Author: Lukas Rox

Playerbase angry after recent dev blog

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games
Playerbase angry after recent dev blog

“You are charging people who work for free to make your game better”

CCP Atlas has published a dev-blog about monetizing 3rd party tools for EVE, and regulating 3rd party development with a license. A license, that has to be paid for. It caused a huge negative response from EVE playerbase, including usually-very-calm Chribba: here and here.

According to the dev-blog:

  • CCP will license 3rd party developers to create commercial applications and services created using the EVE API, In-Game Browser, Static Data Export, Image Export and Eve Image server.
  • To become a licensee, developer must enter into a commercial license agreement with CCP. The fee for a commercial license is $99, payable annually by credit card or wire transfer (for identification purposes). We do not require further payments from developer or royalties.
  • Developer can choose how they monetize their app or service, provided that they conform with the EVE EULA and ToS. Examples of monetization could be donations, one-time purchase, in-app purchase, subscriptions or ad-supported sites or apps.
  • For ad-supported ventures, we require that licensed applications or services not be associated with ISK selling/buying, macros or bots. An example of unacceptable monetization would be accepting Google AdWords from sites violating our EULA and ToS. (this is essentially similar to our terms for fansites)

My blog is supported by ads  (I’d say supported is too big of a word, because it barely covers the domain, not to mention hosting), so I would need a commercial license, if I want to keep my multiplatform JAVA EVE API Reader online. If this licensing feature goes live, I will remove it, because ads will not cover the $99 license fee, and I don’t want to charge this few users, who actually use my API Reader.

What about Chribba? He has multiple EVE related websites running, and forcing him to pay a license is, well, plain wrong. He is making all this non-profit and out of his own free will, trying to make it self sustaining using ads. CCP please reconsider. This thread is a serious warning from your playerbase. Stop learning from Apple.

UPDATE:

One might ask: $99 is not much if you make money by selling your app. I agree with that. The problem is AD-FINANCED websites like Chribba’s or any other, including mine. We offer free content and use ads to help cover running costs. Increasing these costs by 200-300% is what we rant about.

Other bloggers also comment on this case:
http://omnisarcanumofeve.blogspot.com/2011/06/slippery-slope-that-ccp-is-currently.html
http://www.warpdriveactive.com/2011/06/15/making-a-buck-off-eve/
http://www.ninveah.com/2011/06/who-let-lawyers-in-here.html

By the way: The forum thread is now 30 pages long.

Paper about virtualization

Lukas Rox General, Software, System Administration , , , , , ,
Paper about virtualization

If you haven’t heard or used virtualization yet, now is a good time: this trend has been growing over the past years. Now most companies are using this technology to cut on IT costs. Fear not, this technology is free and available for everyone. I have written a paper about what virtualization is and how to get involved – feel free to read it here.

I have also plans to write more about each free virtualization product available, so stay tuned.

Apple iOS 5 unveiled on WWDC 2011

Lukas Rox Mobile, Software , , , ,
Apple iOS 5 unveiled on WWDC 2011

Yesterday Steve Jobs has presented the brand new iOS 5, which should arrive in iPhones, iPods and iPads this Fall. The new flag OS for Apple mobile devices brings an extensive list of changes, some of which are quite important.

