Massively

EVE Evolved: Preparing for the Inferno expansion

Brendan Drain — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Guides, Sandbox, Crafting

The Inferno expansion is set to launch on Tuesday May 22nd, promising a complete revamp of EVE Online's war declaration system and a whole host of new modules. If you're in a wardec corp, you'll need to make a few adjustments to the way you operate when the patch goes live. The minimum war fee will increase to 50 million ISK even if you're declaring war on a small corporation, making very small corps less-appealing targets. The fee increases based on the number of members in the target corp, but it doesn't start increasing until around the 130-member mark. If you want to get your money's worth, you'll be best off picking a target corp with 100-150 members or selecting very high-value small targets.

Be very wary of wardeccing large alliances after the patch. While the previous war system swung in favour of the attacker, the new system has gone to the opposite extreme. Large corps and alliances are now significantly more costly and dangerous to declare war on, especially as the defender can now call mercenaries into the war at any time. Players have complained that the increasing war costs could be abused by getting all alliance members to add alts to the corp, but this would be a logistical nightmare to apply in practice and would increase fees by only a few hundred million ISK. If alt padding becomes a problem, CCP will undoubtedly step in and revise the fee structure.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the new modules and gameplay changes coming in Tuesday's Inferno expansion and give some tips on preparing for the patch.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Preparing for the Inferno expansion

EVE Evolved: Preparing for the Inferno expansion originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

One Shots: Calm before the storm

Krystalle Voecks — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, EVE Online, One Shots

When it comes to PvP in EVE Online, there are some rules that any good capsuleer keeps in mind. Hunting with friends is always best, using a scout is important, and never fly anything you're not prepared to lose. With that firmly in mind, we have this gang shot from Maxsim Goratiev, who snagged this screenshot with his fleet. He writes in to tell us more: "PVP is perhaps the central aspect of EVE Online. We were enjoying the scenery while waiting for the opposing team to get ready for a battle that will show whose armor is thicker and guns are longer. The winner gets it all."

If you'd like to update us on what you've been up to in your favorite game, we'd love to hear about it. Just email your image and tale to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name. Feel free to include corp/guild, server, or anything else of that nature you'd like to add. We'll post them out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit for sending it in.

Gallery: One Shots: Gallery II

One Shots: Calm before the storm originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Insurance evolved

Brendan Drain — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Expansions, Game mechanics, Crafting, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved

The EVE Evolved column hits its second anniversary in two days on April 27th. To celebrate, last week I gave readers the chance to win an expensive faction battleship of their choice worth around 500 million ISK. You submitted a horde of great ideas for future column posts, which I whittled down to a final list of 49 fantastic ideas that would really suit the column. It was really tough to find one topic amongst them all that I liked best and wanted to write up first. Congratulations go to Massively reader Nanoko for making my personal favourite suggestion. In addition to winning a faction battleship, Nanoko's winning idea forms the basis for this week's anniversary edition of the column on the upcoming insurance changes and the impact they'll have on EVE. Special mention goes to Massively reader Aimlis who came up with a similar idea. It was unfortunately a little too close to Nanoko's suggestion, which came first. Nanoko has been contacted to arrange receipt of the prize!

At the end of March, CCP announced that the Tyrannis expansion would include a wave of changes to ship insurance. Currently, players receive insurance payouts for losing a ship based on the value of the minerals that went into its construction. The mineral values used in this calculation are as old as EVE Online itself and over the years have slowly dropped out of step with market prices. As a result, Tech 1 ships are almost free to lose under the current insurance scheme while Tech 2 and 3 losses are barely compensated for at all. Once Tyrannis hits, CCP will periodically adjust the mineral prices used in insurance calculations based on a weighted average of market prices across EVE. This has huge implications for PvP, the composition of fleets and the mineral market.

In this speculative opinion piece, I examine the effect the insurance changes could have on everything from ships used in PvP to the mineral market.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Insurance evolved

EVE Evolved: Insurance evolved originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, Professions, PvP, Making money, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

When faction warfare went live with EVE Online's Empyrean Age expansion back in the summer of 2008, It was a magnificent success. It was intended as a way for newer players to get into PvP and as a stepping stone from the safe haven of empire to full-on sovereignty warfare. It wasn't long before large fleets were duking it out in low security space and for a time, it was great. Eventually, problems began to come to light that demanded developer attention. Capturing exploits and a lack of rewards were causing players to leave the war and after a year with no development, faction warfare was looking abandoned.

Rewards were eventually implemented in an attempt to revitalise the ageing faction warfare system and promote PvP. With the Dominion expansion came the most anticipated of those rewards - new tier 1 navy battleships available only from the faction warfare loyalty point store. Since the announcement that they were coming, mission-runners have been farming faction warfare missions like crazy for loyalty points. The promise of unique rewards from the missions was intended to revitalise the game and give pilots something to fight over. But did the rewards really improve faction warfare and promote PvP or was it a huge mistake?

In this three page exposé, I run down the history of faction warfare missions, from the development mistakes to the EVE corp that made almost enough ISK to build a titan. Did the mission buff revitalise faction warfare or did it put the final nail in its coffin? And just how did mission-runners make billions of ISK?

