Tag: winter expansion

What to build in Rubicon? [UPDATE]

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

If you play an industrialist in EVE and await Rubicon eagerly, here is a short list of what new things will be available to be built in the upcoming Winter Expansion. Make sure to prepare the materials ahead of time, and schedule a rush for the blueprints on the 19th!

Why is it worth to join the rush? Because countless expansions before have shown that people are willing to pay extra just to be one of the first players to use/access new features. Rubicon brings several manufacturable items, and each of them is a chance for a potential quick buck.

UPDATE: Added estimated manufacturing costs for each item.

UPDATE: It seems the sudden demand for some PI components has made their price skyrocket. I have updated the material lists (they changed from Singularity a little bit) and the estimated costs. As you can see, Cynosural Inhibitor manufacturing price has already doubled!

Mobile Depot

mobile-depot-bpoOne of the first steps towards space colonization, and the only one that will have a reinforcement timer, Mobile Depot is the cheapest one to build. According to the Rubicon Patch Notes, the BPO will only cost 1,000,000 ISK and will be available from any of the four Empire factions.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Smartfab Units 3 100%
Nuclear Reactors 1 100%
Guidance Systems 3 100%
High-Tech Transmitters 1 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Pyerite 220 (perfect: 200)
Zydrine 220 (perfect: 200)

As you can see, the materials list contains both minerals and PI components, and it should be realtively cheap to build.

Estimated manufacturing cost: 1,053,898.46 ISK

Mobile Tractor Unit

tractor-unit-bpoThis one will have a bit more expensive blueprint than the Depot – BPO will cost 30,000,000 ISK. Just like the previous one it will be seeded by the four major Empire factions.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Organic Mortar Applicators 2 100%
Wetware Mainframe 1 100%
Ukomi Superconductors 2 100%
Small Tractor Beam I 1 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 11000 (perfect: 10000)
Pyerite 550 (perfect: 500)
Isogen 550 (perfect: 500)
Zydrine 550 (perfect: 500)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 12,500,442.59 ISK

Small Mobile Siphon Unit

siphon-bpoMobile Siphon Unit, the most controversial deployable introduced in Rubicon has a BPO that costs 100,000,000 ISK. Just like the previous two, it will be available in Empire space.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Guidance Systems 100 100%
Miniature Electronics 100 100%
Data Chips 12 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 236425 (perfect: 214932)
Pyerite 34181 (perfect: 31074)
Mexallon 20747 (perfect: 18861)
Isogen 6545 (perfect: 5950)
Nocxium 1900 (perfect: 1727)
Zydrine 624 (perfect: 567)
Megacyte 189 (perfect: 172)

While the material list simply consists of Minerals, to build a Siphon Unit your character will need to have some Tech II related skills trained, namely Electronic Engineering 4 and Graviton Physics 4.

Estimated manufacturing cost: 12,715,469.64 ISK

Mobile Cynosural Inhibitor

cyno-inhibitor-bpoThis one will be a bit tricky to get. Not only the BPO costs 150,000,000 ISK, but it will only be seeded in nullsec regions! But with the changes to interceptors (namely their bubble immunity) getting these blueprints should not pose any problems.

Extra Material Quantity dmg per job
Broadcast Node 4 100%
Organic Mortar Applicators 8 100%
Self-Harmonizing Power Core 2 100%
Sterile Conduits 4 100%
Wetware Mainframe 2 100%
Guidance Systems 20 100%
Material Quantity
Tritanium 275000 (perfect: 250000)
Pyerite 11000 (perfect: 10000)
Isogen 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Zydrine 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Megacyte 550 (perfect: 500)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 61,843,391.28 ISK

Bastion Module I

bastion-module-bpoThe blueprint will cost 50,000,000 ISK and will be available on the market (CCP did not specifically say “in Empire”, but that’s my educated guess). The module cannot be invented at the moment (only Tech I version will be available).

