My Little Things I

Well, it’s been quite some time again, and I will skip talking about that. Let’s just say I’ve been very busy.

Aaaanyway, recently CCP Sisyphus and some of the other CCPers asked for ideas on things not easily accessible in EVE’s current UI. So I suggested three little things, I’d really like to see implemented in the game. Sometimes it’s hard to express yourself within 140 characters or less (unless you’re Asian), so here are my ideas again – this time in a visually more appealing way. What do you think?

Colored stargate icons

How about color coding stargate icons to make it a lot easier to see “oh, there it’s going to low sec!” if you’re just travelling around (e.g. to do some exploration)?

I know these system’s aren’t low/null sec, but I wanted to show off the coloring.

Colored targeting animation

Well, this is more or less just some added “fluff” but it could make it easier to distinguish your current target if friends and foes are close to each other. You could check your targets on the top, but you might be losing time already. The color would be based on your overview (essentially using your overview’s background/highlight color).

Left: Targeting some fleet member (yes, faked). Right: Targeting some enemy.

Easier accessible weapon range information

Well, sorry, no picture here. I didn’t bother trying to modify/fake some tooltip while trying to keep it looking good. Essentially, I’d just add the optimal/falloff ranges of turrets/launchers (or more specific: their ammo) into their (already existing) tooltips. Actually, while thinking about it, having their ranges written right below the buttons (optional/switchable) would be nice to have as well! Just something simple like “800m/67km” in latter case. Hm…

Eve on Android

I finally got my shiny new tablet. Please don’t gank it, there’s no faction stuff in there. I’d love to play Eve Online on this baby (could be neat with multi touch and stuff), but I guess this won’t happen any time soon. It can be done using some kind of streaming or remote desktop client, but let’s be honest, that’s still not quite the same.

So, for now, I’ll have to limit myself on utility apps to support or augment my Eve experience. A quick look on the official Android Market revealed several apps, with many offering an overlapping feature set. So I thought it could be a good idea to post my experience here. The following lines are of course my opinion only, and you should just make your own, if you’re interested to test these little helpers.

The following list just represents the order the market app listed the apps for me. This isn’t sorted at all (other than putting the skipped apps to the bottom). The screenshots are taken on Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.3) running at 1280x800, so if you’re using an older version or a smaller screen, stuff might look a bit different.

Read more »

New: The EVE Super Bar!

Two posts a day, what a good reboot! But now back to topic – and just to make sure you’ve got your expectations right: I’m not talking about Incarna and this isn’t something about some awesome super special establishment serving alcohol, boosters and other stuff. It’s about the NeoCom bar you might love or hate, depending on your play style – or more specific, it’s future incarnation (oh, look, still some “Incarna”!).

After some rumors about renamed missiles (to bring their names more in line) I patched my SiSi installation just to find the names unchanged (or I looked at the wrong names). But I found something different the second I logged in. The NeoCom bar (the button bar on the left corner of the screen you might know under a different name) changed.

What appears to be a simple cosmetic change is in fact a lot more than I expected at first. The buttons got an updated look, yes, but there’s also a lot more hidden functionality behind them. If you’re running Windows 7 or you’ve used it in the past, you’ll feel right at home. It’s almost everything there. I just couldn’t find pinning yet, but there’s a neat replacement for that. Anyway, let’s start: Here’s a short overview.

• If you open a new window, the window will minimize to its associated button. If there’s no button (e.g. the for the web browser), then a new button appears on the bottom.
• Buttons for undocking, Items and Ships (inside stations) will appear on the bottom left of the screen (just above the calendar).
• You’re able to drag & drop icons to sort them the way you’d like to.
• It’s possible to remove almost any button by right clicking it and accessing its associated context menu. Once it’s gone, you’re able to add it again dragging the entry from the EVE Menu (see below).
• There’s a new button for the chat channels on the top, allowing you to navigate to the channels you’ve opened.
• Right below your avatar image is a small bar showing you your current skill training progress (relative to the skill points required for next level). Clicking on it opens your skill queue.
• The topmost button (above your avatar image) is the new “EVE Menu” hosting all possible options, from basic links pointing to the character window, over the certificate planer to all kind of ship and help related stuff you might have seen before in the NeoCom bar. This works a lot like Windows’ Start Menu. Similar to the Start Menu there’s also a sub folder containing all your web browser bookmarks.
  
