Voices From The Void: Episode 6

Check it out!

News Update

If you're reading this, it's an article that I've posted on Eve News 24, which is back up for now.

I want to say, first and foremost, this is not some sort of “We’re back and this time for good” kind of thing. The news is back on. Let stick with that for now.

Been a fun last month and a half for all you news addicts out there. For those of you in the know, a few major news happenings have gone unreported, and I’d like to catch you up.

Drone Alliance Stopped at Tribute’s Door

Lets talk about the Drone Alliance Invasion first. Anyone who has the ability to load up dotlan(or the ingame map for that matter) has realized that the regions of Geminate and Vale of the Silent have fell to the Drone Alliance forces. R.A.G.E is down to about a thousand people, from a high of four thousand only a month ago. The alliance is dying quite quickly, but the only question left is if they’ll go all the way to disbanding. I think not, but it’s too early to tell.

Majesta is, as of this article still holding strong(they’ve only lost a third of their players so far), and I get the feeling they’ll be deploying elsewhere as an additional feint sometime soon. Basing out of Curse, they could do some real damage to the Drone Russian Federation heartland, and while the Charlie Foxtrot is hitting Cobalt Edge periodically, it could cause the Drone Alliance to start prioritizing defenses. This also assumes Against All Authorities is going to stop in Detorid, and if they face absolutely no resistance there, they have no reason to stop.

As for the Tribute battles, the stalemate has commenced. While the Drone Alliance has had some serious successes in the individual battles, they’ve lost or refused to engage during the important ones. No stations have been successfully won by the Drone Alliance. This is in large part due to the interference of the CF coalition from the west. Now that they’ve stalled their forward momentum, the DA is turning inward and consolidating their new acquisitions.

RaidenDOT, Red Alliance, and Solar seem to’ve split up Geminate already. The systems have settled down. Pandemic Legion doesn’t appear to be gaining any permanent space in this conflict. Any systems they’ve taken have been given over to the other players. Looks like they’re only in it for the money and the killmails, as only PL would be. Even NCDOT looks to be gaining some space in Vale of the Silent, which looks to be split mostly between White Noise and RaidenDOT.

The Effects of the War In the North

Now these movements all mean a number of other things in regard to the actors involved. NCDOT has mostly abandoned Providence, which sees a resurgent CVA taking space once more. White Noise has abandoned it’s Tenerifis holdings and is putting up at best a token defense of it’s core Detorid space. They’ve gone all in on Vale, and if the tide turns, they’ll be without space quite quickly. Taking it back will require all their force, since they’d be facing a combined AAA/Stainwagon force, which they could conceivably beat back, but not very quickly.

As White Noise loses it’s space in the south, the allies of AAA find themselves gaining more than just a foothold, with whole constellations being doled out. Formerly minor powers are quickly establishing themselves as mid-majors in the bid to be noticed when more space gets handed out. There’s movement, but without the resistance of WN or the greater DRF, it’s mostly peaceful.

The NCDOT/Evoke feint in Pure Blind, has been successfully beaten. At no point was it more than a distraction, but if you lived in Vale or Geminate under the NC, it was a successful one. NCDOT has been participating fully in the DRF invasion lately.

RED.OverLord has an Executor Corp Now!

RED.OverLord has finally set a new executor corp as well, after the previous one was completely banned from the game in the wake of the Big Bas scandal. This is pretty good news for anyone who’s been wanting standings set during the Tenerifis and Detorid war.

Everything Else

So that’s where we stand now, if you live in Delve and Querious, I apologize, but the only accurate descriptor for your conflicts are “shitty little wars”. When that heats up, or some of the more major players get involved, fine. But for now, we’ll let that go.

So now you’re up to date, and you’ll have some context for the next news story to come across your desk in the next few days. If you’ve got a tidbit of information(Battle Reports, Other kinds of news) you want to share, message me ingame at Hallan Turrek, and I’ll run with it.

Voices From The Void: Episode 5

I'd like to direct you to the latest podcast, and the parody song contained within. Enjoys.

Oh, and read my post on this page(it's about three or four posts down), I'm a fucking prophet. 2 1/2 months ago and I had this whole war pegged. Also, Majesta Forum dump. Love those guys, but seriously Trina screwed 'em hard and good.

What is this, I don't even

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the kingdoms throne
The Impressions - People Get Ready

So. This new little things patch is another nerf to 0.0 life. I'm not calling it a good or a bad thing, but I am pointing it out.

