Tag: eve online

Posts about a massive multiplayer online game EVE Online by CCP hf.

Community spotlight: EVEPortraits.com

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , ,

One of the features introduced in Incursion was the new Character Creator. This has allowed new and veteran players alike to create much better character portraits – mainly because the old Character Creator was left untouched since 2003.

I am quite sure you have already seen characters, whose portraits look almost as good as a high quality photograph. And some other people have noticed them, too. A veteran EVE Online player called Reality X has created a website dedicated to character portraits: www.eveportraits.com.

For those of you, who are not too excited about character portraits I have one more word: “Contest“. A contest with some high-caliber prizes. Reality X is running a recurring event for people who would like to test their CG talents  against the new Character Creator. For a small fee of 20 million ISK you can submit your avatar to the contest and get a chance to win an expensive  faction ship. The current sixth iteration of the contest offers the faction variants of Iteron Mark IV, of which the Quafe Ultramarine edition  is currently priced at roughly 2 billion ISK!

Make sure to have a look, it’s well worth visiting!

 

“Not like this… not like this.”

Lukas Rox EVE Online , ,

It’s a very sad day for the entire EVE Online community. Vile Rat, an ex-CSM and a member of GSF has been killed by extremists yesterday in an attack on american consulate in Benghazi. Even though many of us never had a chance to talk to this man, those who did, speak very highly of him.

When I first read The Mittani’s article about this senseless death I felt heartstricken. I could not believe something like this could happen in civilized world. Worst part of it is that these people are most likely proud of what they did. Vile Rat owed them nothing, and did no wrong to them. Yet he has become a victim to their hatred. It’s easy to provoke it in people. It’s one of the strongest and most primal human emotions. I really despise those who incite hatred in people, using it for their own goals, pushing others to deeds like this.

Godspeed, Vile Rat. May your soul rest in peace. Fly safe man.

EVE Online: Retribution Status Post

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

Expansion name: Retribution
Expansion number: 18
Release date: December the 4th, 2012
Expansion theme: Ships and weapons rebalancing, Crimewatch (new PvP agression rules), new HUD, Factional Warfare and DUST 514 integration, Bounty Hunting
Last update of this post: 30.11.2012
SQLite Database dump: Buckingham build 454549
Patch notes: available here for build 453216

Retribution login screen

I know this post is a huge wall of text, but I’m trying to make it as complete and as accurate as humanly possible; instead of having to look for information about the new expansion in dozen different places, all you have to do is read through this post.

Table of contents (or TL;DR part)

  • Blueprints for new items
  • Capital ships’ Corp Hangar changes
  • Crime Watch 2.0
  • Bounty Hunting system 2.0
  • Graphical changes & ship facelifts (new Special Edition ships, Snowballs)
  • UI changes
  • Ships rebalancing
  • Frigate rebalancing
  • Destroyers (Dragoon, Corax, Algos, Talwar)
  • Cruiser rebalancing
  • Hurricane balancing
  • Turret sound changes
  • Missile changes
  • Module changes
  • Officer drone upgrades
  • E-War rebalancing
  • ORE Mining frigate (Venture)
  • NPCs AI overhaul
  • Officer Rogue Drone spawns
  • Faction Warfare – Warzone Control changes
  • Faction Warfare – NPC changes

Read more

Expansions. Are they really expanding EVE?

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , ,

I’ve recently stumbled upon an article by Poetic Stanziel about Expansions. Are They Outdated?, and as long as said article goes, I agree that trying to see the impact of one change while introducing several changes to the same module does not work too well. I do however see the direction CCP has chosen, and I think they don’t want to introduce changes step by step, when they believe entire feature (say, Faction Warfare) doesn’t work as intended (and here both devs and players usually agree).

Stanziel’s post however is not the main reason why I write mine. It’s one of the comments under said text:

Anonymous September 7, 2012 9:21 PM

There hasn’t been an “expansion” since Incarna, and there hasn’t been a “successful expansion” since Incursions.

