I caved into pressure, here is the Friday post.

I twittered last night that I was not making a Friday post as I was very frustrated with the game breaking bugs dealing with sov.  I said I did not want to make the post because I really did not want to rant.  I also received many emails, both in and out of game, for a summary of the situation.  So, I broke down and wrote the post.  I am still frustrated and I will try not to rant, just convey the situation and then get on with the normal Friday post stuff.

There are a few blogs that have discussed these issues with the two systems in question.  Those systems being  Z-REF3 and 3D-CQU, where bugs with the sov mechanic have broken game play:

• To Me. To You. To Me. To You.
• Broken Record

The following thread on the EVE forums sums up the issue:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1270539

In short, there are two systems, Z-REF3 and 3D-CQU, where sov can not be obtained.  The TCU goes online, you are awarded sov and then 20 to 48 minutes later the TCU goes offline and you loose sov.  Bringing a TCU online again and 8 hours later, the same issue.  U’K and AM have been dealing with this bug for literally days now with TCU’s going online every 8 hours and dropping sov less than an hour after that point.

Petitions have been submitted and CCP’s response to date has been less than stellar. I am not going into the responses, I don’t want to rant.  CCP is really dropping the ball on this one.  You would think that Ushra’Khan may be just ranting here, playing the COAD games, but that’s not the case.  Our enemies are supporting us on EVE Forums posts concerning this issue.

So, for all those people who were on the fence when Goonswarm made their claims that Dominion and it’s new sov mechanic was still in the Alpha level of development and not worthy of even being called a “Beta Test”, you should take note of this issue.

For all of us who saw this same issue on the test server prior to Dominion going live, well,  it’s very familiar and at the same time disappointing.  You would think that code from the test server would have been resolved before being rolled into production.  I have to say at this point and I can’t believe I am about to write these words, I agree with the folks in Goonswarm concerning the new sov mechanic.  Nullsec warfare is broken to the point that it’s simply not playable.

Please understand me here, I don’t agree with the Goonswarm position that the new sov mechanics are bad.   I think the new sov mechanic is a great change for the game and I want to see the new sov mechanics be used in game.  My issue is not with the mechanics themselves, my issue is that the testing on the test server showed obvious game breaking bugs with the new sov mechanics that needed further testing and tweaking.  These same issues were obviously not resolved when Dominion was brought onto Tranquility, hence the current issues.

I hope this was not too much of a rant.  Ahem, now that is out of the way, on to more items of note:

• Bugs notwithstanding, the ProviWar feed continues to grow with more material.
• Rooks and Kings had a great kill in the past few weeks of a Goonswarm freighter with a 155 billion isk price tag.
• Someone in my corp shared a funny TeamSpeak recording of a EVE pilot making a phone sex call.  It’s made the rounds, but I had to share it again.  WARNING, NSFW.  Enjoy the lols, but do take note that the lovely lady made one heck of an effort to keep the call on track.
• George Allen Miller wrote an interesting article, Star Trek Online Versus Eve Online revisited, comparing Star Trek Online to EVE Online.  He states that “…but STO was doomed from the start…”.  Go read the entire article, it’s a good one.
• Shameless plug for the folks over at EVE Development Network.  They have been working very hard on EDK 3.0, the newest version of their very popular killboard web application.  I recently upgraded to their new version and let me say, it’s a dream.  The built in support for a single pilot killboard was a major feature I was looking forward to using.  I’ve been using their application for years and I have to say, they have outdone themselves.  Good job guys and thank you for all the hard work!
• As always, update work for the blogs listed on The EVE Online Portal and the OPML download continues.  Head over and see who we added this week!

See you out there!

Tags: 3D-CQU, AM, CCP, Dominion, EDK 3.0, EVE Development Network, EVE Forums, George Allen Miller, Goonswarm, killboard, Petitions, ProviWar, sovereignty, Star Trek Online, Timezone, U'K, Z-REF3

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This coming weekend and the next and then we are at Christmas.  Can you believe it?  It’s been a busy month and a lot is going on.

• Dominoin 1.0.2 was deployed, Patch Notes reveal that the Stargate Blockade Units were seeded as planned.  The grace period for Sov was extended to December 15th.
• We added more blogs to the OPML and The EVE Online Portal, check out the newest additions!
• Roc of Roc’s Ramblings continues his Advent Celebration series.
• Many of our fellow bloggers continue to write interesting posts on the EVE Online Expansion:  Dominion.
• CCP promised us the screen saver that they used as the backdrop at FanFest.  It’s not been released yet, but a very nice screensaver with Dominoin screenshots and music has been release, check it out!
• 54,181.  That’s the new PCU record as of 12-8-2009.  Congratulations CCP!
• Luminus Aardokey of Split Infinity Radio and the Planet Risk Podcast has proposed the creation of a shared bookmarks tool in the Jita Assembly Hall.  Head over and support this initiative today!
• Rettic wrote a wonderful back story for his character, READ IT!
• And to round out the list this week, check out yet another awesome kill by a Warrior of the Ushra’khan.  Yes, it’s a T3 Strategic Cruiser popped something almost unheard of.

See you out there and remember to finish your Christmas Shopping!

Tags: CCP, Dominion, EVE Online, EVEbloggers.com, Expansion, Fanfest, OPML Download, Patch Notes, PCU, Podcast, sovereignty, Ushra'khan

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Well, here we are.  Dominion has been deployed and ahead of schedule.  Well done CCP.

