Set for Winter 2009, EVE Online: Dominion will focus on what is often cited as EVE's "end game" - alliance warfare. It offers a complete overhaul of the current sovereignty mechanics in favor of a system that's a brilliant mix of our game design vision and the input we've received from fans on forums, at conventions (FANFEST!) and via the CSM. Savvy alliances will benefit greatly from following and understanding these changes, which will receive extensive testing.Nothing earth-shattering but cool nonetheless.
In addition, we'll be adding some new epic arcs for pirate factions, offering the first iteration of the integrated social networking platform known as COSMOS, setting our artists free to rebeautify planets and more.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Next Expansion: Dominion
Next Expansion was announced today and it will be called Dominion. From the news blog post:
Nighthawk Down
Last night three of us from the corp decided to give a level 5 mission a try.
We went in with a Tempest and Raven battleships, myself in a Nighthawk, and my alt Derranna in a Scimitar logistics ship. The mission was called "The Fortress" and for good reason.
The inital spawn had 6 heavy neutralizing towers and a ton of Republic battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers, and frigates. Of course, everything aggro'd me. My cap was gone immediately and my shields shook under the fusilade, but with the two large shield transporters from Derranna's trusty medic ship I was able to withstand the barrage. Barely.
With the initial wave destroyed (after a good thirty minutes of fighting) we targeted the objective building, a Capital Ship Maintence Array. The reported intelligence was that a wave would spawn upon getting through shields, another for getting through armour, and a third for getting into hull. We got through the shields quickly and the order went out to cease fire as the Republic fighters spawned... but my salvos already en route didn't get the message and slammed one after another into the objective, triggering the second spawn of battleships and cruisers.
My Nighthawk was obliterated. To be accurate, I saw the shields fall to 50% DAMN FAST and hit warp button, but I think I might have warped to wrong object (i.e. wasn't aligned to it, I was aligned to something else) and I didn't make it out before the ship exploded. Almost, but not quite.
Ah well, crap happens.
We regrouped and discussed what to do. I had my Basilisk in system so we decided to try to warp the Raven in at 100 km range, and then have the two logisitics come in and rep its shields like the devil. Our first attempt didn't work, the Raven had to warp... but we got a better bookmark and second time in we had enough range to avoid a lot of DPS from the sentry towers and the four large shield transporters, 10 shield drones, and 2 large energy transfers proved sufficient to maintain the Raven's tank and cap.
The third wave proved easy to handle after that wild ride and we collected a cool 23K loyalty points each for the effort. If you are looking to build up Loyalty points, level 5s could be a good option.
We went in with a Tempest and Raven battleships, myself in a Nighthawk, and my alt Derranna in a Scimitar logistics ship. The mission was called "The Fortress" and for good reason.
The inital spawn had 6 heavy neutralizing towers and a ton of Republic battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers, and frigates. Of course, everything aggro'd me. My cap was gone immediately and my shields shook under the fusilade, but with the two large shield transporters from Derranna's trusty medic ship I was able to withstand the barrage. Barely.
With the initial wave destroyed (after a good thirty minutes of fighting) we targeted the objective building, a Capital Ship Maintence Array. The reported intelligence was that a wave would spawn upon getting through shields, another for getting through armour, and a third for getting into hull. We got through the shields quickly and the order went out to cease fire as the Republic fighters spawned... but my salvos already en route didn't get the message and slammed one after another into the objective, triggering the second spawn of battleships and cruisers.
My Nighthawk was obliterated. To be accurate, I saw the shields fall to 50% DAMN FAST and hit warp button, but I think I might have warped to wrong object (i.e. wasn't aligned to it, I was aligned to something else) and I didn't make it out before the ship exploded. Almost, but not quite.
Ah well, crap happens.
We regrouped and discussed what to do. I had my Basilisk in system so we decided to try to warp the Raven in at 100 km range, and then have the two logisitics come in and rep its shields like the devil. Our first attempt didn't work, the Raven had to warp... but we got a better bookmark and second time in we had enough range to avoid a lot of DPS from the sentry towers and the four large shield transporters, 10 shield drones, and 2 large energy transfers proved sufficient to maintain the Raven's tank and cap.
The third wave proved easy to handle after that wild ride and we collected a cool 23K loyalty points each for the effort. If you are looking to build up Loyalty points, level 5s could be a good option.
Strategic Capitals
Welcome to the eleventh instalment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month's banter comes to us from Joe Brusati a long time reader of CrazyKinux's Musing, who asks the following: CCP states that T3 Strategic Cruisers are just the start for the T3 line-up. In future Eve expansions what would you like to see as the next T3 ship type. Please be specific on details about what role this ship would play, cost of manufacturing, and the different modules that would be available for it, and of course you must give your T3 ship a name!
*******
BRAIN 'SPLOSION!
Man, a little bit of game design time again, eh? This time on my favourite of subjects, Ships. So let's get cracking.
First off, let's look at the tech levels.
Tech I - These ships are your basic starter vessels for all pilots but are still useful for veterans because of their cheap replacement cost and the fact that their performance improves with better skills and better equipment. A Thorax for example is a perfectly good hard hitting ship in the hands of a 3 year veteran, while a Rifter remains the most popular of frigates. Similarly on the upper scale, the Raven is a very popular and capable PvE ship and long range fleet battles are dominated by Apocalypses at the moment.
Tech II - If you've got the money, T2 ships give better defenses and available slots combined with numerous specialized bonuses. And that last part is the important part: specialized. These ships are typically designed for one role and are maybe capable at doing two in a pinch. Covert Ops are sneaky probing scouts with no DPS, HACs can do awsomse damage and take some abuse for a cruiser, Interceptors are the last word in tackling, Marauders are the ultimate PvE ships, etc. The specialization is a strength but also a weakness, one that most people don't realize even if they exploit it. If you see a Manticore you know its using Torpedoes and bombs with covert ops cloak and no tank. Conversely you see and Ishtar on scan you know you are facing a tough platform with elite drones. Its hard to be surprised by a Tech II ship because there is only so many optimal and effective ways to take advantage of the platform and its bonuses.
Tech III - These ships were designed to not only match or be superior to Tech II cruisers, but to be flexible. Its easy to forget when critiquing Tengu setups on battleclinic that the entire role of the ship could change with the swapping out of one or two sub systems. In essence, if you see a Strategic Cruiser on scan you don't know what it can do until you engage it.
So, with that as a basis, what do I want to see for the next T3 ship type? Strategic Frigates? Well, that might be cool. Strategic Battleships? Oh, now we're talking. But let's go outside the box. Let's think big. Real big. No, BIGGER.
Strategic Capitals.
That's right, I went there. Why? Because right now Capitals are boring because there is only a handful of types: the defenseless mover (freighter), the logisitics (carrier), the shooter (Dreadnought), the bigger logistics (mothership), and the DOOMSDAY DEVICE (Titans). They all operate pretty much same across the factions, they are predictable and getting to be very unexciting in terms of gameplay options. Its time to spice things up.
The Design
The Strategic Capital ships would have 5 subsystem slots just like the Strategic Cruisers. Each slot would have 3 or more subsystems available to it just like the Strategic cruisers. Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Defensive Subsystems - You would have your basic stuff here, a system for resistance boost, a system for active tanking (which would allow the respective capital rep module), a system for buffer, and like its smaller brethren a system for installing warfare link modules in the high slots. In addition I'd allow it to install two warfare links instead of just the one (without requiring the command processor module).
Electronic Subsystems - A system for improved targeting, a system for improving racial electronic warfare (e.g. energy neuts with a range of ~50km maybe?), a system for CPU boost, a system for allowing fighters to be deployed that also added 25,000 m3 to the drone bay and allow the assignment of drones to other pilots.
Engineering Subsystems - I'd follow the Strategic cruiser lead here and have the usual capacitor recharge, capacitor amount, power grid amount, and heat damage absorption systems. But at the same time, I'd add to one system the ability to fit a Siege module, another the ability to fit the Triage Module, and a third the ability to fit an Industrial Core. Finally the fourth would come with a hundred thousand cargo bay (maybe, not convinced on that last one).
Offensive Subsystems - Ok, now we're talking! One subsystem would allow hardpoints and fitting for capital weapons. A second subsystem would add more drone bay and drone control for fighters (i.e. extra drone controlled per level so that at level five the ship could potentially field 10 fighters like a carrier). Another would forgo offensive capabilities and add a ship maintenance array and corporate hanger as well as bonuses to remote repair modeules. A fourth one to allow covert ops cloaking, jump bridging, and covert cynos as well as a smaller corporate hanger for storing fuel and bombs for deep strike missions.
Propulsion Subsystems - First off, there would be a subsystem that would allow the strategic capital to have a jump drive (and attendant Fuel Bay) and make jumps while at the same time restricting its ability to use stargates. That means by default these ships could go into high sec via stargates and travel around like freighters and jump frieghters can; put on the jump drive and the stargates can't help you anymore. Another subsystem would increase agility while yet another would allow the ship to avoid non targeted interdiction bubbles.
I'm sure astute readers can start to see opportunities for fun. High sec pocket dreads and carriers, EWAR capitals, command ship capitals, covert ops strike team capitals, the mind boggles at the options and combinations. You could go for a straight up carrier or dreadnought facsimile, but the off the wall options are so very cool and full of possibility. And the best part? The ship can change with the swapping out of modules: dreadnought one minute, high sec ship-ferry the next.
Of course, this flexibility must come at a cost, and it must be high. I'm thinking the 2-3 billion ISK range, probably closer to 2 billion to be precise. That would be for the hull and one of each subsystem. Expensive I know, but so worth it.
Now, naming of the beasts.
Amarr Phalanx - "And lo, did they stand 'fore the beast, shoulder to shoulder, a phalanx of faith."
Caldari Naga - "From there the great god Naga did strike them down."
Gallente Abyss - "If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you."
Minmatar Jormungand - "Its body did twist and the mountains did tremble."
Links:
To Be Determined...
This month's banter comes to us from Joe Brusati a long time reader of CrazyKinux's Musing, who asks the following: CCP states that T3 Strategic Cruisers are just the start for the T3 line-up. In future Eve expansions what would you like to see as the next T3 ship type. Please be specific on details about what role this ship would play, cost of manufacturing, and the different modules that would be available for it, and of course you must give your T3 ship a name!
*******
BRAIN 'SPLOSION!
Man, a little bit of game design time again, eh? This time on my favourite of subjects, Ships. So let's get cracking.
First off, let's look at the tech levels.
Tech I - These ships are your basic starter vessels for all pilots but are still useful for veterans because of their cheap replacement cost and the fact that their performance improves with better skills and better equipment. A Thorax for example is a perfectly good hard hitting ship in the hands of a 3 year veteran, while a Rifter remains the most popular of frigates. Similarly on the upper scale, the Raven is a very popular and capable PvE ship and long range fleet battles are dominated by Apocalypses at the moment.
Tech II - If you've got the money, T2 ships give better defenses and available slots combined with numerous specialized bonuses. And that last part is the important part: specialized. These ships are typically designed for one role and are maybe capable at doing two in a pinch. Covert Ops are sneaky probing scouts with no DPS, HACs can do awsomse damage and take some abuse for a cruiser, Interceptors are the last word in tackling, Marauders are the ultimate PvE ships, etc. The specialization is a strength but also a weakness, one that most people don't realize even if they exploit it. If you see a Manticore you know its using Torpedoes and bombs with covert ops cloak and no tank. Conversely you see and Ishtar on scan you know you are facing a tough platform with elite drones. Its hard to be surprised by a Tech II ship because there is only so many optimal and effective ways to take advantage of the platform and its bonuses.
Tech III - These ships were designed to not only match or be superior to Tech II cruisers, but to be flexible. Its easy to forget when critiquing Tengu setups on battleclinic that the entire role of the ship could change with the swapping out of one or two sub systems. In essence, if you see a Strategic Cruiser on scan you don't know what it can do until you engage it.
So, with that as a basis, what do I want to see for the next T3 ship type? Strategic Frigates? Well, that might be cool. Strategic Battleships? Oh, now we're talking. But let's go outside the box. Let's think big. Real big. No, BIGGER.
Strategic Capitals.
That's right, I went there. Why? Because right now Capitals are boring because there is only a handful of types: the defenseless mover (freighter), the logisitics (carrier), the shooter (Dreadnought), the bigger logistics (mothership), and the DOOMSDAY DEVICE (Titans). They all operate pretty much same across the factions, they are predictable and getting to be very unexciting in terms of gameplay options. Its time to spice things up.
The Design
The Strategic Capital ships would have 5 subsystem slots just like the Strategic Cruisers. Each slot would have 3 or more subsystems available to it just like the Strategic cruisers. Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Defensive Subsystems - You would have your basic stuff here, a system for resistance boost, a system for active tanking (which would allow the respective capital rep module), a system for buffer, and like its smaller brethren a system for installing warfare link modules in the high slots. In addition I'd allow it to install two warfare links instead of just the one (without requiring the command processor module).
Electronic Subsystems - A system for improved targeting, a system for improving racial electronic warfare (e.g. energy neuts with a range of ~50km maybe?), a system for CPU boost, a system for allowing fighters to be deployed that also added 25,000 m3 to the drone bay and allow the assignment of drones to other pilots.
Engineering Subsystems - I'd follow the Strategic cruiser lead here and have the usual capacitor recharge, capacitor amount, power grid amount, and heat damage absorption systems. But at the same time, I'd add to one system the ability to fit a Siege module, another the ability to fit the Triage Module, and a third the ability to fit an Industrial Core. Finally the fourth would come with a hundred thousand cargo bay (maybe, not convinced on that last one).
Offensive Subsystems - Ok, now we're talking! One subsystem would allow hardpoints and fitting for capital weapons. A second subsystem would add more drone bay and drone control for fighters (i.e. extra drone controlled per level so that at level five the ship could potentially field 10 fighters like a carrier). Another would forgo offensive capabilities and add a ship maintenance array and corporate hanger as well as bonuses to remote repair modeules. A fourth one to allow covert ops cloaking, jump bridging, and covert cynos as well as a smaller corporate hanger for storing fuel and bombs for deep strike missions.
Propulsion Subsystems - First off, there would be a subsystem that would allow the strategic capital to have a jump drive (and attendant Fuel Bay) and make jumps while at the same time restricting its ability to use stargates. That means by default these ships could go into high sec via stargates and travel around like freighters and jump frieghters can; put on the jump drive and the stargates can't help you anymore. Another subsystem would increase agility while yet another would allow the ship to avoid non targeted interdiction bubbles.
