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EVE Evolved: Two year anniversary

Brendan Drain
- Columnist
Updated ·7 min read

On April 27th 2008, the EVE Evolved column kicked off with an in-depth look at the controversy surrounding the removal of NPC supply of shuttles in EVE Online. That first crude article began a continually improving weekly dose of EVE spanning the last two years. In that time, I've written around 100 articles on topics ranging from faction warfare and piracy to mining and economics. It sometimes seems to me that I've covered practically everything of note but in a game as complex as EVE, there's always something to write about. The rapidly evolving universe of New Eden seems to continually produce something new and interesting to discuss.

To celebrate the second anniversary of the column in just over a week's time, I'm giving away an expensive faction battleship worth around 500 million ISK. One lucky reader will win and take his pick from the list of navy or fleet issue battleships. To enter, just drop a comment and suggest a topic you'd like to see covered in a future edition of EVE Evolved. Every suggested topic may be written up as a future article in the column with credit to the reader that came up with the idea. This is your chance to say what types of article you'd like to read from Massively's weekly EVE column. The winner will be the reader that suggests my favourite topic by the evening of Friday 23rd April. In addition to winning an expensive navy issue battleship, the winner's suggestion will be written up as next week's anniversary column topic.

Skip past the cut for full entry guidelines and a look back at this past year of the EVE Evolved column.


Entry guidelines:

  • Suggestions can be anything at all related to EVE, not just guides or other types of article I've done before.

  • The topic should be one that I haven't really covered before or which has changed sufficiently that any previous article on it is obsolete. Before submitting your idea, take a peer back at previous entries or do a quick google search.

  • If you have more than one idea for a column topic, feel free to make multiple suggestions. The winner will be the person that makes my single favourite suggestion so this may improve your chances of winning.

  • If multiple people suggest the exact same idea and I choose that topic, the first person that posted it will win.

  • Although people without an EVE account are welcome to suggest ideas, entrants to the competition must have an active EVE account to accept the in-game prize. If you wish to make a suggestion without entering the competition, please say so in your comment.

  • The deadline for entering is Friday 23rd April at 8PM by Massively's time.

  • The winner's email address will be looked up and they'll be contacted to arrange receipt of the prize. Please don't write your email address or EVE account/character name in the body of your comment.

  • The prize is limited to one of the following ships, chosen by the winner: Raven Navy Issue, Scorpion Navy Issue, Megathron Navy Issue, Dominix Navy Issue, Tempest Fleet Issue, Typhoon Fleet Issue, Apocalypse Navy Issue, Armageddon Navy Issue.


A year in review - Guides:


Ever since that first two-part guide to skills back in 2008, detailed guides have been a staple of the EVE Evolved column. This year I covered some important topics, plugging pretty big gaps in the column's guide coverage. My favourite guide to write from the past year has to be the four part series on research. It covered Tech 1 blueprint research, Tech 2 invention and Tech 3 reverse engineering, ending with my personal top five research tips. Writing these guides really bolstered my enthusiasm for research and helped out a corpmate that was just getting into invention.

Another favourite of mine would be the three part guide to trading. Starting off with some basic information on the options available to traders, the guide moved on to advanced trading techniques like margin trading and market speculation. The final part in the series gave some personal tips I've gleaned from years of play that might not be obvious to newer players. A third series that was interesting to write was the guide to mission-running, a comprehensive topic that took three articles to fully cover. In a variety of shorter guides, I covered combat boosters, EVE's aggression mechanics and organising a PvP tournament. For newer players, I included short guides on finding a good corporation, running your own corp and staying safe in high security space. Most recently, I even ran a two part series on remote repair ships.

A year in review - Wormholes:


When the Apocrypha expansion was released, my little alliance dropped ourselves right into it at the deep end. Over the months following Apocrypha's release, I got a first-hand look at how the expansion was being received. I looked at how wormholes had begun to revitalise other aspects of EVE's gameplay, from exploration and mining in high security space to piracy and trade. My alliance's investigation of wormhole spawning mechanics and Sleeper AI helped me to write a pretty solid guide to wormholes which has been cited as one of the definitive guides on the topic. Our experiences with PvP inside wormholes even led me to write a useful guide to wormhole piracy and an exciting written account of hostile invasions in our wormhole system. These have been my absolute favourite articles to write over the past year and have really drawn on my enthusiasm for wormhole expeditions.

A year in review - Expansion speculation:


In the six years I've played EVE, I've gained a lot of insight into how things work and one of my favourite things to do is analyse changes coming to the game. I've found myself becoming better equipped to speculate on what game mechanics CCP could feasibly come up with based on the vague information released in devblogs. This year I've speculated on Dust 514, Incarna and EVE's next expansion Tyrannis. Although none of these expansions have been released yet, I've enjoyed collecting all the facts we know on them and then extrapolating what the game mechanics might be like.

A year in review -

Stepping up:


Earlier this year, fellow EVE writer James Egan left Massively for an exciting new career with CCP Games, makers of EVE Online. James used to cover most of the EVE news and community pieces here at Massively. Since his leaving, I've taken over that role in addition to the EVE Evolved column. This has given me the freedom to write about topics that wouldn't really fit into a column post. Current events news like the dramatic death of GoonSwarm alliance or general interest topics like the war for Providence wouldn't necessarily make for a good column post and being able to cover them on their own has been exciting. Perhaps my favourite new addition to Massively's EVE Online coverage is the EVE Video Corner. Occasionally an EVE video is released that absolutely blows my socks off and simply must be shared. Devoting the week's column to one video would make little sense so being able to write up each video on its own has been great.

Summary:
The EVE Evolved column started two years ago, based on my own experiences with EVE Online and in-depth knowledge of the game. In its hundred article history, the column has been home to countless guides, speculation on expansions, commentary on various game mechanics and even a fewpostcards. The column has been an absolute joy to write and I hope you've enjoyed reading it each Sunday at 6PM. Here's to another successful year of EVE Evolved and good luck to those of you entering the contest! I look forward to hearing what topics you, the reader, want to see in future column updates.

Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is an early veteran of EVE Online and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column here at massively.com. The column covers anything and everything relating to EVE Online, from in-depth guides to speculative opinion pieces. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at brendan.drain AT weblogsinc DOT com.