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CCP releases EVE Online Incursion patch notes

Jef Reahard — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Patches, News items

EVE Online's Incursion expansion has been several months in the making. With the official release date drawing near (Tuesday, November 30th to be exact), CCP has graced us with the patch notes for the meaty update.

While pod pilots everywhere are showering the Icelandic dev team with huzzahs due to the decision to abolish learning skills, New Eden is also undergoing some additional significant changes this week. The patch notes are broken into three sections (features, changes, and fixes), and are worth a read due to info about weapon and ammunition tweaks, market changes (specifically the removal of loan contracts), and a new salvage-specific ship called the Noctis.

Finally, (and yes we do mean finally) CCP has added the ability to resize the game client in windowed mode. Check out all the details on the official EVE website.

CCP releases EVE Online Incursion patch notes originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dedicated salvage ship coming in next EVE Online expansion

Brendan Drain — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Professions, PvE

Over the summer, CCP gave away a limited edition ship in EVE Online called the Primae. Every player received this free hauler designed specifically for planetary interaction. Although the ship itself was worse for hauling than a standard industrial, players fell in love with the model and began asking CCP to reuse it in a more useful ship. In a new devblog, CCP Greyscale has delivered on those wishes with the announcement of the Noctis.

Aimed squarely at PvE players, the Noctis is a dedicated salvage ship with the same stunning model as the Primae. In addition to an impressive eight high slots for use with tractor beams and salvagers, the ship also has an hefty bonus to the range and speed of tractor beams. At level 5 of the ship's skill, it will be able to pull in wrecks from up to 80km away, making it a great stationary salvaging platform. The blueprint and skill will be released with EVE's next expansion to coincide with the new group PvE "incursions". For more details, check out CCP Greyscale's latest devblog.

Dedicated salvage ship coming in next EVE Online expansion originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phase 2 of the Sandstorm hits Global Agenda today

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, PvE, Global Agenda

After a great deal of testing, Global Agenda players can look forward to a treat today -- the second phase of the immense Sandstorm update is going live. Part of a large-scale update that rewrites several core components of the game, the first phase was rolled out about two months ago, and this continuation drops in most of the features left out of the first. The largest addition is the persistent PvE zone in the Sonoran Desert, designed for players between levels 5 to 15. The desert will allow players to take a series of missions from area NPCs to help advance a story arc, learning more about the Desert Dweller and Recursive Colony factions as they gain both loot and experience.

Players can also look forward to the addition of consumable items and the option to salvage unwanted pieces of equipment for parts, something that plays well with the updated systems that came into play during the first phase of the patch. There are also new defense raids for players past level 30 to take part in, standing tall in a difficult battle against Recursive Colony attacks. And even with the recent shift in business models for Global Agenda, the Sandstorm update is remaining free for all current and future players -- a welcome addition to the game that should provide several points of interest, as well as set the stage for future expansions to the game.

Phase 2 of the Sandstorm hits Global Agenda today originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Mission-running top five tips

Brendan Drain — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Professions, Making money, Tips and tricks, Quests, PvE, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

In the first two parts of this guide on mission-running in EVE Online, I explained the basics of mission-running and went on to give a race-by-race breakdown of the most popular mission-running ships. In this final instalment of the EVE Evolved mission-running guide, I dig up my top five tips and tricks for improving your standings, mission-running speed and general mission income in EVE.

Tip #1 - Gaining faction standing
As high faction standing unlocks the agents of every corp in an entire faction rather than just from one corp, faction standing gains are very desirable and often the ultimate goal of early mission-running. In addition to a few other methods discussed later in this article, faction standing gains can be had from COSMOS missions. These are special once-only missions, like quests in the standard MMO paradigm. They are given out by special agents-in-space located within EVE's COSMOS constellations, some at designated agent sites and some hidden away at moons or sites only able to be found with probes. Each of these missions counts as an important mission for the purposes of faction standing gains and their rewards can be extremely good. Using COSMOS missions, it's possible to boost your faction standings from around 4 to up to 6 or 8 in some of these areas.

