Category: EVE Online

EVE Online, a spaceship based MMO game by CCP Games

The little Skiff, that could…

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

SkiffWith the changes to Mining Barges and Exhumers introduced in Inferno, Skiff has become a valid PVP platform. Devs have boosted the EHP and fitting capabilities, but seem to have forgot about the exceptional agility and speed (250m/s on a mining barge!), which come from it’s pre-Inferno role of the “ninja” Mercoxit miner. High sensor resolution of 825mm makes it an excellent tackler, in line with most frigates and interceptors.

Drone bay of 50 cubic meters fits 5 medium drones, or 10 small ones. They would not pack a lot of punch, but with the Drone Damage Amplifier II, 5 medium drones can pump up to 216 DPS – I would say quite a lot for a mining ship. Retribution will further improve this, because Drone damage mods will receive a further buff (19% -> 23%).

With 5 med slots, Skiff has enough space to fit a propulsion mod and tackling mods, leaving room for two tank mods. Two low slots give a little choice really: Damage Control II and damage mod, or two damage mods for all-gank setup. High slot is really optional: you can fit a Nos/Neut, or drone range mod, and that’s about it.

  

How well does it perform?

Not as good as a dedicated combat vessel, but not bad either. The EHP is in the HAC – BS levels, while damage output is closer to Tech I cruisers. Of course drones can be killed, and Skiff can quickly end up with no guns. Using small drones allows to hold two full flights of them, but it reduces the DPS by half, reducing Skiff potential to a frigate killer.

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=14330271

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=14320342

[UPDATE] In the meantime, on Duality…

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

EVE Online has several active test servers right now, mainly because of DUST 514 development, Inferno development and Retribution development.

Singularity, the most famous EVE test server is currently hosting DUST bunnies. From EVE Online point of view, it allows testing the EVE-DUST integration and interaction with DUST 514 players.

Buckingham was just recently used to test the current Inferno 1.3.2 build that brought Districts to Temperate planets, as well as Faction Warfare changes.

As you already have guessed, Duality is the place to test the new winter expansion Retribution and all the features connected to it.

Retribution login screen

A lot of ships will get a model redesign in Retribution, including Megathron, Stabber and Vagabond. Tempest model has been resculpted as well.

New Tempest model in Retribution New Tempest model in Retribution New Megathron model in Retribution New Kronos model in Retribution

Four new destroyers will be added to the game, and this is how they look “live”. I really like the animated forcefields protecting the Gallente destroyer’s drone bays. This is something that IMHO should make its way to Thanatos when cap ships get V3.

   
Outer Ring Excavations, a corp that designed Hulk and Noctis (in game) is presenting you the new ORE frigate:

 
The Sansha Nation ships shader looks even better than before (remember the chameleon shader mentione in the status post?). Now its become an oily shader – it looks as if the hulls have been engulfed in some kind of fuel (or nanites!).

The UI has been improved as well. First off, the new Inventory UI has been iterated upon. To switch between the new and old hangar view, just click this small button:

To prevent new players from accidently becoming criminals, a safety switch has been added. Please note this is not a PVP flag switch! It only prevents YOU from firing. You are still a valid target for everyone else, despite this setting. Think of it like a weapon safety switch.

New targeting brackets look like this. Also note the new damage notifications.

All hardeners and resistance amplifiers will have specific damage type icons:

 

Micro Jump Drive and Micro Jump Drive Operation skillbook have been seeded. The new Micro Jump Drive takes 12 seconds to charge, and once it does, it catapults the ship exactly 100km forward. It grants +1 warp strength when activated, but is still affected by 2 or more Warp Disruptors, Warp Scramblers, and of course Warp Disruption bubbles. It can only be fitted to Tech I and Tech II Battleships.

Videos (by JonnyPew)

Last week our trusty #tweetfleet test pilot @JonnyPew had a peek on Duality to show you all the new stuff, so besides my screenshots, there is also some video footage of his:

    

All videos are © and courtesy of JonnyPew.

Wait, there is more!

CCP is opening the Duality this weekend to allow more features to be tested, including, but not limited to:

  • Bounty Hunting. ASB (Ancillary Shield Booster) changes. Salvage Drones. Micro Jump Drive. Reactive Armor Hardener changes.
  • AI Changes & More.
  • HUD changes
  • Changes to module tooltips
    (Also note that the HUD changes include a work-in-progress new in space damage notifications)
  • Unified Inventory changes
  • Attack Cruisers
  • Combat Cruisers
  • Fleet Hangar changes
  • Mass Testing AI

The mass test will take place next Monday, October 29th, at 14:00 EVE time. Details are available in this forum thread.

To connect to duality, follow this simple procedure:

  • Copy your main EVE installtion to a different folder, for example “EVE TEST”,
  • Make a shortcut to eve.exe from this new copy on your desktop,
  • Right click the shortcut, go to properties.
  • In the “target” field, add ” /server:duality”, save the shortcut
  • Launch the new shortcut and let it patch.

FW changes came early

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

Just yesterday Factional Warfare has received the update, which was initially planned for Retribution. Why would CCP resolve to ninja patching in this case? Well, there can be a few explanations.