I'm sure astute readers can start to see opportunities for fun. High sec pocket dreads and carriers, EWAR capitals, command ship capitals, covert ops strike team capitals, the mind boggles at the options and combinations. You could go for a straight up carrier or dreadnought facsimile, but the off the wall options are so very cool and full of possibility. And the best part? The ship can change with the swapping out of modules: dreadnought one minute, high sec ship-ferry the next.
Of course, this flexibility must come at a cost, and it must be high. I'm thinking the 2-3 billion ISK range, probably closer to 2 billion to be precise. That would be for the hull and one of each subsystem. Expensive I know, but so worth it.
Now, naming of the beasts.
Amarr Phalanx - "And lo, did they stand 'fore the beast, shoulder to shoulder, a phalanx of faith."
Caldari Naga - "From there the great god Naga did strike them down."
Gallente Abyss - "If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you."
Minmatar Jormungand - "Its body did twist and the mountains did tremble."
Links:
To Be Determined...
Friday, August 28, 2009
Limbo
Since leaving Intrepid Crossing the corporation has been stuck in Limbo.
We want to go back to 0.0 space but our requirements are not making it easy to accomplish: we want to stay independent as a corp and not get absorbed into another entity, and the alliances we want to join are not looking for more corporations and other alliances looking to recruit us don't meet our leaderships standards.
To keep from getting rusty we've been doing the Low Sec Roaming gig but with the restriction that we must keep our security status above -2.0 which means much ratting or missioning to recover from a few kills. The end result is a bit of fracture in corp activity (and my solo wanderings in New Mexico are further evidence of that). It hasn't helped that one of the directors had a motherboard meltdown and is in the process of getting it fixed.
A project to focus 0n while the leadership looked for a new 0.0 home was needed and one of the directors proposed taking on some level 5 missions as a way to get some sec status repaired and work together. I readily agreed as I always wanted to do some group missions and I missions are one thing I'm willing to try without voice comms (as long as the FC agrees of course).
I'm preparing equipment to ferry to the operational headquarters in my Orca and settled on my Nighthawk for Kirith, and Derranna's Scythe as logistics support. I might see if a Salvager can fit in the Orca along with those two ships as well.
If coordination of the level 5 missions fails, I might try out the new Epic level 4 mission as I'm curious how it looks and feels and it is something I can do in my spare time here and there.
We want to go back to 0.0 space but our requirements are not making it easy to accomplish: we want to stay independent as a corp and not get absorbed into another entity, and the alliances we want to join are not looking for more corporations and other alliances looking to recruit us don't meet our leaderships standards.
To keep from getting rusty we've been doing the Low Sec Roaming gig but with the restriction that we must keep our security status above -2.0 which means much ratting or missioning to recover from a few kills. The end result is a bit of fracture in corp activity (and my solo wanderings in New Mexico are further evidence of that). It hasn't helped that one of the directors had a motherboard meltdown and is in the process of getting it fixed.
A project to focus 0n while the leadership looked for a new 0.0 home was needed and one of the directors proposed taking on some level 5 missions as a way to get some sec status repaired and work together. I readily agreed as I always wanted to do some group missions and I missions are one thing I'm willing to try without voice comms (as long as the FC agrees of course).
I'm preparing equipment to ferry to the operational headquarters in my Orca and settled on my Nighthawk for Kirith, and Derranna's Scythe as logistics support. I might see if a Salvager can fit in the Orca along with those two ships as well.
If coordination of the level 5 missions fails, I might try out the new Epic level 4 mission as I'm curious how it looks and feels and it is something I can do in my spare time here and there.
The Big Five Oh
Last night my main character Kirith Kodachi surpassed 50,000,000 skill points. You can see the details here at the In Eve site, but here are some highlights.
211 known skills
53 skills at level V
11.58 million in Spaceship Command
7.69 million in Gunnery
6.89 million in Engineering
Skills cost = 1,643,308,154 ISK
And I can pilot 112 (48.48%) of a total 231 available ships.
211 known skills
53 skills at level V
11.58 million in Spaceship Command
7.69 million in Gunnery
6.89 million in Engineering
Skills cost = 1,643,308,154 ISK
And I can pilot 112 (48.48%) of a total 231 available ships.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
SUPPORT THE ROKH!
Welcome to the +25 Campaign headquarters. Here you can see what we are all about and why we want to change the Caldari Tier 3 battleship.
Take a look at this table of Battleship drone bay sizes:
This is not a bell curve with some having lots of drone space and some having a little with most in the middle. This is an exponential progression that looks like this:
While the lack of battleships with 100 m3 drone bay is an outlier, the biggest outlying point is the very first one: the poor Rokh suffering with 50m3 all by itself.
When the Tier three battleships were introduced back in late 2006, well trained pilots with medium drones could be fairly confident that their mechanical assistants could handle anything that got in close under the tracking of their guns. A 50 m3 drone bay on the Rokh was not too debilitating, merely annoying. But several patches and mechanic changes later and we have the situation where light drones are the only ones capable of catching up to and dealing damage to fast moving frigates, either other pilots or NPCs. Most battleships can carry a flight of medium drones and a flight of lights. Only the Rokh is prevented from protecting itself from both classes of smaller targets equally (i.e. frigates and cruisers).
We are not asking for more bandwidth. The current 50 Mb bandwidth is adequate and we do not want to field 2 heavy, 2 medium, and a light drone in a flight for maximum DPS. This is not about DPS, its about flexibility.
There are some arguements against boosting the Rokh, let me address the most common ones.
The Rokh is a sniper thus doesn't require light drones. Every faction has a battleship that is considered a sniper for them: Apocalypse for Amarr, Tempest for Minmatar, Megathron for Gallente. They all have larger drone bays. Plus all battleships have options for using long range or short range weaponry and the Rokh is acknowledged as a compentent blaster boat, definitely short ranged.
Yeah, but Caldari are not big drone users. Well, they are enough of drone users to give the Raven and Scorpion larger drone bays. Also, the Minmatar are not big drone users compared to Amarr and Gallente yet their battleships manage to have decent drone bays.
Ships with 125 m3 drone bay and 125 Mb bandwidth have to make the same sacrifice as the Rokh in terms of taking heavy drones or taking two flights of smaller drones. Well, not quite. From my perspective, Heavy Drones are battleship classed weapons to complement the battleship weapons on the ship itself. If such a ship like a Megathron chooses to take multiple flights of light and medium drones, he is sacrificing some DPS against large targets for protection from both kinds of smaller ships. The Rokh on the other hand has to make a choice: mediums to defend against cruisers? Or lights to defend against frigates?
The Rokh is balanced for a drone bay with 50 m3. First off, as I pointed out above the game has changed since the Rokh was first designed; medium drones can protect against frigates as well anymore. Secondly, what quality does a Rokh have that makes it superior to another ship, say an Abaddon, that requires it to have a smaller drone bay? or an Hyperion? Maelstrom? Face it, the 50m3 was an arbitrary decision based on the fact that it was good enough at that time.
Take a look at this table of Battleship drone bay sizes:
| Drone Bay Size | Ships |
| 400 | Sin |
| 375 | Dominix |
| 175 | Typhoon, Panther |
| 125 | Armageddon, Megathron, Vindicator, Redeemer, Kronos |
| 100 | Hyperion, Maelstrom |
| 75 | Abaddon, Apocalpyse, Raven, Scorpion, Bhaalgorn, Machariel, Nightmare, Rattlesnake, Tempest, Widow, Paladin, Golem, Vargur |
| 50 | Rokh |
This is not a bell curve with some having lots of drone space and some having a little with most in the middle. This is an exponential progression that looks like this:
While the lack of battleships with 100 m3 drone bay is an outlier, the biggest outlying point is the very first one: the poor Rokh suffering with 50m3 all by itself.
When the Tier three battleships were introduced back in late 2006, well trained pilots with medium drones could be fairly confident that their mechanical assistants could handle anything that got in close under the tracking of their guns. A 50 m3 drone bay on the Rokh was not too debilitating, merely annoying. But several patches and mechanic changes later and we have the situation where light drones are the only ones capable of catching up to and dealing damage to fast moving frigates, either other pilots or NPCs. Most battleships can carry a flight of medium drones and a flight of lights. Only the Rokh is prevented from protecting itself from both classes of smaller targets equally (i.e. frigates and cruisers).
We are not asking for more bandwidth. The current 50 Mb bandwidth is adequate and we do not want to field 2 heavy, 2 medium, and a light drone in a flight for maximum DPS. This is not about DPS, its about flexibility.
There are some arguements against boosting the Rokh, let me address the most common ones.
The Rokh is a sniper thus doesn't require light drones. Every faction has a battleship that is considered a sniper for them: Apocalypse for Amarr, Tempest for Minmatar, Megathron for Gallente. They all have larger drone bays. Plus all battleships have options for using long range or short range weaponry and the Rokh is acknowledged as a compentent blaster boat, definitely short ranged.
Yeah, but Caldari are not big drone users. Well, they are enough of drone users to give the Raven and Scorpion larger drone bays. Also, the Minmatar are not big drone users compared to Amarr and Gallente yet their battleships manage to have decent drone bays.
Ships with 125 m3 drone bay and 125 Mb bandwidth have to make the same sacrifice as the Rokh in terms of taking heavy drones or taking two flights of smaller drones. Well, not quite. From my perspective, Heavy Drones are battleship classed weapons to complement the battleship weapons on the ship itself. If such a ship like a Megathron chooses to take multiple flights of light and medium drones, he is sacrificing some DPS against large targets for protection from both kinds of smaller ships. The Rokh on the other hand has to make a choice: mediums to defend against cruisers? Or lights to defend against frigates?
The Rokh is balanced for a drone bay with 50 m3. First off, as I pointed out above the game has changed since the Rokh was first designed; medium drones can protect against frigates as well anymore. Secondly, what quality does a Rokh have that makes it superior to another ship, say an Abaddon, that requires it to have a smaller drone bay? or an Hyperion? Maelstrom? Face it, the 50m3 was an arbitrary decision based on the fact that it was good enough at that time.
What about the
Ok, you convinced me. What can I do to help the campaign? There are several things you can do.
1) Promote the campaign. I commissioned Godlesswanderer to do up a campaign poster for me as sign at the top of this page. There are four sizes, the large above, and the medium, small, and tiny below:
Here are the URLs to them:
http://www.ninveah-enterprises.com/images/rokhcampaign/rokh25l.jpg
http://www.ninveah-enterprises.com/images/rokhcampaign/rokh25m.jpg
http://www.ninveah-enterprises.com/images/rokhcampaign/rokh25s.jpg
http://www.ninveah-enterprises.com/images/rokhcampaign/rokh25t.png
If you want you can display them on your website, forums, blogs, etc to get the word out.
2) Sign the petition if you haven't already. Show CCP we are serious and ready for change!
3) Donate to the campaign fund. Send ISK to Korannon, CEO of Ninveah Enterprises corporation, with a note in the description that it is for the +25 Campaign. The funds will be used for advertising (like the images above) and other forms of promotion.
SUPPORT THE ROKH! BECAUSE YOUR DRONE BAY MIGHT BE NEXT!
Eve Has Sound?!
When I first started playing Eve I loved having the audio enabled to hear the (impossible in reality) sounds of weapons, explosions, and ambient noises. Not to mention the sci fi music. But I could not play with audio enabled and voice comms at the same time because too many of Eve sounds were too loud and could not be turned down enough to hear commands on Vent or Teamspeak. So for the past two years audio has been disabled.
Recently the developers have addressed some issues in audio volumes and quality and I decided last night to give it a try again. Man, it makes the game feel new again.
I wasn't doing much last night; the corp was quiet so I jumped to Orvolle and took my Stealth Bomber Reloading into New Mexico for a scout around. The audio made it a relaxing journey and I scouted out the two gates looking for opportunities to drop a bomb or two on people's heads.
At one point I considered making a run at an Ishkur assault frigate sitting still at a gate but a check of its resistances suggested that my bomb would not take it out but rather only annoy it. I didn't bother but instead refined my bookmarks and added a couple to the list while chatting in various channels.
Perhaps I'll have more luck when activity picks up on the weekend.
Recently the developers have addressed some issues in audio volumes and quality and I decided last night to give it a try again. Man, it makes the game feel new again.
I wasn't doing much last night; the corp was quiet so I jumped to Orvolle and took my Stealth Bomber Reloading into New Mexico for a scout around. The audio made it a relaxing journey and I scouted out the two gates looking for opportunities to drop a bomb or two on people's heads.
At one point I considered making a run at an Ishkur assault frigate sitting still at a gate but a check of its resistances suggested that my bomb would not take it out but rather only annoy it. I didn't bother but instead refined my bookmarks and added a couple to the list while chatting in various channels.
Perhaps I'll have more luck when activity picks up on the weekend.
Eve Tribune Apocrypha 1.5
My latest article at the Eve Tribune is a short one about the mini-expansion last week. Next week should see my latest fighting spacecraft article which I wrote two weeks ago but got bumped.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Dear Hexx
I gave you equal time for your views when the Ricdic affair blew up, so this report definitely gets posted:
EVE Online player run bank 1.2 trillion ISK in the red, freezes all accounts
Ok, I'm coming to conclusions again. They are somewhat along the lines of:
Now, I have no way of verifying any claims of a ex-Eve Bank CEO and ex-Eve player but accusations like this confirm my bias against large in-game financial organizations / schemes. As long as they are run by volunteers with no threat of real retribution for wrong-doing, they are shakier than a house of cards in my opinion.I hope people with money invested in Eve Bank recover some of their funds.
Black Ops Covert Ops Cloak : The Case For And Against
Case: The Black Ops battleships should be allowed to fit and use Covert Ops cloaks.
For:
Its hard to be sneaky when they see you coming.
Black Ops ships are built not for front line combat but for asymmetric guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, using covert ops ships to set up covert cynos to bypass major enemy encampments and strike at miners, ratters, supply lines, cyno jammers, etc that are not easy reached by conventional forces due to the nature of immediate local.
All of the ships that the Black Ops jump bridge can move use Covert Ops cloaks: Covert Ops frigs, Stealth Bombers, Force Recons, and Blockade Runners. Each one brings a specialized role to the force that can arrive secretly and suddenly and approach unseen. The centre of the fleet, the lynchpin of the operation, cannot warp hidden and instead must annouce its presence to anyone with a Directional Scanner or anyone on the grid. Its like having a guy with a flashlight and clanking metal armour leading a team of Navy SEALs.
Being able to use a covert ops cloak would not unbalance this class if it retained a decent recalibration period to prevent it from being used as a sneak attack ship like a stealth bomber. It would simply allow Black Ops pilots the ability to muster the forces into enemy systems and navigate with them without giving the game up to the enemy.