An “expansion” means that you are *expanding* the game, with new content, and hopefully new players. Tweaking existing content and/or fixing long-standing bugs is called “maintenance”.

Crucible and Inferno are nothing more than “maintenance” releases, at best, as is the upcoming Winter release.

But, with the dumbing down of many aspects of the game, such as research agents and item naming conventions, as well as the ongoing and terrible homogenizing of the ships, you might also consider that these releases are actually contracting the game, not expanding it.

While the definitions mentioned by the Anonymous seem quite strict, they make more less sense. The question which immediately arises is

Does EVE need more new content, or does it need more maintenance?

Mining Barge blueprints in Inferno 1.2EVE Online is a very big and rather complex game. Even though Anonymous says it is being dumbed down, I disagree it’s only bad for the game. I might not entirely like renaming of the items I’ve known for years (I still type “Siege” into search when looking for Torp Launchers), but some systems in the game were unnecesarily overcomplicated. For example, agent quality seems a sensible mechanic at first: the better  the agent, the better the reward. But wait a sec, didn’t we already have agent levels? Agent quality not only added an redundant layer of complication, but it also caused overcrowded mission hubs and additional lag.

I also disagree, that ship rebalancing is a source of homogenity. To the contrary! Each ship will now have a dedicated role, making underused ships a valid choice. No, CCP is not introducing new content here. Instead, they make old content better, so you have more ships to choose from in the end. Is that a bad approach?

Based on player perception nicely captured by the Blog Banter 36: The Expansion of EVE, the game needs both new content and maintenance of existing one, but CCP should not focus on either for too long. Even though Incarna has introduced a gigabyte of new stuff, players didn’t like it, because old content seemed abandoned. At the same time, Crucible brought nearly no new stuff, and players rejoiced. The voice of the Anonymous, however, is coming from yet another “we’re tired of maintenance releases, give use new toys to play with” trend. On a sidenote, players who own a PS3 will actually get a new toy to play with pretty soon 😉

New releases should address global community needs

I am a bit disappointed that Winter 2012 expansion will bring no “Jesus features” (it was mentioned this way in the original transcript of CSM7 minutes), but Ring Mining will eventually arrive, followed by avatar-based exploration, which sounds just as good. In the meantime we will get DUST integration, which brings a whole new gameplay for those who like shooting bunnies: Orbital Strike, not to mention whole new playerbase to scam and kill play with. Miners will get a new frigate, and PVPers will get new shaders for explosions. Even though there is no huge features coming this Winter, there will still be plenty to play with.

I think if CCP times the maintenance and content releases right, playerbase should remain more less happy with the way EVE evolves.

Aura updated to Inferno 1.2

Lukas Rox EVE Online, Games , , , ,

Yesterday Jason Parks better known as Marcel Devereux has updated Aura to use Inferno 1.2 data dump. Additionally, some users have identified a crash on pre-Honeycomb devices, which was quickly patched by Marcel.

The current stable version is 1.3.9 (build 73)

App can be downloaded directly from Google Play, and if you haven’t heard about Aura yet, this review is a great source of information about mobile companion apps for EVE, including Aura.

If you need support, or have an idea for a cool feature, please head to our forums: www.aideronrobotics.com

  

DUST and EVE together on Singularity test server

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

Yesterday CCP has finished moving DUST 514 test server to the well known EVE Online public test cluster dubbed “Singularity”. Besides extensive changes to the server backend, there is many changes visible to the naked eye:

  • Capsuleers of EVE and DUST bunnies can chat in local
  • Overview settings now include more orbital structure types (it’s actually on Tranquility already)
  • New deployable type: Mobile Jump Disruptor – most likely a new type of warp bubble to stop players from using Tactical Warp Drive (the one that was supposed to arrive with Inferno)
  • Market has a new category for DUST items. They have been seeded, but are currently NOT available to buy for EVE players.
  • Customs Offices are gone and this is probably a bug. They will likely be replaced with another structure – the Space Elevator (the structure on the right)
  • Where to find Dust players on Singularity:
    You will be able to find Dust players in following systems: Kothe (Kador), Ana (Domain), Marthia (Tash Murkon), Saikanen (The Citadel), Autama (Lonetrek), Soshin (The Forge), Jolia (Sinq Laison), Adacyne (Placid), Halle (Everyshore), Egbonbet (Metropolis), Kasrasi (Derelik), and Javrendei (Heimatar)

More information in this forum post by CCP Habakuk.

