Tag: new content

More details about Inferno and The Future of EVE

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

This is the Inferno “Current status” post.

For Inferno 1.2 information please go to this post: Inferno keeps on burning: Inferno 1.2 (updated)

It will be updated every time new information becomes available.

Feel free to check other posts about EVE Online: Inferno

This post is quite long, so here’s a short summary of what’s ahead:

  • Escalation to Inferno
  • Ship balancing – frigates
  • War mechanic changes
  • New modules
  • New Inventory UI
  • Graphical changes: new models for bombers and V3 skins for Amarr ships
  • EVE – Dust link
  • The future of EVE

The summer expansion will be rolled out in two steps. First step is dubbed ‘Escalation’ and it has already been deployed on 24th of April.

Escalation to Inferno

Escalation is going to be a precursor patch for Inferno, and it will only contain a handful of new features:

The devs did not reveal any specific details about what will be changed in the forementioned areas, but knowing CCP we will have an opportunity to learn more from dev-blogs, which are sure to come soon.

Ship balancing

CCP Ytterbium has been working hard on ship rebalancing and more details about the changes to Frigates, that will hit in Inferno are available in this forum post: Combat frigate changes for Inferno.

  • Tech I frigates will now be split into four roles: Combat, Attack, Bombardment and Support
  • This means mining frigates will have to go (Industry tutorial missions will need to be modified, too)
  • Rookie frigates will be made better and more flexible, but less powerful than other Tech I frigates.
  • As for effectiveness, tech 1 frigates should be worse than faction and Tech 2, but more flexible and easier to fit

TORMENTOR:

  • New bonuses: 10% to small energy turret range and 10% bonus to small energy capacitor use per level
  • Slot layout: 3 H, 3 M, 4 L, 3 turrets, no launchers
  • Fittings: 60 PWG, 140 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 350 / 450 / 400
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 280 / 180 s / 1.55
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 320 / 3.05 / 1180000 / 3.37 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 40km / 620 / 4
  • Sensor strength: 9 Radar
  • Signature radius: 35

PUNISHER:

  • New bonuses: 5% bonus to Small Energy Turret damage and 5% bonus to armor resistances per skill level
  • Slot layout: 4 H, 2 M, 4 L, 3 turrets, no launchers
  • Fittings: 55 PWG, 124 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 350 / 500 / 450
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 300 / 180 s / 1.66
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 330 / 3.35 / 1047000 / 3.28 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 25km / 640 / 4
  • Sensor strength: 9 Radar
  • Signature radius: 37

MERLIN:

  • New bonuses: 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage and 10% to small hybrid turret range per level
  • Slot layout: 3 H, 4 M, 3 L, 3 turrets, no launchers
  • Fittings: 40 PWG, 180 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 500 / 350 / 350
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 260 / 180 s / 1.44
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 310 / 3.7 / 997000 / 3.45 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km / 580 / 5
  • Sensor strength: 11 Gravimetric
  • Signature radius: 39

INCURSUS:

  • New bonuses: 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage and 10% bonus to armor repairer effectiveness per level
  • Slot layout: 3 H, 3 M, 4 L, 3 turrets, no launchers
  • Fittings: 45 PWG, 135 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 400 / 450 / 500
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 280 / 180 s / 1.55
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 340 / 3.15 / 1028000 / 3.0 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 5 / 5
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 30km / 600 / 4
  • Sensor strength: 9 Magnetometric
  • Signature radius: 42

RIFTER:

  • Unchanged bonuses
  • Unchanged Slot layout: 4 H, 3 M, 3 L, 3 turrets, 2 launchers
  • Unchanged fittings: 37 PWG, 125 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 450 / 400 / 400
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 240 / 180 s / 1.33
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 355 / 3.19 / 1067000 / 3.19 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 22.5km / 660 / 4
  • Sensor strength: 8 Ladar
  • Signature radius: 35

As for the already famous Battlecruiser and Destroyers rebalancing mentioned in this dev-blog: “Rebalancing eve, one ship at a time“. The plan for new skill trees including racial Destroyers and Battlecruisers has been postponed.

