Today, CCP released the patch notes for the upcoming Parallax patch, which is scheduled for deployment during the downtime on November 3. We have provided the full patch notes on Page 2.
The patch brings a variety of new changes to EVE Online, ranging from audio/visual tweaks and additional skins, to changes in fleet and sovereignty mechanics, along with other miscellaneous gameplay changes. Parallax is full of little changes, but there are a few major highlights to look at below.
HYPERDUNKING
Probably the most noteworthy change is the end of high-security hyperdunking, which is the act of reshipping from a Bowhead after being fired on by CONCORD. To quote the patch notes: “A character with a criminal flag in a high-sec system is no longer able to board/switch ships whilst in space.” Even though the tactic was only used on a routine basis by a few people, and may slightly affect a couple hundred people that dabbled in it on occasion, this change is sure to affect many and will surely alter the dynamics of high security logistics.
WING COMMANDERS TO RECEIVE FLEET BONUSES
What some are heralding as the most important tweak in the patch is that the wing commander of a fleet will now receive fleet bonuses from the fleet booster. Asher Elias, Fleet Commander of the Imperium weighed in on this change, saying “What makes that important is that right now you generally run resist (armor or shield) bonuses in the fleet slot and skirmish (speed and sig) bonuses in the wing commander slot, so if you’re using an on-grid booster in the wing commander spot then he won’t get those resist bonuses which makes him significantly easier to kill. And if you lose your wing bonuses you’re in big trouble. So right now it was just another reason people were running T3 cruiser off-grid boosters.”
SOV AND DIRECTOR ROLES
Some tweaks to fozzie sov mechanics are coming with Parallax. A new Entosis-related behavior will be added to Outposts, Infrastructure Hubs, Territorial Claim Units, Station Services, and Command nodes, called Defensive Regeneration. “These sovereignty items will now automatically recapture themselves in the defender’s favor if there are no active Entosis links targeted on them. The rate of regeneration is unaffected by the Activity Defense Modifier or any other variable, and is fixed for each different type of structure.”
Corporation directors are to receive new capabilities, including new creative ways to turncoat. Directors will now be able to manually offline Strategic Infrastructure Upgrades on an IHUB. When this happens, any dependent starbase structure will offline immediately. Also TCUs and IHUBs will be able to be self-destructed by directors in the owner corporation. “The self destruct countdown will take 20 minutes to complete. Directors and CEOs in the owner corporation are able to cancel the countdown.” Corporation leaders, this may be a good time to do a roles audit.
THE JUKEBOX
In a surprise move, the original 2003 EVE Jukebox will be reintroduced should players reactivate it via a checkbox in the audio menu. Although this feature was removed from the game some time ago, the songs were always available on the EVE soundcloud. Nevertheless, the feature was missed by the community, and many will be happy to see its reintroduction.
CAMERA BOB, RAATA SUNSET SKINS, PROBING, AND D-SCAN
In the visual department, a new camera bobbing feature will be available via checkbox that will induce a slight sway in the camera when the client has gone idle. Raata Sunset skins for most T1 Amarr ships are to be introduced, and will be available in bundle formats like other skins before. Finally, a whole new probe and d-scan interface is to be released which will completely revamp this window, the specifics of which are found in the patch notes. Video of this new feature is available, based on the Singularity server.
KILL MARKS
Although kill marks will not be formally released in this patch, ships used will begin to tally the kills accrued with the respective ship hulls. Please see this YouTube video if you are not familiar with this soon to be released feature.
SCOOPING TO FLEET HANGAR
Possibly seen as a minor change, pilots will soon be able to scoop items from space directly into the fleet hangar of capable vessels.
CREST LINKS AND KILL REPORTS
Kill reports will now be tracked more precise in space and time. They will now be tracked to the second, rather than the minute, and be positioned in coordinate space. “Killmail coordinates are exposed via the keys ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’ via ‘position’ in the ‘victim’ dictionary. The ‘position’ key is not present for killmails that occurred prior to Parallax.” These new features should allow for more interesting battle reports moving forward.
Parallax is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, November 3. Continue onto Page 2 for the raw patch notes.
FEATURES & CHANGES :
Audio:
Added a a jukebox feature (a checkbox) in the audio menu to allow players to opt out of the dynamic music system and just play the old jukebox playlist that came out with the game in 2003.
Published a new theme song for Parallax.
Graphics:
The graphics settings menu now offers a ‘Camera Bobbing’ option, this will toggle whether or not the camera will perform a gentle animation when left idle.
