Sounds all the same

The new warp sound changes I remarked on were only recently added.

EVE Version 19.10, patch 2021-11-09.1

“Updated ship engine audio making the sounds of all engines more contextually dynamic and linked to velocity.”

Now that I have flown a few different ships around, I have found (surprisingly) it is another change that breaks my immersion. The sound itself is cool – but it is basically used under Mircowarpdrive or in warp for all ships. There needs to be different sounds for small, medium, and large hulls. Hearing my Orca making similar sounds in warp as my Malediction ends up not working for me.

Other patch notes I noted

EVE Version 19.10, patch 2021-11-16.1

“Updated the Alliance Tournament Monument in the Manarq system with a new structure honoring HYDRA RELOADED’s victory in ATXVII.”

I have never checked that out. Given it happened to be close to where I was at the time, I ran across to look.

Cool enough.

There were also 4 new exploration sites introduced – 3 found via scanning and 1 escalation.  One is in Poochyen and 3 in Low Sec.  They seem to be high end content for capital and super capital components.

“Added the option to sort and filter the content in the redeeming queue. It will also no longer select all items by default upon opening it.”

These changes are good and removed a mild irritation with the feature.

Fingers do not fly

There are warp engine noises I am suddenly hearing in EVE. They sound sort of cool – somewhat Star Wars like. They are however a bit disconcerting, since there are mini explosions in the soundtrack. I expect I will turn the sound down on them sooner rather than later. I am not sure if they are a recent addition, or I am only just noticing them as I adjusted sounds to increase the chance I hear when my cargo is getting scanned.

I’ve read some of the commentary regards CCP’s changes to mining. I need to do a lot more reading before I have a proper opinion. My initial view it is negatively impacts solo play – and is a continuation of CCP trying to force people to play EVE the way they want them too.

I purchased a PS5 the other day. These have not been advertised in stock since November last year. Retailers get small allocations at random times with no warning, so generally operate store by store waiting lists. Last weekend I was in an Electronics store looking for Christmas Gifts when I remembered Grand Turismo 7 was coming in 2022 so I asked the Salesperson if they had a waiting list for the console. He said they unexpectedly got several units in that morning, and I could have one if I included some extra purchases (I grabbed an extra controller and a couple games).

Our main TV is 4K and has a Sound Bar, and the PS5 looks and sounds great on it. The kids were delighted, but it was meant to have been purchased for me. I am starting to wonder however if I am just too old for it. It comes with Astro’s Playgroup – a simple but enjoyable 3D platform game designed for you to get used to the DualSense controller. The kids fly through it – but I am just not getting the coordination right. I also got the W2C 10 Rally game. I can’t yet drive the cars precisely enough. Even when I get things half right, some of the tracks are so tight that there is absolutely no room for mistakes – and I make mistakes. I had been practicing my handbrake turns for 20 minutes on a test track when my daughter asked to try. She beat my time on her second lap, and despite never playing a rally car game before was sliding and drifting and power steering better than I was within minutes. Last of all I got Call of Duty Vanguard. My initial forays into that last night did not go well.

I will continue my 20 minutes practice each night after everyone has gone to bed to try and improve.

A $181.52 mistake – or was it

After 260+ days of accumulative lockdowns we were allowed to get haircuts and go into retail stores again. The kid’s schools, sports and activities restarted – often with clashing overlaps as they all try to salvage some face time before the end of the year. While very much appreciating the freedom, the adjustment to the new level of extreme busyness has not been easy. Nor has carrying the dispiriting shadow of individual lockdowns that hang over you any time you cross paths with COVID. With our schedule, it is not a matter of if, but how many times that happens.

In amongst the chaos, I knew my EVE subscription was coming to an end and had set my mind to let it lapse. I no longer get value for money from it and have not for some time. I had previously cancelled my automatic payment and while I tried to do some preparation by moving a few ships and assets about, I mostly lost interest.

To my surprise CCP then cheerfully told me that they had automatically renewed by subscription for another year. A $181.52 charge at current exchange rates. They no longer warn you that they are going to do that – an irritation I have remarked on before, obviously designed to reduce the chance people cancel their payments.

I logged in to see I had not cancelled the payment. I could have sworn I did – but must have been my mistake. So, I cancelled the payment, and put in the reason that I did not like how they did not warn about automatic payments going through. I hit submit and it accepted it. Then I double checked – and found my automatic payment was still active. I repeated the cancellation – but this time with no explanation, and it went through OK. It looked like I could only cancel my payment when I did not tell CCP why.

So now I have an active account until October next year.

I note there were riots in Jita again. I saw the call for it in one of the EVE Facebook groups I am a member of. It was about mining changes. I figured 7 people would turn up, but apparently, they capped out the Jita population. I might have to look into the mining changes when they hit Tranquillity. There is no rush, I have another 11 months.