Sources: CCP has postponed the skill tree changes plan, at least temporarily.

Q&A regarding ship balancing and skill tree are available in this post by CCP Ytterbium:

EVE Online: Inferno

The Inferno itself will ignite a month later, on 22nd of May, just a week after Diablo III release. Coincidence? 😉

We already know what to expect, as most of the features have been discussed in detail on Fanfest:

War mechanic changes

War mechanic changes will surely bring a lot more conflict to high sec and include the following:

  • War dec cost formula changed: the cost is modified by amount of people in target corp
  • Corp cannot join an alliance until war is finished – no more alliance hopping
  • CEO/Director can war dec without voting.
  • Wars will no longer be automatically retracted. A surrender option has been improved and can now involve a transfer of ISK. It is also a kind of peace treaty, because it will not be possible to war dec again for a specific period of time.
  • Wars have a weekly cycle, at which time the aggressor can choose to prolong (at ISK cost) for another week or end the war. As long as there is ISK in agressor’s coffer, the war can last forever.
  • Killmails received love – they look more like killboards now. Wars also received a War Report window which tracks kills and statistics (ships lost by type, ISK lost, etc.)
  • If you leave your corporation while it is engaged in a non-mutual war, then you will not be able to rejoin the corporation until that war ends, or until 7 days pass, whichever comes first.
  • Neutral RR will now give a suspect flag – check this blog post for details on how new PVP flags work.

More details about war mechanic have already been provided in a recent dev-blog.

Revamped Faction Warfare:

  • LP for kills
  • Bunkers are now infrastructure hubs
  • LP for all FW actions (capturing complexes, capturing infrastructures hubs, etc)
  • New FW front page
  • Consequences for capturing systems/regions (benefits for you, grief for your enemy)
  • Capturing FW system affect SOV ownership
  • FW LP stores will now sell Datacores
  • Datacores from R&D agents will have a new flat price of 100 RP plus 10k ISK
    more info is available here: http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=28659

New Modules

  • Drone Damage module (Extrinsic Damage Amplifier): +9% (t1) or +12% (t2) to your drone friends dmg output
  • CPU Rigs (Small/Medium/Large Processor Overclocking Unit)
  • Fueled Shield booster (Small/Medium/Large Ancillary Shield Booster), using Cap Boosters as charges, and when the charges run out, the new booster switches to draining the capacitor instead.
  • Light and Medium Web drones – small, fast, but with huge sig radius and very low HP.
  • Adaptive Armor Hardener – it shifts its resistance according to incoming damage. You can only fit 1 such mod. Overheating will reduce the adaptation cycle.
  • MagSheath Target Breaker – it has a chance to break all target locks on your ship based on how many other ships are targeting it. The more incoming locks, the better the chance of activation.

CCP has explained what they intended the modules to be: like cards in Magic The Gathering – changing every expansion. For many reasons this was not the best approach and CCP gave up on the idea. Our devs want to freshen our experience, so they will be bringing some new modules that allow new tactics in combat. One of the ideas is Tactical Warp Drive also known as Micro Jump Drive – a module that instantly catapults your ship 110 km forward. Normal warp jammers and bubbles will stop it, of course. In addition to that, a new warp bubble would be introduced, 48km in diameter, which would only disrupt the Tactical Warp. Unfortunately this mod will not make it to the initial version of Inferno, so we will probably see it in a subsequent release.

By the way, I have the “Salvage Drones” skill trained on Tranquility for some time now (see screenie below). CCP has seeded it by mistake at some point in the past, but it was a rather useless skill. CCP is going to fix that by introducing the Salvage Drones to the game:

 

Unfortunately, they do not work automatically as you might have thought: you need to manually send each drone after a specific wreck. It is still a way to free high slots on dedicated drone boats. Dear CCP, will Noctis get a drone bay now?  Salvage drones will not make it to the intitial Inferno release as well. We can expect Salvage Drones in a subsequent release.

