What I wrote here below about the “bolts” was a complete misunderstanding on my side.
They aren’t talking about crossbows (who still suck, btw) but the spell “bolts”, like fireballs and such.
Ugh.
Bring back precasting… on bolts. (another challenge to Mythic)
As anticipated, this year Mythic brought only Warhammer to the show (E3) and left DAoC behind. That the great majority of the resources were moved to the new project is undeniable and obvious. I just wish they would openly admit it and plan the future of both games accordingly, instead of continuing to answer with half-lies and badly concealed resignation.
The trend is also obvious (a year ago they had the launch of the classic servers to invert the progressive downward trend, this year nothing will stop it). No, it’s not the game being old. It’s just the commitment being shifted to Warhammer, with DAoC obviously suffering from a conservative development that just aims to continue to push it forward till it lasts.
DAoC is already dead, and it started to die when Mythic began working on Imperator. I could try to analyze the game design and development to point out where things aren’t working and how they could improve, but at this point it’s just pointless (as it always was) so I’ll avoid to waste my time mourning.
Instead I’m still interesting to write a few words about the upcoming stuff. Despite the absence from the E3, some details were still leaked about the upcoming expansion:
What they would say is that the new expansion, which will be officially announced soon, has one new race and one new class. Anyone, from any realm, can unlock the class on an account by account basis and then make characters using it. The race comes free with the expansion.
They plan to launch the expansion on their 5 year anniversary later this year.
The official announce is expected for June but the expectations about the announce are really low, I think. This expansion will hardly have “something to say”. Nor it will add much to the game.
For all things that could be tried in an expansion they just decided to go with something rabidly innovative: one new race and one new class. After the huge creative effort to produce that idea they couldn’t be bothered with all the balance problems that could arise, so the wonderful solution: we’ll make the race and class available to all three realms so that there’s only the bare minimum to balance and we’ll avoid all the complaints.
Instead on the forums people are complaining because they see this as lazy work. A demonstration that not much can be expected for this game if not what’s barely necessary as an excuse to kick it forward foe a few more months while Warhammer is being worked on.
It’s unclear if the long delayed rework of the tradeskills will be part of this expansion or if it will come staggered through the live patches. What we know is that both the expansion and the bigger changes on the tradeskills will arrive this fall. And that these changes won’t be anything groundbreaking.
From my point of view another new class is ALREADY WAY TOO MUCH. They aren’t lazy there, just stupid. I really don’t know who feels the need for another class. At this point I really wonder if it’s the case that Mythic wastes even more resources on this sort of stuff. I don’t think the players are asking this, nor I think it will help the game.
You don’t have any good idea for the expansion that is viable with the resources you have available? Ok, don’t do one. There’s so much to do, if the group is small better organize it to make some worthwhile, precise changes on the core points instead of wasting them on stuff that adds nothing and even risks to fuck up the game even more.
Or maybe NOT doing a patch would be already too innovative for Mythic?
Anyway, with the upcoming patch (1.84) they are also focusing on the bolts:
They also plan to focus in on bolts. There is a lot of talk about them and Mythic worries they’re not being used as intended and are having a detrimental effect on RvR. As it finally reached the top of their balance heap, they’re thinking of changing it so bolts only fail when cast on someone already involved in hand-to-hand melee combat. They want them to be an opening gambit, a long range RvR strike. They’re not supposed to be used close up. However, some view them as too hard to use and, as such, refinements must be made.
This is more interesting because I’m going to watch how they’ll solve this, and then I’ll mock them because I can already see the lame direction where they are moving.
It’s true that right now the crossbows are unusable and worthless. The controls are horribly designed. To fire a bolt you need to press the appropriate hotkey, stand completely still for 5 seconds or so (loading the crossbow) and then you’ll be able to fire the bolt, still if you don’t move. On top of this the bolts can miss like a normal arrow. It’s quite obvious that these controls are clunky and it’s really hard to find a situation where the crossbow is worth using. So yes, there’s a problem.
From the few words I quoted, Mythic is looking into the mechanic. Their goals are:
– make them an “opening gambit”, reducing the miss rate
– avoid them being used in melee
Now those two goals hint to a lame solution that they used on the fireballs. An absurd mechanic that I’m sure everyone who played DAoC still remembers and that just MAKES NO SENSE: if you fire a fireball at a target not engaged in combat, the fireball hits and deals damage. If the fireball is fired at a target engaged in combat, it misses.
