So, Somer got taken out back and shot. Anything else need to be said? I don’t think so. Not publicly, anyway – the summit is just over three weeks out now, and I look forward to talking a bit more about it with CCP if the opportunity arises. Or if it doesn’t, for that matter. Of course, something something volcano…
Hyperion lands tomorrow with a fairly muted feature set, on account primarily of plenty of devs taking their Summer vacations after Crius. We get (among other things) some minor ship balancing work (if you can call the Ishtar changes that), Incursion adjustments, some wormhole tweaks that look minor to me but are apparently apocalyptic and so consequently have swarms wormhole pilots (the most hardcore & adaptable people in the game, to hear them tell it) fleeing their space like rats. There are also “Burner” missions (details here if you’re not familiar). Some clever hacks have endowed them with player-like abilities including the ability to use and be affected by Warp Scramblers. They’re still using existing NPC mechanics and so will undoubtedly be mastered in short order, but nevertheless demonstrate that we won’t necessarily be waiting for the new content tools to finish before actually getting new content. For my part, I want to see these extended upwards to higher ship classes, and also expanded out to pit you against small groups of foes working in concert. Imagine, for example, facing down two of the Daredevil NPCs at once, or a mission aimed at battleships that pits you against a half dozen cruiser NPCs.
We’re also due for a Town Hall sometime in the next month. I believe we’ve got the date finalized, but Mangala has taken point on organizing it, so I’ll merely tease and leave the actual announcement to him.
And that’s all for this brief week. I think there are just a few devs left on vacation and they’ll be returning shortly, so we’ll be back in full swing as we move towards the Summit and beyond that, Oceanus at the end of September.
The Third N 
“Somer got taken out back and shot.”
I think it’s a little more accurate to say that Somer went out back and shot himself. He might have managed to wriggle out of this one intact, if he hadn’t 1) thrown a tantrum and shut down the site himself, and 2) gone full stupid and publicly disclosed communications with CCP employees. Seriously, that last one is a huge no-no that anyone should have known could only have resulted in immediately summoning the banhammer. I’m betting he had enough friends and favors to call on in CCP that he could have gotten through relatively unscathed with another instance of CCP just sweeping everything under the rug before he pulled that stunt and fried himself.
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