Incarna's Impact

  It seems that in the time from my last post, hardly much time at all, Incarna has made splash after splash. In the end I had to re-download my entire client, find my preferences folder and replace it with my old one since they moved its location. That was fun. But, I was able to get in and have my own glances over the new shinies.

  So where to start? We'll go with impressions and pictures first. While it is a bit of a nuisance to wait for your person to load just at docking, I don't think it takes too long after the initial time. You can also click a setting to take off the requirement of walking around all together if you really feel it is necessary. I do not. I enjoy it as I had hoped I would ad I find that even just walking in a limited space for now is infinitely better than spinning a ship in circles repetitively. The interfaces are pretty neat too.

The new digs. Click for bigness.

  On the left in that picture is your corp windown, then all the news and whatnot in the center with PI on the right. The table holds your ship model and an agent finder. That finder is pretty cool, since I was always tired of having to go to standing, find the corp, find the agents and then try to figure out who is where. This is quite handy and much appreciated by this capsuleer. 

The new agent finder. Click for bigness.

Chillin' on the couch catchin' up. Click for bigness.

  

  And of course, now your ship looks a little more impressive and, while some feel otherwise, I feel a bit more scale from the models. 

Loving that Legion view. Click for bigness.

  While this may only be a 20 minute distraction right now, keep in mind that many things are now able to build on this and there is plenty of content to come. I do find it a bit ridiculous that after 5 or so years, this is the most they can give us, but it is what it is. 

  Other changes came in the form of turret redesigns. It is something that is small, but sweet and just adds more to the game in details. New players might be able to appreciate is more than the bittervets, but even so it's another tool for immersion. And scouting, since now you can match high slots to actual turrent positions. So win, win. \o/

  An unexpected change, at least for me, was the probing change. All probes that you use are able to contribute to the strength of a signature, meaning you could get a warpable hit with just three probes. It also makes full Astrometrics skill viable and worth training.  Eve-O has a thread going on this if you want to follow along.

  The change to jump bridges was finally implemented. This means that no system can have more than one jump bridge and networks are going to be a bit different from now on. This change was delayed, but now that it is in game it seems there are reports of more sub cap fleets fighting for sov and not supercap hotdrops. This is good news for many.

  Then, after all the fun of patching and breaking and shinies, came the storm. Aurum prices were found to be a bit ridiculous and the (in)famous example being the monocle. This thread is one giant troll, which can be funny but a bit stupid at the same time. Also..how is it so hard to spell monocle right? Oh, :internet:. It cost over a billion in conversion just to buy a completely useless and frankly ugly pixelized piece for your avatar. It is the definition of waste. But people can do it, so they will. For that $60, you might as well get a real one though.  

  Not all were receptive to this new business model, however. Pandemic Legion has gone beyond just talking and is now implementing a policy of kicking anyone who finds it necessary to waste resources in such a way and not allowing anyone to be recruited that has history of dealing in these MTs. They are reported to be in talks with other alliances to push this initiative further and give the middle finger to CCP. Eve does have quite a unique community and when they are motivated, you may want to watch out. 

  But the MT drama hardly stopped there. Rumors started flying about a leaked document from CCP internals, later given credit by Massively. The leak was an internal newsletter that talked about taking micro-transactions further and making non-vanity items available, a move that would anger much of the player base. However, in the original leak a second page was not shown that held a disclaimer stating all of that information to be opinions and not policy. So, do not go throwing Molotovs into CCP buildings just yet. 

  It seems this expansion, with all the anticipation, hate, tears, and praises, has been quite the event this summer. And here I thought it was going to be another slow summer for Eve Online. Silly me.

  What are your thoughts and impressions?

-Mem