Record Active ISK Delta On Tranquility In November 2023

I'm a little late on the news about the monthly economic report (MER) in EVE Online for November 2023. I don't cover the MER like I used to, but a statistic did jump out at me. The Active ISK Delta hit a record high of 104.5 trillion ISK for the Alpha/Omega period in EVE Online going back to December 2017.

The Active ISK Delta is the amount of in-game currency entering or leaving the game due to players either leaving or returning to New Eden. The figure usually is a good measure if players are coming back to play EVE Online, as brand new players count as zero for the metric. In other words, the Active ISK Delta is not affected by the increased interest in EVE due to the Down The Rabbit Hole documentary by Fredrik Knudsen published in November.

The Active ISK Delta has been extremely volatile over the past 13 months. Last month's 104.5 trillion ISK broke the record associated with the launch of the Uprising expansion in November 2022. Since the return of expansions last year, the Active ISK Delta has averaged -5.36 trillion ISK per month, indicating players really aren't leaving the game. Or if they are, many are returning. Another good sign for the health of EVE going forward.

EVE: Havoc Patch Notes For The Week Of 4-8 December 2023

I'm not sure how I feel about all the patch notes published for EVE Online this week. Should I feel happiness the developers are jumping on problems, or that the issues weren't discovered until noticed by players on Tranquility global shard? In fairness, not all of the patch notes fixed defects. The final seasonal event of the year, Winter Nexus, came out on Tuesday. Other features received some enhancements to improve usability. One thing I feel confident in saying is the game has come a long way from when I started playing. Back then, if a problem wound up on Tranquility, we'd have to live with the issue until the next expansion in six months.

As I've done a couple of times before during Havoc I'm going to post multiple days of patch notes together, if only to help out everyone logging in over the weekend know what's changed since last Sunday. I'm also going to lump subjects together in an attempt to make finding some of the changes easier.

Features & Changes:

Events:

Winter Nexus Patch Notes And YouTube Guides - I added some YouTube guides to the Winter Nexus event created by some EVE Partners on YouTube.

Winter Nexus Themed Character Select and Wreck Icons [2023-12-04.1]

• In preparation for Winter Nexus, the Character Select Screen is updated, and present icons tagging wrecks of your helpless victims as you claim your bounties! [2023-12-04.1]

Insurgencies:

• The EVE Vanguard: First Strike event begins today [December 7th] and runs until December 11th! [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• During the First Strike event players in Vanguard will add corruption to the Guristas insurgency that is centered in Hevrice whenever they complete contracts. Players logged into the EVE Online client can see the effect of the Vanguard on the corruption levels within this Guristas insurgency through the insurgency UI. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Insurgency systems will now use a triangle instead of square at Corruption level 5 in the autopilot route display. [2023-12-07.1]

AIR Opportunities:

• AIR Opportunities now opens by default when a player is docked for the first time after downtime. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• The Opportunity Details page of Pirate Insurgencies now displays Corruption and Suppression information. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• The search/filter/sort header now sticks to the top of the page when scrolling. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Feature pages now include an info icon with a tooltip explaining which opportunities are listed there. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Feature tags now include their feature icon. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Factional Warfare and Pirate Insurgencies opportunities no longer show non-relevant faction sites. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Rewards tab introduced with one unified area to claim all unclaimed rewards for opportunities. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• AIR Opportunities now displays how many opportunities the player has in their Active and Rewards tabs. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• The claim button in the Opportunity Details page of Corporation Projects now plays an animation when players claim their reward. [2023-12-07.1]

Corporation Projects:

• New Project Hangars role. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Corporation members with this role will have access to their corporation's Project Hangars. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Project Creation summary. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Each collapsed subsection of the project creation form will now display a summary of what was authored in that section. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Updated the details page for Corporation Projects to include a section that shows the ISK value per contribution. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Info panel entries for corporation projects now show their progress even when collapsed. [2023-12-07.1]

Factional Warfare:

• Fixed an unintended interaction with direct enlistment where you could remote repair or provide remote assistance to someone who is directly enlisted with a militia with a PVP timer in the same corp as you, while you are not direct enlisted in the same faction as them. This is now treated as a criminal action in high security space.

Homefront Operations:

• Unique Transmissions will no longer appear after a character has first viewed it. [2023-12-07.1]

Modules:

• The cost of Domination Ballistic Control System in the Malakim Zealots Loyalty Store has been increased to 64,000 LP´s and 25,714,300 ISK to match the same price as the Dread Guristas Ballistic Control Systems. [2023-12-07.1]

Technical:

• The support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 has ended and it is no longer possible to start the client on those operating systems.

Universe:

• CONCORD has updated the security ratings of Villore, Bereye, Hek, and Parchanier to 0.9, 0.9, 0.8, and 0.9, respectively, following another security audit in these systems. CONCORD does not expect further updates in the foreseeable future. [2023-12-05.1]
  
  
• Several empire intelligence networks have been alerted to reported sightings of high-profile members of Arkombine arriving at The Fulcrum in Zarzakh. [2023-12-05.1]

User Interface:

• Insurgency systems experiencing Level 5 Corruption will show up as triangles in the route instead of squares. Waypoints will still be crosses. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• The updated Settings Menu introduced in Havoc is no longer full-screen. It now opens windowed and center aligned. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• If players skip the character select screen when logging in and have unclaimed daily gifts, the Daily Login Campaigns Neocom icon will now blink blue momentarily when a player is docked for the first time in a session. [2023-12-07.1]

Defect Fixes:

AIR Opportunities:

• Agent missions that are in the offered state (not accepted) are no longer auto-tracked after settings are cleared. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Horizontal card scrolling is no longer misaligned for the Epic Arcs and Introductions sections of the Opportunities home page. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Update Post Downtime - We have disabled AIR Opportunities ore anomalies temporarily while we investigate an ongoing issue. [2023-12-08.1]
  
  
• AIR Opportunities ore anomalies were temporarily disabled while we investigated an ongoing issue. They have since been re-enabled. [2023-12-08.2]
• 
  
• Disabled opening AIR Opportunities on first dock. [2023-12-08.2]

Corporation Projects:

• Fixed an issue where some players were unable to claim their contribution rewards for Corporation Projects. [2023-12-07.1]

Graphics:

• Ship decals no longer misbehave when zooming in and out. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Addressed multiple issues with applying SKINs and switching ships in Upwell hangars. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Faction emblems no longer appear on traitor NPC hulls. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Fixed multiple issues with errant VFX, decals, and blinkies on various SKINs. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Metamorphosis blueprint no longer has an image of the Sunesis. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Minor tweak to audio triggers when other capsuleers enter/exit wormholes. [2023-12-06.1]
  
  
• Fixed an issue where new Alliance Tournament VFX were erroneously appearing on older Alliance Tournament ship models. [2023-12-06.1]

New Player Experience:

• Improved off-path handling throughout the experience. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Added additional highlight banners to make instructions clearer. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• The Dock button in Selected Items will now stop blinking when warping to the station following the mining experience. [2023-12-07.1]
   
• Skipping the tutorial during a camera animation will no longer disable camera controls for the remainder of the session. [2023-12-07.1]

User Interface:

• Fixed an exception which prevented the corruption score from updating in the info panel for the solarsystem whenever pirates captured an insurgency site. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Fixed an issue where several words were divided in the Settings Window for the German language. [2023-12-07.1]
  
