When EVE Online's Tyrannis expansion was first released, developers promised that a team would be assigned to iterate on the core planetary interaction feature. Numerous user interface tweaks have been deployed since then in hotfixes, but the biggest gameplay improvements so far have just arrived with last week's final Incursion expansion deployment. Developers Kristinn Þór Sigurbergsson and Cat Pinson discussed the major updates in a series of video devblogs leading up to the expansion. In a new devblog, CCP Omen has provided a more detailed explanation of the improvements and how you can take advantage of them.
A welcome change for players is the ability to upgrade a control center without tearing down the entire industrial chain attached to it. The biggest changes are with the resource extraction process, which has received a complete overhaul. Individual extractors have been replaced with a central Extractor Control Unit, from which movable drill heads can be deployed. Resources also now deplete when they're mined, so you'll need to move your drill heads around periodically to keep the operation running smoothly. Head over to the official devblog for the full details.
Reader Comments (9)
Posted: Jan 30th 2011 1:14PM wfseg said
Just wondering, but do the Massivelymob do planets?
Posted: Jan 30th 2011 1:18PM Brendan Drain said
@wfseg Planetary Interaction isn't much of a co-operative thing, as far as I can tell. The market for materials is so established now that each stage in the production chain can act in isolation. Players who want to produce P4 products can buy P3s from a P3 producer rather than setting up some kind of profit-sharing deal with corpmates.
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Posted: Jan 30th 2011 5:24PM ErikC said
They're pretty much never going to change to a remotely tolerable font, are they.
I don't understand what is up with those guys. They must just completely disbelieve that look and feel have any effect at all on whether someone enjoys/plays a game. It's just the weirdest thing I've ever seen for a game to get that kind of ongoing development for so long, by all accounts be totally awesome if you can actually tolerate playing it, yet have such basic, obvious, instantly recognizable flaws never addressed.
I mean, good lord, I use tiny, tiny font sizes in pretty much every game I play, and even I can't tell if those are 8's or 9's in that picture without leaning toward my screen.
I don't understand what is up with those guys. They must just completely disbelieve that look and feel have any effect at all on whether someone enjoys/plays a game. It's just the weirdest thing I've ever seen for a game to get that kind of ongoing development for so long, by all accounts be totally awesome if you can actually tolerate playing it, yet have such basic, obvious, instantly recognizable flaws never addressed.
I mean, good lord, I use tiny, tiny font sizes in pretty much every game I play, and even I can't tell if those are 8's or 9's in that picture without leaning toward my screen.
Posted: Jan 30th 2011 6:45PM ErikC said
@Lateris
I was really, really hoping this was the case, but I actually had just recently looked at the forums and it looked like the new UI not only didn't change the font, but that they ended up cancelling the new UI altogether. If I'm wrong I'd love to know.
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I was really, really hoping this was the case, but I actually had just recently looked at the forums and it looked like the new UI not only didn't change the font, but that they ended up cancelling the new UI altogether. If I'm wrong I'd love to know.
Posted: Jan 31st 2011 9:32AM Xilmar said
yeah still think PI was and apparently continues to be a waste of development time and resources. it might be just me, but it just doesn't fit into the game.
one thing to admire at CCP is that they continued all these years with the same core concepts from the start...pvp focus, player driven independent economy, complex gameplay and so on...and PI just seems like the fifth wheel in an equestrian competition.
one thing to admire at CCP is that they continued all these years with the same core concepts from the start...pvp focus, player driven independent economy, complex gameplay and so on...and PI just seems like the fifth wheel in an equestrian competition.
Posted: Jan 31st 2011 9:45AM Old Tom said
@Xilmar
"Player driven independent economy ..."
Umm, you are aware that this phrase precisely describes the rationale of PI in Eve. The products of PI replace some of the last NPC seeded items on the market. PI made the materials market fully player driven.
You must not be involved in T2 or Capital production.
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"Player driven independent economy ..."
Umm, you are aware that this phrase precisely describes the rationale of PI in Eve. The products of PI replace some of the last NPC seeded items on the market. PI made the materials market fully player driven.
You must not be involved in T2 or Capital production.
Posted: Jan 31st 2011 2:06PM Xilmar said
first of all, the market is not fully driven...getting there, but you are still incorrect.
second, moving some stuff from the NPC to the player market is not the the main reason for the development of PI. that's just one of the many ways to integrate a new gameplay feature in the game. it's a good result of what i consider a bad gameplay addition.
and lastly, the small benefits of PI were never questioned...my point was that the mechanic just doesn't fit. idk, it just seems to be a small bit of a different game that somehow ended up on the eve table and noone noticed it until it was too late. the idea is good and all, but the implementation sucks
and mate, i kinda like when other disagree with me or even try to troll...but if you're gonna do that, at least to it properly...i mean "[...] The products of PI replace some [...] market fully player driven"...if it replaces some, it doesn't replace all...l2logic
second, moving some stuff from the NPC to the player market is not the the main reason for the development of PI. that's just one of the many ways to integrate a new gameplay feature in the game. it's a good result of what i consider a bad gameplay addition.
and lastly, the small benefits of PI were never questioned...my point was that the mechanic just doesn't fit. idk, it just seems to be a small bit of a different game that somehow ended up on the eve table and noone noticed it until it was too late. the idea is good and all, but the implementation sucks
and mate, i kinda like when other disagree with me or even try to troll...but if you're gonna do that, at least to it properly...i mean "[...] The products of PI replace some [...] market fully player driven"...if it replaces some, it doesn't replace all...l2logic
Posted: Jan 31st 2011 2:49PM Old Tom said
@Xilm
Mate, nitpick all you want. You claimed that PI did not fit the "core concepts" of Eve (admittedly with a rather clumsy analogy of wheels and equestrian competitions).
I think I pretty handily refuted that. It's resource gathering, contributing to the multi-faceted production and market driven economy of Eve.
All blather about its mechanics or its implementation are besides the point.
Reply
Mate, nitpick all you want. You claimed that PI did not fit the "core concepts" of Eve (admittedly with a rather clumsy analogy of wheels and equestrian competitions).
I think I pretty handily refuted that. It's resource gathering, contributing to the multi-faceted production and market driven economy of Eve.
All blather about its mechanics or its implementation are besides the point.
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