Star Map Functionality: Too Freaking Long

When CCP released the Beta Star Map last December I was happy the map was getting love but not impressed:

So, to clarify my position in more than 140 or less characters, yes it is great that they are finally working on the map. As long as they continue to work on it and enhance it to the point where it exists as a viable option for pilots of numerous roles to use instead of Dotlan maps, I will be happy.
But I'm not going to cheer for CCP for the beta maps that (a) do not go far enough and (b) should have been started over 5 years ago. It would be like rewarding my kids for finally picking up a mess of toys after ignoring it for hours since I asked them to clean it up. Everyone knew the map sucked yet it was left to languish to the detriment of many a pilot, both new and old.
Do not mistake my position as not supportive because I am one of CCP's biggest fans. Nor do not tar me with a brush of "whining" or "bitching" because I had the temerity to suggest we hold off our congratulations for the finished map product. I will not give out kudos where they are not deserved until the in game map provides the complete functionality we need.
That is not a bar too high to hold CCP to.

The responses to that reaction were from both sides of the issue, some agreeing with me that its about time CCP get to work on the maps and some that said there was no reason to work on the map due to Dotlan Maps being so functional, and a few saying CCP was just starting (Beta!) and give them some time.

Its been 10 months, and the functionality of the "beta" star map has not insinuated itself into my normal play. Admittedly, I have not tried to make use of it as Dotlan on another monitor continues to satisfy all my needs.

Then I saw this on EVE Updates tentatively scheduled for this Winter:

This makes me insanely happy and extremely frustrated.

This functionality of the directional scanner has been desperately needed for the 9 years I've been playing (admittedly the F11 map had a 2D version that worked half-ass-edly) and to see it finally manifesting itself in game is great, but we need more than this. When I'm not in the map doing tight directional scans I want to see the circle representing my cone on the screen! Is this so hard? Gah.

Making the map awesome in game is taking too freaking long.

Yeah yeah yeah, dotlan maps, other priorities, nice they are getting to it, the usual responses.

Warship Wednesday: Sea Maps

Last week I promised to talk about all the maps in World of Warships so since I have not got a new ship yet (unlocked the Shokaku but still a few battles from the Amagi) I guess I'll do what I said I would do.

Islands

Only seen in tier 1 to 3 matches, this map is small but very interesting with three domination points running down the middle from north to south. For the early battleships, this map is nice as it provides lots of cover to advance (slowly) behind and then open up on the overconfident cruisers.








Ocean

Some people hate this map because of its lack of terrain but I personally love it. Its all about positioning and reacting properly to enemy movements, as opposed to utilizing terrain to your advantage. I wouldn't want to play it all the time but its a nice change.

Destroyers and cruisers tend to have the hardest time on this map where aircraft can see for miles and battleship range comes into play. Try not to get too far from friendlies or you will simply get pounded into dust.


Big Race

Only seen in lower tiers, I really don't like this map. A quarter of the map is the large island in the south west which makes it only playable by aircraft carrier planes. The alley right beside that island is death for anyone but destroyers and lucky cruisers, and even if a battleship wanted to go that way, it effectively removes him from the rest of the battle due to tight sight lines. So a lot of fighting of big ships happens up in the north east corner. Occasionally the middle sees action but unless a majority of your team goes with you, its a deathtrap. Most of the time the battle boils down to who wins the north east as the dessies in the south west usually cancel each other out. Just yuck.

New Dawn

A nice big map for lower-mid level tiers, I like this map a lot. Lots of options for all the ship classes to try out, battles can play out very differently, long sight lines for battleships to reach out and participate but still lots of islands for destroyers and cruisers to duck behind. Always fun. Could use an encounter mode to go with domination and standard modes.






Fault Line

You're going to see this map a lot. Used in low mid and high mid tier games, typically in 3-point domination or standard-domination (where the standard flags are replaced by domination points) this is a nice map overall with lots of variation, but long range battleship fire is tough to pull off and destroyers love all the little islands with tight straits to fill with torpedoes. Beware the C point on the east side, it can be a death trap to the unwary. I usually avoid it.






North

I like to think of this map as Fault Line's big brother as they share a similar DNA. Typically uses 4-point domination mode, but IIRC sometimes standard-domination mode, its a map where once you commit to either extreme you have given up on influencing the other extreme and leave it to your teammates to handle. Battleships typcially like going to A point in the west because its wide open and harder for destroyers to be evil, while in turn dessies love B and C for their ambush points on both sides. D is other spot that in some games no one goes for at all because committing to it means you will never see A or B and its hard to support C without going through an extremely dangerous strait.

Bees to Honey, AKA Hotspot

The wiki claims its called Bees to Honey but I never have see it called anything put Hotspot. In closed Beta this map was the devil because it splits the teams up, half in one corner and half in the other corner, and spread 5 domination points around (or one encounter flag in the middle). Since going live, it still does the evil split but does a 3-point or 5 point domination which seems to encourage less ganging up on a single enemy flank. Not sure why. For carriers, this map sucks because there is no place to hide or run away too. Battleships have some lines of sight but there is also a lot of islands for smaller ships to take cover. Not my favourite map but I don't hate it either.

