Day 10 and still being Trolled

The daily login in prank continues. I have taken to not redeeming the items. A silent, unnoticed and ineffective protest – just because.

It seemed I timed the removal of my Astrahus well.

https://www.eveonline.com/article/q9ayo4/forsaken-fortress-coming-26-may

On May 26 with the Forsaken Fortress update, all those abandoned Structures will become easier to kill loot pinatas.

Structures that have not had any fuel consumed by a service module for 7 days will move from Low Power to a new Abandoned state.

In this abandoned state there are no reinforcement phases – so it can be destroyed in one session. It will not provide tethering, and there will be no Asset Safety.

I hope the killboard operators bump up system resources before then.

I do not understand why CCP did not do this earlier. In fact – it should have been in place from day one.

I do have two concerns with the change.

The first is the 7-day period. It should be 14 days, possibly a bit longer. Allow for people to make the mistake of not fuelling a structure before they go on Holidays. 7 days is however a very CCP type of time frame.  I guess they also don’t want the system to be played, where people bring a module online for just an hour (costs 3 days of fuel from memory), to extend the low power period.

The second is the lack of a viable smaller tier of structures for solo or small corporation use. I find the current structures are not really a viable fit for casual play. It is hard to consistently generate enough planned content from them to justify the ongoing cost (or risk). This change makes it even less viable.

I prefer this change to exist than not to exist, but I do wish there were smaller, limited and scaled down versions of structures. At the very least, to allow me to flag my Corporation / Alliance as being able to be War Dec’d, without having to maintain one of the current structures.

When tweaks make an impact

I have never been that impressed with CCP’s tendency to call tweaks and game balance changes new content.  They can require you to adapt, but that is not the same as new in my eyes.

CCP has released a DEV Blog giving an overview of what they are looking to do with mineral distribution in EVE.

https://www.eveonline.com/article/q5jp49/moon-mineral-distribution

First they are looking to introduce shortages, then re-distribute minerals, then introduce a dynamic distribution.

That last phase will be new game mechanics.  The first two stages are tweaks.  The tweaks however require such a level of adaptation that they could move them into the new content area.

The latest Patch held these changes:

https://www.eveonline.com/article/q5jak4/patch-notes-for-february-2020-release

 

High Sec Asteroids:
Pyroxeres, Omber & Kernite quantities reduced.

Low Sec Asteroids:
Veldspar, Scordite, Pyroxeres, Plagioclase, Jaspet, Hemorphite & Hedbergite quantities reduced.

Null Sec Asteroids:
Scordite, Omber, Kernite, Jaspet, Hemorphite, Hedbergite, Gneiss, Dark Ochre, Crokite & Arkonor quantities reduced.
Bistot quantity increased.

Ore Anomalies spawned from Sovereignty Industry Index upgrades:
Level 1, 2 & 3 respawn times adjusted.
All variations of Crokite in all levels replaced with the equivalent yield variation of Kernite.
Gneiss, Dark Ochre & Spodumain quantities reduced.

 

The next step in a month is changing how minerals are distributed on moons.  The plan is to remove all basic ore types from moons and adjust the volume and yields.

The shortage stage is to allow CCP to gather data.  The problem I see is that there are huge stockpiles of minerals, mostly in the hands of those already rich.  This will just make them richer.

I checked my own mineral stockpiles and they were lower than I normally keep them.  Always the way.  I like having up to a billion ISK in minerals laying around so that I can cover the build of most items I might suddenly need without too much thought or running around.  Knowing I had already missed the boat, I checked the markets to find almost all reasonably priced minerals in volume had already been brought up.  I’ve covered 3 regions so far and still can’t find Isogen or Nocxium.

I suspected these changes were afoot – but had not got off my backside to prepare.  Oh well, at least I have a reason to undock for a week or so.

Chaos, but not the type I will complain about.

Blackout Gone on Monday DT

Just a quick one – to a muted response, CCP announced in Berlin that the Null Sec Blackout was finishing on Monday at Downtime.

https://clips.twitch.tv/InterestingLazyNuggetsCharlietheUnicorn

So I was wrong – it appears CCP will just reverse the change.  It just seems a bit clumsy.

One or the other

I regularly remark to my son that he is whinging. He retorts that his comments are not whinges, but observations. His favourite observations are that he is tired or hungry. Or tired and hungry.

