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EVE Evolved: All there is to know about DUST 514
Last week, EVE Online developer CCP Games officially started accepting beta signups for its upcoming MMOFPS DUST 514. This first phase of closed beta tests will be open only to active EVE Online subscribers, giving us an early opportunity to contribute feedback to the game's development ahead of console players. I think that's important because it's our universe that the game will take place in -- literally. DUST 514 players will be connecting to EVE Online's supercluster, so gameplay between the two titles will be intimately linked in realtime. With the new game's release date set for the summer 2012, EVE players can expect the next big expansion to focus heavily on planetary control and the DUST 514 link. The past month has been flush with new information on DUST's customisable vehicles, drop suits, infantry weapons and more. We've even had a look under the hood at the server architecture that will keep the planet-bound battles fast and furious without lagging out the EVE players smashing each other to bits in orbit. In this week's EVE Evolved, I gather together all the key information on DUST 514 released this month and discuss what it means for EVE Online players.
CCP reveals DUST 514 dropsuits
CCP returns with its weekly DUST 514 announcement via the PlayStation blog. This time around, the company gives us a sneak peek at some of the dropsuits available in its upcoming EVE Online MMOFPS sidequel. What's a dropsuit? Well, aside from the latest in sexy sci-fi outerwear, it's also standard equipment for New Eden infantry types and it comes "in a variety of shapes and sizes, each with a unique slot configuration, powergrid, and CPU that inform [customization decisions]." Slot types include light, heavy, sidearm, high, low, equipment, and grenade, and CCP mentions that dropsuits will define your role on DUST's battlefields (as will your choices for the aforementioned slots). Head to the official PlayStation blog for a bit more info as well as a selection of Caldari and Amarr dropsuit images.
The Firing Line: Gravity-defying gameplay edition
Hullo shooter fans, and welcome back to Massively's weekly dose of pew pew news and views. The past seven days were quiet ones for three of the The Firing Line's "big four" MMO shooters, as newsmakers on the PlanetSide 2, Global Agenda, and Firefall dev teams were all silent. Thankfully there were a couple of cool DUST 514 tidbits to chew on, but before we get to those, I'd like to call your attention to some interesting Tribes: Ascend, APB: Reloaded, and CrimeCraft news that you may have missed.
DUST 514 dev blog shows off guns, lots of guns
First-person shooters are nothing without guns -- lots of 'em -- and CCP's upcoming DUST 514 is no exception. Today the company has released a new PlayStation blog update that zeroes in on a handful of infantry weapons in the far-future sci-fi opus. Said weapons are broken down into light, heavy, and sidearm classes, with one example of each detailed. Light weapons are the most common, and they fulfill multiple roles for short- and medium-range applications. They also come in four variants, each of which allows gamers to select a playstyle that features a number of trade-offs (lower fire rates for increased accuracy, etc.). Heavy weapons are more specialized, and are only available to players skilled enough to use heavy dropsuits. Sidearms are generally used as backup weapons, but they're still deadly in the right hands. Finally, today's entry continues the DUST tradition of showing off factional equipment variants, so head to the PlayStation blog to get a glimpse of some Amarr, Gallente, and Caldari weaponry.
DUST 514 vehicle fitting screens examined
If you haven't managed to snag a spot in the DUST 514 beta, you'll want to have a look at a fan site known as DUST 514 Base. The site posted a detailed look at the game's vehicle fitting interface over the weekend, and it gives a good rundown on many of the options in store for the planet-based mercenaries of New Eden. If you're an EVE Online veteran, the fitting screens will seem somewhat familiar. If not, at least you can get a leg up on what is likely to be one of the more complex console FPS UIs in the business. The blog entry contains a fair bit of speculation in terms of the numbers presented on the UI, and there are also plenty of high-quality images augmenting the text. Hit the links below for more info.
