad Acting?

Oh! Oh! Oh!  GET THRASHER’D BY KRAKEN!!

(Hey, YOU do better, okay?)

But anyways, today we did show that we had some skill.  Right now, one of the local heavies is doing their best to blockade us in the UW9B/K-M dead end.  In theory it’s not a bad plan.  However, since they aren’t really all that committed to the project, and the fact that we operate in smaller ships, their blockade isn’t as successful as they certain had hoped.  It also doesn’t help that when you jump into system, your ship is already pointed at a celestial.  So, no bubble, no problem.

We started off today with a form-up in our usual system of UW9B.  Fortunately, we’ve started to experiment with more powerful ships, i.e. Destroyers and Cruisers instead of frigates.  This time around we chose to run a Destroyer gang and much to my surprise..

I got to be scout.

Let me preface this.  I haven’t done serious scouting duties since before the Northern Coalition existed.  I simply have too many skillpoints and can fly so many ships that I tend to go into the more skill intense roles, like Logi or Recons.  Now, that doesn’t mean I am a total noob.  I am officially a child of null-sec and as such I had pre-prepared with gate warps and the like.  Still, it doesn’t mean I didn’t scream excitedly when we ran into Pandemic Legion group down the line.  But more on that later..

First hurtle was G-G, where our fleet of twenty roared passed three Tornados sitting 150-200 off of the gate.  They didn’t even get a lock on any of us as we warped on through.  We did a bit of fleet manuvering and I was no longer scout.  FC decided to go a different route and I had to backtrack.  Our FC took over scouting duties (yeah, I know).  We kept on moving through Curse into Wicked Creek to get our first kill, also his pod.  Not sure if he was just unprepared or this was just a failed hot drop.  His buddy stopped by and we got his Mammoth (yes, he passed through our gate camp not once.. but once and a half in the Mammoth) and his pod as well.

We moved on from a fairly good camp to move slightly through Detroid our scout and the quicker of our group tagged this guy and his pod. We moved into Immensea and dropped on a station Cyno and his pod.  A capital pilot tried to scare us off with his Chimera.  Yeah, he docked right back up..

Immensea proved to be a good hunting ground as we snagged a new Prophecy… in a ratting fit.  A guy flying a rookie ship.  A pod, and another pod.  Of course, it didn’t last.

We got baited by a Mach, a couple in our group got confused when the Mach dropped on the gate and the gate lit up.  It was assumed that the Mach jumped, so most of their fleet jumped.  Well, all except for me.  I snag the Mach and it aggressed.  The rest of our fleet jump back in… but as soon as our crew jumped in, local spiked and we tried to bail.  We lost a couple ships.  Including the FC.  However, we switched to our secondary FC and had me go scout again and snagged a Rifter who didn’t do hiss proper D-Scan.

From that time, we attempted to work with some locals to take out some Talos, who figured out we were being buddies and they ran to a wormhole.  Next, we avoided a conflict between Pandemic Legion and Paradigm. in VOL., which made me scream like a little girl cuz, I do that when I see Pandemic Legion waltz through everything because of their supercap fleet that shows up every time one of them sneezes.

Still, on our way home, I actually tackled a Thorax.  I wasn’t intending to.  I was trying to get a Scythe, but he escaped and this Thorax pretty much just stared at me wondering why I was in his backyard.  Yes, he figured it out.  Then snagged another rookie frig before finally reaching home.

And again, avoiding a non-existent blockade at G-G.

oh, and I played Blink.  Game over.

 

Navy Battlecruisers – All that you could want, and in some cases, had.

So, there was this post a long time ago wondering why we didn’t have Navy Issue Battlecruisers.

Well, now we have them.  And strangely enough, in at least one case, we had it all along.

Presenting the newest ships to be released with Odyssey: The Navy Issue Battlecruisers:

First in the line-up is the former top dog of Amarr Battlecruisers, then Harbinger.  It has been brought into new life…

HARBINGER NAVY ISSUE

We decided to give this ship some much needed flexibility by adding a 5th medium slot, and replacing the Medium Energy Turret capacitor reduction bonus with a 7.5% Medium Energy Turret tracking bonus per level. However, the drone bay has been slightly reduced next to its regular counterpart.

