Tag: singularity

Odyssey now deployed on Singularity

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

In the late evening of May 8th CCP has deployed first true Odyssey build (531040) on the Singularity test server. My Twitter stream has quickly become flooded with screens and videos from Odyssey, so here is a quick summary of which features are already on Singularity, and can be tested by the community. Screenshots included.

  • New EVE Launcher:
    new-singularity-launcher-properly-installed
  • Ship skill tree has been updated, but old Destroyer and Battlecruiser skills still remain in the tree with 0 SP
    • Before logging in old amount of SP was displayed
    • After login skills got updated – about 6 million SP has been added
      odyssey-ship-skills

    Read more

New Inferno build on Sisi available for your testing pleasure

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

Since yesterday evening CCP has deployed two big patches to Singularity (EVE Test Server), that collectively include the following Inferno features:

Revamped Inventory:

  • 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

This is a big change: inventory is now hierarhic. The top node is your active ship (with all bays as subfolders). The next two nodes are Items and Ships. The right part of the window is the usual icon grid that we are used to. To move items, simply drag them to the appropriate tree node on the left.

The new Inventory window will show the spinning pinwheel when loading items from the server. Good news is that it is also possible to filter the assets easily. The built in filters work great, but don’t trust the “valuable” filter too much – it doesn’t show faction items for example. You can of course build your own filters, so this should not be a problem.

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

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

Graphical changes:

  • New missile launchers and launch effects
  • New missiles, trails and explosions
  • New Stealth Bombers
    • Manticore
    • Nemesis
    • Purifier
    • Hound
  • Amarr V3
    • All sub capital Amarr ships, excluding T3 cruisers.
  • 14 different skintypes have been added to the Character Creator. This allows all bloodlines to have a wide range of skincolors.

Inferno version of Hound Inferno version of Nemesis Inferno version of Manticore Inferno version of Purifier v3 skin for Abaddon New missile effects on Drake New missile effects on Drake 2 v3 skin for Damnation v3 skin for Navy Slicer v3 skin for Navy Slicer - 2 v3 skin for Cruor Missile launchers on Hawk Missile Launchers on Tengu Missile Launchers on Gila Missile Launchers on Onyx Manticore with Siege Launchers and Bomb Launcher in deployed mode Manticore new model Scourge Torpedo goes boom

I really like the way the V-threed Damnation looks now. Missile effects in few words are simply kick-ass. Good job art departament!!

Also by the look at the remodelled Cloaked Bombers you can finally tell where all these t2 materials go 😉 This change and the Deimos model change back in Crucible add a lot to the immersion factor of EVE. I hope that other t2 ships are going to get some distinctive features as well.

Did I mention that new missile effects are gorgeous?

War changes

  • Updated Kill Reports (aka Kill Mails)
  • New war cost
  • Corp CEO/Director declares wars, no voting required
  • Alliance wars transfer to corps leaving
  • No automatic war retraction by aggressor
  • Wars last for week by default
  • Either side can offer surrender in a war
  • The defending side can get allies to help
  • There is a place for people to find prospective allies/clients
  • Players can now more easily track the war in the War Report
  • All corps have publicly viewable war history

New modules & drones

  • Drone Damage module (Extrinsic Damage Amplifier)
  • CPU Rigs (Small/Medium/Large Processor Overclocking Unit)
  • Fueled Shield booster (Small/Medium/Large Ancillary Shield Booster), using Cap Boosters as charges
  • Light and Medium Web drones
  • Adaptive Armor Hardener

    

The Adaptive Armor Hardener is a very curious mod, because it is different from shield Invulnerability Field:

  1. You can only fit one such mod
  2. It adapts to the incoming damage each cycle
  3. Overheating shortens the cycle, thus making it quicker to adapt

It’s giving the armor tankers an interesting twist, both for PvE activities (less hardener swapping) and PvP activities (strong omni tank which is able to adapt to specific damage type). This hardener will quickly become a “must have” mod just like Damage Control.

How do I test these goodies myself?

A very short guide to Singularity

  • Just make a copy of your main EVE folder, name it “EVE Test” or something that lets you know it’s SiSi client
  • Make a link to eve.exe on your desktop
  • Right click that link, choose Preferences
  • Add /server:singularity after eve.exe, make sure there is a space between .exe and /

This allows you to play with the new content, but also allows participation in mass tests scheduled by the CCP every few weeks.

Why participation in mass tests is good for you?

  • Because you help CCP develop better EVE.
  • Because for each test you get free 2M SP on Singularity for your testing pleasure.
  • Because it’s a win-win secnario.

