Ecliptic Rift

I haven’t posted a lot lately, for reasons unrelated to recent EVE drama (about which I do not intend to say more, because I’ve grown tired of the back and forth). Between illness in the family—nothing serious—and some business travel, I haven’t even played as much as I’d like. That probably reflects a healthier approach, to tell the truth, since my play sessions seem to have both shortened and grown less frequent. And when I have played, I’ve started to move away from my traditional science / industry / trading activity. I still do some of that, of course, but just as a sideline.

First, I purchased a character as a “fixer upper,” with the idea of correcting some flaws in its training and reselling. Evidently the previous owner hadn’t always taken care to update the medical clone after losing a pod, so the character has some holes in it. That should come to fruition in the 4th quarter this year. In the meantime, the character has started to repair its security status through some nullsec ratting and such.

My focus, however, has come to rest on my high sec pirate: salvaging and scavenging (looting) with an eye to eventually shooting down mission runners and miners. Other, more evil plans have started to take shape as well, but no action on them yet. I’ll have more to say about that once I get a better idea of what I actually intend to do about them…

I’ve just gotten tired of EVE feeling like a job: “I need to log in and check my orders and restart my extractors and haul to market and decide what to produce next and…” Flying around deadspace in a Vigil to find the most valuable pickings, while dodging lasers and blasters? Much more fun. And then trying to do so in a way that keeps me from losing my ship to vengeful mission runners? Way more interesting than throwing up my hands in frustration at traders who destroy everybody’s margins.

So I will keep drifting to the darker side of EVE. After all, it should feel like a game, not practice for RL, right?

NB: For context, see parts 1, 2, and 3.

Devoid Region
Arzad Solar System

Flames trailed from the Vigil-class frigate’s engine nacelles as the docking bag tractor beams nudged it into the right inbound vector.

A cold, hostile voice spoke over the traffic control frequency. “Arzad 8 24IC station to TLF Vigil… prepare for magnetic clamps… engaged.”

Inside her control suit, submerged in her capsule, Casiella shuddered involuntarily. After this fourth try to capture a facility in Devoid, she’d not managed anything beyond three destroyed Vigils and what would probably turn into a repair bill. Outrunning the large battleships while she tried to take over the local mainframe infrastructure came naturally, but when they deployed their Executioner-class frigates, the Vigil just couldn’t dodge the pulse lasers well enough. For once, she’d gotten away without ending up in her pod, but that didn’t mean much, really.

As the gantry lifted her pod, she reflected on her next steps. Maybe she should try to gather a small militia squadron for help? At a minimum, she could use one other capsuleer to provide a diversion, distracting the response forces while she got in close for a few minutes and worked over the control systems. That would have to wait, though, while she disengaged from the hydrostatic capsule itself.

Goo dripped off her suit as she looked around for directions to the pilot showers. She could hear shouting down the corridor, but shrugged it off. Capsuleers had free run of all stations in CONCORD-controlled space, even if the station owners held their own corporations in a state of war. This didn’t work so well out in nullsec, but here, even though her corp had officially registered with the Tribal Liberation Front, the 24th Imperial Crusade would leave her alone.

A small blinking light caught her attention. “Blasted meatsuits. Never quite work correctly…” For a moment, she swore to have this clone biomassed rather than go see a medical tech about the eyes.

The blinking light expanded into a full warning symbol and a voice spoke in her ear. “Emergency: please return to your capsule immediately.” Her clone didn’t have a biological defect at all. No, the sensory implants tied directly to her visual cortex notified her of an impending…

CRASH!

A doorway at the end of the hall burst open. Grim-faced 24IC marines aimed their weapons at her. “Station security! Get down on the ground immediately! NOW NOW NOW!”

Casiella ducked instinctively back around the corner into the small bay where her capsule waited. She slammed the control panel and a set of blast doors closed behind her, forming a small iris as they did so. Stomping boots and angry voices convinced her that she didn’t have much time. She pointed at a medical drone. “Get me hooked up.”

“Right away, captain.”

The door sizzled as the security guards prepared to breach it. As soon as the medical drone connected the neural interface to the socket at the base of her skull, she immediately brought up her pod’s navigation systems and laid in a course.

She skipped the preflight checklist and held her breath for a single heartbeat. As soon as the guards forced open the blast doors, she engaged the pod’s impulse engines. Fire and noise bathed the small docking bay. Could she hear screams as the pod lifted back into the traffic pattern?

Probably just her imagination. She’d check the recordings once she reached Abudban.

Her facial expression alone could have cleared the way through a battalion of Kameiras.

Casiella stormed down a corridor, following a small projected arrow on the walls back to her hangar. Pools of shadows and light blended together, obscuring the worn and corroded texture of the walls and floors. At one junction, Jorunn waited for her. The two women looked into each other’s eyes for a moment and their countenances blazed. After the moment passed, they began to walk together towards the hangar.

Finally, the Krusual woman spoke. “You could have handled that a bit better.”

Casiella flared her nostrils but said nothing in response.

“Really, you’ve brought this upon us. But I have an idea to save our relationship with the TLF, and I’ve already drafted an order for six Vigil-class frigates in Rens…”

At this, the petite capsuleer whirled and glared with white-hot anger at the scarred woman towering over her. She kept her voice low and restrained despite the look on her face. “Should you be doing that?”

