[DEV POST] Improving The Fitting Experience

Happy new year pilots!

CCP karkur and I, under adult supervision from CCP Tuxford have been experimenting with improving the EVE fitting experience.

The fitting window hasn’t gotten much love since Apocrypha and we really want to address that and make it a powerful and fun tool, move it a bit closer to 3rd party programs like EFT and Pyfa.
We have been looking into features like:

- Allowing pilots to try in the fitting window modules and rigs they own or don’t, to see what effect they have before committing.

– Try before you buy

– Simulating active and overload states of modules, docked or in space. No need to leave the station to see what your hardeners can do.

– More accurate and rich information on attributes in the fitting window.

There are a ton of ideas floating around that could be added to the list, but what would you be interested in seeing that would improve your fitting experience?

Fly safe!

[ Original Dev Post ]

CZ EVE 101 Playlist

CZ has spent the last few months building a video series aimed at EVE Online newbies.  Covering everything a new player needs to know.  From the basics of play to ships. modules, fittings, and with the 5th release today, drones.  Below are all 5 videos in the series so far.

EVE 101 - Part 1: Key Concepts

EVE 101 - Part 2: The Pilot

EVE 101 - Part 3: The Ship

EVE 101 - Part 04: Modules

EVE 101 - Part 05: Drones

EVE 101 - Part 06: Player Groups

EVE 101 - Part 07: The Station Interface

EVE 101 - Part 08: The NEOCOM

EVE 101 - Part 09: Ship User Interface

DEV POST:: Cynosural beacon activity leading up to Phoebe

On the eve of the Phoebe release, jump-drive activity was a hot topic. Players can observe the patterns of cynosural beacons lighting up around New Eden by looking at the map statistics in the client. This led some to wonder how the activity might look over an extended time period. After seeing this repeatedly discussed in the past few days across the forums, blogs and social media, I decided to dive in to the data to see what I could find…

Across the 35 day period between October 1st until the Phoebe deployment at 10AM on November 4th, 263,344 beacons were activated. Operations peaked the day before Phoebe with 15,572 beacons activated, as players looked to perform last-minute maneuvers before jump-drive changes made such travel more restrictive.





We’d like to share this data with you in even more detail, so that you can work with it yourselves. The file in the following link contains a listing of all activations of Cynosural Field Generator modules on Tranquility (excluding the covert variant) for the 35 day period mentioned above. Each line shows the activation time and the solar-system in which the beacon was activated. (Other data points such as pilot IDs, xyz coordinates have been removed, in the interests of not exposing detailed intel)

http://cdn1.eveonline.com/data/CynosuralBeaconActivationsPhoebe_v1.7z

We look forward to seeing what interesting visualizations and analysis that the community will come up with! Please let us know at share@eveonline.com what you make.

DEV BLOG Trials And Tribulations

Hello capsuleers! As some of you may have heard already from CCP FoxFour's presentation at EVE Vegas, Team Size Matters will be releasing a number of improvements for trial accounts in the Phoebe release on November 4th. This blog will go into detail regarding what we're actually changing and how we hope to improve the trial experience for new players.

Why We Are Changing Trials

The goal of these changes is to open up the game to new players so they can explore a greater variety of the content available in EVE. We believe getting new players invested in the game early on will keep them playing longer than if we throw all the good stuff behind a subscriber wall. In addition to opening up the game for trial users, we will be adding extensive logging in every area that we are removing restrictions. This way we can closely follow changes to ensure they are not enabling negative behavior such as botting or trial cycling exploits.

What We Are Changing

We want players on trial accounts to have a chance to experience a large variety of activities in EVE without being overly burdened by existing restrictions. This will help to make it easier to find something they enjoy doing and thus decide to stick around. In that vein we are lifting the following restrictions in Phoebe:

• 
  Trial accounts are no longer limited in the ways they can send and receive ISK. They are now able to directly transfer ISK to other characters and corporations and send ISK to other characters by direct trades in stations. This will assist trial players who want to share ISK with each other or are looking to get into a corporation.
• 
  Players looking for places to trade will now be able to post in trade chat channels (Channels 10 – 15). The normal restriction on chat frequency still apply. 
• 
  Players interested in mission running are no longer limited to just level 1 and 2 agents and they can now participate in incursions (and receive a cut of the reward pool). Those interested in some low-sec mission running and/or PvP can now sign up for Factional Warfare.
• 
  To assist with joining corporations, trial players will now be able to apply to up to 5 corporations at any one time. If they are rejected by a corporation or withdraw their application, an application slot will free up and they will be able to apply to another corporation. For those who are not quite ready to make the jump into a permanent corporation, trial players will now be able to post fleet finder advertisements.

