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EVE Evolved: Mining returns with Inferno
Inferno is right around the corner, with the Escalation to Inferno patch due to hit in two days on Tuesday, April 24th. The patch prepares EVE Online for the coming PvP apocalypse with titan balance tweaks, a new interactive status effect bar, and two very important changes to the NPC drop tables: Manufacturable tech 1 modules will be removed from NPC drop tables, and Rogue Drone NPCs will have their mineral drops replaced with ISK bounties. These are changes players have been suggesting for years, and together they have the potential to bring back mining as one of the most profitable professions in EVE. If someone asked you where all the minerals come from to build the thousands of ships destroyed in EVE on a daily basis, you might say that you assume most of it comes from mined ore. Mining was originally the biggest source of minerals in the game and one of the most profitable professions, but over the years, that's changed. When level 4 missions added an infinite source of battleship-sized NPCs to high-security space, mission-running quickly overtook mining as the most profitable profession, and bizarrely, as a very good source of minerals. When the drone regions were later released, ratting there also became a huge mineral faucet far in excess of that produced through mining. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the problems faced by mining as a source of minerals and speculate on what will happen to mining as a profession when the Inferno expansion hits.
EVE Evolved: Fixing the wardec system
EVE Online's new Inferno expansion is almost here, bringing with it a massive PvP revamp. CCP will try to resurrect the dead faction warfare system, and new modules will be introduced to significantly shake up the PvP landscape for the first time in several years. The war declaration system is also getting a complete overhaul, with the goal of forcing the aggressor to commit to the war and making wars more structured and meaningful. Unfortunately, the implementation described at Fanfest doesn't look like it will achieve that and doesn't fix any of the system's other problems. The attacking corp can no longer stop a war mid-week, and the defender can hire mercenaries to join his war, but this doesn't add any risk for the attacking corp and doesn't force it to commit. The attacker can always stop paying the war bill, and the war will then finish at the end of the week. As most empire wardecs are initiated by small shell corps full of PvP alts, the attacking players won't mind logging out for a few days if the war backfires. The current war system is plagued with issues, from a complete lack of victory conditions to the fact that the attacker can pay for the war indefinitely. It allows bizarre asymmetries, like tiny alt corps declaring war on major military alliances, and offers no way for even the most militarily powerful defender to win the war. In this week's EVE Evolved, I lay out some of the problems with EVE Online's upcoming wardec revamp and propose an alternative system that fixes them.
EVE Evolved: Setting the record straight
On Monday the story broke that EVE Online's new CSM 7 chairman The Mittani said something extremely controversial during the Fanfest alliance panel. The story rapidly spread across the major games industry blogs, and in true telephone-game-style, it got progressively more bizarre with each version. The most disheartening part of it all was the absolute deluge of comments suggesting that the EVE community is made entirely of sociopaths and griefers. If you think that EVE has a poor community, start a trial and ask random people to help you out. You'll be surprised by what I think is the friendliest and most tightly knit MMO community on the planet. Jester's Trek wrote an article attributing part of the whole Fanfest debacle to the various different personas that The Mittani embodies. Jester described how The Mittani wears three hats: EVE spymaster and ruthless Goon leader The Mittani, CSM chairman Mittens, and the real-life person Alex. Jester asserts that these three personas clash terribly and may be incompatible and that the alliance panel talk slip-up was made from the perspective of The Mittani and not his CSM persona. In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I drill down into some of the details of the recent drama, from the proliferation of media coverage to exactly what line was crossed.
EVE Online declares war (more efficiently)
Team Super Friends is hard at work living up to its name by bringing liberty, justice, and wholesale carnage to the EVE Online community. As the team prepares for May's Inferno expansion, it's tackling a reworking of the War Declaration system. According to a new EVE dev blog, the system wasn't exactly broken, but it was underutilized and wasn't always working as intended. As a result, the team took the system apart, examined it thoroughly, and put it back together with a few improvements aimed at making the act of declaring and waging war between corps clearer and easier to understand. These improvements to War Declaration include modifying how costs are calculated, eliminating automatically retracting wars, and putting a time limit on conflicts. Wars will go on for a week, after which the declarer can choose to pay to prolong it or end it right then and there. An informative War Report will help players understand the forces engaged, losses sustained so far, and the history of a corp's past wars. The blog ends with a FAQ on the changes culled from the recent Fanfest.
