Eve Online

[Marc]

And it would be so easy to remove bots, if they wouldn't give a f*ck about whining people

How?

 

[old.Tohtori]

How?

Active mining/etc, taking away from afk activities(like auto-pilot), random check-ups for human presence at keyboard(press space or be booted) etc.

Oh and giving pirates tools to find repetitive actions across the universe.

Top of head to start with. If you kick customer comfort out the window for success in bot-combat, you CAN eliminate it or make it too hard.

Not so easy, needing of some design, but better all around would be to incorporate bots into the game and adjust market/game accordingly.

 

[Marc]

Wont really work in practice. Can you imagine, in the middle of a huge fleet battle and you are flying logistics and a message comes up "PRESS SPACE OR DIE". The tears would be immense. I do believe CCP can do more mind.

Once I get my new PC which will be able to handle the same amount of bots as my mate runs, I think I might do it. Not to RMT mind, just to get a titan or 3

 

[old.Tohtori]

Wont really work in practice. Can you imagine, in the middle of a huge fleet battle and you are flying logistics and a message comes up "PRESS SPACE OR DIE". The tears would be immense. I do believe CCP can do more mind.

Just an example of concept. And as said, it wouldn't go down well with players, but it IS an option.

I think the best way would be still to integrate bots into the world, especially as they are lore friendly.

How that would be done would require some design of this and that and since i don't work for CCP, i have no interest in doing their damn job

 

[Ctuchik]

I think the best way would be still to integrate bots into the world, especially as they are lore friendly.

Need i actually explain why this is a bad idea, if you think about it?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Need i actually explain why this is a bad idea, if you think about it?

There are no bad ideas, only bad integration.

 

[Marc]

Yay! Supercap nerf confirmed. Bye Bye Raiden & Northen Coalition (dot)

Dev Blog: Capital Ship Balancing.

 

[Ctuchik]

There are no bad ideas, only bad integration.

And adding legal bots are bad integration.

But just for the sake of the discussion, how would they be implemented? And what would need to be done to keep them from ruining the economy more then it already is?

 

[old.Tohtori]

And adding legal bots are bad integration.

But just for the sake of the discussion, how would they be implemented? And what would need to be done to keep them from ruining the economy more then it already is?

You seem to be mistaken what integration is

Legal bots are a feature, implementing them is the design issue and as i said, not going to design it as i'm not paid to do so.

Let's just say that the bad integration would be to just plop them in.

 

[Ctuchik]

You seem to be mistaken what integration is

No i'm just using the word in a different way.

Bots -legal or otherwise- isn't going to solve anything.

The people that use "illegal" bots would keep using them because the limitations on the legal bots would be to heavy to be worth it.

 

[old.Tohtori]

No i'm just using the word in a different way.

Bots -legal or otherwise- isn't going to solve anything.

The people that use "illegal" bots would keep using them because the limitations on the legal bots would be to heavy to be worth it.

In the wrong way

Bots can solve things as there are no bad ideas. Depends how you implement it, aka, integration. Limitations, balancing market, illegal bots wouldn't even exist etc.

But you have to be a designer to really see how it CAN be implemented, without going into detail how.

For example, if you say "chuicken cannons" to a player, they think chicken cannons. A designer doesn't, they go through a whole different thought process.

 

[Marc]

Mittens and Goonswarm win EvE.

CCP cancel world of darkness to concentrate on EvE and lay off 20% of their staff, including Goonswarm/Mittani's biggest critic...CCP Fallout.

The Mittani must be approaching levels of smugness never seen before.

 

[LordjOX]

For the CCP news update: CCPGAMES.COM - Press Releases

Personally I think WoD mmo sounds more fun than DUST, but I guess DUST is much further underway

 

[rynnor]

Hmm I think the real reason for this is income projections - with a prolonged recession/depression ahead they must realise its not the time to use up their cash flow on too much ambitious development.