• To allow more organisation, it’s possible to add new button groups to the bar using its context menu. That way you can create your own groups, if you’re lacking screen space or you simply love organizing stuff into folders, categories and the like. How about creating a “Missioning” or “Production” button having all the links to your favorite sites for that particular topic? Update: It seems like you can’t drag and drop browser bookmarks yet. Hope they’ll add that soon!
• Even more? I’m not sure. Tell me, if you’ve found something I didn’t mention already. I’m curious to see what other things they added without telling us in advance (or did I miss something?)!

I don’t know when these changes go live, but I’m really looking forward to see them on Tranquility, too. Finally I’m able to remove all those buttons I never use anyway, while granting the more often used buttons a more prominent position. This is going to be awesome.

Also, just to mention it. There are some more UI changes, like obviously some new “compact mode” for the user list in chat windows. Dsan got a screenshot on his blog, but I couldn’t get it working or reproduce it. Although, to be honest, I was far too excited toying around with the new button bar, to look for such a new option.

Update: After looking through the official forum, I noticed a discussion thread with a short introduction to the new Ui stuff (well, it’s mentioned). Although there aren’t any immediate screenshots, there are some developer responses to concerns and thoughts. I suggest you participate there, if you’re unhappy with some particular design decision or anything else regarding the new bar.

Update 2: There’s an official Dev Blog out now.

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…

Excited – Can’t Wait!

Wow, long time no writing. Long time no EVE for me. But to be honest, I have to admit, despite Battlefield 3 and Skyrim both waiting for my spare time, I’m really anticipating Crucible’s release today. It’s almost there, my patcher is patching, my skill queue is filled (just in case) and I’m so eager to play!

It’s been some time since I wanted to get into EVE Online. Over the past weeks I’ve been busy in other games and with work stuff, I didn’t feel like playing any EVE other than adjusting my skill training queue. But now? There are going to be the new nebulae, the engine trails (Hah! I’ve been right after all?!), love for exploration sites (always hated signatures with almost no loot in them), and lots of other stuff. I don’t think should have to link the feature page here, most will most likely know it already.

What will I do once it’s up? I don’t really know. I don’t expect any of the new Battlecruisers to be available right off the start and I don’t feel like grabbing a blueprint original, just to create one for testing. So most likely I might start off doing some exploration or incursions. Or I run some missions? Maybe I’ll just fly around for a while and look at the new backgrounds. I’ve seen some on Singularity, but I guess there are far more, even for high-sec only.

But the worst part of all, I’m patching, the server’s aren’t up yet and I’m done with work (for now). Back to waiting, almost like waiting for some new game to hit release time… Love and hate in… tranquility while waiting for Tranquility?

Speechless (and busy)

Well, okay, I’ve dropped the blog for a while. Mainly due to being rather busy with work related stuff, the (now ended) Battlefield 3 Beta, some real life stuff, etc. Well, I guess you get it (in case you’re interested at all).

Anyway, back to EVE. Over the last few weeks I wasted my skill time obtaining the prerequisites to the Tier 2 versions of Large Projectile Turrets, specifically Autocannons. There are only 3 more days to go and this new information regarding the winter expansions made me happy I finally did it.

To explain this a bit more, I’ve always been a fan of smaller crafts in EVE, specifically Cruisers and Battlecruisers. This has been one of the reasons they became the first T2 ships I’ve been able to fly (except Covert Ops). However they definitely lack the firepower for some Level 4 missions which finally got me into obtaining my own Machariel. Then I finally got myself into training for Large Autocannon Specialization to maximize my damage output even a bit more…

And now the joy… they announced the new ships going to be released this winter will be Battlecruisers, T3 Battlecruisers to be specific. Hooray! Wait? Did I just waste weeks improving my Large Projectile Weapon skills just to get excited about a new medium hull? Well, no, and that’s the part that sounds really interesting. According to CCP Guard, the new ships will indeed feature oversized weapons – specifically large weapons on a medium hull. This is something hinted at earlier with some forum discussion going on about the Tornado introducing a new Battleship class featuring capital turrets as oversized weapons. This isn’t exactly the same, but to be honest, I like it even more.

Despite the fact I haven’t had lots of time for EVE over the last weeks, I’m really excited and can’t wait for the winter expansion. I looked forward to establishments, but new spaceships? I’ll take that any time as long as they’re of any use to me and I like their job/design – which is the case here. Although I have to admit, I’d like to see some redesigns of older ships (I’m looking at you, Tempest!) as well.