EVE Evolved Extra: Revamping PvP in Inferno
When Inferno arrives on May 22nd, it will introduce a whole new wardec system, war UI improvements, and iteration on faction warfare. We'll also see a ton of new modules released over time to completely mix up how people currently fit ships for different roles. For those who started playing EVE Online after 2007, getting new modules and having to rethink all your ship setups will be a very unusual state of affairs. For older players, it signals a glorious return to the way things were before Empyrean Age expansion -- players will have to learn to adapt to a constantly changing PvP landscape or stagnate and die. The only people immune to wardecs will still be those in NPC corps, and all current loopholes like EVE University's infamous decshield will be removed. The number of wars the target corp is fighting will no longer be factored into the war cost, but the base cost is rising to 20 million and an additional 500,000 ISK will be added for every active member in the target corp. The number of wars the aggressor is fighting will still factor into cost, so you can sort of do a reverse-decshield by having alt corps wardec the target and waiting a week for his bill to recur. There are flaws with the system as presented, but those may have been at addressed at the roundtable, which was not streamed. In this special EVE Evolved Extra edition, I delve into the information revealed at Fanfest on revamping PvP as presented at those talks that were streamed live.
EVE Evolved: New info from Fanfest 2012
The annual EVE Online Fanfest is starting to become a major event in the gaming calendar, thanks to CCP's partnership with Sony and the addition of DUST 514 and World of Darkness talks to the event schedule. This year, CCP flew gaming journalists to the event to give the press hands-on time with DUST and demonstrate the game's impressive realtime integration with EVE Online. Massively, unfortunately, is not permitted to accept such travel stipends, which meant that we couldn't produce in-depth coverage and interviews as we did last year, so instead we've pieced together information from the talks that were streamed to viewers at home. The theme of this year's Fanfest was unmistakably DUST 514 and its integration with EVE Online. Attendees got first-hand experience with DUST 514 and a free pass to enter the beta in April. There was even a live demonstration of the EVE-DUST link during which a battleship delivered an air strike directly into a DUST match in realtime. There were several talks on EVE's upcoming Inferno expansion and its PvP revamp, with details of new modules and gameplay designed to shake up the PvP landscape for the first time in several years. Players report leaving Fanfest this year with a very real sense that CCP is back on track and recovering from the aftermath of Monoclegate. In this week's colossal EVE Evolved, I piece together some of the information from EVE Fanfest 2012 and consider what it means for EVE players.
EVE Fanfest talks Inferno, World of Darkness panel later today
Day two of EVE Online Fanfest 2012 had a lot to offer fans of CCP's sci-fi sandbox. First and foremost was the announcement of Inferno's official launch date and the fact that EVE's latest expansion will roll out to Tranquility on May 22nd. As we told you yesterday, the patch is heavy on PvP tweaks, and everything from faction warfare to a new specialized mercenary marketplace is on the way. The official EVE website also received a ton of updates yesterday, the better to catalogue all of the breaking news direct from Fanfest. Today's docket is equally fascinating, and CCP devs are scheduled to speak about EVE-related game design topics that include war decs, concept art, and growing the game's infrastructure. Also on the menu is a presentation on World of Darkness that we'll be following with great interest. You can follow it too via our EVETV Livestream channel. Be sure to look for our expert analysis of all the Fanfest happenings in this Sunday's EVE Evolved column!