  • First, market has been quite well unbalanced by militias dumping a lot of LP store goods. Prices for implants and datacores sold by Gallente Federation have fallen sharply after Gallente militia pushed to T5 on October 7th . the same happened to ships like Dominix Navy Issue (it has affected Navy Meathron and Comet as well, but to a smaller degree). Crashed market also means that L4 and L5 mission runners had their income substantially reduced.

   

  • PLEX prices have stricken through the roof again. Similar thing happened when CCP has introduced the Incursions, when a lot of people quickly become rich, PLEX prices went from roughly 350 million to 500. Now the overflow of ISK caused PLEX prices to hit 590 million. High PLEX prices might discourage younger players from sticking to EVE.
  • Factional Warfare had no real meaning; players would push to cash out, instead of keeping space. Moreover, players of one militia would keep alts in their enemy’s militia to flip systems and farm plexes in them.
  • Factional Warfare was supposed to be a fun PVP experience. Instead, it has became a PVE-centric gameplay.

To combat the issues above, CCP has quickly deployed some of the planned features:

  • Replace the LP store price reduction from War Zone Control Tiers with a LP gain bonus.
  • Remove all rewards for completing complexes in a system that is already in vulnerable state.
  • Add LP rewards for defensive plexing. Formula is as follows: LP Gain = Base value of plex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75
  • Increase the cost of upgrading systems and decrease the bleed-out when those systems are attacked.
  • It is now required to kill the defending NPCs during offensive plexing.

More details is available in this dev-blog.

Impact of DUST districts on Factional Warfare in Inferno 1.3

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

While I was busy keeping the Retribution Status Post up to date (hence the lack of new posts, just a lot of updates to the forementioned text), CCP has pushed the DUST integration to Tranquility. While DUST servers are not connected yet, Districts and their influence over Faction Warfare is already deployed on live server. The same applies to Orbital Bombardment ammo and the whole Infantry market group.

This only means one thing: CCP is getting ready for DUST 514. While Retribution might seem lacking any “theme” feature (like incursions or wormholes), the crown feature can simply be the introduction of DUST. Let’s have a look at the initial impact of DUST on EVE (shamelessly stolen from patch notes):

  • Each district owned by a particular Factional Warfare faction affects the number of Victory Points needed to move a Factional Warfare system into a vulnerable state.
  • If a district owner is the same faction than the one controlling the Factional Warfare system, the number of Victory Points needed to put the solar system into vulnerable mode is increased
  • If a district owner is the opposing faction than the one controlling the Factional Warfare system, the number of Victory Points needed to put the solar system into vulnerable mode is decreased
  • Each temperate planet in Factional Warfare space contributes by 12.5% to the System Capture Status Victory Point pool, for a maximum of 50% Victory Points in Factional Warfare solar systems with four temperate planets.
  • Until DUST514 is fully implemented on Tranquility, planetary districts have been set to belong to the NPC faction that traditionally owned the Factional Warfare solar system.

What does that mean?

  • It will be harder to put some systems into vulnerable state, depending on which faction originally owned the system
  • Some players are concerned it might be impossible to attain Tier 5 status with this change
  • Math suggests the changes will be superficial: while “enemy” systems require more plexing to put into vulnerable state, originally owned systems require less plexing to make them vulnerable. This means pushing to Tier 5 should still be possible, but will require a bit more work “behind enemy lines”.

EVE Online app you can send mails from

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games, Mobile , , ,

UPDATE: This post is very old and no longer accurate

CREST API released by CCP Games in 2016 allows sending and receiving evemails in third party apps.

At some point in the past I took some time to test all EVE Online apps available for iOS and Android. Since the publication of that post, many players have asked me about an app that allows SENDING evemails, and not just reading them. I have bad news for you: due to the limitations of the current EVE API, such app does not exist. But I also have some good news for you. It does not exist yet.

With Retribution, CCP is planning to release a new API (called CREST), which will certainly allow you to manage Contats and is very likely to allow sending EVE mails, too.

For the third party developers, the most valuable resource is the current documentation preview, which has already been made available.

Technical details

First big change is Authentication and Authorization mechanism, which the current API is missing (currently you need to authenticate every time by including apikey and vcode in every HTTP request you make). The new CREST API will let your app to log on once, using login.eveonline.com. This login server will grant an OAuth2 token, which will be used instead of api keys or other credentials. Moreover, CCP is adding some POST request besides the already existing GET requests. Data presentation layer will also be changed to utilize JSON, which I think is easier to use on web apps (for example in PHP or JavaScript), and should not give much trouble for other technologies (like iOS and Android). It is still up to CCP to decide which parts of the new API will offer “write” access, like sending EVE Mails or managing contacts.

One more thing

CREST is an acronym of Carbon REST. The Carbon technology is the new CCP framework that has been in use since Incarna, and REST means it’s a RESTful protocol (wiki). It will be released in Retribution expansion, so one might say it is a “Crest of Retribution“. Now this is what I found when googling it: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/13375. Coincidence? 😀

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”]

Community spotlight: EVEPortraits.com

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

One of the features introduced in Incursion was the new Character Creator. This has allowed new and veteran players alike to create much better character portraits – mainly because the old Character Creator was left untouched since 2003.