Material Quantity
Tritanium 385000 (perfect: 350000)
Pyerite 82500 (perfect: 75000)
Mexallon 33000 (perfect: 30000)
Isogen 5500 (perfect: 5000)
Nocxium 1100 (perfect: 1000)
Zydrine 220 (perfect: 200)
Megacyte 110 (perfect: 100)

Estimated manufacturing cost: 6,089,465.80 ISK

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I

rapid-hml-bpoPatch notes don’t say anything about the availability of the BPO, but I again guess it will be empire space (so it is consistent with other missile launcher BPOs). Blueprint price in Static Data Dump is 750K ISK. This one will have Tech II version, which means it will be inventable.

Material Quantity
Tritanium 105 (perfect: 95)
Pyerite 1155 (perfect: 1050)
Nocxium 8 (perfect: 7)
Zydrine 2 (perfect: 2)
Megacyte 10 (perfect: 9)

Estimated manufacturing cost: Tech I 36,342.49 ISK; Tech II (including invention) 1,759,950.43 ISK

Customs Office Gantries

While this is not a new structure, it’s use will spike in the first couple of days after Rubicon deployment. Also if you plan to bash some ICOs yourself, make sure to have Gantries already built and prepared. I’m pretty sure the land rush will lead to some funny events where someone will erect a ninja POCO after someone else had cleared the ICO. Just a thought 😉

EVE Online: Rubicon Status Post

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , , , , ,

EVE Online: Rubicon
Expansion name: Rubicon
Release date: November 19th, 2013
Expansion theme: Space Colonization, POCOs in high sec, small gang boost, ship rebalancing
Last update of this post: 15.11.2013
Patch notes: Rubicon

Intro

rubiconOn 26th of September CCP has announced the upcoming winter expansion called Rubicon. The deveplopers of EVE have hinted the general direction back on Fanfest, when CCP Seagull spoke about future EVE where capsuleers are not just inhabitants of New Eden. Players are supposed to colonize space, make it their own. Rubicon is probably the first in a series of expansions with space colonization theme.

While the first and most obvious feature that comes to mind is revamp of the POS system, it will not be happening just yet.

Rubicon has been available on Singularity test server since 7th of October 2013. Source: dev forum post.

New character selection screen

login-screen-v2

Click “Continue Reading” to read the whole post.

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Close up on Orbital Bombardment

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

Orbital Bombardment is one of the most spectacular features (but not necessarily the most important one) in the upcoming Retribution expansion. EVE Online pilots will be able to turn the tides in DUST 514 battles by nuking planetary targets directly from orbit.

For example like this:

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4diq-KlXI”]

EVE Players are not concerned with the ability to shoot DUST-bunnies: they either look forward to it or simply don’t care at all. Pod pilots are however afraid of bunnies shooting back. You see, at first sight it seems that DUST players simply respawn and don’t have to grind ISK to buy ships like majority of us EVE players do. It is not entirely true. You can use cheap tech I fittings in EVE, and you can use expensive deadspace fitted faction ships. The same applies to DUST where you can use cheap and weak gear, or expensive, high quality one that you have to pay tons of ISK or AUR for.

Planetary bombardment already exists in EVE lore

The Dominix Navy Issue’s past is prominently interwoven with history, as it is known to have directly participated in the blockade and bombardment of Caldari Prime along with the Dracofeu orbital-class bomber two centuries ago. Engineered for capsule compliance, and refitted to serve more traditional combat roles, the Dominix Navy Issue today remains an extremely effective vessel and an invaluable asset in close- to mid-range battle situations.

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage and 10% bonus to drone hitpoints and damage per skill level.

Did you notice the fragment in bold? It has been there for as long as Dominix Navy Issue exists, but had no real meaning until DUST 514 Orbital Bombardment feature.

CCP has mentioned several times, that destroyers will be the ship of choice for orbital bombardment, and that a new set of destroyers will be introduced in the winter expansion. Although Dracofeu is a ship from two hundred years in the EVE past, it doesn’t mean the new Destroyer couldn’t bear this name. It would even make sense considering the fact, that the Dominix Navy is a rather “old” design as well.

Destroyers won’t get the bonus right away, however. According to the post I’ve linked above, it will happen sometime after the initial deployment of winter expansion.

Hands on lab

First, you need a Tactical space-to-ground ammo. The only size available is small at the moment,  which suggests the use of small craft with many turrets (Destroyers!) or turret bonuses (faction frigates). It is also worth to notice that each ammo type has different properties: lasers are very precise, high damage appliances, while projectiles are more less anti-shield Area-of-Effect weapon.

