Hello and happy Valentines Day from Reykjavik! This is CCP Fozzie, one of your friendly neighborhood Game Designers, and I’m here to share with you all our plans for Ship and Module rebalancing in Retribution 1.1 scheduled for February 19th!

First let’s take a moment to look back at the road we’ve travelled together thus far. March 2012 seems like a lifetime ago in terms of EVE development, so it’s hard to believe that it has been less than a year since CCP Ytterbium released his Dev Blog entitled Rebalancing EVE, One Ship at a Time. This blog laid out the high level plans for a radical rethinking of ship balancing in EVE. It described changes to ship progression and training (important updates and changes to this plan are discussed below), as well as the creation of ship lines as a way to communicate the differences between ships. Crucially it introduced the concept that would come to be known as Tiericide; that we would be phasing out the old “Tier” system of balancing ships that had mandated weakness from many of EVE’s ships and endeavoring to make every ship viable and fun to fly in its own right. This is of course a massive long term project, with implications for most facets of the game.

Since that fateful day we have rebalanced Frigates, Mining Barges, Destroyers, and Cruisers. In total fifty nine ships have been either added to the game or received the Tiericide treatment as of Retribution 1.0 last December, and the feedback we have been receiving surrounding these changes has been extremely positive so far. We hope you are all enjoying the newly rebalanced ships and are taking advantage of them to improve your EVE experience.

There are a few quick but important notes to make about the rebalancing process before we continue:

• I won’t be going into more detail about the plans for the skill changes in this blog, because they are covered in detail in CCP Ytterbium’s recent dev blog. Just know that the skill changes (including the Battlecruiser and Destroyer skill splits) will not be taking place in Retribution 1.1. They are scheduled for the summer expansion.

• Although the Tiericide project has a clear end point (which is on the horizon) the job of rebalancing ships in EVE will never be completed. We will be continuing with a rebalance of Tech 2, Tech 3 and Capital ships (none of which are afflicted with traditional “Tiers”), and we are committed to balancing on a regular basis to keep things fresh and to follow up on reactions to the earlier passes.

•  I want to make it clear that one of our goals in this rebalancing pass is to somewhat narrow the gap between higher cost and lower cost ships compared to the canyon that existed in the past. We are not planning on buffing the high cost ships to the same degree that we did with the T1 Frigates and Cruisers, as this would simply create direct power creep and leave us right back where we started. We want to reach a place where cheaper ships are more than just something you fly when you start the game, but instead present a viable and interesting option to be chosen by people of many levels of experience. Our vision for cost-balancing is that cost should play a limited part in balancing ships and that obtaining a roughly linear increase in effectiveness should require an exponential increase in cost.

• When the recent dev blogs from CCP Unifex and CCP Seagull unveiled the new methodology behind our expansion planning I have heard some questions about where the long-term rebalancing plan fits in with this new world order. The answer is that we will be looking for opportunities to fit interesting new ships into any and all themes as they are decided going forward, and that rebalancing of current ships will not be ignored in any given release. Rebalancing is something that continues forward with every expansion, in the same way that server performance and player experience are continuously being improved.

• I’m proud to say that CCP’s player poaching ability continues to improve. We have a new addition to the team coming soon who brings with him a great deal of gameplay and community experience. He hasn’t arrived yet but once he does I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of him on the forums.

Ok enough with the preamble, let’s get down to the real purpose of this blog: our balance changes coming to a computer near you soon in Retribution 1.1!

There are three main areas towards which we are focusing our balance changes for Retribution 1.1: Combat Battlecruisers, Armor Tanking, and Black Ops.

All of the changes listed in this blog have already been covered in our sticky threads in the official Features and Ideas forum. If you’ve been following those threads closely none of this will be new to you, but we want to make sure we communicate the changes to a wider audience than just the dedicated F&I fans. As usual I want to thank all of you who have participated in the F&I threads so far and I hope that you will continue to let us know what you think about these and all future changes as we go forward together.

Combat Battlecruisers

For Retribution 1.1 we are implementing the first part of the Battlecruiser tiericide, hitting the former Tier 1 and Tier 2 ships. These are being rechristened the Combat Battlecruisers (yeah we realize the name is somewhat redundant) while the former Tier 3 Battlecruisers are being renamed Attack Battlecruisers and will be rebalanced in a later update.

With these eight ships we are faced with a unique balancing challenge compared to the smaller classes. With Cruisers and Frigates the gap between the highest and lowest tiers was rather immense, and the plan called for bringing all of the ships up to around the power level of the highest tier. With the Battlecruisers we have a class that has a few dominant ships and a large number that were in need of significant help (although to a lesser extent than the Cruiser and Frigates).

We also must be wary of creating ships that are simply superior Cruisers in every way and completely undo the benefits of the Retribution 1.0 Cruiser rebalance.

Finally we were thankfully able to resolve some of the outstanding balance issues with the two most problematic Battlecruisers (Drake and Hurricane) with specific adjustments to Heavy Missiles and the Hurricane’s powergrid in Retribution. This was preferable to leaving the problems festering but it also means that we have not seen the metagame completely settle yet. With the pace of our balancing this kind of challenge is inevitable but it does mean we must be even more vigilant than usual and ensure that we are ready to make rapid follow-up changes as necessary.

To give a glimpse of the state of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Battlecruisers, here is a chart of the number of each Battlecruiser in use during weekly snapshots of EVE’s users over the last eleven weeks.

Click to enlarge

As you can see, the Drake remains in a league of its own, the Hurricane is very popular and even the least common Tier 2 BCs have a large popularity advantage over the four Tier 1 BCs clustered at the bottom of the graph.

Finding a way to make all the Combat Battlecruisers viable and interesting choices is not going to be easy, and will likely require multiple iterations over time. Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s dive in to our plan for 1.1!

Combat Battlecruisers Features and Ideas thread

Prophecy:

It is no coincidence that the Prophecy is the least used Battlecruiser in the current meta. The combination of anemic damage and slow speed left the ship relegated to the role of obvious bait with the occasional creative fit that relied on the element of surprise rather than competitive performance.

