New Character Creator Videos

When it comes to Incarna, I’m definitely part of the “what in the hell do we need that for?” crowd. I have to admit, though, the new character creator is pretty impressive. For those who don’t know, the new character creator is the first piece of the Incarna puzzle and will actually be introduced with the Incursion expansion this winter. You can even check it out right now on the Singularity test server. I for one am quite happy that I will get a mulligan on my presently hideous character portrait.

The Past Two Months in Screenshots

The bad news is that I don’t update this blog nearly as much as I should. But the good news is I HAVE been quite busy in EVE. Since the launch of Tyrannis, I’ve joined for the first time a soverign 0.0 Alliance. I’ve been spending my days in the heart of Providence shooting rats and helping defend our little corner of the galaxy in the wake of the Urshra’Kahn takeover.

It’s been a fun ride so far, and one that I’m not planning to get off of any time soon.

In my travels I’ve been snapping screens left and right, and I’ve collected some of the best for you here. Enjoy!

No Thanks, World of Tanks

Apparently the folks at Wargaming.net felt it would be appropriate to poke some fun at EvE today with their latest teaser trailer for the upcoming game, World of Tanks. They seem to make the argument that EvE is stupid because OMG TANKS!! TNAKS ARE AWSOMME!!!!!!11!

The strangest part of this video is that they are so caught up in the mockery that they completely neglect to tell us anything the game they’re trying to promote. Take a trip to the video page on the WoT website you’ll find another brainless video, this time taking a shot at fantasy games because apparently if you play fantasy–ZOMGROFFLETANKS!!!11!

It turns out they do in fact have a gameplay video sandwiched in there which confirms suspicions. This really is just a brainless tank-on-tank shoot-em-up. At least we can say we never saw such a game before.

Revolutionary tank-on-tank shoot-em-up action!

They mention tank modifications, but the game is set in the WWII era and everything is so low-tech that I can’t imagine how upgrades can be even remotely interesting. Trading up those cast-iron track rollers for the newfangled steel ones? Replacing the thick heavy armor plates with still thicker and heavier armor plates? Yawn… I only hope for their sake their first expansion includes modern tanks which consist of a bit more than a giant gun bolted to a pile of steel.

At any rate, I thank Wargaming for the fair warning. Without their dimwitted marketing campaign to tell us “Our game, by design, is a mindless, empty shell and consequently the complete opposite of the kind of thing you would like”, I might have made the mistake of investing some small amount of time or money on the thing.

Tyrannisaurus

Maybe we’ll find dinosaurs while we’re exploring planets.

P.S. I’m back

Well Here We Go Boys n’ Girls!

Patch is patched. Tranquility is online. I’m blogging from the IGB!

Time to go relearn how to fly…

The eve of Dominion… erm… in EvE.

Blizzard. Those motherfuckers.

I awoke one morning in August with a bad headache, $60 of charges on the credit card, and a deep-seated feeling of regret. The confirmation emails confirmed the horror: at some point during the previous night’s inebriation I had flipped the switch on my WoW account and transferred servers to play with my buddies. I said I might as well get my money’s worth and ended up going in for another 3 months of instance grind. And with all the grinding, EvE was neglected and eventually the subscription was cut because I just wasn’t spending time playing the game. FML.

Good thing for me, CCP is quite forgiving. So here we are, hours away from the highfalutin’ newfangled Dominion expansion–subscription engaged.

Walking in Stations

CCP_t0rfifrans has given us a glimpse at the upcoming “Apocrypha 1.5″ patch due to reach us this August. New smaller cheaper rigs, level 4 epic mission arcs, and loyalty points for factional warfare are all in store for us. We also receive some notes regarding this winter’s upcoming expansion. One thing we won’t be seeing, however, is the ability to get out of your ship and walk around a station. This has been on many players’ wish lists for quite some time now.

“All I can say, is that [the expansion] is focused on sovereignty and you will not be able to walk in it.”

Most of us have spent more time than we care to admit customizing the look and the personas of our in-game selves. After that, though, we’ve grown accustomed to an occasional glimpse at a thumbnail sized portrait as we cruise around New Eden in our ships. With all there is to do and experience in EvE, do we really need the addition of a glorified chatroom?

Do you think the addition of purely social features is a worthwhile venture, or do you believe that CCP would best serve us utilizing all their resources to improve and build upon the meat n’ potatoes of what makes EvE such a great game in the first place?

Freeform Contracts Eliminated

I’ll admit, I only glanced through the patch notes. Kind of. It wasn’t until i swung by Massively just now that I learned that freeform contracts have been taken out of the game.

Now I’m pretty new to EvE. I’ve never been scammed or attempted to scam anyone else. I’ve never even attempted to create or accept a freeform contract. I shouldn’t give a damn about this at all. So why is it bugging me?

Forget the fact that EvE is about space ships. Forget the huge fleet battles, the wormhole exploration, and the economy. In my opinion, one of the greatest things about EvE is that it does very little to protect players from their own stupidity.

In order to succeed in EvE, you have to be smart. The constant threat of others trying to outsmart and take advantage of you is part of what makes the game exciting. Staying one step ahead of these people is what makes the game rewarding.

The removal of an avenue for potential trouble is the removal of an avenue for risk and excitement. It is the removal of a challenge and the gratification one recieves when he or she has risen above it. This time I believe CCP took a step in a very bad direction, I truly hope this is the last we see of this type of thing.

New Home!

We’ve moved from eveaetrix.wordpress.com because, as I’m sure you’ll agree, eveaetrix was a terrible address. Enjoy!

Ammo Types and Damage Dealt

One of the things I found really confusing when I first got started running combat missions was trying to make heads or tails out of all the different ammo types. Follow the jump for a brief guide to figure out what you should be buying at the market before your next outing.