Diary of a Pod Pilot

Friday: Fanfest day 2

While I really like trading and creating stuff, and in any game I play I usually at some point get rich by playing the economy one way or another, I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed to attend the State of the Economy presentation. However, Ship Balancing was not to be missed, because EVE is about the spaceships! Sadly this isn’t on Youtube either (yet?), but there has been a dev blog which mostly covers what it was about. As I saw it but didn’t fully process it before I set off to Iceland, it was nice to hear what is in store here. Making all the ships useful, as they should be! It’ll be a great deal easier to understand and makes way for a lot more variety without adding ships that nobody will ever use. Currently only half the ships in the game really gets used, that’s just such a total waste, especially since some have really nice designs. What more delighted me is that the lore got some attention here and that T2 ships will fit in with manufacturers that suit their roles. It’s some shuffling here and there but it is little details like that which make my roleplayer heart beat faster.

Lag is nobody’s friend and CCP Veritas had lots of graphs to show again how it, or at least the server kind, is being dealt with. While that fight is not totally over with, focus seems to be shifting towards the client now. Actually being able to use brackets without slowdowns? Being able to run multiple clients without having to give up all the eye candy? Faster dealing with crashes? Yes please, make it so.

Then it was time for Factional Warfare. While not something I have ever participated in other than shooting the fuck out of the Militias back with Operation Bold Harvest, it’s been something that I’ve always kept an eye on. Especially because way back when CCP actually mentioned pirate faction warfare, and that is something I hope to see before I retire from the game. While last year was still an outright denial for it ever happening, this year it was said that it could be implemented as the system does account for more than a two-way fight, the issue just seems to be they first off want to fix up the current issues, and secondly they’re not quite sure how to make it all work. I may elaborate on my thoughts in a future post, but basically since the pirate factions form 2 blocs, you could have a 3-3 split just like Amarr + Caldari are opposing Gallente + Minmatar. And then make it so that all pirates are open targets to the Empires and reverse.

The proposed changes in the FW presentation are a bit of a shocker, and some things like cyno jamming or datacores being moved over to militia LP stores to me seem unrealistic to be implemented as they are presented here. I do however like the idea of a sov-lite kind of playstyle, the only downside being that only the Empire factions get to enjoy it. I suppose us pirate roleplayers will have to be content with playing mercs or infiltration for now, or simply opt for other non-FW styles of play. However, it is good to see that this is being iterated on, because it means people in lowsec, and that is relevant to my interests.

The Brave New Module presentation was a bit spoiled by not being led by the most engaging speaker, but I never realized modules had been intended to be like cards and the addition of new decks in Magic The Gathering. This is quite interesting however, not only because I have been making my ISK as of late by producing the (new) Tech 2 modules, but also because of how it affects tactics in both PVP and PVE. Finally drone damage modules! And webber drones of all sizes. And salvage drones make a return! And so much other interesting things. The plans for using alternative methods of seeding them into the game made me frown a bit though, I can see it work for those that are totally new like tactical warp, but drone damage should in my oppinion be the same as weapon damage modules and thus be a standard blueprint. However, as at the end there is talk of phasing modules in and out of the game, maybe buying blueprints and growing a large researched library is going to become a thing of the past? I can think of some unhappy industrialists though as some spent years growing a perfect catalogue which is invaluable due to the many years of research applied on them.

And then, of course, the EVE keynote. With the painfulness of the ‘failure’ of Incarna, and the 20% layoffs still fresh in mind, this was bound to be interesting, and the right approach was taken. Generally speaking, this entire Fanfest has been one of restoring faith and celebrating that EVE did not fall over and die. Loads of things that came up at the start here were basically fast repetitions of presentations already attended. But then, what is this? No, not the new stealth bombers, although those are mighty pretty as well. I’m talking about the missile launchers visibly on ships. Squeeh! Happy Caldari pilot at last. I recall talking about that with CCP Masterplan last year and he said with the old system it was just not possible, and it may or may not be with the new. So, I am quite happy to see that the new system does allow for this, and I hope eventually we will see all the high slot modules visible.

