Posts Tagged ‘Eve Online’

 *Edit by The Webmaster* For those who wish to follow the discussion on the forums (we use Eve Search) the discussion is up to 18 pages and growing and can be found here.

“My simple child reaction of what you did is that you are not funny. Funnier than you is even Stuart Schlossman, who is my friend, and is eleven, and puts walnuts in his mouth and makes noises. What is not funny is to call us names, and what is mostly not funny is how sad you are, and I’d feel sorry for you if it wasn’t for how dull you are. And those are the worst-tasting potato chips that I’ve ever tasted. And that’s my opinion from the blue, blue sky.” – Nick, A Thousand Clowns

 

If you are old enough, or are fans of old movies, you will remember a comedian name Buster Keaton, master of slapstick comedy. Move forward a few years and you will find a spiritual successor in the person of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in A Shot in the Dark, exemplified by the classic “billiard table scene ” But what if the pratfall, so common in physical comedy, results in a death?  Some will still find it fascinating and even amusing just so long as the misfortune isn’t theirs.

The buzz this morning around our corner of the internet is the Eve Online player who was flying a kestrel out of Jita loaded down with 74 plex worth of one thousand dollars U.S.  and had it blown out from under him – destroying the plex in the process.  The tendency by many players in Eve is to immediately start a round of laughter and touting such well and over used lines as “what a noob”. 

My co-host and sister, Fran, and I discussed the events outline above over breakfast this morning.  Her initial thoughts concerned the issues of ownership of virtual property and whether or not that property has real world value.  In this particular case there is no doubt at all whether or not the items destroyed have real world value and how much.  But when the issue becomes who owns the virtual property it becomes a lot less certain than people think.  Fran is of the opinion that whether or not the gankers where playing within the allowed parameters of the game that they stole something worth over $1,000 dollars from someone else and should do real jail time for it.  She likens the matter to someone who robbed a bank and in the process of making their escape lost the money they stole.  Doubtless that would never hold up in a court of law. However…

It is easy to point to the EULA and say CCP owns all the items and dismiss the whole matter offhanded remarks as are often heard…

“Eve is a dangerous place”

“Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose”

 

Yet while the gankers in Eve are done braying like a jackass at the fate of the player who lost all that plex there are legal implications to be considered that go beyond even the consideration of whether or not virtual items have real world value. Say the words with me friends, and remember them:

Implied Warrantee of Merchantability

 

I will not claim to be a lawyer, and I don’t play one on television – and I am certainly not giving out legal advice.  There was a time, however, that I got paid for being the military equivalent of a paralegal (71D MOS for all you ex-military types out there).  In class one day the instructor pointed out that you can’t waive your own liability. This means, of course, that all those signs that read “we are not responsible for” in restaurants are not worth the paper they are printed on.  More important is the legal principle that says anything sold has to be fit to be used for the purpose for which it was meant to be used.  A merchant can sell a used refrigerator and put an “as is” sign on it all they want.  But when the customer gets home that refrigerator had better keep food cold or they will have to take it back regardless.
So the plex that CCP sold as something in game that can be convertible to game time must be able to be used for that purpose.  But CCP created the circumstances which meant the plex can no longer be used for game time.  Is it sufficient to say the player was warned?  Does that amount to attempting to waive your own liability? It will be interesting to see how far this goes.  Certainly there have already been emails to and from CCP about the situation.  Will CCP simply say “Eve Online is a cold and dangerous place?”  Will they restore the plex? Will this cause CCP to reexamine their traditional “that’s the way it goes” attitude toward high security/suicide ganking?

Unlike other circumstances someone (or several some ones) bank account will be short over $1,000 real world cash.  And before you are quick to point out that once they were sold in game (if that was even the case here) that the plex were already put to the use for which they were intended, consider the following from the source cited above. As you read it, imagine the in game seller of the plex as the farmer selling the horse feed.

“There is rarely any question as to whether the seller is the merchant of the goods sold. Nevertheless, in Huprich v. Bitto, 667 So.2d 685 (Ala. 1995), a farmer who sold defective horse feed was found not to be a merchant of horse feed. The court stated that the farmer did not hold himself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to the sale of corn as horse feed, and therefore was not a merchant of horse feed for purposes of determining a breach of implied warranty of merchantability.” – legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com

So what, you may ask yourself, does the quote from A Thousand Clowns have to do with the situation. Well friends and readers (and I am sure this doesn’t apply to any of you) the following is directed at all those who simply brayed like a jackass and said “What a noob”…

“What is not funny is to call us names, and what is mostly not funny is how sad you are, and I’d feel sorry for you if it wasn’t for how dull you are.” – Nick, A Thousand Clowns

Further update:

Here is a bit more detail on what happened:

Jita, The Forge – On 112.08.07, a Kestrel frigate carrying 74 Pilot’s License Extensions [PLEX] worth about 22 billion ISK, was blown up just outside of the Jita 4-4 station.

The frigate, piloted by Aystra of SpaceMonkey’s Alliance, was destroyed by slickdog and Viktor Vegas of The 0rphanage Alliance as part of a CONCORD sanctioned war between the two entities. It remains unclear why the frigate pilot took the risk to move such a valuable cargo during an active war.

According to wilbongbe of the SpaceMonkey’s Alliance, we might never know the reasons behind the attempted move, as the weight of the tremendous ISK loss pushed Aystra to immediately put an end to her capsuleering days.

The attacking pilots were unaware of the precious cargo and they immediately eliminated the wreck to deny any theft by scavenger pilots.

“I would probably be kicked out [of the alliance] if [PLEX] were to drop… I was the one that killed the wreck,” concluded slickdog.

source:

 Update:

If you don’t read The Ancient Gaming Noob you should. The reason we are pointing it out this time, however, is for one of the comment made by Brian Green.  I am surprised he hasn’t put it on his own site as an article (it should be).  For those of you who don’t have access to that site here is the comment in full:

Saithir wrote:
@Psychochild – why should CCP compensate anything?

