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67,000 plus dead in Jita, cause unknown
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened... -- Obi Wan Something 'terrible' indeed has transpired recently in EVE Online, but the event brought more amusement than horror to fans of the brutal sci-fi game. Over 67,000 ships were destroyed in the bustling trading hub of Jita yesterday, and the pilots of EVE's galaxy of New Eden are still trying to figure out what really happened. All of the obliterated ships were shuttles, which is unusual given the nearly endless procession of freighters and industrial ships clogging the system's star gates. The Jita system is notorious for being overcrowded and is often blamed for the lag that affects the rest of New Eden. Not a day goes by without an EVE pilot, somewhere, cursing Jita and calling for the system to be nuked. It seems those rage-fueled wishes were finally granted, just not quite how most would want that retribution to play out. Theories about the event can be found in multiple forum threads, ranging from the plausible to the absurd. A few players expressed the view that multiple convoys of freighters offloaded their cargo of ships into space at one location, and somehow ignited the mass in a doomsday-level conflagration. Some feel that it was all orchestrated by EVE Online's developers to help set the tone for factional warfare between the races, which is about to consume EVE's pilots in the Empyrean Age expansion. Others point out the most likely cause of the mayhem: it was simply a bug... a map glitch. No official explanation from CCP Games has been given for the occurrence, nor has EVE's Interstellar Correspondents covered news of the event. Glitch or not, it's a novel way to kick off the wave of destruction about to sweep over New Eden mere days from now. Thanks Hortinstein
EVE Online sale on Steam, this weekend only
Steam is having a weekend sale which includes the sci-fi MMO EVE Online, now offered for $9.99. The Steam sale pricing ends on Monday, June 9th. If you're interested in giving EVE Online a go, then grab it on Steam now. That's not a bad way to burn $10 and 6 gigs of hard disk space, take it from a convert to the game. And of course you'll get the free Empyrean Age expansion that CCP Games is rolling out on June 11th. Check out Steam's EVE page -- where they're also offering a free 21-day trial -- and who knows, maybe we'll see you in the galaxy of New Eden soon. Just don't get too attached to that ship... Via Gaming Today
Empyrean Age details revealed in EVE developer chat
MMORPG.com invited a few of the EVE Online staff from CCP Games to participate in a live developer chat this past Sunday. MMORPG.com was kind enough to provide a complete log of the chat, which was hosted by their own Community Manager, Laura 'Taera' Genender. Among the EVE Online devs present were CCP Greyscale (game designer/factional warfare), CCP Ginger (ISD manager/storyline), t0nyG (lead writer), and CCP Wrangler (community manager). The developer chat was primarily focused on the changes that The Empyrean Age and its factional warfare will bring, but the CCP staff addressed a number of other issues and concerns as well:
EVE Online: play test factional warfare, June 4-6
CCP Games announced a new series of factional warfare playtests for EVE Online's imminent Empyrean Age expansion, and are seeking help from all available pilots in New Eden. EVE dev CCP Tanis stated that the first release candidate for the Empyrean Age is being put on the Singularity test server, and that CCP is now focusing its attention on the gameplay mechanics of the long-anticipated factional warfare system. The playtest will focus on the offense and defense of capture points and the conquering of solar systems. Players will be divided into either Caldari or Gallente factions; each faction will have an offensive and defensive team. The ultimate goal is to capture as many systems as possible while preventing the opposing faction from gaining any territorial control. CCP developers and ISD will be on hand to answer questions and guide players. When: June 4 to 6 (Wed., Thurs., Fri.) from 11:00 to 14:00 EVE time (GMT).Where: Singularity test serverWhy: "We really cannot stress how important your feedback is to us." Another Why: Each day the players on the winning side will be given a stock of officer modules !! ... *dramatic pause*... on the test server only. (Sorry.) Also the player who submits the best bug report will be given maxed out skills on the test server. How: Join the in-game channel "Faction Testing" for instructions.CCP Tanis also reminds players that the latest Singularity test server patch is required to participate in the playtest. The patch should ONLY be applied to a second copy of the EVE client, and NOT the main client used for everyday play on the Tranquility server. That is, unless you'd prefer to call the test server "home" from now on. Further details can be found in the official announcement; EVE Online account login is required to access this information.
EVE Online targets Battlestar Galactica fans
EVE Online has made first contact with a whole new group of sci-fi fans, through some carefully chosen TV advertising. EVE's first TV ads were shown during the most recent Battlestar Galactica episode on the SciFi network. If CCP Games wanted to target the viewers who would be the most receptive to checking out EVE, they didn't go wrong by choosing Galactica fans. The TV ads were an unexpected move, and came as a big surprise to many EVE players. Ethic at Kill Ten Rats said: "My jaw hit the floor while watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica on SciFi tonight. There, before my eyes, was a commercial for EVE Online. Amazing. Nice work CCP!"High visibility TV adverts for an MMO had previously been something only associated with Night Elf mohawks, Shatner, and a company with some rather deep pockets. EVE Online dev CCP Wrangler made a full announcement about the company's leap into prime time advertising.
EVE Online 'Power of 2' subscription offer returns
War is coming. Whispers across the great expanse of space haunt the communication channels of those who would tune-in. Nations are moving with the sheer force and destructive potential of tectonic monstrosities, the outcome of which can only mean one thing. The EVE universe is about to change. It's up to iron willed pilots such as you to determine that fate.The Empyrean Age propaganda machine is already in full effect, and the recruitment drive has begun. CCP Games just sent out that communique above to 'Veteran' EVE Online subscribers. CCP has decided to bring back the Power of Two promotion for EVE Online, at least for those players who have taken advantage of the offer in the past. The Power of Two offer allowed a subscriber to open a second account, with six months of prepaid game time for $49.95, but only gave a small window of opportunity in which a player could sign up. The current offer, now dubbed a 'Veterans Package,' is really the Power of Two reloaded. It allows those who qualify to resurrect an inactive second account and give 6 more months of life to an alt, at that same rate of $49.95. The limited-time offer remains valid through June 27th, which coincides with the Empyrean Age expansion that goes live earlier in the month. No official announcement has been made at the EVE Online site yet, but players have already caught on to the Veterans Package offer.
EVE Evolved: To blob or not to blob
To blob or not to blob, that is the question. Blobbing in EVE Online has always been a hot topic for debate on the forums and a tough issue to tackle for developers. At its simplest, blobbing is a PvP strategy in which massive fleets are used to completely overwhelm the enemy. Although the term blob usually has negative connotations, fleet warfare is a strongly advertised aspect of EVE and is required for 0.0 alliances to take and hold space. When two or more sides in a conflict can field massive numbers, huge fleet battles can ensue. What is a blob and why is it undesirable?The word "blob" is one of the most widely misused terms in EVE and it's one that few people agree on a definition of. To some, a fleet is only a blob if it has hundreds of ships in it. To others, a gang of 15 battleships hunting their lone frigate would be considered a blob. For the purposes of game mechanic discussion, a blob is really just a fleet that's so large it causes normal fleet warfare to break or encounter problems that make it a lot less fun for those involved.The basis of the blob is the universal constant in EVE warfare that more ships is always better no matter what your target is. If you have a choice between fielding a small gang or a large one, the larger gang is almost always the better choice because it gives a higher chance of victory with fewer losses. What makes a blob undesirable is that once fleets get above a certain size, fleet warfare is not nearly as fun as it should be.Do you hate blob warfare? Read on to find out why blob warfare isn't as fun as it should be and how the blob problem could possibly be solved.
EVE Evolved: The nano problem
Whether certain tactics and ship setups are balanced is a topic that's been constantly debated on the EVE Online forums for as long as I can remember. The argument itself is as old as EVE and is repeated daily on the forums like some kind of popular EVE Online screen play. The script of this play doesn't always follow the same format but the same roles are always filled by the players participating. On one side, we have people who think a certain tactic is unbalanced and should be fixed by CCP in a balance patch. On the other side, we have people who rely on the tactic being discussed that are afraid it might be changed. Everyone else with an opinion falls somewhere on the spectrum between these two extremes.Not so long ago, the arguments were about nosferatu used on a Dominix being unbalanced and remote sensor dampeners being too powerful. Discussions about of these led to some re-balancing to help level the PvP playing field. The latest argument is about nano-fit ships and nano-gangs. The "nano" craze is a PvP ship fitting style and fighting strategy that favours speed over all else. Ships like the Sacrilege and the Ishtar which might normally be fitted with heavy tanks are instead fitted for high speed and agility. Rather than resist and repair damage, a ship with high speed and agility can evade enemy fire altogether. A nano-fit ship can orbit an enemy so quickly that the enemy's turrets can't track them and missiles deal tiny amounts of damage.With some pilots claiming that viable counter-maneuvers exist to combat the nano craze and others calling it "easy mode for PvP", it's hard to know what to think. Read on while I delve into this controversial issue and draw some important conclusions.
The Gaming Iconoclast: Taking Sides
"Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?""Oh, I'm not any kind of witch at all!"-- The Wizard of OzWhat about you? Bastion of righteousness or purveyor of deceit? Some folks, to be certain, put a lot of thought into this, balancing role-play, game and class mechanics, racial traits, and a whole constellation of other factors. Some merely find one race or other more interesting or entertaining to look at. Others go where their friends in the game already happen to be. But, initially, when a game is launched, those first adopters will break a certain way demographically. Nick Yee's excellent research on the subject at The Daedalus Project has been touched on here before, and using that as a starting point, we here at TGI have done some statistics-infused navel gazing. One of my long-time gaming buddies and I caught up a couple of weeks ago, and he was astonished that I still play World of Warcraft. I'm the impatient hot-head of the group, usually the first one to unload the choicest four-letter words or suggest that the drinks, service, and (ahem) "prospects" at another bar might be superior to our current location. Anarchy Online got stale for all of us at about the same time, and I was the one musing loudly where we ought to go next. But, here I was, two years after my buddies had retired for one reason or another, still playing as enthusiastically as ever. Heck, maybe more enthusiastically than I did back then. We'd all created Alliance characters, but thinking back to those days, I began to wonder at the mindset and mentality that goes into choosing sides when we're given the option. I'm with the Horde now for the simple reason that almost all my gaming friends were there, and it was "change sides or miss everybody."
EVE Evolved: EVE's skill system demystified, part 2
Something that's always bothered me about EVE Online's skill system is how often it's misunderstood by new and potential players. A few common myths and misconceptions surrounding the skill system are responsible for putting a lot of potential players off signing up. In this final part of the guide, I debunk two classic myths about the EVE skill system and go on to show you how to get the most out of your skill training time. Myths debunked #1 - New players can't compete with old ones:A common thought among new new EVE players and people thinking of signing up is that new players can't compete with old ones. In a world where open PvP reigns supreme, it does sound reasonable to assume that a new player in his lowly frigate has no chance of competing against a three year old veteran player in his tech 2 fitted battleship. This common mistake is usually caused by people misunderstanding how EVE's PvP works. In other MMOs, a lot of emphasis is put on the individual player's gear and abilities. You wouldn't invite a level 20 character along on your level 70 raid in World of Warcraft because they'd be useless. This doesn't really translate into EVE at all.Read on to see this myth get busted along with another common misunderstanding people have with EVE's skill system. Read Part 2, Skill myths exposed > ><< Back to Part 1, EVE's skill basics
EVE Evolved: EVE's skill system demystified, part 1
Most MMOs, among them the popular favorites World of Warcraft and Everquest, employ a level-based character progression system where your player accumulates levels during play. Killing enemies and completing quests reward the player with experience points toward their next level. As the player's level increases, they gain access to better skills and equipment. Alternative systems of accumulating points in various skills have been used successfully in games like Ultima Online and Runescape. These systems still share the familiar idea of your character progressing in their abilities by practicing.The result is that players who put in more effort reap more reward as their time and effort spent playing their character directly translates into increased power. These tried and tested systems are what players have come to expect from MMOs today. CCP's EVE Online uses a different training system that doesn't reward players with increased abilities for playing the game. Given the MMO genre's tendency toward level-based character progression, it's not surprising that EVE's unique skill system seems foreign and inaccessible to a lot of MMO gamers. In part 1 of this article, I demystify the seemingly complex EVE skill system.Read on for a condensed breakdown of the system for the typical MMO gamer. Read Part 1, EVE's skill basics > > Skip to Part 2, Skill myths exposed > >
EVE Evolved: Controversy brewing over removal of shuttles
On February 20th 2008, EVE Online's economist Dr Eyjo published his fourth quarter economic newsletter for 2007. The newsletter discussed issues ranging from deflation to what ships players use and methods for estimating the total production of Eve. Among the pages of the economic newsletter was a small section commenting on the purchases of shuttles relative to tritanium prices and the ensuing discussion seemed to focus on this. In his more recent devblog, Dr Eyjo informed pilots that following a recent patch, the infinite NPC supply of shuttles was being removed from the market in order to alleviate what he calls "an artificial price cap of 3.6 ISK per unit".It's no secret that shuttles and tritanium prices are linked. The effect that the supply of shuttles on the market has had on tritanium prices is a well-known and well-documented phenomenon that was even included in the second economist dev-blog back in September of 2007. If prices of tritanium ever increase above 3.6 per unit due to the laws of supply and demand in action, it becomes profitable to buy shuttles at 9000 ISK per unit and refine them into tritanium for sale or industry. The fact that there are people with perfect refine skills willing to do this for profit means that the price of tritanium can never rise any more than fractionally above 3.6 per unit before the shuttle-refiners push it back down. Read on for a breakdown of the controversy and to find out how this change has affected the EVE markets.
