DUST 514

DUST 514's May 6th Uprising patch will revamp the sci-fi shooter's skill system. Among the changes are the removal of multiple prerequisite skills and a new node-based skill tree view that will replace the current list-based approach.

CCP is also refunding skill points and ISK and AUR for certain items based on their market value at the time of the respec. "You may have committed to a certain play style, and with an overhauled layout and collection of skills, you may find yourself regretting some of your prior choices," explains DUST creative director Atli Mar Sveinsson on the PlayStation Blog. "We have thus decided that it is far better to respec not only the skills but items as well. In short, you will get your skill points back and the ISK and AUR value of any item that is removed from your inventory."

There's just over a week to go until EVE Online's massive tenth anniversary Fanfest, and you'll be pleased to hear that Massively will be there this year to cover the action! CCP is aiming to make this the biggest Fanfest yet, promising huge reveals and announcements about EVE's summer Odyssey expansion and beyond. We can also expect to hear some big news about upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514, and fans of Vampire: The Masquerade will undoubtedly get to see some of the year's progress toward making the World of Darkness MMO a reality.

Tickets to this year's Fanfest sold out in record time, so many players who really wanted to be there for EVE's tenth anniversary celebration weren't able to secure a spot. CCP is running its usual livestream of the main talks for those not in attendance, but only certain parts of the event are being streamed. Here at Massively, we plan to give you an inside look at Fanfest with ongoing news coverage from April 25th to April 27th and in-depth opinion pieces on what each announcement means for players.

In this week's short and sweet EVE Evolved, I lay out Massively's plans for in-depth coverage of EVE Fanfest 2013 and ask what you'd like to see reported on.

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As EVE Online approaches the big 1-0, many can't help but think about how all the events and happenings over the last 10 years had shaped life in this massive space sandbox. But trying to explain a full decade of New Eden's extensive history was no easy task -- until now. CCP has just introduced the EVE timeline, an interactive exploration of the setting and lore of both EVE and its new companion, DUST 514.

In its inaugural form, this timeline sticks with core concepts, discussing how the universe was discovered and colonized. As time progresses, the functionality of the timeline will expand, including the addition of excerpts from the True Stories initiative as well as accounts from other major player events. Check it out on the new EVE.com website, then let CCP know what moments you think warrant mentioning in this easy-to-navigate history via the blog's comment section.

CCP has announced a new EVE Online initiative called True Stories that aims to collect and preserve noteworthy New Eden events in an archive powered by the game's players. Creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson explains, via a new dev blog, that CCP has set up a submission system for paying players that includes the ability to upvote, downvote, and debate.

The submission phase ends on May 1st, with a voting period to follow that concludes on May 15th.

There are prizes including a trip to CCP headquarters in Iceland as well as 10-year subscriptions to EVE. Olafsson also mentions that CCP is looking to expand EVE with additional books, comics, and a possible film or TV series. "Our prospective media partners have shown great interest in adapting or using as inspiration actual events from the game itself," Olafsson says.

EVE Online's wildy popular Fanfest in Reykjavik, Iceland will be livestreamed once again this year, but some new perks have been announced today to entice you to pony up some cash for the enhanced version.

Aside from the standard definition Twitch.tv stream (which is free), fans can purchase an HD version for a one-time fee of $19.95 US or one PLEX. This HD 3-day package also includes a series of live pre-show interviews with CCP devs, a digital copy of the Fanfest "Quafe" t-shirt for your EVE Online character, fifty copies of the Quafe Scout vk.0 drop suit for DUST 514, and a choice of one of five pirate faction rookie ships for EVE Online: the Angel Cartel Echo, Blood Raider Hematos, Dread Guristas Taipan, Sansha's Nation Immolator or Serpentis Violator.

Check out the gallery below for screenshots of the ships and the in-game t-shirt.

[Source: CCP press release]

Last week's Battle for Caldari Prime event caused quite a stir in the EVE Online community. The live event itself featured a typically ginormous space battle while the behind-the-scenes shenanigans prompted accusations that the supposedly player-driven event was scripted by CCP.

Whatever the case may be, if you missed the livestream you can now get a pretty good synopsis thanks to a nifty new trailer that combines game footage from EVE, DUST 514, and various in-character voiceovers to tell the story of the conflict. Click past the cut to check it out.

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Although DUST 514 is still in open beta, a big update will soon deliver some significant changes to the game, changes that will bring it more in-line with the CCP's vision for this MMOFPS companion to EVE Online. During a presentation at GDC 2013, Thor Gunnarsson (VP of business development) and Halldor Fannar (CTO) shared more details about this update, dubbed Uprising after a merc revolt in the title's lore.

Fannar explained that Uprising focuses on two main themes. "The first theme we are calling 'making it matter.' It's about creating a more meaningful connection between DUST 514 and EVE." While the Caldari Prime event was the first step on that journey (20,000 battles took place on the ground), the planetary conquests system in this update will introduce features that will further intertwine the two games. "The other theme is basically visual improvements," Fannar explained, "making the graphics look better, making the graphics run faster, and also adding more graphics." Players will get to see for themselves exactly how these themes play out when the updates releases on May 6th. In the meantime, enjoy our impressions from GDC.

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With the integration of EVE Online and DUST 514 now detailed by CCP, a new trailer has been released on IGN to show off some of the goodies we can expect, including the infamous orbital strike mechanic that we've been hearing about since DUST 514's initial announcement.

This video shows off the Battle for Caldari Prime, which is said to be the pivot point for integration into both games. Dust514Base.com dissected the video, pointing out several new undocumented shinies, including the scrambler rifle, a possible first look at the Gallente Assault dropsuit, a redesigned wrist neocom, and a logi with a plasma cannon.

Check out the video in its entirety, along with the observation notes to see what you think.