 

[LordjOX]

And btw they didn't cancel WoD, but keeping it in pre-production phase with a skeleton crew. We are going to see it some day, but probably not this decade

Well DUST is very ambitious to be fair, don't think anyone have created an FPS tie-in to another MMO before. Hard to tell if its going to have any success if its a subpar scifi shooter. That is, if its going to appeal to anyone but EVE fans

 

[svartalf]

After sacking 20% of their staff (mostly at White Wolf, I think), CCP say...
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/10/21/eve-ceo-we-are-back-in-the-spaceship-business/

EVE CEO: 'We are back in the spaceship business'

by Jef Reahard

on Oct 21st 2011 9:30AM

Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox


CCP's damage control tour continues, and the latest stop is Eurogamer. CEO Hilmar Petursson recently sat down for a lengthy interview with the website and offered up what should be music to the ears of disgruntled EVE Online veterans.

"We're really focused on making kick-ass EVE expansions in the more traditional way that we've done so many times in the past. What becomes of the store and Incarna is something that's not a big priority right now," he said.

Petursson also has some interesting things to say about his own accountability during EVE's turbulent summer and the role of the player-run Council of Stellar Management. "I'm starting to get feedback from players that they worry the CSM is too pre-occupied by a certain playstyle. That might mean we may need to change the structure, but definitely the CSM has worked as a feedback tool greatly throughout the years," he explained. Head to Eurogamer for the full report.

• Source: Eurogamer
• More coverage: EVE website

Tags: cash-shop, ccp, ccp-games, council-of-stellar-management, eve, eve-online, flying-in-space, hilmar-petursson, incarna, internet-spaceships, interview, monoclegate, sandbox, sci-fi, store

 

[rynnor]

Heh - did I read that last bit right as 'we will revenge ourselves on certain members of the CSM' ?

 

[svartalf]

This from here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3001

ship-troduction: the minmatar tornado
reported by CCP Guard | 2011.10.21 15:13:57 | Comments

As we have hinted at, the Tornado, originally designed by dreamwa1ker from Deviant Art (Pattern Clarc in EVE), is warping into the 2011 winter expansion...and it's bringing friends.



We couldn‘t just give the Minmatar a new ship and leave the other factions out (NPC military escalation doesn’t work like that), so, in the spririt of mutually assured destruction,  each of the factions have sent their best engineers and scientists to the drafting boards and will also be rolling out a new tier 3 battlecruiser.

„But isn‘t the Tornado a battleship?“

According to the original concept it was, yes. But when reviewing the armadas of existing ships we came to the conclusion that it would make much more sense to add another tier of battlecruisers instead of a fourth battleship tier, and that the accessibility of bc skills would mean more of these ships might be in the hands of younger, brasher pilots. That means more pew pew pew overall.

What sets these new battlecruisers apart from their lower tier cousins?

The most unique thing about them is that they will be able to fit battleship-sized weapons. Yes, you heard correctly... battlecruisers with oversized guns.

They will be capable of similar damage output as a battleship but obviously all that damage comes at a price.They won‘t be able to tank like a battleship, but what they lack in the tanking department the right pilot should be able to somewhat make up for  with speed and distance management. Those looking to start minmaxing fleets of TÖTALHELLDEATH will have to wait a bit for the stats.



The concept is; violent, fast and fun.

In the following weeks we will be introducing the Tornado‘s three counterparts. Stay tuned!

 

[Marc]

So all the changes have been leaked now. All i can say is...WOW! Huge Gallente buff!

Someone has managed to EFT the new Tier 3 BC's and the Gallente BC does 975 DPS with speed of 1600!!! Turrets have had their tracking sorted aswell so thats some insane dps.

 

[Punishment]

Gallente needed a buff it was their turn, range will still be a major issue for them unless they are given falloff similar to minny autos

 

[svartalf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kBAWayqELU&feature=player_embedded

 

[svartalf]

You lucky, lucky Eve players, you! Custom ship paintjob, sir?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J42F4WkeFQ4

 

[svartalf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dInM9k3tTSw

 

[Ctuchik]

Gallente needed a buff it was their turn, range will still be a major issue for them unless they are given falloff similar to minny autos

They are not going to get better falloff with that kind of DPS and speed.

 

[svartalf]

Does this address your issues, Punishment?

