This Week in EVE #167 (26 August - 1 September)

EVE Information Portal Dev Blogs
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“This week in EVE” is a weekly overview of EVE Online related news and events. The previous overview is here. Blue text links to further information.

The current “This week in EVE” gives an overview of the week from 26 August - 1 September.

Dev News

EVE Online Lifeblood - Next winter expansion arriving 24 October


The next EVE Online expansion has been announced: Get ready for Lifeblood on 24 October!

With this upcoming winter expansion, we will see amazing features arriving in New Eden and gigantic opportunities for everyone. Features include:

  • Resource wars: A new feature for Empire space
  • Completely new moon mining
  • Revamped reactions and Upwell Refineries
  • Ship balancing
  • New and improved UI features, e.g. Mining Ledger

Further information is available:

Get ready for EVE Online: Lifeblood!

Winter expansion: Testing the first features


The first glimpse at features for the winter expansion is ready on the test server Singularity.

These features are in an early development stage.

Use the forum thread(s) for additional information, feedback and questions. Please don’t forget to bug report!

Alpha Strike: August 29th - September 5th

A new event is ready for you in New Eden! This time, the event is aimed more towards the new citizens interested in the industry. Rewards in this event include industrial hulls, modules, and destroyer class vessels. The event is live since 29 August and will end 5 September.

EVE Vegas 2017 Is Coming – First Speakers Announced!


The first speakers for the amazing player gathering EVE Vegas 2017 have been announced! The speakers includeCCP Guard, CCP Rise, CCP Punkturis, CCP Redcape and many more! Check out the news item for full details.

A couple reminder about EVE Vegas 2017

If you want to attend EVE Vegas and haven’t purchased tickets yet, please don’t wait too long. There are very few tickets left!

Daily player streams


CCP keeps supporting interesting player streams and has an ever growing schedule! Simply subscribe to CCP’s twitch channel and stay informed when a new stream goes live.

With more than a dozen streamers already being active, there is something for everyone and in every time zone!

Check out the stream schedule and tune in!

Sparc launch


Sparc, CCP’s latest virtual reality game, has launched for PlayStation VR on August 29. Sparc is a virtual sport – a unique full-body experience only possible in virtual reality. Your VR equipment is your sports gear! The game play is fast-paced and physical. Players use their two PlayStation Move motion controllers to throw projectiles across the court at their opponent, while also dodging, blocking or deflecting incoming shots.

Check out the additional resources:

Special offers

New in the NES: Steel Cardinal SKIN

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The latest offer in the New Eden Store brings us the Steel Cardinal SKIN for Caldari ship hulls:

  • Polished steel and red enamel SKIN
  • Available for 51 Caldari ships
  • Price between 55 PLEX (sub-battleship hulls) and 250 PLEX (capital ships)

Clearance sale: Selected Raata Sunset SKINs

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We are sunsetting several Raata Sunset SKINs and will remove them from the New Eden Store early next week. In the meanwhile, those SKINs are on sale!

  • 25% discount on selected Raata Sunset SKINs
  • SKINs available until 5 September
  • Only 44 PLEX per SKIN!

Guides and community info

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A guide to freighters and how to use them

If you are into freighters and moving stuff around in large quantities, have a look at Shriven Intaki’s freighter module guide!

A clear and easy comparison of different modules on all different freighters. Also consult Zhilia Mann’s freighter warp speed guide for effects of Ascendancy implants.

Jump freighter skills: Use them efficiently

Jump freighters are useful for moving large quantities over long distances in a short amount of time - at least in low- and nullsec.
It is common to train some of the relevant skills (Jump Fuel Conservation and Jump Freighter) only to level 4. Is it worth training those skills further to level 5? Check out Shriven Intaki’s jump freighter skill comparison and decide for yourself!

DED complexes level 7/8

DED complexes are cosmic signatures found via exploration which focus on NPC combat. Their difficulty is rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Running DED complexes can be quite lucrative, but which ship and fittings are best to be used? The EVE community assists: Have a look at suggestions for DED 7+8 complexes - and help out with your own suggestions!

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Talking in Stations: The player history of EVE Online

A special podcast from Carneros (The Bastion) and Matterall (Northern Coalition). Enjoy the first hand insight into EVE’s amazing player created history and the early days of EVE with the legends:

Get ready for more “blasts from the past” with the upcoming series Empires of EVE: The History Lectures.

Making ISK in EVE (as a new player)

How can you make ISK as a new player? There are incredible many possibilities in EVE. Your own creativity is the only limit in the end. To start with, players suggest:

  • Exploration
  • Planetary Interaction
  • Salvaging
  • Joining a good corporation
  • Trading

You can, of course, also engage in more shady activities such as piracy and theft.

EVE mission guide

Mission running can provide you with an easy steady income. Do you know how many regular missions exist? Have a look at the overview and details of all missions from level 1 to level 5.

Community artwork

Exploding Moros by Wilhelm Arcturus


How does it look when a capital ship explodes? Bright!