I have been contemplating this as I’ve been reading lots and lots of commentary on EVE and the Chaos era. What are whinges, what are observations? Where do my related posts fall?

I’ve done little in EVE since the end of the Skill Point related events. Hilmar warned of weekly chaotic changes, but that hasn’t really come to pass. Instead it feels like I am on hold – waiting for – something, anything to occur which will define what EVE is meant to become.

The notable changes that have gone in, the Null Sec Blackout, the recent Cyno updates, have had fundamental impacts on many players. So much so that I’ve been thinking CCP probably can’t reverse them. They will not be able to pretend it never happened or undo all the damage done. I suspect finessing is the best we can hope for.

I am waiting with interest for the minutes from the latest CSM summit. CCP seemed to be a bit gushy about how positive the whole thing had been, but I hope to get a sense of how the CSM and CCP really interacted and if there is positivity towards any coming changes they discussed.

I have read a lot of blogs and articles about the apparent initial impact of the Chaos Era. As with I, a lot of authors have been guarded in making any definitive calls, but there seems to be a feeling of disquiet. I remember Hilmar exclaiming about how exciting the initial statistics were from the first days of the Null Sec Blackout. I thought at the time he was premature to say that, and I am not aware of him repeating this more recently.

There is a risk that all the negative conjecture could fuel a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’ve idly wondered if CCP might work to cut off some of the statistics we are using to evaluate their changes. They could stop the feed eve-offline.net uses for its online user counts. They could stop or dramatically modify the Monthly Economic Reports. It might give them some breathing space, although at what cost.

The latest EVE Pulse is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQyNkyq3zlw

They discussed how normal Cyno’s can now only be used on Force Combat Recon cruisers or Black Ops battleships. In an irritating understatement, CCP Falcon said that lighting a Cyno will now be “a little bit more expensive”.

I wonder if this post is a whinge or an observation.

I almost forgot, I did do – or tried to do something a bit different in the game recently.

While moving around BPO I noticed some of those pesky roaming Triglavians hanging around my Abzel. I quickly docked up and took control of it.

When I attacked the Triglavians, they shot back. They didn’t do enough damage to overcome the shield regen and the Azbel never got below 100%. I got log messages that the Standup Neutralizers worked, and once in a while I’d land an ECM Success (even though it would have had no impact), bu the Standup Missile Launchers did not seem to do any damage and never appeared in the combat log.

I then launched fighters – but I could not see them outside the station, no matter what I did or tried with the overview or bracket settings. In the end I could not tell them to attack the Triglavians. I even watched some YouTube videos to try and work out if I was doing anything wrong.

When I stopped attacking the Triglavians they stopped attacking me. In the end I warped another character in to find the Triglavians had warped off, even though I could still see them from within the Abzel.  That didn’t work out as expected.

Bump Off

Something we should be seeing in September:

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/september-fitting-warnings-and-other-qol-changes/184553

. Ships will now automatically enter warp after three minutes of attempting to align and reach the required speed. This will now put a maximum cap on how long a ship can be bumped or stuck on geometry.

As you would expect there are threats of Carebear accounts being unsubscribed and – oh, sorry, I meant, Ganker’s accounts.  The irony.

The details are going to be important with this one.

Forum comments suggest testing shows the timer is reset if an offensive module is used on the target.  This means there will be no real change to bumping outside of Hi-Sec.

In Hi-Sec, most Gank to kill encounters are over within 3 minutes.  If a gang of Gankers needs a little more time to get coordinated, they would have to suicide a rookie ship on the target before each 3 minutes is up.  Organised groups would already have such resources in place to deal with the logoff timer.

One type of play it does likely kill are ransom bumpers.

It also makes bumping bots in Hi-Sec less effective.

The positives are it helps people stuck in objects in missions, and it helps people who are being griefed for long periods of time in game by bumping for no other purpose but to annoy.

Overall I don’t mind the change.

Stuttering

The deluge of Cyno nerf related commentary continues.

I wonder what CCP sees in the feedback.

Do they just see the happy people – an echo chamber reinforcing their own biases?

Do they just see the unhappy people – is it a worry or just a bunch of whiners?

Do they find the very rare thoughtful comment and consider modifying their plans?

