Eve Online: Retribation: Preview (Igomir 2012)

If you try to find out what is the most connecting Iceland with Russia in addition to similarity with Kamchatka, it is unlikely that you can find some other answer, except Eve Online, – too to the light bulb for the Russians, this island in the North Atlantic. However, “Eve” is a completely different matter. Approximately 10% of the population of the game are our compatriots, which in absolute numbers is expressed by a crowd of 35 thousand people. Very good for Nisheva, in essence, “sandboxes”. Which is also not F2P.

Therefore, an impressive landing SSR, Planted by the Icelanders on the “gamemaker”, understandable and pleasant. Not everyone, but at least to us. And to some of you. However, it is on the “game” the brigade SSR I didn’t light up. A few interviews with the press and participation in the short presentation of Dust 514 – modestly, but no one was offended. For the company’s projects are not popular to compete for the attention of the masses with some Assassin’s Creed 3 or Tomb Raider.

But they were events for show – each company, in the end, should move itself into the clusters of the people. This is taught by marketing textbooks, and they cannot be mistaken. For their own SSR I prepared a much more informal meeting – in the Tinkoff beer restaurant. In order to discuss topical issues of space development and related sectors of the national economy in one fairly distant galaxy in the warm and almost family circles.

Destroyers in a restaurant

Last year, Icelanders also arranged something similar. Then the meeting was about twenty people, that even for his own there were very few. Fear of repetition of “Fale” until the last minute gnawing the hearts of the islanders and their colleagues from other countries (team CCP It is exclusively international – there are Russians in it). But then this minute came and drove off a bad feeling – fans of Eve scored a restaurant to capacity. And they did not remain in the same way – free beer and snacks were, if not the sea, then a very decent lake.

Although, without a doubt, they came there not for the sake of drinking and biting (well, or for the sake, but just a little bit), but to chat with each other and with the developers. I don’t know what about each other – I did not conduct a survey, but with SSR communication has passed at a very high level. Firstly, a winter addition to Eve OnlineRETRIBUTION. Secondly, a direct teleconference with Reykjavik took place, where the person responsible for the balance of the person spoke about changes in ships and modules. And thirdly, there were a lot of informal communication and answers to questions.

However, “secondly” because of technical problems turned out to be very crumpled. A couple of developers only said that at first they will balance rockets, and only then – using their ships. Yes, slightly walked along some modules. After which the connection died, and the disappointed audience flooded with shock doses of beer. Grief in your favorite drink (this feeling) gamers, of course, disappeared without a trace. Although the author had more difficult.

For he (I repent in this heavy sin) cannot stand either beer or other drinks with degrees, so he remained sober all the meeting. But the memory did not let him down – sometimes there are such incidents at contacts with beer, yes – so now he pokes this bike to you, and does not scratch the turnips in hopeless attempts to remember what was there and how it ended.

But the presentation RETRIBUTION passed with great success. The chips of winter additions are expected with excess. But the main ones are perhaps two. These are new designs-destroyers and the processed Bounty system. New boats for any Eve pilot is the topic of both the most painful and the most dear at the same time. What is hardly surprising – how otherwise they would be pilots.

With the release of additions, the number of destroyers in the game will double – it will be new, and not converted old ships. Their sacred essence is in the variety. If the old destroyers are all turret and boring, then new and weapons have different weapons (Kaldar and Minmatarsky are armed with missiles, Amar and Gallensky – drones), and there are interesting bonuses that add tactical variations to them.

Award for damage

Changes in the Bounty system should please primarily PVP lovers. Although the hatering of hunting for other people’s characters can find positive points in them (changes). The benefit of PVP fans is obvious – they will have another source of increased welfare. The old system of rewards for the head died once a long time ago, when I and Eve and I still really knew anything about each other (that is, more than five years ago).

The essence of that system was that the award was paid only for the murdered character. What was the height of idiocy. You assign, for example, a solid reward for someone’s head. Highly appreciated immediately loads his second character, kills them the first and joyfully laughs, counting your loss and his profit. The new system should make the situation much more interesting.

For it is not evaluated not a head, but financial losses. That is, the money will be charged for any material damage inflicted on the one to whom the award is assigned. In the amount (preliminary figure) 20% of the damage, but not higher than the assigned amount. And therefore, with the entry of a new system, it will become obscenal to yourself, as you get less than you lose.

The same for whom PVP is only a loss of time that can be spent on the earnings of large billions, in changes in the Bounty system, they can find a new remedy to annoy the boring killers. He appointed a couple of billions of bills for such a killer-you see, he will not be up to hunting for others for some time, because they will begin to hunt on the very most.