• Amarr Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% medium energy turret damage and +7.5% to medium energy turret tracking per level
• Slot layout: 7 H, 5 M, 6 L, 6 turrets, 0 launchers
• Fittings: 1495 PWG, 410 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 4500 / 7500 / 6750
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 3125 / 822 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 150 / 0.69 / 13800000 / 13.2 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 50
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km / 210 / 6
• Sensor strength: 21 Radar
• Signature radius: 270

So, the Navy Issue Harbinger gets back to its damage dealing roots with a nice damage bonus and tracking bonus which will be beloved by those laser lovers.  The drone bay reduction really isn’t a big deal as you still have enough to have a wing of medium drones or two wings of small drones (likely a set of damage and a set of ECM smalls).  Its agility and speed are the same as the current standard Harbinger, but the Powergrid is equal to pre-Retribution and the CPU has been boosted as well.  With five midslots, expect Shield tanked versions of these ships to be the new standard.

DRAKE NAVY ISSUE:

Unwilling to imitate our dear friend Victor by creating a Drakenstein monster, the Navy version focuses on flexibility instead of improving the already good raw firepower and tank of the standard Drake. It has a 10% missile velocity and 5% missile explosion radius bonus per level, 8 launchers and improved mobility.

• Caldari Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to heavy missile and heavy assault missile velocity and 5% bonus to explosion radius of heavy missile and heavy assault missile per level
• Slot layout: 8 H, 6 M, 4 L, 0 turrets, 8 launchers
• Fittings: 880 PWG, 550 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull) :7875 / 4875 / 5625
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 2500 / 658 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 150 / 0.64 / 13329000 / 11.8 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25 / 25
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 60km / 195 / 8
• Sensor strength: 23 Gravimetric
• Signature radius: 295

The new Navy Issue Drake gets back the High slot it lost while retaining its mid and low slots.  The Damage bonuses along with the extra missile launcher will mean that more damage gets on target sooner and more effectively than the standard issue Drake.  The downside is that the tank is significantly less resistant, though it does gain a nearly 50% shield HP increase.  Its higher speed and agility, coupled with about 1mil m3 less mass will give it some options in using speed.  The other thing is that both the powergrid and the CPU have been upgraded over the Standard Drake setup so many of your old pre-Retribution fit will fit rather nicely on this hull.
BRUTIX NAVY ISSUE

This vessel is an iteration over the regular version. The Armor Repairer amount bonus has been swapped for a 7.5% Medium Hybrid Turret tracking bonus per level, another low slot has been added and it is a bit more maneuverable as well.

• Gallente Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to medium hybrid turret damage and 7.5% bonus to medium hybrid turret tracking per level
• Slot layout: 7 H, 4 M, 7 L, 6 turrets, 0 launchers
• Fittings: 1235 PWG, 455 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull): 5250 / 6750 / 7125
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 3000 / 789 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 155 / 0.704 / 11875000 / 11.6 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 50
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km / 200 / 7
• Sensor strength: 22 Magnetometric
• Signature radius: 305

Oh, if Gallente pilots could have had a wet dream, this would be it.  In what must be a virtual slap in the face to the frogs, CCP has decided to remove the repair bonus from the Navy Issue model and replace it with a tracking mod.  Shields, Armor, and Hull have been massively upgraded in comparison to the post-Retribution Brutix.  Powergrid and CPU also have been pushed up for the Navy Issue, and this has been supplemented with an extra low and a bit less mass.  This ship is likely going to show up on the battlefield in two flavors:  A Shield, heavy DPS version with 3x Magstabs and 3x TEs, but a little light on tank or a Heavily tanked nut that could also field long range Railguns.  This is absolutely the ship you wanna use if you have Armor Honeycombing trained up.

HURRICANE FLEET ISSUE

Over its regular version, this ship has 8 high slots, two utility slots, slightly more mobility and fittings, while the role itself doesn’t change. Kind of reminds us of something, but what could that be? Memory must be playing tricks on us.
• Minmatar Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +5% to medium projectile damage and 5% bonus to medium projectile rate of fire per level
• Slot layout: 8 H, 4 M, 6 L, 6 turrets, 3 launchers
• Fittings: 1235 PWG, 420 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull): 6375 / 6750 / 5250
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 2250 / 592 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 165 / 0.704 / 12500000 / 12.2 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 30 / 30
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km / 220 / 6
• Sensor strength: 20 Ladar
• Signature radius: 250

Oh.. haha.. a trick of the memory.  Yes, a wonderfully sad trick about how we Minmatar lost our best and favorite Tech 1 ship, only to get it sold back to us for more isk.  Gotta love those “diminishing returns”, right guys?  First, the bad news.  The Navy Issue Hurricane is ALMOST like our old love, but while it did get increased powergrid and a little more CPU, the powergrid still is short from the original Hurricane model.  It also managed to get a tad bit fatter while off sipping margaritas in CCP’s backyard scarp pile.  On the plus side, the Hurricane snagged a 50% bonus to shield, armor, and hull HP as well as a significant increase in the sensor stats.

