All posts by CCP Affinity

Sweeping Death and Chaos: New Exploration Sites in Kronos

Dear assassins, brigands, cutthroats, triggermen, mercenaries, instruments of war, and all other enforcers of sweeping death and chaos,

We're EVE’s Team Space Glitter, and as you might expect from a team with a name like that, we've been thinking up new ways for you to inflict violence upon the world of New Eden. Surprisingly enough, we're planning to have you come to the last-minute rescue of some people who find themselves in very dire straits. You'll be doing this by zeroing in on their enemies and turning them to dust.

For Kronos we've been working on ways of bringing you new content, and we've come up with a new type of site that's a thematic extension of the Ghost Sites you encountered in our last release. Those were pirate-run research sites that involved dangerous and secretive experiments outlawed by the empires. This time around, the pirates have upped their game, but in doing so they've propelled some of their enemies into murderous action.

 

 

We're going to start Kronos off with an event that'll see you assisting what's arguably the most honorable band of mercenaries in the cluster, Mordu's Legion. The Legion have twigged that certain pirate elements are not only making frightening strides in their research but have also taken over other pirate sites and are using them to trade in all manner of illicit technology. They'll be asking you for help in tracking down the faction they consider most egregious offenders - and as luck would have it, that faction happens to be the Legion's most hated enemies, the reckless Guristas.

The problem isn't how to attack the Guristas at those sites - Mordu's Legion will take care of that on their own and probably wouldn't welcome your help - but how to find them in the first place. That's where you come in.

Your task will be to find any instance of their smaller outposts - the Contested Guristas Covert Research Facility - and hack into its Transponder Tower. If you succeed, you'll gain access to insider Guristas data that Mordu's Legion are willing to reward you handsomely for. You can of course just be your own boss and sell this data on the market, but if you want to reap the full rewards of your ventures, you will have to bring this data in person to the Legion's headquarters in the 5ZXX-K system and redeem it at their LP store.

(By the way, we at Team Space Glitter would like to remind everyone that 5ZXX-K is a nullsec system, has zero CONCORD presence, and is a natural chokepoint ideal for staging a deadly ambush; so anyone going in there unprepared is basically taking their life in their own hands. We are in no way condoning a massive influx of capsuleers who'll be patiently waiting for you there, all of them armed to the teeth and ready for battle.)

As we noted, Mordu's Legion need this information in order to track down the fully-fledged research and trading facilities and to bypass their security measures. When they've received sufficient data, they are going to launch an all-out assault on a site we're calling the Besieged Covert Research Facility. As we also noted, Mordu's Legion are really not going to want you there; your business with them will be done, and they will react in extremely hostile fashion to anyone who persists in interfering with their operations.

If you do decide to interfere with official Legion business, and manage to tear your way through their operatives while keeping your ship in one piece, you're going to find an embarrassment of riches. There'll be eight new ship skins dropping in the form of 1-run blueprint copies:

  • Prophecy Blood Raiders Edition

 

  • Coercer Blood Raiders Edition

 

  • Brutix Serpentis Edition

 

  • Catalyst Serpentis Edition

 

  • Ferox Guristas Edition

 

  • Cormorant Guristas Edition

 

  • Cyclone Thukker Tribe Edition

 

  • Thrasher Thukker Tribe Edition

 

There will also be sixty new pirate implants including full lower-grade sets of Snake, Slave, Crystal, Talisman, Halo, Nomad, Centurion, Edge, Harvest, and Virtue versions.

Last but not least, we mustn't forget that all this research had to do with speed, warp technology, and going too fast in directions you shouldn't be headed. As such, you'll also find this site dropping new warp speed modules called Hyperspatial Accelerators.

 

Fly safe,

@CCP_Affinity

Sweeping Death and Chaos: New Exploration Sites in Kronos

Dear assassins, brigands, cutthroats, triggermen, mercenaries, instruments of war, and all other enforcers of sweeping death and chaos,

We're EVE’s Team Space Glitter, and as you might expect from a team with a name like that, we've been thinking up new ways for you to inflict violence upon the world of New Eden. Surprisingly enough, we're planning to have you come to the last-minute rescue of some people who find themselves in very dire straits. You'll be doing this by zeroing in on their enemies and turning them to dust.