New features don’t end on the first slide though.

I have covered the list of features in my first post about Inferno here. Also, some more details about Crime and Punishment system (which is missing on the slide above) have been covered here. I have also written about the information about missile launchers in this post.

New Inventory UI

  • Managing corporation items in a station
  • All item management from POS structures done in space on grid
  • All Inventory management in space (wrecks, opening other ship locations, etc)
  • All Inventory management in stations (items, ships)
  • This change does NOT affect the ASSETS window itself

Inventory is loading... Ships tree in new Inventory Items tree in new Inventory

Graphical changes: V3 and ship re-modeling

CCP did not disappoint my predictions about V3 skins for sub-capital Ammar hulls, so EVE ships are becoming even more pretty! Unfortunately devs did not say much about V3 skins for Minmatar ships. I hope that we are still going to see them in Inferno, but it remains unconfirmed so far. In the official patch notes for Inferno devs have confirmed that Minmatar V3 process is near its end, and we will see new skins in the near future, but not in the initial release of Inferno.

v3 skin for Abaddon   v3 skin for Damnation v3 skin for Navy Slicer v3 skin for Navy Slicer - 2 v3 skin for Cruor

Graphic changes won’t end here, because many ships will receive re-designs similar to that of the Maller and rookie ships.

Stealth bombers will receive a facelift to accomodate oversized Torpedo Launchers and one Bomb Launcher hardpoint (compare the new Tristan and Nemesis models below)

New Tristan Model New Nemesis Model

Another V3-ed ship mentioned in the official patch notes for Inferno was the Echelon, which in its current state has some broken decals on its hull.

EDIT: More details is now available in this post about ships makeover in Inferno.

As for the improved effects, CCP has also mentioned visible shield hits and visible hull damage, not to mention revamped multi-stage explosions.

EVE – DUST link

BASED ON THE DEV-BLOGS AND OFFICIAL SOURCES, EVE-DUST LINK REMAINS UNCONFIRMED.

One of the most important features is the EVE – DUST 514 link, which has been unveiled at the Fanfest. Of course planetary bombardment is not the only place where these two games will overlap:

Devs have mentioned a shared chat and eve-mail system and also hinted a possibility that EVE and DUST players will be able to craft items for each other.

A DUST 514 companion app called the ‘DUST 514: Neocom’ was also mentioned in the keynote, initally for the PS Vita (limited gameplay included):

As for the beta of DUST 514 we have been shown the following schedule:

Now for the future of EVE

Crucible and Inferno concentrate on one of the three pillars of a persistant game world: Destruction. That’s the favourite one for the most of EVE Online players. But for a game to be successfull, it has to include two more foundations: Harvesting and Crafting.

The future of EVE will concentrate on these two parts of the game. Concepts include:

  • Ring mining: possible moon minerals mineable from planetary rings, CCP mentioned task for a group of people, most likely profitable but also dangerous.
  • Implant Manufacturing and Derelict Stations Exploration: a Star Trek like avatar gameplay, will be a source of materials for advanced implants and might include PVP features.
  • More POS structures, meaningful upgrades etc. Possibility to create own research an manufacturing station for solo players and small groups of players.
  • CCP will be giving more control to players – possibly station ownership in high and low sec. This trend could be seen for a while, as New Eden population have been growing steadily over the years: less and less materials are being sold by NPCs, shuttles are not seeded by the NPCs anymore, most of the trade goods are now part of Planetary Interaction and are no longer sold by the NPCs, and players can now own Customs offices above planets.

Pics or it didn’t happen? Sure, why not:

The original keynote

The original keynote is over two hours long and is available on YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Ozvef7CvQ]

All the keynotes from Fanfest 2012 have been already uploaded by the CCP, so even more details about Inferno will be coming soon!

