CCP Fozzie is Quackers - An Update

I had not intended to do an update but I was thinking more about the hint image and I realised that maybe I was reading too much into the image and had gotten it wrong.

 

Instead of being a "parent" and "child" relationship could it be an indication of lots of small objects shooting a larger object?

 

Over the my years playing one consistent thing said is that Super Capitals and Titans are too powerful and to effectively kill one you need more of the same. As such this situation has lead to an "arms race" of alliances and corporations who can field these ships and fielding as many as they have pilots for.

 

Could the new ship or ships we'll be seeing dedicated super/titan killers? Something with a medium to light tank but very heavy firepower vs capital class ships. T3 battle cruisers can do a lot of this now but they are (usually) paper thin and can be overwhelmed by even a small sub-capital fleet.

 

It's another 'out there' possibility but we won't know until next year.



CCP Fozzie is Quackers

At EVE Down Under 2013 CCP Fozzie announced the name and showed the new SOE battleship (the Nestor) but he also provided a visual hint of an new ship that will be introduced in the 2014 Summer Expansion.

 

Here is the visual hint that CCP Fozzie gave during his presentation:

 

Image from www.themittani.com

Firstly, Ducks are cool so credit to CCP Fozzie for the image but it is supposed to be a clue as to what is coming in Summer 2014.

 

So lets list the possibilities based on what we see from the above image as pertains to EVE Online:

 

New Ship Transporter

 

The image could represent a new ship type that allows the moving of large numbers of assembled ships. The Ship Maintenance Hanger provides this functionality but is really limited (in terms of useful space) to ships that exist outside of high sec or cannot use jump gates.

 

Could we be seeing the introduction of a new freighter type ship that will have a large Ship Maintenance Hanger that can travel through gates. This is something that has been asked for by players before and whilst a freighter can move ships the ability for it to move assembled ships is limited (the smaller the ship the more you can carry).

 

A very specialised ship for a specific and limited purpose, I think this unlikely is what the picture alludes to.

 

New Carrier

 

The use of the ducklings and a single duck could indicate drones and existing capital ships are classed as T1 so could we be seeing a new carrier, T2 class, for each race?  It certainly would be nice, again this is something players have asked for, I think it unlikely as just more drones are just what CCP wants on their nodes and we are still in the midst of the sub-capital rebalancing.

 

Adding a new capital ship seems an outside chance, it would be nice but I believe it to be most unlikely.

 

New Transport Mechanic for Player Ships

 

Ship Maintenance Hangers require that players exit their ships but could the image be showing a new way of moving within EVE Online? This new method could allow ships with SMH to jump and move with player piloted ships and instead of using Jump Bridging players exit the 'mother ship' when they reach their destination.

 

Really, I must have been smoking something (and I don't smoke) to come up with this. This is so far left field that I'm no longer in the same country, extremely unlikely.

 

Change to Drone Mechanics

 

For a long time, should you have the right skills trained and the limitations of drone bandwidth, you could deploy a maximum of 5 active drones. Could the image be alluding to an increase in the current 5 active drones per ship limit?

 

This is another long shot, drones at the moment are server resource intensive and as we saw recently that enough ships and drones can crash a server node. I really don't think this limit will change upwards because it could both negate the Guardian-Vexor's worth and utility but also add additional strain to server nodes.

 

Where would I put my money

 

At this time, selected from my limited list of possibilities I believe that a new carrier is the obvious front runner. However, as with all supposition, this may and probably will change over time as CCP release more information and/or teasers.

 

Still a new carrier is where I'd have my money at this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVE Down Under 2013

This weekend is the second EVE Down Under gathering in Sydney, Australia and I was all set to go until this past Monday. Unfortunately I'm now not in a position to go and despite protests to my wife and a fair amount of begging I have had to accept the fact I will be unable to go.

I was planning on surprising a Corp mate who is going and I'd already booked all my accommodation and transport. Not happy, Jan.

The First

Last year's event was small and very good and TheMittani.com has a good write up of the upcoming event here along with a small interview with the organiser nGR RDNx. I attended last years event and whilst I could only attend on the Saturday it was a full on day of meeting new people and trying not to be self conscious about having my character name and alliance written on my badge.

I met a lot of people (40/50 were expected but over 120 people attended) and really got a lot out of the experience, it certainly was a surprise to see Garmon and watch him on screen in a one-on-one battle. The Skype call with CCP was good too, it was great to see support from CCP (who also sent some prizes) who did a hour's chat and provided some laughs and future game information.

Bigger, Better

This year was going to be bigger, you just knew it from watching the chat in the EVE Down Under in-game channel and what was announced on the event website.

Biggest news (at least I thought) was CCP Fozzie would be attending and rumour has it that the infamous Chribba would also be there. Giveaway prizes are also quite stunning, an Utu was donated by www.eve-bet.com with SOMER Blink also donating large amounts of prizes.

The event is going to be... wait for it, Legendary!

More details can be found here at the official site.

Good luck to all attending this weekend, and to RDNx and the team, it should be a fantastic event.