The combs will come out. The threads will start. Eve's player base will begin a microscopic examination of the Winter Expansion starting now for the release. It is called Rubicon and I will be honest; my first thought was Rubix cube.
It seems that the entire 'breaking away from empire' theme is still full force and motivating the expansion. Some stuff was said. It is coming in two months. Some new toys are coming into place that may allow smaller groups to defend a bit better against larger ones or attack larger ones. Who knows, that will be pondered later.
Me? My mind turned off when I learned that interceptors will no longer be affected by Warp Interdiction Spheres aka Bubbles.
Bubbles are a personal hatred of mine. It is the way you land in them, snapped out of warp and dragged from the gate. I don't mind on grid bubbles as much as I mind catch bubbles.
I even understand gate bubbles to an extent. The protection of ones home space but when people bubble gates they are bubbling them to a rage of 100k from the gate. I want to call it ridiculous but I also have to step back and ask, what is ridiculous? Where is my place in judging the use of such things? I'm not sure and it is one reason I rarely stick my nose into things where I believe I am having more of an emotional reaction then a technical one.
I was reading a blog the other day where the writer was lamenting the loss of their bubbles. They set up bubble traps and often found themselves out shipped. The ship would destroy their bubble much to the sadness of the bubble camp owner.
As much as I'd love to rage and insult the bubble camper, can I? Where is my right to go to them and insult their valid gameplay choice? I can dislike it and choose not to indulge in it but can I call it wrong and call them names for not being me with my tastes, ideas, and goals? It is why I bite back my rage against bubbles and how gamebreaking I find them to be for myself.
But now, another ship that can ignore them. It makes me think that a fundamental problem of null sec, which is travel by neutrals, may be being addressed. I know that they wish to defend their space but one expects space to be defended with actual fleets. The thought of an interceptor fleet sweeping in and ripping across space is amazing. Unless CCP gives them the HP of assault frigates they will still be highly susceptible to gate guns making them a null sec strategy.
I know that I am supposed to rage over things. But, I'm happy. I'm happy as I was happy for crime watch and tags4sec. While the interceptor change may not be a Low Sec thing it will allow a shift of gameplay that affects my flying style. I did hear whisper of deployable cyno jammers with a 100k range? Now that would make for some interesting times..
Hopefully, CCP will actually give us exclusive content for Eve Vegas this year. That may be just me being greedy.
They are faster too, interceptors. I like that as well. But the bubble immunity. Mmm.
Rubix Cube was the first thing that came to mind too when I saw the announcement of the name.
ReplyDeleteCan't say much more about the rest other than it being nice to have a ship that won't be bothered by a bubble.
I like the whisper of a deployable cyno jammer within 100km range. I hadn't heard that whisper yet, but I would definitely support it. It forces the hot droppers to adjust their tactics quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteI hate picking a fight that you think will be semi-fair, then all of a sudden 50 ships jump in so they can all get on the kill mail of one single ship. I don't mind the tactic where a fleet is sitting in one system, while a bait/scout is in the next system, because it gives you a few extra seconds to get away if needed, but the cyno fleet always got on my nerves.
I'm not sure how big this module will be and whether or not it'd be something that gets dragged around a whole lot, but for the peeps that live in a particular system and don't have the system wide cyno jammer in system, this module could be pretty awesome.