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EVE Evolved: Everything there is to know about Crucible

Brendan Drain — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, News items, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

This summer's lackluster Incarna expansion and the ensuing microtransaction drama took a massive toll on EVE Online's player community and development staff. Players were quitting in droves, and CCP eventually had to lay off 20% of its staff worldwide. Two years of half-implemented expansions, broken features, and "first steps" that were never iterated on left players begging for a content-heavy expansion like Apocrypha or those released in EVE's early years. EVE is known for being practically a new game every six months, but since the blockbuster Apocrypha expansion, daily life in New Eden hasn't changed much at all.

To pull things back from the brink, CCP refocused development on EVE Online and gave developers a free pass to work on hundreds of small features and improvements. The company began flooding us with details on new ships, graphical updates, new gameplay mechanics, and desperately needed balance tweaks, and we loved every bit of it. Although it's mostly small features and gameplay tweaks, the Crucible expansion feels like a genuine rebirth for EVE Online. The types of changes made show that CCP knows exactly what players want from EVE and that the company is now willing to deliver it. With CCP's renewed focus on internet spaceships, the Crucible expansion feels like the start of a new era in the sandbox.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I pull together everything there is to know about the Crucible expansion that went live this week, from its turbulent origins to the awesome features and PvP updates it contains.

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EVE Evolved: Everything there is to know about Crucible originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Player-owned structures

Brendan Drain — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Expansions, Game mechanics, Lore, MMO industry, PvP, News items, EVE Evolved, DUST 514, Sandbox

For much of EVE Online's life, warfare has revolved around player-owned structures of one sort or another. When conquerable stations were released at the end of 2003, they became flashpoints for PvP and goals for corporate territorial warfare. This continued even after the release of player-owned starbases in late 2004, as even the most territorial alliance didn't have the manpower to take down a well-defended large starbase. Industrialists held all the cards, and nullsec alliances made deals with them to open their moons for exploitation.

Eventually, player-built outposts arrived on the scene, and starbases were adopted to fill a military role in system defense. Whichever side in a fight could control the most starbases in a system would win the outpost, and fearsome dreadnoughts were introduced to make starbase sieges possible. Today, starbases take a back seat to wars over infrastructure hubs, territorial claim units and sovereignty blockade units. The war will eventually extend to planets, but until now planetary interaction has been an entirely industrial affair without the slightest hint of EVE's typical conflict. With the coming Crucible expansion, the starbase and customs office systems are due to be overhauled in a way that should lead to more conflict and lay the ground work for DUST 514.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the history of starbases, the impact of the coming starbase revamp, and the possibility of additional conflict brought in by the new customs offices.

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EVE Evolved: Player-owned structures originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Building a better empire

Brendan Drain — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, Endgame, Opinion, EVE Evolved

It's often said that EVE Online is 99% endgame, with only the tutorials and epic mission arcs really providing directed gameplay. Once you get out into the open world, the game is dominated by sandbox laws and social interaction. This is most clear in the lawless nullsec regions where alliances war over territory and build their own empires in the void.

Last week I looked back at the early days of nullsec industry and examined the problems industry has developed over the years. With a massive nullsec revamp scheduled to begin this winter, I went on to speculate on how the game could be changed to bring back the glory days of nullsec industry. Although adequately incentivised local mining and production could transform player-created empires, those aren't the only areas of gameplay being revisited. Sovereignty mechanics, fleet warfare, small gang warfare, exploration and small-scale territorial control will all eventually be redesigned as part of the massive iterative overhaul.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the history of EVE's empire-building and territorial warfare mechanics, some of the problems faced by the sovereignty system, and how those aspects of EVE could possibly be changed for the better.

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EVE Evolved: Building a better empire originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Bringing back the glory days

Brendan Drain — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Expansions, Game mechanics, Professions, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, EVE Evolved

In years gone by, exploring the unknown far reaches of the EVE Online universe meant setting a course for nullsec. With no way to install a permanent residence in the most lucrative far-off systems, players would launch dangerous expeditions into the deep with the hope of striking it rich. Nullsec was the only place to mine rare ores containing megacyte and zydrine, and piracy wasn't as common as it is today. For putting themselves at the risk of pirates, miners were rewarded with an income stream greater than that of any other profession in the game. It was a golden age in exploration that wasn't to repeat itself until March 2009's Apocrypha expansion opened 2500 hidden wormhole systems for exploitation.