Read on as I give my top five mission-running tips to maximise your income from mission-running.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Mission-running top five tips

EVE Evolved: Mission-running top five tips originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next EVE Online patch will boost Tech III production

James Egan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Game mechanics, Patches, Crafting

The Apocrypha expansion for EVE Online introduced wormhole exploration to the game and with it, the potential to reverse engineer advanced technology from the Sleeper NPC race. The goal for many such explorers is ultimately to produce the next iteration of ship technology in the game; these Tech III strategic cruisers feature modular designs that can accomplish some impressive things. This, coupled with their rarity and sky high prices make Tech III ships into everybody's favorite multi-billion ISK gankmagnets, and it's that scarcity that EVE game designer CCP Chronotis addresses in his latest dev blog.

He writes that CCP Games will make some changes in the next Apocrypha patch that will affect the supply of Tech III materials. Specifically, they're going to boost reverse engineering while also balancing out the types of salvage gained from Sleeper NPC wrecks, and increase the availability of Tech III production materials in general. If you're involved in wormhole exploration or Tech III production, consider this dev blog from CCP Chronotis a heads up as to the changes on the way.

Next EVE Online patch will boost Tech III production originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE mission runners and their tormentors rejoice! New Level 4 agents added

James Egan — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, PvE

Mission running in EVE Online is one of the more lucrative activities players can spend their time doing, at least while in the safety of high security space. The cumulative rewards from NPC bounties, loyalty points, salvage, and loot -- in addition to the mission rewards from NPC agents -- make Level 4 missions a decent ISK/hour income for many of EVE Online's pilots. Level 4 missions are the most popular, due to their relative ease and multiple battleship (high bounty) NPC spawns which yield better loot drops and more salvage components, as well as optimal loyalty point gain. However, the grouping of agents that give the best missions leads to 'mission hubs' where hundreds of players operate in the same solar systems.

The latest dev blog by EVE's lead content creator CCP Molock is simply titled "New Level 4 Agents", and deals with dispersing the crowds (and clutter) from some of the high sec mission hubs in New Eden. CCP Games has added twenty-three new level 4 agents to the game in locations a bit removed from the heavily populated mission hubs, hopefully encourage more mission runners to fill quieter solar systems in the galaxy. Molock lists the new agents, along with their corporation and quality, as well as system security ratings for each location.

Continue reading EVE mission runners and their tormentors rejoice! New Level 4 agents added

EVE mission runners and their tormentors rejoice! New Level 4 agents added originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 31 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead pt. 2

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Exploits, Opinion, Consoles, Anti-Aliased

It's all the company's fault

Yes, it's all their fault that they didn't notice that they misplaced that one period in thousands upon thousands of lines of code. It's their fault that they don't run Salvage 40,000 times a week and check every rock and pebble in Vana'diel.

People who make this rationale probably never looked at the innards of a program -- especially an MMO. You have lines of programming being done by multiple authors and you have logs that extend miles long. Even with specialized programs, it takes time to sift through all of that information.

Case in point: Square-Enix fixed this glitch in November and banned people in late January. The delay wasn't because they were playing ping-pong in the basement and drinking beer. It was the double-edged decision of first finding who stood to gain on all of their servers, and then deciding an appropriate punishment. That takes time.

You know, this probably would have been caught sooner if more people would have stood up and reported it, instead of, you know, trying to conceal it. Then, when they get caught concealing it, they blame the company for not knowing about it. That's just poor form.

The game owes me

The game owes you what? It owes you for all the time you spent playing it, enjoying the challenges with your friends and engaging in an ever-changing world?

Certainly I'm horribly opinionated, but I like to play games for fun. Whenever a game ceases to be fun to me, I stop playing and stop paying. I play because I enjoy it, and I hope other people are out there doing the same.

FFXI may be an exercise in sadistic game design, but every player has the chance to walk away from Vana'diel. I did because I didn't have the time and I ended up enjoying the lore of World of Warcraft. If you are at the point that you hate the game so much that you believe it owes you something for your time spent playing it, then perhaps it's time to take a step back from it. There are plenty of other options in the game world.

But Square-Enix isn't without fault

The voices of the banned are right about one thing though -- Square-Enix has been inconsistent. Some people are getting banned for being in one of these cheating Salvage runs, and others are getting slaps on the wrists. There doesn't seem to be any clear consistency to how they slapped down the punishments.

