EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Like most other EVE Online expansions, the free Crucible Expansion has been followed up with a feature-rich "mini-expansion" that iterates on the concepts of the expansion or presents a delayed feature from the primary expansion. It is rare for a mini expansion to really blow players' minds, but that is what has happened. Read all about it in our EVE guide to the second part of the Crucible expansion for EVE Online.

Overall Trip Report About The Crucible 1.1 Expansion For EVE Online

This is a worthy successor to the first part of the Crucible expansion, which many players regard as the finest EVE expansion in years. It is entirely spaceship-centric, allows players to customize their user interface, and makes some changes that players have been asking for since time immemorial. Good job, CCP, we can't wait to see what you come up with in this vein, when you aren't on your back foot.

Major Features

Assault Ship Rebalancing

This is huge. It's huge because players have been asking for it since forever. It's huge because it makes PvP way more accessible to new players. It's huge because the newly improved assault ships are incredibly good! Including in the changes: every assault ship now has a smaller signature radius when using a microwarpdrive, an extra fitting slot, some extra CPU, and an extra ship bonus. While you should probably head on over to CCP's patch notes to see what has happened to your favorite ship, the result here is that all of these ships are incredible, both as a newbie-friendly ship that has an incredible tank against pretty much everything, and as specialized vessels.

Some random notes about this, in no particular order:

The new Ishkur is great both for killing silly cruiser pilots, and for losing less tech II drones while running missions.

The new Retribution now has a second mid-slot (!) and receives a tracking bonus. I have a feeling it's going to end up being pretty handy at tackling, even in big fleet situations.

The Jaguar has long been one of my favorite ships since it is basically a super-Rifter that can kill the heck out of other assault frigates. This patch gives it more offensive capability, more shield hit points, and an extra low slot. I love you, CCP.

The Enyo has a double damage bonus. I love double damage bonuses! Just can't get enough of them! The enyo can now solo kill a battleship or battlecruiser, so long as that ship is also being attacked by a significant spawn of NPCs at the same time. Pretty nifty, no? Alas, the drake is still most likely out of the enyo's reach. Darn that passive shield regeneration!