New Shinys! – CCP drops a War and Toys Blog
And it is located here: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=42269
Love is a Probe Ship
Let’s start with the juicy bits first: CCP is exploring.. well, its exploring using exploration as a way of introducing some modules into the game. Some of these new modules can only be gotten by going to hacking and pirate progression sites (via exploration) and snagging a multi-run BPC as loot. The one that will be introduced this way appear to be:
- Small/Medium/Large/X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster I
- MagSheath Target Breaker I
- Armor Adaptive Hardener I
Looks like a good time to get my hacking and probing skills improved.
Toying with the Status Quo
Now, we should look at the new modules and changes that are going to be introduced:
Armor Adaptive Hardener I – Only one can be fitted on the ship, but this is going to adjust the ship resistances based on the damage that is incoming. The big downside I see to this is that, depending on the power/cpu needs, this is a huge bonus to Amarr ships.. particular those like the Prophecy that have resistance bonuses. As this appears to be one of the modules slated to be found by exploration.. you can figure that these BPCs will catch a very high price on the market.
Extrinsic Damage Amplifier I & II – This is a Minmatar boost, though it certainly will help Gallente, and some Amarrian Drone ships too. Ships like the Vargur, Tempest, Typhoon, Maelstrom, Rapier, Huginn, Cyclone, Bellicose, Hurricane, and Rupture have the lows to spare on something like this, without sacrificing tank. However, with flip side to that argument is that most Minmatar ships field either Medium or Light drones.. and a module like this could make a ship like the Domininx or the Ishtar, could benefit this excessively.
Small to X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster I – A potential boost to Minmatar, mainly because the Minmatar have the most shield boost bonused ships. Basically this is a shield booster that uses a lot of cap, so it can store cap booster charges. This has the potential of re-introducing active tanking to small to medium sized fleets because this particular booster doesn’t pull exclusively from your cap. I am up in the air on this though because if your ship is that neuted, then likely your active resistance modules are probably offline anyways.. so you are just shortly delaying the end results. I don’t think this will replace the cap booster module either.. because you need to have the capacitor for your speed modules if you wish to get out of a bad situation.
MagSheath Target Break I – Just a much more powerful ECM Burst.. that gets better the more folks are targeting you and you as well. This will be standard equipment on all transports.
Overclocking Processor Rigs – Kinda surprised it took them this long to have a CPU rig.
Web Drones – I am up in the air on this, but I think these might be a wee overpowered. Vagabonds will definately be hauling these around, as well as any battleship that can haul drones. The possibilities are pretty extensive. This makes ships like the Ishtar into ad hoc Rapiers/Huginns for fleets. Rapiers and Huginns, on the other hand, become that much more powerful. Overall though, I think Caldari and Minmatar will benefit most from this change. Minmatar ships survive by exploiting transversal velocity, so slowing down the enemy ship more is always a benefit. Caldari pilots make out well also because Caldari ships are typically slow and their midslots are reserved for the shield tank and speed mods. So, having web drones will make them much more effective. I think some creativity may also show up here in drone setups. I figure some pilots will have 3:2 or 4:1 ratios of Web drones to Target Painting drones to help improve damage on target.
Capacitor Battery Changes - The only defense against a neutralizer has been either a Nosferatu module (which only worked if your % of cap was less than the guy attacking you) or a cap booster with charges. Not sure if this change will make a difference.. but it will certainly be interesting to see what the reflected result will be.
WAR and Friends
Well, gone are the days of the Privateer alliances that randomly wardec’d random large alliances for the giggles one gets when nailing a freighter of an alliance mate too lazy to keep up with wars. As if the major coalitions didn’t already have enough isk in their wallets. The logic CCP SoniClover uses to justify this is as follows:
The increased cost reflects the easier access to multiple targets. There have been some worries having the cost scale in this way creates incentive to declare war on small entities. Griefing on small entities is not rampant now, and with the cost increasing from 2 million to 50 million, there is no reason to assume griefing on small entities will increase with these changes.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they considered the fact that if there is a reduction of targets at the top end, then the aggressors will start targeting the smaller corps. Considering that 50 mil can be got on one good Level 4 mission, then you are going to see quite a few 130 and below member alliances and corps getting wardec’d much more often because you are much more likely to make back your isk (or fun) hitting those corps than you would trying to take on a major alliance like Goonswarm, where you probably won’t make any money back, much less even be profitable.
Besides that though, I do like the fact that they are removing (mostly) the “Dec-Shield” problem, as the War follows you into the alliance, and a new war is started if that corp leaves.. and it is at no cost to the aggressor. You also cannot join a corporation if that corporation is in a non-mutual war.
Conclusion
Overall, a pretty interesting blog.. and one that has the potential to shake up PVP for a little bit. But CCP SoniClover did say one other thing too.. “ Also, as the thinking is to start to add modules on a regular basis…” Not sure if that is a good thing..
Patch Notes – April 24th, 2012 – Meta 0 are now… Metal Scraps?
Here a partial list of patch notes (the full list can be found here), showing the more interesting things being pushed out:
Ships
- Titans can now lock a maximum of three targets.
- XL turrets have had their signature resolution set to 2000m.
- Capital Turrets that are fitted to titans now have a new damage-scaling attribute; targets with a signature radius smaller than this size will take reduced damage from these turrets. This does not apply to dreadnaughts.
- Siege modules have had their tracking penalty removed.
A lot of Titan nerfin’ going on here, and I like it because CCP isn’t in any hurry to deal with the real problem of out-of-control production. These ships will still dominate the null-sec sov conflicts far too easily. Though, on the plus side, they are making Dreadnaughts more and more useful.
Incursions
- Vanguard and Assault Sites have been revamped with the following changes:
- NPCs have been grouped into waves and groups have been randomized; this will prevent blitzing and increase the random element within the sites.
- Spawn triggers moved from individual NPCs to the group as a whole.
- Lowered the rewards from Vanguard sites by 10%.
- For more information see this blog.
I knew this was coming, but its still a pretty significant change. However, these incursion sites will still dominate in isk profitability.. particularly with the notes that came next:
NPC’s
- All common Rogue Drones will no longer drop alloys and will instead have bounties in line with other NPCs.
- Meta 0 modules in NPC loot tables have been replaced with Metal Scraps.
- The brackets of spawn containers (for hacking containers in mini profession sites) are now being grayed out after being viewed to make it easier to know which containers are not hacked yet.
- NPC’s will always aggress you when you warp into their aggression range.
There was a lot of talk about the changing of loot tables and their percentage drop rate. However, that second line, “Meta 0 modules in NPC loot tables have been replaced with.. metal scraps.”, certainly puts that to rest. This could be a boon to newer pilots and pilots new to industry because now they will be responsible for producing Meta 0 items in large bulk quantities. This will invaribly lead to more POSes being established, which in turn will mean a price increase of PI goods.. which will mean that more low-sec systems will probably be commandeered by alliances with both PVP and industrial ties to those areas. PI probably will be “moon goo”-lite.
Market & Contracts
- A lot of modules have been added to the market that previously could only be found in Contracts. Mostly these are officer, deadspace, faction and storyline modules. Note that this only means that players can now buy and sell them between themselves.
- Modules are sorted on the market by decreasing metalevel. So when you scroll down you should see increasingly more awesome modules.
Hurray! Finally more stuff on open market! Hurray! Modules sorted by meta level now! Hurray!! This will definately lower the price of these goods over the long term, which means that they are more likely to show up on various *ahem* hulkageddon targets..
Worldshaping
- The security status of systems in Etherium Reach, Malpais, Oasa, Outer Passage, Perrigen Falls, The Kalvela Expanse and the Spire has been adjusted upwards to bring them more into line with the rest of nullsec.
I must have missed the devblog talking about this (and if someone knows it, please link it).. though I remember they were planning on doing some fixes based on CCP Greyscale’s impressions (hint, hint..) So, if the security status is being adjusted upwards.. I’m thinking that the residents are going to be none to happy when they log in today and find that they don’t have the anomolies they were hoping for anymore…
The rest of the blog didn’t have anything that seemed to interesting. Necessary, for sure, not not interesting. Well, except for: “The ‘Micro Shield Transporter’ sound effect will now cycle without an abrupt stop.” So.. who uses a Micro Shield Transporter? Really?
