Month: November 2011

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!

Webserver Logs vs Google Analytics

Lukas Rox General, Software, System Administration , , , , ,

Who should read this post

My fellow EVE bloggers and all other webmasters who care about their site and would like to have more visitors.

Logs vs Reports

Many website admins have to decide which is better for analysing traffic on their website. I was struggling with answering this question as well, but the latest improvements introduced by Google (Real Time (beta) or Intelligence Events) make Analytics a great tool, that no logs or log parsers can compete with.

Raw Apache logs are very useful for most anything – from analyzing the number of “hits” on the website, to debugging errors in the PHP code. Unfortunately, they do not gather as much information as Google does. Analytics on the other hand uses cookies to track users movement around the website and allows to discern returing users from new ones. It also collects information such as screen resolution, flash and java versions, language, website loading time, the domain of the visitor or approximate location based on GeoIP.

Apache LogsI used to favor Apache logs, because with tools such as Webalizer it was possible to see graphs and trends of visits. When skimming through the raw log it is also possible to see the IP address and other corresponding data such as OS and browser versions. Unfortunately, neither raw logs, nor the reports based on them are going to say anything more than that, not to mention that raw logs are not the easiest (or interesting in that matter) things to read.

And there comes Google Analytics. You can’t access the raw data gathered by Google, but Analytics reports are very useful, not just for bloggers, but also for big websites and e-commerce based companies. Moreover, you can create your own custom reports,which can be based on any of the available metrics.

But why am I saying all of this to you?

CCP was here!

Because thanks to Analytics I was able to make some very interesting findings. For one, I know that CCP devs have been visiting my website since I started publishing information about Crucible (so I have promptly added the copyright notices everywhere 😉 ). I know that an Asus EEE Pad Transformer owner from Ontario has visited my website (and I think I know who is that 😉 cheers to Kirith Kodachi).

Visitors world map I know that most EVE Online players come from US, UK Russia and Germany. I know that most of the visits come from Google search. Twitter and various forums only make a fraction of percentage in my incoming traffic.

I know what keywords people used to land on my website and what information to feed them with to achieve more visits. Of course this information/opinions need to have proper quality, because otherwise  these users will not return. Posting accurate information is crucial. When visitors consider your information important and accurate, they are more likely to spread it further, this includes forum links or sharing on Twitter and other social networks.

One day my post about Cockroach ship has received about 150 hits in just one hour. I wondered why people would out of a sudden begin looking for a ship, which is hid deep in the EVE data dump, and is rarely seen by players. So I started investigating. My post was quite high on the Google search for the keywords containing “eve online cockroach”, so the question remained, what is the root cause. I quickly found it was a Facebook post of CCP employee, who linked a killmail of one of the GMs, who lost his Cockroach to a group of players.

Can your webserver logs tell you this much?

I don’t think they can. So now go and connect your blog to Analytics. You will not regret, it’s a very powerful tool.

Android Honeycomb 3.2 running on x86 CPUs

Lukas Rox Mobile, Software , , , , , , , , , ,

NEW: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on x86 PC/netbook: check this post

The Android-x86 project has recently released Android Honeycomb 3.2 compiled for x86 processors. It can easily run on a PC, laptop, netbook or even inside a virtual machine. Moreover, this version includes Android Market! Unfortunately, the current RC2 build does not have any Ethernet kernel modules compiled, so it is not possible to access the Internet if you install it on a VMware or Virtualbox virtual machine.

Is it just a toy for geeks or can it be actually useful? I vote for the latter, but not just yet. Developers need to notice and support the new platform first. We also have to know, that some netbooks have already been sold in dual boot Windows – Android configuration (look for Acer Aspire One D250). Android can be actually more useful for netbooks than Windows. This is due to short boot times and lots of useful widgets, which display information right on the desktop. I have successfully used Android 2.2 for a while on my Acer Aspire One for some time, and I was only missing the Android Market and a bit more stability regarding power management (problems with waking up from stand-by).

But as you recall, I have also mentioned the need for developer support. Why? Because Android running on x86 CPU will only run SDK based apps. It won’t however work with more advanced games or apps written in NDK. Why? Because NDK apps are compiled for a specific CPU – ARM in this case. NDK based apps would have to be recompiled in order to run on x86 CPUs. So until x86 Android becomes a widely recognized platform, we will probably not be able to run most games and programs on this platform.

UPDATE: First paid 3D game that works on Android x-86 is Fruit Ninja. Congratulations, Halfbrick!

EDIT: I have just installed the Honeycomb 3.2 on bare metal – Acer Aspire One (AOA 110 / ZG5). The eeepc build works out of the box, with smooth accelerated graphics, working WiFi and Android Market.

