Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of the EVE Blog Banter,
the community discussion that brings the collective minds of the EVE
blogosphere together to chew the cud, exchange opinions or troll the
world.
"With the Inferno expansion upon us, new seeds have been planted
in the ongoing evolution of EVE Online. With every expansion comes new
trials and challenges, game-changing mechanics and fresh ideas. After
nine years and seventeen expansions, EVE has grown far more than most
other MMOGs can hope for. Which expansions have brought the highs and
lows, which have been the best and the worst for EVE Online?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Closing in on the beginning of my fourth year of Eve, I've had a few expansions under my belt at this point. My first character was started on June 20, 2009, as I was spurred on by a few very excited coworkers at an internship. This was just after Apocrypha came out, with the introduction of all of the wormholes and T3 Cruisers. Read that again. Three years ago, CCP introduced 2500 new systems, an entirely new mechanic for transportation between systems, and some of the most versatile ships in the game. I'd say that's some pretty solid expansion right there.
For me, it comes down to a case of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's break it down. I've been through Apocrypha, Dominion, Tyrranis, Incursions, Incarna, Crucible, and now Inferno. That's 7 expansions, and its been quite a mix in quality.
The Good
Apocrypha: As alluded to above, Apocrypha was a fantastic expansion, and I didn't know how good it was until subsequent ones came out. In fact, I'd argue that its the best one to date that I've been around for. The magnitude of what CCP did with this one is absolutely unreal. Wormholes & T3's. Enough said.
Incursion: I've never actually participated in an Incursion, but the expansion itself was pretty solid. It brought a much needed new NPC challenge, the character creator and the removal of learning skills. None of these are "incredible! WOW!" features, but they have all made the game better.
Crucible: Crucible introduced almost zero new content outside of the Tier 3 Battlecruisers, but it was one of the most successful expansions to date. It fixed a ridiculous amount of things the players wanted done, and it did it well. Eve can't live on expansions like this long term, but this was a much needed one.
The Bad
Dominion: On my first patch day misery, Dominion was released. Honestly, as a carebear in highsec, I was hardly concerned about Sov mechanics, but its still something that many people complain about. Having just reread the patch notes, the only thing I found of interest was the introduction of Navy Battleships (Tier 1). It had lots of little fixes as well, but not nearly on the level of significance as Crucible.
Tyrannis: Farmville in space and Spacebook. I looked into doing Planetary Interaction once, but it didn't seem worth the trouble. I am one of the few that actually does use Eve Gate, but it is still flawed, and this has been almost two years now. Outside of PI, I find nothing really memorable about this expansion.
The Ugly
(We all know which one was saved for this category.)
Incarna: This was a shit storm. Walking in stations turned into walking in one and a half rooms by yourself, graphics cards were fried and Jita rioted. This can be termed as the expansion where CCP totally lost focus. Subscriber numbers dropped and CCP knew it. Trying to pass off WiS as an expansion was a joke, and the players knew it. Worst expansion to date.
To lay out my career in term of Eve expansions, it started off with a bang, sunk for about a year, recovered, tanked and recovered. Where does this leave us? Well that's the thing that people don't realize. It has almost always left us at least marginally better, still playing the same ridiculously awesome internet spaceship game. I mean look at the Dominion Patch Notes. The very same patch notes that I earlier described as "a lot of nothing" have a ton of little fixes that made this game better. With the exception of Incarna frying GPU cards, CCP has worked hard and made the game better. Even if you don't like the new content introduced, you can usually ignore it if its not for you (although that's clearly not the goal with these expansions). We have a great core game, and the expansions are icing on the cake, giving us new features to play with.
Inferno brings the return of Faction Warfare amongst new modules, ship rebalancing, and war mechanics changes. It has all the makings of a pretty solid expansion, though not a ton of it affects me (outside of the new modules). FW has a few thousand players, and to be honest I don't think that war declarations are that important. They only really apply to a subset of highsec warfare. Again, I'm not saying the changes are bad, I'm just not sure it was the most necessary thing possible.