  
• Fixed a defect and exception where the stage value in the guristas FOB system could show an incorrect, very large number after a vanguard contract completed. [2023-12-08.1]

Winter Nexus Patch Notes And YouTube Guides

I am two days late on delivering news about EVE Online's last seasonal event for 2023, Winter Nexus. The event, running from last Tuesday through 4 January 2024, offers 30 days of login rewards. Alpha accounts can obtain up to 125,000 skill points and Omega accounts up to 650,000 skill points for logging in 23 of the 30 days of the event.  In addition to a selection of boosters, filaments, the login rewards also include Aurora Universalis SKINs. Alpha accounts can receive the festive SKINs for the following ships:

• Tormentor (Day 3)
• Incursus (Day 6)
• Vigil (Day 9)
• Harpy (Day 11)
• Pontifex (Day 13)
• Stork (Day 17)
• Bellicose (Day 19)
• Lachesis (Day 21)

Omega accounts receive the Alpha SKINs plus a few others:

• Merlin (Day 3)
• Algos (Day 5)
• Kikimora (Day 8)
• Arbitrator (Day 10)
• Rook (Day 12)
• Rapier (Day 14)
• Barghest (Day 17)
• Chimera (Day 19)
• Nidhoggur (Day 21)

For those collecting event points, in addition to boosters, crates and filaments, another 9 SKINs are available:

• Ishkur (50 pts)
• Dragoon (150 pts)
• Talwar (300 pts)
• Magus (350 pts)
• Blackbird (450 pts)
• Arazu (600 pts)
• Huginn (700 pts)
• Nestor (800 pts)
• Thanatos (900 pts)

I included a list of all the SKINs available from the login and event tracks because a lot of people like to decorate their ships. But since I didn't see a description of the event in The Agency (I could have missed it), I thought posting the patch notes might help out.

Winter Nexus Event!

• The Winter Nexus event has returned to New Eden! This in-game event will run until downtime on January 4th 2024.
  
  
• Volatile Ice Storms have begun to appear across highsec, lowsec, and nullsec space. These ice storms spread out across the stargate network two jumps from a central system, and occasionally move from system to system just like metaliminal storms. These storms provide bonuses to ship thermal resistances and module overheating for all capsuleers flying within them. Sansha's Nation and Outer Ring Excavations have both mobilized to take advantage of the novel forms of stellar ice found within these storms.
  
  
• Wightstorm combat anomalies have begun appearing within the Volatile Ice Storms. These sites are full of hostile Sansha's nation vessels, and CONCORD advises capsuleers bring a battlecruiser ship or better when attempting to engage with these forces. The Wightstorm Forward Base site found within storms that originate in highsec space appears to be guarded by the weakest Sansha fleets, with the nullsec Wightstorm Transit Site posing an intermediate challenge and the lowsec-based Wightstorm Muster Point offering the greatest challenge for the greatest rewards.
  
  
• Wightstorm data signatures can also be found within Volatile Ice Storms. These Sansha's Nation data sites can be hacked by enterprising capsuleers equipped with scan probes and data analyzer modules.
  
  
• Volatile Ice Field anomalies can also be discovered within Volatile Ice Storms. These fields of newly discovered stellar ice have recently been captured by ORE and Mordu's Legion forces who have driven away the Sansha harvesting fleets. These ice fields can be accessed through a special ORE-commandeered acceleration gate that only allows medium and small mining and hauling ships to enter (Expedition Frigates, Mining Barges, Exhumers, Industrial Ships, Blockade Runners, Deep Space Transports, and the Porpoise). The volatile ice found within these fields cannot be reprocessed by standard facilities, however Outer Ring Excavations has set up mobile ice collection operations within each of these ice fields and is willing to trade with capsuleers who contribute to their mining operation. Capsuleers can trade seven units of volatile ice with the ORE representatives in the ice fields to receive a package of valuable salvage and items that ORE forces collected from the wrecks of Sansha ships. Rumors suggest that other valuable Sansha salvage has frozen directly into some of the ice chunks and can be occasionally picked up along with the ice by normal mining activities.
  
  
• Rewards that can be found by capsuleers within all of these sites include valuable Overseers' Effects, hundreds of festive ship SKINs, limited-time Cerebral Accelerators, character apparel, special Sansha's nation combat boosters, Sansha's Nation pirate implant blueprints, and rare faction modules. 
  
  
• Limited-time Ice Storm filaments are now available that will instantly transport capsuleers into one of these volatile ice storms. Each filament clearly states in its description how many capsuleers it can transport and whether it will take them to a highsec, lowsec, or nullsec storm.
  
  
• A new Yoiul Festival seasonal challenge track can be found within the Agency. These challenges can be completed over the course of the event by engaging with the combat, hacking, and ice mining sites within the Volatile Ice Storms. Completing these challenges will provide players with points that will progress them along a reward track consisting of new exclusive Aurora Universalis skins, Sansha combat boosters, and ice storm filaments.
  
  
• A new set of daily login gifts are available over the course of the Winter Nexus event including snowballs, ice storm filaments, new Aurora Universalis skins, Sansha combat boosters, EverMarks and up to 650.000 skill points. Players can receive all of these rewards by logging in everyday between now and January 4th.
  
  
• An expert system has been included which will allow all players, including alpha accounts, the ability to fly an Endurance and fit an Ice Mining Laser to mine ice for 4 days. 

I also decided to include some guides made by YouTubers in the EVE Partner Program. These content creators received exclusive access to the Singularity test shard to give them the opportunity to create videos for release when events begin. Here are some of the guides I managed to find:

Loru Gaming

• Winter Hacking Is Easy Money
• Safest SOLO Winter Nexus Activity

Captain Benzie

• Winter Nexus Is HERE (Weekend Pack Givaway)

Torvald Uruz

• Winter Nexus 2023-2024 Event

JAKEL33T

• Fading Volatile Ice Field - Winter Nexus Mining Site

DireRaven740

• Winter Nexus Praxis - Event Combat Site Fit

I-402

• The EASIEST Winter Nexus Fit (Works for Alphas too) - 200mil/h+

Killing Is Just A Means To Communicate Activity In EVE Online

Another month is in the books. November was a bit special in EVE Online due to the launch of the Havoc expansion on the 14th. For the launch of Havoc, people seem to downplay the number of players logging into the game. Even Jester wrote a cautionary post on the EVE sub-Reddit and hasn't posted the November average concurrent user numbers to his website like normal. The month ended with an average ACU of approximately 24,000 players logged in at any one time according to what Jester posted to Reddit.

If logins are not a reliable statistic, then how about the number of explosions players create in the game? Dotlan Maps only provides statistics for the three main security bands, high sec, low sec, and null security space. For most of the categories provided, New Eden saw numbers not posted for years in most cases.

High sec in an interesting study. Player ships that explode are in large part inflated because the tutorials and career agents send new players into situations in which they lose their ships. The 403,064 player owned ships exploding in high sec last month hasn't been seen since the pandemic days of August 2020. And while the number of NPCs players destroyed is still drastically down compared to 2013-2014, the 108,326,826 killed is the most in two years.

One of the constants in CCP's three expansions over the past 13 months is a focus on low security space. The number of ships players managed to lose in the security band, at 294,946, fell just short of 300 thousand. Still, players managed to die at the highest rate since January 2017, or in almost 7 years. The draw back at the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 was the introduction of the free-to-play Alpha character option. 