Works out of the box:

  • WiFi
  • Sound
  • Touchpad
  • Browser
  • Android Market
  • Mail
  • Settings
  • Widgets

Does not work:

  • SD card emulation (storage works as USB instead)
  • Screen will sometimes rotate randomly
  • After one sleep/wake cycle it can’t wake up.
  • Voice commands (Audio error)
  • Ethernet (there is no kernel module)

To install it alongside an existing linux distribution, about 3-4 GB of space is required. You can use GUI based GParted to shrink your exisiting linux partition, or console based e2fsresize. DO NOT LET THE ANDROID INSTALLER TO INSTALL GRUB – it is known to cause your previous linux unbootable. Instead, after performing the Android installation, edit your existing GRUB2 configuration (Ubuntu example for /dev/sda5 below)

sudo vi /etc/grub.d/40_custom

Add the following lines at the end of the file:

menuentry "Android-x86 Honeycomb" {
  insmod ext2
  set root='(hd0,5)'
  linux /android-2011-11-13/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 \
     androidboot_hardware=eeepc acpi_sleep=s3_bios,s3_mode \
     SRC=/android-2011-11-13 DATA= DPI=160
  initrd /android-2011-11-23/initrd.img
}

Save file, run update-grub

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.

EVE Online: Crucible will be out on November 29th

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

After teasing the community for the past few weeks, CCP has finally announced the new expansion. “Crucible” will be out on November 29th, so fasten your seat belts, re-forged EVE will be here in just under two weeks.

The amount of new and most importantly, *FIXED* features is quite amazing. If CCP could do this in just a few months, why didn’t they do it during the past two years? 😉 Anyway it’s good to have the old spirit of EVE Online back!

The official Crucible feature page is public since yesterday, but it does not contain all the new features and fixes. My post however does, so be sure to check it out.

CCP will also give away a set of implants for free for each paying account. The first unique implant to be redeemed from the ‘Core Augmentation‘ set  will be Genolution CA-1:

  • Boosts perception by 3
  • Provides +1.5% powergrid bonus
  • Provides +1.5% capacitor amount bonus
  • Implant set bonus: 50%

The first implant from this set will be seeded on the November 29th .

PS. The new Raven has already been included in the current Singularity build.

EVE Crucible Login Screen  

Cinematic-grade warp effect in Winter Expansion

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

CCP Basement Ben has mentioned about changing the warp animation in one of the video dev blogs, but no one expected it was going to look this good. The warp tunnel has received a fractal kind of shader with two effects: a geometric displacement and chromatic distortion. It looks as if the space around the ship was like a liquid, constantly fluctuating and undulating while the ship is passing through. New effect has even more than that: if there is a solid body (planet or moon) on the way, the tunnel becomes dark while flying through.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft_MdVbnG9E]

The end result is simply jaw dropping, and could easily replace the tunnel effect in Stargate or Sliders. The new warp effect in EVE beats such well known sci-fi icons like Star Trek or Star Wars. Oh and by the way, the old-new engine trails which show when entering or exiting warp add even more spice to it. Very, very good job CCP!!

You can also notice the nearby star systems on the sky now, their light is dispersed by the warp tunnel, so they look more like red-to-violet streaks during faster-than-light travel.

See the new warp effect on YouTube.

Or see this one if you want to see how warping through a planet looks like.

     

EVE Online tier-3 battlecruisers wallpapers

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

…& more!

The new tier-3 battlecruisers are still not yet ready on Singularity (they are not even textured yet), but it doesn’t stop me ( 🙂 ) from creating wallpapers based on the entries to the Create a Starship contest run by the CCP and the one run by CCP together with Deviant Art.

Both ships will be coming to your hangar soon in EVE Online: Crucible, also known as “The Winter Expansion“.

EDIT: According to the forums, the new Singularity build already has Tier 3 BC textures, so expect new wallpapers really soon!

EDIT II: The official EVE Online: Crucible wallpapers have been released. Check them out if you like the new nebulae.

The first is the Minmatar Tornado:

Minmatar Tornado wallpaper
Minmatar Tornado wallpaper

The original Tornado artwork is here
(all credit goes to its creator, =dreamwa1ker)

The second is the Amarrian Oracle (original name Mentor):

Amarr Oracle wallpaper
Amarr Oracle wallpaper

Look for the Mentor original artwork here
(all credit goes to its creator, Alexey M)

New Nebulae

If you don’t feel like having a ship on your desktop, you might always like the new nebulae:

        

Close up on the Talos (edited)

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,
Textured Talos model on Singularity
Textured Talos model on Singularity

I had some more free time recently, and spent most of it playing with Winter Expansion features and ships on Singularity. One of the tests involved the new gallente Tier-3 battlecruiser, the Talos. It is truly an amazing source of DPS, not only in the battlecruiser class, but also scores high in the battleship world as well. But lets get down to numbers:

Talos sports 8 high slots and 8 turret hardpoints, 4 med and 5 low slots. Ships core generates 1100 MW of power (1375 with skills included) and 360 tf of CPU (450 with skills). The bonus list allows Talos to fit battleship size turrets:

  • 5% damage to Large Hybrid turrets per level
  • 7,5% tracking to Large Hybrid turrets per level

Role bonuses:

  • 95% reduction in the PG need of Large Hybrid turrets
  • 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Hybrid turrets
  • 50% reduction in the capacitor usage of Large Hybrids

Unfortunately the HP is rather unimpressive:

  • 2111 shield
  • 2272 armor

So this ship will either become a sniper or close-range gank damage dealer. The sniper scenario would include 8x 425mm Railgun IIs, 3x Magnetic Field Stabilizers, Damage Control Unit II and some plating. Med slots can include tracking computers and EW mods. Unfortunately even after rebalancing, rails still lack both the range and the alpha of Artillery. So a sniper Talos is not the best way to use this ship.