What should Eve expansions be then? My proposal is that each expansion should be some cross between Apocrypha and Crucible. Things should be changed and rebalanced as necessary (per Crucible standards), but significant new content should be introduced like Apocrypha. And when I say "significant new content," I mean content related to spaceships and combat. I have no interest in harvesting planets or walking in stations. Its perfectly fine to add these things to the game, but not as the focus of an expansion. Inferno has come close to doing this, but I'm not sure it quite made it. Regardless, it is a step in the right direction. I'm much happier with CCP's current path as opposed to recent years, and like I said, we still have the fantastic core game without expansions. At the end of the day, its all about MOAR COMBAT and MOAR SHIPS. If CCP can keep that going, it'll be smooth sailing for years to come. Cheers to Inferno!
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
What's in Your Hangar?
I decided to jump on the band wagon with the "What's in your Hangar?" posts. A big shout out to Rixx Javix who is at least semi-active in posting again. I hope life sorts itself out for him and he can return to playing (and hopefully posting!) about Eve more in the future.
Here we go then. This isn't all in one hangar, but most of it is concentrated in Liekuri (Blue Headquarters). I have a loose dichotomy of RvB and Not RvB, and I think it'll be pretty evident which is which.
Enyo - I've actually had this since the Crucible launch, and I named it Jerry Sandusky. I know that is horribly inappropriate, but I realized that it would be very effective against little things and that I'm apparently a terrible person.
Jaguar - I have two of these, both AC fitted. I don't get a chance to fly them too often, but after Projectile Weapon Rigging 4 finishes, I'm taking a solo roam out through Providence with one.
Drake - I've got 3 of these in the hangar, two fitted. Its called Bricktop for those of you who like the movie "Snatch". Its HML and pure tank fitted. It hasn't left the hangar since a POS Bash a while back.
Hurricane - I have one of these left. Autocannons, Medium Neuts, Webs, Scram and armor tanked. I'll occasionally take this out to lowsec, but I can never seem to get a decent fight.
Rupture - The pair of these in the hangar are both armor fitted, despite the fact that I'm dying to try out a shield variant. They're brawlers with AC's & small neuts.
Catalyst - 2 of these with blasters and general gank setup. Nothing too flashy here.
Thrasher - I have four of these with the same general theme as the Catalysts. I really should do more Dessy roams.
Imperial Navy Slicer - This ship was my first foray into kiting ships. Its the typical fast, Scorch-loaded ship you'll commonly see around New Eden. The Slicer is a bit squishy, but its a fantastic ship if you can keep range.
Rifter - I still have 17 left from my latest stack. AC's, armor, point and web. It wouldn't be RvB without Rifters, right?
Vagabond - This one is a typical Vaga fit - AC's with Barrage, Medium Neut, built for speed. It hasn't seen too much action since I don't feel like getting blobbed in RvB and losing a 200M+ isk ship for no reason.
Claw - I generally like to keep an interceptor built for speed in case I need to make a trip somewhere. It has an MWD, 4 Nanofibers, and 2 Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizers. I'd say its pretty tough to catch, especially if you're chasing from behind.
Dramiel - There are two of these still lying around, but I'm still mourning the Crucible Nerf. I managed to get the same fitting back on there by going Meta 4 instead of a T2 mod, but its just not the same without the old speed.
Tristan - I've grown to love the Fat Man recently. I have a gank fit with rockets and blasters. I tossed on an MWD and damage mods and its a nasty little force until someone sneezes too loudly and it breaks.
That's all I've got for right now. Let me know if you've got interest in any specific fits. Thanks RJ for the idea.
Here we go then. This isn't all in one hangar, but most of it is concentrated in Liekuri (Blue Headquarters). I have a loose dichotomy of RvB and Not RvB, and I think it'll be pretty evident which is which.
Enyo - I've actually had this since the Crucible launch, and I named it Jerry Sandusky. I know that is horribly inappropriate, but I realized that it would be very effective against little things and that I'm apparently a terrible person.
Jaguar - I have two of these, both AC fitted. I don't get a chance to fly them too often, but after Projectile Weapon Rigging 4 finishes, I'm taking a solo roam out through Providence with one.