Finally, the number of ships exploding in null security space almost reached 300 thousand for the first time since January 2022. The 297,582 ships players lost in November was the most in almost three years. Players still feel the effects of the Scarcity Era, but the 166,606,543 NPCs killed by players last month was the most since players destroyed over 205 thousand in October 2020.

Perhaps all the cynics are right. Perhaps in the long run Havoc will fail to attract and hold players interest. But so far the return of the expansion release schedule is rebuilding the player base after some questionable decisions by the upper management of CCP Games over the past few years. Hopefully players will continue to communicate their approval of the current direction of the game in the most EVE way possible: blowing each other up.

Cloud Imperium Games Posts Record Sales Of $28.4 Million In November 2023

Cloud Imperium Games recorded a record amount in sales in November 2023. Last month the makers of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 set a single-month sales record of $28.4 million in sales according to the CCU Game - Star Citizen dashboard. The total surpassed the year-over-year sales compared to November 2022 by $5.3 million, or 23.2%. Overall, CIG's sales total for 2023 so far is $109.1 million, a 3.4% increase from the first eleven months of 2022's total of $105.5 million.

Overall, CIG has raised $731.0 million from confirmed sources (the funding page & the 2021 financial report). The income breaks down as follows:

• Sales/Pledges: $649.0 million (through 30 November 2023)
• Subscriptions: $27.8 million (through 31 December 2021)
• All other sources: $54.2 million (through 31 December 2021)

In addition, CIG received $63.25 million in investor funding in 2018 and 2019, bringing the total confirmed funding of the project up to $794.2 million. Of the total through the end of 2021, $1.4 million was paid out to investors as dividends.

With the monster sales powered by the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo in the final 2 weeks of the month, CIG will most assuredly surpass 2022's sales figure of $113.6 million. If the company matches the December sales of 2019, the possibility exists of reaching $120 million in sales for 2023. 

Next month is a big month for those watching Cloud Imperium's finances. The company will publish its financial report for 2022, giving observers a look at spending and income other than the sale of virtual goods. The amount displayed on the funding tracker does not cover the day-to-day operations so the report will show exactly how healthy CIG's financial situation truly is. 

A Quick Gripe About The Corporation Projects UI

Over the weekend I did a little mining in EVE Online. I want to build a Porpoise, a ship designed to support mining operations.

When new lower-mass wormhole connections began appearing across Anoikis in late YC116, ORE tasked the engineers at its advanced Outer Ring Development labs with creating a mining foreman vessel capable of passing through these gateways and exploiting the unspoiled riches available within. Creating such a compact ship while preserving much of the utility of the larger Orca and Rorqual designs proved a significant challenge, but the end result was a ship that had great potential for capsuleer mining operations in all areas of space.

The Porpoise can use a medium industrial core to substantially increase its industrial capabilities, while empowering its defenses during deployment in a static configuration. A key element of the industrial capacity unlocked by activating an industrial core is the ability to use compressor modules, with the Porpoise also having this capability, although limited to using medium gas and asteroid ore compressors.

The Porpoise is a smaller, more mobile and more affordable mining foreman platform that is perfect for supporting mining operations in dangerous space. It is capable of providing support to its allies through mining foreman bursts, remote shield boosters and survey scanners. The Porpoise also enjoys strong bonuses to mining drones, allowing it to pull in its own share of the ore in any mining operation.

The ship isn't really that expensive. I just want to build the ship to say I built one. Because I don't play very consistently, I used the corporation projects feature released in the Viridian expansion to help keep track of my progress. I refined my ore and wound up having enough tritanium and pyerite to complete my orders for those minerals.

Working to complete a corporation order

I couldn't deposit the minerals because I had too many and needed to deposit the exact amount to complete the order. No problem, right? Just split the stack and copy the number remaining into the split stack window. Only one problem. I couldn't copy the number from the order into the clipboard. I wound up opening up Notepad, typing the number into the app, and then did a copy and paste into the split stack window to create the new stack. After doing so I was able to complete the order.

I know, high sec problems, right? The pie-in-the-sky solution is for the developers to just automatically determine the maximum amount needed to complete the order and autofill the information where needed. I'm not sure how much work that would take so I won't ask for that. But if anyone from CCP reads this, could someone please make a straight copy from the "Remaining amount" field possible? 

Why CCP Continues To Push FPS Play In The EVE Universe

Back during Fanfest this year, CCP announced a new, first person shooter module for EVE Online. Instead of pulling up footage from the keynote address, I'll pull up the press release instead.

In a surprise announcement, CCP Games also presented a first look at EVE Vanguard, an upcoming multiplayer FPS module for EVE Online being developed using Unreal Engine 5. In this dynamic and evolving shooter, players will take on the role of the Vanguard, a new generation of war clones fighting for their survival and to free their consciousness as they undertake hazardous contracts on the planets of New Eden.

In squads or solo, players will deploy onto the surface of planets wracked with turmoil and littered with opportunity. To advance their clone, suit and equipment, players will need to complete missions, acquire resources and engage in tactical combat with rival Vanguard squads as well as hostile forces, each with their own agenda. EVE Vanguard will be connected to EVE Online from day one, starting with Vanguard players being able to impact EVE Online through Frontline Corruption. Over time, new gameplay, content and interoperability with EVE Online will be added, deepening the immersion for players and the living universe of New Eden.

If the websites I visit are any indication, people are puzzled as to why CCP continues to not only push another FPS game onto the market but link the game to the EVE Universe as well. Hasn't CCP tried before and always failed? Isn't the definition of insanity, “...doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”?

As a semi-retired practitioner of Texas Space Law, I don't have the time to play psychologist. But I have paid for at least two EVE Online subscriptions for over 14 years. I've also written about EVE for over 14 years, posting slightly over 1700 blog posts with the EVE tag during that time. In addition, I have attended 13 major EVE conventions, including 7 in Reykjavik, Iceland, in which EVE game devs and CCP community staff attended. So let me try to explain why I think plans to attach EVE: Vanguard directly to EVE Online.

1. EVE Forever. When I first heard the phrase "EVE Forever" at Fanfest in 2013, I thought, "Oh great, another lame marketing campaign." But a funny thing happened. CCP's Chief Marketing Director at the time, David Reid, left the company with the closing of the San Francisco office in 2014, I thought the phrase would leave with him. But a funny thing happened. The phrase is brought up at least once in every keynote address. At this point, a skeptical observer has to admit the concept has some deeper meaning than a marketing tagline. And if the EVE intellectual property is to last for decades, then some sort of growth needs to come to the franchise and its flagship game.

2. Redemption for DUST 514. I'm not sure redemption is quite the correct term, but I get the feeling the staff at CCP believes adding FPS play to gameplay on the global Tranquility shard is a reasonable proposition. In September Director of Product Snorri  "CCP Rattati" Árnason gave an interview to PC Gamer:

But Dust had problems, and not the least among them was CCP's unusual decision to make it a PlayStation 3 exclusive (Sony co-published the game and doubtless provided a financial incentive for doing so). That always felt so odd to me because, of all the PC-ass PC games, surely EVE Online is one of the most singular: You cannot imagine it being possible on any other platform, yet this linked experience was never on PC itself. I ask Árnason how he felt about that exclusivity and the decision to close the game in 2016.

