Dev Blogs?

Cenn

Would anyone be kind enough to post the recent dev blogs from myeve.eve-onlinecom on sovreignty here?

Ranma13

this is the place i call home...
reported by Redundancy | 2005.11.16 15:35:18

It's been some time now since we put in starbases. We're fairly happy with how things have turned out because it was a huge thing to put into the game, but as is usually the case, there are still a few things that need ironing out and developing further.

One of the things that needs addressing is how sovereignty wars are fought; It's just not that fun when you're sitting in your home system, maybe thinking about that Outpost that it would be nice to buy, when someone comes along with a swarm of disposable small towers and takes it from you.

We still want medium and small towers to be able to make a claim rather than forcing people to place a large tower in every system to stamp their mark, so one of the first suggestions was a points system. A points system would work, but for my tastes it's an overly complex solution for a potentially easy problem.
The New Claim System

What we would like your feedback on, and what will soon be on the test server [with the intention of deployment in Red Moon Rising], is a system where larger towers override the claims made by any smaller towers.

If you have a large tower in a system making a claim, anyone that wants to take that claim from you will have to do it with large towers too. Medium towers will also obviously override small towers. If you want to play ball, you'll have either play the same game as the other person, or one-up them.

Note that if you have the same number of large towers as the other person, it will not compare medium and small towers, it'll just be contested [no sovereignty] as was the case before with a draw.

At the same time, we've upped the time that it takes for a tower to exert a claim on a system to 5 days after it was brought online. You now have the best part of a week to respond to someone putting up towers in your system, and they have the logistics of the associated fuels to deal with.

Wait. There's more...

Towers In Higher Security Space

As part of some of these changes, we've changed where you can have a starbase. You'll now be able to put a starbase in secure space up to (and including) 0.7 sec, with the restriction that some structures won't be available to you. Moon miners and reactors won't be useable above 0.3 security space (same as now). There's going to be an added cost for running towers in empire sovereign space in the form of consumption of leases.
Structures that Require Sovereignty

We're also now able to have structures that will require you to have sovereignty over the system. This opens things up for us to introduce more benefits than just fuel reduction in the future, but some of these things are in the early planning stages.
And this all ties into...

Don't forget that this ties into the new tech 2 ships we're bringing out, which will increase demand for TL2 components, and that the Red Moon Rising manufacturing rewrite enables us to do some new interesting things with research and manufacturing in starbases eventually.

Now we can really start talking about your home in EVE...
Addenda...

Towers in high sec space will be attackable by people with war declarations against you, they will not respond pre-emptively against anyone except a war target. They will respond to aggression.

Redundancy's First Law of Game Features: 'When mentioning a feature or change to the playerbase after release, people will generally assume the interpretation they find most controversial.'
New Starbase Roles

New starbase roles are part of RMR too, and I completely forgot to mention them!

Ranma13

npc changes on the test server
reported by TomB | 2005.11.15 14:31:35
There have been a number of changes and improvements made to the NPC system which can be tested in a semi-primitive state on the Test Server. It's expected that some bugs and imbalance will be found, when they are found and reported, we'll drag 'em out back and shoot 'em.

Player testing and feedback is highly desired, we urge anyone who has a little free time or currently being camped to test these changes and leave feedback. It will help us finding bugs or imbalances, if there are any to be found.

NPC Distribution Mechanic
We have made a new deployment mechanic of NPC Pirates in Asteroid Belts, which will make it easier to add new NPC types in the future and modifying existing deployment logics. So it's possible that some misplacement of NPCs has occured.

NPC Names
New NPCs need names, but instead of just creating new ones, we have changed the existing names around and traded a few. The naming will be used to continue a ranking system based on normal/elite/commander NPC types. All the name changes and the complete "rank listing" are listed in this post.

NPC Amount
Big ships in asteroid belts now spawn more frequently and in bigger numbers than before. As a result, the number of smaller support ships have been decreased some what (i.e. instead of 1-2 battleships & 4-6 cruisers you might find 2-3 battleships and 2-3 cruisers).

Warp Scramble Warning
Interceptor NPCs with warp scramblers have invaded Empire Space, they will now be seen in asteroid belts in up to 0.3 security.

