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Chinese EVE Online to Shut down Servers

Jan 18, 2012 Articles Recommend, eve online|153views

EVE Online’s Chinese publisher CDC Games announced today (Jan. 17 local time in China) that the game will be open to players free of charge from Feb. 1 and will stop its commercial service in China on Mar. 31. That means CDC Games’ cooperation with Iceland-based CCP on EVE Online will soon end, and CCP will announce the game’s new publisher in China before the servers are shut down formally.

EVE Online produced by CCP is a star wars-themed online game set in sci-fi space and allows players to travel among over 5,000 planets on their own spaceships. CDC Games used to have high expectations of the game, but now it is giving up on the game.

In October last year, CDC Games’ parent company - CDC Corporation filed for bankrupt, but EVE Online continued its normal service owing to the Corporation’s application for bankrupt protection. Anyway, CDC Games didn’t disclose whether EVE Online’s server shutdown was caused by the Corporation’s bankrupt.

Tags: Chinese, eve online, Shut down

EVE Survivor Guy, Part Five

May 6, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|207views

Survival is tough–especially in space. Eve Online is a game of depth and mystery, one wrong step and you will find yourself on the wrong side of a laser turret; go into this game unprepared and welcome a myriad of confusion and tender despair. My mission was simple; survive in Eve Online for eight weeks and report my trials and tribulations. I knew this would be hard but still I was unprepared. This is Eve Online Survivor Guy.

Week Five: Down and Out in New Eden

It has been five long weeks since I started my survival in Eve Online, I had enjoyed my experience but constantly tasted the bittersweet element of mind boggling depth the game offers. As I now stand in my survival I feel myself hitting a brick wall; I am now static, without purpose, unknowing of what I am to do next but scrabbling for my next hit of space adventure which the game dangles above like a metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Most of my playing time had been cancelled down, invested in pursuits of knowledge on the Internet, a frantic search for some sort of hint or tip, helpful comments on previous posts seemingly have yielded more questions. I knew Eve Online was to be a difficult mistress, I had heard the tales of its murderous learning curve, now I bore witness to those foreboding scenes.

Since I last left off in detailing my experiences I had found a corporation and subsequently left it in search for a more helpful establishment. This was a quest I would find myself indulged in for days; I would search in-game and in-browser for newbie corporations but to no avail, oh sure they were certainly out there but the mountainous applications they receive seemingly relegated me to a long waiting list, it’s like they think I am not important. The one corporation that had taken my eye was Eve University, a name that would constantly be paraded in front of my vision as I asked for help or guidance. After finding them I applied and waited; and I waited more. Finally I decided to ask how long it would take for my induction into the University- I was promptly told around five days. What was I to do for this amount of time? Search for another Corp? Seek out helpful players? This week of my survival was going to be testing to my patience and will.

From research and simply conversing with other players, this is perhaps the hardest test of Eve Online, persevering with the game when everything seems at its darkest. I had indulged in missions and mining for the past month and now I wished to progress, take the next step–apparently this was corporation warfare but as of yet I had not had much luck with this element. Unlike most games of the genre, Eve Online simply plunges you into its virtual world and lets you decide on your actions and path. Coming from games such as EverQuest and the like, this is a real shock to the system, where most games guide you by hand, Eve Online simply refuses, and this is why I now find myself hitting the brick wall of static progress. I desperately wished to continue and advance but this week was becoming a very hard week for survival.

My week consisted of my routine pursuits; I would run a dozen or so missions; use guides and tips to plan my progress into becoming a better combat pilot, then I would mine and haul back with my frigate. In this time I had amassed a modest amount of wealth, a handful of ships including: a Catalyst, an Iterion Mark II and III and also a Retriever (a ship I had simply bought in an effort to mine more without having the skills to do so) I thought I had achieved something with my time, I was enjoying myself also but I couldn’t help but feel I was going nowhere and fast. The goals I had set myself early on and simply disappeared, every guide I read told me to pick and choose a path but my objectives simply fell by the wayside.

I had pitted all of my hope and efforts on receiving an invitation into one of the many rookie Corporations I had applied to, this seems like a bad plan but during this week I felt like I had nowhere else to turn. I need guidance and someone to really explain the advanced basics. Helpful comments on this very website would explain what I should do and usually these would involve joining a Corporation but I was finding this a very hard prospect, just how does one really go about finding such an establishment that is not only good but understanding to a rookie? I had joined and left numerous Corporations by now and all of them were seemingly empty voids existing only to constantly increase in number. I was despairing at the game for lack of a better word; I needed something to really reinvigorate my time in the game.

Of course my week was simply becoming a waiting game and in search of excitement and a break in the norm I was to take a metaphorical leaf out of the scoundrel book. I needed to catch a little adrenaline before I hopefully moved on and so I was to try a method that I had read about, it sounded devilishly naughty but what the hell? I was a rookie on a waiting list; the devil makes work of idle thumbs after all. Activating my Catalyst I set out into the nearest populated asteroid field, after scanning around I came across one player with a very small ship simply mining into a jettisoned can- this pilot’s foolish trust in space was his undoing. After around twenty minutes of simply watching from afar I surmised that this can was probably filled with a generous amount of Veldspar, I moved quickly, making a bookmark of this place I returned to my station and made use of my Iterion Mark III, warping back to my prospective crime scene I came upon the jettisoned can and swiftly devoured the content. With rapid clicks I set about warping back to the station with my ill gotten gains, there I waited, sold my wares and sat smugly like a proud space vagabond.

Space piracy had always sounded like a great idea to me, who doesn’t like pirates after all? I had imagined myself a sort of space traveling Black Beard, commandeering anything I see, plundering all and making good use of Space Rum. This little excursion was exciting and made me feel like a joyful child, I craved more; I craved violence and a chance to flex my Catalyst’s muscle. I returned a little later after my theft to the same asteroid field and found that while my victim had departed, possibly in a funk of depression, several others remained; mining for my ore. Weighing up my prospective combatants, naturally I choose the weakest and smallest of them all. Approaching him I spotted my target, the jettisoned can, with a few simple clicks I had stolen my fill of his gains and waited. The inevitable laser shot came and I was in business. Moving quickly I targeted the pilot and unleashed the fury of my six turrets. It all ended with a satisfying explosion. Space pirate was I.

Week five had been a difficult week. I had carried on in my routine activities and had found this a little disparaging, I ultimately wanted to advance and progress but had found myself hitting a brick wall, I had become static and it was becoming the greatest threat to my survival. In many ways this week had become filler, just something I had to get through until hopefully my application to Eve University and others may be accepted. In order to satiate my despair I had indulged in the adventurous and devilish piracy that I had heard of, of course in a very minor scale but it was exciting and enjoyable. Still I found myself scrabbling and on the ropes, my survival in Eve Online was becoming tougher and now it had become a battle of will. Would I be able to continue if my fortunes didn’t look up? Once thing is for sure, I had a hell of a lot of reading to be doing.

Tags: eve online, Survivor Guy

EVE Survivor Guy, Part Four

Apr 29, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|182views

Hello, and welcome to the fourth entry of EVE Online Survivor Guy. In this series, I’ll be jumping head first into the dangerous universe of New Eden, where I expect survival won’t come easy. I’ll be going into New Eden as a total newbie, and I expect the learning curve to be steep. I don’t want to over dramatize this, but a mistake out here could prove fatal…

Week Four: Gimme Shelter

For a month now I had survived in the unforgiving universe of New Eden; I’ve bested the rogues and vagabonds wishing to fell me with an assortment of colored lasers; I’ve traversed through dangerous conflicts between opposing moral factions, I’ve even dabbled in space piracy. I was the poetic image of survival, I was the pioneer wishing to conquer the most extreme of temperate and conditions; I was the Survivor Guy.

My once conservative ways of survival had slipped a little as of late; I was running missions, gallivanting across galaxies in pursuit of wealth and fame; I was reckless, out of control; an adrenaline junkie and loving it. Logical and apprehensive survival had gotten me so far but now I was lusting excitement and spaceship violence, days of carefully planned skill progression turned into games of magnetic word connection- if it sounded masculine and had the word “Gun” in it, it was mine. The sound and careful foundation I had built was now fully in fruition, I could be reckless and careless.

While I was running missions and trying to purchase bigger and better spacecraft my mind was occupied, I was having fun and adventure, but one thing was niggling in the back of my mind; Oh sure it was slightly edgy to be a one man wolf pack but talks with several players had lead me to create an image of awe and greatness of corporation life, to me it was a battle of supreme scale, epic conflicts with ships the size of moons, explosive firepower and rousingly high octane excitement. I had decided that this was to be my next stop in EVE Online.

While I had some human contact while playing the game, I wasn’t what you would call sociable. Many private conversations consisted of frustrated and ignored veterans trying to guide and seemingly groom me in some way and as such I didn’t have too many friends. My egotistical approach to survival had left me a loner and while in many ways learning the game on my own terms was a good move, it had left me with little to no contacts and this came back to bite me in the metaphorical space ass. I needed to branch out and mingle, I needed a corporation and I wasn’t sure how I would find one.

