For those of you watching at home, Kronos is not an expansion. It is one of those new-fangled mini-bi-monthly-thingies that bring new content to Eve Online without expanding anything. Stuff is being added to the game, changed, and otherwise twisted and altered, but Eve will no longer be expanded.
Think about it this way, Eve is old enough now to stop binge eating at the Super Panda Buffet twice a year, and start eating more responsibly every other month. Eve is just about to enter puberty and cares about what the ladies think about it. Eve needs to work out and get rid of that baby fat. Eve needs it own room, man! Eve has its own opinions y'know, you people just don't get Eve! Do you!?! That is NOT a pimple!
Cough. Ok here is Part One of the new things Kronos is bringing with it Tuesday. And here is Part Two.
Walk with me as I run them all down in my own special way.
• The ORE Prospect – the covert ops mining frigate!
A new ship is always to be celebrated. No matter what kind of ship, who it is for, what it does, or even how it looks - a new ship is new. Yeah! More targets and another thing for killboards to be confused about for the next two or three weeks.
• The Mordu's Legion Garmur Frigate
And yes, there are a bunch of new ships in this not-expansion. The Garmur is an exciting addition to the Frigate line-up and all us Pirates are very excited. Can't wait to get my hands on these three Mordu's Legion ships. Someone out there help out a poor Pirate and hook me up! Please?
• The Mordu’s Legion Orthrus Cruiser
There is some concern that this ship is going to be rather OP and shatter the current Meta. Probably. I also need one of these as soon as possible. I promise to fly it into extreme danger and report back.
• The Mordu’s Legion Barghest Battleship
Heck, I still haven't flown the SOE BS. Sigh. Oh well, this is another BS I probably won't be able to afford anytime soon. So no breakfast waffles in my house!
• Mordu’s Legion advances in low-security space
More stuffs in Low Sec!! Come to Low Sec and get some of these tasty new Mordu things and build lots of new spaceships. You know you want to.
• New capabilities for pirate faction ships
All kidding aside, this is where the real action is for us Low Sec dwellers. Pirate Faction ships are getting Fozzienated this week and things will never be the same again. Just imagine if some amazingly talented Eve blogger had just spent an entire week reviewing all the Frigates in Eve... that guy would be pretty pissed right now!
• Faction-themed stations
Eve gets even more pretty. I rarely pay any attention to stations, I can't even tell you who owns the one I live in every day. But I fully appreciate this change.
• Sound customization on a whole new level
And once again, Eve just gets that much better. This is a small thing in the grand scheme, but it is an awesome change.
• Smarter NPCs in factional warfare
Well the NPCs are getting smarter, one hopes that the players will also be getting an upgrade in the smarts department. One thing is for sure, the FW Meta is about to change once again. What will it mean!? If only I had some Mordu Legion ships to test it out...
• Updates to Mining Barges and Exhumers
I fully endorse this product and/or service. Seriously. I know you Carebears think Rixx doesn't care about you, but you are so wrong. I do care. Sometimes I care too much.
• Drones from all races become viable for a range of tactics
As if everything else didn't already mean new stuff to learn, now they go and fiddle with drones. Lots of new changes here, all of which seems pretty decent on the first pass. Time will tell, but I think this is going to be a good thing.
• New effects for ships warping in and out
Jita will never be the same again. I love this addition to the game, more immersion is good news all around.
• The new Moa and its variants
I'm just happy for my friend Kirith. I have no idea what he'll complain about now.
• The new Condor and its variants
This was teased so long ago, it is great to finally see it happen. Much needed updating.
• Low Slot Mods for Freighters and updated Deep Space Transports and Blockade Runners
I'll let those with more knowledge than I have deal with the consequences of this upcoming change, but for me and my once a month trip to Jita - this seems like an awesome change.
• New visual effects in space
More changes to make Eve even prettier to look at. Aww.
• The New Eden Store - customization for ships and characters
I don't really participate in these things, but I do like the increase in Ship Skins.
• Increased sightings of wormholes in low-security space
Yeah!! More wormholes to more places means more roams to more places means more targets in more places, means more fun.
• Quality of life improvements
I am a huge fan of the small things effort and it looks like we are getting some major small changes on Monday. Go team.
• The new Typhoon model
I'm a big fan of the Phoon and the new model is stunning. Well done and much needed.
• Improved customer experience on the Mac client with the latest Cider update
And the thing I am probably most happy about, more updates to the Mac client. I recently updated my computers to the latest versions of everything and Eve has been creaking along since then, I'm hoping this update will bring Eve up to speed and eliminate or decrease the frequency of these issues. It does affect my game play when half the screen turns yellow, or when space disappears suddenly, or when the client crashes 3 or 4 times in a play session. These issues have had a hand in a half-dozen ship losses for me the past month. So I am very excited about this.
All in all this not-expansion is shaping up to be a good one. We'll have to wait and see what happens as a result of some of the re-balancing before we judge it fully. That always takes a little time to sink in properly. I'm excited about a lot of the things on this list and I can honestly say that Kronos looks to make Eve better. And ultimately, that is the only rule of thumb that truly matters.
Onward and Upward.