EVE's Inferno expansion launches May 22nd, precursor patch April 24th
EVE Online aims to revamp PvP in its upcoming Inferno expansion. In addition to continuing the good work that started with Crucible, Inferno will revamp the wardec system, iterate on faction warfare, and introduce new ships and modules for players to smash to pieces. It sounds like the perfect PvP expansion, and today at the EVE Fanfest, CCP revealed some firm details of exactly what the wardec and faction warfare revamps will entail. A new wardec interface will make wars easier to follow; loopholes like the wardec shield used by EVE University will be closed; and a new mercenary marketplace will be introduced. Faction warfare system ownership will be given more consequences, such as making it impossible for enemy militias to dock in the system. During the EVE Keynote speech today, CCP announced that Inferno will be hitting on May 22nd and that it will be CCP's first ever expansion preceded by a precursor patch. CCP intends to introduce new content with the patch that will prepare the way for the main expansion, but exactly what form that preparation will take has been kept a secret.
EVE Evolved: Rebalancing EVE's ships
Recently we heard the glorious news that CCP will be overhauling EVE Online's entire roster of tech 1 ships as part of the Inferno expansion. The overhaul will start with changes to the skill requirements for destroyers and battlecruisers and culminate in the complete removal of ship tiers and the introduction of new structured ship lines. Countless new ship types have been released since EVE launched in 2003, but there has never really been a unifying design policy on ship skills and combat roles. Now, eight years down the line, adding new ships has become a struggle in avoiding making older ones obsolete. Drastic change is needed, and when the Inferno expansion hits, that's exactly what we'll get. When a new EVE player is ready to get into something larger than a frigate, he's currently faced with the choice of training for a destroyer or skipping it and heading straight to cruisers. Similarly, players often skip from cruisers straight to slow, bulky battleships even though battlecruisers are probably the most effective ship class for new pilots. A new system is on the way this summer, one that aims to fix this problem by introducing new racial versions of the destroyer and battlecruiser skills that must be trained on the way to bigger ships. This change should make training progression much clearer for new pilots and is just the tip of the iceberg of awesome plans in the works for the summer expansion. In this week's EVE Evolved, I examine EVE Online's upcoming ship revamp and tell you how you may be able to get free skillpoints when the patch goes live.
EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire
This week CCP Games announced the name and focus of EVE Online's upcoming summer expansion. The Inferno expansion aims to re-invigorate PvP with some long overdue gameplay changes. CONCORD-sanctioned wars will be iterated on for the first time in half a decade, and faction warfare will hopefully be getting the updates it should have received in 2008. Following on from the success of the Crucible expansion with its hundreds of small features and gameplay changes, Inferno will also contain dozens of small gameplay changes, usability fixes, and minor improvements. We'll hear more about DUST 514 in the coming months as CCP reveals more concrete details of the game's link to EVE Online and the motivations behind planet-bound wars. Incarna fans will apparently also see some movement, with Team Avatar focusing on avatar-based updates for this release. While Inferno is a rather uninspired name and coincidentally would make three of the last four expansions start with the word "in," the expansion's content is genuinely exciting. Fundamental changes are coming to EVE's PvP mechanics for the first time in several years. CCP hasn't revealed the exact changes, but that hasn't stopped players from speculating on what might be heading their way. In this week's EVE Evolved, I speculate on the changes coming in the upcoming Inferno expansion and what changes I think might be coming to EVE's PvP.
EVE Online announces an impending Inferno
EVE Online Senior Producer Jonathan Lander says now that some of the nitty-gritty reorganization within CCP has been completed, the devs "are back in the serious business of making EVE better and better." Citing several small releases over the next few months as proof, Lander lets loose with the announcement of the game's next big expansion: Inferno. Inferno will hit EVE "just before the summer" and will attempt to bring EVE's conflicts to a whole new level. Concord-sanctioned warfare and factional warfare will be getting tweaks as a result of this focus. More specific details about Inferno will be revealed at the EVE Fanfest in March. And while he won't go into specifics (yet), Lander says that CCP will reveal "more concrete steps" of how both EVE Online and DUST 514 are connected in the next couple of months.
