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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.
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's Incarna countdown kicks off
This has got to be a tough week for stick-in-the-mud EVE Online vets who are convinced that an expanding New Eden is a bad thing. First it was yesterday's official Dust 514 E3 reveal (consoles, platform exclusivity, and shooters, oh my!), and today we've got an official countdown clock to the EVE version of dress-up... er, Incarna. Yes, the long-awaited walking-in-stations/ambulation/EVE-with-legs update is less than two weeks away, and CCP has prepared a new section of its official EVE website devoted to all things Incarna. The new portal has a good bit of info on the expansion, including a new video dev blog featuring Team BFF and its commitment to improving and expanding EVE's minutia. If you're newly interested in EVE, Incarna, or really anything to do with New Eden, head to the new site and have a look at the video after the cut.
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.
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).
Fan-run EVE contest will let winner interview CCP dev on podcast
EVE Online is a space-based MMO through and through. In the six years since the game went live, EVE's galactic setting of New Eden has expanded to encompass thousands of solar systems, both charted space and far-flung unexplored systems, as the game's subscriber numbers have slowly but steadily grown. The IP is expanding in new directions as well. Novels now add more depth to the game's lore. CCP Games plans to let players step out of their ships and interact as avatars with Walking in Stations, and the devs have stated that they'd like to bring atmospheric flight to the game at some (undetermined) point in the future. And of course they also have a ground pounder FPS set in the EVE universe in the works. It was some of these things on the horizon that got our friend CrazyKinux thinking about the possibilities that may open up for this sci-fi MMO if planetary colonization or terrestrial gameplay are introduced. In fact, he decided to make this the basis of his next EVE Online contest. It's one we think might interest some of Massively's readers, particularly as the contest winner will get to grill interview an EVE developer on the MicroWarpCast podcast.
EVE Evolved: Is EVE Online's death penalty really that harsh?
Everyone knows that the death penalty in EVE Online is harsh but is it really as bad as we make it out to be? Is losing a ship really a devastating blow or does the emotional factor of losing something we've put care and attention into make us exaggerate the loss? Since EVE's gameplay is focused entirely on piloting ships rather than walking around with your character, we can get very attached to our ships and feel a great sense of loss at their destruction. It can be hard to keep in mind that our ships in EVE are just tools, which can make their loss feel a lot harsher than it should be. Is this the fault of the player for getting attached to their ship or of the game design for not encouraging us to form attachments with our characters instead?In this brief article, I discuss some of the golden rules of EVE used to minimise the death penalty and ask whether our perceptions of EVE Online's death penalty are really that accurate.
CCP Games and Atari partner on EVE retail box sales
When EVE Online launched in 2003, it came in a box through the game's publisher, Simon and Schuster Interactive. But for much of EVE's lifespan, it's been a digital product. Nothing to buy at a store, no physical media to save. It seems CCP Games has gone retro, from what was announced by CCP's CEO Hilmar Pétursson today, live from EVE Fanfest 2008 in Reykjavik. He announced that CCP Games will be partnering with Atari to establish a retail presence once again... which is fitting really, as Atari will also be publishing Ghostbusters. Hilmar introduced a short presentation by David Gardner, Atari's CEO, who discussed the partnership with CCP Games. EVE typically has a winter expansion and a summer expansion. The winter expansion, Quantum Rise, is just days away. The summer expansion is expected (but not confirmed) to include Walking in Stations, only there's a little twist with the timing... They're not waiting for summer. It's coming in March. In a box. In your local game store. That's the information we have at this time, but we'll keep you informed as more details surface.Update: Note that we haven't locked down a release date with Walking in Stations yet. Massively will report on Walking in Station's official release date once that's available -- at this time we only know it's tentatively slated for 2009.
Fanfest details emerge on EVE's Walking in Stations expansion
In further news coming from EVE Fanfest 2008, CCP Games has given a press-only presentation detailing the upcoming Walking in Stations expansion for EVE Online. While this is an aspect of the game that's so far been a divisive issue among EVE players, the expansion will allow players to step out of their ships and interact as highly detailed avatars in ship station interiors and captain's quarters aboard their own ships (presumably while docked in a station hangar). Walking in Stations is a project that's drawn on the talents of "special effects artists from the world of television and movies into the video game medium, a number of whom have been brought on to the team at CCP," writes Jon Wood of MMORPG.com, reporting from Reykjavik.