Or do they just see the Chaos they feel is so important?

I see toxicity.

I’ve remarked before that if CCP’s changes are polarizing – with those very much for or very much against, then CCP have probably got it wrong. Their best changes are those that leave no one particularly happy, and everyone looking at the multiple choices they have in how best to adjust.

In this case we have some very happy players – and in amongst those seem to be plenty who go out of their way to goad, troll and enrage other players to quit the game. The comments across blogs, forums and social media are full of them. Emboldened, and seemingly supported by CCP’s communication strategies.

As I said – toxic.

One of the things I was working on recently was to again own Capital ships. I thought I might try to take down a low sec custom office with a Dread or try again to set up a base in Low Sec and use a Carrier to move ships and supplies in and out.

This was an option available to me as a solo player that I’ve made use of many times before.

The new requirement to use a 200M+ Ship to open a 10-minute Cyno is effectively out of my budget. I only play casually and currently would not make enough ISK in a month to replace one Cyno ship loss.

CCP seems to really be disconnected from all the different sorts of players it has and their average incomes.

One of the things I completed today towards my goal of trying to get out of High Sec more was a PC Hardware upgrade. It was in the works before learning about the Cyno changes. The issue I have which keeps me out of dangerous space is a long black screen I get when undocking from stations. It leaves me visible, lockable and attackable for 10+ seconds before I see anything on my screen.

In addition, over this year various Windows and EVE Client Updates seem to have perceivably degraded the performance while running two EVE Clients at the same time, with the unfocused client often stuttering.

I would need a solution to both before advancing my plans.

The PC is heading towards two years old but is still a reasonable spec with an i7-8700K CPU and 32Gb RAM. The CPU is a 6 core 8th gen running at 3.7GHz (turbo to 4.7Ghz). The OS and EVE clients run off an M.2 drive and everything else off SDD’s.

The slowest component were the dual GTX 1060 6GB Graphic Cards. They were getting on a little, but were still well above CCP’s minimum system requirements, and equal to their recommended configuration. They did seem the logical area to update.

So today I swapped one of my GTX 1060 for an RTX 2060 SUPER. I plugged my two 4K monitors that I run my EVE clients on into the new card, and it stopped all the stuttering and related performance issues I was getting.

It did not however help the black screen undock in the slightest.

I also went to Display Port connections on all 4 of my screens. Windows 10 still doesn’t like mixed resolutions (2x4K, 2xFHD), but it was made worse when my screens sometimes came online in different order. I’m hoping this will be a little better now.

So I continue to amuse myself, while trying to ignore the growing doubt that CCP is getting all this Chaos right.

How blinkered will CCP’s Chaos be?

The next Chaos related change (coming in September) has been announced. The standard Cynosural Field Generators are being restricted to Force Recon Ships (the ones that use Covert Ops Cloaks and are harder to tank) and Black Ops Battleships.

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/chaos-era-continues-cyno-update/182197

Cynos were called an oppressive activity with limited options to disrupt.

Considering the obvious impact to logistics, to offset this change CCP will allow Jump Freighters to use Covert Cynos. These can be fitted to cheaper hulls, such as the Prospect, Stealth Bombers and Covert Ops.

Oddly each time CCP has talked about Chaos, they have proposed changes which please the very same sort of players, are most easily circumvented or moderated by the largest and most organised in game and seem to be the most negatively impactful on the solo and smaller groups of players who prefer being self-sufficient.

You would assume this change is about disrupting the capital umbrellas the Superpowers can wield. Catch a Rorqual in a belt? It won’t be able to light a Cyno by itself and call in the cavalry. More kills for the unsated. Having fun in a battle? It won’t be as easy for a side to safely escalate with more Capitals. All good – except the larger groups and richer players will be able to adjust and get around this imposition. It might even result in less fights, as it seems to help the more organised defender.

A (cynical) bonus for CCP is that it means players will need to invest more time and ISK into their Cyno chain.

I have used Capitals in Null Sec, NPC Space, and Low Sec – primarily to move ships and supplies in and out of areas. I have done this mostly solo. It means I have been able to live and operate in quiet areas of dangerous space that I might not have been able to if needing to rely on moving those supplies though choke pointed gates or waiting for suitable wormholes to open. This sort of logistics is much more dangerous for the solo player as we usually don’t have access to Intel channels or friends nearby. I can still do the same now – but it will be at the high risk of Hundreds of Millions of ISK every time I try.