As It turned out I was already in some sort of corporation by the name of Scope, but I wasn’t to know, to me this was just a glorified chat tab in which people often traded insults and tips, often at the same time, this automatically assigned group didn’t fit my independent ethos so I left once I found out how to do so. I wanted to find a group of players that were welcoming to newcomers but also serious; hardcore in their approach but gentle and helpful, did such a thing exist? I was about to find out, my main worry was finding myself invited to a sort of corporation pile-on, a group that exists to simply invite more and more members in a pursuit of number induced orgasm that are so prevalent in other MMORPGs. No, I wanted something better, an official and regimented outfit befitting of my surviving ways.

For days I simply ran missions, mined and went about my daily business, In my mind I was hoping to happen upon a kindly Obi-Wan type that would take me under his wing as I helped him fend off Pirates- no such event occurred, instead I lead an increasingly isolated life, it was as if the universe was invited to a party and I was merely hunched in the garden trying to catch a glimpse through the windows. Every piece of EVE Online text I read online lead me to depressing lows as the antics of a number of players were described with joyous glee, I wanted to be a part of this. In the end I snapped, I lowered my standards and I reached out for help in the rookie channel.

What followed was what I can only describe as an orgy of invitation, no sooner had my “I’m looking for a corp” hit the dull grey backdrop of the channel, I had received countless private chat invites. I felt like the belle of the ball, an attractive young noble lady picking between exotic suitors; would it be ElectroGuyy the handsome looking Amarr? Or maybe Motoppe the war torn Gallente? I was flattered to receive such attention. I made my choice and after a duel of flirtatious “What is it that you’re looking for in a corp?” questions, I was in.

The initial joy of finding a corporation, which I could call my own, quickly subsided into a feeling of under whelming boredom. Aside from a few feeble greetings, the chat tab ebbed slowly into eerie silence and for a couple of days I went back to my lonely life of isolation. I had heard of epic conflicts and of exciting adventures with fellow travelers, why was this not the case for me? I was at the end of my tether until finally a voice broke out into the emptiness “Who wants to run some missions?” This was my time.

What followed was a series of events that ultimately I cannot explain nor account for. A couple of us comrades met at a space station about five or so jumps away and set about our missions. While it was exciting to be a part of this adventurous group I couldn’t help but feel I was letting my grasp on the game go, someone else was simply guiding me and I had handed over control. After being told a destination and to follow, we set about finding our encounter and thus violence and conflict. This was something I had ultimately wished for but I heading into it clueless, I didn’t understand what was happening, I was feeling my newbie badge glinting once more.

After reaching our encounter a battle of epic proportions commenced, the great spacecrafts of my fellows loomed large and heavy, all enemy combatants were destroyed by waves of laser fire while I merely flew about the theatre of war like some sort of milksop or snickering nit, every so often I would unleash my firepower and quickly cower behind the strength of my comrade. I felt weak, confused and in a daze. This went on for an hour. We would reach an encounter, destroy everything (I say we, my involvement amounted to morale support and the odd, “Whoops!”) and move to the next destination. Sure, it was exciting and a spectacle to behold, but I felt a little worthless; I didn’t need to be there, I was like a hitchhiker brought along on a dangerous adventure.

After some time my corporation adventure wound down and my fellows and I decided to part ways. I flew back to my home station feeling confused and laden with doubt. I didn’t know what exactly had just happened, why I was involved or why I was so weak. It was enjoyable, but I felt like a child guided along without paying much attention. Corporation living was surely fun and exciting, but I needed to be eased into the experience, I needed to dip my metaphorical toe into the water. The silence of this particular corporation was eerie, and I needed a crew more understanding of my uneducated ways. I decided to leave in search of new pasture, this was surely the way I wanted to head, but I needed a group more equipped to handle my needs. I had a lot of things to learn it seems. Join me again next week as I continue…

Tags: eve online, Survivor Guy

EVE Survivor Guy, Part Three

Apr 22, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|485views

Hello and welcome to Eve Online Survivor Guy. I am taking on the wilds of New Eden, once I’m out there I will have to initiate survival and it won’t be easy. I don’t have any experience of this game and the learning curve for me will come swift and steady. I don’t want to over dramatize this but a mistake out here could prove fatal. Haven’t seen my first adventures?

Week Three: The Space Cowboy

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy- My time in Eve Online had become and endless pursuit of wealth and musings of my own explosive death; I had become dull and over-dramatic, greedy and reserved. My first handful of weeks in Eve Online had focused solely on foundation building, but the next step in my survival required something else. There was only so much can mining and conservative thinking I could muster without finding myself at weary odds with the game, the time is now to branch out and seize the day. Having built an important foundation from which to grow I could now dabble with the game as comfortably as a new comer without clue can, would I pursue combat or otherwise? Now was a time for choice-nay, for heroes.

Throughout my time in New Eden I had made use of the Rookie Channel for guidance and kind word, while some offered advice I couldn’t help but notice the staggering amount of “find a corporation” replies I had received. Every question asked seemingly turned into a private chat of recruitment like I was some snot nosed youth; impressionable and timid. While I understood this was a game meant to be played with others, I simply didn’t want to have my hand guided by a mechanical veteran of the game; someone of knowledge but jaded with experience. Like any game I wished to learn it on my own terms and accord, surely I would reach the point where I would need a corporation but for now I needed simple excitement and adventure and this is what I had planned.

I had embraced my role of Survivor Guy fully during my tenure in New Eden; I had calculated every move and accounted for any progress in any logical way I could muster. While this had me in a better position than most, I couldn’t help but feeling my interest start to wane, I craved for excitement and action, the chance to the fully embrace Eve Online and all its possibilities. I had become the metaphorical space curtain-twitcher, I would tut and tusk at those brave enough to enjoy the game, while I sat in my safe haven looking at my accumulated wealth and unnatural love of mining. My mission was simple- to survive; I would fail this without some devil-may-care adventure to revitalize my interest.

I had three weeks worth of skill progression (mainly centered on combat) and I also had a modest amount of ISK. I had reached a point where I could courageously step out into the world and attempt more exciting missions and excursions. Striking into the market place I decided to treat myself to a new ship- A Ravager, surely a more fearsome ship could not be found? Equipping this with as many laser turrets, shield boosters and ammunition as could get my hands on, I decided it was time to strike out, I felt like the space faring equivalent of the Terminator. All caution was cast to the wind and my survival badge was locked away for now. I decided to look for combat missions and these were not hard to find, a simple view of the Agent list and I had the choice of dozens- picking one I set about my task. During my time in Eve Online I had steered heavily toward the skills of gunnery and likewise abilities to the point of around level 3 and 4. While I felt secure that I had the skills necessary to take on the missions I still couldn’t beat that niggling feeling that I was about to become a flaming wreck. My mission sent me to an unexplored sector of space where I would quite possibly find space pirates and hostile attitudes- I was right on both counts, my trial by fire had begun and I clung to the lessons taught to me by the tutorial missions. Targeting one of my three opponents I started to close the distance between and with one hand hovering over my many turrets I prepared for attack.

It was over in a matter of seconds, my dozen or so laser turrets annihilated every enemy I cared to target with ease, each combatant succumbing to a multitude of different colored lasers. I was victorious and quite possibly The Terminator. Struggling with my own sense of smugness I returned for reward and promptly received further orders. After a dozen or so battles I had received a generous amount of ISK and the adrenaline was pumping within, I was unstoppable surely?

As the old saying goes “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” I was surely not exempt from the teachings of consequence; after attempting another mission story arc I found myself pitted against more hostile and difficult enemies, I also found myself in stale-mate conflicts. I would venture between space station and waypoint, destroying an enemy with sheer grit and determination, then I would return to a station, repair my battered ship and venture forth once more to slowly reach my objective and claim any reward. My once unstoppable pace had become regretfully slow, all notions of careful foundations and logical survival had been tossed by the wayside, I was a conquering force, and how could a simple mission slow me down?

After another fruitless battle of returning back and forth between reparations and conflict I decided that more arsenal were needed, perhaps a bigger ship too? In a desperate attempt to keep going with my missions I had become a ridiculous farce of my once tame and survival abiding self; spending the majority of my money on a ship with slightly more capacity for lasers and also indulging in a dozen or so more expensive and glamorous looking weapons I set back out into space on my bloody trail. I overcame the remaining enemies I had with a mixture of firepower and sheer determination, I then finally set about my final mission in the arc, apparently I had been chasing a ruffian of some sort and now was the time for a final confrontation. The excitement and exhilaration of combat after so much mining came at a price, I was now reckless and single minded; a price that would surely be repaid.

As I approached my mission I realized this wasn’t going to be easy, quickly dispatching various weaker ships I found myself locked into battle with the target of the mission. A similar scenario repeated itself, I would battle until my ship couldn’t take much more, return to the space station and repair. It was a fool proof plan except I was now increasingly low on money. After taking my enemy down two thirds in health, I realized I couldn’t repair again, I needed cash and quick, would I sell a turret or a shield booster? Was there another choice?

I quickly made my way into an asteroid field and proceeded to scour the horizon, nothing here, I moved to the next one, this time I was in luck. Sat floating in space aimlessly was a jettisoned can, filled to the brim with Veldspar. My actions were one of guilt and treachery, I loaded up as much as I could and proceeded back to the station, I even felt bold enough to repeat my actions, I had only seen one ship since I started such an effort and so what? I would destroy any in my path. On my third trip I noticed something out of the corner of my eye- a ship; it was firing out colorful beams of light- straight towards me. I quickly exited the asteroid field and made my way back to my safe station. Oh the joys of crime, my theft had accumulated enough wealth so I could easily repair myself. I set about my mission once more.

After undocking I saw a red object on my radar, this wasn’t common for this destination, surely this was a marker of a hostile? Unfortunately I was correct; my victim had followed me to the station and happened upon me once more. It was over in a matter of seconds, bright light, and explosion. My ship wasn’t there anymore, I was in a small pea shaped capsule, emasculated and beaten I retreated back to the station. I hadn’t even insured my ultimate war making space craft; I sat in that space station a broken man. Crime doesn’t pay, neither does adrenaline fueled idiocy.

I had lost much to my quest for excitement, money, time and a ship. I had however, gained much. I was introduced to a world of excitement and quest. My antics had left me with an unquenchable thirst. Combat was as exhilarating as it was tactical and with the right amount of apprehensive planning and devil-may-care plotting, I would survive New Eden in spectacular joyful style. I wanted to taste more gun metal and pursue more action. I heard that there was one element of the game which offered this in oodles, an element of the game vehemently persuaded on new-comers- corporations. I made this my next port of call, for now I would have to accumulate more lost wealth, perhaps in punishment for my little adventure. It was back to honest mining for me. Join me again next week as I continue….

Tags: eve online, Survivor

EVE Survivor Guy Week 2

Apr 15, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|202views

Hello and welcome to Eve Online Survivor Guy. I am taking on the wilds of New Eden, once I’m out there I will have to initiate survival and it won’t be easy. I don’t have any experience of this game and the learning curve for me will come swift and steady. I don’t want to over dramatize this but a mistake out here could prove fatal…

Week Two: Bewilderment and Cash Flow

It is my second week and already I am starting to feel like the uneducated and savage newcomer that I am. Having made frequent enquiries of various matters in the Rookie Channel it has now become apparent that Eve Online is difficult beyond comprehension. Veterans of the game tell me in mechanical terms which way I should progress, such is the benefit of hindsight, while others reply in mystical tones of “the game is how you make it”. My second week in New Eden wasn’t going to be easy and to survive I needed to be proactive and intelligent in my methods.

A certain sense of bewilderment had stricken me during my second week of play, Eve Online seems so vast and complicated and yet guideless and emancipated from any kind of preordained progress. Everything in the game is of the players’ making and this is very hard to grapple with. To survive further I needed to plot and plan for my future and guide myself through the freedom of New Eden. The greatest challenge I faced to my further survival was the almost existential doubt and despair I was feeling towards the point of a limitless and free space faring life. It is the feeling that almost all newcomers must experience when playing the first stages Eve Online. The games non-linearity becomes almost a threat to the traditional MMORPG player, to survive I needed to cast aside my days of goblins, enormous swords and colorful landscapes.

I felt it essential at this point to plan any future progress and set objectives for myself, survival wasn’t going to come easy and preparation was the operative word. During my first week of play I made miniscule steps toward a career of combat but also making sure that I paid sufficient dues to the industry of mining. It was now that I would need to pursue coin and wealth if I wished to proceed. While I wasn’t going to be engaging in epic player versus player just yet, I would still build the necessary foundations required to do so at a later junction. For this I would need a source of income to enable myself to buy certain extra skills not available to your character from creation.

I knew at this point that my first handful of weeks in Eve Online would not be filled with Han Solo antics and neither would I be discovering new alien worlds in the name of good and righteousness. I had to build a focused foundation from which I could advance from and grow as a player. In the meantime in the place of exciting battles I would pursue wealth so that I could further my survival through this rugged terrain.

I had a choice to make, I could stick the relative safety but slow going mining or I could embark and operation of almost clean up, finishing off all the tutorial quests that were available to me in an attempt to gather easy ISK. I decided on the latter and set about finding various tutorial agents after equipping my ship with more offensive capabilities; I knew that while these missions wouldn’t be too challenging I would have to keep my wits about me as one careless mistake could set me back hours of progress.

Completing your missions quickly and efficiently is something you should always attempt; extra credit and equipment at times can be bestowed and while we are focusing all efforts on these goals, these bonus rewards become essential in terms of cutting the time of your work load. The money made in these missions may be minor in the grand scheme of things but for now it is a great starting point which enables the purchase of skills and necessary equipment.

So after completing dozens of tutorial missions I was in a position to focus my attentions on obtaining skills from the market place and most importantly the learning skills of Analytical Mind, Learning and Instant Recall. These skills allow you to more quickly and efficiently advance through your skills as well as boosting your attributes. It is important to advance these to level three or four before moving on to skills of your choice as well as a further set of learning skills.

It is important to note that when purchasing items in the marketplace that certain stations differ in their prices and inventory, it may be necessary to travel to another to obtain your desired item be it simply for its availability or your station is asking for too much. While it may take time to travel to obtain your item, always shop for lower prices and preserve as much ISK as you can at this stage as it can be invaluable in terms of time consumption.

So for now I had a stable foundation from which to progress and while it had been rather time consuming I was at a point in which I could start slowly edging toward the more exciting elements of the game. Skill progression is key to Eve Online and while you are slowly ticking away advancing to the next level of whatever desired path it is best to busy yourself in some sort of wealth pursuit. After the tutorial stages, combat missions for example get invariably more difficult and therefore dangerous and while I was slowly incubating my budding skills I did not have the necessary means in which to partake in high octane battles surrounding ruined space stations, therefore the pursuit of mining ore is a safer and comfortable prospect. Mining is not exactly exciting but you will find it necessary as you orbit an asteroid, filling up your jettisoned can and siphoning it back to your base of operations making a thrilling amount of money as you sell it. This is the basis of a sound cash flow and sticking with it is essential at this point.

It is important to state that the second week of Eve Online will not be the most exciting but it will be necessary if you wish to proceed in a more stable and foundation building manner. The infinite quest of mounting wealth is an on-going feature of the game and it is here where you will find yourself first indulging into consumerist ways. Eve Online is ultimately a game of patience and perseverance; if you wish to survive then progress must be planned and accounted for, if you not you will find yourself in a bewildering universe bereft of idea of advancement. Join me next week as I further chronicle my adventures…

Tags: challenge, eve online, New Eden, wilds

EVE Online: Survivor Guy New Eden Week One

Apr 10, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|320views

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Eve Online Survivor Guy. I am taking on the wilds of New Eden, once I’m out there I will have to initiate survival and it won’t be easy. I don’t have any experience with this game and the learning curve for me will come swift and steady. I don’t want to over dramatize this but a mistake out here could prove fatal. This is Eve Online, a landscape of beautiful exploration, dangerous encounters and a wealth of opportunity. Every day new comers to the game become lost and are forced to survive, I am such a person and I have neither aid nor knowledge to help me progress; I simply have my wits. My mission is simple: I have to survive for the next eight weeks in Eve Online.

The playing environment of Eve Online consists of more than 5000 star systems as well as 2500 randomly accessible wormhole systems. It is a rugged and treacherous landscape only tamed by pioneers and the most hardened of gamers. If approached with logical apprehension and intelligence- reward can be bestowed. If approached however with confidence and over-ambition- your only prize is death. I need to combine the advice given to me by the community as well as my natural survival instincts to endure my tenure Eve Online.

The game is new to me and the mechanics are unknown. If I show due diligence and attention I should discover and learn Eve Online without problem or incident. If I refuse to take heed of the lessons bestowed upon me however, I will fail in my quest of survival. It will take me a while to work out a relationship with the game but if I stay on top of things I will succeed.

Week One: First Steps

After completing character creation and the tutorials on offer I had to settle myself into a Space Station of which I could use as a base of operations. I chose the first station I came across in the beginner galaxy and while for the moment it was a sufficient shelter I knew that I could not completely commit myself to it. A quick sweep of the galaxy revealed that it offered limited resources and opportunity for missions. As it simply served the new comers of the game I knew that I would have to move on quickly if I wished to progress and after completing a dozen or so missions I gathered my meager possessions and left looking for somewhere more central to my goals and offering of further possibilities.

Key to survival is knowledge of your capabilities and the ability to keep an eye out for future progression. Choosing the right space station to utilize as a base of operations is essential. You are going to need somewhere rich in opportunities for missions vital for your profession; somewhere within close distance to an asteroid field rich with minerals and low in population and probably most importantly, somewhere central to trade of skills and equipment. The latter point is important to survival as you will want to avoid long hauls of travel as it is both time consuming and, especially when new to the game, difficult to find your way back to your base.

Choosing the right skills is very important to the future of your experience in the game. While the game is essentially classless, the choices you make towards either industry or combat will define you later. Deciding a career path early on will help you gather a clear understanding and will set out a clear path of progression for you to easily follow. While I harbor ambitions of becoming a combat pilot, right now in the beginning steps of the game, the most important factor is gaining some credits so equipment and skill manuals can be purchased. Combat is not something to be approached lightly and it will be necessary to spend a handful of hours mining and allowing skills to tick over and complete.