Video: Supercap battle in Nalvula


Another exciting cinematic video from Adan Dimaloun. Enjoy the massive supercap battle between Pandemic Legion/Northern Coalition and Snuffed Out/Goonswarm in Nalvula on 20 Aug. A total of 750 bil isk were lost in that battle.

Space art: LFT


Space is vast, empty and for the most part … dark. This is the perfect background for space art! In this case, nothing else was used than Titans and their Lance doomsday weapons.

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Thanks CCP for the upcoming new Lifeblood winter expansion and for all your dedicated employees’ hard work at keeping everyone’s favorite fantasy universe spinning smoothly. And thank you so much for providing the Alpha Strike event and all the other current stuff that’s happening lately for everyone to enjoy, thanks

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woo that’s awesome! love titans, love DDs, love EVE. \o/ woohoo

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Question for CCP:
I was wondering if CCP has plans for a major advertising push to combat the player loss we have suffered for the past year.

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Alice Migurdia, what kind of “player loss” are you talking about please? Are you perhaps talking about players who may have purchased virtual clothing items (such as pants) that may not now be very useful for anything much since the “Captain’s Quarters” feature has now been removed from the game? Or are you perhaps talking about players that may have spent real world currency in purchasing plex so that they could quickly afford to buy certain very expensive ships in the game (like carriers or Rorquals) to be able to quickly dominate certain activities like PvE or mining? Only to eventually see CCP nerf the specialized advantages that these particular ships offered?

Please realize that Eve Online must be allowed to constantly evolve and change or it will almost certainly quickly become stagnant and boring and will surely die as most players eventually stop playing it. Eve has been online and playable since 2003, yet it is still popular while many other MMORPG games have failed and are now completely gone from the internet. This seems to mainly be because CCP invests a huge amount of effort in constantly changing Eve to reflect the current needs and desires of the online gaming community and to keep up with the available advances in hardware and software capabilities and the quickly evolving internet.

Also please realize that CCP must be allowed to constantly make play balance changes in the game so that certain groups of players with very specialized skills (like carrier or Rorqual pilots) do not start to over-dominate the game economically and other players who may not necessarily enjoy these particular activities are pushed out. A good indication that CCP may very likely soon nerf an activity is when larger and larger numbers of players begin to take a strong part in a particular activity and the activity earns very very large amounts of isk on average per hour. Is it reasonable to expect CCP to continue to allow a few types of activities in the game to economically dominate most other activities? Isn’t it to the game’s advantage to attract all different types of players to the game, each enjoying all different types of activities, so that all players who are interested in all the many different things to do in Eve are all provided for? So if something perhaps becomes “too much of a success” please think carefully before investing large amounts of real world currency in plexing that activity please.

Also, please realize that online MMORPG games are now very big business internationally. My opinion is that the current amount of about $11 per month in United States dollars (as an approximate $132 yearly purchase) that I now pay for the privilege to be able to play Eve as an Omega probably does NOT actually reflect the actual costs involved that CCP pays to keep the server(s) going. So that I can log on and play Eve anytime that I want to, day or night, and do whatever I want to do in the game. Currently, LinkedIn says that CCP employs about 500 to 1000 employees worldwide. Another website that claims to know more says that a more correct worldwide employee number is about 316. The actual number probably depends on the precise definition of an employee that is being used. Also, yearly revenue for CCP has been estimated by various websites at about 75 million in United States dollars and this is a significant fraction of the tiny island of Iceland’s yearly GDP economy. CCP also attempts to generate needed income by selling virtual items like plex and ship skins and virtual clothing and even physical items like books and other licensed products. And CCP is trying hard to diversify and make their other video games (other than Eve Online) successful. Please support these things if they interest you or feel free to totally ignore them if they don’t. But please realize that the costs involved in providing Eve as a truly unique game (for me to be able to play) are probably massive.

With the large amount of money involved and the large numbers of people employed in keeping Eve running smoothly, I strongly suspect that the government of Iceland also subsidizes CCP with tax credits or actual cash subsidies to insure that the monthly cost of playing the game stays low enough to allow players from all over the world to be able to play the game and to keep needed foreign revenue flowing into Iceland. And this is probably even more true with the fairly recent addition of the free-to-play Alpha clones to the game. Since most Alpha clones do not contribute much in fees in real world currency to the game yet but they all do consume their share of the resources that are needed to keep the game running. Also, large numbers of people in Iceland are employed in the tourism industry there in hotels and restaurants and transportation services. And the Eve Online Fanfests held there surely contribute greatly to these industries. All of this essential economic activity depends on the continued success of Eve to keep attracting a large enough world wide audience to keep the game popular and their very expensive game server(s) running smoothly.

Almost all of the decisions that the leaders and executive officers of CCP constantly make about the game are probably not easy decisions. But with the economic prosperity of the people of Iceland tied somewhat closely together to the success of this unique video game, you can probably be assured that everyone involved in making decisions will do so with the goal of continuing to make Eve Online an ECONOMIC SUCCESS. Success in economics basically means more money flowing in and less money flowing out. So if you really like this game, please get out your credit card (or your paypal account or whatever) and please support the game economically. And if you really cannot afford to support the game economically in real life because of your own personal circumstances, then please continue to support the game with your enthusiasm and your participation and your spirit. Because all types of players are needed and it really very much seems to me that CCP welcomes all types of players, no matter where they live or what their economic circumstances are.