Drake - I've got 3 of these in the hangar, two fitted. Its called Bricktop for those of you who like the movie "Snatch". Its HML and pure tank fitted. It hasn't left the hangar since a POS Bash a while back.
Hurricane - I have one of these left. Autocannons, Medium Neuts, Webs, Scram and armor tanked. I'll occasionally take this out to lowsec, but I can never seem to get a decent fight.
Rupture - The pair of these in the hangar are both armor fitted, despite the fact that I'm dying to try out a shield variant. They're brawlers with AC's & small neuts.
Catalyst - 2 of these with blasters and general gank setup. Nothing too flashy here.
Thrasher - I have four of these with the same general theme as the Catalysts. I really should do more Dessy roams.
Imperial Navy Slicer - This ship was my first foray into kiting ships. Its the typical fast, Scorch-loaded ship you'll commonly see around New Eden. The Slicer is a bit squishy, but its a fantastic ship if you can keep range.
Rifter - I still have 17 left from my latest stack. AC's, armor, point and web. It wouldn't be RvB without Rifters, right?
Vagabond - This one is a typical Vaga fit - AC's with Barrage, Medium Neut, built for speed. It hasn't seen too much action since I don't feel like getting blobbed in RvB and losing a 200M+ isk ship for no reason.
Claw - I generally like to keep an interceptor built for speed in case I need to make a trip somewhere. It has an MWD, 4 Nanofibers, and 2 Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizers. I'd say its pretty tough to catch, especially if you're chasing from behind.
Dramiel - There are two of these still lying around, but I'm still mourning the Crucible Nerf. I managed to get the same fitting back on there by going Meta 4 instead of a T2 mod, but its just not the same without the old speed.
Tristan - I've grown to love the Fat Man recently. I have a gank fit with rockets and blasters. I tossed on an MWD and damage mods and its a nasty little force until someone sneezes too loudly and it breaks.
That's all I've got for right now. Let me know if you've got interest in any specific fits. Thanks RJ for the idea.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
BB 35: Being the Villain
Now approaching its tenth year, the EVE Online player community has matured into an intricate and multi-faceted society viewed with envy by other game developers, but is frequently regarded with suspicion by the wider gaming community.
Is this perception deserved? Should "The Nation of EVE" be concerned by its public identity and if so how might that be improved? What influence will the integration of the DUST 514 community have on this culture in the future?
There's an old saying that perception is reality. And I was going to open with some long rambling philosophical discourse about that, but one of the first google searches on the subject is Jester's post by that title. That man is literally a machine. To return to my perception of this reality though, I think this month's blog banter is a pretty interesting question and one of the toughest ones we've seen in a while.
I'm not really one for political correctness at all. I think its more than silly. Someone will always be offended no matter what you said. Either you took a statement too far or it didn't go far enough. As I wrote about when Mittani-gate was ongoing, I think that those comments were out of line, but the 1 month ban and removal from the CSM was too strong and clearly indicative of a knee-jerk reaction by CCP. Mittani-gate spurred the conversation this month though. CCP has a clear need to protect its product's image in order to thrive. My simple response is that I think the image that has been cultivated over the last decade is exactly the one that we want -- Eve is a cold hard place where someone will scam you, kill you, pod you and enjoy your tears throughout the whole damn thing.
Enter Dust 514. To be honest, I felt that this year's Fanfest focused more around Dust than Eve in many respects, and that's fine (although not the way I'd prefer it). I read a review on initial game play via a tweet recently that can be summarized by saying, "The play isn't as good as something like Mass Effect 3, but there is potential." There sure is potential, but at this point, that's all we've got. It all depends how CCP integrates the Dusties into our world (and yes, I am saying our world for now, at least). It needs to be meaningful on both ends. Regardless, you can believe Sony put some pressure on CCP to clean up their little mess with the Mittani. Sony is the big time, and they don't want CCP's "missteps" flowing over into their business.
