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EVE Online’s Equinox Expansion to Arrive June 11th

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The Upwell Consortium is at it again, with new structures poised to change New Eden.

Yesterday, after a short teaser countdown, CCP released a video and a dev blog announcing the next expansion for EVE Online.

Equinox – Seize Control – June 11, 2024

Named Equinox, it is slated to go live on June 11, 2024 and bring with it some of the promised/threatened changes for null sec.  All of it is somewhat vague and hand-wavy at this point, but there are some general features that have been announced.

So what is in store with Equinox?

  • Harness Planetary Power with the Skyhook

Planets are going to be expanded in usefulness, though whether this means an expansion to the current planetary industry mechanics or something new isn’t exactly clear.  Nor is there an answer yet as to what resources this will provide.  Will this fix the isogen problem?

What we do know is that there will be an Upwell Structures available to exploit this new resource pool, the Orbital Skyhook!

The Orbital Skyhook… totally not half a Heron repurposed…

From the Upwell brochure:

A marvel of engineering allowing direct access to a planet’s resources, the orbital skyhook is central to Equinox. Anchored near planets within sovereign nullsec space, these skyhooks provide access to power, workforce, and reagents necessary for the empire-building aspirations of nullsec organizations. 

Empire building further enabled I guess.  Also, do people live on planets out in null sec?  Do they come and go with the rise and fall of empires?  Or do they just stay in place and hope the new boss is better than the old boss?

  • The Return of Passive Moon Mining

One of the great tragedies of our time… if you were listening to Pandemic Legion a few years back… was the end of passive moon mining.  The need to undock and harvest resources every time your huge non-denominational space laser carved off a chunk of a local moon.  That was time not spent involved in elite PvP and meant that such groups had to put up with all those neo max zoom dweebie miners and industrialist, which just ruins everything.

Well, worry no more.  Elite PvP focused organizations will be allowed passive income again with the Metenox Moon Drill, which will automate the whole process.

The moon drill in operation – artist’s concept

From the Upwell brochure:

Another revolutionary innovation introduced through Equinox is the Metenox Moon Drill, an automated resource extraction structure allowing organizations in nullsec and lowsec to streamline in-system operations and focus on expansion and strategy, rather than manual harvesting. Like the orbital skyhook, these structures are robust and resilient, able to withstand most dangers, allowing industry leaders to rest easy. 

Elite PvP can flourish again and weed out all those non-hackers who are keeping the kill board from being as green as possible.

  • The Sovereignty Hub

Since the advent of Aegis sovereignty almost a decade back we have been stuck with the Territorial Control Unit (TCU) and Infrastructure Hub (ihub) structures that were introduced with the Dominion expansion back in late 2009.  They were reworked to sort of fit with the new sovereignty mechanics, but were always a bit of a relic, with the TCU basically setting the ownership flag for the system and little else.

These will be replaced by the new Sovereignty Hub!

The new Sov hub over a blue star

From the Upwell brochure:

The new sovereignty hub promises to become a new cornerstone of territorial dominance. With upgradeable options depending on the star system’s topology and the planets within, it offers a nuanced approach to sovereignty that reflects each star system’s physical characteristics, allowing you to shape space in your image. 

This sounds a lot like the ihub, but we’ll have to see.

Once again, information available is sparse at this point and essential details, like how null sec sov holders will transition from the old to the new system are as yet unknown.  Presumably there won’t just be a mass sov drop on June 11th.  Then again, Hilmar loves chaos and bad ideas in general so maybe there will be.

  • Upwell Goes into the Ship Design Business

In addition to these new structure, Upwell is introducing a line of ships to support the new functionality being introduced.

New Upwell ships… are not pretty

From the Upwell brochure:

The Equinox suite further empowers the capabilities of capsuleers in this new era of space colonization by introducing four new ships, specialized in the transport of planetary resources, and capable of being fitted with defensive weaponry. Tailored to navigate the new dynamics of resource gathering and sovereignty, the unveiling of these new vessels underscores Upwell’s commitment to revolutionizing nullsec operations.

On the expansion page the ships to be introduced are listed out as follows:

  • Squall – Entry level reagents hauler.
  • Deluge – Hauler with covert ops cloaking capability, high warp speed and mobility, and immunity to cargo scanners.
  • Torrent – Tough deep space transport vessel with micro jump drive capability.
  • Avalanche – Massive freighter with a huge reagent hauling capacity.

That means there are probably going to be some new Spaceship Command skills introduced with the expansion, so maybe save up some of your skill points just in case.

  • Motivating the Cadres

Upwell is also promises to be able to mobilize the workforce required to support all of these changes, with the following statement:

Equinox is spurred on by a scientific milestone in cloning technology, ushering in a paradigm shift in how populations can be mobilized and utilized across the vastness of space, empowering the colonial aspirations of nullsec leaders with access to a highly skilled workforce.

Clone armies worked out so well for The Old Republic, so why not give that a go?  I suspect this is in there for lore purposes, but who knows.

The Upwell digital sweatshop of the future!

Maybe null sec entities will need to entice, recruit, or press gang workers to support these new systems.  We shall see.

  • New Colors, Better Corps, AIR Goals

CCP is also promising to extend the custom skinning technology used to customize Upwell structures to ships, a better corporation management UI, and more advanced AIR goals that go beyond the current daily configuration with an eye towards longer term goals for ongoing completion.

A taste of goals to come

There are still seven weeks to go before this all goes live, with plenty of time for build up activities and more detailed dev blogs about what we are getting.

Much of this has been wrapped up in the video that went live yesterday, pitched as an advertisement for Upwell Consortium.

So we have a hint at what might be coming, but the reality is still a ways off.

Related:

Cataclysm Classic is Arriving on May 20th

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The next round of WoW Classic is coming up with the Cataclysm Classic patch set to arrive on April 30th, teeing the expansion up for a May 20th launch.

Can you re-run a cataclysm?

Blizzard announced the launch for the Cataclysm Classic pre-patch yesterday, then followed up with a revised WoW Classic 2024 roadmap that put the world wide expansion launch on May 20, 2024 at 15:00 Pacific time.