 

PVP flag changes in EVE Inferno unveiled at Fanfest

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

As usual, CCP releases a lot of information regarding the next expansion for EVE Online at Fanfest: the big annual event in Iceland, where players can meet devs in person.

Those of you who actually managed to go to the Fanfest, know the information below already. Those who are not so lucky (including myself) might want to read this post about changes to criminal mechanics. Bear in mind that nothing is “set in stone” and is subject to change. To sum up the proposed flag changes:

  • Players will see all aggro timers and will know when it’s safe to log off
  • Remote assisting will now give 60 second no jump/no dock timer. It will keep resetting until assist is stopped.
  • Reduce performance issues

New “suspect” flag

  • Minor crimes. Anyone can shoot you without penalty.
  • Flipping a can for example
  • Anyone assisting a suspect becomes a suspect

Criminal Flag

  •  Just like current GCC
  • Killing someone makes you a criminal
  • Concord will now instantly destroy your ship instead of spawning multiple CONCORD vessels
  • CCP has not yet considered delays of CONCORD response in high sec related to security status
  • CCP is considering warp scrambling the offender first, then instant destruction of the ship after X seconds

Sec Status

  • Security status for ship killing will only bring character to -5
  • Pod killing will bring ss further down to -10
  • Killing someone with positive ss will decrease your ss
  • Killing someone with a negative ss will give bonus to your ss
  • Possible to trade in criminal tags to CONCORD for ss increase.
  • It will be possible to kill a -5 character without penalty in low sec

Killmails

  • Adding more information to battle reports including remote assistance
  • More data in the EVE API
  • Killmails for self destructing
  • Killmails for reinforcing structures

DUST – EVE link

Yesterday CCP has also presented a keynote about DUST 514. One of the important things is the ability to make orbital strikes by EVE Online players, which will affect DUST players. DUST bunnies are not defenseless though, there will be surface batteries capable of blowing up ships in orbit as well.

Feel free to visit the forum thread about DUST 514 keynote, which has been started by CCP Navigator. Before you do, however, I really recommend you these two videos:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4diq-KlXI]

and here you can watch the keynote itself:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDW-HrzBo7s]

PS. Real time SD stream from Fanfest is available here: http://fanfest.eveonline.com/en/stream/free. You can also buy a HD stream access for as much as 1 PLEX. This will grant you two Quafe 2012 t-shirts for your avatars and a limited edition ship: Iteron Mark IV Quafe Edition.

Crucible 1.5 on its way – to be deployed on March 13th

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,
  • Rookie Ships remodeled – new models along with V3 shaders to give the new players even more carrot eyecandy.
       
  • 50 new Blood Raider, Sansha and Serpentis DED exploration complexes with an array of new high end deadspace modules.
  • Hovering mouse over enemy Shield, Armor and Hull bars now displays remaining percentage tooltip.
  • A search filter has been added to the Science and Industry Panel.
  • Watchlist updates:
    • Clear Watch List Button
    • Watch List Drag and Drop
    • Appearance changes provide better visibility and usability
  • Character Creator
    • Portrait snapshots now retain background, pose, and lighting settings
    • You can use F1-F4 to switch between them
    • UI for tucking shirts, pants and shoes has been made more visible
  • EVE Market
    • Color coding of market orders allows you to see if the item is located along your current route
    • Modify order window now has a button to show market details
    • You can now drag-and-drop modules from your inventory to Market Quickbar
    • You can now Shift drag-and-drop blueprints to Market Quickbar to create shopping lists for industry jobs

It seems that at least a few features I have noticed on SiSi will be coming even before Inferno – especially the rookie ships. Crucible brought lots of UI improvements already, and these few added to the list in Crucible 1.5 are not the last we’ve seen from CCP.

EDIT: Crucible 1.1 status update

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

EDIT: Crucible 1.5 1.1 Feature Page is now live! CCP has decided to roll back the number from 1.5 back to 1.1 😉

That also means:

@webspaceships: @CCP_Manifest @rox_lukas 1.1 just means that there’s a 1.5 coming later with MOAR GOODIES 😀

@CCP_Manifest: @webspaceships @rox_lukas Yes, yes it does mean that.