I am at a loss as to what to write about Dominion.  Many of my fellow bloggers have pretty much hit on most of the awesomeness and I am continuing to add blog posts to this Google collection, so, please do take the time to read everything.  There is a lot and it’s worth it for the screenies.  Planets look awesome!

After looking at all the new sovereignty structures, I can see that freighters will be used a lot and I mean A LOT.  If you want to deploy a Territorial Claim Unit to claim sovereignty, you can do that with a transport ship.

If you want to deploy an Infrastructure Hub, you need 750,000 m3 of cargo space to carry it.  That means a freighter.  You want to install an upgrade?  You need 500,000 m3 of cargo space to carry one upgrade.

So, if you build freighters for a living in game, get busy, they demand for them just soared.  Build away my little industrialists, your time to make lots of isk is at hand.

Now, with any patch or expansion, there will be issues and people will go nuts trying to sort them out.  Head over to http://www.eveonline.com/updates/knownissues.asp and get up to speed with the issues that currently exist with the new patch.  Just a note, as of this blog post, most of these issues are being addressed with the patch being released on Thursday between 0930 and 1200 game time.  Set those long skills again.

See you out there!

Tags: Dominion, freighter, Infrastructure Hub, known issues, patch, planets, sovereignty, Territorial Claim Unit

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Work has been keeping me busy and getting things ready for the holidays at home has taken a good amount of my free time.  It’s been a busy week in EVE as well as many people are getting ready for the Dominion expansion to go live in less than 2 weeks now.

December 1st is patch day.  So, everyone, sort out your training plans, remember to set a long skill on Sunday, November 28th and go Christmas shopping.  We are all getting a break from EVE for a day or so, take advantage of it.  Spend some time offline, buy that special someone a nice meal for dinner and enjoy the break.

This week’s highlights:

• Upcoming sovereignty changes continue to be discussed on the EVE forums, through additional Dev blogs and the EVE Blogging community.  You can read all the articles on this shared items page (yes, I do love Google Reader).
• It’s been a while since I tinkered with Sniper drone fits, Gremond reminded me of that fun with his recent blog post (http://gremrod.blogspot.com/2009/11/drone-sniper-fit.html)
• EVE-Mag.com has had a great series of episoded in a wonderful work of fan-fiction, Vengeance of the State.  Head over and read this story, it’s really entertaining.
• The CSM elections end on the 26th, be sure to go vote!
• Our beloved Lord Makk of the Ushra’Khan has released some entertainment for the masses, head over to the EVE Forums Thread for links and comments.

Tags: CSM, Dev Blogs, Dominion, EVE Forums, Fiction, sovereignty, Ushra'khan

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I’ve been spending the morning reading the new Dev blog on how CCP is fixing sovereignty.  I’ve also been reading the comments thread on the EVE forums (at 23 pages at the time of this blog entry) and I have to say, the majority  of the responses are not in favor of the changes.  Most people think it will break EVE Online to the point that no one will want to be in 0.0 space.

The TL;DR version is that a typical system will take roughly 2 billion isk a month to maintain once you have it fully developed.  Given all the upgrades to the space that you can add, you simply can not generate the needed income if you are an alliance that is considered small.  I have to agree with the sentiment on the EVE forums here, this simply will not work and all the thoughts that come into my head are already being spoken on the EVE forums and the EVE Blogging community.  The best response I’ve seen on the EVE forums sums everything up by Bobby Atlas and oddly enough, it’s been quoted in post number 666 (I’m not kidding), http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1210267&page=23#666.

Yes, our beloved EVE Blogging community, in a rare event, is agreeing with the sentiment on the EVE forums.  For ease of reading, I have setup a shared Google Reader page for those responses:  http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user%2F03749674846786948488%2Flabel%2FSOV.  As more blogging articles are posted talking about the soverignity changes, I’ll add them to this shared page.

Everyone, keep reading, thinking and posting your thoughts as there are intelligent discussions going on both the EVE forums and the blogging community.

The debater in my heart is happy to see such discussion but by the same token, I am very concerned that the upcoming changes that caused this debate will simply break 0.0 in EVE.  One of two things will result.  People will simply not go to 0.0 as the risk exceedingly outweighs the rewards or many people will simply leave EVE as it’s becoming World of Warcraft in space with 0.0 becoming arenas.

Many people are claiming that these changes are going to have an NGE effect on EVE Online.  To refresh everyone’s memory, SWG:NGE was a bait and switch upgrade.  Buy the next expansion and change the game to a new game and not let anyone know about the change until after it happened.  I was there for that and let me tell you, it was not pretty.

The sovereignty changes to EVE are not another NGE.  We all can see the changes coming and that’s what makes this different.  The part of the NGE event where Sony did not listen to the players however, has the potential to happen here.  I’ve not seen such consensus of thought and discussion on the EVE forums since the proposed speed balancing.  We all remember what happened with that change, CCP listened to the players, modified what they planned and released a better patch to the game.

I hope the CCP listens to the players again and revises what they are planning on releasing on December 1.  As it stands now, they need to delay the expansion and make the changes that everyone on the EVE forums is calling for. People think it will be another NGE, I have to agree the the potential for an NGE event set of results is there.  We will have to simply wait and see.

Tags: CCP, Dev Blog, Dominion, EVE Blogging, EVE Forums, Google Reader, NGE Event, sovereignty, SWG:NGE

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