Hello folks! Today we are sharing some work-in-progress details of a new feature that is planned to arrive later this month: Metaliminal Storms.
The massive Triglavian invasion and stellar manipulation throughout empire space, along with heavy capsuleer use of abyssal and needlejack filaments, has begun to cause unexpected side effects at the periphery of the New Eden star cluster. Chaotic storms of abyssal energy have appeared in nullsec space and are slowly moving from system to system through the gate network. These storms affect capsuleer vessels in numerous ways, providing new challenges and opportunities for capsuleers across the nullsec frontiers.
These storms apply system effects (like the ones that can be currently found in the abyss, wormhole space, or incursions) to a cluster of systems stretching out from a central system.
Each storm will have a core of systems (the central system plus the systems one jump away) that contain the strongest system effects, as well as a periphery of additional systems (the systems two and three jumps away from the core system) with weaker versions of the effects. In addition to the system effects, the core systems will also have additional sites spawning that can be discovered by players who venture into the storm for riches.
These storms will move around nullsec space slowly like hurricanes. Each storm will move at a cadence between 24 and 48 hours, and each time the storm moves, the central system will move exactly one jump through the standard jumpgate network. The storms will move using a slightly modified random walk algorithm that will attempt to avoid doubling back on itself unless it has no other valid options. In this way, the movement of the storms will have a limited amount of predictability. If the edge of a storm is currently 5 jumps away from your home system, you’ll know that the soonest it can possible reach you is in 5 days, but you won’t know for sure whether it will come towards you or veer in another direction.
The central system of these storms will always remain in nullsec, but the effects can spill over into nearly lowsec and highsec systems as well.
We are currently planning to start with eight storms at once roaming around nullsec, two each from four storm “types”. The number of storms and the type of storms can be adjusted over time, and we want to add and remove storm types over time to keep things fresh.
The initial four storm types are all based on abyssal deadspace weathers leaking into known space, so they each include weaker versions of the abyssal enviromental effects, supplemented with new effects that are aimed at providing variety to nullsec gameplay.
Nullsec Metaliminal Storm Effects
| Strong Metaliminal Gamma Ray Storm | Weak Metaliminal Gamma Ray Storm | Strong Metaliminal Electrical Storm | Weak Metaliminal Electrical Storm |
|---|---|---|---|
| -25% Explosive Resists | -10% Explosive Resists | -25% EM Resists | -10% EM Resists |
| +25% Shield HP | +10% Shield HP | -25% Capacitor Recharge Time (Buff to cap recharge) | -10% Capacitor Recharge Time (Buff to cap recharge) |
| -90% Remote Shield/Armor Rep Amount | -50% Remote Shield/Armor Rep Amount | +25 Virus Coherence | +10 Virus Coherence |
| +25% Capacitor Capacity | +10% Capacitor Capacity | +50% Probe Strength | +20% Probe Strength |
| -25% Signature Radius | -10% Signature Radius | No Cloaking | No Cloaking |
| Spawning extra Rogue Drone combat sites | No change to site spawning | Spawning extra relic sites | No change to site spawning |
| Strong Metaliminal Plasma Firestorm | Weak Metaliminal Plasma Firestorm | Strong Metaliminal Exotic Matter Storm | Weak Metaliminal Exotic Matter Storm |
|---|---|---|---|
| -25% Thermal Resists | -10% Thermal Resists | -25% Kinetic Resists | -10% Kinetic Resists |
| +25% Armor HP | +10% Armor HP | +50% Scan Resolution | +20% Scan Resolution |
| +50% Weapon Damage | +20% Weapon Damage | -25% Mining Laser Cycle Time (Buff to mining speed) | -10% Mining Laser Cycle Time (Buff to mining speed) |
| -50% Turret/Drone Tracking Speed | -20% Turret/Drone Tracking Speed | +100% Warp Speed | +40% Warp Speed |
| +50% Missile/Fighter Explosion Radius (nerf to missile precision) | +20% Missile/Fighter Explosion Radius (nerf to missile precision) | -25% Local Armor/Shield repairer cycle time (Buff to rep/second) | -10% Local Armor/Shield repairer cycle time (Buff to rep/second) |
| Spawning Triglavian combat sites | No change to site spawning | Spawning extra ore anomalies | No change to site spawning |
We are planning to release this feature within the next month, and we’ll begin public testing on Singularity soon. We’re very interested in what you folks think about this feature. What do you think about the opportunities and challenges provided by the proposed storm effects above? What storm effects are you hoping to see us release in the future?
