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US Army looking to resupply troops via mortar bombardment
The US Army is working on a new means of rapidly resupplying its troops using hollowed out artillery shells. The system, while still in its concept phase, could eventually help deliver critical ammunition and medical equipment to its forces, even in the middle of a firefight.
US' new stealth destroyer may finally have affordable ammo
To put it mildly, the US screwed up when it decided to carry on with its Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers when they depended on smart ammo the Navy couldn't afford. However, it might have a clever workaround. Officials speaking to USNI News say the Navy is looking at Raytheon's Excalibur, a GPS-guided artillery round, as a substitute for the custom LRLAP (Long Range Land Attack Projectile) shells the Zumwalt's main guns were designed to use. Excalibur has roughly half the range at about 30 miles, but it costs much less -- about a quarter of the $800,000-plus cost per round of LRLAP. It can also hit moving targets where LRLAP couldn't.
EVE Evolved: Fitting Heavy Assault Cruisers in Odyssey 1.1, part 2
EVE Online recently revamped all of the Heavy Assault Cruisers in its Odyssey 1.1 update, in addition to buffing active shield boosters and armour repairers and rebalancing medium beam lasers and railguns. Last week I put together a new brawler setup for the recently revamped Deimos, a sentry drone sniper fitting for the Ishtar, an extremely effective anti-frigate Cerberus setup, and a sadly underwhelming railgun Eagle. This week I've turned my attention toward the Amarr and Minmatar HACs, with some surprising results. The Zealot and Sacrilege are still as powerful as ever, and the Muninn may see some use as a tactical frigate sniper, but this patch could see many players retiring their Vagabonds. The nano-fit Vagabond was once the unrivaled number one ship for lone pirates, able to speed-tank anything larger than a frigate and still deal over 500 DPS. It engaged safely from outside web range, moved too fast for turrets to track, and absorbed any attacks that did hit with its sizable buffer tank. When CCP made warp scramblers knock out microwarpdrives, Vagabond pilots adapted with dual propulsion module fits that use a microwarpdrive to approach the target and an afterburner to orbit. Unfortunately, the Vagabond didn't fare well in the Odyssey 1.1 patch and players aren't sure if they can adapt this time. In this week's EVE Evolved, I put together PvP setups for the at the Zealot, Sacrilege, Muninn, and Vagabond Heavy Assault Cruisers.
EVE Evolved: Odyssey 1.1 and PvP balance
It's been just under three months since EVE Online's exploration-focused Odyssey expansion went live, bringing in a new hacking minigame and significantly buffing the underused tier 1 and tier 2 battleships. With a complete rebalancing all of the tech 1 sub-capital ships now complete, CCP has turned its attention to some of the oldest tech 2 ships in the game: Heavy Assault Ships and Command Ships. Developers have been testing out changes to these ships on the test server and hitting up players for feedback since Odyssey went live, and the results are finally ready to deploy. Odyssey 1.1 will go live in two days time on September 3rd and contains some pretty big changes that are sure to shake up the PvP landscape. Medium-sized long-range weapons have been buffed beyond all recognition, and a buff to active tanking may soon make it viable in PvP. Heavy Assault Ships and Command Ships have been beefed up, the Dominix is getting a small nerf following its absolute dominance in the Alliance Tournament, and the Nosferatu energy vampire module may be about to make a return to PvP setups. In this week's EVE Evolved, I analyse the upcoming Odyssey 1.1 patch and what the new ship balance changes mean for the average player.
World of Tanks staggers release of artillery-laden Update 8.6
Artillery fans in Europe waiting for World of Tank's update 8.6 can start enjoying the all the goodies that this patch brings today, from the new artillery units to the new Korean-based Sacred Valley battle arena. Other areas of the globe, however, will have a longer wait before they can participate in the patch; it will go live in Southeast Asia on June 20th, followed by the American release on June 25th, and then finally hit South Korea on July 4th. Also included in this update are new SPGs that boost that line to Tier X and the A33 Excelsior, a new premium British tank. Take a look at the vehicles in the renderings, screenshots, and artwork in the gallery below. And in case you missed the teaser trailer for this update, we've tucked it behind the break for you!%Gallery-191798% [Source: Wargaming press release]
EVE Evolved: All there is to know about DUST 514
Last week, EVE Online developer CCP Games officially started accepting beta signups for its upcoming MMOFPS DUST 514. This first phase of closed beta tests will be open only to active EVE Online subscribers, giving us an early opportunity to contribute feedback to the game's development ahead of console players. I think that's important because it's our universe that the game will take place in -- literally. DUST 514 players will be connecting to EVE Online's supercluster, so gameplay between the two titles will be intimately linked in realtime. With the new game's release date set for the summer 2012, EVE players can expect the next big expansion to focus heavily on planetary control and the DUST 514 link. The past month has been flush with new information on DUST's customisable vehicles, drop suits, infantry weapons and more. We've even had a look under the hood at the server architecture that will keep the planet-bound battles fast and furious without lagging out the EVE players smashing each other to bits in orbit. In this week's EVE Evolved, I gather together all the key information on DUST 514 released this month and discuss what it means for EVE Online players.
Ionatron building laser guided energy weapons for US Navy
Apparently, the the artillery development budget for the US Navy is bursting at the seams, as the branch is complimenting the myriad of other dazzling weapons that it's collaboratively developing with a LGE-based rendition from Ionatron. The company, which focuses on developing "directed energy weapons," has recently landed a contract just shy of $10 million in order to "fund the development of an advanced Ultra Short Pulse Laser, physics modeling related to laser guided energy requirements, a transportable demonstrator, and effects testing." The firm's website compares its devices to that of "man-made lightning," useful in disabling "people or vehicles that threaten our security." Moreover, it was noted that both lethal and non-lethal versions are available, but we've no idea when this literal lightning in a bottle will end up hitting the test floor (or some poor sap's torso) in Los Alamos.[Via El Reg]