Diablo III will see you in hell... mode
If you were among the players put out because Diablo III seems too pretty to be hardcore, you'll be happy to know that Blizzard hopes to re-earn your love, not with art but with gameplay. The company has released a video in which key DIII devs talk up the game's nightmare, hell, and inferno difficulty modes. They promise a veritable ass-kicking complete with hours of wiping and mounting repair costs. Quoth the devs: "Normal mode was pretty casual. It's very fun -- you're one-clicking and you're having laughs. Once you get into Nightmare mode, it starts turning into all business. [...] The game really starts [...] at Nightmare. [...] The way the game is tuned right now, people have no idea what they're getting themselves into." Perhaps not coincidentally, the Battle.net World of Warcraft blog is now daring gamers to join a community-driven Iron Man WoW Challenge. Participants eschew luxuries like buffs, talents, and grouping and charge into the world to see just how high they can level. Death, of course, means game over for the hardest of the hardcore. The Diablo III vid is embedded just behind the break!
Blood Pact: Leveling a warlock, 40 to 60
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Closer! Come closer... and burn!" ~ Keli'dan the Breaker Once again Blood Pact turns its gaze towards those up-and-coming warlocks; those who are learning the craft, battling foes to hone their skills and sharpen their minds. I've said before that leveling a warlock is great fun and part of this is due to the diverse ways in which you can go about it. By the time you start getting a decent pile of talent points to spend you can shape your lock in many and varied forms. There's the unstoppable train of death that is the affliction lock, cursing and corrupting all around it as it passes smoothly through the world. The demonologist, pouring their power into their minion and pushing them into the fore while sitting back and calmly picking off their foes. And of course, the destruction warlock, blazing a trail of raw power in an explosive display of mental prowess over physical frailty. Let's see how these locks in training are getting on.
Blood Pact: Meet the minions part 5, the infernal and doomguard
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Don't tell anyone this but Niby is daft." ~ Impsy <Niby's Minion> This week, Blood Pact looks at the bad-boys of our demon companions. When you think through the various warlock minions it's common to consider their usefulness. This is especially true of non-warlocks and raid leaders. Everyone knows that imp for his ranged DPS, health bonus and constant grumbling, the felhunter for annoying casters, voidwalker for tanking, felguard for pure DPS and the succubus for, well, dying a lot in Black Temple. This week though we look at two minions that are best known for killing people and causing trouble in towns and villages: the infernal and the doomguard. Anyone who has been playing the game for some time probably remembers at least one occasion where a bored warlock has decided that they have nothing better to do than annoy low-level members of their own faction by setting one of these guys loose. If not then you've almost certainly heard stories. It's these stories that, even though this chaos is no longer possible, make others look at locks with much suspicion and locks sigh for the old days.
Dante's Inferno 'Divine Edition' heading exclusively to PS3
EA has detailed a special edition of Dante's Inferno, titled the "Divine Edition," which is coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 next February. For the same $60 the Xbox 360 version costs, EA will give you the "special edition," which includes a developer commentary, a Wayne Barlowe "digital art book," the game's soundtrack, and ... wait for it ... a digitized "complete Longfellow translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno." That's right, folks -- you can read the classic work on the same system that's being used to tear it apart. The demo is currently available on the PlayStation Network and will land on Xbox Live on December 24th. %Gallery-45836%
Patch 3.3 PTR: WoW moves towards shorter cooldowns
If you checked the most recent Patch 3.3 PTR patch notes, a comparison of spells would show that Blizzard has reduced a lot of spells' cooldowns by a notable amount. This makes a significant impact on the playing environment on numerous levels, as most of these spells on long cooldowns were long considered to be powerful abilities whose use were once thought situational. These shorter cooldowns will see more abilities in play, figuring more into dungeons, questing, or world PvP. Most of these abilities still won't see action in Arenas, where the allowable spells have been limited to abilities with cooldowns below ten minutes (down from fifteen). The change appears to be a direct result of many spell cooldowns being reduced. This continues a trend in shortened cooldowns, reflecting what Ghostcrawler said in one thread about how Blizzard "in general (has) been moving away from long cooldowns, anyway." Players saw this when the iconic long-cooldown ability Lay on Hands -- an inevitable Patch 3.3 candidate for a nerf -- became usable every 20 minutes from a formerly mind-numbing one hour. More abilities are now being adjusted to be usable more often and, when necessary, balanced accordingly. Check out the full list after the jump.