Tranquility Coming to Tranquility

Okay, it sounds confusing, but It will most likely be something many are waiting for – especially those who thought that Incarna was a big let down. The next expansion will be called Tranquility. And if they’re able to fulfill their promises, that should proof people that they’ll keep EVE a game about spaceships and that they didn’t forget that during Incarna.

So far I’ve heard numerous times that Incarna and the following expansion will evolve around Walking in Stations (most just referring to it as WiS). In a game concentrating on spaceship warfare this might sound odd and it caused quite some stir throughout the community. I can’t understand all the rage I’ve seen over the last few months (I remember back in 2003 I didn’t want to stick to EVE due to missing characters after all), but at least some people offered valid concerns and arguments. But outside this small minority, most whining is just too exaggerated. At least this will hopefully end soon as CCP released the first information regarding this year’s winter expansion: Tranquility.

Just some minutes ago I read an interesting tweet by Rick, containing information many EVE fans were waiting for (which haven’t been released so far for whatever reason):

@EveOnline If this article was on your main site bit.ly/ntIlyr I would think it would retain people on the fence #tweetfleet FiS !!

I wasn’t that interested in low sec action and stuff so far, but these reveals sound really interesting to be honest. Judging by the screenshots Tranquility the expansion might as well feature the new nebulae backgrounds they showed off at Fanfest 2011. If you want, feel free to follow the link above and read the full story at MMORPG.com. This announcement in the form of an interview sounds really interesting. If a short rundown is enough, here it is:

• First Tranquility deployment to Tranquility will happen before the end of the year.
• Continuation of the work started in Dominion.
• Changes to 0.0.
• Changes to Sovereignty stuff.
• Changes to super capitals (buffs to Dreadnaughts, nerf to Super Carriers).
• Changes to resource distribution (whatever this means).
• Enhancement of small skirmishes as one of the main goals.
• Improvements to “frigates, cruisers and other small ships to give them a more effective role”.
• Making the game a bit more noob friendly as well as trying to get people into flying smaller ships too.
• Rebalancing of all ships.
• Creating a place for smaller alliances.
• Incarna additions over the next few months:
• Missing three racial Captain’s Quarters.
• New Establishments (players are able to rent/open their own bars or gambling halls with booster dealing; but not all at once)
• No plans to ever go the ground mission/fps route (reserved for DUST).
• “The Incarna process is really just a side-game.”
• New EVE Online website with more tools.
• Updates to all ship arts (“Version 3.0”) to allow customization.
• New turret effects and new space scenery.
• Time dilation to counter lag issues during fleet fights.

Can’t wait! This sounds really interesting, as some of the changes will most likely affect all parts of EVE – high sec, low sec, null sec and wormholes. I also prefer smaller craft instead of battleships. Sounds like I’ll win this expansion, no matter what I’ll be doing. I just hope this new knowledge will finally end all that rage and whining regarding WiS, NeX, etc. ‘cause it’s getting really old now.

Update: Obviously the author made some mistake confusing “Tranquility” (as the server name) with the still unnamed expansion name. So it most likely won’t be called Tranquility – it will just be deployed to Tranquility (as usual).

New Engine Trails Incoming?

So next Monday EVE Online is finally getting its new forums. Well, assuming there isn’t yet another last minute retreat due to some security flaws or whatever. Anyway, one of the new features includes several background styles users can select. There’s one for each of the last three expansions (Incarna, Incursion and Trinity) as well as one for each of the four factions. I picked the Minmatar one almost instantly and noticed something interesting. On the left side there’s a small squad consisting of a Loki, two Stabbers and two Rifters:

Besides the nice (new?) Nebulae effect in the background there are some rather huge engine trails/fireballs visible. Now the question I’m asking is more or less obvious: Is this just some artistic impression or are we really getting these engine trails? The background image is clearly rendered and not taken directly from the game but everything looks as ingame – except the nebula in the background (new nebulae were annoucned during fanfest 2011) and the yet to be announced engine trails. They don’t match the style of some of the new engines (discussed here), but these are Caldari or Amarr after all. And to be honest, they don’t look that spectacular either. Anyway, I’m looking into the future a bit more curious…

The Boobie Factor

First of all, I won’t talk about the pros and cons having a female toon or about the pros and cons having some of these to play with or whatever. That’s something up to you to decide. If you expected some of these, well, don’t trust headlines, okay? Since Incarna went live I’ve seen several people complaining about the cleavage of their toons, yes, not all players set that particular slider to the max in all games and some will even complain if they’re forced to do so. Well, EVE hasn’t gotten any visible sliders, but I guess you’ll get the idea. There are some voices stating the exact opposite, too, but you’re able to simplify everything down to something like “hey, these are not the boobies *I* was looking for”. *Jedi hand trick*

While testing some of the NeX store items on Singularity, I noticed something that might be the cause for most of the confusion and obviously secretly done cosmetic surgery: Clothing! Like pretty much everyone knows, clothes can make you appear fat or slim, athletic or sloppy, etc., EVE reaches some new dimensions. Some clothes work like a corset, others like a balloon or cushion. Well, the issue seems to apply to all characters, male and female, but especially female characters got an area where the difference can be rather obvious. Sounds odd? You expect a character with more clothing, like one of the vests, appear thicker? Look at the following screenshots I’ve taken on Singularity, all from the same session with the same camera position and orientation as well as the exact same zoom level. All I did was messing with the clothing options.

Too hard to spot the difference? Don’t know what exactly is odd, other than the braids “disappearing”? Here’s an alternating version making the difference more obvious.

So, what happens here? To be honest, I’m not really sure. I’m not working at CCP and I can’t see the source code of the game, but I assume the following: Naturally, you’d expect clothing being added on top of a character, e.g. first you draw the body, then you add the clothing on top of it so it fits the body. Talking about different layers you’d most likely have something like this with the player’s set constraints (body dimensions set during character creation) being applied to the body/skin:

Body/skin (fixed size) ► Inner layer of clothing ► Intermediate layer of clothing ► Outer layer of clothing

While this sounds logical, it’s most likely not the way CCP draws the characters. Instead I assume they do it this way:

Outer layer of clothing (fixed size) ► Intermediate layer of clothing ► Inner layer of clothing ► Body/skin

Is the result the same? No, not at all! If your body size is fixed, your character will always be the same size, which also applies to all parts of his body. However, if the outermost layer of clothing is fixed, you’re getting different results depending on the effective amount of layers of clothing applied. So, what does this mean? If you think your avatar is too fat or you think his cleavage is too excessive, get him something to wear! The more clothing is applied, the smaller/flatter the different parts of his body become. This sounds odd, but just try it! It’s especially easy to notice with one of the navy shirts combined with any vest as seen above. I could understand the shirt alone sitting a bit loose, but it still feels a tad bit too excessive.

I really hope CCP rethinks this strategy (or simply rechecks/fixes it) to allow people more versatility when picking an outfit for their characters, without ignoring the constraints they picked during character creation. After all this influences the attractiveness of the NeX store items as well. Who wants to wear clothing that changes the look of someone’s toon after carefully setting it up before? And by look I’m not referring to the general appearance, of course.

Woohoo, Expensive Stuff!

It’s been a while since my last update due to work stuff, some weekend headache, etc. Anyway, there’s something new in my inventory – I’ve got a brand new car spaceship. Well, I’ve had the money and the skills for quite some time now but I didn’t feel like flying all the way (almost 25 jumps) to Jita just to buy that damn expensive blueprint. I’m happy I’ve done it yesterday (thanks to the Caldari Incursion staging just 2 or 3 jumps away from Jita).

So I’m just buying some items away from flying this baby to shoot down its first pirates. However I’ve somehow got that “brand new and expensive car, hope I don’t scratch it!” feeling. I’ve never been that wasteful guy, despite the fact my DVD collection might suggest something different. Now I’m struggling about a fitting fitting (yay) … I’d like to have some DPS ship for incursions (lots of people looking for Logistics, but still many fleets looking for DPS only) but I’d like to use it for missioning as well. Maybe I should just manufacture a second one, but that would be another 700 million ISK sitting around at least half the time – and I need some more ISK for more expensive modules as well (at least for the mission running fitting). This might result in a rather expensive adventure anyway. And if it’s shot down? Well, I know the whole “don’t fly something you can’t replace” stuff, but still…

I really hate these decisions. It’s not my first ship being a bit more expensive as well as not being my first pirate faction ship. Equipping my Dramiel was a lot easier though. I just fitted some PvE stuff for lower missions and complexes. Maybe I’ll just wait the few days left unlocking Command Ships and fit a Claymore or a Sleipnir to fly in Incursions. The Huginn looks tempting as well, but my EWAR and Propulsion Jamming skills are far from perfect. At least losing one of these wouldn’t feel that bad. On the other hand I guess I’ll just have to save another billion or two and buy everything just to be sure. At least this sounds like something to achieve so the game doesn’t get boring.

First Steps Into Incursions

Last week’s Saturday I finally got myself to try out Incursions. More than 30 jumps to the Amarr and Khanid homeworlds were a long way for something I expected to be just a possible ship loss or endless wait.

However I was surprised. I’d lie if I’d say I wasn’t surprised a lot. I’ve been playing MMORPGs for pretty much 10 years now and I’ve never seen a community so openly accepting “newbies” into high level content (yes, I consider Incursions to be EVE’s interpretation of high level PvE content). Well, the complexity isn’t that high compared to some of the dungeons MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online are offering. However you’re risking a lot more than just having to plea for a resurrection spell or having to return to the dungeon’s entrance. An unexperienced player in an important role (e.g. flying a Logistics ship) can break your whole experience get your fleet killed.

Especially in a world like New Eden, where treason, abuse and scamming are considered part of the gameplay, I never expected to fly there, ask for a group and be invited immediately. I even stated that I’ve never done an Incursion site before – no problem to the fleet commander. No problem? What? Big surprise! This wasn’t an “EVE is real” moment, but it was more like an “EVE is different” or “EVE is surprising” moment. Seeing more than 4 or 5 corp buddies in fleet warp? Epic!

Let me take this opportunity to give big thanks and kudos to all the fleet commanders I’ve been flying with so far, especially Laburous and lord solo for introducing “new” players like me to Vanguards and Assaults without any prejudice or “what a dumb question!” attitude.

So now, about a week later, I’ve seen a lot – and earned even more. I’m not really sure if that’s really intended. A Vanguard site with a good and powerful fleet takes about 6 or 7 minutes to complete, including the time to warp in/out, gather, etc. and it nets you 10 million ISK and some LP. That makes about 10 sites per hour, so 100 million ISK per hour? That beats any activity I’ve seen before. I’m also not sure if you’re able to blitz missions to earn that much. I don’t think it’s possible (feel free to proof me wrong!) but even if it is, it most likely involves more luck, investment and skill training time compared to the Incursions.

Thinking back, I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t try incursions a lot earlier. Also the mentioned money gain is a bit too excessive to get me interested in going back to missions (for now). But what to do with all the money? I don’t know. I’ll definitely save some for the inevitable loss of a ship, but there’s more than enough on my account now. The new NeX store items aren’t that awesome either. I still haven’t found a fitting for a Machariel or any other Battleship I like.

Maybe I’ll get one to fill a DpS role in Incursions, but so far I’m still on my route to Command Ships and I’m more than happy to help others playing the (sometimes?) unthankful job of being the Logistics pilot. You keep them alive, but if something goes wrong, they might blame you, no matter what really happened. Okay, the game and its community might surprise me once more – but I’m not really interested in elaborating this. So far I’ve seen 3 ships exploding in sites, but there was nothing the Logistics could do due to people not following tagged targets and getting overwhelmed in the end. That could actually count as a surprise, but it was a one time thing only so far. Well, time will tell, although I won’t force it to do so (as I know you all love your internet spaceships after all).

EVE Is Real – Huh?

So, CCP finally released their website for their latest promotional campaign, EVE is real.  What started with a brand new trailer (“I Was There”) – the first EVE Online trailer featuring a real actor – now turned out to be a more or less massive approach to get people into talking about the game in social media. They call it a “virtual museum of the EVE experience”. Obviously the Tweet Fleet wasn’t enough for them. But who’d blame them? It’s all about Facebook, Twitter and Google+ these days.

The museum – or more specific: the campaign – is more than this. It’s also a first approach to seed some amount of Aurum to the player base. It’s meant to be given to all players once several milestones are achieved. So far there are 4 milestones visible, each unlocking a said to be small amount of Aurum: 1,000 Aurum, 1,000 Aurum, 1,500 Aurum and 2,000 Aurum. Doing some easy math this sums up to a total of 5,500 Aurum for every active account of EVE Online? Just as a reminder: 1 PLEX converts to 3,500 Aurum, so they’re essentially giving away items worth about 24 bucks to everyone playing EVE? In addition there’s some contest to win real Hardware by posting images or videos, but I don’t think I’ve got a real chance there, so that part isn’t that interesting for me.