Vehicles to play a large role in DUST 514 battles
The PlayStation blog has been updated with a new blurb on DUST 514, and vehicle freaks will be happy to note that we now have a better understanding of how rolling armor works in CCP's EVE-based MMO shooter. CCP says that vehicles "play a large role" on DUST's battlefields, with heavy armor units delivering long-range concussive attacks "while lighter units emphasize speed and flexibility." Vehicles are also highly configurable, and players will be given a choice of armaments drawn directly from EVE Online's weapon classes. Finally, the new blog entry gives us a glimpse of various vehicle aesthetics, and long-time New Eden fans will be pleased to note that the selection has a familiar factional feel (though duty compels us to complain about the lack of a Minmatar entry).
The Firing Line: All the shooter news that's fit to print
Welcome back to The Firing Line, folks. I'm still putting out a few flames from last week's how-dare-you-call-this-an-MMO smackdown, and rather than fuel that particular fire by telling you that I've been playing a lot of World of Tanks (oh, did I say that?), I figured I'd take a high-level look at what's been happening with a few of the larger MMO shooters (and quasi-MMO shooters) over the last couple of weeks. Despite my best efforts, we're still stuck with lore updates and insignificant PR when it comes to PlanetSide 2, though we did snag a few new screenshots recently. Things have also been quiet when it comes to Global Agenda and a few of my other favorite titles. Not to worry, though. Hi-Rez is moving right along with its Tribes: Ascend beta, and you can read about that and more in my news roundup after the break.
CCP reveals DUST 514 rapid deployment vehicle
What would a sci-fi shooter be without initials and military techno-jargon? Unusual, for starters, and though DUST 514 is more than your average kill-'em-all, it does share a love of equipment abbreviations with the rest of the genre. The latest such is the rapid deployment vehicle (or RDV), and the mobile monstrosity is the subject of CCP's latest PlayStation blog entry. The RDVs are AI-driven, existing to deliver gear and other vehicles to players on the battlefield. The blog entry is heavy on lore details, and EVE Online veterans will recognize the RDV's manufacturer (Outer Ring Excavations) as the megacorp behind famous New Eden mining ships like the Hulk and the Orca.
DUST 514 dev blog introduces Mobile Command Centers
DUST 514 commanders, your attention please. The latest blog post from CCP Remnant over on the official PlayStation blog provides some insight into the massive Mobile Command Center ship, from which the team's commander gathers intel, issues orders, and orchestrates the battle. Of course, due to the MCC's pivotal role on the battlefield, ground troops would do well to ensure its protection. As the blog mentions, the destruction of a team's MCC is no small feat, but success in the endeavor can often mean assured victory. For the full details on the game's Mobile Command Centers, head on over to the official blog.
DUST 514 server architect reveals the magic behind the techno-miracle
While behind-the-scenes technical details may not excite all gamers, there's sufficient interest in DUST 514 that we're willing to bet info-starved players are willing to get a little nerdy for the mind food. CCP's Lin Luo wrote up a dev blog about how the studio is working to meet the challenges of creating a MMO that utilizes fast, first-person shooter dynamics. As Luo says, it's not only difficult that CCP is creating an MMOFPS, but that it has to be programmed from the ground-up to interact with EVE Online as well. Luo presents a hypothetical battle scenario that illustrates how the two games might interact, with DUST mercs accepting a contract from an EVE corp to take over another corp's territory on a planet. The team is using a dedicated multi-core server machine to handle the strain of thousands of players duking it out in real-time. Luo reports that the team has fine-tuned the tech to the point where battles are able to host a "satisfying number" of simultaneous soldiers, and that thanks to the way it's designed, the battles can be scaled up and down in terms of numbers depending on who is present.
DUST 514 could be the PS3's 'most important game'
Still miffed about CCP's decision to limit its DUST 514 MMOFPS to Sony's PlayStation 3 console? According to an article at Develop, the title is worth following anyway because it could be just what the doctor ordered in terms of bridging the gap between the PC and console gaming markets. "The console space right now is where the PC was before the internet really kicked off," CCP's Thor Gunnarsson told Develop. "It is about to leap forwards and it won't look back." Unlike traditional console games that may see an update or two (and in more recent years, a handful of downloadable content packs) before fading into obscurity, DUST will be built "iteratively in front of our community, with the same tight feedback loop as before," according to Gunnarsson. The ongoing attention, and the game's real-time connection with EVE Online, should allow for an engaging console experience to be found nowhere else. It's not all roses, though, as Develop points out that console shooters are casual games almost by definition, while the EVE Online experience is anything but. Hit the source link to read the full article.
