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EVE Lead Content Creator discusses new missions
The Empyrean Age expansion has been a significant content update to EVE Online for players interested in factional warfare. Of course, many players aren't willing to enlist in a militia and be under a constant wardec by their factional enemies, and simply prefer to mission run for their agents. CCP Games announced that new content was in the works, back in June, but the latest EVE Online Newsletter has an updated announcement on this from Lead Content Creator, Scott Holden. CCP is getting closer to releasing new PvE mission content, Holden says, with Content Creation now based in Atlanta. This will be sped up by new staff on the Content Creation team in addition to the existing freelance writers already turning out EVE mission content. Holden says that new types of missions are coming to New Eden, and hints at 'epic mission arcs'.
EVE dev blog announces changes to forum posting
EVE Online players know what a valuable resource the forums can be in learning about the game or keeping current with what's happening. However, it would be an understatement to say that it's been getting harder to find what you need among all the clutter. CCP Taera's latest dev blog, Forums Refined, announces the forthcoming EVE Online forum revamp, which will go into effect in the coming weeks. The announced changes don't address the search issues that players are well aware of, but rather deal with mergers of existing forum content as well as a few new additions. There will also be clearer descriptions of each forum category, hopefully resulting in fewer moved posts for those who have not trained up Reading Comprehension.A new addition to the EVE forums will include 'Warfare and Tactics,' for PvP and Factional Warfare discussions. Once this section goes live, members of Factional Warfare NPC corporations lose their rights to post in the Corporations, Alliance and Organization Discussions (CAOD) forum, CCP Taera says. An EVE Gameplay Center category is also being added, which will place 'Science and Industry,' 'Missions and Complexes,' and 'Market Discussions' in one section, keeping them all near the top of the forums. It should have the added benefit of keeping it "easier to find specialized conversations on gameplay topics instead of just posting in General," CCP Taera adds.
Player and developer interaction in EVE Online
MMOs are constantly evolving games, from their earliest days as they're conceptualized to their final days when the servers shut down, forever. They evolve throughout their lifespan because they must. Players naturally pick up on ways to use the ever-changing game mechanics to best suit them, prompting the devs to either brand these tactics as an exploit or targeting them for rebalancing in a future patch. A case in point is the impending speed nerf in EVE Online, which is one of the biggest issues currently debated by EVE pilots. But do players have the right to be this angry when the developers change the game? Jim Rossignol argues this point in "EVE Online and the Big Nerf": "EVE is basically a ongoing symbiotic process... perhaps this means the developer has to make some unpopular decisions for the good of the process as a whole. The relationship between player and developer is not one of equals, nor is it always at its best when it is entirely amiable." Do you agree with Rossignol on this -- and does paying that $15 a month entitle MMO players to pressure devs to change the game to fit their playstyle, or should MMO developers keep the game balanced as they see fit?
Era of suicide ganking in EVE Online coming to a close
CCP Games has addressed the long-standing problem of suicide ganking in EVE Online in their latest dev blog, titled "Serious Security." CCP Fear stepped up to inform the player base that, yes, the devs do take the issue of suicide ganking seriously, and that they're going to take action. The proposed changes, outlined below, are not going into effect immediately, nor do they impact actions taken as part of Empire war declarations. However, they will be implemented with the next major update to EVE, which will be Empyrean Age 1.1, rolling out this Fall. The dev blog focuses on CONCORD improvements and the increased consequences of suicide ganks. CCP Fear states: "We have been looking at suicide ganking and overall security standing issues, and how these features affect the general landscape of EVE. We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative 'no hassle' it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance to escape, nor any help from CONCORD. We want to change this."
Speed kills
EVE Online has evolved into a game where being fast and agile allows you to choose your fights, dictate range and thus control the course of the battle, disengage whenever you choose, and often move so quickly that you're largely unassailable. However, the era of the nano craze will soon be coming to a close, according to EVE Online developer CCP Nozh. His latest dev blog addresses the insane velocities achievable, even by previously lumbering battleships, with combinations of speed modules, rigs, pirate implants and performance-boosting drugs. (For those less familiar with EVE or its more deviant aspects, you can in fact use and sell drugs in the game.) CCP Nozh outlined the dev team's design goals in stemming the speed crisis:
EVE Online currency sellers rip off players (shocker)
Well, here we are again... certain people among EVE Online's player base who buy their isk from shady sites are the focus of another dev announcement. GM Grimmi just posted the following: "We have had a number of cases recently with hacked accounts and similar issues and we have found that a lot of them are directly connected with a certain website. This website sells ISK and supposedly EVE Time Codes (ETC), though the ETCs always turn out to be faulty or already used. Players that go to this website and do business with them are running a very high risk of getting keyloggers placed on their system and subsequently having their EVE accounts hacked, and ISK and assets removed. Customer Support cannot correct damages that result from problems with the security of username and passwords. We strongly urge everyone to keep their virus protection up to date and stay away from dodgy ISK seller websites."Here's another novel idea. Admittedly it's a radical concept and some people might not be ready for it: Play the game and stop trying to buy your way to the top. That said, the ability to legitimately buy and sell ETC is supported by CCP Games, but only from the official ETC resellers, paired with a secure system of buying/selling ETC at the EVE website. The incidents that GM Grimmi describes, as have numerous other dev blogs in the past, stem from players shelling out cash for their isk, presumably from those spam bot sites that turn up in popular channels from time to time. Standard practice with the GMs is to give the isk buyer a negative wallet balance and force him or her to claw their way back up to a positive balance; CCP bans sellers but not buyers. But perhaps this is too lenient. Do you think these players should get banned for buying isk? How does your MMO of choice handle players who try to buy their currency and gear?
The tyranny of skill training
One of the nicest features of EVE Online is the fact that skill progression doesn't go hand-in-hand with a monotonous grind. Rather, the game uses a time-based system of advancement. But this seemingly casual aspect of the game is a double-edged sword; in the earlier stages of skill training, a newer player needs to log in very frequently to switch up low level skills. Some EVE players set their alarms and drag themselves out of bed in the early morning hours to switch their skill training, so as not to lose hours of time where progression halts. PC gaming blog 'Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle' has a post about how EVE's system "creates significant pressure to log on and pop a new skill on every time one finishes." Logically, a new player would assume that it's possible to queue skill training in advance. That assumption, however, would be wrong. Thus the early career of an EVE pilot is one of setting alarms, calendar reminders, and sticky notes... all to avoid that guilt over losing hours of advancement because of something trivial like sleep or a job. But as time goes on, skill training intervals lengthen at higher levels and thus require far less maintenance. Implementing a skill queue was one of the issues brought to CCP Games by the player-elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM), as it's one of the complaints most players have when getting to know the game. How do you feel about skill queues? Is it a necessary feature that CCP should implement, or should the developers be focusing on more pressing matters? [Via]
EVE Online dev blog details new player resource
Massively touched on the CCP Games announcement back in April of having a 'Wikipedia' of EVE Online, definitive and accessible from within the EVE client. We also mentioned that a new volunteer Interstellar Services Department (ISD) branch, known as YARR, would be responsible for setting up and maintaining the player-driven wiki, which bears the unwieldy moniker "EVElopedia." EVE Online developer CCP Fear has updated the community on EVElopedia's status and the phases it went through on the way to becoming a useful resource. While EVElopedia isn't quite ready to be rolled out for general use, it's very near completion and will feature an updated item database. CCP Fear states that the database will automatically be updated with each new patch, ensuring that players have up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips upon logging in on patch days. Lastly, it's been confirmed that EVElopedia will be compatible with the in-game browser (IGB) for viewing text and images within the wiki. However, CCP Fear says that editing the wiki will need to be done in a browser out-of-game. Check out this latest dev blog for the full rundown on the EVElopedia project, which is already being discussed on the EVE Online forums.
