FINALLY!!!  IT’S FINALLY GOING TO HAPPEN!!!

The latesst dev blog has  me doing the Snoopy Dance.  Skill training queues!!!!

Read about it!!!  http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=621

The whole process could be a bit complicated.  You can only queue up skills that would start training in the next 24 hours.  I will use the following example.  I have a skill that will take 15 minutes to train to level 1, 1 1/2 hours to level 2.  I will add that skill to the queue to train to level 1, then level 2.  I will then add another skill that will take 18 hours to train and a finally skill that will take 6 days to train.  As long as all the skills I want to train will be able to start training in the next 24 hours, I can add them to the queue.

Many of you may ask, well, how does this help me?  For a newer player who has a lot of short time skills to train, this will allow them to set a queue up that will fire through all those 15 minute, 1 1/2 hour skill train times easily and not waste precious training time early on.  For those of us who are veteran players that run into the need to train a skill up to level 4, this will work well as we can set the queue for level 1 (say 45 minutes), level 2 (say 4 hours) and then level 3 (1 day, x hours).

The best way to use this tool would be to setup all those short skills that you have to train and make the last skill in the queue a long skill that will take the longest time to train.  When you can log on again, just adjust the queue again with those short skills in the beginning of the queue and put that long skill as the last skill to start training.  Just always remember to make sure that your last skill in the queue will start to training within that 24 hour queue window.

This is not the skill training queue that we all wanted, but it’s a start and to be honest, I think that once this goes live, people will understand how it works and will find ways to use it effectively.

Tags: Dev Blog, Skill Training Queue, Skills, Training

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One question that comes up every now and again among my corpies, mainly when we are gate camping or on a slow roam, is when will the skill training end?  EVE is a constantly evolving game, with more and more being added in the way of ships, modules or abilities with every expansion.  Where do you decide that you have your character trained for what you want to do?

My main, the good ole Ga’len here, started out as a missioner/miner (yeah, to hunt the carebear, it helps to have been one) and then very early on moved focus to PvP.  I cross trained for Caldari and Gallente and only in the past 6 months, moved training back to my Amarr roots.  I am actively training for being able to properly use Amarr command ships, then carriers and ultimately the Amarr dreadnought.

With the oncoming expansion in a few months introducing Tech 3 ships and very likely another batch of skills to use these ships, what in the heck happens to our lovely planned out skill training schedule?

For many people, it gets sidetracked.  You either start an alt with a focus on these new skills and a whole new set of goals or you end up moving sideways on your skill training. It’s very frustrating.  I understand the group participation concept that is EVE online, where you are not supposed to be able to do everything and I really like that aspect of the game, but with more and more complexity being introduced with every patch, the “EVE Online Learning Cliff” becomes more and more daunting to those who have are new to the game, let alone a 3 year vet like myself.

Where do you decide this is where I want to be?

Well, to help you out, this is what I had decided to do. Ga’len will train up to carrier, possibly dreadnought and then I may look at the new skills that are being created.

The key with open ended character advancement is that you need to set goals for yourself and stick to those skill training plans.  The “end game” in reality is what you decide it to be.  You decide exactly how skilled you want a character to be in the end, so, stick to what you wanted to do. Now, many of you will say that it’s close to impossible to do with all the changes that have been introduced into the game.  For those of you saying this, ask yourself this question.  Have you trained up a hauler alt?  What about a scouting alt?  You were able to get those trained up and then you stopped the skill training, right?  You decided that you needed an ability in the game, idetified what skills you needed and trained the character to that end.

You can do the same thing with your main.  Stick to your training plans.  In the long run, it will make things a lot more fun for you.  The problem with training all these news skills as soon as they come out is that you really do not know what you are getting into.  You don’t know what path your character will be set on when you do this and before you know it, you have a more expensive clone than you should because you have all these skills that you really do not need.  Stick to your training plans, let the new ships, modules and/or ships come into game and let all the quirks be worked out.  Then and only then, take a look at what these items can do and really evaluate if these things will truly assist you in your game play style.

Once you do this planning for your character, things like the “Power of Two” promotions become a very useful tool.  I recently took one of my alts and moved it to another account I created with the recent “Power of Two” promotion and was able to get this alt all trained up for Freighter and Orca operations.  At the end of the six month run, I will move the character back onto my second account as he will be all trained up.  True, paying 2 character transfer fees does cost you some money, but in the end, maintaining discipline in a training plan, planning things out to take advantage of a promotion, has led to a well setup character that I will be able to use for carebear activities, logistics or to simply sell off to an industrialist that would love to have a focused character.

Stick to your training plans, they will pay off.  Don’t feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the various directions for your character.  Choose your path and stick with it.  You will be much happier.

Tags: Discussion, Training

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This whole thing has become a huge drama fest and to be honest, I have been hesitant in commenting on this, however, people are complaining in the fashion I have not seen since the NGE hit Star Wars Galaxies.

That being said, I am going to venture forth, with my asbestos suit on, and chime in here.

I feel that Ghost Training is an exploit and I support CCP in removing that exploit from the game.

I don’t feel that CCP handled it well at all.

Now that I have that out of the way, let me support both statements with some dazzling language and thought.

I feel that Ghost Training is an exploit and I support CCP in removing that exploit from the game.

There is a great article on MMORPG on this issue, http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?feature=2349%2FGhost-Training-Interview&game=14&bhcp=1.  In a nutshell, It was not a bug, it was a game feature that was being abused.

So, the question remains, should ghost training be allowed.  Well the quote from the article sums it up.

“I truly hope that people still realize that we’re just gamers like them, trying to make a game and making a living off of it. It was not out of pure money, greed or lust that we did this. It was a balancing act and a fairness act toward us as a company moreso than the gamers, but I honestly can’t think of any other company that allows you to skill up your character when you’re not even paying for it.”

It takes money from the game, according to the article, 4 percent of all subscribers were using it at the time of the announcement.  Four percent may not sound like much, but it’s money that’s not coming in to maintain the servers, pay the devs, etc…  CCP strives to continually balance the game and I must applaud them for their efforts.  It’s not fair that some people were taking advantage of the situation and advancing their characters for free.

I don’t feel that CCP handled it well at all.

Want proof?  Look at the EVE Forums.  It just exploded with commentary (I am being kind here) on this change.  To quote from the MMORPG.COM article::

“We announced it as a bug, which it was to a lot of us old devs, but as it turned out, our website listed it as a feature because we had outsourced the writing of our career guide to someone who was not knowledgeable about the code itself, years ago back in 2004… It was like a virus waiting to get out and nobody had really given it much thought until it was pointed out when the whole debate started.”

Now, you have to ask, how could you have missed that one?  Put simply, they didn’t think to check.   Always do your research, even on your own product.   The worst thing you can do to a gaming community is lie, even though CCP’s explanations are sound, the appearance of dishonesty is something that many gamers will rage upon to no end.  I am more willing to believe that they screwed up rather than lie, however, the whole situation makes CCP look like they did lie and that is just horrible.

Normally, they announce a proposed change, put it on the test server and let people test it for them.  The Speed Balancing went on the test server and after much commentary, it was pulled, revamped and redeployed.

You have to ask the question, why did CCP make the changes to Ghost Training without first announcing that the change was coming like they always do for patches?

Again, look at the public outcry about the change.  There are many people who feel, myself included, that CCP knew this was going to be a rough issue to address from a publicity standpoint.  If they had announced the change, let people generate feedback and then go make the change anyway, they would be accused of simply ignoring the player base.  That was the way Sony Online Entertainment ran things when I played Star Wars Galaxies.  So, do you look like you are ignoring your players or do you play it as if it was a bug that needed immediate patching and deal with that PR damage.  You do the latter, as CCP did in this case.

Now, how could this drama fest been avoided?

Quality control on a product, including it’s documention, is vital.  This should have been done when the documentation was finished by their sub-contractor years ago.  If they had done this, they could have corrected for this long ago.  If they had, there would have been no valid public outcry as it would not have been sold as a feature.  Not having this as a feature makes it easier to claim it was a bug.

I suspect that if this feature had not been listed in the documentation, they could have simply fixed the bug and when the public outcry came out about Ghost Training was not working anymore, a simple forums post announcing that a bug had been found and fixed could have been released.  It would have been an easier issue to difuse and thus there would not be so much “commentary” concerning the exploit.

Tags: CCP, Dev Blog, Ghost Training, Skills, Training

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We of the EVE Blog Pack have started a new feature, the profile post.  This is a posting to introduce many of you to our fellow bloggers and to give you some background on these fine people.

Name/Handle: Colonel Roc Wieler
Blog URL: Roc’s Ramblings at http://everamblings.wordpress.com
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Started EVE: 2006

What brought me here:
My love for science fiction has been something inspired in me since I first Star Wars at the theatre as a kid. I loved the richness of the mythology, the vastness of the universe; the true sense of wonder. So naturally, I played Star Wars Galaxies the day it came out. Played dedicated for five years. The last two years though, I noticed the game was continually being dumbed down. I hate dumbed down. I enjoy depth. Someone mentioned EVE Online to me, and well, been here ever since. Even gave up Star Wars for it, my childhood love.

Playstyle:
I am a Fleet Commander for the Tribal Liberation Force, as well as recently promoted to Fleet Commander in my corp, Freeform Industries. I do missions every now and then, but my real passion is the market. Both my alts are out of the box traders, and I really enjoy the cutthroat nature of doing business.  I’ve never mined, never even opened research or industry, and have never managed a corp. One step at a time.

What keeps me playing:
Ironically, there are two things. The first is that you don’t need to be here 23/7 for fear of missing out on some huge event. That flexibility combined with real time skill training (as opposed to mindless grinding) makes it great for me. During the week, I’m a casual player, and that’s just fine. The second reason I’ve already mentioned indirectly. Depth. Vastness. Mythology. EVE Online is so comprehensive that I am STILL catching up on my reading, just to absorb myself deeper into this universe we call home.

What I write:
My personal blog is all in character (with occasional exception). My approach to writing is a little different than most I am told. I tend to merge real life happenings with ingame happenings, with a bit of complete fantasy mixed in to throw you off. So far, it’s been fun. I am also a columnist over at http://www.eve-mag.com and hope to also get an article or two into EON Magazine. That would be something.

Other Interests:
I am also a co-developer for Capsuleer, the definitive iPhone application for EVE Online. I enjoy making 3D wallpapers as well, and have contributed some to the EVE Online galleries.

What you should know about EVE:
It’s intimidating when you start; overwhelming actually. It’s like learning a new Operating System and learning how to live in a completely new universe all at the same time. But stick with it, seriously. The rewards are worth it.

Tags: Alts, Blog Pack, Catching Up, CK's Blog Pack, EVE, EVE Online, Fiction, KG, POS, Star Wars, Training, Wallpapers, War, Wars, WordPress

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CrazyKinux linked an interesting article on his speedlinking post (http://www.crazykinux.com/2008/10/eve-online-speedlinking-for-october-3rd.html).  Can computer games help you build real world skills.  I do recommend reading the entire article (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Gaming/5366.html).

The gist of the article discusses how people actually gain real world skills that they can apply to their everyday lives.  They go into how educational games in the past have been shunned by the consumer markets, but the recent success of games from Nintendo for their DS platform have begun to change all that.

For years, the US military has taught people to play games to improve various real world skills.  Checkers, Chess, Poker.  These games teach you basic strategic thinking.  Something that can translate onto the battlefield.

So, the question here is, what skills have you learned from playing EVE Online?

Well, let’s take a look at some of the things that you do in the game and what they can teach you.

Training skills

To effectively train your skills in EVE, you need to learn to manage your time well.  If you do your research, you find that you need to train up the Learning skills so that you can reduce your skill training time over the long term.  You learn to manage you time in a way so that you always have a skill training.  You learn that you need to adapt your skill training plan to fit external game events, such as down times, patch days and when you are able to be logged into your computer (i.e., can’t change skills when you are at work or on a long vacation).

Such time management skills can be translated into the real world, in way of planning out things like a savings plan or how to address a busy day.

Corporation/Alliance Management

If you are running your own corporation, are a director in a corporation or an alliance, you quickly learn that the in game skills for running a coporation are just scratch the surface.  As your corporation grows in size, you begin to have to address personel issues.  Not all members of a corporation get along all the time.  You have to learn how to effectivly manage people.  You do learn people management skills.

As your corporation/alliance grows, you have to learn to delegate administrative tasks, setup seperate divisions and even plan and/or lead operations for resource gathering and trade.  As you expand you operations, you will encounte other corporations/alliances.  You have to learn to address these encoutners, whether diplomaticaly or with combat.

Such skills can again be translated into the real world.  You have gained some expeience in management.  You can use this knowledge to manage people who work under you or help yourself grow in your work.  Learning how to deal with hostile relationships in the game does help you to see things from different angles.  Such knowledge can help you to deal with a difficult boss or co-worker.  Of course, I would not suggest that you apply the combast aspect of EVE to these real life situations.

Market Trade

In EVE, the currency of trade is called isk.  You need isk in order to buy all those ships and modules you need for combat or movement of goods.

Learning how to use the market, buy low, sell high, identify trends, figure out how to make a profit.  These are all skills that you can use when dealing with your personal finances.  Buying stocks, shopping for real world goods.  These things can help you along in life, teaching you the value of money.

So, do computer games teach you real world skills?  They can, if you can apply what you learn in the games to real life.  If you can recognize that learning is not restricted to the classroom.

Tags: Blog Pack, Discussion, Real life impact, Response to other blog, Skills, Training

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