I don’t know. That’s really a stupid mechanic for a fireball. It’s already deluding the fact that a FIREBALL doesn’t do AOE damage as in every other game that makes sense. You know, the single-target typical magic attack is not a fireball, but the magic arrow. On top of this there’s the fact that you have to check if your target is in combat or not, or the fireball will be uneffective.
It’s rather obvious how stupid and not consistent this mechanic is. It’s just BAD DESIGN all around. It doesn’t make sense, it’s counterintuitive and genre breaking. It has all the possible flaws all at once. What happens now? That they are going to “fix” the bolts (another broken mechanic on its own, as explained) by porting to them the way the fireballs work.
Great plan there.
And I’m writing this because these changes are still being designed. I’m putting my hands forward here and we’ll see how they’ll change this.
Now here’s my point of view.
There are bows and crossbows. There must be some traits that differentiate them and the VERY FIRST THING you have to consider when you design the implementation of these objects in the game is about identifying those traits so that you can replicate them in the game.
Roughly:
– a bow shoots faster but it is less precise
– a crossbow has long reload times but it’s much more precise
Here we have already a basic mechanic that can be easily ported to any game, DAoC included. Not only. It is also consistent with those two goals that Mythic defined above. The crossbows should be more precise (so more probability to hit than a bow) but slow to load (so not really usable if you are in melee).
See? It’s not that complicated. What is left to do is to examine how the crossbows work in the current game (described above) and plan the concrete changes. Which are just two rather trivial modifications to the current system:
1- Preload. The possibility to load a bolt on the crossbow and keep it readied to be fired at any moment and till the character keeps the crossbow equipped.
2- Change the to-hit mechanic. Flat rate 95% “to hit” if the character is standing still when the bolt is being fired, progressively reduced with the running speed down to a minimum of 50%.
That’s all.
Those two simple changes achieve prefectly the goals that Mythic set. They are balanced in the game and are also consistent mechanics with how a crossbow is supposed to work and how people expect it to work in a game. Without the need of the lame solution that makes the bolt miss if your target is engaged in melee.
With those changes the crossbow will REALLY become an “opening gambit” for the tank classes, because they would be able to load the bolt and then fire it later. At the same time the long reload times (cannot reload if you are interrupted) would make it impossible to use a crossbow if the character is engaged in melee. Which is what makes sense in a situation like that.
Take this as another design challenge.
Want to bet that Mythic’s solution will be much worse than mine? I even gave them the advantage of the forewarning ;)
EDIT: I later discovered to have misunderstood the whole thing. Mythic isn’t talking about crossbows but about fireballs (and that quote from mmorpg.com tricked me with its mistakes).
If, as announced, they remove the in-combat check on the fireballs/bolts, then it is all good. It should have been like this from the very beginning and I passed a full year arguing with Therrik (former Wizzy TL) about this.
If it’s too overpowering just rise the recast timers and add a minimum range. I expect to hear complaints from the players, though.
WoW’s lore officially fucked up
Wrote and mirrored on Q23, Metzen admitted that he didn’t do a very good work with the lore for the upcoming expansion.
My point of view isn’t about being picky on the details, but more on the stylistic choices being made. While I really liked the WoW’s universe even in its cartoonish traits and use of humor, I also think that there was always an epic theme that drove things forward. A thread. From my comment:
—
My opinion is that the use of odd bits like technology or other elements not consistent with the setting is good when it remains CIRCUMSCRIBED.
The problem is when it becomes the main theme.
The same about the use of “humor”. It’s all good till it remains a sidetrack, but it becomes much more annoying when it’s all about that. Overdone. Too emphasized. It’s not anymore an added flavor.
It is not directly related to the “lore”, but for example I really, really HATE the look of all the new armor sets. They aren’t anymore consistent with any setting. They just look like colored plastic and completely miss any sense.
Where’s the metal, bones and leather?
Now we have Voltron.
The point is when it isn’t anymore “epic”, and it becomes just “goofy”.
—
Here I’m commenting things from my personal point of view and preference but, as we move forward, WoW is becoming more and more goofy, that’s what I see. It’s moving closer to a childish point of view on the setting instead of carefully balancing all the different elements as they did before. Concretely the setting is losing its appeal. It doesn’t “communicate” much anymore to me.
It’s useful here to make a direct comparison because while what Mythic is doing on Warhammer isn’t perfect, at least it gave me an occasion to explain the way I see at the fantasy setting and the elements that belong to it.
I’ll return on these arguments because the “style” of the graphic is only the tip of the iceberg. What is relevant is below, but still strictly connected with what I’m saying on the graphic and what I said a while ago about the level of the “metaphor”.
“Mature” mmorpgs are opening a gap between the game mechanics and the level of the metaphor. Evident examples of this trend can be seen in Vanguard but even in Guild Wars, EQ2. The same WoW and Warhammer, which is being mimicked on the first.
In fewer words: we are losing the “immersion”.
Imho, the immersion is THE MOST important element in a RPG. And it’s the one more overlooked in ALL the current mmorpgs and ALL those currently in development.
Put in another way. A warrior class in a mmorpg doesn’t have anymore ANYTHING in common with its ideal prototype.
What’s the prototype? A source of inspiration.
The gameplay in the current mmorpgs isn’t even remotely close to the fight you see in the video between the dwarf and the orc. Nor it even try to move closer. You don’t see the two characters applying semi-ranged effects, debuffs, DOTs, AOE bolts and all the other fancyful powers that are now “default” of a warrior class.
Math-intensive games that forgot how to “communicate”. How to “reach”.
I commented something recently on Raph’s blog:
It’s about myths and suggestions we all share, that’s why a game world needs to “reach”. There must be both something familiar and unfamiliar.
Games are successful because they relay the “message” much better. More efficiently. They are the most powerful way of communicating.
Why? Because they can be immersive, and being immersive they become even more accessible. Plus they can be both authoritative and empowering.
In all the current mmorpgs that immersivity is the trait that is being slowly forgotten. This is why future games need to look behind and forget the faulty “evolution” we are seeing right now.
This is what I think.
Shadowbane not dead yet (but not joyful, either)
I have a long list of stuff I forgot to write about.
Two months ago Shadowbane went naked, erm… free. We were wondering what could be the consequences of this. The most positive expectation was that the game could have been used to promote a possible sequel that we knew was in the works.
Then we got the news that Wolfpack was blowing up. Goodbye optimism.
This week something appeared on the official website of the game:
I am not at liberty to say much at this moment. There is currently an official announcement in the works that will explain things at greater length and detail. At the same time, we know the community has many questions and we do not wish to just ignore the situation. What I can say at this point is that come tomorrow, Shadowbane will still be running and you’ll still have Sachant and myself here to do what we do best. You will also see Jinx, who is new to the Shadowbane Team but an old member of the community itself.
Let me dispel any rumors before they begin. Today Wolfpack Studios has been dissolved and is no more. With that said, members of Wolfpack are reforming under a new group. This group will be working with Ubisoft to help usher in the next era of Shadowbane.
In other words, do not go anywhere! The Saga that is Shadowbane has many more chapters to be written and read!
And from Ubiq:
So yesterday was my last day at Wolfpack Studios, which is I believe now officially closed down. Yesterday was an odd day, with basically two dozen people sitting around chatting and playing Magic, waiting to be fired. Er, “downsized”. Whatever.
As it stands now, it looks like a new studio will arise phoenix-like from the ashes of Wolfpack. That new studio will initially work on providing contract service and support for other MMO developers, and use the earnings to pitch a next-generation MMO. Some of the contract work is lined up already. As for the original title, it’s far too soon to say what it will be.
As for me, I’m not joining in on the above adventures. I’m pursuing an altogether different alternative, which will be revealed all in good time.
It sounds like a split. Some guys in the studio will stay and pass to the new one and hopefully work on a new mmorpg when the times are mature (unlikely, imho). While Ubiq and maybe some of his mates are moving to something else.
On Corpnews they say SB will need to find an alternate revenue model. It will be interesting to see how this goes as well.
EDIT: The new studio formed is named “Stray Bullet Games”.
The soap opera continues.
And more precisations about Warhammer
So, lets conclude.
It seems that my guess about the “packages” system wasn’t correct. This new interpretation says that every character will eventually unblock all the skills and packages the class has available. As the character reaches the last rank. So this means that the customization and use of templates are true only as you “rank up”, while the packages you have available will be all flattened at the endgame.
This IS GOOD. In fact I suggested it for DAoC. Even if in that case it was a step forward proposed for the support classes.
I support this choice if it reveals to be how the game actually works. It would solve the accessibility problems I underlined and would give a more unique role to the “tactics” system (the specialization of your character). So it’s a more solid design choice.
If the earlier reports are still correct, there’s also to consider the four tiers that should make you specialize your class (branching classes). Determining the preset packages you have available. In this case the number of classes will raise.
The other precisation is about the design of the package system that I discussed on F13 and that I report here.
—
Haemish:
But Hrose, you are ignoring the biggest thing about this. No levels means (or should mean) very little to no power differentials.
I’m not ignoring it just because you are convinced I am. On my site I wrote:
Considering everything together the “no level” claim is pretty weak. It’s possible that gaining ranks doesn’t scale up your stats, hitpoints and mana (at this point it would be the only real difference), but add a rank-based itemization and you basically have the exact same mechanic that drives DAoC or every other level-based game.
Explaning better, it sounds like you’ll gain a “rank” every “x” skills you unblock in a package. The stuff available in these packages seem to not be only in the form of skills you actively use, but even bonuses to stats and all the rest. Just more manipulable since the players have a more direct choice in what they pick.
But from every point of view you observe this, there’s still a “level up” mechanic that lets you pick +5 to Strength or more Constitution, or bonuses to damage and so on.
What’s this if not “power differential”?
The raw mechanic here doesn’t do anything to flatten it. Which is the process I described:
In DAoC: level up -> allocate
In Warhammer: allocate -> level up
Allocating not only the skills, like in DAoC, but even the bonuses to the stats. I just don’t see a concrete difference in the mechanic used at the base.
Haemish:
Segmenting zones by tiers should also help that a bit. In other words, it sounds good.
This is my guess (level capping the zones in four tiers), I still have to read Mythic confirming this. The doubt is whether the gap of 10 ranks hasn’t already a quite significant power differential or not.
Which is also what I wrote the past Sunday:
Here the game mechanics are extremely important because if they divide the zones accessibility in four (as the four tiers of ten ranks, for a total of forty levels) the PvP could become just a matter of who’s closer to the zone level cap. It’s important here that each new rank isn’t a huge leap over the other
Short version:
You say that Warhammer design is good because the power differential between the ranks is small.
I say that I agree that the power differential being small would make the design of the game “good”.
But at the same time there is no evidence, from the descriptions of the mechanics we have, that the power differential is, in fact, small.
That’s all.
General trends
“An executive from SEGA, one of Nintendo’s largest publishers, told Forbes.com on Tuesday that he expects the Wii to sell for less than $200. Post said the Nintendo machine, which features a wireless controller that responds to players’ body movements, ‘will appeal to a broad demographic of both hard-core and casual gamers.'”
Sounds like they are talking about mmorpgs. Heh.
More Warhammer details unveiled
I was going to write about other stuff but Arthur Parker linked an interesting 7-min video (you need to copy and paste in a new browser window to make it work) that reveals some of the aspects I was trying to examine:
This image should represent the zone distribution in the game for one of the three “war fronts”: Greenskin Vs Dwarf.
I wonder if the numbers represent the four “tiers” of the levelling system.
In this case there are two interesting observations. The first is that the zones are level capped as I guessed. The second is that the capital cities are EXCLUSIVELY PvP zones. Just like an end-game PvP raid zone (DAoC’s relic raids) that you can access only when the battle front moves there. So no social “hubs” like in WoW, they are just used for PvP.
If you count all the circles they are 11. So confirming the number of zones for each “war front” (33 zones in the full game). But at the same time we know that the starting zone for dwarves and greenskin is shared, with two opposite entry points and a seamless PvP zone in the middle.
Instead in that scheme the dwarves zone and greenskin zone look separated. So I wonder if they count it two times, like splitted in two in that graph, but seamlessly connected in the actual game.
In this case the unique, accessible zones by one character per warfront would be four (plus the two capitals). Which is GOOD, imho. Since it would help to make the PvP activity converge. Like a consolidated version of the DAoC’s frontiers (if they don’t overdo with the instances).
I wish we could have some confirmations.
Add warmachines and divided the assault to the capitals into five-six different “stages” with each its own objective (think to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory) and it could be the coolest thing EVER.
—
And more, truly interesting (but unconfirmed) details:
No levels.
Four tiers, with ranks within each tier. You’ll have 4 XP bars that allow you to select “packages” of advancements – abilities, static buffs, skills, etc. that you want to work on. Three will be “standard” bars, one will be RvR-specific.