Crucible has been out for some time and it was rather quiet on SiSi, mainly because of the holiday season. But fear not, CCP crew has rested for a while and now got back to serious work upon our favorite MMO.

Small things first

First off, CCP Punkturis has posted this list on the forum (and later this dev-blog)

  • New agents list, it tells you if you’ve been offered or if you’ve accepted a mission from an agent
  • Watch list can now have 15 people !!!
  • Watch list can now be ordered by dragging and dropping pilots !!!
  • Chat member list can be made more compact, right click on chat tab and “Show Compact Member List”
  • New icons for online/offline, blocked and voice in member lists
  • The online/offline notification which pops up when your buddy/enemy logs in is now has standings icon !!!
     
  • Said notificaction can be dragged to chat to info link that pilot and right clicked on
  • You can now shift click modules to overload them !!!
  • Overload button shows feedback from when it’s been clicked until it’s activated/deactivated
    Overload part 1Overload part 2
  • You can now filter the skills you see in your character sheet and skill queue to find the skill you want
  • Nomenclature Obfuscation Reduction: CCP will be re-naming modules (namely missiles and ABs/MWDs) in a schema that tells the user what they do.
  • Autocomplete and search hints have been added to the asset search function

Neo NEOCOM is back

But that’s not all. Remember the famous Windows-like “Start Menu” for EVE by CCP Optimal? Well, the new NEOCOM is back. But it is not horizontal as before – it is vertical like the classic one. The main difference is however, the new menu is fully customizable.

When you click the EVE menu it will scroll down with all the possible options. Of course it is possible to drag and pin each menu option to the main “taskbar”, so you can access any feature by a single click. The taskbar itself is fully customizable as well –it is possible to drag and move pinned icons around. By the way, if you minimize any window (be it chat, showinfo or anything else), it goes straight to the taskbar as well. Think of it like a vertical Windows 7 menu.

Assault Frigates got some love – and a 50% reduction of the MWD signature radius penalty:

Make sure to read this forum post by CCP Tallest with all proposed Assault Ships changes. With the additional 200 armor HP and 10% bonus to guns (per level) Enyo will become real killing machine 😉 Wolf looks quite interesting as well. The 10% drone durability (per level) bonus on Ishkur will allow its smaller companions much more time to chew on enemies.

When Crucible was being developed, the devs promised us new Deadspace modules. It is then no surprise, that the current Singularity client contains new deadspace shield hardeners:

Fuel Block switchover

According to CCP Soundwave, Fuel Block handover is planned on January 24th. As you remember, CCP has introduced the Fuel Blocks as part of Crucible 1.0, but POSes still burn multiple types of fuel. On the 24th however, they will start using blocks instead. Make sure to have enough fuel of both kinds in your Control Tower for up to 2-3 more days (27th is a good target) just in case the switchover causes any unforseen issues.

Expansion numeration

This blog about the return of Neo NEOCOM by CCP Optimal mentions Crucible 1.1 (the one I have originally mentioned in this post title). However the news item about mass test on Singularity mentions Crucible 1.5.

Try it out yourself!

If you have never ever tried to access Singularity public test server before (or SiSi for short), feel free to try! TG has posted this great Singularity tutorial I really recommend reading it.

The test server allows testing the coming patch, but also allows harmless testing and training, because EVERYTHING costs exactly 100 ISK there. Every now and then the devs make a mirror copy of all active characters from the live EVE server (the Tranquility), so you might be missing a few skills, but most should be there.

@CCP Small things: would be nice to implement a “smart” production/lab autoselect based on location. Choosing the assembly line manually is really tedious when running multiple invention/production jobs.

Don’t miss the next episode of EVE Online!