Things have changed considerably since those early days of EVE. Player-built starbases and outposts have transformed the face of nullsec, allowing alliances to build themselves an empire in the void. December 2009's Dominion expansion brought a complete revamp of the nullsec sovereignty mechanics, allowing alliances to upgrade their space but dramatically increasing the cost of system ownership. Despite all of these updates and improvements, over the past several years we have somehow lost a lot of what made nullsec great in its glory days. Local industry has been replaced by risk-free logistics, and nullsec's risky but rewarding mining profession is now greatly overshadowed by safe highsec mission-running.

With a new iterative nullsec revamp scheduled to begin this winter, I use this week's EVE Evolved to speculate on what can be done to bring back the glory days of nullsec industry.

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EVE Evolved: Bringing back the glory days originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: The Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase

Brendan Drain — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Professions, PvE, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved, Guides

The EVE Evolved column has been home to dozens of in-depth guides on various aspects of EVE Online. Over the past two years, I've written multi-part guides to many industrial and PvP-oriented topics. On the topic of research and development, we've covered tech 1 research, invention, reverse engineering and five top tips for researchers. Perhaps more useful was the three part series on trading, which first covered the basics before delving into advanced trading strategies and a few useful tips. Other guides which have proven popular among newer players included our three-part guide to mission-running, and the recent three-page guide to exploration.

Members of the EVE community regularly produce new guides and tools to help players make the most of their time in New Eden. This week, EVE player Laci surprised the EVE community with the release of an impressive new guide aimed at new players and industralists. The comprehensive 416-page Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase (or ISK for short) covers practically everything a new player could want to know about the game. Until now, the guide had been available only in Hungarian. After intensive translation and design work, the full guide has been released in English.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I take a look at this impressive guide and ask its creator Laci a few questions about it.

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EVE Evolved: The Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One Shots: Overkill

Krystalle Voecks — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, EVE Online, One Shots

When it comes to the battle for sov in EVE Online, players will use just about every trick in the book -- including making your POS (player-owned station) look like some fairy space castle, such as the one we see in today's One Shots. This image, captured for us by Jeff, offers an interesting sight that some players who stick to hisec may never see. He writes in to explain:

"When an attacking force sieges a station in a sovereignty conflict they try to ensure that the enemies assets within the station stay trapped there. The standard tactic for accomplishing this is a constant blockade of combat ships to engage targets trying to escape, along with anchoring Mobile Warp Disruptors at strategic points around the station (mobile disruptors scramble the warp engines of all ships within the radius of the deployed bubble). However, sometimes deployment of these bubbles can be a bit... excessive."

Have you captured an image of something others may not often see? If so, we'd love to see it. Just email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. It could be the next one featured here on Massively!

Gallery: One Shots: Gallery II

One Shots: Overkill originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 May 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An insider's account of galactic warfare in EVE Online

James Egan — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion

Prolific games journalist Jim Rossignol is an avid EVE Online player, who has made regular contributions to Eurogamer focused on this particular sci-fi MMO. His latest piece, "EVE Online: Battle Reports", is a brief account of how his PvP-focused corp (EVE's version of a guild) fared in a conflict against some steep odds.

His aim is to explain a bit about how the game works while telling his story, hopefully holding appeal for those who don't play the game as well as those who do. "Because of the open structure of the game world, player-versus-player battles happen in all kinds of contexts and situations, and the sheer number of variables means they can make for a great story," Rossignol writes.

Continue reading An insider's account of galactic warfare in EVE Online

An insider's account of galactic warfare in EVE Online originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP Games on the extent and impact of EVE's starbase exploit

James Egan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Bugs, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, News items

Massively has been watching the issue of a significant starbase exploit in EVE Online, through which some players reaped vast financial rewards, as it went from rumor to confirmation from the developers themselves. Unlike your average run-of-the-mill exploit in most massively multiplayer online games, the exploit in question has had a significant impact on EVE's virtual economy -- the backbone of the game itself. All players in EVE interact in one vast galaxy, and their actions in the sandbox can create ripples felt by their fellow players, which has certainly been the case in this past week.