WoW Classic 2024 Roadmap – April 9 revision

Well, the roadmap doesn’t say the time, but you can find that tidbit elsewhere.

So what are we getting and when?  With the Pre-patch we will get the following changes in the game:

  • New Player Races: Goblin and Worgen
  • New Race and Class Combinations
  • Leveling Updates: Level through a changed landscape in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms from level 1 through 60.
  • Class Updates: New Talents, Trees, spells and More
  • New Race and Class Combinations
  • New Profession: Archaeology
  • New Feature: Transmog Collection
  • Updated Character and Gear Stats

So say farewell to vanilla Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms as the shattering will hit at the end of the month, ushering in the new races, the new overland leveling path from 1 to 60, the archaeology profession, and perhaps the most annoyingly complex cosmetic system devised with the transmog mechanic.

It is like they don’t think you deserve to set your look unless you have earned it!

And while the pre-patch giveth, it also taketh away, with the following changes once the pre-patch hits:

  • Swift Zulian Tiger: Zul’Gurub is changing from a raid to a leveling zone and this mount will no longer be obtainable.
  • Swift Razzashi Raptor: This mount will also no longer be obtainable after the change to Zul’Gurub.
  • Razzashi Hatchling: With the change to Zul’Gurub, this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable.
  • Tome of Polymorph: Turtle: This tome will continue to be available through other means.
  • Crusader’s White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance Steed/Swift Horde Wolf: As the attempt-based tribute system is being removed from Heroic Trial of the Crusader, the Argent Crusade Tribute Chest will no longer spawn, and these mounts will no longer be obtainable.
  • Reins of the Blue Drake: This mount will once again be available from defeating 10-player Malygos without needing to use the Dungeon Finder. The Reins of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25-player Malygos.
  • Mimiron’s Head: This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating 25-player Yogg’Saron with no Keepers assisting you.
  • Invincible: This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating Heroic 25-player Lich King.

Then, once May 20th rolls around the the launch happens, the world will open up with the following additions:

  • 7 New Zones: Mount Hyjal, Vash’jir, Twilight Highlands, Uldum, Deepholm, Kezan, and Gilneas.
  • 9 New Dungeons: Blackrock Caverns, Throne of the Tides, Vortex Pinnacle, The Stonecore, The Lost City of Tol’vir, The Halls of Origination, Grim Batol, Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep
  • Dungeon Journal Introduced
  • 3 New Raid Dungeons: Throne of the Four Winds, Blackwing Descent, and Bastion of Twilight
  • Boss Based Raid Lock system: Allowing players to do either the 10 or 25-player raid version of each boss in the same week. Lockouts are based on individual boss.
  • Tol Barad PvP Zone
  • Darkmoon Island: Discover the mysteries Silas Darkmoon has in store for you.
  • Flying in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor

Though I think we’re only getting five new zones on the 20th, because won’t we have to have Kezan and Gilneas already as they are the Goblin and Worgen starting zones and those two new races are supposed to be available with the pre-patch?  Maybe I just don’t understand.

Anyway, there is also a launch trailer for the announcement.

Now to see if the group will be up for it.

On the one hand, it is just five more levels.  That isn’t so bad.  And we get flying in the old world and one of perhaps the prettiest zones in the history of the game, Vash’jir.

On the other hand, I do not have any deep, fond memories of Cata.  The group jumped into it with new characters, found the whole thing tedious and left, only going back to finish it off with our mains after Mists of Panaria had launched.  Also, Vash’jir is an under water zone and suffers from all the issues, including motion sickness in some of us, that under water levels always have.  Just say “No” to underwater levels.  Be like Valheim, where even swimming in the damn water is a pain!

Okay, maybe you don’t have to go that far.

But we’ll have to play through it at least a little bit, if only to be ready for Mists of Pandaria some time in 2025.  And I suspect I will do some reflecting on the original run up to Cataclysm back in the day, which was probably the most over-hyped I was for an expansion ever… and you see how that turned out.

This bit of news has plenty of coverage for those looking to read more about it.

WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 3 Kicks Off

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While our group has fallen off of the Season of Discovery wagon… we’re honestly in a bit of a hiatus save for Potshot and I… the world of Azeroth keeps on spinning even while we’re away.  And so Phase 3 of the Season of Discovery experiment arrived yesterday afternoon Pacific time.

Now featuring Phase 3

Phase 3 lifts the level cap to 50, though to help people keep up there will remain an 100% xp buff for levels 1-39 and a 50% xp buff for levels 40-49.

This also brings the latest “dungeon converted to a raid so only raiders can enjoy it” update, where Sunken Temple, or the Temple of Atal’Hakkar as it is officially designated, gets the SoD treatment.

That was probably the right choice.  It is a large, sprawling domain with a bunch of bosses to tackle.  It will make a good raid.  My only reservation is that Sunken Temple is also one of the more interesting dungeons, so while raiders will benefit the fact that dungeon groups are now excluded from it doesn’t exactly make me happy… though we’re not even playing at this point, so I can’t be too upset at not being able to do something I was never going to do anyway.

And the Season of Discovery servers are “seasonal” servers, so they will all go away at some point to be replaced by the next flavor in an attempt to find ways to recycle old content.

Not that it is completely recycled.  There are, of course, new runes to be found and a new PvP event.  But there are also something called “nightmare incursions” that are described as:

Take part in an all-new outdoor PvE event and learn more of the story tie between mysterious dream portals and the new Sunken Temple raid dungeon. Earn new items and gain reputation with the Emerald Wardens as you progress.

Players will cross into the Emerald Nightmare through these mysterious portals in four locations around the world: Ashenvale, Duskwood, Hinterlands, and Feralas. Content is available to players who are leveling up as well as maximum level characters as they unravel the storyline.

I am not sure that counts as the coveted Classic Plus that had such a fan base for a while, but it is not nothing.

There is also a whole preview video that describes what has gone into phase 3.

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EverQuest Starting Points – West Karana Where the Scope of the World Begins

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So far I have been looking at zones that, in scope, are really at the shallow end of the pool.  Some, like Blackburrow or the Qeynos Aqueduct have have some depth and story around them… literally or figuratively… but they are all kind of small.

Well, they felt quite spacious as the first zones I encountered after starting off in Norrath in Surefall Glade, but then I went to West Karana and my sense of scale was suitably distorted.  The plains of Karana, which are made up of West, East, North, and South Karana, are the type of zones where you really need a map.   You need a map less due to any complexity of the zones… they are mostly plains with a mountain range to the north and a river along the south of three of the four zones, South Karana being south of the river… than due to the sheer size of the place.  You could easily lose things there, like a corpse.

Oh, yes losing your corpse not just because it was some place dangerous or difficult to reach, but because the zone was simply too sprawling and it was night and you had been running away and lost track of where you were and died.  The classic Has Anybody Seen My Corpse featured a number of large or difficult zones, including the Karanas.

You will see a lot of hand drawn maps for zones, but the good ones, the useful ones, were the maps that had the coordinates grid in some way notated.

West Karana all on One Map

That helped you if you had the presence of mind to type in /loc in chat to get your coordinates.

Tell me where I am please

That location puts me on the road out of Qeynos Hills and within sight of the first guard tower.

Just about here

Of course, it is easy to say “just type /loc” in a cool moment of reflection when no mob is chasing you and you’re safe and sound.  But when your tank has died, your healer as fizzled their last few spells, when the bandits have respawned unexpectedly and are giving chase, and your immediate goal is just to run AWAY from that location to someplace safer while avoiding any further mob entanglements, then you can find that typing in that simple command never quite gets to the top of your “To do” list before you die.

And believe me, you are doing all you can to avoid that death, a minor calamity that can undo an evening’s progress in a flash, something that will send you back to your bind point… did you bind anywhere close by… I hope you’re not still bound some place on Faydwer my friend… an eventuality that will have you trying to get back to get all your stuff.

Back in the day, all of your stuff stayed with your corpse when you died.  That is a long run back unless you can find somebody with a travel spell to help.

So how big is West Karana?  Let me pull out another map, the one from the Project 1999 wiki, which gives both scale and flavor to the zone.

Map of West Karana

Here is the legend for that map:

  • 1. Shops selling Cloth Armor, Cooking Supplies, Clay and Firing Sheets
  • 2. Shops selling Throwing Daggers and Tailoring Patterns. Innkeep Rislarn selling Food
  • 3. Bandit Camp (Bandits: Level 9-11). Note there is also a bandit camp (“3 North”) just north and slightly east of Camp 3, near (890, -7050)
  • 4. Guard Tower (“Tower 1”)
  • 5. Guard Tower (“Tower 2”)
  • 6. Farm taken over by Bandits and a Brigand (Bandits: Level 9-11)
  • 7. Cleet Miller Farm
  • 8. Empty farm
  • 9. Corrupt Guard Tower
  • 10. Fields with Scarecrows (Undead Level 12-17)
  • 11. Henina Miller Farm with Furball, also sells items
  • 12. Empty farm
  • 13. Barbarian Village selling Large Blacksmithing Molds and Books, Shaman Summon Spells
  • 14. Tiny Miller’s House
  • 15. Farm with ex-Druid, Linaya Sowlin
  • 16. Mountains filled with Bandits (Bandits: Level 9-11; the map makes it look more to the West than it is; loc is closer to 900, -11500)
  • 17. Caninel with Gnoll Allies
  • 18. Ogre Shrine guarded by Ogre Guards, Ogre shamans (ph’s for, An Ogre Priestess & Chief Goonda) (Ogres: Level 20-27 | Chief Level 34) respawns 22 minutes
  • 19. Froon and Choon on a hill
  • 20. Barbarian shop selling Fletching Kit, Arrows, Bows, and Nocks,
  • 21. Shops selling Blacksmithing Books and Molds, also Innkeep Danin selling Food
  • 22. Farms
  • 23. Farms
  • 24. Bandit Camp
  • 25. Farms with Poison Merchant
  • 26. Pyramid (Wizard portal)
  • 27. Undead Ruins

You can see the grid markers on the map edge.  West Karana is about 15,000 units in length and 5,000 top to bottom.  Qeynos Hills by comparison, is about 5,000 units at its longest, north to south, and 2,000 unit across.  So that whole zone fits about seven and a half times into the West Karana map.

Qeynos Hills – Just a big rectangle really

I decided to run West Karana, west to east, just to see how long it would take  I got myself to the -1,500 line on the road in, which puts you solidly in the zone, then turned on auto-run and just used strafe to guide myself around obstacles.  I started the stop watch on my phone and set out, stopping the clock when I hit the zone line, then zoned back into the east end of the zone.

Starting and finishing points – You can see my trying to get right on the start line

The end line is 5 units short because you zone at -16,000 so you can’t actually stand there.

That took me 315 seconds, or five and one quarter minutes, to run.  I did have to swerve, often quite a bit, as the map does not have a topographical component and the reason the road swerves south is that there is a big set of hills poking into the zone there.  The road route would have taken a bit longer.  In hindsight I should have gone down to the river that marks the southern boarder of the zone, and the safe path we all used to run at low level back in the day.

Anyway, that put me at about 46 units per second of velocity.  So Qeynos Hills, on a straight run north to south, would be under two minutes, as would a north to south run in West Karana itself.

Five minutes doesn’t sound like a lot of time.  Five minutes can fly past when you’re focused on something.  But when you are focused on getting safely across a big zone, five minutes can feel like an eternity.  I think in World of Warcraft it probably feels about the same as running The Barrens from north to south.  It feels like a long run within the scope of your experience.

And why are you in West Karana?  Well, you have probably gotten to the point where the mobs in Qeynos Hills aren’t giving much experience, Blackburrow is too crowded, and that stuff on the open plains of Everfrost Peaks is all over the place in levels, so is a bit of a crap shoot.

West Karana has something of a west to east progression in difficulty, at least during the day.  It is also a jumble of different mobs, with lions, bears, wolves, spiders, and the ubiquitous beetles wandering around the zone.  But if you are out there to level you are probably looking for a group to camp one of the bandit spawn points.

