Tag: Eve Online

CCP Proposes Tradeable Skills, Community Not Enthused


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CCP’s latest dev blog talks about coming improvements to the character bazaar, where players can buy and sell fully formed avatars in order to discourage less safe sales that would happen anyway on websites like Ebay. A majority of the updates concern the fact that the bazaar, while handy, is still too complicated for many players to confidently use, CCP has stirred the hornet’s nest with the announcement that players will be able to break their characters up into chunks and sell them piece by piece.

Effectively, you’ll be able to buy and sell individual skills without taking on the associated, and highly sought after, username xXx_420sm0k3W3eD_xXx.

By putting more control of your characters in your hands we hope to improve the game for everyone. Whether you’re an older player who would rather have ISK than those mining skills you don’t use any more, a clever new player looking to invest your fortune into your character, a Corp leader trying to move everyone into a new doctrine or someone like me who just realized that they would rather fly Armageddon’s than Stilettos, this feature has you covered. This all fits nicely to our overall game design philosophy of giving you control over your experience through cooperation and competition with each other.

The associated forum thread has broken two hundred pages, with CCP’s supporters pointing out that the function has essentially existed for years, albeit in the form of a full character rather than its individual stats.

(Source: Eve Online)

Eve Online Raises $100 Grand For Charity


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Whenever disaster strikes in the world, we can always count on the charitable hand of the gaming community to help those in need. Last month saw Nepal and surrounding regions struck by two massive earthquakes. The devastation left thousands dead and even more injured and without shelter or basic resources. The Eve Online community, as they always do, called on CCP Games to start another charity drive.

And they did. Between May 1st and the 24th, players raised $103 thousand dollars, amounting to slightly less than seven thousand PLEX. The donation includes $500 from ISD volunteers as well as 365 PLEX from an auction. The check for the donation was presented, in large form, to the Icelandic Red Cross.

Once again, here at CCP we are finding it very difficult to choose words that express our gratitude to the EVE Community for the incredible generosity you have all shown over the course of this fundraiser. The Community Team does however have an amazing display on the windows of our office as a constant reminder of the fact that we serve what is, without a doubt, the finest gaming community on Earth.

CCP and the Red Cross would like to thank the EVE community for its generosity.

(Source: Eve Online)

Eve Online Kill Of The Week: March 15th Edition


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I recently proposed the idea of an Eve Online Kill of the Week column as an idea to drive traffic, since the article about the PLEX kill got a fair amount of interest, and people really seem to enjoy these kind of pieces. As I expected and hoped, the interest has a lot less to do with who is getting killed and more with just the sheer amount of money lost. Since Eve’s ISK can be translated into real world dollars, the losses can be understood even by people who don’t play the game.

Last week’s Kill of the Week was Officer Fargo of Common Sense Ltd. As you can see from the data above, the pilot was killed on March 16th in nullsec (lowest security space) while piloting a Titan class Avatar ship worth over 118 billion ISK, or over $2,500 USD when converted into real money. Of the 118 billion ISK, over 8 billion was dropped as salvageable and the rest was destroyed. The Avatar ship itself amounted to 100 billion of the overall total.

According to the Eve Online wiki, the Avatar is the most common Titan class ship in terms of production, usage, and death. The Avatar can be “easily tanked” by a Triage Carrier.

$1,500 In PLEX Destroyed


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Eve-kill.net this week recorded a player killed while transporting 84 PLEX items. The player, Ozuwara Ozuwara of the State War Academy corporation was killed by player Diorden at about 3:30pm in the high security sector of The Forge, while piloting a rookie ship Ibis outfitted with virtually nothing.

Unfortunately for the attacker, all of the PLEX was vaporized in the explosion, leaving nothing behind to loot. The total in-game value amounted to 70 billion ISK. PLEX costs $19.95 at its highest price per unit, making the real money value somewhere between $1,469.58 and $1,675.80.

PLEX, which stands for Pilot License EXtension, is an item in Eve Online that can only be purchased in the game’s cash shop, and is redeemable for 30 days of game time. The item exists within the Eve Online world and can be looted from ships.

Even more incredible is the fact that this isn’t the most valuable kill in the past seven days. The most valuable goes to a Leviathan owned by Goonswarm that saw 106 billion ISK (valued at $2,100 USD).

(Source: PCGamesN)

Eve Online Unfurls Rhea Expansion


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CCP is set on ending 2014 with the release of the latest update Rhea being declared both the last and the largest update of 2014. Rhea adds dozens of new features, new ships, and more to the space MMO, with a reminder that the next big update is just five or six weeks away.

Rhea introduces 100 new wormhole systems, the massive new system called Thera, as well as new exploration sites to be discovered. Several under the hood enhancements have been made to make Eve Online look and handle better, from the modernized UI and WASD keyboard controls, a new physical based rendering system, and upgrades to the Eve star map.

On the potentially more controversial side, Rhea also brings with it the removal of skill point loss and the clone upgrade system upon death, in the name of forcing veterans to risk more while punishing new players less severely. Two new ships and several redesigned spacecraft offer a new way to blast your way through space, or just die and lose all of your minerals.

(Source: CCP Press Release)

Eve Online Bans Input Automation


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CCP Games has posted an announcement on their forums that, beginning in January, input broadcasting and input multiplexing will be policed under a two-strike policy. While multi-boxing, running multiple instances of the game at the same time, will remain a perfectly acceptable venture in Eve Online, using macros to control multiple ships at the same time with one button press will be punished under the developer’s two strike system.

Based on the discussion in this area and our will to be more clear and concise with the community regarding this part of our rules, we have decided to also apply this two-strike policy to prohibited forms of Input Broadcasting and Input Multiplexing as of January 1st 2015.

The new policy goes live January 1st and will not be applied retroactively. Creators of input broadcasting software are encouraged to contact CCP to come to an amicable solution.

(Source: Eve Online)

MMOrning Shots: Phoebe Rising


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Today’s MMOrning Shots comes to us from Eve Online, showing off the Phoebe expansion. With the introduction of jump fatigue, players and corporations alike will now have to think strategically when they set up supply lines, get into battles far away from home, and jump in on battles. As part of the update, players will now find that their 24-hour start time limitation has been removed for skills, allowing pilots to map out and train skills for months and years ahead.

You can find more information on Phoebe at the official patch notes, and more MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

CCP's Latest Financial Report Shows Troubled Times


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CCP Games has released their latest financial statement, and the results are a showcase on the company’s latest round of problems. Due to decreased revenue, CCP announced that they have shut down their San Francisco offices and laid off two key US executives: CFO Joe Gallo and CMO David Reid. The cancellation of World of Darkness, which we learned about earlier this year, reportedly brought about a substantial cost including the cost of terminating employees and writing off assets.

Revenue for the first half of 2014 amounted to $36.5 million, down slightly from $36.7 million last year, however EBITD (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, and Depreciation) was down to $4.5 million from $8.3 million last year.

(Source: Gamasutra)

CCP Layoffs From Publishing Team


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Eve Online developer CCP Games has confirmed to Gamasutra that a recent wave of layoffs has resulted in 49 employees being cut from the company. According to the report, teams from Eve Online, Eve: Valkyrie, Project Legion, and DUST 514 have not been affected by the layoffs.

“As part of our strategy to focus on the EVE Universe, today CCP conducted a restructuring that resulted in the layoff of 49 people in our publishing organisation,” 

The developer has promised severance packages and job placement assistance to those affected.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)