EVE Online's developer CCP Games has opted to hold off on responding to most press inquiries for comment on the issue, having issued a statement on the matter and then focusing on the investigation and a weekend meeting with EVE's player-elected community representatives, the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). The minutes from that meeting are now available, and several of EVE's developers took part in the discussion: namely CCP's Lead Economist Dr. EyjoG (Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson) and CCP Arkanon -- who heads up the company's Internal Affairs division, which investigates the CCP Games staff themselves, hopefully ensuring that no CCP employee can abuse their influence over the game.

Read on for Massively's highlights of the state of affairs in EVE Online, in the wake of the starbase exploit.

Continue reading CCP Games on the extent and impact of EVE's starbase exploit

CCP Games on the extent and impact of EVE's starbase exploit originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An update on the EVE Online starbase exploit

James Egan — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Exploits, Crafting, News items

In the wake of last week's revelation of a market disrupting exploit in EVE Online, a growing number of players have been calling for increased transparency on the situation. EVE's developer CCP Games has stated they've discovered seven player-run corporations taking advantage of the player owned station (POS) exploit, which yielded a vast amount of materials used in the EVE Online's manufacturing (crafting) system. Three of those corporations were in two alliances, and over 70 accounts have been banned thus far in connection with the exploit. The starbases used in the exploit have been destroyed by CCP, and they've stated that the corporations in question are now effectively inactive following the bans.

CCP Games has not released the names of characters, corporations, or alliances linked to the exploit, but a player named "moppinator" of the AMT. corporation (part of Ev0ke alliance) stepped forward and issued the following statement on the extent of his alliance's involvement:

Continue reading An update on the EVE Online starbase exploit

An update on the EVE Online starbase exploit originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle Part 2

James Egan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, PvP, Endgame, Massively Interviews

Band of Brothers fields the largest capital ship fleet in the game. Obviously this provides your alliance with an advantage, but how do you respond to what many players feel is a problem of capital ship proliferation? Do you miss the days before capital ships and POS warfare became the norm?

EVE is ever-changing. It has evolved since the early alpha and beta days to early release, to today's EVE. It will never stop changing, and the players have to evolve with it. You can always say "remember the good old days", but, that's just nostalgia. Evolve or die, adapt or be overcome.

I could say I miss ninja-mining, I could say I miss dura-Mallers, I could say I miss splash damage from torpedoes, I could say I miss the days before POS's were in the game. But all in all, EVE is a larger game, a larger world, a more complex world today than when it started. Changes are a part of your EVE-life. Embrace it.

The most important ship in EVE is not a capital ship; it's the battleship.

Continue reading EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle Part 2

EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle Part 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle

James Egan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, PvP, Endgame, Massively Interviews

Alliance warfare in EVE Online is a defining aspect of the game. EVE's setting of New Eden is a sprawling galaxy of over 5000 solar systems, where players are free to build empires, establish vast enterprises, and do whatever is necessary to maintain dominance over their competitors -- be it financial, political, or military. All of that freedom to do what you choose eventually leads players, collectively, into one another's sphere of influence, triggering bitter and protracted warfare. That's the nature of EVE -- the setting provides potential, but it's largely the players who drive the game. In what has been aptly described as "the largest virtual conflict ever waged", the Band of Brothers Alliance (BoB) has stood at the forefront of that struggle for dominance in EVE Online for years.

As an alliance, their strength is undeniable. But the power they've gained has sparked a fiery resentment from the much larger non-BoB playerbase in EVE, polarizing the community into those who either love or hate them. In many cases, it's been the latter. After all, for some time, Band of Brothers' goal was to control all space in New Eden, beginning in the lawless frontier of 0.0, where most alliance warfare rages, and eventually consolidating control over Empire space and its commerce. Band of Brothers set a goal for territorial control that's simply not possible in the game, however. The times have changed, and now the old paradigm of territorial grabs characteristic of the epic conflict with The RedSwarm Federation has been replaced with the MAX campaign, and a different nemesis -- the Northern Coalition. As vendetta-turned-alliance policy, MAX is intended to be a wave of destruction that cuts through the hulls and holdings of their opposition.

The man behind the MAX campaign, and the Band of Brothers alliance, is SirMolle. Massively recently spoke with SirMolle about the pressures of leadership, the impact Band of Brothers has had on the game, and the endgame of control over New Eden.

Continue reading EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle

EVE Community Spotlight: SirMolle originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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