The Prophecy was in dire need of a completely new role, and it has now found that role as the next step in the Amarr Empire’s expanding drone carrier program. The energy weapon capacitor bonus is being replaced with a 10% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints per level, and the drone bandwidth is being increased to 75mbit (equal to the current Myrm) with a giant 225m3 bay to hold a wide variety of drones in the tradition of Amarrian drone doctrine.

The Prophecy is also seeing two highslots removed to make room for an extra midslot and lowslot, and the addition of missile launcher hardpoints alongside the turrets to give plenty of fitting options for the creative pilot.

Harbinger:

The Harbinger has suffered from challenging fittings and severe overshadowing from the Oracle and Hurricane. The situation should improve as we rebalance its competing ships, but we’ve also given the Harb a refresh by swapping one turret for a doubled damage bonus. The end result is more DPS at high skill levels, lower capacitor use from the guns, more free fitting space and lower cost of equipment.

The Harb is also seeing its HP dropped to the new standard levels for Combat BCs and gaining a backup flight of light drones to go along with the current wing of mediums.

Ferox:

The Ferox has been failing at its previously intended purpose as a railgun sniper for a long time now, both because of the weakness of medium railguns and the role overlap with the extremely powerful Attack (Tier 3) Battlecruisers. We do not have the time to fix all these problems in 1.1 but we are focused on getting the Ferox into a place where it can perform in its adopted role of shield/blaster brawler while also preparing for that bright future when medium rails are viable again.

To reach this goal we are increasing the damage potential through an extra turret and extra highslot, adding CPU and Powergrid to fit the big guns and adding hitpoints to ensure that the Ferox can take a beating and keep on going.

Drake:

The Drake is one of the most popular ships in New Eden with good reason. The combination of a stout shield tank with excellent damage projection through missiles has made it the default Battlecruiser for many pilots. We took steps to solve the imbalance surrounding Heavy Missiles in Retribution 1.0, so the current Drake is much closer to a place of balance than it was before.

In 1.1 the Drake is trading one launcher for a doubled damage bonus, gaining slightly increased potential damage and lower ammo use at the expense of less damage flexibility. It is also seeing HP reductions to bring it in line with the other Combat Battlecruisers and a moderate mass increase.

After these adjustments the Drake will still be a very effective and popular ship, in line with our vision for a battlecruiser class that provides a strong middle ground between cruisers and battleships without obsoleting either.

Brutix:

The Brutix carries the dubious distinction of being the most popular of the Tier 1 Battlecruisers, supported mainly by the strength of blasters since the hybrid weapon rebalance. However as a Tier 1 BC it was still crippled by fragility and a lack of usable module slots.

It will be experiencing significant changes, including trading a turret for a doubled damage bonus, the addition of a lowslot, and significantly improved speed with a microwarpdrive thanks to lower mass.

Our armor changes releasing at the same time in Retribution 1.1 will also be key to the new Brutix, and it is very well suited to take advantage of the AAR and active armor rigs that are free of the old speed penalty.

Myrmidon:

The Myrmidon has been a serviceable ship thanks to an extremely powerful potential armor tank, and could deal solid damage through a combination of drones and turrets. However it lacked as a pure drone ship, with no bandwidth advantage over the smaller Vexor.

It is now gaining more drone damage through the addition of 25mbits of extra drone bandwidth and 50m3 more dronebay. Even with the loss of one turret this leaves the Myrm with more damage than before, and a stronger focus on its primary weapon system.

Cyclone:

The Cyclone built a niche for itself thanks to the ancillary shield booster module, but since the ASB rebalance it has struggled to stay competitive. With the shield booster bonus being the only thing preventing the Cyclone from being simply a worse Hurricane, there was a severe lack of variety in the weapon systems of the Minmatar Battlecruiser lineup.

In 1.1 we have revamped the Cyclone as the Minmatar missile Battlecruiser. It has swapped the old projectile rate of fire bonus for an equivalent missile bonus, and seen a highslot move to a low. Along with the addition of extra shield HP and the continuation of the successful shield booster bonus, this creates a fast and flexible missile ship that can dictate the terms of many engagements.

Hurricane:

The Hurricane has long enjoyed a position on top of the Battlecruiser heap, as one of the most popular PVP vessels in New Eden. The combination of high speed, strong and easily applied damage, and room for excellent capacitor warfare has made the Hurricane a default choice for many PVP activities. It received one change in the Retribution expansion that reduced available powergrid alongside a reduction of the powergrid need of artillery, so the changes being made in 1.1 can be relatively simple.

The Hurricane is losing a high slot that had often held an energy neutralizer, leaving it with one utility high. It is also facing a slight reduction in hitpoints, and an increase in mass that will slow down align times by two tenths of a second. These changes should leave the Hurricane as a strong peer to the other members of the Combat Battlecruiser class, compared to its previously dominant position.

Armor Tanking 1.5

An example of the new Ancillary Armor Repairer loaded with paste and running

Armor Tanking 1.5 Features and Ideas Thread

As we are rebalancing larger and larger ship classes, the imbalances in EVE’s current tanking systems become a larger and larger hindrance. The solo and small gang PVP metagame (as well as much of the PVE balance as well) has been skewed towards shield tanking for some time now and we need to start taking steps to rectify that imbalance.

In Retribution 1.1 we are working to reduce some specific issues with armor tanking:

• The fact that active armor tanking rigs slow a ship down, making it unsuitable for many short range weapons
• The fact that the mass penalty on armor plates is much more damaging than the signature radius penalty on shield extenders in most situations
• The lack of effective burst tanking options for armor PVPers

In response we are making some changes to the way armor tanking modules and rigs work, and introducing one new skill and three new modules.

Armor Rigs

We are removing the ship velocity penalty from active armor tanking rigs (Auxiliary Nano Pumps and Nanobot Accelerators) and replacing it with a 10% penalty to the powergrid requirements of local armor repair modules. This serves to allow active tanking armor ships to more easily close range and use short range weapon systems, and also fits more elegantly with the concept of supercharging a ship’s armor repairers.

Armor Repairers

Alongside the change above, we are reducing the base powergrid needs of medium and large armor repair systems. All medium armor repairers will need 20% less powergrid, and all large armor repairers will need 10% less powergrid.

