Voices from the War: Content Updates in Incarna | EVE Online

Voices from the War: Content Updates in Incarna

2011-06-23 - By CCP Big Dumb Object

Hey, internet spaceship people, I'm back to tell you about new content changes from Commie Pinkos in Incarna. Bear with me, as I'm still only halfway through Old Man Yuengling's vision quest. There are a lot of fixes going in this release, so let's crack open the shell and consume the powers of this noble beast.

Killed By Death

Last release, BFF added the awesome change of making NPC jamming behave the same as player modules. That's good. But it turns out this made a lot of our extant content mind-bogglingly difficult. That's bad. So we dug through the depths of our deadspace sites and NPC groups. Any sites with too many jamming NPCs or groups with jammers where they shouldn't be were cut faster than a state pension fund. Between missions, exploration sites, and defenseless peasant villages, we modified over seventy-five sites. Result: total decimation of overpopulated jamming NPCs sites.

If I close my eyes I can still smell the fires.

Mean Machine

You ever get a mission where you blew up some bad dudes and flew a bajillion miles back to your agent, only to realize you forgot the jewel-encrusted skull of the Rat King? But you technically completed the mission, so you can't get to his dark sarcophagus, dooming every soul in the constellation to another thousand years of his Pestilent Horde? Also, your asshole agent refuses to pay you?

Well, good news! Every mission and exploration site that required an item from a spawn container has been re-authored with new tech 2 wizardry. If the mission says you're supposed to take something from a spawn container, it will no longer fire off a completion until that damn something has been removed. And if you need to get our Plot DeviceTM from the spawn container and also shoot dudes, or maybe get two things, or... well, okay, that's probably about it. But if you need get an item from a spawn container and do Another Thing, the system will now properly track that both are done before telling you the mission's complete.

Note that, for technical reasons, this does not affect items that drop in loot cans. Only sites using spawn containers are affected.

Tear Ya Down

Or how about this: You're in a deadspace complex, and you've mowed through most of the baddies. You get a message from your friend asking if he can join you for some mayhem. (Sure, he won't shut up about that boat song a year later, and you're still not quite sure he didn't drunkenly make out with your girlfriend last week, but you agree anyway.) So he warps in, and suddenly the scenery goes ape! Asteroids disappear, stations jump 100 km to the left, and your target is now somewhere left of the center of the sun.

You, my friend, have been hit by a bug in our scenery randomization.

Fret not, gentle reader, for we have heard your bewildered cries! Our team of level designers has developed technological solutions for over 50 problem cases. No longer will your oblivious and potentially treacherous friend cause your deadspace pocket to re-randomize the scenery. Go forth, and explore in our newly stabilized universe!

We Are the Road Crew

Not content with editing over a kragillion sites, our mighty spirit warriors found further tasks to make your time in the dark, bloody murder world of EVE more enjoyable.

A few months back we released a batch of DED sites. Turns out some of our older content's text didn't quite stand up to the new stuff we released. So our writerly types attacked the old stuff with their mighty word-mallets, bringing the old text in-line.

Also, the "ranged damage" event in sites now hurts drones as well. So if you've been relying on your swarm of little robot friends to complete sites at no risk to themselves: We fooled you! KABLAM!

And finally, last release BFF made the dark, bloody murder world just a little brighter and more awesome with the agent division change. Turns out, though, that there are a few problem spots in the pirate mining mission pool that need some love from the content gun. So blam! We expanded a few of our needlessly restrictive mining missions. Now every pirate mission runner should have access to mining missions at every level.

So there you have it. More fixes to make your stay in our world of cults, piracy, war, and post-human violence a better one. Fly safe-ish, pilots!