The packages allow you to select advancements that interest you without level-locking them. So, if you’re a big fan of exploring and you want to get a mount earlier than – say – an improved combat ability, you can choose a package that includes the ability to use a mount. Packages will have SOME restrictions – most likely tier-specific – but they offer players the ability to wind up with all of the stuff they want eventually, but also the ability to get it in the order of their choosing.
—
no pure “support” classes. In addition, no rogues or stealth classes. Not fond of hybrid classes either, though there will almost certainly be SOME degree of hyrbidization for some races.—
EVERY CLASS – is a combat class, you won’t find yourself ineffective simply because your group lacks total diversity.Regarding differentiation, there are a number of things to consider:
1) In terms of simple aesthetics, customization will play a large role. Armor dying and trophies, primarily, will allow players to be visually unique without breaking the aforementioned “iconic look, iconic role” rule. When I say trophies, I mean things like orcs wearing belts of dwarf beards and the skulls of fallen opponents impaled on the spikes of their armor.
2) In terms of personal advancement, you have the package system. I explained this earlier, but it basically lets you play the class you want to play and advance in exactly the way that appeals to you, in exactly the order you want to do it.
3) And in terms of combat, you have tactics. This system is a strategic layer of combat where players choose from a pool of available “tactics” before combat that they are then locked into for a set period of time (minutes or hours, not days). Tactics can be things like persistant buffs, race or mob-specific attack bonuses, etc. As players advance, additional slots open up allowing players to use more – or more powerful tactics. Weak tactics are worth one point, the most powerful tactics are worth – say – five. So if you have ten slots open, you might choose ten minor tactics or two extremely powerful tactics or a mix of five of the former, one of the latter. Or any other mix in between.
This is designed to help players avoid being locked into a specific character spec in any significant way without giving them the ability to respec on the fly without any advanced thought. And, of course, to avoid the typical “I hit these three buttons and – SOMETIMES – this button over here too” style of play.
Let’s examine this in order.
“No levels” IS GOOD. The four experience bars could mean that you select the skills you want to level up. Usually the skill systems are based on the use, the more you use one skill the more you improve in it. Here Mythic gives you “four slots”, where you can put the skills you want to improve and then the experience points you get will be automatically distributed to those skills. So no more use-driven, which adds freedom and could be a very good design choice to streamline the game.
Now, it’s not really a single pick for each skills, but a “package” that you can put on one of the four “experience slots”. Here it’s still hard to understand how the system works because there must be a link between the ranks and the “skill packages”.
From the sound of it I could guess that the system could become highly selective. You obviously need to select those packages you want to use and those you’ll leave behind. As a specialization system it looks close to how DAoC currently works. For every level in DAoC you gain “x” specialization points that you allocate to your spec-lines. Here the mechanic is basically the same, but reverted. DAoC’s spec lines = Warhammer’s packages. You choose the spec-lines / packages you want to develop and then go out to “level them”, which will also make you gain “ranks” (probably you gain one rank for every “x” skills you unlock in a package), with the direct consequence of not letting you develop all the packages, but forcing you to select only those that fit with your “build”.
In DAoC: level up -> allocate
In Warhammer: allocate -> level up
Not so incredibly innovative ;p
The only difference could be that every new skills in the same package always “costs” you the same amount. While allocating every new point in a spec-line in DAoC costs you progressively more points. It would be an improvement if so.
The negatives of this system are all already known in DAoC. It becomes extremely hard to make choices for your character without third-party character builders that let you plan your character from the first level to the last. And without a respec system you could easily gimp your character forever. So it’s a system that requires a very good knowledge of the game and that isn’t easy on the newbies (accessibility issue). You cannot start to play and slowly learn the game, instead you need to have already everything pre-planned from the first minute so that your character doesn’t finish to suck.
My suspect on the four “tiers” is that they will be used as a measure the overall power of the character, similar to how the levels are being used in Oblivion to then adapt the world around the player.
If this is true then all I said before about the level caps on the zones can still be valid. It would damage the PvP if Mythic allows a “tier four” character to go mess in a zone with characters at the first tier.
Considering everything together the “no level” claim is pretty weak. It’s possible that gaining ranks doesn’t scale up your stats, hitpoints and mana (at this point it would be the only real difference), but add a rank-based itemization and you basically have the exact same mechanic that drives DAoC or every other level-based game.
No support classes IS GOOD. Remove “healers” altogether, it can only be good.
No stealth classes IS GOOD. Removing annoying ambushes from campers is a good design choice for a game that focuses on a “war” where everyone is supposed to participate together.