Armor Plates

We are introducing a new skill called Armor Honeycombing, that reduces the mass penalty of all armor plates by 5% per level. This skill provides an avenue for reducing the downsides of armor plates to those pilots who wish to specialize in passive armor tanking.

We are also making a separate change reducing the base mass penalty on all 800mm, 200mm, and 50mm plates by 20%. This provides pilots a choice between the larger plates which are popular due to their larger hitpoint bonuses, and the relatively smaller plates in each pair that will now be more mass-efficient.

Ancillary Armor Repairers

The Ancillary Shield Booster that was released in the Inferno expansion provided a new dynamic to shield tanking, by allowing pilots to choose a method that would tank very effectively for a short time then require a reload to work at full efficiency. We wanted to capture this gameplay for armor tankers as well, while also keeping armor tanking’s unique flavor and avoiding some of the balance problems that the ASBs presented.

So we are adding new Ancillary Armor Repairer modules, in small, medium and large sizes. These modules use a very different mechanic from the ASBs, but still provide the same style of burst tanking gameplay.

• The AARs use the same cycle time, fitting and build requirements as a Tech One armor repairer of the same size. Their blueprint copies are found in all the same places where other blueprints for prototype modules such as the ASB can already be acquired.
• Unlike the ASBs, AARs always use the same capacitor as a Tech One armor repairer to cycle. This cap use does not change when the module is loaded with charges.
• AARs can optionally be loaded with Nanite Repair Paste to increase repair amount, using a similar system to the way cap boosters can be loaded into ASBs, including the same 60 second reload time.
• When not loaded with Nanite Repair Paste, the AAR repairs 3 / 4 the amount of a normal T1 armor repairer. When loaded with paste this repair amount triples, causing the AAR to repair 2.25x  the amount of a T1 rep.
• Small AARs use 1 paste per cycle, Mediums 4, Larges 8. If less than the normal amount of paste is left in the module, it will use what is left and scale the repair bonus proportionally.
• Each AAR can hold 8 cycles worth of paste before either running at reduced rep effectiveness or requiring a reload.
• Unlike the ASB, AAR modules are limited to one per ship. You may run one AAR alongside as many normal armor repairers as you wish.

We expect that this new module will become popular with all kinds of armor tankers, especially PVP pilots looking to get the most out of their ship in a rapid engagement.

Incursus

In light of all these active armor tanking changes, the armor repair effectiveness bonus on the Incursus frigate will be reduced from 10% per level to 7.5 % per level. We believe that it will remain a very powerful combat frigate after this change.

Black Ops Tweaks

Black Ops Features and Ideas Thread

There are a series of black ops gameplay changes that we have wanted to make for a while now. These changes are not the final rebalance for Black Ops Battleships, they are a set of usability changes to serve the ship class and the gameplay style until we have time to do a more thorough rebalance.

• We are increasing the base jump and bridge range of all Black Ops Battleships to 3.5 lightyears, giving them the same jump range as Titans.
• We are decreasing the fuel cost of all Black Ops bridges by 25%, as well as increasing the size of the fuel bay of all Black Ops Battleships by 25%.
• We are enabling Strategic Cruisers to fit and activate Covert Cynosural Field Generators if they use the Covert Reconfiguration subsystem.

As mentioned above, these are not the full rebalance of Black Ops ships, but simply a set of smaller but still extremely valuable changes we could make in the time available. We want to ensure that the opportunities for those pilots that prefer covert gameplay remain strong and we can’t wait to see the creative ways you come up with to take advantage of these changes.

We're looking forward to getting all of these changes to you in Retribution 1.1 next Tuesday. Alongside some of the other great features and improvements that have been outlined in previous Dev Blogs, we think 1.1 will continue the tradition of excellence that we achieved with Retribution's release last December. All of these changes are active now on our Singularity test server if you want to try them out.

Good luck and good hunting!

-CCP Fozzie

Hello gentleplayers. CCP Fozzie here with a new Dev Blog for your personal enjoyment.

We’re getting close to the December 4^th release of Retribution, our 18^th free expansion to EVE Online. Retribution includes big changes to our Bounty Hunting system, Crimewatch, Factional Warfare and much more, but the area I’m most excited about is the massive collection of balance changes we’re preparing for you all.

This expansion is where you’re seeing the balance team here at CCP really hitting our stride, and I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished in the past couple months. We’re releasing 40 new or rebalanced ships in Retribution as well as bringing adjustments to many modules including missile launchers, electronic warfare, and the infamous ancillary shield boosters. Every time EVE’s balance changes it creates new opportunities for clever players to demonstrate their creativity and separate themselves from the pack. We know that our customers are amazingly creative with ship fittings and tactics and that if we give them a new set of tools they’ll do things better than we could have imagined with them.

Our plan for the Tiericide Initiative has always been to remove the old tiers systems that enforced inferiority for a huge portion of the ships in EVE, and replace it with a series of ship lines that stretch through multiple hull sizes. These lines are intended to just be a guideline for pilots so they can get a basic idea of what to expect from each ship as they advance and so that they can identify other ships to try once they have identified an aspect of the game they enjoy. The beauty of EVE is that once players get their hands on a ship they can use the infinite combinations of modules and tactics to stake out their own individual playstyle. CCP Ytterbium has covered the idea behind Tiericide in some of his previous blogs, and I’ll borrow this (now finally complete) image from him showing how the lines interact with the ships that will be rebalanced by Retribution:

Click to enlarge

We have also received many questions about whether this or that ship will get rebalanced. I can promise you that Retribution is only the beginning of our balancing work and you can expect more and more changes as we go forward. CCP Ytterbium recently posted a blog providing a taste of what we’re working on directly after Retribution, and for anyone wondering if we’re going to fix your favorite ship I have produced a simple flow chart that covers the issue comprehensively:

This dev blog is going to summarize the changes we have ready for Retribution in one place, so if you’ve been keeping up with each and every sticky in the Features and Ideas forum there won’t be much here to surprise you. For those people who have been journeying with us every step of the way so far I want to say thank you for your dedication and for all the great feedback you’ve given us. For everyone who hasn’t been watching dev posts every day, this blog will serve as your one stop shop for every major ship and module balance change in Retribution. Each section includes a link to the forum threads going over the changes in more detail.