But what’s it all about anyway? Where is this going? For CCP it’s some free advertising on social media sites – what else? Okay, it’s not really free as they’re giving away stuff they could have made some money off, but after all it’s most likely meant to be an incentive for people to try the NeX store, get used to it and possibly buy some more items. It’s basically a nice idea – both from a player as well as a company standpoint – but what will be the real results? Will there be a flood of clothing on the market? Will people buy stuff for themselves only? Will they ignore the Aurum? This might turn out to be rather interesting, also considering people with several accounts who’ll most likely receive 11,000 Aurum or more. Due to missing trading options, they won’t be able to buy monocles off it or simply sell it, but it could still be used to buy several outfits – which doesn’t have to be a bad thing after all.

But how long will it take and how long will the campaign last? That’s still something I’m not really sure about. Will the campaign stall once the real life prices are awarded? Will it stall once the Aurum is given away? Or will it continue to pay off? It will most likely take at least some more time – a time frame that might be rather long judging the rather odd progress on the milestones.

Two days ago they had a 2 digits long number of shares – I think something like 40 or so – and the bar was filled by something like 10 %. This appeared to be rather fast, too fast for my expectations. Yesterday afternoon the numbers appeared a bit more realistic to me: just a bit above 1,000 shares showing a progress of 50 %. So 2,000 shares for the first batch of Aurum? Good! Really? Well, no… Today we’ve got almost 5,000 shares and the bar’s progress can be seen on the image above. The progress seems to be similar to last night (about 2,200 shares). So what’s this? Is it a logarithmic scale progress bar? This is a bit confusing to me as well as disappointing. I know how logarithmic scaling works, that’s no issue here. However It’s something I’ve never seen used on a progress bar.

Well, over all progress bars are meant to show a measure of how much time has passed or how much work has been done and how much is still waiting for us, aren’t they? That’s definitely not true for these. It might be some weird way of caching or some bug, but it’s still something that shouldn’t happen on a “production site”.

Anyway, what do you think about the whole approach? To me it’s still a nice idea, but there are also some letdowns. The weird progress bar, the quite wonky navigation (“Oh no, my cursor went down too far and now the images are gone again!”), impossible to click entries hidden behind other preview images,… It feels like one or two weeks could have been a good investment before it went live or became real. It feels a bit rushed – just like some parts of Incarna’s first release – but that seems to be common these days.

Update: Ah, okay. Seems like CCP Hekatonkheires (ugh, how do you remember such nickname?) confirmed the “progress bar vs. counter” stuff to be broken:

Share tracking for unlocks: You'll notice the share counter and progress bill don't fill at the same rate. Unfortunately we've had some bogus/spam share farming. We thought we had a good solution in place to mediate it; turns out 375,000 people are more clever than the 8 of us working on this. The progress bar is the truth, it doesn't count share spamming or incomplete shares. We chose to spend time making videos bigger than fixing the numerical share button today. <- True fact. When the contest voting round arrives, you will be limited to one vote per category (video/image) per day.

Dress to Impress?

So, upon login I encountered a new EVE promotion greeting me:

Well, I'm not really sure on what I should think about this so called promotion. It's definitely meant to advertise for the new NeX store - something that's actually not hard to guess, given there's a bright red NeX logo included. But no other text, so it's meant to impress me? By the image? Or is it just meant to be funny? I'm not really sure. At least now I know there’s a NeX page on the Incarna site.

As we all know, those login screen advertisements are trying to be a bit funny or interesting. Many might remember the rainbow promotion introducing the new forums or the suggestion to waste the last night on earth playing EVE if the world’s ending anyway. But I wouldn't consider this rendition interesting, sexy or a good pun. In fact I'm even tempted to call it a fail.

The basic idea and promise of the image aren't that bad. I'd even consider it being a good idea. However there's something else causing me to see it as a failed campaign. Dress to impress. So I should buy one of these skirts or a pair of boots for my character to impress others. Alright. It's just somewhere around 300-400 million ISK per item I think. I'll get fancy new dressing options in character re-customization and I'll impress others the moment I finish the process.

