A Late View Back to 2011, hello 2012 – Awesome Things to Come!?

Wow, time runs fast, even though I’m not that much sunken into EVE these months. I once again somehow missed writing any blog entries and I completely forgot about checking into the EVE forums too. At least I’ve been able to keep my skill queue filled.

So, another year passed, my first full year of playing EVE. I don’t think it’s really reasonable to reiterate over everything that happened to EVE last year. Incursions, Incarna, Monoclegate, Crucible,… I don’t think you forgot about the ups and downs that changed a small big video game universe and the people creating, maintaining and expanding it.

Skill wise I had my ups and downs, too. I finished (okay, nearly finished…) my Orca skills, switched to combat focused skills, obtained the skills to fly Strategic Cruisers, T2 Cruisers, Battleships, etc.; I flew my first Incursions; unlocked more hulls and now I’m back at where I started. I don’t know what to skill next. I’ll probably round up my Leadership skills and finally finish those Core Integrity Elite stuff I always tried to avoid so far.

But the really interesting part that got me into writing this blog post today was something I just read on Massively: EVE Evolved: Development on EVE in 2012. There’s no “TL;DR; section” and there aren’t that many details released, however the few notes are very interesting and once again let me anticipate every single Dev Blog posted on the official site. Here’s a short rundown:

• “Will focus on territorial warfare and preparing to tie EVE wars into DUST.”
  Okay, that point was quite obvious and expected. If they’re going to release DUST 514 this year, they’ll have to add the tie-in/integration some time and also introduce it story wise. Territorial warfare isn’t my kind of thing really, but maybe these changes might make it more interesting for me… Guess I’ll have to wait and see here.
• “Wormholes and incursions will both get some love.”
  Okay, so I guess they’ll adjust them a bit, to make Vanguards less rewarding and Assaults more interesting? Haven’t participated in any Incursions for a while, but I don’t think the basics changed so far.
• “EVE web developers have also been giving serious consideration to web and mobile apps that allow players to modify market orders, set skill training, or chat with players in-game.”
  Now, that sounds nice! I can’t count the number of times I logged into the game while working or late in the night, just to put the next skill into my skill queue or to answer an EVE Mail (well, before EVE Gate was introduced). Expanding here sounds really nice, I hope they’ll open up some of that “write access” to tools like EVEMon, too.
• “The CSM was shown new models for the rookie ships new players start in and some apparently very impressive new Battlestar Galactica style graphical effects. Mark hinted that the art department showed off new graphics that literally made his jaw drop, but he was bound by NDA not to reveal any details.”
  Okay … that’s a massive quote, but it made my jaw drop, too. Well, obviously I didn’t see anything yet either (damn!), but now my expectations are set. I remember watching the complete series for the first time and there are those few battles, where you literally see Cylon base stars shatter into thousands of pieces while hundreds of small missiles crush into their flanks, leaving smoke trails, explosions, tons of debris and dust, etc. I remember talking to myself: “Wow, that’s how EVE should be.” And just in case you didn’t notice, we’re not talking about the old classic series from ‘78. Just making sure…

Why is “soon” always that long? I want those screenshots, videos and concept arts now. But on the other hand, having them now would mean waiting even longer while knowing what’s coming. Well, I guess I’ll just throw in one of my BSG DVDs and watch spaceships fight and explode in awesome ways that way…