Cap Drain the NPC
Capacitor Draining and Neutralizing NPCs will result in reduced shield boosting / armor repairing. Size matters here: a heavy nosferatu will affect frigate NPCs a lot more than battleship NPCs, while a small nosferatu won't do much to battleship NPCs.
*This is currently not functional on the Test Server*

Loot Tables
Loot Tables are getting some love; removing crappy items from elite NPCs (such as basic damage control and small shield boosters from Battleship NPCs). It's still in the works however and is estimated to come to the Test Server at the end of this week or the start of next week.

Remote Repairing/Boosting
Skipped/Dropped/Kaput: Remote Repairing/Boosting was listed as a feature for NPCs but won't get out in the upcoming patch.

Deadspace Complexes & Missions
Changes have also been made to existing NPCs in deadspace complexes and missions. The existing complexes and missions won't be getting a complete overhaul in Red Moon Rising. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the testing man power to get this accimplished before RMR deployment. But I promise that we will be updating them with new NPCs and tuning of amount and strengths of existing NPCs before Kali.

New Ship Types
# We've have added the following NPCs: 6 New Destroyers: deal high frigate based damage but have low defence, are also bigger and easier to track than frigates. These will be seen in 0.4 security asteroid belts and below.
# 6 New BattleCruisers: deal better damage than cruisers and have much better defences. These will be seen in 0.3 security asteroid belts and below.

# 6 New Elite Frigates: two of the new frigates are support based (EW) and the other four are assault based (good defence). These will be seen in seen in non-Empire Space asteroid belts.

# 8 New Elite Cruisers: four of these are support based (EW) and other four are assault based (good defence). These will be seen in non-Empire Space asteroid belts.

# 2x New Cruisers: two cruisers have been added to the usual eight spawning in asteroid belts.

# 6x New Battleships: six battleships have been added to the usual four found in asteroid belts, the existing four battleships have been changed somewhat to maintain continuity with their new gang mates.

# A whole lot of Commanders: Commander types (rare spawn Dread Guristas etc.) have been added for all the new NPC types, excluding the elite versions.

Angel Cartel
# Damage Types: Angel Cartel are now focusing more on explosive/kinetic damage with turrets, few are still able to deal thermal and em damage but not as much as currently on TQ.

# Defense: shield boost/armor repair rate per second for Angel Cartel has been reduced compared to the other factions, reason is the varying damage types they have, which will stay.

# Missiles: all Angel Cartel will now only be shooting explosive damage missiles.

# Velocity: for all factions has been tuned a bit, Angel Cartel have the highest velocity of all factions.

# Target Painters: 2x frigates, 2x elite frigates, 2x cruisers, 2x elite cruisers and 2x battleships now have a chance of using target painters.

# Stasis Webify: 2x cruisers and 2x elite cruisers now have a chance to use stasis webifier (besides the "Interceptor" style elite frigates).

Blood Raiders
# Tracking Disruption: 2x frigates, 2x elite frigates, 2x cruisers and 2x elite cruisers now have a chance to use tracking disruption.

# Capacitor Drain: 2x cruisers, 4x elite cruisers and 2x battleships now have a chance to use capacitor drain.

Guristas
# Resistance: secondary weakest resistance changed, they used to be most resistant to thermal damage but was causing problem for Caldari based turret boats. Thermal is now their second weakest damage type.

# Target Jamming: 2x frigates, 2x elite frigates, 4x cruisers, 4x elite cruisers and 2x battleships now have a chance to ecm target jamming. The strengths are in this order: Magnetometric > Radar > Ladar > Gravimetric, or in race ship: Gallente > Minmatar > Amarr > Caldari.

# Turrets: various Guristas ships have been changed into turret boats only, while others have been given more turret power with less missiles. Pure missile boats still exist.

Sansha's Nation
# Tracking Disruption: 2x frigates, 2x elite frigates, 4x cruisers, 4x elite cruisers and 2x battleships now have a chance to use tracking disruption.

# Missiles: Sansha's rats have been given more of missile fire power to fit better with their factionality (amarr/caldari), but far from being as missile focused as Guristas are.

Serpentis
# Resistance: secondary weakest resistance changed, they used to be most resistant to kinetic damage but was causing problem for Gallente based turret boats. Kinetic is now their second most weakest damage type.

# Sensor Dampen: 2x frigates, 2x elite frigates, 4x cruisers, 4x elite cruisers and 2x battleships now have a chance to use sensor dampen.

# Defenders: usage of defenders for all Serpentis/Guardian has been increased.