The Catalyst Expansion Arrives in EVE Online

New expansion day has arrived for EVE Online.  The Catalyst expansion went live at downtime earlier today.

EVE Online Catalyst

As always, this expansion drops a lot of different items on us.  While the major notes are mining related… maybe this should have been named after a mining hull, like Venture or Pioneer, rather than a destroyer hull favored by suicide gankers…  there is a lot else going on.  So it is time to see what CCP has delivered.

Catalyst Expansion Highlights

PLEX Transaction Log

One of those features where, once it was brought up I wondered how it wasn’t a thing already.  Still, now it is here.  You get two tabs, overview and transactions:

• The Overview tab shows a Pie Chart of either Income or Expenses.
• The Transactions tab will show the latest 2000 entries.
• Description of transaction includes which Character interacted with PLEX balance.
• Entries can be sorted by date, ascending or descending.
• Transactions can be copied to clipboard in CSV format for easy pasting in your workbook software of choice.

Again, a feature that I feel ought to have been put in a while ago… because keeping track of money and where we’ve spent it is a pretty big deal for some.

New Ships

Everybody loves new ships, so CCP is giving us new ships.  The primary focus is on the Odysseus, the new SOE exploration battlecruiser-sized command ship.

The SOE Odysseus Exploration Command Ship

There has been considerable discussion as to how this ship and its many capabilities, which includes being able to fit a covert ops cloak (which I guess means it can take bridges from black ops battleships), use new command bursts, and fit a new mass reducing module that will allow it to take frigate sized wormholes.

All I know is that the players of New Eden will find some unexpected way to exploit this hull’s new capabilities that CCP will likely end up having to fix later.  That is always the way.

In addition we’re getting a line of destroyer-sized mining vessels to give players an intermediate step between the wee mining frigates we have for ages now and full fledged mining barges.

The new ORE Mining Destroyer – The Pioneer

As with the frigates, it comes in several flavors for specific tasks.  The base model, the Pioneer, will be flyable by Alpha clones, giving them a step up in the mining world.

New Mining Features and Improvements

Mining is the core of this update, and there are a lot of details, so I am going to just summarize what were getting.  The details are in the expansion notes linked below.

• Integrated Mining Surveyor with Overlay Toggle
  • Highlights relative value tiers and estimated ISK to give players an immediate, at-a-glance view of the most profitable targets in range.
• Mining Survey Chipset Module
  • A passive mid-slot module that enhances the mining surveyor
• Cargo Hold Capacity Indicator
  • While the mining surveyor overlay is active, a new icon will display the current capacity of your mining hold in the space scene behind your ship to make this information accessible at a glance
• Faster Mining Cycles
  • Mining lasers and strip miners now will have 4x faster cycles, and gas cloud harvesters will have 2x faster cycles. The yield per cycle, capacitor usage, and mining crystal volatility damage has been adjusted proportionally to maintain the same overall mining yield over time.
• Mining Crits
  • Mining lasers, strip miners, and ice harvesters can now experience critical successes, granting bonus yield without reducing the remaining ore in the asteroids.
• Mining Critical Success Skills
  • Two new skills to improve your chances of getting mining crits
• Changes to Mining Cycle Rounding
  • The rounding system used for mining yields has been adjusted so that the amount of ore you receive over time while mining will more closely match the estimated values of your modules
• Mining Laser Efficiency Mining Foreman Burst Charge
  • A new Mining Laser Efficiency charge for the mining foreman burst module has been added.
• New Introductory Message When Entering Asteroid Fields
  • When warping into asteroid belts and mining anomalies, a new introductory message will appear in the bottom third of the screen that lets players know the name of the location they just arrived at, as well as an estimate of how depleted or fresh the asteroid field is.
• Phased Asteroid Field
  • New high-value mining sites for low and null sec featuring special mechanics
• Mining Content
  • A whole bunch of tweaks to mining, including returning omber and kernite to high sec space
• Mining Mission Updates
  • Improved visuals, increased LP and ISK payouts, and a rework of things like warp-in points
• Mining Mutaplasmids
  • You can now get abyssal upgraded mining modules
• Mining Focused Epic Arc Mission
  • Just what you wanted, an epic arc scale adventure for your mining ship!

