This is CCP Affinity on behalf of Team Space Glitter and we would like to show you some week one stats on The Drifters that we released with Tiamat.
One of our goals with The Drifters was to further iterate on the new NPC AI we released with the Circadian Seekers. It has been awesome to see how you all adapt to new challenges and we hope to continue reprogramming the NPCs of New Eden.
CCP Fozzie finally released the long awaited SO changes Dev blog today. And it's quite dense, and full of a lot of interesting ideas. As expected it will probably change to degree prior to release. But that hasn't stopped the usual fanfare of overreactions, theory crafting, and leadership planning from going into full swing within the EVE community.
CCP Rise here for EVE’s Team Pirate Unicorns to give you a heads up about some changes to the new player experience (NPE for short) that are about to sneak their way onto Tranquility.
HISTORY
As many of you remember, the first few days in New Eden can be some of the most difficult, and it’s been a mission at CCP for a very long time to try and improve the experience for new bros. The tutorial has undergone several major reworks over the years and we also constantly strive to make EVE’s core systems more intuitive and usable without sacrificing sophistication. Despite all that, we still feel there’s room for improvement, especially when it comes to the tutorial itself.
Over a year ago, our team took on the mission to overhaul the NPE and since then you’ve seen us establish some systems we felt were needed to make our vision for new players possible. First, we added and tweaked a lot of tooltips covering the major interface elements and features and then we installed a new notification system to improve feedback and give us a better way to deliver information to new players. Most recently we began work overhauling the star map. With all these pieces in place (or at least getting close to where we want them to end up) we’ve finally been able to really dig in to a system that we hope will eventually completely replace the current tutorial:
We are happy to announce that we have released six new time exclusive clothing items into the redeeming queues of players who are Second Decade Collector’s Edition Mystery Code holders.
This new package of clothing items can be claimed through the voucher center in Account Management (requires login), and contains the following:
We are just getting started this year, and the Tiamat release brings both quality of life changes and some significant next steps on the developing story of New Eden. Log in, undock and go find out what is really going on! Here are the features coming to EVE Online in Tiamat:
The recent CCP DevBlog for EVE Online has hit. And in it CCP Fozzie talks about the upcoming Tiamat release and new changes coming to modules and ship types within.
EVE Fanfest 2015, the annual pilgrimage of capsuleers to the beautiful volcanic rock of Iceland to enjoy three full days of epic camaraderie, spacestuff and partying, is only three months away. In 2015, Fanfest is taking place slightly earlier and it coincides with the total solar eclipse on March 20th. Unless you are planning on being in the Faroe Islands, Iceland will be pretty much the best place in the world to experience it.
Finally, finally, Recons. I know you guys have been asking for a long time now so even though timing was pretty tight with vacations coming up I want to get this class in for January.
We had a few big goals with Recons:
Give Combat Recons something to make them stand out as a unique and interesting set of ships Close the gap somewhat between Recons and T3 Cruisers, though this will also be a goal during the T3 Cruiser rebalance Align Recons around ship developer trends established in other classes (Roden Lachesis should not use missiles for example) Address any other general balance issues or pain points (hello Pilgrim)
Once again it’s that time of the year and holiday season is upon us!
As 2014 draws to a close, a look back over the events of the previous twelve months makes it very easy to see that this has been another amazing year for the EVE community.
From the surprise success of The Camel Empire in Alliance Tournament XII (and their beautiful EVE TV advertisements), to the immortalization of a renowned piece of EVE history as the first volume of EVE: True Stories, the colossal Bloodbath of B-R5RB, Warlords of the Deep taking the New Eden Open II champion’s trophy and an ongoing series of large scale battles in HED-GP throughout the year, 2014 has been memorable for capsuleers across the cluster.
However, the last year hasn’t been all about destruction. Ending 2013 on a high note after the EVE community raised a staggering amount for the Icelandic Red Cross, this year has been a year of change for both EVE and the Community.
Sometime early next year we will change the way we deploy the EVE Online client. The primary driver for this change is to get people into the game quicker – both new players, downloading a trial for the first time and existing players patching after major updates. We're moving away from having resources packed into the stuff files in the EVE installation folder, to downloading individual resources on demand. There are many implications to this change, but rest assured –that none of this will be deployed until we have full confidence in our new deployment method and are sure it will not disrupt your gameplay experience in EVE.