Eve Online is career driven and sooner or later you will have to decide which profession you will stick to. My first experiences will obviously not influence my decision in the wider sense but it will leave me with a certain inclination toward one profession or another. The more combat heavy careers will leave you badly at odds earlier on and it becomes necessary to dabble within other certain careers such as mining and industry. Essentially the game is a simulator for the lust of power and wealth, the latter taking precedent in every action you will commit from start to finish and you will learn this lesson from the very beginning.

Having found a star system that offers a number of space stations- all offering numerous trading possibilities as well as a variety of asteroid fields without too much of a dense population, I decided to create my first base of operation. Using the few credits I had, I purchased an extra Civilian Mining Laser and set to work gathering the mineral ore Veldspar- this is a mineral which sells consistently on the market. Although relatively safe, Asteroid Fields can sometimes be prone to random enemies scanning the area and attacking your defenseless Mining Craft- this can interrupt progress and can even mean the departure of the area until it is safe so vigilance must be constant. On the whole the process of gathering the ore, returning back to your station and unloading and repeating the process, is a slow and uneventful one but it is worthwhile and necessary if you wish to progress and gain credit.

As you can see the first steps into Eve Online are purely the laying of foundations. A stable and comfortable starting point must be achieved before heading into the more dangerous and tense elements of the game. The most important foundation of course is the pursuit of ISK and it is a slow going one but it is worthwhile in retrospect. My first week in Eve Online was a tough but relatively safe affair. As I was concerning myself with the quest of credit and equipment I have neglected the more combat side of things and aside from the odd enemy in the Asteroid Belt I have easily side stepped any aggression. This of course will all change as I progress but for now the defensive respite of my location is comforting.

The main objective of your first days in Eve Online will be to persevere with the slow starting and difficult nature of the game. While you will not be whizzing about space, jumping to hyperspace and battling inter-galactic empires; you will be building a virtual life for yourself, gaining the means in which to survive and creating goals for yourself in which to follow. As for me I am just starting in my (mis) adventures of Eve Online. Join me next week as continue to chronicle my experience.

Tags: eve online, Survivor Guy

Planting Your Flag: Three Months After Dominion

Mar 26, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|434views

A fleet of battleships nervously cluster around the force field of a large control tower deep in null security space. Moments later, a cynosural field appears on their overview and ship counts in the system dramatically rise as another fleet enters and proceeds to mercilessly slaughter the defending fleet. Over the course of the next eight hours, they proceed to pound every tower in system into reinforced mode, each followed with, “Five more minutes. One more tower,” spoken over fleet communications. With every tower in system finally reinforced, the fleet jumps out, waiting to come back in a day or two to repeat the task again and finally purge the system in their ongoing campaign to control the region.

Sound familiar? This was roughly the state of sovereignty warfare before Eve Online’s Dominion expansion attempted to redesign the process. No longer would it be required to hunt down and destroy every control tower in a system before it could be considered taken while simultaneously dropping your own towers to claim it. Gone would be the days where time zone ping pong would turn into an endless back and forth ping pong game of reinforcement of hostile towers while repairing friendly towers. The new sovereignty system was to be streamlined, much more fluid and dynamic while offering alliances who plant their flags new ways to build infrastructure in their space. It’s now, three months later, I’d like to examine and highlight both the positive and negative results of Dominion for EVE Online.

TCUs, SBUs, iHubs…wat?

New expansions always mean new acronyms. Dominion was no different with its new chess pieces for the sovereignty game, the Territorial Claim Unit (TCU), the Sovereignty Blockade Unit (SBU), and the Infrastructure Hub (iHub). These three structures would be key in allowing alliances to claim, attack and build their empires while transforming the former slog of control tower sieges into a much more active struggle of invasion and defense. But what exactly do these new toys do?

Territorial Claim Unit - I claim this space in the name of…!

The TCU was designed as the alliance flag to be planted in a solar system. Anchorable at specific points in the system, it would become invulnerable after an eight hour online time while immediately granting system control to the controlling alliance. The only way to remove an online TCU would be the next structure on our list…

Sovereignty Blockade Unit - Nice system, we’ll take it.

A permanently invulnerable TCU would make sovereignty warfare non-existent, so we have the SBU to correct that issue. Should you find a nice patch of real estate you would like to own, just drop enough SBUs to cover 50% of the jump gates in the system and they will go to work making the TCU there vulnerable to your attack. Once the 3 hour online time passes for each structure, they become invulnerable and the TCU becomes attackable.

Infrastructure Hub - Making something out of nothing

Once you’ve secured your patch of space and dropped your own TCU, it’s time to lay the groundwork for your empire. The iHub itself has slots for upgrades to be plugged in once certain criteria are met in the system, allowing the controlling alliance to improve their territory beyond what it normally would be by increasing the frequency of hidden asteroid belts for miners and anomalies or complexes for more combat oriented players.

So how did all of this fit together in reality? On the infrastructure side of things, the shakeup was fairly dramatic. The decoupling of sovereignty from control towers meant alliances no longer needed to cover every moon in a system in some cases to make it more difficult for attackers to gain a foothold. Many alliances removed all but the most essential towers they were using for mining or jump bridge networks, leading to much less time invested in fueling hordes of sovereignty claiming towers. Additionally, CCP’s inclusion of a maintenance fee per system held resulted in many alliances dropping excess systems from their empires, choosing only to hold station systems and other high value areas while leaving the rest unclaimed to save money. The net result here was less time spent doing tedious maintenance tasks like fueling towers, leaving the players free to do more of what they enjoy in the game like blowing other people’s stuff up.

It’s only fitting then that the changes to sovereignty warfare are among some of the most hotly debated features of Dominion. While Dominion made taking a system in theory much more simple by requiring destruction of the TCU and iHub present, mechanics have led to a strategy of jumping into a system, camping the exits for three hours while SBUs online, reinforcing the TCU and iHub’s shields, then waiting to come back in a day or two to reinforce their armor, then come back to finish the job. This has led to campaign times increasing greatly, requiring sometimes up to a week to finish off and claim a system an alliance has set out to siege depending on how strong enemy resistance is.

Dominion was also laden with some severe bugs early on at launch, specifically pertaining to the iHub upgrades applying properly to the system they are in. Upgrading a system is based on three individual indices that are rated from 1 to 5: Military (how many NPC pirates are killed per day), Industry (How much ore is mined per day), and Sovereignty (how long that system has been held by an alliance, in days). The upgrades that go in the iHub can improve everything from how many and how good the hidden ore belts are to improving the number of anomalies (small combat sites) permanently in system. Normally, anomalies would despawn once completed, but each level of the upgrade was supposed to improve the number of anomalies present by four per upgrade, plus allow them to instantly respawn once completed. Players discovered early on that this was not the case, raising a very large and angry cry for it to be fixed since it was supposed to be one of the most appealing features of upgrading a system. The issue was patched three weeks later after discovery, fixing the issue and allowing anomalies to respawn instantly as had been intended. Other features, such as the conversion of Motherships to the new Supercarrier class and the associated hit point increase, didn’t make it into the game until Dominion 1.1.1, causing many players with these ships to not log in and use them in combat as they were now incredibly vulnerable to the new Titan super weapon, a single target death ray designed to replace the massive Area of Effect old Doomsday Devices.

In spite of the multiple issues arising with the new sovereignty and upgrade system and certain features such as Supercarriers not being available until a later patch, Dominion itself laid the groundwork for a system that CCP can conveniently build upon for later improvements and expansions. Supercarriers and their new fighter bomber drones have given the ships a new, interesting role in large fleet combat, while the changes CCP made to the Faction Pirate ships (such as the Guristas and Angels) has led to an increase in them being used in combat as well. Sovereignty itself needs more work, but Dominion has taken the out of control problems of the old system and replaced it with a much simpler one that can be given increasing complexity over time as CCP iterates further on their designs for player empires.

Tags: CCP, empires, eve online, Flag

EVE Online: GDC 2010 Fighting RMT

Mar 15, 2010 Wonderland, eve online|886views

The Game Developers Conference always gives reporters to meet up with a large number of developers at the same time to conduct interviews and take part in demonstrations. So much so that we occasionally lose scope on the fact that this show is actually about developers getting together to share their successes and failures with one another all in the hopes of making the games industry that much stronger.

It is with that in mind that we sat in on a lecture given by EVE Online’s Lead Economist, affectionately known as Dr. Eyjo. While we’re most used to hearing the good doctor (PhD, not MD) talk directly about the game’s economy, today he was talking about Real Money Traders and the various strategies that CCP has been using to combat them.

The talk began by looking at three basic questions about real money trading:

1. Why does it exist?
2. Why go after it?
3. What is the best way?

The answer to the first question is disturbingly simple. Players want stuff and to get stuff, they need money. Real Money Traders exist within games because of basic supply and demand. When there is a demand for something, there will always be someone that steps up to fill that need.

The answer to the second question is a little bit more complicated, but no less obvious to people who spend a lot of time playing MMOs. First and foremost, it breaks the gameplay. The most popular way for sellers to get their hands on the product that they’re peddling is to use bots to farm or abuse exploits. Neither is a case of the game being played as intended. RMT also hurts the in-game economy. By bringing in extra resources and currency, it simply changes the relative scarcity of items, and thus alters their price. Then there’s the fact that RMT dealers also often engage in illegal activities including credit card fraud and hacking. Finally, and possibly most surprising at least from a player’s point of view is the fact that RMT dealers actually put a noticeable strain on a game’s resources and systems both human (Customer Support) and hardware.

