Category: EVE Online

EVE Online, a spaceship based MMO game by CCP Games

The day Aideron Technologies was born

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

With the recent changes to Faction Warfare in EVE, rewards for participation in FW have been increased considerably. Because of that, Aideron Robotics directorship is planning to enlist with Gallente Federation in an effort to mount additional pressure against the Caldari militia and reap the rewards. This has a side effect on the Industry Program, which has been effectively pushed out to a new sister corp, Aideron Technologies.

Aideron Robotics will still have a small industry wing for people who would like to contribute to both FW and production, but the majority of industrial tasks (and planning) will be done by Aideron Technologies.

For those interested in joining Aideron, the good news is, we are still recruiting, and there will be one recruitment process to both corps. During the interview new characters will be assessed and players will receive a proposal to join one of the corporations (or both, if player owns more characters). To apply to Aideron, please visit our forum: www.aideronrobotics.com. If you are considering Aideron as your new home, this Seismic Stan’s column about Aideron Robotics on Guild Launch will be a great source of information about our day-to-day operations.

UPDATE

Aideron Robotics and Aideron Technologies do share common roots, but are completely separate corporations. If you would like to apply to Aideron Technologies, please contact Razeu or TheAhmosis in game.

What happens in New Eden, stays in New Eden

Lukas Rox Blog Banter, EVE Online, Games , ,

This post is a reply to Blog Banter 37: The Line in the Sand

EVE Online sits on the frontier of social gaming, providing an entertainment environment like no other. The vibrant society of interacting and conflicting communities, both within the EVE client and without, is the driving force behind EVE’s success. However, the anonymity of internet culture combined with a competitive gaming environment encourages in-game behaviour to spread beyond the confines of the sandbox. Where is the line?”

People are usually different in real life when compared to their online persona. The difference is the mask that most people “wear” in real life, which hides some traits and properties our society might not like. Society requires certain behavior patterns, and will reject those who don’t accept them. Some kinds of behavior are considered okay, some are considered wrong, but each have consequences. While people usually have only one indentity in the real life society, one can have multiple identities on the internet. It is much harder to escape responsibility in real life than it is online. If a person crossed the line and it resulted in social rejection by the community, all one needs to do is to establish a new online identity. Granted, full anonymity on the internet is more less fiction (unless one is a serious VPN user), but usually only the governments and security services have the means to establish real identity behind an online persona. Normal people have rather limited means* to do so, and that’s why people still feel generally anonymous online.

* Google, Twitter -> Facebook

How does above apply to EVE Online?

To answer this, first question to ask would be what kind of group is EVE Online community? Blog Banter #35 would be a very good starting point to answer it. Becasue of the sandbox nature of the game, EVE community is one that generally accepts almost any kind of behaviour in the game itself. Players are even encouraged to play bad guys. Each player can have up to three alternate characters (alts) per account, so assuming multiple identities is as easy as changing ships. Where does that lead? It allows the darkest parts of human psyche to the surface. Some players deliberately exploit this, playing as dirty as the game allows, but the community generally accepts this, because that’s the main reason to play a sandbox game in the first place.

What if conflict leaves the sandbox?

It’s wrong, but not so bad, when it ends on threats against another player (or his family). For CCP, as well as some of the playerbase (and me too) this is the line: threatening other players is a bannable offense and CCP will swiftly punish the offender with a lifetime ban. The EVE Community as a whole however is rather tentative towards this kind of things, because “it’s just words”, and some players will still see nothing wrong with that. Since for some players this is already wrong, and for some this is still right, conlcusion is, that RL threats is one of the “gray areas”. Real problems arise if we are talking about  harassment in real life. Beating someone up IRL for something that happened in game is so far wrong on the scale, that no one questions it. Why would anyone resort to such extreme means? Because they bought most of their ISK with real money? Maybe because they really value their virtual posessions? Or maybe because they are ******** in real life people with issues in real life, just like they are in the game. The list of possible reasons is quite long. Why? Because even though New Eden is a virtual world, time investment is real. In this sense, EVE is real.

