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Massively interviews EVE executive producer Andie Nordgren
If you've been following the development of EVE Online lately, chances are you've heard of Andie 'CCP Seagull' Nordgren and her mission to make deep space colonisation and player-built stargates a reality. Andie has spearheaded the direction of EVE's development over the past few expansions and has gathered a considerable following in the EVE community. At EVE Fanfest 2014, we heard her plans to overhaul EVE's outdated sovereignty and corporation management systems, and to eventually introduce new deep space colonisation gameplay. Today CCP announced that Andie Nordgren has been promoted to the position of Executive Producer on EVE Online. I caught up with her for a chat about development on EVE and to find out what this promotion means for the future the game. I've pulled together the important details from the interview in this article, and if you still have burning questions for Andie Nordgren, she's doing an AMA thread on Reddit right now!
EVE Online: Crius launches today
EVE Online is just churning out expansions (or plus-sized content updates, if you will) lately, with today's Crius release being the latest of the bunch. Crius' main focus is on revising and expanding the industrial and crafting portions of the game. Players can join industrial teams to get important jobs done, enjoy an overhauled research interface, partake in dynamic pricing of tasks, and add industry-related upgrades to starbases. Other fun features of this update include interior atmospheric audio, a new reprocessing system, the ability to opt out of fleet warps, and API support for the industry features of this patch.
EVE Evolved: Stepping through the EVE Gate
Though EVE Online is often lauded for its rich decade-long player history full of wars and complex political dealings, the NPC storyline and New Eden's ancient backstory have always held my fascination. I started playing in early 2004 after reading dozens of fiction chronicles and mock scientific articles on the EVE website that painted the picture of a real living universe where incredible things could happen. Sure enough, my first years of play were punctuated with compelling live events and storyline arcs like the Crielere research project that led to the development of cloaking devices, the theft of a Federation Navy titan by Serpentis pirates, and the Blood Raiders taking over Delve. CCP has frequently stated that its goal with EVE is to create the ultimate sci-fi simulator, and the core of a compelling sci-fi setting is a living universe that grows and changes. The best sci-fi TV shows are those with a constant cycle of revealing compelling mysteries and then solving them and of encountering escalating challenges to be overcome. EVE has done this extremely well a few times in its life, such as with the release of wormholes or when the Sansha incursions events were kicking off, and each time the concurrent player numbers have spiked. Guild Wars 2 has shown the power of an evolving living storyline to get people into the game and keep them actively playing in the long term, something that should be the norm for MMOs and that EVE Online could take much greater advantage of. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at some of the big NPC mysteries revealed in EVE Online's decade-long history and ask why they were abandoned and where they could go now.
Prepare for EVE Online's Crius with new dev video
If you're looking forward to the changes coming in EVE Online's Crius expansion next week, a new video featuring CCP Mimic touches on what to expect in New Eden's industrial revolution. CCP Nullarbor and CCP Tuxford describe the changes that will open up manufacturing to be performed wherever and whenever you like. "What we're leaving behind is what is really the core of industry," CCP Nullarbor says in the video. "Which [are] very interesting problems to solve, such as 'What should I be building?' and 'Where should I build it?'" Be sure to read our previous articles and guides on Crius for more info, and check out the dev video included after the cut. [Source: CCP press release]
EVE documentary A Tale of Internet Spaceships now playing
Crowdfunded EVE Online documentary A Tale of Internet Spaceships is now viewable on YouTube. The 56-minute film was shot during Fanfest 2013 and it seeks to both introduce EVE to the uninitiated and to illuminate the period around the game's Incarna expansion (as well as the player revolts that followed).
EVE Evolved: Making ISK from the Crius release
EVE Online's economy has been studied over the years for its resemblance to the real world, and it is often cited as an example of a hyper-capitalist society with no laws or regulation. But underneath the emergent interplay of supply and demand that has fueled everything from freighter businesses to virtual investment banks, EVE is ultimately a game. The biggest influence on the markets by far has always been CCP Games and the changes it deploys in expansions, which shake the universe up and force players to adapt to new circumstances. There's always money to be made from major gameplay changes, and accurately predicting how an expansion will impact on the market can put you on the head of a short-lived but very lucrative gold rush. Though EVE's updates now come in the form of ten smaller releases per year, the upcoming Crius release scheduled for July 22nd has practically a whole expansion's worth of changes to industry and research. That gives you just over two weeks to prepare for the change, train any skills you might need, and figure out how to cash in on EVE's industrial revolution. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I run down some tips for how to prepare for the upcoming industry revamp in Crius and make some ISK.