Skill Restriction Changes

We will be removing the trial restrictions from a lot of currently restricted skills. Some new restrictions will be put in place, but most of these are to inform trial players about what is achievable within the trial period, or are directly associated with already trial restricted ships. As mentioned earlier we will be keeping a close eye on how trial accounts use these skills and we will not hesitate to restrict some of them again if they are leading to misuse or exploits.
Skills which are currently restricted that we will be allowing trial accounts to train are:

• 
  Anchoring
• 
  Command Center Upgrades
• 
  Interplanetary Consolidation
• 
  Planetology
• 
  Gas Cloud Harvesting
• 
  Amarr Starship Engineering
• 
  Caldari Starship Engineering
• 
  Gallente Starship Engineering
• 
  Minmatar Starship Engineering
• 
  High Energy Physics
• 
  Plasma Physics
• 
  Nanite Engineering
• 
  Hydromagnetic Physics
• 
  Graviton Physics
• 
  Laser Physics
• 
  Electromagnetic Physics
• 
  Rocket Science
• 
  Nuclear Physics
• 
  Mechanical Engineering
• 
  Electronic Engineering
• 
  Quantum Physics
• 
  Molecular Engineering
• 
  Amarr Battlecruiser
• 
  Caldari Battlecruiser
• 
  Gallente Battlecruiser
• 
  Minmatar Battlecruiser
• 
  Amarr Battleship
• 
  Caldari Battleship
• 
  Gallente Battleship
• 
  Minmatar Battleship
• 
  Amarr Industrial
• 
  Caldari Industrial
• 
  Gallente Industrial
• 
  Minmatar industrial
• 
  Assault Frigates

Skills which are currently not restricted which we will be restricting:

• 
  Capital Remote Armor Repair Systems
• 
  Capital Remote Hull Repair Systems
• 
  Capital Repair Systems
• 
  Megacorp Management
• 
  Empire Control
• 
  Sovereignty
• 
  Fighters
• 
  Fighter Bombers
• 
  Amarr Drone Specialization
• 
  Caldari Drone Specialization
• 
  Gallente Drone Specialization
• 
  Minmatar Drone Specialization
• 
  Projected Electronic Counter Measures
• 
  Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration
• 
  Advanced Weapon Upgrades
• 
  Capital Capacitor Emission Systems
• 
  Capital Energy Turret
• 
  Capital Hybrid Turret
• 
  Capital Projectile Turret
• 
  Doomsday Operation
• 
  Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration
• 
  Small Blaster Specialization
• 
  Medium Blaster Specialization
• 
  Large Blaster Specialization
• 
  Small Railgun Specialization
• 
  Medium Railgun Specialization
• 
  Large Railgun Specialization
• 
  Small Autocannon Specialization
• 
  Medium Autocannon Specialization
• 
  Large Autocannon Specialization
• 
  Small Artillery Specialization
• 
  Medium Artillery Specialization
• 
  Large Artillery Specialization
• 
  Small Beam Laser Specialization
• 
  Medium Beam Laser Specialization
• 
  Large Beam Laser Specialization
• 
  Small Pulse Laser Specialization
• 
  Medium Pulse Laser Specialization
• 
  Large Pulse Laser Specialization
• 
  Fleet Command
• 
  Wing Command
• 
  Citadel Cruise Missiles
• 
  Citadel Torpedoes
• 
  Cruise Missile Specialization
• 
  Heavy Assault Missile Specialization
• 
  Heavy Missile Specialization
• 
  Light Missile Specialization
• 
  Rocket Specialization
• 
  Torpedo Specialization
• 
  Jump Drive Calibration
• 
  Jump Drive Operation
• 
  Jump Fuel Conservation
• 
  Jump Portal Generation
• 
  Advanced Infomorph Psychology
• 
  Advanced Mass Production
• 
  Capital Ship Construction
• 
  Deep Core Mining
• 
  Advanced Laboratory Operation
• 
  Capital Shield Emission Systems
• 
  Capital Shield Operation
• 
  Amarr Strategic Cruiser
• 
  Caldari Strategic Cruiser
• 
  Gallente Strategic Cruiser
• 
  Minmatar Strategic Cruiser
• 
  Amarr Defensive Systems
• 
  Amarr Electronic Systems
• 
  Amarr Engineering Systems
• 
  Amarr Offensive Systems
• 
  Amarr Propulsion Systems
• 
  Caldari Defensive Systems
• 
  Caldari Electronic Systems
• 
  Caldari Engineering Systems
• 
  Caldari Offensive Systems
• 
  Caldari Propulsion Systems
• 
  Gallente Defensive Systems
• 
  Gallente Electronic Systems
• 
  Gallente Engineering Systems
• 
  Gallente Offensive Systems
• 
  Gallente Propulsion Systems
• 
  Minmatar Defensive Systems
• 
  Minmatar Electronic Systems
• 
  Minmatar Engineering Systems
• 
  Minmatar Offensive Systems
• 
  Minmatar Propulsion Systems
• 
  Corporation Contracting
• 
  Margin Trading
• 
  Wholesale
• 
  Retail
• 
  Tycoon

