Tag: new content

Odyssey now deployed on Singularity

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

In the late evening of May 8th CCP has deployed first true Odyssey build (531040) on the Singularity test server. My Twitter stream has quickly become flooded with screens and videos from Odyssey, so here is a quick summary of which features are already on Singularity, and can be tested by the community. Screenshots included.

  • New EVE Launcher:
    new-singularity-launcher-properly-installed
  • Ship skill tree has been updated, but old Destroyer and Battlecruiser skills still remain in the tree with 0 SP
    • Before logging in old amount of SP was displayed
    • After login skills got updated – about 6 million SP has been added
      odyssey-ship-skills

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Retribution Point Release brings new V3 shaders

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

As predicted in my Odyssey Status Post, the brand new V3 shaders are coming earlier, than expected:

PS. It often happens that changes visible on Singularity make it earlier to the game than in the big new expansion (for example they could be included in Retribution 1.5 Point Release).

What I didn’t guess is the Point Release number, which is 1.2. Full patch notes can be found here.

Station Interiors, Drones and Capital ship V3

As always, I’m impressed with CCP Art Departament’s work. You will be, too, because the station interiors are fully animated (force fields, lights), and you will see random ships floating in the distance. I only miss the old Gallente station interior with holographic Quafe ad inside 😉
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Mineral composition changes in Odyssey

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

I have run a quick analysis on the numbers posted by CCP Fozzie in his dev-blog about industry changes in Odyssey. While the changes do affect mining for profit to some degree, they make manufacturing in nullsec much easier. When I was in nullsec, the budding industrialists would only mine the most expensive ore, strictly for profit. Mining anything else – like Veld for industry purposes – was considered waste of time. “You can do it in high-sec mate, so why bother?” or so I was told at the time. With the considerable increase in production lines amount at outposts, this mineral composition change will help null industrialists to do more production locally and without the need to import minerals from high sec (which in the end isn’t that hard if you own a jump freighter).

Ok, let’s have a look at the numbers now, shall we?

Ore composition changes in Odyssey
Ore composition changes in Odyssey

Spodumain has received most of the love, which brings it from half Veldspar value to about 130% of Veldspar value. Gneiss will now be worth about 140% of Veldspar value, which is very nice, considering the fact, that low-sec grav sites often contain considerable amounts of it.

EVE Online: Odyssey Status Post

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

eve-odyssey

Expansion name: Odyssey
Release date: June 4th, 2013
Expansion theme: Exploration, Resource shakeup (EVE Online: Cataclysm!!! …just kidding), Outpost and POS iterations, Ship Skill Tree change, Ship rebalancing
Last update of this post: 04.06.2013
Patch notes: Odyssey 1.0
SQLite Database dump: build 539491 *

Click “Continue Reading” to read the whole post.

See this post for information regarding Odyssey 1.1
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[UPDATE] EVE Odyssey announced

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

EVE Online: Odyssey Status Post is already up! make sure to check it out.

It is my favourite time of the year again. This weekend witnessed much more than one of the largest live events in EVE (and DUST 514). Yesterday at PAX East 2013 CCP has also announced the summer expansion for EVE Online, which should arrive in our EVE folders by 4th of June. It seems that the devs agree with the playerbase, that the most successful expansion to the date was Apocrypha. Yup, your guess is right: after two war-centered expansions, the theme of the upcoming, nineteenth free expansion “Odyssey” will again be exploration.

odyssey

There is little information which we know for sure, apart from the big skill tree change. CCP has hinted some ships rebalancing (most likely battleships, and maybe some first tech II) and UI polishing. Some POS love has also been mentioned, so those of us who have to deal with POSes can expect an easier life in game (let’s hope so ;-)). Last but not least, the live events will continue. If you couldn’t enter Luminaire during the battle for Caldari Prime last friday, don’t worry. You will get your chance to participate soon enough. CCP has also hinted resource redistribution. Some players belive this is about nerfing all high sec refineries (to 35% or below base yield, so even with ultra perfect skills you will not get 100% minerals). It can also mean that all static asteroid belts will be moved to exploration (which CCP was mentioning in the past). Without dev-blogs explaining the hints we’re pretty much doing guesswork, so don’t take any of it for granted.