Ironically this change is oppressive for my game style with limited options for me to counter it.

How many interesting things could they have done here – instead of or in conjunction with their change?

. Have a cyno module that has a much shorter cycle – 1 or 2 minutes, but that only allows one ship to jump through?

. If you jump through a cyno, have a session change timer that stops you opening a cyno of your own for 5 minutes or more.

. Require Cyno ships to use fuel to open the cyno, and then additional fuel for each ship that jumps through.

. Adjust the time a Cyno ship is locked in space based on the number and / or size of ships that pass through, and / or the longest distance the jumping ships have travelled from.

If I have to risk so much ISK every time I open a Cyno to jump my Solo Carrier or Dread through, give me options CCP.  Give me something that is not predictable.

Hunting for skill points

Swinging sticks

The latest Dev-Blog is out – detailing large increases to in-game sales taxes and broker fees.

https://www.eveonline.com/article/pvewgz/updates-to-sales-taxes-and-brokers-fees

The maximum taxation you will pay in NPC Stations with no standings or trading skills has increased from 5 to 10 percentage points. That is not a subtle difference.

The degree this will impact you will of course vary. Your trade skill effectiveness will increase (by almost 19%), but overall at a minimum you will pay an extra 2.25 percentage points taxation in NPC structures (from 3 to 5.25, up 75%) and an extra 1.25 percentage points taxation in player owned structures (from 1 to 2.25, up 125%).

The feedback thread on this is interesting.

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/devblog-updates-to-sales-taxes-brokers-fees/178876

Just what is CCP trying to achieve?

Some point out that the biggest percentage point impact will be on alpha and low skill characters, however I don’t really buy that argument. Technically it is correct – but what is a couple percentage points on the price of a standard T1 frigate?

It will impact traders. It will impact players when they buy and sell items worth hundreds of millions. It will impact those buying and selling PLEX in volume.

Are they trying to push more of us to use Citadels instead of NPC stations for our market sales and purchases? How did that work out last time? If it did work this time, wouldn’t that risk giving more money to the Perimeter cartels?

Personally, I never sell out of a Citadel, and I never buy unless I am docked there. This won’t change my mind.  In fact, the cries to change or remove the asset safety mechanism see me even less inclined to do so.

Is this just an effort to take more ISK out of the game?

Do we have our next weekly “Ooo Chaos” change?

Who knows?  CCP didn’t think it important enough to provide context.

Skill point Explosion

What do you do if you are CCP and are trialing Blackout – one of the bigger changes made to EVE in some time?

You collect before and after data and carefully monitor the reaction and behaviour of the players to the changes.

It also seems if you are CCP, soon after Blackout begins you kick off the Season of Skills. This is a series of events to encourage people to subscribe and to log in daily to get extra skill points. It is the sort of thing which will skew some of the statistics that CCP should be looking closely at.

It must never have crossed their minds.

An overview of the events can be seen here:

https://www.eveonline.com/now/season-of-skills

From a law perspective, CCP is giving you extra Skill points so you can better respond to the threats posed by the Drifters, Triglavians and the Blackout.

 

The first part – announced on the 15th, and expiring on the 17th, is a bonus with 3-month Omega subscriptions:

https://www.eveonline.com/article/puowou/season-of-skills-3-months-of-omega-with-usd1-mct-offer

If you get a 3-month subscription, for $1 more you get three months of Multi-pilot training on that account. (It is limited to once only for each account.)

It should be noted that you do not get Multi-pilot training certificates (which could be sold on the market). Instead training for a second pilot is immediately activated on that account – so you will have to log in and manually start the second queue. Ideally you might want three months of training planned and lined up in that queue.

I grabbed two of these deals for my two Omega accounts. (I actually had training I wanted to do for an Alt on each of them, so this was fortuitous.)

The second phase of the Event is a week of getting bonus Skill Points if you log in each day between July 17 and 25th. Alpha pilots will be able to claim up to 200K SP, and Omega 650K. There will also apparently be Cerebral Accelerators.

The third phase runs between the 24th July and 21st of August and gives you between 10K and 50K SP for killing NPCs. I presume the exact rules will be shown via the Agency or the like.