Cost Plus

No idea what these ships will cost but I figure that they will at least take a month before we see the serious price range show up as usual.  I figure serious price will be in the 170 to 200mil isk range because the LP costs run roughly about half of Navy issue Battleships.  I also think they will probably get a secondary boost as people stop buying Navy issue cruisers to see if they can jump on the Battlecruiser bandwagon.  Having the deficit of Navy Cruisers, their prices will go up and push the price of Navy BCs up that much more.  These battlecruisers have significantly upgraded stats, and combat focused bonuses, which will make them utterly dangerous to just about any cruiser to battleship engagement.  The interesting note is that many of the old Pre-retribution fits will work quite well in these ships.

Meta Creep Worries?

Kirith Kodachi has written an interesting article on what might be some interesting issues related to the release of Navy Issue BCs.

General PVP Prowess of new Navy Issue BCs

Will we see many of these Navy Issue BCs in effective combat practice.  Yes, but likely on in more specialized and better trained smaller fleets.  The reason behind it is that all it does is the same role as attack battlecruisers do, only a little better.. at a 4x to 5x price.  Not good numbers there for the larger fleets to try and field, particularly since the recently released Tier 3 Battlecruisers like the Tornado, Naga, etc are still able to fulfill that role regardless with support (as the larger fleets are likely to have).  In essence, what you have is what amounts to a pirate boost.  A ship that is just as fast (faster in some cases) as current BCs, with a much, much better tank, similar fitting requirements and more combat orientated bonuses.  If pirates were thinking that CCP busily crapping on them, this had better make them think twice.

You may see these ships also begin a role in the fleets of Faction Warfare.  Likely the income generated from the sales of these ships will allow those in FW to fly these better class of ships into battle more often, mowing down enemy standard BCs with relative ease.

Curse Lives Up To Its Name and CCP Looks at Battleships

So.. let’s take a look at our killboard shall we?  April has been none to kind to us.  Of course, that’s not counting the slaughter-fest that is currently going on right now (which raised it up two billion isk, from this morning).  Needless to say, we are still on our learning curve since striking it out into 0.0 NPC null-sec.  This, of course, has gardnered some attention by a mad king.  At least, they aren’t as bad as CVA was in its prime.

The three biggest classes of losses are the frigates, battlecruisers, and Covert Ops.  Frigate losses were 4:1, Battlecruiser losses were an astounding 5.375:1, and CovOps were 8.5:1.  None of those are easy numbers.  However, none of them can be unexpected of an alliance new to null-sec.  Frigate lossmails show that we are still operating under the FW mindset, expecting similar class ships to fight as well as not expecting more expensive ships, or better anti-frig weapons like Smartbombs.  Our battlecruisers seem to be picked off by larger BC fleets or even by a few Black Ops runs.  I chalk this up to the learning curve in Curse, which is very steep.  I think we’ll probably see another month or so of BC losses at the very least before we get a better feel of what is going on and how our enemies operate.

Covert Ops ship losses are primarily stealth bomber losses, which while powerful in certain situations, are too fragile in many operations and considering how new our playerbase is, losses like these are to be expected.

——————–

So, aside from the world of Kraken, CCP has been very busy getting itself caught up on Tiercide.  And below are the recent changes to Battleships that are planned of Odyssey:

Minmatar Battleship Changes

Alright, so what does Tiercide have for Minmatar battleships?  Here’s what CCP Fozzie has in store:

Maelstrom:

Like most of the other former tier 3s, the Maelstrom is very healthy in its current form and will not be changing.

Minmatar Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire
+7.5% bonus to Shield Boost Amount

Slot layout: 8H, 6M, 5L; 8 turrets , 0 launchers
Fittings: 21000 PWG, 640 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 8000 / 7500 / 700
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 6000 / 1250s / 4.8
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 94 / .136 / 103600000 / 19.53s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 100 / 100
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 75km / 90 / 7
Sensor strength: 21 Ladar Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 460

Yeah, no changes.  So guess my fits will still work.  Care on..