An actual bandit camp – 24 on the map

The long standing social convention, not written down in any book of rules, was that a group could “claim” and spawn and were entitled to sit there and kill bandits over and over as they spawned until they had enough of it.  It was considered good form to ask for a “spawn check” in chat, at which point groups would sound of with the server name for each location that was being camped.  If nobody called out for one, you would go there to pick it up.

When solo you would ask in chat if any group needed your particular class, which was when it was good to be a cleric, shaman, or druid.  Even a group with a healer already might ask you along to get additional buffs or backup healing in case somebody needed to leave.  A ranger though… you might get a pity spot in a small group.

You had to show care however, especially if you wandered into the hills.  There were a few bandit spawns up there… the map is incomplete when it comes to those… but also an ogre camp with a level 34 boss, Chief Goonda.

He is aggro and quick to attack

In addition, wandering the hills might find you stumbling upon Froon or Choon, the level 30 cyclops giants that live in West Karana.

Finding Froon

If you ended up with aggro with either of those and you didn’t have the power to deal with them, it was a long run to the zone line.

Choon chasing me down off of his hill

Mobs in EQ did not give up chasing you until you left the zone and these guys were deep in the zone.  I hope you had Spirit of the Wolf on you.

Further east there was the broken Combine spires and a camp of undead, which was always a bit of fun for paladins and clerics who could pull out their undead related spells for once.

The undead camp

All of which was fine and dandy all day long.  And then night would come and the rules would change.

I mean, just for openers, werewolves.  That is me standing at the west end of the zone when it got dark and one just showed up to get me.

Oh hey, you here to murder low levels?

Over at the big field, animated scarecrows would begin to wander around.

There is one now, though daylight has arrived

I always really like that particular model.  They moved in a unique way, they looked somehow more realistic than a lot of other mobs, and their shining pumpkin heads were visible beacons in the dark and they shambled across the field.

Meanwhile, Froon or Choon, if they were around, would come down from their hill and wander the plain in search of some group camping bandits, oblivious to the danger.

Froon at the guard tower

Hanging out in West Karana could go from routine, with a group safely camping some bandits, grinding away xp and sitting around waiting for respawns, to sudden terror in the dark.

And, like most of these early zones, it lives larger in my memory than it probably should.  I feel like I spent months there, exploring it, camping it, or running through it to get elsewhere.  Part of that is probably too many alts, but it was also a formative early zone that left a big impression on me.  After you have had Froon loom out of the darkness and give chase, those sand giants in The Commonlands were less surprising.

Maybe I have spent enough time in the unfashionable western end of Antonica at this point.  Maybe it is time to travel east to find friends who didn’t start in Qeynos, who rolled up gnomes or dwarves or one of the flavors of elves… though not dark elves.  Do I document the run to Faydwer, or just start there?  I said last time I was ready for a road trip, but found myself lingering in West Karana instead.  We’ll see what kind of mood I am in I guess.

Otherwise, the tales so far:

Blizzard Discovers Battle Royale with the WoW Plunderstorm Event

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There was a bit of speculation about the pirate flag entry on the World of Warcraft 2024 roadmap.  It had no details, just “10.2.6” which was assumed (correctly) to be the patch number.  But what it might actually mean… nobody outside of Blizzard knew… or if they did, they weren’t talking.

World of Warcraft retail 2024 roadmap

We started getting some hints and finally a date for it last week.  And, yesterday morning the patch update went live.  I did not land at 5:50am (that would be ten to six, or 10.2.6), the update took well into the afternoon Pacific time, but news of it’s arrival was all over the various sites by the time I was awake and settled into another full day of staring at screens.

And there it was, Plunderstorm, a WoW based battle royale game with pirates.

With the release of the 10.2.6 content update, players can get swept away in the Plunderstorm— a fun, new, limited-time, pirate-themed event of prodigious proportions lasting the next several weeks. Scour the map and try to be the last pirate standing while dashing across the Arathi Highlands to find abilities, upgrades, and loot to plunder just to survive!

You need to have a WoW subscription to play and you need to have the WoW retail client installed, as that is where it lives.

WoW retail contains WoW Plunderstorm

This is NOT yet another retail battleground.  Instead, it is a stand alone event that you have to roll up a fresh, pre-made character in order to participate.

  1. Select Plunderstorm from the World of Warcraft game menu to get into the action.
  2. Create a new, ready-to-play character—player characters are unique to this event. You don’t need previous knowledge of races and classes to chart your course for mayhem.
  3. Choose between Solo or—to play with your Battle.net friends—make a group from the Plunderstorm character screen and select Duo. If queued for a Duo without a partner, you’ll be automatically matched with one. You can also access chat, customize characters, and see the queue from the Character Select Screen.

On the one hand, cynical old me sees this as a cheap way to try and generate some interest using a game mode that is just one Lord British endorsement from being completely past relevance.  Is there some shooter that HASN’T tried to integrate this play mode yet?

Even Fortnite, the game that has made so much money for Epic, has been busy trying to find some new twist to keep its model fresh.  Plus, was this another Holly idea?  I mean, she did come from Daybreak, which for a brief moment was on top of the battle royale world with H1Z1… until is screwed it all up and became a footnote, irrelevant to the current meta of the genre.

On the other hand, who am I to say what is fun and what is not?  And yes, if it wasn’t cheap, it certainly was no more expensive than another battleground to add in Plunderstorm.  Why not throw something else against the wall.  It isn’t like Blizz has a lot of other things in its pipeline for retail between now and The War Within.  I am sure some will find it fun and, if it is popular enough then it seems likely that the unstated limits of the event’s duration will be extended.

And it offers prizes that you can take back to retail WoW and WoW Classic.

They even got Carbot Animations back in the fold with a launch day video.

So plunder away I guess.

Related:

The Scope Covers the Jay Amazingness heist and the Pirate Faction Structure Attacks

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Alton Haveri is back with another report for The Scope in New Eden, this time covering the betrayal of the  Imperium by Jay Amazingness and his defection to Pandemic Legion with the ISK and items he stole.

There is, of course, speculation as to why Jay betrayed his long time comrades and moved to rival alliance Pandemic Legion and questions as to whether he acted on his own initiative or if his friends in PL planted the idea and supported its execution in order to strike out at the Imperium.