CCP talks flying in space, says EVE is a healthy subscriber-based game
GameSpot has a new interview with EVE Online lead designer Kristoffer Touborg, and though it's a bit dated (it was conducted at last week's GDC, and obviously prior to yesterday's layoff announcement), it still features some interest nuggets relating to EVE and its immediate future. In terms of CCP's bread-and-butter spaceship gameplay, Touborg confirms what all the company dev blogs have been saying lately, which is that EVE's flying-in-space elements are once again the top priority. "The number of people working on things related to flying in space has probably tripled, so we are ready to start delivering a load of content," he says. The interview also touches on EVE's payment model, and specifically, why CCP has resisted the urge to jump on the free-to-play bandwagon. "We are a really healthy, subscriber-based game," Touborg says. "Does that mean we will be a subscriber-based game in five or 10 years? Maybe not, but as it currently stands, we have 400,000 subscribers, and there's really no reason to turn that bucket upside-down."
CCP layoffs affect 20% of worldwide staff, company focusing on EVE
Reporting on game industry layoffs is never fun, so we're a bit sobered this morning as we bring you news of CCP's downsizing. The development firm behind EVE Online, DUST 514, and the World of Darkness MMO has just issued a press release stating that it will be trimming approximately 20% of its staff worldwide. According to CCP Manifest, most of the layoffs will occur in the company's Atlanta, Georgia offices, with select positions at the Reykjavik, Iceland camp also affected. Manifest says that EVE expansions, DUST, and WoD have stretched CCP's resources too thin, and the company will now "sharpen our focus." In the short term, this means more attention for EVE Online and DUST 514, while World of Darkness will "continue development with a significantly reduced team." Finally, the press release attempts to head off the doomsayers by pointing out the fact that EVE's subscriber numbers are higher than they were this time last year. [Thanks to everyone who tipped us!]
DUST 514 to be the 'biggest multiplayer FPS on the market'
"In terms of scale, depth and volume of content, DUST 514 will easily be the biggest multiplayer FPS on the market," says CCP executive producer Brandon Laurino. That's a fairly bold claim given the sheer number of multiplayer shooters already in existence, not to mention the staggering sales figures many of them achieve. Laurino's talking world maps and content, though, and when it comes to the ginormous sci-fi universe of New Eden, size does matter. "You're looking at a conflict taking place across thousands of planets, so we're not just talking a dozen maps -- we're talking an entire universe of planets and areas of engagement within them," Laurino told Eurogamer. Such scale doesn't come cheaply, though, and the only thing bigger than Dust 514's galaxy map is its in-game store. Laurino says that CCP has thousands of microtransaction items ready to be purchased over the PlayStation network, and Sony's willingness to work with the CCP devs is noted as the primary reason for the upcoming shooter's console exclusivity. Laurino also mentions that Dust's beta will be something of an exclusive rollout called Private Trials, but no date-related info is available as of yet.
The baddies of City of Heroes' First Ward
City of Heroes' villains are some of the most memorable across the genre, so it's no wonder superhero fans are anxious to see whom (or what) they'll be fighting once CoH goes free-to-play later this year. To that end, Paragon Studios' art lead, Gilbert Martinez, has penned a dev diary over on PC Gamer that details four of the villain groups players will encounter in the upcoming First Ward zone. First up are the mystics of the Carnival of Light, the perfect counterpoint to the existing Carnival of Shadows. These new Carnies are much better dressed and seek to "restore the balance of good and evil" in Praetoria. They're followed by the Direct Urban Strike Team (D.U.S.T.) units, elite PPD members with rugged armor and enormous plasma rifles that are surely not compensating for anything. If you're into tentacles, you'll love the failed Seer experiments known as the Awakened. And finally, the dreadful, harpy-like Talons of Vengeance embrace "themes of vengeance, magic, and the embodiment of the apocalypse." Enjoy the new enemies (and their awesome high-detail graphics) at PC Gamer.
