EVE Mail changes in latest Quantum Rise patch
by James Egan 
Nov 19th 2008 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Forums, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items
The Quantum Rise expansion for EVE Online, while only recently deployed, has drawn a substantial amount of forum rage for sweeping changes to how the game is played, namely for the nerfs of speed and missiles. This follows in the wake of unrest created by the CCP Games decision to phase out ghost training. The latest change, announced Tuesday, targets the in-game email system ("EVE Mail" to be precise).
CCP Wrangler says: "To address performance issues in EVE we are making some changes to the EVE Mail system in Quantum Rise 1.0.1. You will now be able to fetch up to 1000 undeleted EVE Mails, however EVE Mail number 1001 and beyond will not be fetched, whether it has been read or not. To gain access to those EVE Mails, you must delete newer EVE mails. In addition to this all EVE Mails sent by NPCs that are older than 3 months will be deleted."
A chief concern being voiced by the players on the forum thread connected with this announcement is that there is a kind of sentimental value attached to the kill mails which were received upon a ship destruction since the early days of EVE, whenever a player managed to kill another. Essentially, kill mails are CONCORD (NPC police) notifications of all the details surrounding a kill, such as the involved parties, the weapon(s) used, and where the murder went down. For PvP-centric players in EVE, kill mails have always been both a source of pride and amusement... for some, a kind of malevolent nostalgia. The announced change to EVE Mail in Quantum Rise 1.0.1 doesn't necessarily state that those messages will be deleted, but if they're inaccessible, they may as well be, at least according to some of the more vocal EVE players on the forums.
Where do you stand on this? Is this going to be an issue for you, or is less inbox clutter in your EVE client a step forward?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cadet SF said on 10:10AM 11-19-2008
Sometimes the Devs can be extremely frustrating with the nerf bat. Speed tanking was broken and like Battleships ability to destroy everything before it; it needed to be fixed. Missiles on the other hand? Missiles aren't a specialized tactic (like speed tanking) but a way of dealing damage used by people who fly frigates all the way up to t2 ships and the big ships (capitals and motherships). a third of my total SP is in missiles and my character started off with around half of my total SP being there. Its a big issue, especially if you're caldari (like myself) or fly caldari ships because caldari ships by at large give missile bonuses. I just hope CCP is trying to nerf a whole race.
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Firebreak said on 1:27PM 11-19-2008
The missiles were nerfed because of the changes to speed. A few months ago the were boosted to combat speed tanking missiles but now that they are taking away speed tanking for the most part missiles are being changed to not make them overpowered, so it is less of a nerf and more of them taking away a boost.
As far as the mail changes I was hoping for more. I was hoping that they would be joining the 20th Century mail clients or maybe even the 21st. They are instead keeping the same old crappy mmo one.
Cadet SF said on 7:44AM 11-20-2008
Speed tanking still exists though! Infact I would argue its easier to speed tank with afterburners now against a wider range of ship setups than it ever was with MWDs. Missile explosion speeds (among other things) have dropped 80%. You can tell me CCP gave us that huge of a boost. You probably don't use missiles regularly if you think all we're loosing is a boost.