New scanning effects are pretty ... aweful

I have just scanned since the latest patch hit.

I liked the 'new' scanning interface, especially with the hotkeys and the ability to turn off items on the scanning screen.

The latest incarnation has given us pretty.

Play find the sig

This is a SciFi game and some expect a certain amount of eye-candy from the effects.

I am functionally minded.  On the screenshot above there is a single red dot.  Now ... I have pretty good eyesight but I had to hunt for it.  No not the red box in the center of the probes, keep looking.  You may wish to click on the picture to expand it.

My son is red-green colour blind, and has even more trouble seeing the pale brown spot.  1 in 10 of our male population are red/greed deficient (either partially or fully colour blind).  Eve has a lot of male gamers.

So, I want to buy a scanning map that lets me see stuff at a glance.


PS.  the scanning dot is just top right of the scanner probes on the planetary orbit line.

TLDR; The new scanning map looks pretty, but CCP, please throw it out, and give me the previous incarnation back.


Edit: turning of the dscan settings helps, but the new graphics are still busy.

There it is.  I wish it was more obvious.

Fozzie Sov troll mechanics are a good thing.

Oasa now held by 6 different alliances, with systems changing hands every few days. Cobalt Edge with 5 alliances, and 12 systems changing hands.  These are regions I pay attention to.

I know far less about providence, but even Goons recent war there showed the strength of the new system. They burned abandoned systems, and mostly failed in systems where the locals fought.  (As a message to the propagandists, a similar burn exercise as before would have been even harder for Providence to re-eject the goons.)

Landlord coalitions are crying over being run ragged with what they perceive as pointless fights, attempting to hold vast but empty regions.  Some of them no longer have passive income from renters.  Previous renters are adjusting to the new mechanics and forming fleets (some successful, others very much otherwise).


These are very good things.  Small groups are taking ownership of their own space, and can bounce back far more easily.  Of course in any war game, the bigger, better organsied and funded war machine can roll over the smaller group, but with the new sov, smaller groups have the ability to retake land, or tie up those the larger groups.

I remind those that hark back to the 'good old days':  https://www.google.com/search?q=cfc+win+eve
Before new sov, we were asking if the CFC had won eve.  The result of a large battle was that new accords were re-written to prevent repeats of these events.


For better or worse, because of the troll mechanics of fozzie sov, and the much maligned troll interceptor; smaller groups are standing up to the previous landlords.

I heartily endorse a small group taking land 'out there', but I still get nervous when it happens too close to home.  I want home to be defensible, but I see no reason that buffer space should be held easily.  Land is being taken.  http://evemaps.dotlan.net/outposts/freeports shows that there are still only 12 systems in freeport.  Someone obviously cares enough to hold stations despite all the trolling.

With the latest citadel incarnation, CCP have said that you will again need to apply DPS to the new citadels to capture them http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/citadels-sieges-and-you-v2/ "Entosis links are not going to work on new structures".    Dreadnoughts were a class of ship designed with structure fights in mind, and that role now officially has a place in new structure fights.

Without an autodefense mechanism, and a cap on total EHP to citadel structures, they will be susceptible to trolling attempts, but not as easily as with entosis links.  As a defender, I am not too worried about this as there will be several timers to defend, and customs offices have shown that that while trolling occurs, it is not the end of the world.  For me, the bigger loss is no longer treating all unknown Citadels (outside of highsec) as dangerous.  And yes our POS have shot as many friendly friendly alts as they have killed hostiles.  I like this mechanic, even if I did wish it respected standings granted to individual players as well as standings granted to corporations.  I am also fully expecting to be bitten by these statements at some stage in the future.

One thing that is going away with citadels appears to be system wide vulnerability timers.  ... "players not belonging to the corporation owning the structure need to be on grid to see [timers]" 
At risk of talking about 'when I was young ...' (despite my pilots being younger than many), I actually like the system wide invite of dishonorable third parties to a possibility of a fight.

We are no longer asking if any one entity has won Eve.  I don't want to see a return to massive blue donuts where large organizations dictate who can own what space in null and who can fight.  There should be room for a certain amount of trolling. 

I currently have 2 'hats' in eve, a nullsec trader hat, and the other as a WH PI bear hat.  Today's post is wearing my nullsec trader hat.


This post is a record of me saying that, in my opinion, the balkanization of nullsec is a good thing.

Entitlement

As an Eve player, I expect certain things.


I expect to be able to log on almost 24 hours per day.   There will be times that Eve is down and I will grumble about it. That includes grumbling about downtime during my AU timezone.

I expect to be able to shoot things.  Some things to shoot will be structures, some will be red crosses, some will be other player ships and pods.  I hear that some players even shoot rocks.  There will however be times that I will need to travel a long distance to find my particular form of target.

I expect to be hunted. I expect that if I do everything right, I will get away many times.  I will be elated when I get away, and devastated when I don't.  I expect those hunting me to have 'complementary' feelings (in that if I am happy - they probably are not.  If I become devastated, they are probably happy).

Some days I expect to be bait and you to try to take me down.  If I am better on the day, I will be avenged and you will lose more than I do.  Other days I will fail.

I expect to have opportunities to make ISK, even if I am sometimes bad at it.   When I find a good niche I hope to make a lot of ISK.  As a side note, I prefer my ISK 'indirect', and prefer loot that needs to be hauled rather than ISK to be put directly into a wallet.

I expect a place to live in game.  I expect to be moved along sometimes.  I expect in turn to move others along at other times.

