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GDC Progress Report: CCP and EVE Online
At the Game Developers Conference, News Editor Garrett Fuller had a chance to catch up with CCP's Magnus Bergsson to talk about EVE Online and CCP as a whole.
EvE is a game about the future, and we were lucky enough to see the future of EvE this week here at GDC. I had the chance to sit down with CCP's Magnus Bergsson about what EvE will offer over the next year, some of the scandals that the game has seen, and get some early information on the White Wolf merger and games planned. CCP has a lot of work ahead of them and these guys seem to be ready for any challenge.
The first feature that EvE has planned is EvE Voice, which will be coming out on March 20th. The game will have full voice support for players to take advantage of. The service is in final beta and being tested by several Corporations. The service also features directly into the game client so you don't have to use any extra software.
;)
I asked Magnus how they will protect players who may not want to use the service and he said it was optional. There is a service fee of $14.95 a year to use voice and it is only $9.95 for the year in the first six months. The service is optional for players so if you want to keep your identity private you simply don't have to pay for EvE Voice. Also, Fleet Commanders will have the ability to control the voice service for their Corporation. If a player gets out of line, the Commander can mute them out of the conversation. The voice chat will also be channel enabled and identify in text which player is talking, this way people will be held accountable for what they say.
Another very important issue that CCP wanted to address was the recent scam run by one of its players. The company has stated that they are trying to keep a hands-off policy in regards to their in-game economy. Players need to be careful and also police themselves. The point at which CCP does get involved, is the second a player tries to take in game money and go to the real market with it. So if a player tries to profit in the real world off of the in-game money, CCP will ban that player and seize all assets from their account. Magnus was very quick to say that EvE does not support RMT (real-market trading) in any form. He believes it would make the game balance very difficult because of the way the economy is set up. Gathering resources is a very important part of EvE and if RMT continues then players stop gathering and leave it to the farmers. This can eventually cause the economy to collapse.
;)
We did catch a glimpse of the Ambulation feature that is coming to EvE a little down the line. Players will be able to leave their ships as a character and work in the stations. The graphics on the trailer were flawless, but Magnus said they were not good enough yet. CCP has very high graphical standards and continues to promote them. Players will be able to recreate the look of their characters to fit this new feature. Inside the stations, players can set up recruitment centers, agents to sell items etc. The game will host full avatar support and is doubling the team on the project to deliver a quality experience.
For those who do not know, CCP and White Wolf games also had a merger this year. Magnus mentioned that the relationship has gone very smoothly and both companies are now working as one. This leads to the beginning of the "World of Darkness" MMO that CCP has planned based on the gothic horror IPs which White Wolf owns. Games like Vampire: The Masquerade will be incorporated into the MMO as well as many others.
;)
Magnus said that they want the game to be like nothing anyone has seen on the MMO market. They are currently in the concept phases of the game and really want to bring the gothic look and feel to life, no pun intended. He laughed when I asked him if the game would be geared towards older players, silly question. You can't have vampires without blood! Clearly this game will be tailored to an older audience. If the game will be any reflection of CCP's party at GDC, I think we're all in for a wild ride.
I want to thank Magnus Bergsson for meeting with us. I did ask him about the overall MMO market and he feels strongly that the best part of MMOs is when players can drive the game content. If you create a sandbox game, then the game does not get old. Keeping this feature as part of the game and adding content as you go really builds the best experience for all of us was what he said in a nutshell. We will certainly be keeping an eye on CCP and all the work they are doing for the future.
Excellent! Two major graphic upgrades this year. Ambulation and Revelations. <swoon>
Or at least two graphic upgrades based upon the same engine.
Why do they waste their time with voice support? We all have TS and Vent! Concentrate on the upgrades/updates. The one game I played with voice support was a mess. Spent half the time trying to adjust for everyone.
Why do MMOs waste their time on ingame chat? We have IRC and MSN!
Because if you live in Iceland, there's not much else to do! lol
Being more serious - it makes me feel at home. Fighting for your buddies is better than fighting for ISK.
