The 19th episode of CCP’s o7 show has come and gone, and while the general consensus on Reddit seems to be that not much in the way of actual information was included in the latest episode, there were a few things that may be of interest to capsuleers looking for the most up-to-date scoop on upcoming features.
As always, the most recent show included the usual market updates and null sec round-up (which I won’t try and parse here since EN24 has other writers far better suited for that), as well as info about upcoming changes to the Eve UI, a meet-and-greet with the commentators for this year’s Alliance Tournament, an update from the CSM summit, and more details about how trial accounts (soon to be known as Alpha Clones) will be handled after the November update.
If you’ve been under a pile of rocks the past few weeks, here are the basics about Alpha Clones: The old trial accounts are out, and a new dual clone state system is in (or will be in November, CCP willing). Omega Clones are exactly like the current subscription system, nothing really interesting or new there. The Alpha clone system is where things start to change.
Instead of non-subscribed players having to use a “try-Eve” link to grant a new toon a finite amount of time to give Eve a try, all non-subscribed / non-PLEXED characters will be in the new Alpha Clone state which will allow them to use a race-locked, limited number of skills to play as long as they want. This limited skill set sounds like it will include tech one ships up to cruisers, and will include a smattering of Tech 2 items in addition to Tech 1 modules.
CCP Rise (left) and CCP Cognac discuss upcoming changes to clone states
In the recent episode of the o7 show CCP Rise and CCP Cognac explained the rationale behind the Alpha clones. In creating the new Alpha Clone system, CCP has endeavored to strike a balance between non-paying, non-plexing players having just enough of the game available to them to get a real sense of what Eve is, but not enough for them to have a real impact on New Eden overall. Clearly, CCP is hoping that giving new players as much time as they need to immerse themselves in the complexities of New Eden will persuade a significant number to upgrade to the less restricted (and more fun) Omega Clone experience.
Cognac and Rise also briefly seemed to address possible problems with ganking Catalysts being available to Alpha Clones. They acknowledged that issues could arise from this, but suggested that CCP will be taking a wait-and-see approach to this issue. They also indicated that some kind of balancing change may be made to the ship at a later time if the need becomes apparent.
Moving on, the information from the recent CSM summit meeting in Iceland was pretty light and consisted mostly of each of the CSM members briefly commenting on the lack of inter-council hostilities present in the most recent meetings. It sounds like the New Play Experience that the CSM had a chance to check out while on site at CCP games in Reykjavik is promising, but we’ll have to wait on any further details about this feature since none were forthcoming in this episode of the o7 show. You can read more about this summit in another great Eve News 24 article.
The Prosper Market Brief contained the usual charts and graphs tracking the trends and economic shifts in New Eden, with the main takeaways being the following: PLEX prices are on the rise with no signs of a slowdown, things are looking bleak for skill-farmers, overall trades and ISK velocity (yeah, I don’t really know what that is either; this link might help) is heating up, PVP activity is also on the rise as summer draws to a close, and the Gnosis market is fluctuating wildly as speculators react to Alpha Clone implications and the ship’s inclusion in the upcoming gifts from CCP.
Lastly, a quiet exploit on refining T2 capital ammo was identified, and closed recently but the resulting artificial price hike on Fullerides (the post-refining material that was being over generated due to this bug) seems to be sticking around for the time being.
In Alliance Tournament News, CCP Logibro, CCP Games head of Esports, gave us a quick breakdown of the upcoming tools available to teams practicing for the upcoming Alliance Tournament XIV, and announced that the same tools would also be available in the near future to other organizations looking to run their own tournaments.
Also, the much maligned CCP Fozzi rehashed the rules and changes for the upcoming Alliance Tournament, but it wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard before in previous updates. You can get more information about Alliance Tournament XIV in this Eve News 24 post.
A look at the ghost fitting tool
Next, CCP Lebowski walked us through a new upcoming feature called Ghost Fitting, which will be available on the test server soon. Ghost Fitting is, simply put, like having Pyfa or EFT built into the Eve UI Fitting tool as it allows capsuleers to try out any module on any ship in a simulated fitting environment to see how the potential fit would perform with their skills. As in the commonly used out-of-game fitting tools, players won’t need to have skilled into the ships or modules in question to play around with them in the Ghost Fitting Tool. Check the video link at the end of this article for more information.
Finally, it was what was left out of the show that seems to have players talking the most, as any information about the upcoming industrial arrays and engineering platforms was conspicuously absent.
CCPlease.
Want to check out the full version of the o7 show? – Click Here
Interested in the Ghost Fitting Tool? – Click Here
How about the abridged version of the o7 show? – Click Here