Frigates

• Combat Frigates

• Disruption Frigates

• Support Frigates

• Exploration Frigates

• Mining Frigate

Destroyers

• Existing Destroyers

• New Destroyers

Cruisers

• Combat Cruisers

• Attack Cruisers

• Disruption Cruisers

• Support Cruisers

Weapons

• Missiles

• Turrets

Modules

• Electronic Warfare

• Remote Reps

• Inferno Modules

• Drone Modules

Frigates

We started the Frigate rebalancing back in Inferno with some of the Combat Frigates, and continued the work in Inferno 1.2 with the Attack Frigates and Rookie Frigates. These changes have been very well received and are providing affordable and fun tools for both new and old players. In Retribution we are completing the Tiericide of the Frigate class, rebalancing the remaining 15 frigates and adding one new ship in the ‘Venture’ Mining Frigate.

Combat Frigates

The Combat Frigates are the frontline brawlers of the frigate world. Capable of both taking and dishing out beatings, they are versatile and powerful in the hands of a skilled pilot. Combat Frigates are some of the most cost-effective solo PVP ships in the game, and are especially well suited to take advantage of the frigate-only complexes in Factional Warfare contested space.

• The Kestrel will continue to be the premiere missile platform at the T1 Frigate level. With the old kinetic damage bonus replaced by a bonus to missile damage of all four types, and a missile velocity bonus added as well, the Kestrel will be capable of surprising its enemies with rapid long range missile fire. Tactically minded pilots can pick the correct damage type to exploit their target’s weaknesses.

• The Tristan is receiving a new role as a dedicated frigate level drone boat. The first ever T1 frigate to be able to field a full flight of 5 light drones, and enjoying bonuses to Tracking Speed of both drones and Hybrid Turrets, the Tristan should be perfect  for both new pilots interested in starting to use drones as well as older pilots looking for an alternative to the Ishkur.

• The Breacher will be taking the Minmatar shield boost bonus that has been so popular on the Cyclone and Maelstrom and fitting it onto a small and mobile package. Combining a missile damage bonus with a respectable dronebay for offense and taking advantage of the strong active shield tanking bonus for defense, the Breacher should be a very exciting ship to fly.

Disruption Frigates

The Disruption Frigates are built to support their allies and weaken their enemies through electronic warfare. These ships are most ideally suited to group play and offer an excellent way for new players to contribute to their corporation in PVP.

• The Crucifier is the entry level Tracking Disruption ship, designed to reduce the effectiveness of enemy turret weapons in order to protect itself and its allies. It is getting an upgrade to its Tracking Disruptor bonuses in Retribution, receiving a larger effectiveness boost and a big range boost in order to enable disrupting from extreme distances. It is also getting an extra midslot and a significantly larger dronebay so that it can deal its share of damage as well.

• The Griffin is the classic affordable electronic warfare ship, capable of breaking the target locks of enemy ships through bonused ECM. Since it is working so well already we are not changing the bonuses of this ship in Retribution, although it is getting an upgrade in the form of a much stronger slot layout.

• The Maulus is being tweaked to better take advantage of Remote Sensor Dampeners through a better slot layout, big upgrades to speed and agility and a bonus to RSD cap use for longer fights. It also benefits from the general buffs that the Damp modules are receiving in Retribution as well as a conversion from Hybrid to Drone damage dealing.

• The Vigil is being refocused on its core role of Target Painting (TP) support by building the old speed bonus into the hull and giving it a bonus to TP optimal range, making it the longest range Target Painting platform in the game, and a key part of large fleets that need help tracking their targets.

Support Frigates

The Support Frigate class is all-new in Retribution. Remote repairing is a huge part of EVE’s fleet combat, but until now there has not been an effective repping ship that was cheaper or easier to skill into than the extremely powerful Logistics Ships. To help with this problem we are introducing a new line of Support ships at the T1 frigate and T1 cruiser levels to provide new options for people wanting to keep their allies alive. The Support Frigates are easy to train for and agile enough to keep up with a frigate roam. They can also enter even the smallest Factional Warfare complexes. To work alongside the ship hulls we have also rebalanced the fitting requirements of the small remote armor and shield repairer modules. We’re very excited to see how all of you take advantage of these new roles.

• The Inquisitor and Navitas are armor repairing Support Frigates. The Inquisitor is a little more durable while the Navitas is a little faster, but both make excellent additions to any armor tanking frigate fleet.

• The Bantam and Burst are the shield tanking equivalents, gaining bonuses to range and cap use of Shield Transporters. Like their larger racial counterparts, the Bantam is slower and tougher while the Burst is ideal for tasks where speed and agility are key.

Exploration Frigates

The Exploration Frigates are getting an expansion of their role beyond their aptitude for scan probing. They are still the ideal ship for the budding prober with improved bonuses to scan probe strength, but now they also have bonuses to the core mini-professions of Hacking, Archeology and Salvaging as well as boasting stronger combat ability through ample dronebays.

• The Magnate, Heron, Imicus and Probe are all excellent exploration ships taking advantage of their probe strength and mini-profession bonuses. They are built to be able to embark on long expeditions of discovery using large cargo holds and ammoless drones to reduce the need for resupply. All four ships have similar bonuses, allowing each explorer to choose the ships based on their unique slot layouts or nationalistic preferences instead of being forced to pigeonhole themselves into a different ship for each task.

Mining Frigate

With the conversion of the old mining frigates into Support Frigates there was an opening for a completely new Mining Frigate from the ORE corporation, to provide both an effective ninja-mining platform and a stepping stone into ORE’s selection of Mining Barges (rebalanced in Inferno 1.2).

• The Venture is the first dedicated Mining Frigate released by the ORE corporation. It boasts strong capabilities for mining both asteroids and stellar gas clouds, and can enter and leave hostile territory effectively thanks to exceptional agility and a class leading +2 warp core strength bonus that allows it to escape some forms of tackle.

Destroyers

Existing Destroyers

Our current crop of Destroyers were in a fairly good place after their last rebalance in the Crucible expansion, so we gave them a less invasive set of tweaks than most other classes. Fitting within the Attack role, Destroyers are intended to be deadly hunters of Frigates that hit harder than their opponents would expect, and the changes made to these ships reflect the desire to make them all useful for that purpose.