YULAI – CONCORD's Inner Circle today issued a preliminary statement
regarding the stellar anomaly known as "Caroline's Star" and the
revelation of a Sisters of EVE colony in the wormhole-accessed system
known as "Thera". Given the significance of these events, the Scope has
decided to reproduce this statement in full.
The fundamental question of any CGI programmer is: “What color is a given pixel on screen?” The more accurately the programmer answers that question, the higher the quality of the final picture. The essential tools for coming up with an accurate answer are of course real world physics and math. However, finding an exact formula that describes how the real world around us looks is impossible–at least with our current understanding of nature.
So what do we do in CGI? We simplify! And we have to because, at least in computer games, the images we need to calculate must be delivered in real time to fervent players desperately eager to watch “realistically” imaged spaceships explode. In such an environment, we must simplify for efficiency while maintaining as much of the realistic math as possible.
Completed south polar sweep, concluding first survey of the eighth planet. All told this is a fine example of a temperate body and should make a good colonization target. The Sanctuary planners were hoping for a stable terrestrial, with surface conditions a secondary consideration. A barren or even an ice planet would have been viable. The working plan calls for an underground colony regardless. I've made sure to prioritize initial processing and flagging of the geological data while surveying this planet.
As part of the Crius Industry release, a feature was added that most of you are probably familiar with called Teams. This feature allows you to hire teams of specialist NPC workers to boost your industry jobs for a price.
CCP Terminus here to talk to you about the changes coming to medical clones in Rhea on December 9th.
The Current Medical Clone System
When a players capsule (known colloquially as a pod) is destroyed, their clone is killed, leaving behind a frozen corpse floating through space. Upon reviving in a new clone in a space station, the pilot must then upgrade their medical clones grade to cover the amount of skillpoints they have accrued though skill training. If that player fails to do so and is podded again, they will lose skillpoints if their clone grade isnt high enough.
This thread is for feedback and issue reporting on a small change team Five 0 have done for Rhea to the way joining a corporation works.
Until this change the process for joining a Corporation has been as follows:
1. Character applies to corporation.
2. A corp member with appropriate roles invites player to join.
3. Character accepts invite.
4. The Character is entered into the corp.
With this change implemented the above functionality still applies but a second method is now available:
1. A corp member with appropriate roles invites player to join.
It seems strange to think we owe the discovery of this system to the capsuleers. Taya admitted as much to me at risk of her vocation, perhaps her life. I don't think we can ignore the role they played. Everything we do here goes back to them one way or the other. Even if they don't know it.
~ Zakari Kovalis, Exploration Vessel Katydid, Personal Journal YC112.09.12
Rhea is a release that expands EVE Online. Here is what's coming to New Eden on December 9th.
Thera and the hundred other shattered wormholes
A hundred new wormhole systems are revealed in Rhea along with Thera, a huge named wormhole system with four Sisters of EVE stations and a multitude of wormhole connections to known space. Landmarks and mysteries abound. Read all about it in this dev blog from CCP Fozzie: Thera and the shattered wormholes
No clone grades and no skill point loss on pod death
Clone grades, clone upgrade cost and skill point loss when podded (except when losing a Strategic Cruiser) will be removed in Rhea. Read more about these changes and the reasoning behind them in an upcoming dev blog by CCP Terminus, or watch Episode 2 of the o7 show (13:00 mark) to hear about these changes.
The Confessor – Amarr Tech 3 Tactical Destroyer
The Confessor is the first of four all new Tech 3 Tactical Destroyers with the ability to shift between defensive, speed and sniper modes that confer different sets of bonuses. Due to the efforts of Honorary Fabricator-General Ascentior and other devoted capsuleers, the Amarr Empire was the first to complete the research race to build this new kind of ship. The other 3 tactical destroyers will follow in upcoming releases. Read more about this new ship in an upcoming dev blog.
The Bowhead – ORE Freighter
Move assembled ships in this new freighter from ORE that comes with a large ship maintenance bay. If a Bowhead is destroyed, there is a chance that assembled ships can be found amongst the wreckage. Read about the stats and capabilities of the Bowhead in this forum post.
