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CCP's Valkyrie eyeing 'a really big transformation in how games are built and played'
Eurogamer recent talked to CCP chief marketing guru David Reid about the company's place at the forefront of the fledgling virtual reality movement. EVE Valkryie was the first title to be publicly played on both the Oculus Rift (PC) and Sony's Morpheus (PS4), which puts CCP in the driver's seat in terms of VR game development. "There aren't a lot of white papers and APIs and ways of doing these things yet," Reid explained. "We want to be a flagship game. We're on the cusp, potentially, of a really big transformation in how games are built and played, but we have to do our part to make sure that's worthwhile for everybody." Reid also talks up Valkryie's connection to the economies in DUST 514 and EVE Online as well as its "rock/scissors/paper" game mechanics. "As I go into a battle and I earn skill points and I earn currency, I can translate those to having the capabilities to fly bigger, better different ships and can kit them differently," Reid says. "It's a fundamental mechanic of the EVE universe, in EVE Online and in DUST, and it'll be coming to Valkyrie as well."
CCP introduces EVE's newest buddy program and rewards
As part of its ongoing initiative to "reduce the barriers for players joining -- and rejoining -- EVE Online," CCP Games has today revealed the latest version of EVE's buddy program, dubbed the Recall Program. Under the new plan, current EVE subbers will be able to send out seven-day game passes to their friends whose accounts have lain dormant for six months. What's in it for existing players, other than the comforting camaraderie of BFFs in a cutthroat space sandbox? If your invitees resub, you can claim not-necessarily-exclusive rewards, up to three per month, including new clothing, a cosmetic ship skin blueprint for the Mackinaw Exhumer, and PLEX.
EVE Online plans drone renaissance
EVE Online is giving much-needed love to its drones come this summer, and a new dev blog posted today has all of the copious details. "There are several aspects of drone balance that are not yet up to our current standards," the devs posted. "In the summer release we will be implementing a wide ranging balance rework for drones of all sizes." The changes will include balancing drones between the different empires, between quality levels, and between drone sizes. There will also be modifications made to drone skills and sentry drones. These changes will also impact skills and modules for fighters and fighter bombers. After the update, these "larger drones" will have reduced base damage and can only be hosted 10 at a time on a supercarrier instead of 20.
EVE Evolved: Mining is broken, but it can be fixed
Mining has a reputation for being the most boring activity in EVE Online, but it's always filled a niche role as a low-effort way to make ISK and play with friends casually. When there's no PvP going on and you can't give your full attention to smashing NPCs in missions or anomalies, mining fills that downtime with something more lucrative and social than spinning your ship in a station. The problem is that mining has slowly become obsolete over the years; alternative mineral sources now supply much of the market's needs, and the risk of flying a defenseless barge just isn't worth the mediocre payout. It's currently more efficient for an individual to buy minerals with ISK made via some other form of PvE, such as level 4 missions or incursions. And on the macroscopic level, such huge quantities of minerals hit the market from alternative sources such as reprocessing loot that the economy could potentially function with no miners at all. CCP has tried to make mining more appealing over the years with buffs and new ships, and the devs recently announced plans to nerf mineral compression as part of a campaign to make mining worthwhile, but I think it'll take a lot more than ISK to get people mining again. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how mining and reprocessing are at odds and suggest some ideas for new mining features that could revitalise this long forgotten profession.
The Daily Grind: Do you separate your in-game and out-of-game behavior?
CCP recently released an official statement condemning out-of-EVE harassment. In that same statement, though, the company said that in-game bad behavior is not only acceptable but essential to its version of a sandbox. The separation between player and player character is a common sentiment among MMO fans, of course, whether you're a griefer, a raider, or a roleplayer. What say you, Massively readers? Do you try to separate your in-game and out-of-game behavior, or are you the sum of your actions in both virtual worlds and meatspace? 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: Real-life harassment 'morally reprehensible,' in-game villainy integral to EVE
EVE Online developer CCP has released an official statement regarding real-life harassment in the wake of the sandbox title's latest brouhaha. CCP Falcon says that the company, in collaboration with the player-powered Council of Stellar Management, "have agreed and would like to state in the strongest possible terms and in accordance with our existing Terms of Service and End User License Agreement, that real life harassment is morally reprehensible, and verifiable examples of such behavior will be met with disciplinary action against game accounts in accordance with our Terms of Service." The forum post also states that "the freedom to scam and commit piracy, espionage, and extortion are all fundamental to the EVE Online experience, and CCP will never change that." [Thanks Pierre!]
