EVE / CCP wants players to have more say so

[DarkSign]

If you had any doubt at all that EVE Online is the thinking man's MMO, you won't any longer. CCP has released a 20 page paper in PDF format describing the new Council of Stellar Management, and you know you're in for something good when the paper starts off with the social theories of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.

This is one of the times when it's particularly clear just how bizarre and interesting it is to be writing about virtual societies. This is the stuff of cyberpunk novels and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. CCP has produced something like the first draft of a constitution (with notes) for a representative government, with references to John Locke's social contract theory and everything else you'd expect from such a document. No doubt EVE's scheming political players are already looking through the document for loopholes and potential abuses. It may not be long before EVE players are having debates about campaign finance reform and separation of powers.

Caught at Massively.com

So isnt this a step in the right direction? At bringing power back to the people and getting them involved like they are in MUDs?

I know there are a fair amount of EVE players here...can the tribesmen and barbarians influence the gods?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Do the servers on Eve still stupidly go offline at that set time for an hour every day?

 

[OccupatedVoid]

The problem with EVzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[TheLostOne]

The problem with EVzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

Lol, I actually found it quite entertaining. Lost touch with it due to my last work up cycle in the navy and the following deployment. Tons of neat stuff in that game.

To be fair, though, the beginning game is pretty *snore*. Lots of repeat missions and such.

Thinking about reactivating... Most of my buddies don't play anymore though, so it would probably get kind of boring soloing those same missions over and over.

 

[meeneque]

Do the servers on Eve still stupidly go offline at that set time for an hour every day?

They do go offline everyday at specific time. But I wouldn't call it stupidly. As far as we know during that one hour (usually ~40 mins) all the daily builds are tested against live server, server side patches are deployed and there's also db maintenance.

I believe thanks to this Eve servers work smoothly 99% of the time. You also have the test server avaiable during the main maintenance time. So you can try things you're afraid to try on the live character.

I believe CCP devs, and CCP policies towards the users are ones of the best in the market.

But what I know.

@OP

(forgot to reply)

Actually there is a lot of threads in the EVE forum, where the players discuss new possibilities, things they would like to see implemented in next patches. So far lot of those 'discussed' things is already in game.

There is also special channel called in EO forum Features and Ideas Discussion created just to discuss those things.

 

[DarkSign]

Do the servers on Eve still stupidly go offline at that set time for an hour every day?

They do go offline everyday at specific time. But I wouldn't call it stupidly. As far as we know during that one hour (usually ~40 mins) all the daily builds are tested against live server, server side patches are deployed and there's also db maintenance.

I believe thanks to this Eve servers work smoothly 99% of the time. You also have the test server avaiable during the main maintenance time. So you can try things you're afraid to try on the live character.

I believe CCP devs, and CCP policies towards the users are ones of the best in the market.

But what I know.

Meridian59 never had daily server stops. In the beginning EQ didnt either. I remember they just started taking servers offlilne for 30 mins in the middle of the twilight (3-4am) and we were like...hmmm this is happening every day.

The technology not the methods determine whether this is necessary. I doubt they'd do it unless it were critical.

 

[meeneque]

Sorry, edited my first post.

Meridian59 never had daily server stops. In the beginning EQ didnt either.

I've never played other MMORPGS long enough, so I'm not in positions to compare EVE to them. But I think that bashing EVE for scheduled downtimes (to which every player get used to, after few days, weeks) not for the content is not really sharp thing.

I'm not really good in cluster, server things but please remember EVE is only one server world, no shards with some story involved, special events (involving actors) hosting over 30K players everyday. It also have really complicated crafting system, so maybe that's why they need everyday downtimes.

And it's built on Windoze machines :shock:

 

[DarkSign]

Im not bashing. The other guy was. Geeze. Quote him.

 

[meeneque]

Sorry, I know it wasn't you. My english isn't perfect.

 

[Zinc]

Sorry, I know it wasn't you. My english isn't perfect.

What does your english have to do with pressing the wrong quote button?

Oh my god, Eve... wasn't this the game that made you too afraid to actually have any fun (i.e. combat) because if you lose you have to go through another 200 hours of mind-numbing mining in order to recover your ship?

I remember playing this for a short period. I think I finally decided it was bullshit when I tried going to more dangerous areas, occupied by pirates, where the more expensive minerals were, in order to earn more money and acquire a more powerful ship within a reasonable amount of time (less than 6 years). Then, before I knew it, some shitty NPC had locked onto me with some kind of tractor beam or something, while the other shitty NPC launched missiles at my cheap piece of crap ship, which inevitably was blown to smithereens within a few short moments.

The best thing was that I didn't even get pissed off. I felt that the game had done me a favour in that it had pretty much made the decision for me to not waste any more of my life on the pointless endeavour.

 

[DarkSign]

Oh my god, Eve... wasn't this the game that made you too afraid to actually have any fun (i.e. combat) because if you lose you have to go through another 200 hours of mind-numbing mining in order to recover your ship?

