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EVE Evolved: Preparing for the Inferno expansion
The Inferno expansion is set to launch on Tuesday May 22nd, promising a complete revamp of EVE Online's war declaration system and a whole host of new modules. If you're in a wardec corp, you'll need to make a few adjustments to the way you operate when the patch goes live. The minimum war fee will increase to 50 million ISK even if you're declaring war on a small corporation, making very small corps less-appealing targets. The fee increases based on the number of members in the target corp, but it doesn't start increasing until around the 130-member mark. If you want to get your money's worth, you'll be best off picking a target corp with 100-150 members or selecting very high-value small targets. Be very wary of wardeccing large alliances after the patch. While the previous war system swung in favour of the attacker, the new system has gone to the opposite extreme. Large corps and alliances are now significantly more costly and dangerous to declare war on, especially as the defender can now call mercenaries into the war at any time. Players have complained that the increasing war costs could be abused by getting all alliance members to add alts to the corp, but this would be a logistical nightmare to apply in practice and would increase fees by only a few hundred million ISK. If alt padding becomes a problem, CCP will undoubtedly step in and revise the fee structure. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the new modules and gameplay changes coming in Tuesday's Inferno expansion and give some tips on preparing for the patch.
Massively rounds up MMO iPhone apps
Our friends over at massively.com, a site all about massively multiplayer online games, have put together a quick roundup of iPhone apps related to MMO games. Inspired by this week's update to the World of Warcraft app, they've got apps for MMOs like Aion, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and EVE, along with a few other MMO-related downloads for you to find. Unfortunately, The Fallen Earth iPhone app still isn't out yet, but it's on the list as well, with more coming soon. Most of these apps are actually unofficial, ancillary apps; they are usually guides or calculators to help you play the games well. I think there's a lot of potential in this type of iPhone app, though, either as an official supplement to the game (like the Fallen Earth or WoW apps, which allow you to monitor and control in-game information via the app), or as a sort of meta-mini game. One idea would be an app that would allow you to earn in-game gold or play another kind of game, like a tower defense or empire building game, that somehow affected your character in the RPG at large. I think there are a lot of future possibilities for mobile games and their interaction with MMOs and other online titles. Developers have only scratched the surface of what's possible with using the mobile platform as an ancillary service.
