Jester’s Trek: Quote of the Week – Christmas
QOTW this week comes (with permission) from a private chat I had over the weekend with riverini, the editor of EVE News 24. We were chatting about the CSM Summit Minutes when he remarked (edited slightly):
Is it just me… or we ain’t getting shit for Christmas?
And that question was so casually and cheerfully profane that I had to go with it. 
Now granted, the 2012 winter release is still about four months off and a lot can change between now and then. But so far, the release is looking rather light. We’re told flat-out about the expansion:
The theme for the winter expansion will continue to be ‘WAR’, or more specifically the stimulation of blowing stuff up and there are to be no ‘Jesus features’ (large new shiny features). This will allow CCP to iterate on features already in the game and lay a stronger foundation for 2013.
A careful read of the Minutes indicates that the feature list is going to look something like this:
New Features
One ORE mining frigate
Four new destroyers (one for each race)
Salvage drone
Player-to-player contracts
Iterated features
Continuing tiericide and adjustment of roles for all racial frigates
Adjustment of roles for the existing four destroyers
Ability to rename POS mods?
Iterations of the Crimewatch system (might be delayed until 2013)
Iterations on operation of Sentry guns
Iterations of the war-dec system
Iterations of the faction warfare system
Iterations of new player content/Incarna (might be delayed until 2013)
Minor iterations of the e-war HUD bar
Minor iterations on Unified Inventory
In particular, I point you to that “new player content/Incarna” work. What exactly the CSM was shown in Incarna is NDAed in the minutes (page 50). But apparently it was a first look at prototype Incarna game play… perhaps Slay or something similar? But the implication was that it’s at prototype stage and I suspect we won’t see it in December. However, other NPE content was mentioned, but perhaps this was the work already done for the August release.
The other potentially major change affecting a lot of players are the Crimewatch updates, but it was emphasized that these updates might not see the light of day in 2012. CCP will be playing that one by ear and deciding whether or not to release it based on the state it’s in as December approaches.
As for the rest, any way you look at it, it’s kind of a short list. It also doesn’t lend itself well so far to a marketing campaign. How do you sell this list to new players? What on this list encourages unsubbed players to resubscribe?
In short, what are we getting for Christmas? So far, it looks like austerity isn’t just for government budgets.
Last christmas…
"In short, what are we getting for Christmas?"
You mean "what is nullsec getting for christmas". I think you underestimate the appeal of new mining ships and salvaging drones to the highsec crowd. I know former eve mining players who are psyched about coming back into the game now that mining actually pays out decently and they get new ships.
Biggest mining changes hit tomorrow not in winter expansion unless ur that psyched about mining frigate (which as a miner i dont care much for). Might be nice to run into ls/null but as it stands its more profitable (and tomorrow much safer) to stay in high sec and mine low end ore which are worth more these days other then A (unless prices plummet with new these changes).
eager to see the extended "incarna gameplay" and what it will bring but sounds more like christmas 2013…
5 new ships and a band-aid on the bleeding chestwound that is criminal cooldown?
I'm fine with that.
Sounds like were getting coal in our Eve Christmas socks
Salvage drones while ratting in a Carrier…..WINNING!
I'm quite happy with whats coming. I've been very happy with the last set of frigate and destroyer changes and I'm very excited to see their next iteration. New destroyers, merry fucking Christmas indeed. Also, CCP is fixing a lot of long shelved issues. Everyone's so negative, I am super excited that they are focusing on spaceships, and fixing shitty interface and mechanics. This is what everyone was bitching that they wanted during the Jita Riots.
Also, in the CSM minutes there was a bit of vague talk about Cruiser re-balancing? FUCK YEAH, I'd love to see more cruisers brought up to par with the Rupture. The Bellicose, caracal, moa, scythe, celestis, omen, (and others) could all be really solid ships if they get a little love and some bonus changes. They are talking about adding grid/cpu, some speed, and extra slots, which is exactly what most of these ships need. Many of the cruisers with ewar bonuses cant even use them because they lack slots or grid/cpu, and cruisers should be much faster than they are. Ideally they should be closer to a destroyer in speed, right now they are close to BC speed. With the exception of the caldari cruisers, most T1 cruisers in the game are only fast enough when shield tanked, which gives them 1/2 the ehp of a solid armor tank (and armor tanking slows them down to BC speeds)
Besides, even if you have no interest in ships below the BC level, at least be glad that once this stuff is out of the way that BC's and up will be getting some much needed attention.
If you're bitching about what CCP is working towards right now, you're a fucking idiot.
Eve players acting like spoiled children? Shocking. Here is a video depicting the gratefulness of your average Eve player.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFMs2w9Qexg&fe…
Chribba needs a say in the name of the new ORE frigate, or at least a mention for Otherworld in its description. The King of Veld could not be honoured for his vast contributions to the game any better way, in my humble opinion.
Looking at the pics of it so far, I assume it's called 'Digger'
The ORE Chribba Frigate
I thought i read something about "Station walking", like to repair stuff on the outside of the station.
Maybe it was supposed to be NDA'ed, or i was dreaming.
How far back did the whole "walking in stations" thing get pushed?
never back far enough
You are right that is the truth
Well, they had me at "salvage drones".
Go away, Jester. Nobody really gives a shit about your blogs or quotes.
Go away, Mittani. Nobody really gives a shit about your blogs or quotes.
Incarna Gameplay?: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajnxq65D220
*sighs*
No thanks CCP, I don't want it. If others do, I hope they get what they want and it's everything they hoped it could be.
Working on spaceships is good, mmkay?
Agreed. We finally got CCP to stop adding features then forgetting about that. STFU, keep the focus, keep driving CCP to take whats in game and make it better and playable.
*chant* no new Jesus features for 2013…
EVE still has a metric shit ton of features that need iterated on before CCP goes all 'o, something shiny' on us with Incarna…
Salvage Drones ? Can we assume that Noctis will get a drone bay then ?:D
Would be nice if it had one, but then it would be able to fit for offense and defend itself. And we just must have defenseless ships in this game…
Thats an easy fix, you just give Noctis super small Drone Bandwidth, give the salvage drones large bandwidth, then add a -200% bandwidth need for slavage drone on the noctis itself. Much like how covert ops get a reduction in CPU need for cover ops modules.
they're focusing on fixing broken content rather than adding more broken content to further break the game, i think theyre doing it right
So, when Jesus features occur Jester cries, when it doesn't Jester cries. You just have way too heavy expectations about how much CCP size gaming company can do in six months. It's either Jesus or iteration, not both.
Even if it could potentially sound perverted: Snowballing FTW!
Salvage drones seems like an awesome addition! Inb4 drop in prices of rigs due to more salvaged mission wrecks.
No jesus features but 4 new destroyers announced…Sounds like a new jesus feature to me. Wake up winkies. Its right there in text.