Because if they don’t, they open up a whole lot of uncomfortable issues, as others have pointed out. The difference between PLEX and ISK is that you buy PLEX directly with money, so it has an actual monetary value. ISK cannot directly be bought with money and (much more importantly) a player is not allowed to transfer ISK back into cash. (Turning PLEX into cash is a more complex issue, but at the very least one could request a chargeback from their credit card company if they decide they didn’t want the PLEX; this might lead to CCP punishing you for what could be considered fraud.)

When I was running Meridian 59, we had a rule that you were solely responsible for your own account security. “Being hacked” was always your own fault and we would take no responsibility for any losses. Did this mean we never helped people out who were “hacked”? No. But, it meant we had the ultimate escape clause in case we thought something fishy was going on, because the rules said we weren’t obligated. I suspect this is the same thing as what CCP has.

The other issue at work here is the law, as Julie Whitefeather points out. Although one can argue that PLEX are purely an in-game item, I don’t think you can say that exactly. They deal with an issue external to the game, paying for the game service. This sets it aside from other “virtual items” like in-game mounts that only deal with aspects in game. I think one of the big worries is that the courts won’t see this distinction, and complicate “virtual items” for everyone.

It’s also important to know that there are a lot of laws that exist for “cash equivalent” type items. In California, there are some specific rules concerning gift cards, such as they (generally) can’t expire, can’t have inactivity fees, etc. There are even laws concerning frequent flyer miles as well since they can be used to buy something of value. I think it’s entirely reasonable to consider that governments might start considering laws for virtual items that have an obvious cash equivalent such as PLEX. But, as I said above, it might be a bit more harmful if the governments decide to apply this to a wider class of virtual items; I don’t think that’s in anyone’s best interest except in corner cases.

However, the more I think about this the more I wonder if this isn’t a setup by CCP. Seems funny someone would carry so many PLEX in one go and would have that many without taking EVERY reasonable precaution. It makes sense that CCP might stage something like this to get some more PR for their game. It seems people really love schadenfreude type stories coming from EVE.

 

[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]

Just this afternoon an article came across our news feed from Kotaku.com talking about a recent post by CCP developer Zymurgist soliciting support for Eve Online at the European Games Awards:

“The European Games Award is the first award exclusively for European games and is now looking for votes from gamers for the best European video and computer games. EVE Online has been nominated for best Online Game but needs your vote to win the competition. Check out what games are being nominated for here and then cast your vote for EVE Online for best online game!” – CCP Zymurgist, via Kotaku.com

The response on the forums is a reported 27 pages long and demanded that CCP fix their game before soliciting support for an award, chief among the problems being lag.  A letter to Kotaku.com cited in the article is typical of the players we know who are in Zero security space:

“The fact is: in December 2009, the game could support 1000 players in a single battle. In the winter 2009 expansion, performance decreased because of new features involving fleet organization. However they never rolled back the changes and instead of kept going forward with more new features that layer new problems on top of old. This cycle is to continue for the next 18 months while CCP works through their planned new feature pipeline.” – via Kotaku.com

Mom used to talk about giving people the moon and having them demand the sun and the stars to go with it. If, on the other hand, you are going to promise people the sun the moon and the stars to begin with you had best be able to deliver on at least part of the promise. Take one look at some of the CCP trailers for their latest release and you will see hundreds of spaceships screaming across the reaches of virtual space. In reality nothing close to that is possible at this point, though there was a time when it was.

Back when gasoline was cheap and engines where big, Sister Julie owned a Cadillac. We called it “the chocolate brown god” (small G please).  It was a marvelous car with an enormous engine. The luxuries did everything but tuck you in at night.  But just like the proverbial horse shoe nail, when water pump broke it didn’t matter how luxurious the car was unless you wanted to park it in the driveway and use it for a planter.

No, the customer isn’t always right. 

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But if it IS broken don’t tell players you are working on it while you go merrily about your way worrying about being the first company to link a console game (Dust 514) and an MMO (Eve Online).  There are some things we can be patient about and some things that rub us the wrong way so fast that it would set new land speed records – poor customer service is one of them.  Not listening to your customers or dismissing what they say is the other. Unlike the common myth, size doesn’t matter.  The best customer service in the business comes from the biggest company in the business: Blizzard Entertainment.  And when it comes to listening to your customers, after the Blizzard gorilla got a good swift kick in the gnad’s over real ID, even they have learned that sometimes at least, the customer is right.

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

It’s seems that CCP developers and publishers of Eve Online just don’t give a damn about their customers any more – certainly not in this case. 

My grandfather used to say that he never waited in line to spend his money.  With the age of the internet there is even less reason to stand in line. But stand in line is exactly what I have been doing all day now; and it is CCP’s line I have been standing in.

We live in an age where our computers are constantly under attack.  The office where I work has firewall software that would but the proverbial “great firewall of China” to shame.  We have safety percautions so stringent that they even ticked off President Obama when his staff moved into the Whitehouse.  And so it is that we have long passwords (very long) that constantly rotate and always have to be remembered. This I understand.

So occassionally with all these passwords to be remembered and changed one needs to be recovered.

I haven’t played Lotro in a while – Turbine recovered the password in less than a minute

I haven’t played Star Trek Online in a while – Cryptic Studios Took about a minute and a half.

I have Eve Online in a while – I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR OVER ALL DAY AND INTO THE NIGHT and their password recovery system still has yet to respond once. The spam filters, blockers, and virus checkers did not stop their replay. They news letter comes to me just fine.

So why then is it that a company with a triple A mmo tries to tell us they care about their customer base when something as simple as password recovery is useless?

