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Perfect Ten: MMO features that were hyped but never delivered
Developers like to talk a big game. It's expected, it's encouraged by all parties, and it's part of the fun. When a game or big expansion is coming up, the spokespeople for studios like to hop on stage, grab that mic, and start proselytizing for all they're worth. And while some promises come to fruition, others are various shades of white lies, and still others never come to be at all. These are the features that studios would much rather you forget were mentioned in the first place, although this is the internet and the internet never forgets. Well, players who latch on to everything devs say as absolute truth never forget. Sometimes things happen along the way in development. Studios run out of time to get in all of the features and have to prioritize which make the cut and which do not. Features end up not testing as well as hoped and the studio quietly drops them because the PR hit for the features not going in is much less than the disaster that they might cause. And some developers like to flap their gums and spout brainstorm ideas that send the actual programmers and designers back at the company into spasms of agony when they try to figure out how to make them work. Today let's go through 10 features that were talked up but never delivered in MMOs!
EVE Online, now in text adventure form
While it came out last July, EVE Online: The Text Adventure has only now come to our attention and so we bring it to yours. This satirical fan project attempts to "look at a day in the life of a grounded pod pilot, poking fun at CCP Games and some of their developmental missteps whilst celebrating the community and the people involved with EVE Online." The adventure takes a few spirited jabs at CCP's "walking in stations" concept while challenging players to explore and perhaps escape their officer's quarters. If you're a fan of the MMO or need a quick diversion from the mundanities of life, give it a whirl and see if you can't beat it.
EVE Evolved: Merging EVE with DUST 514
When console MMOFPS DUST 514 was first announced, players were cautious of the game's ambitious goals. Developers promised that DUST battles would decide the ownership of planets inside PC MMO EVE Online, and that this would tie into system sovereignty and ultimately ownership of entire regions of space. We expected the two games to have separate communities and economies that would interact only when EVE players hired DUST mercenaries to take over sectors of particular planets, but we couldn't have been more wrong. Two years later, CCP blew our expectations out of the water with details of how DUST and EVE will be practically joined at the hip. We learned that the two games would share the exact same corporations and that ISK would be transferable between games. We also got a glimpse of the incredible plans for realtime integration, with EVE ships able to deliver air strikes to planets and DUST players able to shoot down ships in orbit with ground cannon. But have those ambitious goals stayed in focus during development, and what can we expect from DUST when it launches early next year? In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look through the public information on DUST 514's launch integration with EVE Online and speculate on how the link may evolve after release.
CCP still iterating on EVE's bipedal gameplay
EVE Online's bipedal avatar gameplay has a long history. What started as simply "walking in stations" morphed into a concept called Ambulation before finally seeing the light of day during 2011's Incarna expansion. Internet spaceship fans revolted, though, and CCP was forced to shelve its goals for fleshing out the New Eden universe. Apparently the mothballing was temporary, as CCP's Ned Coker recently explained to PCGamesN. "Incarna and avatar gameplay is definitely not shelved indefinitely, it's just not being worked on actively in full production right now," he said. EVE devs are tinkering with new Incarna prototypes that feature more actual gameplay as opposed to the single-player sitting-on-your-couch-and-surfing-the-market experience offered by the current captain's quarters implementation. Coker says that one of the prototypes involves deep space dead ship discovery wherein players will leave their pods and explore dangerous bits of wreckage.
CCP still planning to expand EVE's station gameplay
Just when you internet-spaceship-only types thought it was safe to resume your relationship with CCP, the EVE Online studio has dropped a dev blog detailing its plans for further Incarna-style avatar development. The recent CCP reorganization put bidpedal gameplay on the back burner due to a player outcry in favor of the game's flying-in-space elements, but as it turns out, CCP "still believes in the vision to bring your characters fully into the world of EVE." CCP t0rfifrans says it will simply take a bit longer for the firm to realize its ambitious sandbox goals. He also says those goals are currently up for debate, and while gambling minigames, corporation-owned hubs, and contraband trading haven't been ruled out entirely, Team Avatar has gone "back to the drawing board" in the interests of identifying rewarding gameplay and developing a prototype. In other New Eden news, CCP's Power of 2 promotion is making a return engagement, and you can create a second account at a discount price through April 1st. [Thanks to Kane Hart for the tip!]
