An Update…

So, getting back to Eve. Had a great couple weekends moving, seeing the girlfriend and generally being a real life person. It seems my co-directors did the same, but have largely not yet returned. :smith:

EMP is now deployed off and away to Assah, a very popular system in Derelik. Sounds familiar to me, as just some number of weeks ago, I tried to stage a deployment to Nakah (next door), but people were generally lazy and unwilling to pack their things and move. With a little ass-kicking from the Alliance CEO and a “mandatory” tag added to the deployment, we are effectually doing what I dreamed of doing twice (the first time being when I was in TEST a few months ago).

On the SC00P front, we are still largely recruiting and pulling in refugees from TEST – specifically those who want the nullsec experience and are not interested in Faction Warfare. 

On Rubicon…

I’m not going to pretend I’m not excited for Rubicon. Mobile Cyno Jammers, gimmicky Battleships that are still overpriced (BUT THEY TRANSFORM!), a new faction are all great, but let’s talk about warp speed changes and Interceptor/Interdictor balances, both of which have been needed for some time. A couple questions immediately come to mind:

• Will Interceptors have a larger role in gang/fleet combat than simply as faster perch burners/scouts?
• Will Interdictors be able to stand their ground and fight frigates, as the Tech 1 hull is allegedly supposed to be able to?

But what does it mean?

I imagine corps and alliances will want to start specializing newbros to smaller frigates for support roles rather than pointing them to medium/large ships right away. It’s a quick train, gives time to train support skills and teaches new players to effectively pilot their ships (rather than just F1-monkeying). It’s engaging and gives newbros a real purpose – the goal of every newbro-friendly alliance.

I’m already putting together a new skillpack that I’ll distribute to newbros. It involves a lot of fitting and support skills, Frigate 5, Destroyer 5 and other goodies.

Stay tuned for more.