Today’s EVE Online update is a juicy one for players who dip into the economic corner of the game, and let’s be honest, everyone who’s anyone in EVE surely does. The most contentious (and maybe the most interesting to drama-hunting non-players at least) is the release of the HyperNet Relay system, which on the surface seems like a neat new trade system that CCP says will “stimulate the economy.” But as we’ve previously covered, the system actually enables lotteries and raffles, which when combined with the way PLEX works in the game essentially means straight-up gambling.
Players rioted accordingly, and it doesn’t look as if much changed in the design between the announcement and now, so that’s fun. Interestingly, CCP has also released the minutes of the CSM 14 Summit where the studio ran the HyperNet Relay system by the player representatives – most of whom were extremely skeptical and echoed a lot of the same concerns the players did later – though CCP does argue that it has “flags in place” to stop gambling.
There’s a bit more to this update, of course, including the new wallet UI, which is superficially pretty but not being received overly well, and the “kicking over castles” tweaks, which are meant to stop structure timing abuse. I did see some excitement for the trade window scam fix over on Reddit, so there’s that.
Stuck at work and can’t log in to check it out? We’ve got some spreadsheets for you to poke around in instead, courtesy of the November economic report. That is kinda like playing EVE, right?
Today we celebrate the arrival of our December release, Free Market, bringing exciting new features and updates to EVE Online!
Including;
– New Wallet UI
– Hypernet Relay
– Direct Trade Changes
– Kicking Over Castles
.. and more!https://t.co/JRYNSe3ObI— EVE Online (@EveOnline) December 10, 2019