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EVE Evolved: Capital ships ruined nullsec
All throughout EVE Online's lifetime, compelling stories of incredible events, daring heists, and colossal battles with thousands of players have periodically surfaced and spread across the gaming media like wildfire. Most of the recent stories have been about record-breaking battles between huge alliances of players in the lawless depths of null-security space, and each one has been met with an influx of new players who want to participate. The surprising truth behind nullsec warfare, however, is that many of those on the front lines are simply fed up with the political state of the game. In EVE's early years, the map was split between hundreds of small alliances, each of which slowly expanded its influence by conquering the star systems bordering its space. Skirmishes and pirate incursions were brief and commonplace, while border wars over territory were long and protracted affairs. Today's nullsec is a different animal entirely, with nearly the entire map carved up between two colossal mega-coalitions of alliances (N3/PL and CFC), each one internally held in a state of perpetually monotonous peace. No alliance in a coalition can break away and stand on its own for fear of being demolished by the others, and so all of nullsec is at peace with its neighbours and bored to tears by it. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I examine how nullsec got to the state it's in now and why it's badly in need of an overhaul.
EVE Evolved: Getting people to actually fight
EVE Online has always been strongly focused on PvP, from the obvious activity of smashing ships together to the more subtle cutthroat nature of competitive market trading and corporate politics. EVE is testament to the fact that if you put enough people in one place and ask them to share and play nice, pretty soon they'll be tearing each other's eyes out. Though the lack of direct flight controls and steep death penalty turn a lot of people off trying EVE, I have to admit that I've yet to find a better PvP experience in any MMO -- when I can actually get a good fight, that is. Everyone who engages in PvP regularly will have stories to tell of some of the awesome fights he's had, but in truth they're few and far between. For every fight so spectacular that its story is retold for years, there are hundreds of quiet nights, failed roams, and encounters that end in disaster. Lowsec is particularly troublesome as the lack of warp disruption fields can make it hard to deprive enemies of an escape route and get them to actually fight. Warp bubbles bring their own problems, so what can be done to add more PvP opportunities to lowsec without allowing players to use area-effect warp disruption? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the factors that prevent good fights and stifle PvP in lowsec.
EVE dev blog outlines starbase-related tweaks
Oh those crazy CCP devs! Not too long ago the company was hell-bent on steering EVE Online down the microtransaction dress-up path, and now the folks behind the sci-fi sandbox are posting spaceship-centric blog updates on a daily basis. The title of the latest feel-good entry is Starbase Happy Fun Time (we kid you not), and it's all about introducing the changes that are appearing in advance of CCP's planned starbase revamp. CCP Greyscale gives us the skinny on tweaks to jump bridges, timers, and fuel blocks, and all of the adjustments are being made with an eye towards increasing capsuleer quality of life across the board. If the balance change theme sounds somewhat familiar, it's because CCP is making a habit of saying all the right things lately.
EVE's Incursion 1.5 patch goes live
Capsuleers attempting to log in to EVE Online today will be greeted with the familiar "new build available" popup. Yep, it's patch day, and CCP is updating Incursion to version 1.5 (although it's only a 16-megabyte download, so you won't be out of commission for long). Nonetheless, the update does bring some significant change to New Eden. As we told you earlier this week, agents are getting an overhaul, as are associated connection skills. Another helpful bit in today's patch is the new visual differentiation between blueprint originals and blueprint copies. Onboard ship scanners have had their ranges extended to 64 AU, and of course, the changes to jump bridge-capable ships are now in effect as well. There are a few more tweaks courtesy of Incursion 1.5, and you can read all about them via the official patch notes.