If you watch CCP closely, I think you will see that they really do care. They care because they have to care. If they begin to stop caring, they absolutely know that they and their fellow Icelanders on their small island will probably soon be significantly worse off. And then I too will soon be a lot worse off because I probably won’t be able to play my favorite video game for the bargain price of about $11 per month. Or buy as many plex as I want to in order to gain whatever dominance or advantage in the game that I want to gain. Or play forever as an Alpha and have a shipload of fun in that way instead. It’s a big universe out there. Please take your place in it if you want to.

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Can’t wait for the updates!

IMO the trailer for the expansion could have been a wee bit better. With some narrative and something to reflect the upcoming pirate stuff.

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Well said.

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So… still no PC version of Sparc for HTC Vive owners?
CCPlease stop selling your souls to Sony!

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CCP: what is this advertising you speak of? Is that a new energy drink?

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Damn son, you drank that whole damn pitcher of koolaid. Put the cup down. Seriously.

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Remember when this game used to truly be Risk and Reward?

Maybe you remember when you could risk a building or mining operation or steal another persons because they forgot to fuel it, or you and your friends had a few days to hit the structure?

Short and to the point timers without artificial damage caps… that sweet timely content.

Pepperidge farm remembers.

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The dps cap on citadels gets you to armor/structure/kill in under 40 minutes. You and your friends don’t have 40 minutes to spend per vulnerability timer reinforcing a citadel?

Oh wait - you have so many friends that you’re used to popping structures like this almost instantly with a dread/super blob. Ok.

Where is the risk in having a 400 dread blob? The dps cap forces you to keep your ships on the field a bit longer so that you can get dropped on maybe. Increasing risk. Wait what, you want to reduce risk? I thought you were all for risk/reward? Apparently not.

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Where is the risk in having a 400 dread blob

Citation needed. Please provide evidence that ANY of my killmails have had 400 dreads. Too much salt in your kool-aid.

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Not salt. A bit of hyperbole. You do realize you’re not speaking with bots, right? Provide evidence that every statement you ever make is 100% factual. That, or learn to have a normal human conversation. My point was made.

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Well the server is UK and even the CEO. Wouldn’t be surprised if they do get a tax break it is from them instead. However I believe they should update their models to be less bait and switch of nerfing things 3 times within 6 months on a average of 30-50% based on what math one personally uses each time, learning proper predictable balancing would do wonders! As well as personally perceived deteriorating game mechanics and continuous long ignored bugs with half baked solutions (ghost training), deliveries (Rorqual’s, F2P), implantations (Sov, Citadels, TiDi, …‘Thank goodness Jump Fatigue has been fixed to a “more reasonable” level’), and reiteration’s (T3Ds’1-2 years’…, Rorquals’3 patches in 6 months…, Carriers…, Alpha… Statement of continual balances after half baked AMA, half Baked is pretty generous. Thus doesn’t really include the perceived roles to get Eve into coast mode by deleting features that have been in game for over a half a decade and upgrading software for sale off of Intellectual property , with no stated benefits perceived or otherwise (64 bit).

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Thank you Rez lidikoMalika for your very insightful comments and for your obvious knowledge about how some things in Eve actually work as can perhaps be maybe a bit seen by players who pay very close attention to exactly what you’re specifically saying. Surely it’s players like you who have a definite opinion and knowledge about the way things are now being done that actually help contribute to a more positive outcome rather than who perhaps are maybe just adding a bit more to the problem.

I’m sure there are many many players hanging around Eve who know a great deal about how things actually work. If we can perhaps motivate more of these players to contribute their time and valuable knowledge towards helping CCP (considering CCP’s very very very limited employee and budget resources) to fix the most URGENT problems that now exist with Eve first, then perhaps Eve will still exist and still be popular among all of us (very fickle and very demanding!) video game players in another 14 years. Now wouldn’t that be something! Eve being born in the year 2003 and still alive and kicking in the year 2031.

While we all try hard to understand the real world economics behind Eve that seems to often primarily force CCP to focus a lot of their limited development resources primarily on efforts towards things that quickly (and maybe even perhaps short-sightedly) improve their “bottom line” and their short term real world earnings and currency revenues. Without spending “enough” time on the things that really matter the most to the most players.

I still believe that the vast majority of CCP’s employee’s actually care a great deal about the game and also actually care a great deal about the game’s long term future and viability. And I still have faith that the leaders and executive officers of CCP will continue to make the hard financial decisions that will allow Eve to morph and evolve and grow and change into something even more interesting and incredible as the coming years pass by.

For me, I plan to hold on tight to that horse wherever it runs. It’ll probably be an interesting ride, that’s for sure. A lot of nice dangerous cliffs up ahead, watch out! But isn’t that what makes it fun?

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