On June 10 CCP announced their new Destroyer Pack, with a focus on the items one may need to “dominate the battlefields of New Eden” in their chosen destroyer. Reactions to the contents of this pack appear mixed thus far. Regardless, for the price of $24.99 the one-time per account Destroyer Pack provides the following to your account:
- 500,000 Skill Points.
- 110 PLEX.
- Catalyst Sapphire Sungrazer SKIN.
- Cormorant Ghostbird SKIN.
- Coercer Ardishapur SKIN.
- Talwar Valklear Glory SKIN.
- 100 x Cap Booster 150.
- 6 x Agency ‘Pyrolancea’ DB3 Dose I Booster.
- Eifyr and Co. ‘Rogue’ Acceleration Control AC-601 Implant.
The Points and the PLEX
As we see from other CCP offerings and in-game / log-in rewards, skill points are becoming a standard reward for Eve Online. One Facebook commenter from the Eve Online page states, “More offers to buy SP, further penalizing long standing players.” Several other comments disagree with the commenter’s point. If we translate skill points into time spent, those who have been training experience will see a de-valuing of their time spent. However, the direct influx of skill points can also benefit veterans, who receive diminishing returns for skill injections. Further, offering skill points allows newer players to increase skills more quickly, allowing them to truly join the wider game.
At this point there seems to be no discussion regarding the PLEX offering. The CCP store’s offering of PLEX may make the inclusion of PLEX less controversial. CCP does explicitly state that the PLEX can be used to sell for ISK on the in-game market. As the pack does not come with a destroyer hull or modules, one may wish to invest in some destroyer class ships and their fits with the potential ISK gained.
The Skins
It is difficult to assess the value of ship SKINs to capsuleers. Perceived value of the items depends on the rarity and on individual senses of aesthetics. At the time of writing, the four SKINs would run between 90 million and 300 million ISK to purchase via the in-game market. Unfortunately, I cannot predict the reader’s taste in aesthetics for this portion of the pack.
The Odds and Ends
One Facebook commenter writes, “Why does this pack have cap boosters. WTF is going on?” It is not an uncommon reaction among other capsuleers, and may have the potential to turn into a great meme. A quick perusal through the in-game community fittings for destroyers reveals exactly two fits which use cap boosters to supplement ship capacitor levels (one Coercer and one Catalyst), though one could always build their own fit to make use of these boosters. It may be that in a search for items they could add to a pack, CCP chose to add a consumable item as a solution in lieu of adding something like a destroyer hull or module.
The Agency “Pyrolancea” DB3 Dose I Boosters may be quite similar in scope to the cap boosters. They are consumable items which are also at the lower spectrum of boosters available. The offered Dose I provides a 3% buff to turret and missile damage for 30 minutes. Other levels of this booster available in game provide 5%, 7% or 9% of the same bonus. Ultimately, this seems to avoid some of the pay-to-win controversy, as considerably better buffs are available in-game.
I am unsure how to classify the Acceleration Control AC-601 Implant offered in this pack. The implant provides a 1% bonus to afterburner and microwarpdrive speed. The implant is easily lost, and has more powerful versions available on the in-game market. Further, the implant could mess with the market demand for that same item, perhaps far into the future. After all, it’s possible that it will not be lost or otherwise consumed any time soon.
Overall
This Destroyer Pack is a typical run-of-the-mill pack offered by CCP. There are items people question and items they do not. Individual capsuleers should look over the pack to see if it’s right for them, and how greatly they value the offered items. SKIN collectors, for example, might purchase the pack just for those SKINs.
