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EVE Online General Article: The Year that Was
MMORPG.com EVE Online Reporter Andrew Wallace looks back at 2009 for the game that would eventually be named Game of the Year.
By Andrew Wallace on January 15, 2010
2009 was a typical year for EVE Online; drama, scandal, the rise and fall of the eternal lag monster, impotent forum raging...and two free expansions. Here are some of the highlights from the year that was:
The Death of BoB
February saw the downfall of one of EVE's largest and most well known alliances, Band of Brothers, after a turncoat director disbanded the alliance. Shortly after, Goonswarm- who also claimed responsibility for instigating the betrayal- and many others descended upon the Delve region to take advantage of their sudden loss of sovereignty. Despite quickly reforming as Kenzoku, it was the beginning of the end, and they were forced to pull out of their old home, before eventually disbanding later in the year.
Apocrypha
With the release of the Apocrypha expansion in the Spring, thousands of new systems were added to the New Eden universe; accessible only through a constantly shifting network of wormholes. W-space, as it came to be known, was also the home of the Sleepers; fierce drones that guard the ruins of an ancient civilization and the valuable resources required to manufacture the new Tech Three ships. Along with a new probing system, it kicked off a massive wave of exploration amongst the players as the "gold rush" for T3 materials began.
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Apocrypha also allowed players to build their own ships with the first wave of modular ships: the T3 Strategic Cruisers. Instead of a single base hull, each one is formed of five different subsystems that can changed be alter both the look and capabilities of the ship. However, despite allowing for many different combinations, some of the subsystems are still regarded as useless and Strategic Cruisers still remain prohibitively expensive, keeping them from becoming a common sight in New Eden.
Regular updates followed Apocrypha, including the changes to ECM modules and Caldari electronic warfare ships that was also known as The Falcon Nerf. While they still possess powerful jamming abilities, their use has noticeably declined in the past year, and they are no longer the dominant force in small-gang warfare that they used to be.
CSM Scandal
It just wouldn't be EVE without some kind of controversy cropping up at least once a year. This time it was the player-elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM) that was the source of grief for CCP. Through their meetings with EVE's developers, the council get glimpses of upcoming changes to the game, and member Larkonis Trassler used this information to pre-emptively purchase several billion isk worth of items from the market. CCP reacted appropriately, by removing him from the CSM, but "Larkonis-gate" still left some sections of the community understandably outraged, and others speculating on exactly what it was that he was trying to hoard before Dominion went live.
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Dominion
The two expansions of 2009 seem to have struck an interesting balance; while Apocrypha brought in more new features, Dominion leaned heavily toward revamping what was already there. An entirely new sovereignty system was put into place, as well as an infrastructure system that allows players to upgrade their territory through activity. Having only arrived at the beginning of December, it's still difficult to get a clear picture of just how successful it's been at limiting the growth of vast empires or attracting more players to venture out into the wild west of 0.0 space- especially as tweaks and fixes are already being tinkered with in preparation for Dominion 1.1.
A large number of alterations to existing ship classes were also made in Dominion; the Titan Doomsday Device's switch from an almighty AoE weapon to a single-target death ray was a significant shift for 0.0 warfare; the Mothership's transformation into a Fighter Bomber wielding Supercarrier was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute (although I'd put money on it going ahead with 1.1); changes to projectile turrets and tracking modules gave the Minmatar back their "Alpha King" crown, as well as much more flexibility when trying to kite targets; the four Navy frigates were re-born as Assault Frigate-Interceptor hybrids; and the Pirate faction ships went from expensive hanger ornaments to expensive killing machines that are actually worth flying.
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New Graphics
After EVE's ships and structures were given a graphical overhaul over two years ago, the rest of the game world has been slowly catching up; first in Apocrypha with weapon and module effects, and then with the new star field and planets of Dominion. EVE Online now looks better than ever; with only the decrepit-looking character avatars left to upgrade; hopefully when CCP finally let us leave our pods and strut around the space station.
2009 is over , but there's always more to look forward to. The recently announced Dust 514 - an online FPS that will integrate directly with the world of EVE Online and influence planetary control - would seem to be a long way off, but rumours and suggestions are already circulating about what's going to be in the next expansion. Planetary control of some sort is almost certainly going to be part of it (along with the possibility of T3 modular Frigates) and it's even possible that the long awaited Walking In Stations feature, re-named Incarna, will make an appearance before the year is out.
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Was a great year for EVE and with DUST on the horizon 2010 and 11 should just continue to allow EVE to grow bigger and bigger.
I believe that Incarna (a.k.a. Walking in Stations) will attract a whole bunch of new players to EVE. I've been playing the game for almost 6 years now, but I find myself taking time off every now and then to play something else.
Somehow I can't shake the need to feel the virtual grass under the virtual feet of my ingame avatar :)
Dust 514 may just be the solution to my problem...
I'm also looking forward to Incarna. I don't think it will be a big game changer, but it will be some nice side features.
Nice summary, and evidence that EVE really did deserve the 2009 GOTY award. CCP has really done a good job continuing to expand and improve the game.
As always I'm looking forward to even more improved content. But I'm just wondering, where did you come up with these "potential" expansion ideas? I haven't seen or heard any of those things, although they look awesome!
I don't think walking in stations is that high of a priority to CCP and I think they are making a mistake. I think walking in stations will increase the playerbase a lot because it will introduce a more social aspect to the game that will bring in another group of players that have so far avoided the game.
It's what's been keeping me and at least 13 other people I know from playing it so far.
They fixed the system that lets one person disband an Alliance yet? Fucking stupid system that ruined the eventual war between BoB and Goons.
Ruined? Delayed. You need to keep a closer eye on the sovereignty maps.
You can disband an alliance but you can't disband the people.
nice article.
and from what I've heard that 1 man disbanding alliance is still in place (happened too another alliance but was reverted cause it was due to a hack).
I'm not going to hold my breath for "Incarna." I remember it when it was promised with the "Kali" expansion which was renamed and then totally replanned as a revamp of the old gang system instead of working on giving us legs. Oh, that was in 2006 btw. I keep playing eve because I love everything about it though I see a growing trend of idiot/carebear sympathetic features like an agro warning before undock. I'm sure it'll be nice if they ever go through with walking, but I've been waiting for it for over 4 years and I just don't get excited about it anymore.
i do not play this game. But every time i see something about it, i just get intrigued. As of right now i want to sign up, because CCP caters to the audience it originally wanted. Unlike Blizzard in that aspect, but I think 11 million player can disagree with what i just said. But go CCP, my favorite mmorpg gaming company, and I dont even play the game...
It doesn't matter that much any more. Dominion changed the sovereignty mechanics, so even if somebody disbanded an alliance to day the corporations could easily reform and they would still have all their Sovereignty dependent structures (like cynojammer and such) working immediatly.
I feel a bit like you do. I tried it though and decided it's not a game for me. But I am still intrigued and somewhat interested in what happens in the EVE Universe. I enjoyed this article very much.
That is, unfortunately, why the game, despite being one of the, if not THE most, successful MMO's to date outside of LameCraft, hasn't grown more then it already has. People don't keep playing sometimes because they get turned off by what they first experience, and can't grasp the scope of the game.
You can't judge what the game is going to be remotely like from you're first day playing it. Not even you're first couple weeks playing it. Some would argue not even you're first couple months-years playing it. It is, in all intents of the words, a long-haul MMO. The ones who get ahead are those who watch the market, and plan ahead and ask questions about there intended skill plan.
That's one of the really nice things about EvE, you don't have to be utterly glued to your computer to be advancing. Yes, the more lucrative money making routes do require you to be actually playing the game, but actual character advancement is painless, which is wonderful.
And to all the people saying, oh Incarna/Walking In Stations sucks, I don't want it, blah blah...yeah, well piss off. Not only has a HUGE proportion of the EvE community been practically salivating on there keyboards over this feature, but it will UNDOUBTABLY bring in HUGE numbers of new players. I talk to my friends about EvE occasionally, and the ones that play MMO's invariably say the main reason they didn't get more into it was because it didn't have a traditional avatar system.
You forgot the EVE Bank scandal. One of the directors stole 400bil and sold it for real money, 40k or something. THen the bank found out they had no accounting either. IIRC.
Dominion moon mineral speculation has made many people very rich. Recently Curzon Dax stole 250+B isk from a scam IPO, his thread reached a couple pages and died.
The way the eve economy is right now (everything is fairly cheap, and making isk is fairly easy), isk thefts just don't get much attention.
Hopefully with the expansion of Tech 3 there will be some new expensive shiny toys to blow isk on.
Personally im not a big fan of the T3 cruisers, their expensive and in terms of pvp, the kill/loss ratio is badly affected by the ship values (though i really do wish they'd sort out the insurance on T2 ships!) and Incarna.. well if that means we can go into the stations and kick out the guys hiding in there.. even better
Personally im not a big fan of the T3 cruisers, their expensive and in terms of pvp, the kill/loss ratio is badly affected by the ship values (though i really do wish they'd sort out the insurance on T2 ships!) and Incarna.. well if that means we can go into the stations and kick out the guys hiding in there.. even better
Give it time i am farely certain that as the industrial corps adapt to the new stuff prices may start to go down more.