Not only have I been “waiting in line” but the money has already been taken and CCP doesn’t seem to care to render any services in return.   The suggestion was made by the Corporate CEO to simply block their payments – and it looks like CCP cares so little about their client base that this is what will ultimately transpire.

Even if this situation ultimately resolves itself the fact of the matter is that CCP cares so little about thier customers that there is no other option but to hang on the line like a lonely teenager waiting for the boyfriend to call.

And that, my friends is EPIC FAIL.

Tiger has Tanked

 

Those of you who are old enough will remember the commercial from the 60’s that touted the slogan “put a tiger in your tank”. Now it seems the Tiger has indeed tanked but this time its Tiger Woods.  It was just late last year that Howard Rubenstein,   Chairman of the famed public relations firm Rubenstein Communications, inc.  was quoted by ABC news as saying, “He [Tiger Woods] is beyond PR redemption. He is in public relations hell right now. There is not a PR man on Earth who can restore his image,” said public relations maven Howard Rubenstein.

And so what?

Activision has the Modern Warfare series, Nintendo has that famous plumber Mario, Electronic Arts has Madden, FIFA and the Sims series.  What is missing from the list? The series based on he of the self destructing reputation – Tiger Woods.  Who knew that the “family man” whose reputation was once as pure as the driven snow was only as thin as siding made from onion skin paper? It seems that in the first two quarters of 2010 fans have spoken. Fans have been teed off at the Tiger, who has smacked his ball, seemingly irrevocably, in to the rough. Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz  is quoted in Edge  discussing the June release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 and it’s 68 percent decline in the first month since last year’s version. “The 86 per cent decline on the Wii was particularly catastrophic,” said Creutz. I wonder how long it will be before we the famed golf series being given out as free prizes with every box of Wheaties cereal.  It just goes to prove the sage advice of my grandmother who pointed out that “there are times when it is best to keep your genes in your jeans.”

Climbing out of the tank

 

Remember the commercial slogan “only her hairdresser knows for sure”?   This is a case of only the CEO knows for sure.  It seems that EA is selling off its 15% stake in French game publisher Ubisoft.  Is it a case of Electronic Arts climbing out of the dip in earnings that the Tiger’s tanking has caused? Perhaps EA knows (or suspects) something about Ubisoft that the rest of us don’t.  Either way, Ubisoft sounds a bit like a jilted lover to me when they said, “we feel that this transaction is in Ubisoft’s best interest”. 

Getting out of Dodge

 

One of the movements we here at No Prisoners, No Mercy have been following closely is the fiasco going on between the U.S. Broadband providers intent on charging American consumers out the wazoo for their services and the FCC (see The Digital Stream becomes a Trickle ). With Google and Skype on the other side (and Steve Jobs oddly enough fighting for deregulation) it seems that Netflix has taken steps to get away from the foul odor that has been blowing in the wind.  Like many American households we had out cable provider pull their cable out; shortly after which we switch internet providers.  More than a few homes across the U.S. must be following in suit if broadband providers are attempting to take up the slack by hiking the rates like a field goal kicked over the moon.  Netflix is “getting out of dodge” and is moving its movies and television shows in an expansion to our neighbors to the north – Canada. So far it seems to just be a matter of expansion in to other markets, but I can tell you that if we here at NPNM can’t get our streaming we will be screaming.

 

Blowing in the solar wind

 

The artwork formerly known as walking in station…

…now known as Incarna has reared its head once more. Eve’s new Senior Producer CCP Zulu (the dev formerly known as Zulupark) has been discussing playing walking on stations and fighting on planets in the latest devBlog .  Be it known that as of August 17^th CCP will have 90 developers working on making sure players can one day walk in stations, and that friend, is a lot of manpower (and presumably womanpower).  Apparently CCP is serious about Incarna and here is the reason that CCP Zulu gives:

 

“To achieve our goal of EVE being a complete sci-fi experience we must have full body avatars. When we talk to people who like the concept of science fiction games but aren’t attracted to EVE, it becomes obvious that there is a need gap that can best be filled by having a character to associate with rather than a spaceship, and I would venture there are many existing players who want this option as well.” – CCP Zulu

Personally I have been hoping for this for a long time…a long, long time. So long, in fact that I have given up on it and simply considered if vaporware; relegating it to the same category as the little boy who yelled wolf a few thousand times.  But word around the blogosphere is that many of the zero security players would be happy if it never came out – one website insisting that CCP would never pay the pvpers any mind at all.  There may be more grouse out there than a bird sanctuary amongst some of the players out there, but this is something that the rest of us who help pay CCP bills have been looking forward to since we first set virtual foot on a frigate.

Who’s on first?

Apparently CCP is on first – or at least they intend to be.  As all Eve players know, CCP recently launched their planetary interaction in preparation for linking Eve Online with their impending console game, Dust 514.  Even though the good folks at CCP have already stated they don’t expect Dust 514 to do well they are committed to quality over quantity – that and being the first developer to link a console game to a mmo. Here is what CCP Zulu had to say:

“Let that sink in for a minute. CCP is the first company in the world to do something like this. First. Ever. The „resource cost” on the EVE side for that is a team continuing on development of the Planetary Interaction feature (the primary link between the two) for the next three releases, delivering immediate, meaningful value into EVE Online and making game development history while they‘re at it.” – CCP

Planetary Inaction

When I was a youngster the toy stores all sported these large rings of plastic hanging in racks called “hula hoops”. The concept was to put it around your waist and gyrate in such a manner as to keep it aloft through the use of centrifugal force…this was called fun you see. The problem was, even as a child with a vivid imagination (of which I had in abundance) it was fun for about a minute and a half. Then it was just a boring pain the ass. 

