Empyrean Age expansion (since nobody else mentioned it)

[Endie]

From this excellent and reputable source (ie I can't be arsed writing it twice:)

Like a good (occasional) PvP gang leader searching for an edge, I ordered the Eve Maps product a couple of weeks ago.  Upon enquiring as to why I had had no delivery, I received an email, part of which said:

"..due to the release of The Empyrean Age expansion in a few months, there will be new content added to the game, and we want to ensure the first edition of EVE Maps will be as up to date as possible. The delay will be no more than two to three weeks. CCP has released the data for this new content to us, and we are frantically updating to ensure you are ahead of the game."

Will this new content be new regions?  A radical new game mechanic that makes a noticeable difference to the maps (possibly involving some version of the touted change to asteroid belts spawning and despawning rather than being in static locations)?  Or just a rebalancing aimed at reducing lag, with further shuffling-about of belts, agents or stations?

With the titular reference to the Empyrean Age - an upcoming expansion whose theme may be factional warfare - my guess is that it will be a combination of the asteroid change with enhanced factional sovereignty attributes.  The expansion is tied in with a book of the same title, by Tony Gonzales.  Given the average quality of MMO tie-in product, I shudder to think.

So, let the second-guessing begin!

The factional warfare, as I noted before, will be A Good Thing if we're still with Aegis Militia, since we can go NROMOGDSI (Not Red Or Minmatar Or Gallente Don't Shoot It) in lowsec Minmatar/Gallente missioning areas.  This is semi-official already, from the CVA fora.

Edit, added the missing "D" for "Don't" in my mangled version of NRDS, as per Ajax's bug report from the post's UAT phase.

[ajax34i]

You mean ROMOGSI (if it's red, minmatar, or gallente, shoot it).  Is the CVA going to put its Gallente and Minmatar citizens in internment camps while they embark on this war?  Heh heh.

I think we can stay SOR (shoot only reds), because they'll probably make it so if you're blue to one faction (with high standings) you're red to the other, and add these faction-based colors to the overview.

It'll be interesting to see the exact reasons why each empire goes to war; I doubt they'll be clear cut morally.

Finally, no source, but I think they will re-arrange Empire space to be 4 pockets of high sec separated by huge swaths of low sec (warzone sec), and add a ton of star systems in the middle, which means the warzone will be far from Providence.  Don't how much interest there is in it (will all the alliances abandon their spaces to go fight in the wars. f.ex?), but 0.0 should remain the same, and may even become a haven for refugees (if the empires slap down an 80% tax on everything and install martial law, all industry and trade should move to the low-tax 0.0, and we'll be flooded cause we allow neutrals - we should look into setting up a station, heh).

EDIT / PS: I really expect a war from CCP, though.  As in, a war that progresses, with changing fronts and Empires switching alliances and all that.  And the Caldari will win, due to numbers, anyway.

[Nerf]

words

*GLEE!*

[bhodi]

here's the eve-o thread - A few important bits in there that haven not been mentioned yet:

CCP confirms that eve-maps are getting an advanced preview of the new regions. (bob, that is).
CCP also leaks that the new regions will not be 0.0.

[lac]

That mynas guy could use some help.

[Endie]

That mynas guy could use some help.

He's right.  For maintaining at least the appearance of probity CP should have had a veeery different approach to this.  Don't forget (assuming you know) how Bob came to settle in Delve: fore-knowledge of system data changes.

[lac]

For maintaining at least the appearance of probity CP should have had a veeery different approach to this.

I'm pretty sure CCP goes :rolleyes: everytime a board post brings up BoB favoritism but doesn't take it into consideration one way or the other.
In this case they, rightly, gave advance notice of this to one of their approved sideproducts. Unfortunately the map maker in question turns out to affiliated with BoB. Even if they had looked into it beforehand, and realised the drama potential, they most likely would have gone ahead because they felt they were doing 'the right thing'.

[Endie]

The extent to which you're wrong is contained in the scrambling CCP responses in that thread, which already contain more concrete information about the release than was included in the official release.

Amazingly, CCP clearly still don't get the importance of not even being suspected of helping out their buddies.  I'm not saying that Serenity Steele is feeding info to Bob.  I suspect that he's not: no tinfoil here.  But they have to adopt the Caesar's wife approach to appearances.