Changes to exploration mean new modules, new scanning system (yet again – this will be the third iteration), new complexes and visuals to explore. I am curious if CCP is going to overhaul the COSMOS complexes, which used to be the most beautiful locations in game pre-Trinity (it was all animated, mind you):

2006.09.29.15.47.29 2006.11.04.00.56.12

My usual expansion status post is coming soon The Status Post for Odyssey is up (feel free to check old status posts for the past expansions: Retribution 1.1, Retribution, Inferno, Crucible), once CCP starts releasing information, which should most likely start during the upcoming Fanfest 2013.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE

Here’s the original presentation of Odyssey during PAX East 2013:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vo0vbusruT0]

Retribution 1.1 Point Release status post

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

Expansion name: Retribution 1.1 Point Release
Release date: February 19th, 2013
Expansion theme: Battlecruiser rebalancing, Black Ops boost, Cloaking Device boost, Ancillary Armor Repairer, Armor Plate boost, in-space route map
Last update of this post: 19.02.2013
Patch notes: available
SQLite Database dump: build 473478

Battlecruiser rebalancing

The Spaceship Command skill tree will not be changed until the new Summer Expansion Source: Fozzie’s forum post. Battlecruisers will however get their tiericide treatment very soon. Some ships are getting boosted (former tier one), some are getting nerfed (former tier two) and some are getting adjusted (vide: Myrmidon). Source: yet another Fozzie’s forum post.

PROPHECY:

5% bonus to all Armor Resistances

10% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 5/4/7,
4 turrets, 4 launchers
Fittings: 1100MW, 415tf
Shields: 3000
Armor: 5500
Hull: 4000
Capacitor: 2850
Cap Recharge: 750s
Max Velocity: 150 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 75
Drone bay: 225
Targeting range: 50km
Scan Resolution: 210
Max Locked targets: 6
Sensor strength: 17
Signature radius: 270
Cargo capacity: 400

FEROX:

5% bonus to all Shield Resistances

10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 8/5/4,
7 turrets
Fittings: 1250MW, 510tf
Shields: 5000
Armor: 3500
Hull: 4000
Capacitor: 2750
Cap Recharge: 723s
Max Velocity: 140 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 25
Drone bay: 25
Targeting range: 65km
Scan Resolution: 195
Max Locked targets: 8
Sensor strength: 19
Signature radius: 295
Cargo capacity: 475

BRUTIX:

10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage

7.5% bonus to Armor Repairer effectiveness

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 7/4/6,
6 turrets
Fittings: 1125MW, 435tf
Shields: 3500
Armor: 4500
Hull: 4750
Capacitor: 3000
Cap Recharge: 789s
Max Velocity: 155 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 50
Drone bay: 50
Targeting range: 55km
Scan Resolution: 200
Max Locked targets: 7
Sensor strength: 18
Signature radius: 305
Cargo capacity: 475

CYCLONE:

5% to Heavy and Heavy Assault Missile rate of fire

7.5% bonus to shield boosting amount

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 7/5/5,
2 turrets, 5 launchers
Fittings: 1100MW, 525tf
Shields: 5000
Armor: 3750
Hull: 3750
Capacitor: 2850
Cap Recharge: 750s
Max Velocity: 165 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 50
Drone bay: 50
Targeting range: 45km
Scan Resolution: 220
Max Locked targets: 6
Sensor strength: 17
Signature radius: 250
Cargo capacity: 450

HARBINGER:

10% bonus to Medium Energy Turret Damage

10% bonus Medium Energy Turret capacitor use

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 7/4/6,
6 turrets
Fittings: 1425MW, 375tf
Shields: 3000
Armor: 5000
Hull: 4500
Capacitor: 3125
Cap Recharge: 822s
Max Velocity: 150 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 50
Drone bay: 75
Targeting range: 55km
Scan Resolution: 210
Max Locked targets: 6
Sensor strength: 17
Signature radius: 270
Cargo capacity: 375