EVE Online, we were told, combats these RMTers in a number of ways. First, by trying to work toward taking the demand away by adding 30 day pilot’s licence extensions, otherwise known as PLEX. PLEX is basically an EVE Online 30 day time card which can be purchased either within the game, or directly from CCP. These PLEX codes can then be bought and sold in-game using in-game currency.

The result is that players who have a lot of time to dedicate to the game and to earning ISK (in game currency) could use their hard earned money to buy more game time, thus essentially playing for free while at the same time, players who might not have as much free time are able to use their real money to earn ISK in a much more structured and sanctioned way. The key point here is that in this way, the players who were creating the demand for the products that are made available by the RMT dealers are able to satisfy their demand and the game’s economy is left unscathed.

EVE Online, as a game that relies incredibly heavily on a player driven economy is especially interested in fighting RMT in their game. To do that, they needed a good battle plan, and the tools to make it work.

In the end, the team at CCP began a program that they called “Unholy Rage,” a campaign designed to take the RMT element out of their game. To do this, they had to dedicate GM, research and software resources to the cause. This allowed them to research and analyze behaviour patterns, create tools to detect and remove RMT elements then to continue to monitor and analyze the data.

In the Fall of 2008, CCP took this program for its first test drive, banning over 3,000 accounts. On June 22^nd, after revising their strategies, CCP banned a further 6200 accounts. Since that date, they have handed out over 30,000 bans under this system. It should be noted, however, that many of these 30,000 bannings were repeat offenders who had to be banned multiple times.

In the end, CCP has seen their CPU dropped 30% for the 2% of the population  that was banned, players now have better access to and experiences in systems that may have been completely overrun by farmers and bots, and the economy has been strengthened.

So, the next time you ask yourself if companies are really doing anything to get rid of those pesky bots, know that it effects their bottom lines to have those folks in there and they want them gone just as bad as you do.

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Tags: eve online, Game Developers Conference, GDC 2010

Staying safe in high security space

Feb 28, 2010 eve online|268views

In this guide for newer EVE players, I look at the main threats you could be exposed to in high security space and how to keep yourself safe in spite of them.

Corporate war-targets:

If you’re in a player-run corporation, there’s always the risk that another corp will declare war on yours. The enemy pay a small war fee and CONCORD agree to look the other way any time your two corporations fight. Members of your corp become valid PvP targets for the enemy corp in high security space and vice versa. If you ever find yourself on the receiving end of a war declaration, an eve-mail from CONCORD will appear in your corp’s inbox explaining everything. The mail arrives 24 hours in advance of the war beginning, giving the victims fair warning and some time to prepare.

A useful war-time trick is to Google for the enemy corp’s name and see if they have a killboard. Get the names of their pilots from the board and have all your members add them to their address books. This will make it easy to see if there are some of them online, which is a sure sign that they’ll be running a roaming gang looking for war targets. The enemy killboard will also provide intel on ships and fittings they typically use, which can be useful if you intend to fight back.

The best thing you can do during an unsolicited war is to deny the enemy any kills. Many corps that issue wardecs are made for the sole purpose of engaging easy targets. Since they only have three war slots, they’re likely to drop the war with your corp and find another to try. If all else fails, the option also exists to simply leave the corp, at which point you are no longer a valid target for the wartargets.

Suicide ganks:

With the currently saturated mineral market, many Tech 1 ships cost barely anything to lose. After accounting for insurance costs and payouts, a Tech 1 fitted destroyer can cost as little as 100k to lose, cruisers under a million ISK and battleships only a few million. The unfortunate consequence is that this makes them cost-effective to use in suicide ganks.

Players will typically cargo-scan and ship-scan passing ships at a stargate and look for someone with valuable loot on board. If the ship is weak enough to be killed in one or two volleys from a group of suicide attackers, they’ll open fire and have another character pick up the loot. CONCORD will warp in and destroy the suicide character’s ships but by that stage it’s too late. Having been on both sides of this process, I’ve picked up a few tips on how to stay safe from suicide attacks when hauling. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done about people suiciding mining ships for fun.

Although some people suicide gank for sport, the primary motivation is usually to make a profit and so they’ll want to hit valuable targets. To make yourself unappealing, carry no more than 20-30 million ISK’s worth of goods in a Tech 1 industrial, 50-100 million’s worth in a Tech 2 transport ship and no more than 1-2 billion ISK’s worth in a freighter. It’s also much safer to warp manually between stargates than it is to use the autopilot as most gank squads scan pilots as they approach the gate on autopilot. When warping manually, you’ll land right within jump distance of the gate and so bypass most suicide squads.

Can flippers and loot thieves:

Ordinarily, you can’t be shot in high security space without CONCORD coming to tear your attacker to shreds. If you steal an item from a container or wreck someone else owns, however, all bets are off. You become flagged to the owner of the container you just stole from and for 15 minutes they can engage you without CONCORD interference. Some pilots use this mechanic to trick people into becoming vulnerable to PvP, then blow them up. We’ve all seen the little cargo containers sitting outside Jita 4-4 with names like “free stuff” but there are some less obvious ways a player can be caught out.

The most common time when people fall victim to can flipping and theft is when mining. If you’re mining into a jettisoned container, an aggressor may steal your ore. They may also create their own jettison container right next to it and drag your ore over into it. The theft flags them to you for PvP, so they flash red and you can attack them, but at this point they still can’t attack you.

If the thief is in a small ship like an industrial or frigate, you might be tempted to attack but this will give them permission to retaliate for the next 15 minutes. Even if you do manage to blow them up, there’s no telling whether they’ll come back in a new ship with bigger teeth before the 15 minute timer expires. Taking your ore back from their container has the same effect, giving them permission to shoot you. Your only reliable option is to stop mining to a jettisoned container and call the stolen ore a write-off.

Tags: Culture, eve online, Game mechanics, Guides, PvP, Tips and tricks

Why EVE is not a PvP game.

Dec 17, 2009 Articles Recommend, eve online|427views

One of the most irritating things I come across in gaming is the relative ease in which players accept a game and a few of it’s goals as a rule of the game, or as the definition of a game. In example:

Raiding, by many, is considered to be THE game. Before raiding, you are doing nothing but preparing for raiding.

Role-play is the sole purpose of the game, some think, being that the very act of logging in is an act of role-play.

One of my favorite examples, one that fired off one of those fun Twitter arguments done in 140-word sections, (but great fun because I know so many damn smart people! :)  ) is that “EVE is a PvP game.” Not only is EVE not a PvP game, but PvP can be one of the smallest parts of the game.

First of all, the base of the game is the PvE environment. Picture EVE as a machine, a giant wheel turning with gears and motion. Many seem to think that EVE is somehow a perpetual motion machine, a series of gears and pulleys that create it’s own energy, just to keep running some more. Of course, like a perpetual motion machine, a player-fueled-only game is impossible. EVE players do not provide the energy to drive the machine. Without the environment and interacting with it, the game would grind to a halt within a short amount of time. There must be a stream of NPC missions, loot, and cash flowing into the game or the game would just stop. The PvE provides the energy that the machine needs to turn. The players play within the machine.

If you had (JUST an example, this is just a random number) let’s say 1 trillion ISK, and suddenly asteroids did indeed become limited in number, (they are unlimited right now) and all of the NPC ships stayed dead when killed, (there are endless numbers of NPC’s)  and all the interactions with the PvE environment stopped, the game would die. That 1 trillion would quickly get ferreted away by a few huge corps, and nothing else would happen. The asteroids would be mined until they were all gone, and ISK would disappear. There can be no “player driven economy” with only players participating. Even the small amount that NPC’s put into the economy, with all their missions and buying of goods, equal enough energy to keep the machine going.

Here is a simple question: if you magically took away PvP, or made PvP impossible (like all of space became non-pvp enabled), would EVE stop being able to be played and enjoyed?

The answer would be no. Not only that, but there would be many players (off in their missions, the ones that sit in their stations and rarely leave like my podcasting friend’s do) that would probably never even know. Would it become a different game? Yes. But, instead of pirates you would have NPC ships camping you. Instead of other players attacking you, you could have spawned ships. The game can live (and does in many areas) without any influence from PvP.

Now, if you took away the endless NPC drops and all that the environment gives a player, could the game be played and enjoyed? The fruits of mining, for example, (the very basis for most of the game, the stuff that everything is made of) does not come from players. It comes from the environment and players interacting with it.

The answer would be no. There would be no EVE. The perpetual motion machine would grind to a halt, losing it’s energy to the frictions of PvP and player/player interaction. Without that supply of energy (in whatever amount) from the environment and the interactions with it, there would be nothing.

This is not an attempt to say “haha! Without the game there would be no game!”

This is simply an attempt to say that calling EVE a “PvP game”, indicating that PvP is the sole/majority game-play that players participate in, is not only false but impossible. The bulk of the time in your ship is an interaction with the environment. In fact, take away using “PvE” as the other way to describe EVE besides “PvP.” It would be more accurately described as PIE, or Players Interacting with the Environment. Versus is referring to players locked in combat with NPC’s, which is as small of a part of the game as PvP.