Being given a free Fanfest ticket, as a perk for being a fansite, I decided to end the day by making my way over to the Fansites & Apps roundtable. Unfortunately, it was the App developers that took over the conversation and I felt pretty lonely and awkward as a blogger amongst them. Gladly, I have a background as a programmer so I could at least follow the conversation, but I’ll be mailing CCP Alice some things as I just didn’t get around saying what I wanted to say. A bit meh, as there were several other roundtables I understand were more suited for this tech talk that happened, but then again with so many apps and so many new possibilities for apps, I can’t hold it against those developing them to be all fired up about it.

Being a little tired by now and having lost track of most people, I missed out on the quiz show, but caught up with Verone who was assisting CCP during Fanfest and really deserves props for all the effort he is putting in. We managed to get everyone together and went out for dinner and then secured ourselves a few tables at Islenski Barinn before the pub crawlers poured in.

Saturday: Fanfest Day 3

Ugh, even 11:00 is too early at this time of the week, so I got in at the end of Growing EVE’s infrastructure and the first proper presentation of the day for me was War Declarations. Wars are going to get a lot of love, and seem to be moving from a griefing tool into a proper thing. I really like that mercenaries will get a proper way to offer assistance. The war statistics are also very nice, and I hope in future this can be expanded upon for all corporate killmails, as it would make an ingame killboard possible which would let a corporation see how well it is doing.

The game design panel wasn’t much interesting other than Diedra Vaal shaking things up with the first question, though I believe somewhere in there someone asked about pirate faction warfare again. Not sure, and can’t immediately find it. As the next thing was the art panel, which I assumed wouldn’t bring much new (skimming over it, I feel I was right), I wandered over to the EVE vs the Real World presentation. This had caught my attention because it was an actual player presentation, and it was about security theories (political sociology). While normally I’d have been able to keep up with this easily, I struggled to keep up, but was none the less intrigued by this subject which I knew a little about and how it applies in EVE Online.

Next up was the World of Darkness presentation, which I was happy to see getting some attention still. While I’ve only lightly dabbled in the WoD setting, or more specifically I have played Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, it is a setting that captured my imagination long after. The game itself wasn’t that spectacular, and I didn’t know back then it was part of a greater setting, but it left a lasting impression. I do plan to look more into it in the future, as the Grand Masquerade seems like an event I’d like to attend at least once just because it seems so very cool. What mostly intrigued me about the presentation was the talk of a player politics system, with elected positions and city leaders. While they drew the connection to EVE Online, in my mind I immediately linked it to the text games Lusternia and Aetolia, both by Iron Realms Entertainment, which I have enjoyed dabbling in during the last few years. I do wonder if the WoD team is at all aware of the existance of these games and how studying their political system could be useful to develop an even better player politics system.

Bittersweet as usual, the last presentation of the day was CCP Presents, where we got to see a glimpse of what the future may hold. Got a bit scary when that fire alarm went off, but the new launcher and further work on EVE voice is something that bodes well, even though I currently skip the damn thing to get the Steam overlay on the main client. Tessellation looks pretty sexy, and nice to see what more is coming for Dust 514 — eSports and PVE and MTACs and non-temperate planets, oh my — but of course it is the EVE stuff that intrigued me the most. Ring mining sounds like it could be a lot of fun, not to mention finally allow the  ‘common player’ to take part in the moon mineral game. And modular POSes, ooh, I like building stuff, even though at times I bitterly hate taking care of my ‘space tamagochi’, as the POS gets so lovingly called. The new UI seems like it could work out really well, especially loving the camera close-up view and prettier explosions. What nearly had me jump out of my chair though was using avatar gameplay and combine that with exploring the insides of abandoned installations. If they put that in, and it will be as awesome as it sounds, I am so going to be all over that. I’ve always wanted the exploration system of EVE to be more interesting, but this just totally blew me away. And then, it could not have ended better, the story of Templar One turned into a new game trailer. Around the one minute mark it dawned on me what I was looking at. That’s just so cleverly done!

Gathering everyone up again, we went for dinner and then to prepare for the party. It was alright at first, but after HAM had performed and we retreated to the Fanfest lounge, it quickly grew terribly boring. We sat there quite a while until eventually enough people were bored enough that we packed up and left for the hotel. Settling down there was a lot better and we had a lovely evening, sitting around and talking. Keith Neilson, CCP Masterplan and some other folks dropped by as well.

