Rhea Ushers in a New Era of Clones, Wormholes, and Graphics to EVE Online

CCP is launching Rhea today, the next expansion on the EVE Online hit parade, and for the first time ever, nobody had to remind players to start training a long skill just in case there were issues with the update.  That is because, after Phoebe, everybody should have a long training queue at all times.  Why wouldn’t you?

My own queue stands at 320 days going into the expansion.  That should be plenty of buffer.

But back to Rhea.

I have to admit that I was skeptical that CCP could deliver exciting, game changing, quality of life improving content on a regular basis with their “every six weeks”  expansion plan.   After all, there were expansions during the “twice a year” era that barely spark a memory for me.  I would say that the Quantum Rise expansion springs to mind, only it doesn’t  I had to go look at a list of expansions, and I couldn’t recall a single feature from that release.

But since the summer started, almost every one of these small expansions has had something meaningful to me in it.  With each one the features seem to be getting bigger and better, and Rhea seems to be continuing this trend.

The Rhea expansion page is bursting with new and updated items.

There is new space, in the form of Thera and the shattered wormholes (Also the name of a Jon Hallur tribute band), adding up to 101 new star systems, with new and interesting characteristics.  This is the first time CCP has expanded the number of systems in New Eden in quite a while, and it will be a race to see who reaches Thera, the new mega wormhole system.

There are two new ships.  There is the Amarr Confessor, the first of the tech 3 destroyers.

Still looks more like a Cayman to me…

And then there is the Bowhead freighter, which is meant to transport assembled ships.

Bowhead… how soon until the first gank?

Probably the biggest change for me will be the update to clones.  CCP is removing the whole clone upgrade and skill point loss aspect of clones.  No longer will I face a 30 million ISK toll for being podded and Dabigredboat should now be safe from losing Fleet Command V going forward.  No more of this. (From this thread celebrating what might be the last skill loss pod death in the game.)

I realize that this has caused some moaning amongst those hardest of the hard core, this softening of the death penalty in EVE, but the skill loss thing has always seemed like a “Gotcha! Didn’t say ‘Simon Says!'” sort of deal.  And you are already losing your ship and dropping back in a medical clone that could many jumps from where you want to be at the moment.  Basically, how much death penalty is enough?

Then there are graphical updates to, some ships, and the introduction of Physically Based Rendering that will change the look of all the models to some degree.

Can I bring my PBR Drake? (New vs. Old)

There is also whole new version of  the star map in progress, which you will be able to opt-in to try with Rhea.  I have said in the past that the star map in EVE Online is one of the most impressive yet least useful features in the game.  CCP is aiming to make the map even more impressive while trying to make it useful as well.

Also, there will be manual controls.  You will be able to steer your ship about using keyboard controls as opposed to the current “click in space” or “align to a thing” methods currently available.  I am actually looking forward to this, being one of those people who occasionally just likes to undock in a fast ship and fly around the station just for the sheer hell of it.

Rhea also includes Sleeper cache sites and polarized weapons, Sleeper drones in known space, pirate faction jackets and dreadnought skins in the store, a bunch of smaller items, and a new song for the expansion. along with a video.

The release notes for Rhea are dense with changes.

All in all, a lot of stuff for what will be the final titan themed release.  The word has come down that the 2015 expansions will have a different naming theme, though that has yet to be announced.

There are a lot of things in this release I am really looking forward to seeing or trying out.  And, of course, with various updated models, skins, and the PBR graphics update, there will be a lot of new screen shots to be taken for my other blog.

Wiyrkomi Phoenix skin, I would toally buy this if I had one

Sarum Revelation skin, like it is covered in blood

Interbus Moros skin, sort of like a bee I guess

Justice Naglfar skin, but Nags are always cool

The Paint on Phoebe is Barely Dry and CCP is Already Talking About Rhea… and Clones

The Phoebe expansion just went live on Tuesday and CCP is still closing loopholes in the system… I think they fixed the bit where you could erase jump fatigue via clone jumping, and the doomsday timer on titans being reset via gate jumps is probably gone now too… but they still found the time to run another episode of the o7 The EVE Online Show on Twitch where they dropped another bombshell on New Eden.

For those unfamiliar with chat in EVE Online, oh-seven is a little guy saluting.  Sometimes he is just waving, done as oh-forward slash.  Or it might be a she.  It is hard to tell with a little circle.

o7 - saluting
o/ - waving
o7m8 - being annoying

Not that this has anything to do with the news, but sometimes it is nice to re-state things as not everybody who reads this plays EVE.

Anyway, yesterday on the show, CCP announced that with the Rhea expansion there would be a major change to clones.  Clones would no longer have various grades based on the amount of your skill points, so there will be no need to upgrade your clone after you get podded, which means that there will be no more loss of skill points.

I am not sure that was as bit of an announcement as the unshackling of the training queue that came with Phoebe, but it got a lot of cheers.

:SIREN: GAME GOOD AGAIN. INANE CLONE BULLSHIT BEING REMOVED. #tweetfleet #eveonline

— Powers (@Powersv2) November 6, 2014

This is one of those day one game mechanics that has just become one of those things we do because it is one of those things we do.  Losing skills because you forgot to upgrade your clone is a heartbreaker, as it hits your highest cost skills.  Ask Dabigredboat how many times he has lost Fleet Command V, a skill which could take you 60 days to train up.

