Tag: retribution

EVE Online: Retribution

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.