About the “tactics” system, as I commented I fear it will lead to min-maxing and default builds. It sounds like WoW’s talent system, just more manipulable. I don’t see it having a particularly significant role in the design and the gameplay. In the sense that it doesn’t seem to add much and being indispensable or worthwhile idea.
I need to know more. Some things are interesting and convincing, some other less.
Warhammer is starting to look MUCH better
I have to admit that the goblins look great.
Great model and textures. I just hope that the animations are on par. And the ears! Please animate the EARS! (make them twitch at times during the idle animation, it would add a lot)
If anything I would make them just more curved and three-fingered instead of five (but then lore guys would complain, I guess?).
The art direction is MUCH improved from the screenshots released earlier. I love the color palette and I hope it’s not just a trick on some screenshots. The dwarf model still sucks, but the rest is starting to look much better than WoW and not as cartoonish (or at least less goofy).
In particular I like how the “green” used on the goblin is much more natural, detailed and opaque compared to the neon-green of the orcs in WoW, for example. This is why I hope it’s a definite choice in the art direction instead of a trick of this one screenshot. I think that fluorescent greens, yellows and purples are out of place for this kind of fantasy setting, but this is more like a personal point of view on the genre and a stylistic choice than a rule. Still, you can see how much better things can look when the art direction is solid.
Keep the colors more opaque, dimmer and natural and the game will look much better.
The look of armor and weapons is finally matching the setting instead of going in the Voltron direction. If they stick to that path the game overall look will finish to be more appealing than WoW. I want to see metal, bones, wood, leather. Stains, worn look, rust. NOT PLASTIC.
There are also a few screenshots of the interface. Very WoW-like. But at least it’s well organized and leaves behind the old-generation square blocks used in the old school mmorpgs (DAoC included). It’s nice the idea to add a full animated model in the middle on the bottom-bar. But I guess here the point it to see your party members fully animated, not just your own face. Without cluttering the screen.
So, if things continue to go in THAT precise direction, the game could really look amazing. If not, it will trip and fall behind WoW as a shabby imitation.
As for the rest, this game is at a crossroads.
Some Eve-Online new features
From a post I snagged from F13, some interesting features that will land with the first segment of the Kali patch:
* Kali in 2 months.
Big new stuff:
* Solar System view. 3-D view replacing the Scanner that lets you see stuff around the solar system you’re currently in. Improved and more usable scanning. Blob size apparently influences how easily you can be detected. Also, there’s a spore-like ‘seamless’ transition from ship view to solarsystem view to galaxy (map) view. Scanprobes will be changed and improved. They will now be 3-D aware and not a giant pain to use. No details on what that actually means.* Along with the SS view will be more hidden complexes and hidden asteroid belts with goodies in them. This is to “enhance the exploration aspect”.
* When ships explode, they no longer blow up into cargo cans. They will now leave a hulk that you must ‘scavenge’ for loot, parts and stuff. Scavenging will have skills associated with it. Hulks will last longer than current cargo cans, “a few hours”.
* Booster system, where you take drugs to confer temporary bonuses at the expense of temporary drawbacks (e.g. +5% turret rate of fire, -2% velocity). Tolerance, so if you shoot up a lot, the bonuses won’t last as long as the drawbacks, thus simulating addiction. This second bit is not finalized.
* Gas clouds and gas cloud mining, which are used in booster manufacturing. Gas clouds are all in 0.0.
* Reverse Engineering. Basically, using parts found in complexes or salvaged off of the hulks of your enemies, you use reverse engineering to fix them up and then ‘assemble them’. The game mechanic way of describing it is that you ‘put parts in a box’ and seal it; this locks in a set of advantages and disadvantages. You can then drop the box into your ship (“like implants for ships”), conferring those bonuses and drawbacks to that one ship. The ‘box’ will be destroyed when your ship explodes. Skills associated with all of this, naturally.
All interesting features to enhance the game, but not really adding anything in a meaningful way, honestly.
In the meantime, after my earlier E3 report by proxy, I decided to cancel my account.
The biggest reason why I was interested in Eve and to support it was about seeing it move past its limits and really achieve its potential. This objective was made concrete through the “Factional Warfare” plan that I had extensively described and commented. That’s where I wanted to see CCP’s resources being spent.
With the announce that this part has been delayed to the next year, I’ve decided that I’m not going to support their choices and I’ll be back only when they decide to make the accessibility of their game their first priority, instead of the last.