Tempest:

The tempest is a survivor. While its rarely seemed dominant, it consistently finds a place in the ever-evolving meta, and so we saw no reason to make drastic changes. It will be grouped as ‘combat’ and therefor receives a slight powergrid increase, substantial hitpoint increase, and several other minor adjustments. It will still function somewhere between attack and combat as it always has, and we’re happy with that.

Minmatar Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire
+5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret damage

Slot layout: 8H, 5M, 6L; 6 turrets , 4 launchers
Fittings: 16000 PWG(+500), 550 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7800(+846) / 7800(+1589) / 7100(+459)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 5400(+87.5) / 1154s / 4.68
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 120 / .12 / 103300000 / 17.18s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 75 / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 67.5km(+5k) / 100 / 7
Sensor strength: 20 Ladar Sensor Strength(+1)
Signature radius: 420(+60)

Slot layout stays the same, which means that the “Survivor” actually remains so.   Good changes: Some more PG and lots of necessary HP.  Bad change: Unnecessary change to sig radius and no changes to CPU.

Typhoon:

The flying garbage can is a very special ship. It seems to be very fondly regarded by most eve pilots, despite prohibitive skill point demands and minimal rewards. Our redesign here aims to honor the spirit of the typhoon while also providing a more focused base that will hopefully lead to more actual application.

It will lose the split weapon bonus (as all tech 1 ships have as part of the tiericide initiative) and will replace the projectile bonus with a missile explosion velocity bonus. Along with the addition of 6th launcher, the Typhoon will now be a very formidable damage dealer. Utility has always been one of the Typhoon’s strong points, and it will be sacrificing some of this utility to take on such a strong attack role – this is a point for which we are paying close attention to your feedback.

While we are agreed that this version looks extremely fun and powerful, we also expect this to be sensitive for many players, especially those have heavily invested in making use of all three weapons platforms. If you’re one of those that has cherished access to projectiles, missiles, and drones, we would encourage you to remember that the Navy battleships, which will get looked at soon, will likely be able to fill some spaces created by the tech 1 rebalance.

It should also be mentioned that we hope to have a look at cruise missiles and torpedos in time for the summer expansion as well.

Minmatar Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% to Cruise and Torpedo launcher rate of fire
+5% Cruise Missile and Torpedo explosion velocity (replaces large projectile rate of fire)

Slot layout: 7H(-1), 5M(+1), 7L; 0 turrets(-5) , 6 launchers(+1)
Fittings: 12500 PWG, 640 CPU(+40)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6500(+289) / 6000(+531) / 6000(-211)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 5400(+400) / 1087s / 4.97 (+.3)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 130 / .11(-.006) / 103600000(-2000000) / 15.8s(-1.16s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 100(-125) / 100(-75)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 65km(+5k) / 115 / 7
Sensor strength: 19 Ladar Sensor Strength(+1)
Signature radius: 350(+30)

This was the one I was wondering about.  Mainly because of the changes to the Fleet Issue Scythe and the Cyclone there was some question as to how this was going to play out.  Unfortunately, all this has turned out to be is a “Rusty Raven”.  The new Raven has better missile bonuses, but the Typhoon has more drones it can field.  The big downside is that it has lost a LOT of drone space.  The plus side is that it goes get an additional midslot.  The changes will not likely make the Typhoon used more in PVP, but likely this will carry the PVE mantle from now on.

Caldari Battleship Changes

Rokh:

The Rokh, like most of the former tier 3 battleships, is in a very healthy place currently. It hasn’t been changed, except for a tweak to the resist bonus. This change is significant, and we are going to dedicate an entire thread to discussing the power of resistance bonuses later in the day. If you want to talk about this bonus here, in relation to the Rokh specifically, feel free. The general idea from our end is that the current bonus to resistance is one of the most powerful ship bonuses in the game. It adds to the power of local tanks (active and passive) as well as remote tanks, which has consistently positioned ships with this bonus at the center of some of the most powerful gameplay available. We feel that the Rokh is a good example of this powerful gameplay, and expect it to thrive despite this change.

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+10% to large Hybrid Turret optimal range
+4% Shield resistances per level (-1% per level)

Slot layout: 8H, 6M, 5L; 8 turrets , 4 launchers
Fittings: 15000 PWG, 780 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 8500 / 7000 / 7500
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / recharge per second) : 6000 / 1250s / 4.8
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 89 / .136 / 105300000 / 19.85s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 50
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 90km / 75 / 7
Sensor strength: 24 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 500

Hmm.. a small 1% loss in resists.  Definitely will add up considering how much resists this ship generally fields.

