CCP Reverts EVE Online Drone Aggression Nerf and Other Items

CCP Paradox announced in the forums yesterday that CCP would be rolling back the change to drone behavior that was introduced with Tuesday’s game update. based on feedback they received… and because the change totally broke drone assist.

The statement says drone assist breaks in “certain scenarios,” but so far as I can tell, having  experimented with it a bit, the main scenario is “player is logged in and trying to assist drones to another player.”  You can make the call as to whether you believe feedback or dysfunction was the prime motivator for the roll back.

The statement in the forums said CCP would update us today with timing for the change, but the patch notes update for December 11th say:

• The change to drone behavior made on 8 December has been reverted. This means that drone functionality will be exactly the same as before the patch with ‘Aggressive’ setting once again automatically attacking NPCs. More information can be found on EVE Online forums.

So you may once again let your drones fly free to attack any aggressive NPCs that come your way as you mine or rat or whatever while AFK.

Drones will once again sort out this mess on their own

Also in the patch notes was a change to the Winter Nexus Wightstorm event sites which were inadvertently dropping Nightmare Blueprint Originals rather than single use Blueprint Copies.  The former would be game breaking and extremely valuable.  That has been corrected.

• The Wightstorm data sites from the Winter Nexus event are now properly dropping single-use Nightmare BPCs.

CCP asked players not to copy or try to sell the Nightmare BPOs, which should have all been reverted to BPCs with the update as well.

And, since we’re on the topic of things CCP has been fixing, yesterday they fixed the issue that was preventing people from setting stations without clone services as their home station (or death clone location in game parlance, the place where you come back when you have been podded) .  When this broke it was noticed almost immediately because Jita 4-4, the main trade hub and most popular NPC station in the game does not have clone services, so suddenly nobody could set their death clone there.  This led me to ask on Twitter:

Now that CCP has reverted the medical clone issue, my question is why didn’t Jita 4-4 get clone services with the big renovation? They had budget for a space elevator but not some clone bays?

Seriously, why doesn’t this station have clone services?  The mysteries of New Eden.

EVE Online Ushers in the Holidays with Winter Nexus Events Starting Today

CCP has rolled out their plans for the holidays and, sadly, the Yule Lads have been left out again this year.  But there is still plenty planned for the season with the Winter Nexus events.

The Winter Nexus event cometh

I am not quite sure what they mean by “Nexus” in all of this.  Nexus isn’t something we celebrate around these parts, but there it is.

Nexus Login Campaign

No New Eden event can happen unless there is an associated login campaign.  Starting at downtime today, which was about seven hours ago so you’re late already, and running through until downtime on January 5th 2021, there will be 13 special gifts waiting for you.  You will need to log in at least 13 days during that time frame to collect them all, as you can only claim one a day, but you have 26 days to do it.  You ought to be able to manage that.

Thirteenth night?

There is, naturally, the usual Alpha/Omega divide.  Alpha clones will get a set of gifts which include 80K skill points, while Omega clones will get 250K skill points as part of their set of gifts.  You can, as always, go Omega at any time an reap any rewards you missed.  They even include a nice button on the window for that.

Volatile Ice Storms

There will be traveling storms that will bring weather effects along with seasonally themed combat, mining, and data sites.  Sort of metaliminal storms with prized I guess.  These will appear throughout high, low, and null sec.  If you’re a wormholer and want to play I guess you’ll have to come back to normal space.

Can’t find an storm near you?  The login campaign includes Ice Storm Filaments that will whisk you off to a storm so you can savor its bounty or something.

Chilling Spree Daily Challenges

There will be holiday themed daily challenges that will have you launching snowballs and other tasks.  You can earn skill points and lore related items.

Opening Day Options

The login campaign will get you some snowballs and a festival launcher if you don’t have a pile of them from past years already… though, oddly, that isn’t the Day 1 reward.

Abyssal Proving Grounds

CCP’s attempt at arena combat will get its own events for the holidays.  The first event will be a team free-for-all where four teams of two players will do combat in Tech 1 Destroyers from 18 – 22 December. The second event will feature a 3v3 format with T1 Frigates running from 1 – 5 January

Stuff in the Store

And CCP has the Yoiul Star SKIN back in the New Eden store so you can have a holiday themed ship.  I kind of like those SKINs, but they are definitely better on bigger hulls.

Anyway, this all starts today, so you have been warned.  The December 10th Patch Notes update includes more details, as well as some information about some implants.

Also, they fixed the issue where people couldn’t set their death clone in an NPC station that otherwise did not have clone services available.  You can set Jita 4-4 as your death respawn again.  (Why didn’t Jita 4-4 get a clone bay added with the renovations?  They had budget for a freaking space elevator by not that?)

Those of us who have been around a while will remember the Yule Lads and their days in the winter sun back when CCP used to dial the holiday efforts up to 11.

Yule lads of old…

I wonder how many of the lads still work for CCP?

Addendum:  There is currently a known issue where the Nexus event sites are dropping Nightmare BPOs rather than single run BPCs.  CCP is aware of the issue and is asking players not to make a billion copies or try to sell them to other players as that will make their job of reverting all your dumb work slightly more difficult.  This will be fixed with a downtime patch.