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Has faction warfare been abandoned?

Brendan Drain — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, in-game, Expansions, Game mechanics, Professions, PvP, Raiding, Grouping, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

EVE Online's Faction Warfare system was released almost one year ago with the Empyrean Age expansion and was initially a complete success. It provided a stage on which thousands of players waged war. From fleets of over a hundred players to gangs as small as two or three pilots, everyone found their own place in the conflict. After the initial wave of success, questions began to arise on the lack of rewards to offset the cost of losing ships in PvP. In addition, while the point of faction warfare initially revolved around capturing systems, holding an enemy system provided no benefits beyond bragging rights. Almost a year on from its initial release, faction warfare has barely changed, prompting very real concerns from players that EVE's developers CCP have entirely abandoned it. These issues have even made it as far as the Council of Stellar Management.

In this article, I take a retrospective look at how faction warfare has (or hasn't) progressed in this past year and ask the question "Has Faction Warfare been abandoned?".

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Has faction warfare been abandoned?

EVE Evolved: Has faction warfare been abandoned? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: A stealth bomber adventure

Brendan Drain — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Sci-fi, Galleries, Screenshots, EVE Online, Classes, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, Raiding, Tips and tricks, Grouping, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

Stealth bombers were originally advanced frigates aimed at an ambush predator role. They launched cruise missiles at foes from a distance and dealt very high damage to small ships like cruisers and other frigates. With the changes in the recent EVE Online expansion, they've been re-focused into an anti-battleship role. They now fling massive torpedoes that deal impressive damage to large targets but poor damage to smaller ships. In addition, they were switched from an ambush predator role intended to use normal cloaking devices to a pack hunter role able to warp while cloaked using a covert ops cloaking device.

It's all very well to speculate, but how well do the new stealth bombers actually perform? I took a gang of stealth bomber pilots out on the town for a tense PvP test drive. In this gallery article, I show a visual record of our adventure and go on to give my opinion on the new stealth bombers after a night of EVE PvP.

Gallery: A stealth bomber adventure

Continue reading EVE Evolved: A stealth bomber adventure

EVE Evolved: A stealth bomber adventure originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 May 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Gear up for wormhole exploration

Brendan Drain — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, Crafting, Professions, PvP, PvE, EVE Evolved

In EVE Online, large alliances of corporations lay claim to the lucrative 0.0 security rating areas of the game and smaller corporate operations generally don't stand a chance against them. Corps who want to claim a little corner of space for themselves are forced to join an existing alliance or compete with them for space. With the recent news of 2500 new star systems coming to EVE with the release of wormholes in the march expansion, small corps may find themselves able to carve out their own little corner of space to live in without being squashed by the big alliances.

How will wormholes work?
The information we have so far suggests that wormholes into one of the 2500 new hidden star systems will open randomly in all security levels of system. Wormholes will have a diameter that restricts the maximum size of ship that can enter it and a mass limit that restricts the total mass of ships that can use the wormhole before it collapses. Once the wormhole collapses, the chances of finding another leading to the same system are astronomical so choosing which ships you bring in carefully is a must.

Read on as I describe how wormholes could allow corps to more safely own systems and go on to describe what equipment and ships you'll need to take up residence in your own system.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Gear up for wormhole exploration

EVE Evolved: Gear up for wormhole exploration originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve

James Egan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Game mechanics, Guides, PvP, Tips and tricks

EVE Online is a complex game. There's no doubt about that. That complexity is a large part of the draw, but that doesn't mean learning about the game has to be a daunting experience. With that in mind, Massively has EVE Online in its sights. We've brought solid writers on staff who are quite knowledgeable about the game and are here to give some in-depth info on how EVE is played.

CrazyKinux and Crovan of The Drone Bay podcast joined us in April, and since then have provided Massively's readers with some helpful columns. CrazyKinux, aka David Perry, writes the Have Clone, Will Travel column. David's most recent piece, 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers, provides a great overview of some of the third-party programs and resources available to help you plan your skill progression and your ship fittings. But we're also running two more EVE-centric columns at Massively. Read on after the jump to see what else we're bringing to the EVE community, and how we're easing that learning curve.

Continue reading Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve

Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

GDC08: All Points Bulletin info and eye candy

Barb Dybwad — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Galleries, Events, real-world, New titles, Consoles, All Points Bulletin, Crime, Massively Event Coverage

What word is perhaps most synonymous with the current MMO playing field? Grind. Realtime Worlds' Dave Jones (no relation?) is setting out to change that with the studio's first massively multiplayer title All Points Bulletin we've been following eagerly. He's hoping the formula Crackdown + MMO = crack will be proven true with variables like infinite, professional-looking character and vehicle customization, contemporary setting, integration with last.fm and dynamic, variable team-sized missions hidden in the equation. Hit up our symbiotic other selves at Joystiq for the complete overview of APB.

Gallery: GDC08: All Points Bulletin

GDC08: All Points Bulletin info and eye candy originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments