The first parts of the MMO-history making Tyrannis patch have been live for a few hours, now, and there has been time to take a gander at what's happening and figure out what players need to do, in order to be ready for when the final parts of Tyrannis are released, on June 8th. This is a quick and dirty guide to what you and your corporation should be doing be ready for the land grab that will occur. It also includes some of the news about the stability of the patch and some of the interesting things that have occurred since the patch went live.

The Planets

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 300px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84846"
title=""> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/84846" alt="EVE Online" width="300"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px;" />

style="font-style: italic;">Scanning planets for resource deposits is pretty darn easy. Just fly to the planet, right click it, select 'View in Planet Mode' and scan for whatever you like.

The gist of the planet interaction is that you drop a "command center" down onto a planet, and spider out a network of harvesters, refineries, and factories. The products of these efforts are periodically blasted into orbit, where you pick them up for sale or use. In order to harvest things from the planet, you need to scan for new deposits of harvestable minerals. In order to use those materials, to need to process them and combine them with other materials found on that planet.

There are eight different kinds of planets that players can build on, each with their own unique materials. The planet types are: Barren, Gas, Ice, Lava, Oceanic, Plasma, Storm, and Temperate. There is a ninth kind of planet, called Shattered, that cannot be built on, and were produced by the EVE story events leading up to the Dominion patch.

Each planet has differing amounts of the materials found on it, with materials being generally more in abundance in low-sec and null-sec. The more materials there are, the more profit and/or less work you as a player need to do in order to keep things running.

Bases on planets located in high-sec and low-sec are untouchable. The only thing players can do to mess with them is settle the planet themselves and try to compete for the same resources. Bases in null-sec are also untouchable, but will shut down if an alliance other than their owner gains sovereignty there. They aren't destroyed, but neither will they continue to produce until the situation is remedied. It is theorized that fighting over these planets will be able to take place in the upcoming interconnected first-person shooter, Dust 514.

Planetary Skills

There are five new skills that have been introduced, that deal with planets. They are:

Remote Sensing: This skill is required in order to scan planets for resources. Each level increases the distance from which one may scan planets. This is a pre-requisite for several other planet-related skills, and is probably the most important skill at this time because it allows you to begin scanning for resources to see what is on the planets in your vicinity.

Planetology and Advanced Planetology: Despite their somewhat cryptic descriptions, these skills improve your ability to accurately scan planets for resources. The higher, the better.

Command Center Upgrades: This skill affects the quality of command center that you can use. The better the command center, the more stuff you will be able to have active on the planet, attached to it and churning out valuable materials.

Interplanetary Consolidation: Each level of this skill allows you to establish a colony on an additional planet, for a maximum of six when you train level V. It is probably less important to train this one your first day, when you won't necessarily have a great idea of what's going on.

How To Prepare

Since command centers have not yet been seeded on the market, the best thing you as a player can do is begin mapping out planet types in the area that you live, and probing the good ones via Remote Sensing. Most importantly, you should begin training the skills above, especially Remote Sensing, Command Center Upgrades and Interplanetary Consolidation.

You may want to speculate on some of the materials produced. I don't have a solid enough tip to suggest anything, but the prices of NPC goods will certainly be changing over the next few weeks, assuming CCP stops seeding some or all of them on the 8th of next month. Expect crazy mineral fluctuations, too.

You or your corporation may also want to pick up some of the blueprint originals for starbase gear, which have been seeded onto the market. Being able to manufacture your own POS and POs-related gear is going to be very nice, for sure.

If you live in null-sec, you should begin checking what planet types there are in systems that your alliance has sovereignty in. If you live in high-sec or low-sec, try to find plasma, magma, or ice planets to be ready to settle, as thus far they seem to be the rarest and thus, produce the most valuable goods. Plasma planets are the holy grail, right now. If you find one, consider keeping the information to yourself so that only you can profit from it. At least, until someone else notices.

Starbases Go Skynet

Because of the changes to the standings systems, some or maybe even all player-owned starbases have gone "skynet" and are opening fire on pretty much anybody, including members of their own corporations. This includes some pretty hilarious results. If you are logged off at a POS, you should probably stay logged off until this bug, if bug it is, gets sorted out.

EVE Gate Security Problems

Regarding EVE Gate, there is the potential that some of your contact list information may be accessible by other members of your corporation, or even just people that you happen to have set to +10. In order to fix this, you need to log into each individual character, and modify your 'profile settings' in the upper right-hand corner. Good luck logging in, though, as the number of users able to access it is currently being throttled to keep CCP's servers from exploding. It actually has less privacy than facebook, which is impressive when you think about it.

Th-Th-That's All, Folks

We'll check back in later, with more in-depth guides, news, and train wrecks relating to the Tyrannis patch, over the next few weeks.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EVE Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

Comments