Spaceships, tanks & everything gaming related
Expansion name: Odyssey
Release date: June 4th, 2013
Expansion theme: Exploration, Resource shakeup (EVE Online: Cataclysm!!! …just kidding), Outpost and POS iterations, Ship Skill Tree change, Ship rebalancing
Last update of this post: 04.06.2013
Patch notes: Odyssey 1.0
SQLite Database dump: build 539491 *
Click “Continue Reading” to read the whole post.
See this post for information regarding Odyssey 1.1
Read more
It is my favourite time of the year again. This weekend witnessed much more than one of the largest live events in EVE (and DUST 514). Yesterday at PAX East 2013 CCP has also announced the summer expansion for EVE Online, which should arrive in our EVE folders by 4th of June. It seems that the devs agree with the playerbase, that the most successful expansion to the date was Apocrypha. Yup, your guess is right: after two war-centered expansions, the theme of the upcoming, nineteenth free expansion “Odyssey” will again be exploration.
There is little information which we know for sure, apart from the big skill tree change. CCP has hinted some ships rebalancing (most likely battleships, and maybe some first tech II) and UI polishing. Some POS love has also been mentioned, so those of us who have to deal with POSes can expect an easier life in game (let’s hope so ;-)). Last but not least, the live events will continue. If you couldn’t enter Luminaire during the battle for Caldari Prime last friday, don’t worry. You will get your chance to participate soon enough. CCP has also hinted resource redistribution. Some players belive this is about nerfing all high sec refineries (to 35% or below base yield, so even with ultra perfect skills you will not get 100% minerals). It can also mean that all static asteroid belts will be moved to exploration (which CCP was mentioning in the past). Without dev-blogs explaining the hints we’re pretty much doing guesswork, so don’t take any of it for granted.
Changes to exploration mean new modules, new scanning system (yet again – this will be the third iteration), new complexes and visuals to explore. I am curious if CCP is going to overhaul the COSMOS complexes, which used to be the most beautiful locations in game pre-Trinity (it was all animated, mind you):
My usual expansion status post is coming soon The Status Post for Odyssey is up (feel free to check old status posts for the past expansions: Retribution 1.1, Retribution, Inferno, Crucible), once CCP starts releasing information, which should most likely start during the upcoming Fanfest 2013.
Stay tuned!
Here’s the original presentation of Odyssey during PAX East 2013:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vo0vbusruT0]
Ardent Defender advised #tweetfleet today to cash out their RP, because these RP will be worth much less once Inferno has been deployed on Tranquility:
Of course our friend above is correct, at least partly. Why?
Because if you read the dev-blog about Factional Warfare overhaul carefully, you would have known which datacores to cash out BEFORE Inferno, and which are better to be left until AFTER Inferno.
All Science fields in EVE used to have a multiplier on them until now, which means how fast the RP are generated by the R&D agents, and how much RP Datacores cost. The fields with multiplier of 3x would stockpile three times as fast as fields with multiplier of one, but one Datacore from the 3x field would cost 3*50 RP (150), while the 1x field Datacore would only cost 50 RP.
Once Inferno will be deployed however, all Datacores will have a flat price of 100 RP + 10k ISK. This means that science fields with 1x and 2x multiplier are better to be cashed out before Inferno, but 150RP ones are better to be cashed out after the patch (you will get 50% more datacores at a small 10k ISK fee apiece, which is still much less than half the price of most Datacores).
CCP has promised in the Inferno patch notes, that they will not touch the amount of RP you already have in any way, so this is really the best approach.
I have shamelessly stolen the table from the dev blog mentioned above, but have highlighted which Datacores to cash out ASAP, and what to leave until after Inferno (orange: buckle up and go to your agent now! green: hold until tomorrow)
| Datacores | Amarr | Caldari | Gallente | Minmatar | Old field multiplier | Old RP cost | New field multiplier | New RP cost |
| Amarrian Starship Engineering | X | 3 | 150 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Caldari Starhip Engineering | X | 3 | 150 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Electromagnetic Physics | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Electronic Engineering | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Gallentean Starship Engineering | x | 3 | 150 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Graviton Physics | X | 2 | 100 | 1 | 100 | |||
| High Energy Physics | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Hydromagnetic Physics | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Laser Physics | X | 2 | 100 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Mechanical Engineering | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Minmatar Starship Engineering | X | 3 | 150 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Molecular Engineering | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Nanite Engineering | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Nuclear Physics | X | 2 | 100 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Plasma Physics | X | 2 | 100 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Quantum Physics | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 | |||
| Rocket Science | X | 1 | 50 | 1 | 100 |
PS.Remember to set a long skill tonight!
With Diablo III just around the corner, CCP counter-attacks and fuels their playerbase with new information regarding the new Inferno expansion, which is now just a week away (Inferno will be deployed on 22nd of May).
