Eve Online: sov lost

For years I rummaged around Gallente highsec, running missions and doing some smalltime trading, usually as a member of corps with the same group of pilots I’ve known for years. Finally, bored out of our skulls, a few of us created a new corp (No Fixed Abode - NOFAD) and joined Saints amongst Sinners alliance in Querious. For the first time I was part of a sovereignty holding nullsec alliance! With the plentiful beltrat bounties, the havens and the sanctums also came the CTA’s, gatecamps, roaming gangs and skirmishes. I scored my first solo pvp kill, got killed too and generally enjoyed it thoroughly. If there’s one thing I regret, is that I didn't do this earlier!

But all was not well. We were in Querious as IT renters, but, unbeknownst to us IT was on the verge of a failscade. Pretty soon it looked like IT wasn't able to repel the assaults directed at Fountain, and when IT needed more support, they upgraded us from renters to allies and gave us the entire constellation instead of just our home system B-7DFU. But for IT, it really was too late to turn the tide and it became clear we were on our own.

For a while, we were able to withstand the annoyances of Goon cloaky SB pilots (true, that wasn't the hard part) and the occassional roaming gang of reds. But when IT caved in, we soon encountered other enemies at our doorstep. We fought off Atlas. a few times - including their cap ships, I might add. We gate camped, scored kills, destroyed a number of SBU’s, but in the end we couldn’t withstand the combined pressure of –A-, Atlas. and Pandemic Legion. After we lost a few key battles, most of us evacuated our goods to either NPC nullsec or into Khanid and bade farewell to a part of New Eden that served us well.

For the past few weeks, –A-, Atlas. and PL have been duking it out in KFIE-Z, which is a dozen or so jumps away from our former home B-7DFU, and as long as PL has the ability to hotdrop –A-/Atlas. fleets in the region on a whim, I'm not sure someone else will claim sovereignty there. The -A- guys have had their butts kicked painfully, a few times, and I don’t see things changing in their favour anytime soon. In other words: unless Pandemic Legion gets curb stomped unexpectedly, it holds the keys to who’s going to have sov in our former home in Querious.

The impact of IT's once powerful cap fleets being able to move quickly throughout New Eden via their jump bridge network, has allowed them to project power across a large expanse of the cluster, more or less allowing us to find a nice and relatively safe spot under their protection. But when IT caved, the same mechanics allowed large enemy cap fleets to knock on our doors in no time. It still seems that holding sov in nullsec is a large alliances' game; you need the cap fleet and, preferrably, the backing of a large coalition if you want to establish a long term presence.

But then.. what is long term, in Eve Online nullsec? The biggest changes on the map have often happened in very short time frames, sometimes even overnight.. remember to pay that sov bill, guys!

So, as for Saints amongst Sinners: after a turbulent time in late 2010 and early 2011, we now find ourselves in a much different place. We are reorganizing in NPC nullsec, and will be preparing for a next stab at sov in nullsec. Stay tuned :)

Eve Online: weird graphics stuff

After the recent Eve Online: Incursion patches, I have had weird graphics effects on this laptop, which sports a ATI Mobility Radeon HD2300 GPU. It's not an impressive gpu, not by a longshot, but it's still supported for the current Eve client.

The first nuisance is this weird darkening issue with ATI cards on Windows 7. The solution is to upgrade to the latest Catalyst stuff, which I can't because it's not available for my hardware. Just my luck :)

The other issue concerns screenshots. If you press the printscreen button while in Eve, a snapshot is saved - by default as a .bmp in the C:\Users\username\Documents\EVE\capture\Screenshots directory. After the latest patch, there's some truly strange coloring in my screenshots:


The Windows photo viewer does not show these artefacts at all, but Picasa does. Uploading to Koinup didn't work either, this resulted in a format error: "the file you provided seems to be invalid". If I copy the picture to .jpg, the strange coloring is preserved:


Luckily, I am still able to get good copies of these snapshots, by opening them in Picasa and saving a copy, this time as a bitmap again:


Perhaps this is solved too, by installing that Catalyst 10.12 package, but first I need to find a way to get that to install on my laptop!

