Tag: dust 514

[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.

Impact of DUST districts on Factional Warfare in Inferno 1.3

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , ,

While I was busy keeping the Retribution Status Post up to date (hence the lack of new posts, just a lot of updates to the forementioned text), CCP has pushed the DUST integration to Tranquility. While DUST servers are not connected yet, Districts and their influence over Faction Warfare is already deployed on live server. The same applies to Orbital Bombardment ammo and the whole Infantry market group.

This only means one thing: CCP is getting ready for DUST 514. While Retribution might seem lacking any “theme” feature (like incursions or wormholes), the crown feature can simply be the introduction of DUST. Let’s have a look at the initial impact of DUST on EVE (shamelessly stolen from patch notes):

  • Each district owned by a particular Factional Warfare faction affects the number of Victory Points needed to move a Factional Warfare system into a vulnerable state.
  • If a district owner is the same faction than the one controlling the Factional Warfare system, the number of Victory Points needed to put the solar system into vulnerable mode is increased
  • If a district owner is the opposing faction than the one controlling the Factional Warfare system, the number of Victory Points needed to put the solar system into vulnerable mode is decreased
  • Each temperate planet in Factional Warfare space contributes by 12.5% to the System Capture Status Victory Point pool, for a maximum of 50% Victory Points in Factional Warfare solar systems with four temperate planets.
  • Until DUST514 is fully implemented on Tranquility, planetary districts have been set to belong to the NPC faction that traditionally owned the Factional Warfare solar system.

What does that mean?

  • It will be harder to put some systems into vulnerable state, depending on which faction originally owned the system
  • Some players are concerned it might be impossible to attain Tier 5 status with this change
  • Math suggests the changes will be superficial: while “enemy” systems require more plexing to put into vulnerable state, originally owned systems require less plexing to make them vulnerable. This means pushing to Tier 5 should still be possible, but will require a bit more work “behind enemy lines”.

Close up on Orbital Bombardment

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

Orbital Bombardment is one of the most spectacular features (but not necessarily the most important one) in the upcoming Retribution expansion. EVE Online pilots will be able to turn the tides in DUST 514 battles by nuking planetary targets directly from orbit.

For example like this:

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

EVE Players are not concerned with the ability to shoot DUST-bunnies: they either look forward to it or simply don’t care at all. Pod pilots are however afraid of bunnies shooting back. You see, at first sight it seems that DUST players simply respawn and don’t have to grind ISK to buy ships like majority of us EVE players do. It is not entirely true. You can use cheap tech I fittings in EVE, and you can use expensive deadspace fitted faction ships. The same applies to DUST where you can use cheap and weak gear, or expensive, high quality one that you have to pay tons of ISK or AUR for.

Planetary bombardment already exists in EVE lore

The Dominix Navy Issue’s past is prominently interwoven with history, as it is known to have directly participated in the blockade and bombardment of Caldari Prime along with the Dracofeu orbital-class bomber two centuries ago. Engineered for capsule compliance, and refitted to serve more traditional combat roles, the Dominix Navy Issue today remains an extremely effective vessel and an invaluable asset in close- to mid-range battle situations.

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage and 10% bonus to drone hitpoints and damage per skill level.

Did you notice the fragment in bold? It has been there for as long as Dominix Navy Issue exists, but had no real meaning until DUST 514 Orbital Bombardment feature.

CCP has mentioned several times, that destroyers will be the ship of choice for orbital bombardment, and that a new set of destroyers will be introduced in the winter expansion. Although Dracofeu is a ship from two hundred years in the EVE past, it doesn’t mean the new Destroyer couldn’t bear this name. It would even make sense considering the fact, that the Dominix Navy is a rather “old” design as well.

Destroyers won’t get the bonus right away, however. According to the post I’ve linked above, it will happen sometime after the initial deployment of winter expansion.

Hands on lab

First, you need a Tactical space-to-ground ammo. The only size available is small at the moment,  which suggests the use of small craft with many turrets (Destroyers!) or turret bonuses (faction frigates). It is also worth to notice that each ammo type has different properties: lasers are very precise, high damage appliances, while projectiles are more less anti-shield Area-of-Effect weapon.

