How (not) to lose your pod

This is a follow-up from the last blog (Battlysts Burn Oto), where I noted that I need to put together a list of ways people lose pods and thus how to avoid losing your pod. Thanks to my corpmates in Aideron Robotics for helping with my original post to our internal forums.  Note that this advice is primarily for lowsec, and only a starting point in null and WH.  In those areas you also have bubbles there and perhaps other things I'm not familiar with.

How to lose your pod:

1. Trying to stick out that last moment when your ship is going down.
• Reason: Your pod will need to align before it can warp out and if you are fighting a gang there is a good chance someone with a fast locker will be trying to catch your pod. Pods align very quickly but they do not do so instantly.
• Alternative: As soon as you realize your ship is going to be lost align to a bookmark or celestial and spam warp. When your ship blows the first warp command registered should get your pod out. Be warned that aligning may mean that you lose transversal and thus will suddenly take damage at a higher rate than you were previously.
• Additional: Have a tab that only has celestials that are safe to warp to.  Many people label this "GTFO."  Warping to the sun is particularly predictable.  I personally like have a bookmark near the sun so if someone sees me align they may waste time thinking they can catch me there.  Meanwhile I bounce and GTFO.
• Bonus: You may get your ship out anyway.  See this Reddit thread that happened to pop up today: Never ever stop spamming "warp to".
2. When you encounter a camp on a gate, attempt to jump in your pod after your ship is lost.
• Reason: You incur a session timer when your ship is destroyed that keeps you from taking a gate.
• Alternative: Once you realize you aren't going to be able to crash the gate, align out and warp your pod immediately upon losing your ship.
3. Warp straight from losing your ship in a fight to a gate or station.
• Reason: Your aggression timer from the fight will keep you from docking or jumping, making your pod vulnerable to hostiles.
• Alternative: Warp to a safe after losing your ship, or if you have no safes in the system warp to a celestial. As soon as you land at the celestial warp to a new celestial and drop a bookmark while in warp to give yourself a place to wait out your timer.  In most cases one bounce will be enough time though.
4. Warp straight to a gate after losing your ship, particularly in a hot warzone.
• Reason: Some smartbombers will watch for hot spots on the map and plant themselves between the fight and the gate.  They'll hit their bombs as soon as they see you on d-scan.
• Alternative: Your corp probably already has 150km perches off of the gates.  If not then now is a good time to make them.  Go to that perch and peek at the gate.  Even if the smartbomber is cloaked and tries to uncloak and get you then the perch is likely to give you a different angle to gate that will save you.
5. Warp to a station when there are likely campers on station.
• Reason: Warping to zero on a station lands you within a range of locations, some of which may not have you immediately be within the docking radius. Note that some campers may be sitting on the undock with smartbombs so they will not have a locking delay.
• Alternative: Establish a docking bookmark, preferably at a location other than the undock location.
6. Undock from a station without having a undock bookmark ready.
• Reason: There is a short period of invulnerability when undocking, but this is not sufficient for most ships to align to their destination compared to the lock time of potential station campers.
• Alternative: Have an undock bookmark ready and warp to it at a random distance immediately if there are possible campers around. Creation of an undock bookmark is a topic longer than this brief summary, but googling should get you an answer fast.

My corpmate YoYo Mommy has a video that demonstrates many of these, so check it out.

Did I miss anything? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Battlysts Burn Oto

A strange thing happened to my killboard on my way into the end of the year.  After all the rush of the holiday preparations I hadn't gotten into nearly as many fights as I had hoped.  But after Christmas I got some time to log on and found that a battle was raging for Faction control of the system of Oto.  The next couple days highlight a lot of what I see as the FW experience for a line pilot.  As a spoiler, check out this YouTube video.

Solo Fiddling, Farming, and Podding

When things are quiet FW pilots go off and do a lot of things.  I keep meaning to do more hacking-type skills for exploration sites in low or in wormholes.  I haven't tried FW missions yet and I don't do PI, though both of those things that I hear good things about in terms of ISK/LP generation.  FW missioning is tough for Gallente because the preferred method (running Lvl4s in stealth bombers) doesn't work due to the Caldari NPC combination of missiles and ECM.  I do have to wonder if that actually has contributed to Gallente war success though - other faction such as the Caldari can get swarms of farmers who won't contribute to the war effort below stabbed plex-running and FW missions.  Yeah null-sec Caldari guys, I'm looking at you.