Improved cloaks are good for ships that want to sit still and hide. The Black Ops ships need to be able to move, much like Stealth Bombers needed to be able to navigate in order to become a real threat. Give them covert ops cloaks.
Against:
Covert Ops cloaks are already overused in the game.
Using these powerful modules on ships with extremely specific roles is one thing; like Blockade Runner slipping past gate camps, Covert Ops frigs scouting out systems, and Stealth Bombers moving in for sudden sneak attacks. But Covert Ops cloaks on Force Recons is too much: the combat power of a tech II cruiser with the maneuvurability of a ship that can warp cloaked should be removed. Bonuses to Improved Cloak sure, but force those ships to plan ahead and get in position like the rest of them.
For the same reason, the bigger and nastier Black Ops Battleships should not be given free reign to terrorize systems with almost no risk of capture itself. They are indeed not front line ships, but utility ships directing and sending the troops into battle, providing backup if needed but otherwise staying in the shadows and moving only when its safe.
If Covert Ops cloaks are given to Black Ops Battleships, we will start to see proliferation of these ships into purposes they were never meant for. For example they will become the "third man in" in fights where one side is fooled into thinking they have a fair fight then suddenly another pilot or two uncloaks not in Force Recons, but big, nasty, tanking, damage dealing battleships.
Keep Black Ops battleships in their place. Deny them access to the covert ops cloak.
For Rebuttal:
No one is going to use massively expensive covert ops battleships when much more affordable and still very powerful Force Recons are available. The cloak would merely give the ship class the ability to function in behind enemy lines as well as the fleet it accompanies.
Against Rebuttal:
The playbase is very clever and much of the experienced players are very rich. Give them a hook, line, and pole for fishing, and they will find a way to use it to bash their neighbour over the head, gouge his eyes out, and strangle him to steal his wife. Black Ops are fine.
Jury, what say you?
For:
Its hard to be sneaky when they see you coming.
Black Ops ships are built not for front line combat but for asymmetric guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, using covert ops ships to set up covert cynos to bypass major enemy encampments and strike at miners, ratters, supply lines, cyno jammers, etc that are not easy reached by conventional forces due to the nature of immediate local.
All of the ships that the Black Ops jump bridge can move use Covert Ops cloaks: Covert Ops frigs, Stealth Bombers, Force Recons, and Blockade Runners. Each one brings a specialized role to the force that can arrive secretly and suddenly and approach unseen. The centre of the fleet, the lynchpin of the operation, cannot warp hidden and instead must annouce its presence to anyone with a Directional Scanner or anyone on the grid. Its like having a guy with a flashlight and clanking metal armour leading a team of Navy SEALs.
Being able to use a covert ops cloak would not unbalance this class if it retained a decent recalibration period to prevent it from being used as a sneak attack ship like a stealth bomber. It would simply allow Black Ops pilots the ability to muster the forces into enemy systems and navigate with them without giving the game up to the enemy.
Improved cloaks are good for ships that want to sit still and hide. The Black Ops ships need to be able to move, much like Stealth Bombers needed to be able to navigate in order to become a real threat. Give them covert ops cloaks.
Against:
Covert Ops cloaks are already overused in the game.
Using these powerful modules on ships with extremely specific roles is one thing; like Blockade Runner slipping past gate camps, Covert Ops frigs scouting out systems, and Stealth Bombers moving in for sudden sneak attacks. But Covert Ops cloaks on Force Recons is too much: the combat power of a tech II cruiser with the maneuvurability of a ship that can warp cloaked should be removed. Bonuses to Improved Cloak sure, but force those ships to plan ahead and get in position like the rest of them.
For the same reason, the bigger and nastier Black Ops Battleships should not be given free reign to terrorize systems with almost no risk of capture itself. They are indeed not front line ships, but utility ships directing and sending the troops into battle, providing backup if needed but otherwise staying in the shadows and moving only when its safe.
If Covert Ops cloaks are given to Black Ops Battleships, we will start to see proliferation of these ships into purposes they were never meant for. For example they will become the "third man in" in fights where one side is fooled into thinking they have a fair fight then suddenly another pilot or two uncloaks not in Force Recons, but big, nasty, tanking, damage dealing battleships.
Keep Black Ops battleships in their place. Deny them access to the covert ops cloak.
For Rebuttal:
No one is going to use massively expensive covert ops battleships when much more affordable and still very powerful Force Recons are available. The cloak would merely give the ship class the ability to function in behind enemy lines as well as the fleet it accompanies.
Against Rebuttal:
The playbase is very clever and much of the experienced players are very rich. Give them a hook, line, and pole for fishing, and they will find a way to use it to bash their neighbour over the head, gouge his eyes out, and strangle him to steal his wife. Black Ops are fine.
Jury, what say you?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Carebear Brigade Check In
Haven't heard from the Carebear Brigade in a while, let's see how my little miners are doing.
Oh great, he hasn't been can flipped in a while and now he thinks he hot stuff. Even Leet Speak for crying out loud. Time to take him down a notch.
Let's check on his brother.
OH NO! HE'S GONE ROGUE!
I blame Shae and Mynxee.
Oh great, he hasn't been can flipped in a while and now he thinks he hot stuff. Even Leet Speak for crying out loud. Time to take him down a notch.
Let's check on his brother.
OH NO! HE'S GONE ROGUE!
I blame Shae and Mynxee.
Fulfilling A Promise
When Andrew and I were on Shut Up We're Talking we promised we would link to Karen's blog if she ever posted. Well, she finally did:
Go there, read, and see if you can help out.
I’m (hopefully) back to blogging. It’s been really hard to write about the last 9 months, but I plan on playing catch up. There have been many big moments in the guild, in the game, and in MMOs in general. I’m still trying to untangle that.
This entry is far more important for a different reason. Those who might have followed my blog in the past know that I’ve helped participate in the 2,996 project, which is a blogger tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each year, bloggers sign up and are assigned the name of one of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93. The first year of the project, in 1996, there were over 3,000 bloggers that participated. It struck me this year, when I signed up, how few bloggers were participating - only 687 so far with a couple of weeks left.
Go there, read, and see if you can help out.
Dear Jumpgate Evolution: Frack Off
I hold nothing against the concept of other sci-fi space mmo games like Jumpgate Evolution, Star Trek Online, or Black Prophecy. I welcome to see what they can bring to the genre and how the pressures of competition improve my game of choice. Who knows, I might even be swayed away from Eve by the right feature set and execution.
Jumpgate Evolution is not one I am interested in at all. It seems very shallow and following too many MMO standards that I find boring and past their prime, such as multiple servers, seperated PvE and PvP, possible instancing, meaningless combat penalties, etc. But when Andrew strolled in and pointed me to this Q&A article, specifically the second to last question, I had to respond. (Empahsis added)
Now, I'll allow the possibility that your response was poorly worded and you misunderstood the question and you think that your game brings these three qualities together combined that no other game has, but I still call bullshit. Eve's missions may not be the most exciting part of the game but they do have parameters that change mid-mission and active updates. And this "action space combat" shit probably refers to joystick twitch fighter piloting, but I assure you from my perspective that Eve has ship classes that require on good piloting and battles with fast reaction speeds that match combat from the X-Wing/TIE Fighter days.
But ultimately, I think you're just full of shit and lying through your teeth. You've officially moved JGE from my "ignore" list to my "disparage" list.
Jumpgate Evolution is not one I am interested in at all. It seems very shallow and following too many MMO standards that I find boring and past their prime, such as multiple servers, seperated PvE and PvP, possible instancing, meaningless combat penalties, etc. But when Andrew strolled in and pointed me to this Q&A article, specifically the second to last question, I had to respond. (Empahsis added)
OP by SpeechMan:Dear Mr Peterscheck: Frack Off. To say that you either have to a) not know that Eve routinely handles space battles of multiple hundreds of ships which means you haven't done your homework, or b) know that and lie through your teeth to attract the ignorant masses as much as possible to your already floundering-in-development game (push back release dates much?). Either way it makes you an ass.
So far what we've seen, JGE will have PvP system which is mix between JGC and WAR (including renown points) , control system that's mix between JGC and freelancer, etc.
I'd ike to hear about things that haven't been seen in MMOs before, could you name 3 such things in JGE?
Hermann Peterscheck:
1. Active mission updates on the fly - i.e. more like space games instead of MMOs.
2. Really large battles (100+ ships).
3. Action space combat instead of a dice roll or RPG style system (I know other MMOs have done this, but I think we're doing it better).
Now, I'll allow the possibility that your response was poorly worded and you misunderstood the question and you think that your game brings these three qualities together combined that no other game has, but I still call bullshit. Eve's missions may not be the most exciting part of the game but they do have parameters that change mid-mission and active updates. And this "action space combat" shit probably refers to joystick twitch fighter piloting, but I assure you from my perspective that Eve has ship classes that require on good piloting and battles with fast reaction speeds that match combat from the X-Wing/TIE Fighter days.
But ultimately, I think you're just full of shit and lying through your teeth. You've officially moved JGE from my "ignore" list to my "disparage" list.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Twilight Imperium Battle Report - LONG EDITION
About eleven hours.
That's how long the game took. Marathon does not cover it. One guy went home and was ill the next day while I myself hit a wall and crashed around 6:30 PM the day after.
Anyways, there was six of us, going around the table clockwise Me, Metin, Brian, Pete, Andrew M, and Andrew A. The game started much like it always did with some exploration, staking claims, and building of star spanning fleets.
The game early on, back when we had light. I'm yellow.
Then around round 3 all hell broke loose, with attacks all over the place. It broke into three major wars during the middle of the game, Andrew versus Andrew, me versus Metin, and Pete versus Brian.
Andrew A couldn't overcome the superior production of Andrew M in the fight and was forced to turtle while rebuilding but could never mount a good comeback. Metin had me dead to rights but opted to come to a cease fire which allowed me to rebuild and later make a play for victory. Brian and Pete fought a long war, but eventually Brian's extra unprotected systems next to Metin that the latter refused to attack gave former enough resources to grind pete's Warsun based fleets down.
The end game saw me make a run for victory by taking Beauracy twice in a row and claiming three out of four objectives, but Brian's head start in objectives from the mid-game powered him to victory despite my deep assault into his territory to take his Laxas survivors for a two point swing.
Well into night, some overhead lights were off to cut down on the heat. The yellow fleet in the middle-left was my last ditch attempt to eke out a victory.
Brian claimed victory with a couple of us on his tail.
Analysis:
The game was far far too slow. Some of it can be blamed on inexperience but a lot of it was just guys playing so cautiously and not wanting to make an error. Next time we're instituting a hard time limit on turns because its so unfair for people to have to sit there and be bored while someone else takes a long time.
Another factor in the slow game was the sheer amount of resources on the board available to empires. This led to massive fleet build ups faster than people could expend them. Perhaps the extra fourth ring of systems is ill advised.
Finally, I think Brian won because Metin was far too nice to him. For several round Brian had 4-5 systems next to him completely undefended. Had it been me or Andrew A in that position small raiding fleets would have attacked him and thus releived some pressure on Pete who was caught in his expansion between dead tiles and green and blue fleets. Ultimately for Metin it was an experience thing: anyone who knows how clever Brian can be in these games would not have let him have an easy go of it.
Overall it was fun if too long by 4 hours. Next time it will be faster and better.
That's how long the game took. Marathon does not cover it. One guy went home and was ill the next day while I myself hit a wall and crashed around 6:30 PM the day after.
Anyways, there was six of us, going around the table clockwise Me, Metin, Brian, Pete, Andrew M, and Andrew A. The game started much like it always did with some exploration, staking claims, and building of star spanning fleets.
The game early on, back when we had light. I'm yellow.
Then around round 3 all hell broke loose, with attacks all over the place. It broke into three major wars during the middle of the game, Andrew versus Andrew, me versus Metin, and Pete versus Brian.
Andrew A couldn't overcome the superior production of Andrew M in the fight and was forced to turtle while rebuilding but could never mount a good comeback. Metin had me dead to rights but opted to come to a cease fire which allowed me to rebuild and later make a play for victory. Brian and Pete fought a long war, but eventually Brian's extra unprotected systems next to Metin that the latter refused to attack gave former enough resources to grind pete's Warsun based fleets down.
The end game saw me make a run for victory by taking Beauracy twice in a row and claiming three out of four objectives, but Brian's head start in objectives from the mid-game powered him to victory despite my deep assault into his territory to take his Laxas survivors for a two point swing.
Well into night, some overhead lights were off to cut down on the heat. The yellow fleet in the middle-left was my last ditch attempt to eke out a victory.
Brian claimed victory with a couple of us on his tail.
Analysis:
The game was far far too slow. Some of it can be blamed on inexperience but a lot of it was just guys playing so cautiously and not wanting to make an error. Next time we're instituting a hard time limit on turns because its so unfair for people to have to sit there and be bored while someone else takes a long time.
Another factor in the slow game was the sheer amount of resources on the board available to empires. This led to massive fleet build ups faster than people could expend them. Perhaps the extra fourth ring of systems is ill advised.
Finally, I think Brian won because Metin was far too nice to him. For several round Brian had 4-5 systems next to him completely undefended. Had it been me or Andrew A in that position small raiding fleets would have attacked him and thus releived some pressure on Pete who was caught in his expansion between dead tiles and green and blue fleets. Ultimately for Metin it was an experience thing: anyone who knows how clever Brian can be in these games would not have let him have an easy go of it.
Overall it was fun if too long by 4 hours. Next time it will be faster and better.
Friday, August 21, 2009
What's Wrong With This Setup?
Take a look at this Hyperion battleship that my corp mates took down last night. What's wrong with it? Anyone?
It looked good at first glance to me. Best named blasters, tech II buffer tank is a little light for me but I understand not everyone wanting trimarks instead of CCC rigs. Then I did a double-take at the warp disruptor AND warp scrambler. And no web. None.
Now, I am a firm believer that if you setup a ship intended for gangs that you don't necessarily need to cover the dps/tank/tackle trinity on every ship. But I'm also very aware of the limitations of my weaponry and I try to compensate for that as much as possible.
From Eve Fitting Tool, a Hyperion with that blaster cannon and a tech II tracking computer with tracking script and perfect skills has a tracking of 0.07475 radians per second. From my Masterclass article on Tracking you know that when you multiply that number by a range and you can see the maximum speed of a target orbiting that range that you can follow fast enough to hit. For 0.07475 that means about 150 m/s at 2000 meters and 225 m/s at 3000 meters.
I can fly a Myrmidon without an afterburner or MWD at 158 m/s and that is with rigs and armour slowing me down. So essentially I pull into a 1500 meter orbit and the Hyperion is helpless. Warp Scrambler won't help you... you are dead.
