Intermission

December 4th is almost here!

I got a chance to test quite a few Retribution things out on Buckingham this past weekend.
Crime Watch is going to be pretty cool, I think, though I hope there’s a way to turn off the funky timer noises. (It beeps at you when your flags are almost up.)

The visibility of the flags are awesome. I love that I can see exactly where I stand on everything, without mouse hovering, turning on various things, or just using trial and error –which is how it used to be. While I don’t think it will prevent the Amarr from spamming their dock/jump buttons in terror when the Minmatar come to call, it will now show them exactly how long they have to tank before they can successfully run away. Unless, of course, Braitai is awaiting their arrival on the other side of the gate in his malediction. Then, all bets are off.



I was taken a little by surprise by the new locking graphics: what was straight is now curvy. What was square is now round. What was on the side is now on the bottom…

At first, I hated it. Mostly because it was different and I hate change. But, I forgot it was even different after about 30 seconds (I started to enter Hans Jagerblitzen’s armor on the test server and was relishing the idea of exploding him...) So, I give it a thumbs up as well. I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s ‘weird’ at first, but once you get used to it you forget how things were in the past…like the fitting screen. Who even thinks about the old fitting screen anymore?

The new Bounty system is very interesting. Especially the ‘top bounty hunter’ parts. Just what members of my alliance need –another goal through which to boost their already moderately expanded egos.
It would be interesting if they expanded the ‘locater agent’ functionality somehow to more directly be used with this bounty hunter functionality.

Maybe they could make more generic locator agents that you can use based on standings you gain through bounty hunting –basically, the more you do and the better you become, the better your resources become. Just a thought.

Probably one of the first things I will do is put a bounty on my alliance. Come and hunt us people!



I didn’t get the chance to try out the new destroyers. I was informed that the new destroyers are an extended feature of Faction War. Apparently, if you use them outside the warzone, they malfunction or something.*
I did, however, try out the new Stabber Fleet Issue. It looks like a giant green poop. Some of the other new ship models look interesting but the Stabbler Fleet Issue…well, it looks like a giant green poop….

Anyway, there’s a ton of other stuff coming, but I had Amarrians to kill on the main server, and market orders to update to continue my regime of ripping people off through overpriced goods that they complain heartily about but buy anyway because on a scale of one to ten their laziness is about a fifteen, so those were the only things I had time to look at.

I’ll be on vacation for a while, but when I get back next week, I’ll hopefully have some time to load up Buckingham again and start digging some more.



Oh, and by the way—there’s something weird going on with notifications on the test server. Be careful what buttons you push or you’ll have these random windows permanently plastered on your client screen that says “Enter text here….” Obviously it’s a work in progress…..of some sort?

*I have to say ‘not really’ here because some people are dumb enough to believe that….