Raven:

The (cavalry)Raven is becoming the Caldari attack battleship. Its bonuses were a natural fit already, and although its giving up some base hitpoints, the substantial increase to speed and added mid should open up plenty of new opportunities for Caldari missile pilots without hurting anyone who was already happy using it.

Its also gaining power grid and CPU output so that torp focused fits and fits that want to use propulsion mods are more easily accessible. Keep in mind that we will be taking a more detailed look at battleship sized missile systems in the near future.

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% bonus to Cruise and Torpedo Launcher rate of fire
+10% bonus to Cruise Missile Torpedo Velocity

Slot layout: 7H(-1), 7M(+1), 5L; 0 turrets , 6 launchers
Fittings: 11000 PWG(+1500), 750(+50) CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6800(-700) / 5800(-841) / 6400(-241)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / recharge per second) : 5500(+187.5) / 1160s / 4.74
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 113(+19) / .12(-.008) / 99300000 / 16.52s (-1.1s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50(-25) / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 75km / 85 / 7
Sensor strength: 22 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 420(-50)

An extra midslot, Powergrid, and CPU definately makes up for a little less base shields.  Overall this ship gets a much better tank.

Scorpion:

The Scorpion, while being an oddity in the battleship line up, seems fairly happy. We have adjusted its hitpoints slightly, so they would roughly match the attack set, but otherwise there are no changes.

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength
25% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal and falloff range
25% bonus to ECM Burst range

Slot layout: 6H, 8M, 4L; 4 turrets , 4 launchers
Fittings: 9000 PWG, 750 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7000(+359) / 5500 / 6500(+1031)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / recharge per second) : 5500(+187.5) / 1087s / 5.06
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 94 / .116 / 103600000 / 16.66s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 75 / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 90km / 110 / 7
Sensor strength: 24 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 480

So, more shield and hull for a ship that is usually armor tanked in PVP.  Overall, the effective change to this ship is nil.

Amarr Battleship Changes

Abaddon:

The Abaddon, price aside, was clearly the most dominant of the Amarr line-up. We’ve left it totally in-tact as your go-to laser brawler, except for the resist bonus tweak. This change is significant, and we are going to dedicate an entire thread to discussing the power of resistance bonuses later in the day. If you want to talk about this bonus here, in relation to the Abaddon specifically, feel free. The general idea from our end is that the current bonus to resistance is one of the most powerful ship bonuses in the game. It adds to the power of local tanks (active and passive) as well as remote tanks, which has consistently positioned ships with this bonus at the center of some of the most powerful gameplay available to combat pilots. We feel that the Abaddon is strong enough to perform perfectly well with the slight loss in resist.

Amarr Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% to Large Energy Turret damage
+4% Armor resistances (-1% per level)

Slot layout: 8H, 4M, 7L; 8 turrets, 0 launchers
Fittings: 21000 PWG, 560 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7000 / 8500 / 8000
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / recharge per second) : 6375 / 1250s / 5.1
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 89 / .14 / 125000000 / 20.03s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 75 / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 80km / 85 / 7
Sensor strength: 22 Radar Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 470

This is interesting, as Abaddons tended to be the end-all/be-all of battleship combat.  The common Arty Abaddon setup attests to that fact.  This change effectively forces every to be as if they had Battleship IV instead of V, or III instead of IV.

Apocalypse:

We decided to use the Apocalypse as the secondary laser platform, rather than the Armageddon for two main reasons. Firstly, one had to have drones, and the Armageddon already did. Secondly, the Apocalypse’s optimal range bonus was unique and was already providing a niche (albeit small) and we didn’t want to destroy that. After a few iterations we’ve decided to remove the cap use bonus and add a tracking bonus to the Apocalypse, making it a king for damage application. It will also be Amarr’s Attack battleship, meaning it has received increased base speed, agility, lowered signature resolution, and slightly lowered hitpoints. It is also getting an increase to power grid and CPU so that beams are a more viable option in the future.

There is some concern that the new Apoc will have a significant cap weakness, which will make it too similar to the Abaddon. We’ve lowered the base cap, but raised the recharge rate some too compensate. We’re hoping that this ship will be exciting enough to offset any cap-based difficulty, but will be paying close attention to feedback.