For Kronos we've been working on ways of bringing you new content, and we've come up with a new type of site that's a thematic extension of the Ghost Sites you encountered in our last release. Those were pirate-run research sites that involved dangerous and secretive experiments outlawed by the empires. This time around, the pirates have upped their game, but in doing so they've propelled some of their enemies into murderous action.

 

 

We're going to start Kronos off with an event that'll see you assisting what's arguably the most honorable band of mercenaries in the cluster, Mordu's Legion. The Legion have twigged that certain pirate elements are not only making frightening strides in their research but have also taken over other pirate sites and are using them to trade in all manner of illicit technology. They'll be asking you for help in tracking down the faction they consider most egregious offenders - and as luck would have it, that faction happens to be the Legion's most hated enemies, the reckless Guristas.

The problem isn't how to attack the Guristas at those sites - Mordu's Legion will take care of that on their own and probably wouldn't welcome your help - but how to find them in the first place. That's where you come in.

Your task will be to find any instance of their smaller outposts - the Contested Guristas Covert Research Facility - and hack into its Transponder Tower. If you succeed, you'll gain access to insider Guristas data that Mordu's Legion are willing to reward you handsomely for. You can of course just be your own boss and sell this data on the market, but if you want to reap the full rewards of your ventures, you will have to bring this data in person to the Legion's headquarters in the 5ZXX-K system and redeem it at their LP store.

(By the way, we at Team Space Glitter would like to remind everyone that 5ZXX-K is a nullsec system, has zero CONCORD presence, and is a natural chokepoint ideal for staging a deadly ambush; so anyone going in there unprepared is basically taking their life in their own hands. We are in no way condoning a massive influx of capsuleers who'll be patiently waiting for you there, all of them armed to the teeth and ready for battle.)

As we noted, Mordu's Legion need this information in order to track down the fully-fledged research and trading facilities and to bypass their security measures. When they've received sufficient data, they are going to launch an all-out assault on a site we're calling the Besieged Covert Research Facility. As we also noted, Mordu's Legion are really not going to want you there; your business with them will be done, and they will react in extremely hostile fashion to anyone who persists in interfering with their operations.

If you do decide to interfere with official Legion business, and manage to tear your way through their operatives while keeping your ship in one piece, you're going to find an embarrassment of riches. There'll be eight new ship skins dropping in the form of 1-run blueprint copies:

  • Prophecy Blood Raiders Edition

 

  • Coercer Blood Raiders Edition

 

  • Brutix Serpentis Edition

 

  • Catalyst Serpentis Edition

 

  • Ferox Guristas Edition

 

  • Cormorant Guristas Edition

 

  • Cyclone Thukker Tribe Edition

 

  • Thrasher Thukker Tribe Edition

 

There will also be sixty new pirate implants including full lower-grade sets of Snake, Slave, Crystal, Talisman, Halo, Nomad, Centurion, Edge, Harvest, and Virtue versions.

Last but not least, we mustn't forget that all this research had to do with speed, warp technology, and going too fast in directions you shouldn't be headed. As such, you'll also find this site dropping new warp speed modules called Hyperspatial Accelerators.

 

Fly safe,

@CCP_Affinity

Ghastly Hotbed Of Spaceship Trauma – Ghost Sites in Rubicon

They aren't afraid of what might happen; they relish the thought, dream of it, fantasize that they will be the ones standing there at the cusp of something wonderful and terrifying.

Well, here it is.

(From "The Only Way Out is Through", the upcoming Rubicon chronicle)

 

Greetings Capsuleers! I am CCP Affinity from Team Kuromaku, here to talk to you about going dangerously fast.

The recurring themes for EVE Online: Rubicon’s Nov 19th release are the ideas of speed and going places you aren't meant to be. This ties in with the concept behind this particular expansion: capsuleers are about to take the first step in a journey which will have lasting consequences. From now on there is no turning back and events and consequences will only accelerate.

One major part of this turning point is the Rubicon feature we're calling “Ghost Sites”. These are a new type of PvE (Player versus Environment) content that, in EVE’s universe of New Eden, are the stages for some very dangerous and clandestine experiments that the pirate factions engage in despite the express disapproval of the four empires. These experiments aren't just going to end quietly - they are tied in with both ongoing lore and actual gameplay.