  • Notification system revisited. The iOS notification system with it’s disruptive nature and rather cumbersome alert and badges system was quite outdated. The overhaul includes Notification Center, which is very similar to the one found in Android (drag a finger down from the top of the screen, Notification Center will scroll down)
  • PC Free – independence from a PC or Mac. It will now be possible to activate and use an iDevice without the need to connect it to iTunes.
  • Wireless Sync – an old Windows Mobile feature comes to iOS: all iDevices running iOS 5 will sync to iTunes over WiFi connection, so cables are not necessary anymore.
  • iCloud – Free 5 GB of personal storage cloud, along with the ability to view and redownload all Apps and Books owned by the user. This is already working once you update iTunes to 10.3.
  • Calendar and Reminders also received a huge overhaul. It is now possible to make a list of reminders – say shopping list. Or To Do list. You can not only set the iDevice to remind you at given time, but also based on location: reminders can sound based on arrival or departure. Calendar has now the week view.
  • Camera – users can now use volume buttons as shutter – this feature is long overdue!
  • Newsstand – along with iBooks, this is yet another new app, which will bring all the magazines into one place, for your reading pleasure.
  • iMessage – an instant messaging app with contacts and history wirelessly snchronized between all iDevices under one iTunes account.
  • Airplay Mirroring for iPad 2 – if you have an Apple TV, then you don’t need the HDMI cable anymore. It will be possible to stream the mirror of the screen wirelessly over to a paired Apple TV.
  • Minor changes to Mail, Game Center, Photos and Safari.

 

 

Client update #3 for Incursion 1.6 released

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , ,
Client update #3 for Incursion 1.6 released

During an extended downtime today, CCP has released a Client update, which fixes most of the problems introduced in the recent patch:

  • The Capacitor Stability Indicator on the fitting screen will now deplete in the correct direction.
  • The session change timer no longer blinks.
  • Combat shortcuts can once again be triggered by selecting objects in the overview and pressing the desired key.
  • The mailing list management window is operational once again.
  • The missing Jump Clone buttons have reappeared.
  • Job quotes from the Repair Shop will once again be displayed in the Repair Shop window.
  • The current Asset window tab will now retain focus when changing ship.
  • The number of outstanding contracts message will now display correctly.
  • Players will no longer experience missing entries in the market buy and sell order windows.
  • The Capacitor display has returned to the center of the HUD.

Server side fixes for Incursion 1.6, released June 3, 2011

  • Planetary Resources and the predicted Extractor Head output have been returned to their previous equilibrium, no more output inconsistencies should be experienced.
  • Please ensure that the latest client update is downloaded to avoid any further strangeness with Planetary Interaction.

Incursion 1.6 patch brings Carbon UI and… lots of problems

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games, Software , ,
Incursion 1.6 patch brings Carbon UI and… lots of problems

New Carbon UIMost seasoned EVE players have already got used to a rough ride after a patch day. CCP has commited to make this experience less painful, and over the years, patches have became smoother and situations where a new patch introduced new bugs are not as common now as they used to be in the past. Unfortunately the latest Incursion 1.6 patch, which replaced the old GUI with a brand new Carbon UI, brought lots of quite severe bugs. Patch notes were rather short, so no one expected trouble, such as:

  • When running two clients on some machines, the client in the background crashes during jumping through the gate on the active client.
  • Hotkeys are currently working incorrectly – you have to press the hotkey before clicking on the object you want to interact with.
  • Planetary resources showing as 0. This can be fixed by clearing your cache.
  • Anti-Aliasing is causing “ghost” windows to appear after dragging a window. Workaround is to turn off Anti-Aliasing.

This forum thread contains a full list of problems introduced by the last patch. Good luck to CCP, so they fix this soon!

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Lukas Rox Games ,
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Blizzard Enterteinment has officially unveiled the coming Starcraft II expansion centered around the Zerg and Sarah Kerrigan. Heart of the Swarm follows the events of Wings of Liberty campaign, where Jim Raynor succeeded in using the Xel’Naga artifact to convert Sarah back into human. Even though the Queen of Blades is gone, her powers lost, she seeks to lead the Zerg once more, and make the Koprulu sector fear of the Hive once more.

This brand new campaign will bring some interesting gameplay twists:

  • Kerrigan will be a playable unit in most missions
  • As a hero unit she will have different so called “Battle Focus” giving her unique abilities
  • Each Zerg unit can be evolved to different strains, for example Zerglings can evolve into a strain which breeds 3 Zerglings from one Egg, or 2 Zerglings that can move faster

* Personally I do not play RTS games much, but Starcraft and Starcraft II have been my favourite for a long time, and I intend to get my hands on HotS as soon as it is available.

