Category Archive

So I received another email from Blizzard  offering 10 free days of WoW.  Sure why not, I’ll run around again for free.  I am sure glad I didn’t start the free trial yet, I have been loading patches for days!  One of the patches was a 1GB is size, I just left that one for when I went to sleep.  Being extra busy at work and getting he house ready for Thanksgiving, I have literally spent five or six days loading patches here and there.

How long has it been, well from what I can tell from file dates is June of 2007, which is about the last time I received the 10 day free time to load up Burning Crusade.  This free trial isn’t loading the new upgrade, but I am sure they just want to get me back in so I want to buy the new version–thingy.  (or maybe get my machine up to date, who knows)

In case anyone cares, there is one main reason I don’t play WoW any longer, I am charged sales tax on the subscription.  It is the only online game I have ever played which charges me sales tax, and I hate it, so I don’t pay or play.  And a minor reason, is you can only grind for so many hours of your life…

Nice job so far CPP Staff. You got the world up ahead of schedule, that is awesome. Have a beer or two on me. I am sure it was a really long day and you all deserve some congratulations. Except for that slacker, there, who hid the whole time fubar’ing stuff.

At 1600 (2200 GMT) I noticed that EVE was accepting connections and throttling the number of users while everything stabilized. I jumped in glee, four hours ahead! I downloaded the update and tried to log on. I was queued at 180, not bad at all. In 14 minutes I was in. The basic graphics upgrade looks nice and no performance degradation to note yet. There is a premium graphics package you are prompted to download if your computer meets the requirements for it. It does it in the background (probably a p2p thing, should check that) while you are playing. There is also a checkbox in the settings area to throttle the download if you are on a slow connection.

The following text is Copyright © 2007 CCP hf. All rights reserved

Patch Notes for Trinity 1.0

New Game Play Features

New Player Experience
Context Help
In most windows, a small question mark “?” will be visible in the top right corner. Within, players have access to knowledgebase articles based on the window they are in, or even more detailed depending on the tab, or function they are focused on.

Tip of the day
On the character selection screen, tip of the day has been placed. Filled with general know-how and tidbits that might be common knowledge to some, but breaking news to others. A tip is selected on random from the database and displayed, with options of randomizing again or flipping back and forth.

New Tutorials
With Trinity arrive 3 new tutorials, each focusing on different features. They will look at Exploration, Heat and salvaging. If you haven’t tried out said features, the tutorials will help you get started with those and teach you the basics.

Corporate Registry
With corporate registry, corporations have an easier way to advertise themselves to players in hope of recruiting. Players have an easily accessible database which they can go through to find the corporation of their dreams.

* Region wide advertisements, with no limit to number of adverts,
* Unlimited search capabilities from region to region,
* Increased visibility of all corporations wanting to heighten their corporate profile.

Tech 2 ships

Electronic Attack Ships
The electronic attack ships are essentially frigate equivalents of the combat recons. While they are somewhat lacking in EW capabilities and firepower compared to the combat recons, they should nevertheless not be under estimated. Their frigate class sensors give them first strike capability and enable them to disable enemy ships before they have a chance to lock. With the mobility of frigate hulls they are valuable assets for roaming frigate gangs.

* Sentinel (Amarr)
* Kitsune (Caldari)
* Keres (Gallente)
* Hyena (Minmatar)

Heavy interdictors
Heavy interdictors are cruiser equivalents of the destroyer based interdictors, which combine area of effect warp disruption with the tanking capabilities of Heavy Assault Ships. Rather than using warp disrupt probes, the heavy interdictors use a module, the Warp Disruption Field Generator, which prevents all ships within its range from warping or jumping (including the heavy interdictor itself). While having the warp disruption field generator on a heavily tanked ship makes it more resilient, it also comes with some drawbacks. When activated the warp disruption field generator prevents remote assistance, increases the signature radius of the ship and reduces the effectiveness of afterburners and microwarpdrives. The agility is however effectively increased: the mass of the ship and the thrust of afterburners and microwarpdrives is significantly decreased (the thrust reduction cancels out the mass reductions in terms of speed boost). This effective increase in agility means that heavy interdictors flying at high speeds will slow down very fast once the warp disruption field generator is activated.