06 March 2012 Devblog – Epic Rework in the making
I have about 78 million SP, and if you still play Eve Online, check out this devblog: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=9129
With my SP I can fly.. well, I can fly a ton of ships. This devblog clearly has me losing approximately.. 24 ships in total. 24 ships that will instantly no longer be available to me once this change takes effect (edit: see side note). Normally, this would upset me because it means I have to train for ships I use rarely, and it would add at least a couple months or so to regain my combat ability. Logically though.. CCP is right in making this change. It did always strike me as odd that so long as I could get a racial cruiser to III, that my level 5 battlecruiser skill made me instantly proficient in not only their tech 1 battlecruisers, but in their command ships as well. The same applied to interdictors, but to a much lesser extent.
Old Way:
New Way:
I do like the new ship progression in that if you want to train for a specific ship, the way is basically straight. Let’s say you are a new player and you’ve heard wonderful things about HACs. Now, you don’t have to train up a bunch of other ships to get there. Just train up the class, then the specific ship. Some of the other changes indicate that instead of pre-reqs being at level V, they’ll be at level IV. I think that is a good idea, though I am concerned that corps and alliances will change their advertisements to say “Cruiser V plus etc., etc.” instead of just stating that “Must fly Tech 2″. However, I think that for the most part, this will be a welcomed change all around because you can get newer people in better ships to produce better fleets, plus the newer people get to content faster, and the overall downgrade in fleets won’t be that great. Plus, vets will still maintain a strong edge against newcomers.
Still.. I think there is going to be quite a few unhappy vets.
That wasn’t the only interesting thing that was being said. Another interesting idea was brought about in the blog by this comment:
That is why we want to remove ship tiers altogether, then refocus our balancing philosophy to be based on role. That means finding common themes, or lines that fit ships with the same purpose, then adjusting slot layout, HP and fittings within each class to support this goal.
So, Tiers will soon be a thing of the past. Which, according to the blog, means that a good HALF of the ships need to be re-balanced. Now, as they mentioned they will instead use roles to determine how balanced these ships are. Likely, since the Tier system sort of had that in mind, there may not be as much difficulty in making the re-balance happen as one might suspect. Particularly if we look at what roles are being defined as:
- Combat ships: designed for direct fights, such vessels are usually found spear heading an attack force, or sniping from long range. Have great damage and defense, but poor mobility. A good representation would be 18th century “ships of the line“. EVE examples: Abaddon, Rokh, Hyperion, Maelstrom, Ferox, Maller.
- Attack vessels: Made for hit and run assault, or flanking opportunities. Have great damage and mobility, but average defense. Similar in role with cavalry. EVE examples: Armageddon, Megathron, Tempest, Oracle, Thorax, Hurricane, Dominix, Myrmidon.
- Bombardment ships: provide heavy fire support to pin the enemy down with constant barrage of ordnance. Have great damage and range, average defense and mobility. Can be compared to artillery. EVE examples: Raven, Drake, caracal.
- Support vessels: mainly focused on assisting a friendly force, or disrupting an enemy fleet. Have average damage, poor defense, average mobility. Electronic warfare is the prime illustration of this line. EVE examples: Scorpion, Blackbird, Celestis, Arbitrator.
- Industrial ships: provide the mining and logistic backbone to replace military losses and cover operating costs. Poor offense, average defense and poor mobility. An Oil platform is a fairly accurate depiction of industrial ships . EVE examples: Covetor, Orca, Rorqual, Iteron V.
Now, lets stop here for a second so that I can make a prediction.. it’s a safe one to be sure, but I think it will still be accurate. Here is how I think the Tier 1 to Roles conversion will play out:
Frigates:
- Combat Ships: Rifter, Punisher, Incursus, Merlin
- Attack Vessels: Slasher, Executioner, Atron, Condor
- Bombardment Ships: Breacher, Inquistor, Tristan, Kestrel
- Support Ships (2 each race): Vigil and Probe, Crucifer and Magnate, Maulus and Imicus, Griffin and Heron
- Industrial Ships: Burst, Tormentor, Navitas, Bantam
Cruisers:
- Combat Ships: Rupture, Maller, Vexor, Moa
- Attack Vessels: Stabber, Omen, Thorax
- Bombardment Ships: Caracal
- Support Ships: Bellicose, Arbitrator, Augoror, Celestis, Blackbird
- Industrial Ships: Scythe, Arbitrator, Osprey, Exequror
Battlecruisers:
- Combat Ships: Ferox
- Attack Vessels: Tornado, Oracle, Talos, Naga
- Bombardment Ships: Drake
- Support Ships: ?
- Industrial Ships: All ORE Mining Barges and Noctis
Battleships:
- Combat Ships: Maelstrom, Abaddon, Hyperion, Rokh, Apocolypse
- Attack Vessels: Tempest, Armageddon, Megathron, Dominix
- Bombardment Ships: Raven, Typhoon
- Supports Ships: Scorpion
- Industrial Ships: Orca
As you can see, initially the small class ships are balanced.. at least one that fits into each ship role. However, after that, things get a bit more.. dynamic or hazy, depending on your point of view. I think that CCP will have their hands full for two particular reasons:
- How are they going to change various ship balances without disrupting, or worse, generalizing all the races?
- How does the issue of “Active” versus “Passive” tanking get solved now?
The first problem is clearly going to be on the minds of many pilots. Are Caldari now going to be known as the “Bombardment” race? How about the Minmatar? The Amarr? Are the Gallente going to be regulated to being the “Support” skilled race? Will ECM be changed because it is so powerful in comparision that technically Caldari could be both the top Bombardment AND top Support race.. Even if the flavor of each race is kept, how is the balance going to work between four different races.. or will only a couple races have multiple ships for each class.. and if that happens, how will balance be achieved if only a couple values affect how well it does its intended role?
And then with all those other questions comes in a more subtle problem. The issue of active tanking, which are feature predominantely in Gallente and Minmatar hulls.. how can that be balanced over the proven benefits that passive tanking has in most combat situations? That I think will be a much harder question to solve.
Yet, despite these problems the overall concept that every hull serves a purpose is near and dear to my heart. I will be watching with much excitement.. and a bit of trepidation.
(Side Note: Apparently, even as I was in the process of writing this blog, some of these points came up and are in the process of being addressed. See comments here: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=77673, I am disappointed that most just freaked out and their fingers went faster than their brain and eyes could go. But, on one positive note.. I am not the only one who noticed the problem that this could have with Active/Passive tanking: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=77673&p=37, Force Colonel’s comment)
I Endorse for CSM the Following.. and other news
ENDORSING.. NOBODY!
..
Nope, I ain’t endorsing anyone. I’m not saying that my endorsement would be worth more than a hill of beans, as it most likely isn’t. I am saying, however, that I find endorsing any particular candidate is fraught with some very difficult problems.. and to be honest, it is a no-win scenario. I fall back on some life lessons I’ve learned in that respect:
- I have seen good plans be formed and end up successful because of solid team.
- I have also seen good plans die in a raging fire because of one bad member, and in particular, inept management.
- I have seen bad plans laughed at, and the one who proposed it properly ostracised.
- I have also seen bad plans turn successful because of a very smart leader.
- I have seen plans that I thought were horrible become exactly as bad as I thought they would be.
- I have also seen plans that I thought were horrible, turn out to be the correct solution.
- I have seen plans that I thought were great become staples of a successful organization
- I have also seen plans that I thought were great, turn out to be utter fail.
And finally..
- There are always unintended consequences.
In other words, I have seen too much in my life to assume that I know all the angles. Therefore, while I may give commentary and opinion about what I think about a particular path, or a particular result or viewpoint, it isn’t my place to tell you who is going to be successful.
New, New, NEW!!
First, let’s start this off with the blog regarding New Player Experience.. i.e., Rookie Ships: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3435. This blog follows on the heels of another NPE blog: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3421, indicating that CCP’s focus will be making a game that is more fun at the beginning, while not making it any easier or any simplier, though I suspect we will see changes against things that are needlessly complicated.
Anyways, back to the Rookie Ships:
The Ibis got a major overhaul, which indicates that future Caldari redesigns will mean more symmetric designs. However, I can say this is a win as the previous Ibis was god-awful ugly.
There is no doubt that this ship is a vast, VAST improvement over the old Ibis which.. well, looked like a piece of space trash. This is radicially, and wonderfully different.
The next on the line up is the Minmatar Reaper. I personally am liking the recent changes done to the Minmatar line that make them less fragile looking. Ships like the Reaper, the old Scythe, the Tempest, the Bellicose, and a few others look too fragile to be space combat ships (I mean, who doesn’t think about how easy it would be to shoot off the command section of the Tempest..). The new Reaper looks more compact and concise, while still looking like they had to bolt the ship together from spare parts.
The third on the list didn’t get much of a makeover, but that is perfectly fine as it did get its lines a little nicer. The Gallente Velator stopped looking like a sickly and limp shuttle into something a little more impressive.