• The Coercer is a supremely effective laser platform with both tracking and optimal range bonuses, but it was afflicted with only one mid. We’re moving a low to a mid, so you can choose to fit a point or keep the dedicated DPS role by fitting a tracking computer. The Coercer also benefits significantly from a reduction in small laser fitting requirements.

• The Cormorant is another destroyer limited by slot layouts, in this case a single low. So we’ve moved a mid to a low in order to give more damage options, while giving Caldari another 4 midslot destroyer for all those people who loved the specialized options 4 mids provided.

• The Catalyst has extreme DPS but had trouble applying that damage. We’ve helped it along by significantly reducing mass for close range blaster fits and trading the one drone for extra powergrid that can be used for a more effective railgun option.

• The Thrasher has been the gold standard for Destroyers and was fitting its role very well, so we left it largely untouched.

New Destroyers

In Retribution we saw an opportunity to release some new ships into the previously very small Destroyer class. Destroyers are extremely popular ships that players of many stripes have been enjoying but with only one Destroyer per race the options were very limited. Retribution brings four completely new Destroyers that use the other main weapon system for each race.

• The Dragoon is a drone-based Destroyer for the Amarr empire. Splitting bonuses between drones and a range bonus to energy vampires and neutralizers makes the Dragoon an exceptionally deadly opponent to frigates that stray within 12km.

• The Corax is the long-awaited Caldari missile Destroyer. With bonuses to kinetic missile damage and missile explosion velocity plus a role bonus to missile velocity the Corax can hit at long range while also fielding a stronger tank than most Destroyers.

• The Algos is the new drone Destroyer for the Gallente. Combining a class-leading 35mbit of drone bandwidth with bonuses to drone damage/hitpoints and drone speed makes the Algos deadly at flexible ranges. A hybrid weapon tracking bonus fits perfectly with small railguns to add extra ranged damage to the Algos’ column.

• The Talwar is a high speed missile Destroyer for the Minmatar Republic. It combines a missile explosive damage bonus, missile velocity role bonus, and a MWD signature radius bonus to create a ship that is relatively survivable while zipping around the battlefield.

Cruisers

Combat Cruisers

Like their frigate counterparts, the Combat Cruisers have a solid balance of offense and defense. They are slower and heavier than the Attack Cruisers but are able to field a much stronger tank at respectable speeds.

• The Maller is being redeemed from its previous life as a bait ship. Swapping its old Laser cap use bonus for a Laser damage bonus and keeping the iconic armor resistance bonus means that it fills the role of a smaller Abaddon. With increased fittings and the reduction in medium energy weapon powergrid use, the Maller can now fit a solid tank alongside powerful lasers for a ship that especially excels in group warfare.

• The Moa has never really worked as a sniping ship so it is getting the same treatment we gave the Merlin in its much celebrated Inferno revamp. We are replacing the hybrid weapon optimal range bonus with a hybrid weapon damage bonus, which combined with the existing shield resistance bonus and the movement of a highslot to a midslot will make for a powerful brawler.

• The Vexor is being updated to better take advantage of its existing bonuses to hybrid weapon damage and drone damage/hitpoints via an extra midslot and improved speed. Combined with the relatively low mass of the Vexor hull this makes a ship that can deal incredible damage very effectively.

• The Rupture has been on top of the cruiser heap for quite some time, and is receiving milder changes than most others. Moving a highslot to a mid provides more opportunity for either shield tanking or extra electronic warfare, and the reduction in artillery powergrid requirements should allow more long range options

Attack Cruisers

The Attack Cruisers are the fastest and most aggressive of the fighting cruisers. They are all built to take advantage of their speed, either by keeping range from their opponent and peppering it with long range damage or by charging into battle to deal excellent damage at close range.

• The Omen has been a poster child for bad Cruisers until Retribution. It’s being rebuilt as an effective fast attack ship with the speed and fittings to take advantage of its laser bonuses and a significantly increased drone bay for added damage. The Omen also benefits greatly from the fitting reductions to medium lasers.

• The Caracal also suffered from weak fittings and low speed, and has been given the speed needed to take advantage of the missile velocity bonus that gives it such excellent range. Switching the damage bonus from Kinetic-only to a damage type independent rate of fire bonus also gives Caracal pilots more options when choosing how to exploit the weaknesses of their enemies.

• The Thorax is the classic blasterboat, built for ultra-closerange brawling with ample drone support. It is being improved with a sizable speed increase, an extra midslot and the addition of a hybrid weapon tracking bonus. The Thorax can close range faster than ever before and once it gets within its optimal few comparable ships can stand against it.

• The Stabber is the quintessential Attack Cruiser with a huge speed advantage over other Cruisers. We are keeping its speed intact and adding a projectile weapon falloff bonus to extend its skirmish range.

Disruption Cruisers

The Disruption Cruisers are built for electronic warfare support and are split roughly into two categories, the hybrid disruption/combat Arbitrator and Bellicose, and the range-bonused fleet ewar ships in the Blackbird and Celestis.

• The Arbitrator already had an effective role as a hybrid of a Tracking Disruptor bonused electronic warfare cruiser and drone combat cruiser. We improved it via an extra low slot, stronger TD bonus and the ability to choose between turrets or launchers for added damage.

• The Blackbird was already extremely effective in its force multiplier role so we left it mostly intact an extra lowslot adds flexibility and an increased ECM range bonus helps counteract the ECM range nerf also released in Retribution.

• The Celestis suffered from both a lack of focus and the weakness of Sensor Dampeners. We’ve replaced the former hybrid damage bonus with Damp range bonus and extra drone damage and the Celestis also benefits greatly from the Damp buff in Retribution.

• The Bellicose is getting the most significant changes of the Disruption Cruisers. It will receive a new bonus to missile rate of fire which combined with the significant dronebay and increased target painting bonus make the Bellicose an excellent ship for any roaming gang.

Support Cruisers

Another very exciting set of Retribution changes can be found in the Support Cruisers. These ships are currently attempting to straddle the roles of mining cruiser and support ship and generally failing at both. We’re refocusing these ships as pure support vessels that can work alongside their more expensive Logistics Ship brothers. A guiding principle in the design of the Support Cruisers is that they should be able to fit into a fleet that has a mix of T1 and T2 support vessels. When a newer player shows up to a fleet in one of these ships we expect that the FC will welcome their help rather than scorning their youth. All of these ships also benefit from the reductions in fitting requirements for medium remote reps.