 

Home in the stars

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

This post is a reply to Blog Banter 39: Home

Welcome to the 39th Blog Banter – the community discussion that stretches across the many communities of EVE Online through the use of arcane bloggery. The conversation is open to all and readers are encouraged to visit all of the entries that will be listed below as the discussion progresses. Be sure to leave your thoughts there when you do.

For enquiring minds who would like to know more about the Blog Banters, check out this short explanation or read this overview of the subjects covered in the last year.

After a some heavy topics in the last few editions, this time we’ll be taking a more relaxed trip through the thoughts of the blogosphere. The origins of this month’s concept come from a suggestion from EON Magazine editor Richie “Zapatero” Shoemaker.

“Some say a man’s home is his castle. For others it is wherever they lay their hat. The concept is just as nebulous in the New Eden sandbox. 

In EVE Online, what does the concept of “home” mean to you?”

The definitions of home

Many players will reply that they consider home their current base of operations, be it a system or region. In that sense I’ve had several homes in my EVE career. At times when I was in null, “home” was just a POS: a large  Tower with several other structures floating nearby. When my alliance had been pushed from our space, home has become nothing more than just a hangar, in a station, somewhere in low or high security space.

IRL people will call home the place where the loved ones are. In EVE you can find good friends of course, but it usually gets down to a common base of operations.

But over the years I have accumulated a sizable amount of ships: I tried to get at least one of every ship I can fly, including tech I through III and pirate variants as well. It would be stupid waste of time to haul it everywhere I go, so they stay safely docked in one of the stations in Gallente space. I could say this is my true home in EVE now: the place where my ship hangar count is in hundreds (until Inferno and its awesome features I had absolutely no idea how much they are actually worth).

But I would like something more

So we have two definitions now. To be honest, I’m not happy with either one, because neither of these places which I mentioned is really yours; only the assets are. I would like something more: a real home in EVE. A station perhaps, or a small hangar array, something I own, something more personal.  I could have anchored a POS, but POSs burn fuel. It’s a waste of ISK if the POS does not do anything more than storing ships and assets. Space would also quickly get crowded, if everyone could put their space house anywhere.

EVE lore also states, that ships made of Tritanium are not fitted for atmospheric flight, because Trit quickly destabilizes in higher temperatures. So player owned “home” should be either in space (there is plenty of room in empty space, you know), or… on the surface of moons. Majority of these large space rocks don’t have an atmosphere, plus they are pretty easy to find in space. It would also be very cool to undock from an underground hangar (your own hangar!) straight into space.

The idea I have outlined above raises plenty of questions:

  1. Should this home be destructible?
  2. Could someone just hack the door and rob my hosue of ships and goodies
  3. Could it be placed anywhere, or just in high sec?
    (it would be pretty annoying in null, because when someone jumped into your system you could simply dock in your “space home”.)
  4. How would I call my neighbor players on the same moon? space homies?
  5. How much cargo space should it have?
  6. How much should it cost?
  7. Should it be a one time expense or some kind of monthly fee (like rent or fuel, for example Starbase Charters in high sec)?

While I think about it, it would be even better than working “walking in stations”.

What about walking in stations?

Establishments in fully working Incarna environment could also be considered our own home in EVE. Unfortunately since CCP is busy with launching DUST 514, I really doubt we’ll get functional walking in stations before 2014. And even then, customizable or not, Captains Quarters are not yours. They are more like a hotel room, a property of the station’s owner.