 On the lore side, we employed several resources to help underline how things are going way too fast: There will be events, news pieces, and even a new chronicle, that all tie in with the idea of Ghost Sites, what they're for and why they are causing serious concern in high levels of empire governments.

On the gameplay side, the sites are designed for fast-paced, often dangerous action, and may reward you (if you are quick and lucky) with items that either complement the speed of your vessel or assist in claiming your own area of space while trying very hard to avoid detection.

So what are these Ghost Sites?

They are pirate faction anomalies that will crop up in all parts of space. If you're lucky enough to come across one, it'll automatically appear on your system scanner. The moment that the first player enters a Ghost Site, an invisible and random timer will start ticking. You will never know how long until the traps laid by the pirates might explode, shredding your bulkheads and leaving you adrift in your pod.

Your objective, if you wish to risk life and limb (well ... your crew's lives and limbs) is to hack your way into the sites 4 research facilities, grab whatever you find, and get out as fast as you can. At the moment, hacking is only found in exploration-style environments, so we decided it would be fun to shake that up and see how it works under pressure-cooker circumstances.  You will only have one chance to hack, if you fail you will set off the containers security and they will explode. While Ghost Sites are not exploration sites, you'll still need to use either a data or relic analyzer to access the vaults. If you're successful in hacking, you'll be given loot (which won't be scattered), but if you take too long, the pirates will be alerted to your presence and will warp in to attack you.  The pirates are there just to protect their loot and will not be carrying any items in their cargo or have a bounty on their heads. As I mentioned, these sites are related to dangerous experiments, and the pirates desperately do not want the capsuleers to steal the fruit of their labors. When they realize that they have an intruder in their midst, they will blow up the research facilities, causing damage to everyone in the vicinity.

Where will the Ghost Sites appear?

They will be quite a rare distribution in all areas of space, including wormhole (WH) space

What about the loot?

Within the Ghost Sites, we will introduce blueprints for the first-ever player-manufactured implant set along with materials to build the implants. I will go into a bit more detail on some of the unique loot found in the various areas of space (however, not the full loot tables).

Hi-Sec Loot : 

  • Shattered Villard Wheels, the new material required to build all of the ‘Ascendancy’ implant set
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Alpha Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Beta Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Delta Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Epsilon Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Gamma Blueprint Copy

Low-Sec Loot:

  • Low-grade Ascendancy Delta Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Epsilon Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Gamma Blueprint Copy
  • ‘Wetu’ Mobile Depot Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Alpha Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Beta Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Omega Blueprint Copy

Null Sec Loot:

  • ‘Wetu’ Mobile Depot Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Alpha Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Beta Blueprint Copy
  • Low-grade Ascendancy Omega Blueprint Copy
  • ‘Yurt’ Mobile Depot Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Delta Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Epsilon Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Gamma Blueprint Copy

Wormhole Loot:

  • ‘Wetu’ Mobile Depot Blueprint Copy
  • ‘Yurt’ Mobile Depot Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Delta Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Epsilon Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Gamma Blueprint Copy
  • Ascendancy Omega Blueprint Copy

 

What are the Implants?

The Ascendancy implants are available in a set of two, high and low grades. Each of the implants offer a direct bonus to warp speed as well as a multiplicative set bonus which increases the overall power of them, the more of the set you have. They are manufactured using various Planetary Interaction materials and small amount of tritanium is used as a catalyst.

The power of them is as such;

 

High Grade

 

Low Grade

 

W. Bonus

Set Bonus

 

W. Bonus

Set Bonus

Alpha

1%

1.15

 

1%

1.1

Beta

2%

1.15

 

2%

1.1

Gamma

3%

1.15

 

3%

1.1

Delta

4%

1.15

 

4%

1.1

Epsilon

5%

1.15

 

5%

1.1

Omega

 

1.8

 

 

1.4

I hope you are as excited as I am about Rubicon :) I would love to know what you think about the Ghost Sites in the feedback thread

- CCP Affinity // @CCP_Affinity

 

