Its that time of the week again. Time to analyse and comment on what CCP have (or haven’t) been saying in their Dev Blogs.
The one, and only, Dev Blog this week was announced on Monday via twitter by @CCP_Fallout. Along with a proclamation that they (Fallout that is) had made a flowchart. My heart leapt, I always enjoy looking at Dev Blogs with flowcharts in them.
Imagine my dismay when the blog appeared on Tuesday. Not a flowchart to be found! I expressed my chagrine via twitter:
mandrill: There’s a new dev blog! http://bit.ly/aYCz2J but no flowchart! @CCP_Fallout promised flowcharts dammit!!! #eveonline #tweetfleet
Then, shortly afterwards:
CCP_Fallout: @mandrill i made flowchart!!! http://twitpic.com/168zs3
I present you, with the only EVE flowchart you will ever need, by CCP Fallout:
Awesome.
Leaving flowcharts aside, the only Dev Blog of this week was a short peice about the frequent unplanned reboots of TQ which started occurring in November, and what is being done to fix them. (buttons pushed, options checked, hamsters whipped etc.) not really all that interesting but reassuring in that they’re keeping us informed.
Because TQ and the server architecture and technology it uses are so cutting edge, its understandably going to be quirky and slighly unstable. Balancing on the cutting edge is quite difficult and the fact that CCP have managed it for so long is testament to therir talent, skill and sheer bloodymindedness. These kind of glitches are bound to happen in any sufficiently complex system, and TQ is about as complex as they come.
The Ten Ton Hammer Interview
I tried ranting on Twitter about this but 140 characters just isn’t enough, and splitting it into multiple tweets lessesn the impact. Before I rant though, lets take a look at the interview, in which CCP T0rfifrans adds some details to the sparse information we currently have on Planetary interaction.
The following key points were revealed in the interview:
- Players will be able to access and use the resources on planets fairly easily. CCP want the barrier to be quite low to give every player, from the fresh face newbie to the grizzled veteran, a chance to take control of infrastructure on a planet
- The mechanics of occupation have not yet been ironed out but each planet will be a finite pie. The more players there are taking a slice of the same planet, the smaller the slice.
- More risk = more reward. So hi-sec planets will be less valuable than lo-sec, Lo-sec < null-sec, and null-sec < wormhole planets. (oh yes we’ll be able to access W-Space planets)
- Every planet will have differing resources available, and differing infrastructure needed to acces them, depending somewhat on the type of planet (Ice, oceanic, temperate, magma, plasma, gas-giant, etc.).
- New skills will need to be trained to a) get access to the planet in the first place and b) make the most of each planet.
- Planets will provide mostly passive income. You’ll be able to set your infrastructure running and then go do something else.
- It is planned that items made with planetary resources will eventually replace the currently NPC seeded items on the market, but probably not on release.
- Population control will not be part of this iteration.
- They have lots of ideas they’d like to implement but its too soon to say what exactly is going in the Tyrannis expansion
- It is likely that system sovreignty will be required to make use of the resources of a planet in 0.0.
- hi-sec planetary interaction is planned to be more co-operative. (Notice the lack of any mention of lo-sec)
- Satellites will be needed to scan for resources.
- Command centers were mentioned, but no mention of whether these would be in orbit and attackable.
- An ‘embryonic’ version is planned for the test server within a week.
That last one is important, if you want to play with what CCP are planning for planetary interaction keeps your eyes peeled for more news. Keep in mind though that it will be a very early version and may bear little or no resemblance to what actually ends up in the expansion. Though as Torfi says in the interview; the more eyes they have looking at it and poking at it and seeing what it can do, the better.
The fact that there will be limited resources available on each planet, so the the more people using it, the less each person makes, and the fact that you’ll probably need to be a sovreignty holder in 0.0 to even access the planets is incredibly interesting to me.
As I was saying to Mynxee on twitter; hi-sec is going to be overpopulated and therefore not really worth anything. Every hi-sec carebear is going to go for a slice of a planet or two, leaving them with a much smaller slice of pie. Null-sec is either going to be well protected and sov holders will keep people from utilising the planets in their systems or you’ll need to be a sov holder to access them at all. Leaving aside wormholes for the moment, lo-sec is where the money is going to be.
Lo-sec is seen by many as being more dangerous than null-sec by many hi-sec dwellers simply because of all the pirates, therefore not many people are going to go there and play with the planets. Those that do venture into lo-sec are going to get a bigger return on their investment simply because there are going to be fewer of them. Add to that the planned risk/reward correlation and the profits available could be quite significant.
The promise of more profits (as long as they are big enough) should lure more people into lo-sec and add some variety to the population. Rather than it being full of pirates shooting mainly at each other, we’re going to have a more varied diet. A little fresh meat never did anyone any harm, and it may go a long way to revitalising this neglected area of New Eden.
Its a shame that there were no more details about the surface to orbit supply chain and whether it will be subject to attack and blockade from space. This is something that really would make my lo-sec self’s day.
I’ve not mentioned any details regarding Dust 514′s connection with the planetary interaction mechanic, simply because it wasn’t really mentioned. Except to say that hi-sec planet users aren’t going to have their infrastructure blown up by commandoes on Dust’s release but that lo-sec and null-sec planets should watch out for it.
The Rant About the Ten Ton Hammer Interview
If you don’t want to read me venting about the above interview, feel free to stop reading now, I’ll forgive you. Ok? Bye.
Still here? Right, brace yourself.
I would imagine that the information in the above interview was available a long time before the interview was actually published, so why was the announcement of Tyrannis so vague? And why was the only blog we got after that announcement about an in-game calendar and friends list? In short, why was this information not released in a Dev Blog, either last week, or early this week?
The argument that good relationships should be fostered with journalists in order to be able to effectively market the game holds no water with me. I have seen nothing in Tyrannis that will make the blindest bit of difference to someone who doesn’t already play EVE. Its not like people are going say “Oh. I can interact with planets from my spaceship in EVE now. I’d better go out and buy it.” Thats not going to happen (Incarna will be a different bag of badgers completely but thats another story). The people who sell EVE are generally people who already play EVE, so give us the exclusives and the interviews and let us be the ones who tell the world.
The information in this interview, and indeed the whole Tyrannis expansion, is generally only going to affect existing EVE players. It will become one more overhang in the incredibly steep learning curve that the game already has, and many new players may never even realise it exists, getting caught up in the shiney shooty ‘splodey bits and distracted by the adrenaline rush of their first PvP. These details should have been given to the community first, its as simple as that.
There are over 250 active blogs about EVE, not counting all the other sites with tools, guides, videos and other information. Thats a marketing tool right there. I would have understood if the interview were going out in a print magazine, that is far more likely to reach people who wouldn’t necessarily be reading about EVE. An interview in TTH’s EVE section though is mainly going to be read by existing EVE players.
It feels a little like betrayal that this information wasn’t presented in a Dev Blog, as I feel it should have been. Or even offered as an opportunity to one of the many bloggers out there who write religiously and eloquently about EVE. They, after all, are more likely to know exactly the right questions to ask.
Ok, rant over.
M out
P.S. A rather cryptic message appeared on the Dust 514 Facebook page earlier this week, saying simply “Minus 10 Days”. This was followed yesterday by a promise of a substantial update “very soon”. Oh CCP, you do tease us so (but you’re not as good at it as Valve).
