Last week CCP put the proposed Hunter’s Boon update changes on the test server and today those changes went live for EVE Online.
The July Update
The update represents a variety of changes, but I think the biggest deal in the whole package has to be the removal of skill point loss when you your Tech III strategic cruiser gets blown up.
That was the original cost/benefit proposition for those hulls, introduced back with the Apocrypha expansion in April 2009, that they would be powerful and adaptable, but would also come with a risk of loss.
My first Tengu from back in 2010
Over the last dozen years the fortunes of strategic cruisers have gone up and down with buffs and nerfs and balance passes, most recently being one of the ship classes hit with the removal of interdiction nullification. Once ubiquitous and powerful, they have been eclipsed by the Heavy Assault Cruiser meta of late.
So, in order to make them more viable, CCP has removed the big penalty. No longer will you randomly lose a level from one of the skills related to the T3 hull you are flying. Kind of a big deal.
What else do we get with the update? CCP introduced the mobile covert cyno beacon.
We got the mobile cyno beacon back in March and it was apparently such a success that we now get the covert cyno version of it.
Covert style now
Blueprints for it have been seeded into the game so industry people can start researching them and begin production.
CCP also introduce blueprints for a new drug, the Strong Veilguard Booster, which increases capsuleer cloak stabilization… that timer that marks how long you can stay cloaked before a Mobile Observatory… something introduced just last month… can decloak you. That raises the duration to a possible 45 minutes of stabilization.
The role bonus for fleet interceptors (Ares, Crow, Malediction, Stiletto) has been changed to include a reduction in scan resolution penalty while using Interdiction Nullifiers, the role bonus is now:
- 80% reduction in Interdiction Nullifier reactivation delay, max lock range penalty, and scan resolution penalty.
The nerf bat came out for Marauders, which saw a hit to the benefits of their bastion mode. The Bastion Module effects were adjusted as follows:
- Target painter resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.
- Sensor dampener resistance has been reduced from -95% to -50%.
- Weapon disruption resistance has been reduced from -99% to -50%.
- Bonus to sensor strength has been reduced from 1,000% to 100%.
- Removed the ECM Immunity.
Hostile ewar will now be much more effective against those hulls when their Bastion Module is running.
There were also buffs to the CONCORD Pacifier and Enforcer hulls in a bid to make them less niche and more generally viable.
Finally, CCP also has a graphics update, the Bring Out EVE’s Colors plan mentioned previously. Today’s update includes.
- The Bring Out EVE’s Colors update is live and introduces a range of huge visual improvements, ensuring that New Eden continues to set a standard as a visually stunning universe. The update includes:
- PBR shader adjustments, including changes to roughness calculation and visibility factor.
- Modified lighting with brightened reflection map generation and asset backlighting.
- Postprocess color improvements – tonemapping adjustments to brighten colors, extend the color range, smooth out gradients, and emphasize highlights
- Numerous tweaks to assets, environments, and effects to maintain their appearance with the new tech.
- Characters in windows are now rendered with 4x supersampling when Antialiasing is set to “High.” (DX11 only)
- Characters in windows now require substantially less video memory to render. (DX11 only)
There were also some smaller defect fixes, which you can find in the patch notes.
The update has been deployed and is now live.
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