DRAKE:

5% bonus to all Shield Resistances

10% bonus to heavy and heavy assault missile kinetic damage

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 7/6/4,
6 launchers
Fittings: 800MW, 500tf
Shields: 5250
Armor: 3250
Hull: 3750
Capacitor: 2500
Cap Recharge: 658s
Max Velocity: 140 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 25
Drone bay: 25
Targeting range: 60km
Scan Resolution: 195
Max Locked targets: 8
Sensor strength: 19
Signature radius: 295
Cargo capacity: 450

MYRMIDON:

7.5% bonus to Armor Repairer effectiveness

10% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 5/5/6,
5 turrets
Fittings: 1050MW, 400tf
Shields: 3500
Armor: 4500
Hull: 4750
Capacitor: 2850
Cap Recharge: 750s
Max Velocity: 145 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 100
Drone bay: 200
Targeting range: 55km
Scan Resolution: 200
Max Locked targets: 7
Sensor strength: 18
Signature radius: 305
Cargo capacity: 400

HURRICANE:

5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage

5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire

Can fit Warfare Link modules

Slot layout: 7/4/6,
6 turrets, 3 launchers
Fittings: 1125MW, 400tf
Shields: 4250
Armor: 4500
Hull: 3500
Capacitor: 2250
Cap Recharge: 592s
Max Velocity: 165 m/s
Drone bandwidth: 30
Drone bay: 30
Targeting range: 50km
Scan Resolution: 220
Max Locked targets: 6
Sensor strength: 16
Signature radius: 250
Cargo capacity: 425

From patch notes: “As a part of these changes, extra materials have been added to the build requirements of several Battlecruisers. These extra materials do not return when the ships are reprocessed.”

Similar change hit Mining Barges during their rebalancing. Minerals are simply added as “additional materials”. This is CCPs prefered solution to combat possible speculation as covered in this post about barges. If CCP added the minerals as normal materials, people would simply buy off entire supply of battlecruisers from market now, and then reprocess them post patch to multiply the minerals. Yes, dear players, this is because we are a bunch of smartass opportunists 😉

Black ops boost

Source: Fozzie’s forum post.

All Black Ops battleships will get a boost to jump range, which base will be 3.5 ly (+75% range boost to current 2.0 ly). Fuel bay has been increased to 1250m3 (+25% increase), whereas Jump Portal fuel need has been reduced by 25%. These changes will certainly make Black Ops quite a bit more useful (I was however arguing that black ops were useful already – in this post).

Cloaking device boost

  • CPU need of Covops cloak have been reduced to 100, while coverts, recons and blockade runners get their bonus adjusted to “-20% CPU needed for cloaks per level”.
  • Covert Cynosural Field can now be fitted to any ship that can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device

Armor tanking changes

Source: Fozzie’s forum post.

Armor Rigs

  • Change the penalty on all active armor rigs (Aux Nano Pump, Nanobot Accelerator, and the new Nanobot Overcharger) to increase the powergrid use of local armor reps by 10% instead of reducing ship velocity. Note this is increasing the PG use of the reps by 10% (or 5% at Armor Rigging V) not decreasing the total PG of the ship.

Plates

  • New skill: Armor Upgrades. This skill reduces the mass penalty of all armor plates by 5% per level. (Int/Mem, rank 3, requires Mechanics 3) This skill affects all plates (including 1600mm)
  • All 800mm, 200mm and 50mm plates mass penalty is reduced by 20%

Armor Reps:

  • Reduce the PG need of all Medium Armor Repair units by 20%
  • Reduce the PG need of all Large Armor Repair units by 10%

Ancillary Armor Repairer

  • When not loaded with Nanite Repair Paste, has 75% repair amount as a T1 Armor Repairer
  • When loaded with Nanite Repair Paste triples rep amount (so reps for a total of  225% a T1 repairer when loaded)
  • Same cycle time and fittings as T1 reps
  • Always uses the same cap as a normal (T1/T2/Named) Armor Repper
  • Small reps use 1 paste per cycle, mediums 5, larges 10. Each holds 8 cycles of paste. Reload time is 1 minute just like an ASB
  • Can only fit one such mod per ship
  • Incursus gets its rep bonus reduced from 10% to 7.5%

Crimewatch 2.1

With the introduction of the new Crimewatch it is now impossible to start a consentful 1 vs 1 by stealing from each others containers. Doing so after the release of Retribution will result in a global Suspect flag, so anyone in the system can legally attack you. To rememdy this, Team Five O has introduced a way to start a consentful duel in high security space by giving you a limited engagement flag against each other. Source: dev-blog.