Using “PvP game” to describe any game out right now discounts all the other interactions and activities that have absolutely nothing to do with PvP.

In an example, a blogging friend of mine mis-understood my statement that “the death penalty in Darkfall was meaningless.” He went on to to confess that my statement was true when he considered that “glory”, or the virtual defeat of my enemies (just to be rezzed again to start the cycle over again) was not one of my goals, not important, and not meaningful. (I am not saying it had no meaning for him, though.)

In EVE, PvP is pretty much meaningless. Nothing happens when you die. Can something happen? Yes. But many things can happen in these games, many things that have nothing to do with Player versus Player, that can be meaningful. When I die in EVE, I get paid insurance and lose nothing that I cannot replace. My character isn’t hurt, and I resurrect just to do it again. And, after all, even if I lost all my skill points and were reduced to a penniless pod, ISK is endless. Why? Not thanks to players, but thanks to the environment. I can raise my nation once again, even after being brought to the lowest point. Thanks to that energy coming from the environment.

Now, if I accidentally hit my delete key and destroy a character I have raised for 5 years, I might feel bit of regret at that.

Point is, just because something can happen (like being effected by PvP) does not mean that the game is ruled by that possibility. I would not call EVE an “accidental deletion of your character game” so why should I call it a “PvP game”?

To any of you EVE vets reading this: you, of all people, know that a player can easily avoid PvP in EVE. That’s what makes EVE a successful “hardcore” game with a ton of players and PvP-featuring games like Darkfall or WAR barely live on two or four servers. Giving players that choice (to be a non-pvp’er) is a very smart thing to do. Obviously it worked for EVE. Again, I will bet good money that most players spend most of their time out of PvP.

So why do you refer to it as a “PvP game?”

Not only is it selling EVE short, with all it’s glorious lore and role-play potential, but it sells the player-base short. I would like to think that many players in EVE are pretty smart, creative people. Smart creative people have many goals in a game like EVE, and many of those goals have nothing to do with, or are effected by, or effect, PvP. If  a player wants to follow some made-up set of rules, such as “if you don’t PvP, you’re not playing”, that’s fine. But I choose to take a “sandbox” like EVE and play how I want.

In fact, from now on, I am going to refer to EVE as a “Player Versus Mining” game, being that mining and the act of gathering materials, is more of an integral part of EVE than PvP or PvE. Does PvP effect some areas of the game? Of course. But it is not the all-powerful force in the game by far. The all-powerful force in any game will always stem from the environment and it’s fuel for the (almost) perpetual machine.

Tags: EVE, eve online, PvE, PvP

The Introduction of A New Social Tool Known As New Eden

Oct 13, 2009 eve online|348views

EVE Online has an image as a hardcore, dog eat dog, sandbox, PvP MMORPG. While that is certainly a part of what EVE Online is, it’s not everything and at this year’s EVE Fan Fest, CCP seemed determined to show the world that social activity and friends are actually at the heart of the game.

The developers really started trying to show the new face of EVE back at the end of July when they publicly launched a new game trailer titled, “The Butterfly Effect.” Instead of highlighting the hardcore nature of the game (though the video certainly makes reference to it), the video talks about the choices that players will make within the game and how that all plays in to the friends that can and will be made by players as the fly through EVE’s universe.

The developers point directly at their single-shard, sandbox set-up as the number one contributor to their success as a social game: “With smaller groupings,” said EVE’s Torfi Frans Olafsson, talking about other MMOs with multiple servers, “you don’t get the same social behavior.”

“The sense of community is so rich [in EVE], and we’ve taken that approach with design,” Frans continued. Indeed, CCP has made it a design philosophy to release changes in EVE in small patches, allowing them to assess the way that the players interact with the new tools and further developing based upon player want and need, including in the social areas of the game.

One such new development that focuses on the social needs to EVE Online players in New Eden, the system formerly known as COSMOS. The goal of this new addition to the EVE universe is to, “break down the barrier between the game and real life.”

Basically, this new feature boils down to what the developers described as “EVE away from EVE,” or “EVE on the web.” From the few images that we saw of the new program, it looked and sounded a lot like Facebook for EVE characters (not players, mind you). Spacebook, maybe?

Jokes aside, this new web service will allow players both in and out of game access to character profiles, skills and training information, friend information, corporation information and more. It will feature a new calendar system that will allow everyone from individual players to large corporations better access to organizational tools. New Eden will also see the launch of a new mail system. The old one, which players have deemed essentially useless, will be replaced with a system that will allow players such modern luxuries as “sort by date” and labels.The developers were pretty good about teasing themselves about the original system’s problems throughout the weekend. That should give non-players an idea of how terrible the currently implemented system actually is.

The real meat of New Eden though is in its friend system. Players will be able to make friends (again, a similar concept to what we’ve seen from recent social networking giants), and enemies (something Facebook has yet to offer). The idea is that by using this new feature, players should be able to look at someone’s profile and have access to who his friends are, who his enemies are, who his friend’s friends are, who his enemy’s enemies are. Simply picture this scenario taken from “The Butterfly Effect” video that was discussed earlier:

Imagine that you are flying through space, and you see a helpless mining barge under attack from pirates. You quickly look at the barge’s info and find that you share a friend in common. While this guy doesn’t mean anything to you, obviously he’s got some kind of attachment to a guy who helped you out of a jam once, so you decide to help him out…

The new contacts system will actually fuse the game’s original buddy system with the Player 2 Player standing system to create a new, two-way contact list.

Fan Fest attendees were told first that some version of all of this information will be available directly in-game. Second, they were told that the first iteration of New Eden was scheduled for launch in Q! of 2010.

The developers were very clear that this, like many of the other initiatives and new systems that they put out, is a work in progress and while they will continue to react tot eh ways in which players use the new tools, there are some clear plans for the future of New Eden as well:

• New forums - The developers will be replacing the old EVE forums through New Eden, including the addition of corporation-specific, secure CCP-hosted forums.
• Out of game text and voice client support - CCP wants to make it possible for players outside of the game to communicate with players inside, using their cell phones and other devices.
• Corporation management - On top of the new calendar system, the developers plan to expand tools available to players for management of their corporations.
• Ingame info. available out of game - market orders, contracts, wallets, assets, science and industry, fittings, combat logs, may all one day be accessible out-of-game.

The developers also have their sights set on ideas like: file hosting, blogs, enhanced kill boards and the like.

In the end, the developers are looking to expand the EVE universe not only as a space combat simulator, but as a social place as well, and with New Eden they hope to expand the scope of the game outside of the client and into player homes, cell phones and (if you’re stealthy) workplaces.

Tags: eve online

Eve Be Like Columbus-Wormhole Exploration

Oct 12, 2009 eve online|783views

EVE, as you know, is a game about space. Exploration is a big part of space, at least, in real life. And for a game about space, EVE didn’t have a whole lot of exploration up until March 09. Sure, there was the thrill a new player got when discovering a new system with a cool nebula ‘background’ or the thrill a miner got when he found a new system filled with thick asteroids. But, in terms of actual Christoper Columbus-style ‘real’ exploration, there wasn’t much. The game even featured “exploration frigates” and “exploration sites,” but these exploration sites were little more than missions that you got by probing them out instead of going to a mission agent.

However, EVE went a bit more Christoper Columbus in March 09 with the release of Apocrypha, the expansion that added wormhole exploration. Like the exploration sites previously featured in the game, you find wormholes by using scan probes. Unlike the sites, wormholes lead to completely uncharted systems that aren’t colonized by NPC empires, or player alliances. Despite what you may have heard, there is a lot of fun to be had in wormholes and, because EVE is all about the internet spaceship bucks, believe it or not there’s money to be had as well. There are a lot of false ideas out on the internet about wormholes in EVE, and let’s clear some of them up:

Full disclosure: My EVE character is in a wormhole exploration corporation which chartered a wormhole exploration alliance, so you could consider me and my friends unapologetic wormhole fanatics. However, we’ve been running wormhole sites since the day the Apocrypha expansion came out. We lost a lot of ships in the beginning, we almost left wormholes to do other stuff in the middle, and now we have wormhole exploration down to a science.

Myth #1: Finding wormholes is hard/impossible – False.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, sure, it’s hard. If you don’t know how to use scan probes, sure, it’s hard. Once you know your way around the scanning screen and you have your head on straight, it’s actually quite simple, and sort of fun. Probing is sort of an art, and the official EVE wiki has an excellent guide on how to do it. Just remember that not every known system (or kspace, as us in the wormhole biz call regular systems), will have a wormhole. However, when you do find your first wormhole, warp to it and see that big shining ball smiling at you, it is a thrilling experience.

Myth #2: The NPCs inside wormholes are so hard, I will die instantly – False.

Wormholes feature NPC bad guys that have a new class of AI called Sleepers. In the game’s plot, these are drones left behind by some long-gone aliens to defend their systems. Believe me when I tell you, these baddies are unlike anything you’ve ever encountered. However, they’re only at combat sites inside the wormhole, meaning you are free to safely roam around without fear of being alpha-struck to your pod. However, once you do go to a combat site, be warned.

