The Honeymoon Is Over!

Soon after the fight in B-R5RB the various reports of the battles scale caused a large spike in new pilot numbers across New Eden.

Now that boost has finally faded away, in fact new pilots are joining at a reduced rate now compared to just before the fight.  It's possible the amount of new pilots were, in part at least, populated by people who had an interest in this type of game in the first place, and now we have to wait for that pool of people to repopulate, hence the reduced numbers.  Another theory is the actual game of Eve Online is quite different to the description in the many news reports, and CCP promotional videos, and now quite a few ex new pilots are spreading the word of this deception.

We may never know.

However we have some graphs!

The first arrow shows the massive boost of new pilots after the B-R5RB battle.  The second arrow shows where we are now, below the new pilot numbers from before this latest public relations coup for CCP.  To the very left of that graph is another new user spike from a previous unknown incident, or even an expansion update as that can sometimes excite the creation of new pilots.

The upcoming Fanfest usually generates some new and exciting videos showing the Eve Universe as CCP wishes it was, and this can generate some buzz, and therefore another boost to new pilot numbers.

The roller coaster continues!

Rubicon 1.3 Patch Notes!

Distraction!

Yes I know, quite a bit of copy and paste search engine whoring here.

The patch night is a Wednesday, not the usual Tuesday, but we will still get boned by the extended down time.

Proper link is here > http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-rubicon-1.3

Patch notes for EVE Online: Rubicon 1.310.03.2014 15:09

Patch notes for EVE Online: Rubicon 1.3
Released on Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
CHANGES

Art & Graphic
Lighting model updated to use linear calculations for ships. This first pass of Linear Lighting increases the texture fidelity improving the richness of color and gives the graphics team much more control for future improvements. We'd like to emphasize that this first implementation of linear lighting and the first step in overhauling our lighting system. More information is available here.
The Tristan T1 hull now sports a modern design that reflects its Nemesis T2 counterpart and uses new warp-induced animations.
Asteroids are now using latest shaders and are simplified for both performance and visual quality.
All Sovereignty units are now renovated and using the latest shaders. There have been various bug fixes for the Sovereignty Territorial Claim Unit which ensures the correct visual state is represented depending on the sovereignty status.
The background images in the Character Creator have been converted into a different file format. This decreases the image file size without losing image quality.
The format for 3D meshes has now been upgraded to the latest version. All mesh files have been converted and will impact the patch size.

Drone Assist
Capped the number of drones that can be assigned to a single character at 50.
Note: this cap ignores drones owned by the asignee

German Localization
“Hardpoint” is now consistently translated as “Montageplatz” in German.
“Warp core strength” is now consistently translated as “Warpkernstärke” in German.
“AU” (astronomical unit) is now consistently translated as “AE” in German.
“Wormhole space” is now consistently translated as “Wurmlochraum” in German.
“Frontal lobe” is now consistently translated as “Frontallappen” in German.

In-Game Browser
When clicking a button in the client to buy a PLEX or enter account management that requires secure.eveonline.com, the system browser will be used instead of the In-Game Browser. (Includes actions in the character selection screen, the NEX store and the PLEX show-info window)

Items
New Hull Maintenance Bots have been added to the game in Light, Medium and Heavy sizes and both T1 and T2 variants. Blueprints for the Tech One Hull Maintenance Bots can be obtained at CreoDron stations.
Two new improved variants of the Mobile Tractor Unit structure have been added. They are known as the ‘Packrat’ Mobile Tractor Unit and the ‘Magpie’ Mobile Tractor Unit and blueprints to manufacture them can be found in Ghost Sites.
Four new cosmetic variants of existing ships have been made available in the NEX store. These ships require their completed base hull to build and have no increase in power. They can be purchased using AUR from the NEX store or using ISK from the market. For more information please see this dev blog.
Punisher Kador Edition
Merlin Nugoeihuvi Edition
Rifter Krusual Edition
Incursus Aliastra Edition
Abaddon Kador Edition
Rokh Nugoeihuvi Edition
Maelstrom Krusual Edition
Hyperion Aliastra Edition
The Police Pursuit Comet has been added to the CONCORD LP store. It is a cosmetic variant of the Federation Navy Comet and has exactly the same stats as the standard Federation Navy Comet frigate.

Miscellaneous
All data on Jovian vessels suddenly disappear from capsuleer ship databases; conspiracy theorists go wild, until a CONCORD official explains they just decided to archive the information due to a lack of recent sightings.

Russian Localization
Various strings in the Neocom and Station Services were updated.