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

Celebrating Ten Years of EVE Online

Celebrating such a special event as EVE’s 10th anniversary is too big an occasion for just a private party, so with that in mind we've planned an action-packed weekend within the EVE Universe to ring in the second decade with the people who matter the most… you! In true Icelandic style, no celebration would be complete without fireworks, so we are running a campaign on Facebook where we invite you to like the official EVE Online Facebook page and share with your friends and gaming groups. Each "like" generated will work towards free gifts and hourly firework drops for the entire community to enjoy on Sunday May 5th

Starting after downtime on Sunday May 5th, you will receive the unlocked gifts, as well as the first in a series of fireworks content drops which will then be deployed on the hour, every hour. The longer you stay online to help us smash the PCU record, the more fireworks you can bring to help us light up the skies.  CCP devs will be roaming New Eden from 17:00 GMT in search of the perfect spot to have our very own firework display, so we'd like to ask you: wherever you are in New Eden, at 20:00 GMT, please load up your ship with fireworks and help us set the universe on fire. 

Of course, no EVE celebration would be complete without a few (thousand) killmails, so at 22:30 GMT we will begin a ‘Hunt a Dev’ roam.  Make sure you like our Facebook page for hints on the location of your favorite dev.  We will do a second wave of this at 00:30 GMT, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to add a dev corpse to your collection.

In addition to the birthday gifts and fireworks, we also invite you to guess the highest PCU for our 10th birthday.  To enter, send an EVE mail to the character “CCP EVEis10” before 17:00 GMT and be in with a chance to win some amazing prizes, including a GTX 680 and an EVE Collector’s Edition box set.  Entries are limited to one per account. For more details please see this thread.

If you miss our dev roams, do not worry, there are also some awesome player events happening this weekend. For example, RvB are running a Ganked Roam from 14:00 GMT, so why not bring your frigate along and join in the fun?  They will also attend Marlona Sky’s Flight of a Thousand Rifters event at 18:30 GMT which promises fun, explosions and prizes, so don’t miss out!

Also don't miss our other anniversary updates, including dev roam hints and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be the 'King of Low Sec' (for more details see our Facebook page on May 5th). If you or your friends are running any in-game events this weekend, make sure to give them a plug in the comments thread so you can maximize your exposure. All of us here at CCP are very excited to see the amazing images and videos you'll come up with from your firework displays and assorted other anniversary adventures. Send them to us at share@eveonline.com. We just hope you don't end up collecting too many of our corpses…

 

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

War. War never changes..until it does

Hi everyone. 

CCP Affinity here with a sneak peek into what Game of Drones has in store for all you FW pilots in EVE Online: Retribution. 

After an early launch of Factional Warfare features in October as can be seen here we have continued to work on more changes for Retribution.

Bulk Purchasing:

Let’s start with my favorite Retribution change...  bulk purchasing from the LP Store.  Never again will your datacore habit go hand in hand with a bad dose of Repetitive Strain Injury… it’s now as simple as clicking on the buy button, a number field appears below and you type in the amount you wish to purchase.   

Click to enlarge

After this you will get a pop-up that confirms your order.  If you try to buy more than you can afford, it will automatically tell you the maximum number affordable in the pop-up. 

Click to enlarge

FW UI Changes:

This isn’t the only FW UI change in Retribution.  We wanted to make it easier for you to see when you are enlisted in a militia so we have now added this information to the following places:

  • The login screen
     
  •  Character sheet

We also wanted you to be able to proudly display the militia you have enlisted in, making it easier for other pilots in New Eden to see who your loyalty is with and also to allow you to show info on other pilots and find potential war targets. 

This will now appear in:

  • Character info tab (Show info)
     
  • Corp and Alliance info tab (show info)
     
  • Corporation management and recruitment windows

FW complexes and NPCs:

Another change for Retribution is the complexes.  We have renamed the complexes as follows:

  • Small” complexes are now called “Novice” 
     
  • “Standard” complexes are now called “Small”
     
  • “Major” complexes (with the exception of Compound and Stronghold) are now called “Medium”
     
  • “Major complexes (Compound and Stronghold only) are now called “Large”

We felt the complexes had swayed too far towards a PvE activity and this is not what we wanted at all. We want to move towards a more PvP like environment while still ensuring the complexes cannot be quickly farmed.  To achieve this we have made the following changes:

  • Designed new NPCs for FW complexes with low damage output, high defenses and good mobility with no EWAR
     
  • Reduced spawns from 10-16 NPCs to 1-2 NPCs

After Retribution, upon entering a FW complex, one NPCs will spawn and if you manage to kill the NPC within 5 minutes for Novice and Small complexes and  within 10 minutes for Medium and Large, no further NPCs will spawn during the capture time.  The main purpose of the NPC is now to avoid quick complex farming and to encourage you to bring enough DPS. 