Jorunn drew herself to her full height and bunched her eyebrows together, with a concomitant effect on the scars and birthmarks across her face and around her head. “If you want the Republic to work with you, you’ll need to work with them. And those military complexes out in Devoid and the Bleak Lands won’t capture themselves.”

The two stood in stark silence for several minutes before Casiella turned again, leaving Jorunn standing behind her. The taller woman waited for several moments before a flickering indicator on her datapad drew her out of angered reverie.

“Flight plan laid in for Rens… she does listen. Sometimes.”

CCP announced a call for candidates for the Fourth Council on Stellar Management recently. I don’t have any intention of running at this time, but I have thought about what I’d like to see in a candidate. I’ve heard that parties, or at least shared platforms, may have started to develop among players. In lieu of that (at least for now), two areas concern me principally.

Immersion

I care about the “Prime Fiction,” EVE canon lore and background. I care a great deal about feeling that we inhabit this fictional universe. Note that this doesn’t always require roleplay, though that certainly can contribute. CCP has already noted that they will fix the “corrupt” astronomical data, which provides a great example of what I mean by this. So I want to see candidates that care about immersion.

In particular, I want CSM candidates who will champion player participation in the storyline. We may not have the outsize influence that Tibus Heth does, but we want to feel that what we do matters. The STPRO defeat of the FDU and subsequent moving of Caldari megacorps into Gallente low-sec has started to light the way, and hopefully we will see that increase. In fact, factional warfare could use a good dose of immersion, because the problems with plexes (speed-tanking Vigils, anyone?) really disrupt this feeling.

I also want to see the CSM continue to address faction standings recovery so that players can align with the so-called “pirate factions” even after having run missions for some time. Note that I don’t think that CCP should make it easy, just possible.

And of course the CSM needs to keep an open dialogue with CCP on Incarna (ambulation / “walking in stations”). We’ve started to hear that it should come in a 2010 release, but we need to understand this vastly increased scope, what it will mean, and how it will grow the player base and allow us to inhabit New Eden more fully.

Mechanics

Of course, I love the game itself of EVE Online, too. In addition to the FW mechanics I mentioned, we need further low-sec upgrades, perhaps a scaled-down version of  the nullsec changes coming in Dominion or more. Moving level 4 agent missions to low-sec might play a part in this, but the fixes to low-sec should encompass much more. I don’t have all the answers, but I want CSM members who understand the issues and believe in the value that low-sec space can bring to EVE.

In general, I want CSM members who believe in boosting over nerfing. For example, rather than nerfing ECM and jamming, let’s see target painting get upgrades. As players come forward with reasonable arguments about what doesn’t work, fix those things rather than bring down the competition. We want to feel awesome, not mundane.

I’d like to see the CSM push for more ship types, both factional and T2. Factional battlecruisers, another class of T2 destroyers, and something based on the tier 3 battleships  (a glaring hole). EVE has tremendous variety in the sandbox, but I want to see more.

So who will stand?

Image credits Bruno Postle, arnaud bertrande, and tim_d via Flickr

As promised, I took a deeper look at the navy frigate changes coming with Dominion, the EVE Online expansion in winter 2009. CCP wants to beef them up and turn them into something like a hybrid of assault frigates and interceptors. Due to the depth of the analysis, I’ve chosen to break it up into four separate articles. This first article will examine the Republic Fleet Firetail.

Speed Considerations

Historically, the Firetail has been one of the fastest T1 frigates around, and its popularity largely rested on this (in addition to the aesthetic appeal).

The old base speed of 357 m/s and 5% bonus per level of Minmatar Frigate gave it a top speed of about 446 m/s with Minmatar Frigate V (not counting additional navigation skills or equipment). In Dominion, CCP will remove the speed bonus but boost the base speed to 410 m/s, faster than all the other naval frigates. The Firetail also will get a slightly higher inertia modifier (3.2 instead of 3.1), which keeps it as one of the more ponderous frigates in terms of align time.

Other Minmatar T1 frigates will beat it, though not by much: the Slasher has a base speed of 419 m/s, and the Vigil has a 5% bonus per level to boost its 353 m/s speed, so it tops out at about 441 m/s. Additionally, the Atron only loses 1 m/s to the new Firetail, but has about 2/3 the inertia, so it’s a good bit quicker. This drops the Firetail to third in terms of raw speed among all T1 frigate hulls, with the Atron close on its heels in a fight. Then again, none of those ships can match the Firetail in sheer firepower.

Design

CCP will drop a high slot and add a medium slot on the Firetail, so that the ship will end up having a 3/4/3 layout. With the addition of a full 20% damage per level, those two turrets effectively become 4, though. This ends up giving the Firetail more firepower than the long-time favorite Rifter, with its relatively-paltry 5% bonus per level. A substantial boost in CPU (125 to 140 TF) and minor powergrid upgrade (38 to 39 MW) will also allow a great deal more flexibility in the fitting. Perhaps pilots will add a bit of shield tank  (e.g. afterburner, stasis webifier, warp scrambler, and shield booster in the mids) and add some propulsion boosts like inertia stabilizers,  ODIs, or nanofiber internal structures in the lows. The capacitor drops from 325 to 250 GJ, but recharge time also drops from 234.38 to 187.5 seconds.

Time will tell whether Minmatar militia pilots end up using these gems in greater numbers, as they have costs similar to T2 frigates but can enter minor facilities. Essentially, she won’t be quite as quick but even meaner than before, so the cost/benefit ratio will improve considerably.

Tomorrow: the Caldari Navy Hookbill.