Ships and Modules
The Remote Sensor Dampener Optimal Range and Falloff bonus on the Celestis cruiser has been reduced to 7.5% per level.
The optimal range of all Remote Sensor Dampeners has been reduced by 16.66%.
A series of balance changes to several Tech One Frigates and Cruisers have been made. The changes can be found below:
PUNISHER:
+2 PWG
+3 CPU
-20s Cap Recharge Time
+25 m/s velocity
+143000 mass
-0.45 inertia
+1 sensor strength

KESTREL:
+5 m/s velocity
-50000 mass

RIFTER:
Removed +7.5% Small Projectile Turret tracking bonus per level
Added +10% Small Projectile Turret falloff bonus per level
+10 m/s velocity
+0.01 inertia

BREACHER:
Removed +5% missile damage bonus per level
Added -5% missile RoF bonus per level
+2 PWG
+10 m/s velocity
+0.02 inertia

INQUISITOR:
+50 Capacitor
+25s Cap Recharge Time
+95 m/s velocity
-0.05 inertia
+160000 mass

BANTAM:
+30 Capacitor
+15s Cap Recharge Time
+70 m/s velocity
+0.35 inertia

NAVITAS:
+35 Capacitor
+17.5s Cap Recharge Time
+80 m/s velocity
+0.35 inertia

BURST:
+30 Capacitor
+15s Cap Recharge Time
+80 m/s velocity
+0.35 inertia

AUGOROR:
+25 m/s velocity
-0.12 inertia
+2140000 mass

OSPREY:
+10 m/s
+0.02 inertia
-130000 mass

MALLER:
+10 m/s velocity
-0.044 inertia
+1100000 mass

MOA:
+200 shields
-100 hull
+50 capacitor
+15s cap recharge time
-220000 mass

VEXOR:
-10 m/s velocity
+0.03 inertia
-210000 mass

OMEN:
+25 m/s velocity
-0.08 inertia
+1950000 mass

CARACAL:
+0.01 inertia

Skills
The effectiveness of the Corporation Management, Empire Control, Megacorp Management and Sovereignty skills have been doubled. Corporation CEOs will need to reapply their skills in the corporation management interface for the changes to take effect. The new bonuses are:
Corporation Management: +20 corporation members allowed per level
Empire Control: +100 corporation members allowed per level
Megacorp Management: +400 corporation members allowed per level
Sovereignty: +2000 corporation members allowed per level
The Repair Drone Operation skill and Drone Repair Augmentor rigs now increase the Hull repair rate of Hull Maintenance Bots in addition to the bonuses they provide to Armor and Shield logistic drones.

The Sisters of EVE
Sisters of EVE LP stores now offer Astero, Stratios and Nestor BPCs in exchange for new Rogue Drone Nexus chips:
Rogue Drone 46-X Nexus Chip for Astero blueprint
Rogue Drone 43-X Nexus Chip for Stratios blueprint
Rogue Drone 42-X Nexus Chip for Nestor blueprint
These new Nexus chips have a chance to drop from ‘Sentient’ Rogue Drones, which can be found in Rogue Drone cosmic anomalies or asteroid belts in Drone controlled regions
The Nestor has received a small set of balance changes:
Capacitor raised to 7000 (was 6200)
Capacitor recharge time lowered to 1025s (was 1154s)
Scan resolution increased to 125 (was 85)
Role bonus to range of remote armor repairers raised to 200% (was 100%)

User Interface
The Direction scanners user experience has been improved. The single field range input has been replaced by two input fields, one for km and one for AU, and a range slider. Those three input widgets are interconnected and will update when one changes. The scan angle slider has been modified to be easier to use.
Filtering and highlighting of words in chat is now possible by setting up a list of word in a setting window opened from a chat channel window. Those settings are stored on the server.
The capacity of the bays of your current ship is now displayed in a bar in the Show Info window.
The "Fitting" tab in the Show Info window has been given a bit of a facelift, and will list the fitting of your current ship or ships in your personal station hangars.
The settings for the Notification section of Evemail have been changed to allow you to have different blinking and pop-up settings for each of the Notification groups. Those settings will be stored on the server.
A new Notification group, Insurance, has been added.
A configurable shortcut to toggle between “custom” and “center“ camera tracking modes has been added.
A configurable shortcut to enable “custom“ camera tracking mode has been added, as well as a shortcut to enable “center“ camera tracking mode.
The “Consume“ right-click option for drugs has been moved towards the top of the menu.
Additional right click options are now available for celestials in the Orbital Bodies tab of the System Show info window.
You are now able to open multiple Kill Reports by holding down the shift key when clicking, just like you can do with Show Info windows and Saved Fitting windows.
The station guest list now comes with a counter for the number of people currently docked.
The station guest list can now has a compact member list icon, that only displays the standings icon and name of the player.
The station guest list now comes with a searchable filter for docked guests, which filters the list the moment you start typing.
You can now drag modules from kill reports to the compare tool, chat and other places.
Further details are available in a dev blog here.
FIXES

Blueprints and Manufacturing
The Gnosis now requires one unit of Tritanium to build instead of materializing out of thin air.

German Localization
Various consistency issues in the German translation were fixed.