Team Super Friends has published a dev-blog about the new War mechanics and new modules, which I will cover in more detail below. Since I have recently joined an industrial corp, Aideron Robotics, which is focused on making things (making things go BOOM is in our portfolio as well), I will try to focus on the crafting side of EVE Online in the next couple of posts. I also think that the EVE blogging scene is dominated by PVP related blogs, so it seems to be a good idea to write about something else 😉
Armor Adaptive Hardener I – Low slot. You can use only one such mod at a time, and only Tech I version will become available in Inferno. This hardener will adapt to the incoming damage received in each cycle. Overheating will make the mod adapt faster. this kind of technology reminds me of the Borg 😉 More meta versions will follow if this becomes successful. IMHO a must have mod for armor fleets – just like the Damage Control mod.
Extrinsic Damage Amplifier I & II – Low slot. Works for all drones, but will not work for fighters or fighter bombers. I don’t know why, but the icon suggests drone recycling. Stack penalties apply, so mixing this one with a bunch of Sentry Damage Augmentors rigs is probably not the best idea. Tech 2 version will be inventable from Tech 1 BPCs. Can’t wait to lay my hands on the BPO of this!
Small/Medium/Large/X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster I. Mid slot. A shield booster that gives a better boost than its normal counterpart, and can also use Cap Charges as fuel. When you run out of cap charges, it will automatically switch to eating your capacitor, just like normal shield booster does.
MagSheath Target Breaker I – Mid slot. A must have for fleet engagements. Has a chance to break all incoming target locks based on the overall number of the number of players targeting your ship. The greater this number, the better the chance of activation. The new module has two penalties: considerable sensor resolution debuff and it breaks your own target locks as well upon successful activation. This module cannot be fitted to capital ships.
Small/Medium/Large Overclocking Processor Unit I & II – A rig that increases the CPU, ’nuff said. Hits shield regen rate as a side effect.
Light & Medium Web Drones – what name says. These drones have huge sginature radius and are paper thin.
Capacitor Battery update – Capacitor Batteries now have an anti-vampire effect that will deflect part of the Energy Neutralizer and Nosferatu effects back to the agressor.
Only the drone damage mod will be seeded as Tech I BPO. Everything else will spawn as BPCs in exploration sites around the k-space. BPCs will vary from 3 to 50 runs and will also drop from officer and commander spawns. This is to prevent flooding the market by greedy industrial pilots such as myself. This gives exploration a bit more sense.
Developers also consider moving some of the new modules to LP stores, which would bring some fresh perspective into how modules come into the game. I like the idea, but if the diversification becomes too great, CCP might end up having to dumb-down the game again at some point, seeding all the items as blueprints from NPCs.
It is just around the corner. According to the dev-blog, CCP has a working prototype, but they were unable to get it working well enough for a production release. The same applies to Salvage Drones, although the graphics assets for both are ready. This means we will probably see them in the Inferno 1.1 or whatever CCP calls the next update.
You will probably agree once you see this:
Just a month ago we were stunned with the beautiful login screen of Escalation to Inferno, and this afternoon CCP has pushed yet another patch to Singularity, bringing this burning vista. Great job guys!
If you are interested in giving Inferno a go before it’s released, feel free to read this very short and handy guide to Singularity (at the bottom of this post).
Since yesterday evening CCP has deployed two big patches to Singularity (EVE Test Server), that collectively include the following Inferno features:
Revamped Inventory:
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.
Revamped Faction Warfare:
Graphical changes:
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
New modules & drones
The Adaptive Armor Hardener is a very curious mod, because it is different from shield Invulnerability Field:
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.
This allows you to play with the new content, but also allows participation in mass tests scheduled by the CCP every few weeks.
As I have said earlier in my post about changes coming in the newest EVE Online expansion, Inferno will bring graphical overhaul for many ships, including a full re-model of cloaked bombers.
A player nicknamed ‘sarmatiko’ has released an unofficial preview of the new models. The video is available on youtube:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajHzl9OQrk]
I am also not surprised, that CCP will release new V3 skins for Amarr ships, to match the Gallente and Caldari skins released in Crucible. CCP has released an official preview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpOfEGFPU8]
I am however a bit concerned, that we will probably still have to wait for the Minmatar ships to receive the V3 love. I just hope that the delay means they will look even more awesome.
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:
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 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.
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.
TORMENTOR:
PUNISHER:
MERLIN:
INCURSUS:
RIFTER:
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:
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 will surely bring a lot more conflict to high sec and include the following:
More details about war mechanic have already been provided in a recent dev-blog.
Revamped Faction Warfare:
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.
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.
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)
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.
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:
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:
Pics or it didn’t happen? Sure, why not:
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!
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.
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:
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]
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!
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.