EVE Fanfest presentation discusses graphics enhancements
EVE Online's Fanfest 2008 is now underway, and reports are already coming through on what's happening in Reykjavik. CCP Games held a press conference that discussed EVE's technical side, namely its server technology, but also touched upon EVE's impending graphic enhancements in 2009. EVE Online's Premium 'Trinity' graphics engine was a significant leap forward in the game. While some players felt that the graphics as they were prior to Trinity were still ahead of the curve in terms of what's expected of an MMO, the look of the game changed dramatically with Trinity. However, the Trinity deployment wasn't a complete revamp of EVE's look. Ships and stations benefited from Premium graphics, but other celestial objects did not, jump gates notwithstanding."EVE is in a state where, if you run the Premium graphics edition, half of it is done, you could say," said Chief Technologist Halldor Fannar of CCP Games, at Reykjavik's Fanfest 2008, as reported by Oli Welsh of Eurogamer. Future graphics updates will bring celestial objects in line with what's currently seen in Trinity, and may well arrive with the forthcoming Walking in Stations expansion which is slated to launch after the Quantum Rise expansion, just around the corner.
EVE 'Blog Banter' discusses Walking in Stations expansion
While the official EVE Online forums have always been very active, there are other options out there. For those who like how busy the official forums are, but not the rules that govern it, there's Scrapheap Challenge. SH-C is a forum which is chiefly dedicated to discussing EVE Online, but not moderated by CCP Games themselves. Recent months, however, have seen a large number of EVE players striking out on their own, with their own blogs that focus on a particular aspect of the game linked to that blogger's playstyle. Industry, finance, piracy, 0.0 alliance warfare, and now even boosters (drugs) are being written about on a daily basis.While over 100 of these blogs are out there, the more prolific among them have joined under the banner of CrazyKinux's Blog Pack. By all accounts, it's been a successful community effort by EVE players, and now CrazyKinux is adding another dimension to the Blog Pack: conversation topics that are collectively tackled by the various bloggers, called "Blog Banter." The first Blog Banter got underway this past week, and the first issue up for discussion has been a timely one: EVE's Walking in Stations expansion, formerly known as Ambulation, which Fanfest attendees will get to try out firsthand in just a few more days. The question itself was proposed by PsycheDiver, who asked, "Ambulation: What are your hopes for your avatar and new functionality of stations?"
Live dev blog with EVE Online Senior Producer, October 23
Given all the EVE Online news of the past two weeks, not limited to new features being added to the game and old 'features' being taken away, CCP Games has announced a Live Dev Blog for tomorrow, October 23, at 20:00 GMT. The event is expected to last for about one hour. This time, the Senior Producer of EVE Online, CCP t0rfifrans, will be fielding questions from the players. As with the last few live dev blogs, the way this works is you need to post in the announcement thread with the questions you'd like answered. You can listen to the dev blog tomorrow by joining the in-game channel 'Live Dev Blog' and enabling EVE Voice via your right-click options once you're in. No doubt there will be a wave of Ghost Training nerf questions but it seems unlikely that this issue will be addressed any more beyond the two dev blogs on the matter. Then again, why should that stop you from trying if you've got legitimate concerns? But this would also be an excellent time for people to get Walking in Stations (Ambulation) questions answered as CCP is prepping a playable demo of it for Fanfest attendees, not to mention asking about new ship models like the Orca capital industrial ship.
CCP Games updates on Walking in Stations expansion for EVE
The latest EVE Online dev blog comes to us from CCP Eris Discordia. Her post, "Boozing in Stations", deals with the Walking in Stations expansion (formerly known by the much cooler name 'Ambulation'). She states that CCP Games is making good progress on Walking in Stations, but some more feedback from the players is needed: "We are continuously testing, designing, integrating, iterating and polishing on our internal server, but something is missing... the MM part from MMO -- the massively multiplayer part. Our fix? Open up the internal release for the Fanfest attendees so that for a few days our internal release will be public!" As reported earlier, EVE Fanfest 2008 attendees will get to preview Walking in Stations firsthand, well in advance of the expansion's release.She writes that this preview is not a public beta or even an alpha, just that CCP wants to share what they've done with the players. "There is only so much that we can explain through pictures and visual aids. In the end, you need to experience it in order to get a good idea of what we are truly doing." Eris also writes that EVE Fanfest 2008 will have a number of presentations by CCP devs on the Walking in Stations expansion, as well as roundtable discussions. Check out her "Boozing in Stations" dev blog for more info about where the Ambulation... no, Walking in Stations expansion is in terms of its development and what EVE Fanfest 2008 attendees can look forward to.
New details surface about EVE's 'Walking in Stations' expansion
Ambulation, or 'Walking in Stations' as it now seems to be known, is a hotly anticipated feature coming to EVE Online. It represents the first effort by CCP Games to add a more interactive dimension to the game, where players will finally be able to step out of their ships to socialize, play games, and ... modify one another's bodies? Apparently so. While some information about Walking in Stations is already known, EVE Stratics recently turned up more details. Trish "Seridove" Bennon and Michael "Solace" Lutes recently got some face time at PAX 2008 with CCP Games devs Jeremy Albert (Associate Producer) and Noah Ward (Lead Game Designer, aka CCP Hammerhead) who talked about aspects of the expansion.