* Devoter (Amarr)
* Onyx (Caldari)
* Phobos (Gallente)
* Broadsword (Minmatar)

Black Ops
The Black Ops specialize in infiltration and covert operation. Equipped with a jump drive, they can jump short distances past enemy blockades. Covert Ops, Stealth Bombers and Force Recons (not Combat Recons) have been upgraded to support Covert Cynosural Field Generators. These new modules are advanced Cynosural Field Generators that cannot be detected and only Black Ops can lock on to. What makes the Black Ops in particular dangerous is that they can use miniaturized jump portal generators, Covert Jump Portal Generators, to sneak allied forces behind enemy lines. However the covert jump portal technology is rather limited compared to the Titan class jump portals and require support from the ships that jump through to work correctly. Covert jump portal generators can only bridge for ships with Jump Harmonics 2 or above. The covert tech 2 ships: Covert Ops, Stealth Bombers and Force Recons have been upgraded to this end. The resource consumption on the Black Ops jump drives and the Covert Jump Portal Generator is very high, so jump fuel logistics are a concern. Fortunately the Black Ops can also use ordinary jump gates and can thus save jump fuel for when it really matters.

* Redeemer (Amarr)
* Widow (Caldari)
* Sin (Gallente)
* Panther (Minmatar)

Marauders
Marauders are heavy battleships focusing primarily on attrition and deployment for longer periods of time. While their number of hardpoints is limited to just 4, they also receive a 100% damage bonus to their primary weapon type. This has a number of advantages: the remaining high slots are available for other tasks, weapon capacitor need and munitions consumption rates are also reduced. Featuring large cargo holds they have plenty of storage for capacitor boosters or spoils of war. The sensors have been optimized for locking up to 10 targets at a time, but with sensor strengths comparable to cruisers the Marauders can be jammed quite easily if they are not hardened with ECCM.

* Paladin (Amarr)
* Golem (Caldari)
* Kronos (Gallente)
* Vargur (Minmatar)

Jump Freighters
Jump freighters are the latest generation of freighter. They are based upon their tech one counterparts but with significant enhancements. They are faster and more agile, with a larger capacitor. The main change however, is a large portion of the cargo bay has been taken over by a capital class jump drive, the same type used in carriers, dreadnaughts, motherships and titans. This means that whilst the ship has around one third of the cargo capacity, it is capable of jumping between systems without the use of stargates. These ships still retain the ability to use normal stargates, and can be constructed in high security space.

* Anshar (Gallente)
* Ark (Amarr)
* Nomad (Minmatar)
* Rhea (Caldari)

ARM Scripts
ARM Scripts are non-consumable charges that modify the attributes of the module they are installed in. They are installed/uninstalled just like loading/unloading ammo. The modules that can be scripted are listed below followed by the script names in brackets.

* Sensor boosters (Targeting Range and Scan Resolution)
* Remote sensor boosters (uses the same ARM scripts as sensor boosters)
* Remote sensor dampeners (Targeting Range Dampening and Scan Resolution Dampening)
* Tracking computers (Optimal Range and Tracking Speed)
* Tracking links (uses the same ARM scripts as tracking computers)
* Tracking disruptors (Optimal Range Disruption and Tracking Speed Disruption)
* Warp Disruption Field Generators (Focused Warp Disruption)

The scriptable modules have also been modified to accommodate the ARM scripts. In order to get the maximum benefit from e.g. a sensor booster one has to choose between boosting either targeting range or scan resolution. This applies to all the scriptable modules in general (except for the Warp Disruption Field Generator): one can get the same effect as before, but one has to choose between the two bonuses.

* Bonuses to the above scriptable modules now apply to percentage bonuses rather than multipliers
* Remote sensor dampeners have been reduced in effectiveness
* Remote sensor boosters and tracking links have had their effectiveness enhanced
* The tracking link bonuses on the Oneiros and the Scimitar have been increased to 10%
* Information Warfare Link – Electronic Superiority now has different bonuses to different type of electronic warfare:
o ECM and target painters: 2%
o Remote sensor dampeners and tracking disruptors: 1.2%

Bandwidth
Drone bandwidth is a new additional constraint on drones which limits the drones that can be deployed. Each ship has an available bandwidth for controlling drones that all deployed drones must share. Every drone has a bandwidth requirement which must be available on the controlling ship when launching the drone. Once launched, the bandwidth required by the drone is reserved for that drone and not available to other drones. Bandwidth is reclaimed once the drone returns to the drone bay or control of the drone is lost. With bandwidth the damage output from drones can be limited while still allowing for spare drones. Drone bandwidth requirements:

