I was asked earlier this week if the sov changes are really going to come in June and July. My answer was, "Hopefully." It was hopefully because the Icelandic Office Workers Union was voting to go on strike and a huge number of the employee's at CCP are a member of this union. If they went on strike, depending on how long they struck for, it could have done horrible things to the development plans. However, on Friday they announced that they have comet o a deal. This means that CCP's stuff will not have to strike and everyone gets to eat waffles.
Then there was the launcher news article. It first came out saying that the exe file would no longer launch the game. This caused a lot of rage. There are several reasons for this. The launcher itself has constant problems for some players. It does not allow log ins and needs to be repaired. I had one of these earlier this year and had to do a full reinstall. It is also a very limited tool. Many players with multiple accounts have multiple settings across these accounts. It has been asked for the launcher to understand individual log ins and maintain individual settings. The article has since been updated and the exe file will still be used. But, in its current form, the launcher is not ready to be the only way to log into Eve.
Tuesday is release day. The patch notes can be found here. No more, "Shoot the station services," as I was once taught. You'll need to tote along someone with an Entosis link. It will be interesting to see how people handle this.
A random goody tucked in there is that secondary lighting from ships and stations has been added. Eve used to have a dark side and a light side. Now with the planets, stations, and other ships casting light the environment will be much more interesting.
There is also change to pilots with a criminal flag and their ability to refit. Criminals are not suspects. Still, this was a surprise pointed out to me before I was able to read the patch notes and one that I did not know about. In low sec you pick up a criminal flag for podding and not much else. Still, it makes me frown a bit. I've been rolling over scenarios where this could be a problem. I am not familiar enough with criminal activity in high sec to know what action it is stopping. I'd love some discussion on this change.
Icons will also be changing on Tuesday. I've played with them. I'm not in love with them and I don't find them to be visually more understandable. There is visually more of them and the difference between them is more noticeable than the gradient of red cross size that we have had for so long. I'm up in the air about it. I, however, predict enormous fall out and anger from the player base that does not visit Sisi when they log in on Tuesday and their overview and in space icons are all different. Rollbacks will be demanded. I then predict a lot of random deaths and mistakes in general as people learn the new icons.
Corbexx hosted a soundboard with CCP Nullarbor. The soundcloud can be found here. Ransu Asanari took notes as well. I've totally stolen the google documents link for everyone.
I missed this weeks meeting. It was again on a work day. Such is the curse of time zones. Last year most meetings were on my days off. This year, I'm missing most of them. They are recorded and I come home and review the recording to keep up. I also missed my own plan to run an open Q and A. However, I have a horrific cold and while my incoherent dithering through my NyQuil soaked body may amuse some, I doubt it will provide any quality. I will try to run it two weeks hence on my next weekend off.
I am very, very happy that we are taking these first steps for Sov. The reason is not because I am interested in playing Fozzie Sov. The reason is much more selfish. I need the sov rework out of the way so that I can get back to work on all the other things on my agenda!
Then there was the launcher news article. It first came out saying that the exe file would no longer launch the game. This caused a lot of rage. There are several reasons for this. The launcher itself has constant problems for some players. It does not allow log ins and needs to be repaired. I had one of these earlier this year and had to do a full reinstall. It is also a very limited tool. Many players with multiple accounts have multiple settings across these accounts. It has been asked for the launcher to understand individual log ins and maintain individual settings. The article has since been updated and the exe file will still be used. But, in its current form, the launcher is not ready to be the only way to log into Eve.
Tuesday is release day. The patch notes can be found here. No more, "Shoot the station services," as I was once taught. You'll need to tote along someone with an Entosis link. It will be interesting to see how people handle this.
A random goody tucked in there is that secondary lighting from ships and stations has been added. Eve used to have a dark side and a light side. Now with the planets, stations, and other ships casting light the environment will be much more interesting.
There is also change to pilots with a criminal flag and their ability to refit. Criminals are not suspects. Still, this was a surprise pointed out to me before I was able to read the patch notes and one that I did not know about. In low sec you pick up a criminal flag for podding and not much else. Still, it makes me frown a bit. I've been rolling over scenarios where this could be a problem. I am not familiar enough with criminal activity in high sec to know what action it is stopping. I'd love some discussion on this change.
Icons will also be changing on Tuesday. I've played with them. I'm not in love with them and I don't find them to be visually more understandable. There is visually more of them and the difference between them is more noticeable than the gradient of red cross size that we have had for so long. I'm up in the air about it. I, however, predict enormous fall out and anger from the player base that does not visit Sisi when they log in on Tuesday and their overview and in space icons are all different. Rollbacks will be demanded. I then predict a lot of random deaths and mistakes in general as people learn the new icons.
