The BS detector goes off as quickly as CCP begins pushing out vaguely worded posts on their web site about how nice every part is. I can’t inform if they’re attempting to persuade us or persuade themselves that they’re doing job, however one landed yesterday about Equinox and their up to now failed plan to reinvigorate null sec by abandoning farms and fields and nerfing it into the bottom as an alternative.
Equinox is right here – Seize the flawed finish of the stick
I’ll give them credit score in that they at the very least know their concepts are unhealthy and/or incomplete as evidenced by the truth that the downgrades to null sec area should not but obligatory. However they’re nonetheless hanging on to their plan to base every part on the true sec of a system, which was how null sec was once for the primary decade or so of the sport’s life, which implies that many methods in null sec can be return to a state of until existence.
Anyway, one can discard the promotional pleasantries and go to the patch notes to see what they’re actually speaking about.
Up entrance there’s a part on trade and the way they’ll make capital ships and battleships inexpensive. Capital ships haven’t seen numerous utilization, save for maybe dreadnoughts, as a result of CCP made them too costly to deliver to battle again in early 2021, a transfer that killed all momentum in World Battle Bee which, up till that time had delivered document breaking battles and unprecedented destruction.
CCP realized their error finally, although not earlier than compounding it through the useful resource hunger plan that was meant to… do one thing I suppose… however which solely helped usher within the 12 months of disappointment and the bottom common login numbers in over a decade.
The concurrent person chart of the period
Sure, the pandemic period enhance couldn’t final perpetually, however CCP helped finish it by making the sport worse.
And, the current month-to-month financial report, we’re nonetheless near peak mineral costs due to CCP being unwilling to make adjustments to resolve the scarcity of isogen that they created as a result of they need folks to mine in low sec the place roaming pirates will pop each barge they will discover.
August 2024 Financial Indices since 2018 Chart
You’ll be able to see the large spike in April 2021 once they made battleships and above way more costly to supply, a drop off as folks stopped utilizing them, then the climb in costs once more because the financial hunger plan was put in force. Provide and demand is an idea that CCP nonetheless doesn’t appear to totally perceive.
Anyway, the patch notes present that they’re attempting to make battleships and above cheaper by lowering the supplies required to fabricate them. So in the event you can’t or received’t repair the provision downside, perhaps work on the demand aspect of issues? CCP reviews that Isogen is 50% of the price of battleship development now, so that they have halved that, however doubled the Nocxium required as a result of they don’t need battleships to be too low cost.
That may be a typical CCP incremental change as a result of as soon as they make an enormous replace and break issues they get paranoid and return to tiny strikes. We’ll see within the subsequent MER if this has any impact in any respect the worth of minerals. A discount in demand ought to theoretically deliver the costs down, however provided that that discount is significant in dimension.
Oh, and so they will increase the supplies wanted for marauders and black ops battleships as a result of they need these to stay costly. Since it’s essential make a battleship first then use that to construct both of these two, the worry was apparently {that a} 75 million ISK reduce within the worth of a battleship hull (their calculation) was going to make marauders and black ops battleships, which run 1.3-1.5 billion ISK per hull, too low cost.
Once more, we’ll see if that has an impact. I respect the trouble, however I’m additionally of the thoughts that you simply don’t deserve adulation while you repair an issue you created within the first place.
Then there are the updates to the brand new null sec plan. I’ve a few previous posts on the story up to now of CCP’s try to reinvigorate null sec.
The overall consensus has been that CCP’s plan goes to make the most important null sec empires seize extra space to help their wants… the “go broad” plan… and make the present choice of staying geographically small… the “go tall” plan… out of date. This has been mentioned since CCP first introduced the numbers they have been going to make use of… one thing they delayed doing as a result of they little question knew what they have been proposing.
All the pieces within the Equinox mannequin hinges on the three new null sec assets, energy, workforce, and reagents.
Equinox Null sec Assets
So the patch notes embody one other spherical of reductions in assets required to run issues beneath Equinox. We will see if that is sufficient to entice null sec teams emigrate to the brand new system, one thing that has been voluntary up to now. (Except you are taking a system, through which case you must use the updates mechanics, so method to suppress battle as soon as once more CCP!)
Up till this level teams have solely performed so to experiment with the Equinox mechanics, which have been demonstrably a downgrade from what we had earlier than.
There are additionally some new mining upgrades. CCP’s plan to repair the Isogen downside appears to be to permit null sec to put in an energy hungry improve that can spawn a tiny quantity of the mineral. Up to now that has been a bust however perhaps this time they hit the mark? I’ll need to see what the meta signifies as a result of I don’t mine anymore and I don’t plan to begin.
There additionally some fixes to the brand new constructions in order that their signature radius isn’t so small that supers can not apply to them. I don’t fly an excellent, however as of late supercarriers are for construction bashes, so they need to apply accurately.
None of this seems like the large win that can change participant’s minds on the Equinox null sec plan. The vibe on r/eve is tepid from null sec folks and offended from individuals who don’t perceive why CCP received’t merely make null sec an unlivable wasteland. However the latter at all times say that, so no change there.
On the optimistic entrance, the patch did deliver a few extra adjustments.
The primary was a steadiness move on sensible bombs. If nothing else, EMP smartbombs should not higher by default than different decisions.
A sensible bomb in motion
There have been additionally a bunch of officer modules launched for frigates and cruisers in addition to a change in order that Gistii B-type and Gistum B-type defend boosters now bridge the hole between A-type and C-type.
Lastly, there have been a bunch of chat UI adjustments. I used to be a little bit skeptical of this as a result of chat nonetheless goes down at times so stays a sore topic for some. It has been years since chat was put by itself server, the direct results of which appeared to be chat having its personal ongoing set of points.
However trying down the record, I’m fairly pleased with what they introduced with this patch.
- The tabs stacked in a single window can now be reordered with drag & drop.
- Chat window enhancements
- The hierarchy of the context menu has been improved to point settings relevant to the precise channel and to all channels.
- The context menu is now accessible from each the chat choices menu (three dots) and the chat tab right-click menu.
- It’s now attainable to routinely cover messages containing particular phrases through the use of filters.
- Multi-line chat messages can now be routinely collapsed if longer than the chosen variety of traces.
- The next chat channels not enable referral hyperlinks:
- Native chat in starter methods.
- Native chat in Profession Agent methods.
- Company chat for NPC starter companies.
- Premade channels, e.g. Rookie Assist, Spanish Recruitment.
- Minimized chat home windows will now stay minimized after restarting the consumer.
First off, I need to say that the drag and drop reordering solves an ongoing annoyance for me. I’m bored with attempting to do this solely to have the tab come out into its personal window.
I attempted the replace shortly and it… type of works. In a window with a number of chat tabs it nonetheless pops the tab you chose and strikes out into its personal impartial chat window, however now at the very least helps you to put it again in a unique ordered spot within the mixed window versus earlier than when you could possibly solely put it again on the finish.
Not good, however a step in the suitable course.
The remainder of it it appears respectable. Hyperlink referral spam is terrible and limiting it’s good. I may even be placing in a filter on native for “hypernet,” which stays one of many worst options CCP has added to the sport.
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