Today, September 29th, 2015, CCP brings to capsuleers their latest release Vanguard. This release includes several interesting changes, including a buff for battlecruisers, but maybe the most notable change being the death of the “trollceptor”.
As of today, Entosis Links may no longer be fit to interceptor class vessels, removing the harassment tactic of fitting an overpowered propulsion mod and an entosis link, combined with the interceptor’s built in ability to ignore any type of area warp disruption, and using it to effectively avoid tackle while entosising all the things.
CCP has apparently made this change in response to much protest and drama from the playerbase regarding these ships being used, and this nerf to interceptors replaces a CCP proposed limit on maximum speed limit on interceptors to 4000m/s when an entosis link is fitted. On day 1, with the patch having just hit, it seems to early to speculate on the results of these changes, so we’ll have to Save That for Later™.
Vanguard has also brought us the new multi-buy feature, similar to the recently released multi-sell. As of this writing, CCP has pulled this feature from the release. We’re told that it should be back by tomorrow, presumably once they finish deleting all the petitions from those pilots who didn’t check the market average “over-under” percentages while the feature was active.
As part of improving the new player experience, new characters created after this release will have approximately 400,000 sp as a base, rather than the previous 50,000. The new character’s skillpoints will be placed in skill to help them get into equipment faster. New characters created in the weeks prior are expected to receive bonus unplaced skillpoints to bring them up to parity with those created from this point forward. (Yay for instant cyno alts!).
For a long time, jumping a ship through a gate or a wormhole has given pilots a “gate cloak” that lasts 30 seconds. Up until today, to keep track of this, you would have to time it yourself. Now, it;s displayed along with the crimewatch and fatigue timers at the top left of your display. Fleet lemmings, please take note, you now know exactly how long you have until the FC either jumps in to save you, or allows you to die horribly.
Related to the jump cloak timer, Vanguard brings polarization timers to wormholes in space. For those who don’t play in W-space, the polarization timer prevents a ship from jumping through the same wormhole more than twice within a five-minute time period. Previously, this was a timer pilots had to track on their own, with the only sure way to check being to attempt to jump through the wormhole. If your timer wasn’t up and you tried to jump, a message would display giving you the time remaining.
Finally, probably the largest set of changes, a buff to all battlecruiser class hulls. Following a nerf to battlecruisers several years back, and arguably long overdue, every hull in the class including Navy and Fleet versions has gained range, falloff and drone bonuses for their respective racial preferences, and augmented speed, agility and capacitor capabilities. With these changes, one has to wonder if it’s now ok to ask: “FC, can I bring a drake?”
Oh, and let’s not forget the Festival launcher no longer needs a hardpoint to mount. This means you can add them to fits that have any high slot open. Great for baiting, but also great for Signal Cartel who often uses these in their “hug” fleets against war targets.
You can find the patch notes for Vanguard here, including the new stats, all the bugfixes, etc.