Wait! You can't see any clothing except some parts of the upper body stuff, e.g. shirts, vests and such. You can't see the boots nor the skirt right now. That will have to wait till we get the more complete "Walking in Stations" (WiS) experience later this year. So why advertise with the most "useless" NeX store items now? Is it just an attempt to make it look sexy? Or should that be fun, essentially talking about impressing others with stuff they can’t see?

The whole "visible in avatar images only" makes these NeX items, especially boots, trousers and skirts, far less attractive for the moment. Why wear them if others can't see them? Only to see them myself? Well, I'm not sold on this idea yet. I might consider getting some outfit once I'm really able to impress others as long as it won't trigger any kill-on-sight responses upon undocking from a station or entering a new solar system. But it’s definitely too early to buy any lower body stuff to impress others.

Shutdown in… Argh!

I’m not sure if others suffer the same issue, but I feel like they do. Taking a break from work I decide to run one or two missions in EVE. Sometimes I’m just bored and want to shoot down some pirates as well. This doesn’t sound like a issue to you? It’s nice having a break and play something? You’re right! Although there’s the fact that whenever I really feel the urge to log in and play some EVE I’m greeted by a tiny, well known popup window:

Okay, it’s not always the case. When playing in the evening or during the night this won’t happen, but then I’ve got more interesting stuff to do (at least in most cases). So apparently I want to play the game the most when it’s not available. Is this coincidence, on purpose, bad luck or simply my destiny? I know when daily downtime happens, and yet I still keep managing logging in right before downtime. It’s 9 or 10 am, I decide to fly a mission, get distracted by some e-mail before being able to log in and then there it is again…

I’m Sick of the Whining

Well, it’s somehow hard to describe. I can understand the fears of many people about possible additions of “pay to win” to EVE Online. Although I can’t really understand all the – sorry, but I just have to call it that way – whining and sh*t storming on forums, news sites, etc. It’s just too much and far too exaggerated given the information CCP released over the last few weeks. They admitted failures in communication but it doesn’t appear like they’re hiding something – why should they even try to?

It all started with that infamous leak of the internal CCP newsletter “Fearless”. Looking closely at the page numbers reveals that there are several pages that were cut. For example, the document shows the front cover and starts right at page 5. Why doesn’t it show the pages between? Those pages obviously contained content that wasn’t important and I think they didn’t support the overall impression this should give to readers: The contents are made up for discussion and not policy. Someone just had to take the roles of pros and cons – rather similar to what many probably know back from their time in school. Someone always had to be against smoking in public buildings while others had to take the opposite position – just to name an example.

So, there it started, CCP addressed people’s concerns in several Dev Blog entries, but there were still people trying to uncover the biggest conspiracy in the whole history of internet spaceship games. They’re out for our money and they want it now (or in a very close future). After all they’re a company working to earn money. Even a special summit with several CSM members couldn’t calm all the waves that were started by the previous discoveries. There was still that tiny spark waiting to rekindle the fire of rage.

During the whole drama people kept telling others to unsubscribe the game to show CCP that they’re not happy with their plans, etc. Is it really worth it? Honestly, I’m not playing EVE as some kind of “investment” for the future. I play EVE because I want to have fun. Even if the rumors show up to be true in the end – maybe some months or a year later – who cares? If it’s really unbearable in terms of power advantage (using NeX vs. ignoring it) I can still quit. But why should I quit now just because I might have no fun a year later? Just think about it. What happens if I’m having fun today and next week I decide to no longer log in? Should I be sad for being online this week?

So, please, follow this tiny plea that is meant for all those whining, complaining or trying to convince others to quit – and those sitting on the fence: If you’re having fun now, why don’t you just continue to do so as long as possible? If you decide that you no longer like the game – on any day and for whatever reason – you can still stop playing and do something else. If you worry about your money or time spent in a MMORPG you might be no longer playing in the future, don’t play at all and do something different instead. I’m really confident that CCP is aware of the general attitude of the community in regards selling non-vanity stuff on the NeX store or other micro-transactions. Why should they even try to make some additional money risking a huge chunk of their player base? Sure, they want to make money after all, but they’re not dumb as well.

Actually, I think the whole micro-transaction drama should just end and if you still worry, listen to Douglas Adams: Don’t panic!

Command Ship Or No Command Ship?

