mini-professions
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CCP releases first video tutorial for exploration in EVE Online
Exploration is one of the more rewarding mini-professions a player can have in EVE Online. With the right skills you can scan down all types of hidden content, such as harvestable gas clouds, hidden asteroid belts, and combat encounters that take advantage of an explorer's skills like Archaeology and Hacking. The new exploration system that became part of EVE with the Apocrypha expansion last winter also made it possible for players to discover wormholes leading to uncharted space. However, exploration is also something a number of new players feel daunted by. (Truth be told though, the drag and drop system of manually guiding probes on a map and adjusting scan ranges is *far* easier than what many of the older players will remember from exploration pre-Apocrypha.) EVE Online currently has four different exploration tutorials in-game to help players get a handle on the profession, but sometimes it's easier to just sit back and watch how it's done. CCP has now released a video tutorial for exploration that teaches players how to scan down the hidden content. The EVE Online: Scanning Guide Tutorial is a tag team effort from EVE TV's CCP Charlie who goes through the steps while Stevie SG narrates. They show the viewer how it's possible to find a wormhole in just a few minutes. The video tutorial coincides with the free Zephyr exploration ship that players are receiving as a holiday gift from CCP Games. Stay with us after the jump for a video embed of the official Scanning Guide Tutorial for EVE Online.
EVE Online devs seek your input on improving the New Player Experience
EVE Online can be a daunting game to get a handle on. Still, the New Player Experience (NPE) that greets rookies today is far better than the early tutorials that some of us at Massively, and no doubt a number of our readers, experienced 'back in the day'. There are many careers and mini-professions a player can choose to pursue in EVE, but conveying this in the NPE -- and guiding these new players towards these playstyles -- remains a challenge for CCP Games. This is the focus of the latest dev blog by EVE Online developer CCP Soundwave. He explains how player feedback has made those first weeks of gameplay a much smoother learning experience for the game's rookies. However, he notes that they're continuing to improve the NPE for the next expansion. To that end, CCP is seeking input from the players on these questions:
EVE dev blog explains tricking out your ships with new rigs
Pilots in EVE Online can do a lot to optimize their ship loadouts for specific purposes. Many ship hulls in the game can be quite versatile depending upon which modules you choose, allowing a pilot to excel in a particular pursuit or task in EVE. Another layer of ship customization is the use of rigs, essentially devices that impart specific bonuses to a ship. These add-ons allow you to do anything from perma-running your Level 4 mission tank to pinpointing hidden exploration content. But the high costs and fact that rigs can't be removed without destroying them have ensured they're used almost exclusively on large ship classes, namely battleships, given their substantial tanks and survivability. Pilots who prefer to fly smaller ships like frigates and cruisers will soon have more cost-effective options for tricking out their ships using small and medium rigs, to be introduced with Apocrypha 1.5 in August. Small rigs will be used on frigates, destroyers, interceptors, and interdictors, priced between 100k - 1 million ISK. Medium rigs will be installed on cruisers, industrials, and battlecruisers, at a cost between 600k ISK and 5 million ISK. These are substantially reduced prices from the game's current offerings, but these smaller rigs won't have watered down bonuses. They will provide the same benefits (and drawbacks) as the larger rigs in terms of percentages.