* light drones: 5Mbit/s
* medium drones: 10Mbit/s
* heavy drones: 25Mbit/s

Ship bandwidth:

* Frigates: 0-25Mbit/s
* Destroyers: 0-25Mbit/s
* Cruisers: 0-50Mbit/s
* Battlecruisers: 25-75Mbit/s
* Battleships: 75-125Mbit/s

Exceptions for drone ships:

* Ishkur: 25Mbit/s bandwidth, 25m3 + 5m3/level drone bay
* Vexor: 75Mbit/s bandwidth, 100m3 dronebay
* Ishtar: 125Mbit/s bandwidth, no change in dronebay
* Arbitrator, Curse, Pilgrim: 50 Mbit/s bandwidth, 150m3 dronebay
* Myrmidon: 75Mbit/s bandwidth, 150m3 dronebay
* Eos: 75Mbit/s bandwidth, 150m3 + 15m3/level dronebay

Missions, Dungeons and NPCs
Missions are a vital part of EVE’s Player versus Environment experience. Over 140 missions are a part of the EVE: Trinity expansion, including new Mining/Harvesting, Mega-courier, New Player Experience, and Story Arcs for Empire and Faction agents. Also part of the expansion are 50 more exploration sites, balance changes, improvements to NPCs and their equipment and other features are being added.

User Interface and EVE Voice
As part of the graphics update, the Player Interfaces have been overhauled and we’re not done yet. Many elements of the User Interface are now mobile and EVE Voice is now being integrated further into the UI. More information on these updates can be reviewed in this Dev Blog.

Improvements and Balance Changes

Tutorial, NPE and Character Creation

* Text: a number of typographical errors have been resolved, clarifications made and notes added.
* Images: a number of images have been added to or changed on different pages.
* New tutorials: tutorials have been Exploration, Heat and Salvaging.
* New triggers: easing the new player through the tutorial experience, new triggers such as open window, close window and warnings have been added for the times a player leaves the tutorial.
* Character Creation: “Detail” audio has been removed from all steps (the audio only plays the intro text, before you select anything) but a replay button has been added.
* Character Creation: Character naming rules have been clarified, including:
o Character name already taken by another player,
o Exceeding the allocated amount of spaces (one),
o Not meeting the minimum number of letters in the name (four),
o Exceeding the maximum number of letters in a name (24),
o Banned names, and
o Illegal characters
* Context Help: The pilot can access in-game help about an specific window by just clicking the “?” icon displayed on the windows’ menu bar. This action will open the in-game browser with further information.
* Tip of the day: In the window “Select or Create Character” EVE displays a tip of the day (you can choose whether to navigate it or display a random tip).
* All the rookie missions have been revised and should now pose less problems for inexperienced pilots.

Skills, Implants and Boosters

* The cost of the Jump Portal Generation skill has been decreased to 50m.
* “Weapon Upgrades” and “Advanced Weapon Upgrades” will now work with bomb launchers.
* The consumption bonus on Cynosural Field Theory has been changed to a percentage modifier.
* The role bonus on force recons to cyno field generation consumption from has also been changed from a set bonus to a percentage modifier.
* New implant sets and modules for Mordu’s Legion, Thukker Tribe, Syndicate, SSoE and ORE have been created.