 

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.

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

New Cyno effect on Singularity

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

I know I have missed one very important feature mentioned in this devblog here, which will be coming in the “October patch” for Incarna. I am talking about the: *drumroll here* new cynosural field effect. New stuff has been available on Singularity since last friday, but I wanted to get some screenshots pretty enough to please the public (and do the new cyno justice: it really looks much better than the current one).

Okay, enough reading, let’s see *it*:

Animation is a bit slower than the one in the current effect, and textures’ resolution has been bumped up a few notches. The new capital jump has been improved as well, but I couldn’t get a good screenshot of it: it seems to only look good when animated.

But wait, what about the engine trails? Are they coming back?

According to a very well informed person (CCP_Fallout), the answer is YES. Unfortunately, there is no schedule, so we will just have to wait.

UPDATE: Racial Captain Quarters on SiSi

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

Yestarday CCP t0rfifrans has posted a dev-blog about racial Captain Quarters being already available for testing on the Singularity test server. If you can’t wait to see them before your client is patched to the Singularity level by the trusty SiSi Launcher, feel free to watch this youtube movie. All CQ’s reflect their races distinct culture and style: Caldari are cold and “made from steel”, so their quarters have a strong utilitarian look. Gallenteans value freedom and pleasure, so gallente CQ are IMHO the best looking ones at the moment. Amarr, the most religious race, have many statues and other religious accents in their quarters. And of course you already know the Minmatars: rust and duct tape (as if they don’t know how to smelt stainless steel, even though they are able to fly in space. It might have something to do with the legendary strength and durability of Minmatar duct tape).

T0rfi also mentioned that the inital spawn point after docking has been moved, so you can immediately access the ship’s console, rather than having to turn around and walk towards it. Oh, yes, you will now be facing your ship when you dock. And no, it does not work on Singularity yet.

Eve Sans Neue
Eve Sans Neue

One thing not mentioned in the dev-blog is the new font. It looks just like on the screenshots in this dev-blog (or on the screenshot on the right).

And yes, ship spinning is back, too. Just click on your ship in CQ and select “Enter Hangar”. The ship spinning UI is almost the same as it was before Incarna, but it seems not to be the final version: Station Info panel on the right is missing.

I've broken it
I've broken it

Unfortunately I can’t get on to Singularity thanks to this nice red error on the left. This is why I don’t didn’t have the usual bunch of screenshots from the current SiSi build – I am was stuck at accepting EULA. Hopefully CCP has published a few screenshots so I will link them below instead. And I won’t give up trying to get it working.

 

Reinstall of the Sisi client did not help. My guess is, since I’m running polish version of Windows 7, EVE tries to find polish version of EULA. It fails, and cannot load its contents, so it becomes stuck on EULA window. Bug reported #117055. Here is the solution: how to get past the EULA window.

PS. I consider moving from my quiet home system to a new one with a Gallente station. Why? See for yourself.

New NEOCOM: EVE Start Menu

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

CCP Optimal has posted a dev-blog regarding changes to the EVE GUI – Neocom. The coming change makes the Neocom look much like Windows Start Menu. See for yourself:

This change will be available as beta in the third part of Incursion coming to your EVE client on 18th of January (you will be able to toggle the new and old GUI as you like). You can also have a glimpse at it on SiSi (Singularity test server).

New Tyrannis build on Singularity

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

Today CCP has released a new build of EvE: Tyrannis on their test server. If you would like to try it out yourself, all you need to do is copy your main Eve folder to a new location (for example to C:\Eve test). Then make a shortcut on your desktop to the “eve.exe” file in this test folder. Right click the shortcut, choose properties and add the following: /server:87.237.38.50

"C:\eve test\eve.exe" /server:87.237.38.50

Run it and let it update (please mind it is a rather bulky download > 280Mb). I have not been able to log on yet, but in the meantime you can have a look at how the login screen is going to look like in Tyrannis:

UPDATE 29.04.2010:

The changes (compared to the previous builds) include:

  • 5 tiers of command center (was 1) with different cpu/pg capacity and skill requirements
  • new login screen
  • planetary nodes renamed to customs office
  • exporting materials from planets costs isk
  • building structures costs isk (for example 200.000 per extractor)
  • improved planetary structures graphics & nodes
  • command center node now shows cpu and pg with colour dots
  • command center can now be abandoned
  • very important: planet types have been reseeded
  • very important: POS structures BPO seeded
  • POS BPO use tier 3 and tier 4 planetary materials
  • new Scorpion battleship hull (comparison below)

Old Scorpion hull

New Scorpion hull

New PI GUI: