This Weekly Highlights posts is a bit different than my last ones because I have something to celebrate.  I’ve been playing EVE Online as Ga’len for four years now.

Yup, 4 years….wow.

Five years ago my wife created a character in EVE online.  I joined her in trying out EVE, but my attention at the time was with another MMORPG.  That game fail cascaded in such a fashion that when someone utters the words, Star Wars Galaxies, well, if you don’t know, go Google it.

So, after that debacle,  I had free time to spend and I thought I would give EVE a go again.  That was four years ago and I tell ya, it’s been a fun ride.  I’ve spent time as a carebear in Empire, fought in many Empire wars, been a solo pirate and merc, been a director of a pirate alliance, fought for a nullsec alliance and most recently, joined HellFleet for more Yarr-ing fun.

I can say that I’ve pretty much done it all.  So, what do you do after four years?  Well, I tell ya, I’ve spent all my time doing these things and it’s always been a surprise how things have gone.  I’ll do what I always have done, just wander about and let things happen.  That’s when you have the most fun, when you get pulled into something.

And now, here are some of the highlights for the week:

• Piracy fun with HellFleet is well underway.  We took down a POS owned by an inactive corp.  Much fun ensued, read the whole story over at Mynxee’s blog, The Measure of Success!
• ProviWar continues (http://www.eve-druid.com/ProviWar).  I may no longer be fighting as a Warrior of the Ushra’Khan, but I can’t stop watching what’s going on.  They are still my friends and I do hope they succeed in these operations.  -A- continue their push into Providence, Sylph is no more (congratulations to Ushra’Khan) and things continue to progress as -A- takes sov in Y-MPWL and Ushra’Khan takes G-5EN2.  This closed the connections from Providence to High Sec space in Tash-Murkon and NPC 0.0 in Derelik respectively.  The only other high sec entrance/exit into Providence is now the R3-K7K/Misaba gate as all other systems high sec entrance/exit points have been taken.  It is highly likely that this system will also fall by this weekend as I can see while I finish up this blog post on Thursday evening, CVA has lost sov there.  With the only other logistical option being the use of jump freighters to get materials into the region and no guarantee of safely flying out said jump freighters, it will only be a matter of time before they regions completely falls.  CVA and friends are very neatly boxed into their space.
• CCP released a very open and honest devblog concerning the server stability issues that have been plaguing the game since late November.  I know I have been very critical of CCP for these issues in the past.  I want to say, this devblog is a step in the right direction.  The more technical information concerning these issues is communicated will lead to more of us who work with these technologies being able to provide help.  Keep it coming CCP, we are here to help you and we are more than willing.
• CCP “Laser Focus” God Torfi was interview at Ten Ton Hammer on the upcoming Tyrannis Expansion, read all about the cool stuff they are going to do with Planetary Interaction.
• Silver Night has announced a fiction writing contest with some decent prizes, head over and get out those writing tools!
• The next EVE novel, EVE: The Burning Life, is available for pre-order on Amazon.com for less than the listing price.  The novel should be released on March 30th as per the Amazon ordering page.  Head over and order your copy today!
• More and more people are posting pictures of their “EVESpace”, you can read all about them.
• EVOGANDA has put together a little something for all us iPhone/iPod Touch users, some wallpapers!  Check them out!
• As always, update work for the blogs listed on The EVE Online Portal and the OPML download files Mandrill and I maintain continues.  Head over and see who we added this week!

Tags: Character Birthday, Dev Blog, EVE: The Burning Life, EVEbloggers.com, EVESpace, Mynxee, OPML Download, Piracy, ProviWar, star wars galaxies, Sylph, The EVE Online Portal, The HellFleet Bloggers, Ushra'khan, Wandering

Related posts

• WHAT?!?! We are losing an hour?!?!? (2)
• WHAT?!? IT’S MINI-NASHH!?! WELCOME TO THE WORLD JOHAN! (6)
• Weekly Highlights (0)
• Weekly Highlights (4)
• Weekly Highlights (4)

I’ve been spending the morning reading the new Dev blog on how CCP is fixing sovereignty.  I’ve also been reading the comments thread on the EVE forums (at 23 pages at the time of this blog entry) and I have to say, the majority  of the responses are not in favor of the changes.  Most people think it will break EVE Online to the point that no one will want to be in 0.0 space.

The TL;DR version is that a typical system will take roughly 2 billion isk a month to maintain once you have it fully developed.  Given all the upgrades to the space that you can add, you simply can not generate the needed income if you are an alliance that is considered small.  I have to agree with the sentiment on the EVE forums here, this simply will not work and all the thoughts that come into my head are already being spoken on the EVE forums and the EVE Blogging community.  The best response I’ve seen on the EVE forums sums everything up by Bobby Atlas and oddly enough, it’s been quoted in post number 666 (I’m not kidding), http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1210267&page=23#666.

Yes, our beloved EVE Blogging community, in a rare event, is agreeing with the sentiment on the EVE forums.  For ease of reading, I have setup a shared Google Reader page for those responses:  http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user%2F03749674846786948488%2Flabel%2FSOV.  As more blogging articles are posted talking about the soverignity changes, I’ll add them to this shared page.

Everyone, keep reading, thinking and posting your thoughts as there are intelligent discussions going on both the EVE forums and the blogging community.

The debater in my heart is happy to see such discussion but by the same token, I am very concerned that the upcoming changes that caused this debate will simply break 0.0 in EVE.  One of two things will result.  People will simply not go to 0.0 as the risk exceedingly outweighs the rewards or many people will simply leave EVE as it’s becoming World of Warcraft in space with 0.0 becoming arenas.

Many people are claiming that these changes are going to have an NGE effect on EVE Online.  To refresh everyone’s memory, SWG:NGE was a bait and switch upgrade.  Buy the next expansion and change the game to a new game and not let anyone know about the change until after it happened.  I was there for that and let me tell you, it was not pretty.

The sovereignty changes to EVE are not another NGE.  We all can see the changes coming and that’s what makes this different.  The part of the NGE event where Sony did not listen to the players however, has the potential to happen here.  I’ve not seen such consensus of thought and discussion on the EVE forums since the proposed speed balancing.  We all remember what happened with that change, CCP listened to the players, modified what they planned and released a better patch to the game.

I hope the CCP listens to the players again and revises what they are planning on releasing on December 1.  As it stands now, they need to delay the expansion and make the changes that everyone on the EVE forums is calling for. People think it will be another NGE, I have to agree the the potential for an NGE event set of results is there.  We will have to simply wait and see.

Tags: CCP, Dev Blog, Dominion, EVE Blogging, EVE Forums, Google Reader, NGE Event, sovereignty, SWG:NGE

Related posts

• Around and around she goes, where sov will land, well, the TCU doesn’t know… (5)
• Threadnaught has entered “siege mode” (22)
• It’s been busy (7)
• Finally, another week is done (0)
• Aw crap, Ga’len’s at it again… (0)

We have come to it finally, the latest expansion for EVE Online, the Apocrypha expansion.  As always, there are patch notes that you can read (http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=183) and I do recommend that you read them as there is a lot to read.

I would also suggest that you go back and read all the wonderful reviews by the many EVE Bloggers out there as they have spent a great deal of time on the test server, playing with all the new features of this expansion.

While you are stuck without EVE on patch day, I would suggest that you use this time for other activities, such as:

• Clean up your corporate forums.
• Clean up the area around your computer.
• Do some general house cleaning around your home.
• Perhaps take a shower if you are one of those ‘dedicated’ gamers out there.
• Find other things to do while you wait for the patch to install and the new client be ready for download.
• As always, expect the downtime to last longer than planned and set a VERY long skill to train.

In case you need a good laugh, here is a Star Wars related video I came across this past weekend that it just too funny to not watch.

Building the LEGO Millennium Falcon from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Some other things you could do, you could visit the plethora of EVE related blogs.  Below, we have some new additions to the OPML download.  Many thanx to Cyber over at New Eden Diaries (http://newedendiaries.com)f or these submissions!!

• Blacklight (http://blacklightsredshirt.blogspot.com)
• Blinky Blinky (http://sercedos.blogspot.com)
• Fly Reckless (http://www.flyreckless.com/blog) I don’t know how I missed this one!!
• Posting from the Edge (http://zapatero.wordpress.com)  I am such a tard, I missed this one too!!
• Addicted to EvE (http://addictedtoeve.blogspot.com)
• Personal Files, Ciarente Roth (http://ciarentediary.blogspot.com)

You can get all these and more in an easy to use OPML file to import into your favorite RSS reader on the OPML Download Page.

You could also read this great fiction that is accompanying the new expansion.  It’s been setup as a series of breaking news stories, located at the CCP Roleplayed RSS feed (http://www.eveonline.com/feed/rdfnews.asp?tid=4) or on the seperate web address CCP has setup for the expansion roleplaying news at http://www.eveonline.com/apocryphabreakingnews.  It’s definitely worth reading!!!

I would also watch the the new  trailer for the Apocrypha expansion as some of the stories do tie in with what you are reading

So, what things do you do to pass the time on Patch Day?

Tags: Apocrypha, CCP, Dev Blog, Downtime, Expansions, OPML Update, Patch Notes, Player Blogs

Related posts

• The Question of Life, The Universe and Everything…ahem, CCP Zulupark knows all? (0)
• T20, take two? (3)
• “History is written by those who have killed hero-tankers….” (6)
• Suicide Ganking is getting ‘Ganked’ (0)
• So, how’s that new fangled game, eh? (0)

The long awaited dev blog on the infamous POS exploit has finally come out and let me tell you, it’s a log to read.

http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=626

I have read this twice and I am reading it again.  I will hit the highlights here, but I do recommend you read this as there is a lot of information.  In a nutshell, they estimate that the value of the total produced materials from this exploit to be a grand total of 6.7 trillion isk.

Our logs also show that there were only three corporations that had 88% of the 6.7 trillion ISK profit from the exploit.  These corporations were obviously setup specifically to harness this bug and when discovered were in the process of expanding their operations.  More on their activities follows in the chapter below from the Law and Order team but we will focus on the impact on several different items.

That’s a lot of isk, but according to the numbers they show in this report, it represents .7 percent of all the value of materials produced in 2008.  Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, however, being the materials are usually very rare, the actual impact to the economy was far greater.

So, how many people and POSes were involved?

At the time we discovered the exploit in early December, there were 232 reactors running in the bugged state.  Those were installed at 178 POS complexes owned by seven corporations.  The scale of the operations differed quite a bit, with one corporation running 81 bugged reactors and another with 3 reactors active.

The opening action on our part regarding the exploit included the total destruction of all the POS complexes involved. This entailed flying to each one and basically nuking everything in sight – a fireworks show of epic proportions but with no witnesses except the GMs in the demolition team.

Users directly involved in the exploit were permanently banned. Direct involvement meant that the character had a director role in the corporation using the exploit or was directly involved in servicing the POSes in exploited state.  Others that were found to be involved in moving the exploited goods and laundering the ISK also received bans for their part. A number of players who had benefitted directly from the exploit were also banned. The total number of accounts banned in relation to the exploit of POS reactors is 134.

So, we know the numbers of who was involved and to what extent.  What we will never know is exactly who was involved and for good reason.  CCP’s account privacy policy will not allow such information to be released, however, the EVE Online community has figured out pretty well who was involved.

So, the bigger question, how did this happen and what was the deal with the claims of petitions filed years earlier?  The report goes into detail, I will sum up:

• Yes, petitions were received in 2005 and 2007 .
• Both petitions were researched and according to logs and documentation available (they admit that logs and documentation was bad), the petitions were closed as isolated incidents.
• They did investigate all CCP staff and all members of the CSM, no one was linked to any of the xploiting corporations and/or characters.

The last petition was correctly filed into the exploit category but it was simply handled as an individual problem for the player reporting it. Thus it fell through the cracks and did not raise the flags it should have and no exploit investigation was launched.

CCP has done something that many other MMO’s do not do, they admitted that they made a mistake.  Ladies and Gentleman, I know that there will be many upon many posts on the EVE forums about this very line, but let’s “calm our passions” here.  We know they make mistakes, they are just as human as the rest of us.

The last section of this dev blog does go into their efforts to keep something like this from happening again.

So in the end…..

There will be exploits in the future and we will do our best to discover them in their early stages and minimize their effect on EVE with new and proactive procedures. We do hope that the EVE community will accept our way of handling these once they are found.  The procedures and rules used against those using these exploits will also be reviewed on a regular basis. We have already had discussions with the CSM on fines and other tools to punish those that directly, or indirectly, reap the benefits from illegal activity within EVE. No final decisions have been made yet, but now is your chance to contact your CSM representatives and let your voice be heard.

Again, don’t take my post here as the complete story, you should all take the time to read the dev blog for yourself.  It’s a long read as I said, but do take the time, it will help answer many of the questions we all have concerning this issue.

Tags: CSM, Dev Blog, Discussion, POS Exploit

Related posts

• POS Exploit, CSM meeting notes (5)
• T20, take two? (3)
• WHAT?!?!? EVE HAS SOUND?!?!?!? (8)
• Weekly Highlights (0)
• Weapons get together, Alliances can submit again, the ‘Space Whale’ is born… (1)

In case you missed it, that past weekend was the finals for the EVE Online Alliance Tournament VI.  Congratulations to Pandemic Legion, you fought an awesome fight in the final, well worth watching.  You can check out all the matches at the CCPGames channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/CCPGames).  I do recommend watching the matches as there were quite a few epic moments, including the “Hero Tanking Tempest” and the ultimate “bait Curse” in the semi-finals.  (Please do note that the semi-finals and finals are not up on YouTube as of the writing of this post but they will be uploaded as soon as they can finished getting them encoded.)

This year’s Alliance Tournament saw over 12,000 people watching the live broadcast on EVETV (http://www.eveonline.com/evetv) and a new PCU record during the Allance Tournament finals of over 51,000.  This is a huge milestone for CCP.  I personally logged onto EVE on Sunday, which I normally do not do to help the number grow.  I had my trader alt online in Jita and I have to tell you, Stackless I/O and hardware buffing for that node has helped considerable as it was rather responsive with close to 1200 people in system.  If they could only bring resources like that dynamically to fights on the fly, lag would no longer be an issue.  No, I am not going to get onto my “lag soapbox” again, it’s not worth going on and on about a problem that they have not fixed, but I do know they are actively trying to work on the issue.

Expansion Time!!!

It’s that time of year again, the spring expansion is coming.  Apocrypha goes live on March 10th, the retail box goes on sale wordlwide on March 12th.  Today was the first day that the March expansion, Apocrypha, was live on the test server.  There are a number of changes that have been made to the game, such as the addition of wormholes, changes to the scanning game mechanic as well as a few items that I will have to look at as I am intrigued by what they say, such as the 250KM drone control range and the fitting screen UI changes.  You can find all the notes for what is on the test server on the in testing link on the EVE website (http://myeve.eve-online.com/updates/intesting.asp)

Linux users will not be very pleased as CCP is discontinuing support for these operating systems directly from CCP as they will no longer be producing the EVE Online game client for those operating systems, however  CCP states that they will be partnering with Cide and Cedega for those emulators to run EVE Online.  For the whole story, read the dev blog at http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=625.  I can understand Linux as market share is still very low albeit Linux is a far better and stable operating system than Windows.   Granted, in tough economic times, you focus your business so that it can produce the best results, but supporting multiple operating systems would the the ‘Holy Grail’ for an MMO as it’s a rarely touched market for the hard core gamer.  Emulator options may be feasible, but they are usually problematic for those less technical computer users.

Last but not least…

I want to shamelessly plug a new EVE website out there, The EVE Online Portal (http://www.evebloggers.com).  This site is not meant to replace any of the fine websites out there, it’s simply a ‘newspaper’ like page that puts a large amount of information in a single place.  From here you can see the current blogging stream from the EVE Blog Pack, links to current EVE Blog articles as well as current links to stories about EVE on EVE-Mag, EVE Network News and Massively.  There are also links to CCP’s RSS feeds and all the active EVE Online podcasts.  It’s not an RSS reader in a web page, it’s just a clean, simply laid out website for you to get your daily EVE information fix.  It’s a must have for your bookmarks folder or you start page for your web browser.  Be sure to stop by, you won’t regret it!!

See you out there!!!!!..

Tags: Alliance Tournament, CCP, Dev Blog, Expansions, Hero Tanking

Related posts

• The Question of Life, The Universe and Everything…ahem, CCP Zulupark knows all? (0)
• Patch Day!!! (9)
• Well, it’s here, the 5th Alliance Tournament!!! (0)
• T20, take two? (3)
• Suicide Ganking is getting ‘Ganked’ (0)