EVE Online's in-game industry to be more challenging come Crius
The EVE Online team is trying out a new type of blog post today, this one taking time to look at the "bigger picture" of how in-game industry will function with the upcoming Crius release. According to the post, the team wants industry to be understandable by players and both interesting and skillful to use. "You should feel that you are 'good at industry,' rather than just that your character is. You're good at industry because you make good decisions, you outsmart your competitors, you've invested in the right places and you're ahead of the market," the post states. CCP says that it sees the purpose of EVE's industry as a different breed than what goes on in other MMOs, because the player is challenged to do more than just make certain items: "This is the world we're trying to create, the industry that New Eden deserves: one where you're in charge, where you're facing a new challenge every day, and where you have all the freedom in the world to decide how to solve it."
EVE Probe helps CCP diagnose graphical glitches
To help better test EVE Online's graphical capabilities, the team at CCP Games is looking at EVE Probe to save the day. With a reported 855 different GPU configurations in use by EVE players, EVE Probe was created to deal with issues that may not necessarily be able to be replicated by the dev team. EVE Probe gathers performance data from your machine after you've experienced a graphical problem and sends it back to the team for a more detailed analysis than was previously available. All data is sent anonymously and nothing is collected that can identify a player. If you're curious about EVE Probe, you can check out the complete dev diary on the topic at the official site.
Kill lots of DUST 514 players and you'll get to name the weapon you used
Want to name a weapon DUST 514? Log in and start killing, then. CCP is hosting a competition to name the new officer variants of everything from assault rifles to mass drivers to shotguns in its EVE shooter sidequel. From now through July 21st, players with the most kills on a single weekend using a base prototype weapon will get to pick that weapon's name and will also receive 30 copies of it. Each weekend's score is tallied individually, CCP says. Full details are available at the DUST 514 website.
EVE's Crius to revamp manufacturing on July 22
Are you sorta curious about EVE Online's science, manufacturing, and research aspects but have never managed to jump in with both feet? If so, you might want to hold off until July 22 when CCP releases its Crius update. The patch will feature "a complete overhaul of the tools for industry activities," along with dynamic pricing across New Eden helped along by the removal of slot limitations for science and industry jobs. Traveling worker teams will also be available, as will new options for reprocessing. There's a lot more to the update, too, and CCP has helpfully provided links to all the appropriate dev blogs in today's news post.
The Daily Grind: Is PLEX/APEX/C.R.E.D.D. risky for developers?
Trion announced ArcheAge's APEX system recently, and while I'm sure it has its own wrinkles, my first instinct was to compare it to EVE Online's PLEX. It's a fascinating idea, allowing players with knowledge of an in-game economy to leverage said knowledge into enough currency to buy tradeable items that can be redeemed for subscription time. It's always struck me as a bit risky, though. We can only guess at the number of EVE fans who play the game for free thanks to PLEX, but I imagine it's a pretty significant slice of the game's old money crowd. And while newer games like ArcheAge and even WildStar are aping the system in some fashion, it's too early to tell what sort of effect APEX and C.R.E.D.D. will have on developers' bottom lines. What do you think, Massively readers? Do these sorts of systems seem risky to you if you put yourself in a dev's shoes, or do you think the number of players taking advantage of these systems is relatively small? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
CCP aiming 'to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life'
CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson closed this year's GameHorizon conference with a 30-minute talk focused around EVE Online's history and its future. Petursson starts at the very beginning with CCP's 1997 founding and carries it through the present day in which the firm employs 400 people at studios ranging from Reykjavik to Shanghai to San Francisco to Atlanta. He doesn't shy away from what he refers to as the company's "turbulent times," but he also says that CCP's mission -- "to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life" -- will continue well into the future. You can watch the full presentation after the cut.
EVE Evolved: Four top tips for living in wormholes
One of the biggest goals you can reach for in many sandbox MMOs is building your own empire and controlling a small corner of the game world. For much of EVE Online's lifetime, that privilege was reserved for the powerful few leaders of the game's large territorial alliances, which carve up vast swathes of space between them. A handful of alliances still control the lawless nullsec regions today, but there are still opportunities for smaller corporations and even individuals to stake a claim in the chaotic world of wormhole space. Exploring and farming in wormholes is very profitable activity, but permanently moving in and setting up a starbase can be an intimidating prospect. One wrong decision might lead to pilots getting stranded in the void without bookmarks, your starbase coming under attack, or the whole expedition being robbed blind by a corporate infiltrator. The early days of wormhole exploration were rife with stories of hardship, heists, and devastating wars fought through shifting networks of wormholes. A lot has changed since the wormholes first opened in 2009, and today many of those problems have solutions. In this EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look at some of the ways wormhole life has improved since Apocrypha and give four of my favourite tips for anyone planning to colonise wormhole space.