The first part of a reliable punishment is to make sure it's handed out consistently and with appropriate measure. Without that, people second guess if the punishment is truly necessary. It's like if a professor gave you a D on a test just because he didn't like your hand writing. Your answers never mattered, and that's what makes you angry -- it didn't feel justifyable.

What it all comes down to

Even with Square-Enix messing up like that, it doesn't change the facts. Players knew about the exploit, players attempted to hide the exploit, Square-Enix found the exploit, and players got what they should have known was coming. All of these people had the chance to stand up, call a GM, and say what was going on.

If they had and this problem would have been caught earlier, bans probably wouldn't have been mentioned. These people would still have had their accounts. Certainly they would have less gear on those accounts, but it's really hard to use virtual weaponry when you can't log in.

Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who can still log into Final Fantasy XI when he wants to. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane friends. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com, or follow him on Twitter.

Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead pt. 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Exploits, Opinion, Consoles, Anti-Aliased

It's no secret that I keep my eye on the Final Fantasy XI community. With two friends running an upstanding linkshell on the Bahamut server, I like to know what goes on in the game.

The current word on the street is the "big banhammer freakout." The vocal players are talking about what linkshells were hit by losing players caught up in the cheating scandal. But what's interesting are the words being thrown around -- things like "unprecedented" and "uncalled for."

A quick jaunt across the street to the ~~loving and cuddly~~ galaxy of New Eden shows that something suspiciously similar happened to corporation starbases in EVE Online, also ending with tears, banned accounts, and the exact same arguments being thrown around the community. "I didn't know it was an exploit," "It's not my fault," "They made me do it," and my personal favorite, "You should have fixed it."

So this week's Anti-Aliased isn't dedicated to some developer mishap or some bad piece of game design, it's dedicated to how daft some people are when it comes to cheating.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead

Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Making/Money: Double the XP, Double the Funds

Alexis Kassan — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: City of Heroes, City of Villains, Economy, Crafting, Making/Money

A few of weeks ago, there was another double XP weekend in City of Heroes and City of Villains. In fact, not only was it double experience from each "arrest," but it also provided twice the Influence (or Infamy for you villainous folks out there) such that you got double of most everything you might want in the game. And so it was that, after stocking up on caffeinated beverages and microwaveable snacks, we in my house hunkered down in front of our computers for a three day marathon of leveling.

I must say that, while I do flit about from game to game, there is something about the additional reward incentive that draws me in for these events. Yet, in all the bustle of leveling, I got to thinking about the economic dynamic in these games and the ways in which they are different from our now-classic MMORPG systems.

Continue reading Making/Money: Double the XP, Double the Funds

Making/Money: Double the XP, Double the Funds originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CoX: Player ingenuity identifies bizarre drops bug

Adrian Bott — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Bugs, Economy, Exploits, Game mechanics, Patches, Maps

Farming often gets a bad rap in City of Heroes, but sometimes it does the game a major favor. For example, a player working the same map with the same enemies over and over is in a perfect position to notice when random events - the dropping of loot, for example - aren't as random as they should be.

This was exactly the situation that a forum regular called KeepDistance encountered. Every time they ran a particular map, they would get exactly the same number of salvage and recipe drops, distributed exactly the same way. That's not supposed to happen.

Continue reading CoX: Player ingenuity identifies bizarre drops bug

CoX: Player ingenuity identifies bizarre drops bug originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 May 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CoX Winter Event on Test server

Jonathan Northwood — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: City of Heroes, City of Villains, Events, in-game

Dust off the sleigh bells and strap on your rocket-propelled skis, boys and girls, it's that time of year again: NCsoft has once again released the CoX Winter Event into Test. Now, a word of warning: it's not always up, and it could be pulled at any time for further tweaking, but it is there, waiting for you to discover it just like a tasty digital sugarplum in the bottom of your spandex stocking.

This year, prep for some serious competition on the ski slopes: the slalom course is now timed, and you can win ~~medals~~ badges depending on your placement. And don't worry, Old favorites like Father Time and his missions have returned, and the Gamester is still putting out gifts for those who are naughty or nice. One intriguing element this year is new salvage: Candy Canes. This sweet treat can be redeemed in Pocket D for holiday rewards. Sorry to disappoint the fan community, though, but Sexy Jay's not collecting them, the Candy Keeper is. So ... who's up for hot cocoa and cool gaming, hm?

CoX Winter Event on Test server originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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