The ship looks good overall, and it is interesting to see how they indicate the missile system hardpoint, maybe we might see missile systems like we see turrets soon?
The final ship listed on the blog was the Impairor, from the Amarr Empire. To be honest, I still don’t know what they changed. Maybe someone can point it out? Maybe the engines are a little different?
But, I think the most important thing is the video CCP sent out:
Did you see them? Ship skins! Wootz! Okay, now that could be a cool thing to do. Have like the option to have a single personal ship skin, then maybe a corporate one, and even an single alliance one as well.
Oh, that an get corporate logos on there. That is way more important than alliance logos in my opinion.
And finally.. Tattoos.
So, here is the latest and greatest devblog: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3430, which kind of struck me as odd because statements like this:
The purpose of all this prototyping is to make sure we provide a strong vision for avatar gameplay, have a good demonstrable idea of why it is engaging and better understand the technology we will need to create in order to make it a reality.
And:
we’re not going to wait until it’s all perfect and the interior of every ship, station, structure and city in the entire EVE Universe has been modeled, but rather when we have a feature that is its own functional ecosystem of gameplay then hooks into the greater ecosystem of EVE as a whole, and it provides good replayability.
And:
It means you won’t get it as early, but what you will get will be more ready. But it won’t be “done” in the sense that we’re done with it, because with any online game, it’s never really done. When you first ship it, that’s when you begin, and then follows the conversation with you, the players, on how we can improve and iterate on it.
Seem almost like pre-Crucible thinking. To me this says, ” We’re going to work on something, test it, make it completely reliable.. then release it to the playerbase for them to tell us if it will work or not.” The fact that they are playing with Tattoos.. right now.. is probably the biggest indicator that perhaps they aren’t focusing where they need to be. Tattoos are only great if others can see them. And right now, there is no way for others to see them. Ahem, hint, hint..
19 Jan 2012 Devblog – “And I heard Angels singing his praises…”
Read this devblog: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3381 Do it! Now!
Here it is again.. yes, it is that good:
The teams were disbanded because the influx of developers making spaceships was too great, so we had to be split them into three teams (or as I call them, friendship-bands). Please welcome Team Super Friends, Team Game of Drones and Team Five 0. All three teams are full of good looking men and women, with some familiar faces and some new ones. Hopefully we can introduce you to some of the people on the teams at a later point, but right now, let’s focus on spaceships (and safety).
To celebrate this transition, Team Best Friends Forever and Pink Zombie Kittens decided to do one last push to get features out and we’re happy to give you this list of items on January 24th:
- We’ve rebalanced small, medium and large Null ammo. I came back from vacation and Tallest had done this. He’s a pretty cool dude. – Starting to learn Gallente now.. so this might be cool.
- We’ve changed the CPU on cap shield transfers. Much needed, high five. – This.. this change is EPIC! I have complained about this for YEARS..
- Assault ships have been rebalanced. We’ve wanted to do this since forever and were originally planning to do it for Crucible. It fell out due to time constraints, but has been completed for the coming release. – Hooray! From the Devblog and the Minutes! Hooray!
- We’ve buffed some of the modules launched in Crucible. You can now whine about how overpowered they are.
- When one of your friends logs on and get an annoying pop-up with his picture, you can now click the picture and start a conversation, telling him how annoying the pop-up is.
- The skills list now has a filter box so you can track down your individual skills. This is pretty great if you have a lot of them.
- Starbase fuel notifications are now shown in your calendar. You know why? Because it makes goddamn sense, that’s why.
- Overheating can be done by shift-clicking a module. This is a viable alternative to clicking the worlds smallest button. – Smart, smart, smart. Try S-MART!
- The agent list inside a station will now display your current status with an agent (mission offered, accepted etc). Hopefully less people will be cursing after undocking without pressing “accept” on a mission. – I like this too..
- The chat member list can now be condensed and have been given some more intuitive icons. This should be more in line with the actual chat, which you can already condense. - Joyful tears.. joyful…
- Shield bonuses are now applied like armor bonuses. Remember when you got a shield bonus and LOST shield? Yeah that, we fixed it. - More joyful tears..
- The session change has been lowered from 20 seconds to 15 and hopefully we can adjust it even further in the future. Death to session changes.
- The watchlist now holds 15 people and you can drag and drop to re-arrange them. If you don’t have any friends, this isn’t relevant to you. - Um.. I can’t get any more joyful.. I am out of joyful tears…
- We’ve started re-naming modules (missiles and ABs/MWDs) in a schema that tells the user what they do, while still maintaining a lot of the sci-fi feel. The aim is to make everything make sense, instead of today where everything is as confusing as possible. – My god, you mean.. you mean labels will make sense?
- Meta 11, 12 and 13 Invulnerability Fields have been added to the game. We stumbled on them in the basement of CCP one day. Someone must have left them there.
- We’ve iterated on locations. You can now choose if it’s a personal or corp location when you create them. This means less dragging and clicking.
- Alliances can now join faction warfare. This is the first of a series of Factional Warfare iterations CCP Ytterbium is working on. We’ll tell you more as we get closer to fanfest, but we’re working on Factional Warfare. In other news, a flying pig just passed my window.
- The old Neocom has been replaced by a younger, prettier model. It’s customizable and has a ton of cool features you can play around with. – Hurray! How customizable?
- We’ve added autocomplete and search hints to the asset search function from Crucible. SEARCHING HAS SUDDENLY BECOME REALLY EXCITING. Or not, but you know what I mean.
Anyway, that’s what we have for you here. Thanks from Team Best Friends Forever and Team Pink Zombie Kittens.
Late to the Game – My thoughts on the December CSM notes
So, here are the notes for those who haven’t read them yet: http://www.eveonline.com/council/transcripts/2011/CSM_CCP_Mettings_7-9_12_2011.pdf
As always the notes are broken down into subcategories and I was rather impressed that they did come back so quickly. If you recall, the last set of minutes were heavily censored and there was much back and forth about what to add and take away between CCP and the CSM. This set of minutes is about 44 pages long, covering all sorts of topics including the make-up of the CSM to current state of the economy and plex as well as Incursion and continuing Supercap nerf/buffs. There is a lot of information, and to be honest, read it all. Big, powerful changes are a foot. Seriously.
Here are the sub-topics:
- Meeting with the Senior Producer of Eve Online, which included CCP Unifex, CCP Zulu, and the CEO of CCP, CCP Hellmar
- The CSM, with CCP Xhagan and CCP Diagoras
- Eve Veterans and Loyalty Program, with CCP Dr. EyjoG, CCP Alice, and Senior GM Homonia
- The Economy, with CCP Dr. EyjoG, CCP Soundwave, and CCP Thomas (a lot of originality in that last name huh.. “Next up, CCP Bill and CCP Fred..”)
- The PLEX, hosted by CCP Dr. EyjoG and CCP Thomas
- Security, by CCP Sreegs and CCP Unifex
- The Crucible Wrapup, attended by CCP Unifex, CCP Soundwave, and CCP Ytterbium
- Incursions, with CCP Soundwave and CCP Bettik
- Null-sec Sovreignty, Stations, and Resources, with CCP Soundwave, CCP Greyscale, and CCP Unifex
- Little Things like Faction Warfare and Wormholes, with CCP Soundwave
- Game Balance, given by CCP Tallest, CCP Ytterbium, CCP Soundwave, and CCP Unifex
- Future High Level Discussions on War, CCP Soundwave
- Future High Level Discussions on Fixing Broken Systems, CCP Soundwave
- Web Cell, CCP Alice, CCP Illurkall, CCP Unifex, CCP Seagull, CCP Priya
- Microtransaction Microsummit – CCP Unifex, CCP Flying Scotsman, CCP Nerf Herder, CCP Dr. EyjoG
- NPE or New Player Experience with CCP Endboss, CCP Flying Scotsman, CCP Feyhr, CCP Nerf Herder, CCP Unifex, and CCP Dr. EyjoG
- The Art Department – CCP BasementBen, CCP Huskarl, CCP Mannbjorn, CCP t0rfifrans
- UI Discussions, present with CCP Arrow, CCP Punkturis, CCP karkur, CCP Optimal
- The CSM and Hilmar – Hilmar CEO, CCP Unifex
The Breakdowns:
Meeting with the Senior Producer of Eve Online
This part actually just goes into the re-organization of CCP and where CCP is going, what it is doing now, and who is in charge.. even the thought processes that are now going to be used that are different from Pre-Crucible times. The big point was that they have come to realize that they are standing in a place where they have to seriously consider the needs of players who have played the game a year, three years, five years, even eight years and why some of those people leave, never to return.
