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EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - The dark side
One of the big lures to EVE Online is the fact that its PvP isn't just shoehorned into consensual duels and battlegrounds. Instead, EVE PvP can occur anywhere whether you like it or not and punishments are levied after-the-fact for engaging in unsanctioned combat in designated safe areas. In the previous three parts of this exhaustive guide on where you can take your PvP career, I described the different types of PvP EVE has to offer from small gang warfare to massive territorial fleets. In this final part, I explore EVE's evil side as I talk about piracy and corporate infiltration.Griefing?:In most MMOs, stealing from other players or indiscriminately killing them for fun or profit can be considered griefing and may be against the rules or worse. In the cold, harsh universe of New Eden, however, piracy and theft are just another facet of the complex player-based gameplay. From the common gatecamping pirate to the criminal masterminds behind the Guiding Hand Social Club heist, players of all kinds are drawn into the criminal underworld of EVE Online.If piracy, theft and corporate infiltration sounds like your cup of tea, continue reading as I delve into the dark side of EVE Online.
EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Fleet warfare
Fleet warfare in EVE Online is a big step up from the small, casual PvP gangs discussed in last week's PvP Masterclass article. In this guide, I explore the day to day activities of EVE's largest combat machinations, from 30-man faction warfare gangs to 300-man territorial fleets. In stark contrast to a small and highly mobile gang, a large fleet is a lumbering hulk that favours combined firepower and good co-ordination over all else. Massive fleets of hundreds of pilots routinely clash in the outskirts of EVE's lawless 0.0 space. But when they move at the speed of their slowest member and are really only as good as their fleet commander, what can you do to make sure your fleet is a success?Fight-by-numbers:The essence of fleet warfare is that using more ships is usually better. By focusing all attacks on one enemy at a time, a larger fleet has a very high damage potential. It also allows a more diverse range of ship types to take part in the fight such as an electronic warfare wing or sniper squadron. Forming a large fleet usually requires some planning and co-ordination, making them less suited to casual PvP and more suited to organised assaults on specific targets like POS.Read on as I tackle the question of how to make a fleet effective from the perspective of both the fleet's individual members and the fleet commander.
EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Gang warfare
PvP Masterclass is a series of articles explaining PvP from the bottom up and showing you how to get involved even if you're a new player. In part 1 of this series, I examined the main types of PvP a player can choose in EVE Online and showed the directions players can take their PvP careers. In this second part, I explore how small gang warfare fits into the PvP landscape of EVE and help you decide what avenues you should pursue if small gang warfare is your cup of tea.Numbers game:A complaint I hear all too often today is that small gang warfare in EVE is dead, that PvP is a numbers game and competing on the battlefield means having the biggest blob. It almost always transpires that these people are trying to shoehorn small gang warfare into places it's not suited for like major 0.0 territorial conflicts or that they're neglecting the importance of intel-gathering scouts. Small gang warfare isn't about your gang of five ships trying to take on a blob of two hundred. It's about putting together a small, tight unit of pilots and picking your fights carefully.Whether you're planning to pirate, fight for the Gallente Federation or declare war on your neighbours, small gang warfare is for you. Read on as I examine the small roaming gang, one of EVE's oldest and most fun avenues of PvP.
EVE and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"
Sun Tzu: Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. The 6th century B.C. military treatise, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, serves admirably as a tract on corporate espionage and warfare in EVE Online's far future backdrop of New Eden. It is, after all, a corporation-dominated setting and game where player organizations perpetually fight for supremacy over their competitors. As The Art of War is required reading in some MBA programs, it stands to reason it could have some practical applications to a game based around military conglomerates. Warfare in EVE, while limited by game mechanics as to what's possible (as all games are of course), can have a heavy social component. Paired with the sandbox nature of the game, there are numerous possibilities in EVE that most other MMOs simply don't offer, or can't offer through their respective game mechanics. Much of The Art of War focuses on deception, situational awareness, and overcoming your opponents through cunning rather than brute force. Of course, brute force has worked rather well for some prominent alliances, but without strategic thinking guiding their campaigns, it would all come undone at some point. Strategy is the focus of a new series of articles from Black Claw of EVE Online blog "The Travels of Black Claw." He's just kicked off the first in this series based on a guide to warfare he created for his EVE corporation. First up is "The Art of War: Laying Plans" -- which deals with assessing your own organization and the relative strength of the opposition, then figuring out how best to counter that opposition. Black Claw stated that next up will be "Waging War." Sun Tzu's The Art of War also deals with topics like stages of a competitive campaign, the importance of varying tactics, and the use of spies. Assuming Black Claw continues with his guide along these lines, it should be an interesting series of articles.
EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Introduction
One of the most perplexing things about EVE Online has to be the fact that although the game is essentially designed around PvP, a lot of players avoid it entirely. In this new series of articles, I will explain PvP from the bottom up, with a particular focus on helping anyone that has always wanted to give EVE's high quality PvP a try but wasn't sure what to do. In this first article, I examine the different types of PvP available in EVE Online and suggest ways to get involved in them even if you're just finishing the 14-day trial.Types of PvP:In most MMOs, PvP means organised battleground matches or one versus one player duels. For those games lucky enough to have open world PvP, the options are a lot more varied. In EVE Online, the exact right combination of factors come together to create what on a good day I can only describe as the best PvP experience I have ever had in a computer game. Rather than just being something fun to do, PvP in EVE arises as a natural consequence of normal play, used by players to push forward their own agenda in a harsh, dismal space-borne society.Continue reading as I help you choose which type of PvP suits you the best and suggest ways to get involved in it.
Warning: This dog bites!
Kylie Prymus is the first columnist for PS Fanboy. A Ph.D candidate in philosophy, Kylie specializes in the sociology of technology. Through this new weekly column, Kylie will explore the impact of PlayStation on thought and culture. I'm talking about this dog. Not just any dog. The Big Dog. It may not have teeth (though I'm sure those servo-motors could put a hurtin' on) but when I was shown this video earlier in the week I felt sure it had taken a few nips at my soul. Cut the dog down to two legs and increase its size tenfold and you've got a nearly perfect real life version of the Geckos from MGS4. While I've mentioned MGS4 to a greater or lesser degree in previous columns, thus far I've avoided tackling anything in the game head on. This is largely because, as readers of my last post are aware, my PS3 is several states away and I haven't been able to watch play the game through to its conclusion. Don't worry, I'll pick up Snake's saga in a couple weeks (he's at the front of the line just ahead of Niko and Zack), but I should be able to make a few observations about the game given what I have played (up to the middle of Act 3). If you haven't yet done so I suggest you hit the first link above and check out the video of Big Boss Dog.
TurpsterVision: Saturday Night Fever
Every Wednesday think, "That's a day late again, I hope he isn't making a habit of this" and take the "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalise it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...)It might be a day or so late but at least it's here! Thanks for stopping by once again to the internet's favourite almost-every-weekly MMO review show. This week gives you a little taster where you can see the game that you WILL be playing this Saturday (14th June – 6pm EST) and a slight indication of how much you are going to get owned in the face by my mad team killing skills!If that little teaser doesn't tempt you to join us after the break then lets just pretend that there are some leaked spoilers and exclusive news – there isn't, but I wont tell if you don't.
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
Virtually Overlooked: Spiritual Warfare
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative. Saying that Spiritual Warfare is the best game Wisdom Tree ever made doesn't really encourage anyone to give it a look. Wisdom Tree doesn't exactly have a reputation for excellence, and most unlicensed NES games in general were spectacularly bad. So, to put a finer point on our meaning, here's a controversial statement: Spiritual Warfare is mostly not terrible.
