The previously announced capital ship ratting enhancement has finally arrived in New Eden. With the Summon the Swarm update the CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacons (CRAB) can now be built and deployed in the game. (“Crab” is the in-game vernacular for somebody who rats or mines or otherwise focuses on gaining wealth, with “crabbing” being the verb.)
Calling all CRABs
According to the patch notes these new deployables, which can only be activated from capital ships, have four phases of operation:
- 1 – Deployment
- Anchoring III required to deploy, with restrictions in deployment locations.
- Limited to Null and Low Security space.
- Activation delay: 20 seconds
- Maximum lifetime: 1 hour
- Shield / Armor / Structure: 50,000 HP / 50,000 HP / 50,000 HP
- 2 -Linking
- Once deployed, it will be globally visible via the Overview for anyone to warp to.
- After its initial Activation phase, it can then be Linked to by pilots in the following ships: Carrier, Dreadnought, Supercarrier, Titan.
- For the ship that begins the linking phase, it will be locked in place in space for a duration of four minutes.
- While linking, the following will be in effect: Tether Blocked (Debuff), Cloaking Disrupted (Debuff), Warp Drive Disabled (Debuff), Resistance Bonus of 10% (Buff to all resistance profiles, Shield/Armor/Structure).
- After linking the above four statuses will clear after a duration of 60 seconds.
- 3 – Scanning
- After Linking, the CRAB will begin to broadcast a signal in the solar system that will attract the attention of Rogue Drone NPCs.
- When Rogue Drones are in proximity of the CRAB, they will block the scanning progress and attack hostile threats in proximity to the CRAB.
- The Rogue Drones must be destroyed to clear the perimeter so that the CRAB can continue its Scanning.
- After 10 minutes of uninterrupted scanning, the CRAB will complete its analysis of the Rogue Drones and will have salvaged enough technology to reward players with new Mutaplasmids.
- 4 – Reward
- After successful scanning, the CRAB will have mutaplasmids from Rogue Drones inside of its cargohold .
- For two minutes after scanning, the ship that initiated the CRAB during its linking phase will have exclusive access to the cargo hold of the CRAB.
- After these two minutes pass, the CRAB will self-destruct with the generated mutaplasmids always safely being found in the wreckage (it will be a 100% chance to drop its contents when it self-destructs).
In order to keep these new modules under control so they don’t get run constantly and lead to some sort of economic overload, CCP has added the following items to limit their use.
- Solar systems have a new property, “Signal Interference”.
- Using the new CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacon repeatedly in the same solar system will saturate a system with interference preventing the CRAB from being able to broadcast a signal that can be isolated. In practical terms, the CRAB will not be able to be linked to if interference is too high as the Rogue Drones cannot locate it.
- Over time, Signal Interference will decay back down to a quiescent state. This state of decay is always ongoing and not attached to server downtime.
- The time for a full recovery of a solar system with maximum signal interference is approximately 25 hours.
- The User Interface has been updated to show Signal Interference in locations where appropriate.
- Capsuleers now have a reserve of Complex Encryption Qubits (CEQs).
- CEQs are used when initiating a link to the CONCORD Rogue Analysis Beacon.
- Over time CEQs will regenerate back to their full reserve, and the regeneration is always ongoing and not attached to server downtime.
- The time for a full regeneration of CEQs is approximately 22 hours.
- As CEQs are only required by the CRAB, your current reserves will be visible in a tooltip on mouse-over of the CRAB in your inventory.
Blueprints for the new modules are now available from CONCORD and DED LP Stores. A 5-Run BPC costs 20,000,000 ISK & 20,000 LP.
These rewards from CRABs include new Rogue Drone Mutaplasmid technology. These ew Mutaplasmids come in four variations (Durability, Firepower, Navigation, Projection). Each variation will favor positively one attribute, with all other attributes having unknown results.
They also are sorted out by drone type, with heavy, medium, light, and sentry drone variations. In addition, there are two wildcard modifiers, radical variations, for drones and fighters.
In order to use modified drones players will need to train up the new drone skill introduced with last week’s patch. CCP changed the skill name from ‘Rogue Drone Specialization’ to ‘Mutated Drone Specialization’ with this update.
CRABs are the headline for this patch, but there is another sizable change in the patch notes as well. The three month tax holiday for NPC stations, which came in with The Grand Heist update back in July, has concluded.
The new base tax rates will be:
- Sales Tax: 8%
- Brokers Fee: 3%
The change to base, unmodified tax rates are now (holiday -> post holiday (pre-holiday):
- Sales Tax: 2.5% -> 8.0% (Previously 5.0%)
- Brokers Fee: 2.5% -> 3.0% (Previously 5.0%)
- Total Taxes: 5.0% -> 11.0% (Previously 10.0%)
The minimum achievable tax rates for NPC stations, modified by skills, standings, etc, are now (holiday -> post holiday (pre-holiday):
- Sales Tax: 1.125% -> 3.6% (Previously 2.25%)
- Brokers Fee: 0.5% -> 1.0% (Previously 3.0%)
- Total Taxes: 1.625% -> 4.6% (Previously 5.25%)
Buying things in NPC stations is now more expensive, and the shift to favoring Sales Tax over Broker’s fees means that player owned structures like the Tranquility Trading Tower in Perimeter will no longer be as attractive for sellers or lucrative for owners.
So those are the big changes with today’s update. There are a few minor fixes… well, maybe not minor when it comes to the MacOS client… but nothing that changes game design.
Related:
- CCP – Summon the Swarm Update Announcement
- CCP – Tax Restructuring Announcement
- CCP – Patch Notes
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