[lac]

CCP clearly still don't get the importance of not even being suspected of helping out their buddies

Oh they get it alright, they can't be that thick (can they?). I think they are exhibiting that wonderful Scandinavian trait where the person in question will be perfectly aware of what you want from him but will pretend to be totally oblivious to it, both because he feels he is right and also because he's too polite to tell you to shove off and go mind you own business.

[lac]

New York Comic Con: EVE Online - Empryian Age Expansion
At New York Comic Con, Managing Editor Jon Wood caught up with CCP designer Matt Woodward to talk about the recently announced EVE expansion, "Empyrian Age".

Yesterday, MMORPG.com news Manager Keith Cross talked about EVE Online and their Ambulation project that will eventually see players able to get out of their ships and interact as characters rather than as space ships. While that’s all fine and good, and will undoubtedly add a lot to the sandbox game, but we’ve heard about Ambulation before. Turns out that there’s a new kid on the block that we haven’t talked about yet and that’s exactly why I sat down with EVE designer Matthew Woodward at NY Comic Con.
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When CCP launched their last expansion, Trinity, players were treated to all kinds of new stuff, not the least of which was a major graphical upgrade that saw the realism of EVE kicked up a few notches. This time, with the announcement of the follow-up expansion, Empyrian Age, the developers are adding to the story of the game and the depth of the universe by starting a great war between four empires.

“A war between empires?” You ask, “but isn’t EVE all about war, pretty much all the time?” Well, yes, but this is the first time that individual players and even entire player corporations will have a chance to unite under an NPC banner to wage an even bigger war.

“Empyrian Age is the first expansion that we’ve really been building the story into things,” said Woodward. “We’ve got [an author] who has written us a novel of the same name and it’s about four big empires who exist in a kind of uneasy peace for some time. It all comes to a head and it all starts. The whole cluster is extreme and everything is kicking off, so the expansion ties into this.” They are also planning to have news and information come out in-game to prep players for the expansion’s release.

When the expansion does indeed kick off, players will be able to sign up for one side or the other. From there, they start to run missions and complete tasks for their empire, gaining more and more standing with them.

You can sign up individually,” Woodward said, “or you can sign up with your corporation. This, of course, will put you at war with the other factions. You‘re going to be fighting them in space, and you‘re going to be fighting them for glory.”

While there will be war-specific missions available, players who tend toward a style that doesn’t see them collecting missions will still have plenty to do as you can fly around and attack enemy installations and the like.

The system will keep track of what has happened and systems will change hands based on the success or failure of the players.

The goal with this expansion, Woodward tells us, is to try to bridge the gap between players who play in safe space, generally running missions and the like and the players who are actively engaging in the game’s PvP. The distance between those two play styles is what Woodward called a “big step” that is often intimidating.

“The step from one to the other is a big step and what we’re trying to do is build a bridge so that you can say ‘I want to try some PvP in a semi-controlled environment.’ It’s not safe, obviously. You’re going to die a lot because that‘s what PvP is about. Still, once you get into the mindset of ‘I’m going to lose this ship’, it’s all a lot more fun.”

“[The players] can start up and their agents will give them objectives to complete. You’ve got direction. You’ll go out there and get shot at and you’ll shoot at people and either you’re going to find that they like it or not.”

Woodward went on to tell us that while there will always be players who just aren’t interested in PvP (there will still be plenty for them to do), that he has had a number of experiences with players who had been more industrious before and avoided PvP, who had a great time with it. There’s just something about PvP that can really get people hooked. The expansion is at least partially about introducing these people to the fun of PvP. There is also a hope that the four empires will provide players with an excuse to interact and maybe make friends and start their own corporations.

While in the initial release of the expansion, there are no mechanics in place for resource gatherers, Woodward did point out that such a massive war effort is going to require raw materials, ships and the like and there will be enterprising players who take full advantage of this point.

“When someone dies, they’re going to need a new ship and someone’s got to make it. Why not you?”

The last question that I asked Matt before our time was up was whether or not I could sign up for one particular faction, fight for them for the bulk of the war and then suddenly change sides (betrayal is awesome). He told me that when players first start and choose their empire faction, they will be able to easily change their minds, but once players commit to a path, it becomes much more difficult to switch sides. Essentially what happens is that as you complete objectives for an empire, you gain favor with them. At the same time, you start to get a bad reputation with your enemies (blowing up their stuff will do that). Once you’ve got a really bad rep with one side, they’re not going to trust you or take you on.