The empires of EVE Online have long and bloody histories that, until now, have been played out largely through fictional chronicles and in-character news posts. This week saw conflict erupt in-game between two NPC empires in the Battle for Caldari Prime live event. The neutral CONCORD faction has managed to maintain order between the four main empires of New Eden for decades, but that doesn't stop the Gallente and Caldari factions occasionally violating the peace.

The Caldari were originally part of the Gallente Federation but gained independence in a war lasting almost a hundred years. Following an attack on a Gallente city, a right-wing faction in the Gallente government seized power and ordered the bombing of the Caldari homeworld. Millions of Caldari citizens were evacuated from the homeworld, a planet that has been under dispute ever since. Caldari Prime resides in the Luminaire system and is officially inside Gallente territory, but recent events have seen the tables turn.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the story behind the recent Battle for Caldari Prime, accusations that the event was staged and scripted, and what the future may hold for live events in EVE.

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CCP is no stranger to massive and often chaotic live events. To keep with tradition and finally illustrate just how DUST 514 console players and EVE Online pilots will interconnect, CCP will host a live event this Friday afternoon (UTC) called the Battle for Caldari Prime.

Sound cryptic? We agree! So we joined a roundtable with CCP Senior Producer Arnar Hrafn Gylfason to get the skinny on just how explosive this event will be for the greater EVE Online universe.

It turns out that something big is happening, and it will hopefully demonstrate just what an impact DUST 514 will make on the IP. We imagine a lot of explosions and plenty of drama, so read on for a little of both.

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Whatever your feelings on EVE Online's player-run Council of Stellar Management, there's no denying that the group has been hugely influential in the development of the sci-fi sandbox over the years.

CCP is porting that same concept to its upcoming DUST 514 shooter, according to a post by DUST's CCP Dolan.

I have asked the DUST 514 development and community teams to submit to me a list of some of the most helpful, active, and knowledgeable community members. Representatives from the DUST 514 teams and I will be sitting down and interviewing these candidates to try and identify the best fits for what we will be tentatively calling the DUST 514 War Council (until we come up with a permanent name). We will then be looking at all of these interviews and selecting a council to make up the very first beta version of the War Council.

This appointed council will work closely with us in establishing a voting system, working with teams regarding upcoming features, and generally serving a similar role to the EVE Online CSM.

Shooter gameplay is on the rise in the MMO space, as titles like PlanetSide 2, Firefall, DUST 514, and Defiance are all marrying twitch-based running and gunning with some sort of persistent open-world progression component.

Defiance and DUST are particularly interesting, to me at least, because they're part of a larger IP. IN DUST's case, the title shares a game world and a server back-end with long-running sci-fi MMO EVE Online. Defiance, of course, is joined at the hip with the upcoming television show of the same name, though just how joined remains to be seen. For today's Leaderboard, let's pit these two titles against one another and see which is more anticipated amongst Massively readers. Vote after the cut!

Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!

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DUST 514 doesn't just interact with EVE Online by being set in the same universe. Taking control of territory and planetary surfaces has always been part of the design goals behind the shooter, reminiscent of the interstellar control offered by the older game, and the latest development blog examines how players will go about taking over a planet. It all starts by taking control of a district on a temperate planet, with each habitable world in the game universe harboring anywhere between five and 24 individual districts.

Controlling a district gives you access to military clones, the backbone of your economy and defense force. You can also use the clones to expand into new territory or sell excess stock. Of course, your facilities are vulnerable during clone production, offering rival corporations a chance to swoop in and take control... possibly with the aid of a tactical orbital strike courtesy of allies in starships. It's a multifaceted system that promises to give players plenty of reasons to conduct negotiations solely via sharp bits of metal.

EVE Online has the odd distinction of being one of the only MMOs in which the developers have almost no control over the active storyline. There have been plenty of fiction articles written about the game's backstory, and the NPC factions occasionally butt heads in short news pieces, but none of it feels very real. It's only when these events actually occur inside the game world that they become real, and when that happens, the outcome is at the mercy of players.

2010's spectacular Sansha abduction live event was the perfect example of this, with thousands of players becoming immersed in a very real emerging storyline. The story was fluid and evolved based on what players did, and so it made the NPC factions come alive in a way that fiction never could. While the scripted NPC portions of these storylines certainly constitute part of EVE's history, the most interesting tales follow the unexpected actions of players and alliances.

The fascinating thing is that the audience for these stories extends far beyond the playerbase itself, with news of high-profile events occasionally taking the global gaming media by storm. But for every 3,000-man battle and 200 billion ISK scam that's reported, there are hundreds of smaller events that would be just as interesting to read about or watch a video on. Most of these events have been lost to the mists of time, kept secret or talked about only among those directly involved ... until now.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the types of NPC-based and player-run stories that happen regularly in EVE and speculate on CCP's upcoming plans to document and preserve that history.

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Most modern MMOs launch to an initial flurry of sales followed by a steady decline in player activity, but sci-fi MMO EVE Online has lived life in reverse. The game initially failed to secure a large number of launch sales but has since grown organically into one of the most successful subscription MMOs on the planet. EVE developer CCP Games told Massively today that the game has now officially broken the 500,000 subscription barrier.

Subscription numbers hit the 450,000 mark following the relaunch of EVE's Chinese server Serenity in December of last year, and they have continued to climb ever since. This new subscription milestone is attributed to the success of EVE's recent Retribution expansion and the anticipation building over upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514, which is set on actual planets in the EVE universe. EVE is due to hit its 10th anniversary this year on May 6th, and developers have been taking the opportunity to look forward at what the coming decade will bring to the game.

We caught up with CCP for a quick peek at the studio's plans for the future and to find out what kind of announcements we can expect from EVE Fanfest in April of this year.

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