New 2D Map

A prime feature, in my book at least, is updates to the in-game map, something I have been critical of… since forever.  Literally any map I could find outside of the game seemed more useful than the in-game map.

We got a rather unsatisfying first pass with the Legion expansion back in May… so unsatisfying that I didn’t bother writing about it as it was clearly not a feature ready for prime time.  Now, however, we have the second run at the idea.  There are quite a few promises with this version.  I will likely end up doing a full post exploring the changes at some point.  But it is here to try now.

Carrier Updates

Of the capital ships, the carrier has been the most neglected platform for a while now.  Dreads, supercarriers, faxes, titans, they all have a solid role in the meta, while whatever a carrier brings to the table is usually better done by something else.  Carriers got a couple tidbits previously, conduit jumps and a micro jump drive capability… booshing carriers… but that was not enough to get them back into the meta.  So CCP is taking another pass.

First up, price:

• Decreased build costs by approximately 30%.
• Decreased build times by 10%.

They will be cheaper.  Maybe that will make them easier to put in danger.

Then there are some buffs to its fighters.

• Carriers can now have an additional Support Fighter squad active:
  • Increased the Support Fighter Squad limit to 2 (from 1).
  • Increased the total number of Fighter Squad Tubes to 4 (from 3).
• Added new Support Fighter effectiveness bonuses:
  • Archon: +2% bonus (per level) to Cenobite Support Fighter neutralization strength.
  • Chimera: +2% bonus (per level) to Scarab Support Fighter ECM strength.
  • Thanatos: +2% bonus (per level) to Siren Support Fighter afterburner speed bonus.
  • Nidhoggur: +2% bonus (per level) to Dromi Support Fighter stasis webification strength.
• Increased Fighter Bay Capacities:
  • Archon: 60,000 → 65,000 m3.
  • Chimera: 55,000 → 60,000 m3.
  • Thanatos: 70,000 → 75,000 m3.
  • Nidhoggur: 65,000  → 70,000 m3.

So that is a thing.  My Archon… well, at least it isn’t a Chimera.

Carriers also got some more hauling capability, putting the “carry” in “carrier” I guess.

• Increased Ship Maintenance Bays to 2,000,000 m3 (from 1,000,000 m3).

That is said to make a carrier a Bowhead with a jump drive.  I like that.

Overall, at least in the Imperium, these changes look like they will make carriers a viable doctrine again.  Of course, there will be new fits required after the update.  I have an Archon I bought in 2012 and I think I have spent more on fighters and refits for it than I spent on the original hull and fittings.

Supercarriers 

They can now conduit jump… so they took that unique away from carriers.  Them damn Nyx pilots always get all the nice stuff.

Faxes

Bigger fuel bays for the hungry faxes.

Ship Balancing

Was the Cenotaph too OP?  Like so many new ships, of course it was.  There is a laundry list of updates and changes and the inevitable nerfs.

That is my summary of what we’re getting today with the expansion.  But wait, there is more.  There is always more!

There is the launch trailer.

Then there is a free 10 PLEX in the in-game New Eden store, with which you can purchase 7 days of Omega time.  Expect a big spike in the money supply as dormant accounts show back up.

You get PLEX to buy game time

Then there are the usual login rewards to celebrate an expansion.

Catalyst Expansion Login Rewards

The 14 days or rewards include a range of skill point injectors, boosters, SKINR materials, and a cerebral accelerator in there somewhere.

And then there are Twitch drops.  CCP loves Twitch drops.  Since this is a mining themed release, we’re kicking off with a Venture SKIN.

Venture SKIN Twitch Drop

I am already working on that as I type.

Finally, there is a 20% off sale on Omega time in the in-game store, so 30 days is down to 400 PLEX rather than the usual 500.  We’ll see what that does to the price of PLEX.

So there we go.  You will find links below for more details about what we’re getting.

Related:

• CCP – The Catalyst expansion is here
• CCP – Catalyst Expansion Notes
• CCP – Patch Notes – Version 23.02
• CCP – Catalyst: Mining in Focus: New Ore & More
• TNG – EVE Online Devs Overdeliver New Ships For Catalyst
• TNG – New Skills In EVE Online: Catalyst