The NPCs in each complex have been carefully balanced to match the ship restrictions for each complex size:

  • Novice complexes now only accept tech1 frigates (including Navy and Pirate, rookie ships will be excluded) and the NPC spawned will be a frigate
     
  • Small complexes now accept all frigates (including tech 1, tech 2, all pirate/navy variants) plus all destroyers (including tech 1, tech 2) and the NPC spawned will be a destroyer
     
  • Medium complexes will accept all frigate and destroyer variations, plus cruisers (including tech 1 and tech 2, pirate and navy variations but NOT tech3 cruisers) and they will spawn a cruiser NPC
     
  • Large complexes will have no ship restrictions to enter and will spawn a Battlecruiser NPC

A lot of players told us how much they disliked having to travel more than 80KM to the capture point and we also felt this discouraged PvP within sites.  To counter this we have also made the followed adjustments to the complexes:

  • All capture beacons have been moved much closer to the warp-in point – they are now 10KM off warp-in
     
  • Capture range has been adjusted to 30KM for all complexes

Geography Changes:

As a result of player feedback, we have added a few stargates to open up the warzones and make roaming easier:

  • A jump connection between Kurniainen (Bleak Lands) and Isbrabata (Metropolis) has been added
     
  • A jump connection between Siseide (Heimatar) to Eszur (Metropolis) has been added
     
  • A jump connection between Gulmorogod (Heimatar) to Egmar (Metropolis) has been added

That’s it for Team Game of Drones FW changes for Retribution, now it’s over to you.  We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on these changes in the comments thread for this blog.

Thanks,

CCP Affinity

Team Game of Drones

If you smell smoke, look for fire

You may have noticed that over the past couple of weeks there have been reports of increased pirate activity in-game and to our deep disappointment some players have even gotten involved and supported the dissenters.

The cause of these upsets is still unknown at this point but we want to assure our players that we’re doing everything in our power to quell this uprising and bring stability back to the New Eden universe.  We reserve the right to recruit the assistance of players if abnormal activity threatens the political or economic stability of our cherished EVE Online.

Based on previous encounters it’s highly likely that the pirates will be targeting empire space as our intel shows they already feel secure in their reach in null-sec.

As we continue to investigate the cause of these events we will inform our pilots of any new evidence, but be advised that until we get things under control, events are likely to occur at a fairly steady pace. Activity has mostly been in the 1200-1800 GMT timezone but we have recent intel that suggests that the pirates may in the future strike at other hours in order to stretch our resources to their limits.

We implore you to report any further suspicious activity in this thread so that we may either deploy a rapid response team or recruit further player assistance.

Remember, when in doubt, ‘Follow the evidence wherever it leads.’ - Socrates  

CCP Affinity

CCP Goliath

Tactical Response Unit Negotiation Officers – Subsidiary of the EVE Illuminati

Incursions Update

With the Escalation to Inferno release we made several changes to Incursions. We promised to monitor the result of these changes and we stand to our promise: after evaluating both your feedback and our internal metrics, we have decided to roll back a few changes. With so many tweaks made at once, it became very difficult to determine the success of each individual change. We have rolled back the following changes:

  • Lowering the reward for vanguard sites by 10%
  • The system influence

This means the reward for vanguard sites will increase to the pre-escalation rate. We feel the iterations made to NPC grouping and triggers per spawn are enough to keep the isk at a sensible level.

With Escalation, we decreased the influence gain per site as well as increasing the length of Incursions. The initial reason for these modifications was that the sites were being completed so quickly that the influence bar never decreased. However, these changes combined made getting the influence bar under control an almost impossible task rather than just the challenging one we had hoped for.

Sansha Kuvakei is reaching out for you!

This is now available for testing on Singularity and we will continue to monitor the feedback closely.