• The Augoror and Osprey mirror the Guardian and Basilisk in splitting their bonuses between remote repair and energy transfers so that they can set up stable cap chains amongst themselves.

• The Exequror and Scythe mirror the Oneiros and Scimitar as pure repping platforms that combine excellent mobility with decent dronebays.

Weapons

Turrets

There are a number of changes to turret weapon fittings we are making in Retribution to go alongside the ship changes.

• All Small Focused Pulse and Beam Lasers (formerly known as Medium Pulse and Medium Beam lasers): -1 PWG and -1 CPU required

• All Focused Medium Pulse Lasers: -5% PWG required

• All Heavy Pulse Lasers: -10% PWG required

• All Cruiser Sized Beam Lasers: -10% PWG required

• All Cruiser Sized Artillery Cannons: -10% PWG required

• Alongside the change to Artillery Cannons we are removing 225 PWG from the Hurricane Battlecruiser

Missiles

• Missiles are getting sizable rebalance in Retribution, bringing Heavy Missiles in line with other weapons through reductions to their range and damage, while also removing the ship penalties from all T2 missile ammo, buffing Torpedoes, Heavy Assault Missiles, Rockets and Light Missiles, and increasing Heavy Missile velocity so that more of your missiles hit.

• All missile skills, rigs and implants will now affect all subcapital missiles across the board.

Modules

Electronic Warfare

• Along with the changes to the Ewar-wielding Disruption Frigates and Cruisers we have also made changes to the overall electronic warfare landscape in Retribution. We have added a set of new skills that increase sensor strength, allowing players to choose whether they want to prioritize defense against ECM in their skill plans. We have also reduced the range of ECM and increased the range of Sensor Dampeners. Tracking Disruptors are receiving a slight reduction in effectiveness while most dedicated Ewar ships are getting upgrades to their respective bonuses. I apologize for missing adding this section to the original publishing of the blog, it got overlooked in the mass of changes planned for Retribution. Although I will admit that screwing with Quackbot is a lot of fun.

Remote Repair Modules

• In conjunction with the newly created Support Frigate and Support Cruiser roles, we are reducing the fitting requirements on all small and medium remote reps, as well as speeding up the cycle time of small remote reps so that Support Frigates can apply their reps more quickly in the fast paced world of frigate combat.

Inferno Modules

CCP Soniclover and Team Superfriends are doing another balance pass on the special modules they introduced in Inferno, as well as adding a new module and new drone: the Micro Jump Drive and Salvage Drone!

• The Salvage Drone is a 5m3 small drone that can be set to automatically salvage legal wrecks in the vicinity so you can go about your business undisturbed. The classy drone for the distinguished mission runner.

• The Micro Jump Drive is a new propulsion module that allows a ship to teleport forward 100km. This module can be used in bubbles or while disrupted but not while warp scrambled, basically following the same rules as the existing Microwarpdrive. The MJD also has a spool up time and cooldown that must be waited between uses.

• The powerful Ancillary Shield Booster revolutionized small gang combat when it was released with Inferno, and dominated the 10^th Alliance Tournament. It is receiving a slight reduction on effectiveness with Retribution, consisting of a smaller capacity to hold fewer cap boosters, increased cap need when running without boosters, and an increase in duration for the X-large variant.

• The Reactive Armor Hardener will now react twice as quickly to incoming damage as well as costing less cap to activate as the Armor Resistance Phasing skill is trained higher.

• Finally the Target Spectrum Breaker is receiving an overhaul with reduced duration and a less severe scan resolution penalty.

Drone Modules

• The Drone Damage Amplifier that was released in Inferno is being improved to give a larger bonus to drone damage and to use less CPU for the T2 version.

• Team Five-0 is also introducing a new series of officer drone modules that can be stolen from elusive Rogue Drone Officer Units.

Thanks for sticking with us through this giant list of balance changes for the Retribution expansion. I’m very excited to see how these newly balanced ships and modules get used by all of you.

If you want to try out all these changes right now, they are live on our Buckingham public test server for your enjoyment. To help get you in the mood for new awesome Cruisers we will also be holding a special Devs vs Players brawl on Buckingham this Thursday the 15^th of November (my birthday!) starting at 16:00 EVE time. Our last Devs vs. Players event focused on frigates and was a smashing success and we expect this will be no different.

Thanks again and look for the biggest ever set of EVE balance changes coming to your computers on December 4^th with the free Retribution expansion!

Fast Forward

Hello everyone. CCP Fozzie here writing on behalf of my teammates in Game of Drones. We’ve got some updates for you all regarding our plans for Factional Warfare.

TL:DR Is that we’re accelerating some of our Factional Warfare feature changes that had been planned for Retribution and releasing those features that are ready for prime time starting with a patch on October 23.

The Story so Far

Team Game of Drones has been working on Factional Warfare (FW) iterations for quite a few months now, releasing the changes for the Inferno expansion that revitalized FW and brought in masses of players including those new to PVP and experienced players looking for a change from the status quo. As part of CCP’s continued focus on iteration and polishing our features we have also been working on a second set of iterations to Factional Warfare for the Retribution expansion.

The Factional Warfare iteration process has been a very successful example of close interaction between CCP and our amazing community. Starting from a series of FW proposals collected from the community and brought to CCP through CSM 6 and continuing through the current CSM 7 term we have been working hard to learn from the FW community and channel those lessons into a better FW system. The announcement of the overall plan for the Retribution FW iterations made in two threads on the Features and Ideas forum was the culmination of our dialogue with the FW community up to that point.

Warzone Control and System Upgrades

Rebalancing FW NPCs and Plexes

These roadmaps have received generally positive feedback and we’ve been working since then to tweak the proposal internally and with the CSM, adding new changes that the community has brought forward and removing aspects that the community has pointed out to us are flawed.