Motorola Sholes and Torch battery covers unearthed (hey, it's something)
We really don't need any more convincing that the Sholes is real, but what about the Torch? Oh, you don't remember that one? Yeah, we had to look it up to refresh our memory -- turns out this was the rumored market name for the Inferno, a touchscreen featurephone Moto apparently had in the works to replace the Krave on Verizon. The company has just published press shots of the battery covers of both the Sholes and the Torch -- those are the names Motorola is using, though it's not uncommon for them to refer to press shots by codename, so we wouldn't make much of it -- so if we had to guess, the Torch is still alive. Also notable is the fact that they're showing two versions of the Sholes' cover, one with a Verizon logo and one without, so this is a strong indicator that there'll be a second model -- most likely for overseas GSM markets. Or, you know, an unlocked US 3G version. Dare to dream, right?
Sprint's crazy "Inferno" BlackBerry Curve 8330 now available
We know you. You're the type of self-styled individual that likes to play by your own rules. You effortlessly mix work and play, transitioning from power lunches, to 2PM meetings, to 5PM happy hours, and you never change phones. You want your BlackBerry to make a statement -- a bold statement (but not that Bold). For you, Sprint and RIM proudly present a new color of the Curve 8330, "Inferno" -- and as the name implies, it blinds the retinas. It's available for $49.99 after discounts on contract, the same you'll pay for the far less statement-making titanium and red variations. You do want to make a statement, don't you?
Motorola's first Android phone(s) to have sliding QWERTY?
Motorola needed to release an Android set about six months ago, but we know these things take time -- and if it's any consolation, it sounds like the first fruits of the labor could be pretty awesome. Boy Genius Report now claims that the rumored landscape QWERTY slider Calgary will be the first Android-powered Moto device to go commercial, though it's not clear when (or where) it'll hit shelves; given the device's seemingly unusual appearance and the possibility (foolish hope?) that they'll be infusing some customizations into the UI, they might just have an angle to attack offerings from HTC and others. That's not all for the Android department, though -- it looks like there might also be a portrait QWERTY slider in the works for the third quarter codenamed "Ironman," pictured, which will pack 3G, WiFi, and some sort of high-res camera. In other words, a solidly high-end device. Bring it on, guys.Moving on, it seems the lovely full touchscreen Flash has been canned, along with the Krave's successor, the Inferno -- possibly further confirmation that Moto's throwing virtually all its weight into the Android camp at this point. Finally, rumor has it that a device codenamed "Rolex" is in the labs -- and as you might've guessed, it uses the Aura's astonishingly awesome ultra-high-res circular display. Odds are this is another luxury phone given its aspirational name and the screen being used, but a poor guy can dream.Read - Calgary, Inferno, Flash, and RolexRead - Ironman
Motorola Krave ZN4's successor named Inferno, now moving to field trials?
That Motorola Inferno is looking more real than ever for a couple reasons: first, we've been able to confirm it with a trusted source of ours, and two, Boy Genius Report has it on good authority that it's about to start field trials this coming week. In keeping with the pyrotechnic theme pioneered by the Krave ZN4's "Blaze" codename, it seems the production device may now be called "Torch" -- and, somewhere along the course of its R&D evolution, may have lost the translucent cover. Ironically, we really liked the cover on the ZN4 -- the touch sensitivity is one of the more trick features we've seen on a handset in recent memory -- but, you know, we wouldn't want to question Moto's infinite wisdom.