Ships

* Sansha mk 2 has been implemented; Sansha faction ships now focus exclusively on energy turrets exclusively and shield tanking. They receive a fixed 100% damage bonus to make up for the few hardpoints they have (which frees up utility high slots), as well as 7.5% tracking and 5% damage bonuses per level.
* Carrier ship maintenance bays have been increased by 100%.
* The Hel’s CPU has been increased to 950tf.
* The Nidhoggur now has a new low slot at the expense of a medium slot.
* The Eos has been modified as follows: the number of turret slots has been reduced to five, one medium slot has been swapped for a low slot, the drone capacity has been increased to 150m3 and the drone capacity bonus has been reduced to 15m3 per level.
* The Ares now has a new medium slot at the expense of a high slot. Also, launcher hard points have been reduced to one.
* The Rook now has an extra low slot at the cost of a high slot.
* As part of Sansha Mk II, the Nightmare has exchanged the following: 2 high slots, 3 low slots and 4 launcher hard points in exchange for a fixed 100% damage bonus, as well as 7.5% tracking and 5% damage bonuses per level.
* Like its sister ship above, the Phantasm has traded 1 high slot, 2 low slots and 3 launcher hard points for a fixed 100% damage bonus, as well as 7.5% tracking and 5% damage bonuses per level.
* The Succubus has exchanged 2 low slots and 2 launcher hard points for a fixed 100% damage bonus, as well as 7.5% tracking and 5% damage bonuses per level.
* The following changes have been made to the ORE Rorqual:
o The Ship Maintenance bay has been increased from 800,000m3 to 1,000,000m3.
o Assembly Lines have increased from two to four.
o Cargo Capacity has increased from 20,000m3 to 40,000m3.
o Mining Foreman Gang bonus has been increased from 3% per Capital Industrial Ship skill level to 5% per level.
* The mass of the Basilisk, Guardian, Oneiros, Probe and Griffin have been reduced.
* With the exception of the Crow, Raptor and Shuttle, the agility multiplier on all Caldari ships has been reduced. Caldari ships are now more agile.
* The base speed of all interdictors has been reduced by 25%.
* The ECM strength bonus for the Falcon has been increased to 20%, the Scorpion, Blackbird and Griffin now have a 15% bonus.
* A survey probe explosion delay bonus has been given to the Imicus and removed from the Maulus.
* A new role bonus has been added to all interceptors: an 80% reduction in propulsion jamming systems activation cost has been granted.
* Ares, Raptor, Malediction and Stiletto interceptors have had their secondary interceptor skill bonus changed from damage/falloff to 5% increase to warp scrambler range per level.
* The Cap Need MWD bonus effect on the Daredevil, Thorax, Deimos, Vigilant and Vindicator has changed, the effect now adds to the modifier instead of percentage modifying it.
* The MWD cap need bonus for the Daredevil, VIgilant and VIndicator has been reduced from 10% per level to 5%. Capacitor capacity has increased by 12.5%
* All Battleship volumes have been reduced to 45% of original value.
* All Battlecruisers and Command ships have had volume increases of 80%.
* All T2 cruisers volumes are now matched to their T1 hull class variants.
* Changed displayname of “turretSpeeBonus” (as used by Gunnery and various implants) from “Turret Speed Bonus” to “rate of fire bonus” to bring it in line with “speedMultiplier” (as used on damage mods).
* It will no longer be possible to use the cargohold of a ship stored in a ship maintenance array for additional storage. Only charges will be storable.

Modules and Drones

* Offlined modules now function as “heat sinks” when overloading, reducing the chance of the other modules to take heat damage.
* Repair costs for modules have been modified as follows: up to 50% of base price if the module is partially damaged and up to 100% of base price if the module is fully damaged.
* The position of an overloaded module in the rack now affects the chances of the other modules in the rack to take damage from heat. The further away from the overloaded module they, the smaller the chances are for the other modules to become damaged.
* Need for Speed (drones): The rate of fire for all drones has been doubled to decrease the number of server calls drones are making. Drone damage was doubled to balance the RoF change. Sentry drones and fighters are not affected by any of these changes.
* The maximum range of Torpedoes has been decreased.
* The rate of fire of Siege Missile Launchers has been decreased by 25%.
* Bombs now launch with a forward velocity, similar to survey probes.
* Tech II remote armor repairers have been balanced and introduced.
* The meta level of Selynne’s Modified Thermic Plating and Raysere’s Modified Thermic Plating have been changed to 12.
* The resistance bonuses on tech 2, faction, Mizuro’s modified and Gotan’s modified resistance platings have been increased.
* The capacitor need of ECM modules has been reduced by 40%.
* The signature radius penalty on some small shield extenders has been changed to 2m like other modules.
* The CPU need of micro shield extenders has been reduced, meta levels corrected and signature radius penalty changed to 1m.
* The capacitor capacity penalty on all Capacitor Flux Coils has been reduced by 10%, but the recharge rate bonus has also been decreased to compensate.
* The capacitor need of neutralizers has been reduced to improve efficiency, energy destabilization amount and range on small neutralizers has increased, fitting requirements of meta level 1 to 4 small neutralizers have been adjusted to be in line with their larger brethren.
* The activation cost of Gang warfare modules has been reduced from 50 to 25.
* Meta level 1 to 4 shield boosters now have the same duration as tech 1 shield boosters (meta level 0). Shield boost amount and capacitor need have been adjusted: The efficiency has been increased by +12.5% and the boost rate has been increased up to +12.5% for meta level 0 down to -10% for meta level 4. This ensures that the increase in boost rate and efficiency between tech 1 and tech 2 is in line with the values for armor repairers.
* The Industrial Core and Capital Tractor Beam modules have been restricted to fit only to Capital Industrial Hulls, the CPU has been lowered to 100 and CPU bonus effect has been removed from the Rorqual.