I am quite sure you have already seen characters, whose portraits look almost as good as a high quality photograph. And some other people have noticed them, too. A veteran EVE Online player called Reality X has created a website dedicated to character portraits: www.eveportraits.com.

For those of you, who are not too excited about character portraits I have one more word: “Contest“. A contest with some high-caliber prizes. Reality X is running a recurring event for people who would like to test their CG talents  against the new Character Creator. For a small fee of 20 million ISK you can submit your avatar to the contest and get a chance to win an expensive  faction ship. The current sixth iteration of the contest offers the faction variants of Iteron Mark IV, of which the Quafe Ultramarine edition  is currently priced at roughly 2 billion ISK!

Make sure to have a look, it’s well worth visiting!

 

“Not like this… not like this.”

Lukas Rox EVE Online , ,

It’s a very sad day for the entire EVE Online community. Vile Rat, an ex-CSM and a member of GSF has been killed by extremists yesterday in an attack on american consulate in Benghazi. Even though many of us never had a chance to talk to this man, those who did, speak very highly of him.

When I first read The Mittani’s article about this senseless death I felt heartstricken. I could not believe something like this could happen in civilized world. Worst part of it is that these people are most likely proud of what they did. Vile Rat owed them nothing, and did no wrong to them. Yet he has become a victim to their hatred. It’s easy to provoke it in people. It’s one of the strongest and most primal human emotions. I really despise those who incite hatred in people, using it for their own goals, pushing others to deeds like this.

Godspeed, Vile Rat. May your soul rest in peace. Fly safe man.

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

Read more

Expansions. Are they really expanding EVE?

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , ,

I’ve recently stumbled upon an article by Poetic Stanziel about Expansions. Are They Outdated?, and as long as said article goes, I agree that trying to see the impact of one change while introducing several changes to the same module does not work too well. I do however see the direction CCP has chosen, and I think they don’t want to introduce changes step by step, when they believe entire feature (say, Faction Warfare) doesn’t work as intended (and here both devs and players usually agree).

Stanziel’s post however is not the main reason why I write mine. It’s one of the comments under said text:

Anonymous September 7, 2012 9:21 PM

There hasn’t been an “expansion” since Incarna, and there hasn’t been a “successful expansion” since Incursions.

An “expansion” means that you are *expanding* the game, with new content, and hopefully new players. Tweaking existing content and/or fixing long-standing bugs is called “maintenance”.

Crucible and Inferno are nothing more than “maintenance” releases, at best, as is the upcoming Winter release.

But, with the dumbing down of many aspects of the game, such as research agents and item naming conventions, as well as the ongoing and terrible homogenizing of the ships, you might also consider that these releases are actually contracting the game, not expanding it.

While the definitions mentioned by the Anonymous seem quite strict, they make more less sense. The question which immediately arises is

Does EVE need more new content, or does it need more maintenance?

Mining Barge blueprints in Inferno 1.2EVE Online is a very big and rather complex game. Even though Anonymous says it is being dumbed down, I disagree it’s only bad for the game. I might not entirely like renaming of the items I’ve known for years (I still type “Siege” into search when looking for Torp Launchers), but some systems in the game were unnecesarily overcomplicated. For example, agent quality seems a sensible mechanic at first: the better  the agent, the better the reward. But wait a sec, didn’t we already have agent levels? Agent quality not only added an redundant layer of complication, but it also caused overcrowded mission hubs and additional lag.

I also disagree, that ship rebalancing is a source of homogenity. To the contrary! Each ship will now have a dedicated role, making underused ships a valid choice. No, CCP is not introducing new content here. Instead, they make old content better, so you have more ships to choose from in the end. Is that a bad approach?

Based on player perception nicely captured by the Blog Banter 36: The Expansion of EVE, the game needs both new content and maintenance of existing one, but CCP should not focus on either for too long. Even though Incarna has introduced a gigabyte of new stuff, players didn’t like it, because old content seemed abandoned. At the same time, Crucible brought nearly no new stuff, and players rejoiced. The voice of the Anonymous, however, is coming from yet another “we’re tired of maintenance releases, give use new toys to play with” trend. On a sidenote, players who own a PS3 will actually get a new toy to play with pretty soon 😉

New releases should address global community needs

I am a bit disappointed that Winter 2012 expansion will bring no “Jesus features” (it was mentioned this way in the original transcript of CSM7 minutes), but Ring Mining will eventually arrive, followed by avatar-based exploration, which sounds just as good. In the meantime we will get DUST integration, which brings a whole new gameplay for those who like shooting bunnies: Orbital Strike, not to mention whole new playerbase to scam and kill play with. Miners will get a new frigate, and PVPers will get new shaders for explosions. Even though there is no huge features coming this Winter, there will still be plenty to play with.

I think if CCP times the maintenance and content releases right, playerbase should remain more less happy with the way EVE evolves.