Random Posts from Auga

With the Winter expansion possibly being named ‘Crucible’, it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?

For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this “patchwork” of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package “The Crucible” together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?

I enjoyed the post at Sand, Cider and Spaceships… so I thought I’d build off that and do an RP version of Faction Warriors’ reactions to this, in character…

As I strolled into the HUANG ready-room, I quickly noted the buzz of excitement and talk among the capsuleers and crew members alike. CONCORD was making some changes to the rules governing the years-long faction war.

HUANG was different than many other capsuleer corps—it was a dedicated Minmatar Militia corp with over 5000 enemy ship kill-credits, and actively sought out the services of crew and capsuleers dedicated to defending the Republic’s frontier from pirate and Amarr incursions, as well as defeating Amarr forces in the war zones.  However, CONCORD rules had long hampered our efforts. 

Our losses of men and material were difficult and expensive to replace. and for every step we took to repel invaders and make headway into freeing our enslaved brethren, it seemed that nothing we did made a difference.  The Republic didn’t provide any real backing or support, and it seemed for every Amarr fleet we defeated more just kept popping up, in an endless cycle of conflict that destroyed the lives of thousands and cost the capsuleers involved many billions of ISK.  Morale was low, we felt we were the forgotten warriors locked in eternal war, ignored on the fringes of the Empires.

Now CONCORD was relaxing the strict rules it had allowed for the four Empires to participate.  It was removing CONCORD Jove-tech from the various faction navies had access to within high security space, allowing Militia pilots to readily exercise their letters of marque within Empires.  It was empowering the navies to issue bounties for their allied militiamen to all enemies, both empire and capsuleer—our stream of ISK income was about to spike up!  And, it was allowing the empires to backup the strategic capture of frontier systems with logistical support and more naval firepower, while putting more restrictions on the rewards for attacking enemy sites.  No more would false-militia capsuleers in stealthed frigates be able to so easily wreak havoc among the naval facilities and other bases, and collect so many undeserving rewards for so little risk.

Even more importantly, it was allowing more capsuleers to join into the Faction War, and removing CONCORD-imposed standings penalties for normal combat actions.  They were really unshackling us from many of the onerous restrictions preventing an all out war, rather than these back and forth skirmishes.

The empire navies were also releasing new, powerfully armed battlecruiser hulls discounted to the militias, upping the firepower of the militia fleets.  I saw Urik animatedly discussing the combat strengths and weaknesses of said hulls with close HUANG friend Dagren Darius, as both Dagren and Marl also discussed the logistics of getting these new designs into production as quickly as the BPOs would be released.  Speaking of BPOs, the CONCORD is also promising the militias more control over planetary commerce in low-sec, allowing us to construct and maintain our own Customs Offices and depots in planetary orbit, and providing the schematics and blueprints at a steep discount to militia pilots.

There was a pause of silence as Koshua called out another announcement from CONCORD.  They were releasing more previously prescribed Jove tech to capsuleers—improvements to our missile tactical displays, drone communication relays (I for one am infamous for leaving those poor robotic warriors on the field), and other combat aspects.  There was a loud cheer (I believe especially from my own drone maintenance crew) at this announcement.

All in all, tomorrow was looking like a better day for the few but proud militia capsuleers… with more support from the Republic and fewer restrictions from CONCORD, maybe we could actually start making more of a difference….

Other blog banters (not CCP dev blogs)

CCP Ninveah - Ship Transport, D-Scan Improvements, Exploration Ships
CCP Madhatter - Stalemate Unleashed
CCP FakeDevBlogger - Faction Warfare Redesign
CCP Revenge - Joystick Control, Pirate Factions, Wormhole Changes
CCP Cozmik - Global Criminal Countdown Changes
CCP NinjaHoneyBee - EMP Blasts, New Rigs
CCP BadStudent - Navigation-Linked Market Tools
CCP Haberdasher - War Dec’ Changes, Hi-Sec PvP
CCP Ranter - Launcher and Turret Animation, PI Improvements, Motherships
CCP Anomaly - Incursion Iterations
CCP Veskin - Ammo Revolvers
CCP Margin - Product ‘Heat’ Map
CCP AngryLog - Deep Space Exploration
CCP NastyCop - Zero Tolerance Policing
CCP Mumbles - Good Samaritan Standings Boosts
CCP Cheapshoes - Advanced Camera Controls
CCP Epicentre - Temporary Jumpgate Jamming <- love this idea!
CCP Mack - Pirate Faction Rebalancing
CCP YoYo - Standings-Linked Market Prices
CCP Crab - Stealth Ship Hunter/Decloaker
CCP LabRat - Sovereignty/Incursion System Effects in Faction Warfare
CCP Icly - A Cartel Conspiracy (backstory)
CCP InPrivate - GCC/UI/Dynamic System Security (+ backstory)
CCP ForumTrollslayer - Market UI Improvements