The fourth and final phase will be between August 23rd and 26th. Log on each day and get more Skill points, up to 75K for Alpha pilots, and 250K for Omega.

I will likely log in for most of these. I guess that will make me part of the proof of the roaring success of the blackout – even though I am unlikely to visit Null Sec in that time period.

I’m just not sure what to think about it all.

Inflation, Economics and the Lack of Light

I’ve been moving old ships around. As a precaution I do a quick review of their fit and its value before I undock. I am finding many of the faction modules I’ve been using have dramatically increased in price over the last year or two. Some so much so I’ve had to remove them and go for cheaper options, otherwise I make myself far too much of a gank target.

I wonder at the cause of this inflation. Is it a reduction in module supply? Is there more competition for the original supply? Is it – as I’ve read elsewhere, related to there being so many super rich players willing to mindlessly pay a premium to pimp their ship hulls?

As announced, Local disappeared in Null after Downtime on Friday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/ went into private mode for a while as acknowledgement of the change. It was back to normal by this morning. With more impact, https://zkillboard.com/ went black and is not showing any information. It will return after Monday’s downtime, but they are looking to implement an hour delay in future before displaying API sourced kills, making it less of an immediate intel source.

Well organised corporations and alliances will adjust and even benefit. The disorganised and more casual player will suffer. For solo Null Sec players there will likely be a big shift in the risk verse reward equation. The risks increase with limited options for them to mitigate it.

Interestingly not all hunters are crowing. One remarked on a recent roam that covered 60 Null Sec Systems, where they saw only 9 other players. If they entered an empty system, they could immediately see that and move on. Now they will have to scan / probe every system they travel through, including the dozens and dozens that have no targets. I guess you need to be careful what you wish for. That does open the opportunity for solo players to still ninja resources from quiet systems.

What I am not sure about – does NPC Null Sec still have Local?

What I am sure about – this change has caused the strongest and most angry PVP verse PVE player hate that I have seen in a long while. I am reading comment after comment about how much better off the game will be if people who don’t focus on PVP get up and leave.

I wonder at the lack of basic economic common sense.

It is hard to get people to subscribe and stay subscribed to EVE.  In the long run an overall reduction in subscription numbers hurts the game. It doesn’t matter if in the eyes of those remaining it becomes a better game. Less subscribers means the game becomes less economically viable. Lose too many subscribers, and you lose the game.

People who PLEX accounts are in fact financially contributing to the game. This is because someone has had to pay for those PLEX for them to be available. Once the PLEX is spent, it stops being deferred or unearned revenue. That has a positive impact on CCP’s balance sheet.

So – even if you are philosophically opposed to the concept of a Carebear, most Omega Carebear accounts contribute financially.

They also contribute by giving PVP players extra targets. If players struggle to hunt these extra players, then the solution is not to get rid of them, but to campaign for balanced game rules that give both the hunters and prey choice and fun.

There are some areas where I feel CCP has managed to get this reasonably right.

When I haul goods, I am a target. However, there are a wide range of skill training, hull, fitting and tactical choices I can make to impact the risk verse reward equation. I can choose between volume and tank and speed and value of what I haul.

It is the same when I mine. I have real choice between where I mine, what I mine, the yield I achieve – against the cost of the hull, its tank and its capacity.

I am not that enamoured with the simplistic idea to just turn off Local in Null as an experiment to see how it goes.  I’m still hoping CCP has additional development ready to be released to suggest they put more thought in to it.

As with Hauling and Mining – I would prefer a situation where there is real choice for both Prey and Hunters in Null.  Have Local turned off – but give the defenders / prey choices.  Have anchored and vulnerable to attack infrastructure that turns Local back on.  Give it more than just a fuel cost.   Have a system with Local spawn fewer and less profitable combat sites and smaller and less profitable asteroid belts.  Allow attackers to hack these structures to remove their names from local.  Create new pulse or probe equipment that temporarily shows the number of pilots in local – while also telling everyone else in system that they are there.

These are just thoughtless ideas and I am not suggesting at their balance or suitability as a solution.  The idea however goes back to giving all types of players choice.  Instead what we have ended up with so far seems unnecessarily toxic and damaging to the game.  It doesn’t feel like it needed to be that way.