Amarr Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+7.5% to Large Energy Turret optimal range
+7.5% Large Energy Turret tracking speed (replaced large energy turret cap use)

Slot layout: 8H, 4M, 7L; 8 turrets , 0 launchers
Fittings: 21000 PWG(+500), 540 CPU(+35)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6000(-211) / 6800(-700) / 7000(+359)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / recharge per second) : 6700(-800) / 1002s(-152s) / 6.69 (+.19)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 113(+19) / .119(-.017) / 97100000 / 16.02s (-2.29s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50(-25) / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 73km(+5.5k) / 95 / 7
Sensor strength: 20 Radar Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 380(-20)

I haven’t flown the Apoc, nor have I seen it very much recently in PVP combat now that Long Range conflicts aren’t all that common.  However, I could see Apocs becoming more popular in PVP with the very nice optimal and tracking speed combo.

Armageddon:

This is a fun one. Bet you guys didn’t think my first two projects would be to slow down the Talos and throw the old Armageddon out the window! But! I think its the best thing for the race line overall. What we’ve done here is make the Armageddon an echo to the new dragoon destroyer. It makes sense for Amarr to have a battleship variation that rewards players who’ve trained for dragoon -> arbitrator -> prophecy, and with the neut range bonus, the Armageddon should be a huge payoff. As the Armageddon is falling under ‘combat’ it will receive a substantial hitpoint boost, sensor strength boost, sig increase, and speed decrease.

While we understand that this is a very powerful ship, it should not be oppressive. Hopefully it will offer a new type of challenge to fly and fly against. To anyone who is very sad to see the old Armageddon go, I encourage to you consider that if left the same, it would have been even more crowded by the Abaddon as a result of the price adjustment than it already was. Again, we look forward to your feedback.

Amarr Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+10% to Drone damage and Hit Points (replaced large energy turret rate of fire)
+10% Energy Neutralizer and Energy Vampire range (replaced large energy turret cap use)

Slot layout: 7H(-1), 4M(+1), 7L(-1); 5 turrets(-2) , 5 launchers(+5)
Fittings: 14500 PWG(-2000), 550 CPU(+65)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6800(+1331) / 8500(+1859) / 8000(+1789)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 6200(+887.5) / 1087s / 5.7
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 100(-5) / .13(+.002) / 105200000 / 18.96s (+.29)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 125 / 375(+250)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 65km / 110 / 7
Sensor strength: 21 Radar Sensor Strength (+4)
Signature radius: 450 (+80)

Well, this definitely puts many of the classic Domi PVP fits to shame.  I am actually excited to see how this fit plays out.

Gallente Battleship Changes

Hyperion:

The Hyperion in a tight spot. We can acknowledge that for the moment active armor tanking is struggling to find a place. We know that many of you would be happier to have the Hyperion lose this bonus and pick up something more practical in today’s Eve. However, we’re committed to helping armor find its place, and so, to keep continuity with the rest of the Gallente line-up, the Hyp will keep its current bonuses.

It will be gaining a low slot (giving up a mid), hopefully making its purpose as a pure brawler more realistic.

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% Large Hybrid Turret damage
+7.5% Armor Repair amount

Slot layout: 8H, 4M(-1), 7L(+1); 8 turrets , 0 launchers(-1)
Fittings: 15750 PWG, 600 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7500 / 8000 / 8500
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 7200 / 1250s / 4.8
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 115 / .1178 / 100200000 / 16.36s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 100 / 100
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 60km / 110 / 7
Sensor strength: 23 Magnetometric Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 485

Well, the Gallente’s version of the Maelstrom is still getting a bit of an upgrade.  A reduction of one mid for one low finally forces it into the armor tanking realm.  With the recent addition of the AARs, it will certainly be interesting to see how this ship fields in PVP.

Megathron:

Let me say it right out – 8 high, 5 mid, 6 low. With the Megathron moving into an attack role explicitly, we felt that it could really focus on its strengths as a flexible, fast, hybrid damage machine. The new slot layout opens options like dual propulsion with microwarp drive as well as microjump drive. It opens options to tank with shield or armor. It offers more ewar resilience or tackle. The sum of all of these examples is a ship that feels more like a tempest, less like a Hyperion. For us, this matches the intended personality of an attack ship, and we hope you agree.