"I was a part of making that decision," says Árnason. "So it was hard but needed to happen, because we simply couldn't continue on the platform. Then I personally went through all of the motions of trying to evolve it: so moving from PS3 to PC, updating, I went through all of these internal phases, we had Legion [a successor announced at EVE Fanfest 2014], various internal codenames etcetera. So it was hard but at that time I really thought we would do it, and it kind of felt that if we would come back to it we would be able to deliver and put it back on PC where it kind of belongs. Looking at, like, Warframe was big at the time. And I always wanted it to work and I think if we had been on PC the whole time the game would literally be alive. Like, it would just be growing and still be a part of EVE."

3. Redemption for The Summer of Rage. Back in June 2011 CCP launched the Incarna expansion. The events surrounding that expansion, from ridiculously priced items in the new cash shop to players experiencing their video cards melting, is a low point in the history of EVE Online.  One of the most egregious was the state "Walking in Stations" content came out. Initially labeled "The Minmatar closet", players not only experienced hardware issues but the removal of UI elements making the game harder to play. All in order to introduce avatars to New Eden.

Fast forward to today. By adding an FPS module to Tranquility, CCP will add fully functioning avatar gameplay to the game world. Better yet, by using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the internally developed Carbon engine designed for World of Darkness, players shouldn't have to worry about system performance or the software damaging computers. I eventually see all avatar related content in EVE switched over to Unreal Engine 5 to simplify maintaining the software. When that happens, CCP will finally deliver on the Ambulation promise first made back at Fanfest in November 2007.

4. Increased cash shop sales. Now we get into the more business related reasons. EVE Online and the EVE IP does well for a 20-year old game and franchise. But I believe when Pearl Abyss purchased CCP Games in 2018 they expected a little more than level sales. Our overlords in Anyang also operate Black Desert Online, a game rather notorious for its monetization model.

Personally, I believe the beancounters are a little disappointed in sales. Having played BDO, I can say I spent a lot more on items for my character in a couple of months playing BDO than I have in 14 years playing EVE.  But do you know which game I've probably spent $200-$300 over four years making my character look good? Final Fantasy XIV. As I mentioned before, I am not a psychologist, but my experience tells me video game players, on average, will spend more on their avatars than on their equipment (Forza players excepted).

5. Competition with Plan 8. With the long delay in the release of Crimson Desert, development of two other games, DokeV and Plan 8, were put on hold. Regular readers of my coverage of Pearl Abyss' quarterly earnings calls probably recognize the name DokeV, but what about Plan 8?

Plan 8 was originally introduced to investors as Project K back in August 2019. Pearl Abyss hired Counterstrike co-creator Minh Le as the technical director for the new project. With Plan 8 in the development queue, Pearl Abyss probably did not want CCP to compete with a new property, especially given the development problems involving Crimson Desert. Those problems are neatly skirted by adding the FPS gameplay of Vanguard directly into EVE. After all, no one will ever confuse EVE for an FPS game. 

6. Star Citizen. Some will think the idea of Star Citizen and EVE competing for the same audience is preposterous and I need to undergo drug testing. But please hear me out. For each of the last two years Cloud Imperium Games has brought in twice the revenue as the EVE IP. That's right. A game still in pre-alpha is handily brushing CCP to the side financially. Just as Elite Dangerous did with its Odyssey expansion, I believe CCP sees having some sort of avatar play in its game as a requirement to compete with Star Citizen when it finally reaches a point the developers announce the final server wipe. CCP still has a few years before that happens. 

7. Project Awakening. Until CCP finally releases more information on its play-to-earn/blockchain game, I will link developments in EVE to Project Awakening. The information released at the announcement of the $40 million funding round definitely makes Project Awakening sound like EVE 3.0. 

Tacking on an FPS module to a 20-year old game sounds crazy. Taking on FPS play to a brand new game sounds like Star Citizen or Starfield. I can see CCP using Tranquility as the model for Project Awakening. After all, developing two games with the same updates is an efficient use of money. As long at EVE looks as pretty as Project Awakening with lots of new ships and improved game systems, I don't really mind.

Tis The Season For EVE Online Sales

I'm one of those people who looks at the offerings in CCP Games' EVE Online store and usually says, "Thanks, but no thanks." Buying PLEX has no attraction as I have 2717 PLEX I obtained years ago. I just keep the PLEX around because at today's prices, my PLEX is worth around 13 billion ISK after taxes. Buying skill points never interested me and now my main characters have 298 million and 276 million skill points respectively. As for multiple character training, I have my alts trained up well enough for planetary interaction and hauling. They can even do a fair bit of mining and mineral reprocessing. 

The EVE Store on Cyber Monday 2023

In Final Fantasy XIV I am a bit of a fashionista. I spent way too much on eastern-style glamour pieces (think transmog if you play World of Warcraft) when I started out and try to limit myself to purchases under $7. But in EVE, the SKINs system never tempted me. If CCP hadn't made non-store bought SKINs automatically apply to a character when redeemed, I probably still would not have a single SKIN on any of my characters. I mean, one way to get through the sense of loss in EVE is to treat ships like ammunition. Who decorates their ammunition?

Okay, so some people do decorate ammunition in the real world

But, I did find something worth handing over my real world dollars for. The store had 12 months of Omega time marked 20% off. With my two accounts due to expire in February and August next year, I figured I wouldn't see a lower price. So yesterday I spent $239.84 on two years of gametime (one year for each account). The total comes out to just under $20/month for both accounts, or a shade under $10/month. Each character also now has Alligator, Khizriel, Mamba, and Mekubal Arkombine Arisen SKINs, but like I am going to own one of the new pirate ships that came out with the Havoc expansion.

Now, I do have to admit CCP came up with a way to make SKINs sound somewhat appealing. The PLEX sales now on through 4 December at 2359 UTC include SKINs designed by T'Amber. Here is the Cyber Monday sale offer:

• 1,000 PLEX + Gila Empyrean Outlaws SKIN - 20% discount
  
  
• 1,500 PLEX + Cynabal & Gila Empyrean Outlaws SKINs - 20% discount
  
  
• 3,000 PLEX + Gila, Cynabal, Alligator Empyrean Outlaws SKINs - 23% discount
  
  
• 6,000 PLEX + Alligator, Gila, Cynabal, Khizriel Empyrean Outlaws SKINs - 23% discount
  
  
• 12,000 PLEX + Alligator, Gila, Cynabal, Rattlesnake Empyrean Outlaws SKINs - 23% discount
  
  
• 20,000 PLEX + Alligator, Khizriel, Gila, Cynabal, Rattlesnake, Azariel Empyrean Outlaws SKINs - 25% discount

I would like to know who came up with that time to end the sale. Back in my day, sales always ended at the daily downtime, and we liked it!

EVE Havoc Patch Notes: Pirate Insurgency Changes 20-23 November 2023

Has anyone else noticed the pirates are doing very well during the first week of EVE Online's pirate insurgency system? Looking at the patch notes, I don't think that result was intended. Over the last few days the developers implemented several changes, with some fairly significant changes going live today. Just because Icelanders tend to speak American English doesn't mean they get to celebrate U.S. holidays like Thanksgiving.

Instead of just doing a copy and paste of all the patch notes, I thought I would do something a little different today. I'll just make a blog post with the changes affecting the insurgency system. I'm pretty sure someone will want to look at the history of the system if insurgencies become a staple of EVE content. Maybe today's post will come in handy someday. I've put the actual patch note the change/fix appeared in at the end of the description.