When planetary interaction was first introduced with slick trailers that would make even Paramount motion pictures proud I bought into the hype.  Like many others I had images of claiming my own planet. It was a misconception which CCP purposefully encouraged amongst players, even to the point of calling it a “land rush”.  I bought into the hype with great hope; certain I could pull isk out of the planets much like I could asteroids.  In the end, nothing was further from the truth. The money I could pull out of a colony in one week was less than what I could profit from one wreck in a level 3 mission. The profit margin was such that it would take me about a decade of real time just to break even. And normally there might not be anything wrong with that, if process of planetary interaction was fun.  Oh it was fascinating at first to be true. But then, much like the hula-hoop it got old fast – it didn’t make any money, and quickly became a pain to manage.  While it was nice to get the limited edition planetary interaction ship, as all regular Eve Players know, no matter how well the execute the design of a limited edition ship of that sort, it is a waste of hanger space.  All they end up being is a target for players who just want to make their day by ruining someone else’s. At this point if a Dust514 player wants my Eve Colony they are welcome to it.

Early re-adopters

Early re-adopters is not my phrase to be sure, it was coined (as far as I know) by Dr. Richard Bartle. To be sure CCP is the first to link a console game and an mmo.  It may be that, like Zynga, they are one of the first developers/publishers to say “wouldn’t it be great if…” and that is what they seem to be banking on.  Certainly they know their own market. I am overjoyed they want to address the desires of that sector of the market that, “like the concept of science fiction games but aren’t attracted to EVE.”

World first or not, it seems you would want to fix what you have before you attempt to pull in players from a new market. And if CCP does players from new markets then things are going to have to change.  When I consider “who gives a rat’s ass” attitude toward new players victimized by suicide gankers, the words of the Ancient Gaming Noob come to mind:

“And you can take the cliché attitudes that people throw around in EVE.  Don’t fly what you cannot afford to lose.  Don’t ever assume you are safe outside of a station.  Don’t AFK.  EVE is about PvP.  Sandbox, landmines, blah blah blah. But all that amounts to is throwing a teaspoon of kitty litter over the steaming cow turd that is the loophole in the way things work in EVE Online.” – The Ancient Gaming Noob

Walking around in stations just might pull in a new breed of player for a “look see” but it will never keep them there. The first time a player ventures over from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and finds themselves the victims of a suicide gank, or a swindle that is “just part of the game” said new player will leave the game so fast it will set new land speed records.

So why do I stay around? Why pay a parking fee and the training game? Well the fact of the matter is that it runs in cycles. The last time out I worked a player up until I could mine in tech 2 ships.  This time out I have worked my way up the training scale until I can zoom around the universe in tech 2 ships at 6,000 m/sec. But it is starting to look like I am reaching the end of another cycle. I find myself logging in less and less in what has become a summer mmo doldrum. In the end I think the only reason I keep coming back is that one day CCP just might engender comments like “Gee I wish I had paid more attention to that ‘Jobs’ kid back when he was working in his garage.”

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]

 

This land is my land…sort of*

 

This land is my land

You better get off

I have a railgun

I’ll blow you head off

 

As I was flying the Jita highway

I saw above me an endless skyway

I saw below me, a Waskisen valley

This land was made by CCP

 

(*With apologies to Woodie Guthrie)

 

All these bases are belong to CCP – as Eve Online fans know (at least those who have taken a look at the planets between June 8^th and now) the rumors of players being able to claim entire planets are greatly exaggerated.  There is no doubt, however, by being a bit obtuse about the entire matter that the good folks at CCP lent an air of excitement to the entire Planetary Interaction process on the first day of it’s release.

Our factories on Waskisen I, III, IV and VII are now running full tilt, producing fuels for player owned stations (POS)  – Oxygen, Enriched Uranium,  mechanical parts, and a few items for export (like Fertilizer) as well. All told if the corporation doesn’t want them for the POS at least they will make a heck of a big bang.

Along the way to getting our factories in operation I discovered that a few of the fears where based on nothing but lack of information; as fears often are.  Much to the chagrin of the resident can-flippers (ore thieves) that always inhabit each system, there is a way to entirely thwart anyone who would grab the goods once they are launched from the colony into orbit. Around each planet there now orbits a customs office with which the player can interact, cutting would be thieves out of the equation.

It works like this

 

As a side note, one of the questions I often see in the help channel is “how do I get my command center back?”  The answer is, of course, you don’t – once it’s placed thats it.  If you get rid of your command center you will receive a warning that your entire colony will go with it.  In fact I have already done this once to upgrade a command center in order to obtain more CPU and power, and thus be able to build more structures.

If you have taken a gander at the training video by CCP in our earlier article you no doubt have an understanding of the basic process – first the extractor pulls the material out of the ground (heavy metals in the case of our colony on Waskisen III.  A base factory turns the heavy metals into toxic metals. However the toxic metals are only one half of the equation (see this link provided by Stabs for a full list of materials and what they produce).   The base processor/factory that produces the toxic metals is then routed to an advanced processor that will combine toxic metals and precious metals we import from our colony on Waskisen I.  Once that factory gets the proper mix of precious metals and toxic metals it is routed to storage waiting for pickup.

Getting through Customs

 

Fortunately, getting through virtual customs is a lot less painful than getting through real customs (no waiting).   And here is why using the customs office is important. As you noticed in the CCP tutorial, simply launching your goods into space is a one way trip.  In order to make the enriched uranium we need precious metals and Waskisen III has no way of producing them – and the only way of bringing materials back in to a planet is by using the customs office.

Back on Waskisen I our colony is taking noble metals and turning them into precious metals where they are stored waiting for our attention.  The precious metals are transferred (in game this is called “expedited”) from storage to the launch pad (not the command center) and from there to the customs office. 