Sunday: Brunch and Blue Lagoon

As per tradition, there was the Brunch on Sunday, this year at the Vox Restaurant at the Reykjavik Hilton. So many delicious foods!

With our tummies filled, we went over to the Blue Lagoon, which was a first for me. Quite nervous about this, I admit, I’m not a good swimmer and the etiquette at these kind of places always kinda worries me, I don’t want to shock people but neither do I want to come off as too prude. However, it turns out that for the women at least, it’s really quite relaxed, everyone just stripped down, headed for the showers wrapped in their towels, put swimming gear on after, and went outside. Ah, it was so nice to just soak for a few hours in the hot water, even though I had to make a bit of a detour through the shallower ends of the water to keep up with people. For once, being small really wasn’t handy! But later on taking up a little corner of the sauna, I was quite happy with my small frame again. What I really liked was that you could just use your bracelet to buy drinks, so I had a slushy. Kind of handy, this hot water, when it didn’t melt fast enough to keep drinking I just dipped the bottom in the water for a while.

After the Blue Lagoon, it was quite late already when we finally got home. Some people got pizza, but I was still quite full from the brunch, so I started to pack my things up and watched another movie, before we all headed downstairs and sat together the final few hours, joined by the excellent folks from Rote Kapelle. As my flight was late, and we had Damir Delon to take us back, I stayed up into the wee hours with the people who had early morning flights.

Monday: Travel again

It’s never fun to say goodbye, but good things have to end someday. This whole week felt like it just blazed past. Adrian Schultze, Lacrimae, Stranger (who had flown in just for the party and the events on Sunday!), that guy from Rote Kapelle who I never asked for his character name and me all were on the same plane, together with Diedra Vaal and his girlfriend. Once landed in Copenhagen, our party soon started to break up as everyone headed on to their final flights.

What a week it had been. Props to the Veto guys for letting me hang out with them again, so nice to meet some new people again, and see many old faces once more. While I was really fearful this fanfest would be marred by the layoffs and the negative events this summer, I must say I am feeling very optimistic again now. It wasn’t quite the same as the previous years, and I fear it may never be again, but it was very nice in a different sort of way. Big thanks also to CCP for providing the fansites with free tickets again this year, it does help in me being there and writing about all of this now.

Since I still do not own a laptop, or an iPad which seems much more convenient for these types of things, I’m writing this all well after the events. I’ve been more sloppy in my note taking this year, so sorry if I forgot anything obvious. Also, I’m only writing this now, as I needed some downtime after returning home. It’s like one of those vacations after which you need another vacation because they were so intense. Loved every minute of it though, and want to go back right now. Only a year and less than a month to go!

Tuesday: Travel, settling in and kicking things off

Started off with a delayed departure, which left me little time to change flights in Copenhagen. I was supposed to meet Adrian Schultze there, but we only met up once in Keflavik airport. A friend of his, Damir Delon, was kind enough to give us and the other arrivals — Mashie Saldana and Eomar — a ride over to Room with a View, the apartment hotel where the ‘Veto blob’ traditionally stays at.

After settling in we went to the Kex hostel for food and drinks. Really nice place, love the atmosphere and the food is great as well. There was a live jazz band playing, but as it was just too loud and erratic, we settled for something a little more quiet and had a nice night of drinking and socializing at Islenski Barinn (my favourite!).

Wednesday: Lazy day, chilli and beer

Ouch, alcohol resistance has greatly suffered under the fact I don’t tend to drink — save the occasional glass of wine with food — unless I go out / am with friends, and that had been a while again. No real hangover, but slept in until past noon. After enjoying a few hours of doing nothing (read: reading on my Kindle) I decided it was a good day to go and stock up on groceries, so Eomar and me went shopping.

Having paid attention, I knew about the awesome that is Skyr, and decided this was going to be my breakfast for the rest of the week. Excellent idea. Seriously, if you have not yet tried it, do it next time you’re there, or consider splurging on export stuff (US and Scandinavia gets it). It’s a kind of yoghurt, with a different texture and taste, and I think it may just have overtaken Greek yoghurt for me. Too bad it’s not yet quite as popular that it is available where I live.

