EVE that november expansion of ours1
reported by CCP Oveur | 2007.09.10 23:24:11 | Comments
Today was a big day for us. The last major designs were finalized Friday, we went over the list of deliverables and risks of our upcoming (and, of course, free) expansion today. Now I can shed some light on what's coming in Revelations 3, because now we know.
Edit note: This blog is only intended as a brief overview instead of having to wait for a webpage detailing it all. Blogs detailing each item here will be made by the designer responsible for that task.
We changed our strategy some time ago and decided to release 2 expansions per year with a number of maintenance patches between. It looks good so far, we really liked Revelations 2.2, we hope you did too.
A later addition to that strategy was the Need for Speed initiative, an effort to bring it to the top of the mind of all developers, EVE's performance is paramount to world domination. How can one conquer the universe at 1 frame per hour?
Edit note: The "Need for Speed" was started to better handle high load situations such as large encounters and fleet battles. This expansion has less features because of our emphasis on this effort.
The Need for Speed philosophy dictates a ratio of 6 improvements for 1 feature, thus keeping our focus on improving what's in there instead of bells and whistles (and perpetuating older issues). The drawback there is of course less shiny new buttons to press and that can be a hard sell, but we hope you approve. There is a lot already inside EVE, it's depth probably one of it's strongest selling point.
This time around, the biggest feature is also an improvement. And an optimization. And very shiny. All this and more in one awesome package called Trinity 2, our new graphics engine. This is a case of where the beautiful becomes jaw-dropping gorgeous.
Edit note: Trinity 2 in November is using DirectX 9.0. The Trinity 2 engine is able to handle things such as fleet battles and large NPC encounters much better than the current one. That is what's being referred to as an "optimization" in the paragraph above but now properly emphasized with this note.
This leads us to everything else in our next expansion, focusing on improvements more than ever.
Drones Revisited
"About time" is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Not only are we improving the interface, we're working on the logic behind them. This should hopefully lead to them being more consistent in control and abolish their free will. Assist and Guard are new commands coming in, we're getting lots of new named drones and we're adding a new constraint on drones, bandwidth. With this, bandwidth determines the number of drones you can control, allowing the dronebay to be considerably increased on drone ships, accommodating more waves or variety. Ubar? Ja!
Edit note: Bandwidth referenced here is not in reference to your internet connection. It's to un-nerf specialized drone ships and allow more differentation between ships. There is also specific Drone Region content in this update.
The home-away-from-home-tech-2-battleship
The long-range and high-versatility Battleship nicknamed the "Violators". Their versatility will work for many play styles but we also wanted something which would work for PvE play styles. This doesn't mean they will work well for only mission runners, so there is no need to brand them with the misnomer of the "mission ship".
Edit note: Long-range is not a reference to weapons range but the ships ability to go deep into enemy territory and stay there for extended periods. It is not a HAC either :)
The this-is-not-the-tech-2-battleship-you-are-looking-for Battleship.
Infiltration and covert operation. It has a small jump portal for other covert ships. They are called the Black Ops. They are black. 'Nuff said. (Well, not really, but that's a different blog).
The should-I-stay-or-should-I-go Cruiser.
You might hate or love the Interdictors. Whatever your feelings are, here is a heavy one. They will bring to mind a whole new meaning to "Say hello to my little friend!".
The most-annoying-frigate-ever Frigate.
No, we're not talking about hundreds of noob frigates with civilian Gatling Guns, we're talking about electronic warfare on a new scale. A very small scale. It's the Recon class, now in bite-sized chunks that bite back if you're not careful.
Yes, indeed. Srsly. 4 new Tech 2 classes.
Edit note: The 5th ship class is still not confirmed to make it in time and therefore not covered. It's a mini-profession ship and requires resources that we don't have available. It is therefore not an option to say, skip the E-war frigate and do the mini-profession ship instead since they are working on the Need for Speed and fixing the 600 defects.
These ships will like recent Tech 2 has entered the economy recently, through Invention only.
Missions a-plenty