Islands of Ice

Only seen in the highest tier matches, this massive map is a lot of fun and a lot of frustration. Either played in four point domination (with point A in the north west and down to point D in the south east in a diagonal line) or encounter with flag in middle, this map has two large open areas for the biggest of the big ships to duel it out, yet still plenty of icebergs and islands to sneak about. Can be tough on lower tier ships pulled into these matches, especially low tier carriers with slower planes that can have large distances to travel. One of my favourite maps in a battleship though.



Two Brothers

I love this map because its so different. Instead of having a sparse middle like all the other maps, this one has two huge islands in the middle with a small pass between them (which someone almost always tries to run for the surprise factor to the point where someone always sits and waits for the fool to appear). The end result is both teams usually splitting into two forces and each trying to win, although sometimes you will get one team giving up a flank and going all in on the other side. Both approaches have pros and cons and I like the chances either way.



Newest maps not on wiki:

Solomon Islands

I'm still forming an opinion on this map. See it a lot on low to mid tiers, runs standard or three point domination modes, the large open areas are good for cruisers and battleships, not so friendly to destroyers. The C point in the north east seems to be pivotal, more so than the A point in the south west.








The Strait

I hate hate HATE this map. Like Hotspot, it splits the fleet so that one side has a part of the fleet in the north west corner and part in the south west corner, and the enemy has their fleet split into the east corners. Except the fleet is divided unevenly and your smaller split is facing against the enemy larger split. Gah. So it boils down to who's stronger force can win against the weaker force faster for the most part. Not much fun, not much variation, and not interesting. I wish they would rework this map to be very different, perhaps have the dominaiton points running diagonally and have the fleets start in opposite corners.

Mapping

One huge deficiency in Eve is the lack of an adequate in-game map. I find the in-game map nearly useless to use most of the time because it presents too much information.

Sure, its nice to see at a glance where the killings are occurring or where there are pilots in space in the last hour, but to actually see a region and the links between systems? Virtually impossible. At best you can see the neighbours of your current system and sort of see the systems on your current route to your destination, but to try and see alternate routes requires out of game maps like Ombey's 2d maps or Eve Strategic Maps.

So when I sit at my desk at work and dream of how I'm going to participate in Faction Warfare, I want to see what the warzone looks like and where I can start exploring and hunting. But there is no current out of game map that I'm aware of that shows the systems in the warzone, and in game I can just see a collection of coloured dots representing the systems and I have to hover over every one to see the name and its impossible to see the warp routes to each one.

So I made a map using cut and paste of Ombey's 2d maps and here is what I created: the Minmatar Amarr Warzone. Note that all the high sec systems are not warzones but are for reference only (expect Anher in Metropolis, its a warzone).

If I ever get the gumption, I might make a condensed version myself to represent the map for easier printing and following, but for now it suits my purposes. So when people on the milita channel are calling out system names for locations of enemies, I can quickly see what they are tlaking about and how it will relate to my position.

If I ever get to play again that is.

UPDATE: I'm wrong, high sec Anher and low sec Hagilur behind it are not warzone systems.

It Arrived!

Since I had tennis last night and got home from work late, I didn't beg off my wife with the twins to play Eve. But I did get a package in the mail that I was quite excited to see finally.

My copy of the Eve Maps arrived and I wasted no time in opening it up and marvelling at its sexiness. Its not that I needed the book; Ombeve's 2D maps work create and have pretty much the same information but I wanted to splurge on something Eve-related (a habit from the Warhammer hobby I'm sure which never lacked more things to buy) and its nice to have all the regions pre-printed and bound in a nice format that easily works on the desk. If you are an Eve pilot and have some coin to spend, I highly recommend it just for the feel of the pages and the coolness factor.

This morning I had some time before work and completed the jump of my friend's assets from low sec to high sec. Once the goods were in a contract, I auto-piloted the Nomad through high sec to Minmatar space leaving only a Blockade runner of stuff left to be moved which I shuttled back for and will move tonight. All of Kirith's stuff is gone as well. Goodbye Placid, its not your fault I am leaving again and I'm sure someday I'll be back again.

A new dev-blog on Factional Warfare was released this morning describing more details about the combat system they are putting into place. It sounds very exciting with both missions and encounters (i.e. cosmic anomalies) will have gates limiting access to certain classes of ships:

• Level 1 – Tech I frigates and destroyers
• Level 2 – Tech I frigates, destroyers and cruisers, Tech II frigates
• Level 3 – Tech I frigates, destroyers, cruisers and battlecruisers, Tech II frigates, destroyers and cruisers
• Level 4 – All ships not requiring "Capital Ships" skill

Its interesting that Battleships and Command Ships (along with all capital ships) won't have access to Level 3 or less areas. I'm mostly pumped about the level 1 and 2 areas where the less used ships can really get to shine. Assuming they can get to the areas through pirate infested space.

Of course, the release date is a lot sooner than expected, June 10th. I need to get booting to get Katana Securities ready in time to sign up!