EVE Online source code stolen, seeded
Space piracy has transformed into actual piracy, as source code for EVE Online has been stolen and unleashed onto the web via torrent. While it may not be the full source code -- one Slashdot commenter said it was just Python source -- developer CCP is expectedly none too happy.According to Community Manager "CCP Wrangler" on the official forums, "Anyone found distributing or discussing decompiled client code will face an in game ban." As to how they know who's distributing the code, various reports say CCP is seeding the torrent themselves and using the associated IP to ban the related accounts. Now that's just dirty.[Via Massively]
Multiverse partners with Vivox to bring voice to virtual world developers
Metaverse development company Multiverse has announced a partnership with Vivox, the voice service provider for virtual worlds and MMOs of many stripes. Being able to provide integrated voice chat, 3D positional audio, presence, speaking indicators, and management tools right out of the box will be a definite selling point for developers who are interested in using Multiverse's platform to create their virtual worlds.Vivox is keeping influential company -- other partners include Wizards of the Coast, IBM, metaverse developers Electric Sheep Company, and EVE Online's CCP Games. With strong strategic alliances like these, they're quickly rising to the top of voice provider solutions for the industry. Let's hope their grasp doesn't exceed their reach.[Via Business Wire]
EVE Trinity: Boost patch to bring balance to the EVE force
Once in a blue moon random EVE developers will brave the frontlines and answer cries in space. No preparation, no scriptwriters, nothing but the ums and ughs that lead Capsuleers to the path of enlightenment! These adventures are known as the Live Dev Blogs. This trip focuses around EVE Trinity's aftermath. Mindstar MC's the event, directing questions to Hammerhead, EVE's Lead Game Designer and Zulupark, whom holds a Game Designer a title. If you missed out on the live version CCP recorded it and has posted it on their website -- our heroes drone on for about an hour.I started transcribing the Live Dev Blog and then my brain exploded at around the second sentence. I quickly realized it was going take days, no years, to extract and present the information in type. Luckily, an EVE player by the name Jameroz is a better transcriptionist than I. If audio isn't your deal, you can read the text in full here. Jameroz is also accepting any ISK compensation since it took him all day to transcribe this. I listed the worthwhile points after the break if you don't want to slog through the audio or the full text.
EVE Trinity: CCP's take on the boot.ini debacle
In a recent EVE Dev blog, Dr. Erlendur S. Thorsteinsson, big shot Director of the EVE Online Software Group shed some light on the installer code that ended up bricking computers running certain Windows XP installations. I'm not a programmer, but I can tell the EVE: Trinity installer code was a wee-bit sloppy from reading the following discussion thread. The good software Doctor also poses several questions and answers to instill a little clarity on what CCP is doing to make sure this doesn't happen again.According to the Dev blog 215 players contacted CCP directly for assistance. Other numbers are missing, left to the wayside, numbers much bigger than 215. How many premium patch clients were downloaded prior to the applied fix? CCP has those numbers, but in this case, Thorsteinsson leaves an impression that CCP is downplaying the boot.ini fiasco as something that more or less only affected a handful of players. As seen in this thread and many others like it, tons of players took their own initiatives without contacting CCP at all. Anecdotal evidence alone would put the number much higher, into the thousands, but probably not in the tens of thousands. CCP has gone on to implement better testing (you know normal Windows XP installs their players actually use) procedures to improve QA procedures and practices.
EVE Trinity: Starbase Warfare switched back on
Game on. Extending EVE's routine downtime has paid off as CCP announced earlier this morning a lift on the POS Warfare ban. The EVE popo (GMs) also issued a warning that players who exploited the cyno jumps and camped out when jammers were not functioning properly to resume their furtive cheap shots until the ban was lifted will be punished accordingly. Any players who end up losing or whom have already lost a ship as a result of another player found guilty will be reimbursed. Yesterday, I wished for a quick-fix, and I doubted it would happen by the next day. I get to eat my own words because even if some serious bugs remain, (such as friendly brosefs not being able to use your corp's jump bridges) the ban was lifted and to a certain degree numerous POS warfare space bugs were eradicated. We can only hope that CCP continues the rampant squashing to improve the EVE Trinity player experience. In spite of all the pitfalls, it's not all doom and gloom. CCP sounded off the bells and whistles yesterday as EVE online reached a new concurrent record on the Tranquility server. The new number stands at 41,690 accounts simultaneous floating somewhere in EVE space. I believe Second Life still currently holds the all-time record for simultaneous users on one global server, but from our coverage it looks like their server structure always has some type of problem.
EVE Online: POS Warfare temporarily banned
EVE Trinity is chock-full of the disastrous space bugs, which is highly unfortunate for all my EVE brosefs. Did you survive the reboot? (I'm still waiting for the shirts.) Those who pilot dreads and want to pew-pew some cyno jammers better hold off, or you could be slapped with exploiting that won't look very good on your *cough* spotless record. In this latest round CCP has finally acknowledged the problems with player owned structure warfare and their solution is to essentially ban players from playing this part of the game until further notice. On the bright side, shooting player owned structures is one of the most mind-numbing things to do in the game. Repairing structures ranks second! Trust me if you never participated in POS warfare it's not very exciting. But honestly, for those that do this is still pretty jacked-up. There is no easy solution for the developers, what else can they do besides bringing the servers down? That and I guess fixing it. I like fixed shiny expansions that let me harp on other things in the game besides a case of the MMO bugs. Should the servers be taken down? Implants poofing, POS warfare, UI issues, graphical instabilities, and the list goes on... Hopefully, CCP fixes these more serious in-game bugs by tomorrow, well, that's a stretch. The EVE developers were so hyped up and energetic over Trinity, and their players were very supportive. I bought into it, I can't help feeling let-down. Now that EVE Trinity is actually out, its plain sad to see all these bugs. It's a true shame, a lot of hard work went into EVE Trinity.
EVE Trinity premium client patch woes: How-to-fix botched XP boot.ini file
CCP is on the verge of earning the title of having the worst expansion launch in the history of the genre. An echelon of EVE players who downloaded and patched EVE Trinity's premium client from the classic client are reporting serious debilitating computer issues as a result from the patch after rebooting. The premium patch deleted an important file needed to boot! While I would love to rip CCP a new one over this, the more pressing matter is to post a fix and help spread the word. The premium patch client was already taken down, but there are players who already patched, still in the game that are in for a rude-awakening when they reboot their computers. EVE players who already downloaded the premium patch client, upgrading from the classic client and are using Windows XP will need to take the necessary measures to repair their boot.ini file. The boot.ini overwrite does not affect Vista users. If you are using the classic client, or installed the premium client via the full client download you are not affected. If you upgraded from the classic client to the premium client, using the content upgrade via the patcher, or the stand alone patch may need to take the necessary precautions to ensure your computer's stability.
EVE Trinity: New graphics engine calls for a video card checkup
Traders, Smugglers, Pirates, Miners, Capusuleers from every walk of life! Today marks a momentous occasion in the EVE Online universe. At approximately 6PM PST the EVE servers will be brought down and fitted for the new EVE: Trinity expansion. The downtime is estimated to last 24 hours, which means this is probably our last heads up beforehand to train a time appropriate skill in advance. The amount of new content is intense as Trinity is EVE's biggest expansion ever: New ships, tweaks, tutorials, new everything, and of course, the grand-daddy of Trinity's enhancements: The long-awaited graphical overhaul featuring EVE's new graphic engine dubbed Trinity 2. Confused yet? All that matters is that every ship, stargate, and station remodeled to sweet perfection. There is a downside, and that is not everyone will be able to enjoy the new radical graphics. Players who do not have a Shader Model 3.0 or DirectX9c compliant video card will be left in the space dust with the classic client. EVE players with DirectX9c and video cards that support Shader Model 3.0 will be able to use the shiny new doodad client. The important thing is everyone can still play EVE Online regardless or not your rig meets the requirements to run the new graphics. What is SM 3.0 and how the hell do you know your video card supports it? To answer that, with the help of the EVE forums, I have compiled the necessary information to help you find out.