Once ammo has been loaded up, we need to go to the planet where the engagement is on. Our DUST 514 friends will provide us with the District they are fighting over. New warpable coordinates are available in orbit of Temperate  planets (a side effect of this is more “ready-to-use” safespots have been created by CCP; if you are warping away from a hostile gate, look for temperate planets).

Once in orbit, you will see the District:

 

Once connected, it’s up for our DUST bunnies friends on the surface to provide the coordinates. Once coordinates have been received, you can activate the bombardment.

It’s worth mentioning, that the satellites, which play the role of warpable beacons are great looking models. I wonder if the Art Departament could improve scanning probes in such a fashion?

Now the same on video, courtesy of @JonnyPew. This vid is a fraps of the recent mass test that took place on Buckingham on September 27th.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jjpMzMBomE”]

EVE Online: Retribution Status Post

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

Expansion name: Retribution
Expansion number: 18
Release date: December the 4th, 2012
Expansion theme: Ships and weapons rebalancing, Crimewatch (new PvP agression rules), new HUD, Factional Warfare and DUST 514 integration, Bounty Hunting
Last update of this post: 30.11.2012
SQLite Database dump: Buckingham build 454549
Patch notes: available here for build 453216

Retribution login screen

I know this post is a huge wall of text, but I’m trying to make it as complete and as accurate as humanly possible; instead of having to look for information about the new expansion in dozen different places, all you have to do is read through this post.

Table of contents (or TL;DR part)

  • Blueprints for new items
  • Capital ships’ Corp Hangar changes
  • Crime Watch 2.0
  • Bounty Hunting system 2.0
  • Graphical changes & ship facelifts (new Special Edition ships, Snowballs)
  • UI changes
  • Ships rebalancing
  • Frigate rebalancing
  • Destroyers (Dragoon, Corax, Algos, Talwar)
  • Cruiser rebalancing
  • Hurricane balancing
  • Turret sound changes
  • Missile changes
  • Module changes
  • Officer drone upgrades
  • E-War rebalancing
  • ORE Mining frigate (Venture)
  • NPCs AI overhaul
  • Officer Rogue Drone spawns
  • Faction Warfare – Warzone Control changes
  • Faction Warfare – NPC changes

Read more

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.

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!

 

EVE: Inferno announced

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

Make sure to check these posts about EVE Online: Inferno

I have been speculating about the content and features of the incoming summer expansion in this post. CCP has changed their approach a little bit, announcing their next expansion name way before its release. CCP Unifex covers most of the high level focuses of the new EVE Online expansion in this dev-blog here.

EVE Online: Inferno (c) CCP hf. 2012
EVE Online: Inferno (c) CCP hf. 2012

Of course, you can count on my reports once the new expansion shows up on SiSi. Until then, the list of features in EVE Online: Inferno is rather short and lacks details:

  • Rookie ships makeover – details can be found in this dev-blog. You can also watch your favourite CCP Guard in the first episode of new “In development” series. You will find the video just below this post. This change will be pushed as part of Crucible 1.5
  • Faction Warfare – more fun and more reasons to fight for your nation
  • Corp vs Corp/Alliance Warfare (CONCORD sanctioned wars) – new things which will mix up all forms of combat,
  • Dust514 link – bringing collaboration between console and PC players to a new level
  • Improvements and usability fixes
  • Hopefully, Amarr and Minmatar ships are going to get the V3 overhaul
  • Focus is back on spaceships, but CCP does not forget about avatars. New forms of bipedal gameplay will be released as soon as they are ready. Ever wanted your character to have a sleeve tattoo? Then read this dev-blog for details.
  • Module and implant re-naming to make them easier to remember for new players – see details in this post
  • New EVE Online Launcher – see my post here

It’s worth mentioning, that there will be hands-on demo of DUST514 on Fanfest. Dust bunnies hope that beta follows soon.

PS. Yes, I know I have been writing much less than usual lately: RL is to blame.

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

 

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.