That Hyperion screams for a webber. One web and he's pounding those battlecruisers and at least has a chance at surivival or taking one down. In a gang situation I'd had a web even if I was flying with two Rapier pilots. Its simply a matter of making sure your shit can hit.
It looked good at first glance to me. Best named blasters, tech II buffer tank is a little light for me but I understand not everyone wanting trimarks instead of CCC rigs. Then I did a double-take at the warp disruptor AND warp scrambler. And no web. None.
Now, I am a firm believer that if you setup a ship intended for gangs that you don't necessarily need to cover the dps/tank/tackle trinity on every ship. But I'm also very aware of the limitations of my weaponry and I try to compensate for that as much as possible.
From Eve Fitting Tool, a Hyperion with that blaster cannon and a tech II tracking computer with tracking script and perfect skills has a tracking of 0.07475 radians per second. From my Masterclass article on Tracking you know that when you multiply that number by a range and you can see the maximum speed of a target orbiting that range that you can follow fast enough to hit. For 0.07475 that means about 150 m/s at 2000 meters and 225 m/s at 3000 meters.
I can fly a Myrmidon without an afterburner or MWD at 158 m/s and that is with rigs and armour slowing me down. So essentially I pull into a 1500 meter orbit and the Hyperion is helpless. Warp Scrambler won't help you... you are dead.
That Hyperion screams for a webber. One web and he's pounding those battlecruisers and at least has a chance at surivival or taking one down. In a gang situation I'd had a web even if I was flying with two Rapier pilots. Its simply a matter of making sure your shit can hit.
Blog Pack Open For Submissions
CrazyKinux is overhauling the Blog Pack list and you fresh young eve bloggers have a chance to get on it. You don't have to be a member of the Blog Pack to be an awesome eve blogger, but it helps for driving traffic and giving people new to the eve blogosphere somewhere to start.
In xiphos83 has some good advice for people looking to get on the blog pack. Go read.
In xiphos83 has some good advice for people looking to get on the blog pack. Go read.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Projectiles or Missiles?
I've decided that I don't want another capital ship for Derranna yet. Instead I want to continue her training into a combat pilot for various reasons. She already has a decent amount of skills in navigation, shield tanking, and armour tanking (all tech 2) and she has good core competency skills for power grid and cap etc, but she has the firepower of a 2 month old newb (and that's being generous). So really I'm at a clean slate for her.
Now, the first impulse is that since she is Minmatar and flies those ships that projectiles would be the starting point. But I'm strongly considering getting her up for a Stealth Bomber pilot training first which implies missile training. Both complete skill plans are about 100+ days long with the missile one a bit shorter due to being able to avoid rockets, light missiles, and cruise missiles (I added heavy and heavy assaults to the plan FYI) while the Large tech II projectiles would require all the smaller weapons to be well trained as well.
If I go for missiles, then my recon and possible HACs will not benefit much. If I got for projectiles, my dream of dual stealth bombers has to be put on hold. Gah.
So before I make a decision and buy a whack of skillbooks, I want the peanut gallery to chip in their opinions.
Projectiles or Missiles? Or both concurrently?
Now, the first impulse is that since she is Minmatar and flies those ships that projectiles would be the starting point. But I'm strongly considering getting her up for a Stealth Bomber pilot training first which implies missile training. Both complete skill plans are about 100+ days long with the missile one a bit shorter due to being able to avoid rockets, light missiles, and cruise missiles (I added heavy and heavy assaults to the plan FYI) while the Large tech II projectiles would require all the smaller weapons to be well trained as well.
If I go for missiles, then my recon and possible HACs will not benefit much. If I got for projectiles, my dream of dual stealth bombers has to be put on hold. Gah.
So before I make a decision and buy a whack of skillbooks, I want the peanut gallery to chip in their opinions.
Projectiles or Missiles? Or both concurrently?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Rig-pocalypse
Tomorrow small and medium rigs are coming to eve, the former for Frigate and Destroyer sized hulls and the later for cruiser and battlecruiser hulls. The mediums will be 1/5 the cost of a current rig and the smalls 1/5 the cost of the medium version (at least, that is what the devs are aiming for).
So, who's the big winner here in terms of ships?
Think about it for a second, I'll wait.
Ok?
If you said Tech 1 frigates you're wrong. Rigs might make a couple of them tougher (punisher) but they are still relatively small and fragile. Its just that 30% more armour is not much when you only have 1000 points to begin with. Tech 2 frigates will benefit more but since they only have two rig slots it won't be earth-shattering.
Destroyers will get more benefit than frigates but still suffer from the fact that they are fragile and the rigs won't improve them dramatically. T2 destroyers again get more bang for buck but are still relatively fragile and again, only two slots.
With cruisers we are seeing more benefit as they have more hitpoints, weapons, and rig slots to take advantage of. A rig worth 2-3 million might not be a bad idea on a tech II outfitted cruiser. Most Tech II cruisers are rigged already by default so they will simply see it as a cheaper activity instead of a big boost.
No, while all those ships will see more rig usage they are not the big winners here. Battlecruisers are.
Think about it: many people rigged battlecruisers already but it was often a choice that cost more than the ship and fittings combined. Now it will be a small fraction of the overall cost. Plus, since most (all?) rigs are percentage bonus based and battlecruisers have the largest starting hitpoints, number of weapons, power grid they will get a larger bonus from the rigs. Command Ships, like Tech II cruisers, are probably already rigged by default now so again it will just be a price reduction for those pilots.
Yes, Battlcruisers are the big winners of this change.
As a collary to this post, I expect demand for the small and medium rigs to be very high, salvage will be drained from normal large salvage production to make smaller rigs, and as a result all rig prices will be starting high or going up until production can match demand.
So, who's the big winner here in terms of ships?
Think about it for a second, I'll wait.
Ok?
If you said Tech 1 frigates you're wrong. Rigs might make a couple of them tougher (punisher) but they are still relatively small and fragile. Its just that 30% more armour is not much when you only have 1000 points to begin with. Tech 2 frigates will benefit more but since they only have two rig slots it won't be earth-shattering.
Destroyers will get more benefit than frigates but still suffer from the fact that they are fragile and the rigs won't improve them dramatically. T2 destroyers again get more bang for buck but are still relatively fragile and again, only two slots.
With cruisers we are seeing more benefit as they have more hitpoints, weapons, and rig slots to take advantage of. A rig worth 2-3 million might not be a bad idea on a tech II outfitted cruiser. Most Tech II cruisers are rigged already by default so they will simply see it as a cheaper activity instead of a big boost.
No, while all those ships will see more rig usage they are not the big winners here. Battlecruisers are.
Think about it: many people rigged battlecruisers already but it was often a choice that cost more than the ship and fittings combined. Now it will be a small fraction of the overall cost. Plus, since most (all?) rigs are percentage bonus based and battlecruisers have the largest starting hitpoints, number of weapons, power grid they will get a larger bonus from the rigs. Command Ships, like Tech II cruisers, are probably already rigged by default now so again it will just be a price reduction for those pilots.
Yes, Battlcruisers are the big winners of this change.
As a collary to this post, I expect demand for the small and medium rigs to be very high, salvage will be drained from normal large salvage production to make smaller rigs, and as a result all rig prices will be starting high or going up until production can match demand.
Practise
I was intent on going back to New Mexico with a stealth bomber and trying the bombing thing again. So last night I jumped back to my clone in the staging system, picked up and assembled a new Manticore, loaded up the ammo, and jumped back into New Mexico.
It was a week night so not too busy, but its a major thoroughfare and a constant stream of pilots could be spotted. There were two gates; I left the main one where I had put a lot of bookmarks around and checked out the second one. There I found another small drag bubble for catching the unwary and a camp on it consisting of a Cyclone battlecruiser and a Merlin frigate.
Now, I wasn't confident enough to take on the Cyclone by myself with torpedoes and normally a Merlin would not be worth the effort of bombing, especially since he was a young pilot fresh out of the academy, but I needed practice.
So I lined up my shot, moved under cloak to within 35 km.
I selected a planet to warp to.
F1 (decloak), F2 (launch bomb), WARP!
BOOOOM!
I got out successfully but so did the Merlin pilot, leaving the Cyclone to take over 2300 points of damage by himself. If I wasn't worried about the Merlin coming back I might have considered engaging the Cyclone with the dampeners and torps. As it was I flitted to my safe spots and eventually back to the gate to watch again. Once more the Cyclone and Merlin duo set up in their camp spot on the drag bubble edge.
I waited a while, lull them into a false sense of security maybe. A few other ships came and went, and I watched them destroy a frigate. I moved in close again. I waited. I lined up a shot once more.
A Rifter warped in and got sucked to the drag bubble. The Cyclone and Merlin engaged. I selected my planet...
F1! F2! WARP.
BOOOOM!
This time, caught in the heat of the hunt on the Rifter, the Merlin pilot did not get out in time. I wasn't fast enough to get the Rifter before he died, but I did snag his pod.
I admit it is not the most glorious of bombing, but like I said at the beginning I need practice to get it right and not get killed every time I move in. Eventually I'm going to be trying this on larger gate camps and there cannot be any missteps or I'll end up dead.
The Cyclone pilot asked in local why I bothered killing a Tech 1 frigate with an 8 million ISK bomb. Obviously he didn't realize that bombs now cost about a million each since the last major change to stealth bombers. I got to chatting with him, explaining how I was practising bombs for the first time, and he shared some war stories. Good guy.
There was some other action but nothing static that I felt I could bomb safely. At one point three Tech II frigs were on a gate, including a couple interceptors. As tempting as that was, it felt and looked like a trap. I safe spotted and logged with growing confidence in my bombing abilitiy.
It was a week night so not too busy, but its a major thoroughfare and a constant stream of pilots could be spotted. There were two gates; I left the main one where I had put a lot of bookmarks around and checked out the second one. There I found another small drag bubble for catching the unwary and a camp on it consisting of a Cyclone battlecruiser and a Merlin frigate.
Now, I wasn't confident enough to take on the Cyclone by myself with torpedoes and normally a Merlin would not be worth the effort of bombing, especially since he was a young pilot fresh out of the academy, but I needed practice.
So I lined up my shot, moved under cloak to within 35 km.
I selected a planet to warp to.
F1 (decloak), F2 (launch bomb), WARP!
BOOOOM!
I got out successfully but so did the Merlin pilot, leaving the Cyclone to take over 2300 points of damage by himself. If I wasn't worried about the Merlin coming back I might have considered engaging the Cyclone with the dampeners and torps. As it was I flitted to my safe spots and eventually back to the gate to watch again. Once more the Cyclone and Merlin duo set up in their camp spot on the drag bubble edge.
I waited a while, lull them into a false sense of security maybe. A few other ships came and went, and I watched them destroy a frigate. I moved in close again. I waited. I lined up a shot once more.
A Rifter warped in and got sucked to the drag bubble. The Cyclone and Merlin engaged. I selected my planet...
F1! F2! WARP.
BOOOOM!
This time, caught in the heat of the hunt on the Rifter, the Merlin pilot did not get out in time. I wasn't fast enough to get the Rifter before he died, but I did snag his pod.
I admit it is not the most glorious of bombing, but like I said at the beginning I need practice to get it right and not get killed every time I move in. Eventually I'm going to be trying this on larger gate camps and there cannot be any missteps or I'll end up dead.
The Cyclone pilot asked in local why I bothered killing a Tech 1 frigate with an 8 million ISK bomb. Obviously he didn't realize that bombs now cost about a million each since the last major change to stealth bombers. I got to chatting with him, explaining how I was practising bombs for the first time, and he shared some war stories. Good guy.
There was some other action but nothing static that I felt I could bomb safely. At one point three Tech II frigs were on a gate, including a couple interceptors. As tempting as that was, it felt and looked like a trap. I safe spotted and logged with growing confidence in my bombing abilitiy.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Bookmarks Mark II
Dear CCP,
Give Bookmarks some love.
Allow me to expand that. Right now bookmarks are pain in the ass to use. Unless I'm mistaken, you need the people and places interface up to make them, they are not made until you hit OK which is a pain when trying to make them while warping, they are hard to share with other pilots, and generally not user friendly.
So I have a list of enhancements you can make to improve bookmarks.
1. Create the ability to key-bind the "Add Bookmark" command. This would save a lot of fumbling around.
2. Allow people to create bookmarks on the solar system map without having to send your ship there. The advent of the new scanning system allows the busting of old deep safe spots, so give us the ability to pick a spot in the system and mark it. In order to prevent super-insane deep safes 1000 AU from the sun, limit the ability to something like within 100 AU of the systems sun or 5 AU of a celestial object (some sort of navigational restriction). This would give more reason to use Deep Space Probes again too.
3. CORPORATE BOOKMARKS. Allow corporations the ability to set up bookmarks that every member has access to automatically. No copying required, just see in your bookmark list (either in People or places or in right click in space context window) a folder called Corp with the corporate bookmarks there. This addresses several logistical problems (jump bridge locations, safe spots, POSes, etc) that make joining a corporation painful. Plus it would cut down on duplicate bookmarks in the database.
4. Easier to transfer bookmarks. A bookmark is a named 3-d coordinate + system name. Nothing physical, just info. Then why oh why do they have to be traded between players as physical items? That's a throwback to a different day and completely sucks donkey balls. Allow us to send bookmarks much like evemails. Or alternatively, combine with suggestion one and simply allow us to type in coordinates when creating a bookmark as well as showing us the existing coordinates in existing bookmarks.
5. Allow pilots to show bookmarks in the present grid, both in the bracket and in the overview.
6. Add 25m3 drone bay to the Rokh.
Make these changes and I'll be a happy camper.
Give Bookmarks some love.
Allow me to expand that. Right now bookmarks are pain in the ass to use. Unless I'm mistaken, you need the people and places interface up to make them, they are not made until you hit OK which is a pain when trying to make them while warping, they are hard to share with other pilots, and generally not user friendly.
So I have a list of enhancements you can make to improve bookmarks.
1. Create the ability to key-bind the "Add Bookmark" command. This would save a lot of fumbling around.
2. Allow people to create bookmarks on the solar system map without having to send your ship there. The advent of the new scanning system allows the busting of old deep safe spots, so give us the ability to pick a spot in the system and mark it. In order to prevent super-insane deep safes 1000 AU from the sun, limit the ability to something like within 100 AU of the systems sun or 5 AU of a celestial object (some sort of navigational restriction). This would give more reason to use Deep Space Probes again too.
3. CORPORATE BOOKMARKS. Allow corporations the ability to set up bookmarks that every member has access to automatically. No copying required, just see in your bookmark list (either in People or places or in right click in space context window) a folder called Corp with the corporate bookmarks there. This addresses several logistical problems (jump bridge locations, safe spots, POSes, etc) that make joining a corporation painful. Plus it would cut down on duplicate bookmarks in the database.