Features & Changes:

Pirate Insurgencies:

• Increased the amount suppression gained when the empire militias complete insurgency sites by 33%. [2023-11-23.1]
  
  
• Decreased forecasting time for future insurgencies from 48h to 24h. [2023-11-23.1]
  
  
• When a former insurgency FOB system ends the period of pirate occupancy after a pirate victory, it will now start at 100 points over the victory point threshold required to make the IHub vulnerable, instead of 500 points over the threshold. [2023-11-23.1]
  
  
• Pirate insurgencies will now only spread within the empire space controlled by their primary insurgency enemies. This means that the Angel insurgency will no longer spread into Caldari/Gallente regions, and the Guristas insurgency will no longer spread into Amarr/Minmatar regions. [2023-11-23.1]
  
  
• The factional warfare HQ systems for each empire (Onnamon, Intaki, Mehatoor, and Amo) have a base suppression level of 2 and can never drop below that level. [2023-11-23.1]
  
  
• Insurgency Sites will now give suspect timers to neutral players who are not enlisted with an appropriate militia for the campaign, similar to existing Factional Warfare complexes. [2023-11-21.1]
• For Angel Insurgencies, players who are not in the Minmatar Militia, Amarr Militia or Angel Cartel will get a suspect timer for entering outpost raid sites.
• For Guristas Insurgencies, players who are not in the Caldari Militia, Gallente Militia or Guristas Pirates will get a suspect timer for entering outpost raid sites.
• It’s no longer possible to enter a gated insurgency site with a Warp Core Stabilizer fitted.
  
  
• When a system is at corruption or suppression level 5, more sites will now spawn aside from the Open ADV-1 and Open ADV-5. [2023-11-20.1]
  
  
• Added a note that says “There currently are no active Insurgencies” for the Insurgency Systems agency page if no insurgencies are in the active state. [2023-11-21.1]
  
  
• There is now a pop-up warning when activating a stargate which would take you to a corruption 5 pirate insurgency system. [2023-11-21.1]
  
  
• Insurgencies will now display “LAWLESS” next to the security status in the solarsystem info panel when corruption 5 has been reached. [2023-11-21.1]
  
  
• Corruption 5 High and Low Security systems will now appear in bright red on the autopilot route, and Lawless is included in the tooltip. [2023-11-21.1]

Universe:

• The dramatic appearance of the pirate insurgencies has caused the Gallente Federation to begin a security audit of some potentially vulnerable key systems. The Federation Senate headquarters system of Villore has been deemed insufficiently secure given its proximity to the warzone and relatively low security levels. Multiple new Federation Navy facilities have begun appearing in the Villore system and this increased Navy presence has caused the security status of Villore to increase from 0.5 to 0.6.  [2023-11-23.1]

Defect Fixes:

Gameplay:

• Faction NPC police will no longer block capture timers for pirate players if they are spawned inside Highsec complexes. [2023-11-21.1]

Localization:

• The Mining Ambush dungeon will no-longer send misleading chatter if the site is contested by both sides fairly equally and one side wins shortly before the other side kills enough cruisers and battleships to cause them to flee. [2023-11-21.1]
  
  
• The evemail message you receive for capturing a dungeon while under the effects of suppression will now correctly contain the bonus LP you got and not just the flat value. [2023-11-21.1]

User Interface:

• Fixed a rare issue where solarsystem info panel would fail to display if the corruption/suppression service timed out when a client was trying to connect. [2023-11-22.1]
  
  
• Fixed an Issue where the enlistment window could appear blank if a player has stacked it or docked it in another window. [2023-11-21.1]
  
  
• Fixed text being obscured by the icons to swap factions and to the insurgency dashboard in the FW Map window. [2023-11-21.1]

What Players Of Two Sci-Fi MMOs Can Be Thankful For

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States. The holiday celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year. But in the case of two video games, Star Citizen and EVE Online, fans of each game are celebrating different things. 

First for Star Citizen. In March 2023 CIG released patch Alpha 3.18, a very buggy and unoptimized bit of software I believe was pushed onto the Persistent Universe to avoid complains of 10 months of a content drought. Players showed their dissatisfaction by holding onto their wallets in both the second and third quarters of 2023. By the end of September revenue recorded by the CIG API showing sales from the cash shop was down 11.5% for the first 9 months of the year.

But then October and CitizenCon came around. Two big pieces of news came out of the event. The first was the debut of server meshing which apparently was theoretically solved two weeks before CitizenCon. The other is the news Squadron 42 is feature complete. The idea that Cloud Imperium is on the cusp of launching a finished product in the next year or so had to come as a big relief to those who purchased the game years ago. What they purchased isn't a scam and the gaming press had to report as such.

Will the solution scale to handle the hundreds of characters Star Citizen's loyal player base longs to see? Is the gameplay in Squadron 42 as good as the game looked in the trailer? While we won't know the answers to those questions for at least a year, players have to give thanks the questions are realistic and can't be brushed off as copium.

Perhaps players of EVE Online had even more good news whether their game was concerned. Following talk of adding NFTs and play-to-earn technology followed by a 25% subscription increase, the average number of players logged onto Tranquility during October 2022 fell to under 16,000. 

Then, something extrodinary happened. The leadership of CCP stopped chasing after flavor-of-the-month get rich quick schemes in EVE and set the developers to producing solid expansions like they did during the first decade of EVE's existence. The Uprising expansion in November 2022 produced the first boost to the number of accounts logged onto Tranquility. The Viridian expansion launched in the summer of 2023 and kept the traditional summer from slump from cutting deep into player counts. 

And Havoc? The past weekend was the busiest in terms of players logged in since October 2020 at the beginning of the Beeitnam War/World War Bee 2. Over the first week of Havoc, the average concurrent number of users was approximately 25,000, a more than 50% increase over October 2022.

As both Star Citizen and EVE Online go through November, they each are holding a major event that sums up why each player base should feel thankful. Currently Star Citizen is holding the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2953, an in-game event promoting the sales of expensive equipment for real world money. Between the ship sales surrounding CitizenCon last month and the sales during the IAE, Star Citizen sales are actually ahead of last year's sales at this point of the year. If the revenue continues at the current pace, the likelihood of layoffs slowing down the development of the project decrease significantly. If for no other reason, the Star Citizen fan base should at least give thanks that development time won't slow even more.

As for EVE, the launch of the Havoc expansion occurred 10 days ago. The measurement of choice to determine the health of the game is average and peak concurrent users. As of today Tranquility has experienced a daily peak concurrent user number over 30,000 for 12 consecutive days, with over 40,000 on Sunday. Players, at least for now, are excited about pirate insurgencies. New ones often attract more players and generate more player deaths than anywhere else in EVE. As mentioned before, the average concurrent user mark for the week is around 25,000. The more players logging in and flying around in space, the more interactions occur, including PvP. Something I think a lot of players are thankful for.

EVE Online's Busiest Weekend In Years

Over the weekend, I expected EVE Online's Tranquility shard to experience its busiest weekend in a very long time. I expected Sunday might see the highest daily number of peak concurrent users (PCU) for 2023. Honestly, I expected a good day would see a PCU of 39,000 or so. 