EVE Evolved: Gallente and hybrid balance

by Brendan Drain

on Nov 6th 2011 6:00PM

Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, PvE, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox


It's been another week filled with announcements and positive news for EVE Online, with CCP showing off EVE's new nebulae and revealing the Amarr and Caldari tier 3 battlecruisers. For Gallente pilots, no news was celebrated more than the rebalancing of hybrid weapons and ships that specialise in their use. Short-range blasters can technically deliver the highest damage output of any turret, but their extremely short optimal range means they deal a smaller fraction of their maximum damage in most fights than other ships. Blaster ships have to spend valuable travel time closing into weapons range, and once up close, targets are hard to track.

Although railguns were designed by the Caldari, they're hybrid weapons just like blasters, and so they are the long-range weapon of choice for Gallente sniping and mission-running ships. They have good range and tracking speed but have always suffered from slightly worse damage output and alpha strike than beam lasers and artillery cannons of the same size. Countless suggestions for fixes to blasters and railguns have appeared on the forum over the years, but until now they've remained unchanged. As a Gallente pilot and avid Thorax and Dominix fan, I'm very excited by the hybrid balance changes coming this winter.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I take a break from the new player experience experiment to take a look at the impact of the upcoming hybrid balance patch and why the announced changes are needed.

The problem with blasters

Part of the reason I think we haven't seen a blaster buff over the years is that on paper it looks like there's nothing wrong. If you put together a graph showing how turret damage decreases as a measure of distance and compare blasters to autocannons and pulse lasers, blasters could be considered competitive. At point-blank range, they deal more damage than any other turret, and though that damage falls off quickly beyond the turret's optimal range, that trade-off could be seen as worthwhile. Unfortunately, as much as we often joke about EVE being the world's biggest interactive spreadsheet, real battles don't take place on graphs.

Combat in EVE happens on scales as small as one-on-one fights and as large as thousand-player territorial wars, and the terms of engagement change the further up that scale you go. Pirates picking targets carefully can make full use of blasters by warping directly on top of a surprised pilot, and in small-scale skirmishes, the extra few seconds it takes to close into optimal range won't usually make a huge difference. When you start to get dozens or even hundreds of players involved, however, the ability to focus fire immediately on one target is essential and called targets tend to die very quickly. Taking a few more seconds to get in range of a target after having locked him is completely unacceptable in a fight of that scale.

The blaster fix

Rather than homogenising turret types by giving blasters a larger optimal range, huge falloff or better long-range ammo, CCP seems to be aiming to keep blasters as the top damage-dealing turret in the game if you can get close enough to use them. The increased damage of blaster-based ships over autocannon or pulse laser ships was always meant to be balanced out by the additional difficulty of getting in range, but right now the damage isn't high enough to make using blasters worth it in all but the smallest-scale fights.

This seems to be where the majority of the balancing effort is focused, by helping the ship to get into range faster and increasing the maximum damage obtainable once you get there. When the patch hits, all blasters will have their CPU and powergrid requirements decreased, which should allow most setups to swap a few electron blasters for ion blasters or a few ion blasters for neutron blasters. This will increase damage, optimal range, falloff and alpha strike across the board. A massive 20% increase to tracking speed corrects for the lower tracking speed of ion and neutron blasters and should help blaster ships hit targets more easily once they've closed in to point blank range.

Railguns

Railguns have always suffered from a low base damage, having neither the alpha strike potential of artillery nor the sustained damage output of beam lasers. The Gallente Megathron has trouble getting its range high enough to snipe without having to hit targets beyond optimal range for reduced damage. The Caldari Rokh, in comparison, can easily reach the 250km optimal range mark but has no damage bonus. As a result, in a mixed sniping fleet of Rokhs, Apocalypses, Megathrons and Tempests, the railgun-toting Megathrons and Rokhs will be dealing less damage than their Minmatar and Amarr counterparts.

CCP plans to increase all railgun damage by a straight 10% to compensate, which should be enough to put all long-range weapon systems on equal footing. As they were designed to be used on Caldari ships, railguns have horrendously large CPU requirements but low powergrid usage. This has been both a blessing and a curse for Gallente pilots, as the extra powergrid allows us to fit some buffer tank to ships, but the CPU requirements make most setups a very tight fit. In active-tanking setups like the popular mission-running Dominix, the extra powergrid is also eaten up by armour repairers, and we've had to compromise by fitting smaller 350mm railguns instead of 425mms. Railguns will be getting the same CPU and powergrid reduction as blasters, which should help us fit a full rack of railguns without sacrificing much tank.