Unlike regular AI, they won’t just simply attack the first ship that warps in for the duration of the site (so you can’t just have a ‘tank draw aggro’). They will change whomever they are attacking fairly regularly, and seem to have a fondness for ECM and logistics ships. Secondly, they hit hard. The first strike from a wave of Sleeper ships is devastating, and can take out several improperly tanked frigates and cruisers. If you plan to take on Sleeper combat sites, plan to tank a lot of damage, but don’t bring your cheapest ship. If you plan to fail, you will fail.

Myth #3: There is a lot of money to be made in wormholes – True.

If you know what you’re doing, that is. First, let’s talk about ratting the wormhole combat sites. Sleepers drop loot that is used in the production of the uber Tech 3 ships, which everybody wants and are very expensive. There are also mag and radar sites in wormholes that (if somebody you know can hack them) can exponentially expand your profit margins from your wormhole exploration.

Second, there’s the mining. If you’re into mining, the asteroid belts are like what you’ve dreamed about. Thick, full asteroid belts filled with high-end ores. The exact kind of stuff you can’t find in high sec. Getting that ore out of the wormhole might be a shipping nightmare (see Myth #4), but if you can, there is big money to be made in mining. Third, there is a gas mining, which is found at wormhole Ladar sites and is similar to asteroid mining except that instead of shooting rocks, you’re shooting (or ‘vacuuming’) clouds of gas. Of course, the thing to keep in mind is that the profits you can expect is tied into the class of wormhole you’re in. A Class 1 wormhole will only keep a newbie and his Ibis happy, where as a Class 6 wormhole profits can give a 0.0 alliance’s raiding party full pockets.

Myth #4: I will get stuck in a wormhole and have to pod myself – True.

Wormholes have a mass limit, meaning after a certain number of ships of a certain size have gone through it, it will close, and it doesn’t care who’s on the kspace side and who’s on the wormspace side. For this reason, it’s good to have a probe ship with you and your wormhole exploration fleets. Smaller corps may be pressed for manpower and the guy probing may have to hop into a combat ship, but you want that probing ship. At least have somebody in your fleet give up a gun to fit a probe launcher.

Now, in the months that my friends and I have been sticking our warp drives inside wormholes, we’ve gotten stuck a lot, and we’re pretty careful about probing and things. The fact of the matter is that if you explore wormholes for any length of time, somebody in your fleet will get stranded on the wrong side of a collapsing wormhole.

True story: On one of our wormhole expeditions, a wormhole was close to collapse, and a salvage-destroyer (with the probe launcher) and a battleship were on the wrong side of it. The battleship would have definitely collapsed the wormhole, so our nice battleship pilot let the savager go first, since a destroyer has drastically less mass than a battleship. As it turned out, that destroyer was enough to collapse the wormhole, stranding our battleship pilot and his fully-fitted battleship on the wrong side of the wormhole, forcing him to self-destruct his ship. No matter how careful you are – somebody will get stuck on the wrong side. Hopefully, it’s not the ship carrying your loot.

These are just a few of the myths about wormholes cleared up, but I invite anybody who is curious about them to fit a probe launcher and a few battlecruisers and investigate them. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 200-man PVP corp, or if you are a solo miner, there are ways to make profit and have fun in wormholes. When life inside known space gets you down, try exploring the unknown on the other side of the shiny ball.

For more information, see the detailed wormhole guide on the EVE wiki.

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EVE Online: Corrupting The Incorruptable

Oct 5, 2009 eve online|436views

The corruption, intrigue and espionage that fill the world of EVE Online’s player-run corporations as always been a unique feature of the game, and attracted mainstream headlines to the game. For example, earlier this year, when giant player alliance Band of Brothers was taken down from the inside by a single spy, the story caught the attention of mainstream media outlet CNN.

EVE Developer CCP has always seemed to encourage these sort of these sort of devilish in-game deeds as long as they didn’t cross into out-game circumstances (for example: password hacking). But what happens when corruption takes place inside the very establishment that CCP setup to provide players with a voice?

Our story begins in early 2007, when a CCP developer, known in-game and on the forums as CCP t20 provided valuable blueprints to his player alliance, the aforementioned Band of Brothers. These blueprints were for the game’s Tech 2 ships, which are more powerful than their Tech 1 counterparts. The number of these blueprints are severely limited, and most player manufactures who which to create these ships have to purchase blueprint copies. Therefore, possessing just one Tech 2 original blueprint is practically a license to print money.

When another player publicly revealed on the game’s forums that a CCP developer had given a player alliance a significant advantage, the player base was outraged, as many called for t20’s termination from EVE, and some threatened to leave the game. Despite the outcry, CCP only apologized to the fans in the form of a dev blog, and t20 remained a CCP developer for another two years.

In part because of the t20 controversy, CCP announced in March 2008 that a Council of Stellar Management would be created. Nine players would be elected to the Council and would be flown to CCP headquarters in Iceland and would hold court with CCP developers and be able to voice the concerns and suggestions of the games’ player base.

Since the creation of the CSM in 2008, they have claimed several vital improvements in EVE as their doing. First and for most, being the skill training queue. For the uninitiated, skills in EVE are based on ’setting a skill to train’ and then waiting for a timer, as opposed to a certain game with elves and mages where you kill butterflies for hours, grinding your way to a higher skill level. The timer on these skills range from just 30 minutes for some low level ones to 25 days for some higher level ones. Formerly, if you weren’t online to change your skills when the previous one ran out, your character would stop skilling. The skill queue, which the CSM claims as a product of its existence, allows players to plan skills to train up to the next 24 hours.

EVE Online’s wormholes, which are unique unexplored systems that allow players chances to explore the unknown and make lots of money, require a lot of probing (which is, the act of using probes to scan out things). The previous probing system was difficult, cumbersome and horrible to use. Roughly a month into the wormhole expansion’s – Apocrypha – release, CCP added some useful features to the probe scanning system, like the ability to ignore scan results you didn’t care about, or the ability to bookmark a location from the scanning screen. The CSM also claims that their concerns about the (horrible) original probing system lead to CCP introducing these changes.

The game’s upcoming sovereignty capture and null sec improvement changes – a previously discussed in another feature – could potentially rock the EVE’s player base to its very core, and in May of 2009 (four months before CCP announced these changes), the CCP dev named “CCP Xhagen” announced that the CSM had brought concerns about 0.0 space to their attention. Four months later, shattering changes to the way null sec runs is announced, and one can only assume that the CSM had a role to play in this.

Despite all the good deeds of the CSM, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the player-filled committee. First, less than 10% of the players eligible to voted in the last CSM election (held in May 09), which begs the question, does the CSM really represent the entire player base? EVE is a diverse game, filled with many niches, including the game’s bitter null sec alliance wars, to ‘carebears’ mining in high sec, to traders in Jita who never undock from the station. As some of the game’s larger alliances could certainly pull their massive numbers together and get certain candidates elected, one can’t help but wonder if the entire EVE player population feels represented by the CSM.

Unfortunately for the already controversial CSM, three weeks ago, it was covered in a scandal, one that rivals the t20 scandal that lead to its establishment. Player Adam Ridgway, playing character Larkonis Trassler, was elected to the CSM on a platform of representing the game’s seeder player base, the ones who play pirates, scammers and mercenaries. Ironically enough, after a CSM meeting in Iceland, Ridgway purchased over 2.5 billion in undisclosed items. These items, following an upcoming change in EVE (that was revealed to him at the CSM meeting), would allow him to make a profit.

Not only would this ‘insider trader’ scandal be against the constitution of the CSM, but CSM members also signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) on their arrival to CCP headquarters in Iceland. However, unlike the t20 scandal, CCP acted quickly. In the aftermath of this event, it becomes apparent that CCP monitors the in-game ISK accounts of all members of the CSM, and Mr. Ridgway’s purchase of these goods was quickly detected and his accounts were banned. When Ridgway was confronted by his fellow CSM members, he admitted his wrong doing, and resigned from the CSM.

Mr. Ridgway wrote an open letter to EVE’s population, which was published on a developer blog. In his letter, Ridgway mocks the seriousness of the CSM, only before saying that CCP takes the voice of the CSM seriously. He adds that “Before attending [the CSM meeting in Iceland] the thought of using any information gained to aid my position in game never crossed my mind. However, we are all human and when presented with this information the urge to act on it was too great.” Ridgway closes his letter by stating that by resigning before his compatriots in the CSM could vote him out, he is keeping his eligibility to run in a future CSM election.

Whether or not you are a fan of the CSM or if you disapprove of it, the player-filled elective body has suffered its first major scandal, in a game that is filled with them and thrives on them. However, unlike the early t20 meta-game scandal, CCP comes out looking well in this one, as they were able to detect Mr. Ridgway’s insider trading early and quickly ban him and inform the CSM of his actions.

The origin of the Ridgway scandal is possibly that a pirate – a seedy, almost universally despised player occupation - was elected to the CSM. If more miners, industrialists and mission runners had voted in the CSM, perhaps Mr. Ridgway wouldn’t have achieved his position. When you don’t read the EVE dev blogs or vote in the CSM, people like Ridgway are elected to be player representatives, and may use this information to their advantage. Or worse – they may voice opinions and suggestions to CCP that you don’t agree with.