It is worth mentioning, that there is many more gray areas, than just insulting each other. Corporation warfare should only exist in game, but wars tend to leak from the game as a part of emergent gameplay. It is not uncommon for one warring party to DDoS websites and tools of their opponents*, such as Teamspeak/Ventrilo servers in order to gain an extra advantage (or, simply, just for griefing purposes). The anonymity and specifics of a DDoS attack make it hard to provide actionable evidence. As a counterexample, Aideron Robotics CEO stated once that Aura will never be used for metagaming, i.e. as an intel gathering tool. Even banning or locking out opponents from the use of Aura is considered out of line and will never happen.

* see this post on Fiddler’s Edge

Personal experience

I have experienced different kind of harassment in EVE Online. I made a stupid mistake: being a CEO, I have posted my mobile number on the corp forums, so members could contact me when I am not online. Unfortunately, one of the members was experiencing some personal problems and would keep calling me to talk about his “issues”. I would probably turn a blind eye to that,  but because of time zone difference, that guy was calling me in the middle of the night! After two weeks or so I have chosen to lock that person completely out. I have shut down my mobile number for two months (had to buy a prepaid card in the meantime) and blocked all of this person characters in game. However because this was likely not intentional, I did not report this to CCP. Did he cross the line? For me yes, because he has used (abused) my contact information for different purposes than expected. Of course one can say it was my fault in the first place, as my mobile number should have never be posted online.

So there is no line?

As you can see from the examples above, there is no universal line. If we have drawn a line for each person, we would get a gradient instead, from white to black through a lot of lighter and darker shades of gray. The anonimity of the internet and the possibility to create multiple identities in the game unfortunately doesn’t help, because players can quite easily escape the responsibility. The fact, that others have different standards doesn’t mean everyone should do the same. As a character and as a person you have a choice. EVE is just a game, and it should always remain that way.

For me, the line is clear: what happens in New Eden, stays in New Eden.

EDIT:

When I was reading other Blog Banter entries I remembered one more instance when someone actually got bruised up for his transgressions in a virtual world. A friend of mine took over an IRC channel when we were still at high school. Four thugs caught him when he was going back home and beat the hell out of him for… taking over that IRC channel. So if you wonder if virtual conflicts can turn into real world struggle, then the answer is: yes, definitely.

All hands, battle stations!

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , ,

In about 3 hours Aideron Robotics will be at war. We have received a war dec from a small, 2 man corp. It doesn’t mean this foe can be underestimated. To the contrary.

Small corp targeting multiple industrial corporations will have plenty of targets to choose from, making it easy to score kills of opportunity. The War History of Praetorian Cannibals shows a lot of industrial and exhumer kills (not to mention unfitted battlecruisers). Second reason, why 2 man corp can pose a serious threat is neutral reps/boosters. The fact that a single pilot shoots guns doesn’t mean he is all alone: he can have a neutral Tech III boosting alt, or a bunch of neutral Logistic(s). Or both.

Thanks to War History, War Reports and new Killmails introduced in Inferno, players are easily able to view all past wars waged by an entity, along with the kills associated to them. Since killmails have been already stored in each pilot’s combat record, CCP had all the data they needed to fill the War History. Even back to the times long before Inferno! This is invaluable source of tactical knowledge, so THANK YOU FOR THESE AWESOME FEATURES, CCP!

Now let’s have my locator agent find that sleazebag who wardecced us 😉

Science and fiction of Camera Drones

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

According to this old EVE Chronicle, the image capsuleer pilots see when flying their ship comes from Camera Drones. These tiny robotic crafts orbit their mother ship and let it’s pilot see the surrounding space. The forementioned chronicle also mentions that Camera Drones are using “a combination of an attractive magnetic force and repulsive electromechanical force” for navigation. While this explanation is enough for non-techie people and small children, it seems to lack any real Science to it.

When I read that chronicle for the first time, I said out loud “what a bullsh*t”. While most of the EVE Online IP is really great and in many aspects is even more realistic than Star Trek or Star Wars, which are icons of  modern science fiction. Camera Drones just don’t fit in this otherwise very high-tech universe.