Look up in the sky – it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s an indie

 

The skies of many systems are now filled with industrial ships (Indies) and the next step in the process is why.  In order to transfer your goods to a station or one of your colonies on another planet you have to fly to the customs office above the planet.  Open your Indie’s cargo, open the customs station cargo, and transfer the goods (drag and drop).  To bring the materials from one planet to another (Precious metals from Waskigen I to Waskigen III in this case) just reverse the process.

Truth or error

A couple of questions I have, and will make it a point to discover, is whether or not you can use a freighter to transfer goods from a customs station to a cargo hold.  I expect this isn’t possible in that it is also not possible to pick up floating giant secure containers.   No doubt there is no way (at least for the present) to damage another player’s colony (mind you Dust 514 may change that).  The possibility here, speaking as a covert ops pilot, is to run a colony/factory in low security space from a covert ops frigate since the factories can be run from anywhere in the system. The problem thne becomes, of course, getting the finished product out of the system in once piece, if at all.

World by world we will build an empire – reach heights that were once unimaginable. But the spread of influence takes an iron will. Your interests might align with some, and with others collide with the force of suns.

 

You are much more powerful than you think. Creation is so precious and greed so destructive.  Your choice will make a difference – because all these worlds are yours.

 

This morning the great land grab began.  As all Eve Fans know, as well as our regular readers, the implantation of planetary interaction was delayed from May 26 until this morning, June 8^th.   CCP called it a “land rush” on their web site. A recent trailer for the Tyrannis expansion even ends with the words “Because all these worlds are yours.” Does this mean that the No Prisoners, No Mercy (NPNM) team can now lay claim the planets we colonized? (We doubt it)  However, another trailer from CCP lead us to believe we can claim the planet when it says “will you rule with benevolence or ruthless tyranny?”  Even some of the some of the mmo news web sites we read were on the “claim this planet” side of the fence – like this one:

“Until now, players were only able to pillage celestial anomalies such as asteroids, moons, or gas clouds for resources. Starting in 2 weeks, pilots in the EVE universe will be able to claim whole planets (over 65,000 are available for pillaging) for their resources.”

 

Whether we can or can’t, the air of excitement it lent to it all is obviously intentional on behalf of CCP. A quick search of the internet didn’t show us a definite statement one way or another.  It’s not too often you get involved with a virtual land rush.  The last time we had a chance to participate in such an event was when Ultima Online (UO) launched their Samurai Empire expansion, and again when they launched their Origins shard.  Then, as now, there was a sort of nervous excitement beforehand.  A large part of this, back in our UO days, was because you knew the second  the servers went live there would literally be a virtual race across the landscape to reach a favored plot of land – and if you were too slow they would all be gone before you can say megalopolis.  In the case of  Eve Online it was the possibility (true or not) that it was first come first serve, on player per planet, that made it exciting – because there are fewer planets than there are players.

A member of the NPNM team was their of course, logging on five minutes ahead of time, expecting to be early – and was very mistaken. The moment the login screen came in to view a quick glance revealed the truth…the servers were up early.  Still, the number of players online only read 14 (that is the first time anyone on our team has ever seen that).

“It was there that we discovered that not only does the type of extractor have to match the type of material to be extracted, but the schematics of the processor also have to be set to the same material (something we didn’t see in the instructions) in order to route between extractor and processor.”  

Beneficial or Tyrannical, whether or not the entire planet is now ours, we established colonies on Waskisen III, Waskisen IV and Waskisen VII.  The first planet we claimed was Waskisen IV, a temperate planet.  It was there that we discovered that not only does the type of extractor have to match the type of material to be extracted, but the schematics of the processor also have to be set to the same material (something we didn’t see in the instructions) in order to route between extractor and processor.  

With all three colonies up and running we are not producing heavy metals, oxygen and some sort of bacteria.  We know what to do with the first two, but we are all stubbed on the product of Waskisen IV (the bacteria). We can only suppose that CCP has plans for biological warfare down the road.

*edit*

Here is the best tutorial we have found on the subject of planetary interaction so far. Too bad we didn’t find it before we set up our colony. It looks like we are going to have to add a storage facility and launch pad to our three colonies.  In the end, even if it doesn’t make alot of isk, it promises to be alot of fun.

Wait a week and it will fall off

So goes the punch line to a joke heard back in the days when I worked in a factory.  I will let your imagination fill in the rest (it will probably be better than the original anyway).  Until CCP pushed back the release day of the Tyrannis expansion, tomorrow was set to be the big day. Once it does go live will miners see their butts drop off due to the bottom dropping out of mineral prices?

Now, of course, there are two big days: May 26^th and June 8^th.  The more interesting of the two dates will be the second, for that is when the virtual land rush to grab a planet of your own will start.  Will there be a mad rush after down time June 8^th? Will the servers be able to handle the pressure? Or will it be, as the immortal bard once put it, full of sound and fury signifying nothing?

This is not to say that the release date of the expansion itself, May 26^th, will not be without its advents. Even before the virtual land grab there will be changes that will elate some players and put a massive size crimp in the play style of others – Minerals and ship insurance.

Now at this point there will be some players who simply yawn,  consider their opponents (whether player or NPC) and repeat the words of Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) from the movie Aliens…

“Look, man. I only need to know one thing: where they are.” 

More remarkable to me than the changes themselves, are the fact that it even bears considering how they will change “the market.”   This is a testament to the depth of the game that CCP has created, with which I have long had a love/hate relationship.  To paraphrase the words of Gandalf from The Fellowship of The Ring, “Eve Online really is an amazing game. You can learn all there is to know about it in a month, and yet after years it can still surprise you.”