Pandemic Legion and Goons have a long and complicated history, and were at one point strong allies in the war against Band of Brothers and its successor, the IT Alliance.  That started to fall apart after the disaster at Y-2ANO when IT Alliance destroyed PL’s capital fleet and displaced them from the Fountain Region.

Since then PL has become more and more of a foe of Goons and, later, the Imperium and there is always the persistent story that PL still wants revenge for the savage losses it faced at the hands of Goons and the Russians at the battle of B-R5RB over a decade back where PL lost 25% of its titans.

While PL has been overshadowed in recent years by its fellow PanFam alliance Pandemic Horde, it apparently still has… the coolest station environment?

Jay in the Pandemic Legion lounge

I can already tell this will lead to another round of requests for the return of the captain’s quarters.  EVE Vanguard will get you walking on planets, isn’t that enough?

The video also covers the results of the attacks on the player owned Upwell structures that were anchored “too close” to the ancient Jovian stargates that now bring capsuleers to Zarzakh.

A Guristas Gila aligned out as explosions rock the Fort

I previously covered the initial attacks on the Fortizar in Alsavoinon that was owned by The Initiative. It turned out that INIT was not actually unanchoring the Fortizar, the just renamed it, appending “[UNANCHORING]” to the name, in an attempt to fool the pirates.

Meanwhile, somebody over on Reddit has transcribed all the items that scrolled by on the chyron during the video, which I have copied below.

  • Republic Fleet Confirms Vard Prototype Stellar Transmuter was Scouted by Angels but No Attempt to Capture Facility Made by Pirates
  • CONCORD Assembly System Security Subcommittee Fast Tracks Applications for Status Changes by Repubic and Federation
  • Mordu’s Legion Increases Recruiting Efforts as Demand for Security and Military Contract Services Increases due to Insurgencies
  • Looters and Black Marketeers Reportedly Rounded Up and Shot by RSS on Several Planets in Hed Constellation
  • Empress Catiz I Authorizes Creation of Several Dozen New Fiefs in Ardishapur Demesne as Lord Arim Ardishapur Seeks to Ennoble Ammatar Loyalists
  • Aftermath of Imperium Cloning Sabotage Reverberates Through Markets as Volatility in Cloning Sector Markets Due to Investor Panic
  • Khumatar Allek Berialsh Appointed as Republic System Governor of Hek by Order of Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor with Mandate to Secure System
  • Guristas Insurgents Preparing New Assault on Asakai System Following Raids Across Aokinen and Kurala Constellations
  • Kor-Azor Police Guards Intercept Cargo of Proscribed Luxury Goods Escorted by Royal Uhlan Frigates Through Kor-Azor Region
  • Minmatar Republic Command Reports Vital Facilities on Vard Planets Remained Secure Despite Angel Cartel Commando Landings
  • Refugees from Militia Warzones Hit by Insurgencies and Border Warfare by Empires Straining Resettlement Capacity Warns CONCORD Assembly
  • Angel Cartel Insurgents Operating Out of Bosboger Terrorize Alakgur IV Following Raids on Dammalin Industrial Colonies
  • President Celes Aguard Authorizes Further Emergency Appropriations to Increase System Defenses and Garrisons in Federal Branch Capitals
  • Underworld Rumors of Arkombine Warclone Organization Breaking with ORE and Mordu’s Legion Spread on GalNet Conspiracy GroupNets
  • CONCORD and EDENCOM Officials Holding Discussions on Further Planetary Fortification and Structure Defenses with Upwell Consortium
  • Wiyrkomi Corporation Denies Excessive Reponse and Harsh Reprisals by Peace Corps Troops in Uchomida Industrial Colonies
  • Imperial Navy Resupplies Garrisons in Remaining Fortified Bases Across Eugidi as Militia Warfare Rages in Constellation
  • Sporadic Unrest on Intaki Prime as Nationalist and Religious Militants Opposed to Federation Military Presence Clash with Federal Marines
  • Genolution and Cromeaux Inc. Call for Cloning Industry Security Summit as Upwell Consortium Joins Efforts to Allay Investor Fears
  • Private Military Companies See Surge in Demand for Low Security and Border Colony Defense Contracts as Pirate Raids Expand
  • Director Lars en Ramon of Upwell Consortium’s Department of Friendship and Mutual Assistance Refuses to Comment on Arkombine Rumors
  • Caldari State Peacekeepers to Investigate Allegations of Massacre at Wiyrkomi-Seituoda Heavy Industries Colony on Uchomida III

I have said this before I am sure, but I will say it again; The Scope is one of my favorite aspects of the EVE Online ecosystem in that it often takes player actions and fits them into the overall lore of the game in a way that just doesn’t happen in many other titles.

EverQuest II Launches the Ballads of Zimara Expansion

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We are in the midst of the Daybreak MMO expansion season.  We saw the LOTRO Corsairs of Umbar expansion go live earlier this month and the EverQuest Laurion’s Song expansion will be coming up soon, but today it is the turn of EverQuest II which is launching the Ballads of Zimara expansion today.

This is the 20th EverQuest II expansion (not counting adventure packs sold separately) since the game’s launch in November of 2004.

Ballads of Zimara

From the expansion page:

Following several calamitous impact events near shoreside communities on Norrath, involving magic-steeped stone and steel careening into the land and sea below, Norrath’s exceptional adventurers and artisans find themselves swept up in a raging struggle for survival in the skies far above! Splendor Sky Aerie, the hooluk’s secluded nest lands within the Overrealm, are under threat by a mysterious force, bringing discord to the once idyllic community of wise aviaks.

Securing peace for them will mean venturing where few have ever dared – Zimara Breadth, within the deteriorating Plane of Sky! Here, the legendary Djinn Sovereign struggles to keep his empire from physically being lost to unknowable planar forces, while those who would oppose him are crushed through violence, destruction, and enslavement carried out by his ruthless army, an army made up of djinn of all sorts, including something never seen before.

These metallic djinns may just hold the clue to his downfall though, when the figure tied to their creation within the Aether Wroughtlands is revealed to be a captive, held deep within Vaashkaani, Alcazar of Zimara. The opulent palace is both throne and dungeon!