In an universe, which has room for things as advanced as Sotiyo-Urbaata drive and brain implants enhancing human abilities and allowing them to pilot ships with thought alone, something as low-tech as Camera Drones hits a discordant note. The first solution that comes to my mind is a computer projection of ship’s sensor data directly into pilot’s visual cortex. The first paragraph of the chronicle actually nails it: “The first method tried, and the one the Jovians first used (and sometimes still do), was to use the data from wide range of scanners to paint a realistic view of the ship’s surroundings in the mind of the captain.“

First off, this would explain the changes in the image quality as the EVE Online client was evolving. Jump from pre-Trinity engine to current V3 graphics could easily be explained from RP perspecitve as a simple “firmware upgrade” to the Sensor Visualization Computer. This system is also impervious to simple ECM, because it would use input from many different types of sensors. It would also make room for graphical effects of EWAR, such as greying out entire screen when being ECMed, or blurring ships out of range when Sensor Dampened.

It would not create unnecessary explanations such as “combination of an attractive magnetic force and repulsive electromechanical force” or the fact that ships carry lots of camera drones, which is extremely ineffective waste of cargo room in space-constrained environments such as starships. I can also think of several real life and in-game mechanisms that would make Camera Drones VERY ineffective:

  • Omnidirectional ECM to jamm the control signal from the ship to Camera Drones
  • Targeted ECM to jamm Camera Drone receivers on the ship
  • EMP smartbomb would instantly fry the electronics of any Camera Drone in range
  • Other types of smartbombs would shatter Camera Drones to pieces
  • Other crafts could launch a cloud of tiny drones programmed to target and destroy Camera Drones
  • The speed and range of Camera Drones would have to be almost infinite to accomodate the way we use them in game
  • Fuel? Energy source?
  • Magnetic forces do not work well on distances which we see in game (100 km; but when you zoom out as much as possible, you’re watching your ship from nearly 300 km)

To sum up the above, the amount of technology needed to explain Camera Drone abilities and durability is higher than direct projection into visual cortex. Scientists are already able to tap into visual cortex to recover images directly from cats brain.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLb9EIiSyG8″]

A reverse process is proposed to project images into the brain of the blind by using retinal implants.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSdmWbItsvU”]

This is the technology which already exists today (although it is still years from being ready for clinical use; it is  challenging to transmit and process the amount of information necessary to create a high resolution image; retinal implant capable of processing this amount of information would dissipate enough heat to damage the surrounding tissue). But since New Eden’s capsuleer pilots already have their brain wired with technology, visual cortex projection should be rather simple.

Dear CCP

The world of New Eden is one of the things that got me hooked with EVE for this long. Please, consider changing this piece of lore. EVE Online physics might be unreal (submarine vs Newtonian), but improving upon EVE’s already great Intellectual Property should be one of the priorities. Now, who should I talk to about this? 😉

Mobile apps for EVE Online on iOS and Android

Lukas Rox DUST 514, EVE Online, Games, Mobile, Tablets , , , , , , , , , ,

companion-apps-all

» For Windows Phone 8 apps, please go to this post «

This post is a synergy of my interests. If you are a returning visitor, you have most likely noticed that I write not only about EVE Online, but also about all things mobile: tablet PCs, mobile operating systems and so on.

Smartphones have changed the mobile phone market forever: almost half of all the mobile phones nowadays are smartphones. With CCP giving the community an API to access the in-game information, it was just a matter of time until first EVE related third-party apps have arrived.

Most of the Apps available for the two biggest smartphone platforms, namely Android and iOS, can be divided into three large groups:

  • character tracker
  • market tracker
  • industry helper

Majority of these third-party apps are free, but some of them use ads and donations to cover developer’s costs.

Unfortunately I neither own a Windows Phone 7 device, nor have a working emulator of it, so this review will not cover WP7 apps. Sorry!

It is also worth mentioning, that CCP has plans to deliver their own mobile applications for DUST 514 and EVE in the near future. Developers did not reveal any specifics besides Neocom app for DUST 514, which will run on PS Vita and will deliver almost full interaction with the game, except for the core FPS gameplay. Neocom for PS Vita is said to allow managing fittings, accessing market and so on.

Read more about CCP plans for mobile devices:

Since this post is rather long, please click “Continue reading” –>

Read more

JAVA EVE API Reader update

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games, Programming , , , ,

I have just uploaded a new version of JAVA EVE API Viewer, which contains some bug fixes and a brand new Inferno 1.0 data dump.

(The Inferno 1.0 static data will become obsolete by this time tomorrow, because CCP will deploy Inferno 1.1. CCP  has postponed the rollout of Inferno 1.1. I will update the Static Data as soon as it is available.)

If you use Linux or Mac and are looking for an EVE Online character tracker, my App should meet your needs.

You can choose to download a ZIP archive, or launch the App directly, using JAVA Web Start.

Download API Reader Launch JAVA EVE API Reader

Ship re-balancing makes my recent post outdated

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , ,

A few hours ago CCP has published a dev-blog about ship balancing changes, which we have already heard before Inferno. TL; DR: all Tech I frigates are getting a specific combat role. This is a change from the tiered ship approach we’ve seen over the past years. Instead of putting ships in tiers, each better than the previous one, Tech I vessels will have specialized roles instead, much like their Tech II counterparts do.

  • Interception: Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher. Small, agile ships meant for stopping other ships dead in the water
  • Snipers: Navitas, Bantam, Burst The Navitas will become a drone boat. The Bantam will replace the Merlin as the railgun based sniper. The Burst will most likely become a mobile artillery platform, drone boat or a mix of above.
  • Missile lobbers: Inquisitor, Breacher, Kestrel, Tristan. Offer decent tank and speed.
  • Support exploration frigates: Magnate, Heron, Imicus, Probe. These ships will become even more specialized, with possible bonuses to mini-pofessions like hacking and archaeology.
  • EWAR disruption frigates: Crucifier, Griffin, Maulus, Vigil. Crucifier will be re-shaped to become a miniature Arbitrator. All ships will be specialized in EWAR and combat disruption.
  • Rookie ship boost: with the new looks, rookie ships will become very versatile ships, but not nearly as good as any Tech I frigate.

New ship! It’s one of the things that always make me smile in EVE: new ships. Since Navitas and Bantam will no longer be mining frigates, ORE will introduce an ultra-mobile mining frigate for new miners as well as experienced ones, who are mining in a hostile environment.

The new mining frigate does not have a name yet, but I’m sure CCP will come with something cool, like “Carebearmobile” or “Veldnaught” 😉 I personally vote for “Ius” -> see Ius Primae Noctis.

Barges will not have tiers anymore – instead, they will have a balance between EHP and mining output.

  • Procurer and Skiff will sport battleship-like EHP, but their mining output will be the lowest.
  • Retriever and Mackinaw will have less EHP than the above, but will mine more minerals in each cycle. They will also sport biggest cargoholds.
  • Hulk and Covetor will mine the most, but will have about as much EHP as they do right now, making them most vulnerable.

The EHP boost will also make my post about tanked barges void.

CCP has also mentioned that Barges are getting specialized cargoholds, similar to the ones on Rorqual and Orca.

All this will be coming to Tranquility in the 2012 Winter Expansion.

Inferno 1.1 available for testing

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

CCP has deployed Inferno 1.1 on the Singularity public test server yesterday, bringing a whole batch of features that did not make it into the initial release, namely Minmatar V3 skins and a bunch of smaller adjustments to War Declaration mechanics. It seems devs didn’t like that The Star Fraction turned the war initially started by Goonswarm mutual, and then hired a number of allies for free (see this forum post).

  • Team Tri-lambda has made a tiny facelift to the Drake, to make it look better with the new missile launchers.
  • Pilots involved in Faction Warfare will welcome the removal of all E-WAR from FW NPCs. Initially this looks like a considerable boost to Gallente.
  • We will also witness a new skill for Reactive Armor Hardeners: Armor Resistance Phasing, which makes them adjust faster (and as a result – use more capacitor).
  • Incursions will see a removal of two nerfs introduced in Escalation to Inferno, namely:
    • Lowering the reward for vanguard sites by 10%
    • The system influence
  • A lot of unreleased clothing will be made available for AUR – and this time the micropayments will really be micro (prices will range btween 100, 300 and 500 AUR) Complete dev-blog is available here. Eight uniforms, two for each race will be added to FW LP store.

The complete list of changes is available in the Inferno 1.1 feedback post on the forums.

As usual, if you would like to test the new content yourself, feel free to read the Singularity guide at the bottom of this post.

Words are just words, so better have a look at the beautiful minnie ships. They don’t look “streamlined” like the Reaper; instead, they kept their rusty and menacing looks.

Inferno 1.1 will be deployed on 19th of June.

Fueling the eternal War Machine made safer.