Moreover, rewards can be appointed not only for individual pilots, but also for corporations and even alliances. Putting a reward for an annoying pirate alliance will give an incentive to potential “bustle hunters” to more actively exterminate villains, making a pirate life more difficult, and the being of their unfortunate victims is easier. Another thing is that this is only in theory. And how it turns out in Eve, even the developers themselves will not say now.

Crime and punishment

Finally, the third important innovation in RETRIBUTION should be the rebalance of the crime system. Eve Online – A game with a very high level of freedom, where much is possible. Even to stop game laws (but not the rules – a big difference). However, another principle of it is the mandatory consequences of crimes. Evil should be if not punished, then at least indicated. And there – how it will work.

Therefore, every offender in Eve receives a set of troubles after the crime for some time. For example, in systems with a security level above 0.5 Any unprovided aggression against the players is punishable by the “Concord” – the local police, from which one cannot hide or fight back. The only difference is how quickly it will fly and kill (the higher the security level, the faster).

In systems 0.1-0.4 “Concord” is not, so there are pirates. And their punishment is exclusively players. Everyone can attack piratov, with impunity and anywhere – this is such an analogue of the PC from Ultima Online and other famous “sandboxes”. In systems 0.0 Any pilot can, without consequences for its status, attack any pilot. The law here is established only by the players themselves.

The developers decided that the current system of statuses and timers is too complicated, so they considered it necessary to replace it with tags. After their introduction, any illegal activity will lead to the fact that the pilot will turn into either the suspect or into a criminal. The suspect can be found for the attack of the ship in systems 0.1-0.4, theft from containers or for the help of the suspect (for example, the repair of his ship during the battle is an analogue of treatment).

Illegal attack of ships in systems 0.5-1.0, capsules in systems 0.1-0.4 and the destruction of ships there also leads to the status of a criminal. The difference from the suspect is only one, but significant – the dislike of the “Concord”. If the suspect can fly in systems with a high level of security, then an immediate destruction is waiting for a criminal there.

Lenten days for medicine

Each of these statuses will have its own mark with a timer for the entire time of action (15 minutes) so that the player always clearly realizes his position. However, this is far from all the features of the system. Tags, timers and names will receive other statuses of aggression: the use of weapons, players’ attacks and NPC. The main joys (or sorrows-from what point of view to see) there are two: changes in the PVE-Status and for support ships.

If earlier the NPC attack did not have any consequences, now such a ship, as in the case of PVP, will not be able to disappear from the space after the pilot exit from the game within 15 minutes. That is, if earlier the pilot could go into real, and his trough – an abyss in a minute, then in RETRIBUTION to search (with the help of a special scanner) the left without the owner of the ship will be a quarter of an hour – more than enough.

Support ships will also be deprived of a very important freebie. If now any ship activates any attacking module on the ship of another player, then

he cannot go to the dock or gate within a minute – a big problem and often a matter of life and death. However, this does not apply to the healers – they do not attack, but treat his associates. And in case of problems, they can always hide.

With the introduction of a new system to doctors, all statuses of their goals will automatically switch. And if the goal cannot go into the dock or gate, then the doctor will not be able to either. Yes, this is unlikely to increase the number of people who want to engage in this difficult profession, but the current Shrovetide is already painful for them fat – you can’t do without additional lean days.

The last change in the system of crimes will be the trade in “murder rights”. Despite the terrible meaning, there is nothing terrible in this feature, but there is another protection of good guys from bad. Now, if someone is destroyed in the imperial space (0.1-1.0) without a single response shot, then the pilot of such a ship gets the opportunity to destroy (no more than times) of its offenders within a month with impunity.
A pleasant thing, but with the nuance – newcomers and peaceful inhabitants most often become victims. The chances of which are to independently revenge on zero to zero. And this is wrong. Therefore, in the new system, they will be able to sell or transfer their murderous rights. So that ideological defenders of humiliated and insulted or just lovers to fight avenged them.

Play the Eve of the Rules!

Of course, there will be in RETRIBUTION and thousands of all sorts of little things – corrections, improvements and jewelry. They also seem to promise to attach heavy missiles that are too heavy and too rockets, which is why their targets have a regular “Butthert”. And the payment of rubles will appear even earlier than the additions – from November 1, the month/three/six/year “Eve” will cost 399/1049/1899/3499 rubles, respectively.

The only sadness is fans Incarna. For so many years, the expected walking around the stations seems to have been pushed by the Icelanders to a very long box. I believe that the company simply does not have enough resources for it – you need to run and debug Dust 514, and the World of Darkness also regularly asks to eat. However, in the game about space, the main thing is that the cosmos. And the stations will be killed.