blazemonger

While recent sites have seen good progress in NPC AI, I would agree that to a large extend PVE in EVE is way to predictable and generally quickly resolved as far as tactics go. I like the ideas you put forward about it being more of a hunt where the NPCs may throw a curveball at the corner... Guess we'll have to see how this plays out eventually

Can't really speak for LS as I live in Null. Lowsec is just for having some fun in FW for me.. I'll generally farm havens in Providence using VNI and have probably 20 of them scattered around. Then bring a T3C for the escalations, also several around the area.. jump around using jump bridges in a blockade runner to avoid Jump fatigue as much as possible. Usually scout ahead in an interceptor when I move out of Provi although Catch and Stain are fairly empty most of the time anyway really.. I fly a Strat for Wormholes and run my Wolf Rayet C3 sites solo in a Confessor (or in confessor fleets for WR C5-C6 sites) To get back to DU, It will be interesting to see what challenges we'll find in (deep) space. As you mentioned we do not know of any sort of PVE content so it may not be all that interesting at first. My only concern with this is that with no (known) challenges or reasons to move away (quickly) the game may choke on overcrowding ..

Fair enough, although I would not consider a Stratios for PVE. Frankly a VNI would serve pretty much the same purpose and is much cheaper. Many (solo) PVP players would also prefer to not engage a VNI as it has the potential to be an extremely tough opponent. I have a toon running (mainly) havens in a VNI, the escalations he runs in a Loki or Tengu.

In general cloak is really overrated and not all that vital really. I find my explorer interceptor getting off a gate in under 2s and not caring about bubbles more important. But that won't be for Alphas anyway. Caldari alphas can go stealth in a heron anyway.. Only highest skilled scanners with very expensive implants might be able to find you..

Anyone using lazors on a stratios needs to be taken out back and shot.. worst .. fit.. ever.. But let's not get into a Stratios Fitting war here, even when IMO it's drones and Neuts always and forever.. Actually, I completely forgot to ask about drones during the round table in Vegas.. damn.. But I'd expect that to remain a line CCP wil not cross, just like cloaking. Although there was a suggestion made to CCP to make a modified prototype cloaking device available to alpha clones; cloak 20 seconds, then have a 2 minute cooldown.

Not really, for one it won't cloak and while CCP did not specify to what level Alpha can train Cruiser, it is expected to be L3 which makes it dangerous to fly and combined with other skill limitations you will run into both CAP and CPU problems easily. Then it won't have access to what I would expect a WH stratios to fit. While it is an OK mission runner, for (especially Sansha) 6/10 escalations it's very inefficient. T3C are far better, certainly when going solo. For higher end exploration sites Stratios simply will not hold up and die easily if anything goes only slightly off the tracks.

EVE has plenty of content for solo players and will easily support an alpha to sub though money earned in game. The F2P model EVE uses is actually quite good in that it allows for plenty if gameplay and will allow you to build experience and get quite proficient in PVP without paying anything. PVP is not a money making activity anyway unless you get really lucky and kill, then loot, some expensive drops. While we have a lot of corp content and activity in game, my solo (exploration) roams pay the bills and do so easily and consistently. A day 1 alpha character today can make enough ISK to go Omega with some effort. It's interesting to see how the usual suspects have their opinion ready and will spread the usual misinformation BS about this. I have some breaking news, CCP is a business and they need to generate revenue, The bittervets farming WH PVE content or the hordes mining in Alliance paid Rorqs do not pay the bills for CCP. The changes to Alpha clonestate are not a freebee and it is not a sign that EVE is dying. It is designed to give those who come back more room to move as well as give new players access to much more ships and modules while not requiring a rolling sub. Unless you were at EVE Vegas the past days and attended the round table as well as discussed this with CCP staff you really do not know anything as the presentation which was streamed was fairly basic. It became quite clear to me, reading between the lines in comments made, that this is not a 'remodel' of the alpha close but more a second phase in a planned rollout. And it will not stop here either. EVE Vegas was amazing and certainly renewed my belief that this game will be around for quite a few years more. EVE is much more a game of experience than having the skills to fly a certain ship and right now an experienced alpha can wreck a lot of Omega brains and get a good number of kills. I like DU, I really do , and the promise it holds is amazing. But it will be a long time before it gets anywhere near EVE in sheer numbers of players and solid gameplay with a server cluster which really is the best money can buy. DU obviously borrows heavily from EVE in a number of aspects and that's fine. It is however a completely different game and while there will certainly be some crossfeeding, it will have to carve out it's own place. Whether or not DU is enjoyable solo depends entirely on what you want to do. I would agree that a lot of game play in DU will be a much better experience when interacting with other players in game but I certainly see, and plan for, solo activity which I believe will turn out to be very lucrative. In fact I have a separate backer account with a character just for that purpose. He will be out on his own doing what he does and will only have interaction with me when needed.