In retrospect, it is good that I decided to relax and catch up on sleep, because a busy schedule was ahead in the evening. We returned to Kex for a big chilli dinner, and after that attended the beer monologues, an entertaining and informative show about beer, which of course included sampling beers. Learned that Iceland has some really fine white beer (Einstök Ölgerð), which the host managed to tell us is something that originates from Belgium (whoo!). Right up my alley, this beer stuff.

Having done our cultural duty, we set off for the Celtic Cross to join in on the #tweetfleetmeet. Tweeps represent! It was packed again, though unlike last year, we didn’t drink the bar empty. At least I think we didn’t. The end is a bit blurry again. I do remember talking to some Goonfleet people, alas didn’t manage to get a squeeky bee again. However, I did hug the lovely CCP Punkturis. I think she even knew who I was. Mission succesful there. Noticed Diana Dial from EveTimeCodes around as well, though I didn’t properly say hello to her. Probably a lot of other people as well. May order a t-shirt for next year, in order to properly stand out.

Thurday: Fanfest day 1

Since things started later on in the day, and people needed whiskey, Jinx Denton drove us to a shopping mall, after which we went for hamburgers. The important things sorted — food and drink, that is — we set off to Harpa.

What an excellent location! It does really look like a station, except with too much glass to actually work out in space. The downside of the new venue being so new is that decoration was limited, from what I heard being due to Harpa not knowing how big this was going to be and thus not wanting to risk damage that decoration may leave to the property. Considering the theme was going to be Minmatar, I can imagine they wouldn’t be amused by fake rust everywhere.

The first presentation I attended was Crimewatch. Not just because CCP Masterplan had insisted on Veto — which by extension includes me — attendance the day before, but also because this stuff is really interesting to me. While I’ve been laying low on the piracy due to various reasons, any changes to this are a must-know in my book, not only for when shooting other people but because they form the very backbone of stability within the game. Turn it off and you will have complete anarchy within minutes, I’m sure. Very interesting to get an insight in the current workings, and after seeing what a mess it is, I am pretty amazed it just works and so well too. I like the simplified flagging system, buying sec status, simplified travelling rules (so no more need for -1.9 to go into Jita, just be above -5) and of course UI improvements. I suppose sec status to +10 through ‘anti-pirating’ is also worth mentioning, as this could lead to it becoming a proper playstyle.

Then I moved over to the Crucible Roundup. Since there is no recording of this, the specifics escape me (I probably did some tweets about it, but :effort: to dig those back up), but suffice to say it was indeed a great expansion that came at the right time, and that it is a trend they want to continue on with. Also, CCP Soundwave mentioned how he rage-implemented the corp bookmarks. Later on during Fanfest, he did get called out for that, as it can be seen as developer favouritism. I personally think it is a tale that might have better gone untold, but it sure is a handy feature to have.

Since another CCPer, GM Radiance to be precise, insisted on attendance, I made my way over to the Ladies with Laz0rs roundtable. Got to meet up with Sindel Pellion, who I know from the #tweetfleet, but didn’t manage to catch at the Celtic Cross the day before. Also was nice to see Matariki Rain there, who I know from roleplay and blogging, as well as Tsumei Meyren, CEO of GIRL. Everyone got a chance to introduce themselves and talk a little about what they do in the game, which was nice to see how very diverse it gets, and how both old players as well as very new ones were attending. The general oppinion was that ‘women on the internet’ is slowly but surely becoming more accepted, although some still had horror stories to share, and others admitted that they sometimes took advantage of the situation. It is EVE after all, so if people want to give you ISK for that, why not.

And then, the Dust 514 keynote! I can see myself sitting on the first row, which while a bit of a strain on the neck was the best spot to be seated at that time. Especially because of seeing this. Hate or love what CCP is doing, but the whole orbital bombardment is just way cool. For me, and possibly for many others, that was the time where it really dawned on me that barriers are being broken here. It is one thing to have something like EVE Gate or the API to use other devices to interact with EVE, but these are two distinct games sharing one world. I got goosebumps.