Science and Industry

* Advanced capital construction components have been introduced and are required in the manufacture of Tech II capital ships, they require the same advanced materials as normal construction components. Blueprints for them are seeded on the market available from certain NPC corporations.
* When a blueprint can yield more than one type from invention, you can now select the desired outcome from a drop-down menu in the S&I window.
* Tech II Remote Armor Repairers can now be invented.
* The maximum runs of Tech 2 Hybrid, Laser and Projectile blueprints have been increased from 10 to 100.
* Max production run of Barrage M blueprint has been changed from 10 to 100.
* The S&I job times of T2 missile blueprints have been reduced to be more inline with equivalent T2 ammo.
* The bonuses provided by decryptors in invention have been increased by varying amounts to be more effective in invention jobs.
* Bomb manufacturing will output 2 bombs per batch, thus halving their manufacturing costs.
* The chance of inventing ship blueprints of smaller Tech II ship classes has been increased leading to a greater chance of success with frigate, destroyer, cruiser and battlecruiser invention.
* Skill requirements for making copies of the Expanded Cargohold I Blueprint have been removed.
* Invention times for Mining Laser Upgrade I Blueprint and the Ice Harvester Upgrade I Blueprint have been reduced to be in line with other modules.
* Changed invention research time on Target Painter I from 120,000 to 9,000 seconds.

Missions, Dungeons & Exploration

* Various dungeons have been adjusted and optimized as part of the Need for Speed initiative.
* Scouts report the discovery of six new hidden complexes belonging to the pirate factions. CONCORD has rated two of them as challenging (6/10 on the DED threat assessment scale), while the other four are reported as potentially deadly (9/10 on the DED threat assessment scale)
* A few pilots have reported a possible connection between Cosmic Anomalies sites and reputed pirate hidden complexes. These path seems very well hidden and only with great luck can one stumble upon it.
* New Metadrones have been introduced, these include two variants of each existing combat drone (not counting sentry drones), for a total of 24. These are faster, stronger and more diverse versions of their T1 and T2 counterparts.
* Six new Rogue Drone Components have been introduced and can be looted off Rogue Drone Commanders. These components can be used in remanufacturing regular drones into metadrones with the help of the proper blueprints.
* Hacking sites have been introduced in the rogue drone regions; the wrecked remains of old research facilities might just hold information on Rogue Drone command structure.
* Hacking sites now appear more frequently in all security levels of space.
* More low-sec booster-related exploration sites have been distributed.
* An uncompleted exploration site will now despawn during the first downtime after 72 hours have passed since it was first visited.
* Multispectral Frequency probes no longer pick up Cosmic Anomalies when the scan is made in the Cosmic Signature category. Note that scanning for Cosmic Anomalies will return results of the Unknown type.

Loyalty Point Store

* New factional offers have been added to appropriate LP stores.
* Module and blueprint offers for all Empire faction LP stores have been modified to bring them in line with new pricing models.
* Synth Booster BPCs have been added to pirate LP stores.

User Interface and EVE Voice

* The in-space UI has been overhauled. Various components can be moved around the screen and the fleet UI has undergone a re-design. Fleet UI is now accessible while docked at a station.
* EVE Voice functionality is now integrated into the fleet UI.
* More information on these updates can be found in this Dev Blog.

Killmail Enhancements

* Killmail Delivery Changes
o Killmails will be delivered to your character sheet > combat log.
o Final blow participant and victim will receive the killmail as before.
o Directors in player corps will be able to see all member kills and losses in the corporation interface > Wars section.
o Kills of starbase structures will be delivered to final blow participant and owning corp combat log.