At the end of the day, I'm happy with our community. We are who we are, take it or leave it. So what if the perception is dark? Check out #tweetfleet or the blogging community and you'll see in a second that we're not all (completely) cold, dark bastards. Many of us, sure. But I wouldn't want Eve another way. I love the game where you have a month of destroying industrial ships kicked off by burning down the primary market hub. And I may shoot a Hulk this May just for good measure, but I'm not generally an active participant in Hulkageddon. But this type of sinister reality is a huge part of what makes Eve so great, and if Sony or the larger gaming community can't handle it, that's fine. We can always use some fresh blood in New Eden, but outside of that, take a hike. I think we're just fine with being the villains of the MMO community, and why not? Perception is reality, I suppose.
Is this perception deserved? Should "The Nation of EVE" be concerned by its public identity and if so how might that be improved? What influence will the integration of the DUST 514 community have on this culture in the future?
There's an old saying that perception is reality. And I was going to open with some long rambling philosophical discourse about that, but one of the first google searches on the subject is Jester's post by that title. That man is literally a machine. To return to my perception of this reality though, I think this month's blog banter is a pretty interesting question and one of the toughest ones we've seen in a while.
I'm not really one for political correctness at all. I think its more than silly. Someone will always be offended no matter what you said. Either you took a statement too far or it didn't go far enough. As I wrote about when Mittani-gate was ongoing, I think that those comments were out of line, but the 1 month ban and removal from the CSM was too strong and clearly indicative of a knee-jerk reaction by CCP. Mittani-gate spurred the conversation this month though. CCP has a clear need to protect its product's image in order to thrive. My simple response is that I think the image that has been cultivated over the last decade is exactly the one that we want -- Eve is a cold hard place where someone will scam you, kill you, pod you and enjoy your tears throughout the whole damn thing.
Enter Dust 514. To be honest, I felt that this year's Fanfest focused more around Dust than Eve in many respects, and that's fine (although not the way I'd prefer it). I read a review on initial game play via a tweet recently that can be summarized by saying, "The play isn't as good as something like Mass Effect 3, but there is potential." There sure is potential, but at this point, that's all we've got. It all depends how CCP integrates the Dusties into our world (and yes, I am saying our world for now, at least). It needs to be meaningful on both ends. Regardless, you can believe Sony put some pressure on CCP to clean up their little mess with the Mittani. Sony is the big time, and they don't want CCP's "missteps" flowing over into their business.
At the end of the day, I'm happy with our community. We are who we are, take it or leave it. So what if the perception is dark? Check out #tweetfleet or the blogging community and you'll see in a second that we're not all (completely) cold, dark bastards. Many of us, sure. But I wouldn't want Eve another way. I love the game where you have a month of destroying industrial ships kicked off by burning down the primary market hub. And I may shoot a Hulk this May just for good measure, but I'm not generally an active participant in Hulkageddon. But this type of sinister reality is a huge part of what makes Eve so great, and if Sony or the larger gaming community can't handle it, that's fine. We can always use some fresh blood in New Eden, but outside of that, take a hike. I think we're just fine with being the villains of the MMO community, and why not? Perception is reality, I suppose.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Weekend Review 4/2
This weekend was nothing too crazy, but glad I got some solid time to log in. Saturday I was having some serious connection issues, which I tweeted about. I was getting disconnected about every 20 minutes -- max. I did manage to snag a few kills in fleet, but it was extremely frustrating. It was bad to the point where I was starting to do research on WiFi repeaters/signal boosters. Luckily, I decided to pull the plug on my router and give it one last shot, and of course that fixed all problems. Derp.
Sunday morning I logged in for a bit of a drunk roam. I have no idea how, but I managed to go 7-0 in that state, with somewhat smaller fleet sizes too. I think I'm starting to get a bit more situational awareness piloting. As I've said before, I'm not one to brag about my piloting skills because frankly, I'm not all that good. It is nice to see improvement though. My basic realization is that the orbiting and engaging part of the fight is second nature and I'm starting to get a better feel of when I'm about to get primaried. It sounds simple, but knowing when to disengage is certainly a skill too. I'm of no use to my FC if I'm dead.