But is freeing the captive in our future? Can the Djinn Sovereign be defeated? And what of his vast army of maedjinn? The answers are found within the Ballads of Zimara!

There is also a launch trailer for those who would rather watch than read.

The new expansion features a mix of the usual things long term fans of the game have come to expect.

  • Adventure level cap increase to 130
    • New signature adventure quests
    • New adventure quests
  • Tradeskill level cap increase to 130
    • New signature tradeskill quests
  • New achievements
  • New collections
  • New Heroic Zones
  • New Raid Zones
  • New lands
    • Splendor Sky Aerie
    • Zimara Breadth
    • Aether Wroughtlands
    • Vaashkaani, Alcazar of Zimara

You are able to purchase the expansion in the usual array of editions.

  • Standard Edition – $35
  • Collector’s Edition – $70
  • Premium Edition – $140
  • Family and Friends – $250

The standard edition, while it leaves out a lot of the extras, is generally worth the price to play through the new content.  I have felt pretty good about the cost to play just to do the signature quest lines for tradeskills and adventure levels in the past.

EVE Online Down the Rabbit Hole – Watching the Six Hour Documentary

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I will say up front that when I first saw that this documentary stretched out to just shy of the six hour mark, the first thing that jumped into my mind was a meme I saw about Netflix at one point, which I will alter slightly to fit the circumstances.

Netflix: How about a six hour movie?

Me: Six hours? I ain’t spending six hours on a movie!

Netflix: Okay… how about a series with eight 45 minute episodes you binge in one sitting?

Me: You son of a bitch!  I’m in!

My initial thoughts were why make this one super size video rather than breaking it up in to six, eight, or even a dozen more manageable bits?  That feels like a better way to deliver this sort of content.

Looking at the Down the Rabbit Hole channel, it isn’t as though huge long monolithic documentaries are Fredrik Knudsen’s thing.  The next longest I saw there was just two hours long.  His Down the Rabbit Hole on Star Citizen was just 32 minutes.  Maybe he was just sticking to saying something nice about Chris Roberts?  I don’t know, I’m not interested enough to watch that one.

But who am I to tell him how to present his material?  And this is EVE Online, where literally everything takes more time than you think it will.  So maybe a video that is as long as some fleet fights I’ve been in is appropriate.

I will admit that the video is divided into an intro, outro, and 15 sections, but they are not meaningfully labeled so that doesn’t really do much.  Chapter headings would have made the break points more effective.

A very deep rabbit hole indeed

Anyway, a six hour YouTube video, even with break points, does not exactly mesh well with my attention span.  Even in that eight 45 minute episode binge watch scenario… I think we did that with season 2 of Ted Lasso… I still find myself looking at my iPad to check out who that actor is and what they were in or to play some Pokemon Go or get up to go to the kitchen for a snack.

There was no way I was going to sit at my desk and focus on this video for six hours.  So I decided to treat it more as an audio book or a podcast, something to listen to while I was doing something else on my computer.  I put it up on my second monitor so I could glance at the visuals now and then, set it going, and logged into Wrath Classic and spent some time leveling up yet another alt through the soon to be gone vanilla content.  (Cataclysm is coming.)

I played WoW and listened to EVE Online.  There is a deeper meaning in that I am sure.

Anyway, that worked.  Grinding out some quests in the Western Plaguelands required very little active thought, and is actually very calming in its way, so my brain could take care of that while its language processing center took in the video.  I did this for three night last week, ending up finishing Hellfire Peninsula in WoW by the time I was at the credits.

Overall, it was pretty good.

I think the main flaw in the video is the same thing you find in any general history book about something like World War II; there is just so much information that could be covered that the author needs to pick and choose what to go into and what to gloss over.

And this issue is multiplied because the video attempts to simultaneously track the development of the game, from its roots through until around the pandemic, the company itself and the other titles it has pursued, as well as the events within the game that players have created.

That is a ton of material.  For comparison, the audio version of Andrew Groen’s first Empires of EVE book, which really focuses on the development of null sec and the Great War, a span that only gets the story into 2009, runs seven and a half hours.

So there are a lot of omissions and summaries that gloss over details in favor of keeping the narrative running.

And that is fine, but may leave you feeling a bit left out if you were looking for mention of some specific event… or you want to read about in game events outside of null sec conflicts.

Signal Cartel and Katia Sae are probably the big exception.  Katia’s journey to visit all the systems in New Eden is covered as well as Signal Cartel and its mission.

The great war is covered pretty quickly and most of null sec between that and the end of the Fountain War is passed over, first to hit the Incarna release, then to cover the root causes of the Casino War, where the video slows down to take its time, digging into the Imperium, the viceroy program, the Fountain War Kickstarter, and SpaceMonkey’s Alliance conflict with I Want ISK which was the match that set off the full conflict.

Having been very active in the game during that whole time… the Casino War tag here will bring up all those posts… I had no issues with how it was presented.  It omitted the whole alleged “sexual encounter gone wrong aspect” of the SMA/I Want ISK conflict and it did kind of Yadda Yadda its way out the war and some of the post-war fallout, opting to get right into the banning of casinos, the wealth and power of which were explored more thoroughly than most sources have done.

It also explored the Tranquility Trading Consortium in Perimeter, though production wrapped before this year’s fallout over it, which led to the destruction of the Keepstar.

Things sort of peter out with World War Bee and the whole aspect of CCP hamfisted attempts to “fix” the economy were left out.  But every documentary has to end somewhere.  Even Ken Burns would run out of hard drive space trying to bring together something about New Eden.  And there was still a lot there to learn and absorb.  I was at least reminded of a bunch of things that I had long forgotten.

And, of course, I was happy to have the blog quoted twice, once around the Incarna issues (post here), and once about the Betrayal at M-OEE8 during the Casino War (post here).  Of course, Gevlon got as many mentions… so I guess voices from all sides.  And a lot of more knowledgeable people were given voice in the video, so it wasn’t just hacks like Gevlon and I.

I also recognized a few screen shots from here, such as that PLEX market image from 2009 that I always re-use when I am on the topic.

