Tag: cloaking device

EVE Online cloaking effect evolution

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

The constant evolution of EVE is one of the main things that keeps me hooked to it. Today’s post is one of those posts about EVEolution of EVE 🙂

First discovered by those, who frequent Singularity test server, and then officially confirmed by both CCP Seagull and CCP Manifest in dev blog and on YouTube, Cloaking Device effect gets a visual overhaul in Oceanus! This new effects complements warp and jump animations and the recently added warp blink after ship leaves and before it enters the grid. This new cloaking effect looks quite original, but it bears some similarity to Predator’s cloak from Aliens, which was most likely the inspiration for this new shader. Behold:

But did you know this is not the first time CCP attempts to change the cloaking effect?

First time CCP done it was in 2007 when Trinity was still in development. In Trinity CCP has done an immense graphical overhaul. All starships have been redesigned into higher poly models and have been given higher resolution textures. As you know, Cloaking Device icon shows half of the ship visible and the other half cloaked, so the effect introduced in Trinity was obviously trying to reflect that:

Second attempt was in 2009 when Apocrypha was being developed. If you logged on to Singularity to have a look at the then-new Wormhole Space, you could also notice this “Triage” like cloaking effect:

Eventually, both of the above visuals have been rolled back to a simple “vanishing” animation.

I must say the new cloaking effect in Oceanus looks really cool and I hope it stays in the game. It is just as good as visuals in some modern sci-fi series (but please mind the one in EVE is rendered in real time, while the ones on the TV shows have been rendered during visual post-processing).

Kudos (again) to CCP’s art departament!

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.