Three big things came out of that meeting that I thought were important. The first was this quote:
-
“Going forward into 2012 this will be the mindset: how can we cater to our players by working on a theme (e.g. conflict, resources, PvE, character advancement), fixing things, paying technical debt (both internal tools and user-facing matters) and work on small things that make the life in EVE a much more enjoyable experience – i.e. more Crucible-like.” Developing themes can help keep developers on track with reachable goals.. as well as make the world more alive.
-
Putting a new senior producer in charge, CCP Unifex. I never was a big fan of CCP Zulu, particularly his delay of fixing projectile weapons. Plus, he made the failed anomaly change and such as well. So, I think this change will be a good thing in the long term, especially since CCP Unifex has had quite a bit of Eve experience leading their CORE group.
“CCP wants to emphasize the fact that the reorg looks good on paper, but what is being aimed at should not take precedence over what makes sense and helps EVE.” – Smart move.
The CSM
There are quite a few people who deride the CSM, especially the current CSM Chairperson, The Mittani. And while I don’t like Goons, or his general manner.. it would be stupid of me to say that this CSM wasn’t the most effective in Eve history and has proven to be intrumental in making some much needed changes. That being said.. I do think The Mittani has probably hogged all the credit as if he was the “messiah” of Eve. Three things were discussed regarding CSM elections in this meeting: Demontratable Electorate Support, Restructure of CSM alternates and membership, and Single Transferrable Votes.
The first point on having Electorate Support was really quite pragmatic. Basically, you could not be on the final ballot unless you could get “X” number of votes (the number of votes was not determined, but CCP figured between 30 and 70). To me this makes sense. If you can’t get even that many to support you and your idea, you aren’t likely to get the 1500 to 2000 votes necessary for grabbing a seat on the CSM.
The second point was made primarily because CCP needs to cut costs and reducing the number of people being flown to Iceland is a major factor. The world economy, and in particular, the European economy being the way they are.. this makes sense.
The third point was by far the most controversal.. and also one that appropriately got hammered. Single Transferrable votes essentially mean that if a vote is surplus or unused they “are transferred according to the voter’s stated preferences should their highest preference not need them or make it in). As pointed out by the CSM.. if implimented, this would give major alliances the ability to pick and control every seat on the CSM. In addition, it was considerably more complex to field and that there are still too few voters to actually stop this from being manipulated “to hell and back”. It will come up for public discussion later.. I for one.. am not for it one bit.
Eve Veterans and Loyalty Program
Yea! That’s me! CCP is looking into this and they discussed this with the CSM. CSM used the example of City of Heroes and how they reward their veteran players (Found here: http://eu.cityofheroes.com/uk/community/paragon_rewards/paragon_rewards_details.php). Personally.. if they go this route.. I think customizable ship skins would be a nice veteran reward..
The Loyalty program is still being reviewed, the Buddy program is being considered for a revision/enhancement, and there is talk of CCP Master accounts that would allow access to ALL accounts owned by that person. The meeting ended on the note that if you have played Eve for 3+ years.. it is highly unlikely you will leave.. ever.
Addicts..
The Economy
First off, the Eve Economy is better than the world economy. So expect Eve isk players to be the new leaders of power after the old rich has-been are thrown out for being carebears (I wish..) Discussions about the number of jumps metric, missions and Incursion profits, about joining all the currency systems: Loyalty Point, Nex, Contract, and Market systems into an all-encompassing common market (but this is still being thought about and won’t happen in the near future). Changes to the Insurance system has reduced the amount of isk being put into the economy.
The PLEX
Ooo.. da PLEXIES!! Looks like CCP’s local economist is being into the Quantity Theory of Money. And that graphs from the economic department apparently went to the school of “Spinal Tap”, because all of their graphs added up to 110%. Way to go! Aside from that, nothing of outstanding interest to me.
Security (a.k.a. bot wars)
CCP Sreegs is developing a new security team to work on infrastructure. CCP Sreegs said that botting and RMT issues are being handled and that there is no significant increase in bot frequency. There also apparently was no significant decrease either. Also, rest assured botters.. there will be no highly successful “Unholy Rage” campaigns either.. just a slow choking off of effective botting activities. Needless to say, there is significant disagreement between the CSM and CCP Sreegs about dealing with botters. CCP Sreegs seems to be to get into a technical arms race against those using bots, and the CSM suggested using more behavioral analysis.. kinda like what is in use for Spam Detection software. Both have good points, but personally, I have to side with the Behavioral Analysis crowd.
The rest of it was mind-numbing, but probably important.
Crucible Wrap-up, or what we really wanted to know
Little Things (I love the little things..): Problems with frame rates and lag indicate that Team Gridlock needs to be restored. POS fuel block delayed. T2 Triage modules not useful, so CCP working on that. Problems with Capital Nav Window. Also desire to have more corporate bookmarks as well as “insufficient clone” notifications added to podmails. Not sure why this was a “little thing”, but the CSM discussed the problem with moon goo profits, in particular Technetium and that sov-independant incomes should be tied to possessing the territory, not just having the POS. In addition, changes to the Talos and the Naga are in the works as the Naga is too powerful compared to the Talos.
Supercap Rebalancing: Titan guns still too effective against sub-cap ships. Ewar Frigates might be a nice counter to the EWar-immune ships like Supercarriers and Titans. Also discussed that current “travel” fits can effectively make both titans and supercarriers immune to attack in low-sec. Discussed the possibility of having the jump drive “spool up” for a period of time before a jump happens. This would slow the massive supercapital fleets now plaguing null-sec space.
Incursions
Everyone says they are awesome and often used. However, they are still imbalanced somewhat because Vanguard High-sec missions have a far better time/isk ratio than any other incursion. Discussed on this topic was having individual site variations within the class of the incursion, Site DPS changes, better fleet consistancy meaning that pilots don’t have to change ships all the time to participate. Bugs/exploits/Site Mechanics were also discussed, especially thinking of challenges that go beyond the usual “more dps = more win!” situation. Also noted were that incursions are in too few locations, and there need to be more incursions spread out and they spawn too fast as well.
Null-Sec Stations, Sov, and Resources
After reading this, it seems pretty clear to me that CSM6 is serious about making a good game for everyone. Considering how making changes here affect most of the CSM members directly, it was nice to see they were putting the quality of the game and its fun factor first. The first part is changing Drone alloy drops to bounty instead of materials. Surprisingly this came from CCP, not CSM, and the CSM believes that this is a major reason why minerals have been easier (and cheaper) to get in high-sec then it is to mine them. CCP is also looking into a new format for how an alliance’s isk from income is handled.. with the isk going to everyone at member level depending on how much space is held.
The CSM also pushed that the income an alliance has should primarily be a direct result of holding territory, rather than things like moons which don’t require sov to control. In discussing Moon income, the CSM was in agreement that this really wasn’t the conflict driver CCP thought it was, but just more of a cherry on top excuse.. but the big downside is that since line members don’t get directly (or even indirectly) benefited for taking over moons, fighting for them isn’t enjoyable or rewarding. Another option on the table was alliance level taxation similar to the corporation taxing mechanic.
CSM members also brought before CCP the problem of Supercapital combat, regarding how in the past, when battles were engaged that capitals would cyno in, siege, then death.. either of themselves or the enemy was certain. This is no longer the case, especially with supercapitals who have ewar immunity and the poor siege mechanics and tackling problem compound the ease of their escape. Things like high warp core strengths were suggested instead of Ewar immunity.
On the subject of supercarriers, the CSM would like to see supercarrier have the ability to dock as well as fit a hictor style focused point. However, there needs to be a counter to their deployment speed, which the CSM suggested should be a mechanic requires a minute or so for the jumpdrive to “spool up” before it activates. A considerable problem that the CSM points to is that irregardless of what new tools CCP brings to the table to defeat supercarriers, the biggest problem still is the fact that they are being produced in huge numbers and that there has been little change in those production values and the combat losses do not counter that level of production.
CCP floated the idea of a new “tackling” capital ship, but this was looked down on by the CSM because it really doesn’t address a very complex problem well. In addition, the CSM indicated that they would not support any new supercapital ship designs being added because even years later, the problems caused by supercapitals is still difficult to control. This lead to a stalemate view from CCP asking if they don’t bring out new capital ships for veteran players to shoot for.. what other options are there?
The topic then switched to Destructable outposts. This brought up the current problems of the Dominion sov mechanic and how it was much worse than the previous requirement of just having more POSes in the controlled system. The CSM figures that destructable outposts will be a way to attack and raid an enemy without the requirement of occupying it. The problem then presented is that if there are destructable outposts what happens to everyone’s stuff. The CSM put forth a pretty bad idea with having a “forced fire sale”, which places everything up for auction. This is a bad idea for two reasons: First, the loser, even if he bids on his own stuff could never get it out. and Second, it would conceptually be very easy to have everyone in your alliance to not bid high and essentially getting tons of items for next to nothing. So, that idea will kill null-sec occupation. The second idea put forth from CCP has items impounded at the nearest NPC station, and this is more reasonable and playable. Ideally, however, there should be some loss regardless as well as some direct reward for those who were fighting. Neither offered a good solution to that problem.
The next item was station services on Null-sec NPC stations. The CSM brought up a point about “Iceberg” alliances who live cost free out of NPC null-sec stations and apparently own hordes and hordes of high value moons and supercapitals. Personally, while I bet one or two of those alliances exist that are strong enough to maybe hold their own moon.. I have my doubts that they are a significant problem in of themselves. And if any CSM members are reading this blog.. I would stipulate that before you make this claim, that you bring up some serious and factual numbers to back that view up.
Unfortunately, the CSM made another mistake in not taking up a suggestion by CCP. CCP asked to see if stations could have their EHP reduced so that they could be a target for small gangs. Actually, it would be a great idea if at least some of the services to be disabled by small gangs.. it would give the locals a reason to get out and defend themselves rather than just stay hold up until they are gone. Particularly reprocessing and market services..
Factional Warfare and Wormholes
Finally, they are getting some love in 2012, as well as continued changes in both the medium and long term spectrum. CCP finally fessed up and said that they don’t like either the FW mechanics or the 0.0 sov mechanics and would like to do something that works in both arenas eventually. In addition, CCP would like to have the drama surrounding the CSM elections to have its own mark in FW, such as voting for faction admirals. These voting actions would allow the FW members to increase things like low-sec station taxes as well as setting up strategic goals… and getting some isk flow back into their member’s wallets. The CSM suggested that some of the upgrades that FW control could offer would be system upgrades that would decrease risk.. such as reducing the effectiveness of probes.
One major point is that the CSM did bring up the list of issues that FW pilot are upset about currently, but CCP dispelled many of them because most had to do with a mechanic that they are already in the process of rewriting and would have to be addressed after the “Crimewatch” mechanic was implimented.
Game Balance
Several Crucible introduced modules are being reviewed, particularly the T2 Triage Module, for usefulness. Some older aspects like Leadership bonuses to shields being applied immediately rather than waiting for the shield to recharge as in times past (the new change will put it in line with Armor Leadership bonuses). In addition, the following ideas were brought forth:
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Tech One Frigates and Cruisers – CCP is considering boosting these ships, possibly with more speed, but likely more EHP and Slots so that they remain viable combat ships in PVP. Awesome idea.
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Battlecruisers – CCP wants Tier One Battlecruisers to be examined and balanced in comparision with the Tier Two and Tier Three battlecruisers which clearly outclass the Tier Ones. This is awesome.
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EAS or Electronic Attack Ships – The CSM would like the EAS to be able to impact Ewar-Immune capital ships, though more combat functionality and survivability are needed.
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Electronic Warfare – Both Sensor Dampeners and ECM are going to be looked into, since Sensor Dampeners are pretty well useless in comparison to ECM, but the CSM also would like to review the merits and/or issues of ECM. Bout time.
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Assault Frigates: As already noted, these are being improved.
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Drake – The Drake is going to be rebalanced simply because it does everything too well. CCP suggested that it become a more aggressive ship, having bonuses similar to the Caracal and the Raven, not the defensive and kinetic bonuses it currently has. The CSM “vehemently” approved of this idea, and thinks that this would allow the Nighthawk to have its own place in the sun. I think this.. this was heaven sent.
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Command Ships and Warfare links – CCP is now planning for each Command Ship to have their utility expanded to handle TWO races of leadership bonuses… friggin awesome.
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Vamps – These were changed a few years ago because they were quite overpowered. Currently, they aren’t much use to anything over a frigate sized ship, so CCP is look into a “trickle” mode version where if you target has less percentage of cap than you, you still get some benefit with the NOS, just not as much. Currently, you get none if their remaining capacitor percentage is less than yours.
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Cloak Hunters – CCP brought up the idea of a Cloak Hunting ship. Though still Hypothetical, the idea was thought a good one by the CSM. Maybe that is what the Electronic Superiority Ships should be used for.. hmmm?
High Level Discussions
War – Changes are being made to the wardec system and is still in the design phase. However, due to the NDA, the CSM was only able to see that they were positive overall about the changes being fielded. One thing that you can read in between the lines is that CCP is thinking about removing the ability to wardec any one you want. If this gets released to the public, there will be stiff outcry.
Fixing Broken Systems – This was a free form discussion.. better to just read yourself to get the sense of it.
Web Cell
There is ship spinning.. on the web. nuff said..
Microtransaction Microsummit, or Playing with the devil
Again, this discussion seemed that a lot of economic theory combining the wishful thinking of economists and the wishful thinking of investors trying to outweigh the cold hard fact that MTs don’t work well.
New Player Experience
CCP plans to literally completely rebuild the tutorial experience from the ground up. Yes. Seriously. An idea was floated similar to what many games do today when they field ”career paths” with milestones and “unlocked” ships/abilities. Of course, for some reason the guy with the Economics Degree was let into the room, and like the economists of the world, again tried to screw things up and say, “Why not throw out the current skill point system?”
Ahem.. we will beat the economist after your regularly scheduled program…
CCP and CSM clearly saw that not only was the economist not really helping in the new player discussion.. he was also stealing all the donuts.
CCP and CSM continues to hash out potential ideas while they poked the economist with fire pokers. Poke, poke, poke. However, all of them being cityfolk, none of them realized that they could actually heat them up and it would be more fun. The Mittani, after finding out that fire pokers could work with fire, decide to sue the fire poker builders for poor design and flawed instructions. The Mittani, unable to find the instruction manual, proceeded to form a new company called “Fire Poker Unlimited.”, made it into a corporation, then sued the company for millions of dollars for failure to provide safety protections from the pointy end of the firepoker.
Meeting with the Art Department
Even the Mittani was awed by the Greatness that flowed from the Art Department, and subsequently tossed his newly made millions at the shining light that bathed him in warmth. At least until the Intern turned it off, collected all of the money, then ran out of CCP offices screaming, YES! I’m Free! I’M FREEEEEEE!!!! Feeling that this was a sign from God, or a sign he had too much Russian Vodka, he changed his clothes and wore a toga for the rest of the art department review. The rest of the CSM were uncomfortable because they had to see the whole tranformation.
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V3 Project working on Minmatar and Amarr ships – Basic work done beginning of 2012. V3 also is the beginning implimentation of skinable ships.
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Redesign of noob ships
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New missile effects and other “magical” effects that we lowly pleibs aren’t allowed to see yet. All we know is that the CSM was “extremely excited”. Many firstborns were sold that day…
All wasn’t roses and sugar in Paradise. Apparently the Art department, with their newfound power, think that throwing more crap, beautiful crap to be fair, would make the game better (um.. do they know about lag?). The CSM, after worshiping the ground they walked on, kindly disagreed, and after getting permission to speak, informed them that perhaps stations and other things that the players use more often might be a better idea.
The Art department sent down another intern from on high, who said, “Um.. we’ll um.. think about it.”.. and there was much rejoicing.
Art department also had the best quote when asked why Art was still a bottleneck despite having more people: “You don’t make a baby in one month by putting nine women at it.” I’m sure quite a few of the art personnel there attempted to prove her wrong.
All in all, you should read it in its entirety.
UI Discussions
CCP Punkturis (all hail CCP Punkturis – Savior of Logi pilots everywhere..), CCP Arrow, CCP karkur, and CCP Optimal showed more UI improvements, many of which have already been shown to the Eve public for implimentation.
The CSM and Hilmar CEO
Crucible good. CSM good. More Money good. No Jesus features.
Didn’t realize it was that hard to miss…
Yep, we can officially, visually, miss now. So says CCP Choloepus here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3089. It will be interesting to see how this works out because I think this will actually give it more “realism”, which Eve could use. And as I write this another Devblog has appeared: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3097. This one with more of those “ease of life” changes that will certainly be nice to have.
Outside of that, all I have been doing is just.. well, carebearing. Things are rather frustrating because, while I can play Eve, its usually only for a couple hours at a time, and never at a scheduled time. On top of that, I now have three kids and keeping them entertained or busy has not been easy. Getting a routine down hasn’t worked out yet so my schedule is still quite chaotic. My “meta” project has finished the primary phase and I will be posting the results of which at the end of the week if things work out that way. I have found some very interesting patterns which I will point out.
I am still looking to join a corp, though I’ve whittled it down to two choices: Either a FW corp, or a major 0.0 corp. The FW corp because I think we’re going to see changes to FW in the expansion after this one, and a major 0.0 corp because I can still feel useful there with my non-online skills. That being said, both are the least likely to require huge amounts of personal time that I no longer have in great quantity. Got some friends already in many of those types of corps, so I may get the opportunity to find a home soon.
17 Nov 2011 Devblog – Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better…
So, it turns out that since World of Darkness is on the cooler at the moment, some of the Devs there who were also Eve players decided to helpout on Crucible.
Here’s the Devblog: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3108
The following sentence from CCP Anthelios stopped me in my tracks: “The last thing I’ll mention here is the ability to rearrange targeted items to your liking. Now you logistics minded pilots can group all of the bad guys together for ‘shooties’ and good guys together for ‘reppies’ regardless of the order they were targeted in.” Being a capable logistics pilot myself, I really didn’t have much trouble.. plus, aside from a killmail gun, who arms their logis? However, I do see a big bonus here for DPS pilots who may be either assisting with Cap transfers or doing RR fleets.
Then, of course, CCP Space Cadet hammers another home run with this: “I updated the Orbit & Keep-At-Range buttons to save their settings per ship-type. So, your favorite battleship can orbit at 40km, and with the same button, your favorite interceptor will orbit at 3km. I also updated the right click sub-menu for Keep-At-Range to have more sensible options, matching the Orbit options.” Yeah, this is sweet. Maybe not a big deal in PVP combat, but it is pretty nice for PVE and such.
CCP Booster finally came out and told us the dirty little secret that, ahem, everyone already knows about. Still, it is kinda funny that it took a World of Darkness guy to figure out how nice a “Loot All” button would be.
Rounding off the group is CCP Soulblighter, bringing a lot of goodies to the table: Ability to unrent offices remotely, Cloaked ships unable to stop complexes from de-spawning, oh.. and your alliance’s jumpbridges displaying on your solar system map (That last bit might piss off some industry corps who were hiding their 0.0 jumpbridges from everyone else in their alliance..). Two additionally awesome things: First, if you’ve forgotten your drones, you know you warped off.. or got warped off, but are still in the same ship (wonderful edit: Turns out you don’t need to have remained in the same system, just the same ship), then you can now use the Reconnect to Lost Drones command, though I’m not sure if you still have to be on grid or if they will warp to you. The second point, is a good one… well, a brilliant one. If you suddenly disconnect from the game (i.e. Eve crashes while you are watching Youtube, or.. um.. something else, or if your brother decides to press the pretty red button on your power strip), then any drones that are active will attempt to get back to the drone bay before you warp off. Might not get them all, but now you might not lose them all either.
And extra kudos for showing where your bombs will go off on your tactical overlay.. very nice.
Well done, Team Papercuts…
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.. just hold up there. Did you just say you were going to fix Anomalies..
.. not by distributing them better, but by making them more valuable?
Feature Teams video blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInM9k3tTSw
Now, the little tidbit that I am referring to starts at the 2:56 to 3:02. It is a mere six second comment and I want you to think about the statement for a little bit. Previously the last known dev comment regarding this on the forums was here: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=219364#post219364
So, two things can be paraphrased from CCP Zulus comment:
1. The value (or isk payout) for all anomalies are going to be improved.
2. The distribution of said anomalies weren’t going to change.
With those two thoughts distilled from the six second comment, I see that the intent is to enhance a possible conflict driver. To me, this poses a problem. The current distribution of “top line” anomalies is already in line with regions that have technium moons. Those moons are already the main source of null-sec conflict as they produce billions of isk for those alliances and coalitions that have them. This change will certainly add isk to the wallets of everyday pilots, but the question is, will it give the pilots in those non-ideal areas enough isk to make invasion worthwhile?
At first, this change seems like an end-around gambit by Mittens. Anomaly changes like this would allow alliances like Goonswarm to sit pretty in Deklein space, with all their people seeing higher returns from running anomalies. Certainly such a change like this in null-sec would make many owners of moon goo regions breathe a sigh of relief, because people will be less likely to care if the leadership is skimming a bit off of the top for himself.. so long as they are making good isk too. But I am wondering if this changes affects all anomalies, even those in high-sec. I kind of doubt that this change will mean very much as far as high-sec goes, and I doubt that this will make low-sec worth populating again on its own.
But, if they were disproportionately raised in favor of high-sec and low-sec space, then it might allow low-sec and high-sec corporations to start eyeing null-sec space and this might cause more diverse groups of players to start taking up small chunks of null-sec space, perhaps giving them the opportunity to grow enough to challenge the bigger coalitions with their…
hmm… we’ll have to wait on that.
31 Oct 2011 Devblog – Hybrid Love – Looks like I should start training Gallente…
Hybrids.
The weapon system was a strange combination of high damage mixed with short range, mixed with armor tanking ships (Until the Rokh, many of the Hybrid Caldari ships were pretty useless. Some would argue they still are.). Not exactly a great idea.. but it was fairly workable because in the beginning the Gallente Hybrids had some good advantages:
- Both Amarr and Minmatar sucked worse.
- 90% Webs.
- Megathron
But with the boosts to Amarr and Minmatar, coupled with the speed nerf which dropped the speed of all ships, MWD modules, and Webs.. this put Gallente pilots in a difficult position as their best ships weren’t able to get in close enough to really do that damage they were meant to do.
But today, a change has been announced: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3012
First off, the vast majority of weapons are getting CPU and Powergrid reductions. CPU is going to be dropped in this manner:
- XL Turrets: -5 CPU
- L Turrets: -3 CPU
- M Turrets: -2 CPU
- S Turrets: -1 CPU
Also, powergrid requirements for the hybrids will now be reduced by 12%. This is a major bonus for Cruiser to Battleship class ships.
In addition, Blasters are getting a massive tracking bonus which means they supplant ACs as the fastest tracking weapon system in the game. Railguns have been given a 10% damage modifier. I think the Railgun change was necessary, however, but I am still up in the air about the Blaster change as I think it might step too much on the toes of Autocannons. Even though ACs have a bit better falloff range, that falloff range is reduced overall damage on target. With this change, Blasters will be able to not only to fire faster and do more damage, but also to track their targets better than Autocannons. This will be a particular problem for Minmatar’s fast ships because now Hybrids will be able to track better than the guns on the fast ship. This difference might be negated by ship bonuses… but we’ll have to see how it plays out in actual combat.
Quite a few Gallente ships, along with a couple Caldari ships, are getting some movement bonuses as well. The ship changes cover everything from frigate to battleships almost equally, with most ships getting a +10 to velocity, while a few only get +5 to their velocity. In addition, several ships also get a small modifier, about 5%, to their agility.
This devblog also mentions changes to Tech 2 ammo. Though the changes cross all races, it should be especially sweet to Caldari and Minmatar pilots as missiles and Hail ammo specifically are being targetting for improvement.
With these changes, along with the new Tier 3 BCs.. makes me wish I didn’t spec out for Leadership…
18 Oct 2011 Devblog – PI Drama, Whines and Wins
The related devblog is here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2899
I’ve read quite a few of the comments regarding this, and I bet to a certain extent CCP is surprised by the response. However, I have to give props to CCP Omen for staying with it for such a long period of time. Clearly however, though, he did have a fairly.. interesting (read: somewhat naive) view of how this would work in null-sec and low-sec. Let me break it down based on where you might currently live:
For High-Sec Dwellers: The only change to PI would be that you will probably make more money in the long run (perhaps even in the short run). All the High-sec Customs Offices will remain, with the only changes being a 50% increase on the export/import taxes (means that it take more money to move things on and off planet) and a 500% increase on the overall bandwidth (which means you can produce more per planet). Overall, expect the panic to benefit high-sec PI players as the prices skyrocket, but things will settle down after say a month or two.
For Null-sec Dwellers: Again, not much change really. More bandwidth means more can get produced per planet, but now the local null-sec rulers will have a tad more control over PI operations. The more interesting issue will be how the taxes are handled, that either being a free-for-all where every corp sets up a tax on use against other corporations in the alliance, or if all Customs Offices will be forced to have either a single low tax across all their territory or no taxes at all. Expect alliances to take a portion of those taxes for themselves.