Also, I had a pretty good week in trade again, eclipsing 1 billion in profits for yet another week (not consecutively). I'm going to put out a longer post about trade and general isk-making tomorrow, but here's the short version: trade is going well, but I have more isk than I can use in my current operations and I need to reinvest somewhere. I suppose there are worse problems to have.
In terms of blogging, I'm really hoping the Mittani Gate starts to calm down. As I've said before, I think the whole situation was blown out of proportion and that he was a bit of a scape goat. Regardless, he's accepted the 30 day ban, and I think we all need to move on to internet spaceships again. I expect a lot of great banter upcoming with the Inferno escalation starting later this month.
To close it out, just wanted to say thanks to the Eve podcasting community, especially Voices from the Void and Lost in Eve. I don't tend to have time to listen to these guys straight through or even necessarily soon after they're released, but I always try to eventually get to them. Keep it coming everyone, love what you've done so far.
Sunday morning I logged in for a bit of a drunk roam. I have no idea how, but I managed to go 7-0 in that state, with somewhat smaller fleet sizes too. I think I'm starting to get a bit more situational awareness piloting. As I've said before, I'm not one to brag about my piloting skills because frankly, I'm not all that good. It is nice to see improvement though. My basic realization is that the orbiting and engaging part of the fight is second nature and I'm starting to get a better feel of when I'm about to get primaried. It sounds simple, but knowing when to disengage is certainly a skill too. I'm of no use to my FC if I'm dead.
Also, I had a pretty good week in trade again, eclipsing 1 billion in profits for yet another week (not consecutively). I'm going to put out a longer post about trade and general isk-making tomorrow, but here's the short version: trade is going well, but I have more isk than I can use in my current operations and I need to reinvest somewhere. I suppose there are worse problems to have.
In terms of blogging, I'm really hoping the Mittani Gate starts to calm down. As I've said before, I think the whole situation was blown out of proportion and that he was a bit of a scape goat. Regardless, he's accepted the 30 day ban, and I think we all need to move on to internet spaceships again. I expect a lot of great banter upcoming with the Inferno escalation starting later this month.
To close it out, just wanted to say thanks to the Eve podcasting community, especially Voices from the Void and Lost in Eve. I don't tend to have time to listen to these guys straight through or even necessarily soon after they're released, but I always try to eventually get to them. Keep it coming everyone, love what you've done so far.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The New Eden Experience: An Introduction
Hello World. Or... well, maybe Universe..
I'm your brand new host, Tommy Rollins. I've been in Eve for over two and half years now (its the whole "long time listener, first time caller" deal), but just starting to really come into my own. Let me give you a quick background about me.
I started in June 2009 (wow, quite a while ago) playing with some friends from work. I was a TOTAL carebear for a few years, and I'm finally starting to come around to the darker side of things. My first character is TFirish3 (didn't realize people used actual "names" in MMOs at the time), and he's well specialized in Gallente/Minmatar subcaps. My other primary character is Tommy Rollins, who's just getting started in RVB as a Rifter pilot.
I first started reading Eve blogs in a Solid Mechanics class in Undergrad, and I've been hooked ever since. The urge to become a member of that community has been nagging at me for a while now, so I figured I'd finally give it a go. Look forward to a post regarding the new Crucible expansion later today.
-- Rollins
I'm your brand new host, Tommy Rollins. I've been in Eve for over two and half years now (its the whole "long time listener, first time caller" deal), but just starting to really come into my own. Let me give you a quick background about me.
I started in June 2009 (wow, quite a while ago) playing with some friends from work. I was a TOTAL carebear for a few years, and I'm finally starting to come around to the darker side of things. My first character is TFirish3 (didn't realize people used actual "names" in MMOs at the time), and he's well specialized in Gallente/Minmatar subcaps. My other primary character is Tommy Rollins, who's just getting started in RVB as a Rifter pilot.
I first started reading Eve blogs in a Solid Mechanics class in Undergrad, and I've been hooked ever since. The urge to become a member of that community has been nagging at me for a while now, so I figured I'd finally give it a go. Look forward to a post regarding the new Crucible expansion later today.
-- Rollins
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)