4. Easier to transfer bookmarks. A bookmark is a named 3-d coordinate + system name. Nothing physical, just info. Then why oh why do they have to be traded between players as physical items? That's a throwback to a different day and completely sucks donkey balls. Allow us to send bookmarks much like evemails. Or alternatively, combine with suggestion one and simply allow us to type in coordinates when creating a bookmark as well as showing us the existing coordinates in existing bookmarks.
5. Allow pilots to show bookmarks in the present grid, both in the bracket and in the overview.
6. Add 25m3 drone bay to the Rokh.
Make these changes and I'll be a happy camper.
Live Blogging the QEN - Q2 2009
A new quarterly economic update from CCP on the Eve universe and once again I shall live blog my reading of it.
Page 1 - AWESOME OPENING GRAPHIC
Page 6 - Paraphrased editorial - Blah blah Eve Bank blah blah tiny effect blah blah single shard
Page 10 - "Currently there is more than 300 trillion ISK on all accounts within EVE, of which 170 trillion are on active paying accounts." That means 130 trillion ISK just sitting there locked away. Can I haz yur stuff?
Page 11 - You play more, you have more money. ISK is the grind in Eve people, not levels. Not surprisingly, those in null sec are the richest on average. Is this due to the resources there or the fact that more experienced and established players tend to survive there better?
Page 14 - The Distribution Of Characters in Security Space graph doesn't make sense to me. How can the left axis be system security status and then the first three bars be null sec? Null sec is negative securityy numbers.
Page 15 - Also, the ship types being used chart is very interesting in noting that the Raven is falling fast. I assume this snapshot was taken after Unholy Rage banned 6000+ macro accounts?
Page 16 - The Tech 1 frigate is still king after all these years.
Page 17 - Take freighters out of the capital group, and carriers make up over half of capital ships. Being cheap and flexible has its advantages.
Page 18 - Covert Ops is most popular tech II ship is unexpected at first, but considering its cheap cost and utility in both PvP and PvE-exploration, I can believe it.
Page 19 - Nighthawk, despite its powergrid issues, is the most popular command ship. This is entirely due to its use in PvE ventures I reckon.
Page 22 - Interesting: "Quantity traded is increasing at a faster rate than demand, thus prices are declining in general. The increase in popularity of the Hulk is therefore interesting in this context. There are more mining barges in the game than ever before, in addition to a considerable increase in the number of missions run by players and NPC kills. Since a sizeable part of all minerals in the game come from refined loot, the increased supply of minerals, along with lower prices, is most likely attributed to these two causes."
Page 31 - "To summarize we can state that the EVE economy is healthy. There is mild deflation, but with the increase in economic activity there are good prospects for continued economic growth for the rest of the year."
Page 35 - Id be interested to know how many Tech II BPOs are used to make BPCs for production, or if all BPCs come from invention for this graph.
Page 35 redux - "Excluding drones and ammo, approximately 9.8 million Tech II items were produced in Q2. Out of these, 6.5 million items were produced from BPCs, with the remaining items being produced from BPOs. Proportionally, a third of all Tech II production is executed with BPOs, and the remaining is done with BPCs." Empahsis mine. Holy crap, tech II BPO holders are making a lot of money then since most tech II prices floor around where invention is barely profitable.
Page 37 - "The most popular regions to produce Tech II items in were Lonetrek, The Citadel, and The Forge. They alone accumulate for 49% of the total production of Tech II items." When I see someone complain of full production slots, I assume they are in Caldari space. Sigh.
Page 39 - "We also examined the productivity in each security tier of lowsec space more closely. It is interesting to note that 0.4 security space is the most productive tier, accounting for 74% of total lowsec production as can be seen in Figure 26."
Page 40 - Most tech II ships are produced by BPOs (56%). This is due to the pain of failed invention tries for expensive ship BPCs, datacores, and decryptors to make it worth it. It also suggests that ship Tech II BPO holder are still raking in vast gobs of ISK, maybe not as much as before, but too much. I'm of the opinion that its time for Tech II BPOs to go away.
Page 42 & 43 - Its interesting that HACs are produced mostly by inventors while interceptors are vastly more produced from BPOs. Probably due to the profit from invention for HACs being sufficient enough to justify the hassle.
Page 48 - "The five most popular types of Tech II ammo account for roughly 34% of all produced units, with the most produced ammo type, Scourge Fury Heavy Missiles, accounting for about 12% of the total amount of Tech II ammo produced." The guys with the Scourge Fury BPOs are laughing all the way to the bank. The guys with BPOs that are not of the 5 most popular are probably disenchanted.
Page 50 - Blockade Runners and Stealth Bombers getting Covert Ops cloaks really drove the volume of those items through the roof, but supply kept up with demand and we still saw a price descrease. Sucks for me.
Page 55 - It may look like a complete reversal of fortune for the Falcon and Rook at first glance, but look closer: the volume of sales for the Falcon is still 1000 units more per month than the Rook.
Page 57 - Prorator graph is actually stealth bomber information.
Page 60 & 61 - We see with the Seige Missile Launcher II and Concussion Bomb volumes that the stealth bomber changes were well received.
Page 63 - I love see Icelandic names in the native character set.
See you next quarter!
Page 1 - AWESOME OPENING GRAPHIC
Page 6 - Paraphrased editorial - Blah blah Eve Bank blah blah tiny effect blah blah single shard
Page 10 - "Currently there is more than 300 trillion ISK on all accounts within EVE, of which 170 trillion are on active paying accounts." That means 130 trillion ISK just sitting there locked away. Can I haz yur stuff?
Page 11 - You play more, you have more money. ISK is the grind in Eve people, not levels. Not surprisingly, those in null sec are the richest on average. Is this due to the resources there or the fact that more experienced and established players tend to survive there better?
Page 14 - The Distribution Of Characters in Security Space graph doesn't make sense to me. How can the left axis be system security status and then the first three bars be null sec? Null sec is negative securityy numbers.
Page 15 - Also, the ship types being used chart is very interesting in noting that the Raven is falling fast. I assume this snapshot was taken after Unholy Rage banned 6000+ macro accounts?
Page 16 - The Tech 1 frigate is still king after all these years.
Page 17 - Take freighters out of the capital group, and carriers make up over half of capital ships. Being cheap and flexible has its advantages.
Page 18 - Covert Ops is most popular tech II ship is unexpected at first, but considering its cheap cost and utility in both PvP and PvE-exploration, I can believe it.
Page 19 - Nighthawk, despite its powergrid issues, is the most popular command ship. This is entirely due to its use in PvE ventures I reckon.
Page 22 - Interesting: "Quantity traded is increasing at a faster rate than demand, thus prices are declining in general. The increase in popularity of the Hulk is therefore interesting in this context. There are more mining barges in the game than ever before, in addition to a considerable increase in the number of missions run by players and NPC kills. Since a sizeable part of all minerals in the game come from refined loot, the increased supply of minerals, along with lower prices, is most likely attributed to these two causes."
Page 31 - "To summarize we can state that the EVE economy is healthy. There is mild deflation, but with the increase in economic activity there are good prospects for continued economic growth for the rest of the year."
Page 35 - Id be interested to know how many Tech II BPOs are used to make BPCs for production, or if all BPCs come from invention for this graph.
Page 35 redux - "Excluding drones and ammo, approximately 9.8 million Tech II items were produced in Q2. Out of these, 6.5 million items were produced from BPCs, with the remaining items being produced from BPOs. Proportionally, a third of all Tech II production is executed with BPOs, and the remaining is done with BPCs." Empahsis mine. Holy crap, tech II BPO holders are making a lot of money then since most tech II prices floor around where invention is barely profitable.
Page 37 - "The most popular regions to produce Tech II items in were Lonetrek, The Citadel, and The Forge. They alone accumulate for 49% of the total production of Tech II items." When I see someone complain of full production slots, I assume they are in Caldari space. Sigh.
Page 39 - "We also examined the productivity in each security tier of lowsec space more closely. It is interesting to note that 0.4 security space is the most productive tier, accounting for 74% of total lowsec production as can be seen in Figure 26."
Page 40 - Most tech II ships are produced by BPOs (56%). This is due to the pain of failed invention tries for expensive ship BPCs, datacores, and decryptors to make it worth it. It also suggests that ship Tech II BPO holder are still raking in vast gobs of ISK, maybe not as much as before, but too much. I'm of the opinion that its time for Tech II BPOs to go away.
Page 42 & 43 - Its interesting that HACs are produced mostly by inventors while interceptors are vastly more produced from BPOs. Probably due to the profit from invention for HACs being sufficient enough to justify the hassle.
Page 48 - "The five most popular types of Tech II ammo account for roughly 34% of all produced units, with the most produced ammo type, Scourge Fury Heavy Missiles, accounting for about 12% of the total amount of Tech II ammo produced." The guys with the Scourge Fury BPOs are laughing all the way to the bank. The guys with BPOs that are not of the 5 most popular are probably disenchanted.
Page 50 - Blockade Runners and Stealth Bombers getting Covert Ops cloaks really drove the volume of those items through the roof, but supply kept up with demand and we still saw a price descrease. Sucks for me.
Page 55 - It may look like a complete reversal of fortune for the Falcon and Rook at first glance, but look closer: the volume of sales for the Falcon is still 1000 units more per month than the Rook.
Page 57 - Prorator graph is actually stealth bomber information.
Page 60 & 61 - We see with the Seige Missile Launcher II and Concussion Bomb volumes that the stealth bomber changes were well received.
Page 63 - I love see Icelandic names in the native character set.
See you next quarter!
Unexcited About DUST 514
Yesterday CCP announced a new First Person Shooter set in the Eve universe called DUST 514:
I will give the annoucement props for some very pretty graphics.
I admit interest in the mechanics that will tie the two games together and how FPS players will be able to influence Eve's political landscape (perhaps massive changes to sovreignty?) but overall the news leaves me unexcited. Its a console game so I'll never be able to see it (unless one of the consoles it releases on is Wii) and I'm not a FPS type guy, I like slower and more tactical game modes. (This has nothing to do with the fact I have the eye to hand coordination of a brick wall.)DUST 514, featuring first-person shooter and RTS-style gameplay, will interact directly with EVE Online, CCP’s critically acclaimed flagship MMO. This interplay between the two games opens the EVE universe to console gamers and gives them a chance to become part of one of the most massive cooperative play and social experiences ever.[...]The primary gameplay of DUST 514 features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of planets from EVE, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fueled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles, DUST 514 combines equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, giving commanders and ground infantry real-time configurable weapons and modular vehicles to manage dynamic battlefield conditions.Now entering its third year of production, DUST 514 is the primary development focus of CCP’s Shanghai studio. The team includes veteran designers of EVE Online and experienced talent from various sectors of the video game industry.
I will give the annoucement props for some very pretty graphics.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Unholy Rage
CCP has gone on a rampage against Macro'ers and ISK sellers recently, banning up to 6000 accounts on a single day. The result? This image from the dev blog should help explain it:
CPU Per User dropped a huge amount in the days after the purge. That helps against lag, desyncs, etc.
Whoever says macro'ers don't hurt the game is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Read the whole thing. Lots of graphs.
CPU Per User dropped a huge amount in the days after the purge. That helps against lag, desyncs, etc.
Whoever says macro'ers don't hurt the game is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Read the whole thing. Lots of graphs.
Skills Update
So Kirith finished his Stealth Bomber training last week and is currently working on finishing a lot of skills that got abandoned for the latest shiny over the past year. Right now he's on Command Ships IV for the rest of the week, and then Logistics III and IV for the Basilisk and Vulture.
After that I might finish my Black Ops battleship training and get my Astrometrics support skills up to par. Then finish my ship training for the Tengu.
Derranna in the meantime has finished her training for the Logistics ship Scimitar and is working away on her Recon skills for the Rapier, with Recon IV finishing this week and then only four levels of Target Painting to do. After that I've split between capital ship training or hard core combat training regime. Today I'm leaning towards combat training. We'll see.
Meanwhile, my miner continues to train for an Orca as a backup Orca pilot.
After that I might finish my Black Ops battleship training and get my Astrometrics support skills up to par. Then finish my ship training for the Tengu.
Derranna in the meantime has finished her training for the Logistics ship Scimitar and is working away on her Recon skills for the Rapier, with Recon IV finishing this week and then only four levels of Target Painting to do. After that I've split between capital ship training or hard core combat training regime. Today I'm leaning towards combat training. We'll see.
Meanwhile, my miner continues to train for an Orca as a backup Orca pilot.
A Tale of Two Myrmidons
Friday night I logged in to a pre-arrange corp operation to roam low sec Essence region and look for kills. There was the usual back and forth about what ships we wanted to use. First it was HACs so jumped in my Eagle Sniperus Rex, but then we moved to battleships so I activated Memories of Mynxee (Armageddon class which survived the flight from Etherium Reach) but then was asked to be secondary on point in a tackle battlecruiser so I moved to Disposable, my blaster Ferox.
We roamed around trying to bait a pirate camping a gate but who fled when we entered system, and we looked for other targets, eventually running into a Myrmidon from Vanguard alliance.
The point main for our fleet was in a Myrmidon and as we landed at a gate, the enemy Myrmidon jumped in. We both attacked the enemy ship and the hostile decided to attack me, perhaps thinking the little-used Ferox was a juicy newb that he could overpower quickly with the help of the sentry guns. Guess again; this Ferox out of the box has more hitpoints and resists than any other Tier 1 battlecruiser in the hands of a well trained opponent. I was in no danger but the drones and blasters from our two ships easily overpowered our foe despite his cap draining efforts.
We didn't catch any others that night but the kill did ease the loss of the Manticore earlier in the week and I logged feeling satisfied for now.
* * * * *
Nashh Kadavrs convo'd me. He's that pilot going around and challenging Eve blogger "Celebrities" to duels and he wanted to add me to the list. I loved duels, I immediately agreed. We settled on battlecruisers sometime this weekend whenever we could match up our times online. I went to work.
A public deathmatch with my pride on the line had the brain working overtime. I didn't just want to show up, I really really wanted to win. So despite having a Drake and Ferox in the hanger, I went back to the drawing board.
First I checked his age and his profile of kills recorded on Battleclinic and from his previous three deathmatches. A 2008 character has had plenty of time to master battlecruisers so my age advantage was probably moot unless he trained foolishly, and judging by the setups of ships he had lost it looked like he had trained well. I figured he would fly a Drake with passive tank since he appears almost pure Caldari, and the tank would be solid but not impossible to overwhelm as I was willing to bet he would install a few ballistic control units for damage.
