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EVE Evolved: Should CCP interfere in the sandbox?
When it comes to player outrage, EVE Online seems to make the headlines more than any other MMO. The game has endured several high-profile scandals in its 10-year history, from the T20 developer corruption incident in 2007 to 2011's famous Monoclegate scandal. As EVE is a true sandbox game with a focus on PvP and player competition, developers have historically limited their direct influence on the universe. The importance of limiting interference became abundantly clear during the T20 incident when it was discovered that a developer had given tech 2 blueprints and preferential treatment to the Band of Brothers alliance. This interference in the sandbox had a profound and lasting impact on EVE's political endgame and undermined the legitimate accomplishments of other alliances. Some of the same issues that were raised in the wake of that scandal have now resurfaced amidst controversy over CCP's community team and its involvement with third-party fansites. Gambling website SOMER Blink was selected to host a huge giveaway event with rare prizes provided by CCP, and the contest organisers were then given rare battleships worth billions of ISK to keep as thank-you presents. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down the details of the latest EVE Online controversy and ask whether CCP should directly interfere in the sandbox at all.
EVE Evolved: Baiting players is hilarious fun!
I originally planned to put together updated ship setups for EVE Online's newly revamped Caldari, Minmatar, and Amarr Tech 1 cruisers this week, but I've honestly been having far too much fun baiting people in highsec with last week's Vexor setup. I'm having such hilarious fun doing it that I just had to dedicate this week's column to the dirty art of the bait-and-gank! There's absolutely nothing more amusing in EVE than baiting a ship twice the size of yours into attacking you for an "easy kill" and then turning it into a very expensive smoking wreck. The basic idea of baiting is simple: Get yourself flagged as a suspect by committing a minor crime like theft, fly around waiting for someone to attack you, and then tear him to bits. Before Retribution, you were flagged as a valid target only to the individual people you stole from, but once they attacked, you were safe to engage. Now you're flagged to the whole of EVE, making it easier to get a bite but also a whole lot riskier to engage in a crowded area. It's hard to pick and choose your fights when the whole universe is gunning for you, but when you get a good bite, there are some insanely fun fights to be had. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give some top tips on how to safely bait players in high-security space, where to find the best targets, and what ships are most effective.
EVE Evolved: Fitting Gallente cruisers for PvP in Retribution
In last week's article, I mentioned that one of my favourite parts of the Retribution expansion was the tech 1 cruiser revamp that buffed all of EVE Online's cruisers to the same rough power level. Before the update, cruisers were arranged in a tiered system that gave higher-tier ships extra stats and module slots. As a result, only a few cruisers were actually viable in PvP, and the others served very little purpose elsewhere in the game. The Caldari Caracal was too slow to tackle anyone, the Amarr Omen couldn't easily fit a rack of full-sized guns, and don't get me started on the state of the tech 1 remote repair cruisers. Retribution abolished those tiers, buffing every underpowered cruiser up to the same level of power as the previous top-tier version. The Caracal got that speed it always needed, and the Omen got enough powergrid to fit a full rack of guns, but what really impressed me was what CCP did to the Vexor. With its extra module slots and the recent addition of drone damage amplifier modules, the Vexor has been transformed from a poor man's Thorax to an absolute monster that can stand toe-to-toe with battlecruisers. The Exequror and Celestis have been similarly buffed but are still specialised into logistics and electronic warfare roles. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give new PvP ship setups for each of the Gallente tech 1 cruisers buffed in Retribution, including a setup that will make you think twice about engaging a lone Vexor.
Details of EVE's long-awaited hybrid balance patch revealed
Balancing combat in a PvP-centric game like EVE Online is a tricky business. In a sandbox universe that pits fleets of hundreds of ships against each other in a struggle for territorial dominance, balance changes can alter the PvP landscape. Unfortunately, hybrid weapons have always received the short end of the stick in balancing efforts, leaving Gallente turret ships like the Deimos and Megathron behind their Amarr and Minmatar counterparts. In a new devblog, CCP Tallest adds a major Hybrid weapon rework to the growing list of long-awaited features finally making an appearance in EVE's coming winter expansion. Blasters will be receiving some much-needed CPU and powergrid reductions, a 30% reduction on capacitor usage and a huge 20% bonus to tracking speed. Railguns receive the same CPU, powergrid and capacitor reduction as blasters, in addition to a straight 10% damage increase. All ships typically fit with blasters will also be getting speed bonuses to help them get into blaster range, and tech II ammo for all turrets is due for an update.
EVE Evolved: Upgrading to a PvP cruiser: Gallente and Amarr
People come to EVE Online from many different gaming backgrounds, and for one reason or another, the game doesn't click with most people the first time they try it. Two weeks ago, I encouraged people who have tried EVE but never got it to click with them to approach the game from a new angle -- to grab a few friends and charge head-first into PvP with guns blazing from day one. In last week's EVE Evolved, I advised new players on getting into their first PvP frigate, preparing for PvP, and staying financially ahead of the inevitable ship losses. I also put together two frigate setups for each race that will fit and function well with only a few days worth of skills trained. While frigates are fantastically cheap ships in which to learn the basics of PvP, their effectiveness on the battlefield is limited. Most tech 1 frigates struggle to deal anywhere near 100 damage per second, and if caught by enemy tacklers they die quickly. While the next step up is the destroyer class, I strongly advise PvP-oriented players to skip it and move straight on to cruisers. Although cruisers have less mobility than frigates and are easier for large ships to hit, they pack a big punch for a relatively low cost and can take a bit of a beating. In this week's extra large EVE Evolved, I share effective and battle-tested setups for the Thorax, Vexor, Arbitrator, and Omen that new players can use with less than two weeks of skills trained. I also suggest skills to train and give a few tips for keeping costs down. If you're a fan of Minmatar or Caldari ships, tune in to next week's EVE Evolved for the continuation of this article.