Now you might be asking... "What are you talking about Hallan, heck, now we can find anomolies in 10 seconds and from anywhere in the solar system!". Guess who else can find them? The red that just jumped his interceptor into system. This, coupled with the true sec nerf has really hit the anomaly runners hard. As if it wasn't bad enough to only have one Sanctum in certain systems, now if you're trying to run it, you'll be tackled in 30 seconds when a red enters system.

Don't forget the true sec nerf either, this is coming very shortly after most of Null-Sec became terrible for running anomalies.

I like this all of this to a point(for entirely selfish reasons). I gave up running anomolies a long time ago, because they were too easy to find. Now they're even easier... and I know the profit margins haven't gone up. Now if you're lost among the Hubs or whatever, you'll probably have time enough to get away. If you're planning on running Sanctums, you're in more danger than if you were in an asteroid belt. Havens are about equally as dangerous as belts. Only they take much longer to finish off.

So now you have to pay attention, there is no other option. This is good and bad, as that's how it's sorta supposed to be. If you don't pay attention to local, you deserve to get killed. This also kills any safety Carriers had. They better be fucking aligned and paying goddamned attention, or they will get tackled and die. End of story.

So is this good or bad? It's neutral. People will still do the stupid stuff, and they'll still die. Now they'll die more often, and hopefully it'll only be my enemies and neutrals, and not my blues.

But how often does that work out?

The other half of the spectrum is the boost to mission runners. The reduction of agent types to just 3, with combat, mining, and courier... that removes some of the more serious barriers to entry in missioning. You want to mine? You can mine. You want to run couriers? Go ahead.

You want endless combat missions? Go for it.

If that wasn't enough, there's no difference between agents of similar level. If you could run any level 4's before, you can run all of them now. And you get paid like you're running for Quality 20.

CCP's been listening to the "it's too easy in 0.0" arguments. Made by the same people who run level 4 missions all day long under the protection of Concord.

0.0 just got punked by a bunch of carebears.

Other important changes include the blueprint copy changes(you can tell them apart now! Amazing! Even the devblog wonders why they weren't always like this). Oh, and simplier social skills. Awesome.

The one thing in this patch that was certifiably awesome(having bookmarks on the overview), got pushed back to the next patch.

Voices From The Void: Episode 4

Episode 4 is out. Check it out!

And on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPGHrg2jz3I

Why CCP Should Fix Jump Bridges Even As They Nerf Them

Oh, life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

So if you came here expecting anything other than the name of the post, you'll probably be rewarded.

I rant sometimes.

Lets begin.

For anyone who is unaware of how jump bridges work, lemme break it down for you. In order to use a jump bridge, you need to know the POS password of the POS it's next too. Now, that don't make any goddamned sense, but bear with me.

This means you need to have at least one POS in the system with a public password. Jump Bridges don't let you through if you don't have the right standings, but you still need a password. There is no option to just allow standings to determine who uses it. That's pretty fucked up when you consider the scale some alliances work on, but bearable, since Jump Bridges do allow logistics to be incredibly easy.

Jump Bridges also cost 300 million per month per system. Particularly complicated networks cost billions. This is also bearable, since for 300 million a month, you can connect to two systems at once, and are afforded incredibly easy logistics. Anyone else starting to see a pattern here?

Cyno Jamming costs 600 million a month. That's effing expensive, but worth it on a high value system. Jump Bridges allow you to get capitals in that are friendly, without needing to turn off the Cyno Jamming. This is an incredibly useful and very common sense approach. If you're friendly, I should be able to let your capitals into my system.

So, CCP naturally says that Jump Bridges are too easy, and nerf them. Now, let me be clear, jump bridges needed a change, and this is a far cry from how far I thought they were going to go, but come on CCP: You need to wake up. You want to nerf JB's: fine. But in the same patch, in the same goddamned patch, you need to fix all of the issues with POS's, standings, and the like.

If you're going to nerf things, fix these things too:

1: Allow Jump Bridge owners the option of allowing for no password.
2: Allow POS's to allow people inside based on standings alone.
3: Allow jumping to Cyno Beacons in Cynojammed systems.
4: If you're halving the number of available Jump Bridges in any system upgraded for them, half the cost of the upkeep too. (Seriously, this is a "duh" moment if there ever was one).

Do that, AND nerf jump bridges the way you outlined, and you and I don't have a problem CCP.

With this following on the heels of the True Sec nerf, you need to give the 0.0 guys something or they will be out for blood. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This is a long time coming... all of it.

Voices From The Void: Episode 3

Here she is. Enjoy.

ENN will be on hold until EN24 comes back up. I cover the news pretty well in VandV.