Is Android not enough for you?

Lukas Rox Mobile, Software , , ,
Is Android not enough for you?

If so, and you have a HTC Desire HD, you are lucky. XDA-Developers member called bergfex has published a native Ubuntu build for Desire HD. The following features have already been implemented:

  • touchscreen (works like a touch pad in a notebook)
  • two finger scrolling
  • WIFI
  • dragging windows
  • ADB
  • incoming calls
  • SMS text messages

Some features are not yet fully supported: sound, hardware keys, USB host, and Firefox web browser. Original thread with instructions on how to boot Ubuntu on Desire HD is linked here.

The closer it gets, the better it looks

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,
The closer it gets, the better it looks

EVE Incarna is only three weeks away from now, and another public beta was just deployed to Duality.

What’s coming?

On fanfest 2011, the Devs have announced a long-awaited overhaul for gun turrets. Hee they are! All turret models have been remodeled, have their animations updated, and their icons are actually pretty renders now (just like ships). You can easily tell the difference between Tech I, Tech II and Faction just by the look at it – their models and textures look different. Turret animation has also received an upgrade: most guns will now hide, when the ship starts aligning for warp. Fear not, they will pop back out the instant you begin to target something. If you switch targets, turrets will smoothly move on to it, as if they were really there. Once a target has been popped, guns will smoothly return to their resting position.

* small side note: gun icons are not being cached in the current Duality build, so every time you open a hangar full of guns, it will take a while to load all icons (the game is rendering them one-by-one).

Players asked and CCP listened.

The initial feedback about Incarna was that there is no obvious connection between the avatar and the ship – the missing link in the chain is what makes pod pilots different from other mortals – the capsule. Now every time you dock you will have it just behind your back, so you know where you came from.

The ship placement inside ship hangar has been changed, and now depends on the ship size. Frigates are parked just next to “the balcony”, while battleships have their place much further away.

Performance still isn’t perfect.

An old GTS 8800 does just fine in Full-HD scenes in space (up to 90 fps all the time, 60 with 4x FSAA), but Incarna pulls it down by three nothches – down to 27 fps (22 with 4x FSAA). Personally I feel no problem with Incarna mode being slower than in-space, because it has no impact on the main gameplay. Loading times, however, are not much longer than currently existing station environment. Mainly because there is a placeholder texture which is displayed just after docking, and before the station environment fully loads. Dear CCP: please change the “Docking…” window from modal to a normal window, so players can immediately start interacting with the client, without the need to wait until avatar and CQ completely loads.

The animation on the logon screen is just perfect. A ship exits out of warp into the lower left part of the screen, slowly prowls before the camera, when suddenly its turrets pop out like claws and start melting something in the upper left corner. Great job, Devs!

Incarna Wallpaper #4 (c) 2011 CCP h.f.
Incarna Wallpaper #4 (c) 2011 CCP h.f.

*) did you notice the ship on the wallpaper is unlike any known Amarr ship? Looks a bit like a redesigned Sacrilege, but fires lasers. Curious, isn’t it?

 

Walking in stations finally in EVE!

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,
Walking in stations finally in EVE!
EVE Online: An Introduction to the Captain's Quarters
EVE Online: An Introduction to the Captain's Quarters

That’s it, no more talking, no more promising, no more whetting appetite: Walking in stations will come to EVE Online in less than a month! On 21st of June CCP is planning to deploy EVE: Incarna, which offers the first room for your character to explore: the Captain’s Quarters (I have written about the last work-in-progress preview here).

By the end of 2011 the devs will roll out more content, more rooms and more functionality. Yes, it will be possible to run your own bar in EVE!

Personally I feel that EVE is a game set in space, and walking-in-stations is not the most important thing in it, but on the other hand I was waiting for this for the past 6 years (watching EVE evolve is one of the main reasons, which kept me hooked to EVE for so long). For example, ST:O is rather dull compared to EVE Online, but offers the ability to get out of the ship and do some stuff in person.