I've toyed with solo plexing, though I think the biggest risk there isn't so much the local Caldari as the local pirates.  We have three major "pirate" groups in our stretch of lowsec that would be glad to pick up some quick kills.  One of them (YUHU - a branch of Overload Everything) has settled into the same station in Fliet as Aideron Robotics and likes to camp the undock and local gates.  We're all familiar with seeing their neutral T3 booster hanging around on gates, supplying links and ready to jump the gate if threatened.  Mark that one as another vote for seeing boosts forced on-grid.

A 1:1 with a local pirate can quickly turn into a blob, but honestly that's not really different than when I was in Rifterlings or what we see in general baiting around.  One thing that does seem to be different is how quickly people will go for pods, and how sebo'd ships are a more central part of the fleet comps that make that possible.  As a group that enjoying camping, it isn't too surprising that having an instalock ship is a fixture in YUHU fleets for instance.  Since Jakob is my main, I tend to always have at least two learning implants in, which is certainly more painful to lose than the empty clones that I see that are presumably more the hallmark of an alt character.  Nullsec readers won't be particularly sympathetic to this, I'm sure.

These small/solo fiddling around is very similar to what I did with Rifterlings.  You get some good fights, they can be quite intense, but you can also have long quiet periods unless you're really willing to roam long-distance and hope you can run any camps you stumble into.  So in that sense I'd argue that FW in lowsec can offer all of the opportunities for small-scale PVP than you'd see as an unaffiliated lowsec (i.e. "pirate") or nullsec roaming group.  If I don't see a fleet up in Aideron and I don't feel like roaming solo then I've recently been hopping on the comms of Rapid Withdrawal (RDRAW - also Gallente FW) and joining their fleets.  And that's how I got particularly more involved in the fight for Oto.

Oto Burns

There had been a couple stabs at Oto over the past month, mostly half-hearted things to bring fights as best I could tell.  I'd get on a fleet some night and we'd drive down the plexes in between leaping out to chase things our scouts found.  Sitting in any complex below Large is a relatively safe way for your fleet to hang out, and one that doubles for LP generation and system control.  If some pirate group roams through in HACs or somesuch you can just watch them go past, but people of your ship class or down can come and jump on you if they're interested.

That changed a few days ago - apparently because of a rash bet made between two of the FW corp leaders in the area.  Dom Pender made a bet that Oto could be flipped in four days, and RDRAW was bent towards this mission.  No longer could the Caldari casually undo the plexing damage done.  Fleets would range from kitchensink Dessy-down to Armor Cruisers and then last night: Battlysts.

The Battlyst is a very simple, cheap ship and there's no real secret to it.  Aideron's kill (and loss) boards have been full of it for quite a while.  Hull tanked, railgun Catalyst with an MWD and a Sebo.  For close range work you load Faction Antimatter and a Scan-Res script.  For long range work you load the range script and Faction Iron.  You get a pile of those together and you have an alpha that lands every second that pops frigate hulls in two volleys.  Here's a video from last night - you'll see that the enemy ships are dying pretty much as fast as the FC can call them.  In fact, Dom practically gives up calling them verbally and just broadcasts them as fast as he can.  Frigates, Destroyers, Assault Frigates, even a Stratios and a Confessor go down quickly.  As the targets scatter we burn after them, our tackle ships (ranging from Atrons to Keres) keeping them on the field, and the range of the railguns meaning they can't easily range-mitigate the damage.  Contrast this to the classic gank-Catalyst, whose blasters require it to be sitting on the target for maximum effect and thus doesn't work as well for fleet action.  It's also an interesting contrast to the other Aideron doctrines which focus on drones, which means there is a delay as the drones travel from target to target.

Basing out of Oto over the past few days we chased after a group of Omen Navy Issues (twice that I've been around for) who kept running from us, killed a Rattlesnake, broke multiple Caldari FW fleets, and at tangled with a pretty heavy YUHU fleet (I didn't see the end of that one after getting podded).  Oto became one of the hottest systems in the Gallente FW effort.  RDRAW is the top corporation for kills in Gallente FW this month.  My personal killboard for December basically doubled in the past two days (which I know isn't saying too much compared to many folks).  More importantly I was in a lot of exciting fights in a range of ships from frigate to cruiser and from solo to 5-6 ships to 30+ ships.

Lessons Learned (or to be Learned)

• FRAPS.  We're on a big kick to record everything in Aideron to learn from the fights.  I've been fiddling with my FRAPS lately - I seem to keep getting my hotkey to start recording either superceded by Eve's hotkeys or not working.  I think this will be particularly big for making sure I'm keeping at the right ranges for the targets and when I should or should not be running my prop mod.
• Implants.  Given the nature of fleet fights, I'm debating the value of implants.  Having 3% more armor or 3% more damage may well help the overall fleet effort, but the 3% better agility perhaps is only useful when in more solo/small-gang situations.  I have to weigh that against the costs when getting podded.
• Pods.  I've lost a lot more pods after joining FW.  That may just be a natural match with being in more fights and larger ones.  Experienced pilots repeat that you shouldn't lose your pod in lowsec (barring lag and such).  I think an entire blog on "how to lose your pod" may be needed from the little bits I've learned over time.  Ex: You incur a session timer when your ship is destroyed that keeps you from taking a gate, which explains how I lost a pod while spamming jump on the gate I was crashing under fire from a YUHU camp.

This morning Oto fell to the Gallente.  Next!

Eve Podcasts of 2014

Back in August I wrote about the (then) current state of podcasting.  At the time the bittervet disease seemed to be sweeping through the podcastiverse, making formerly great podcasts a downer.  Since then CCP has moved to six week releases, started shaking up the meta of Eve, and generating a huge amount of enthusiasm.  I've definitely seen this in the podcasts, so it's only fair to revisit what's out there.  And since this is Eve, let's do it competition style with a top three:

Most Improved: Declarations of War

Declarations of War was in a real drag in August of 2014.  I said: "This used to be one of my favorite podcasts, but recently it's seemed like Alekseyev Karrde is succumbing to bittervet disease."  The Pheobe release has marked a turnaround for DoW, and the most recent episode was one of the best I've heard from DoW perhaps all year featuring a discussion back and forth between Alek and a recent contract target: Thaddeus Drake of Violent Declaration.  Alek is clearly energized again - it's good to have DoW back.

Most Consistent: High Drag

Even when the recording software isn't turned on, somehow High Drag manages to get their podcast out thanks to their Twitch-stream format and their loyal fans.  Coming out regularly and constantly having good stuff to talk about - what more do you want from a podcast?  I particularly liked Fintarue's recent piece on flying the Firetail as a good trainer towards a Dramiel - that's an idea I'd love to hear more about.

Most Timely: Hydrostatic Podcast

Hydrostatic podcast exploded on the podcasting scene with a tight format and a focus on lore - just in time for CCP to really start ramping up the internal plotline that had laid dormant for so long.  When HP put out the Rhea Lore Panel it was quickly recommended and linked across the Eve blogosphere and podcasts.  Until putting together this blog I hadn't even noticed that they've kept a constant mailbag going on lore questions too, so check it out.


Beyond these great podcasts here's one more I can't let go of:

Most Awaited: Fly Reckless

Real life has been conspiring to keep Fly Reckless down this fall, to the point where by the time the podcast hits the air it will be discussing an "upcoming" release that has been out for a week or two.  This is a real shame, since it means that Connall's speculations are shy of one last tweak from CCP and implementation.  I've always enjoyed hearing Connall Tara talk about ship rebalancing, so I feel like I've missed his enthusiasm with the Confessor and the Recon rebalance.  Here's hoping that in 2015 real life will let up a bit and bring the podcast back into sync with Eve.


And to close things out...

Since August I've also started listening to Derping Through War.  This one is particularly relevant to me as a Gallente Faction Warfare pilot.  The strength of the podcast is in discussions of fights, fits, and tactics.  The downside is that it can be awkward in the ego-driven boasting that is not uncommon around the Eve community.  It's definitely staying on the list.

Also still on the list, but less to say about them:
* Broadcasts from the Ninveah.  Kirith Kodachi is a wonderfully stable presence between his podcasts, running public fleets on Aideron, and generally contributing all over the place.
* Cap Stable.  This podcast is focused on what's going on with the HERO Coalition, and for a few episodes even billed itself as the official podcast of that coalition (though not the latest one I noticed).
* Crossing Zebras.  Of all the podcasts on my August list, CZ is the one that has managed to get the lease bounce from the huge upturn in Eve.  Perhaps it's because Xander and crew are still bound down in null-sec and haven't been able to enjoy the changes.  For some reason Xander keeps HVAC around even though he isn't playing Eve and just has a constant downward pressure on the mood of the 'cast.
* Down the Pipe.  Lots of turmoil back and forth here, and I expect the podcast is going to go on hiatus as I hear Bronya is taking a break from Eve.  It's a shame - I've always enjoyed the Storytime theme of DTP.

D-scan - towards a unified scanning and probing system

We have some big changes to D-scan coming with the Proteus release, as announced in the Recon Rebalance thread.  There is a lot of … let's just say "feedback" … from the community on the impact of making Force Recon ships invisible to D-scan.  Really I think this is an opportunity for CCP to do something much more deep and interesting with D-scan.  Right now we have a D-scan that provides perfect information.  That takes away ambiguity, which is a shame in a game that is as complexly nuanced as Eve.  What if we change that to provide a fog of war?

Current D-Scan

Let's recap briefly before we launch off to the proposal.  D-scan currently reaches out to 14.3 AU or 2,147,483,647 km (which probably not coincidentally is the maximum value of a signed 32-bit integer).  You can change the angle of your D-scan from 5 degrees to 360 degrees.  Recently the user interface changed to make both of these values (range and angle) more easily manipulated with sliders.

If a non-cloaked vessel is within the range and angle of your D-scan then you see exactly what the ship is but not how far away it is, unless it is already on grid.  You do not see pilot information nor indeed if there even is a pilot in the ship, leading to what many people call "POS trash" - ships that are unpiloted but inside of the force field of a POS.

So we've identified a couple things here to play with.  Let's consider if we changed the level of precision that we see with two of them: ship information and distance.

Directional Scan Strength

Consider if the baseline for all ships was 1 D-scan strength.  This allows scanning to 14.3 AU - we'll call that 1 "bracket".  What if some ships such as Force Recon, Interceptors, and Interdictors had a D-scan strength of 2, allowing them to scan 28.6 AU (2 brackets)?  These ships would then be a valuable asset to fleets, allowing them to more rapidly scan down distant gates and plexes.  What if a module such as a "Directional Scan Booster" allowed you to add additional D-scan strength to your ship, adding an additional D-scan bracket?

(Credit where it's due: the original idea here came from Kyle Yanowski both on the forum and in our corp chat)

Stealth Rating

Consider if the baseline for all ships was a 0 stealth rating.  This would mean that they had no ability to avoid being d-scanned.  But then perhaps Force Recons had a stealth rating of 1.  When the D-scan algorithm hits a possible target ship, it compares its strength to the stealth rating and the distance bracket.  So at less than 14.3 AU, a baseline ship will see another baseline ship, but would not see a Force Recon (+1 Scan, -1 Stealth = 0).  A Force Recon (+2 Scan) would see a baseline ship at 28 AU (2 brackets) but not another Force Recon, but would regain the ability to see that target Force Recon at 14 AU (1 bracket).

What if there was a "Stealth Booster" module that allowed a ship to increase its stealth rating?

Partial Information in D-scan

When you use Combat Probes, you get progressively more information about a ship.  I've often wished we saw that kind of progressive disclosure in D-scan.  Consider if we saw this:

1 bracket to 0.75 bracket = Ship Hull Size  (ex: Cruiser, Frigate)

0.75 bracket to 0.50 bracket = Ship Hull Type (ex: Vexor hull, Punisher hull)

0.50 bracket to 0.25 bracket = Full Ship Information (ex: Ishtar, Retribution)

0.25 bracket to 0.00 = Full Ship Information, Pilot Name, actual distance at time of scan

Note that your bracket is independent of the scan range you've selected on your D-scan interface, so if you're tuned down to 1 AU then the first time you see a ship you'll have full information on it.  Again, ships with higher D-scan strength rating become valuable to be able to more accurately scout out opponents.

Interaction with Combat Probing

The Proteus-proposed changes already have introduced an new dynamic here.  In order to see if there is a Force Recon somewhere, you will have to combat probe where you think they may be (ex: in a FW plex).  There is also an interaction already that I personally find disconnected - that the sensor strength of a ship (otherwise only used against ECM) provides protection against being probed (see also Slippery Pete doctrine).  What if instead we keep the sensor strength to its combat role against ECM, and use Stealth Rating?  Given "Stealth Booster" modules, we still allow the possibilities of Slippery Petes, so we haven't taken away that niche.

Interaction with Cloaking

What if we consider cloaking part of this unified proposal of scanning and stealth?  Perhaps a cloak provides additional Stealth ratings, but it could be overcome by a sufficiently prepared counter?  For instance, let's consider that a T2 CovOps Cloak provided a +5 Stealth, and perhaps other Meta Cloaks provided a lesser (or greater) benefit?  As before, modules could increase the stealth rating of the defender and the scan strength of the scout.

Another possibility would be that being under a cloak decreases your scan strength - so a CovOps scout tracking an enemy fleet might need to do so uncloaked in order to get the best possible information, making them vulnerable to being scanned and dropped on.

If we really want to keep going, we could then complete the unification of the system by saying that being on grid with a target gives you an additional level of scan strength.  This is how we suddenly see the actual distance on our D-scan when on grid, and how we will see the Force Recons on d-scan (as mentioned in CCP Rise's follow-up comments on the thread-naught).

I think there are a lot of possibilities here to bring a more unified, coherent system of scanning and probing to Eve, and I hope that CCP is able to entertain these idea.

Is Rhea placesetting the capsuleer stargates?

I'm pretty happy as the lore develops that my pod'n'planet story might be reasonably close to what will happen.  One thing that I've seen around is the idea that the capsuleer built stargate will end up being either in Thera only, or in the shattered star systems.  I don't think this is a good idea.

(I'll call this thing just a stargate, though we'll really need a new term and I won't be so self-centered as to recommend that my "throw-gate" from the story be that term.)

Following The Prophecy too closely?

It seems like it would be a lost opportunity for the stargate to only be buildable in Thera.  Capsuleers combining forces against the empire sounds great, but it goes against the player-generated content theme of Eve.  Do we really expect that CCP staff will have an ongoing grand event to command a series of fleets to attack the player-built stargate to fullfill the Prophecy trailer?  Do we think that CCP would rally Empire-loyal capsuleer corporations to do their proxy work?  We've seen what happens when CCP led player groups try to achieve an objective and the null/low powers decide to interfere - I wouldn't put much ISK on the Empire if they were actively opposing a nullsec/WH player group.

Sidenote: If The Prophecy trailer is literally a prophecy then of course we know that the capsuleer stargate cannot be in Thera or any wormhole, since the trailer shows an Avatar Titan coming to the attack.  But I think that's a bit too far to ask of the trailer.

Construction in the war zone

In either of those cases we'd be talking about building a huge structure in a system which has no moons and thus no POS for manufacturing.  So all components would be either built in the stations or flown in.  Unless of course the new starbase design allows these to be more freely anchored.  And of course we're talking about building this thing of unprecedented cost in the system with the most ISK destruction per day of any system in New Eden.

Why limit the great land rush?

Limiting this to Thera only also would imply there is only one such capsuleer stargate.  That misses the opportunity for a race to the great land rush that would motivate the building of the gate in the first place.  What motivation will a group have for building this massive project if there is no competitive advantage that they will gain?

Limiting it to only the shattered systems means more than one capsuleer organization can undertake it, so that's good.  However there is still the matter of being able to control the location of the stargate.  Perhaps it is too much to let the great nullsec powers (who are the ones who will have the resources to do this) bury their stargate system deep into their own defended systems.  I would expect that when coming into operation every gate heading to the stargate would be bubbled and defended to reduce the ability of a cyno ship to slip in.

On the other hand, there is something to the idea that such big nullsec powers would have to stretch their forces out to claim a shattered system and defend it to build such a thing.  As we read recently, nullsec forces don't quite have this WH thing down yet.  But if you're a WH dweller, do you really want the great null alliances moving into the neighborhood and bringing all their baggage with them?

On the Second Day of Rhea, My FC brought to me...

Rhea has been good to me.  Phoebe was good to me too.  Seriously, the latest couple sprint releases have just been a lot of fun.  Nonetheless, I've definitely had some things to learn from.  One of them cost me 3.6B worth of pride.

On the First Day of Rhea - Bacon and Thera

I log in and Marcel is calling for ships to undock.  Vexors with enfeebling ECM.  Scramble - I have that mod, I'm in, I'm undocked I'm warping.  Enemies in a plex in our home system.  This is pretty much as "push button, receive bacon" as I've ever seen.  I've barely had time to settle into my chair and I'm plugging away at primaries and finding a Scythe to try to scramble with ECM.  Caracals backed by Scythes - as we weigh in we're starting to lose ships.  Somehow we balance - I don't know if it's the Logi wing catching up or the Caracal's getting out of sync or just being too fragile, but soon it's a rout.  Farewell, CalMil and thanks for the fight.  Later I look back and see they were mounting Rapid Lights - so the initial burst started off great, but once we got into their reload cycle it was over.

So then there's chatter on what to do next.  Thera!  Thanks to Eve-Thera and Eve-Scout he have an entrance, but ... it's in highsec.  With all of us less than reputable types we pile into frigates so we can avoid the police, and soon enough we're in there.  There is some weirdness with the grid since there are two nearby stations - there's a target near us but we can't see it because it's on the other grid.  We play warp-tag for a bit until we land near a Vargur and pile on.  Soon the skies are crowded and we're having to bail.

The fleet is ready to try again after upshipping to cruisers, but I know that by the time we reship and try to get through highsec it's going to be late for me, so I step out.  Very nice first day of Rhea though.

On the Second Day of Rhea - Confess your Sins

I hop into the fleet chat and undock to a pretty much immediate fight again.  There's someone moving too fast for our Tristans, so I dock back up and hop into my Retribution.  We start hunting around and in an unusual situation we have someone up with Skirmish links.  I must say I like to look of my overheated Warp Disruptor having a 31km range.  We bang around a bit and then head out roaming.

A Confessor is spotted on dscan.  It's unclear if the Loki nearby is boosting him, or just hunting him like everyone else.  Sard Caid is around in a Thorax, so that's keeping us on our toes since any slip and he'll probably find some way to down a straggler or anyone foolish enough to engage him on a gate.  I keep looking for the Confessor, but I figure that I must be pointing my narrow-band D-scan in the wrong direction.

Our fleet is split over a gate and suddenly there is excitement.  Scram + Web on the Confessor.  Jump, Jump.  Am I on the right side of the gate to see the Confessor or not?  I think I am, but I can't see the damn thing.  Then it dawns on me that my overview isn't updated to see Tactical Destroyers.  I have all brackets on, so I start locking, Scorch'd lasers overheated and pre-loaded... but just as I've almost gotten him locked he is reduced to a capsule.

Yup.  Confessor Kill Number Three in all of New Eden, and the most expensive fit to date.  I missed it for my own damn fault.  Yup, you followed that link right - if I had gotten in on that kill them my killboard would be green for a long time.  I don't know if I could lose enough of what I'm flying nowadays to drop my efficiency below 99%.  Yes, all the usual disclaimers about the twisted logic of killboard ISK efficiency and all, but still.  Bummer.

The Reddit thread on the kill is amusing.  Connall Tara is beside himself at the fit.  I can't wait for Fly Reckless to get back to its ship fitting/balancing geekiness with all that's happened since they were on break.  Come on, Connall, you know you want to!

On the Third Day of Rhea - o7 everyone

The o7 show lands in late afternoon of the workday in my timezone.  I block my work calendar so I'll be at my desk.  Honestly, it's a pretty quiet show compared to recent ones - particularly the last one.  Some teasing about Caroline's Star, some general promises about the coming year, some entertaining sweaters.  Ah, maybe tonight is a good night to take off from Eve.

Or maybe I should get that Amarr Tactical Destroyer skillbook shipped down to my home.  You know.  Just for the future.

Fly Reckless everyone, 'cause flying safe is no damn fun.

PnP: Author's notes: Wishing on a Distant Star

My entry for this year's Pod and Planet is set in that future time at the end of CCP Seagull's roadmap.  That time and place no longer feels like a dreamy myth.  Indeed writing this story faced a new challenge: Eve is changing so fast right now, and particularly in areas of lore that could impact this story.  Between when I started the story and now there has been so much announced and hinted at that sometimes I feared I would just have to scrap it because the concepts it was built on would no longer be my speculative projection of CCP's future plans but instead found to be in direct conflict with some newly-released tidbit.  So setting that aside (and hoping there isn't a new Dev Blog I haven't seen yet), let's talk about the wish-upon-a-distant-star I make here.

Throw Gates

These huge gates allow travel from one cluster to another.  While not "throwing" in a literal sense, the idea here is that there is a manual process not unlike a jump bridge where a capsuleer (i.e. player) action is needed.  Launching the fleet requires locking down the target much like probing down a signature, but instead of looking at a display of the star system you're looking at a display of a larger span such as a region.  The idea here is that using this massively expensive gate is an event, something that people will want to be logged in to be a part of, even if just to watch.

The farther future implication would be that once you can built two throw-gates synchronized to each other than you can get the more conventional, automatic gate without a manually-created cyno beacon.  Continuing to need fuel would mean that the distant systems are still a special preserve that are not trivial to roam back and forth to.

The scattering upon landing is also harkening to the wormhole changes, but also I liked the idea to get the feel of a lack of control over such a long distance, matching the "throw" metaphor.  Similarly the concept of "throw damage" is there for that lack of control.  This also means that throwing into an enemy-player controlled space would carry an additional risk.

The lack of conventional CONCORD gates to use for communication of the capsuleer brain upon death is obviously another vital aspect to the story.  This additional risk is part of the new space, much like the risk of flying a T3, though it would be overcome as soon as you have a cloning bay in the new system - assuming you don't lose it.

Talocans

The prospect of new space, and in general the way the lore is developing, seemed to call out for a new opponent.  Of the ancient races, the Talocan seemed the most interesting.  Recent events and discovers as we line up to Rhea put this aspect at serious risk of being made retroactively incorrect, but it seemed a reasonable risk to take.

The Talocan ships are intended to imply the next generation of PVE that the advanced sleeper and burner missions presage today.  Capsuleer-level power, better AI, and opponent ships that work together.  The willingness to warp away from a losing fight is another aspect that seems hinted at, which would force PVE players to mount points just like PVPers would, thus continuing to close the gap between the two.  Players should see these as a challenge, much like the Sleepers sound like they were right after WH space opened up (which is before my time).  The Talocan being interested in podding players is just some extra danger-spice, which we do see today with CCP's more recent exploration sites.

Ideally I'd want the Talocan to be a mystery, thus the reference to the players FRAPSing the fight so they can analyze it later.  This implies they aren't already obvious in the database, which I grant is perhaps a step to far since it would imply a huge change in Eve - though one perhaps CCP will need sooner or later.

The Talocan are also described here as having a cloaked base and the willingness to attack player structures.  My dream here would be something along the lines that more Talocan are spawned at this base on a countdown timer.  If the players don't find and destroy the base (or allow many to escape back to it) then the forces will continue to grow.  If they destroy the base then not only do they have the riches there, but it will become feasible to mine and such without facing attack.  Normal ratting-level of enemy ships could remain indefinitely, just as current known space has apparently no end of pirates to be hunted down by capsuleers.

Ships and Stations

Station Zero is a modular POS, as I hope was clear, which is another thing we know is on the roadmap and the dream of many a veteran player long before my time.  I don't get into this too much in the final scenes, particularly since its defenses are compromised before the attackers even show up.

I couldn't help but throw in a line implying rebalancing of Recons, and I figure that the T3 line would be rebalanced by then as well.  I intentionally keep the number of ships in the capsuleer fleet vague since I didn't want someone to come back with some calculus on how many Rail-gus it would take to do X amount of damage in 10 seconds.  Tomas's Vulture in the middle of the fleet is a hopeful wish that the on-grid links problem will have been handled as well, allowing command ships to become truly the place to command a fleet from.

Customized ship-skins are another item I'm hoping we'll see by the time this story could happen in Eve.  Special units such as a Black-Ops team would gain all the more cache by having their ships be distinct.