life-in-low-sec
Latest
EVE Dominion patch notes long but packed with info on game changes
The Dominion expansion for EVE Online will arrive tomorrow, December 1st, after a lengthy downtime of roughly 19 hours (02:00 GMT/UTC to 21:00 GMT/UTC). Access to the EVE website and forums will be down for much of this time, as will the EVE API, but CCP Games has compiled a tome of Dominion patch notes to occupy at least some of that time. There's also a player discussion of the Dominion features and changes on the game's forums with some clarification on details from the CCP devs. If reading through the full patch notes (10,000 words and climbing with updates) isn't really your thing, a few of the EVE bloggers have discussed the highlights of what's new in this expansion. Mynxee covers the good, the bad, and the comical in Dominion on her Life in Low Sec blog. We also recommend checking out Casiella's take on the Dominion patch notes over at the Ecliptic Rift blog. Casiella discusses the myriad features that haven't gotten much attention so far: voice fonts added to EVE Voice in chat channels; the in-game jukebox now using MP3s with playlist support; and how player actions for the Caldari race via factional warfare now impact the rival Gallente storyline missions.
EVE Online's candidates for 4th Council of Stellar Management announced
The roster of candidates for the 4th Council of Stellar Management (CSM) in EVE Online has been announced. According to CCP Games developer Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson (aka CCP Xhagen), 60 members of the playerbase submitted applications, with 49 players accepted after CCP's screening process. (Players must hold valid passports to attend the CSM summit in Reykjavik, and those with EULA violations are ineligible to run.) From this pool of 49, there will ultimately be nine elected delegates and five alternates who can step in when needed. Although Xhagen didn't break down candidate stats by nationality, there is a substantial number of U.S. players running for the 4th CSM as in past elections. This time around there are candidates from Latvia, Serbia, and Barbados as well. The ages of candidates range from 21 to 54, and only one female candidate is in the running this term which Xhagen notes is a decrease from the previous election. (He also indicates that only 3.9% of EVE's subscribers are female.)
GWC podcast interviews EVE Online's first lady of piracy and Clear Skies film maker
We just came across a great podcast the other day that's focused on all things sci-fi: Galactic Watercooler. Although it's not a gaming podcast, their latest episode (#176) is all about EVE Online. The GWC hosts are apparently really into playing EVE and they talk about the game's setting of New Eden in the context of David Weber's Honorverse series of military sci-fi novels, drawing parallels between the two in terms of strategy and technology. They also discuss the things they've seen and done in their time in the game, from their first steps into (and fleeing from) PvP to a run-in with a virtual prostitute. (You're free to do many things in EVE's sandbox... but that is probably not one of them.) The hosts are given a hand in relating what they've gotten from the game experience in EVE Online by two notable players. Ian Chisholm, the creator of the award-winning Clear Skies machinima and its excellent follow-up, explains how he tells his own stories in the game visually. He also discusses what drives him to invest so much of his time and effort into the projects, and the technical challenges in making Clear Skies a reality. A fantastic interview.
