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EVE Evolved: Rebuilding EVE's corporation tools
The MMO genre is defined by the online interactions of thousands of players, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the single-shard sandbox of EVE Online. While it's possible to play EVE solo, it's the players who make most of the game's meaningful content, and it's only in your emergent interactions with other players that I think the game truly comes to life. Some time ago, I wrote about the importance of CCP supporting EVE's power players, the corporation owners, fleet commanders, and event organisers who give the rest of us something fun to do. Now it looks like CCP is starting to deliver that support, with developers currently looking at updating EVE's archaic corp management tools. CCP Punkturis recently asked corporation owners for a list of the most annoying "little things" they'd like to see fixed with the corporation management interface and was instead flooded with requests for big features and complete overhauls. Developers later confirmed on The o7 Show that at least one highly requested big feature is definitely on its way: CEOs will soon be able to switch off friendly-fire between corp members. The threat of corporate infiltrators attacking corp members has been a massive barrier preventing corps from recruiting new players, so its removal is good news for everyone (except spies). So now that corporation management is finally back on the drawing board, what other features do corp owners need? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at a few ideas for corporation tools and features that would make EVE a better place for everyone.
Six small changes that will make a big difference to EVE players
Last year, EVE Online developer CCP Games tasked its illustrious Team Best Friends Forever with a project aimed at fixing all those little things that annoy EVE players on a daily basis. Font issues, windows stealing focus, implants not showing on killmails, and the problem of agent standings being overly complicated were all tackled in no time flat. For the Crucible expansion, Team BFF's leader, CCP Soundwave, was put in charge of multiple teams that hammered out hundreds of bug fixes, gameplay balance changes and quality of life improvements. In a new devblog, CCP Punkturis reveals six small changes under development by Team BFF that will certainly make a big difference to EVE players. The skill queue will be getting a search feature, which is good news for older players with over a hundred skills to sort through. The watch list that keeps track of friendly targets in fleet operations will be able to hold 15 players, up from 10, and players will be able to re-order them any way they like. If you've ever seen a player's face appear in the bottom right of the screen to tell you he's just logged in, chances are you've tried to click on it to talk to him at least once. When the next big patch goes live, you'll be able to do just that. The agent list in stations and module overload indicator will both receive graphical updates, and a new compact user list for the local channel with no portraits will be an absolute god-send to nullsec fleets.
EVE development video features engineering team interviews
CCP has released another behind-the-scenes video that details life as a member of the EVE Online development team. This time the focus is on the engineering group, and the five-minute clip features a few talking-head interviews with CCP Atlas, CCP Punkturis, and other luminaries. In terms of content, we don't get a lot of new information, and much of the dialogue centers on fairly mundane design items like UI scaling, improvements to the game's bookmarking functionality, and the like. That said, it's an interesting peek behind the curtain, and it's always nice to put a face with an oft-quoted developer name. Check out the full clip after the break.
CCP talks EVE UI scaling
Font size isn't the sexiest topic when it comes to MMO design, but when you're CCP and your flagship title has the most complicated and hard-to-read user interface in the genre, it's an issue worth talking about. The latest EVE Online dev blog does just that, and CCP Punkturis says that while a full-scale UI revamp is quite difficult and time-consuming due to the original design, the dev team is nonetheless hard at work on the next best thing: UI scaling. The feature is currently in testing and while there's no official date for its deployment to the live Tranquility server, Punkturis does provide a few nifty screenshots if you're curious to see how it looks.
EVE Online's new agent finder detailed [Updated]
Hey capsuleers, did you take the day off work to sample the wonders of Incarna? We hope not, because CCP has extended the downtime for EVE Online's latest update. If you did take a day, or if you're simply in need of some juicy New Eden-related reading material, you'll want to have a look at the newest CCP dev blog. The entry examines the new agent finder functionality, and CCP Punkturis has some interesting tidbits to share along with a few interface screencaps. The goal, as outlined in an earlier agent-related dev blog, was to simplify the convoluted mission-running system and allow players to more easily find agents of an appropriate skill level, faction, and activity. The new finder filters agents by faction standing and also sorts them by distance (meaning you'll get info on the closest contacts first). Players may also filter various agent-related searches like mission types, and you can read all the details and leave feedback at the official EVE website. [Update]: CCP's dev blog gnomes are apparently working overtime today, as the company has just released an extensive look at the making of Incarna's turret system renovation.
CCP Games conquers Mount Kilimanjaro, one step closer to world domination
CCP Games is a company with a singular lofty goal: World Domination. From their humble beginnings in a small office in Reykjavik, Iceland, they released an experimental sci-fi MMO into an untested market. Almost seven years down the line, EVE Online has been a consistent success and CCP as a company has expanded at an incredible rate. Now with additional offices in China, North America and the UK and two exciting new games on the way, they're well on their way to meeting that gargantuan goal. Last month, CCP took their plans to dominate the earth literally as they conquered Africa's highest peak. On March 1st 2010 at approximately 6:30AM, CCP developers "CCP Solomon", "CCP Diagoras" and "CCP Punkturis" from the company's Reykjavik office arrived at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Along with a fourth friend named Sveinn Sveinsson, they completed an impressive 6 day trek to the peak through harsh conditions. On arrival, they literally planted the CCP flag at Uhuru peak, an incredible 5895 metres above sea level. [Via MMORPG.com]