Imagine buying 500 PLEX today for 300 million ISK

I think it is unlikely that anybody else has that exact Jita market screen shot.

And then there was an image of the bubble wrapped Keepstar in YZ9-F6 that looked like it could have been mine, zoomed in somewhat.  But there were a lot of screen shots of that, so I’ll only mark that as a maybe.

Bubble wrapped Keepstar

There were a couple others that might have been from here.  I’m not trying to own them though, I am just happy that they found some use elsewhere to promote the story of EVE Online… and to remind people that New Eden is full of stories.  The large ones get wide coverage because they are often on a scale other video games can only fantasize about.  The smaller ones… the every day stories… most of them are never told.  I try to tell some of mine here, even the more mundane ones, because even those stories can equate to a win, to a feeling of satisfaction in the game.

Should you watch it… or perhaps listen to it, the way I did?  Certainly if you’re interested in a somewhat removed look at the scope of the game.

If you want something a little lighter about the development of the game, there is always the 53 minute documentary, The Making of EVE Online, from The Escapist.

And if you want to really delve into the politics of null sec, there are always the audio book versions of Andrew Groen’s Empires of EVE series which are available over at Audible.com.

After Down the Rabbit Hole I was keen for a deeper dive into null sec, so have started in on Empires of EVE Vol. I.   I own the physical books from the Kickstarter campaigns, but I also bought the audio books just to support the cause.  In fact, the Vol. II audio book came out at just about the same time as the Down the Rabbit Hole video.  Seems like good timing.

The Havoc Expansion Arrives in EVE Online

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Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war

-Marc Anthony, Julius Caesar, Act III scene 1

Or perhaps, in this case, the dogs of faction warfare, as we’re about to see pirate factions unleash chaos in those areas of New Eden because the day has arrived and the Havoc expansion is here.

EVE Online Havoc

There are details patch notes and dev blogs associated with this release, plus a series of detailed looks into each segment posted over at The Nosy Gamer (TNG), so I am going to try for a high level summary of what we’re getting and will link out to all the details at the bottom of the post.  So here we go!

  • Enlist with the Pirates and Bring Chaos to Faction Warfare

The key feature of Havoc is the introduction of two pirate factions, the Guristas and the Angel Cartel, into the faction warfare mix.  They are not there to hold territory the way the empire factions are.  Their intent is to disrupt the empires in their wars against each other.  Be the chaos you want to see in New Eden.

In order to join in you must sign up with the Guristas in Venal or the Angel Cartel in Curse.  To manage that you must have a -2 or greater standing with them.  Since I started as Caldari, spent five years in Deklein, even my alts are way below the line to be able to join Guristas. (Unless they go run the Guristas epic arc missions, which like the Angel Cartel missions, have been buffed up to fix your status.)  But I’ve never shot the Angel Cartel, so I am good there… and that works out because the Imperium has declared for the Angel Cartel.  If you’re a member that is your side.

No chance on Guristas here

If you pick the Guristas you end up messing with the Caldari/Gallente conflict and will hurt your standings with both, while the Angel Cartel puts you in the middle of the Amarr/Minmatar conflict.  Those with the pirate factions will flock to systems where forward operating bases will start an insurgency that will change the rules of that system and even adjacent systems.  CCP says that, pushed far enough, low sec systems will be more like null sec and high sec systems will start to be like low sec… which I gather means CONCORD will be off the job.

The empire aligned pilots will need to work to suppress these insurgencies in order to keep them from growing and affecting the systems around them.

  • Guristas and Angel Cartel Ships and their LP Stores

Both factions had new ships introduced in the warm up to the expansion.  You had to jump through a few hoops to get early blueprints.  With the coming of Havoc players signed up with the pirate factions will have access to a new Loyalty Point (LP) store.  This will no doubt make the faction ships more readily available on the wider market.

Also available in the new Guristas LP store will be Caiman, Loggerhead, and Komodo blueprint copies, the Guristas faction dreadnought, fax, and titan.  Previously those had to be sourced from randomly spawning Guristas shipyards/Sotiyos.  Those will no longer be spawned going forward and the only source of these blueprints will be the new LP store.  (Blood Raider shipyards/Sotiyos will remain active as the source for Blood Raider capitals.)

  • Zarzakh, the station Station, and The Deathless

Meanwhile, the new system added for the Havoc expansion, Zarzakh, has been updated so that players can access the station in system.  Players not aligned to the two pirate factions will be able to dock and use basic station services like fitting and repair.

Pilots enlisted with the two pirate factions will have access to industry, offices, and jump clones.

Likewise, only those signed up with the Guristas and Angel Cartel will be able to use the shipcasters in system, and only the ones configured for their faction.  Guristas cannot, as an example, use the Angel Cartel shipcaster to just to an Angel Cartel FOB, and vice versa.

Finally, bombs from stealth bombers and interdictot bubbles will be allowed in Zarzakh.  This caused a bit of an outcry when previously announced.  We shall see how it plays out.

  • Corporation and Alliance Emblems for the New Ships

And you can use your evermarks to buy corporation and alliance emblems for the new Guristas and Angel Cartel hulls.

  • Corporation Projects

Away from the pirates, CCP is expanding the corporation projects capabilities introduced with Viridian back in June.

There is a new default role of Project Manager.  Somebody in our corporation will have my real life job title now.

CCP has expanded the types of activities that can be setup as corporation projects, allowed those setting up projects to duplicate finished projects rather than having to set them up from scratch.

And there is even a mechanism now that will allow ISK payouts to participants in projects.  Your corporation could theoretically pay logi pilots for every point of damage they repair.  If logi can’t be on kill mails, then they can at least get paid for the effort!  Or you can pay pilots for scanning down wormholes and such.

  • AIR NEP and Opportunities

The AIR Career Programs interface has been revamped to include a wider range of opportunities and to make the whole thing more organized and easier to use.  Will it work?  We’ll see.  As a long term player I haven’t payed much attention to the AIR opportunities, except to collect the occasional ISK reward for doing something I was going to do anyway.  Still, ISK in the pockets of new players is good.

