Dust 514: Orbital Bombardment

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Orbital Strike

File:Soundwave.jpg

CCP Soundwave demonstrates orbital bombardment, March 2012.

Demonstrated for the first time at Fanfest 2012, Orbital Bombardment is the first of the more obvious gameplay links between Dust 514 and Eve Online.

Initiated by a Squad Leader in Dust 514 when certain criteria are met, a targeted area of a map is shown in the overview of a Capsuleer playing Eve Online in orbit above the planetary district where the Dust battle is taking place.

Once in his/her overview, this targeted area can be locked and fired upon, from orbit, by the Eve pilot using a special version of ammo designed for the task.

The effect on the battlefield on the ground is highly destructive. Very little survives a direct hit from an Orbital Bombardment.

There are currently in the Open Beta, two versions of OB. A computer controlled version used in the quick match style Ambush and Skirmish game modes of Dust 514 and the more grandiose and satisfying 'Live', version, performed by a player of Eve Online on their PC or Macintosh as part of Factional Warfare.

Faction Warfare

The use of Orbital Strike in New Eden is currently limited to Factional Warfare. This Dev Blog and the links within offers a clearer explanation of the mechanic. By limiting the use of OB to Factional Warfare, CCP are using a live testing facility on the main Eve Server, Tranquility, while being able to tweak and alter the finer points of OB both in terms of balancing and from a technical standpoint. While doing so, they give Dust Merc's in the Open Beta, the opportunity to have a meaningful impact in New Eden, further cementing the principle of a single shared game universe.

While in orbit around the planet, the Eve pilot can be attacked by members of an opposing faction and destroyed. Meaning that the OB that a group of Dust Merc's have called in and are in need of, may never come.

In December 2013, CCP announced changes to Orbital Strike that impacted Factional Warfare. The first change in EVE was to rename Orbital Bombardment Ammo to Orbital Strike Ammo to match DUST terminology. DUST players no longer earn orbital strikes through accumulating war points. EVE capsuleers control the strikes. Pilots fit their ship with one of the orbital strike weapon charges, Tactical Laser S, Tactical Hybrid S or Tactical EMP S. They warp to planetary districts where DUST fights are occurring, then wait 3 minutes near the beacon while their ship obtains a lock on the ground target. During this time, the district satellite beacon appears on everyone's overview providing another opportunity for PvP to occur.

Since there is now more risk in performing an orbital strike, CCP added a variable LP reward starting at 3,000 LP at tier 1 and increasing based on tier. The reward is divided amongst up to 10 fellow militia members connected to the district during the strike. A killmail is also generated for the capsuleer's efforts if there are ground casualties.

Communications is set to improve and allow better comms between EVE and Dust players. When an EVE pilot connects to a district, they are added to the DUST team text chat for their militia and can join in voice comms as well.

• See Devblog - Orbital Strike changes coming December 10th for more information.