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Alright, so the latest expansion from CCP is out! I got it installed last night and logged in.
And it was, for me, not as wonderful as I had hoped. However, the main reason was probably because my pc is a couple years old, and could use a memory upgrade (researching that now..)
First, though, gotta work it with the things I liked:
New skins – Every NPC and lots of Caldari and Gallente ships got a new skin.. with logos. Pretty sweet, and I’m betting this is the first iteration of what might allow corp logos on ships.
Engine Trails – Yes, they were there and they look good, though from what I’ve seen thus far, they are all blue 😦
PI (sort of) – the interface was a lot simpler (it was actually so simple, it took me a while to realize how simple it was).
Warp Effect – Oh, this.. was awesome. Period. I especially loved the distortion effect. Plus, whoever thought about actually blocking out space when you were travelling through a planet should get a few kudos as well. Very nicely done.
Shots that Miss – Yes, finally. Also very well done. It looks right and it is informative (yes, now you don’t have to look at your transversal all the time…).
New Salvager/Tractor Beam Sounds – Kind of annoying, but at least it was an interesting change.
Space and Nebulae – Yeah.. Eve now feels Awesome again..
Bookmark System – They should have kept it bookmarking, but I guess “Save Location” is good enough.
Now, the things I didn’t like:
New font/Scalable UI – Yeah, Scalable UI didn’t work so great on my 21″ monitor. Or rather I should say the combo of reducing the UI to 90% and the new font didn’t work all that well in my opinion. The 100% had the windows too big, but I could read the smallest text and the 90% had the windows just right, but the text in the interactive menus was just barely legible. Actually, they weren’t legible, I was just able to decipher what was meant because the words used were still the same. The good side is that once I get a 24″ monitor, I think it will look quite nice.
PI Taxes – Definitely cut into the profit, and I had hoped that the bandwidth changes would help allow me to establish more extractors.. but, it didn’t. So, net loss there.
Graphics Issues – About a half an hour in, I started to experience HUD loss. This usually happens to me if I’ve been on for about 8-10 hours, so I was a bit disconcerted to see that happen so quickly.. especially since a big deal was made about how more efficient the graphics were than previous. Now, I well know that Eve and ATI cards aren’t exactly best of buds, so after a bit of PC cleaning and using a box fan at half power, I managed to reduce this issue and it happened after about a hour and a half, and not nearly as severely (I nearly lost my Vargur the first time around). There was a recommendation made by CCP in regards to Radeon graphics cards and I made the change but haven’t been able to test the results yet.
Customs Office BPCs – Having some Concord LP, I decided to see if it was worth getting one of these. So, I bought one thinking it was a BPO.. yeah, it wasn’t. Just a single run BPC for 6k LP and 20mil isk. Guess what? Jita had them for sale for 22mil isk. Yeah, looks like a decent reason to do Faction Warfare.
Things I plan to try soon:
Hybrids – When Friday rolls around I’ll have Medium Tech 2 Blasters and Railguns under my belt, so this means I’ll be messing around with the Brutix and other Tech 1 cruisers while I train up Gallente Cruisers V.
And things I plan to keep watching:
Supercap Changes – This was a big deal to me for a long, long time. We’ll probably not see any appreciable effect for at least six months or so.
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All in all, I’ll probably need to review some how-tos on PI so that I can make it more efficient (though, even with the increase in taxes my profit is still pretty decent, especially for using High-sec planets), and I’ll be waiting a few weeks for the Tornado prices to drop where they need to be before I buy one. It will still be a few months before I get a chance to fly any of the other Tier 3 Battlecruisers.. 😦
I was too annoyed at the naga being hybrids only to check out the PI or the different ship skins; oh well, there’s the tornado, at least when it doesn’t cost the price of a fitted BS. Might be awhile for a bpc, but bpos still expensive. At least the tier2 bc bpos prices went down. Bummer about PI: was hoping to make a profit; I guess if I had a pos, I’d make my own custom offices. Engine trails look nice, although the pirates should get red or some ghastly green-black. The warp effect was mesmerizing and I almost wished for a bigger system. The supercap fix/nerf would’ve been nice…10mos ago.
I did check out the new captain’s quarters, but was disappointed that my computer sounded like it was about to fly off; oh well, was gonna use CQ sparingly anyway.