Incursion 1.5

Incursion will be deployed on May 19th, which is tomorrow as I write this. A couple of big things in this one, which quite surprised me as I wasn’t even aware they were coming !

Blueprints

  • Unique icons have been created for Blueprint originals and Blueprint copies so you can visibly differentiate between them.

Wow, just wow. A change all industrialists have all been waiting for ! And for years CCP said that it couldn’t be done, because they couldn’t distinguish a copy from an original if I remember correctly. Finally that nonsense comes to an end and finally you can see if you’re dealing with a copy by just glancing at the icon instead of having to click on it and go to the appropriate tab etc..

Blue-Prints_2

Ships

  • The capabilities of the onboard scanner have been substantially increased. The range is now 64 AU and the delay to return results is only 10 seconds.
  • Ships with jumpdrives are now unable to use jump bridges with the exception of ships belonging to the Black Ops ship category.

Mixed response to this one. I don’t dwell in 0.0, nor do I use jump drives so it doesn’t effect me personally. I guess CCP thought traveling around was getting a bit too easy and toned it down. The onboard ship scanner will be improved as well. Nothing wrong with that I guess.

Agents & Missions

  • Agent Quality has been removed meaning that all Agents are now +20 in terms of payout and -20 in terms of access. Go forth, Capsuleers, and explore the world outside of Motsu and Dodixie.
  • Agent Divisions have been simplified from 20 down to just 3. The new Security, Distribution and Mining divisions now provide uniform types of missions instead of a mission type that was percentage based.

Ah another big one ! The very confusing Agent Divisions will be simplified and you actually know for sure you’ll get a combat, courier or mining mission. Very welcome change in my opinion. Also the quality system is basically removed. I guess putting them all to +20 was easier than just removing it. This will bring in somewhat more cash into the economy I guess, but will spread people out more, which can only be a positive thing. Although I am sure people will still sort of stick together as it’s easier to buy and sell your goods. But still, people will probably spread out. It will be interesting to see what will happen.

Furthermore the various connections skills will be removed as a consequence of the above. Only a few remain from what I read in the patch notes. The skill points for those that have already gotten the skills will be reimbursed.

Players who have the old skills already trained will have those skills removed and receive replacement skillbooks in the hangar of their home station and have the skillpoints reimbursed.

There are some more fixes and changes, but these are the really big ones. Some very welcome changes I think !

Links:

Apocrypha 1.1 Patchnotes

This is going live on April 16th ! Huge list of fixes and ‘enhancements’. The ECM change is coming as well. I am curious how that is going to work out.

Stealth Bombers are changed too :

  • Stealth Bombers have had their role refocused to be anti-battleship role. They now equip siege missile launchers and use torpedoes instead of cruise missiles which allow them to inflict large volley damage against big targets and gain the ability to equip a covert ops cloak so can warp around whilst cloaked. In addition bombs have been made cheaper and the bomb launcher can now be equipped in any of the bombers high slots along with other changes to aid them.
  • Stealth Bombers now gain a bonus to fitting siege missile launchers instead of cruise missile launchers.
  • Stealth Bombers can fit and use a covert ops cloak allowing them to warp whilst cloaked.
  • Stealth Bombers now have a 15% bonus to damage for racial torpedoes per covert ops skill.
  • Stealth Bombers now have a flight time and velocity bonus to torpedoes. The power grid and cpu fitting attributes have been adjusted for all Stealth Bombers.
  • The base velocity of Stealth Bombers has been increased.
  • Bomb launchers can now be fitted to any high slot on the bomber.

So stealth bomber become anti – battleship / battlecruiser. You’d need quite a few to take one down though ? I wonder if they’re going to be used more, to be honest I seriously doubt it.

There are a few sound fixes, but I don’t think that’s going to fix the real issue, which is that the entire sound system is seriously broken. I much prefer it, if they would just put the old sound engine back in. At least I could hear my mining lasers !

Patchnotes are here and the discussion thread is over here.

Update Oops, there is a fix to turrent sounds and the like:

Sound levels for turret fire, explosions, jumpgates and effects have had their levels adjusted and will be heard in all their glory.