I opted for a Myrmidon, strategizing that I would approach under the cover of medium ECM drones and then once in range use blasters and drones to overpower his shields and take him out. I miscalculated and thought he would go for afterburner, but figured I would be faster anyways if we both took MWDs.
On Sunday afternoon we hooked up and did the old steal-from-my-can trick so the fight could be uninterupted in high sec space and no security penalities involved. The fight started 20km apart (should have negotiated for closer! ) and I sped towards him MWD blazing and he sped away with his MWD on. I checked speeds and saw I would catch up to him; good. We both launched ECM drones and I immediately targeted them and popped three. That should be sufficient, I thought.
Just as I got in web range and started my blasters going, I shut down the MWD so I could pulse it as needed to maintain range. Then disaster: his ECM drones got a hit. The webber shut off and he took off like a cannon shot opening the range between us as I was trying to orbit and was faced away from him and I had to repower the MWD and give chase. Then a second ECM jam hit from his piddly drones and He got out of web range before I got up to speed again. Dammit!
With a sinking feel I checked my cargo hold: cap boosters half gone and I was practically back where I started. Part of me considered running at this point as I knew I had made some serious miscalculations and was facing defeat, but I had made an agreement to fight to the death. I bucked up and waited out the second 20 second jam while giving chase to my quarry.
As soon as I could I targeted and blew the ever living shit out of those last two drones. Some small revenge. Then I worked the overheating of the MWD and webber once more to grab that elusive Drake and attempt to pull it into range of the blasters. My tank was holding, I caught him and webbed once more, I was pulling into range and ...
"The reload failed because there is no more charges in the cargohold."
The well had run dry. I wrote in the private convo window that I was out of cap boosters and he was going to win. All was left was to watch it happen.
My fatal mistake I believe was going for a little too much tank over speed in my setup. I spent far too much time closing to use my weapons and it cost me. I also will never assume two ECM drones are not dangerous. Damned little buggers.
A good fight Nashh Kadavrs, and you can bet I will be back for another in a few weeks time. Perhaps not Battlecruisers though... maybe cruisers? I've got a nice little Thorax I'd like to introduce you to.
His account of the duel: http://nashhkadavreveblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/celebrity-death-match-5-kirith-kodachi.html
We roamed around trying to bait a pirate camping a gate but who fled when we entered system, and we looked for other targets, eventually running into a Myrmidon from Vanguard alliance.
The point main for our fleet was in a Myrmidon and as we landed at a gate, the enemy Myrmidon jumped in. We both attacked the enemy ship and the hostile decided to attack me, perhaps thinking the little-used Ferox was a juicy newb that he could overpower quickly with the help of the sentry guns. Guess again; this Ferox out of the box has more hitpoints and resists than any other Tier 1 battlecruiser in the hands of a well trained opponent. I was in no danger but the drones and blasters from our two ships easily overpowered our foe despite his cap draining efforts.
We didn't catch any others that night but the kill did ease the loss of the Manticore earlier in the week and I logged feeling satisfied for now.
* * * * *
Nashh Kadavrs convo'd me. He's that pilot going around and challenging Eve blogger "Celebrities" to duels and he wanted to add me to the list. I loved duels, I immediately agreed. We settled on battlecruisers sometime this weekend whenever we could match up our times online. I went to work.
A public deathmatch with my pride on the line had the brain working overtime. I didn't just want to show up, I really really wanted to win. So despite having a Drake and Ferox in the hanger, I went back to the drawing board.
First I checked his age and his profile of kills recorded on Battleclinic and from his previous three deathmatches. A 2008 character has had plenty of time to master battlecruisers so my age advantage was probably moot unless he trained foolishly, and judging by the setups of ships he had lost it looked like he had trained well. I figured he would fly a Drake with passive tank since he appears almost pure Caldari, and the tank would be solid but not impossible to overwhelm as I was willing to bet he would install a few ballistic control units for damage.
I opted for a Myrmidon, strategizing that I would approach under the cover of medium ECM drones and then once in range use blasters and drones to overpower his shields and take him out. I miscalculated and thought he would go for afterburner, but figured I would be faster anyways if we both took MWDs.
On Sunday afternoon we hooked up and did the old steal-from-my-can trick so the fight could be uninterupted in high sec space and no security penalities involved. The fight started 20km apart (should have negotiated for closer! ) and I sped towards him MWD blazing and he sped away with his MWD on. I checked speeds and saw I would catch up to him; good. We both launched ECM drones and I immediately targeted them and popped three. That should be sufficient, I thought.
Just as I got in web range and started my blasters going, I shut down the MWD so I could pulse it as needed to maintain range. Then disaster: his ECM drones got a hit. The webber shut off and he took off like a cannon shot opening the range between us as I was trying to orbit and was faced away from him and I had to repower the MWD and give chase. Then a second ECM jam hit from his piddly drones and He got out of web range before I got up to speed again. Dammit!
With a sinking feel I checked my cargo hold: cap boosters half gone and I was practically back where I started. Part of me considered running at this point as I knew I had made some serious miscalculations and was facing defeat, but I had made an agreement to fight to the death. I bucked up and waited out the second 20 second jam while giving chase to my quarry.
As soon as I could I targeted and blew the ever living shit out of those last two drones. Some small revenge. Then I worked the overheating of the MWD and webber once more to grab that elusive Drake and attempt to pull it into range of the blasters. My tank was holding, I caught him and webbed once more, I was pulling into range and ...
"The reload failed because there is no more charges in the cargohold."
The well had run dry. I wrote in the private convo window that I was out of cap boosters and he was going to win. All was left was to watch it happen.
My fatal mistake I believe was going for a little too much tank over speed in my setup. I spent far too much time closing to use my weapons and it cost me. I also will never assume two ECM drones are not dangerous. Damned little buggers.
A good fight Nashh Kadavrs, and you can bet I will be back for another in a few weeks time. Perhaps not Battlecruisers though... maybe cruisers? I've got a nice little Thorax I'd like to introduce you to.
His account of the duel: http://nashhkadavreveblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/celebrity-death-match-5-kirith-kodachi.html
Friday, August 14, 2009
Planetary Control Contest Entry
CrazyKinux is running yet another contest, the crazy fool!
EDIT: For those who hate reading a lot of stuff in white font on black background, the meat of this post can be found here in a Google Doc webpage.
Part 1 - Fiction - The Drop
Corporal Tarin Selnas hated this part.
One second you were flying smooth, you could feel the pull of the gravity getting stronger as you descend, everything was quiet except for the constant thrumming of the drop ship's engines. Then you hit the top of the atmosphere and it seemed like you were descending into hell itself. The turbulence was bad and the increase in noise was annoying, but the worst thing was the rising temperature from the friction of the ship's flight (more like drop) to the planet's surface. Sure, there were environmental control units designed to keep the marines in the ship from broiling alive, but they couldn't compensate completely and it always got oppressively hot. You were always glad to leave the drop ship when it landed even if it meant running head first into a crossfire. Maybe, Selnas though, it was designed that way.
He looked over the fellow marines of his squad, four men he knew would die for him and him for them. They too were sweating in the rising heat but their faces remained stoic and their hands were loose and relaxed on their weapons. They were all veterans of many drops, Corporal Selnas included. They were professionals and they would get the job done.
The drop ship suddenly applied its air brakes with a stomach turning lurch and it dropped the final 100 meters with retro-thrusters blasting a deafening roar. Selnas and his squad tensed as the ship's landing gear found purchase and the drop ship's massive doors opened up onto the planet. He led his men into the night that was shrouded in smoke from munitions fired on the landing site just before the drop ships arrived. It would give the marines some cover from incoming small arms fire at least, but it often added an element of danger to the marines if they were off their designated landing site by too much. Fortunately Selnas' terrain detector matched the outline of the area around him to reconnaisce intelligence and it guided him with flashing arrows to his rally point. Explosions and weapons fired surrounded him and the other squads that came from the fleet of drop ships, the screams of the wounded and dying drowned out in the fusilade.
It felt like he ran across the shourded ground forever with only his HUD as a guide and he kept waiting for the piercing pain of a round entering his body. Suddenly he came upon his sergeant crouched in a depression behind some rocks and trees giving orders to other corporals that had made it there before Selnas.
"Where the hell you been, Corporal? Sightseeing?" the sergeant asked in his devil-may-care way. He had been around forever and possibly have done more drops than all other soldiers in the outfit combined. Unflappable did not begin to describe him.
He grabbed Selnas' shoulder and pulled him down to a portable computer with a terrain map displayed. "There is a sentry nest over here on this ridge," he pointed with a stubby finger, "I want your squad to pay them a visit. Got it?"
"Hit nest on ridge 13 north, got it," Selnas confirmed. Without another word the Sergeant pushed him away and turned to the next squad leader. Selnas crouched and ran to his men that were waiting prone in cover and relayed the instructions. With grim nods, they moved out behind him.
The sentry nest was only three quarters of a kilometer away but they were slowed by constantly hugging every sliver of cover. Finally after 45 minutes of slogging they had the sentry nest in veiw. The enemy had dug into the ridge about a meter and used sandbags to build up the defenses. It looked new which explained to Selnas why it handn't been hit by the prelanding bombardment since it was so close to the landing zone. The defenders of the nest, probably two guys, maybe three, manned a 75mm dual autocannon spitting out uranium shells at the rate of 5 thousand rounds per minute. They cut swathes back and forth through the landing zone and while the experience marines of the landing force were good at keeping in cover, many newer soliders were getting hit.
Corporal Selnas wished he had a grenade launcher or a rail launcher; either one would have been sufficient to take out the hastily put together defensive position. But the mercenary outfit Selnas and the rest of the marines belonged to was hesitant to buy such expensive toys for dispensible troops, Selnas supposed, so they would have to do it the hard way. Again. The ridge had been clear cut of treesby the planet's defenders before the landing to allow clear lanes of fire, but the terrain was still rocky and Selnas ordered two of his squad to approach the nest, one from the east and one from the west. As they crawled, rolled, and shimied up the hill in the darkness, autocannon fire continued to pour out of the barrels just inches over their head.
Private Heres was on the west approach when he reached a bump in the ground. There was no way around it so he waited while the autocannon swept over his position and started to move back to the east. Selnas watched Heres scoot forward as fast as he could towards the next depression, but the autocannon gunner must have detected the movement or his heat signature despite the uniform's heat suppression weaves and the gun jerked back to spray Heres' position with rounds. The marine died instantly as his body was shredded and the gunner went back to sweeping the landing zone with bullets.
But the distraction was all that Private Gordnan on the east side of the nest needed. As Heres' died he jumped up and sprinted the last few meters to the base of the nest. He detached a hand grenade from his belt, primed it, and threw it in the opening. A second later a muffled boom and the gun was silenced.
* * * * *
Private Gordnan joined up with the rest of the squad as they stood over Heres body.
"Good work, Private," Selnas said. He turned to the other 2 men. "Let's go, we have a planet to conquer."
Part 2 - Mechanics - Planets In Eve
So how do we integrate real planets into Eve? Well I have some ideas.
1) Some planets should have populations. These planets should be named something original but that is not mandatory, but they should stand out so people can tell at a glance which planets are populated with a colony or full blown nation.
2) Planets with populations should generate resources that can be purchased by pilots and shipped to their hanger in the nearest station. The distance to the nearest station determines how long it takes the goods to get there. The resources could be minerals and moon materials but be at a base price much higher than usual market values. I realize this puts a possible price cap on items so maybe it could have a fluctuating price determined by demand much like trade goods.
3) In 0.0 planets with populations are the sources of the crews that operate and maintain the stargates and provide civilian crews for local stations and starbases. Hence, controlling the colony means control of the system. That is to say, I am proposing a replacement for the current sovereignty mechanics which are POS based. But how does one control a planet?
Enter a new ship class: Planetary Landers. They would have a new module called Landing Craft which represent armed troopers ready to go down and fight on the planet for control of it. Your PL ship would go to the planet, activate the Landing Craft, and a new window would give progress of the invasion based on how strong the opposition is and how many alliance PL ships are participating. Unclaimed planets would give a little bit of a fight, but claimed planets by other alliances could be upgraded with garrisons and defences meaning a solitary Planetary Lander ship would not be enough to take it over. You'd need a fleet and more time giving the owning alliance time to respond.
I picture Planetary Landers as ships similar in size and defenses to Industrials, with tech 2 versions having superior defenses and more utility slots. I would also have a timer on the Landing Craft module such that if the ship warps off or is destroyed before, say, 10 minutes has passed than the planetary assault for that ship's landing craft automatically fails (i.e. telementry from the ship in orbit is essential to coordinating the descent).
Furthermore, with ownership of 0.0 planets you can do more than defence upgrades (shields and defense turrets), you could make upgrades capable of producing more minerals/moon materials (mining crews), perhaps increase the population size (biodomes) for example. Hell, with established sovereignty in a system who's to say we can't move to creating more colonies to make the system harder to gain control of by enemies? Then with creating colonies we can look at destroying colonies ( can you say "planetary bombardment"?).
Also, there could be new anchorable items that can only be anchored in orbit of controlled planets, items like sentry guns and corporate hanger arrays like at a POS but with internal power sources and fuel supplied directly from the planet. The size of the colony determines available CPU and Powergrid. These items wouldn't be protected by a POS shield so would require decent hitpoints but could be useful for helping to protect the planet and organize fleets for defense of it.
Of course, warping to a planet might not put you in the right position to see or attack these orbital assets. Currently a point on a single grid near a planet or moon is designated as the "warp to" point of that object. I would change it so that the warp to zero of a planet or moon put you in orbit at the point closest to where you came from, so that a pilot warping to a planet at zero would be on the completely opposite side of a pilot warping to zero from other direction. That would give combat near planets a very real feel and force probes to come out to locate the exact location of the enemy fleet. It could also open up feints and sneak attacks against the defenders as they rush to meet one attack on one side of the planet while another fleet sneaks in to invade the other side.
* * * * *
Doing all this would accomplish several tasks. It would make sovereignty in 0.0 less reliant on POS spam and the mind numbing boredom that can entail (as well as being a completely unintuitive mechanic), it would make planets more than just a warp point and make combat more tactical away from gates, provide more resources for production at a higher price but with less direct effort making systems more valuable, and it would allow the expansion of the game into planetary combat.
The goal is to write an article on planetary control and how that would be implemented in EVE. Your article needs to cover what features, game mechanic, game design you would like to see implemented if (or when) planetary control/exploration/exploitation becomes available in EVE.Well, sounds like a challenge I can get behind! So I present my submission to this contest.