Miscellaneous:
The server is now counting PVP kills for each ship item, in preparation for the forthcoming ‘Kill marks’ feature. The marks won’t show up on ships yet, but once they do all these kills will give you a head-start. The clock is ticking, and as of now, we are keeping score! See this dev-blog for more details.
The wing commander of a fleet receives now fleet bonuses from the fleet booster.
Fleet bonuses from the skills Leadership, Skirmish Warfare, and Information Warfare are now stacking penalized together with bonuses from other sources like modules. Attention: This change only impacts the targeting speed bonus from the Leadership skill, the agility bonus from the Skirmish Warfare skill, and targeting range bonus from the Information Warfare skill. The bonuses provided by the warfare link moduleshave not changed.
Ships:
Any item that is scoopable can now also be scooped to a ships fleet hangar using the right click menu.
A character with a criminal flag in a high-sec system is no longer able to board/switch ships whilst in space.
SKINs:
Added new SKINs for most T1 Amarr ships. The following new SKINs and associated bundles are now available from the Raata Sunset line:
Crucifier Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Executioner Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Inquisitor Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Magnate Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Punisher Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Tormentor Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Retribution Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Vengeance Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Anathema Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Purifier Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Sentinel Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Crusader Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Malediction Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Coercer Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Dragoon Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Heretic Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Arbitrator Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Augoror Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Maller Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Omen Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Sacrilege Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Zealot Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Devoter Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Guardian Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Curse Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Pilgrim Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Harbinger Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Oracle Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Prophecy Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Absolution Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Damnation Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Abaddon Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Apocalypse Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Armageddon Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Redeemer Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Paladin Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Revelation Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Archon Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Aeon Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Avatar Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Bestower Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Sigil Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Prorator Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Impel Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Providence Raata Sunset SKIN (Permanent)
Structures & Deployables:
Outposts, Infrastructure Hubs, Territorial Claim Units, Station Services (if not disabled), and Command Nodes now have a new behavior related to the Entosis mechanic: Defensive Regeneration. These items will now slowly automatically capture themselves in the defender’s favor if there are no active Entosis links targeted on them. The rate of regeneration is unaffected by the Activity Defense Modifier or any other variable, and is fixed for each different type of structure. The regeneration time for each type of structure is shown in the type’s window.
Strategic Infrastructure Upgrades that are installed in an Infrastructure Hub may now be manually offlined by a character with Director roles in the owning corp. When an upgrade module is offlined, any dependent starbase structures will immediately be offlined, and cannot be re-onlined until the necessary IHub upgrade itself is put back online again. Any upgrade that is offline will not contribute towards the IHub’s weekly bill. When a character installs a new upgrade or onlines an existing upgrade, he must pay an upfront fee equal to the weekly bill for that upgrade. Installing/Onlining upgrades requires the Station Manager role.
Additionally, the weekly bill based on the current upgrade status is now visible in the IHub Manager window. This display will update in real time as upgrades are installed/onlined/offlined. See dev-blog for more details: http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/sovereignty-jump-fatigue-reductions-and-more-in-parallax-on-november-3/
TCUs and IHubs can now be self destructed by directors in the owner corporation. The self destruct countdown will take 20 minutes to complete. Directors and CEOs in the owner corporation are able to cancel the countdown.
Technical:
Brain in a Box and Dogma Rewrite: Performance optimization (mostly for fleet jumps and for Jita) and code refactoring of core systems of the EVE codebase. This includes a full code rewrite of skill training, fleet bonuses and the heat system – but without any functional changes. This change enables possibilities for further performance improvements and game design changes. More details about this will be available soon in a Dev Blog.
User Interface:
The Route Info Panel will now more accurately represent the distance to waypoints when in a wormhole system. Adding a single waypoint will display as “Unknown Jumps”, whereas multiple waypoints will display as “X+ jumps”, giving the distance between the waypoints as X.
Changed the icon for the Pilot’s License Extension item.
Added a refresh button to the Sovereignty tab of the Corporation window, to allow the data to be refreshed without closing the window.
Added ‘Jump’ option to right click menu when clicking a saved location that is a stargate, in the People & Places window.
Clicking any notification regarding corp applications will now open the recruitment tab of the corporation window.
Crystal Damage now shows as % in tooltips.
A success message is now displayed after sending a bug report, which contains the ID of the sent bug report.
New Probe and Directional Scanning Interfaces (Added as Beta feature default ON):
Probe Scanner window
Hotkey for Analyze, mappable via the Shortcuts tab in the System menu (ESC), also possible to use RETURN key while the window has focus
Moved Destroy Probes button away from Recall Probes button
Moved Recall Probes button away from Analyze button
Added hotkeys to Filter options. 1-5 keys now allow you to show/hide types on the fly while window has focus
Probe section of window has been made collapsible and resizable
Resizing scan range can be modified by ALT-MOUSEWHEEL
Spread probes formation be modified by CTRL-MOUSEWHEEL
Uses new standalone solarsystem view, accessible through the window or command with F9 as default mapping
New shortcut command to In/Decrease scan range. No default mapping.
