CCP is going through a process of clearing out old skins from the New Eden Store at discounts of usually 50%. This is to make the NES store less cumbersome to look through. We won’t see most of these skins sold through the store again. Moving forward I believe I read that CCP plan to only sell a skin for 3 months. I assume that would be to keep the store fresh – and to encourage people to buy skins they like sooner rather than later.
Generally, the old skins are selling for 27 PLEX which is about 81M ISK in game. While not cheap for a new player, it equates to 18 skins for a months’ worth of game time. That seems reasonable.
As the old skins are being cleared out I’ve been checking if there are any I am interested in. I find many of them were hit and miss. They would work well on some individual hulls but look average on others – particularly the Minmatar hulls. When I find a skin on a hull I like, I go through a process.
. Do I have skins for that hull already that I like more, so I am not likely to use the new skin anyway?
. What is the cheaper price – in Store or on the Market?
. Given the price, are there any other skins for that hull that I like more and that cost less?
The result of my efforts so far has been activating about 20 new skins. The cost however has been 27 PLEX and around 100M ISK. Generally, I have been finding better skins on the market for a fraction of the cost, particularly in the Exoplanets Hunter, Glacial Drift and Spirit range.
The new skins now coming into the store however tend to be priced rather high. They are selling a Worm Ace of Podhunters skin for 250 Plex, or 750M ISK! Two weeks game time seems a high price for a Frigate skin. I’ve said it before, but I still don’t think CCP get their store pricing right.
One last thing – I wish CCP would fix up how they show skins in the character sheet. It is a mess.
I am still here. I’ve even been logging in a bit more than usual.
As suggested, I revisited zkillboard’s stats for structure losses in February to get an overview of the impact of CCP’s Upwell 2.0 changes. I initially tried to put this together when Burn Jita was happening, but zKillboard kept crashing.
Monthly losses
. Average in 3 months to Jan 2018 – 166
. February – 272
. March (as at 27th) – 276
These figures seem to speak for themselves. The Upwell 2.0 changes have had a substantial impact. Success I guess for Structure Builders and Structure Destroyers.
We had the March update, which has quite a long list of changes in the patch notes. For the first time in quite a while CCP messed things up and Tranquillity had all sorts of performance problems and multiple outages. It used to be like that after almost every patch, so I am inclined to cut CCP some slack and wait patiently when it happens occasionally now. Lots of people however cried and cried, and cried some more. Apparently we will be given some free SP to compensate for our mental anguish.
I was alerted to a skill train completing when I logged in today. Seems I clicked over 230M SP. In the last month or two I’ve picked up
Skirmish Command Specialist V
Ice Harvesting Drone Specialization V
I am now working on Target Painting V.
CCP has been actively working on building up the anticipation towards Fanfest this year. They linked to a Discourse video the other day, discussing the decryption of corrupt Drifter video, showing Drifters in combat with a new as yet unseen type of vessel/s. You can see the linked video here:
There are further videos here – under “Corrupted Trinary Data Vault headings.
Maybe there will be new ships for players to fly, or new NPCs?
Speaking of Drifters – there has been a new Drifter Cruiser spotted in game called the Cassandra Tyrannos. Amongst other behaviours, it seems to protect the Autothysian Lancers, and has been observed shooting at Capsuleers on Gates without apparent provocation or standings issues. The Jove observation post models have also been updated, showing more destruction.
I have had no real interaction with the Drifter NPCs. Their insta-kill death rays tend to require group play with purposefully fit disposable hulls, which doesn’t align with the Hermit play-style. I believe there is a somewhat small niche group in the game who target them. If there is to be an even newer sort of NPC, I hope they are a little more accessible.
Last of all, CCP has been spruiking a deal where if you buy 500 PLEX, you will get a unique “Sariel’s Flames” Dramiel skin. Reddit reports that buyers have also been sent a link to an EVE Chronicle, which talks about an attempted salvage mission on an ancient archaeological site hidden within the Mithra’s Gate comet. That also hints at new / old technologies. Hopefully more will be revealed at Fanfest.
I won’t provide a direct link to the document as that seems against the spirit of what CCP appears to be doing. The detail is however on Reddit under New Chronicle Mithras Gate if you are interested.
Alexander Gianturco / The Mittani / The leader of Goonswarm Federation wrote what I found to be a very interesting article over at the Imperium News site. Worth a read if you haven’t already.
Evehermit 