Stop Buying Skins

EVE Vegas is on – so I’ve been keeping an eye out for new information on game updates and where things are heading.  Some of the official announcements have been added to this CCP News piece:

https://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/eve-online-news/news-from-eve-vegas/

Of note is that you should stop buying skins from the New Eden Store immediately.  There will be new skin types released soon after Ascension which can be applied to all hulls, including those racially different.  This will allow you to have mixed fleets that have a consistent look – if that is the sort of thing you felt you were missing.  The example shown was some sort of Captain American type skin.  To celebrate there will be a massive sale on all existing skins with the release, with examples of 75 to 90% off shown.  Mildly annoying as I had just spent some of the Aurum on my Second account (that I will be letting lapse) on full priced skins!  That would not be as annoying as it would be if you are a skin trader though.  They didn’t say how long this sale will last for, or what price these new skins will be.

You can watch the Keynote speech here:

Thanks to http://nevillesmit.com/ for highlighting this link.  I presume there will be an official CCP release of it shortly on their normal channels.

Most of the speech was about Ascension.  CCP Rise did an interesting short presentation on his experience using an Alpha Clone character for three weeks on Tranquillity.  CCP Ghost showed some video of the new “New Player Experience”.  It will be called Inception, and is focused on telling a story with a tutorial support system behind it.  It looks to be an improvement, although just listening to the instruction about clicking here and using the radial menu there, it was a reminder how clunky the game interface can be.

CCP Fozzie then came out and talked very briefly about Engineering Complexes. He said the Raitaru – the smallest (medium) Engineering Complex will be a perfect home for small organisations or bold solo industrialists.  This aggravated me.  It is not a bold solo industrialist who anchors a Raitaru.  The structure won’t defend itself unless you are online – and what defence it then provides is pitiful and pointless.  The unanchoring process requires blind luck that no one else notices and steals it from you.  To anchor one of these solo you are saying – “Hi EVE, here is some of my ISK, destroy it whenever you feel like it, there is jack shit I can do to stop you”.  That is not bold, that is stupid.  I certainly appreciate how cool it is that a solo player can now basically anchor their own station – but for the love of god, allow the thing to defend itself like a small POS can now.  Of course it is unlikely to make a difference to the end result, but it requires at least a little risk and thought from the attackers.  (It is my same old rant – but CCP really don’t seem to understand their non-PVP players.)

CCP Fozzie then moved onto more pleasing things, briefly touching on the mining updates (which I am finding intriguing); the new ghost fitting option (useful, but as Fozzie pointed out – brilliant for new players unaware of the third party fitting tools), and the next round of balancing for T3 Destroyers (which he did not outline, but from what I’ve read elsewhere sounds reasonable).

CCP Larrikin then came out to talk a little about the new NPC and PVE.  The asteroid belt encounters / mining NPC were discussed with a bit of detail – how they react and will work together.  If CCP get it right, and apply it to many more areas, it could make for some very interesting game play.  To try and get players to be involved, the Haulers can carry strongboxes which can drop interesting loot.  Again for me though – the impact on standings is a killer.

CCP Seagull then returned and showed a short feature video for the Ascension expansion – which also reminded me about the Sunesis Destroyer and of course the Porpoise Industrial Command ships which I am looking forward to flying, the skin changes I have already mentioned above, a new EVE merchandise store (available November 15th), the new EVE Online Portal Mobile app (also available November 15th), changes to benefits for new players recruited via other players, and the possibility for Corporations to get in on that process in future.

There is actually a lot of stuff in this release – although little that particularly enthuses me personally.  It was worth watching.  As an aside, I found the crowd to be a little more subdued that previous gatherings, but the yelling a little more obnoxious.