The TL,DR graphic from EVE-Offline.net

Saturday started off well with a PCU of 36,299. Not only did the figure set the highest number of players logged onto Tranquility in 2023 so far, the number exceeded the PCU for all of 2022 as well. Looking back, I couldn't find a higher PCU until February 2021 when some daily numbers exceeded 37,000. But the peak number of players each week always occurs on Sunday's around 1900 UTC.

On Sunday, the perfect storm was set up to post an epic number not seen in years. Between the new pirate insurgencies, CCP's now customary giving away of 7 days of Omega time with the expansion, and increased activity in null sec, at 1909 Sunday Tranquility had 39,294 accounts logged into the game. And then something happened. Between 1909 and 1914 871 net players logged onto the servers.

I blame Goons. Apparently The Imperium was conducting a move op and I'm guessing they chose the busiest time of the day. The timing makes sense as 1900 UTC is a very convenient time for both European and North American players. But shortly afterwards bad things happened and CCP performed an unscheduled reboot of Tranquility.

Still, the PCU managed to reach 40,165 which surpassed the PCU for 2021. Sunday's total was the highest PCU since the 40,359 recorded on 18 October 2020. Also, given the time of day, I doubt the traffic would have exceeded the 2020 PCU of 41,562 seen on 10 May 2020. But perhaps next Sunday. I hear CCP is offering a really good deal on Omega time on Black Friday.

How To Find A Pirate Insurgency

The Havoc expansion for EVE Online launched Tuesday with a new game system based in low security space: pirate insurgencies. Some players want to take part, or at least feed off the low sec leftovers from fights between the Angel Cartel or Guristas loyalists and faction militias. Others just want to avoid the fighting and carebear in peace. In either case, locating the pirate insurgency is a priority for many players.

As one might expect in modern EVE, the place to start is The Agency. Click on the Encounters button (second from top on the left side of the screen) to get to the next window.

The Agency Home Screen

Next, click on the third button (labeled "03") to get to the good stuff.

The third encounter type listed

For returning players, what follows is not a joke. CCP put documentation inside the game on how pirate insurgencies work.

The Pirate Insurgencies Home Page

For players wanting to become formally involved in the conflict, the "Open Enlistment Window" can help aid the recruitment process. For those already enlisted in a pirate or faction militia, the next button brings up a map of the Guristas and Angel Cartel insurgency systems.

The first Angel Cartel insurgency

At the bottom of the map is a toggle to go between the Angel Cartel and Guristas insurgencies. For those wondering it getting rid of the left panel is possible, I couldn't find a way. The right panel shows the information for the system clicked on in the map. In addition to the name and how many jumps, the panel displayes the corruption and suppression levels of each system as well as the location of the pirate forward operating base (FOB).  And then the progress for each side. The dot highlights the number of victory points each side has earned.

Also, clicking on each system shows the corruption and suppression standings as well.

The two buttons on the Insurgencies screen correspond to the buttons on the many Pirate Insurgency page. The "Learn more" button corresponds to the Pirate Insurgency Guide.

The Pirates Insurgency Guide

While not providing instructions on how to complete the content, the information is about what players find on the EVE University Wikipedia.

Finally, the last button on the Insurgencies screen, "find objectives", corresponds to the Insurgency Systems page. 

The list of systems will grow if the pirates are active enough.

For those wondering which and how many sites are in each system, this is the screen to look for. The developers intended for players to use the window to set a destination to the war zone. I have the feeling some players might put the system or constellation on the avoid list.

This post is probably the last of my initial Havoc coverage. Most of the rest of the new expansion content is pretty much based on existing systems. But the Pirate Insurgency system is something new so I figured some folks might like a hand. Hopefully people enjoy the guide.

EVE: Havoc Post-Launch Patch Notes - 2023-11-15.1 & 2023-11-16.1

The latest expansion for EVE Online, Havoc, launched on Tuesday. As one might expect, the expansion launched with a few bugs, defects, and intended changes that somehow didn't make their way into the final build. Not only were two patches required, but the list is rather long. As a public service, I thought I would merge the patch notes for 2023-11-15.1 and 2023-11-16.1 together into something a bit more readable.

Features & Changes:

Corporation:

• Players will receive an EVE Mail Notification when leaving their player corp on their own volition.
  
  
• The EVE Mail Notification received when getting kicked out from the corp now includes the information about 30 day auto claim for corporation project rewards.

Missions & NPCs:

• The Amarr now mutually dislike The Deathless by -2.0 like all other empire factions.
  
  
• The Guristas now hate the Caldari state by -9.0, instead of having neutral standings towards them.
  
  
• Various other law enforcement and pirate organizations have adjusted their standings.
  
  
• Insurgency Mining Ship has been added to the default overview profiles which include FW and Insurgency NPCs.

Opportunities:

• Pirate Insurgencies have been added to the Opportunities interface.
  
  
• Tracked opportunities now display their ‘tracked’ icon by default within the Opportunities interface.

Universe:

• The Caldari State have held military control of the newly built Samanuni to Athounon gate for an extended period of time thanks to the efforts of loyalist capsuleers enlisted with the State Protectorate. Thanks to these efforts, Caldari stargate engineers have managed to upgrade and secure the connection and it will no longer be able to be disrupted by the Federal saboteurs if they are able to seize Athounon.
  
  
• Samanuni has been removed from the autopilot blacklist.
  
  
• The FW map has been updated to reflect that the Samanuni → Athounon gate connection is now permanently connected.

Zarzakh:

• Players will no longer land inside the deathless shipcaster portal effect in the center when warping to it, and instead land outside it.

Defect Fixes:

Corporation Project:

• Factions will be prioritized over character, player corporation and player alliance names in the scroll down menu for Contribution Methods.
  
  
• Contribution Methods for Defend and Capture FW Complexes now has a drop down menu for faction selection.
  
  
• Remote Armor Repairing or Shield Boosting a capsuleer associated with a specific faction is now getting counted for projects in which faction is a requirement.
  
  
• Search Filter for Unclaimed Rewards has been added to the Projects tab in the Corporation window.
  
  
• Payment in ISK is getting copied over when duplicating a Corporation Project that contains ISK reward.
  
  
• Corporation projects with payment option can now be created with non-ASCII characters
  
  
• Links to Corporation projects in the Wallet’s Transaction will now show the correct Project name when using non-ASCII characters.

Gameplay:

• Adding the missing ‘5x penalty to entosis link duration’ to the Azariel traits tab.
  
  
• Fixed the Alligator Heavy Missile kinetic damage bonus not applying correctly.
  
  
• The repair service in pirate FOBs is now working as intended.
  
  
• The Insurgency Dashboard will now use your autopilot avoidance list and safety settings when displaying the ‘number of jumps’ an insurgency system is away from you, instead of always closest.

Homefront Operations:

• Corrected a few typos in conversations.
  
  
• Hostile homefront NPCs should now show as red again instead of neutral.

Localization:

• Fixed Mordu battlecruiser NPCs incorrectly claiming they are based on the Talos instead of the Naga hull.

New Player Experience:

• Added a missing UI blink in the fitting window in Part 1 of the experience.
  
  
• Updated the info panel objective at the end of Part 1.
  
  
• Corrected a highlight banner at the end of Part 1.
  
  
• Improved off-path handling throughout the experience.
  
  
• Fixed an issue causing the NPE to become unfocused when guided to accept a Career Agent mission.
  
  
• Players will now be instructed to track a goal during the ACP Career Path introduction.

PVE & NPCs:

• Fixed some behavior NPCs being passive or showing as neutral instead of red.

User Interface:

• Fixed the hint when trying to enlist for a pirate faction and not having high enough standings claiming you need 0.0 standings instead of -2.0.
  
  
• Mutaplasmid Items Show Info window now shows 2 decimal places for attributes they can affect, instead of none and rounding down, so players can easily see in game what the actual mutation numbers are.
  
  
• Window will no longer scroll up after changing option from the drop-down menu in Settings Window’s "Display & Graphics" tab in the Settings Window
  
  
• Font size changes in the Settings Window will update directly without having to relaunch.
• Tooltip appears when hovering over a hyperlink.
  
  
• Fixed elements of the Zarzakh agency page so that it is now formatted correctly, and text doesn’t go out of bounds or overlaps in different languages.

EVE: Havoc Starts With Over 30,000 PCU

Over the last two days I published 12 blog posts about the patch notes for EVE Online's Havoc expansion which launched today. I know, kind of crazy. But not as crazy as Tranquility posting peak concurrent user numbers over 30 thousand five days in a row. Yes, that really happened in the year 2023.

For those keeping score, PCU since Friday was:

• Friday, 10 November - 30,109
• Saturday, 11 November - 32,897
• Sunday, 12 November - 33,841
• Monday, 13 November - 31,388
• Tuesday, 14 November - 32,684

The first four days cover the Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day holiday weekend. Some countries celebrated on Friday and some on Monday. But over 30,000 on a Tuesday? A promising sign.

I'll stay with my prediction that Sunday's PCU will exceed 2022's PCU for the entire year of 35,240. Can Havoc entice a day with a PCU over 40,000? I'm not sure Tranquility will see that number this weekend. At this point, I'd settle for the daily PCU exceeding 30,000 becoming an ordinary event not worth mentioning again.

EVE: Havoc Patch Notes - Final Odds And Ends

EVE Online's Havoc expansion, set to launch on 14 November 2023, is the game's third full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format worked so well for the Viridian expansion I thought I'd try for Havoc as well. This post, the twelfth and final in the series, will cover all the details not large enough to warrant their own posts.

The first subject involves alliance and corporation emblems purchased for Evermarks.

ALLIANCE AND CORPORATION EMBLEMS - 2023 SHIPS

Paragon is proud to announce that Corporation and Alliance Emblems are available on the following ships:

• Metamorphosis
• Hubris
• Valravn
• Bane
• Karura
• Mekubal
• Mamba
• Khizriel
• Alligator
• Azariel

Emblems are available for purchase at Loyalty Point Stores within all Paragon Stations.

Next are the improvements to the Photon UI. The new user interface left beta and became standard back in February 2023.

PHOTON IMPROVEMENTS

Custom color themes

Omega users are being granted the ability to customize individual colors in their UI color scheme, creating their own themes.

• The Color Customization option allows Omega users the ability to edit and change the colors of the UI to their liking.

In addition, the empire themes that were previously locked by Omega status, will now be available to all Alpha users.

The color change option can be located under Settings - User Interface.

Lettering once again receives a change.

TYPOGRAPHY

• In-game typography now features two new sizes ‘Tiny’ and ‘Huge’
• Normal font size (default) has been moved to be 14px instead of 13px.
• Existing capsuleers will have their settings preserved by migrating them to the corresponding updated size.

And finally the Settings window receives an update.

SETTINGS MENU

As part of Havoc, the Settings Menu has been granted more screen real estate. It is now full screen and will look and feel more modern.

EVE: Havoc Patch Notes: AIR Opportunities

EVE Online's Havoc expansion, set to launch on 14 November 2023, is the game's third full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format worked so well for the Viridian expansion I thought I'd try for Havoc as well. This post, the eleventh in the series, will cover updates to EVE's AIR Opportunities.

The AIR Opportunities is a UI for the AIR Career Program. Here is a description of the AIR Career Program from the Discover EVE page on the main website.

You can select from of EVE’s core career paths to be presented with a set of goals as an Enforcer, Soldier of Fortune, Explorer, or Industrialist. As an Explorer, you might be tasked with scanning down signatures or navigating through Nullsec. As a Soldier of Fortune, you may need to tackle other Capsuleers or take the first steps in joining a corporation. Every task you complete will grant rewards to help you get started in New Eden.

Rewards in the ACP range from ISK, boosters, and modules to blueprint crates, skill books and much more! Every task will grant career points towards your Air Career Program progress. Fill up the ACP Progress Bar to receive a bounty of Skill Points and a crate of SKINs as a graduation reward.

You can access the ACP from your Neocom, just look to the left side of your screen when logged into EVE. It’s always tracking your progress as a Capsuleer, so be sure to check back from time to time to see your growth and reap the rewards!

Below is an example of what the AIR Opportunities window looked like before Havoc.

AIR OPPORTUNITIES

AIR Opportunities has undergone a significant iteration to incorporate more types of content and improve navigation and usability throughout the entire interface, which now includes the following features:

• Factional Warfare sites.
• Epic Arcs.
• Escalations.
• Ice Belts.
• Ore Anomalies.
• Introductions.
• The AIR NPE.
• The New Eden Store tutorial, which is unlocked after accruing 750 Career Points in the AIR Career Program.

All content types now have their own feature page showing available/offered/active opportunities of that type.

• A list view has been added and can be toggled on/off instead of the default card view in feature pages and other filtered pages.
  
  
• Filters set for each feature persist while browsing between other features and tabs.
  
  
• A sidebar has been added to the window for easier navigation and better overview of Features, Career Paths, and other tags.
  
  
• Players who have not enlisted in Factional Warfare are now shown an enlistment section until they have enlisted, which then populates with available FW opportunities.
  
  
• A "Display Feature" settings menu has been added for the ability to toggle individual feature display on/off. This is located in the lower left corner of the window’s sidebar.
  
  
• More information is being shown on some Opportunity Cards, such as the payout of corporation projects, the agent type and level of missions, the NPC's of combat anomalies, the Epic Arc name of Epic Arc missions, and the site ID of anomalies in the current system.
  
  
• More information is being shown in some Opportunity Details, such as an agent’s corporation, dungeon NPC's, dungeon difficulty, harvestable resources, and more.
  
  
• Players can now search for Opportunities by solar system name and secondary text on cards.

The Opportunities section of the Info Panel has also been improved and updated in the following ways:

• Entries can now be dragged up/down to rearrange them.
  
  
• The section now has a max length and becomes scrollable when it’s too long.
  
  
• Tracked agent missions are now displayed in the Opportunities info panel section. They used to be displayed in a separate agent mission section.

Outside of the Opportunities, Track/Untrack buttons have been added to:

• Agent Mission conversation windows.
  
  
• The Agency pages for Factional Warfare sites, Ice Belts, and Ore Anomalies.

Air Opportunities features a robust filtering and tracking functionality for available content types. Based on feedback received through playtesting with capsuleers over EVE Fanfest, filtering is now supported on a per content type level.

EVE: Havoc Patch Notes: AIR New Player Experience

EVE Online's Havoc expansion, set to launch on 14 November 2023, is the game's third full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format worked so well for the Viridian expansion I thought I'd try for Havoc as well. This post, the tenth in the series, will cover updates to the AIR New Player Experience.