Also, you call for help faster. You can probably pirate faster, but I wouldn't know anything about that, of course!
Very nice, CCP
Cant wait
Am I beating a dead horse? Maybe....but they got caught cheating.....and that should never be allowed to go away. Every person needs to know about it.
I also love how he goes out of his way to explain that CCP is "against RMT in any form" even though they are allowing players to purchase game money by trading subscription codes for it.
Every time its the same: I can't get enough !! With the creative license and storytelling experience of WW, as well as the MMO experience and success -- especially in a sandbox, skill-based game -- of CCP, the potential for this title just blows my mind.
It might be years from being released, I already can feel the excitement :)
erm yeah right from the fest the 2 "upgrades" are a good 9.0C engine and a DX10 version with all the nobs but there slated for Kali 3 i believe, were still on kali 1.4 with a theoretical release schedule of a major patch a year, then were not gonna get them till 2008 if were lucky
Ambulation i serioisly doubt that has been branded around for years along with planetary flight and theyve only ever been nice screenies at the fest there was about 2 screnies of station interiors and they were glory shots on a scale that simply isnt useful for moving around in eachcharacter was too small they demonstrated a 3d human walking about graphically which is nice and somthing important for CCP tho that was clearly done for the WW IP i am still woefully doubtfull of what it will bring to the game unless i can kill my foes in the station then all it will be there for is teenagers with gallente female characters looking how far down that transparent clothing goes,
i hate to be negative about eve and CCP but there not really known for on schedule delivery
Once ambulation comes I'm never leaving the station again.
Well, I don't now anyway. But I will walk around, I hope my avatar will wiggle her cute ass in a nice way. And I hope I will be able to buy her clothes and do her hair nice. I don't want to be able to make her dance. An Amarrian princess wouldn't do that.
Eve Online - Have a Second Life in Space.
BTW: Have you seen the screenies from the GDC in the Star Trek Online forum, they knee the ones from Eve Online in the groin.
Also REV2 is due out in the summer, there's one more major patch coming in april I believe before we start seeing the REV2 stuff on sisi. So once that's out and bugs are fixed we're looking at 6 months for them to work on REV3. Ambulation is only something they thought about in the last year or so and since they need the engine for the WoD MMO they are bringing it to EVE as well. Planetary flight is still in the pipe but it's coming after ambulation now. The thing you have to remember about CCP is that unlike most MMO's that basically only plan as far ahead as thier next expansion, they are planning years in advance.
They've removed the need to trade actual game time codes. Previously, a macro miner could purchase a time code with ISK and sell it on EBay - all perfectly legitimate. Now when you purchase a time code with ISK it automatically applies it to your account. It may still be possible to sell isk for cash, but you can no longer find a legitimate way of doing so.
That's shaping up to be pretty amazing engine. I read a while ago that they were building around some sort of dynamic interaction between characters. If CCP is able to do with this engine what they said they wanted to, It's going to be one of the most hardware intensive engines on the market; not just for the gfx cards, but the cpu as well.
When this goes live next year I will most def. reactivate my account to see it in action. I'm really impressed.
Thanks for that link.
Because TS and Vent quality isn't always the greatest. Not everyone has the bandwidth to run a server.
I can't see who is talking when you are in vent.
I can be a pain to get everyone the server info and everyone setup and running on it.
Eve chat will show be who's talking, it will quickly put people into channels which makes organizing fleet ops and such very easy. It will ensure that we are all on the same chat system. It won't use EVE server bandwidth, it won't take player bandwidth to run a server.
Overall it will make for a higher quality experience all around.
Good answer. I can see why some would want it.
I was thinking the same thing.
Some developers within CCP, the company that makes EVE have been caught aiding corporations(s)/alliances in the eve universe.
The only reason this was brought to light was through the activities of one player who has now been barred from the game, without this we would have never known and it probably would still be continuing.