Sleeper scout drones roaming in known space
A new type of roaming scout drones, seemingly originating from wormhole space Sleeper sites, will be investigating something in known space. Engage them at your own risk. These NPCs and the Artificial Intelligence code that will power them will be highlighted in an upcoming dev blog.
Sleeper Cache High End Exploration Sites and Polarized Weapon Modules
Rhea will bring Standard and Superior versions of the Sleeper Cache high-end exploration sites, where you can find the new Polarized weapons that have some great benefits but reduce your resists to zero. Read about these mysterious sites in this dev blog from CCP SoniClover: Sleeper Cache Exploration Sites & Polarized Weapons
Ship rendering and lighting updated with Physically Based Rendering techniques (PBR)
“Physically Based Rendering” is a term for cutting edge rendering methods that closely model how real light bounces off different surfaces. Rendering ship models and lights using this approach results in materials and surfaces that look more realistic and light that falls and reflects beautifully. With Rhea, all ships except T3 strategic cruisers get rendered with PBR techniques. Upcoming releases will continue to apply these methods to more parts of EVE. Read about the technology and vision in an upcoming dev blog from CCP Mankiller.
New UI look, window transparency options and interface icons
The EVE Online UI gets a big update in Rhea to improve the user experience and make EVE look more modern with new Neocom and window and station service icons, new window skins and faction color themes, and new UI effects.. A number of options and settings will be available to customize the experience. Read more in this dev blog from CCP Optimal: A new look for EVE’s UI – feedback needed!
Opt-In Keyboard Ship Control
In Rhea, you will be able to try keyboard ship control as an opt-in beta feature. No new mechanics or movement options are introduced, just the ability to fly with WASD or arrow keys for the same movements you can do today using double-click. Read more in this dev blog from CCP Nullarbor: Quick, give me manual control!
Opt-in New Star Map
The Star Map has been completely redone to improve readability and usability, and in Rhea you can try this new map as an opt-in beta feature. Read more about what’s new in an upcoming dev blog.
Blackbird, Rook and Falcon Ship Models Redesigned
Tech 2 Hull Variants for the Onyx and Eagle
Incursus, Enyo and Ishkur Ship Models Redesigned
Visual effects updates to asteroid belts
Dust effects, sun rays and rock fragments are added to asteroid belts in Rhea to create a more immersive experience. Early work in progress screen shot:
Special Edition Dreadnoughts
Four new Special Edition Dreadnoughts will be available from the New Eden Store with Rhea: The Interbus Moros, the Sarum Revelation, the Wiyrkomi Phoenix and the Justice Naglfar.
New Pirate Apparel
Pirate faction themed clothing will be added to the New Eden Store.
Kill Report and Contract Notifications
Kill reports and contracts will be available in the new Notification system, fully configurable.
Improvements to Market Sell Order Creation
Following the original release of this feature in Phoebe, Rhea brings better feedback when dragging items to the sell window and a larger entry when selling single items.
Public CREST API Updates for EVE Tool Creators
The entire item type collection from EVE becomes available in Public CREST, along with market orders for items available on the market. Go to developers.eveonline.com for news and updates on APIs and other developer tools for EVE Online.
Old Trial Account Character Names Freed Up
With Rhea, we are freeing over six million character names used on old trial accounts that never became subscribing accounts.
The Rest
Some features we have talked about recently but aren’t listed here may still make it into Rhea, so read the final patch notes for the full list of changes. We are also closely monitoring the results of our Phoebe changes to jump drive travel and working towards the next phase of changes to sovereignty. You can expect further communications on this topic in December.
We really hope you enjoy Rhea , coming to EVE Online on December 9th.
And do remember to pay attention to in-game news and movements, as this overview blog does not reveal everything happening around Rhea or why things are happening in New Eden!
Hello Capsuleers! This is CCP SoniClover from EVE's Team Banana Stand dev team here to introduce new exploration content coming your way soon.
Were creating a few new exploration sites that are aimed at experienced explorers. Weve wanted to do these ever since the Odyssey release last year, as we didnt find time then to add high-end content to supplement the adjusted probe scanning mechanics. But we found the opportunity now and are happy to be finally able to add it.
