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EVE's Rhea tweaks star map functionality
Rhea's on final approach, and EVE Online developer CCP has published another dev blog designed to clue pilots into the patch's new features. Today's installment tackles the star map, which has been tweaked with new visuals, a windowed mode, and zoom functionality that represents the beginnings of a consolidation project that will marry the star map with EVE's solar system map. There are some smaller changes as well, so click through to the dev blog to learn more.
New EVE video takes you behind the core technology curtain
Holy cow, would you believe that CCP has put out another positive press blurb? We know, it shocks us too, and the unfailingly chipper Icelandic development firm is winding down a week full of dev blog updates with a behind-the-scenes look at EVE Online's core technology team. Thankfully there's a video involved, as a text-based behind-the-scenes look would be almost as boring as a New Eden mining run. Also, flying-in-space fans, beware: There are some stretches of the clip that focus on full-body avatars and other "non-essential" gameplay elements. Aside from that, there are bits dealing with ship shadows, readability and usability issues with the star map, and some details on the new open source crash reporting system. Click past the cut for the full clip.
EVE Online and 'the places I've been' meme
The game world of EVE Online is called New Eden, a vast setting of over 5000 mapped solar systems and more than 2000 uncharted systems that can be found through wormhole exploration. The game has an interactive 3D map of the galaxy where solar systems can be color-coded according to the filters a player chooses. Pair that with a feature of the client that keeps track of each solar system you've visited, and you've got a colorful visual representation of how much of New Eden you've seen. EVE player Kirith Kodachi created a meme of sorts where players take a star map screenshot showing where they've been in New Eden and share it with others on their sites (or Kodachi's own, Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah blog). You can check out where it started with Kirith Kodachi and follow the 'links to this post' at the bottom to see where it leads.
One Shots: Genesis
One of the things we really like about EVE Online is the creative ways that the players keep contributing to the lore of New Eden. Today's One Shots is actually a "found" screen, culled from the forums by Massively's own Brendan "Nyphur" Drain, showing just a small portion of the creativity behind EVE Online's player-base. Nyphur tells us a bit more about this screen: I found this ages ago on the EVE forums and it's been my favourite screenshot ever since. It was either produced by a strange graphical bug or by opening the map in the New Eden system, but the composition of the screenshot gives it a wonderful symbolic feel. The map is visible with the Genesis region labled (the region that the EVE gate originated in and where settlers first entered New Eden). It's almost as if the genesis is occuring; the EVE gate giving birth to the thousands of little interconnected star systems that make up New Eden. If you're an EVE player who can tell us a bit more about how this screen came about, or who deserves the original credit, please do leave a comment below!Have you found an area that just sums up your game world as the above sums up EVE Online for Nyphur? If so, we'd love to see a screenshot of it and hear your thoughts. Just send that screenshot, your name, and your description to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out!%Gallery-9798%
EVE Visual Guide: Before you undock
There are a few essential things any pilot in EVE Online should do before they undock from a station and get themselves into a potentially hostile situation. Come to think of it, anytime you undock there's at least some chance of hostility. Keeping that in mind, think of this as a visual checklist you should go through before entering space, as you're not only risking your ship, but your skillpoints if you bite off more than you can chew. This happens all too often, to novice and veteran pilots alike in EVE. So to help you avoid this fate... Head to the guide >> %Gallery-30109%