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

Crucible has been out for 11 days and most players who engage in POS logistics have already prepared the new Fuel Blocks for their precious starbases.  There is no need to rush however, because CCP Soundwave has published information about delay this afternoon. According to the news, towers will begin consuming Fuel Blocks on January 24th. Apart from this, people who like to shoot stuff have been shooting (and dying) in the new Tier-3 battlecruisers, the masses are enjoying lots of small improvements, and beside some tears regarding the postponed Fuel Block switchover, most players seem to enjoy Crucible very much. Oh and by the way, CCP is doing the Live Events again. Wanna loot some t2 mods or even a PLEX? Head to Great Wildlands now!

But seriously, what is coming next?

We all know that DUST 514 is going to be released on PS3 somewhere in 2012, so all the mechanics linking it to EVE Online should come to the latter as well. Does that mean we are going to see establishments, War Barges and other Orbital Platforms?

Everything below this line is a pure speculation based on some known facts.

The mechanisms for the Planetary Warfare structures seem to be already existing on Tranquility, and they have been introduced with the Player Owned Customs offices.

In their trailers, CCP tend to use actual game footage, sometimes edited a bit, but for the most part it is the real thing. So lets compare, side by side, what can we see in Crucible, and what was shown on E3, when this DUST trailer had been released:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw0gOjOWDuI]

Okay, now since you have seen the movie, did you notice anything unusual? Yes, the trailer has been published in June, whole five months before Crucible, and it already has the new nebulae! Proof:

Next, the Planetery Warfare Interface. It looks just like the revisited PI screen from Crucible, but instead of orbiting Customs Office, on the DUST Trailer there are other types of structures, possibly related to combat and warfare.

 

Lets move to another feature, which I would really enjoy a lot: new nebulae on the star map! It would add to this already immersive feeling of distance and direction, that the new nebulae brought to EVE. These nebulae should be translucent and barely visible, but still noticeable, just like on the DUST video:

For sure we are going to see more V3 ship shaders, namely Minmatar and Amarr, which did not receive facelift in Crucible. I was a little disappointed with this, but on the other hand, if CCP waited for all the ships get reskinned, Crucible would not be a winter expansion, but more likely spring or even summer one.

I won’t be speculating about the name of the summer expansion, as it is too early and there is not much solid information available, but the codenames are already on the official Bug Reporting website (feel free to check yourself at bugs.eveonline.com). If you don’t feel like it, check the image on the right. So Crucible is project CALIGULA, and the summer expansion will be called either NERO or TITUS.

Only time can tell if the above is going to happen or not. In the meantime, let’s enjoy the Crucible, one of the most successful EVE Online expansions to date.

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!

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.

     

New Ishukone skin for Tech II ships

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

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).

EVE Online: Crucible Status Update

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

EDIT: For winter 2012 expansion, visit this post.

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:

CCP promises

Current Status

dev blogs/video dev blogs/sisi
Hybrid weapons balancing
 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
Factional warfare
 LP can be used to buy Customs Office Gantry BPC, There is a discussion in the playerbase about removing Faction NPCs from high sec.
Assault ships
 re-scheduled until after Crucible
Capital ship balancing
 See dev blog here, feedback thread here
New T2 modules
 Siege Module IISiege 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
Ship spinning
New font
 already on Singularity. See my post here and dev blog here.
More captains quarters
 already on Singularity. See dev blog here.
Time dilation
 See dev blogs here and here.
CCP_Soundwave video dev blog
  • Logistic ships (Oneiros +200 PG, -1 med +1 low)
  • Destroyers (10% to HP/25% to cap, signature reduced by 25%, RoF penalty removed)
  • Dramiel nerf – reduced scan resolution, velocity, CPU and powergrid output, gaining mass.
    “and if you fly Dramiel… train something else”
  • Bumped up value of exploration sites (but not their distribution)
  • Corp bookmarks (and possible alliance bookmarks in future)
“This is not a final list”
  • New tier-3 battlecruisers: Talos, Tornado, Naga, Oracle
  • Updated ship shaders (V3): faction/t2 corp logos
  • Updated ship models: Raven & Phobos see more Raven and Navy Raven screens in this post
     New Phobos model
  • New nebulae – my post, dev blog
  • Better shadows shader – see this dev blog
  • Crash logs auto upload
  • New Cyno effect – screenshot and video
  • New Jump Drive effect – screenshot and new video
     