Mos Eisley has nothing on Eve

In the first Star Wars movie, Obi Wan describes Mos Eisley Spaceport as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.” As all Eve fans know, Mos Eisley has nothing on Eve – if there is a way to stay safe in Eve Online there will be some player who will come along and make it dangerous. Eve is the only game where the art of “the con” not only thrives, but is considered “part of the game.”  The low end of all this is insurance fraud. Well sort of, it works like this…

Blowing up ships for fun and profit

Recently I crafted a battle cruiser in Eve Online.  I was proud of my battle cruiser; after all, I pulled the minerals to make it out of the asteroids myself.  Now mind you I have flown other ships with which to compare it. Lately I have been flying a Minmatar Hurricane, on previous occasions I have flown a drake.  But this is the first time I ever flew a Caldari Ferox – and the last.  Unfortunately I didn’t research how well the ship performed until after I constructed it. Long story short, it’s performance stank like last week’s fish. Lesson learned.

 Question: What to do at that point with a ship that I hated flying?

 Answer: Blow it up or sell it. Blow it up makes more money.

 Why? Here is the “official” explanation of insurance rates in Eve Online:

The basic insurance covers 50% of the “base price” of your ship, standard 60%, bronze 70%, silver 80%, gold 90% and platinum 100%. When calculating your basic ship price the NPC mineral value is used(2 isk per Tritanium, 8 per Pyerite, 32 per Mexallon, and so on up to 32768 per Morphite), not market price. For most tech 1 ships, the base price is much higher than the market price, but for tech 2 and faction ships it is much lower.” – Evelopedia

 

Now the cost for making the ship for me was minimal, as the bulk of the materials I mined myself, and enjoyed myself doing it. Even had I purchased the ship it would only have cost me 16 million isk in my market, and about the same to sell it. The problem (and mind you it is only a problem if you view it that way) is that insurance prices are not tied to “live” mineral prices, but instead based on base price. The result, depending on the cost to build or buy the ship, is that it is worth more as a pile of scrap blown to bits (mind you that is only true for some ships called “tech 1″).  And this is the game mechanic that allows the virtual equivalent of a school yard bully who will only fight his opponents when the odds are 100 to 1 in his favor – the suicide gank.

 “Our new insurance system recalculates the value of all ship classes which includes Tech 2 and Tech 3 classes establishing the base material cost of the ship.   To this we have added the ability for us to define more precisely how much of the total material value of each ship class should be paid out.  Our intention is that we can make certain ship classes pay out much less, some closer to the full value.” – CCP Chronotis, Eve Online Developer

At face value we can probably kiss the days of blowing up ships for fun and profit a fond farewell – and with it maybe even that canker sore on the butt of Eve Online the suicide gank (time will tell). So what has this got to do with the price of tea in Britain, or more appropriately the price of tritanium in Jita?  By establishing an insurance rate that is based on the “static ship values decided at the launch of Eve”, as CCP Chronotis put it, that has not changed relative to the market cost of a replacement ship, this has established sort of an “artificial floor” value of minerals – basically the value of a given ship blown to smithereens.  Remember the Ferox battle cruiser I built? All this means that it is more profitable for me, as a miner/industrialist, to build a Ferox and blow it up than to sell it.  Come May 26^th this just may change:

 “So ship insurance will be marked to market? Yes, ship insurance will now revalue itself periodically based on a trimmed mean of the ship’s manufacturing materials global market weighted average prices.  This means the insurance quote when you are buying insurance will be now estimated and may change if the payout occurs during the next insurance period.”  – CCP Chronotis, Eve Online Developer

 Currently there is much speculation as to the actual payout of insurance at the release of Tyranis. The only reliable source I have found to date is that cited above in which CCP Chronotis indicates, “we want to payout for each ship class which generally is 100% for Tech 1 ship groups, 20-60% for Tech 2 and 100% for Tech 3 ships.”

 Now add to these lower quantities of minerals available by reprocessing loot dropped from NPC’s.  Minerals available from refining ore dropped by rogue drones will change but not in the same way:

 “The fundamental focus of our changes are to alter both the quantities dropped of each drone compound from the NPC entities but also change the quantities of minerals they reprocess to, so they more precisely fit with the ratio of materials required by manufacturing and therefore the market demand.”  – CCP Chronotis, Eve Online Developer ()

The Fly in the Ointment

 So what does CCP expect all this to accomplish? Way back in March 30^thof this year, here is what CCP Chronotis told us:

 “In the short term with just the changes to loot and drone compounds, you would experience increased income but only until the economy re-adjusts and more miners return to the arkonor, bistot, crokite asteroids. The initial changes will introduce higher amounts of low end minerals such as tritanium, pyerite or mexallon to low sec or certain null sec ores ensuring you can make it worth the effort to mine these as a viable alternative instead of purely mining the ABC asteroids constantly.  .”  – CCP Chronotis, Eve Online Developer  

The fly in this particular ointment is the intent expressed by CCP Chronotis to get players to mine what are called “high end ores” such as arkonor, bistot, crokite.These are ores that are found out in the lawless lands of 0.0 security space – out where battleships dare to roam.  Recently the alliance of which I am a part moved out to 0.0 security space, with it went the pvp arm of our corporation, but not, notably, the industrial arm.  As one of the Orca  pilots (a capital industrial ship and the only capital ship allowed in high security space) put it, “The only way I am bringing my Orca out there is with a fleet escort.” CCP may try and entice Empire miners to go where the profits are great, but odds are they will be waiting a long time.  Even if CCP increases the insurance payout on Tech 2 ships to 60%, a miner in his or her exhumer will still risk losing 60 to 70 million isk every time they cross in to low security space. Odds are also that even with a fleet escort, said Orca pilot would have a difficult time making out to the land of 0.0 where the isk flows.

 So will the mining industry lose its collective butt when Tyranis goes live? For the definitive answer to that, even the developers at CCP will only be able to respond “after May 26^th, we will see.”

