"This is Eve"

I really like the new trailer for Eve Online, it's got a very emotive "I want to be there" feel that's gonna be the hard sell for many people.  Hard to pass that by.

The music has also been released on CCP's soundcloud.

Even more Eve online....

So much is happening and being talked about its giving me a great feeling about the future of Eve Online. Not just for the coming expansion but the far future of this time next year or the year after that.

The in-game world news is being used properly as the conduit to feed game changes and update the lore at the same time.

More great dev-blogs are filling in the gaps on the way to the next expansion, this one tells more about the wormhole changes. Despite my lack of interest before the more I hear about it the more I want to try and get a character involved in some way.....

They are three great resources, two linked in that that dev blog are well worth a read/listen. And JonnyPew's short vid on Thera goes to show how excited the community is for these changes.

Indeed the WH community is not the only one within Eve Online that are happy.
CCP seem to have been making great strides. Perhaps they feel the breath of other game companies over their shoulder.
A long time "noob" question and a source of derision for new players is that the WASD keys don't more your ship in space.... It may be a thing that's changing!!!! I can see how this will help new players, but I think once they get a feel for the game they can be weened off the manual control and get to clicking ;)

Lots coming to Eve... just taking the headers:

Thera and the shattered wormholes
No clone grades and no skill point loss on pod death
The Confessor - Amarr Tech 3 Tactical Destroyer
The Bowhead – Freighter
Sleeper scout drones roaming in known space
Sleeper Cache High End Exploration Sites and Polarized Weapon Modules
Ship rendering and lighting updated with Physically Based Rendering techniques (PBR)

 New UI look, window transparency options and interface icons
Opt-In Keyboard Ship Control
Opt-in New Star Map
Blackbird, Rook and Falcon Ship Models Redesigned
Tech 2 Hull Variants for the Onyx and Eagle
Incursus, Enyo and Ishkur Ship Models Redesigned
Visual effects updates to asteroid belts (One I'm really liking!!)

Special Edition Dreadnoughts
New Pirate Apparel
Kill Report and Contract Notifications
Improvements to Market Sell Order Creation
Public CREST API Updates for EVE Tool Creators
Old Trial Account Character Names Freed Up

Read all about them on the official page.
If they keep this up for every update..... Wow the future is bright for everyone in Eve Online no matter what part of the game they play or dip their toe in .

More Eve Online....

The forum on the new fitted ship hauling ship, the bow head is interesting reading. I like to see the way the fits are discussed. I may take another look into doing burner missions again now that they have "settled down".

The new exploration sites were also given a dev blog post and show a lot of potential for earning/looting the new items. A good write up on them is here.
This is also a good read on what those changes include for some people.


A Lot is being said about all the changes and the upcoming patch/expansion/release in December.
This is an interesting view on the clone changes. Here is a view on the new destroyers and their potential role for faction warfare. 

Very interesting times. Full speed ahead!

More Dust....

CCP does seem to have a plan with Dust after all. Maybe they are not that asleep a the wheel.
This link, shows that they will be pushing out a lot of new content in the form of pre-made suits/fits. It seems that 1.9 was needed to make some changes. It may be that they are looking to streamline and pull back from being too overreaching in what Dust should aim at rather than what it could potentially do. I wonder if this is a long term thing or if it's got a limit to reach and once there Dust will be as complete as they want it to be. Still a pity they dont' seem to say their mid to long term plans regarding Dust.

Return to Dust....

Dust 514 has been more and more on my mind over the last few weeks.
Patch 1.9 had caught my interest and the changes it makes are all welcome. The 1.9 patch notes are a good read.
Even for veteran Dusters they must be excited about them.  The forums and reddit all seem to be saying yes but in a very muted way as if they were waiting for the catch.
The patch changes peeked my interest to get back into the game and I decided to give it another go.
I reconnected my PS3, started up Dust and it downloaded and installed the 1.9 patch. 

The first thing I noticed was that they removed the "stars" from the initial start screen. It had always been a cluttered eyesore, and reminded me of this, not a very good first impression. In many ways a small thing but it now has a cleaner look and feel, a bug well squashed.
The second change I noticed was that my characters selection image had changed. The patch notes say they have changed them to a higher resolution version but it looks more of a model change. That must have been some very low res images they were using before.
I only got to check some menu's, see about changing some options, collect the batch of freebies from the newsletters and have two matches. 
Both matches seemed to flow a lot better than I recall.  While playing I kept thinking that they narrowed the player view, increasing the black lines maybe, I'm not sure what was tweaked but it looks very much improved since I last played it. Frame rates, textures, it's all down to the tweaks they've done. It's added up to a lot of polish that works really well.

There seems to be a lot of work still to do on Dust. A lot of additional content to add, re-add and balance. I'm not sure that the post 2014 fanfest Dust 514 development team have it in them.  They probably haven't been given the go ahead from CCP. I wish they would be a lot more vocal as to what is next fro the game.
This interview with CCP Rouge and CCP Rattati, left me a little baffled on the direction of 514. I got a vibe that they were laxidasical caretakers that really had no motivation to push changes. I think they are marking time.

This review of the changes is of interest :)

  

Eve's new ship....

The Bowhead.  Interesting ship, I can see myself getting one for both my mains. It will make moving fitted ships in a large quantity in hi-sec so much easier. Time will tell how targeted for ganking they will be.

o7: The EVE Online Show. Episode 2

With the second episode out yesterday the news about the clone changes are great and have my full interest. I'll be willing to get my alts into a lot more pvp in clean clones. Even using cheap implants will be worth it now. As will skilling up alts that I once thought had to stay at certain skill levels due to the cost of clone upgrades. It's a great change.

The news about a wormhole system that is a lawless version of Jita is not so interesting to me. At the first mention of it I was curious but then the reality sank in a few second later, the first thing I thought was that I'd never see the system or want to go there even to just say I saw it. 

The idea of it is interesting but the reality is of no benefit for me. 

CCP will need to add an incentive for people to use the system. If it was the only place that certain WH items could be sold to NPC's for Loyalty reasons etc. I'm sure CCP will be adding more info and telling more about it and it's use. Regardless I can't see any reason for me to interested right now.  

I would like something of my little idea to be used ... I think drone ships would be a cool addition, a real game changer in wh space. I'd want to go there then.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0aRE4BBg0I

DayZ checkup....

With Christmas coming up I've been asked the inevitable question on what I want. My wife is understanding of my gaming so she know that getting a game I want for a chimbo pressie is a great way of both pleasing my "hobby" and keeping me out of her way ;)

In checking out some options I was sidelined and started checking out DayZ again.
I checked it out further looking for reviews etc when came across a great series of video's, I've found them great entertainment as well as showing the "true" game play.

Web Summit 2014

There are a wide range of people doing presentations & discussions on a wide range if subjects. From can androids feel, to authenticating information on the web sharing information and misinformation on the news in warzones.
That last one I found very interesting and was presented by Anne-Marie Tomshak. As its featured on the current live feed I don't have a direct link to it. I will in the future.If you do look at the feed it's about 1 hour and 6 minutes in.

I've only gotten to see a small fraction of the presentations but all I have seen are very well done and thought provoking.

Video's and live stream are on this youtube channel.

New Eve exploration site in testing.....

This one was over on JonnyPew's, more content is good in Eve in all regards :)

Dust in it's wake....

I was really excited that Star Citizen's FPS Demo looked so good, a whole new dimension to the game I was expecting to be pure spaceships.
Not only does it make Dust 514 look like it's standing still, Eve's Incarna, Walking in stations is a pale shadow that just got stomped on.

Here is the Demo footage.
 
Here is the full presentation.