New limited edition ships

A bunch of new ship makes their way to New Eden. First of them is Society’s of Conscious Thought (Jovian) Gnosis – see this post for more details about it.

gnosis gnosis-fitting

Ship stats are available in Data Dump Explorer:

Pirate rookie ships & Faction Destroyers

Ship collectors and market speculators get another set of new toys to play with: pirate rookie ships. It seems that all the ship skins which art departament made during the V3 process will eventually make their way to the game.

violator echo hematos immolator
taipan nefantar-thrasher

Ship stats are available in Data Dump Explorer:

UI changes

  • New Information Panels now show all the system information in a consistent way. Source: dev blog.
    Each panel has three modes: normal, compact and collapsed. Normal mode is the one we are used to and is the most verbose one. Compact mode shows the most important information and the collapsed mode hides the panel completely. Information is still accessible by hovering the mouse cursor above the top row of icons. It is also possible to re-arrange the panels by dragging the icons in the top row.
    It is worth noting, that a Notification Panel will join the existing ones in a further release. It will work in a similar way to Notification Center in Android and iOS, by aggregating all notifications into one configurable list.
    info panels
  • Route displayed on the background stars.
    There is a new autopilot setting “Show route path in space”. When enabled, it will draw the route in space, connecting the stars in the space scene nebula. When you click the screen below you will also notice that the stargate actually connects the system you’re in to the rest of the path.
    heaven-map
  • You can now click Alliance logos to zoom in on them.
  • Skill Points will now be displayed in Medical Window, so you no longer have to open the Character Sheet to know which clone upgrade to buy.
  • Corporation Recruitment process has been further streamlined (source: dev-blog)
  • Applying character has to confirm that they still want to join once their application has been accepted
  • Welcome mail can now be customized, for example to contain TeamSpeak and Corp Wiki addresses.

War changes

  • War history in Corporations and Alliances will be divided into groups
    • Active Wars
    • Factional Wars (active)
    • Pending Wars
    • Finished Wars
  • Allies will not have to wait 24 hours before joining the war – this cooldown will be reduced to 4 hours.
  • Inactive characters are not taken into account when calculating war cost – remember to log on all alts when you get a war dec!
  • Peace after surrender – when one entity surrenders to another, both corporations are forced into 14 days of peace, when no war can be started against each other.

Source: dev-blog by Punkturis

PS. If you find any information inaccurate or out of date, feel free to contact me. This post is meant to be a “by players – for players” source of information.

 

Old Jovian ship makes its way to New Eden space lanes

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

GnosisOur story begins about six years ago people have been speculating if Jove space or Jove ships will ever be unlocked by the CCP:

http://www.eve-search.com/thread/457817-0/page/all#48

As you can see, the ship on the right is as old as EVE itself. Only NPCs have been flying it until now (vide Sister Alitura Epic Arc). Players from the thread above were not far from the truth, actually. One year later CCP has released a Jovian Shuttle, the Apotheosis for the fifth anniversary of EVE Online. Back in the day CCP seeded the gifts directly to hangars of each active character, so I have immediately collected 5 of these little buggers (had 5 chars at the time).

fozzie_on_gnosisThis year marks the tenth anniversary of EVE and guess what – Nicholas Barker and Gogela will be happy (granted Nicholas is still playing; by the way, an excellent Crystal Ball speculation there, Gogela!). CCP is looking to release the ship that used to be called “Generic SOCT Cruiser”, possibly as the Tenth Anniversary gift. The new name has also changed: it is now known as Gnosis.