Obviously, there is still a lot of development left to do on this new expansion, after all, this is really the first that we’re hearing of it. MMORPG.com will continue to follow the Empryian Age as more information becomes available.

[ajax34i]

War can mean anything from just a few extra ways to grind faction to a completely chaotic re-write of the Empire area, where things that were taken for granted before (stations, no taxes, the ability to find anything on the market) can disappear.

I think CCP is mis-judging, a little, the mindset of the carebear.  Simply having more opportunities to PVP and agents that give PVP missions isn't going to entice the mission runners and the pure industrialists.  At the same time, being attacked in Empire space by reds and without Concord, well, they're not going to like that. 

The whole thing is written as if war is this fun adventure that more should participate in.  Hah.  Get rid of Concord, see what happens to the playerbase numbers.

[Murgos]

Sounds like they are going to separate the factions with spaces of contested areas.

Maybe smuggling will become a viable activity?

[Simond]

Prediction: Caldari pilots zerg the hell out of the new regions, CCP responds by nerfing the crap out of Caldari ships. 

[Grand Design]

At the same time, being attacked in Empire space by reds and without Concord, well, (carebears) are not going to like that. 

I'm just guessing, but I think this will limit the empire space in which you can safely fly once you've committed to an empire.  In other words, being Amarr, I won't be able to waltz into Minmatar space and start killing noobs in belts without expecting some major resistance on the way there. 

Think 0.0 meets empire, with faction NPCs enforcing the gates.  This was the way the game was intended to be.


(And this is just me being An Ass, but the guy who wrote that article in an Editor?  Is that title just given away, and where can I get one?)

[Viin]

This could come to play in lowsec, but then I see lowsec being used even less unless the bump up the resources available there.

[ajax34i]

I'm just guessing, but I think this will limit the empire space in which you can safely fly once you've committed to an empire. 

The game is already like that:  if you grind too much faction with, say, Amarr, the Minmatar and Gallente Navy ships in their space will shoot at you.

It's just that right now two things are happening:

1.  Concord presence overrides everything, restricting PVP in empire areas.
2.  Very few go for 8+ standings with any faction.  It's such a damn boring grind, and nobody wants to limit their access by going below -2 with the other empires.

The changes they're making are very simple, actually:  remove Concord, and add a whole lot of agents with "storyline" missions so that our standings can go up and down faster.  That's it, everything else they're adding is just a whole lot of background stories and RP news and shit like that.

We don't have a choice about Concord going away, and our sec. ratings with it.  But I don't believe that people will go mess up their faction with 2 of the empires on purpose, just because a method to do so is suddenly introduced by CCP.  So interest in this whole "empires are going to war!" thing might be little.

[Morat20]

Ugh, I really have to do something about my Amarr and Caldari faction. Fucking asshole Gallente L4 agent keeps giving me Caldari/Amarr combat missions.

[eldaec]

Even if they do remove high-sec concord protection for faction-war enemies, it wouldn't have much impact, since it is unlikely that a common Minmatar criminal would survive more than a few seconds in the benevolent glory of the high-sec Imperial Navy and gate guns.


With Amarr space finally free of the unclean, the peaceful right-thinking citizens of the empire won't need the protection of Concord anyhow.

The changes they're making are very simple, actually:  remove Concord, and add a whole lot of agents with "storyline" missions so that our standings can go up and down faster.  That's it, everything else they're adding is just a whole lot of background stories and RP news and shit like that.

I don't see where it says Concord are disappearing for non-enemies?

So really it is just 'add storyline agents, allow players to join an npc faction aside from their corp, and warn everyone that you get war-dec status for opposing factions'.

[ajax34i]

I got the impression from the news articles about concord and the Aria inquiry stuff, followed by articles about how each empire condemned concord corruption and hinted that it's not doing the function it was created for anymore.  That function being to keep the peace by acting as an independent entity that mediates disputes.  I figured, no more peace = no more Concord.  Anyway, shrug.

[Morat20]

I got the impression from the news articles about concord and the Aria inquiry stuff, followed by articles about how each empire condemned concord corruption and hinted that it's not doing the function it was created for anymore.  That function being to keep the peace by acting as an independent entity that mediates disputes.  I figured, no more peace = no more Concord.  Anyway, shrug.

I only skimmed it, but I got the impression it was more of a joiner thing. You could join up to do combat stuff against the other Empires, but then you know -- they and their PC friends got to shoot back.