'Will the door open?': CCP opens up about the future of EVE's avatars
Tactical Gamers has a lot of nice things to say about EVE Online's latest expansion, Incarna, but more than just fawning over the truly revolutionary ability to make avatars who walk around in a room, the site roped in two of the game's leads, CCP Soundwave and CCP Flying Scotsman, to jaw about the latest and greatest in the game. The first, and probably biggest, question for the devs was, "Will the captain's quarters doors ever open to allow avatars to interact with other players?" The devs confirmed that, yes, such a day is coming and will take place over a series of phases. The first stage is to include what CCP is calling "Establishments" in which players can mingle and take part in "various activities." Interestingly enough, the topic of emotes is a divisive subject among the CCP staff, with some arguing for their inclusion and others fearful that emotes will turn EVE into World of Warcraft, what with the dancing Elves on mailboxes and all. Emotes will be eventually added, but they will have "meaning" behind them. For more on Incarna, super-capitals and the future of the game, give this interview a listen!
EVE Online Incarna goes live
EVE Online players, rejoice! The day you've been waiting for is finally here. Today marks the release of EVE Online's much-anticipated Incarna expansion. The most notable addition with this update is undoubtedly the new ability for players to finally exit their spaceships and explore the universe's many space stations on their own two feet. All players will be required to (re)create their avatars upon logging in after the patch in order to allow them to experience the new ambulatory features. In other news, there can now be only one jump bridge in a system at a given time, and character creation and the new player experience have both been revamped in order to make the game's notoriously steep learning curve a bit more welcoming for new capsuleers. The full patch notes include far more than can possibly be squished into this post, so if you're anxious to know what exactly this new update entails, head on over to the official site.
EVE Online's Incarna 1.0 coming Tuesday
It's almost Incarna time for residents of CCP's New Eden, and EVE Online's website has been updated with a brief blurb warning users to prepare for some extended downtime on patch day. The update process is scheduled to last for 14 hours on Tuesday, June 21st, so make sure you've got some long-haul skills in your training queue this Monday. Incarna version 1.0 is bringing the much-ballyhooed captain's quarters patch to EVE, and it represents the first step towards fully functional space station interiors. The update will also feature a new tutorial experience (though the familiar voice of Aura isn't going anywhere) as well as new agent finder and corporation recruitment tools. CCP says that full patch notes are in the works, and in the meantime, you can join the forum discussion at the official EVE website.
EVE dev blog talks increased system specs, Incarna performance
Performance is always a concern when it comes to MMORPGs, and EVE Online is no different. The game has traditionally run quite well on older hardware despite graphical upgrades and thousands of simultaneous users sharing the same virtual space. In the latest EVE dev blog, CCP Zulu addresses the impact that the upcoming Incarna expansion is likely to have on client performance, and to make a long story short, CCP is upping the game's minimum and recommended hardware configurations. Zulu says that the change is mostly directed at users with lower-end Nvidia 6000 or 7000 series graphics cards who are trying to run multiple EVE clients on a single machine (a common practice due to the number of alt accounts and the fact that only one character per account can actively skill-train). "We therefore decided to temporarily add the option to not load the Incarna interiors while still retaining full access to all options and menus. This allows us to accommodate users with old and gnarly hardware [... and] also develop for those with top-of-the-line gaming computers," Zulu explains. Check out the blog entry, and the system specs, on the official EVE website.
EVE captain's quarters coming June 21st, CCP shows off new video
The times they are a-changin' in EVE Online, and CCP has officially set a date for the first salvo in a planned update campaign that will remake the face of the long-running sci-fi sandbox title. Incarna, CCP's integration of 3-D avatars into the game's ship-based environment, has been hinted at for so long that it's somewhat shocking to see an actual date bandied about. That date is June 21st, and it will bring about the official deployment of Incarna's first phase to EVE's live server. CCP Zulu has all the details in a new EVE dev blog, and there's also a new video clip featuring an extensive tour inside a prototype captain's quarters zone as well as voiceover commentary. "This is only the first step of many that continues EVE Online's progress towards the ultimate, immersive science fiction world. It unlocks a whole new experience for those already contributing to EVE's social and political fabric and provides a fresh beginning for those curious about becoming part of the deep universe that holds it," Zulu explains. View the video after the cut and head to the official EVE website for more details.
CCP releases EVE captain's quarters screenshots
Incarna! Captain's quarters! Screenshots! And there was much rejoicing, at least from those EVE Online players who recognize the game's need to move beyond spaceship avatars to further its quest for total sandbox domination. In service of that end, CCP has released a gaggle of images from its forthcoming Incarna update, which will bring quite a bit of newfangled gee-whiz to the worlds of New Eden. Interested captains should plot a course for EVE's Facebook portal, as it features several interior shots showing both full-body avatars and the various high-tech interfaces that CCP will be making available to pod pilots later this summer.
Minmatar captain's quarters coming to EVE Online test server this week
Get ready, capsuleers. Captain's quarters are coming, and sooner than you might expect. CCP Tanis breaks the news that a rough version of the Minmatar captain's quarters will be making an appearance on the Duality test server this Thursday, April 21st. That's right: Two days hence, all you Brutors, Sebiestors, and Vherokiors will finally be able to walk around on your own two legs inside of the EVE Online client. CCP's newest dev blog cautions that the test environment is a true work-in-progress, and Tanis states that "we're still at the chisel-in-hand-in-front-of-a-marble-form stage." Why make the environment available to the public at this point? CCP is mainly looking to gather feedback and general impressions on usability, since the captain's quarters interface is eventually slated to replace the current in-game hangar view. The test run will also feature new in-station and crash course tutorials as well as interfaces for planetary interaction, corporation management, avatar re-customization, and ship fitting. In other EVE Online news, the new Council of Stellar Management held its first fireside chat a few days ago, and an audio recording of the broadcast is now available for download on the official EVE forums.
CCP taking the first steps into EVE's Incarna
In the minds of some EVE Online players, Incarna occupies shelf space with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and new episodes of Firefly. However, according to a new dev blog from CCP Chilled, players will indeed have the ability to pop out of their pods and flop around on an in-game couch before long. The best part for those who love testing: it should be on Singularity before FanFest. This will give players a chance to check it out -- and prepare questions for the devs -- before the party at the top of the world begins. For those who don't care for monkeying with the test server, we could see the changes go live on Tranquility by summer. The upcoming deployment will add Captain's Quarters to EVE Online for new players and vets alike. When docked at a station, players will show up on a balcony connected to their quarters and be able to look up at the grandeur and majesty (or duct-tape and bondo) of their ships. All the normal functionality of docking will be present, and the developers have stated that there won't be any major differences in terms of docking time. For those curious about this first step towards Incarna, be sure to pop over to the CCP blog and check out the meaty details of the post.
The Daily Grind: Will Incarna get you to try EVE?
OK, I admit it, I'm one of "those" EVE Online players. You know the type I mean: toodling around high-sec on a five-year old account that's somehow still south of 10 million skill points. EVE is something of a paradox in the MMO space: people love to read and talk about it, but for whatever reason, relatively few of those people actually play the game consistently. With the recent announcement by CCP that the long-awaited Incarna (a.k.a. "walking in stations") expansion is not only well underway, but slated for Summer 2011, interest in the sci-fi sandbox is bound to increase over the coming months. Hopefully I won't be the only semi-permanent resident of New Eden who finally puts down roots in one of the genre's last proper virtual worlds (with several humanoid-avatar-loving friends in tow). The question of the day, Massively readers, is how does Incarna's looming reality alter your perception of EVE Online? Do you see yourself trying it out (or returning for a lengthier stay)?
Incarna scheduled for summer 2011 release
EVE Online is often said to be a game that's not for everyone. One of the biggest points of contention a lot of new players have with the game is the lack of any real avatar. The faces we customise on character creation are little more than passport photos, sitting next to names in chat channels and posts on the official game forum. Without a full body avatar to interact with the world, a lot of new players find it difficult to relate to their EVE characters the way they would in other MMOs. Originally named Walking in Stations, the Incarna expansion is intended to rectify this problem by giving players the ability to walk around and socialise inside the space stations of New Eden. Until now, it wasn't known for sure when the expansion would be released. It's been in development since as early as 2008 but has been pushed back several times since then as the enormity of the project began to fully unfold. Earlier today, Eurogamer reported that a release schedule for Incarna has finally been revealed. The first step in the feature's release will come with the Incursion expansion this winter, in which we'll get access to the new character creation and customisation process. After that, CCP's goal is to release the first iteration of Incarna, complete with the ability to walk around station environments, with the next summer expansion. Barring any major setbacks, it's reasonably safe to say that Incarna is on track for a summer 2011 release.