I edited it while I verify the claim. And yes, his post was presumptuous at best IMO.. EDIT: The claim @Lethys made was incorrect. The term 'Novean' is no longer under NDA and has not been since at least THIS publication

whatever dude.. you win

No one is making any such claims.Unless you are seriously trying to make real world arguments against a make up world 23K years from now.

I don't agree with that argument as we are not discussing 2017 reality. I mean.. how long are Noveans in stasis on the arkship again and where is the tech that would agree with that being possible? Applying RL logic to a fantasy environment in a game is nonsense.. I mean materializing aluminium blocks from a small box on your wrist is as much pressing the iwin button as anything else, let's just get real here for a moment. In the EVE lore the cloaking mechanic is very much viable and where cloaking and warp exists, Einstein nor Newton apply since there is no time. Everything seen in SF world games is relating to enormous amounts of energy being available and applicable, whether it is warpdrive, cloaking or a molecular materializer (basically a slap on transporter) worn on your wrist. It's been long shown by applying math that most of these would be very much possible _IF_ we would be able to generate the amount of energy needed. trying to apply real world physics or laws is IMO just silly. You only need to go back in time 100 years and you will be locked up as a nutcase if you try and convince people of the technology available today. Who are we to claim that in 23K years we have not been able to break Einstein's law or that some alien entity has provided us with 'magical' technology.. I mean some people believe that today's tech was in fact given to us by aliens in Roswell..

Dude.. we're flying spaceships.. at least try and live the future a little.. You seem to limit your imagination to what you feel relevant to accept. In the lore of EVE cloaking is explained just fine. In 2017 Earth we know all of these things are possible in theory but generally would require energy in amounts inconceivable in today's tech. And that goes for both EVE and DU. Your 2017 facts may not apply 23K years from now.. Unless you have evidence to the contrary.

EVE is set 23K years in the future.. You know what was discovered in that cluster at that time? Rule 1, do not apply ancient earth science to EVE time. Who knows what we'll find in DU.. And don't tell me you have the dynamic core figured out.. Might have PEG like tech inside..

EVE cloaking is hardly magic.. It's an upper level subspace movement mechanic. This makes the ship basically phase out of 'regular space' without causing a warp tunnel. The physics are well documented and explained in several publications and was actually brought up again during today's Max Singularity presentation at EVE Vegas.. look it up!

The current UI does lend itself pretty well for VR style control interface actually.

Where in the above does it mention single shard computer? It is a _single-shard sandbox MMO_ which means it is one instance of the universe and everything happens in that instance. Obviously there is a cluster of servers running the DU universe. Probably a considerable cluster.

How long it takes will largely depend on whether NQ will put hooks in place in the code for VR. As they are in very early stages of the game development this is a good possibility.

I'd expect though that the portal will reopen closer to the start of Alpha2. The original post was written back in July when N! still expected to start Alpha1 in September. As we know this was delayed and we are currently at (closed and under NDA) Pre-Alpha.. As such I would expect the availability of Supporter packs to be delayed as well, my guess (and yes, speculation) would be December at the earliest but quite possible early next year.

Microsoft is well ahead of the pack right now with the technology. Problem with them is though that that is usually he case but when it comes time to push it out to the masses, they fail. While MSFT has been at the forefront of most modern day 'mass-tech' in nearly every way they have dropped the ball and bailed.

This is a pre-alpha test of a game in early development, not a doctors appointment.

A 2Gb download is even better for some..

any time now or in Microsoft terms soon (tm)

It seems that the definition of what PVE is varies wildly here. To me, PVE would mean you interact in some way with the game environment with a certain degree of risk to you. Gathering resources would not be PVE and neither would constructing ships. PVE would be when you take the ship you built and use it to attack, or manipulate at least, an NPC based entity. Right now afaik this is not an option nor is it planned in DU so right now there is no PVE element in DU. Will this change in the future? Maybe, games like Albion Online started as pure PVP but PVE content was added during development as it was something many backers wanted to see. While there will not be (again afaik) an option to add mods in DU, it may be possible to use LUA to add PVE elements but is this PVE? you would be up against another player's creation so it would really be PVP even if the other player might be afk.. With JC's background in AI I would find it hard to discard the possibility of something like an alien race revealing itself somewhere down the line in development, something NQ would obviously not discuss right now, but I'd say it is a distinct possibility. I guess we'll find out what is or is not possible as we go and that's part of the fun..

You are off from work starting your vacation the 29th and fear the day will be looooong