Hulkageddon Will Continue... Indefinitely

The Mittani posted on Twitter today confirming rumors to what some hoped and many others feared.  Hulkageddon will not be ending at the end of this month or the next.
https://twitter.com/TheMittani/status/207526045807677440

With very little actual information floating around, it's difficult to say if there will be monthly prizes or "just" the 100 Million Isk payout for each Exhumer kill.  For more PR, I could see a monthly prize being given.  Any press is good press when the results are so astounding.  1.4 Trillion in ships lost and 19.8 Billion handed out to players, the top killer having received nearly Three Billion Isk for their participation.

Personally, I think this is amazing.  The Mittani/GoonSwarm have single-handedly created an entire profession that a two week old player or a seasoned, grizzled veteran can partake in.  I believe it won't be long until people start seeing it as such.  I would be lying if I said I hadn't considered shifting one of my alts to a destroyer and hunting me some Hulks.  With Hulkageddon continuing on until further notice, all the more reason to when Faction Warfare is quiet.

Now we just have to wait and see how the mining community and, more importantly, CCP reacts to this news. If word of this doesn't spread with a quickness (Even though some players who had been ganked multiple times had no clue what it was to being with) and most believe Hulkageddon to be done at the end of the month, we're about to see a massive spike in both losses and hate threads in the EveO forums.  I'm curious to what will happen next but whatever it is, thank you Goons for making the universe a more interesting place for us all.

Eve Online Inferno Patch Notes!

The Inferno patch notes have been released and wow is that a lot of text.  I'm only going to have a few items here but the full notes can be found here: http://community.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp

Ship Changes:
It will be nice to fly more than just a Rifter for frigs now.  I really love my Rifter though

• Inferno will be the first-step taken into removing the Tier system out of ship classes; please refer to the Dev Blog, 'Rebalancing EVE, one ship at a time' for more details.
• The first batch of changes affect the Tormentor, Punisher (eeeeeeeeee!), Merlin, Incursus and Rifter frigates

Faction Warfare Changes:
Too many to list really, some that caught my eye though

• Destroying enemy player ships will give LPs to the player giving the final blow (Unless in a fleet)  
• I take this to mean that if a player is not in a fleet but gets the final blow on a carrier kill, they get all of the LP.  This is kind of a terrible feature to have.  It may be equal parts skill and luck to be able to get the final blow but , in my opinion, this shouldn't even be a factor.  It may be difficult to do but when it happens for the first time, there are going to be a lot of angry people.  Note: If the final blow happens from a fleetmate, the fleet splits the LP

• Holding and upgrading Factional Warfare systems now have an impact in a faction success as a whole. Number of systems and upgrades hold in the same War Zone (Amarr/Minmatar or Caldari/Gallente War zones respectively) are counted as part of points, then used to unlock War Zone Control tiers
•  I've had a small issue with this since I heard it.  It would be nice to either see the losing side get an okay bonus or no one get a bonus/nerf at all.  We will have to wait and see what is more profitable, being on the losing side or the winning side.  As the LP cost of a ship goes up, so will the isk price.  200 Million Navy Omens?  It's not out of the realm of possibility

•  It is now possible to upgrade a solar system owned by your own faction by spending Factional Warfare Loyalty Points (LPs) into the respective Infrastructure Hub
• Without the Cyno Jammer upgrade, I could care less about this feature.  Hopefully we'll see that soon.

• All stations located in enemy Factional Warfare systems will now deny docking to the opposing militias. Neutrals are not affected by this change and can still dock anywhere they please
• The shot heard round the world...  I'm rather happy for this change.  I just wish that they would have changed the victory points per Plex with the last patch when this change was announced.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Minmatar knew about this a long time ago with how obsessed some were with capturing Plexes when it meant nothing.

New Modules:

• The Reactive Armor Hardener : A low slot module that adjusts resists according to incoming damage. You can only fit one, but it lets you fight lazy!
• I have high hopes for this mod, this could change the game of armor tanking as we know it

• Extrinsic Damage Amplifier: A low slot, drone damage module which allows your drones do more damage
• Hoestly, I'm terrible with drones.  It's easily the weakest part of my PvP game.  I pretty much launch them and send them off to die.  We were in a fight recently vs a Dramiel and a Crow in my mission Drake with Flyinghotpocket in a Hookbill (Which didn't turn out too well for FHP but I was able to get out, ty FHP!).  I had no idea my drones were even under fire until my Drones window vanished...  Time to start flying more Arbitrators, make me focus on drones a lot more.

New missile launchers and launch effects: 
If you have seen these, I really don;t have to say anything.  For those few people that haven't seen them, they're freaking awesome!  I really like the new bomb explosion graphics, unique for each damage type.

Unified Inventory
The inventory change has been needed for a long time.  I started in 2009 and I have been frustrated with the inventory system ever since.  Searching is nice and all but why can't I just view all modules and not every single laser crystal that has had one volley shot through it and now can't be stacked?  Now, I totally can!  (Hopefully)

Overall
All in all, a damn good looking expansion.  I just hope that this isn't the last time they will look at Faction Warfare.  I can see a few things being terribly broken and they really haven't addressed the bugging of plexes (which I have witnessed on several occasions).  Even though some of the changes aren't optimal, at least it's change.  And change is good for the soul.

RE: Evolution

This started out as a reply to the Dev blog posted pertaining to the FW changes but since everyone and their mother was posting about it, I decided to hold off for something I could get a bit more passionate about.  Susan Black has provided that spark.  Originally this was going to be a comment on their blog but quickly warranted it's own post here.  Susan's original post can be found here, I would advise giving it a read before continuing on: http://www.gamerchick.net/2012/05/evolution.html

Adaptation can be a hard thing for some.  For the past 2 weeks, I've heard so many of my fellow pilots screaming that Faction Warfare is dead or CCP screwed it up even more and they're taking their football and going home.  I for one can't wait for this change.  Yes, it might suck.  Yes I might get locked out of my main station and lose all my ships.  Yes, I might absolutely hate it.  But it's change, something that I and many others have wanted for a long time.

If I were to get upset at this change and tell CCP to go to hell because I don't like something, what reason do they have to change anything in the future?  If people can't even wait till the changes are Live to start the hate train, it's not unimaginable for CCP to say "Screw it, FW is dead to us".

At least give it a chance, that's all I'm asking.  I'll be sticking around and if things do get too terrible, I'll go do something else for a while.  What I won't do is go directly to the forums and spout about how CCP owes me something since I give them money.  This is a game you pay for, you can do whatever you want.  Don't expect everyone else to conform to your wants when there is an entire universe out there full of other things besides Faction Warfare.  Step out of your comfort zone, go see the rest of that universe.  From what I hear, it's a pretty big place.

Faction Warfare changes on SiSi!

A few of the FW changes going into Inferno are now available on Sisi!  I've been waiting to see exactly how many of their theoretical changes would actually stick and it looks like quite a few so far.  Here's a list of them with some of my personal thoughs:

Revamped FW:
- LP for kills
I've been wanting this for a long time.  You currently receive LP for kills but it's so slight that one would barely notice if not for the missions button blinking.  If the change make PvP a better earner than missions, hopefully we'll see a lot more solo players running around.  Either split the LP with 20 other people or get a boatload for a solo rifter kill.

- Bunkers are now infrastructure hubs
I'm still wondering what upgrades, if any, will be available through the Infrastructure Hub and who will have access and who pays for it all.  One I'm most looking forward to is the ability to place Cyno Jammers with the Cyno Suppression upgrade.  Say goodbye to all of the 0.0 alliances controlling a moon anymore.  Being able to take out a moon mining POS while not worrying about a hot drop: Priceless.  Still, I want to look at some specifics for who can upgrade this and who has control and pays for the upgrades.  If it's a flat LP cost, I'm up for throwing in a boatload of my LP.

- LP for all FW actions (capturing complexes, capturing infrastructures hubs, etc)

Just like the PvP kills section, this should have been the case long ago.  Now I can roam in a rifter, capture sites, get kills and earn LP for almost every step of the way!  A great feature to add for sure.

- New FW front page 

I'm guessing this will be the FW stats page that shows currently dangerous systems and kills/deaths for each side.  If so, I hope this will give a lot more information at-a-glance than the current setup. 

 - Consequences for capturing systems/regions (benefits for you, grief for your enemy)

This feature could either make of break this entire update.  One of the consequences talked about for this update was that Faction A could not dock in a system that Faction B controlled.  While this may sound super cereal and scary, this may be what is needed to light a fire under all of the FW participants that really don't care about the capping of systems.  Losing all of your ships because the opposing faction captured the system is one thing but not being able to get their precious missions once control is relinquished is another.  I expect to see a mass exodus from all sides once players realize FW missions are no longer a free isk printing machine. 

- Capturing FW system affect SOV ownership

Could be a big deal or could be meaningless in the grand scene of things 

- Map filters for FW have been revamped

Always a welcome change, yay maps! 

Read about all of the other non-FW changes here: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=103955