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The Changes Coming To Eve Online Sovereignty System

Sep 28, 2009 eve online|785views

The 0.0 or ‘null security’ area of EVE Online’s universe has always been where the game’s action has been and where most of the intriguing stories of the game come from. Most of the corporate intrigue and large tactical battles have been set in the game’s so-called ‘outlaw space’ area.

In Eve Online, different star systems have different security statuses. ‘High sec’ is the most secure, where the game’s NPC police force will respond and destroy any outlaws quickly. In the ‘low sec’ systems, only stargates and stations in-game are protected by weak NPC turret systems, and in the ‘null sec’ systems, there is nothing between you and that pirate gate camp. Null sec systems are not owned by the game’s NPC empires, and instead, player alliances are allowed to claim them through a sovereignty system.

When a player alliance controls a system’s sovereignty, it allows them to control it. There are several large player alliances that fight wars against each other to control these star systems, but EVE developer CCP is introducing some changes that will drastically shake up the status quo of EVE Online’s null sec space.

The most obvious change is in the way that null sec space is claimed by player alliances. Previously, the ability to claim a null sec system for your own alliance revolved around the use of player-owned starbases (or POS). The more POS’s you held in a system, the higher ’sov level’ was on that system, showing the level of control on that system. Higher sov levels allowed you to add more useful things to that system, such as jump bridges that allowed you and your allies to travel large distances easily.

This old style of sovereignty based claiming sov. on POS warfare. ‘POS bashing’ as the EVE userbase called it, was the main way of capturing a system, and involved large fleets, and capital ships called dreadnaughts. Capturing even a loosely-held system from your enemies took a large amount of man hours and time of watching your ship fire at a starbase’s shields. Under this system, only the largest alliances could take large swaths of space.

Developer CCP has announced that an upcoming (free) expansion will seriously change this sovereignty system of EVE Online. This isn’t just an overhaul, CCP is blowing up the sov. system and completely rebuilding it from the ground up. Sovereignty will no longer be connected in any way to the number of Starbases you have in that system.

Instead, the new sov system will be similar to EVE Online’s Faction Warfare system (where players fight each other in the name of EVE’s NPC empires, which is considered sort of a training mode to ease mission runners into null sec). Starting with an unclaimed system, an alliance who wishes to capture it has to drop a ‘claim marker’ in the system. This anchor will take 24 hours to be activated, and if the 24 hours pass without being destroyed, that area will be the property of the alliance who dropped the marker. Once the market finishes this day-long ’securing’ process, it becomes invulnerable to attack.

Attacking alliances who want to capture a secured system now have to drop a ‘disruptor field’ which, after a 12-hour null period, will open up the original alliance’s claim mark for attack. Once the original alliance’s claim marker is destroyed, anybody is free to place their own sov marker. As previously said, the old sov system was dependent on POS basing, which would take capital ships, and large fleets of battleships that would shoot at POS’s for hours. This new system encourages more small and medium-ships to engage in battles over these markers.

Mostly, the EVE community has received these changes well, with the most noticeable complaints coming from the game’s large 0.0 alliances. The current null sec power houses are afraid that they will be unable to keep some of their more remote systems secure and that small gangs of players will be able to easily and quickly take remote systems from large alliances. CCP has promised that the system will be well balanced and that small frigates will be unable to capture and hold systems.

Other changes to the game’s sov. system come in the form of nerfs and boosts to the game’s capital ship class. The Titan is EVE’s biggest ship class. It is a large, slow, expensive capital ship that takes years of training to fly and build. They are often built in secret (lest an enemy alliance discover where you are building your titan, and attempt to destroy the ship while it’s being built). The only direct weapon of the Titan is the Doomsday device, which fires a large energy sphere that does intense damage to any ship caught in its wake. During a large fleet battle, a well timed Titan doomsday can turn the battle by easily destroying large numbers of the enemy fleet.

CCP has announced that the titan’s doomsday will change from an ‘area of effect’ weapon to a single-target weapon, which the game’s community has assumed will be a ‘Death Star’-style blast. This single change, which may seem slight for those not involved in the game, will completely change the usefulness of Titans. Instead of taking out large numbers of smaller fleet ships, the Titan will now be used to take a single high-priority target. So far, the game’s community has speculated that these will be used to take out other ships in the capital class, such as dreadnaughts or carriers.

Balance is the key to keeping an online MMOG community happy, and CCP is balancing the Titan nerf (or boost, depending on how you look at it) by introducing a new class of fighters that are equipped on the capital-class carrier ships. Carriers are large capital ships that have no primary weapons, but instead carry fighters. Fighters are similar to the smaller drones that some ships in the game can equip, except fighters are the size (and cost) of player-flown cruisers, with increased firepower.

CCP has announced that a new class of fighters, called ‘fighter bombers’ will be introduced, which will fire smartbombs, which are area-of-effect weapons that damage any ship in their wake. It is presumed that these bomber fighters and their smartbomb attacks will be able to attack large numbers of ships, balancing the changes in the Titan’s role.

The final, and most yet unknown change to the sov. system is the upcoming FPS game called ‘Dust 514′, which is set in the EVE universe and console FPS players will fight for the player alliances in the PC MMORPG. Again, CCP is withholding information about Dust 514 until their Fanfest, being held in Iceland later this year. How Dust will tie into the newly changed sov system has the entire game’s community on pins and needles.

The 0.0 null sec sov system has long been in favor of the game’s current alliance power houses, like the Goonswarm. Many have complained that the previous system made it almost impossible for inspiring alliances to break into their own slice of 0.0 without a larger ally. The sov capturing system changes and the titan/carrier changes will be added in an upcoming expansion, entitled ‘Dominion’ that will be released in November of this year. No release date for Dust 514 has been released, ostensibly more information will be released at CCP’s EVE Fanfest later this year.

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EVE Online: Staring Death in the Face

Aug 26, 2009 eve online|394views

Prior to the release of a new patch, I can usually be found on Singularity, the EVE Online test server, tinkering around with the upcoming changes. It gives me a chance to get a good look at what’s coming, understand how it might affect the game, and occasionally catch any undocumented changes before the patch notes are released. We all know about the changes to Factional Warfare and Rigs that are due in the 1.5 “mini-expansion”, but there’s always going to be bug fixes and other changes slipping in under the radar, such as the brand new pod model that’s recently made an appearance on the test server.

This isn’t the first time the pod has been remodeled, though, with the current capsule appearing roughly two years ago, as part of the Trinity expansion.

The organic shape and the green coloring of this newer model clearly mark it out as Jovian, which seems appropriate given that the pod technology the empires possess was given to them by EVE’s fifth major faction more than a century ago. (Personally, I think I prefer the Trinity version; I like that it doesn’t look like the product of any particular race.)

A new ship model wouldn’t normally be that big a deal amongst the dozens of available spacecraft, but the pod is different. This is what every player sees when they leave their ship, whether it’s by choice, or due to their vessel exploding, and until we can get our hands on the Walking In Stations feature and start strutting our stuff on the station walkways, this is the closest we’ll get to seeing our avatars in the game environment. That small capsule contains your current clone; lose that and you’ll wake up back in a cloning station, minus any implants you had fitted. And you will lose it.

Death comes to us all in New Eden; no matter how safe you think you are; if you choose to leave the protection of a station you risk destruction. Losing your ship leaves only a wreck behind, which contains whatever modules survived the explosion, and unless you have some way of looting the wreck before other players can get to it you’ll lose almost everything you brought to the fight. This can be a shock to the system, and a difficult thing for new players to adjust to, especially those coming from MMOs with minor death penalties. How it handles death is what makes EVE stand out from the majority of its peers.

EVE is a virtual world, with thousands of other players interacting with each other on any given day, and being part of that world also means dealing with the not so nice sides of it. The ability to destroy another player’s time and money was always going to attract the more sadistic players, and this has earned EVE a reputation as something of a haven for those of the griefing persuasion; the kind of players that attack others just for the fun of it. But this is just the darker side of a vital part of EVE.

The player versus player aspect of the game, whether it’s combat or competing for resources/profits, is what I find so compelling about EVE. No other game has given me the rush that I get when I’m fighting other players in EVE, and this is largely due to the harsh death penalties. When you can instantly respawn, along with all of your gear (and maybe reduced stats for a few minutes), there’s no real fear of death, or element of risk. The possibility of losing millions of isk is what encourages players to become better pilots; you learn to keep an eye on local and the directional scanner, understand what you can fight, and what you should run away from. You either get good, or lose even more ships; and it’s this deadly environment has given rise phrase “fly what you can afford”.

Death not only powers the PVP combat side of the game, but also EVE’s economy. Rather than the typical MMO crafting professions that are usually only a small facet of the game, the industrial side of EVE produces just about everything that keeps the game moving, from the vessels and weaponry we fight with, to the Player Owned Stations used to claim territory out in 0.0 space. This symbiotic relationship between those that create and those that destroy is the beating heart of EVE. Yes, the death penalties may seen relatively severe, but it’s what makes EVE, EVE.

It’s brutal. It’s unfair. But it makes victory so much sweeter.

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