Singapore's DSTA launches urban warfare robot contest
While it's not unusual for a nation to desire a full fledged robot army to handle its dirty work, Singapore's Defense Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) is actually offering up a reward to anyone who can "build a robot that can operate autonomously in urban warfare conditions." Obviously, the task is easier said than done, but the country is aiming to acquire an intelligent, street-fighting machine that can move in and out of buildings, open and close doors, and most importantly, "search and destroy targets like a human soldier." Notably, anyone (including institutions) in the world is open to participate in the TechX Challenge, but foreigners must collaborate with local partners in their construction. The contest is being created in order to shift away from remote-controlled robots that tie up human resources, but the goals of the project may indeed be a bit lofty for today's technology. Robert Richardson from the University of Manchester, UK has proclaimed that the "competition could present a major challenge to even the most sophisticated robot," and added that doors and elevators would likely give the autonomous drones the most problems. Crafty individuals interested in the admittedly tempting S$1 million ($652,000) reward must (hastily) submit their entry by May of this year, where a few rounds of elimination will eventually end when a winner is chosen in August of 2008.[Thanks, John S.]
Tactile display could convey signals on soldiers' backs
Although glitzy, stat-filled jerseys are certainly sufficient ways to get information off your chest (ahem), a new vibrating vest could give "body language" an entirely new meaning. Joining the air-conditioned and insulating renditions, this snazzy vest features a "tactile display" on the back, which is created by 16 small vibrating motors that are connected to an internal wireless control unit. The jacket "writes symbols and messages on its wearer's back," and while the actual writing resembles Braille more than text, it can supposedly be used to "send important commands to soldiers or firefighters, warning them of imminent danger when ordinary radios cannot be used." Commands are beamed to the vests via a wirelessly-enabled computer, and can stealthily inform platoons to stop, look in a specific direction, run, or slow down. The US Army is partially funding the research, as it hopes to investigate different ways to communicate when hand signals and / or radio transmissions aren't effective. During initial testing, results have shown nearly flawless interpretation by participants, and while we're not exactly sure when we can expect rumble-equipped gear to grace our armed forces, the problem of "excess noise from the motors" has to be quelled before hitting the battlefield.[Via BoingBoing]
Chemists craft molecular keypad lock
While the folks behind the AACS could probably use a few pointers about constructing a sufficient lock of their own, a group of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel have crafted a molecule-sized "keypad lock" that "only activates when exposed to the correct password, a sequence of chemicals and light." Organic chemist Abraham Shanzer and his colleagues suggest that their invention could "lead to a new level of safeguards for secret information," but we tend think the infamous hackers of the world would inevitably crack the code. Nevertheless, the molecule -- dubbed FLIP -- houses a core linker that mimics a bacterial compound that binds to iron, and attached to it are two molecules that respectively can glow either blue or green. Using three "buttons," which just so happen to be an acidic molecule, an alkaline compound, and ultraviolet light, the lock can be "opened" if given the right sequence of chemicals and light, and there's a grand total of two noticeable results possible. Interestingly, the researchers have insinuated that their creation could be used to recognize "when certain sequences of chemicals (like harmful toxins) are released in the body," but we haven't heard a 10-4 from the US Army just yet.[Via Yahoo, thanks, Antonio H.]
Air Force looking to develop foot-long subterranean defusers
While it probably won't matter much once we're pitting one robot army against another, it appears that the US Air Force is looking into new "subterranean vehicles" that could be used to navigate to underground bombs, traps, or nuclear pods and defuse the situation from beneath. Although we figured the USAF would focus the majority of its attention somewhere above the Earth's surface, the newfangled moles would be deployed a safe distance from the target and "autonomously navigate itself to the target" while cleverly avoiding buried obstacles on its route. While larger digging machines can certainly accomplish the same task, the catch here is that the life-saving worm must not exceed "12 inches" in length and be able to run off of minimal battery power. Similar to other "teams" of robotic creatures feeding off one another to accomplish complex goals, the Air Force envisions swarms of these diggers penetrating and neutralizing potential hotbeds for underground explosives, all without sacrificing human lives. Now if we only had one of these bad boys to sneak up into Best Buy's PS3 holding closet last night, we'd have a winner.[Via Defense Tech]