Eve Online: developments in Querious

By now, my alliance has been in the Querious region for quite a while, and we joined them there about four months ago. Much has happened since then! IT alliance is struggling to cope with a relentless assault, mounted by Goons and other enemies, and the political landscape of our part of New Eden could change at any moment. Who knows what will happen!

Only a few days ago, we expected a huge wave of reds (enemy pilots) to wash over us; we expected to die a violent death any moment. We defiantly braced for impact, preparing to 'go down in a blaze of glory', THIS IS SPARTA!, Alamo, and all that.

And then - nothing really happened. The last big battles in the region sort of petered out, and except for a few stealth bomber cowards and the incidental roaming gangs, no big red waves were spotted anywhere near our home. Perhaps it had already broken?

Our home in Querious - may it long be 'our house' indeed:


So here we are, mentally and physically prepared for battle. We don't know if the current quiet is just the quiet before the storm; perhaps the enemy is merely taking a breather before trying to wipe us out. Or perhaps they are too busy pursuing other goals, to worry about us. Things change fast out here, these days; todays' enemy may be tomorrows' ally, reds become blue and blues turn red..

For a recovering carebear like myself, this is a great time to be in Querious. You are continually challenged: deploy to here, station yourself there, patrol this system or camp that gate, get this ship fit.. There's no time to become stagnant, you have to adapt rapidly, and you don't know today what will happen tomorrow.

It's also a time where you have to decide whether you stay and fight to defend your place in nullsec, or if you perhaps sneak out, tail firmly tucked between your legs, to hide out in highsec.. Even though this is just 'an internet spaceship game', it does feel like a real test of character vis à vis your corp and alliance mates. Obviously, I am staying, even though my PVP skills aren't that great yet.

For now, we'll be alert and ready, waiting for that red wave. It may yet come..

Eve Online: being beaten is a steep learning curve

What I called "the inevitable" here happened today: I lost my drake battlecruiser. Here's how.

Earlier this evening, while I was doing some light ratting, one of our scouts reported an incoming fleet from Darkside. alliance, about 30 pilots strong. Now for a casual roaming gang, that's a bit too big.. They briefly touched on our gate, one pilot even jumped in, but the rest went on their merry way, apparently to C3N where IT has recently had their hands full. Our FC decided we should pursue, after all if these 30 men get into C3N, IT will be on hand to squash them! So the ten of us pursued.

At the C3N gate, we actually overtook one of the Darkside. guys, and before the FC's command to leave him alone and jump into C3N got through to me, I had already fired a missile at him. At that moment my fleet jumped, and a Darkside. fleet landed on the gate.. Suddenly I was surrounded by lots of ill tempered Russian neutrals! Because I had just fired a missile at a neutral, the gate wouldn't let me jump (aggro rules you must learn, young padawan) and I had to warp away as quick as I could - to any point but here, really - to survive. I was fast enough, and got out! My alliance mates however were not so lucky. At the other side of the gate, the enemy made short work of them.. IT alliance hadn't been aware soon enough of the skirmish that was about to begin, and IT's reinforcements were too late to prevent defeat. So, most of our first wave of responders made their way to our home system automatically, waking up in a fresh clone and an insurance note in their inbox after being podded in C3N! I briefly jumped back to the gate to assist a fleet mate, but warped out again when he told me he was lost anyway. Again I survived, just because I was fast enough.

A little while later, I traveled home, alone and unharmed, when the enemy overtook me and jumped into our home system. I waited for instructions from my FC, and finally made my way back in, warping straight to the battlefield, which was centered around one of our carriers - which should of course have been docked up a long time ago, given that the enemy was already in system.. From this point on, things went downhill fast. The Darkside. fleet had better logistiscs, repping their own pilots faster as we could, and we were unable to hold the field, much less defeat them. Slowly we continued to bleed ships (including my Drake), until after a while an IT alliance fleet came in to assist. Upon their arrival, Darkside. disengaged, left our home system and we were left to contemplate what had just happened.