  • Player-owned Customs Offices in low and null sec (including WH)
    • High sec CO will be owned by CONCORD,
    • low sec and null sec CO will be owned by Interbus and will be destructible (no standing loss against InterBus)

    BPC prices:

    • Faction Warfare LP store: 3000 LP + 10.000.000 ISK
    • CONCORD LP store: 6000 LP + 20.000.000 ISK
  • Implants will be listed on killmails
  • “Loot all” button
  • Missed hits now really miss – video
  • Remote “jump” and “dock”: you can now click jump or dock at any distance. Your ship will warp to 0 and do as ordered.
  • New UI for autopilot. Autopilot will warp to stations as well. – screenshot
  • SiSi launcher evolved into EVE Launcher – see this dev-blog
  • It is now possible to drag fitting from Fiting Browser window to market Quickbar
  • New map view – smoother, more readable, anti-aliased:
     
  • Drones will now attempt to return to drone bay automatically if EVE client gets disconnected. See feedback thread here.
  • New DED 3/10 and 4/10 complexes
  • Exploration sites will despawn automatically even if still occupied by players
  • Magnetometric sites value increased – will now spawn t2 rigs BPCs
  • Anomaly value increased: more rats, more bosses, more deadspace mods
  • Dungeon pop-ups can now be minimized for later reading
  • Session change timer shaved from 30 to 20 seconds
  • Engine trails – they made it in the winter expansion after all
  •  
  • New warp tunnel effect – cinematic grade sci-fi effect!
    “full screen procedural chromatic and geometric distortion”
     
  • Tier 3 ships now have shaders (Tornado is still not ready yet)
  • Nearby stars are visible on the sky now + jump gates have been aligned so they face the destination star.
  • Naga has lost its Siege Launchers – it has become a Rokh-like gunboat

NEW:

  • Booster Changes Slightly weaker than before, but without the side effects.
  • Increased Player Ship Salvage 
  • More Bandwidth for PI links
  • Log Off Timer Change – logoffski is not a valid survival tactic anymore
  • Per-Ship Orbit – Orbit distances will now be stored based on ship types. Game will remember your default orbit range for each ship type!
  • Autopan on Hover Removed – Accidentally hovering over a target no longer causes the camera to automatically pan over to it.
  • Remote Unrent Office – No need to fly to a station to close a corp office.
  • Fitting List Limit Raised – Store up to 100 personal/200 corporation ship fittings
  • Blueprint type in Killmails – killmails now contain information if the destroyed blueprint was original or not.
  • Click and drag to select multiple items in inventory containers.
  • Neocom Blink Toggle – You can now disable the blinking NeoCom icons
  • Corp Chat MotD – Corp, Alliance and Fleet channels can now have a Message of the Day.
  • Scan Signature Filter – Cosmic signatures can now be filtered by type, allowing players to easily sort cosmic signatures in the scanner results.
  • Skill Training Highlight – The skill currently in training will be highlighted light blue in the Skill Queue
  • Re-arranging targets – it is now possible to rearrange the targeted items

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:

Gila with Guristas logo Arazu with Duvolle Labs logo Navy Mega with Gallente Federation badge Rattlesnake with Guristas logo Helios with CreoDron logo Ishtar with CreoDron logo Worm with Guristas badge Ares with Roden Shipyards logo Taranis with Duvolle Labs logo

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:

Beautiful nebulae in Genesis region 1 Beautiful nebulae in Genesis region 2 Half-empty sky in Essence region   

New Phobos modelThere 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”

Blueprints for the Tier 3 BCsEDIT: 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