CCP chooses excellence

I was happy to see that the Incursion release will be delayed, not because I don't want it to come out soon, but because it shows a new commitment to "polish" by CCP.  While I have always enjoyed CCP's commitment to cranking out new content, I also really want that content to be of maximum quality.  Blizzard is known for glacial content releases coupled with maximum polish.  This approach has worked out well for them, and I encourage CCP to take the time to do their releases well!

 

Given that EVE is already unrivaled in MMO legendary status (can you say giant fleet battles and single shard universe?), CCP will benefit greatly from making sure that all new content is mindblowingly good.  Apocrypha was like that, and I am sure they have great things coming down the pipe beyond Incarna!

 

The Dominion and Tyrannis releases suffered from lack of polish, but CCP seems capable of learning from the past and pushing forward.  We have the commitment (the 18 months meme) to have them re-address some broken systems after Incarna.  I am excited to see where this leads over the next few years.

 

I prefer to make money with Industry and spend time shooting stuff in nullsec which is "sandbox" material.  While I am not focused on PVE content, I appreciate that the Incursion content will be enjoyed by many players with a different style of gameplay.  The more players that are happy, the more subs help pay for even better content.  Hopefully, CCP will take advantage of multi-core processing at some point to enable an exponential increase in lag-free fleet size!

 

To sum it up:

 

Polish + Brilliant Sandbox + reworking older broken systems = best MMO ever. 

 

Work hard and make us proud, CCP Vikings!

 

 

Taranis love

Last night we had a fun roam chasing reds in Pure Blind. In one engagement, my Taranis got targeted by a fistful of Zealots and Vagabonds. Luckily they were out of scram or web range. I was able to punch the MWD while aligning to a planet. Warping out with a sliver of structure feels so good!

Having lost T1 frigates in similar circumstances, the increased survivability with a T2 frig is significant. The Taranis in particular does well with a Damage Control tank plus speed. I prefer the dual prop fitting, but was carrying a web last night to be more helpful to the gang. Given the proliferation of HACS in 0.0, the range of initial engagement is usually past scram reach. When I grab tackle I expect to be hit with a web, but it often doesn't matter because my gang will be laying down serious hurt soon after!

I can't wait for the next fight!

(Pic link grabbed from fleet chat after lemming behavior, I am unable to credit maker, please drop me a comment if you know who made it.)

Escalation!

CCP "fixed" the IT angle by going back and killing all other TCU's placed before downtime by attacks on non-IT alliances. However, TEST has not forgotten the sting of being stymied in liberating many systems from evil Delve clowns.



First, TEST wardecced the CCP Engineering Alliance.

Next we executed a brilliant counter attack!

T20 Redux!

CCP has yet again betrayed inside ties to BOB/IT by removing 14 TCUs onlined by TEST Alliance Please Ignore in Delve.

The official response was that CCP considered onlining TCUs before the update downtime to be an exploit. The problem is that TCUs were also onlined and reportedly allowed to remain in multiple other systems throughout New Eden. (not yet verified, but may include: K76A-3, G-73MR, 5KG-PY, H-29TM, NH-IX6.)

This is yet another example of CCP favoritism towards IT. To disable some TCUs as an exploit while letting others progress is concerning. Showing another round of IT favoritism after the crushing T20 debacle is serious business!

Maybe in addition to the CSM (placed after the T20 incident to restore trust), we need a player run organization, "Shouldn't Help IT, CCP" to restore trust and a level playing field for all.