Wormhole Dwellers: The real battle in this will be the C1 and C2 worm holes, where resources and access are more limited. The initial rush will prove to be critical because getting enough ships in to remove a Custom Office will be a challenge in of itself, especially if there are any modifiers to shield present in the system. However, from C3 on up, there will be increased ability to both destroy and maintain Custom Offices. This, of course, means that those who actually reside in the wormholes itself will have the greatest ability to both attack and maintain their own Custom Offices. There has been some upset “ninja wormhole PI’ers” who are clearly preturbed that they can no longer siphon resources, and this change definately means that their operations will no longer be worthwhile.
Low-sec Dwellers: This is probably the most contentious and problematic of all the areas. And it is here that no one can accurately tell what the outcome will be. I am a bit.. nervous though. CCP Omen does seem to have a bit of “wishful thinking” in his corner and the CSM, being largely made up of 0.0 proponents and most notably a Chairman from the infamous Goonswarm, may not have a good understanding of all that it might finally entail. Initially, there is little doubt that there will be a made rush to put up Customs Offices at critical plasma, lava, and barren planets. I see all of the major nullsec alliances doing this, competing both with pirate groups and large industrial alliances. I believe that the major nullsec alliances and pirate groups will win out, simply because they are combat prepared. The smart corporations/alliances, whereever their backing, will reduce the taxes to just below that of high-sec CONCORD Offices, but not above the point where the locals will band together and repeatedly destroy your office just out of spite. There will still be quite a few conflicts as most pirate corporations don’t/can’t think that way. Expect to see more low-sec alliances being formed as well as more industrial alliances adding PVP corps or developing their own PVP abilities. After six months, I think many of the null-sec controlled Customs Offices will have been removed because their upkeep and their defense will be too difficult to maintain logistically. After a year, I doubt any but a rare few low-sec planets will have direct null-sec alliance control because the overall costs of defending their taxing sites will not justify maintaining that control.
Overall: I think this is a surprisingly innovative idea that will have much farther reaching implications than even what the CSM or CCP has believed. My own thoughts on this is that the resulting low-sec will be ideal for prepping low-sec residing corporations and alliances for what lies ahead in null-sec. With high value items like plasma planets acting as sort of a “Tech moon” in low-sec, we can expect low-sec areas to become more stabilized and established, with the initial starting of “fiefdoms”. These fiefdoms may be the beginning of concentrated low-sec political power that will finally be a rival to null-sec political power (this is a good thing..).
However, I see the biggest problem to this whole thing, what will be a thorn in the side of everything, is the current sec status mechanics. Those will have to be changed because the current system is uneven and frustrating.. and thus will impact negatively on making low-sec their “home”.
18 Oct 2011 Devblog – Shoot my PI… please?
Here is the devblog in question: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2899
Also review a quick overview by Kirith at the Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: http://www.ninveah.com/2011/10/quick-notes-about-player-owned-custom.html
I read this devblog… then re-read it.. then read it yet a third time. And after all that, all I can come up with is.. “Hmmm…”. The reason for this is quite simple: I am not sure what the long term affects will be. Part of me wants to say, “Meh..”, while another wants to say, “oooo.. this could be interesting..”
The whole issue revolves around the ability for players to build and place Customs offices, the ones used when transporting PI (Planetary Interaction) goods on and off planet. The new system allows for a great amount of control (though, it may be somewhat moot if we are still limited by how many entities we can put as red), but it doesn’t seem to have as much control as is needed.
The Customs Offices are also now destructable, with mechanics similar to standard POSes (though no stront useage, the exit out of reinforcement is now a specific time.. a somewhat disappointing factor because irregardless of when you hit the office, it will come out of reinforcement only at the time designated). They can be built, from blueprint copies either with Concord LP (from Incursions) or at a 50% price reduction faction warfare sites. The customs offices also maintain about 2 Millions shield, 500,000 to 2.5 million armor, and 300,000 to 2 million structure (depending on if it is a Gantry or the full on Office. The upgrade appears to require specific high-level PI products). The offices can only be put up by player corporations and those with Station Manager can adjust the settings like tax rates, as well as who has access to the planet.. though small operations can still happen because small amount of PI products can still be launched into space for pick up. It also looks as if CCP has increased the bandwidth by 5x so that more can be extracted from a planet.
As far as nullsec goes, I think this is a good, but minor change. I also think it really won’t have much impact because when I did PI in nullsec, the biggest problems I had with getting materials was not from neutrals or reds.. but from other blues, usually from other members of my alliance. The control aspect of this doesn’t address that, so I suspect they won’t notice any change. This does give raiders a target of opportunity, but there isn’t a reward for taking of these down either as far as I can read. Even in reinforced mode, PI goods can still be retrieved from the planet.
Now for low-sec, I think this could get interesting. I think it would have been good for the dynamic to make low-sec planets give more PI materials than nullsec, because then the reward for holding these offices would have been tangible, and you would finally give various groups(including less popular forms like anti-pirate) a way to finance and operate in low-sec.. and a reason to get out and fight.. and not just sit in station all day.
So, we’ll see.. this could be a very interesting and welcome addition to the low-sec community.
October 10th Devblog – Oooo.. I had a joygasm! Or is that an Evegasm?
Okay, here is a link to the devblog itself: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2674
Alright, it looks like Eve was serious about making changes.. and I particularly like that they got all five problem points fingered correctly:
- Supercapital ships are too hard to kill – A 20% reduction in hitpoints for all Titans and Supercarriers for Shields, Armor, and Hull is a pretty nice chunk. Not sure if it will be enough in the case of Supercarriers, but it certainly means that there is now risk involved.
- Supercarriers are far too verstile – Definitely one of the big problems in game at this point. All Supercarriers now have a smaller drone bay AND can only use Fighters or Fighter-bombers. I kind of wish that they would make that change to carriers as well, making sub-capitals even more important.
- The Titan Superweapon is way too powerful – Personally, I never thought the Titan weapon was way too powerful.. just way too useful. The change they made to it, making it only useable against other capital ships, certainly makes it a much more fair fight. Still, the Titan’s secondary weapons might still make this ship too effective in fights against sub-caps.
- Dreadnaught are not good enough – They weren’t, and even after this change still aren’t. Siege mode was reduced, both in time and in fuel consumption, and damage was increased to counter the complete loss of drones. Nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction.
- Sub-capitals useless in fleet fights – Changes to fighters have made them only barely able to hit battleships now. Their signature resolution has been raised to 400. This will mean less solid hits.. but they will still be able to hurt the mainstay of most any sub-cap fleet.
- Logoff Timers – Okay, this is the biggest aspect of this entire blog. The previous mechanic essentially checked for aggression when you logged off, and then you had 15 minutes before you were safe. The NEW mechanic, checks every 15 minutes to see if you have player aggression. If you do, then it extends another 15 minutes. I can see a lot of carebear cries in the future..
All in all, this is a big deal, and these changes will have a huge impact in the game.. a huge, POSITIVE impact.
05 Oct 2011 Devblogs – Hellmar keeps me as a Customer
There are two blogs on this already, both of them would be good to read:
Jestertrek’s: http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-pair-looking-for-full-house.html
And Kirith’s: http://www.ninveah.com/2011/10/preparing-for-ccps-counteroffensive.html
Okay, my view.. CCP Hellmar’s devblog (here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2672) was very, very good. I mean, really, really good. Darn near everything I needed to hear, and certainly I didn’t expect it at all to be that way. Did I agree with all of it? Nearly almost.. and the one small part about the microtransactions business model.. well, I can see where he’s coming from.
I have to shake your virtual hand sir. To me, it seems very clear you still love the game and you just caught up with it. I’m glad to see you have that passion.. keep it. But I am also glad to see that you are getting some pragmatism too.. keep that as well.
As with a heartstirring devblog from the CEO, CCP Zulu released what the winter expansion will entail: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2428
Things I am excited for:
- Factional Warfare - Rip Targ thinks this is too ambitious.. but even small improvements could yield major results.
- Assault Ships – I like them, glad to see them here.
- Capital Ship Balancing – About time.
- Time Dilation – Could have used this when we were in the NC.. but now is better than never.
30 Sept 2011 Devblog – Should we be celebrating yet?
There are two devblogs that have been released:
The first deals with something that was mentioned about six months ago called “Time Dilation”. This was and is a huge deal because of the biggest problems with 0.0 large fleet combat. Even though the problem with Lag was improved, it still had a huge problem dropping requests made to the server.. i.e. the guns you told to fire.. didn’t.. even though they looked like they did. Big, big problem for fleet fights. Here is the devblog and video: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2437
The second devblog deals with Incarna: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2427. That is.. racial captain’s quarters. Which are very nice, btw.
So.. back to my main question.. should we be celebrating yet?
