We are in the midst of Summer now, which is generally a slow time for CCP as they crew goes off on Holiday, leaving space to mind itself for a while.
But before people clocked out and headed for their various destinations they put in some work to give us something to chew on for a while.
The Agency
First of all there is a new live event launching today, the Minmatar Dawn of Liberation.
Dawn of Liberation Event
This will feature sites in The Agency interface where you can fight slavers and free the subjugated. The event will run until July 24, 2018 and will feature rewards including fireworks, SKINs, and cerebral accelerators.
Missile Redux
On the actual code change front, probably the biggest technical item in the patch was the update to missiles to improve client performance. The current missile graphics went in with the Inferno expansion back in May 2012. Missiles went from colored blobs of light to projectiles with launch animations, smoke trails, and explosions on contact.
Missile exhaust trails
This made missiles very pretty to watch, but also put a performance demand on the client which had to render all of that pretty launches and trails. It clearly wasn’t the biggest demand on the client… after all, it took CCP six years to get around to working on them again… but it eventually came up as something to address. And so there is a Dev Blog on missiles and the work that went into making them perform better. We are, however, back to missiles being blinky lights in the night again.
Abyssal Updates
Also in today’s update are the changes mentioned at EVE Down Under regarding Abyssal pockets.
All in the update
More POS News
There was also another step on the path to the end of player owned starbases. Blueprint copies for faction starbase towers will no longer drop. In addition, the amount of minerals you get for reprocessing starbase towers and modules has been increased. CCP is no doubt hoping that you will take care of removing some of those yourself via that route.
Wager No More
Also facing removal from the game, though more immediately, is wagering on duels. This feature went in with the Lifeblood expansion last year. I’m still not sure who wanted this feature, I do not know anybody who used it, and now I don’t know why they’re taking it away. Business as usual I suppose.
Fozzie Claws and Zealots
On this ship front, the Amarr Zealot heavy assault cruiser got a drone bay in the hope of making it viable for Abyssal pockets as I understand it, while the Minmatar Claw interceptor got a bonus change from a damage boost to a rate of fire boost, meaning that roaming Claw fleets will be less able to alpha bigger ships off the field.
Notification Reduction
There has also been a change so that corps and alliances will only get notifications that somebody is shooting one of their structures if the shield hit points drop below 95%. Pinging towers has long been a way to annoy your foes. I have been out to hit structures in order to provoke a response only to cloak up and warp off when the defenders arrived. Now you have to be more serious about that.
In addition to the above there are the usual list of small fixes and adjustments that went into the update. You can find most of the information in the patch notes. The Updates page seems to have fallen behind and does not have an entry for this patch.
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