Skills that are currently restricted which will remain restricted:

• 
  Starbase Defense Management
• 
  Cloaking
• 
  Cynosural Field Theory
• 
  Advanced Planetology
• 
  Drug Manufacturing
• 
  Astronautic Engineering
• 
  Laboratory Operation
• 
  Amarr Carrier
• 
  Caldari Carrier
• 
  Gallente Carrier
• 
  Minmatar Carrier
• 
  Amarr Dreadnought
• 
  Caldari Dreadnought
• 
  Gallente Dreadnought
• 
  Minmatar Dreadnought
• 
  Amarr Freighter
• 
  Caldari Freighter
• 
  Gallente Freighter
• 
  Minmatar Freighter
• 
  Amarr Titan
• 
  Caldari Titan
• 
  Gallente Titan
• 
  Minmatar Titan
• 
  Advanced Spaceship Command
• 
  Battlecruisers
• 
  Black Ops
• 
  Capital Industrial Ships
• 
  Capital Ships
• 
  Command Ships
• 
  Covert Ops
• 
  Electronic Attack Ships
• 
  Exhumers
• 
  Expedition Frigates
• 
  Heavy Assault Cruisers
• 
  Heavy Interdiction Cruisers
• 
  Industrial Command Ships
• 
  Interceptors
• 
  Interdictors
• 
  Jump Freighters
• 
  Logistics
• 
  Marauders
• 
  Mining Barge
• 
  ORE Industrial
• 
  Recon Ships
• 
  Transport Ships
• 
  Contracting

UI Changes

Trial accounts will now see more information relating to their trial status in a number of places in the UI. This includes clearly indicating trial restrictions in the UI and giving players a more direct way to get to Account Management (actually a streamlined subscription page) from the client.

The InterBus Ship Identification System

The ISIS will show players a visual representation of the ships they can and cannot fly on a trial account. Players seeking further info on the specific restricted skills can hover over a ship to see more details.

Character Sheet

The skill list in the character sheet will now indicate whether skills are trial restricted or not. Note that as mentioned in CCP Seagull's Phoebe dev blog, trial accounts will still have a 24 hour limit on their skill queue instead of the upcoming unlimited skill queue.

Information Window

In the information window, players will be able to see whether any of the required skills to use the relevant item are trial restricted.

Market

The Market will display restrictions on ships and items which cannot be used during the trial. Players will still be able to purchase and move these items as normal.

Industry

Industry panels will display any trial locked skills required in manufacturing and research.

We're very excited to be bringing these changes out in Phoebe and hope they allow new players to really get a feel for EVE while they're in their trial period.
– CCP Terminus, on behalf of Team Size Matters

[ Original Dev Blog ]

Tools To Use 1 EVE-Merchant

Welcome to Tools to USE, a series wherein I cover the variety of 3rd-party tools every serious EVE player should be aware of.  This week, we will cover EVE-Merchant.

EVE-Merchant is a robust and useful tool for tracking almost all the minute details of your characters.  It allows players to track all of the following across multiple accounts via one handy interface.

To quote the developer in his forum post for the service:

As this is currently being developed I will continue to update it with new features based on the feedback I receive.

Current Features

• Transactions - View all your transactions in an easy to read format
• Market Orders - View your market orders that are currently active, both personal and corporation
• Estimated NAV - View easy to read graphs on how your NAV changes over time
• Profit Graphs - See your profit on a daily basis through your purchases and sales
• Leaderboard - Watch how you do against others on a daily/weekly/monthly basis
• Industry Jobs - View your industry jobs, including your history
• Public Reports- Share your profit history with others
• Localised client settings

Features to be developed...