The Daily Grind: What MMO documentaries would you like to see?
Yesterday we reported on an upcoming EVE Online documentary, and while I haven't seen it yet, I'm very much looking forward to it. The announcement also got me to thinking about which other MMOs, communities, and personalities I'd like to see examined in documentary format. But The Daily Grind is all about you, so how about it, Massively readers? What MMO documentaries would you like to see? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Crowdfunded EVE Online documentary premieres July 11
The crowdfunded indie documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at EVE Online's community is set to premiere on July 11, 2014. A Tale of Internet Spaceships was filmed during 2013's EVE Fanfest and aims to show what makes the sci-fi MMO so special to its players. "This candid exploration of a video game community investigates the sometimes complicated relationship between EVE's dedicated player base and the game's developers, CCP Games," a press release from Sorgenfri Productions states. "It also documents one of the most tumultuous times in the game's lifespan -- the release of the Incarna expansion -- which turned out to be one of the most important moments in the history of online roleplaying games." Thanks to a successful $3000 Indiegogo campaign, the documentary will be published for free on YouTube and Vimeo right after its premiere at 8pm on July 11th. A teaser trailer is provided after the cut below. [Source: Sorgenfri Productions press release]
E3 2014: EVE: Valkyrie gameplay trailer brings war to the stars
EVE: Valkyrie may still be in the pre-alpha stage, but that doesn't mean that CCP came to E3 empty-handed this year. On the contrary, the studio delivered a gameplay trailer with a couple minutes of in-game footage from the VR space dogfighting sim. In it, you can see combat between fighters as they use missiles and cannons to engage in aggressive diplomacy. The camera's constant tilting illustrates how the Oculus Rift headset will offer the player an unrestrained field of view during the experience. Check it out after the break and let us know what you think!
EVE: Kronos preparing 1.2 patch for tomorrow
EVE Online is prepping a batch of fixes and tweaks for the recently released Kronos expansion. The new 1.2 patch will fix broken exploration sights, allow players to limit the sound engine voice count, and improve loading for kill reports. Kronos 1.2 is scheduled for tomorrow, but you can read the patch notes today. It's like seeing into the future! Amazing!
The Daily Grind: Should I start fresh in EVE or use my old character?
I'm thinking of returning to EVE Online. It's been a couple of years for me, and even though ArcheAge and The Repopulation are on the near horizon, I've got a serious sandbox itch right now that just isn't getting scratched. My question for you is this: Should I dust off my old character, who if I remember correctly has around 10 million combat-focused skill points? Or should I start fresh as I relearn the game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Growing the EVE Universe
For much of EVE Online's early history, the playerbase saw consistent organic growth with no end in sight and developer CCP Games was able to stay laser-focused on its single game. The EVE universe has even had to grow several times to accomodate the increase in players, most notably with the opening of the drone nullsec regions and Apocrypha's addition of 2,499 hidden wormhole systems. EVE has survived the launch of countless high-profile MMOs in its lifetime and even weathered the monumental industry shift toward free-to-play business models, but it hasn't been plain sailing. While subscriptions have reportedly grown year-on-year, EVE's average concurrent player numbers haven't really increased since 2009. The active EVE playerbase isn't really growing, so it should come as no surprise that CCP has been trying to expand the EVE universe on other fronts. Though the first attempt with console FPS DUST 514 was an unmitigated disaster, EVE players still seem quietly optimistic about its PC reboot as EVE: Legion. Dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie has also piqued the interest of the emerging virtual reality community and has the potential to introduce EVE to thousands of fresh faces. EVE's Creative Director Torfi Frans Olafsson even hinted during Fanfest 2014 that EVE Online, Valkyrie and Legion might all share a single login and that characters may eventually be able to switch between games at will. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at why I think a shared login could be a stroke a genius, and interview EVE's Creative Director and Valkyrie's Executive Producer to find out what the future holds for the EVE universe.
World of Darkness apparently reached alpha three different times
Former CCP employees have revealed to The Guardian that the studio's World of Darkness MMO reached an alpha state on three separate occasions before it was cancelled earlier this year. "I tested it myself on two different occasions out of those three," said former dev Nick Blood (yes, really). "With the first playtest, I was amazed at how little of the core game was there -- at this point the game had been in development for over half a decade. I mean, there was just nothing, literally nothing, for someone like me, a complete outsider to the WOD IP, to appreciate." Blood goes on to reveal that the game had some sort of Assassin's Creed-style movement system, though he calls it "very basic in comparison."