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , , , , ,

When you ask anyone who plays EVE Online, what the game is like, the immediate response is “EVE is a PVP game“. This short sentence is both true and false, depending on the point-of-view. EVE Online players rarely admit to the fact, that part of the game success is it’s player-driven economy. Those who don’t engage in PVP, and instead run missions, mine asteroids or make money in any other way are considered inferior and called “carebears” by the self-assumed “elite” players. The truth is, if EVE had no economy and everything was supplied by the NPCs, this would most likely hold true. Truth however, is not so simple.

The War Machine needs fuel!

The eternal conflict in New Eden needs fuel, and that fuel is ships and armaments, which players use to blow each other up. Manufacturing of most goods in EVE requires minerals. With the Escalation to Inferno changes (removal of mineral drops from Rogue Drones), and further nerf of meta-0 loot, the only valid source of minerals becomes, again, mining.

“Mining?! u kidding me bro? It’s boring as hell and gives no kills. And it pays almost no ISK. And Tech II ships that we elite pvpers fly don’t need minerals, right? They only need moon goo. Everyone knows that.” – said the elite pilot

“You know jack shit about how stuff is made.” replied the carebear.

“STFU*, noob! You know jack shit about PVP.”, said the angry elite egger.

*) Silence, I kill you!

Guess what? It’s our carebear, who is right in this case. Due to the Tech II manufacturing mechanics, Tech I items are still neccessary to build their Tech II versions. They are simply one of the materials used for manufacturing. What this means is, every ship in the game is made of minerals, doesn’t matter if this is Tech I, Tech II or a faction ship* Those minerals have to come from somewhere.

Without the carebears making ships, PVPers would fly Velators and Reapers and shoot civilan guns. We don’t want that, do we? Both playstyles are necessary for EVE Online to thrive.

*) faction ships are made from BPCs or require a Tech I ship trade-in.

Here come PVPers again.

Ganking can be a rather lucrative business. Killing juicy haulers in high sec is just as easy as anywhere else. The only difference is the presence of CONCORD, but it does not prevent killing. Instead, CONCORD ships only deliver a punishment by destroying the offender’s ship. Ganking can also be done for fun. Guess who’s the easiest target? Miners.

Mining ships are not even half as resilient as their combat counterparts, making them excellent prey.

“You forgot to add that carebear tears are sooooo delicious!”, said the elite pilot.

As a pilot who has been on both ends of suicide ganking (been a piwate once, but I’m teh good guy now!) I can throw my two cents.

The defense against suicide ganking is rather limited, except for simply not flying these vulnerable ships. Carebears have everything against them:

  • very limited EHP of Exhumers and Barges
  • element of surprise on gankers side
  • low agility makes it difficult to warp out quickly
  • Destroyers are cheap and powerful enough to blow up Exhumers and Barges
  • There is no defence against alpha volley, except for EHP

With that in mind, instead of whining to CCP for EHP buff, we can make ganking harder, by fitting the mining ships accordingly.

First, a few things that *will not* protect you:

  • Having friends in BS/BCs or even Falcons: because gankers rely on Alpha strike – the first volley which is usually fired the instant they lock your ship. This gives friendly pilots no time to intervene.
  • Active tank: neither shield boosters, nor armor repairers will help, exactly for the same reason.
  • Warp Core Stabilisers: because of long align times and quick alpha strike – this module is completely not viable for mining.
  • Drones: they will not have enough time to destroy the attacker, but if you fit for EHP and survive a gank attempt, Drones might give you a killmail 😉

Fly Barges instead of Exhumers

Players can easily offset the high cost of a Hulk by using a Covetor instead. With the current mineral prices, the difference between Hulk and Covetor mining output is not that much, but the difference in prices of these two ships is huge. Here’s two samples of a “Resilient” Covetor fit:

[Covetor, armor]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Residual Survey Scanner I

Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

[Covetor, shield]

Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix

Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Both setups offer about 12k EHP, which is… well… still not too much. But it is over twice as much as an untanked Covetor has, and it takes more than a single Dessy to kill it.

Please keep in mind, that mining in a Battleship is not a bad idea as well.