  • Photon UI Updates and Improvements

I haven’t actually complained about the Photon UI since it became the default then only UI option.  The it mostly because it works well enough.  It isn’t perfect, but neither was the previous UI.  But with Havoc we’re going to get custom color schemes, larger font sizes, and a full screen options window so you can see what all those checkboxes say… or so I can see.

Addendum: Now that I have seen the new settings window full screen on my 34″ monitor I want it to be smaller.  There is no need for it to be full screen.  There is no need for anything in EVE Online to be full screen and obscuring your overview ever.

The same mistake from CCP again

Reddit is starting to boil about this.  I hope we’ll get a fix soon.

  • Windows 7 and 8 Support

Not part of this expansion, but coming soon. As of December 7, 2023 EVE Online will cease to support Windows 7 and Windows 8.  I thought Windows 7 was a strong OS and I ran it for 7 years on my last machine, but I’ve been on Windows 10 for more than five years at this point.  Time to let the old OS go.

  • Free Omega Time and Twitch Drops

CCP has brought out the now standard free Omega subscription time option with Havoc.  Between now and November 20th you can go to the in-game New Eden Store and claim seven days of Omega.  If you’re already Omega is just adds seven days to your total.  If you are an Alpha clone you will get seven days as a subscriber.

Free Omega Time in the New Eden Store

The little 10x symbol has nothing to do with RSS, it means that Omega accounts earn ten times as many evermarks from missions than Alpha accounts do.

And then there are Twitch drops.  CCP loves Twitch drops.  The expansion will bring another round of them.  Get a tab up on Mind1’s channel (or your own favorite streamer) and put it in the background until you can collect.

And that is all I have in my attempt at a brief summary.  If you prefer a video tour of the expansion, CCP has that for you as well.

So time for Havoc.  There is a lot of stuff going on and the links below can help you dig into the details.

Related:

Guristas Assault Player Fortizar in Alsavoinon

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On Thursday a new video from The Scope was released that covered the demands of the demands of The Deathless and their Angel Cartel and Guristas allies that player owned structures near two of the Jovian stargates that lead to Zarzakh be taken down within 24 hours or face destruction.

Specifically, the structures threatened were an Astrahus in G-0Q86 owned by the Decoy Alliance and a Fortizar in Alsavoinon owned by The Initiative, both of which are anchored within sight of the clouds hiding the ancient Jovian stargates.

The Scope and the Citadels

The demand seemed to indicate that perhaps the NPC pirate factions were not aware of how the in-game mechanics of Upwell structures work.  In Turner the Astrahus owners decided to leave their structure up to see what would happen, while in Alsavoinon The Initiative began unanchoring their Fortizar in the hope that would be sufficient to save it from destruction.

It was not.

Yesterday, after the 24 hour timer ran down an NPC Guristas fleet consisting of Gilas and Rattlesnakes took up station around the Fortizar and began attacking it with missiles.  Again, the NPCs seem unaware that those hulls are supposed to be all about drones given the in-game mechanics, but they’ll do what they’ll do. (Yes, they get a missile bonus too, but who goes out in a missile Gila?  I guess NPCs don’t get drones.)

Arrival on grid overview

I happened to see a mention of the attack in Mumble and jumped in an Ibis with an empty clone… who cares if that gets blown up… and made my way at full speed to see what was going on.  I arrived on grid to see the action unfolding.

Fortizar under fire… missile hits are huge now

My directional scan of the vicinity counted 25 Gilas and 149 Rattlesnakes.  CCP said on Twitter it was a full fleet of 256, but maybe some got lost on the way.

The Guristas were behaving in the typical NPC manner, warping in close, aligning out as they fired, then warping off when they hit extreme range, only to warp back in again.

A Gila aligned out as explosions rock the Fort

I had warped in at 100km and found myself being targeted by some of the NPCs, so warped off and then back to the Fortizar to tether up and watch events transpire.

Ibis safe for observation

The Initiative responded by bringing out an 160 ship Eagle fleet with logi and boosters, which started to take heat quickly, though the Guristas NPCs swapped between the Fortizar and the Eagles as their algorithm seemed to require.

The Initiative arrives and takes fire

The Fortizar itself was armed and had a gunner operating its defenses and the Eagle fleet was able to tether up at need to repair on the structure.

Battling below the Fort in tether range… missile explosions graphics are getting out of hand

The Initiative appeared to be killing Guristas at quite a quick rate, though these diamond NPCs offer no bounties and leave behind no loot in wrecks.  And more NPCs spawned to reinforce the NPCs, with Worm frigates… again with missiles… joining the fleet mix of the attackers.

The Worms arrive, here is one on the Fort

The reinforcement Guristas joined in on the same routine of warping in close then aligning out, swapping fire between Fort and Eagles as they went.

This might be the same Gila, it is hard to tell

It looked like the Guristas were going to have their way, with the shields down to 13% and the potential for an endless supply of NPCs to continue the assault… and then the Guristas just stopped.

So close to being done

Most of the NPCs warped off with a handful of Gilas sitting about 500km off the Fortizar until it repaired.

They were just watching by this point

Most of the Gilas warped off, though a couple lingered on grid.

The initial Guristas attack on the Fortizar appeared to have been repulsed, with The Initiative losing one Eagle, and that was to a gate camp thrown up to catch stragglers and spectators coming to the fight no doubt.

I hung around for quite a while afterwards as I wrote this up wondering if the Guristas would reappear.  But they did not while I was there.

But that still leaves the question as to whether they will return.  Their efforts only reset the unanchoring timer, so it actively delayed the removal of the Fortizar.  We’ll see if the Guristas… or CCP really… will go after it again.

And I have to go see what happened with the Astrahus in G-0Q86, where there was a call out to help defend it.

All of this was in furtherance of the coming Havoc expansion which lands in New Eden on Tuesday, November 14th.  The patch notes for that are already available.

Addendum – Nov 12: The Guristas came back with Caiman dreads to siege to Fortizar.

Fortizar reinforced

Addendum 2 – Nov 13: The Guristas Caiman fleet came back and won the armor timer.  Next pass is destruction.

Mind1 streaming the fight

It looks like INIT blew up 31 of the attacking dreads, but the infinite respawn meant no hope of winning.  Here is a Guristas dead kill mail.   Also, a video.

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