Renewing My EVE Subscriptions On Black Friday

Every year players of EVE Online always ask about sales on EVE subscriptions (aka Omega time) on Black Friday. Usually the answer is no. But I saw the ad for Black Friday sales on the launcher and amazingly this year's sale included game time. So I had to dive into the store and look around.

I have two accounts I pay for, with one running out of game time in April and the other in October. But if the sale is good and I have less than a year remaining I'll buy the sale. And the Black Friday sale was particularly good. Forget about the SKINs. The cosmetics are for ships I will probably never fly, especially the Monitor. But at $9.62 per 30 days when buying game time one year at a time, the price is less than half that of buying game time once a month ($19.99). So I went ahead and bought the 12 month Omega package.

I also looked at the packages and found one with SKINs for ships I actually fly. The Rifter and Arbitrator are nice and while I don't fly Retrievers, I do like the Rockbreaker SKINs. So I bought the Silver Starter Pack for the sale price of $11.99 for both accounts. So at the end of the day, I purchased 390 days of Omega time for $9.80 per 30 days.

I was reminded of one other thing at the checkout screen. I was asked for a content creators WeHype code. I spent over $250 today but didn't have a code to put in. A pity because that was $12.75 that could have gone to someone. If content creators were ever going to participate in the program, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the times to join.

I did notice PLEX were not on sale today. Hopefully we will see the in-game New Eden Store which uses PLEX as currency hold a Cyber Monday sale. Now that I saw that the Rockbreaker SKINs are not just for mining barges and exhumers, I might want to pick up a few if they are on sale.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Trustbreaker Arrays

Tomorrow is the CCP Games' first effort to link gameplay in EVE Online and its new first person shooter under development, EVE Vanguard. From 28 November to 1 December a testing event for the FPS game will go on requiring some sort of involvement from players in EVE Online. Between the dev blog and patch notes, here's the information provided by CCP.

First from the dev blog.

In connection with the Vanguard deployment starting on 28 November, the Deathless Circle has deployed Trustbreaker Arrays, which connect to the enigmatic Warden structure in Zarzakh. These arrays scan for crucial passkeys required to breach planetary defenses, enabling Vanguard forces to claim planetary strongholds. However, the arrays are now under siege by Drifter forces, and the Deathless has issued a call to capsuleers to intervene. 

From 26 November to 2 December, pilots can defend the arrays to earn ISK rewards, or destroy them to seize passkeys as valuable commodities. These skirmishes offer a high-stakes choice: stand with the Deathless or shut their operations down. 

The patch notes provided important information. Things like ship restrictions, recommended group sizes, and where to find the Trustbreaker Arrays. You know, the important stuff.

The Deathless Circle has deployed Planetary Trustbreaker Arrays to steal passkeys for planetary defense networks ahead of Vanguard assaults. These sites have fallen under attack by Drifter forces!

• Deathless Trustbreaker Under Attack sites are appearing in pirate Insurgency FOB systems.
  
  
• Capsuleer fleets can choose to protect the Trustbreaker Array for the duration to receive a reward from the Deathless. 5 capsuleers are recommended for this challenge.
  
  
• Alternatively, those who do not wish to support the Deathless can wait for the structure to generate PDN passkeys before destroying it. Many groups would pay handsomely for any such commodities seized from the wreckage!
  
  
• Regardless of their motivations, capsuleers are limited to bringing standard T1 cruisers or below within the site.

To participate in the testing, players in EVE Online should find an insurgency between 28 November and 1 December and take a side. Oh, did I mention rewards? No cookies, but everyone likes skill points, right?

The battle intensifies on 28 November, as war descends to the surface in EVE Vanguard. Insurgency deployments unleash warclones on planets to directly impact the ongoing war in space. In addition, capsuleers get daily rewards for taking flight in EVE Online between 28 November and 1 December: Vanguard-themed SKIN design components, 3,000 EverMarks, and 50,000 Skill Points. Choose your allegiance, shape planetary battlefields, and leave your mark on the EVE Online universe from the ground as well as amongst the stars. Learn more about EVE Vanguard and add the game to your Steam wishlist so you don’t miss a moment of action. 

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Little Things

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part four of the effort covering the Little Things updates introduced in today's patch.

The Little Things features are something that originated over a decade ago. At a certain point the developers discovered players don't just demand Jesus features. Making our lives easier gets applause also. The dev blog noted:

Today's release also ushers in a few Little Things to improve quality of life. While some Little Things are bigger than others, these are some of our favorite changes to make. If you have any QoL suggestions, head on over to the EVE Online Forums where we'd love to hear from you.

I'm not sure which change is better, making information in contracts more visible or being able to buy from more than one sell order at a time. I'll let you judge.

🤝 The yield, range and cycle time for gas cloud scoops and gas cloud harvesters has been added to the tooltip of the modules.

🤝 Corporations that you have 0 LP within your personal wallet or corp wallet are now hidden.

🤝 Added a dedicated neocom icon for the overview, so you can now more easily see it in the neocom and the ctrl+tab window when you have it minimized.

🤝 The input fields for courier contracts have been made bigger, and the left panel can now be expanded, so you can see larger values more easily.

🤝 Added checkboxes to courier contract filters so you can now more easily search for unfiltered results, without having to delete the info from the filter fields.

🤝 You can now copy names of item types in info windows and the market window.

🤝 You can now edit bookmarks through the radial menu while using the solarsystem map.

🤝 Added the number of jumps a system which is a point in your current autopilot route is if you mouse over it.

🤝 You can now drag and drop items onto the neocom item hangar icon to move them.

🤝 You are now able to buy from more than one sell order at a time from the ‘buy this type’ window.

🤝 You can now deliver corp items to yourself in the ‘deliver to’ right click menu.

🤝 Multiple skills can now be moved around in the skill queue.

🤝 Multibuy can now interpret ‘1x item name’.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Factional Warfare and Insurgency Balance

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part three of the effort covering some factional warfare and insurgency changes introduced in today's patch.

The dev blog didn't really have much to say on the subject.

Over in the warzone, changes to Factional Warfare and Pirate Insurgencies ensure more meaningful engagements with improvements to Battlefield sites, shifting the makeup of signatures, buffing deployables, and more.  

The patch notes are a lot more descriptive on the changes made and the reasons why. This section of the patch notes sounds more like a dev blog than the typical CCP patch notes.

In Equinox we fixed battlefields being cheesed by holding a single battlecruiser NPC alive, however with that fix, players feel like Battlefields are now too tedious and not rewarding enough and this has caused a reduction in fighting and PVP in and around battlefields. To address this, we are approximately doubling the time between NPC waves.

• Respawn time for NPCs has been significantly increased

Propaganda Broadcast Structures and Listening Outposts advantage deployables are not being used outside of key system sieges. We’re trying to improve this by increasing their availability and effectiveness.

• Drop rates of Encoder Splice and Decoded Packages from FW Operation Centers (Rearguard Data Sites) has been approximately doubled.
  
  
• Doubled the effectiveness on advantage of the Propaganda Broadcast Structure and the Listening Post objective deployables.

A key complaint from anti-pirate players in insurgencies is that the Pirate FOBs have such huge tether ranges that it makes it incredibly difficult to siege as pirate aligned players can remain tethered and invulnerable until they want to engage while close to their ships even in long range setups, so we’re bringing it down to a value that should still feel very comfortable for players coming in from the shipcaster, but less powerful as a tool used against players trying to siege the FOB.

• Tether Radius on the Pirate FOBs has been dropped from 100km to 50km

Another common complaint with FW and Insurgencies is the amount of multiboxing destroyers in the warzone. We’re trying to address this by shifting the FW sites back towards 1-man sites and the insurgency 5-person sites away from Smalls and into Mediums and Larges. We’re doing this because it’s fairly difficult to contest 5 Destroyers inside smalls with less than 5 pilots, but much easier in Mediums and Larges where 2-3 Navy Cruisers/HACs or 1-2 BCs can engage them. Having slower responding but larger, more rewarding 5-person sites will hopefully also increase the number of them that are contested.

• Reduced the number of Factional Warfare Small NVY-5 and Small ADV-5 sites. A slightly increased amount of Small NVY-1s and Small ADV-1s will appear in their place to keep the potential number of victory points generated per day the same.
  
  
• Reduced the total number of the insurgency Small ADV-5 sites, their chance to spawn has been rolled into increasing the number of Medium and Large ADV-5 sites which spawn instead.
  
  
• The Respawn time of all insurgency ADV-5 sites has been increased (slowed down) to keep LP and Corruption generation rates similar with an increased number of Medium and large ADV-5 sites spawning.

And finally a change I don't really think needs an explanation.

• Added appropriate salvage to the Angel and Guristas FOB wreck.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Ship Rebalancing

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more free content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part two of the effort covering additional ship rebalancing in Revenant.

The dev blog briefly mentioned some of the changes made to ships in today's patch.

A few ships, like the Ferox Navy Issue and the Eos were overperforming, which has been addressed by making them more engageable. Heavy assault cruisers have regained their MWD signature radius bonus to make them a bit more viable in the current meta, and various other ships, like the Ashimmu and Maulus Navy Issue, have been improved. 

This update also introduces several changes aimed specifically at mining. Resources can now be compressed through the right-click menu instead of the compression window, exhumers and barges have improved locked targets, and excavators are now faster.  

Normally I don't use quote boxes for patch notes. But for the explanations of the ship changes I'll change the format, at least for this post.

Ferox Navy Issue

The Ferox Navy Issue is overperforming, so we’re increasing the signature radius back up to the regular T1 Ferox amount and then nerfing the agility and targeting range slightly. We’re hoping the combination of sig and agility reduction will make them a bit more vulnerable to battleships and stealth bombers in fleet encounters. The Ferox Navy Issue loses the optimal bonus the regular T1 Ferox has so we are shaving a bit of max targeting range off as well.

• Signature Radius increased from 300m to 325m
• Agility nerfed from 0.66x to 0.69x
• Max Targeting Range reduced from 67500m to 60000m

Eos

Toning down the Eos somewhat. It has 11 mid-slots and low-slots combined, unlike all other Command Ships which have 10, which is even more powerful when you consider it is a drone ship. Seeing it start to become a little unhealthy in some places so we’re reducing the power of sentry drone fits slightly.

• Drone Optimal range per level reduced from 10% to 5%

Heavy Assault Cruisers

In the Uprising expansion, we made significant changes to HACs by removing or reducing long range bonuses and completely reworking the Muninn which was the most dominant ship in the game at the time. We feel like the meta has shifted now with more Battleships and Navy Battlecruisers being viable so that we can now add back the 50% MWD signature radius role bonus to HACs which we removed in early 2021.

• 50% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty Role Bonus added back

Ashimmu

The Ashimmu has lower usage than the other pirate cruisers, so giving it the ability to field 5 medium drones, or 2 flights of light drones. And giving it some small speed improvements.

• Drone Bay and Drone Bandwidth increased from 40 Mbit/sec to 50 Mbit/sec
• Max Velocity increased from 208 to 215m/s
• Agility improved from 0.58x to 0.55x

Scythe

The Scythe has fitting issues, especially since it’s an entry level support cruiser so giving it a small amount of love there. Also boosting the mobility of the Scythe a bit to try and help it stand out from the Osprey more by improving its strengths.

• CPU increased from 285tf to 300tf
• Powergrid increased from 345MW to 375MW
• Max Velocity increased from 250m/s to 260m/s
• Agility improved from 0.6x to 0.57x

Vengeance

The Vengeance has low usage, so we’re giving it a small facelift with some extra damage (But still keeping the Hawk on top with kinetic damage missiles) and a bit more powergrid to help give it some more options.

• Rocket Damage Per Level of Amarr Frigate increased from 5% to 7.5%
• Powergrid increased from 43MW to 46MW

Cruor

The Cruor is underperforming relative to its peers. We’re giving it an extra drone to bump up its damage potential a bit, but have that DPS be destructible. We are then improving the Cruor’s mobility so it can better use the long-range web for catching kiting ships.

• Drone Bay and Bandwidth increased from 5m3 to 10m3 and 5 Mbit/sec to 10 Mbit/sec, respectively.
• Max Velocity increased from 330m/s to 340m/s
• Agility improved from 3.6x to 3.4x

Maulus Navy Issue

The Maulus Navy Issue currently has 1 less total slot than the other Navy EWAR Frigates, so we’re correcting that by giving it an extra high slot. The hope here is that this will improve its versatility and open up options like triple neut setups that its brother in spirit Tristan is capable of. Small PG boost to help fill that high slot, and then a small mobility improvement since it currently is the slowest navy frigate.

• Highslots increased from 2 to 3
• Powergrid increased from 35MW to 38MW
• Max Velocity incrased from 315m/s to 325m/s

Mining Ships

Just a personal note. It's about time the developers realized their mistake with the nerfs to the Procurer made back in 2022. Now, do we really need to have wastage?

We’re giving all mining barges and exhumers an extra few locked targets to improve quality of life when mining. Specifically, the Procurer and Skiff are getting a significant agility buff, which will bring down their align times by several seconds each, and an extra midslot. During the 2022 rebalance, the Procurer and Skiff both lost a slot each total, while the Covetor and Hulk gained one, when we rebalanced them around all having the same total number of slots. The Procurer and Skiff also had their agility nerfed a bit too much and so we are now correcting this and giving them back the slot they lost. Finally, we are improving the speed of Excavators to increase their effectiveness when mining, especially when mining further away asteroids, since the Rorqual is now a more supporting role and excavators are balanced around high wastage.

Rorqual

• 'Excavator' Mining Drone base velocity increased from 175m/s to 250m/s
• ‘Excavator’ Ice Harvesting Drone base velocity increased from 90m/s to 125m/s

All Exhumers

• Max Locked Targets improved from 6 to 8

Skiff

• Agility improved from 0.8x to 0.64x
• Midslots increased from 4 to 5

All Mining Barges

• Max Locked Targets improved from 5 to 6

Procurer

• Agility improved from 0.8x to 0.64x
• Midslots increased from 2 to 3

Navy Faction Light Fighters

Small buff to navy fighters doing longer PVE encounters like the Forsaken Sanctums and Teeming Hordes. Without obsoleting T2 Fighters which still have slightly higher DPS.

• Heavy Rocket ability charge count increased from 12 to 15.

Standard Cerebral Accelerator

Was being abused by new freshly injected characters to take advantage of the 20% damage boost in ships like Marauders and Dreadnoughts, or PVP smurf accounts rather than being used by new players. Removing the damage bonuses and increasing the attributes on it from +3 to +5, to compensate it, which should make it actually more useful for new players and remove the abuse cases.

• Removed 20% turret damage boost and 20% missile rate of fire boost.
• Increased attributes from +3 to +5.

EVE Online: Revenant Thanksgiving Patch - Mercenary Dens

CCP Games has faced a problem with the last couple of EVE Online expansions. After the goodies accompanying the launch of an expansion end, so does the attention of many players. The developers have come up with a unique solution. Once the login rewards and free game time run out, drop more content. And so, I woke up this morning to find a mini-expansion's worth of patch notes waiting on the launcher along with a dev blog. After a quick read, I think the mashup might prove useful. So here's part of the effort covering additions to one of the new features introduced in Revenant, Mercenary Dens.

First from the dev blog is an overview of the additions to Mercenary Dens that didn't make it onto Tranquility with the launch of the Revenant expansion.

Since the launch of Revenant, capsuleers have been hard at work constructing and destroying mercenary dens all over nullsec space. Today, Mercenary Tactical Operations (MTO) have been introduced to these dens, enabling capsuleers to seize control of their systems’ destiny. Upwell has lobbied for a crackdown of the transportation of the encrypted infomorphs of workers in breach of their work contracts, but the Deathless Circle has found a way to remotely transmit infomorph applicants using infomorph decryption keys, unlocking the same kind of remote consciousness that capsuleers use when they die. The production of these keys can be further stimulated through mercenary site activity and they can be delivered to the Deathless for handsome rewards. Dive into MTO today to drive development and reduce anarchy by completing operations, boosting production of infomorph decryption keys that can be traded for valuable rewards, and eliminating potential workforce disruption.

The above sounds great. Or confusing. Definitely confusing without some details. Thankfully the patch notes supplied a lot of details.

 

Mercenary Dens

• Mercenary Dens now have 2 new attributes, Anarchy and Development. Both Anarchy and Development values will slowly increase over time, approximately 5 levels per day (24 hours). Eventually, when the level hits a certain threshold, the Anarchy or Development for that mercenary den will level up, which can have certain affects.
  
  
• While a Mercenary Den is reinforced, passive Anarchy and Development are paused.
  
  
• Added a dedicated window for viewing all your mercenary dens which can be found via the neocom under Industry, or from the mercenary den agency page.

Anarchy

• Anarchy Amount: 0-19 - Level 0 - 0% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 20-39 - Level 1 - 0% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 40-69 - Level 2 - 10% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 70-99 - Level 3 - 20% reduction to Skyhook Workforce
• Anarchy Amount: 100 - Level 4 - 40% reduction to Skyhook Workforce

This means that if left alone, it will take 8 days for a mercenary den to start to negatively impact a Skyhook.

Development Amount

• Development Amount: 0-19 - Level 0 - Regular Informorph Production rate
• Development Amount: 20-39 - Level 1 - 15% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 40-69 - Level 2 - 25% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 70-99 - Level 3 - 35% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate
• Development Amount: 100 - Level 4 - 50% bonus to Infomorph Production Rate

I do have to put my two cents in at this point. I believe players were promised some PvE content along with the introduction of mercenary dens. Today's patch introduces the gameplay. Plus, the sites seem custom made for newer player to contribute to the economic well-being of a null sec alliance. At least in theory. We'll need to wait for experience to see if the developers' plans bear fruit.

Mercenary Tactical Operations (MTOs)

Approximately every 3 days, a mercenary den tactical operation (MTO) will become available. MTOs are new PVE content designed for a single player in a cruiser. These sites are behind an acceleration gate that only lets in T1 and faction cruisers, or any destroyer/frigate. Once an MTO has been warped to, a beacon will appear in space which anyone can warp to, even hostile players. MTOs are very rewarding and will drop on average around 80-100 million ISK in loot, and if they are successfully completed, they will decrease anarchy by 20 points, and increase development by 10 points. Since it takes 4 days for anarchy to increase by 20 points, this means that running a MTO once every 3-4 days (when it becomes avaliable) will be enough for Mercenary Den owners to maintain their dens to prevent any adverse affect on the Skyhook if they so wish.

To Start an MTO, you will need to be undocked in the solarsystem where the mercenary den is located, and then start it from the Opportunities window, or from the Mercenary Den window. MTO sites always spawn in the same solarsystem as where the Mercenary Den is located. A Mercenary Den can have a maximum of up to 3 MTOs at once, and MTOs last for 4 days after being offered.

If a Mercenary Den is already maxed out at level 4 Development, completing a MTO will create 500 bonus infomorphs directly into the mercenary den on completion in place of the development reward.

A Slow Start For Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo in 2024

On Friday Cloud Imperium Games launched the beginning of Star Citizen's Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. Star Citizen's biggest event, the IAE has two purposes. The first is to attract as many new players to the game as possible. The second is to make as much money as possible. Lasting this year from 22 November to 5 December, the first weekend of the event is now in the books. According to the statistics available at the CCU Game dashboard, the event is down compared to 2023.

One of the concerns I had was whether the announcements at this year's CitizenCon would negatively impact the IAE. In October, CIG openly declared Star Citizen will be a full loot, PvP sandbox. Perhaps most importantly in terms of ship sales, the company announced AI crews to help solo players fly multi-crew ships was not a feature Star Citizen would possess at launch. 

In other words, solo pilots could not expect to use AI crews until the four systems not yet in the game -- Pyro, Nyx, Castra, and Terra -- were fully complete and in the game. Pyro will enter the Persistent Universe with the launch of Alpha 4.0, but the other planets? Even if CIG completes one system per year, the soonest solo players can expect to hire AI crews is sometime in 2028. And given CIG's track record, the year is probably closer to 2032.

The 1st weekend's performance

On the matter of attracting new players, CIG is on a bit of a two-year losing streak. The possibility exists of the game not attracting the creation of new accounts at 2021's level of 524,161. This weekend's performance is typical of the issue. Over the first three days, the 18,894 accounts created is 33.5% behind 2023's count of 28,432 over the number recorded by last year's first weekend.

The sales numbers are not quite as bad. Over the first weekend the IAE generated almost $4.2 million in sales. Still, the amount is 14.1% behind 2023's pace of $4.9 million. Perhaps the most significant piece of information is this year is that far behind even after the limited time sales of the Idris and Javelin.

Perhaps one of the biggest reason for following the two-week sales event is the potential impact on the Star Citizen player base. The last time the IAE suffered a year-over-year decline was 2014. A decade of sustained growth, at least for an event, can lead to complacency. A lot of the content creators I watch don't seem to think sales could go down this year. Admittedly, I still don't think the streak will end this year, but I'm not as sure as I was last week. If the event doesn't pull in $24.5 million like last year, do we start hearing louder cries of "Star Citizen is dying"?

EVE Vanguard x EVE Online - Groundbreak Runs From November 26 To December 9

I intended to make a prediction that EVE Vanguard, CCP Games' under development MMOFPS game, would run an event interacting with EVE Online sometime in 2025. A prediction I can no longer make since such an event is running at the end of November and extending into December. The Pearl Abyss-owned studio made the announcement on its corporate website yesterday.

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – November 19, 2024 - Today, CCP Games announced a public limited-time access event for EVE Vanguard, the in-development MMOFPS that directly connects to the legendary EVE Online Universe. From November 28 to December 9, players can descend onto diverse planetary battlegrounds as technologically immortal warclones, engaging in intense ground combat that directly impacts the largest player-driven war in gaming history. To obtain an access code visit the EVE Vanguard Discord server.

In YC126.11.28: Groundbreak, players will join live insurgencies that reach from ground to orbit, shaping the future of New Eden. With every deployment, you have the chance to align with a faction of your choice and dive into intense 9v9 battles, capturing artillery cannons to bombard enemy fleets from the surface. Each victory strengthens your side's grip on planetary zones in EVE Online, driving opposition forces out of contested airspace and having real-time impact on the ongoing war in the cluster.

In a dev blog yesterday, the developers gave the lore explanation for the influx of all the players/testers from Vanguard. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the link between the two games is the relatively new insurgency system.

CAPSULEER REINFORCEMENTS

The Deathless is making his presence known all over New Eden – on planets and in space. He has put out a call to the capsuleers of the cluster to join in the fight against Drifter forces, in part to aid Vanguard forces in planetside operations. The Deathless Circle has deployed special towers connected to the newly revealed Warden, which scan local networks for passkeys needed to break planetary defense systems, allowing Vanguard warclones to fight for key positions in insurgencies. These towers are under attack from Drifters, and the Deathless has asked capsuleers to help defend them. There is of course nothing stopping them from destroying the towers and stealing the passkeys for themselves, should they prefer to support suppression-aligned forces. 

In a positive move, players are not confined to insurgencies and the ties to EVE Online players. The devs will take advantage of Vanguard's persistent state and run content between major conflicts.

Between insurgency deployments you can hone your power by raiding planetary zones for rare resources and blueprint parts. Face off against brutal NPC militia and rival warclones, scavenging for materials to craft tactical chipsets and blueprints. Use them to build your own custom arsenal and gain an edge for the next objective. You have the freedom to formulate your own goals, strategies, and fragile alliances, with myriad methods of achieving what you set out to accomplish. Decide where you wish to deploy, manufacture an unbeatable armory, and destroy your rivals. 

In addition to participating in the event itself, CCP is running a rewards promotion for EVE Online players from 28 November to 1 December, or Thanksgiving weekend in the United States. The rewards are up to four SKIN design components, 3,000 EverMarks, and 50,000 Skill Points for participating all four days.

I do want to an additional point not really in the press release or the dev blog. To all the bloggers and content creators creating their end of the year predictions, EVE Vanguard is scheduled to launch on Steam Early Access in 2025. Adjust your predictions accordingly.

CCP Didn't Mean To Swing The Nerfbat On Null Sec Sites

Sometimes I bet the developers over in Reykjavik feel they can't win. On the one hand, for years players have complained about the PvE in EVE Online and that the devs need to update the existing content. On the other hand, players don't like change. The latest example showed up in the patch notes on Friday.

The changes in question seemed rather innocuous when I read through the patch notes. In fact, I lumped the changes into a category called "other null sec site changes."

Nullsec Combat Anomaly Graphics and Gameplay Overhaul

Several Combat Anomaly sites in nullsec have been renovated.

• All variations of the Forsaken Sanctums, Sanctums, Havens, Patrol and Horde sites have had full art and asset renovations
• Over 100 different nullsec anomaly sites now have an objectives panel. So you can now easily see what wave you are on and how many NPCs remain at a glance!
• Several NPC groups now warp in instead of spawning in place where appropriate.

In the patch notes, the biggest concern with the graphics upgrade is the potential of the volumetric clouds in the sites impacting the performance of multi-boxers. Turns out the biggest complaint is the warping NPCs.

Apparently the issue concerns pilots of Edencom ships. I don't play in null sec so don't really have experience with area of effect weapons. I found a thread on the EVE Online sub-Reddit explaining the complaint.

Due to the mechanics of EVE/Vorton guns, if even one single ship lands outside of your 10km bubble, kiss any benefit over AFK spinning an Ishtars goodbye, because now you have to spend JUST AS MUCH TIME killing that one single lone Battleship (usually) as you did the rest of the wave that DID land within the 10km range.

Congratulations. Your clear time just doubled. Because of one ship. Because of 100 meters of range.

This one ship landing .1 km outside of your AOE range effectively doubles the amount of time/ammo taken to clear that particular wave, which ruins the whole benefit/point of running Stormbringers versus just AFK spinning Ishtars.

Now, take the above complaint with a grain of salt, although the explanation of the mechanics seems sound. Also, if I want to put on my tin foil hat, the developers may have balanced the ratting ISK faucet around the speed of clearing sites using AFK Ishtars.

Or, as the developers have done for years, tried to introduce more active gameplay into EVE. We have the age-old conflict of those who want more engaging gameplay versus those who want to gather their ISK as quickly as possible. After all, as we all learned in World of Warcraft, "Time is money, friend."

In the developer response to the issue in Friday's patch notes, making AoE farming, while not an intended consequence of the change, more difficult wasn't unwelcome. In fact, the big concern for the developers was for players not to see the move as an effort to nerf income generation. Here is the explanation from the patch notes.

With the renovation update to Nullsec anomalies, and bug fixes for the NPC dreadnoughts released in Revenant, we did not intend to significantly impact Nullsec income with the changes to the NPCs warping in instead of spawning in place. We also have not made any intentional changes to the AI used by the NPCs which would cause them to attack drones more frequently.

To address these concerns, we are increasing several Battleship and Battlecruiser NPC bounties found primarily in Nullsec by between 30-40% to compensate for the reductions in efficiency for AoE farming (Smartbomb, Stormbringer and Thunderchild ratting) due to the NPCs warping in and potentially requiring higher level of activity for increased drone management for drone setups. We are also happy for this to be a significant boost for more active forms of ratting that were not as directly impacted, such as Marauder ratting.

If anyone wants to know the impact of player backlash against the Scarcity Era, the above is a demonstration. The developers basically stated, "yes, we nerfed your playstyle, but we didn't do it to keep you from making ISK." I'd say we may need to look at this as a filter for future actions, especially in null security space.

For completeness' sake, I'll conclude this post with the actual changes the devs made on Friday to the combat sites.

• Increased the bounties on several NPCs found primarily in Nullsec Anomalies by 30-40%.
  
  
• This results in the following total average bounty increases for these popular Nullsec anomalies:
• Hubs: 28.40%
• Rally Points: 28.50%
• Patrols: 30.20%
• Havens: 31.70%
• Forsaken Hubs: 34.50%
• Hordes: 34.70%
• Sanctums: 35.70%
• Forsaken Sanctums & Teeming Hordes: 36.00%

So for those who didn't engage in AoE farming, CCP handed them a big income boost.

Black Desert Mobile Merges Servers Down To Three

A day after Pearl Abyss' earnings call for the third quarter of 2024, the South Korean game company merged the six Black Desert Mobile servers down to three. The company did give players two weeks notice, so the news wouldn't have caught vigilant investment companies by surprise.

The three servers being merged into the others were known as Oasis servers. In Black Desert Mobile, Oasis servers were special game servers introduced by Pearl Abyss in April 2024. These servers offered opportunities for both new and returning players compared to players on the regular servers. Here are some key features of Oasis servers:

Leveling Up Quickly: Players could level up five times faster compared to regular servers.

100% Black Pearl Refund: Returning players got a full refund of their Black Pearls, which could be used to purchase in-game items.

Quality-of-Life Improvements: Updates like Shadow Gear upgrades and new crafting recipes were available.

Community Events: Various events, giveaways, and special title events were held to engage players.

Given the servers only lasted six months before their announced merge into regular servers, I assume the idea a failure.

At one point Black Desert Mobile was the main driver of revenue for the Black Desert franchise. In the third quarter of 2019 BDM brought in 57% of Pearl Abyss' overall revenue, or approximately ₩76 billion ($63.6 million). In the last quarter five years later, mobile gaming only brought in 21%, or ₩15.6 billion ($21.2 million) of the company's gaming revenue. And unlike in 2019, last quarter mobile gaming revenue was split between BDM and EVE: Echoes, although the vast majority was probably generated by BDM.

Between the long decline of Black Desert Mobile and the failure to upgrade Black Desert Online for next generation consoles, Pearly Abyss is close to falling below the ₩75 billion recorded in company revenue for Q4 2017, the first month of the operation of BDM.

My First Two Days In FFXIV's Patch 7.1 - Crossroads

I've spent a couple of days playing the latest patch of Final Fantasy XIV, Crossroads. I normally refer to the patch number, in this case 7.1. I have to say I'm feeling better about the Dawntrail expansion, particularly the MSQ. After playing for two days I think I came up with a plan for the next two months or so, up to patch 7.15.

First, the MSQ. So far I haven't changed my opinion that the Dawntrail MSQ is only better than the A Realm Reborn MSQ amongst the expansion (and yes, I consider ARR an expansion). The feel of the story reminds me of the Shadowbringers expansion point releases, meaning the quality picked up in patch 7.1. The story also continued to drop pieces of alternative universe writing about the New World. For an example from the early Dawntrail MSQ, what would happen if, instead of Europeans bringing disease to the Native Americans, the Europeans picked up a deadly disease from the natives? We get something similar with the railroad story in Crossroads.

Of course I'm going to complain about the dungeon, Yuweyawata Field Station. The final boss had similar mechanics to the first boss of Alexandria, meaning a lot of dancing around telegraphs. I somehow made it through the final boss after about an hour. I agree with the comment from Alphinaud if you approach him after the fight: "I don't know how we made it through."

I did notice that the trial for patch 7.1, The Minstrel's Ballad: Sphene's Burden, is not required. The trial, as indicated by the mention of The Minstrel, is a harder version of The Interphos and thus is not required for the story in the MSQ. After all, The Minstrel is just providing an idealized story of what actually occurred.

The next bit of new content I started are the Pelupelu society quests. I really liked the little introduction quest required to unlock the feature. The Pelupelu are for combat jobs, just like the first society quest introduced in Endwalker. The experience points granted for doing the society quests is rather good. So good I decided to do society quests for Endwalker and Shadowbringers also. For doing the 9 quests I received a few points shy of 10 million experience points. I figure that reaching maximum level in a society will take 42 days. If so, I think I can not only level Dancer to 100, but Summoner as well. Once that is done, I just need to level a melee DPS and a tank job to complete all of the role quests for Dawntrail. I currently have Warrior to level 60 and no melee jobs started.

I do need to finish up one piece of patch 7.0 content. I still have to complete the quests for 2 of the NPCs in the Wachumeqimeqi district. Once those are done, I understand I can access an overall quest to finish off the area once patch 7.15 arrives, probably sometime in January. I have the feeling a lot of crafting and gathering content will drop in patch 7.15 so I need to finish up so I'm ready when the patch drops.

Looking at the above I have a lot of daily tasks ahead of me. But I really don't mind because I like running around the world and the new quests tell a bit more about the new lands I'm exploring. 

Pearl Abyss Q3 2024 Earnings Call

On Tuesday in South Korea, Pearl Abyss held its earnings call for the third quarter of 2024. The company experienced a quarter-over-quarter revenue decline of 2.8% down to ₩79.5 billion ($58.6 million). Year-over-year the company's revenue has declined 6.3% compared to Q3 2023's revenue of ₩84.9 billion ($64.7 million). 

The drop in revenue alone doesn't tell the full story of Pearl Abyss' poor financial performance in the third quarter. In the third quarter, the company posted a operating loss of ₩9.2 billion ($6.8 million). Over the past four quarters, the company has posted losses in three, totaling ₩19.9 billion ($14.7 million). 

The operating loss translated into a net loss of ₩7.8 billion ($5.8 million). In response to a question from one of the investment analysts, a member from the Pearl Abyss C-suite explained the company had experienced a couple of one-time expenses that contributed to the losses. The first was ₩2.5 billion spent on responding to a tax audit from the South Korean government. The other was ₩500 million in increased electrical costs for air conditioning during the summer's abnormally warm summer.

While the second net loss over the last four quarters, Pearl Abyss has shown a profit of ₩9.2 billion ($7.2 million) over the period. 

In another piece of news, ₩5.0 billion, or 6.3% of Pearl Abyss' revenue did not come from game revenue associated with its two main intellectual properties. In the past Pearl Abyss has posted significant revenue from its financial division. Apparently the same happened again in the third quarter, although none of the investment analysts on the call asked about the subject.

In a look at the Black Desert IP revenue fell from the previous quarter by 10%, down to ₩54.0 billion ($39.8 million). The year-over-year decline was steeper, with the quarter's revenue down 21% from the ₩68.4 billion ($52.1 million) posted in the third quarter of 2023. The financial picture in the fourth quarter looks rosier as Tencent began Black Desert Online service in the People's Republic of China on 24 October. Additional sales are possible as the company plans special events to celebrate the 10th anniversary in December.

The picture was brighter for the games set in the EVE universe. Quarter-over-quarter sales fell 5.1% down to ₩20.5 billion ($15.1 million) in the third quarter. But year-over-year sales rose 28.1% compared to Q3 2023's mark of ₩16.0 billion ($12.2 million), meeting the revenue expectations set on the Q2 earnings call.

Revenue should rise for the EVE IP in the upcoming quarter. In addition to the bi-annual EVE Online expansion launching today, the new mobile game, EVE Galaxy Conquest, launched globally on 29 October. In addition, two games under development, EVE Vanguard and EVE Frontier were mentioned on the call. In response to token sales concerning CCP's blockchain-based MMORPG, the Pearl Abyss CEO referred all such queries to CCP.

The most questions, however, were asked about Crimson Desert. The Pearl Abyss leadership spent a lot of time deflecting questions about the game, probably to not overshadow any upcoming announcement coming up at G-STAR this weekend starting on Thursday in Busan. After a question about the demo at G-STAR, the analyst was told to go to the convention floor and play it himself. I think the question might have struck a nerve as those on the call had already been told the playable demo at G-STAR would basically be the same one presented at Gamescom except with one additional boss.

Some questions about Crimson Desert were answered on the call. For example, the 22% increase in advertising expenditures up to ₩8.9 billion ($6.6 million) was mostly due to increased costs associated with attending game shows and other events to introduce the game to the public. Also, the studio is still considering multi-player modes as well as downloadable content to keep revenue up after the game's first year on the market. When Crimson Desert was first introduced a multi-player mode was included as a feature.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - SKINR Paragon Updates

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

The tenth and final post in the Revenant patch notes series looks at the upcoming updates to the SKINR Paragon system. I'm not a big fan of SKINs, still having hundreds of unique, unapplied SKINs floating around my inventory. But with the continued focus on the feature, one would think the feature is possibly the most important in the game.

In a financial sense, player-created SKINs are the most important feature in the game. Not only does the process require PLEX, but presents the developers with additional opportunities to put items in the cash shop. Before the advent of the SKINR Paragon system, players, including those elected to the Council of Stellar Management, said they would gladly pay for corporation and alliance SKINs. The SKINR Paragon system was the result.

Since I don't know about the actual mechanics of the system, I'll list the updates coming in Revenant without further comment.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Glorified Mutaplasmids and Mutaplasmid Residue

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This ninth post in the Revenant patch note series is the shortest in the series. Glorified Mutaplasmids and Mutaplasmid Residue is a niche subject but still one deserving of coverage. And due to how the features introduced in the expansion tend to relate to one of a few major themes, I couldn't just create a miscellaneous blog post. So below is what the patch notes had to say about the changes.

Glorified Mutaplasmids and Mutaplasmid Residue

All abyssal modules can now be reprocessed into mutaplasmid residue - this means that modules that you mutate that don’t have the results that you were hoping for or aren’t able to sell are still useful! Mutaplasmid residue can then be used in new blueprints found in regular abyssal content and from CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacons to create 169 new, improved, glorified abyssal mutaplasmids, which are more powerful versions of the existing mutaplasmids found in the game. Just Keep Rolling!

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Other Null Sec Site Changes

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

In this eighth post in the series, I'll finish up covering some of the loose ends. One of those loose ends are new or updated sites in null security space. Mercenary Dens are not the only content introduced in Revenant that can generate PvE play.

New Rogue Drone relic sites have been added.

• 4 new relic sites have been added in rogue drone nullsec, allowing intrepid explorers the opportunity to find and discover ancient salvage materials and other valuable rewards.

Like I've noted in the past, I don't play in null sec, so I don't know how well (or poorly) residents of that security band will greet the following UI and graphical changes.

Nullsec Combat Anomaly Graphics and Gameplay Overhaul

Several Combat Anomaly sites in nullsec have been renovated.

• All variations of the Forsaken Sanctums, Sanctums, Havens, Patrol and Horde sites have had full art and asset renovations
  
  
• Over 100 different nullsec anomaly sites now have an objectives panel. So you can now easily see what wave you are on and how many NPCs remain at a glance!
  
  
• Several NPC groups now warp in instead of spawning in place where appropriate.

Since volumetric clouds are part of the graphical updates, please note that they can potentially impact performance when multi-boxing. To mitigate this, we’ve added a setting that disables clouds when low shader quality is selected.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Ship Information Window And Other UI Changes

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

In this seventh post in the series I'll look at some of the changes to the UI in EVE Online. The biggest change is to the ship information window, but other areas received attention as well.

I didn't see a description of UI changes coming in previous articles, but I fully endorse this description of the new ship information window from the patch notes.

The information window for ships has been redesigned to both emphasize the hull's uniqueness while improving usability. With a more streamlined layout, players will be able to find the information they need in a more intuitive and immersive form.

The changes are spelled out and I didn't notice any current functionality taken away.

• Ship Display: The selected ship is always at the forefront of this design. A player can take in a 360° look at the hull in all its glory.
  
  
• Compact Mode: The window can now be re-sized to be smaller than the previous version. This allows a player to maximize information density without sacrificing usability.
  
  
• Immersive Additions: In-universe information on the ship's designer and attributed quotes related to the hull have been added to flesh out its place in New Eden.
  
  
• Overview Tab: The Traits and Description tabs have been combined along with the previous header information to create the Overview tab. This provides all the most basic information for the ship in one place. In addition, you can view accrued killmarks for your ship within this tab.
  
  
• Attribute Tab: The information within this tab has been reorganized to help players navigate it more easily. In addition, derived values such as EHP and align time are displayed here to help provide context to related attributes.
  
  
• Skills Tab: The Skill Requirements and Masteries tabs have been combined. Any skill a player might need to fly a ship effectively can be found here.
  
  
• Fittings Tab: A shortcut has been added which opens the Fitting window in simulation mode, showing the ship and its applied fitting.
  
  
• Variations Tab: Variants within this tab now have links that open that hull within the Ship Tree.
  
  
• SKINs Tab: Players are now able to preview and apply SKINs directly from this tab. In addition, a shortcut has been added to open that ship's SKINR Paragon Hub page.

In addition to improvements to the ship information window, the developers have created new icons for many modules.

Distinct Module Icons

The following module types have been given unique icons to help differentiate them:

• Heat Sinks, Gyrostabilizers, Entropic Radiation Sinks, and Magnetic Field Stabilizers
• Capacitor Rechargers, Capacitor Flux Coils, and Capacitor Power Relays
• Shield Rechargers, Shield Flux Coils, and Shield Power Relays

Biochemical Material Icons

All biochemical materials now have unique icons. The icons match the color and tier of the booster that they relate to.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Corporation Projects Improvements

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This sixth post in the Revenant patch note series concerns improvements to the Corporation Projects system. In an expansion with a lot of content for null sec powers, building upon the Corporation Projects system helps out smaller groups who play in other security bands. I find the system useful just to keep track of what I want to do in the game between long periods of inactivity.

In the announcement news article for Revenant, CCP gave a short description of what the developers intended to deliver on Tuesday.

The Revenant expansion brings powerful new ways to strengthen and streamline corporation efforts, giving capsuleers even greater opportunities to contribute. Organization leaders of New Eden will gain more control and flexibility over their Corporation Projects, enabling them to tailor goals and tasks for maximum efficiency while also enhancing the experience for current or potential members.

Expanded project parameters add flexibility, allowing creators to set comprehensive, complex, and diverse goals. This enables leaders to create one project with multiple contribution options – such as mining in multiple locations or targeting various ship types and ship groups. Select project types will support expanded parameters on launch day, and more will be added later.

The patch notes went into greater detail on the expanded project parameters.

Expanded Project Parameter

• With the launch of Revenant, project creators can now author the Mine Materials, Damage Capsuleers, Destroy Capsuleer’s Ship and Earn Loyality Points Contribution Methods with Expanded Project Parameters functionality.
  
  
• Expanded Project Parameters functionality enables:
  
  
• Multi-value parameters: Project creators can select up to ten values per supported parameter.
  
  
• Locations (Mine Materials, Damage Capsuleers, Destroy Capsuleer’s Ship)
• Ship Types or Groups (Damage Capsuleers, Destroy Capsuleer’s Ship)
• Material Types or Groups (Mine Materials)
• Capsuleers or Organizations (Damage Capsuleers, Destroy Capsuleer’s Ship)
• Organizations (Earn Loyalty Points)
  
  
• Mixed-hierarchy parameters: Project creators can now also select parameter groups that span different hierarchies. Up to ten values supported.
  
  
• Locations parameter: Solar Systems, Constellations, and Regions.
• Ship Types or Groups parameter : Ship Types (e.g. Rifter, Raven) and Ship Groups (e.g. Frigates, Battleships, Logistic Cruisers)
• Material Types or Groups: Asteroid Types (e.g. Veldspar, Dense Veldspar, Kernite, Fiery Kernite, Clear Icicle) and Asteroid Groups (e.g. Veldspar, Kernite, Ice)

Revenant's announcement article also addressed a couple of features that corporation leadership can add to existing project types.

Project Deadline

• Project creators can now set deadlines for their projects. This improves communication of the project timeline to the corporation members and encourage timely participation.

Project Participation Limit

• Project creators can now set limits on contributions per contributor, preventing any single player from completing the majority of a project alone allowing everyone a chance to contribute.

One fact I found not in the patch notes was an upcoming addition to the system. That's right, giving smaller groups a way to implement ship replacement programs without a prohibitive amount of administrative overhead.

The new Ship Insurance project type will offer a streamlined way to automate ship replacement programs, providing a seamless and guaranteed compensation system based on the loss value. This project type will be added in an update shortly following the expansion launch and will support expanded project parameters.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Pochven

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This fifth post in the series concerns the changes coming to Pochven. Admittedly I don't have much to add to the current area in the patch notes. I managed to hop inside the Triglavian region upon creation years ago, looked around, and left. About the only thing I can really bring up is a Reddit thread I saw. 

Apparently the big issue in Pochven were the Observatory Flashpoint sites. The following changes will go live on Tuesday.

• The optimal total value of the site has been reduced from 3.5b to an average of 3b ISK
  
  
• On average, 40% of the site’s total value will now be given in the form of new Stellar Surveillance Data commodities
  
  
• These commodities can be looted from Stellar Observatory wrecks
• NPC buy orders for these commodities can be found in CONCORD, DED, and Secure Commerce Commission stations
  
  
• Only capsuleers within 50km of the Stellar Observatory are considered eligible for payouts
  
  
• The minimum amount of contribution to be eligible for payouts has been increased
  
  
• New Threshold Werpost sentry guns will aggress any capsuleer who goes beyond 50km from the Stellar Observatory
  
  
• Once within the main combat area, capsuleers will now only have 30 minutes to complete the site
  
  
• Any EDENCOM faction can now appear within the site (weighted toward the empire that owned the system before Pochven’s formation)
  
  
• NPCs will now behave more intelligently within the site
  
  
• Specific EDENCOM NPCs will prioritize attacking drones
  
  
• EDENCOM NPCs will remember which capsuleers have engaged their faction between areas and waves
  
  
• Triglavian NPCs will only be hostile to capsuleers who have attacked them or their fleet
  
  
• NPCs will now orbit at ranges more suited to their weaponry
  
  
• Sites are now visible within the Combat Anomalies section of both the AIR Opportunities and Agency windows
• Info Panel objectives will now appear to help players keep track of the site’s current state
• The activation range of the Assault Vector gate has been slightly increased
• EDENCOM NPCs will now significantly outnumber Triglavians within the Assault Vector area
  
  
• Cloaking is disabled while within proximity of a Stellar Observatory
  
  
• Micro Jump Drives and Micro Jump Field Generators are disabled while within proximity of a Stellar Observatory
  
  
• Warp drives are disabled while within proximity of a Stellar Observatory wreck
  
  
• Pop-up and local chat messages have been replaced with one-time transmission conversations

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Ship Balancing

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This fourth post in the series breaks the order of the content in the patch notes. The developers rebalanced several ships in Revenant, with some of the changes considered nerfs. As such, why bury the bad news at the end and leave players with nasty surprises? The first ships mentioned are Marauders.

Marauders continue to be incredibly dominant in all areas of space, so we’re removing the bonuses which provide additional hitpoints to buffer modules fit to them. The intention here is to focus them more around their specialization of large bonuses to active tanking. Since active tanking requires capacitor, heat and module management, the hope is that this will increase their skill floor and make them harder to use as ships of the line and be more difficult to multibox efficiently.

• 100% bonus to Shield Extender hitpoints removed
• 50% bonus to Armor Plate hitpoints removed
• 5% additional bonus to Reinforced Bulkhead hitpoints removed

I guess the Minmatar marauder, the Vargur, put too much of the "win" in Winmatar.

Even with the above adjustment to all Marauders, the Vargur still stands out as the worst offender amongst them, it currently is the #1 highest damaging ship on average for all killmails in null security and wormhole space. So we’re cutting back a bit of the falloff bonus to reduce projection with AutoCannons and also reducing the CPU output. In the Viridian expansion, we added a 6th lowslot to the Vargur which actually increased its fitting ability by allowing it to fit additional co-processor modules which inadvertently made fitting multiple XLASBs much easier and viable despite us reducing the shield boost bonus per level it had.

• Falloff Bonus reduced from 10% per level to 7.5% per level.
• CPU output Reduced from 625 to 600

The developers actually felt sorry for a few ships. The first one mentioned in the patch notes was the Ammarian command ship, the Absolution.

The Absolution is struggling a little with usage so we’re giving it a bit of QoL. This change keeps the overall damage per second of the Absolution the same as before, but now that the rate of fire bonus is baked into the damage bonus, it no longer consumes as much capacitor as before to fire which should make it feel better.

• 10% bonus to energy turret damage increased to 20%
• 5% rate of fire bonus for energy turrets removed

The rest of the ships receiving attention are faction navy ships. The first one is the Myrmidon Navy Issue.

The Myrmidon Navy Issue is currently the least used Combat Battlecruiser in the game, so we’re making some improvements to its mobility and repair amount to help it out. Many players doing PVE do not feel like the Myrmidon Navy Issue is worth upgrading to from the Myrmidon, since the stasis webifier drone bonus isn’t very valuable in PVE and if they only use drones and don’t rely on its higher damage hybrid weapons it’s not as attractive of an upgrade, and in PVP it’s fairly slow so can be difficult to use blasters so we’re hoping that the increased repair amount and speed will help it stand out more for both PVE and PVP.

• Armor Repairer amount per level increased from 7.5% to 10%
• Base velocity increased from 155 m/s to 160 m/s
• Agility improved from 0.7x to 0.67x

The next ship, the Harbinger Navy Issue, experienced a slight oops during a previous balance pass.

The Harbinger Navy Issue currently has low usage, so we’re increasing its base powergrid amount up to the same as the regular Harbinger hull, which was buffed in an earlier balance pass which the HNI missed out on.

• Powergrid increased from 1,495 MW to 1,550 MW

Apparently the Vargur was not the only Minmatar ship winning too much. The Cyclone Fleet Issue also was hit with the nerf bat.

The Cyclone Fleet Issue is incredibly dominant right now, so we’re making some adjustments to bring it back in line. We’re reducing the powergrid on it so it will have a harder time fitting 100mn afterburners or large cap battery modules for fleet fits, and we’re also lowering the rate of fire bonus to tone down the damage it can put out.

• Powergrid reduced from 1,215 MW to 1100 MW
• Rate of fire bonus for missiles reduced from 9% to 7.5% per level

If the Minmatar were winning too much, what does that say about the Gallente Exequror Navy Issue? Apart from the Vargur, the Exequror Navy Issue received the most fiddling with its bonuses.

The Exequror Navy Issue is still incredibly dominant and the most used navy ship in the game, so we’re making a small suite of changes, reducing the falloff bonus and then hitting it’s mobility slightly and increasing the signature radius, so it’ll be worse at mitigating damage and can’t project as far as before.

• Medium Hybrid Falloff Bonus reduced from 10% per level to 7.5% per level
• Base velocity reduced from 280 m/s to 270 m/s
• Agility nerfed from 0.4x to 0.44x
• Signature Radius increased from 110m to 120m

Finally, to prove the developers don't hate all Minmatar ships, the Stabber Fleet Issue received a buff.

The SFI can sometimes feel awkward when upgrading from the regular Stabber by losing the falloff bonus, and the SFI could also use some love! So we’re extending the smaller falloff bonus we added to the Republic Fleet Firetail last winter onto the Stabber Fleet Issue to improve its versatility.

• New Bonus Added: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret Falloff per level

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Breacher Launch Pods

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This third post will cover the new weapons system unique to the Deathless: Breacher Launch Pods. Until the patch notes hit the internet on Friday, not much was known of the weapon apart from "a fearsome tool that sends shriker clones to wreak havoc on enemy ships, tearing through shields, armor, and hull from the inside." We now know the developers have now added damage over time (DoT) to New Eden. I guess someone in Reykjavik wants to hear shouts of "More DoTs! More DoTs" over fleet comms.

Players will acquire the Breacher Launch Pods from the same places they obtain Deathless ships.

Much like the Deathless Ships, blueprint copies for Breacher Pod Launchers and SCARAB breacher pod ammo can be obtained by trading Atavums, found from exploration, or Encrypted Infomorphs, generated from Mercenary Dens, in Zarzakh.

But what exactly are Breacher Launch Pods? The patch notes went into a long exposition on the subject.

Revenant brings an exciting brand-new weapon system and the first instance of a damage over time effect in EVE Online! Breacher Pod Launchers come in two sizes, small and medium, and can only be fitted on the new deathless ships - the Tholos and Cenotaph. Breacher Pod Launchers do not consume a launcher or turret hardpoint, and fire SCARAB breacher pods at their targets. If a breacher pod hits a ship, then it’ll apply a damage over time effect. The Scarab Breacher pods are similar to missiles, they will not affect their target unless they actually reach and hit, and can be killed with smartbombs before they arrive. Breacher Pods can only be used on player ships and NPCs, they cannot be used against targets such as capsules, structures, stargates etc.

The damage over time effect from breacher pods does not use signature radius or tracking like other weapon systems in the game, instead, they apply damage every second based on the targets total hitpoints (raw Shield, Armor and Hull HP combined) or a flat damage cap number, whichever one of those two is lower. This means that a ship with incredibly high hitpoints like a Titan will always take the flat damage cap, but a ship with low hitpoints like a Corvette would always take the % HP damage instead.

The damage over time effect lasts between 50 and 75 seconds depending on the users skill level, and once hit, it will not clear until a player leaves the solarsystem or docks up. It can continue doing damage while the player is in warp or while the player is tethered. The damage over time effect also completely ignores resistances, which means the effect will apply full damage to ships which have used modules like the Assault Damage Control and the Emergency damage Control. It also can apply damage to Rorquals and ships under the effect of the PANIC module.

A player ship can only be affected by one damage over time effect at once. Getting hit with additional breacher pods will just add another effect which will take over when the previous one expires. Much like Command Bursts, if two players shoot the same target with breacher pods, then the player who has the strongest breacher pod effect will deal damage to the target, and the other one will remain inert unless the stronger effect expires.

Breacher pods are the ammunition and the pod launchers are the weapons systems. The pod launchers apparently are not classified as launchers, meaning players can theoretically have as many fitted as they have high slots. Below are the stats for both weapons and ammo.

Small Breacher Pod Launcher

• Rate of Fire: 24 seconds (12 seconds with max skills)

Medium Breacher Pod Launcher

• Rate of Fire: 20 seconds (10 seconds with max skills)

SCARAB Breacher Pod S

• Max Range: 4km (6km with max skills)
• HP Damage per second: 0.60% (0.75% with max skills)
• Maximum Damage per second: 160 (200 with max skills)

SCARAB Breacher Pod M

• Max Range: 8km (12km with max skills)
• HP Damage per second: 0.60% (1% with max skills)
• Maximum Damage per second: 800 (1000 with max skills)

The patch notes provided an example that might come in handy when first trying to understand the capabilities of the new weapons system.

It should be noted that while only one target can take damage from a damage over time effect at any time, you can place several damage over time effects on different player ships concurrently. For example, the Medium Breacher Pod Launcher has a rate of fire of 10 seconds with max skills, and DoTs that it applies will last 75 seconds with max skills, this means that a Cenotaph using the Breacher Pod Launcher could potentially have 7 DoTs applied to 7 different ships at once.

The Breacher Pod Launcher apparently is the feature introducing the most new skill books to EVE Online. These skills are also obtained by trading in Zarzakh. While the cost of the books is unknown, we know other details of the five new skills.

• Breacher Pod Launcher Operation - Operation of breacher pod launchers. +5% to the maximum percentage of target HP damaged per second per skill level. 3x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Clone Efficacity - Specialist combat training of Breacher Pod clones. +5% to the maximum damage per second cap per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Projection - Specialist training in the operation of Breacher Pod Launchers. +10% to Breacher Pod maximum velocity per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Rapid Firing - Specialist training in the preparation of Breacher Pods. -10% to Breacher Pod Launcher cycle time per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Clone Longevity - Specialist research on extending the short lifespans of Breacher Pod clones. +10% to damage effect duration per skill level. 7x training time multiplier.

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Deathless Ships

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This second post in the series will concentrate on the new Deathless ship line. For years I have heard players long for a pirate ship line asking for a combination of Caldari and Minmatar bonuses. The announcement of Revenant brought the news of two new ships emerging from the Deathless stronghold of Zarzakh.

The Deathless has unveiled powerful new instruments of war – the Tholos destroyer and Cenotaph battlecruiser. Designed for bold, close-range combat, these ships will be the first to employ unique SCARAB breacher pods for sustained damage over time. This new technology will allow capsuleers to damage and disrupt enemy vessels from within, adding powerful new stratagems to warfare in New Eden.

These Minmatar-Caldari hybrid ships are perfect for pilots who relish high-risk, high-reward gameplay, whether in solo operations or fleet warfare. Armed with covert ops cloaking devices and a bonus to stasis webifier resistance, they can slip into enemy ranks undetected and unleash devastating damage, rewarding skilled capsuleers who make the most of their hit-and-run capabilities. Designed for brawling, they are powerful weapons that will provide a tactical edge in the ongoing war.

I started playing EVE back in the day when split weapon types were the norm on Minmatar ships. The ship layouts remind me of those days. However, I'm pretty sure the ideal fittings will use half the high slots as utility slots. I have the feeling planning to fight Deathless ships will prove a pain.

The ships acquired like the other pirate faction ships.

The Deathless ships are available exclusively as blueprint copies from Deathless item traders, which can be found in Zarzakh. Players can turn in Atavums found in exploration sites, and Encrypted Infomorphs from mercenary dens to purchase them.

Unlike the ships introduced in Equinox, the Tholos and Cenotaph did not have individual descriptions. Also, the ships didn't receive an individual dev blog. I'll try to maintain the same format as I used for the Equinox patch notes.

Tholos - Deathless Destroyer

Slot Layout: 6 high slots, 6 medium slots, 2 low slots, 3 rig slots
Weapons: 2 launchers, 2 turrets
Cargo Capacity: 400 m3

Base Defense

• Shields: 1500 hp, Resists - EM: 0%, Thermal: 20%, Kinetic: 40%, Explosive: 50%
• Armor: 900 hp, Resists - EM: 60%, Thermal: 35%, Kinetic: 25%, Explosive: 10%
• Hull: 1100 hp

Drones

• Drone Capacity - 50m3
• Drone Bandwidth - 25mbit/s

Traits

Caldari Destroyer bonuses:

• 7.5% bonus to Shield Booster amount

Minmatar Destroyer bonuses:

• 5% bonus to ship Stasis Webifier resistance

Role Bonus:

• 150% bonus to Small Projectile Turret and Rocket damage
• can fit one Small Breacher Pod Launcher
• can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device
• 100% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
• cloak reactivation delay reduced to 15 seconds
• immune to all cargo scanners
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Cenotaph - Deathless Battlecruiser

Slot Layout: 8 high slots, 7 medium slots, 3 low slots, 3 rig slots
Weapons: 3 launchers, 3 turrets
Cargo Capacity: 425 m3

Base Defense

• Shields: 8000 hp, Resists - EM: 0%, Thermal: 20%, Kinetic: 40%, Explosive: 50%
• Armor: 5000 hp, Resists - EM: 60%, Thermal: 35%, Kinetic: 25%, Explosive: 10%
• Hull: 6000 hp

Drones

• Drone Capacity - 100m3
• Drone Bandwidth - 50mbit/s

Traits

Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level):

• 7.5% bonus to Shield Booster amount

Minmatar Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level):

• 5% bonus to ship Stasis Webifier resistance

Role Bonus:

• 100% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret and Heavy Assault Missile damage
• 50% bonus to Command Burst area of effect range
• 25% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret optimal range and falloff and Missile velocity
• can fit one Medium Breacher Pod Launcher
• can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device
• 100% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
• cloak reactivation delay reduced to 15 seconds
• immune to all cargo scanners

EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Mercenary Dens

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

The first feature is mercenary dens. I have to admit, I'm a bit confused on how their intended usage. From a previous dev blog, CCP described mercenary dens as an offensive-type object.

Get ready for risk and riches, with new mercenary dens – small but volatile outposts anchored to orbital skyhooks around temperate planets. Use these dens to turn workforce into encrypted infomorphs, highly prized by the Deathless, and open the doors to smaller, fast-paced skirmishes.

They’re not just treasure troves though, but powder kegs waiting to explode into fierce battles for control. Anyone can sneak in and set one up, turning nullsec into a playground of covert ops and daring raids. Manage the delicate balance of development and anarchy, and you could reap incredible rewards – or watch your enemies profit from your downfall.

But from the patch notes, I got the impression mercenary dens were put up by the system owner to enhance their resource production. Anchorable to orbital skyhooks around temperate, these objects require a new skill to use. However, I'm not sure exactly how many of the mercenary dens are allowed around orbital skyhooks, one per skyhook or one per character? I believe the former is the case.

The mechanics are spelled out more clearly.

Once a mercenary den has been successfully placed, it will passively generate encrypted infomorphs every hour. These items can either be sold on the market to other players or taken to Zarzakh to exchange for rewards with the deathless item traders. Those include the new deathless ships, breacher pod launchers, breacher pods, skillbooks and exclusive SKINR components.

Mercenary dens can only be accessed by the character which owns them; however, they are vulnerable to attack. Mercenary dens have a single 24h reinforcement timer with a 6-hour jitter which the owner has no control over. While reinforced, mercenary dens will continue to produce infomorphs, but they won’t be able to be removed from the mercenary den until it leaves reinforced mode and has been repaired above 50% shields. Note that it automatically regenerates shields over a long time if no one comes to finish it off, but it can also be manually repaired to full. If a mercenary den is destroyed, it has a 50% chance to drop the encrypted infomorphs inside.

As CCP has done throughout the deployment of the Equinox sov system, some of the features of mercenary dens will not see Tranquility for two weeks after Revenant's launch. The following points are what makes me believe mercenary dens are not intended for raiders to employ.

Additional Features coming after Revenant - Planned for 26 November

Mercenary Tactical Operations (MTOs)

• Mercenary dens will occasionally give their owners the opportunity to run MTOs, which are similar to existing PVE content such as missions/escalations. MTOs are aimed for a solo player in a cruiser and successfully completing them will give rewards and also increase the development and decrease the anarchy levels of the associated mercenary den.
  
  
• Shortly after Revenant, mercenary dens will have 2 parameters, Development and Anarchy.
  
  
• Development is generated over time, and when successfully completing mercenary den tactical operations. Higher Development levels will cause the mercenary den to increase production yield of infomorphs over time.
  
• Anarchy is also generated over time and decreased when successfully completing mercenary den tactical operations. Higher Anarchy levels will cause the Skyhook it’s placed on to siphon workforce production, preventing the workforce from being used by the sov owner.

If anything, Mercenary Tactical Operations I think is aimed at newer players living in null sec. Not only should newer players find the content inviting in cruiser-sized hulls, but they can help in resource generation for their alliance as well. At least, that's my perspective as someone who lives outside of player-owned space. Null sec residents can let me know if I'm wrong.