Once ammo has been loaded up, we need to go to the planet where the engagement is on. Our DUST 514 friends will provide us with the District they are fighting over. New warpable coordinates are available in orbit of Temperate  planets (a side effect of this is more “ready-to-use” safespots have been created by CCP; if you are warping away from a hostile gate, look for temperate planets).

Once in orbit, you will see the District:

 

Once connected, it’s up for our DUST bunnies friends on the surface to provide the coordinates. Once coordinates have been received, you can activate the bombardment.

It’s worth mentioning, that the satellites, which play the role of warpable beacons are great looking models. I wonder if the Art Departament could improve scanning probes in such a fashion?

Now the same on video, courtesy of @JonnyPew. This vid is a fraps of the recent mass test that took place on Buckingham on September 27th.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jjpMzMBomE”]

EVE Online: Retribution Status Post

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

Expansion name: Retribution
Expansion number: 18
Release date: December the 4th, 2012
Expansion theme: Ships and weapons rebalancing, Crimewatch (new PvP agression rules), new HUD, Factional Warfare and DUST 514 integration, Bounty Hunting
Last update of this post: 30.11.2012
SQLite Database dump: Buckingham build 454549
Patch notes: available here for build 453216

Retribution login screen

I know this post is a huge wall of text, but I’m trying to make it as complete and as accurate as humanly possible; instead of having to look for information about the new expansion in dozen different places, all you have to do is read through this post.

Table of contents (or TL;DR part)

  • Blueprints for new items
  • Capital ships’ Corp Hangar changes
  • Crime Watch 2.0
  • Bounty Hunting system 2.0
  • Graphical changes & ship facelifts (new Special Edition ships, Snowballs)
  • UI changes
  • Ships rebalancing
  • Frigate rebalancing
  • Destroyers (Dragoon, Corax, Algos, Talwar)
  • Cruiser rebalancing
  • Hurricane balancing
  • Turret sound changes
  • Missile changes
  • Module changes
  • Officer drone upgrades
  • E-War rebalancing
  • ORE Mining frigate (Venture)
  • NPCs AI overhaul
  • Officer Rogue Drone spawns
  • Faction Warfare – Warzone Control changes
  • Faction Warfare – NPC changes

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DUST and EVE together on Singularity test server

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

Yesterday CCP has finished moving DUST 514 test server to the well known EVE Online public test cluster dubbed “Singularity”. Besides extensive changes to the server backend, there is many changes visible to the naked eye:

  • Capsuleers of EVE and DUST bunnies can chat in local
  • Overview settings now include more orbital structure types (it’s actually on Tranquility already)
  • New deployable type: Mobile Jump Disruptor – most likely a new type of warp bubble to stop players from using Tactical Warp Drive (the one that was supposed to arrive with Inferno)
  • Market has a new category for DUST items. They have been seeded, but are currently NOT available to buy for EVE players.
  • Customs Offices are gone and this is probably a bug. They will likely be replaced with another structure – the Space Elevator (the structure on the right)
  • Where to find Dust players on Singularity:
    You will be able to find Dust players in following systems: Kothe (Kador), Ana (Domain), Marthia (Tash Murkon), Saikanen (The Citadel), Autama (Lonetrek), Soshin (The Forge), Jolia (Sinq Laison), Adacyne (Placid), Halle (Everyshore), Egbonbet (Metropolis), Kasrasi (Derelik), and Javrendei (Heimatar)

More information in this forum post by CCP Habakuk.

 

First glimpse at the winter 2012 expansion

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

EDIT: Proper Status Post for Winter Expansion is already up. Go check it for all confirmed changes in the coming expansion.

As Inferno has matured a little bit, CCP started to reveal pieces of information regarding the new winter expansion. It is not enough to write my usual “status” post yet, but the information released is already quite interesting.

Please mind that the numbers below are most likely not set in stone yet and are subject to change. The data are up-to-date on 21st of August.