First thought was to make it a gank machine

Close range fit would swap rails with 8x Neutron Blaster Cannon II, 3x Mag stabs stay where they are, DCU II and 800mm rolled tungsten will complete the low slot rack. Med slots would be swapped with 10MN MWD II, Web and Point. Since my CPU was almost gone at this point, I have chosen to put a Sensor Booster with Resolution script in the last med slot. This is a typical gank fit, dishing out 855 DPS with just regular Antimatter L rounds. This is one hell of a lot for a BC. Unfortunately, this fit does not offer much in terms of protection: only 15k EHP with 3x medium trimarks. Swapping neutrons with electrons and fitting 1600mm plates will reduce the DPS output, but will also give more EHP. Still, this makes Talos a glass cannon. Swapping Mag Stabs with EANMs II is another way to improve the defense, but will also further reduce its amazing DPS potential.

EDIT: Due to Tier 3 BCs lack of tank, their PVP use would be a fast, ranged DPS

This approach requires long range cannons – in this case Railguns, which also received a 10% damage buff in Crucible.

With 8x 425mm Railgun IIs in highs, a 10MN MWD II and 3x Magnetic Field Stabilizers II in lows we have a possibility to keep the distance, while Tracking Disruptors or Sensor Dampeners keep the enemies from shooting. Adding 2x Nanofiber Internal Structure IIs allows Talos to fly 325m/s with no speed mods on! With 10MN MWD it easily tops 1900 m/s or 700 m/s with AB. It’s small signature (200 m) would suggest it’s better to use Afterburner. Distance and speed seem to be the way to go.

Talos has a 7,5% tracking bonus per level, which greatly helps its 425mm rails hitting their target. Unfortunately, it is not the best sniper:

  • Faction Antimatter L – 36 km – 700,3 DPS
  • Javelin L – 18 km – 710,4 DPS
  • Spike L – 129 km – 405,9 DPS (requires sensor booster)

Additionally, Talos can use 5 small drones (25 m3 dronebay and 25 mbit bandwidth), which can help fending off frigates.

  

Flag mechanic changed for remote repair in hi-sec

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

Today CCP has deployed a client update #2 for Incarna 1.1.3. In the patch notes we can find:

Client Update #2

  • To benefit the EVE community at large, a small change has been made to game mechanics in regarding criminal flags and how they are inherited in high security space. If a pilot is remote repairing, or otherwise assisting, another pilot who commits a criminal act then the repair module will now disengage. In order to continue repairs the module will need to be restarted and a message will appear warning of the criminal flag and possible consequences.
  • 67 Alliance logos have been added

A lot of players are already concerned about the change, because it was one of the ways to disrupt the Incursion fleets and was used by many griefers and wanna-be pirates. How does it work?

An Incursion fleet often consists of people who don’t know each other. Some elemental trust is required to fly in one fleet with people you don’t know. But unfortunately Incursion fleets rely on spider tank, as no local tank can withstand the DPS dealt by the Incursion NPCs. Remote repair used to have one disadvantage: if the repaired target is flagged (be it agression, war, or global criminal), then the repairing party also becomes flagged. At first, griefers would join an Incursion fleet, let themselves be repaired and then they would attack someone else in the fleet, becoming instantly flagged with global criminal flag. In high-sec that meant both the griefer and the repping party got Concordokkened. CCP promptly fixed the issue, but players quickly found a workaround: the criminal mechanic. A neutral character would steal from a container, becoming flagged for the corporation, who owns the can. Then the neutral pilot would join a fleet and let himself be repaired. The criminal flag would then be passed to everyone who repaired the neutral pilot, just as if they had stolen from a can, too.

Why is this flag mechanic broken? Because when someone else is flagged there is no visible sign of that flag until its too late (notification becomes available under the top left agression countdown, but you have to explicitly hover your mouse there to check who are you flagged against – normally it will be just Sansha NPCs).

Summing it up: this flag mechanic was flawed (GCC), it was exploited by people looking for an easy kill and it got fixed. Players then found a workaround for that fix and started exploiting it, too. Today CCP has fixed it for good.

PS. You can always gank Incursioners if you hate them so much.

PS.2 Thanks to @Mara_Rinn for spotting a mistake in my post!