Oh look – some wreckage

 

I wrote the other day that I did not think much of the reaction of some of the Null Sec leaders to their Drifter invasion. They seemed to want to lash out and damage the game and other players instead of – at least publicly, being constructive in their feedback and lobbying.

Mike Azariah went a little further.

https://mikeazariah.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/why-i-aint-in-charge/

It is fascinating that it is even possible for them to do it – but probably doesn’t speak well of them from a personality point of view.

What I might not have been clear on is that I agree with many of their concerns and complaints.

On one hand I don’t mind that CCP introduces new things as a back story, and that players need to work things out for themselves. The Drifter invasion however seems to reduce player against player interactions in Null Sec and sounds tedious and unrewarding.

https://tagn.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/drifter-change-up/

Like the Triglavian invasion, the Drifter invasions are changing over time, but CCP has just ramped that up even further:

https://www.eveonline.com/article/pu69gy/nullsec-local-blackout-incoming-during-july

At some point soon, CCP will be switching local chat in all Null Sec over to delayed mode. It will operate as Local does in Wormhole space. The back story is that CONCORD’s resources are stretched due to the invasions and they are having to turn it off.

We don’t know if it is temporary, or a trial to becoming permanent, or if CCP will be releasing new tools or Upwell structures to allow Null Sec residents to combat this change.

The feedback is about what I would have expected.

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/local-comms-blackout-discussion-thread/171935/43

There are some very unhappy people, and some very happy people goading them and gloating over the impact.

It turns out CCP has encouraged player verse player interactions – it just happened to be on the forums where the consequences are lost good will and subscriptions.

If I was in Null Sec I would not like that change – but then I am not the sort of player CCP seems to favour.

My god I hope you know what you are doing CCP.

Meanwhile, I think I might get the hell away from Jita.

Mood Lighting

The April release has just gone live. This item is immediately noticeable:

“Graphics:
This release sees the first update of an ongoing iteration of hangar visuals. Hangars have now been moved over into our Space Object Factory system, which improves maintenance and allows easier updating of the visuals going forward. What you will see is brand new lighting! The lighting has been reworked with a focus on the ship, with more contrast, color and life being the order of the day.”

https://www.eveonline.com/article/pphodr/patch-notes-for-april-2019-release

First impression is that the background now looks a little too dark.  A bit like how the game can be I guess.

 

EVE VEGAS 2018 Ships and Balance

I was pottering around in EVE earlier when the notification for the live broadcast of the Ships and Balance presentation came up.

There wasn’t a huge amount in it for the way I play EVE, but it did have a few items I noted down.

The four new Triglavian ships were better explained. They will be the:

. Kikimora – Destroyer – Slots 2 high / 3 mid / 4 low – long range skirmisher
. Drekavac – Battlecruiser – Slots 4 high / 4 mid / 7 low – multiple flexible roles
. Rodiva – T1 Logi cruiser – too early for stats
. Zarmazd – T2 Logi cruiser – too early for stats or image

The Remote Repair Module will spool up in effectiveness like the Disintegrators work. That means the Triglavian Logistic Cruisers won’t be as good if switching targets for their reps. They will work better if they are pre-repairing priority targets, such as the FC.

What I had not realised was that CCP plan to keep adding a lot more Triglavian hulls.

CCP will also be releasing new Mutaplasmids for Damage Upgrade Modules and the Disintegrators.  This made the crowd – who have seemed really subdued in earlier presentations – cheer loudly.

It was also remarked that resources for building and flying the Triglavian hulls will be carefully looked at. The statistics show that the cost of the skills, hull and disintegrator mean the Damavik (Fridate) and Vedmak (Cruiser) are not being used as much as they would like. I concur with the costs being unbalanced to get into those ships.

The ECM update was discussed. Some of the buffs they are looking at is to increase the jam strength and range, reduce the signature of ECM ships, and increase fitting options for the Widow, Rook and Falcon. The idea is that they can tank better or have more rounded fits, now that their victims can shoot them.

I will say that I do appreciate being able to shoot at the NPC’s who happen to jam me.