Excited by what we had seen, we went out for dinner, passing on the Alliance panel. With the whole ‘Mittanigate’ incident, kind of glad I weren’t there, although that really spun way more out of control than it should have gotten, but was correctly addressed by CCP in the end. Most of the guys went for whale and other seafood, but I joined the smaller group that opted for Kex instead. I know it is totally acceptable in Iceland, and I tried a small sampling last year, but I wanted something a bit less controversial (by my ethics) on my dinner plate.

As there were two more days to go, the evening was spent leisurely watching movies and enjoying the drinks we had bought. Whiskey for the guys, and gin & tonic for me, as even after trying the quality stuff it seems I just ain’t a whiskey person.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Yeah, I really dropped the ball as of late, although I’m more correct if I say several things made me drop the ball. I’ve had my share of computer problems, eventually resolved by buying a retired graphics card from a friend, which ended up replacing a card given to my by another friend to replace the initial card I had. At least each new card was an upgrade, so I have future-proofed my machine for a while again. Meanwhile my media account expired at the start of March, which I only noticed several days in. Suddenly two EVE accounts to fund, which is pretty rough if you can’t properly run the game. There has been a gaming backlog building up because not a great many things ran for very long before I crashed due to overheating. And then there are various real life issues that piled on top of that. Ugh!

As that goes with the main figure missing, things have been on the decline for both PRETA and PRELI. The latter has seen most of its directors step down due to time constraints or feeling the need to move on. The former, well, pretty much the same. Also, I feel my age is starting to show. In August, I will hit the five year mark, and most of that has been spent by being a CEO. I suppose I kinda burned myself out as well trying to run two corporations who both needed a lot of effort. I feel we did really well with PRETA, this last summer. Despite the state of the game we had some good months in Curse. With PRELI, we did really well the last few months. But as it goes, what goes up has to got to fall again. I’m not the only one stuck in a rut, I feel corp members are in the same kind of state. There have been some that have really tried to turn things around, but when you try to motivate people who don’t really want to be motivated you don’t really get anywhere.

So, where is this all going? Well, in a few days, I am leaving to the beautiful country of Iceland to attend Fanfest. This will be an excellent week of seeing people, being amongst the first to see all the new things that are in store for us, but also a week to clear my head and take some distance from everything in another environment.

I suspect, just like last year did, I will find inspiration again. But I’m also prepared for that to not happen again. I know that Fanfest is always that most critical time of the year, it’s like a push in the back that puts you back into speed and keeps you rolling along. And if that does’t happen, well, that is a clear sign that nothing else is likely to do it either. Hence, I have put off any decisions regarding my future in EVE, as well as the future of the corporations and alliance under my lead, until after I get back home. I’ve got some things left that I want to do, but without anything new I’m unsure how much time is left in that.

That is the beauty of EVE though, it’s such a massive game something is always left for you to do, and unlike other games there is not the block of having to, for example, level up a new class. Granted, more and more MMOs are offering class changes, knowing probably that someone who has played for many years and is tired of their class may not always want to restart from scratch. But in EVE, this is something that doesn’t need to cost a thing, especially for an older character like mine who has access to a lot of ships and skills, with an alt that covers the rest.

If I keep playing, I hope to maintain this blog. I’ve not participated in the last two blog banters, purely because the topics didn’t interest me. I haven’t tried the new NPE, and my CSM votes are mostly based on the vote matcher and who happened to capture my attention without spamming my evemail box. But that meant I had nothing else to write about for a month. I suppose some Fanfest posts are going to make up for that though! I also hope I can remain on the Blog Pack, at least for now, as I am one of the longest listed blogs on there now and I don’t really want to break my record streak just yet. However, should I just not play and write enough, I’m fine with being removed and simply take pride in how long I have kept at it.

So, that’s the state for things. I’ve not quit, and at worst I will become extremely casual or take a break, but I’m hoping Inferno will have some goodies that will keep me going. I have a few PLEX now that will get me through that, and I’m sure I can make more in that time. Or pay my subscription with cash again, as I did for Myrhial to get the account active again. I know I could have asked for some time to plug in a PLEX, but well, the only one I had left at that time I’ve donated to the office tour. Those children need the money more than I do, really. Plus, if I win, I get to rave at the devs about pirate stuff, how awesome would that be right?

Well, that’s it for now. Back to finishing up things that need to be done before I leave. To those who are also going, see you there, hope to meet some of you again this year! And to those not going, there is always the live stream.