I remember playing this for a short period. I think I finally decided it was bullshit when I tried going to more dangerous areas, occupied by pirates, where the more expensive minerals were, in order to earn more money and acquire a more powerful ship within a reasonable amount of time (less than 6 years). Then, before I knew it, some shitty NPC had locked onto me with some kind of tractor beam or something, while the other shitty NPC launched missiles at my cheap piece of crap ship, which inevitably was blown to smithereens within a few short moments.

The best thing was that I didn't even get pissed off. I felt that the game had done me a favour in that it had pretty much made the decision for me to not waste any more of my life on the pointless endeavour.

Im not sure why but that made me chortle.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Do the servers on Eve still stupidly go offline at that set time for an hour every day?

They do go offline everyday at specific time. But I wouldn't call it stupidly.

That's because it probably doesn't happen right in the middle of your prime playing time. 12 am in Iceland or wherever is not 12 am for everyone else.

Also, imagine the uproar if WoW - or any of the other big MMO's for that matter - went offline for an hour everyday. They seem to be able to manage it without the world coming to an end and the entire server crashing.

I believe CCP devs, and CCP policies towards the users are ones of the best in the market.

Were those policies developed before or after their devs were caught cheating and giving exclusive items to their favourite alliances?

 

[DefJam101]

Sorry, I know it wasn't you. My english isn't perfect.

What does your english have to do with pressing the wrong quote button?

Oh my god, Eve... wasn't this the game that made you too afraid to actually have any fun (i.e. combat) because if you lose you have to go through another 200 hours of mind-numbing mining in order to recover your ship?

I remember playing this for a short period. I think I finally decided it was bullshit when I tried going to more dangerous areas, occupied by pirates, where the more expensive minerals were, in order to earn more money and acquire a more powerful ship within a reasonable amount of time (less than 6 years). Then, before I knew it, some shitty NPC had locked onto me with some kind of tractor beam or something, while the other shitty NPC launched missiles at my cheap piece of crap ship, which inevitably was blown to smithereens within a few short moments.

The best thing was that I didn't even get pissed off. I felt that the game had done me a favour in that it had pretty much made the decision for me to not waste any more of my life on the pointless endeavour.

Newsflash:

Trying to play EVE like you're playing WoW yields bad results.



It's more complex than just Grind...Die...Grind...Die. If played well (I.E. not a carebear and not like a dumbass) you should never have to grind.. ever.

 

[Norfleet]

I believe CCP devs, and CCP policies towards the users are ones of the best in the market.

I've heard nothing positive about this game at all. Apparently, developer corruption is rampant and all of the stuff worth having is monopolized by the preestablished players, making it pointless for you to join this late in the game. All the good stuff is given out only by the devs to their favored players. The game is simply flat out corrupt. If you think their policies towards the users are GOOD, you probably didn't hear about the corruption scandals, as there was a big coverup of this where apparently a great number of people were banned from the game and the forums to suppress this. Eve is simply one of the most corrupt MMOs on the mainstream market.

 

[kenney bounces]

Eve is alright.. but the biggest problem that a newbie faces is the waiting.

You just need to wait.. a damned long time to be a decent pilot to go pvp. That turns too many players off.

And when you can actually pvp, fleet battles are 5 hours long, group pvp takes a while to organise and get into. (Make sure you're in the right timezone with your guild)

 

[meeneque]

It's more complex than just Grind...Die...Grind...Die. If played well (I.E. not a carebear and not like a dumbass) you should never have to grind.. ever.

My point exactly.

I think I finally decided it was bullshit when I tried going to more dangerous areas, occupied by pirates, where the more expensive minerals were

C&C, low-sec is low-sec and pirates are pirates, if you go there be sure that you know how to evade them, how to check if there's anybody that could be a threat to you.

And the mining isn't really only way to earn money. There is a lot of things you could trade just between Jita and the neighbouring systems to get new ship in an hour or two.

Were those policies developed before or after their devs were caught cheating and giving exclusive items to their favourite alliances?

Before.

I've heard nothing positive about this game at all. Apparently, developer corruption is rampant and all of the stuff worth having is monopolized by the preestablished players, making it pointless for you to join this late in the game. All the good stuff is given out only by the devs to their favored players. The game is simply flat out corrupt. If you think their policies towards the users are GOOD, you probably didn't hear about the corruption scandals, as there was a big coverup of this where apparently a great number of people were banned from the game and the forums to suppress this. Eve is simply one of the most corrupt MMOs on the mainstream market.

Actually I played quite often in that time, so I believe I know more than you do (you've just heard things). I know that there was a scandal and some problems with corruption (AFAIK there were same problems in other MMORPGS) . But next time please ask somebody that plays EVE. Because the items that were given by one of the devs to the BOB alliance wasn't even worth half money this alliance does in few days (it's corruption anyway) and they created some "police" department after that happened. I do not deny that they made mistake, maybe great one, but I see them trying to find the solution. As for older people monopolizing markets you would be surprised how many people that started few months ago is really rich in that game. Well but there are always whiners and people that would like to get loads experience at start. Yeah, why should you have advantage when playing fracking game for 3 years.

But there's no other way to check it out than by playing it, and I think you've already made your mind.

I wish I had time to write more, but there's my little dughter that needs something :D

 

[Shannow]

No grinding in EVE? Yay! Oh, wait a sec. Now I remember my 14 days trial of which I played 5 because of the repetitive quests(=ginding in my book), the slow character progression that forced me to sit on my money because I didn't have the skill to use new equipment and reading books while my ship spent 10 minutes flying from one place to the next...
I'm sure it picks up later on...

 

[thesheeep]

It might be one of thsoe games that you play while reading a book, or while learning, or whatever...

If you need a short pause from whatever you are doing, you just look at the screen, admit the truly nice and atmosphering looks of EVE, click a few things to progress... and then go back to whatever you were doing before, as you won't be able to do something useful in EVE for the next 5 minutes.
I actually learned that way during my Abitur (diploma from German secondary school qualifying for university admission or matriculation, dict.leo.org ).
Well.. I didn't play EVE, but still

 

[Andrej]

Honestly, the grind in EVE is completely optional. I spent a few days doing missions just to get enough money for a really shitty (at that time, completely awesome) ship and then as soon as i had the bare nessecities to be a pirate i went into low-sec and started killing stuff.

The system of training skills is completely time based and pays no attention to if you're logged on or not, which means that there's no grind to level up.

The only thing that you have to amass for your character is money and it can be done by grinding missions or NPC belt pirates, however, it's far more effective to trade for the money or sit around pirating yourself with a couple of buddies - blowing up others hard earned money while taking a nice chunk of it for yourself.

Besides, the beauty of EVE is that your actions actually have consequences. If you lose a ship, it's lost. If you had insurance for the ship you only loose about 20% of it's worth in money, however roughly half of all the gear you had on you is permanently lost, the rest is in your wreck in space, something for your killer to profit off. It's also not uncommon at all that your gear costs more than your ship.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Of the complaints I do have about Eve, the "grind" or "wait" wasn't one of them. I actually found it quite relaxing to be sitting back and watching the stars float by in my Badger Mk II as I plied some Soil trade run in a safe sector of space trying to scrape together my first million. It also gave me time to check the markets and look for a better route.

It wasn't until towards the end that I found out I'd be making more cash and a lot quicker if I just bought a cheap ship and shot up pirate drones. It was about then I felt depressed wasting so much time trading.

My only regret is I never got involved in an alliance to learn how to do stuff right.

 

[Andrej]

It is essential to get into a corp/alliance in the game to learn the ropes, however. Trading at higher levels when you have a little capital to invest is much more lucrative than shooting NPC belt pirates.

 

[xemous]

The way to play EVE actively is to first progress your characters skills levels adequately in some combat profession. Industrial characters should be on alternate accounts. (Jesus fucking christ can you povo assholes remove the flashing DO U <3 IPOD YES / NO banner, it's annoying as fuck.) Generate a way to make isk automatically. Once you have money and combat skills the game becomes active, you basically fly around looking for ships to kill and interact with players that way. This is the way I played it. I quit shorty before capital ships were released with around 2.5 billion in isk and I couldn't be bothered counting all the battleships I bought for <100,000.00 isk all over the place.

IIRC they did insert game systems to stop this from happening, or to force 1-2 months of skill training time to do it as effectively as before, nevertheless it is a great way of securing isk in game. Be prepared for hate mail and death threats and what not.

 

[xemous]

To respond to some advice given above about corps / alliances, they're pretty insulting unless you have power within their system. You will mine 10x the amount for your ship. I never did this my friend did. I was always a lone wolf in EVE, I had friends which I flew with and eventually I got access to RUS space through a mate so I could travel there without getting shot at.

You'll need insta jump book marks and safe spots, you can buy the insta bookmarks make your own safe spots. Maybe they changed this by now? They were essential when traveling through hostile space or secure space - actually you need for pretty much every space you frequent.

For best results figure out the games combat mechanics with a cheap frigate or cruiser, at the time before they changed EW and missles Caldari cruisers were the way to go.

You'll end up figuring out a income stream of isk somehow without resorting to mining.

If you must grind deck out a sweet Thorax and hit a spawn, it's really fun improving the modules on the ships seeing how many mobs you can take out at once.

I used to have little bases with indy's for getting the loot and some melting skills to convert the loot to materials for ammo and making destroyers (little side business just for fun.)

EVE's kinda what you make of it in the end.

 

[Andrej]

The need for insta-bookmarks was removed completely when warp to zero was introduced. As a result low-sec piracy has gotten trickier, and is now mostly centered on the gate from which they emerge from and of course, the old belt piracy.

I really do not endorse mining in EVE but i have friends who do. I've secretly diagnosed them with aspergers syndrome.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

I would try EVE again if it wasn't so damn expensive.