The goals of the Retribution FW revamp have been:

• Encouraging fun PVP gameplay and removing areas where the incentives discourage conflict

• Balancing the Factional Warfare benefit system that has become universally acknowledged as too lucrative considering the risk and effort involved with certain activities

• Providing new ways for players to become invested in and excited about taking territory for the glory of their chosen empire

You can see the threads linked above for details of the original Retribution plan and I’ll have some updates to it at the end of the dev blog but for now I want to fast forward to the recent weeks.

 

Fast Forward

Like I said above, the plan was to introduce these much needed community-sourced changes in the Retribution expansion alongside our upcoming changes to Bounty Hunting, Crimewatch and our unprecedented wave of ship balance changes. However more recently we have seen signs that waiting until December 4^th for all of these changes would not be in the best interest of the warzones and the game.

Since we announced the Retribution changes many players involved with Factional Warfare have let us know that the excitement and action in their warzones is trailing off quickly. The annoyance with non-combat evasion plexing alts that do not contribute anything to the fun of FW has been building, and with the inevitable decrease in income on the horizon many players have understandably focused their efforts on farming and cashing out LP instead of combat and interacting with the rest of the community. These are the problems that our Retribution changes were designed to alleviate, but players have been telling us that the situation is degrading faster than we had expected.

At the same time we have begun to see the more significant effects of the newly wealthy FW players flexing their economic muscles. Although FW is not an isk faucet and does not generate any additional isk in the economy, the influx of cheap LP store items has caused a crash in the income of some mission runners and the concentration of wealth has contributed to the rising price of PLEX on the open market. Players stockpiling PLEX have simply been responding to the economic incentives at the time in good faith, but the price rise has affected the gameplay experience for those who rely on PLEX every month for their subscription. CCP is working via a variety of methods to bring the price of PLEX down, and FW has been identified as an area that can help the process along.

Faced with the dual problems of FW stagnation and PLEX inflation we saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Team Game of Drones is still in the process of completing the FW changes for Retribution, but the specific features we already have completed internally are ones we believe will have a significant positive impact on Factional Warfare right here and now.

 

The New Hotness

Here are the feature changes we have ready to go that will be releasing with Inferno 1.3.2 tomorrow:

• Replace the LP store price reduction from War Zone Control Tiers with a LP gain bonus. This is intended to encourage the various factions to keep their systems upgraded instead of “spiking” tiers to cash out their LP on one day. You will gain the best benefits for taking, holding and upgrading territory over the long term instead of spiking up for one weekend at a time.

The actual multiplier numbers for the LP gain bonuses have been adjusted since we posted the original plan to increase the benefit at Tier 5 somewhat. All FW LP store prices will become static at the values formerly received at Tier 3 (pre-Inferno values).

Old system was:

Tier1: LP store offers 4 times more expensive, LP gains unchanged

Tier2: LP store offers 2 times more expensive, LP gains increased by 5%

Tier3: LP store offers unchanged next to pre-Inferno levels, LP gains increased by 10%

Tier4: LP store offers 2 times less expensive, LP gains increased by 15%

Tier5: LP store offers 4 times less expensive, LP gains increased by 20%

New system is:

Tier1: LP gains reduced by 50%

Tier2: LP gains staying the same

Tier3: LP gains increased by 75%

Tier4: LP gains increased by 150%

Tier5: LP gains increased by 225%

• Remove all LP rewards for completing offensive complexes in a hostile system that is fully vulnerable. Currently the optimal path for each militia is to keep most systems under hostile control so they can farm complexes. Militias even use alts in the opposite side to flip systems since holding system when you are not spiking is not optimal. This change should return some sanity to the incentive structure and help get people fighting over space instead of fighting to get rid of space.

• Add new LP rewards for defensive plexing at a reduced and variable rate. The formula here has also changed since the F&I post, and now is:

LP Gain = Base value of plex * (Contested percentage of the system/100) * 0.75

So if a system is 100% contested and you run a defensive plex you would gain 75% of the base payout for that plex type. If the system is 50% contested you would gain (0.5*0.75=0.375) 37.5% of the base payout.

• Add new LP donation tax based on each faction’s warzone control. The higher your warzone control level the more of your donations are consumed by the tax. This is in place to provide diminishing returns and to compensate for the increased LP gain from the new tier system. When reaching Tier 5 the tax would be as high as 70%.

• Increase the cost of upgrading systems and decrease the bleed-out when those systems are attacked. Currently 50% of the LP gained by offensive plexers is removed from the upgrade level of the system they plex in. We are reducing that to 10% and increasing the total LP pool for upgrading systems. This will result in systems taking twice as much LP to upgrade but also make degrading those upgrade levels take 10 times as long.

Old upgrade costs were:

Level1: 10,000 LPs

Level2: 25,000 LPs

Level3: 45,000 LPs

Level4: 70,000 LPs

Level5: 100,000 LPs

Buffer: 150,000 LPs

New upgrade costs are:

Level1: 40,000 LPs

Level2: 60,000 LPs

Level3: 90,000 LPs

Level4: 140,000 LPs

Level5: 200,000 LPs

Buffer: 300,000 LPs

• To combat the proliferation of non-combat evasion alts in plexing we will be requiring the defending NPCs to be destroyed during the course of offensive plexing. This will be implemented at this time with the current NPCs, as the new ones are not ready yet. We acknowledge that it would have been better to release the new NPCs in this patch as well but we have decided that AFK plexing was doing so much damage to the fun of the warzone and the economic impact of FW that we are best off to make the incremental change to the current system while we work hard to finish the new improved NPCs.

 

The Rest of the Plan

There are some other changes to the rest of our original roadmap that we are making after consultation with the community:

• We will be implementing a cap on the number of missions one character can have open at once. This cap will affect all Security, Distribution and Mining missions, not just FW missions. The exceptions to the limit will be Storyline, Cosmos and Epic Arc missions. The current plan is for the cap to be 5 simultaneous missions.

• We will be attempting to release two new features to the FW complexes that have been suggested many times by the FW community to increase PVP opportunities in complexes: 

• Have plex capture timers count backwards to the default state when no players are contesting them

• Have plex capture timers visible to everyone in system so you can easily tell which plexes are close to being captured.

We cannot commit 100% to getting these changes in quite yet since they were added a bit later to the plan, but we have added them to our backlog and want to get all your feedback on them.