• Planetary Interaction
• Research
• Market Endpoints complete with OHLC charts
• Many more improvements...

Now some of you may know about other services like EVE-Mogul or EVEWalletAware which allow detailed transaction histories and overall trade profit tracking, much in the same way EVE-Merchant does.  But this goes above and beyond that.  The service also allows detailed skill and asset tracking across all of your skill queues and all assets in New Eden.  Pretty handy for checking the status of sales or stock levels for station traders.

There are only a few drawbacks that are apparent as of now:

• The infancy of the project is pretty apparent, as there are a few bugs from time to time that hamper usage.
• The need of a Full API key may deter more paranoid players.
• The API information needs to be manually updated via the dashboard to see the most recent changes, It's a minor hassle at worst though.

Some truly great things, aside form the obvious detail granted from the bevy of features:

• It's completely free, so ISK-conscious players can rest easy.
• It's being actively developed and the developer is quick to respond to issues.

• The overall UI and usability is tight and very logical.  It's a breeze to pick up and start using. 

All in all EVE-Merchant is on the right track to becoming a must-have for any active player or dedicated trader.

"Glass Cannons" Part 2: Blighted Weapons

As previewed in CCP Fozzie's section of the EVE Vegas keynote, "glass cannons" are coming to EVE. They've received their formal name, "Blighted" weapons, and have earned a dev post in the Test Server Feedback forum by CCP Paradox. Just as Fozzie promised, they're weapons with a bit more hitting power; in exchange, when fitted, they lower a ship's resistances to zero.

Seeded on SiSi as of today are twelve new modules, reproduced below. (Note: CCP is considering using a different descriptor than "Blighted".)

    Small Sized

        Blighted Small Pulse Laser
        Blighted Light Neutron Blaster
        Blighted 200mm AutoCannon
        Blighted Rocket Launcher

    Medium Sized

        Blighted Heavy Pulse Laser
        Blighted Heavy Neutron Blaster
        Blighted 425mm AutoCannon
        Blighted Heavy Assault Missile Launcher

    Large Sized

        Blighted Mega Pulse Laser
        Blighted Neutron Blaster Cannon
        Blighted 800mm Repeating Cannon
        Blighted Torpedo Launcher

Presently, as the weapons appear on SiSi, the consensus is that they likely won't be worth the price apart from a few edge cases.

CCP Announces Mission Tracking Changes

 

Ahoy-hoy pilots!

Just to inform you that the Missions Objective Guidance feature (affectionaly called the Mission Tracker) has now been enabled on Singularity.
This handy little feature resides in the Agent info-panel of the UI. It sits to the left of the mission, and tracks the various states of your mission giving you some helpful hints of how to complete the mission. It will update when a mission has been completed, and advise you to return to the agent.
It’s been a difficult feature to implement, and we are trying to refine some of the hints now so they are as helpful as they can possibly be. So please give feedback on this.
And if you do have a mission where the tracker does not seem to be helpful, please tell me the name of the mission, and the agent too.

And then tell me what it is about the tracker hint that doesn’t quite add up. Smile
Please go forth, and give it a try. We will be waiting eagerly for feedback so that we can polish it further. We of course have a few ideas of our own for where to take this, we will be discussing this further in an upcoming dev blog.

EVE Dev CCP Paradox in a recent forum post announced the inclusion of an improved mission tracking system into the game.  The status and progress of PVE missions in EVE Online should be easier to understand.  It should also offer helpful hints on how to actually complete these missions.  A feat that's mostly accomplished via 3rd party services that have collected the information together for players.

Whilst some have complained about the missions being easy to beat already, I am actually excited since this could lead to even more complex missions which should add interesting content to the game. We’ll see how that fares.  And given the fact that EVE still suffers from UI drawbacks and quirky design choices after this long will mean just about everyone is being cynical about this.  But it wouldn't be EVE if they weren't.


[Original Dev Post]

Want to Win a T3 ship in EVE? (Proteus)

T3 Ship Raffle on Eve Forums

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=5140366#post5140366


A friend of mine (SSG Kitami) is putting this on and asked me to help him out.  He's a new player and in his words:

"I want to build trust among the eve community so I can do raffles more often.  But my ultimate goal is to find a decent corp to fly with and use said raffles as way to both give back and bankroll the misadventures."

Be sure to stop by the in-game channel if you want to hang out, or maybe even win more ships and ISK

In Game Channel: SSG Industries Games