Gamescom 2011: CCP talks DUST 514 microtransactions
Joystiq caught up with CCP at Gamescom, and the Icelandic dev house responsible for EVE Online and its first-person shooter spin-off called DUST 514 dropped a few hints as to how the microtransaction business model will function in the latter game. DUST, which is launching exclusively on the Playstation 3 in 2012, will carry an initial $20 digital download fee, after which the user will receive access to the game as well as approximately $20 worth of virtual currency. "You're basically getting that bundle of cash that you're using to start the game, and from there if you choose to play for free and just grind, you're welcome to do that," a CCP rep said. CCP also said it expects many gamers to avoid DUST'S shooter gameplay altogether and focus on playing the market, as many capsuleers do in EVE Online. Head to Joystiq for the full report.
Du.static dust-busting concept clears the air, won't vanquish Voldemort
Avada Keduster! That's right Potter fans, magic may not be real (sorry), but if Du.static ever makes it to market, get set to eliminate household dust with the flourish of a wand. Designed by Hongik University's Won Suk Lee, this 2011 Spring Spark Concept Design winner combines the functionality of a feather duster and air purifier, into a two-in-one, Hershey-kissed silhouette. The standalone unit's base-mounted induction fan sucks your room's filth into a fine particle filter, releasing fresh air out its other end, while an LED light keeps track of environmental detritus -- signaling red for "polluted" and blue as "pure enough." Impressive powers of purification aside, we have a feeling its removable electrostatic stick cleaner is going to get more cosplay (and cleaning) mileage. Head to the source now for extra shots of the device in action and while you're at, petition Dyson for its real-world equivalent.
CCP publishes fourth DUST 514 fiction piece
New Eden is home to thousands of stories, and while most of them are a variation on "lulz, delicious carebear tears," occasionally an enjoyable piece of fiction arises from CCP's grand social experiment. In the past, officially sanctioned EVE Online-based fiction has taken the form of novels and web-based short stories. Today we're here to tell you about the latest instance of the latter, only this time the prose centers around the upcoming shooter spin-off known as Dust 514. Stranded, Part IV is the latest Dust chronicle, and in typical EVE fashion, it's a bleak, bone-crunching portrayal of life in the big black. If you missed Stranded parts one, two, and three, CCP has helpfully archived them on the official Dust 514 website.
The Daily Grind: Does PS3 exclusivity affect your enthusiasm for DUST 514?
Raise your hand if you saw last week's DUST 514 PS3 announcement coming. Given the lack of hands waving about, we can only surmise that you lot were as surprised as we were. While internet speculation has attributed CCP's decision to the perceived difficulties in bringing an Xbox Live MMO to market (as well as the PS3's superior hardware), the reality is that it doesn't matter at this point. What does matter is player reaction to the news, and when we say player, we mean EVE Online veterans and curious bystanders alike. For today's Daily Grind, tell us your thoughts about CCP's New Eden-based shooter. If you've got a PS3, will you be playing DUST? If you don't have one, do you plan to get one now? In short, how does the Sony exclusivity impact your decision to try 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: Predictions for DUST 514
When CCP first announced development on its upcoming free-to-play PlayStation 3 MMOFPS DUST 514, speculation ran wild as we thought of exactly how the game could be integrated with EVE Online. The plan to link the two games through EVE's sovereignty system seemed almost too ambitious, but the gaming world waited for more information with a quiet optimism. Most of us cautiously imagined the most basic of interactions between the two games, almost afraid to get our hopes up or express optimism for the project; after all, this is something that has never been done before. I think most EVE players imagined a vague web-based communication between EVE pilots and DUST mercenaries and little or no control over the outcome of a fight. We justly worried that our system sovereignty would be decided by the outcome of random matchmaking-style FPS battles or that DUST would only affect worthless planet-based industrial networks. At this year's E3, even our most optimistic expectations were completely blown away. DUST will be fully integrated into the EVE servers, with DUST players able to join EVE corporations and EVE players able to supply ground troops with equipment. We'll deliver decisive air strikes in realtime from ships in orbit, and DUST players will even be able to fire back. In this week's EVE Evolved, I re-examine the link between EVE Online and DUST 514 in light of the new information from E3 to make some predictions about what the battle for a planet might be like.