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

For those interested in mining and industry in Eve Online, the acknowledged, definitive guide is Halada’s Complete Miner’s guide, that as of this writing may be found here:

 

 

“Creation is so precious, and greed is so destructive – your choice will make a difference, because all these worlds are yours.”

So ends the narration of the latest trailer for CCP’s next expansion for Eve Online  now due out May 26^th, 2010 with full implementation of planetary interaction delayed until Jun 8th.   For those of you who haven’t heard news of the delay, here is the announcement which can be read here as well  .

Esteemed capsuleers,

We regret to inform you that deployment of our upcoming expansion Tyrannis has been pushed back by one week to May 26th, and that market seeding of Planetary Command Centers is pushed back to June 8th.

In our regression testing, we have identified scalability issues with the Planetary Interaction feature, which led to code refactoring that then needed further testing before being launched to Tranquility. Planetary Interaction is a unique feature in the sense that it is available to almost all players in the game providing opportunity for manufacturing for the masses, so ensuring that it runs smoothly on our cluster is of great importance to all.

EVE Gate will also be released on May 26th, with its web access to EVE Mail, Calendar and revamped contacts, both in-game and on the web.

Planetary interaction functionality is playable on Singularity, our public test server. A significant number of players have helped us by testing the game play and providing valuable feedback and we are grateful for that assistance. But the majority of EVE Online players have not yet had an opportunity to learn how to benefit and profit from the natural resources of the planets. This gives some players a slight advantage and we have chosen to take steps to somewhat level that playing field.

On release, you will be able to view resources on planets, buy and train skills pertaining to Planetary Interaction, discuss your options with your corporation and allied corporations and scout out the planets. We will be releasing a tutorial video in advance of the expansion deployment to help you learn the system as well, but actual manufacturing and extraction of commodities will only be available when we seed the Planetary Command Centers. We are giving players two weeks to familiarize themselves and make their decisions. During that time, our engineering team will be working behind the scenes to test and ensure stellar performance of said Command Centers. Mark your calendars: the great land rush begins when Tranquility opens after our normal downtime on June 8, 2010.

With thanks for your support and patience,

Torfi Frans Olafsson

Senior Producer of EVE Online

 

The biggest innovation in the next FREE expansion is, as Eve fans know, something called “planetary interaction.”  The concept is simply, as the videos we have found and featured in early articles have shown, even beginning players will be able to establish mining colonies (in the isometric view so common to RTS games).   In preparation for this some of the goods normally sold by NPCs in the game are no longer being produced, with the exception of few places in the Eve Online universe.  This, of course, opens the door to those same goods being provided by yes…you guessed it…

Those same “carebears” upon which so many pvp participants heap scorn and abuse.

Here let’s be perfectly clear. I enjoy pvp, I always have.  I participate in pvp in just about every game I play – except Eve (at least not any more). The dividing line for me is where corporate wars start and piracy ends.  Corporation vs. corporation is great if you can afford it (and believe you me friends that is one big  IF considering the “lose everything” death penalty in Eve Online). Still, the voices of dissension coming from the pvp community in Eve Online are a bit odd (if not silly) considering the “Anything goes” attitude CCP has always had toward their game.

Typical of those for whom the glass seems to be “half empty” are excerpts from player comments below:

 “…and i don’t like doing carebear and missioning if that what you are asking me to do in high-sec. Why do theyhave to invest in planet-interaction and walking in station and DISU512 when the real EVE is lagging when we need to it to run…”

 “… I think this whole thing is going to turn into a near complete failure, just as Dominion has. VP is the bottom line of this game. Dominion has ground this to a near hault in 0.0. Without PVP the game is dead. “

Many, like myself, are anxiously awaiting June 8^thand the opening land rush of planetary interaction. There is little doubt that the corporations that ply the routes of 0.0 security space will be rushing to develop the same resources… and busy trying to defend themselves at the same time.  There will, of course, always be those in the Eve universe who feel that the good folks at CCP can’t live without them. But that’s the interesting aspect of any given market.  Individually no one is indispensable from the president of a corporation right down to the individual player – it is only collectively that we all matter.

So this lone voice crying in the wilderness of the Eve Online universe would like to loudly applaud CCP for taking steps to expanding the Eve Online universe, and addressing the desires of ALL the players…collectively.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by the Webmaster)

Side Note:

Here is a small excerpt from one of the more unusual ways I have ever seen anyone praise Eve Online (see below).  Syncaine’s article is certainly worth the read (agree or disagree Hardcore Casual is always entertaining). Head on over to Hardcore Casual for the full article.

I’m starting to hate it because it makes all other MMOs look like crude kids toys, like silly side activities you dabble in before getting back to the ‘real’ game. It makes events that happen in other MMOs look like droplets in the ocean that is EVE’s history.

It was four years ago. 

A timid capsuleer was loaded into her first ship called an Ibis. (Yes in Eve Online you float inside a fluid filled capsule).  The Ibis isn’t big, it isn’t fast, and it certainly isn’t powerful. In fact it would have a difficult time taking out a pickup truck driven by a guy with a tire iron (O.K. maybe not that bad but not by much). It does have the sole benefit of being the only free ship in Eve Online. If you want one all you have to do is get yourself blown up.

Back then there were no wonderful tutorials that guide you step by step through new adventures, introducing you to the various professions available to you.  No, it was little more than a voice that sounds suspiciously like Majel Barett that taught you how to fly your space borne Edsel of the future, how to mine and sent you out to die…er…make a name for yourself or (more likely) die trying.

Fortunately things have change…a lot

Now you don’t just get a ship for free.  By the time you are finished with the new player experience you have a small fleet of ships, equipped to start you in one of many professions: I chose mining and mission running.  I made my way through the missions starting with frigates, and ending up in battleships. Not long after I was offered membership in what quickly became a null security corporation. Most days I quickly made my way to the object set me by my agent (quest giver for all you WoW players), and rushed back after to “turn in”. 