Well.. it’s a start. So, you can begin to buy the beer, vodka, and chips. The problem is that.. we already knew these were happening. These aren’t the “surprises” of clarity and understanding that we had hoped. They aren’t really indicative of “ extensive and intense introspection and revitalization” because these things were already going into the game long before the players were seriously upset at CCP.
So, I will buy my chips and alcohol but the fireworks are going to wait..
Because it’s important for the game to survive.
From CSM Member Seleene: http://seleenes-sandbox.blogspot.com/2011/09/lack-of-communication.html
No new information, aside from the continued frustration that Eve players are currently feeling against CCP. But, it is a good read and it might slow down the desire to rage-quite from Eve Online for a few days… maybe.
So where is this promised Devblog of his? A prediction.
It seems funny.. and a little strange.. that I can attribute a Biblical Scripture to the actions of CCP and, in particular, CCP Zulu.
The scripture is 2 Peter 3:4 and it reads like this from the New World Translation: “and saying, “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep [in death], all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.” It certainly is a serious scripture for a serious time. Still, it resonated with me on a less serious aspect.. the aspect of Eve Online.
You see, oddly enough, this is exactly how I feel about CCP Zulu’s Devblog. We have a “prophecy”, as mentioned here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2421, yet many of us have seen CCP promise many grand, even outlandish, things. Rarely have they lived up to the hype, and sadly, many of them never materialized at all.. pushed aside for the latest “shiny”.. that also gets pushed aside for the “shiny” after that. Eve is riddled with incomplete projects that took longer and behaved differently than intended. And as each day passes, I lose faith that CCP can bring about the necessary change to the game.. a game I have spent the last four years playing, enjoying, and experiencing.
So, I think it’s my turn to give a prediction. I predict that if CCP cannot apply an effective Flying in Space expansion and update to Eve Online by December 20th, then Eve Online will cease its ability to gain new players to replace the ones it will hemorage. The expansion can’t just be released on the 20th.. it needs to have been applied before that, with everyone getting a chance to really soak in the changes.
The simple fact is that Eve Online, while being a niche game, derives most of its players from people who enjoy the Sci-Fi genre. Many of which growing up on Star Wars, envisioning themselves as Bounty Hunters, or Rebels, or Pirates, etc. And on December 20th, the most antipated Sci-Fi MMO of all time will be released: “Star Wars: The Old Republic”.
The clock is ticking CCP.
The Sept 20th 2011 Devblog – How will it change Eve?
Well.. um, you all will stop calling me “Drakkus” instead of “Orakkus”.
Yes, it’s a good change.
Glad it got done.
Glad I will be able to read my Eve better.
But um…
I was hoping for something a little more.. oh.. I dunno…
FLYING-IN-SPACE-ISH?!
Thanks CCP and yes, I will link something that is appropriate from Jester’s Trek now: http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2011/04/quote-of-week-not-invented-here.html
As well as his current.. well Garth (Do they have Country Music in space? Was that a dig to “Space: Above and Beyond” or a dig for the Walton’s boy family and campy classic “Battle Beyond the Stars”?): http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2011/09/font-of-wisdom.html
Nullsec Blog – Part Two – A less foggy roadmap
Here is the latest devblog from CCP Greyscale: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=946
Along with this image:
This image will likely come back to haunt CCP’s Team BFF because from now on, every expansion (even if it has nothing to do with nullsec) will be contrasted to this right here.
Now, if you were looking for a detailed plan.. this isn’t it. So, that was a bit disappointing, but not unexpected. It’s more like the next level of zoom on the overhead map. You see more features, you have a better idea of some things, but it really doesn’t give you the overhead shot of your neighbor’s pool that you want. Some of the nice aspects are what factors they are considering when they do start to make changes.. and that can help the community and the CSM understand why they did something.
Unfortunately, this is where the interaction with the community (outside of the CSM) is probably going to break down. Plenty of people are going to nitpick each of the own favorite issue, and granted some of those ideas from the community will be awesome. Others will just be cannon fodder and take up valuable time and space.
There was quite a bit of interesting thoughts though mentioned by CCP Greyscale and the entire blog is certainly worth reading. Here are a few points I really thought were cool:
Mining:
- Motivational
- Mining should be something that you do because you know you’re achieving something, not just because it makes you money – the minerals created should be contributing towards larger goals.
Industry (and the low-sec guys should be happy about this plan too):
- Geared towards T2
- Our current proposal is that hisec is for volume T1 goods, lowsec will be for meta/faction gear eventually, nullsec is for T2, and wormholes are for T3
Exploration:
- Dynamic and challenging
- Even more so than other PvE, exploration content should provide a new experience every time, and should offer up all kinds of challenge (thinking as well as shooting). “Exploration” is meant to evoke ideas of freshness, unexpected events and the danger of the unknown.
PVP Nullsec:
- At a strategic level, NPC nullsec should provide a safer base of operations than the rest of nullsec. It should not make you feel hugely safer while in space, but sacrificing control and the ability to invest as deeply should buy you some measure of stability.
Large Scale Combat (100+ ships)
- Value for all
- Everyone involved in this sort of fight should feel like they’re glad they took the time and effort to get involved, and that it left them feeling satisfied. People should not be sitting at a starbase for three hours, warping into a fight and getting instapopped before they’ve really done anything. Winning and losing should matter, but taking part should be valuable too.
Territory and Conquest (The Sov bit):
- Diseconomies of scale
- Being big should bring drawbacks as well as benefits, and getting big should be a lifestyle choice or a chosen specialization, rather than a necessity. Some sorts of operations should benefit a little more than others from being larger, but it should not be the case that being big is a straight-up advantage. You get diminishing returns in terms of social value above a certain point, and anecdotally trying to grow quickly to remain competitive is a leading cause of corps and alliances failing.
- Vulnerabilities
- Every organization’s specific circumstances and setup should have its own distinct set of vulnerabilities, and they should always exist. It should be possible with effort to mask them, but a diligent foe should be able to discover and exploit them. An organizational playstyle with no serious vulnerabilities is a broken playstyle.
- Emergent “terrain”
- The “playing field” of territory and conquest should be shaped by players. Further, each adjustment they make should have consequences to other nearby areas, and those consequences might not always be intended, and when multiple adjustments begin to overlap in space they should interact in interesting ways. Every location should have a different character based on the unique combination of natural features and player-made alterations that surround it. This helps make every fight and every campaign different and interesting.
Intel (yes, they actually made this a category..):
- Reward time, localism, thought, investment, teamwork
- Time – gathering intelligence should not be quick. People who take the time to really do their homework should be rewarded.
- Localism – there should be a clear advantage to specializing in a particular area, allowing players to build up local knowledge and use it against their enemies.
- Thought – intel-gathering should not be a rote activity, it should require people to make plans and then adjust them as they go.
- Investment – those who are willing to make investments in intel-gathering, either in static or mobile tools, should be rewarded, as this further encourages specialization.
- Teamwork – working together should be more efficient than working separately, because getting people to interact always brings value of one sort or another.
There was a lot of information on what CCP’s ideas were.. however, again.. it wasn’t a detailed plan of how to get there. They also made the effort to seperate “the grand unified plan for Eve and Nullsec” from the necessary Supercapital fix that needs to happen (and soon), which I believe is a good idea as it would be too easy for a successful change in this area to derail a good plan to fix all of Eve.
I suggest you read it, keep up with your CSM, and give CCP a ”thanks” for keeping on this.
CCP Greyscale is enduring..
Last week CCP decided to drop a somewhat general, but pretty impressive dev blog outlining what their goals were for nullsec space. I personally thought it was an excellent idea from CCP, and in particular CCP Greyscale, that they have been leading the charge to respond to as many of the original ideas as he can spot.
He’s been doing this now for nearly a week.
Let me re-iterate this: CCP Greyscale has been reviewing each and every post on a very controversal subject.. for the last week and responding to them. Think about that for a minute.. that means he has to read smart ideas, partially smart ideas, stupid ideas, partially stupid ideas, troll ideas, Chris Crocker style rants (Google: Leave Britney Alone), rants from people who only by sheer luck have not killed themselves while tying their shoes. Then he responds to a lot of them, even correcting himself when he realized he made a mistake.
(gasp..)
Now, while I may not always like how CCP has done things, I think that having CCP Greyscale making this effort was a great idea, whether it was CCP’s idea or if it was CCP Greyscale’s idea alone. By doing this, it appears that CCP is fighting against their inate desire to drop everything for the next “ooo shiny”. It is very encouraging. My hat is off to you, Mr. CCP Greyscale. Keep on keeping on.
Devblog: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=944
Comments Section: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1560795
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