Broken Eggs

The July 2018 release is scheduled for Tuesday. Reading through the patch notes..

https://www.eveonline.com/article/pbgg7h/patch-notes-for-july-2018-release

.. and I noticed this:

“The standings penalty for podkilling a player in an NPC corp has been reduced significantly”

My immediate thought was why was CCP was making it less costly to pod players in NPC corps!?  Then I realised the penalty reduction was for NPC Corp standings, and nothing to do with Security that I had mindlessly thought.  I wasn’t aware, but if you pod a player in an NPC corp when you are not free to do so, you took a massive standings penalty against that NPC corp.  I can see it impacting the White Knights just as much as the Griefers in game, so probably a worthwhile change to I assume a very old mechanic.

I also noticed this:

“In high/low security space, scooping an unanchored structure that does not belong to your own corp is now considered a suspect act. It will require you to set your safety accordingly, and will trigger a suspect timer.”

What!?  So that was how so many people stole unanchoring structures, because whomever scooped it first was protected by the EVE security system.  What a horrible design choice.  Glad they are changing it.  (Even if I wasn’t aware of it in the first place.)

Last – there is a CCP developer video about the release.  I think it was one of their more professional and well done ones.

Oh, how long have they been signing off with “Fly Free” instead of “Fly Safe”?

Still Watching

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.

Citadel Group stats

https://zkillboard.com/group/1657/stats/

Monthly losses
. Average in 12 months to Jan 2018 – 269
. February – 895
. March (as at 27th) – 908

Engineering Complex Group Stats

https://zkillboard.com/group/1404/stats/

Monthly losses
. Average in 12 months to Jan 2018 – 227
. February – 633
. March (as at 27th) – 697

Refinery Group Stats

https://zkillboard.com/group/1406/stats/

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.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLK40KD-CfvF-TuHgRhxHDA/videos

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.

Some further information can be found here:

http://aurora-arcology.blogspot.com.au/2018/03/new-drifter-ships-appear-in-eystur.html

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/arc-vigilant-tyrannos-cruiser-identified-observatories-further-damaged/64679/2

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.

Crystal Ball

The EVE Online Updates page seems rather barren.

https://updates.eveonline.com/

The EVE Online Forums for upcoming features is in a similar state.

https://forums.eveonline.com/c/technology-research/upcoming-features-changes

There doesn’t seem to be anything we are not already aware of in the Test Server Feedback forum either.

https://forums.eveonline.com/c/technology-research/test-server-feedback

In the pipeline we only have the Structure 2.0 updates, Heavy Assault Cruiser and Assault Frigate balancing, and the once off Faction Citadels arriving to replace Player Stations.

(As I had assumed, the Faction Citadel change is seeing Providence lose its space. I wouldn’t worry – it will be back in their hands once the wealth is taken by the already wealthy and powerful.)

Others have blogged about the bare state of the future roadmap recently, but it is not something I am particularly concerned about. We have the 15-year anniversary Fanfest coming in April, and CCP seem to understandably like the theatrics of being able to do big reveals. We should learn more then.

I expect however I wasn’t the only one to look carefully at the session list for the latest CSM summit in Iceland taking place this week.

https://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/eve-online-news/csm-winter-summit-week/

There wasn’t much given away, although I wonder at why they are brainstorming content for Winter 2018, when I would have thought that sort of thing should have been set long ago. It also just seemed to be talking about all the same old stuff.

I don’t like the chances for Hermit players getting a strong look in, but it would be nice to be thrown a few crumbs.  Here’s hoping.

 

They will be broken

I remarked the other day that I would not be migrating some of my old and out of date EVE tools to my new PC.  I knew there would be a point where they would stop working for good.  That point has now been announced.

May 8th, 2018 – is when the old XML API / CREST will be turned off.  Only the ESI API will be supported going forward.

https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/article/important-information-on-the-future-of-the-eve-api

Armageddon day for some of our old favourites.

New Launcher

I noticed a comment yesterday on one of the EVE news sites that the EVE Client launcher was going to be updated, and that you would have to re-log in.

I started the client up today and found that was indeed the case.

What I wasn’t aware was that the entire client settings were reset.  Completely reset.  If you hadn’t exported your overview any time recently, those have all gone to.

Annoys me to be honest – it takes me hours to get the client settings just right.

I wonder if I was just lucky, or if it was a common problem.

 

*Edit*

Lorelei Ierendi mentioned in the comments that you can click on the little gear symbol next to the account name in the launcher, and change the profile away from the default.