We’ve also moved some of its damage from drones to the guns by switching the damage bonus to a rate of fire bonus (rate of fire bonus are more efficient because of the way the math works. Think about how a ship with 50% bonus to rate of fire would shoot twice as often, doing double damage. That would be the same as a 100% turret damage bonus). The result is that more of your damage can capitalize on the tracking bonus, at a small penalty to cap need.

As one of Eve’s most iconic ships, we expect you to have strong opinions here. Please share them. We’re very excited about this version of the ship and hope you are too!

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% Large Hybrid Turret rate of fire (replaces large hybrid turret damage)
+7.5% Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed

Slot layout: 8H, 5M(+1), 6L(-1); 7 turrets , 0 launchers(-2)
Fittings: 16000 PWG(+500), 550 CPU(+25)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6300(+89) / 6500(-141) / 7500
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 5800(+175) / 1087s / 5.02 (+.15)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 122(+7) / .117(-.0046) / 98400000 / 15.96s (-.63s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 100(-25) / 125
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 72.5km / 95 / 7
Sensor strength: 21 Magnetometric Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 380(-20)

I think these changes will remake the Megathron into a Superstar once again.  The Rate of Fire change will produce more DPS overall (especially since they have a 5 second reload), and the midslot will allow for more useful e-war or cap modules.  It is more mobile and a smaller target to hit.  It looks like it will have less armor tanking and less drone DPS, but the net will make this ship much more formitable.

Dominix:

With the Dominix we’ve abandoned the split weapon bonus (hybrids and drones) and moved it to a fully dedicated drone ship by adding a drone optimal and tracking bonus. We hope that this new bonus will provide a very strong Gallente fleet option in the Dominix, via sentry drones. It will of course also be stronger at short range using heavy drones. As a combat battleship, its received increased hitpoints across the board, increased mass (it got its mass lowered during the hybrid buff), increased cap pool, and increased sig.

We believe this is a very exciting direction for the Dominix, and hope you will too!

I also want to mention here that while the drone system overall needs looking at, we here on the balance team have some short term ideas for helping the usability of sentry drones – no timeframe on them as of yet, but its something we have in mind.

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+10% Drone Damage and Drone hitpoints
+10% Drone optimal range and Drone tracking speed (replaces large hybrid turret damage)

Slot layout: 6H, 5M, 7L; 6 turrets , 0 launchers
Fittings: 9000 PWG, 600 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7200(+1731) / 8000(+1789) / 8500(+1859)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 6000(+1000) / 1087s / 5.51
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 109 / .1254 / 100250000(+3150000) / 16.88s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 125 / 375
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 70km / 90 / 7
Sensor strength: 22 Magnetometric Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 465(+45)

Finally this is a true drone boat.  Most PVP fits generally disregarding at least some weapons for Neuts/Vamps so these changes make the ship a much more potent force.  The flipside is that it is a much bigger, much slower target.  But it can field three wings of heavy drones.

Conclusion and Quick Reference

• Maelstrom – No Changes
• Tempest – More Tank
• Typhoon – All Missiles
• Rokh – Less Tank
• Raven – More Tank
• Scorpion – No effective changes
• Abaddon – Less Tank
• Apocalypse – Better Range/Tracking
• Armageddon – All Drones/Neuts
• Hyperion – More Tank
• Megathron – More DPS, More Speed
• Dominix – All Drones, Less Agility

One interesting side point is that both Cruise missiles and Torpedoes will be getting another look during Odyssey, so those weapon systems might see an upcoming buff.  However, no new word on whether Tracking Disruptors will affect missiles as previous planned.

PPS:

I just broke 90mil SP!

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And bring back the adventure games like Grim Fandango, the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle, and Maniac Mansion.  I’ll even tell you how to do it.

A.) Port the original games to current operating systems.  No graphic changes, no nothing.

B.) Get the story guys from Pixar (who probably played the original games too) to write new series to those games.

= Money and Win.

Let me know when you do it.  I’ll buy all the games, twice.

Escape from Monkey Island.  Bought this game.. loved it.  Bought the rest of the series.  Would easily do it again.\

Grim Fandango.  Funny and simply Awesome.  Great Story, Great Plot, Great characters.. just simply a great game.  Would buy it, and any series of it.

Full Throttle.  Maybe Old School graphics, but this Gamespot shot reminds me of a game that I loved SO much.. that I bought a motorcycle.  I am not joking.  Would do it again.

Please Disney.. give me a reason to give you money.