So I finally decided on taking on the last steps of the road to Command Ships. It’s been a long time since I tried to do it for the last time. Earlier this year I wasn’t sure whether I should specialize in a Strategic Cruiser, essentially the Loki, or one of the Command Ships. Seeing the Loki as a lot more versatile ship I picked that one first. I won’t regret that choice but I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable carrying a ship worth more than 1 billion ISK into Incursions or PvP.

Due to having many skill points in Leadership already (from piloting my Orca) I picked the Claymore as my primary target for now. I somehow prefer the supporting/buffing/defensive role so getting access to Logistics on the route is a nice added plus as well. I just fear the 3 or 4 weeks training for Battlecruisers – again such a long time without getting any real and immediate benefits as I’m not using any battlecruiser right now. I’ve still got my old Hurricane but compared to my Loki I’d consider it a massive downgrade.

As an alternative I tinkered about acquiring a Machariel to do level 4 missions faster but going that way I’d like to obtain the T2 turrets before actually running missions causing another 30 or so days to train. So in the end I’m essentially stuck between 30+ days for a Command Ship or 30+ days for a Machariel. While I really like both ships, the Machariel has to wait – at least till I’m able to pick up Logistics. I’m flying level 4 missions already and I’d somehow prefer something new to do. Doing them faster is nice, but doing something new might be even more fun.

Where to Start?

I’ve thought about this question in almost every detail several times now and I’m still a bit uncertain. It’s the first time I’m starting to blog about EVE Online after playing the game for about a year. Which is actually not 100% true. Back in 2003 (or 2004?) this internet spaceship game drew my attention for the first time – an almost instant buy, despite the rather complicated options to pay for the game without a credit card. Back in these days it wasn’t that convenient after all.

I still gave it a try and played the game for a few days but I didn’t really enjoy it and it just left me flat. Thrown into a universe without any real tutorial (I think they weren’t there or I just didn’t notice them)… I remember doing some trading and some mining, even one or two “mining ops”, but that was it. I still kept an eye on EVE but somehow didn’t feel the incentive to join back in paying at least 15 € for one month. Well, it’s not that much money, but still something to think about, if you’re playing another, more traditional MMORPG as well and you don’t want to stop doing so.

Then, almost 7 years later, Steam’s Summer Sale finally paved the way for me to return to New Eden. You can’t go wrong having 51 days to try the game (buddy trial combined with the 30 days applied by the purchased CD key) after paying only 5 € – something I haven’t regretted so far. I got a feeling for it, the tutorials made the start a lot easier and I really loved this “new” game – which I still do. The option to pay the subscription by ISK felt like another nice addition as well, although I haven’t used it yet. I always felt it’s a better idea to invest the virtual money in some more of those internet spaceships.

Having found new interest in the game I faced new challenges, some of which I still struggle with. I did some exploration, I did some mining and I did some fighting. But I’m somehow never sure on what to do next. During that year I learned to pilot many different ships but I never found the time to really specialize in any, except Orca and Loki. I know it’s not enough to just be able to sit in a ship – I’ve spent many weeks to be able to use almost all T2 modules as well – but I was never really happy with one particular ship. I like the possibility to specialize in a particular subset of skills by spending weeks or months of time training them, but it’s always rather hard for me to pass the time waiting for those skills taking that long. Finishing skills is very rewarding most of the time, but seeing the skill queue’s progress bar not moving for days or weeks isn’t that great at all. In fact I really hate it. But enough about skills, don’t want you falling asleep on my first post.

So, where is this going? I’m not really sure. There are different things I’m thinking about right now, including some thoughts about the whole “They’re going to rip us off our shirts to sell us new ones on the NeX store!” drama. I also thought about starting to write some short stories again. I’ve done it in the past, but so far they never took place in space or any science fiction environment. I guess I’ll have to try to replace dwarves with miners and elves with… I’m not really sure yet… NeX customers enjoying their pretty clothes? I’ll try to answer this later on…

Oh, and one more thing to note: This is the first time I’m blogging in English – not my native language – so bear with me in case there are any spelling errors or grammar mistakes. I keep trying. Feel free to leave me a comment in case you’re missing something important, you’re having a special request, you’d just like to show your opinion or you’re having some kind of issue. You can also contact me using EVE’s mail system (using either English or German) – CSPA charges are turned off, so you don’t have to worry about losing your loose cash.