Of course the big news yesterday (I’m cheating and posting this for the 18th even though it’s the 19th now, I’ve been very sick all week) was Incursion going live and with it one major feature that I was interested in – the character creator. I didn’t mind the previous one because we never really SEE our characters per say, but I really had a lot of fun re-creating Ellithia. Since I have some what of a back story for her I already knew in my mind what I wanted her to look like, and the customization available was fantastic. It reminded me a lot of working on 3D rendering in DAZ or Poser. There wasn’t the largest (or nicest for that matter) selection of hair or clothing options, but certainly a lot more customization than was previously available.
The character creator is just one of many things that were implemented though. Another huge change came to the Planetary Interaction system which I was incredibly happy about (taken from patch notes):
- Players can now upgrade command centers from basic all the way up to elite without replacing their colonies.
- Only basic command centers will be seeded on the market now; larger centers will now be purchased as upgrades via the upgrade window.
- Extractor control units (ECUs) have been introduced on all planets. The ECUs can be built from the build menu, replacing extractors.
- Extraction is now done by extractor heads that are installable via the ECUs.
- ECUs also allow installation of extraction programs. Players can now create extraction programs that run up to 14 days. These automated extraction programs will harvest resources based on the settings in program creation.
- Prior to installing an extraction program, placed extractor heads can be moved by clicking the button at the center of the extraction head. Extraction heads can be moved via drag and drop to resource hot-spots for a greater extraction amount.
- You can set the area that your extractor heads will extract from, which will affect the length of the extraction program and amount of extraction.
- Overlapping extractor heads from different ECU’s will cause a reduction in extraction amount from each extractor head.
- Pinned UI windows are now affected by the global window transparency settings.
- The new ECU window will display a colored graph to indicate the deposit of each cycle.
- The output per cycle of ECUs diminishes over time. The output is, however, variable in a way that even though it generally decreases, local “hotspots” can still occur.
- Sounds have now been added to cover changing resource intensity and interference from other extractor heads.
- Routing materials is now more intelligent. Processors are prioritized based on how close their hopper is to being filled. Storage pins are routed in equal amounts.
Having extractors replaced into these new control units is great. It is much easier for a new person to figure out how the PI system works, and it was easier for me to place what I wanted. Having the extractors work on 14 day rotations instead of my daily rotation is also a huge help as I was neglecting PI by not logging in every single day to check on them. Now I just need to make sure that my storage units don’t fill up too much before I unload them. Allowing us to upgrade centers via an upgrade window instead of having to buy every type of command center as we progress is also a really nice change. I spent most of last night (after I fiddled around with the character creator) fixing PI.
There were so many other changes there’s no way I can fit them all in this post, so I highly suggest you check out the link mentioned at the beginning and read through it all. I also found it interesting that there is a voice program implemented in EVE Gate now, beta stages so far. If any of you are checking it out, let me know what you think!
Over all, I like the changes. I can certainly see how some people may not enjoy them, especially after having their ‘old’ characters for so long, but I was pleased with the outcome of my own.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
stargrace