PAX 2010: CCP unveils EVE Online's latest expansion
Tweet var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/story/r/pax_2010_ccp_unveils_eve_online_s_latest_expansion_massively'; At PAX Prime, we caught up with CCP's lead game designer Noah Ward, who paused helpfully between the roaring crowds on all sides of the booth to fill us in on the "secret sauce" to EVE Online's continued growth and success. Ward said it was simple: CCP's steadfast commitment to the game for the long haul. The dev team strongly believes in the growth of EVE and works hard to expand it both inward and upward. Part of that growth includes continued expansions to the title, and Ward was excited to reveal the next one on deck. While it doesn't yet have a name -- at least, nothing CCP could put in print -- the team is hyped up about its latest expansion to the EVE Online franchise. Set to debut later this winter, the expansion looks to build on many of the key foundations that Tyrannis began. Hit the jump to hear about the four new features that EVE fans will find themselves crowing about by the time Santa comes a-callin'!
GDC10: Torfi Frans Olafsson gives details on Tyrannis, Incarna and more
For the last few weeks, EVE Online players have been getting excited about the up-coming Tyrannis expansion with its Planetary Interaction feature. We received our first taste of what Tyrannis will hold last month when the expansion was announced and since then we've speculated on how its planetary interaction feature might work. Although CCP haven't answered our interview questions on Tyrannis yet, we caught up with EVE Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson at GDC 2010 to get the inside scoop. Torfi was keen to point out that a lot of what CCP are doing in Tyrannis is laying the foundation for future updates and expansions. He calls Tyrannis "a stepping stone toward something even bigger." In addition to providing some inside info on the upcoming Tyrannis and Incarna expansions, Torfi revealed that there are more people working on EVE today than ever before. In contrast to MMOs that cut down their development team sizes once the game is out, CCP's ranks have been increasing at a huge rate in recent years. The ever-increasing revenue generated by EVE subscribers allows them to fund a large development team dedicated to making the game better for EVE players. "We've never had as many subscribers as we have today", says Torfi, "330,000 subscribers, like actual paying subscribers, not counting trials." It's thanks to all those subscribers that CCP are beginning to realise dreams they were never able to achieve when the game was less popular. Skip past the cut to see what Torfi Frans Olafsson had to say about Tyrannis, Incarna and more.
EVE Evolved: The development of Incarna
One of the biggest differences between EVE Online and most other MMOs is the lack of a humanoid avatar. Even when you're docked up in a station, you can't leave your ship and walk around. The detailed avatars we create on starting the game are not so much avatars as passport photos; seen only as little square mug shots in chat channels and the official forums. In their never-ending quest to make EVE the definitive Sci-Fi simulation, this is something the game's developers CCP have always endeavoured to change. The introduction of a full body avatar feature, code-named "Walking in Stations", "Ambulation" and now known as "Incarna", has been undeniably the most anticipated feature since EVE went live. It's been in development since 2006 but has proven a much larger task than CCP originally anticipated. With the expansion tentatively slated for winter this year, new information on it is still harder to find than a sober Icelandic game developer. In this week's EVE Evolved, I take a look at Incarna's development so far and why it hasn't been released yet.
GameX 2009: Video interview with Nathan Richardsson and "Alli" Óttarsson
After their panel at GameX 2009 (and some free lunch) we got to sit down with "Alli" Ottarsson and Nathan Richardsson from EVE Online and talk shop about the future of the game. Where are we going directly after the Dominion expansion releases this year? What other product tie-ins can we expect from the White Wolf end of the company? And what's Neocom all about anyway? Nathan and Alli were happy to take our questions and give some direct responses on what they hope to tackle in Neocom, how EVE's model is multiple game models, and what we might see take place in the highly-anticipated Incarna in regards to gambling and missions. To check our exclusive video interview, jump after the break with the "continue reading" button below!
EVE Online announces Dominion expansion, 'Walking in Stations' renamed Incarna
CCP Games has announced their 11th free expansion for EVE Online, called "Dominion." As the name suggests, the winter expansion focuses on territories and player control over them. We're told that the Dominion expansion focuses on conquering and holding space, and will feature a reworking of the sovereignty system of territorial control for player alliances. We don't have any further details on the sovereignty revamp yet, but according to CCP the changes have been made with subscriber feedback in mind, particularly through the player-elected Council of Stellar Management. Given that CCP Games is tying more of EVE Online's gameplay into the planets of the New Eden galaxy, the next step they're taking with the Trinity graphics engine is to add more detail to these planets (and presumably moons).