  • Frigate rebalancing

    Continuing the efforts started in Crucible and Inferno, CCP is re-balancing more frigates in order to make them role based (devs are calling this “tiericide”) in favor of the tier based approach. Back in 2003, when EVE was just released, putting ships in tiers made sense, but over time it caused people to fly the top-of-the-line ship, while ignoring the lower tier ships.

    Already Rebalanced:

    Combat frigates – short range brawlers: Tormentor, Punisher, Merlin, Incursus, Rifter
    Attack frigates– tech I ceptors: Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher

    In the winter expansion we will get:

    Disruption frigates – dev forum post here
    Weaker version of Electronic Attack Ships

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Exploration frigates – dev forum post here

    They will receive an additional bonus to mini-professions, rather than just to probe scanning strength.

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Logistic frigates – dev forum post here

    Along with ships rebalancing, small remote assistance modules will get a slight fitting boost as well.
    Maximum remote assistance range will be capped at 28,8km.

     Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    More Combat frigates – dev forum post here
    The Amarr have received two rebalanced combat frigates (Tormentor and Punisher) recently, so all the other races are getting a second combat frig to choose from as well.

  • ORE Mining frigate

    While Navitas and Bantam will become logistic frigates, there is a need for a small scale, low-SP mining specific ship. The ORE Mining Frigate is still nameless, but we already know how it is going to look like:

  • DUST 514 integration

    Some details have been speculated heavily by myself in this post, and by Blake from K162space here. According to this news item, CCP is currently working on moving DUST 514 to Singularity test server, which means we will be able to test the integration pretty soon. Players are however concerned by the fact, that CCP claims it takes several days of downtime to connect DUST and EVE Online. Even though the task is rather complicated, I am quite sure CCP would not allow such operation to last more than a couple of hours on Tranquility.

    EVE Online planetary bombardment - DUST 514 link
    EVE Online planetary bombardment – DUST 514 link

  • Industry

    We can only guess what the winter expansion could bring here, because there is plenty of room for improvement. The recent addition of new alchemy reactions which allow bypassing Technetium was just the tip of the iceberg. We can probably expect some form of ring mining mentioned in the Fanfest keynote, or UI fixes and multitude of small improvements (especially for repeatable tasks). Another possible improvement could affect planning and tracking of an industry operation, which currently relies heavily on third party tools and Corporation API keys.

    Unfortunately at this point there is no solid source of information regarding Industry changes and we have to wait for a proper dev-blog. On a side note, I like Poetic Stanziel’s idea regarding Ring Mining in one of a his recent posts. Add some risk of ship destruction, and this can actually end up an exciting way to gather resources.

  • Graphical changes

    New ship explosions as seen on edge-online.com and previously in one of the Fanfest keynotes (thanks for reminding about this, @wartzilla !)

  • CREST API (speculation)

    This would probably be the cherry on the cake, because EVE API in its current form, even though very useful, is still lacking many features. For example, third party applications such as Aura can let you read EVE mail, but in order to send a reply, you have to log on to the game or use EVE Gate. CREST API aims to change that, and it will allow more of a read-write access to the game, rather than current read-only approach. So far CCP has only revealed Developer Preview of CREST documentation but it is lacking any specific details regarding what the new API will and will not allow to do. The devs made no promises on release date either.

  • New modules (speculation)

    One of the famous-but-not-existing modules that were supposed to arrive in Inferno was Micro Jump Drive/Tactical Warp Drive – a module that would catapult a ship instantly about 100km forward. Since it did not make it for Inferno, we can still hope it will arrive in the winter expansion.

  • New collectible ships (lot of speculation)

    Inferno 1.2 has brought a range of Catalyst variants, which will be most likely collectible ships (think of it like Interbus Shuttle or Iteron Mark IV Amastris Edition). I highly doubt CCP would add them as ships skins in the NeX store, but as long as there is no solid evidence to the contrary, we can’t dismiss it either. There is also a possibility that these ships could be available in specific corp LP stores. This way or another, the trend seems to already have started, and we can probably expect more collectible ship variants entering the game i nthe near future, allowing for unprecedented speculation (don’t know what I’m talking about? Just do a pricecheck on Iteron Mark IV Quafe Ultramarine Edition please).