Graphics
A texture was adjusted to reenable missile smoke trails.
Corrected occlusion issues causing stations to be visible through moons.
Fixed missing textures on certain dungeon stations
Isolated the Mobile Micro Jump Unit effect to activating ships only.
Modified the jumpgate transition to eliminate distorted fisheye camera effects after jumpgate travel.
Reinstated exhaust flame effects on the Rorqual.
The Purifier shows now the correct Viziam logo.

Miscellaneous
Fix for an issue where a stationary wreck that had previously been moved by a tractor beam could occasionally become impossible for some missiles to target.
Fixed an issue preventing station services from transferring/disabling properly.
Modified the Gallente Military Station to prevent ships from becoming stuck on undock.
Minor content fixes including spelling errors, object placement and mission completion triggers.
Corrected an issue giving medium-sized ships the potential to become stuck on Customs Offices.
Jump count in Incursion Global Report and for saved locations in People & Places now uses autopilot setting for calculations.

Missions and Complexes
The NPC will no longer attack you after you finished the mission: What's in a Name - Poke (3 of 5)
The Industry skill book has been added as a reward for completing the mission: Making Mountains out of Molehills (1 of 10).
The Industry skill book has been added as a reward for completing the mission: Balancing the Books (1 of 10).
A Civilian Miner module is provided at the beginning of the mission, and the misleading un-minable asteroids in the mission location have been replaced with less confusing objects in the mission: Balancing the Books (3 of 10)
The transport ship More Bark has been changed to a white cross hair transport ship in the mission: Fair Play (2 of 5).
Fixed an issue with too many Outposts being present in the level four variants of the mission: Intercept the Saboteurs.
De-spawning issues with Blood Den has been fixed.
The required mission-item was changed to "Angel Simple Trigger Mechanism" which is found in the complex in Traun for the mission: Information at a Cost.
Popups for drug production Radar sites now indicate more clearly their risk & potential rewards.
The static site "Ancient Amarr Tomb" was moved from it's moon location. This site can still be found using probes.

NPCS
The True Centus Preacher has often been found carrying blueprints for Bhaalgorn battleships. Sansha Kuvakei has personally ordered that the Preacher be reeducated to ensure that it only carries glorious Nightmare BPCs in the future.
Rogue Drone Officers have a higher drop rate on modules now and are guarantied to drop a 42-X Nexus Chip.
NPC AI has been enhanced to handle multiple targets in more robust way.

Ships and Modules
The bonus text on Scimitar and Oneiros now says "Remote Tracking Computer" instead of "Remote Sensor Booster".
Cloaked ships are no longer able to use the extended fitting range of a Mobile Depot to refit whilst still cloaked.
The velocity of Heavy Missiles is now properly affected by Bastion Module I.
Fixed descriptions of the Chimera, Wyvern, Thanathos, Nyx, Nidhoggur, Hel and Revenant to properly link the Capital Shield Emission System skill in their "traits" tab.
Fixed issue that caused some overheated tracking disruptors to affect target falloff range too strongly.
A ship that is invulnerable as it exits warp will be prevented from activating a Cynosural Field Generator until the warp invulnerability has cleared.

Skills
The "Required for" tab in the Show Info window for skills like Anchoring or Propulsion Jamming is now also listing structures like Control Towers or Mobile Warp Disruptors.

Tutorial
The CONCORD NPCs in the Advanced Warfare Tutorial Arc (9 of 10) - "Glue" were adjusted to not shoot the player if he bumped into their ships.

User Interface
On the star map, the list of station services shown in the solar system pop-ups sometimes did not correctly include 'Militia Office' as one of the available services. This has been fixed.

World Shaping
Added some missing Ore upgrade sites for certain null sec systems.
Changed names of two planets in 8S-0E1 as a part of a reward for a DUST 514 tournament:
Planet III becomes Eon Prime
Planet IV becomes Ancient Gliese

Wormholes
The aggression range of Sleeper NPC's has been adjusted in all wormhole sites.

Ship Painting Coming Soon! ...Possibly

Reavers!

So finally we may be able to soon, in the possible near to medium future, be able to paint add colour highlights to our ships via a manufacturing game mechanic.

Cool.

"Depending on the reception in Rubicon 1.3 and beyond, we can see more clearly where we stand before we start the ”Paint Shop” project with full force. Hence, the pilot program. (Pun intended? -Yos)

The pilot program began with the current, available code we have, so it isn’t going to be very representative of any possible final designs that would have more work put towards accessibility. The pilot program is also going to start small, with 9 pre-selected skins available in the first release and a gradual expansion from there. In the name of SCIENCE! we intend to collect as much feedback as possible about how this program is received. We intend to make small and measurable changes to get as much data, with as many variables as possible, to help inform our future decisions.

Our vision for the future of ship skinning includes skins available from many different sources, including some skins sold through Aurum and others available through purely in-game methods such as loyalty point stores. In the first release of the pilot program we will be introducing eight skins available for Aurum, and one available exclusively through in-game achievement."

URL:

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/ship-painting-pilot-program/

The Ultimate Goal!