The devil is in the details, so let’s have a peek:

gnosis-descriptionFirst off, this ship actually looks to be a useful one to fly. While the Apotheosis or Primae look cool, their stats make them pretty much useless hangar spinning toys. Gnosis is different.

Many players will immediately voice their concerns about this ship being almost too versatile, giving bonus to every weapon type. And probes, too. And Gang Links as well.

I will however remain a sceptical: while the list of damage bonuses indeed looks nice, they don’t make the Gnosis king of the hill immediately. While the slot layout of 6H/6M/6L makes it extremely versatile, the firepower will be reduced by only 6 high slots, which divide into 5 turrets and 5 launchers.

To make a lethal weapon, Railguns need a tracking or optimal range bonus to be really useful, while Blasters and ACs would benefit from a falloff bonus. Lasers on the other hand would be much easier on the capacitor with a reduced  capacitor need bonus. As you can see, that means the Gnosis will be useful, but it won’t make other BCs obsolete. It also does not sport any tank bonus, while many other ships of this class do (even after the proposed battlecruiser rebalancing).

Gnosis will primarily be useful as a PVE toy for high and low sec exploration. Limited edition of the ship will affect the price no doubt, so only players with tons of ISK will be flying this for PVP.

It could potentially be useful for PVP because the exploration bonus will work on combat probes as well. Unfortunately the high CPU requirement of the Expanded Probe Lanucher counts as a limiting factor, so we are unlikely to see such fittings in use.

gnosis gnosis-fitting

New ships, new easter eggs, new music, collectible New Eden Open cards… lot’s of new stuff.

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

CCP sprint is as fast as ever, meaning that the test version (currently available on Buckingham) is changing really fast now. A lot more stuff is coming this winter than the official information say.

First off, there is all the changes from the Retribution Status Post. But that’s not all. Yesterday a mass test run by CCP Habakuk took place on the test server Buckingham. I could probably complain a little bit about the “moveme” command moving to 6-C, whereas test fleet meeting point was in D2-HOS, several jumps away. While getting there, I occupied myself with the market window. What good did I found there? A lot.

  • Let’s start with new market groups. All Special Edition items and ships have dedicated market groups now:

  • Yes, you see it right. Four new Special Edition frigates have been added:

This should bring a smile to collectors, such as Entity, or market speculators, who trade in Special Edition items (wink wink, hint hint).

  • Remember Snowballs? CCP has melted them, because they have been used for griefing purposes (hey, this is New Eden, what would you expect? Capsuleers playing nice? Forget it 😉 ). Snowballs are quite likely to make a comeback this year:

  • The new targeting brackets have been iterated upon and has changed:

From this »»» To this

As usual, I have updated the Data Dump Explorer (plain SQLite is available as well) with the current Retribution build (449071). Please remember that market groups in this dump are from an earlier build and does not contain new market groups. invItems table is however up to date.

Good, fresh easter-eggs from the DB

Collectible New Eden Open cards

New Eden Open will have an in-game collectible cards. Like baseball cards, but these are about Internet Spaceships instead.

You can read about ideas for the collectible cards in this forum thread.

[UPDATE] Another short report from Duality

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

Retribution login screen

  • Without doubt, the last couple of login screens were beautiful, and so is the Retribution one.
  • All unnamed ships have now received their name:
    • ORE Frigate – Dasher Venture
    • New Amarr Destroyer – Dragoon
    • New Caldari Destroyer – Corax
    • New Gallente Destroyer – Algos
    • New Minmatar Destroyer – Talwar
  • The new Stabber and Vagabond models look closer to the release version, but still are not ready yet. The current Buckingham build contains new fully textured models of Vagabond, Stabber and Stabber Fleet Issue:

New Stabber in Retribution New Stabber Fleet Issue in Retribution New Vagabond in Retribution

 

The Retribution Status Post has been updated as well.

PS. Build 443330 446218 SQLite Data Dump is available for viewing: http://pozniak.pl/explorer/

UPDATE

Duality has been closed for player use, and all Retribution testing has been moved to Buckingham. Dasher has been now renamed to Venture.

[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.