Search and ye shall find
So what are these new sites? The backstory of them is that theyre storage sites created by Sleepers. The Sleepers have always been interested in collecting items of curiosity and have done so in secret throughout known space for years. But they havent always been able or willing to cart the items they collect back to their wormhole enclaves and have instead deposited them in storage sites. To keep their collections hidden from the prying eyes of enterprising pilots, the Sleepers used highly advanced cloaking technology to obscure the sites.
Recently the cloaking mechanisms have started to malfunction and the sites are becoming visible. Why this is happening is unknown at the moment, but seems caused by heavy-handed scavenging by someone or something.
Despite the faulty cloaking mechanisms, these sites are still very hard to track down.
We will be delivering three sites in total. The first of these, called Limited Sleeper Caches were introduced with Phoebe 1.3 on November 11th, while the other two, (Standard Sleeper Caches and Superior Sleeper Caches), are coming in the Rhea release on December 9th. The Limited version is the smallest of the lot, and easiest to find, though it is still harder to scan down than any existing hidden site. The Superior version will require a very dedicated, well equipped and highly skilled explorer to find.
All the sites will be distributed throughout known space, in all security bandwidths. In high-sec, you are more likely to find the Limited version than the larger versions, while in Null-Sec it is vice versa. All these sites are very rare though, so finding one is not common place.
The Sleepers placed their storage sites as much out of the way as they could to minimize the chance of accidental discovery. This means the sites are most often found on the outskirts of solar systems.
Its pretty from afar
These new sites are exploration sites that require both hacking and archaeology to complete. Each of the sites has numerous containers requiring either a Data Analyzer or a Relic Analyzer - sometimes to get loot and sometimes to trigger events to affect the sites in some way.
The sites offer a variety of dangers. There can be environmental damage, where objects, clouds, etc. in the area damage you if you move to close to them. There can also be various kind of triggered damage; in the larger sites Sentries can appear (although you are never required to fight them to complete the site). Environmental damage can be very dangerous as it can actually destroy your capsule as well as your ship.
Another factor were going for is adding puzzle-like elements to exploring these sites. You have to figure out the best interaction order for each site, there are some timed elements, navigating correctly can be important and so on. Unfortunately, the current content tools we have to build them do not allow for a huge amount of variance, though there are random elements here and there to keep you on your toes.
The Limited site will be for frigate-sized ships only, but the other two will be for any type of ship. The reason for restricting the Limited one is that it relies heavily on environmental damage and scaling that type of damage dynamically based on ship size is troublesome. So either the site would have to be completely lethal for small ships or trivial to do for larger ships. The other sites will focus more on giving smaller ships a different route than larger ships, thus allowing them to bypass damage aimed at larger ships.
I'm just here for the phat lewts
So what kind of loot can you expect to find in these sites? Well, the Sleepers have of course been using this as dumping grounds for all kinds of items theyve collected throughout the years, in addition to storing their own stuff. So a wide-variety of items can drop, ranging from Sleeper blue loot to named modules to Cosmos blueprints and ingredients. Research-based items and skill books can also be found.
In addition, weve created a new set of modules to spice things up a little bit. The new modules in question are weapons that offer very strong primary stats, but that completely nerf your resistance while fitted. Using the term Polarized, they exist in small, medium and large versions for all the main weapon groups, 12 of them in total. They are based on the short range version of the weapons (pulse, blaster, etc.). The reason for this is that we did not want these weapons to be used for sniping too easily.
The Polarized weapons have their stats based on the Tech II version (for instance Polarized 200mm AutoCannon is based on 200mm AutoCannon II), with the following adjustments:
Damage Multiplier is the same (this is to reduce their effectiveness as gank weapons)
Rate of Fire is +20% (i.e. they should 20% faster, resulting in ca. +25% damage)
Tracking speed is +15%
Range and Falloff is -20% (you need to get up close and personal to your target)
Cap Use is -25% (mostly to accommodate the increased RoF)
Fitting (CPU and Power Grid requirements) is approximately -10%
Capacity for the ones requiring charges is +200% (i.e. you can fit three times as much ammo/missiles)
The modules are Tech II, meta-level 9 modules. They thus have the same skill requirements as Tech II, but they also benefit from the specialization skills. They require their Tech II counterpart to manufacture
The price of those weapons should make them not a feasible choice for suicide ganking but only just so, so that their price does not dictate their use too much. This will likely require some future adjustments to drop rate and bill of materials
They have the Sleeper's shader to distinguish them visually
And to restate, when fitted all resistance are set to 0 and cant be raisedby other means
In creating these modules were using the same philosophy as we did when creating the modules in the Inferno expansion: they should offer a new tactical niche that supplements rather than replaces existing ones. While the Inferno modules were a bit hit-and-miss, the more successful ones like the Ancillary modules and the Micro Jump Drive succeeded in creating new tactical elements without obsoleting existing modules. It would be easy to make modules that were just strictly more powerful than existing stuff, but were trying to avoid starting down the road of power creep that design would result in. We expect the Polarized weapons will lead to fun, but minor, shifts in EVE's complex tactical metagame and that pilots will experiment with them and find some cool, niche uses for them. We do not anticipate or desire these weapons to become a stable in every fight everywhere.