  • Graphical changes (pure speculation)

    Vagabond might get its frill back.

Ship re-balancing makes my recent post outdated

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

A few hours ago CCP has published a dev-blog about ship balancing changes, which we have already heard before Inferno. TL; DR: all Tech I frigates are getting a specific combat role. This is a change from the tiered ship approach we’ve seen over the past years. Instead of putting ships in tiers, each better than the previous one, Tech I vessels will have specialized roles instead, much like their Tech II counterparts do.

  • Interception: Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher. Small, agile ships meant for stopping other ships dead in the water
  • Snipers: Navitas, Bantam, Burst The Navitas will become a drone boat. The Bantam will replace the Merlin as the railgun based sniper. The Burst will most likely become a mobile artillery platform, drone boat or a mix of above.
  • Missile lobbers: Inquisitor, Breacher, Kestrel, Tristan. Offer decent tank and speed.
  • Support exploration frigates: Magnate, Heron, Imicus, Probe. These ships will become even more specialized, with possible bonuses to mini-pofessions like hacking and archaeology.
  • EWAR disruption frigates: Crucifier, Griffin, Maulus, Vigil. Crucifier will be re-shaped to become a miniature Arbitrator. All ships will be specialized in EWAR and combat disruption.
  • Rookie ship boost: with the new looks, rookie ships will become very versatile ships, but not nearly as good as any Tech I frigate.

New ship! It’s one of the things that always make me smile in EVE: new ships. Since Navitas and Bantam will no longer be mining frigates, ORE will introduce an ultra-mobile mining frigate for new miners as well as experienced ones, who are mining in a hostile environment.

The new mining frigate does not have a name yet, but I’m sure CCP will come with something cool, like “Carebearmobile” or “Veldnaught” 😉 I personally vote for “Ius” -> see Ius Primae Noctis.

Barges will not have tiers anymore – instead, they will have a balance between EHP and mining output.

  • Procurer and Skiff will sport battleship-like EHP, but their mining output will be the lowest.
  • Retriever and Mackinaw will have less EHP than the above, but will mine more minerals in each cycle. They will also sport biggest cargoholds.
  • Hulk and Covetor will mine the most, but will have about as much EHP as they do right now, making them most vulnerable.

The EHP boost will also make my post about tanked barges void.

CCP has also mentioned that Barges are getting specialized cargoholds, similar to the ones on Rorqual and Orca.

All this will be coming to Tranquility in the 2012 Winter Expansion.

First night in the heat of the Crucible

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The waiting is over, Crucible has been deployed, one emergency reboot already took place and it seems everyone is happy. It was a very exciting time for all of us to wait for the 15th expansion, and the amount of work whoch CCP has put into it is enormous. Before the Crucible was deployed I tried to stick to the facts, rather than make opinions, but I think now is the right time for the latter.

On a side note, my blog kept on beating its daily visits count record, which now stands at 574 unique visits on November 29th. Thank you all!

New nebulae & warp tunnels

Are simply amazing. I like this feature of phenomena being closer or further away depending on where you are, since I saw it for the first time on SiSi. This adds a sense of global direction in EVE, which could never be experienced before; it is possible to tell where in New Eden you are just by looking at the sky (Gallente space – this way, Caldari space – that way). Stargates pointing at nearby stars add even more immersion in this area. The warp tunnel effect is simply awesome and can even make you dizzy if you keep staring at it for too long! It looks good even with shaders set to low. Passing through planets never looked so good. The EVE lore claims that ships in warp are outside of normal space, so they can pass through other solid objects. And now it looks that way (it always felt unfinished to me). Graphically this is EVE 3.0.

New shaders and ship models

Raven Navy Issue shader in CrucibleI already mentioned the new Raven and the other Caldari ships in my blog posts. Unfortunately, Minmatar and Amarr… didn’t make it for Crucible. Very good job @ art departament for the Caldari and Gallente though, new skins are beautiful. All ships are more detailed and the light interacts with them in a more natural way. Also the Navy variants look more realistic (hey, who would paint starships in camo? Wouldn’t plain black be better than that?). And the Raven model looks even more bad-ass now. Perhaps CCP should delay the deployment until mid-December, but with more V3 ship skins? Almost forgotten: the new engine trails look neat, I was missing them a lot.