Fixed issue where probes moved far out of scope when moving plane was close to being parallel to the view angle of the camera
Overall UI cleanup
Directional Scanner
Hotkey to Scan, mappable via the Shortcuts tab in the System menu (ESC)
Uses new standalone solarsystem view to visualize the scan.
Directional Scan option in radial menu in system view to automatically align the scan angle
Option to align the solarsystem view to the space camera
Overall UI cleanup
FIXES :
Gameplay:
Fixed an issue where Supercapital Ship Assembly Arrays wouldn’t go offline when their system’s Infrastructure hub was destroyed.
Drones may now agress freight containers if directed to do so, following all the normal legal restrictions and capsuleer safety settings.
Corps and Alliances:
When an application to join a corporation is rejected, the rejection text is now visible to both parties in the Recruitment section of the Corporation window.
Fixed an issue where an Outpost that is in Freeport mode would sometimes prevent a corporation from renting an office, due to running incorrect standings checks. Whilst an Outpost is in Freeport mode, all corporations will now be able to rent an office (subject to capacity) regardless of standings.
Graphics:
Corrected a rendering issue in the ship fitting window
Fixed shading inheritance on Large POS batteries.
Improved the display of the turrets on the Mobile Tractor Unit.
Adjusted the placement of a sprite on Claw hull
PvE:
Multiple grammatical errors in mission texts have been fixed.
User Interface:
Kill report timestamps are now recorded with precision up to the second instead of to the minute.
You now get a clearer message on what happens when you’re changing default sovereignty vulnerability time, when there’s already a pending change.
The applications tabs in the corporation window now have a hint saying you have no ads when that applies.
Corporate divisions with long names will now be handled gracefully by the member details window.
Automatic Pay Settings for corporate bills will now display alphabetically for all pilots.
The amount of shares shown in the Show Info window of a corporation now includes the initial shares.
You no longer see the menu option to configure POCOs when you don’t have the roles to do so.
Fixed an issue where show info windows for medals would be blank.
Fixed an issue the would cause “Lock Blueprints” vote to appear as empty.
Warp Scrambler descriptions have been updated to include their effect on Micro Jump Drives.
Description of Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump II has been fixed.
Fixed typo in description of Covert Ops skill.
When an application to join a corporation is rejected, the rejection text is now visible to both parties in the Recruitment section of the Corporation UI
Fixed typo in description of “Minmatar Graduation Certificate (signed)”.
Fixed typo in fighter certificate description.
Fixed formatting issue in description of multiple pirate implants.
Fixed typo in ‘Infrastructure hub reinforced’ notification.
Changed name from “Thermic” to “Thermal” in all names and descriptions for consistency with damage name.
The descriptions of all adaptive nano platings have been updated to more accurately indicate their function.
Fixed missing icon in ‘Clone Contract Revoked’ notification.
Fixed an issue resulting in aura opportunities window being blank.
Fixed tooltips in old and new map when using the ‘Recent Sovereignty Changes’ filter.
Fixed an issue where having a route selected when in wormhole space would cause the World Map Control Panel to not appear in the old map.
Improved messaging when aborting ship self-destruct so that it is less ambiguous.
Fixed a grammatical error in the message received when attempting to overload modules without the Thermodynamics skill.
Fixed sovereignty info panels sometimes not updating correctly when structures change states.
Fixed several minor grammatical errors in the tooltips for certificates.
Corrected capitalization of ‘To’ column header in the Contracts window.
The eye icon next to saved location folders will now always persist between logins.
Fixed an issue that would break the contract window when creating a courier contract containing saved location vouchers.
Fixed an issue where the sovereignty info panel was not updating correctly when structures command nodes begin to decloak.
The tournament ship banning window now only lists ships that are allowed by tournament rules
THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS:
XML API:
Killmail coordinates are exposed via the ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’ attributes within the ‘victim’ element. Their values default to 0.0 for killmails that occurred prior to Parallax.
Cartesian space coordinates of the victim’s vessel in killmails are now recorded and exposed via the XML API and CREST.
CREST API:
Killmail coordinates are exposed via the keys ‘x’, ‘y’, and ‘z’ via ‘position’ in the ‘victim’ dictionary. The ‘position’ key is not present for killmails that occurred prior to Parallax.
The fitting resource is now exposed and available for GET, POST, and DELETE requests. You will need to request the charactersFittingsRead and/or charactersFittingsWrite scopes to use it.