And the ongoing rising price of clones is just an annoying tax on skill points.  CCP realized this a while back and actually reduced the cost of clone upgrades, so I went from a 40 million ISK tax on being podded to just 30 million.  But now they have decided to jump in with both feet and just remove the whole game mechanic.

There will be some complaints about this change.  As I have always said, no matter what feature we are talking about or how bad it is, it is somebody’s favorite feature.  I think CSM member Sion Kumitomo has a reasonable discussion up about the change over at TMC.  I think it is a good thing, as I always feel odd losing a clone that costs more than the ship I am flying, implants aside.  And, since there will be no change to implants, there will still be the joy of podding somebody with a full slave set.

CCP has posted the show up on YouTube and you can find that announcement at the thirteen minute mark.

Then there was the announcement that there would be some new space in Rhea.  A collection of new systems will be coming to wormhole space with unique features.  Covered on the show was a new wormhole system that will have a name, Thera.  It will have NPC stations in it with the idea that people will live there and use the static wormholes to known space to find adventure.  It will also have Sleeper sites, no local, and be null sec rated just like the rest of wormhole space today.  It will not allow capital ships of POSes however.  CCP Fozzie called it the fifth type of space, alongside high sec, low sec, null, and wormhole.

This strikes me as CCP rolling the dice by mixing up some of the current mechanics to see what players will make of it.  Which isn’t a bad thing.  Golden Age or not, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

On the YouTube video, the discussion of this starts at the 27 minute mark.

And then, on top of that, there is a new Dev Blog up about revamping the UI.

Certainly the EVE Online UI has many problems.  It is one of those things that you simply have to adjust to over time, because trying to find a method in the madness is a fools errand.

But now they are talking about changing it up, which scares me a bit.  In part, that is because after 8 years, I am somewhat used to the idiosyncrasies of the UI.  But the other aspect is that, in life, I have found that people often confuse “new” or “different” with “better.”  I don’t want something that is just bad in different ways.  You might as well stick with the devil you know then.  But CCP is asking for feedback, so there is time to see and comment on their plan.

All of which, plus the Tech III destroyers announced at EVE Vegas, is starting to make the Rhea release in December look like a big deal.

At this point I am less worried about jump fatigue… I haven’t accrued any yet, despite traveling across New Eden post-Phoebe… and more worried about feature fatigue with changes like this coming at us about every six weeks.  Can CCP keep it up?  Can we keep up?

Tech 3 Destroyers and Other Tidbits from EVE Vegas Keynote

EVE Vegas is running this weekend.  The one time player driven event that has turned into a CCP sponsored affair, complete with a keynote speech full of new treats.

CCP Seagull kicked things off with a theme and overview of how CCP is looking at the upcoming changes.  The idea is that CCP wants to create things where they cannot predict the outcome, because they if they can then we can as well.  So roll on emergent game play.

Playing and Outplaying

She reviewed the titan themed expansions so far this year…

The new expansions so far…

And talked a bit about items we have heard mentioned before.  Then she gave us the release plan for 2015.

2015 Release Plan

That is 10 release for 2015, plus the two we have left this year, Phoebe and Rhea.  This all led into a bit more overview on what the upcoming phases of change they are planning.

Going through a phase

Phase 1 is looming, with Phoebe dropping in just a couple of weeks, but Phase 2 is where the shape of null sec might change.  She then wrapped up with a revised version of the road map for EVE Online.

Where we are…

This is a bit trimmed down from the old one.  The green line shows where CCP feels they stand, so industry is pretty much done but many more major changes are left to come.

CCP Seagull wrapped up and handed the stage over to CCP Fozzie who got to talk about some more specific items related to the Rhea expansion coming in December.  Most of that is still under wraps, but there were a couple of neat things.

Quick look at Rhea

The art change consisted of an update to the Blackbird/Falcon/Rook ship model.  There was a very early mock up of what they want to do with the some of the most loved/hated ships in the game, but CCP Fozzie said that it would likely bristle with antennae when it was done.

Then there was a new ship type announced, currently codenamed “Tug.”

The Tug

This will be a freighter sized ship that will be used for carrying around multiple fitted sub cap ships.  A mock up of the ship was shown.

Aft view

Bow view

The model is still early on, so no textures have been applied, but CCP Fozzie did say something about the art team pushing the envelope when it come to the number of polygons used.  I suspect that this will be a popular ship.

Then CCP Fozzie spoke about the research race/contest that had been going on for the last week.  The results were in, which he announced, along with what it would mean.

Research Race results

Each of the empires will get their version of the end result in the order in which they place… and what they are getting is Tech 3 Tactical destroyers.

Tech 3 Destroyers

The Amarr should get theirs as part of the Rhea expansion, which other races getting theirs with following expansion.  There were even some mock-ups of potential models for the Amarr tactical destroyers shown.

Amarr tactical concepts

He also showed mock-ups of the Caldari version, because apparently the Caldari were in first place in the race until almost the end, so the art team started in on what looked like the winning team early.

Caldari tactical concepts

As with the “Tug” announcement, there were no final names or any stats for the ships.

That about wrapped up CCP Fozzie’s time, and he then gave way to CCP Seagull again who spoke of exciting times coming in the game with all of the changes they have planned.

Others talking about they keynote:

• Neville Smit
• Nosy Gamer
• The Mittani dot com

Also, the video of the keynote is up on YouTube now.

And on a related topic, CSM member Sugar Kyle has summarized some of the CCP roundtables.

• Ships and Modules
• CCP Seagull
• Social Media
• General Game Design