I’d really like that underground hangar 😀

See what others have to say

JAVA EVE API Reader gets Inferno 1.2 static data

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

The JAVA EVE API Viewer has just been updated with Inferno 1.2 data dump (so the Iteron Mark IV Amastris Edition shows just fine).

I will also try to provide a data dump conversion for Aura in the near future, so the finest EVE app for Android would finally be up to date with the new skills and items, which have been introduced in Inferno.

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

Download API Reader Launch JAVA EVE API Reader

Arek’Jaalan: Site One

Lukas Rox ((IC)), EVE Online, Games, Role-playing , , , ,

Roleplaying in EVE? Never heard of it.

EVE Online is not only full of douchebags, who just wait for you to make a mistake and then exploit it by destroying your precious internet spacecraft. Its roleplaying side exists, but is not so obvious (unless you count playing that douchebag from the first sentence as roleplaying).

Roleplayers do more than just have fun speaking for their characters and acting in game as some science fiction characters would. They also do a favour to CCP by enhancing the vibrant, living world of New Eden by the stories of their own. And I’m not only talking about fan-fic arcs, which some bloggers write now and then (myself included).

This also includes CCP sponsored live events. The volunteers from ISD used to have a team called “Aurora“, which was “focused on the plot and back-story of the EVE universe and were lead by volunteer actors roleplaying the important people with backing from the fiction team of CCP”. Team Aurora has been disbanded by the CCP in 2008, and their responsibilites have been transferred to a new departament: ISD Mercury. You would probably never noticed their existence until Sansha’s Nation started to raid Temperate planets across New Eden.

Sansha’s Nation live events

Sansha began their incursions about a year before CCP deployed the Incursion expansion, and much more players noticed that there is such a thing as live events (if you were not playing EVE back then, you can read about these live “pre” incursions here). Some roleplayers quickly rallied to find a way to combat the Sansha. Direct fight was not the best option, because rallying other capsuleers takes time, and these live events were completely unpredictable and never lasted for long. Some roleplayers suggested to use science instead of guns, and find a way to close the violent wormholes, which Sansha used to stage their incursions. “Operation Bad Moon” has been created. The idea was to use Gravimetric ECM to destabilize Sansha wormholes. I have suggested we should use HIC’s as a source of graviton particles instead, because they are much more powerful than regular ECM. Other players suggested to find a way to break Sansha communication.

Arek’Jaalan: Site One

Hint: the in-character part is in italics.

CCP recognized roleplayers efforts, and together with the volunteers has built a complex in the system of Eram in Metropolis region, where it is now possible to see what roleplayers are involved with at the moment or who contributed the most in creating the complex. The place is called Arek’Jaalan: Site One.

I will be your guide on this trip, so make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened and please have a look through the nearest viewport.

Here we can see “Site One” from some distance. The tallest structure in the middle is called Administrative Outpost, and it is of the very same design as the one capsuleers use in deep space.

The structure on the far left is a typical acceleration gate. This one is inactive, but if we approached it, we would get a notification, that “Construction of additional areas is currently underway. The acceleration gate is closed for public access.”.

Let’s approach the minmatar control tower called “Arek’Jaalan Visitors Center”.

A calm male voice started his monologue:

Welcome to Arek’Jaalan Visitors Center. An information package is being uploaded to your cargo hold now.

For site acknowledgements, or more information about the research underway here, please consult the documents you’ve just been provided.

Thank you for your interest in our research. 

As the tour was watching the structures outside, the voice continued:

“The Arek’Jaalan Project was founded to act as a cross-organizational research body and common ground for capsuleers to share information about the Sleeper civilization and related matters. The goals of the project are, relative to similar bodies, both simple to understand and quite humble. Put simply, our aim is to research, document and educate.

Research: We aim to posit and debate theories, study known facts and uncover new ones, and use every other method available to deepen our understanding of the Sleepers and related subjects.

Document: Through extensive use of open networks, and with the help of key staff, we aim to document all of the information shared between project members, from everyday communication to large-scale research projects.

Educate: Using our body of contributors and their documented research as a foundation, we aim to educate other capsuleers about our work, and to encourage wider capsuleer interest in scientific matters by presenting information openly and accessibly.

In its initial phase, the project aims to build a “foundational” body of documented research, at which point a larger focus will begin to be placed on the goal of education.

It should be emphasized that Arek’Jaalan does not aim to produce new technologies, and in particular that we take an active stance against any further weaponization of Sleeper or other technologies. We aim for something more benign and progressive.

It should be similarly noted that much of our work lies in centralizing and documenting scattered, yet publicly available, information. In the absence of these hard facts, we turn to educated theory. Although there is always the risk of information being used for immoral ends, it should be remembered what the majority of our work at the Arek’Jaalan project actually amounts to, and that our own stance is to be firmly against such actions.

Overwhelmingly, the current focus of interest in capsuleer research is applied science, particularly weaponization. The work we do is intended to help humanity, and science as a whole, not just the capsuleer military-industrial cycle. Arek’Jaalan stands apart from the destructive mainstream; as an alternative way for capsuleers to use their unique capabilities. “

I can add to what’s just been said, that the other document we have received is a listing of corporations and individual capsuleers who contributed in building this site.

Let’s head to the whole bunch of structures on the right side of the complex. First off, there is a Minmatar Outpost; we will pay it a visit in just a minute. Secondly, there is an array of archives carefully lined up in front of that outpost. Each of the archives bears the name of a specific project.

By navigating from archive to archive one can complete a whole list of projects that Arek’Jalaan was involved in so far:

Research Abstract: Project Algintal
Research Abstract: Project Astrosurvey
Research Abstract: Project Blueprint
Research Abstract: Project Catapult
Research Abstract: Project Common Ground
Research Abstract: Project Compass
Research Abstract: Project Enigma
Research Abstract: Project Huntress Green (1 of 3)
Research Abstract: Project Huntress Green (2 of 3)
Research Abstract: Project Huntress Green (3 of 3)
Research Abstract: Project Infernal Spade
Research Abstract: Project Omega
Research Abstract: Project Omicron
Research Abstract: Project Rho
Research Abstract: Project Slipstream
Research Abstract: Project Tesseract
Research Abstract: Project Theseus
Research Abstract: Project Theta
Research Abstract: Project Trinity

If any of you is interested in these projects, it’s enough to approach any of the archives with a spacefaring vessel, and the details will be automatically uploaded to the ship right away. The outpost behind archives, that I mentioned earlier is an Eifyr & Co. Research Office installation, but it is unfortunately off limits to visitors, so our little tour ends here. Do you have any questions?

The whole complex as well as all the projects are very well documented on the galnet page of EVE Wiki.

Closing Thoughts

Kills don’t leave traces in the game; they are merely records in a killmail database. What these roleplayers did here was actually leaving something in the game for others to find and explore (and possibly join the effort). If you are interested in the roleplaying side of EVE, make sure to read the Mark726’s EVE Lore Guide hosted at Freebooted, it is great material to find out how broad New Eden’s lore actually is.

PS. I actually found this place by digging in the SQL Data Dump. Once I found the first “Research Abstract” item in the invTypes table, I have immediately set off for Eram to acquire these items and find out more about the project itself.

First glimpse at the winter 2012 expansion

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

EDIT: Proper Status Post for Winter Expansion is already up. Go check it for all confirmed changes in the coming expansion.

As Inferno has matured a little bit, CCP started to reveal pieces of information regarding the new winter expansion. It is not enough to write my usual “status” post yet, but the information released is already quite interesting.

Please mind that the numbers below are most likely not set in stone yet and are subject to change. The data are up-to-date on 21st of August.

  • Frigate rebalancing

    Continuing the efforts started in Crucible and Inferno, CCP is re-balancing more frigates in order to make them role based (devs are calling this “tiericide”) in favor of the tier based approach. Back in 2003, when EVE was just released, putting ships in tiers made sense, but over time it caused people to fly the top-of-the-line ship, while ignoring the lower tier ships.