I’ll have to look up if the default is kept in game, and if it crosses multiple accounts.  Might be worth the pain of setting it up if it makes life easier in the long run.

Beating the old Drum

Yinmatook kindly commented on the last post and provided a link to the EVE Vegas presentation relating to PVE / the new Forward Operating Bases.

https://go.twitch.tv/videos/181166320

The more interesting bit starts at 10:42.

It wasn’t mentioned how many sites would appear in Hi-Sec at the same time.  I assume there would be lots more than Incursions / Shipyard sites.

Hi-Sec will be divided up, so one part will get Blood Raider Forward Operating Bases, the other part will get Guristas bases.

They will be a bit more common in systems with a security rating towards 0.5, a bit less common in systems with security ratings towards 1.0.  Regardless, they could turn up just about anywhere in Hi-Sec.  (I assume specific systems are excluded, like the big trade ones.)

You have to scan them down, but there will be clues they are there.  The NPC Mining Operations in that system will instead be the Pirate Faction.  You should also see special ships flying around.

If they are not addressed after a few days, they will head out and shoot players with bad standings towards them (that would be almost everyone), and attack vulnerable structures.  I didn’t hear any specific reference to gate camping, or how many people would be required to deal with these roaming ships.

The actual Forward Operating Bases are designed to be tackled by between 10 and 50.  By comparison, the Shipyards are designed for a minimum of 75 players and scale up as required.  Apparently up to 1500 have tackled one before.

There will be no capital BPC drops – as you would expect, but there will apparently be some new special drops that will occur from time to time.

Most of the reward will be in Concord bounties placed on the actual Forward Operating Base.  The Fleet doing the most damage attacking it will get the bounty, scaled and spread equally across the fleet members.  That would mean if contested, only one fleet will get paid for clearing the site, the rest get nothing.

It doesn’t sound quite as bad as suggested – but again, I need to wait for more concrete information.

While obvious and already apparent – it was made quite clear in the presentation that the goal of these sites is two fold.  First, to get Empire Players together into fleets and hopefully trigger in them a new, co-operative based passion for the game.  Second, to train players in PVP like tactics through the new NPC AI, in the hope they will then go out and fight other players.

This is apparently the only solution CCP can find for retaining players in EVE.  It seems us solo players just don’t hang around long enough..

The Witless

I found a few sources of information covering the first half of EVE Vegas, but then it all seemed to go silent. I’m not sure why.

I noticed a fair amount of gleeful zeal from the Anti Hi-Sec brigade, relating to the proposed new NPC Hi-Sec Occupations. Apparently, Blood Raiders and Guristas Forward Operating Bases will start to pop up in Hi-Sec. They should use the new NPC AI and be some lite and much less rewarding version of the Blood Raider and just announced Guristas Shipyards. To mix things up a bit, if nearby players don’t deal with a site, the NPC’s will start to roam. They will hunt players, attack structures, and camp gates. These roaming groups will require fleets of around 10 players to defeat.

I would expect if it is as dangerous as it sounds, that a small number of people already running incursions will farm these sites and everyone else will just ignore them. If the rewards don’t make sense, then they will be mostly ignored. If that results in people being randomly and without warning ganked by NPC’s when they traverse Hi-Sec systems, then there will be tears, then a proportion of those players will stop playing.

Nothing so far in this admittedly vague outline will result in more people playing EVE for longer. If CCP thinks otherwise, maybe the line of Anti Hi-Sec cohorts energetically self-stimulating their genitals will raise a warning flag. Or maybe not.

Anyway, I’ll have to wait for DEV Blogs to be released with specific details and timeframes. It seems unlikely I’ll by choice be able to interact with such PVE in my Hermit play style.

Of more interest I noticed that EVE Down Under will be an official Fanfest event in 2019. My Subscription currently gets me to February 2019. Should I set myself a goal of attending? Or will the witless have finally pushed me out of the game by then.

*Edit – Lazy blog posting from me.  Looking into it, the Forward Operating Bases will come on October 24th.  They are available to check out on Singularity.  Initial player feedback has been pretty light on, although apparently some have soloed them in a Marauder.  There are too many hours of CCP Twitch videos from EVE Vegas for me to go away and find the original quotes from.  Seems odd such game play hasn’t been announced, maybe the extra danger above was the wishful thinking for future versions of the sites.