You're required to write a two-part article. The first part needs to be a fiction piece that tells a story based on the feature (or game mechanic, game design, etc...) that you would like to see implemented, while the second part would be the actual description of how that would work in game. Each part of your article needs to be a minimum of 300 words (600 word minimum for the whole article).
I'll be judging the entries and will pick the 5 best articles, amongst which I will randomly choose the winner. This lucky blogger will get to interview a CCP Dev during a podcast with yours truly! Details on the podcast will be provided to the winner prior to the show's recording.
EDIT: For those who hate reading a lot of stuff in white font on black background, the meat of this post can be found here in a Google Doc webpage.
Part 1 - Fiction - The Drop
Corporal Tarin Selnas hated this part.
One second you were flying smooth, you could feel the pull of the gravity getting stronger as you descend, everything was quiet except for the constant thrumming of the drop ship's engines. Then you hit the top of the atmosphere and it seemed like you were descending into hell itself. The turbulence was bad and the increase in noise was annoying, but the worst thing was the rising temperature from the friction of the ship's flight (more like drop) to the planet's surface. Sure, there were environmental control units designed to keep the marines in the ship from broiling alive, but they couldn't compensate completely and it always got oppressively hot. You were always glad to leave the drop ship when it landed even if it meant running head first into a crossfire. Maybe, Selnas though, it was designed that way.
He looked over the fellow marines of his squad, four men he knew would die for him and him for them. They too were sweating in the rising heat but their faces remained stoic and their hands were loose and relaxed on their weapons. They were all veterans of many drops, Corporal Selnas included. They were professionals and they would get the job done.
The drop ship suddenly applied its air brakes with a stomach turning lurch and it dropped the final 100 meters with retro-thrusters blasting a deafening roar. Selnas and his squad tensed as the ship's landing gear found purchase and the drop ship's massive doors opened up onto the planet. He led his men into the night that was shrouded in smoke from munitions fired on the landing site just before the drop ships arrived. It would give the marines some cover from incoming small arms fire at least, but it often added an element of danger to the marines if they were off their designated landing site by too much. Fortunately Selnas' terrain detector matched the outline of the area around him to reconnaisce intelligence and it guided him with flashing arrows to his rally point. Explosions and weapons fired surrounded him and the other squads that came from the fleet of drop ships, the screams of the wounded and dying drowned out in the fusilade.
It felt like he ran across the shourded ground forever with only his HUD as a guide and he kept waiting for the piercing pain of a round entering his body. Suddenly he came upon his sergeant crouched in a depression behind some rocks and trees giving orders to other corporals that had made it there before Selnas.
"Where the hell you been, Corporal? Sightseeing?" the sergeant asked in his devil-may-care way. He had been around forever and possibly have done more drops than all other soldiers in the outfit combined. Unflappable did not begin to describe him.
He grabbed Selnas' shoulder and pulled him down to a portable computer with a terrain map displayed. "There is a sentry nest over here on this ridge," he pointed with a stubby finger, "I want your squad to pay them a visit. Got it?"
"Hit nest on ridge 13 north, got it," Selnas confirmed. Without another word the Sergeant pushed him away and turned to the next squad leader. Selnas crouched and ran to his men that were waiting prone in cover and relayed the instructions. With grim nods, they moved out behind him.
The sentry nest was only three quarters of a kilometer away but they were slowed by constantly hugging every sliver of cover. Finally after 45 minutes of slogging they had the sentry nest in veiw. The enemy had dug into the ridge about a meter and used sandbags to build up the defenses. It looked new which explained to Selnas why it handn't been hit by the prelanding bombardment since it was so close to the landing zone. The defenders of the nest, probably two guys, maybe three, manned a 75mm dual autocannon spitting out uranium shells at the rate of 5 thousand rounds per minute. They cut swathes back and forth through the landing zone and while the experience marines of the landing force were good at keeping in cover, many newer soliders were getting hit.
Corporal Selnas wished he had a grenade launcher or a rail launcher; either one would have been sufficient to take out the hastily put together defensive position. But the mercenary outfit Selnas and the rest of the marines belonged to was hesitant to buy such expensive toys for dispensible troops, Selnas supposed, so they would have to do it the hard way. Again. The ridge had been clear cut of treesby the planet's defenders before the landing to allow clear lanes of fire, but the terrain was still rocky and Selnas ordered two of his squad to approach the nest, one from the east and one from the west. As they crawled, rolled, and shimied up the hill in the darkness, autocannon fire continued to pour out of the barrels just inches over their head.
Private Heres was on the west approach when he reached a bump in the ground. There was no way around it so he waited while the autocannon swept over his position and started to move back to the east. Selnas watched Heres scoot forward as fast as he could towards the next depression, but the autocannon gunner must have detected the movement or his heat signature despite the uniform's heat suppression weaves and the gun jerked back to spray Heres' position with rounds. The marine died instantly as his body was shredded and the gunner went back to sweeping the landing zone with bullets.
But the distraction was all that Private Gordnan on the east side of the nest needed. As Heres' died he jumped up and sprinted the last few meters to the base of the nest. He detached a hand grenade from his belt, primed it, and threw it in the opening. A second later a muffled boom and the gun was silenced.
* * * * *
Private Gordnan joined up with the rest of the squad as they stood over Heres body.
"Good work, Private," Selnas said. He turned to the other 2 men. "Let's go, we have a planet to conquer."
Part 2 - Mechanics - Planets In Eve
So how do we integrate real planets into Eve? Well I have some ideas.
1) Some planets should have populations. These planets should be named something original but that is not mandatory, but they should stand out so people can tell at a glance which planets are populated with a colony or full blown nation.
2) Planets with populations should generate resources that can be purchased by pilots and shipped to their hanger in the nearest station. The distance to the nearest station determines how long it takes the goods to get there. The resources could be minerals and moon materials but be at a base price much higher than usual market values. I realize this puts a possible price cap on items so maybe it could have a fluctuating price determined by demand much like trade goods.
3) In 0.0 planets with populations are the sources of the crews that operate and maintain the stargates and provide civilian crews for local stations and starbases. Hence, controlling the colony means control of the system. That is to say, I am proposing a replacement for the current sovereignty mechanics which are POS based. But how does one control a planet?
Enter a new ship class: Planetary Landers. They would have a new module called Landing Craft which represent armed troopers ready to go down and fight on the planet for control of it. Your PL ship would go to the planet, activate the Landing Craft, and a new window would give progress of the invasion based on how strong the opposition is and how many alliance PL ships are participating. Unclaimed planets would give a little bit of a fight, but claimed planets by other alliances could be upgraded with garrisons and defences meaning a solitary Planetary Lander ship would not be enough to take it over. You'd need a fleet and more time giving the owning alliance time to respond.
I picture Planetary Landers as ships similar in size and defenses to Industrials, with tech 2 versions having superior defenses and more utility slots. I would also have a timer on the Landing Craft module such that if the ship warps off or is destroyed before, say, 10 minutes has passed than the planetary assault for that ship's landing craft automatically fails (i.e. telementry from the ship in orbit is essential to coordinating the descent).
Furthermore, with ownership of 0.0 planets you can do more than defence upgrades (shields and defense turrets), you could make upgrades capable of producing more minerals/moon materials (mining crews), perhaps increase the population size (biodomes) for example. Hell, with established sovereignty in a system who's to say we can't move to creating more colonies to make the system harder to gain control of by enemies? Then with creating colonies we can look at destroying colonies ( can you say "planetary bombardment"?).
Also, there could be new anchorable items that can only be anchored in orbit of controlled planets, items like sentry guns and corporate hanger arrays like at a POS but with internal power sources and fuel supplied directly from the planet. The size of the colony determines available CPU and Powergrid. These items wouldn't be protected by a POS shield so would require decent hitpoints but could be useful for helping to protect the planet and organize fleets for defense of it.
Of course, warping to a planet might not put you in the right position to see or attack these orbital assets. Currently a point on a single grid near a planet or moon is designated as the "warp to" point of that object. I would change it so that the warp to zero of a planet or moon put you in orbit at the point closest to where you came from, so that a pilot warping to a planet at zero would be on the completely opposite side of a pilot warping to zero from other direction. That would give combat near planets a very real feel and force probes to come out to locate the exact location of the enemy fleet. It could also open up feints and sneak attacks against the defenders as they rush to meet one attack on one side of the planet while another fleet sneaks in to invade the other side.
* * * * *
Doing all this would accomplish several tasks. It would make sovereignty in 0.0 less reliant on POS spam and the mind numbing boredom that can entail (as well as being a completely unintuitive mechanic), it would make planets more than just a warp point and make combat more tactical away from gates, provide more resources for production at a higher price but with less direct effort making systems more valuable, and it would allow the expansion of the game into planetary combat.
Bombed (And Not In The Good Way)
I wasn't due to log into Eve last night, but my wife got a phone call from her best friend and previous experience suggested that it was going to be a long one. I was lazy, too lazy to go to the office and log in... what if I was wrong and the call ended suddenly? Then I would have wasted the twenty steps to the office and 20 steps back... plus turning on the light and off the light, monitor on, monitor off...etc... What can I say? I was beat.
So I broke out the laptop. I figured I'd check some Weewar games, update my market orders, nothing strenuous. But after all that was done I was still waiting on the wife. Gift of gab indeed.
Now I have a rule that I don't PvP on the laptop. Its powerful enough to run Eve ok, but no voice comms and using the touchpad instead of my favoured trackball mouse makes delicate maneuvures dangerous at best, deadly at worst.
I should have just browsed the internet. Instead I logged into Kirith. Just to look around New Mexico again.
I played it cool to start, warping to a scanning spot cloaked, warping to an off gate bookmark (cloaked) to see what was there. Admired the Dominx, Zealot, Devoter Heavy Interdictor with bubble active and agreed with myself there was nothing worth bombing in this little camp.
I should have left it at that. But I've got Bombing Fever baby! So I decided to move into a bombing position in case something juicy showed up at the gate.
Of course, I forgot that short warps still get impacted by interdiction bubbles. So instead of landing 30 km from the gate, I warped to the endge of the Devoter's Warp Disruption Field.
"No biggy," I thought. "I'm still 18 km from all the bad guys. I'll just turn around and move away from the bubble."
Except that the gate's docking ring is fracking huge as we discussed before. So large that the Devoter at the gate had its bubble draw me right to 0 km from the gate itself (even though the gate model was 10+ km away.
There goes the cloak.
Taken totally off guard, I panicked and tried to warp to my safe spot to recloak while the Zealot pilot was quick with the reflexes and started to lock me. I could have jumped through the gate, but I was caught flat footed both by the bubble and the dropped cloak, and I'm sorely out of practice for null sec space.
The Zealot made me pay the price. Sigh.
I'd like to say that had I been on the good computer I might have made that warp before dying, but its iffy. I sucked and that's the real problem. Out of practice.
But with each loss comes a lesson and I was due for a good smacking, I've had a long run of good luck. Next week I'll be back in New Mexico with a new bomber and we'll try it again.
So I broke out the laptop. I figured I'd check some Weewar games, update my market orders, nothing strenuous. But after all that was done I was still waiting on the wife. Gift of gab indeed.
Now I have a rule that I don't PvP on the laptop. Its powerful enough to run Eve ok, but no voice comms and using the touchpad instead of my favoured trackball mouse makes delicate maneuvures dangerous at best, deadly at worst.
I should have just browsed the internet. Instead I logged into Kirith. Just to look around New Mexico again.
I played it cool to start, warping to a scanning spot cloaked, warping to an off gate bookmark (cloaked) to see what was there. Admired the Dominx, Zealot, Devoter Heavy Interdictor with bubble active and agreed with myself there was nothing worth bombing in this little camp.
I should have left it at that. But I've got Bombing Fever baby! So I decided to move into a bombing position in case something juicy showed up at the gate.
Of course, I forgot that short warps still get impacted by interdiction bubbles. So instead of landing 30 km from the gate, I warped to the endge of the Devoter's Warp Disruption Field.
"No biggy," I thought. "I'm still 18 km from all the bad guys. I'll just turn around and move away from the bubble."
Except that the gate's docking ring is fracking huge as we discussed before. So large that the Devoter at the gate had its bubble draw me right to 0 km from the gate itself (even though the gate model was 10+ km away.
There goes the cloak.
Taken totally off guard, I panicked and tried to warp to my safe spot to recloak while the Zealot pilot was quick with the reflexes and started to lock me. I could have jumped through the gate, but I was caught flat footed both by the bubble and the dropped cloak, and I'm sorely out of practice for null sec space.
The Zealot made me pay the price. Sigh.
I'd like to say that had I been on the good computer I might have made that warp before dying, but its iffy. I sucked and that's the real problem. Out of practice.
But with each loss comes a lesson and I was due for a good smacking, I've had a long run of good luck. Next week I'll be back in New Mexico with a new bomber and we'll try it again.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
PETITION
There is a very important subject that I care deeply about and a good friend started a petition about it. I hope my readers can find it in there hearts to sign the petition to get this grievous wrong righted.
DAMN STRAIGHT!The petition
This petition is to show CCP that we want the Drone Bay on the Rokh increased by 25 m3.
Welcome to New Mexico
Last night I logged on and the corp was idle, not surprising for a Wednesday evening, and I heard that the low sec roam was already done and had bagged a lowly mining ship. With free time on my hands, I proceeded to implement the Manhattan Project and get my bomber to 0.0.
I picked a good target area to patrol in a border null sec region, far from interference of CVA's NRDS policies that I would be violating. I'm calling the system I will be mainly patrolling New Mexico in honour of the first nuclear bomb test.
Once I ran past the two ship gate camp I started making bookmarks. The limitation of the bomb launcher is such that you aim by pointing your ship where you want the bomb to go and it flies 30 km in that direction before blowing up and hitting everything within 15 km. The theory is that you get into position while cloaked and then uncloak, launch bomb, and warp off before you get locked and tackled.
I wanted to validate the process and make sure there was no surprises so this morning I waited until the system was quiet and I did a test run at the empty gate. I got 30 km from the gate and launched the bomb, watching it with the ranges overlay on. It has a cute little icon and it was amusing to watch it travel from my ship towards the gate. Ten seconds after launching it exploded but quite a distanced from the centre of the gate... what's going on?
"Ah, of course," I realized after a second. "The distance in the overview is the range to the stargate's docking ring, not its centre of mass." Since region-to-region stargates are so huge nowadays, the 0 meter mark to the gate in your overview is still some 10-15 km from the centre of the actual gate. Good to remember. Most times I should be aiming at a ship and they will not have that problem.
After the bomb detonated, an Ishtar showed up on the gate and was probably wondering what the hell I was doing. I didn't wait around to chat and instead cloaked and flew off, my inital bomb test considered a success.