A matter of speed

Ships that are primarily used as blaster boats will be getting speed increases and inertia decreases to help them get into range faster. Speed has typically always been associated with Minmatar autocannon ships, which actually have a much smaller optimal range than blasters. However, the huge falloff range and zero capacitor usage of autocannons makes them a much more forgiving weapon for pilots fighting outside optimal range. While a Stabber pilot can rig his ship for increased falloff and then fight outside web range, for example, Gallente blaster ships don't really have that option and have to get dangerously close to the target.

An acceleration increase was certainly needed to help blaster ships close the gap with a target and help railgun ships dictate the range of engagement. Rather than decreasing the mass of ships that use hybrids, CCP has opted to modify the ships' inertia modifier directly. This will reduce the effect of not only the ship's base mass on acceleration but also the mass of any armour plates fitted. This is a big deal for Gallente ships, which typically use an armour buffer tank for PvP.


As a big fan of Gallente ships, I'm really looking forward to the hybrid balance changes coming in the winter expansion. I've always considered the Thorax to be the most well-balanced cruiser in the game, but I've always found its damage output to be very inconsistent. If you can't close into your target quickly enough, or if your transverse velocity is slightly too high, you might as well be firing pillows and kittens.

The new tier 3 battlecruisers will be able to fit large turrets, and after these balance changes, I have the feeling that the Gallente Talos and Caldari Naga will be absolute monsters in PvP. Both ships will be able to fit large railguns to snipe at distances no other battlecruiser can or fit blasters to dish out some close-range pain.

Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is an early veteran of EVE Online and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column here at Massively. The column covers anything and everything relating to EVE Online, from in-depth guides to speculative opinion pieces. If you have an idea for a column or guide, or you just want to message him, send an email to brendan@massively.com.

Tags: balance, balancing, blaster, blasters, caldari, caldari-naga, ccp, ccp-eve, ccp-games, dominix, eve, eve-ccp, eve-evolved, eve-mmorpg, eve-online, expansion, featured, gallente, gallente-talos, hybrid, hybrid-weapons, megathron, naga, patch, pve, pvp, railgun, railguns, rokh, sniper, sniping, spreadsheets-in-space, talos, thorax

 

[Punishment]

They are not going to get better falloff with that kind of DPS and speed.

Mini ships are almost all faster and their dps is only slightly less that hybrids, railgun damage is a joke tracking even moreso

 

[Ctuchik]

would be nice to see the figures on the other t3 BC's, but i can't find anything.

 

[svartalf]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/10/new-eve-video-takes-you-behind-the-core-technology-curtain/

Guff, this time, really.

New EVE video takes you behind the core technology curtain

by Jef Reahard on Nov 10th 2011 4:30PM

Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox


Holy cow, would you believe that CCP has put out another positive press blurb? We know, it shocks us too, and the unfailingly chipper Icelandic development firm is winding down a week full of dev blog updates with a behind-the-scenes look at EVE Online's core technology team.

Thankfully there's a video involved, as a text-based behind-the-scenes look would be almost as boring as a New Eden mining run. Also, flying-in-space fans, beware: There are some stretches of the clip that focus on full-body avatars and other "non-essential" gameplay elements. Aside from that, there are bits dealing with ship shadows, readability and usability issues with the star map, and some details on the new open source crash reporting system.

• Source: YouTube
• More coverage: EVE website
  

Tags: avatars, core-technologies-team, core-technology, crash-reporting-tool, eve, eve-online, new-eden, positivity, sandbox, sci-fi, star-map, starmap, ui, video

 

[svartalf]

Eve Crucible 29th Nov: http://www.eveonline.com/en/crucible

Sans Neue Font Brings Clarity to Chat
New Station-themed Captain’s Quarters
Time Dilation
Ship Spinning and Graphics Tweaking

COMING SOON:
Hybrid weapons balancing
Assault ships
Capital ship balancing
New T2 modules
Starbase logistics management
T2 Rigs manufacturing

More bosses, more modules, more loot, less lurking, less scraps, less pop-up bother
Size Matters: Scaling the User Interface (UI)

etc etc, you get the idea.

 

[Punishment]

It's so sad after all the time i put into this game that i just have no inclination to go back to either of my 2 50m SP+ chars