I need to get back to playing EVE Frontier. The game is really evolving away from the New Eden I'm used to in EVE Online. On Tuesday the developers released an new patch for Cycle 4 addressing some issues. I'm going to walk through the patch notes noting the different priorities I assigned to some of the features.
One dilemma I have with the beginning of every cycle is where to start. Hopefully this entry will, if not help, the leave me less confused.
Other
- Misleading starter region names updated to not imply significant differences in the choice. We envision unique experiences for each starter region, however, that is not reflected in the game… yet.
- Mining Ark, Research Ark and Hunting Ark renamed to Ark I, Ark II, and Ark III.
The next are changes involving industry and base building. The first is a temporary fix until automation of industry is introduced.
Temporary changes to industry capacity
On December 10th we introduced changes to the industry system. These changes were made partly in preparation for automation and were balance with that in mind. While we continue working on automation we want to alleviate some of the pain points players have been experiencing related to industry. Be aware that these changes will likely be reverted once we add automation to the Frontier.
Changes to input and output capacities for assemblies:
- Refinery M from 2500 m³ to 4000 m³
- Refinery L from 3500 m³ to 20000 m³
- Printer M from 1200 m³ to 4000 m³
- Printer L from 15000 m³ to 20000 m³
Similarly we have seen players struggling with storage as we work on integrating the SSUs with industry. While that work continues we again want to alleviate some pain points with a temporary increase in the capacity of the Portable Storage. As above, these changes too will likely be reverted once we properly integrate SSUs with industry.
Storage changes:
- Portable Storage capacity increase from 5000 m³ to 30000 m³
I haven't entered Cycle 4 yet, in Cycles 2 & 3 one of the issues I felt the need to work around was the initial storage structures players can build was too small.
The next gamplay change is likely permanent. Apparently some items needed to be slowed down.
Lastly, there were a few schemas with run times that were too fast resulting in jagged responsiveness and feedback. The minimum run time for all schemas is now 3 seconds. The following schemas have been affected:
- Printed Circuits (from 1s)
- Synthetic Mining Lens (from 1s)
- AC Gyrojet Ammo 1 (S) (from 2s)
- Salvaged Materials (from 2s)
- Feldspar Crystals (from 2s)
- Hydrated Sulfide Matrix (from 2s)
- Platinum-Palladium Matrix (from 2s)
- Mummified Clone (from 1s)
- EM Disintegrator Charge (M) (from 1s)
- EM Disintegrator Charge (S) (from 1s)
- Printed Circuits (from 1s)
- Radiantium Mining Lens (from 2s)
- Luminalis Mining Lens (from 2s)
- Mummified Clone (from 2s)
Notice the use of the term lastly? That's because I altered the order of the subjects as I consider gameplay changes more important than UI changes. At least as a general rule.
Industry UI/UX Iterations
Following the update we made to the industry interface in December (and some very aggressive passionate comments from our Founders), we are making some improvements based on the feedback we have received. This will, of course, be an ongoing process.
The following changes have been made to the Industry UI/UX:
- Schema cards now have a collapsed state.
- Schema cards now highlight materials if the amount required is found in nearby storages.
- You can now filter the Schema cards by “required materials available”.
- The option to deposit/withdraw the amount of 1 run when interacting with an input/output field has been added alongside the options of max amount and split stack.
- Changes have been made to the opacity/transparency of the background on fullscreen windows.
I added "as a general rule" because in a PvP game like EVE Frontier, a more readable UI leads to quicker actions and more time paying attention to my surroundings. Situational awareness is important, especially if off exploring to unknown space.
And finally come a list of defect fixes.
- Updated build mode assembly collision logic.
- Tweaked the jump drive effect to exclude errant negative values.
- Addressed error spam associated with some NPC actions (scanning, warping).
- Changed NPC behavior in uninhabited systems to optimize server CPU/memory usage.
- Deactivated persistent booster effects following a completed Approach command.
- Adjusted the tribe pack totem access in Build Mode.
- Fixed minor logspam in the Engine Tools menu.
- Shifted the Fitting Window ship display port.
- Corrected the method for updating the on-chain state of disassembled, unanchored, and destroyed assemblies, and the subsequent Network Node consumption values.
- Modified NPC behavior toward targets outside of their effective range after they are aggressed.
- Fixed issues preventing the deposit option from being presented for all items if the blueprint requires a list of materials
- Fixed incorrect capacity value being shown in the show info for Smart Storage Unit L
- Fixed an issue where assemblies could be constructed inside a Smart Storage Unit L
- Dungeons containing mineable Feldspar Crystals or outdated resources have been updated to align with the new resource paradigm.
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