I expect a circle of nerf.  If any one style/fit/game play becomes completely dominant, CCP will iterate on it.  Sometimes CCP will over-nerf.  Other times they will under-nerf. (My poor underused Ishtar)

But there are some things I do not expect. If I want the game to be new, shiny and exciting, I know I need to do new and untried things.  I will like some of those things, and will dislike others.

One thing I learned doing PI, if one area is short on a resource, whether due to overfarming or just market changes make it unprofitable, then move to another area. 

Some hunters could learn the same things.  With consolidation in null, these regions will become target rich but potentially more dangerous.  Both are good things.

In favour of industry focused releases

A couple of years ago, I left my previous MMO of choice because of a single statement "We want crafters to be out in the world adventuring instead of camping out in front of an auctioneer."

I liked being the crafter standing in front of the auctioneer. Of course in Eve we sit around in either our spaceships or cabins by ourselves instead of shoulder to shoulder with other pilots in an auction room, but the essence is still the same.

In Eve, the market trader, the manufacturer are important parts of the puzzle.  Both games have the farmer, and it was some surprise to me that I joined the farming ranks (PI not mining). There is also the hauler, through spaces of various degrees of danger, both big and small.


Many of us enjoy industry.  Even better, not only have I been shot at and lost my haul, but what I make is important to the end game.  As players, we make ships and modules that are used in the 'end game' battles, we build the POS, Outposts and customs offices used throughout New Eden.  We build the capital ships, some even build supercaps.

Yes, being shot at is important to my enjoyment.  This game engages manufacturers/crafters in a way that I have not seen in any other MMO.  We build 'real stuff', not just a couple of shiny distractions.

I also know that between the current user interface, and mostly safe highsec manufacture is not as engaging as it could be.  For players that enjoy a pretty UI (and many others do even if I am functionally based), the new changes will be wonderful.

Kirith Kodachi stated "The Industry update coming on July 22nd is not going to reverse any numbers".  Maybe.  If everyone talks them down, then certainly.

Crius (and the POS/corp changes to follow) is an opportunity for those of us that enjoy manufacture PVP to spread the word, and to be excited.

Are we going to get everything we want? Certainly not.  Will there be a loud outcry by the losers of the changes? Yes.  Those most comfortable with making things in safely won't be so happy.  Those that can adjust will do fine.

I know and accept that the majority of players are in Eve to directly inflict explosions on others.  There still is a compatible audience of players that like to know the things they build enable others to cause explosions.  Occasionally that ammunition will be returned to us 'slightly used', and that takes some getting used to.

Eve is a sandbox, and a new set of tools is being made available.  Even the most hardened highsec grief corporation should be looking at POS full of blueprints as 'prickly loot pinata'.

I may be idealistically naive, but I see some 'good complexity' with the new release.  It boils down to: Do I place that way too expensive BPO into a POS for a quick job, or keep it in an expensive but safe station? The only possible answer in a public blog is expensive but safe, but for many this will be misleading propaganda.

I know that some of you are only interested in explosions, and then only the ones you see.  The next 2 releases are a way for Eve to capture new players, in a market that it is already a contender.

We already have 'Be the villain' ads.  It is time for us to sell the message "Be the builder in a villainous world"

How to catch an epithal.

This is a rant in response.  This post is going to come back to bite me.  I will lose more Epithals because of it.



There are some pilots on the rampage against Warp Core Stablisers, both on Epithals in wormholes, and on faction warfare ships.

I will try to be perfectly clear. I believe that a properly fit T2 hunter should be able to gank a properly fit T1 hauler.  I also believe that the proper fit to take down a T1 hauler should NOT be a standard PVP fit.  You are ganking, not fighting.
 
I run PI based wormholes, using WCS fit Epithals.  We lose them, time and time again.  Sometimes we get away, some times we lose our ship.

Hunters want Epithals to make compromises when they fit WCS.  I have sympathy for that view (but not a lot).  There are currently two correct lowslots fits for a wormhole Epithal.  4 WCS, or 3 WCS and 1 DCU.  If you removed 3 of the lowslots and built in the 3 points of WCS it would only make a difference to the morons of highsec, as the rest of us are doing it better.


Here are losses that I pulled out of our corp's killboard.
1 hunter
https://zkillboard.com/detail/35931269/
https://zkillboard.com/detail/34205249/

2 hunter
https://zkillboard.com/detail/37091589/
https://zkillboard.com/detail/37243941/

Every single one of these Epithals had a pilot at the keyboard.  We made mistakes. We then paid for them.  This is as EVE should be.  The lack of PI in holds on most of these kills is because we train our pilots to dump PI back into the customs offices when under attack.


I know very little about proper fits.  Below you will find some 'teribad' fits, that I would use for hunting Epithals.  No faction or officer modules will be harmed in the building of these ships.

As a service to the hunting community, I wish to remind you of a new item you might have missed.  It is called a mobile depot.  It might help.

[Arazu, goo catcher]

Damage Control II
800mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
10MN Microwarpdrive II
Stasis Webifier II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M

Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Medium Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

Hammerhead II x4

Does 407 dps overheated (according to EFT)


For giggles, even this ship would eat an Epithal.

[Helios, goo catcher]

Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
1MN Afterburner II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Light Electron Blaster II, Void S

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Damage dealing is an underwhelming 78 DPS overheated but would still destroy an Epithal (eventually).

For a faction warfare pilot, I have the ship for you (though it does require a faction hull):

[Astero, StabCatcher]

Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
Warp Scrambler II
1MN Microwarpdrive II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Light Ion Blaster II, Null S

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Targeting Systems Stabilizer I

Warrior II x5


All fits are theoretical only, to be taken with a dose of WTF were you thinking?


TLDR; if you can't catch an Epithal, you are not properly prepared.