Next time I fire the bomb off, it will be at a ship.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Skill Training Online Versus Offline
Syncaine from Hardcore Casual had this post contrasting Darkfall and Eve Online's skill progression system:
Had Eve a skill advancement system that required you to be in game to advance, I would be at a disadvantage. I play about 20 hours a month, let's say. I've been playing 35 months incidently. So I've clocked roughly 700 hours give or take a century.
Now let's say there is a college student who is playing 40 hours a week of Eve. In one year he could amass over 2080 hours of time ingame and in a progression system that requires ingame presence to advance, he would be 3 times as skilled as I would be. Now you might take the position that he invested more time hence he should reap greater rewards, but under the current system that is already true: by ratting, missions, mining, exploration, market manipulation, etc he is earning ISK and combat experience I cannot due to my lack of time. Under the current system, the more advanced skills I have is a balance to his increased playtime. Under a system requiring ingame effort, I would be disadvantaged in wealth and skill.
In other words, it acts like an incentive for more casual players to continue to play the game. To me, that is a good thing.
Your mileage may vary.
If you have a skill based (as opposed to XP/level based) character development system, is there any reason NOT to use EVE’s real-time progression? How many of DarkFall’s “it’s a huge grind” problems would be resolved if you gained skills in real-time like in EVE, rather than through playing/macroing them up? Aventurine made some good changes by not allowing players to gain skill by firing magic or arrows into thin air, and by not allowing players to skill up using the unbreakable starter weapons, but if DF had launched with EVE’s skill system, those issues would not have been present to begin with.I've always loved Eve's offline skill advancedment system. I like how it allows a fellow like me with limited playing time to progress when real life takes me away so that when I do play I can actually, you know, play instead of working on artifical skill development.
Had Eve a skill advancement system that required you to be in game to advance, I would be at a disadvantage. I play about 20 hours a month, let's say. I've been playing 35 months incidently. So I've clocked roughly 700 hours give or take a century.
Now let's say there is a college student who is playing 40 hours a week of Eve. In one year he could amass over 2080 hours of time ingame and in a progression system that requires ingame presence to advance, he would be 3 times as skilled as I would be. Now you might take the position that he invested more time hence he should reap greater rewards, but under the current system that is already true: by ratting, missions, mining, exploration, market manipulation, etc he is earning ISK and combat experience I cannot due to my lack of time. Under the current system, the more advanced skills I have is a balance to his increased playtime. Under a system requiring ingame effort, I would be disadvantaged in wealth and skill.
In other words, it acts like an incentive for more casual players to continue to play the game. To me, that is a good thing.
Your mileage may vary.
Request For Gank Falcon Setup
An old friend mentioned he had not seen my Gank Falcon setup on my blog since the changes so I told him I would post it today.
The concept is that this is a solo ship looking for cruisers or smaller (or inexperienced battlecruisers even) in belts in low sec or anywhere in null sec. Approach cloaked, get in range, uncloak, wait out the 6 or so second sensor reclaibration, lock with disruptor and web primed, jam, and start shooting. Use MWD to maintain range.
I know its not the best recon for the job but it is what I use and I have fun with it. The tank is the ECM and it can't handle more than one or two targets, but they never see you coming until you're ready as opposed to normal ships that can be seen on directional scanners.
Cheers Ryan!
The concept is that this is a solo ship looking for cruisers or smaller (or inexperienced battlecruisers even) in belts in low sec or anywhere in null sec. Approach cloaked, get in range, uncloak, wait out the 6 or so second sensor reclaibration, lock with disruptor and web primed, jam, and start shooting. Use MWD to maintain range.
I know its not the best recon for the job but it is what I use and I have fun with it. The tank is the ECM and it can't handle more than one or two targets, but they never see you coming until you're ready as opposed to normal ships that can be seen on directional scanners.
Cheers Ryan!
Pilot To Bombadier...
BOMBS AWAY!!!
Last night Missile Bombardment V completed and I wasted no time in visiting my Manticore to slap that Bomb launcher on there and oooohhh and aaahhh at its awesomeness.
I plan to head to 0.0 some quiet weeknight and roam around looking for anything to drop a bomb on. Just for the insanity of it.
Last night Missile Bombardment V completed and I wasted no time in visiting my Manticore to slap that Bomb launcher on there and oooohhh and aaahhh at its awesomeness.
I plan to head to 0.0 some quiet weeknight and roam around looking for anything to drop a bomb on. Just for the insanity of it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Out Of Eve: Book Series Review
You always hear people talking about this or that Intellectual Property (aka IP) that should be turned into an MMO. I would like to put forth my selection.
Currently I am re-reading the series called The Death Gate Cycle written by Marget Weis and Tracy Hickman, the authors of the Dragonlance books as well as other series. While some of their work has questionable value (i.e. complete crap.... I'm looking at you Darksword trilogy and Star of the Guardians series) this seven book series is one of their best efforts.
The best thing about the series is the universe it takes place in. During a war between two demigod-like races, one side sundered the world (a post apocalytic Earth no less) into four world based on the four base elements (Air, Fire, Earth, and Water) along with a fifth prision world for their enemies. Then things start to go wrong.
The worlds the author's created are very vibrant and unique.
- The world of air has three layers of floating continents where water is the most precious resource and wars are fought over it between the Elves on magic-mechanical air ships and humans on tamed dragons.
- The world of fire is a Dyson sphere surrounding four minature suns, and the people of that world never know nightfall. The constant light has allowed plant life to grow to miles high and only the Dwarves have ever seen the fabled ground.
- The world of stone is a dying world of caverns and molten lava seas, where Necromancy is practiced and the dead outnumber the living.
- The world of water is literally a big ball of water, frozen everywhere except where a sun exists. The people live in submerged continents and follow the sun around its orbit through the water world or be caught in the ice to freeze and die.
The prison world, the Labrynth, is a world diveded into sections by gates and the prisioners must pass through gates on a journey that can take generations. Each section filled with monsters that attempt to find and kill the prisioners. At the end of the Labrynth is the Nexus, a peaceful city originally intended for the rehabilitated prisoners and not the few survivors.
All of the worlds are accessed by a Deathgate (hence the name of the trilogy).
Is that not the perfect setting for a high fantasy MMO? Think of the possibilities in each world for unique enviroments and foes? Exploration? Unique skills and magics?
Currently I am re-reading the series called The Death Gate Cycle written by Marget Weis and Tracy Hickman, the authors of the Dragonlance books as well as other series. While some of their work has questionable value (i.e. complete crap.... I'm looking at you Darksword trilogy and Star of the Guardians series) this seven book series is one of their best efforts.
The best thing about the series is the universe it takes place in. During a war between two demigod-like races, one side sundered the world (a post apocalytic Earth no less) into four world based on the four base elements (Air, Fire, Earth, and Water) along with a fifth prision world for their enemies. Then things start to go wrong.
The worlds the author's created are very vibrant and unique.
- The world of air has three layers of floating continents where water is the most precious resource and wars are fought over it between the Elves on magic-mechanical air ships and humans on tamed dragons.
- The world of fire is a Dyson sphere surrounding four minature suns, and the people of that world never know nightfall. The constant light has allowed plant life to grow to miles high and only the Dwarves have ever seen the fabled ground.
- The world of stone is a dying world of caverns and molten lava seas, where Necromancy is practiced and the dead outnumber the living.
- The world of water is literally a big ball of water, frozen everywhere except where a sun exists. The people live in submerged continents and follow the sun around its orbit through the water world or be caught in the ice to freeze and die.
The prison world, the Labrynth, is a world diveded into sections by gates and the prisioners must pass through gates on a journey that can take generations. Each section filled with monsters that attempt to find and kill the prisioners. At the end of the Labrynth is the Nexus, a peaceful city originally intended for the rehabilitated prisoners and not the few survivors.
All of the worlds are accessed by a Deathgate (hence the name of the trilogy).
Is that not the perfect setting for a high fantasy MMO? Think of the possibilities in each world for unique enviroments and foes? Exploration? Unique skills and magics?
Monday, August 10, 2009
Appreciation Day
Thanks to Reverend Void for putting my blog top and centre in his article in E-ON Magazine #16.
Thanks to Jon Shute and Tim Dale for the non-shout out they gave me in episode #61 of the VanHemlock podcast after a bit of twitter thuggery / bribery. For my part of the bargain I announce that there is no money to be made in trading, I was all wrong, and you should all go back to mission running and mining.
Thanks to the commenters that call me on insanity and pull me back from the edge of doing stupid things or saying stupid things.
That's all for now. Carry on.
Thanks to Jon Shute and Tim Dale for the non-shout out they gave me in episode #61 of the VanHemlock podcast after a bit of twitter thuggery / bribery. For my part of the bargain I announce that there is no money to be made in trading, I was all wrong, and you should all go back to mission running and mining.
Thanks to the commenters that call me on insanity and pull me back from the edge of doing stupid things or saying stupid things.
That's all for now. Carry on.
Tengu - The Glimmer of An Idea - Part II
Last week I posted my initial draft of a Tengu setup. The responses fell into three camps.
1) Looks ok.
2) Get a Ferox.
3) Rick Schippers: "Are you serious about pvp'ing in this? I'd like to encounter you :) A single deimos would rip this apart. You should seriously consider a fitting change."
See? This is why I post ideas before trying them out. I avoid ending up on Winterblink's fail mail section of his podcast.
Basically, I agree with all three points. It looks ok for a cruiser, but a Ferox can get similar DPS (albeit slower hull) for a tiny fraction of the cost, and a single Deimos would by a tough battle that I'd probably lose.
I tried to go back and review the chosen subsystems looking for something to improve the setup and I switched it around to lose the 7th high slot and gain a fourth low slot, exchanged resistances for more base shield points, and got a third Magnetic Field Stabilizer. That all pushed my effective hit points to over 77K and my raw DPS to 513. In other words, marginally better but still inadequate for regular PvP.
As a note: I never said solo in my original post, I was intending for small gang roaming and such. I would never solo-roam in such an expensive ship.
This highlights the problem with the Tengu: there are a lot of subsystems with bonuses to missiles but only one subsystem with bonus to hybrids. Once again Caldari hybrid pilots get the short end of the stick. So in accepting the straightjacket CCP has forced on the Tengu, I'm going to have to acknowlege that for now a blaster Tengu is not viable even for a buck-the-trend pilot like myself.
So back to the drawing board. Instead of going for the plain old missile chucking Tengu I decided to go for more esoteric abilities that a cruiser hull typically does not have. Introducing My Tengu II:
(Click to Embiggen)
Instead of a pure combat vessel, this one has a Warfare Link, probe launcher with bonus to scan probe sensor strength, covert ops cloak, immune to non-targeted warp disrupting, and bonus to overheating damage reduction. Not to mention a bonus to tractor beam range and velocity and a 493 damage absorption rate.
If I really want to spend ISK, I could upgrade the modules to this:
(Click yadda yadda yadda)
This gives a 720 sustained defence rating.
The purpose of this ship is not DPS or surviving a lot of incoming damage, but rather a utility gang ship: it uses the cloak and interdiction nullifier to probe ahead, scan probes to bust safe spots, and gang warfare link to improve fleet resistances when we engage. It could be a fun ship for flitting around 0.0. The only thing that worries me is fast locking ships with warp disruptors so maybe trade some tank for a warp core stab or two. After all, locking time for me is not important in this ship.
Thoughts?
(Best thing about the Tengu: Get all the subsystems and you can switch later on if your mood changes. Except rigs. Damn rigs.)
1) Looks ok.
2) Get a Ferox.
3) Rick Schippers: "Are you serious about pvp'ing in this? I'd like to encounter you :) A single deimos would rip this apart. You should seriously consider a fitting change."
See? This is why I post ideas before trying them out. I avoid ending up on Winterblink's fail mail section of his podcast.
Basically, I agree with all three points. It looks ok for a cruiser, but a Ferox can get similar DPS (albeit slower hull) for a tiny fraction of the cost, and a single Deimos would by a tough battle that I'd probably lose.
I tried to go back and review the chosen subsystems looking for something to improve the setup and I switched it around to lose the 7th high slot and gain a fourth low slot, exchanged resistances for more base shield points, and got a third Magnetic Field Stabilizer. That all pushed my effective hit points to over 77K and my raw DPS to 513. In other words, marginally better but still inadequate for regular PvP.
As a note: I never said solo in my original post, I was intending for small gang roaming and such. I would never solo-roam in such an expensive ship.
This highlights the problem with the Tengu: there are a lot of subsystems with bonuses to missiles but only one subsystem with bonus to hybrids. Once again Caldari hybrid pilots get the short end of the stick. So in accepting the straightjacket CCP has forced on the Tengu, I'm going to have to acknowlege that for now a blaster Tengu is not viable even for a buck-the-trend pilot like myself.
So back to the drawing board. Instead of going for the plain old missile chucking Tengu I decided to go for more esoteric abilities that a cruiser hull typically does not have. Introducing My Tengu II:
(Click to Embiggen)
Instead of a pure combat vessel, this one has a Warfare Link, probe launcher with bonus to scan probe sensor strength, covert ops cloak, immune to non-targeted warp disrupting, and bonus to overheating damage reduction. Not to mention a bonus to tractor beam range and velocity and a 493 damage absorption rate.
If I really want to spend ISK, I could upgrade the modules to this:
(Click yadda yadda yadda)
This gives a 720 sustained defence rating.
The purpose of this ship is not DPS or surviving a lot of incoming damage, but rather a utility gang ship: it uses the cloak and interdiction nullifier to probe ahead, scan probes to bust safe spots, and gang warfare link to improve fleet resistances when we engage. It could be a fun ship for flitting around 0.0. The only thing that worries me is fast locking ships with warp disruptors so maybe trade some tank for a warp core stab or two. After all, locking time for me is not important in this ship.
Thoughts?
(Best thing about the Tengu: Get all the subsystems and you can switch later on if your mood changes. Except rigs. Damn rigs.)
I'll Take That In ISK Please
Passed on from a corpmate, we have some news that CCP paid its employees in foreign currecy during the economic instability:
Question: Does Eve ISK count as a foreign currency?
Neat! Thanks Wygg.CCP staff paid in foreign currency during economic meltdown
CCP Games, based in Iceland, took a number of measures during the country's economic meltdown at the end of last year/beginning of this year in order to help its staff through the events, including paying employees in a foreign currency.
Question: Does Eve ISK count as a foreign currency?
What the Hell Happened Here?
I was travelling through Udema and spotted this at one gate:
Holy crap, what happened here to bring all the police out?
Holy crap, what happened here to bring all the police out?
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