Well, thats it for now. The Limited Sleeper Cache site and the Polarized weapons are already live on Tranquility for you to explore. Look out for the Standard and Superior Sleeper Cache sites to hit the test server Singularity in the next few weeks and start appearing on Tranquility in the Rhea release on December 9th.
On behalf of Team Game of Drones and the EVE UI Group, I am here to tell you about a new look for the EVE UI that we are working on. It’s a big revamp of the look of the whole EVE user interface – while keeping the functionality almost entirely the same. The current look dates back to around 2000, and we want to make sure EVE looks like a modern and beautiful game, but also that you have an interface that helps you do what you need faster and better.
The look brings a new kind of blurred window transparency that lets you see the scene behind UI windows much better while still clearly seeing the contents of the UI. We have also made a new icon set that is designed to let you find and open the right windows faster.
For the look itself, we want EVE’s UI to look and feel more like something fitting a science fiction universe, and a bit less like an operating system.
Here is a screenshot to give you an immediate idea of the new look:
(click to enlarge)
We realize it’s a big change, so to make sure we get enough feedback from you, we will bring the new look to Singularity today so that you can see it in action and help us make sure all the functionality you need still works well with the new look. Read ahead for more on the background and our vision for this project, and how you can give us feedback!
Background
Even though we feel we‘ve really picked up pace with various quality-of-life interface fixes and improvements throughout the last few years, as well as raising the bar quite a bit with usability and visual intrigue of new features, we have never attempted to do an overhaul of the look and feel the UI as a whole. That is, until now.
It all started with a project called EVE UI Modernization. The UI Group came together in an Icelandic summer hut way up north (behind the wall) to define a vision for a new and better EVE UI. In that effort we asked ourselves what “better” means and found out it was a combination of many components that all had to come together in a holistic way. The group came up with a strategy to push the UI into a direction of having a better identity, better functionality, better usability and better aesthetics.
The first efforts where Initially kicked off by a couple of individuals on the UI Team as conceptual work and has been ongoing behind the scenes for quite a while now and has recently been adapted by Game of Drones to push it all the way to Tranquility with ongoing support from other UI developers.
The goals
For the sake of clarity, I have prepared a list of the goals we set out to reach with the UI Modernization effort.
Roll out a complete new UI that will define the visual direction for EVE UI in the coming years
Less operating system, more Sci-Fi, and militaristic looking UI
Functionality and usability should feel modern and intuitive
Have the UI complement the beautiful New Eden view, instead of blocking it.
Better consistency between UI control look and feel.
Use colors in a sensible way.
Simpler, and more recognizable icons with a clear distinction between icons that represent items vs icons that represent UI controls and labels.
Now, let me explain a bit further.
Look and feel
Our UI designers didn’t have to meet for long to reach a consensus that they wanted the UI to look more holographic and futuristic than it currently does. For interacting with the UI, instead of using skeuomorphism (a word I’m pretty sure to have been invented by a certain fruit company that shall not be named here) such as having a button feel like an actual button when pressed, we want to use burning light and glow to indicate button presses, blinks and such. Here is a part of their vision statement for the EVE UI Modernization project: Everything is made from light and behaves similar to light. Objects are dim and darkened or de-saturated when off/inactive instead of just alpha faded. Objects flicker and offset when under damage, power out, power disruption. Objects are drawn in, they turn on and flicker slightly to immitate a more realistic, mechanical state. Retro references used by the group was things like Jet HUDs, LED gauges, oscilloscope / vector scope, lasers, spectrum analyzers in 70‘s stereos.