But there is one sight that always made me stop, and stare.

I would cut my engines and just hang there, outside the space station.  The cruisers I flew back then were dwarfed by them.  In fact even the battleships I later flew shrunk into insignificance.  It’s black mass would fly over head, never seeming to stop as it blocked out the stars. It was so big it could hold Soldier Field (a football stadium in Chicago) in its titanic hold. At one point they cost a billion isk, placing them well out of the reach of the average player.  Yes, it may have moved so slow it was like pushing an elephant across the rug on its nose; but that didn’t matter to me.

Now as anyone who has ever obtained a goal will tell you, having a thing is not always as desirable as desiring a thing. Still, as I think of the uses to which I will but my first Charon freighter I am reminded of a time that Michael Nesmith of the 60s band “The Monkees” was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  During the interview he described what he pictured to be his ultimate hot rod.  When Carson asked him what he would do with it, his reply was “Nothing man, just sit in it.” 

Bank sitting has long been a tradition in MMOS, ever since the days of Ultima Online.  In fact back then it had a very practical use – the area in front of the bank was the best market place in the game, there being no such thing as an “auction house.”  In Eve Online it is difficult to “bank sit”.  There are places where you can “space station sit”.  I have seen a place or two in Amarr space.

Being an industrialist and mission runner, there are a number of uses to which I can, and will, put my freighter.  My initial voyage proved to be much easier than I had imagined, my skills making it much faster to align the ship for jump to warp…a task which has pained many a freighter pilot.  With the advent of the new expansion for Eve Online due out this May 18^th, there will be even more use to put the freighter – hauling everything made through the new planetary interaction system from the end of space, out where “God lost his shorts” as one friend put it, to the major trade hubs. 

It’s nice to see CCP giving some care to the players that many a misguide individual has dubbed a “care bear”.  Then again, it only makes sense – we’re the ones who pay the bills.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster)

In the North of England there was a massive wall known as “Hadrian’s Wall.” It was begun in 122 A.D. during the rule of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Built as a defense of the Northern Boarders of the Roman Empire, it spanned much of the border lands between Scotland and England. History said it was meant as a defense against the Scottish.  But Scots, like my great grandparents know better. It wasn’t meant to keep us out. Oh no…

It was meant to keep us in

 

(O.K. my ancestors not me)

And so it is with the border in Eve Online between high security and low security space.  If you come upon a gate that enters on to low security space and attempt to use it, you will get a pop up window warning you of the danger and asking you if you want to proceed.

For me, the answer was not always “NO.”

Yesterday Tobold wrote an entry on his site entitled Bullies in the Sandbox. As always, he is entertaining whether or not you agree with him. Here is a quote:

“Much is being made of EVE being a sandbox game, but in reality the new players are just playing in the dirt on the outskirts of the playground. The sandbox with the fine sand and the nice toys is occupied by bullies, and if you even get close they are going to beat you up and kick you out.” – Tobold

The reason this touched a never for me is that it is an issue that is, at this moment, being debated in the corporation (read guild for all you World of Warcraft  players out there) of which I am a part.  As our regular readers know, the alliance of which our corporation is a part was recently “War Dec’d” by a small mercenary corporation.  Basically means is this brings all the problems the lawless 0.0 security space to every place in the game for both corporations. I am happy to report that the “war” is over.  How did we do it? We bored them into submission.  As I have said before, never try and outwait a miner – waiting is what we do.

Now, however, the same alliance that so kindly got us involved in a war has decided to move their operations out to same, said lawless environs with the intent of dragging the rest of the member industrial corps with them. To put it in terms related to Tobold’s article, the alliance wants to go out and try to bully the bullies.  Now that may not be their initial intent, but as the old adage goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. After all, It’s hard (and hideously expensive) to try and create a foothold in the lawless lands of low security space when player corporation already there, in numbers closely resembling the armies of Genghis Khan, can roll over you without much of a thought.  And so the stage is set

Climbing the Wall

Watch one of the Eve Online trailers some time.  A quick viewing will often show players in vast fleets screaming at each other across the reaches of virtual space in titanic battles.  What the beginning player doesn’t realize before they get involved is just how difficult it is to grab a piece of that particular action. Oh, you can fly one of the small frigates that hurl themselves at the enemy. Such players, known as tacklers (they keep the enemy from warping away) usually have the life expectancy measured in seconds. But what about all those big ships you see in the trailer blazing away at each other? It will be months before you can even fly those, let alone be able to survive in one.  Yes, if the learning curve in Eve Online is steep, trying to scale the wall into fleet battles will take a jet propelled grappling hook.

But that’s the way it is in all established mmos.

Any mmo that has been around awhile will have its veteran players.  Any new players in those games always face some sort of a barrier to entry, even if it is just the leveling time necessary to reach a competitive level – Eve Online is no different.  This does not mean, however, that you have to have infinite patience and vast sums of money to enjoy the game.  Not all the “fine sand and nice toys” are taken by the bullies.  What many new players don’t realize is just how easy all those toys belonging to all those bullies break –and break they do.  Life in the lawless regions of low security space, especially for those who are involved in those big fleet battles, is hideously expensive.  Ask any veteran of such corps; it’s like a full time job.

 And what about those high security space toys? One of those toys is a freighter. These are the behemoths you see plying the space lanes. Expensive? You bet. Got a few extra bucks? You can trade dollars for isk as along as you follow CCP’s rules.  And there is a reason that you can’t train to fly one on a trial account…because it take about that long to learn to fly one.

So while there may be some game mechanics, like corporate wars, that occasionally allow the bullies back into high security space, by and large the wall between high security space and low security space is there for the same reason that the Roman’s build Hadrian’s Wall…

To keep the bullies in.