Here's some of the cyberbullying that happens in EVE Online
EVE Online griefers have grabbed their share of headlines during the game's first decade, but rarely have the masses gotten a chance to witness them in action. Now you can, though, thanks to a player named Erotica 1 who has publicized an audio recording of a "Bonus Round" scam being carried out via voice chat. Jester at EVE News 24 has the full story as well as a link to the Soundcloud file. It's worth noting that portions of the audio are NSFW due to graphic language. [Thanks Max!]
DUST 514's Uprising 1.8 patch out today
CCP has released Uprising 1.8 for its DUST 514 console shooter. It's a significant patch on account of the "full equipment, weapon, and dropsuit rebalancing," not to mention new sidearms, cloaking equipment, and new heavy and light dropsuits for each of the game's races. Cloaking is a game-changer, CCP says, and so "coordinated use of active scanners is vital, and properly placed drop uplinks and nanohives can help provide victory in even the most difficult battles."
CCP: EVE Valkyrie is at the forefront of the VR 'movement'
CCP is convinced that virtual reality is around to stay, which is why the studio is pouring its efforts into EVE Valkryie for Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. In an interview with VG247, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid said that CCP's involvement is a signal that VR is coming back in a big way: "This is just great for virtual reality. It convinces all of us developers that this thing is really going to happen. That it isn't just a fad or a flash in the pan or just one company trying -– it is now a movement. When you have one of the foundational companies of the video game industry getting into this, it really has accelerated the chances of this becoming a very big deal." Reid said that CCP is showing that it is focused on "things that matter to gamers" by pursuing EVE Valkyrie. "We said a vision statement a couple years ago that we want to be a developer that created virtual worlds more meaningful than real life," he said.
GDC 2014: EVE Valkyrie coming to PS4, Sony's new VR headset
Sony announced its new virtual reality headset at GDC this week. The device is called Project Morpheus, and it seeks to turn your PlayStation 4 experience into something far more immersive than the typical couch and controller session. Shortly thereafter, CCP announced that its New Eden-based EVE Valkyrie action title is coming to both the PS4 and Project Morpheus. Valkyrie was specifically designed for VR devices, and was previously announced for the PC and the Oculus Rift. We've embedded the new trailer after the break.
EVE Evolved: Rubicon 1.3 and repainting ships
EVE Online's recently released Rubicon expansion was an important first step toward a truly player-run universe for everyone, allowing corporations to wage empire wars over planetary customs offices and introducing a series of new personal deployable structures. The initial release was a little light on content, but developers have since expanded on it significantly with three major point releases. Rubicon 1.3 went live this week, and the changes seem pretty good all around. This release overhauled the directional scanner, buffed the SoE Nestor battleship's capacitor recharge rate and remote repair range, and nerfed remote sensor dampeners into the ground. Large corporations like EVE University were pleased to hear that the limit on the size of corporations has been increased to 12,600 thanks to changes to the corporation management skills. And in response to an emerging trend in fleet warfare involving hordes of drone ships assigning their drones to an interceptor, developers have also limited the number of drones that can be assigned to another ship to 50. The 1.29 GB patch also included several overhauled ship models and new ship shaders, but the new feature I see the most potential in is the ability to finally repaint our ships. This could eventually help corporations establish their own visual identities and might even link into gameplay or EVE's spying metagame. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at some of the Rubicon 1.3 changes and how repainting your ship could become more than simply a cosmetic upgrade.
Play EVE: Valkyrie on the Oculus Rift at PAX East
Ready to hop on the virtual reality hype train? Make sure you stop by the Oculus spread at this year's PAX East, as the company behind the Rift headset is partnering with CCP to bring you some hands-on time with EVE: Valkyrie. PAX East happens in Boston from April 11 through April 13. If you can't make it, don't worry because we'll be there with silly goggles on our head.
EVE Online: Rubicon 1.3 patch turns on the lights
A new patch has landed in EVE Online today that features a laundry list of tweaks, the most notable of which is the first pass at the game's new linear lighting. Rubicon 1.3's linear lighting system "increases the texture fidelity improving the richness of color," but CCP said that it still needs more work. The patch also includes several quality-of-life user interface improvements such as giving contacts labels, shift left-clicking to open up a kill report, and the addition of a guest list for stations. Other changes with today's patch include better asteroid shaders, new hull maintenance bots, two new mobile tractor unit variants, additional cosmetic options for ships, and improved corporation skills. You can read the full patch notes for all of the details.
EVE's Rubicon 1.3 patch updating directional scanning
CCP's latest EVE Online dev blog focuses on some UI changes headed your way in the March 12 Rubicon 1.3 update. Tweaks include word filtering and chat highlighting, Neocom blink settings, and updates to the game's directional scanner functionality. "As of Rubicon 1.3, you will have three ways to enter the scan range: one slider and two input fields (one in km and another one in AU)," CCP explains. "Those three input options will be interconnected. That means that when you enter 100,000 in the km field, the AU input field will display the corresponding distance in AU and the slider, which is linear, will also update."