A lot of time and effort go into playing the game but what’s the point when you find out that developers have been giving their corporations crucial information that has given them access to untold wealth, ability to create valuable items whenever they want and practice on pre-release patch versions long before anyone else.
CCP has responded weakly. They have given the topic some time on their forums but now barred anyone discussing it further and want it swept under the carpet. They haven’t taken any meaningful action within their company. The developers can still own their own characters. The player that was most responsible for this situation is still employed with the company. And presumably this situation will likely occur in the future.
If you like playing on a level playing field, avoid this game.
After the enslaver incident I now fully believe Kugu got what he deserved in his banning.
@ Steve106
Go back and read over and over what both sides of the arguement have posted kid, cuz it clearly seems that you have selective memory.
I have read both sides of the story and for me there are still many unanswered questions. Its not in the CCP's interest to be forthcomming with everything they know. Internal investigations are notoriously biased and i think its naieve to think they have told us everything. More likely only admitting to what can be proved.
Do you not read? Most of the work was done by an outside company that is hosting the chat servers. Now there is a world of differeance from using a TS or vent server on someone's personal computer using a cable modem. To a paid service using dedicated high speed servers and bandwidth connections. I'd gladly pay $10 a year for a high quality feature rich Voice of IP. Having used vent and other player supported systems for raids it's a freaking mess. Being able to mute everyone when the moderator talks is worth the price of admission alone. If $10 is too much for you. Then please ask your parents for a raise. The play indicator when someone speaking in game is also awesome. So next time you shoot from the hip i suggest you actually read the facts before you start shooting off your mouth accusing a company of something they did not do. Like according to you "wasitng time". If you ever spent 5 seconds think about ingame communication, you'd know that this new VoIP system is the best I have ever even heard of. Kudos to CCP and their partner company for creating the best VoIP system in a game ever.
15 a year is not bad at all but honestly, id think id rather see it be 16 a year in groups of 4 months . So $4 a month. Becuase a year is a long time to commite to. and the service should not be just for the eleet players, who have time invested.
Correction:
1 (ONE) developer was found to be doing anything wrong. They also backed out the BPO's and put them back into the random distribution system. They also have a whole new team to prevent future possibilities. They implemented new policies AND new applications to prevent future occurances as well. The employee in question was disciplined at the time of the occurance.
Just because you don't like how it was handled doesn't mean it wasn't handled. I agree that T20 (the employee in question) should have been fired but he wasn't at the time and CCP follows a 'no double jeapordy" rule. Since he's already been punished for the issue they aren't going to fire him now, over 6 months later. Whether you like it or not really doesn't matter.
The only other "legitimate" gripe people have is the difference in the handling of SirMolle and Kug... and, frankly, I could really give a rats ass less about that one.
As to your rants about the forums:
They held the thread for discussion on the issue open for a very long time. The only threads that got locked/deleted were people spamming the forums with more and more threads about it rather than discussing it in the main one. I, for one, am glad they did this because the forums were getting bombarded with constant new posts when it was totally un-necessary. Just like you guys are doing in the EVE forums here. 5 or 6 grumpy bastages have generated at least 20 threads on the SAME ISSUE in our forums here, which makes it really hard to have any meaningful discussions about in-game or out-of game activities within EVE with you jacktards spamming the forums about an issue that's been over for over a month already. Get on with your lives, seriously. Nobody cares anymore but you. CCP handled the issue, dealt with it, and the rest of the universe has moved on.
I know the problem and why it happened, becuase dev and gms are lonely. That right , see Eve has one of the best communities of all games and well 99% of them 1000000x more question asked in eve then other game are answerd by other players :) Poor lonely gms and devs :)
On a more serious note I like Eve but i wished they would changed 2 things , 1 the ability to get group agent missions, and 2 how space combat works, make it more interactive (and they are trying to do this at some rate).
As far as the state of Eve, it is good i kinda wish they made new oppritunities for new corps etc to be made .... I have no freakign clue how to acomplish this however :)