Time for another blog banter. This time, Seismic Stan has something a little less political for us to discuss. This is a topic that is straight up my alley, since being a roleplayer means you really get into the game and your character, through acting out what your experience rather than through controlling a character from a third-person perspective.

EVE Online is renowned for it’s depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?

I think the biggest immersion factor for EVE Online is that every action has a reaction, or the freedom to get one. We see this in security status, standings that drop when others go up, and the fact that scamming, theft and suicide ganking are not banned as they are in more “friendly” MMO’s. Likewise, players have the tools and freedom to strike back against this. And there is the playerrun market, which just like the real market reacts to what large groups of players do. A recent example of that is the new Goonfleet campaign in highsec. Isotope prices — which are the main target — are going up, and PLEX seems to be following in this due to market panic. That’s stuff that makes EVE feel real, because it is real. Yes, there is some form of control, exploits and bots are not allowed (and for good reasons), but you can really ruin or make a players day, and someone else can affect you just the same.

A close second immersion factor for EVE is roleplay as a whole. We might at times feel the backstory progresses slowly or not at all, but it has some dynamic to it and has been build upon since the game release. Yes, in the early days players had a much larger impact, but this is far easier to manage with a smaller playerbase. Still, live events have started again and players shape these events. As admitted by CCP Dropbear at Fanfest 2011, the events don’t always pan out as foreseen either. It might seem like all part of the plan on the outside, but that is only because you don’t see behind the scenes. Also, I was initially critical about the recent Arek’Jaalan event arc, but after deciding to give it a try to test the validity of my beliefs I can now say that credit is given where it is due and that nobody likes drama, and that when it threatens the event it is dealt with, where if players can or want to do it they are always given the preference, which stick true to the principle of the sandbox.

There are some other minor and sometimes subtle ways where immersion happens, sometimes without us even realizing it. Have you ever tried looking up characters from the backstory ingame? Prominent figures, such as Heth, lead the corporations they belong to. And they were even given unique sculpted models rather than the random generator that created the mission agents. It wasn’t there right of the get-go, and that sparked such an outrage, and it is lovely to see that this was taken seriously enough to step in and give the important figures the care they deserve.

Now, Incarna was a bit of a lackluster expansion, and the drama surrounding CCP in the last few months really didn’t do it much good, but I think the Captain’s Quarters balcony is a stroke of sheer genius. We already had a sense of scale in the way that flying a frigate next to a battleship, not to mention something as huge as a titan, makes you feel really small. Old artwork showed us that frigates were already bigger than large commercial airplanes, but now we can stand next to our frigates and see them tower above us. Yes, the sense of scale is a bit skewed because larger ships go further back into the hangar, but you have to realize that hangar is way larger than your little hangout spot.

A last thing that a friend mentioned when I asked around for inspiration is the warning noises on the interface. What, a user-friendly — the ear-friendliness of it being debatable, but it sure makes you pay attention! — UI feature that adds to immersion? Why yes, indeed. We all know warning noises from the real world, if an alarm starts there usually is a reason for it. And yes, there is no sound in space, and EVE has some game mechanics that don’t simulate space as it would work when it is real, but when you regard the game and the interface as a simulation that your character sees to make sense of what is going around him or her, much alike to augmented reality, the pieces quickly fall in place. And that is how you can best explain the Neocom (name of the UI framework) in an in character way. Arguably, science fiction MMO’s have an easier time with this than fantasy MMO’s due to technology being a way to explain a lot, but nothing wrong with getting the most out of what you have. After all, fantasy MMO’s tend to be high magic universes, where magic can explain a lot too! I’m not of the opinion that every last bit of game mechanic should be able to be explained in character, that’s a foolish pursuit as it never totally works, but the less substitution or not mentioning has to happen, the more immersive everything will feel as it all comes naturally.

This is me being interviewed by the lovely StevieSG from EVE TV at Fanfest 2011. Note how I got the URL wrong at the end, but as you’re viewing the blog that should not be an issue, you have the correct one in your address bar.

Those now thinking that they were also interviewed and would like to obtain theirs, simply contact Stevie about it and she will get you yours. May want to do it before the end of the month though, as she is moving on to another project. We will miss you Stevie! <3