Sometimes acronyms and organization tags are thrown around and everyone is supposed to know what they represent. According to the in-game information windows:

The Association for Interdisciplinary Research is an independent organization focused heavily on research and development of new technologies across multiple industries. The company has subdivisions that cover everything from combat-oriented technology, industrial and economic endeavors, and exploration-focused pursuits. AIR Laboratories, a subdivision of AIR, is responsible for oversight and management of the AIR Capsuleer Training Program.

More importantly, the AIR programs are CCP's efforts to retain players who just created a character and started playing EVE. The NPE is of interest not only for new players but players looking to repair their standings with one of the main NPC factions as well. (Hopefully running career agents still repairs standings).  But what is CCP trying to accomplish with the changes?

In the Havoc expansion, there will be an important upgrade to the AIR new player experience (NPE). Currently, capsuleers have been able to start the NPE, embark on an exciting adventure through space, but with limited options of leaving that adventure until it's finished, and they haven’t been able to return to it. When Havoc lands, a fork in the road will be introduced into that experience. If capsuleers are interested in doing something else right away, they can open the AIR Opportunities portal, which will allow them to see all the different opportunities with different segments of the game and the variety of career paths that they can follow. They can start experiencing these opportunities, but always go back and continue their NPE journey when they choose to. 

AIR NPE - SECRETS OF NEW EDEN

The AIR adventure and tutorial, now known as “Secrets of New Eden”, has been updated and will now onboard players to newer systems as well as a host of other improvements.

• The AIR Career Program is now introduced in more depth, highlighting personal goal setting and rewards.
  
  
• New capsuleers will learn to use the AIR Opportunities interface to discover and track content.
• Within Opportunities the adventure has been split into two parts: “Baptism By Fire” and “Hidden Prospects”.
• During part 2, Hidden Prospects, players can now pause the adventure any time they want, giving them greater freedom to explore what New Eden has to offer or meet up with friends - while still being able to return for the rest of the introduction when the time is right for them.
  
  
• Objective tracking has been upgraded throughout much of the adventure.
  
  
• Improved guidance for those who stray from the path to help bring them back into the adventure.
  
  
• New sites have appeared at the sun in every starter system. The adventure will take capsuleers to one of these sites as part of their investigation into the mysterious attack on AIR’s cloning facility.
  
  
• New conversations have been added, including an introduction to your local faction as you make your way to your first career agent mission.
  
  
• Lastly, before saying farewell at the end of the experience, Aura will introduce capsuleers to the Agency’s Help section so they learn more about how to tackle whatever challenges they might face in the next steps of their journey.

EVE: Havoc Patch Notes: Corporation Projects

EVE Online's Havoc expansion, set to launch on 14 November 2023, is the game's third full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format worked so well for the Viridian expansion I thought I'd try for Havoc as well. This post, the ninth in the series, will cover updates to corporate projects, part of the Homefront system introduced in the Viridian expansion.

In the past, CCP let administrative tasks important to running corporations and alliances languish in favor of developing game play systems for line members. With Homefronts, the developers attempted to integrate administration with game play by giving players the ability to further create their own content. As CCP stated in a dev blog two weeks ago:

Corporation Projects that give capsuleers within organizations goals and rewards are the first pillar to be put down in keeping corporations efficient and enjoyable. This adds to the meaningful experience of being in a corp, building on what the EVE community and countless CSMs have said over the years. 

Organizations in EVE, like corporations and alliances, can contain hundreds of capsuleers that help to run them, with many tasks, plans, and priorities that can make the efficient operation of such organizations taxing. Continuing the work started in the Viridian expansion, Havoc will continue to enhance the lives of corporation owners and members, making the building and growing of these communities easier. 

The patch notes explain the role and UI changes introduced in Havoc. 

CORPORATION PROJECT MANAGER ROLE

A new role, the "Project Manager," is being made available. Through this role, Corporation Leadership can empower its members in the creation of Corporation Projects. This project creation was previously only available to CEOs and directors.

Members with the Project Manager role can create, close, and delete projects. To be able to create project with payouts, they need to have access to one of the corporation wallets as well.

DUPLICATION OF PROJECTS

An option has been added to allow project managers to duplicate existing or finished projects. When used, the Duplicate Project function opens the project creation form with all fields populated with the parameters of the original project.

Duplicate Project option is available for projects in all states: active, cancelled, closed; either from the right-click menu or through a button on the card or in the Project Details view.

Another improvement for corp and alliance administrators is the automatic payout of funds for completing tasks. As much as EVE players love to complicate matters and give themselves more work, the devs might have come up with a way to reduce the workload.

PROJECTS PAYOUTS

• Project creator sets the ISK to be paid per contribution, per unit of progress​.
• Project creator needs access to one of the corp wallets and to have that wallet set as active.
• Total amount is taken from the active corp wallet and moved to escrow​.
• Contributors earn ISK entitlements with each contribution​, which reduces the amount of ISK in escrow.
• Contributors can claim their project reward any time to get the funds in the wallet​.
• Corp managers have an overview of the total money in escrow​.
• Corp managers can see the list of contributors with their respective contributions and earnings.
• Contributors can see how much money they earned from a project.
• Contributors can see how much money there is to earn from a project and from all projects​.
• On project cancellation, ISK in escrow are returned to corp master wallet​.

To round out the changes, CCP created six new project types for Havoc.

ADDITIONAL PROJECT TYPES

The following project types are being made available by AIR, bringing the available project types up to a total of 12. The majority of project parameters are optional allowing setting up projects with various restrictions.

Scan signatures: Corporations can create this project to provide an ISK incentive for their members to scan signatures.

Available parameters:

• Signature Type: Any, Combat Site, Data Site, Relic Site, Gas Site, Wormhole.
• Solar System - the solar system in which the signatures should be scanned.
• ISK reward per 100% scan of a signature.

Remote repair: Corporations can utilize these two projects to mobilize their members to fly logistics ship, recognize their effort, and reward them for it.

Available parameters:

• Capsuleer or Organization - who should receive remote repairs: Anyone, Alliance, Corporation, Faction, Character.
• Ship Type - the type of ship to be repaired.
• Solar System - the solar system in which the repairing should take place.
• ISK reward per hit point repaired.

Capture/defend FW site: This project type allows the corporation participating in Factional Warfare to guide its members towards the objectives of the war and reward them for their effort.

Available parameters:

• Complex Type - the size of the complexes to be captured / defended.
• Solar System - the solar system in which the complexes need to be captured / defended.
• Faction to capture for / defending Faction - the faction you want to support.
• ISK reward per participation in capturing / defending a complex.

Destroy Capsuleer's Ship: This project type allows the corporation to reward their members for destroying other capsuleer’s ships. The contribution to this project is a generated kill mail and the contributor is the capsuleer who received it.

Available parameters:

• Capsuleer or Organization - the owner of the ships to be destroyed: Anyone, Alliance, Corporation, Faction, Character.
• Ship Type - the type of ships to be destroyed.
• Solar System - in which solar system the ships should be destroyed.
• ISK reward per kill mail received.

Manufacture: This project type allows the corporation to guide its members as to what should be manufactured and to utilize their members' job slots in exchange for ISK. Contribution to this project is the act of installing a manufacturing job, rather than completing it.

Available options:

• On the Behalf Of - whether the jobs should be private or on behalf of the corporation.
• Item Type - what needs to be manufactured.
• Station or Structure - in which facility the manufacturing needs to take place. Either any facility or one of the corporation offices.
• ISK reward unit of product in an installed manufacturing job.