Results of the Council of Stellar Management meeting with CCP Games
CCP Wrangler has just erected quite a wall of text at the EVE Online forums, but this one is definitely worth a read as it concerns the direction of the game. Wrangler's post is essentially the minutes from the first meeting between the player-elected Council of Stellar Management and CCP Games in Reykjavik last month. CCP Wrangler's post lists the issues that the CSM brought to CCP Games, summarizes delegate views on the issues and CCP's responses to their concerns. The minutes represent three days worth of meetings; highlights include skill queues, Black Ops improvements, alliances and factional warfare, and 0.0 sovereignty issues. Beyond these issues, there's much more listed that covers a wide range of player concerns. Of course there won't be any immediate changes to the game, but the minutes give a fair estimation of how EVE Online may evolve in the months to come.
Empyrean Age factional warfare exploit identified
Factional warfare in EVE Online, by design, ensures that ships of a much greater ship class cannot engage smaller ships in certain deadspace mission pockets. If you and your fellow militia pilots are in a zone designated for nothing larger than frigates, for instance, you shouldn't find yourself getting locked by battleships fighting for your rival militia. Apparently this has started to occur; some players have found that the jump gates to these zones don't actually prevent them from warping in ships of a magnitude not allowed in such areas. GM Grimmi had this to say at the EVE Online site: "Flying bigger class ships than allowed by the jump gates to Factional Warfare complexes has been classed as an exploit. If you are found doing this we will be forced to take in-game actions as abusing game mechanics is not allowed." So there you go. You might still be able to get in there with something obscenely overpowered and pop frigates like balloons, but you'll say goodbye to your account over it.
Empyrean Age factional warfare map included with newest E-ON issue
EVE Online's latest dev blog comes from Zapatero, one of the staff at E-ON, the quarterly magazine all about EVE. Our own Massively columnist Brendan Drain, aka Nyphur, has been a past contributor to E-ON, which should give you an idea of how in-depth some of the articles are. The magazine is a useful resource for any serious player of the game and the fiction is pretty solid as well, it's just a shame that there's a few-month gap between each issue's release. Maybe it was that wait that pushed him over the edge, but rumor has it one of the Massively writers snapped and bought every back issue of E-ON, but we think that he's unhealthily obsessed anyway. Zapatero writes that E-ON is about to celebrate its third year in operation with the release of issue 12, which will ship on July 4th. As a bonus to readers, it will include a free poster of the Empyrean Age New Eden star cluster, to aid players who have enlisted in factional warfare. The map was created by Council of Stellar Management (CSM) delegate Serenity Steele, who also brought EVE Strategic Maps (a book of star charts) to fans of the game. The free poster map will include region names and outposts. Faction warfare-enabled regions will be highlighted and the security status of each system will be color-coded. For those who actually have EVE Strategic Maps, the poster is cross-referenced with the book, although Zapatero states that the map will be useful on its own. He outlines what will be in issue 12 in his dev blog; if the content matches up to what the E-ON staff has put out in past issues, it should be worth checking out.
BattleClinic's exclusive Factional Warfare guide by CCP Games
BattleClinic, a popular EVE Online web resource run by players, now has another thing going in its favor. Matthew Woodward, a Game Designer from CCP Games, has put together an in-character factional warfare guide, which is exclusive to the site. Woodward writes under the guise of one 'Sergeant-Major Illivia', and tries to whip the reader into shape as if they were a new recruit in Boot Camp. Sergeant-Major Illivia's ranting introduction to factional warfare in the Empyrean Age walks you through militia enlistment, battlefield intelligence, your objectives in the war, and most importantly -- how to stay alive in EVE. It's a clever way of conveying what's involved in factional conflict to a prospective recruit, although Woodward/Illivia does make you feel like a whelp at times. Check out the "Faction Warfare Enlistment Debrief" at BattleClinic for fiction with practical applications.
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EVE Online patches rolling out July 1
Some new changes in EVE Online will be deployed on Tuesday, July 1, Community Manager CCP Wrangler announced today. Empyrean Age patch 1.0.1 will reportedly bring fixes to EVE Voice and will also include the previous two optional patches. Further details on what Empyrean Age patch 1.0.1 will include are not currently available, but will be noted at EVE's Patch Notes site, with updated information highlighted in green text. The patch will add roughly 30 minutes to the regularly scheduled downtime, meaning Tranquility will be down from 11:00 to 12:30 GMT.EVE Online's website -- in its entirety, including the EVE API -- will also be down on July 1, from 12:00 to 16:00 GMT, as CCP Games upgrades its website database server. CCP Wrangler began a discussion thread on the patch at the EVE Information Portal.
EVE dev blog: Council of Stellar Management Summit recap
The latest developer blog posted at the EVE Online site is a brief report to the community about last week's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) Summit, the first meeting between the player-elected council of representatives and CCP Games. The CSM Summit gave the delegates a chance to discuss, face-to-face with CCP, how the players they represent would like the game to change. CCP Xhagen reports that CCP views this first meeting as being a 'resounding success.' The CSM delegates were well-prepared and clearly put a lot of time and effort into the topics on the agenda, Xhagen says. The next step in the process is for the discussion topics from the CSM Summit to be sorted in terms of viability and priority. This involves a few factors, namely the time and work required by CCP to implement the game changes. From there, the CSM will prioritize the topics in light of the technical feasibility already established through talks with CCP. Afterwards, the proposed changes will enter development pipelines; future patch notes will indicate which issues or changes are the result of the CSM's efforts. CCP Xhagen cautions that some requests will take longer than others to realize in the game, but stated that the devs will do their best to roll out the changes and communicate timeline estimates. Xhagen finishes by saying, "The most important results of the Summit may not be immediately evident, but the seeds planted by the CSM into the minds of the EVE dev team members are already sprouting."
WarCry interviews EVE Lead Designer Noah Ward about the CSM
EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is the title's first attempt at having elected representatives work with CCP Games on improving the game as well as the company's relations with its player base. The initial idea behind the CSM was that it would act as an oversight committee on behalf of the players, in the wake of the 'T20 incident' when a CCP developer unfairly provided a player corporation with certain resources. But this first CSM is largely tasked with improving the transparency of CCP's inner workings, while shaping the game to better fit the play styles of their constituency. The CSM has met online in recent weeks, and with mixed results, but they've now met in-person in Reykjavik, where they also had face-to-face time with the creators of EVE Online.Jordan Deam from WarCry interviewed EVE Online dev Noah Ward (aka CCP Hammerhead) about what this experiment in 'democratic community management' has yielded thus far, and what it may yet become. The interview focuses heavily on the dynamic between players wanting features added to the game and the undertaking necessary on CCP's part to make these changes a reality. Factional warfare has only just been realized in the game and was four years in the making. Ambulation, or 'Walking in Stations', is slated for a launch in the coming months, after three years of being in the pipeline, Ward said. Have a look at the WarCry interview, and decide for yourself if the CSM is living up to its potential, and if CCP is recapturing the transparency of a small, independent game company as it grows into a much larger entity.
CCP Games outlines GM hierarchy in EVE Online
The latest EVE Online dev blog comes from GM Zhainius, who writes about customer support at CCP Games. Over the 5 years EVE Online has been running, the GM staff has answered millions of petitions in addition to writing articles and guides. But their work is typically in the background; it's the devs that really get the attention. GM Zhainius felt like writing to clarify the inner workings of CCP Games in terms of customer support, and to give players a clearer picture of what happens when they file a petition. GM Zhainius dispels rumors that Game Masters at CCP are volunteers. They're all paid employees, some of whom have been doing their job for years. He also cites a low turnover among CCP's GM staff; in fact, a number of them have been with EVE before the game even launched. The GMs work from four locations worldwide: Reykjavik, Atlanta, Düsseldorf, and Shanghai. He lays out the company's entire customer support structure and the groups or 'cells' the support team is divided into. The EVE dev blog is an interesting look behind-the-scenes into how CCP customer support is handled, and whether or not you're a satisfied customer, it's always good to know that at least someone is reading those ship reimbursement petitions.
EVE Fanfest 2008 to have first public preview of Ambulation
Massively previously announced some of the details of the upcoming EVE Online Fanfest 2008, but CCP Games has just updated their site dedicated to the annual capsuleer pilgrimage. The three-day event (November 6-8) will be filled with a PvP Tournament; presentations by CCP devs to showcase upcoming game features; roundtable discussions between players and devs; and a silent auction of EVE collectibles with proceeds to benefit sick children. If any of that sounds enticing to you, it actually gets better. EVE Fanfest 2008 will feature a hands-on demo of Ambulation. CCP states: "You'll be able to sit down and interact with character avatars live at FanFest. This will be the first public demonstration of EVE with Walking in Stations and we expect this experience to be a huge draw." To help pack in the crowds, CCP Games is offering travel packages for reduced rates on airfare and hotel stays, and they've expanded the travel package offerings to more countries since their initial Fanfest announcement. Check out CCP's Fanfest '08 site for the full details on what's the most anticipated annual event for EVE Online fanatics (and a few Massively writers as well).
EVE Online's 'Empyrean Age' a first step towards something greater
EVE Online's latest expansion, The Empyrean Age. has largely been a success, both from the standpoint of a number of EVE's players and what it will allow the game to evolve into from the perspective of CCP Games. EVE developer CCP RyanD's recent dev blog confirms that CCP is excited about the directions the game will now be able to take in the future. He writes that throughout EVE Online's five year history, there was a rift between developer-created storytelling and player-driven roleplaying. There were a few prominent storyline events run in tandem by the devs and volunteers in ISD, but while such events succeeded in some respects, they failed in others. The mixed response to the events made them a rarity in the game. But those initial faltering steps have given way to greater storyline interaction in Empyrean Age, as player created content and efforts begin to mesh with the developing story of EVE. CCP RyanD writes, "The path we are on now is really unprecedented."
EVE Online dev blog: new missions galore
EVE Online developer CCP Molock writes in his dev blog that CCP Games has big plans for PvE content in the game, especially for mission-runners. Eight devs are currently working full-time on mission and deadspace creation. In addition, there are a number of freelancers working on new mission text. The freelance opportunities were announced in EVE's EON magazine, so it seems they found the people they needed -- particularly in light of just how much PvE content is on the way. Molock describes the process of getting everything in order for The Empyrean Age and Factional Warfare as 'dizzying', particularly in light of the 160 new Factional Warfare missions that were part of the expansion's launch. Molock states that more content is to come in subsequent Empyrean Age releases, and explains what we can expect from EVE's PvE experience in the future.
The Empyrean Age Q&A with author Tony Gonzales
TenTonHammer has done a well-timed interview with Tony Gonzales, Lead Writer for EVE Online, who as of next week will be the published author of a sci-fi novel titled The Empyrean Age. The novel ties in with the namesake game expansion that CCP rolled out just days ago; both the novel and the game deal with the strife of all-out galactic warfare between the four races of New Eden. Gonzales talks about how he began as a volunteer writer for CCP Games, churning out fan fiction a cut above the rest and catching CCP's eye in the process. He discusses the challenges of making The Empyrean Age novel accessible to any fan of sci-fi, particularly those who are not familiar with the setting of EVE Online and the serendipity of 'being at the right place at the right time.' Have a look at the TenTonHammer interview and get an idea of the universal conflict Tony Gonzales brings to readers and gamers alike in The Empyrean Age. If you're interested in a sneak peak before the June 19 release date, TenTonHammer also has an excerpt from the novel at their site. Via EVE Online