• There is a change in the original Winter FW plan that many players have pointed out to us is flawed. This is the proposed change to make any defending player anywhere in the complex grid contest capture. We have decided that you all are correct and this change would cause more problems than it solves, so it has been removed from the plan. Thanks to everyone who took the time to help us come to that conclusion.

The rest of the plan as described in the F&I threads linked above and below is still in our backlog, and we will be working with the goal of getting as many of those changes as possible delivered to you by Dec 4^th. Expect another devblog discussing them as we get closer to release, and as always you can keep up with the latest in our changes through the official Features and Ideas forum.

 

That Was a Lot of Words

On behalf of team Game of Drones, thanks for sticking with us through this blog. We welcome your feedback on these changes in the comments thread for this blog and the two F&I threads on Tiers/Upgrades, and NPCs/Plexes. We’re committed to dialogue with the FW community as we continue the iterative process of improving Factional Warfare so don’t hesitate to get involved in the process.

We believe getting these changes out early will go a long way towards shaking up and reviving the FW warzones while also reducing pressure on the economy (most notably the price of PLEX). We will keep observing the impact from all of these changes and will keep tweaking as needed to get the best results possible.

Ahahaha just kidding moongoo is completely broken and we’re going to fix that starting in Inferno 1.2.

Disclaimer: Everything in this dev blog (just like every game change we make) is open to being changed at any point. If you dump all your isk into speculation around this blog and lose it all because we changed something again, you have only yourself to blame. Always speculate at your own risk.

Note: The details of the reactions have changed since the blog was originally published, see below for the most up to date numbers as of the release of Inferno 1.2

So by way of introduction, I’m CCP Fozzie the new game designer here at CCP. I’ve been playing EVE for years and am very excited for the chance to work alongside the great team here and in partnership with all you passionate players to make Eve Online: A Progressively Improving Game.

For those of you who are interested in how I look, I have included a picture of myself below:

Now if I’ve learned anything about prison from television (and who hasn’t), it’s that the first thing you should do when you arrive is find the biggest guy around and beat the living daylights out of him so everyone knows not to mess with you. Since I figure most imaginary prison advice should be fairly transferrable I came in here looking to find a big game problem and smack it around a bit.

Many of you will be familiar with this graph:

Over the past several months the price of the moon mineral Technetium has risen sharply, bringing some pre-existing game design issues into sharper relief. The value of these moons combined with the fact that they exist completely in one distinct region of the game has caused wealth transfers that are simply too large for the effort and risk involved. So we are going to kick Technetium in the balls.

There are more problems with our current system of moon mining and tech two production than just the price of Technetium, which is why we now have a comprehensive plan to address these issues over multiple releases. The end goal is for the materials for tech two production to come from player activities that require group gameplay and risk taking, and that provide appropriate rewards. This will eventually involve changes to both resource collection and the build requirements for construction of tech two materials and items. A responsible first step in this plan is to ensure that as much as possible the tech two components market is shielded from unnecessary price shocks.

Those of you who have been playing for a while may remember that there was a system introduced in 2008 for this exact purpose called Alchemy. It allows players to replace one moon mineral type with another in a reaction; simulating the innovation that occurs in the real world when supply of a resource is tight (the fuel conservation innovation that resulted from the 1970s oil crisis springs to mind). The details of the system are available at CCP Greyscale’s original alchemy devblog for those who are interested.

Our first step in fixing the moon mineral and tech two production economies is to expand alchemy to every applicable reaction. You will soon be able to create Platinum Technite without using Technetium if you so desire.

Most of these reactions will sit unused at any given time, and that is by design. Alchemy will kick in as a pressure valve in case prices of any moon mineral spike. As long as prices remain low there is no need to bypass the original mineral.

Since enterprising individuals will soon be able to find the details of the reactions from test patches, I’ll give the technical details of the reactions below for your perusal. Like I said above, speculating on these changes is to be done at your own risk as we reserve the right to change anything anytime should we see a good reason. You will notice that we are starting these reactions at the same conversion rate as the original alchemy instead of the conversion rate of current boosted alchemy. These ratios can and likely will change over subsequent releases as we adjust the system.

I will also repeat that this change is only the first step in our plan to revamp the methods by which the materials for tech two ships and modules are collected and used. We will be taking the time we need to do it right, but that process starts very soon in Inferno 1.2 with these alchemy changes.

If you aren’t interested in the gory details feel free to skip this next part, but for those of you who have skipped over the whole blog looking for numbers here are the most recent set of planned reactions for your mathematical enjoyment:

These reactions were adjusted on July 24th 2012 and therefore have changed since this blog was originally published.

100 Titanium	and	100 Vanadium	reacts into	1 Unrefined Vanadium Hafnite	refines into	20 Vanadium Hafnite	and	90 Vanadium
100 Cobalt	and	100 Platinum	reacts into	1 Unrefined Platinum Technite	refines into	20 Platinum Technite	and	90 Platinum
100 Scandium	and	100 Chromium	reacts into	1 Unrefined Solerium	refines into	20 Solerium	and	90 Chromium
100 Scandium	and	100 Cadmium	reacts into	1 Unrefined Caesarium Cadmide	refines into	20 Caesarium Cadmide	and	90 Cadmium
100 Evaporite Deposits	and	100 Atmospheric Gases	reacts into	1 Unrefined Hexite	refines into	20 Hexite	-	-
100 Atmospheric Gases	and	100 Tungsten	reacts into	1 Unrefined Rolled Tungsten Alloy	refines into	20 Rolled Tungsten Alloy	and	90 Tungsten
100 Evaporite Deposits	and	100 Titanium	reacts into	1 Unrefined Titanium Chromide	refines into	20 Titanium Chromide	and	90 Titanium
100 Hydrocarbons	and	100 Scandium	reacts into	1 Unrefined Fernite Alloy	refines into	20 Fernite Alloy	and	90 Scandium
100 Silicates	and	100 Cobalt	reacts into	1 Unrefined Crystallite Alloy	refines into	20 Crystallite Alloy	and	90 Cobalt

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this and all the other changes we have planned for Inferno 1.2.

CCP Fozzie

P.S. If you like this change you should click the link to the comment thread at the top of this page, find my first post in the thread and hit like.