Corbexx hosted a soundboard with CCP Nullarbor. The soundcloud can be found here. Ransu Asanari took notes as well. I've totally stolen the google documents link for everyone.
I missed this weeks meeting. It was again on a work day. Such is the curse of time zones. Last year most meetings were on my days off. This year, I'm missing most of them. They are recorded and I come home and review the recording to keep up. I also missed my own plan to run an open Q and A. However, I have a horrific cold and while my incoherent dithering through my NyQuil soaked body may amuse some, I doubt it will provide any quality. I will try to run it two weeks hence on my next weekend off.
I am very, very happy that we are taking these first steps for Sov. The reason is not because I am interested in playing Fozzie Sov. The reason is much more selfish. I need the sov rework out of the way so that I can get back to work on all the other things on my agenda!
Re: No refit under criminal flag
ReplyDeleteI suspect it's to guarantee that you lose the ship *and* modules you brought to the party. No more popping off your illegal shot and then, via Orca magic, tossing your guns and other valuable modules in to the SMA before CONCORD delivers punitive justice.
Doh! *SMB* (ship maintenance bay). Orcas aren't that big :)
DeleteSome hyperdunker apparently bragged on Reddit somewhere about how he was saving his polarized weapons from Concord's wrath...
DeleteSo rather than calling it an 'exploit' they just patched it out.
My only problem with it is now people know they can do it (at least until Tuesday...)
If something is an exploit, then CCP really should fix the game mechanics to close the loophole. That said, by just fixing the issue and not calling the practice an exploit, the GMs don't need to take disciplinary action against players.
DeleteI love the new icons. Its much easier for me to identify the ships on the field instead of having to infinatly scroll through a list of hundreds of ships to figure out how many interceptors or dictors are on the field and how close they are to my gang
ReplyDeleteI agree with this. There was a learning gradient of WTF, but what in Eve doesn't have that? After I got it and everything started to click the new system was a million times better that what we have now.
DeleteMy only problem is that the icons haven't got the distinctness or clarity that I hoped to see. I know which is *a ship*, but I can't tell which ship it is.
DeleteTrying to tell ships apart was easier with the previous iteration of.icons, I felt, but obviously CCP has chosen to move on from that
that.
We shall how the Players react
Rob K.
There has been a marked increase of missions sending players to lowsec/nullsec pockets near them. I have heard it mentioned and chimed in because I have been experiencing it myself over the last week or so in Amarr space, the others in the other races space. Are there any notes or dev postings to this effect or is this just a very weird and consistent coincidence.
ReplyDelete“The launcher itself has constant problems for some players. [...] Many players with multiple accounts have multiple settings across these accounts. It has been asked for the launcher to understand individual log ins and maintain individual settings.”
ReplyDeleteI have three different settings running on my machine and I use the launcher. If the launcher doesn't work that's a problem OK but running multiple settings with it isn't such a big problem. I have made 2 junctions and all launchers use the same resource cache. Important is that your link to the launcher also points to the launcher link in that junction folder. If that's the case, the started client will work from that working directory (eve2 and eve3 in my case).
That said, I love the launcher. You can rapidly log in multiple characters by just signing in with the auto start box checked and switch user to start up the next character. Further more if you are managing multiple PI alts on one account you can simply keep the credentials for that one active in the launcher, close the client once you are done and just hit “play” again on the launcher bringing you back to the character screen.
I always keep my launchers open and since the main character has its own settings (and there for a launcher for its own) even the evil “socked closed” doesn't hurt that much as I just can hit the play button again.
So instead of one icon for eve I have two of them, is there any reason to always close the launcher after log in?
"Further more if you are managing multiple PI alts on one account you can simply keep the credentials for that one active in the launcher, close the client once you are done and just hit “play” again on the launcher bringing you back to the character screen."
Delete-------
This is a great feature for switching characters on 1 account and I do it as well, but I would like to run two accounts out of a single launcher for maximum ease of use. I just use one character most of the time on a 2nd account, direct exefile serves me well for that. I don't think "average" users want to go through the trouble of setting up multiple installations or junctions, and I dislike switching accounts in my single launcher instance, when I know I'm going to be switching *characters* frequently, on the main account. So, I'd like to see multiple "Launch: [account]" buttons supported, in a future version of the launcher.
I'm still using a beta launcher to get around a bug with the main launcher. Before the beta launcher was release I had to use the exe in the bin folder for weeks. Not having that as a fallback has me worried, but hey, if I can't log in I can always go outside!
ReplyDelete- Than