Eerie comparisons between MMOs and real life surface
We all joke about how unrealistic MMOs are to our mundane, tax-filled lives, but Redcentric did a little digging to compare how virtual worlds and the real one stack up in various ways. Some of the results proved astounding. With World of Warcraft, Redcentric noted that the population in both the game and the US military have about the same percentage of males (84% to 83%), while EVE Online's male population (96%) is more similar to that of the astronaut crowd (90%). The agency also noted how Second Life has 10 real-world embassies in it and that a previous ban of real-money trading in the game caused a very real financial crisis for a bank that wiped out $750,000. So how do these three titles compare to real-world cities in regards to population? World of Warcraft at its peak was close to Moscow's population (11.5 million), while Second Life almost hit the levels of San Fransisco (825K) and EVE Online barely surpassed Edinburgh's 495,000.
EVE Source hardcover edition now available
First introduced at last year's FanFest, EVE Source aims to be the largest official illustrated guide to the EVE Online universe and its history. The full-color, 200-page hardcover edition is now on sale for $39.99 at brick-and-mortar comic book stores and online for both the seasoned vet and the complete noob. If you're heading out to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle at the end of this month, you might be happy to hear that 200 copies of the previously sold-out EVE Source Limited Edition ($89.99 retail) are waiting for you at the Dark Horse booth. [Source: CCP press release]
Ship painting is coming to EVE Online
For some people, the idea of painting the outside of your ship in EVE Online is pointlessly frivolous. For others, it's the cue to immediately get out some swatches and start talking about how nice a battlecruiser would look in hot pink and safety orange. The bad news for players in the latter camp is that those aren't available colors, but an early test version of ship painting will be introduced with the game's next major patch. Nine total paint schemes are being introduced: eight available for Aurum and one available via in-game acievements. This is an intentionally narrow field, as the developers want to see what kind of player interest exists and whether or not having custom-painted ships will affect play patterns. For more details on exactly how you can space-pimp your space-ride, take a look at the full rundown on the pilot program. And be sure to ask for that pink-and-orange number with the next wave.
DUST 514 jacks up its arsenal but nerfs damage output
DUST 514's small-arms arsenal is getting a few new options with Uprising 1.8. The patch will add three new guns and reduce damage to allow for longer fights. The new guns include the Caldari Bolt Pistol, a high-DPS, small-clip handgun; the Caldari Magsec SMG, a semi-automatic with higher damage than other SMGs; and the Gallente Ion Pistol, a plasma-shooting beast that punches right through enemies' armor and shields. The devs said that they will be tweaking time-to-kill in 1.8 by reducing the power of high-level damage modifiers, taking one grenade away from what players could previously hold at a time, reducing base damage for several weapons, and applying weapon proficiency skill bonuses against either shields or armor.
EVE Valkyrie Oculus Rift demos available in London this Friday
A gaggle of CCP devs will be hanging out at Goodman's Field pub near the Tower of London this Friday, March 7th. CCP Guard, CCP Xhagen, CCP Duchess, and CCP Masheen are bringing their Rifts, too, and starting at 6:00 p.m. the quartet will be demoing EVE Valkyrie on the new Oculus virtual reality device. The announcement post says that the number of sessions will be limited due to time constraints, so get there early!
EVE Evolved: What to expect from EVE Fanfest 2014
Almost 10 years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games started a new tradition with the first ever annual EVE Fanfest. The event started out as a largely informal gathering in a tiny venue that allowed players and developers to mingle on a more personal level, but it's now grown into something massive. Over a thousand players now make the annual pilgrimage to EVE Online's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland, to hear what the future holds for their favourite MMO. For many, the event is also a social gathering, a chance to swap stories with other players, and a rare opportunity to meet the corpmates they fly with every day in the virtual galaxy of New Eden. The Fanfest weekend is typically a packed schedule of panels, talks, roundtable discussions with developers, and keynote speeches revealing the future of the game. While the event is understandably focused on EVE Online, it's recently expanded to cover aspects of DUST 514, the latest goings-on with World of Darkness, and even CCP's new virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. CCP has announced that this year's event will see a monument to the EVE playerbase unveiled in Reykjavik Harbor as well as the first reveal of EVE's summer expansion, but what else can we hope to glean from this year's event at the start of May? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I delve into the EVE Fanfest announcement and speculate on what we might expect to hear from this year's event. Will this be the year that World of Darkness gets some serious news? And what's new for DUST 514?
