MMORPG: DUST 514 has been going strong for over a year now. Can you tell us about some of the feedback you’ve seen for the game?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: The feedback from both media and the community has been extremely healthy for us to receive. It has guided us in defining what parts of the game we have been focusing on improving in our monthly point releases. The feedback definitely varies between different media and players as the review scores reflect. We have scores that range from the 50’s to the 90’s, which is not something you see with many games. :)
MMORPG: Has the player feedback been a big part of the changes in Uprising 1.5?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: Player feedback is hugely important in our iterative development cycle - we’re listening to what our community is saying and trying to address it in individual all of our updates.’
MMORPG: You are working on an improved tutorial for the update. Tell us about how players will enter the world and what they can expect from this change.
Atli Mar Sveinsson: With the New Player Experience, we wanted to help ease the learning curve for new players. The NPE is an objective based tutorial, which will help teach them three core mechanics: Joining a battle, creating a new fitting and training a skill.
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MMORPG: What are some of the areas you were able to polish with the update?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: Alongside numerous bug fixes and tweaks, we have added depth through the introduction of new War Points, have increased functionality for Corporation Leaders and have introduced the Squad Finder which we believe will add value for all players.
MMORPG: How have things changed for Corporations?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: We have introduced new management tools for Corporation Leaders which will allow them to assign roles to their members. These will allow players access to various corporation functions.
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MMORPG: You have upgraded a lot of War Points for Uprising. How important is it to keep these rewards balanced?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: With the introduction of new War Points, we are looking to incentivize and reward players to adopt various roles across the battlefield. We are aiming to encourage support functions such as Dropship piloting and hope that it will encourage greater balance towards squad composition and coordination.
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MMORPG: What are your plans for DUST 514 moving into the end of the year?
Atli Mar Sveinsson: We will continue to push improvements and changes to DUST 514 on a monthly basis through interaction with our community. Recently, we shared a wealth of vehicle stats with our user base and are looking to gather their feedback on our proposed changes. In the long run, we are looking to continue to grow and foster the link between DUST 514 and EVE to add a greater sense of purpose to all players in the EVE Universe.
