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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
All ships will eventually receive the new “V3” shaders in EVE Online: Crucible (already mentioned it in my Crucible Status Update post). V3 shaders introduce higher resolution maps with slightly altered composition and additional faction/corp decals. Simply put, ships look more detailed and “more cool”.
This time the Singularity client update has brought a completely new skin for all Ishukone tech II ships, namely Eagle, Falcon, Buzzard and the Harpy. All said ships have received a golden-like look, similar to the famous Ishukone Watch Scorpion, and an Ishukone corporation badge:
PS. Vulture haven’t been redone yet (its shader actually looks like a Mordus Legion skin).
I had a feeling that EVE Online: Crucible is just another fake name, but the current SiSi client shows this name when you press ESC and go to “About EVE” tab.
It seems that the words of the CEO of CCP are slowly taking shape in the form of the new Winter Expansion. Dev blogs and video dev blogs are being released almost every day, and so are the updates on Singularity. Let’s sum up what was said and what is already there:
Less CPU, less PG, less cap, 20% tracking to blasters, 10% damage to railguns, 5 seconds reload instead of 10 seconds. See dev blog here, feedback thread here
Siege module II, Triage module II, Bomb Launcher II, Warp Disruption Field Generator II, Warfare links II, Expanded/Core Probe Launcher II, MAPC II, Drone upgrades II – see screenshot and a feedback thread here
Starbase logistics management
Fuel Blocks – four racial type of Fuel pellets instead of the current model. See dev-blog here.
Decreased anchor/unanchor and online/offline times for most structures.
Removed the need to enter password when using Jump Bridges.
New EWAR-Drones
no info yet
T2 Rigs manufacturing
Magnetometric sites value incresed, will now spawn T2 rig BPCs and more rig components
The new ship shaders remind me of the Trinity expansion back in 2007. As long as the poly models haven’t been touched (except for Raven and Phobos), the texture quality has been improved greatly. In one of the video dev blogs, CCP Basement Ben said that ships are now being “vee-threed”, which I understand as another iteration upon Trinity (which would be the V2) and original artwork (V1 in this example). First visible difference is the detail level (thanks to new PGS shaders – textures are the same size, but their map composition is different – see my post about PGS shaders and Scorpion model evolution here). Additional effect of the new shader is the ability to place custom decals on ships – most Gallente and Caldari models now bear either a faction logo (for T1) or R&D corporation logo (T2). Screenshots say it all:
The new nebulae look really cool and much more detailed, but some regions still need some work: for example Essence looks unfinished – there is only one cloud taking a quarter of the sky, and the rest is basically empty (black). Genesis is much better though:
There is some cosmetic changes as well: turret icons have been reverted to the custom drawn ones, which are much easier to distinguish (and take less time to load). Another change has been done to the Phobos, which now has visible large Warp Disruption Field Generators (they spin!). When we talk about HIC’s, it’s worth to mention, that WDFG has received a Tech II counterpart, which has 36km range.
I have almost forgotten about the BPOs for the new tier-3 battlecruisers: these are already available on SiSi, so all industry moguls can already start planning their mineral supply chains.
Overall impression of the development is rather good. CCP is doing lots of necessary improvements, but in a very tight timeframe (most of these changes should have been done during the past two years, not months). I am a bit afraid that pushing so many things at once will most likely result in a higher amount of bugs. Also the balance changes will surely cause a lot of discussion, especially the Supercarrier nerf.
PS. I think CCP_Soundwave summed it all up perfectly: Winter Expansion “is gonna be exciting for spaceships… If you like spaceships. If you don’t like spaceships, you’re gonna be a little disappointed”
EDIT: I have calculated the tier-3 battlecruisers build price at ME 0 (for researched BPOs it will be about 10% less). Clearly, the Talos is out of line, being almost as expensive to build as the Dominix.
BPO
Build Price
Talos (ME 0)
52 747 405,11
Tornado (ME 0)
41 597 934,74
Naga (ME 0)
47 949 742,59
Oracle (ME 0)
47 386 315,47
EDIT 2: The Winter Expansion name is “Crucible” source: evenews24.com
The Winter Expansion is focused on “Flying-in-Space” experience, so it is not a surprise, that the new nebulae announced together with updated turret models will make it to this expansion. I must admit that the art departament at CCP really did a great job. The new nebulae look very detailed and quite realistic, much better than the current ones.
There is one more change. Existing backgrounds are different for each constellation, but there is not much sense in how they are placed. The new backgrounds will be different for each region instead, but as you travel around the New Eden, you will see some phenomena closer and some further away, giving a feeling of distance and adding more immersion.
New backgrounds will affect one more thing as well: the reflections. This will cause ship textures to look slightly different, depending on the nebula and sun colours. Similar effect can be seen with the current backgrounds, especially when jumping from a red-background system to one with blue or green nebula. Art department promised however, that all the ships will be just as cool with the new backgrounds in place.
Knowing EVE community, one thing is certain: the new backgrounds will witness some serious boat violencing. EVE is a serious internet spaceship game after all 😉
Since one image is worth thousand words, CCP will swap this dull red cloud:
Yesterday a new beta build has been deployed to Singularity test server, which brings some, but not all the announced content of the still-unnamed-winter-expansion.
First off, new font has been introduced and moreover, it has been tweaked since its introduction, so it is now both readable and fits the existing GUI pretty well.
Secondly, there is the new cyno effect and the jump drive activation effect. It is still not as good as the old one, but I like it more than the current Tranquility version. And the new cyno is just simply beautiful piece of art.
Then, there are some ship changes: Destroyers have received 10% boost to shield, armor and hull, additional 25% boost to the capacitor, while at the same time the signature radius has been reduced by 25%.
Another change has been done to the logistic ships class. Oneiros now sports 4/4/5 layout instead of 4/5/4, and its powergrid has been boosted from 850 to 1050 MW. All logis had their warp speed slightly boosted, from 3.00 to 3.75 AU/s
The fitting window also received a further overhaul: it used to display defenses (tank HP/s, EHP). Now it also shows the DPS, so no external tools are needed to calculate fitting effectiveness. Fitting screen has also been reorganized a little to emphasize on important information, such as cap stability, DPS, tank stats.
The Customs office is now a player constructable object, with the Customs Office Gantry, which is build off BPC’s bought by CONCORD and Faction Warfare loyalty points. After the Gantry has been sucessfully anchored in orbit, further materials are required to upgrade it to a full blown Customs Office. The owning corporation is able to set their own tax (within some limits), so this can be a great source of passive income. The new Customs Office can now also be destroyed, so players can finally actively compete around the PI. As a side note, low-sec Customs are still present, even though the dev-blog mentioned their removal. They already do have a corp ticker however (it shows CONCORD at the moment).
At last, all the racial CQ’s are now there, but ship spinning UI has been made the default view, and the big, ugly CQ/spin button has been removed. If you ever choose to switch to the CQ interface, just right click your ship and choose “To Captain’s Quarters“. To go back to spinning, a new option has been added to the ship context menu – just hover the mouse above your ship holo and click on the “Enter Ship Hangar” label.
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD jump animation
Hybrid turrets and gallente ships rebalancing is still not yet there, neither are the new Battlecruisers. We will probably have to wait a little bit longer for that.
PS. Dear CCP: Why does an iPad game still have a better looking jump animation than EVE?
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.
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:
