While waiting for the stream my characters are making the pilgrimage to Amarr to register for the YC118 Amarr Championships Community Draw. This is a bit trickier for some of my characters (*cough* Gallente factional warfare *cough*) so all of them might not make it.
Opening Ceremonies - Connections
Nice touch listing Upwell Consortium as a "sponsor", that's a fun little teaser. The light and smoke for the Amarr Championship seemed a bit out of place as Hilmar dropped right back into his calm, paced presentation. I don't know about other folks, but for me the React website wasn't loading the scripts needed to actually have buttons to press.Rooks and Kings: I love their videos, but honestly "Message in a Bottle" isn't their greatest. What I really wish is that we'd see them breaking out with the next great thing - Pantheon, Pipebombing, ... do they still have the skills and creativity to make it a trifecta?
I get the grand vision Hilmar is looking for, but I'm not sure if joining Tranquility and Serenity is a good idea. Both have grown into their own communities, their own balance of economics, their own reality. There were some cool ideas tossed around on reddit for limited connections via wormholes that certainly would be a nice way to slowly bring the two together. In the end the barrier to making this happen is more of a political thing than a gameplay thing of course.
I had to chuckle at the Eve Valkyrie "Carrier Assault" video. When will ship designers stop putting their main reactors right near open bays where people can blow them up? I'm sure the lore experts will jump in and the idea of the "recovering tech" that is referenced in this scenario.
Project Arena: the overlay of the video footage and the VR rendering really helps sell that concept. Obviously very Tron-like here. I really like this as the next-level after the Wii first came in and got so many people up and "bowling" into their television across the room.
Project Nova: the successor to Dust 514 on the PC using a free-to-play model. I'll be curious to see what the Fanfest goers report on this. I'm not a FPS player really, but since Nova would be on the PC I could see giving it a try. My son might actually be more interested in this than I am, which could be very cool. "Dad, I need an orbital strike, now!" However, the o7-segment between the two sessions mentioned that Nova would focus on space locations more than just planetary settings, which is a nice nod towards the potential teaser with videos for some time. How long until we can deliver a troop carrier full of space marines to take on an opponent's Citadel, perhaps to be able to shut down modules or otherwise affect the ongoing space battle.
Eve Keynote
Overall I like how they slipped a bit of an RP feel into the Keynote segment, with the pirate broadcasts interrupting things and the references to Upwell and ORE as groups who are present and active in a real sense. There's a lot of "great stuff coming, but you'll have to wait" that points to things whose delivery date is out past the next Fanfest, but that's balanced by more immediate deliveries as well. But on to the subtopics...CCP Quant. It's all about pi in the chart porn. I'm looking forward to bloggers and podcasters like Eve-Prosper, Nosy Gamer, Eve-Fail, and marketsForISK tear into this. I love the teaser that the Palantine Citadel would require liquidation of 1/15th of all of the active assets in Eve today.
CSM Elections. Low turnout isn't a surprise, but it is disappointing to see. I'm sad that Apothne's real-life troubles kept him out, as I'm sure he would have been in. Given that Hyde got a permanent spot, chances are good that this would have been Apothne's to win. Will the Imperium folks be able to put their drama behind them enough to contribute constructively to the CSM? We'll see.
Frigates of Eve book. I gotta says that I was a bit disappointed at the end that the book is only frigates, but on the other hand that means they are going to be more comprehensive and in depth on just that class. Of course, it's a teaser of moving up through the ship hulls should the book be successful. Summer 2017 is a pretty long way away though.
Official Eve App for iPhone and Android. The big question is of course where this puts third-party apps like Neocom. I'm glad to hear that they do not expect this to be the only Eve app on your phone.
Industrial Arrays: That teaser video was hilariously good. Getting into it though, I love the idea of the owner of the industrial array can allow usage for a fee. This is something that I'm itching to be able to do right now, as I don't have quite enough time and toons to run a POS on my own. First blueprints not until this Fall though, so that means the actual release is Winter or so. I'm not so thrilled at how far out this is though. Drilling Arrays in Winter is the next step, but not as sexy for me. The promise of beginning the full replacement of POS with Citadels by next Fanfest is a big one. Mining changes aren't quite my thing, but I'm glad to see that the Rorqual owners finally the rework, though I see there are already people whining on reddit that it will be unworkable.
Faction Titans and "Shadow of the Serpent". You know that Larriken was just waiting to be able to say "mere run of the mill Erebus." I'm curious about how this event will work, along with the whole idea of rat caps and supers.
CCP Ghost and new player retention. This is very much a promise of direction rather than anything big, other than some nice phrases like "suffering from the weight of its own awesomeness." I agree that Empire space is a logical starting point with a lot of material already in place, but I do still wish they were ready to add the idea of the pirate factions as a starting point.
And the Eve Fanfest Trailer for 2016. This really should be titled "Build Your Dreams / Wreck Their Dreams." I can't imagine that you're reading this blog and you haven't seen it, but there's the link to watch it gain.
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