    Already Rebalanced:

    Combat frigates – short range brawlers: Tormentor, Punisher, Merlin, Incursus, Rifter
    Attack frigates– tech I ceptors: Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher

    In the winter expansion we will get:

    Disruption frigates – dev forum post here
    Weaker version of Electronic Attack Ships

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Exploration frigates – dev forum post here

    They will receive an additional bonus to mini-professions, rather than just to probe scanning strength.

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Logistic frigates – dev forum post here

    Along with ships rebalancing, small remote assistance modules will get a slight fitting boost as well.
    Maximum remote assistance range will be capped at 28,8km.

     Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    More Combat frigates – dev forum post here
    The Amarr have received two rebalanced combat frigates (Tormentor and Punisher) recently, so all the other races are getting a second combat frig to choose from as well.

  • ORE Mining frigate

    While Navitas and Bantam will become logistic frigates, there is a need for a small scale, low-SP mining specific ship. The ORE Mining Frigate is still nameless, but we already know how it is going to look like:

  • DUST 514 integration

    Some details have been speculated heavily by myself in this post, and by Blake from K162space here. According to this news item, CCP is currently working on moving DUST 514 to Singularity test server, which means we will be able to test the integration pretty soon. Players are however concerned by the fact, that CCP claims it takes several days of downtime to connect DUST and EVE Online. Even though the task is rather complicated, I am quite sure CCP would not allow such operation to last more than a couple of hours on Tranquility.

    EVE Online planetary bombardment - DUST 514 link
    EVE Online planetary bombardment – DUST 514 link

  • Industry

    We can only guess what the winter expansion could bring here, because there is plenty of room for improvement. The recent addition of new alchemy reactions which allow bypassing Technetium was just the tip of the iceberg. We can probably expect some form of ring mining mentioned in the Fanfest keynote, or UI fixes and multitude of small improvements (especially for repeatable tasks). Another possible improvement could affect planning and tracking of an industry operation, which currently relies heavily on third party tools and Corporation API keys.

    Unfortunately at this point there is no solid source of information regarding Industry changes and we have to wait for a proper dev-blog. On a side note, I like Poetic Stanziel’s idea regarding Ring Mining in one of a his recent posts. Add some risk of ship destruction, and this can actually end up an exciting way to gather resources.

  • Graphical changes

    New ship explosions as seen on edge-online.com and previously in one of the Fanfest keynotes (thanks for reminding about this, @wartzilla !)

  • CREST API (speculation)

    This would probably be the cherry on the cake, because EVE API in its current form, even though very useful, is still lacking many features. For example, third party applications such as Aura can let you read EVE mail, but in order to send a reply, you have to log on to the game or use EVE Gate. CREST API aims to change that, and it will allow more of a read-write access to the game, rather than current read-only approach. So far CCP has only revealed Developer Preview of CREST documentation but it is lacking any specific details regarding what the new API will and will not allow to do. The devs made no promises on release date either.

  • New modules (speculation)

    One of the famous-but-not-existing modules that were supposed to arrive in Inferno was Micro Jump Drive/Tactical Warp Drive – a module that would catapult a ship instantly about 100km forward. Since it did not make it for Inferno, we can still hope it will arrive in the winter expansion.

  • New collectible ships (lot of speculation)

    Inferno 1.2 has brought a range of Catalyst variants, which will be most likely collectible ships (think of it like Interbus Shuttle or Iteron Mark IV Amastris Edition). I highly doubt CCP would add them as ships skins in the NeX store, but as long as there is no solid evidence to the contrary, we can’t dismiss it either. There is also a possibility that these ships could be available in specific corp LP stores. This way or another, the trend seems to already have started, and we can probably expect more collectible ship variants entering the game i nthe near future, allowing for unprecedented speculation (don’t know what I’m talking about? Just do a pricecheck on Iteron Mark IV Quafe Ultramarine Edition please).

  • Graphical changes (pure speculation)

    Vagabond might get its frill back.