And if you really have to fly a Hulk…

Tank it as much as humanly possible! It will not guarantee 100% safety, but it will either discourage potential gankers, or even make you survive a gank (if bad guys don’t scan your ship before attacking it). When fitting a Hulk these days, survivability is the key word. Here’s an example:

[Hulk, Tanked]
Damage Control II
Reinforced Bulkheads II

Small F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Small F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal II

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

This setup offers 27,1k EHP, which is much better than untanked Covetor (5,5k) and untanked Hulk (9k). With someone flying a booster Tengu or Vulture in the fleet it might even be enough to actually combat gankers.

[Hulk, Tankit]
Damage Control II
Micro B88 Core Augmentation

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal I
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal I
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

The above setup (credit goes to Jorma Morkkis) gives 28,8 kEHP (32,8 with overheat). It will be rather hard to get it past this point without the use of faction/deadspace mods.

But what about Orca?

Orca is usually used as a giant hauler with Mining Links. This makes most people fit Orca with Large Cargohold Optimization rigs and Expanded Cargohold IIs. These players score their own goal, because both rigs and expanded cargohold mods reduce EHP. Comparison is quite simple: Tanked Orca offers 278,8k EHP versus 64,8k EHP of Cargo expanded Orca. This requires many more than 5 Tornadoes to kill. The choice (and the risk) is, of course, yours.

[Orca, Tank]

Damage Control II
Reinforced Bulkheads II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Heat Dissipation Field II
EM Ward Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Mining Foreman Link – Mining Laser Field Enhancement
Small Tractor Beam I
Mining Foreman Link – Laser Optimization

Large Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I
Large Core Defence Field Extender I

PS. The fitting above has more EHP than a Freighter. 

Stay out of plain sight

There is one last idea to make mining a safer task: mining in Gravimetric sites and mission deadspaces. Of course gankers can scan, too, but you will notice Core/Combat probes on directional scanner long before the bad guys can warp on top of you. The rules are the same as for missioning/mining in low sec: watch local and watch directional scanner like a hawk, warp out at the first sign of trouble.

Use some out-of-character PVP skills

Staying aligned at 3/4 of max speed makes mining more difficult, but can save your life. Also try to have the destination station as selected object at all times, so all you have to do is press the “warp” button. Incoming ships are visible on overview a few sceonds before they can be a threat, but in order to see them, you will have to set up two tabs in your overview. Make one of them show asteroid (let’s call it “mining” tab) and the other one – ships (let’s assume its called “pvp” tab). When you pop a roid, switch to mining tab, lock a new rock and start mining it. Then go back to the pvp tab. Have the pvp tab open at all times. When you see a cruiser or destroyer warping in, just hit the warp button. Remember to have the station (the one you’re aligned to) selected at all times.

It takes seventeen expansions to build a game as successful as EVE Online

Lukas Rox Blog Banter, EVE Online, Games , , ,

This post is a reply to Blog Banter 36: The Expansion of EVE

Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of the EVE Blog Banter, the community discussion that brings the collective minds of the EVE blogosphere together to chew the cud, exchange opinions or troll the world.

“With the Inferno expansion upon us, new seeds have been planted in the ongoing evolution of EVE Online. With every expansion comes new trials and challenges, game-changing mechanics and fresh ideas. After nine years and seventeen expansions, EVE has grown far more than most other MMOGs can hope for. Which expansions have brought the highs and lows, which have been the best and the worst for EVE Online?”

As the blogosphere warm themselves by the blazing Inferno, they stare wistfully into the flames and conjure memories of expansions past…

It takes a lot of bricks to build a house, and it takes 17 expansions to build a game as successful as EVE Online.

Internet Spaceships Game has received more expansions than World of Warcraft and Star Trek Online combined. When I started playing EVE, expansions were not something happening every 6 months. The amount of new content was varying from expansion to expansion as well, with one expansion that was, well… a very tiny one. Quantum Rise happened mostly on the server side (Stackless IO & EVE 64), just one new ship was introduced (the Orca) and stargate models have been iterated upon. The amount of new content, however, is not a true measure of success. Everything depends on player perception of that content.