Jump on contact

Jump on contactOne of the most useful features when travelling around high sec and low sec. I like it very much, and many others already love it, too.

Tier 3 BCs

I didn’t have much time to play with new EVE yesterday, but I managed to buy the Talos BPO (715 mill ISK?! You’re kidding me. That’s more than a Dominix BPO!) and already made 3 of them by the morning (currently they sell for about 150 mill isk apiece). So just 4 more and my initial investment will be covered.

Of course, the mineral prices have jumped, mainly due to speculation, so it was a good idea to prepare supplies before Crucible deployment.

And I’ve noticed some people already flying the new glass cannons. So far the most popular one I saw is the Oracle.

Of course the Tier-3 battlecruisers BPOs are sold by the empire Navies.

Destroyers vs Interdictors

Difference between Interdictors and Destroyers in CrucibleDestroyers got a serious buff, and they will be new nemesis for Assault Frigates in Factional Warfare complexes, which have a frigate size limit.

Wait, what about the Interdictors?

No love. They only got nerfed: previously, when you have deployed the Warp Disruption Probe, you only got agression, when your web actually caught some flies. Now, you get agression timer just for deploying the probe, and cannot dock or jump for 60 seconds. Moreover, Interdictors signature radius is still 80-90m and they have less HP and Capacitor than their tech I coutnerpart. Did you deliberately overlooked this, CCP? Make love, not nerfs!

More Incarna than in Incarna

In Incarna we have received one CQ (Minmatar), in Crucible we got 3 more. And more than just that: high sec CQs look clean, low sec ones are a little bit dirty, and null-sec quarters haven’t seen a janitor for ages. But I don’t really think people are going to spend much time in them, and not because players hate them. The usability of CQ has been improved, but still the hangar view loads faster, is more useful, and players got used to it. Spinning counter is one more reason not to enter the CQ at all (spinning counter starts to be visible after 10 full spins).

War for PI

I haven’t seen any player built Customs Offices so far, but thats because Interbus ones need to be destroyed first. According to the dev-blog, it is possible to entirely shut off access to anyone but your corp and your blues. This is a potential source of conflicts in low sec and maybe in null sec as well. If Customs Offices would change ownership along with sovereignty, this mechanic would be even better.

Is this EVE 3.0?

I know there is more changes than the ones above (this post contains all of them). But this is my first impression, it’s what shows the most after launching the new game client. The Crucible brings back the freshness, new opportunities and new combat styles to EVE, not to mention the graphical overhaul. Even though there were some silent nerfs to Interdictors and EVE API (which were not mentioned until final patchnotes), from my point of view Crucible makes up for both the Monoclegate and Incarna. Good job CCP!

EDIT: Fuel blocks BPOs have been seeded today and are sold for 11 mill ISK by Thukker Mix corp in Minmatar space.

Comments about what you like or dislike about the Winter Expansion are welcome!

Crucible: New Raven and Navy Raven screens

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , , , ,

Many of you have asked me for some Raven Navy Issue screenshots from the new EVE Online: Crucible expansion, and so say the google search terms in my blog’s stats. To please your wanting eyes, I present you the new incarnation of the most popular PvE battleship of EVE, re-designed for the Crucible expansion. I hope you like it – I do for sure (not that I fly Raven too often, but it really got kick-ass looks). There are also screens of Tech I Raven and its Tech II counterpart, the Golem.

Most ships look better in Crucible

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

but not the Gallente Shuttle.

Of course the above is just my own opinion. Since the beginning of EVE, Gallente Shuttle used to have a lively orange hull (space taxi?), which has now become grey and dull instead. We have already noticed, that all the ships in EVE are being brought in-line with each other in terms of shaders (Tech I, Tech II, faction – see my post about Ishukone skin for Caldari Tech II ships). So it seems that the Gallente line of Tech I ships does not fit the shuttle very well. See yourself:

Trinity-style Gallente Shuttle (orange) Crucible-style Gallente Shuttle (grey/green)

EDIT: I grant it looks more military now, but aren’t shuttles supposed to be civilian vessels? They don’t even have weapons.