Note: Killmails received before trinity in your concord evemails will not be included in the new system.

* Killmail Enhancements
o Killmails will no longer truncate the involved parties.
o Killmails will now include rigs.
o Killmails will now include dropped as well as destroyed items.
o Killmails will include damage dealt for each involved party.
o Killmails will now be properly translated.

Starbases and Outposts

* It is now possible to control offensive starbase structures in high sec space. However they will only allow you to target players whom you are at war with or who are criminally flagged towards your corporation.

The Patch Notes are continued in the Changes and Fixes section on our website http://www.eve-online.com:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=155

The day is here, and I can’t play so I though I would write a post on some EVE happenings.  EVE Trinity expansion is currently in the process of being loaded.  There are a whole lot of people in Iceland who will not be getting any sleep over the next twenty-four hours.  The creators of EVE, CCP are in Iceland and started their update at 0200 GMT. Trinity is EVE‘s largest updates to date.  One of the most major changes that they are adding is a new graphics engine.  I finally got around to watching their Trinity Trailer and wow, what an improvement.  I can’t wait to see this live in action.  The trailer in the link provided is actual in-game footage!  The game play look is nice now, but wow.

That is only one of many things being added.  There are new ships being added and a tonne of fixes.  If you haven’t played EVE or haven’t been there in a while, go back after this update, the game rocks.

For those of you saying, “I just don’t have the time to commit to a game to make it anywhere useful.”
That is hogwash!  All the skill advancements in EVE are time based, they take x amount of time to complete if you are logged in or not.  I have set long training skills, like 35 days and let my subscription expire to take a break from the game.  A month later I re-subscribed and my skill is almost done.  Not even paying for the game and the skill still advances!  Great for casual players, like me, with kids wifes, f’d up job, etc.  The down side to this of course is that you can’t play straight for a week and become uber like in so many other games.  EVE is unlike other games in other ways:  There is only one world.  The last record set by EVE was around 37,500 players logged in at once.  To a geek like me that is impressive.  In case you are wondering other games like WoW, max out each “realm” at five to ten thousand players.

Try it now Get your 14-day free trial!

If you are new to EVE and are looking for some tools to help you calculate training time, training completion time in your time zone, mining rate, etc.,   visit my EVE-IGBTools site.  I am always looking for new ideas to enhance the site.  Well, this fall I have been trying to find time too.  I miss programming, I wish my life would allow me the time to do it.  Kids and family come first though, and I don’t regret it.

Here is a link to a higher res version of the Trinity Trailer.

Play EVE Get your 14-day free trial!

You know, now that I think about it, I saw a commercial the other day for WoW on TV.  That in itself surprised me, but what surprised me even more was their spokes person, William Shatner.  I think Bill would make a better spokesperson for EVE, being space and all…  Of course at this stage, I think he could fill most spokesperson positions.

I have been really surprised by my usage logs that nobody in eve is using the Skill Ending Date Calculator on eve-igbtools.com.  This is simply because it’s the tool I use the most.  Perhaps it’s use just isn’t understood.

The basic idea behind it, and it’s really basic, is that it tells you exactly when your skill will be complete, to the second is you want.

In EVE when you train a skill it counts down for you how time you have remaining.  This is listed as days, hours, minutes, and seconds.  How many times have you counted on your hands to figure out  which day, hour and minute the skill will end?  Well don’t, use the Skill Ending Date Calculator.

Fill out it’s four fields, Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds (no field is required), and click the calculate button.
At the bottom of the page will be the completion time in  five separate time zones:

UTC (EVE Server), Eastern US, Central US, Mountain US, and Pacific US

And of course I will add any other time zones requested by users.  It’s that simple and you don’t need to do any of it in your head.  You may then setup a reminder in your favorite task list.  Which reminds me of an item I would like to do–email a reminder to the user so they may import into thier commonly used task list.  Once the login class is complete, I can store the skill time for the user and send them periodic emails to remind them to change their skill.  Sounds like it will be an interesting winter of programming.

If you are an EVE player, give the Skill Ending Date Calculator a shot, I think you will like it.  If you have an idea for an EVE tool send it to me, I will see what I can do.