(click to enlarge)
The re-skinning of the UI and updating of UI component and menu icons is just the first strategy step in fulfilling this vision and will pan out more in the coming months. We wanted to make a clearer distinction between windows and interface elements, so the Neocom, Overview and Station Service Window, all integral parts of the interface and always visible, will feel less intrusive than windows that you open, use and close.
What can we learn from the dinosaurs?
Practically nothing. They weren’t exactly brilliant now were they? That is unless you’re talking about shader programming. We’ve always felt it’s a shame how good of a job our UI does of concealing the space scene. Sure, we have window pinning, but the simple transparency effect will in many cases render the contents of the window in question un-readable. So, in order to solve this, we’ve placed a blurred, de-saturated and brightness-filtered see-through background behind all windows. What this effectively gives you is T-Rex vision (bingo), as one of my co-workers branded the feature, as you can’t really make out the background details, but can still quite easily make out movement and bright spots. What we’re hoping to achieve with this is giving you better sense of what’s happening in the space scene, even though it’s completely blocked by windows, without having it compete with the content of said windows. Pinned windows are only blurred and slightly brightness-filtered, making them even more see-through. In addition to this, we’ve introduced three states for windows: 1) Active state, 2) Inactive state and 3) Camera drag state (triggered for all windows when you move the camera around) where each state is more see-through than the one before. The logic here is that by selecting a window you’ve stated that you’re more interested in its contents than in other windows, or what may lie behind it, and that while you’re moving the camera you’re stating more interest in the scene, and less so in the windows.
Flying colors
Black on black has its charm, but we were quite interested in unlocking more color themes that actually made visual sense. For that to happen, we’ve completely redefined, simplified and clarified how UI color is selected and applied. First off, you have the base color, which is applied to the window backgrounds and secondly you have a highlight color that is applied to intractable elements, such as buttons, checkboxes, as well as being used to colorize the glow of iconic buttons, such as the ones in the Neocom. We’ve completely redone the color themes, limiting the base colors to dark tones while allowing the highlight ones to shine a bit brighter. Simple theme selection will be replacing the old RGB sliders and dropdowns.
(click to enlarge)
The above example is just a preview of the current themes we are exploring but the main idea is to have themes that fit for all the major factions so that you can immerse yourself into the branded interface that fits your ship or your preferred faction. Let us know what your preferred colors and factions are.
Skinning the beast
As if all of this wasn’t enough, we’ve additionally re-done most of the UI control skins. This includes windows, buttons, checkboxes, scrolls and tabs. Instead of excessive yapping, I’ll let the following pictures do all the talking.
(click to enlarge)
Iconic icons
Last but not least, we’ve completely re-done all window icons. The brightest reflection of this change is to be witnessed in the Neocom. We are introducing a whole new set of modern, monochrome, clear cut icons. I’m going to go ahead and predict that some of you are already thinking; “Strip all color! Are you insane?”. Although I can neither confirm nor deny any claims of insanity, I can assure you that once you’ve learned the new icons (which takes practically no time at all) you’ll be opening windows faster than ever before. As a matter of fact, it has been scientifically proven that stripping color away from such icons reduces search time, as it allows your brain to focus purely on form. It’s a “try it to believe it” kind of thing. I was skeptical at first too.
(click to enlarge)
The above example is to show the normal state and hover state of the new Neocom icons. The shapes of the new icons are all very much on the operating table still but we wanted to get some version of them on SiSi to start having a conversation with you on their shape and style. We recognize that the old icons have been part of the game from the beginning and have a special place in our hearts. We want to make sure they can be remembered and will make sure the collection will available to download as a .ZIP file after the update for those that want to own a piece of EVE UI history.
And finally
What we want the UI Modernization project to achieve is forming a really solid visual foundation to build on. There are still various things that will not get touched this time around, but having a stronger foundation will make it that much easier to sculpt prettier things once we get there.
These changes will be on Singularity today. There is still a lot of work to be done, so please take it for a spin and give us your feedback on the forums. We’re currently aiming to get the final thing out with the Rhea release on December 9th.
Enjoy your spaceships in a responsible manner. - CCP Optimal [ Original Dev Blog ]