I don't see how they're going to implement this. I'm Gallente with high Gallente faction. How am I supposed to cross, say, Caldari state if we're at war? What about alliances with multiple races in them? How do you handle the actual need for movement?

[Simond]

Pick a side, live in their space.
Or just move to 0.0

[eldaec]

I don't see how they're going to implement this. I'm Gallente with high Gallente faction. How am I supposed to cross, say, Caldari state if we're at war? What about alliances with multiple races in them? How do you handle the actual need for movement?

Can't be that hard to rejig the jump routes to make it possible to avoid one of the four factions.

And restricting access to Jita can only be healthy.

[lac]

If they do such a thing they probably won't bar you from entering when you have high standing with the enemy but will bar you when you have low (-2) standing with them.
Taking advantage of things that are in game now and if you are a bit selective with the missions you take (avoid missions that require you to shoot ships from any of the major factions) you can get high standing with all four powerblocs. This means you should be able to grind your faction up with whatever you want once you've tanked a faction rep through factional warfare pretty much the same way you would do it with your security status. Except you would have to do it through missions. There are social skills in game that allow you to get missions from factions that really don't like you.
The new low sec factional warzones, where npc's fight alongside players could be a lot of fun.

[Fordel]

I always just went to Oursalet instead of Jita. Virtually the same thing.

[Reg]

Oursalaert is fine if all you're doing is equipping a new ship but if you're looking for datacores and other invention supplies there is (currently) no alternative to Jita.

[MahrinSkel]

Oursalaert is fine if all you're doing is equipping a new ship but if you're looking for datacores and other invention supplies there is (currently) no alternative to Jita.

If you want to move large quantities of T2, or really large amounts of any resource materiel, it's all about Jita.  Everything else is just a "Spot Market" for people who are willing to pay a premium not to have to go there.

--Dave

[bhodi]

If they wanted to fix empire trade hubs, they'd simply assign a trade hub, keep it on it's own node permanently beefed up and reinforced, and have three or four NPC jump bridges that go to 3-4 jumps out in all directions. Or, alternatively, have one big jump bridge that lets you go across the galaxy, from jita to amarr or rens. That would make two trade hubs, linked directly, and solve part of their problems.

Have it run on a fee system, X ISK per jump.

[Nerf]

Beyond that Bhodi, I see no reason why Jita is even a system at all, if it was just a station that was dockable from several different systems and on its own node I'm sure it would decrease the bitching substantially.

[Calantus]

Why don't they take the World of Warcraft approach and make 1 trade hub in every faction's space that is the designated "trade hub" and link all thei rmarkets? If you sell an item in Jita it can be bought in Rens, Amarr, (I forget the Gallente one), and Jita. Boom, problem spread out a little more.

[Phildo]

That would certainly solve the lag issue, but it would also destroy the player economy.  People wouldn't be able to profit from scarcity of items in regions other than Jita, and CCP doesn't want that.  Neither do the industrialists.  Prices would become completely stagnant and buy orders would approach sell orders until there is almost 0 profit, similar to the real-world situations of perfect competition versus monopoly.  Go, economics degree!

[Calantus]

I was operating under the assumption that mission hubs, 0.0, and satelite hubs would still keep the player economy going. It was just an assumption though and it could be wrong.

[Phildo]

Not if there's a designated trade hub within a few jumps.  The only people still buying stuff in local systems would be the VERY impatient, and the prices would be exorbitant.  Probably.

[Gets]

Red vs Blue vs Green vs Yellow.

There's too many thngs that annoy me about Empire wars to really make me happy of such a development. I have nothing against a reason and new means to shoot at stuff, but undocking into T2 ship weapons will take away much of the enthusiasm from inexperienced, fresh to PvP people. We already have something like this with RvB and it got old too fast for me. If it would include less station-games and more controlled skirmishes, it might appeal to the casual players, but if you drop some standard cruel gank-sauce on their little Empire-pubbie hearts they go ballistic.

[ajax34i]

But Faction warfare will likely be equivalent to world-PVP, which means roaming gank squads.  I don't know if they're thinking of implementing anything like the battlegrounds and arenas in WoW; they can certainly do it in deadspace pockets if they so wish.

[Nerf]

Battlegrounds would get me playing Eve a hell of a lot more.  Pvp without having to look for it for hours, or get a fleet of 30 together to be competitive would be great.  Even if you still lost your ship it'd be great.