There are hidden Storylines, help me catalog them!
I like to call myself a "Storyline Enthusiast". I've had fellow pilots call me nuts for hauling 4+ billion isk in storyline modules and commodities out of P-Z in my badger while evacing bee-space (thanks PoorSpodLegend and Vile-y). The thing is, I don't have a purpose in EVE, if my purpose is not to catch them all. I've been (very slowly) building up my collection of storylines, and love to look at their 'nicknames', my favorite album being the "Wild Western Shield Modules".
*(skip the next three paragraphs if you really don't like reading.)*
If you've been living under a proverbial rock, and have no idea what I mean by "Storyline" modules, let me enlighten you. Every module known to capsuleer-kind has a "type", The most well known being Tech I, Tech II, meta, and faction modules. If you've dug a bit deeper in the search for more powerful modules, you've surely come across the Deadspace and Officer modules (in the variations tab at least, if you're a poor like me). But, ~~only the wisest and most intelligent space pirates~~ someone with mildly good eye can see that there is a Storyline group between Tech II and Faction. These modules are the outcasts, members of weapon society that have been forgotten, only to be remembered as "The quiet kid that likes to draw in the far back desk of the dark corner of the classroom".
Storylines are peculiar, having attributes halfway between Tech II and "Compact" meta modules. Often, it is the storylines that have the best fitting, smallest drawbacks, and lowest capacitor requirements. They tend to be pricey compared to their commoner brethren, due to their relative infrequency; some fetching pennies pretty enough to possibly pocket profound prices as high as several hundreds of millions of isk! (probably). As stated before, the easiest way to identify a storyline module (other than the massive bright green dog ear on the icon), is their naming convention. 95% of them have a nickname, like Heavy 'Brave' Capacitor Booster or 'Noose' Cruise Missile Launcher (man, I sure do 'Love' ^(Medium Remote Armor Repairer) storyline modules).
Their insides are more interesting to those with a passion for pirate factions, or the alien technology of the Ancient Races, as most of them require odd skills only used to manufacture storylines. The blueprints are often found in Sleeper Caches, and, according to rumor passed on to me by some smelly lowsec guy by the name of Erasmus, are found in certain constellations in Empire space. The materials required are obscure pieces of technology left behind by those before us (Sleepers, Yan Jung, Takmahl, and the Talocan to name a few). Those with the skills to build these modules actually have not one slightest bit of a sliver of a clue what in the hell they're doing, other than using some Minmatar Duct Tape and a pinch of love to make them (seriously, look at the descriptions of the storyline tech skills).
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Well, every storyline should be well documented by now, nearly 20 years after the birth of the Capsuleers, right? lol no think again moron
I was going through my collection of storyline, faction, commodities, and lore items while screaming and grabbing as many things as I could out of my burning house, when I came across this:
https://preview.redd.it/m35urzrgbai71.png?width=627&format=png&auto=webp&s=dad85efd993a5aa2e03bc8496802335bf53a84cf
It looks like a normal meta module, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. There is no "variations" tab, and it cannot be found in the market, compared, or found in contracts. Fitting-wise, it's the same as a non-compact meta Shield Booster of the same size. ALL of the "real" ones have an activation time of 4 sec, with the exception of the Gistii and 'Micro' variations (3.6 sec), whereas this one has a 2.5 second activation time. Also, if you didn't notice, *it doesn't even have an optimal/falloff range,* which is probably why it can't be compared.
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As I'm writing this, I remember seeing some storyline/officer hybrid versions of a Mega Beam Laser: Makur's Modified and Luther Veron's Modified mega beam lasers. You can find them in the variations tab, and are labelled as "Storyline Modules", yet have the naming convention reminiscent of an Officer Module. They are not visible in the market or contracts. Makur's has *no stats,* and the Luther Veron? ***It's better than Chelm's and Draclira's.*** The optimal range is 50km on the Luther, while every other laser is 48 and below.
And now, I'm solemnly remembering the faint, burning memory of the Supplementary and Basic Shield Amplifiers. They had a separate variations tab to the normal ones, and consumed WAY less CPU than the common ones. A bit of digging and I pulled up an eve forum post from October 2017, stating that they no longer dropped. I had an adorable little Supplementary EM Ward Amplifier in my collection before the big bad CCP came along and plucked the poor thing out of my hands, where they threw it into the paper shredder with the tiercide and renaming of shield modules. I'm sure this Small 'Atonement' remote shield booster is a mutated being that slipped through the cracks of the very update that killed my poor friend.
That's why I'm asking you, yes YOU, the mildly beautiful capsuleer behind that computer monitor, to help me find and catalog these rare modules, before the all seeing stinkeye of CCP Games finds them and takes them away from us before they can see the light of being remembered.
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Live dangerously 7o
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p.s. CCP, I have no idea what freaky voodoo swamp magic you're doing back there, but it's freaking me out a bit.
EDIT: Upon reading your replies, I've come to find that the 'Atonement' RSB is simply an old variation of the SRSB lineup. They were supposed to have been transformed into the 'Murky' compact variation, but due to bugs, this one remains. It is likely a lowsec guristas rat still drops these, since some have been found in FRAT MTUs in Caldari lowsec. All of the ones in inventories were probably transformed into their murky counterparts, but never removed from the loot table.
That would make sense, since every storyline projectile weapon is a 'Jolt' variation, alluding towards the naming convention of old meta modules having the name nickname, even between weapon sizes.