The most epic failure, which almost everyone heard about, was the long awaited Incarna. CCP was mentioning “walking in stations” for a long time and during many events. To be honest, I’ve been waiting for this since I’ve started playing in 2005. I don’t say that EVE desperately needs avatar gameplay, because it’s a game about spaceships. I do think, however, that chatting with corp mates and other in-game friends would be done so much better in a bar scenery rather than in a hangar, while watching your ship spin. Not that ship spinning is bad, you know; I like spinning my ships, but what I really love is to fly them. Unfortunately the way Incarna delivered walking in stations, was miserable at best. Not to mention failed attempt to introduce microstransactions (wait, is 70 USD micro?) to the game. Most of us know how bad the freemium/premium model would be for established games such as EVE. I do not want to delve deep into why Incarna has received so much negative feedback from the playerbase, because 1) I have written an extensive post about Incarna backlash last summer and 2) CCP understood their mistakes and delivered two mind-blowing expansions after Incarna.

I think the best expansion of EVE Online so far was the Crucible, with Revelations, Apocrypha and Incursion as runner-ups. Crucible was successful because of many things. First off, CCP wanted to repair their public image after Incarna’s failure, so a lot of human resources have been redirected from WoD and Dust project to work on EVE instead. Second thing was a ton of small fixes, that made the game a lot better and more enjoyable to play (Loot All!!). The third reason is ships: four new ships. Crucible has delivered four new battlecruisers, very different from the ones already existing in the game. Fast and agile, but paper thin “glass cannons” with damage output comparable with the biggest Battleships.  The fourth reason is the new backgrounds and V3 shaders, that made EVE look like a real-time rendered sci-fi movie. Crucible has also delivered more walking-in-stations than Incarna did.

Apocrypha’s success was not just the Tech III modular ships; it came from added space, which is governed by a bit different rules, compared to the existing New Eden galaxy. Before Apocrypha, many players complained about Local channel being the main source of intel. Many tactics were used to circumvent Local, logon traps being the most obvious one. W-space, or Anoikis (as roleplayers call it) has a different local; one that does not give away presence (until someone speaks up). Before Apocrypha, CCP had also mentioned an idea of environmental phenomena, that would bend the rules of the game. Wormhole space was a perfect place to introduce these effects. With the Sleepers, PvE pilots have received a new AI to fight against, one that behaves more like other players rather than dumb drones.

Incursion brought even more “smart” and hard to beat NPCs, which require people to band together. The Sansha themed expansion has also removed quality of Agents, making missions more accessible and mission hubs less crowded. The main success of this expansion was the amount of rewards people could gain by running Incursions. Even though many players complained (and even tried to fight against it), majority was happy with this new steady source of ISK. Even though EVE economy suffered a bit from an additional ISK faucet, the overall community perception was positive.

When talking about new space and new ships, one can’t forget the Revelations. Surely many players like their Abaddons and Rokhs. Almost everyone loves their Drakes and Hurricanes. This is the expansion, which brought them into existence. CCP did not only deliver eight new ships; they have also opened access to eight new regions of space (now known as the Drone regions). Did you know, that prior to this expansion there were no Rigs and no ship wrecks? Both NPC and player ships would leave a Cargo Container when destroyed, which contained all the loot.

I have almost forgotten about the last one, Trinity. Trinity has delivered most of the ship models you fly these days. V3 is mostly a texture change, but it was the Trinity that brought all the new models. EVE was a completely different looking game before 2007. Fifty man-years of work have been put into re-modelling all the ships, bringing them back onto the cutting edge of graphics awesomeness. If not for this expansion, your ships would look like this:

   
   

Not that EVE was not pretty before Trinity 😉 It just got a whole lot prettier.

If CCP still has the graphical assets from the pre-Trinity EVE (which I’m sure they do) it would make a great EVE-themed tablet game. Both iPad 2 & 3 and Tegra based tablets would handle this kind of GFX easily (check out Galaxy on Fire II – it’s possible). Just an idea for the CCP 😉

As you can see, EVE Online in itself is a success. It’s an achievement that has been built with many blocks – individual expansions. It is hard to tell which one of them was the best one, because they are only parts of the whole. The game itself is a big success and I think this is all that should matter to the players. CCP’s willingness to improve and iterate and most of all – willingness to listen what community has to say is the foundation upon all these blocks are built. Take that foundation away, community will collapse, and the game will die just like many others did. Sooo… keep up the good work, CCP!

PS. Over the years I have collected EVE splash screens from each and every one EVE Online expansion – make sure to have a look 🙂