For the first time, it seems we were a specific target for a well known pvp outfit. Helping IT alliance out does make you known here and there, apparently :) Personally, I think the whole initial manoeuver was a trap; we were lured out into the pursuit, and the enemy made sure the first responders were out of system and neutralized before entering our home system. At the same time, the lonely Darkside. pilot who went in our home system remained there, scouting out a juicy target - the Carrier - for his buddies to land on when they arrived. A sound strategy, executed with a balanced fleet - enough logistics - and good discipline. Did we learn a lesson tonight? You bet we have :-)

By the way - at least of the pilots involved in the Darkside. fleet appears in this Alliance Tournament movie: Darkside. vs RAZOR, so we were indeed confronted with some very experienced pvp pilots here..

Fleet warp

Eve Online: my son hates goons

Earlier this week we got word that IT alliance requested our assistance, for an operation this sunday afternoon. As we gathered today, we heard rumors about a battle being fought somewhere else; we were probably going to be bridged in to help IT.

When he noticed what was happening, my son, currently nine years of age, got very excited: he's been eager to see some large scale fleet battle. He has developed a bit of a habit: whenever we play Eve Online together, he gets us a bottle of coke and two glasses, and then sits next to me to watch. And even though he doesn't speak English, he grabs one of my earbuds to listen in on TeamSpeak :)

Our fleet was supposed to leave around 18.00; I logged in some ten minutes before that. There was a small delay, and then another one, and in the end we left around 18.30. It was a glorious sight, as around 40 of my fellow pilots warped through Querious space together! Or, against the backdrop of a barren planet, where we briefly held:


Soon, we entered the target system, and joined the IT forces already there at a nearby Player Owned Station (POS). As more and more ships warped in, it got a bit crowded. And when the supercarriers arrived - including a Minmatar Hel and a buch of Gallente Nyxes, it got really impressive! My son however wasn't around to watch that anymore, as by now the operation had been going on for over an hour and there wasn't really happening much.. he had gotten bored and went away. I promised however to call him when the enemy would arrive.

Nothing continued to happen for a long time, however, while my son periodically, and with growing irritation, inquired as to if the enemy (GoonFleet alliance) had arrived yet. They never showed up; either too busy elsewhere or unwilling to face an IT fleet this size and strenght. We were also not bridged out to another battle as we originally thought, and so, after more than three hours, we were dismissed. Lady Scarlett spoke some kind words of appreciation, the fleet disbanded, and a bunch of us made our way home.. I was asked to FC that leg of our trip, but given what was happening at home - more on that below - and that I have no experience, I declined.. would have been a nice opportunity to try it out!

By now, my son was in tears, sobbing to his mother about the stupid Goonfleet enemy that didn't show up, the stupid hour he lost watching our fleet do conga lines in a pos, the stupid maker of Eve Online, why he'd even bothered to grab coke and glasses, my stupid computer which he was going to destroy with a large axe he wanted to buy first thing tomorrow morning.. He was sad and angry. He had been looking forward todoing a large fleet battle together with his dad, and nothing had happened! I really had to spend some time to explain what we did: we secured an important asset for IT alliance, and we'll get a nice reward. Some battles are not won by shooting, but simply by showing up and guarding your assets! He accepted the explanation, but still spoke harsh words of condemnation for the Goons that didn't show up.

So there you have it, Goons. You ruined my son's sunday evening, and probably his opinion of the entire game, simply by not showing up for a fight tonight. He really has it in for you now.. you have made a fierce enemy out of him. Just wait until he's old enough to go to nullsec ;-)

Eve Online: solo versus social and the joys of pvp

(It has become a bit of a long post, but I wanted to get some thoughts out on highsec, nullsec (0.0) and how I experience the transition from the former to the latter. For those unfamiliar with Eve Online system security statuses: here's a primer!)

Until recently, I was a typical highsec carebear – with one exception: I didn’t mine unless I really had to. All the fuss about nullsec alliance warfare was interesting but didn’t mean anything to me, really. PVP was just a nuisance, something those antisocial highsec griefers do to defenseless pve oriented carebears such as myself. And I considered Eve Online to be a social game, as it is an open sandbox universe with virtually limitless options, in terms of careers, development and things to do and achieve. Staying in nullsec for an extended period of time has altered some of these long held convictions, and reinforced others.

Expect the unexpected
Flying in nullsec adds a whole new level of depth to New Eden. In highsec, there’s pretty much nothing unexpected that will happen to you, if you stay in the right places and do the right things.. For instance running level 4 missions in Everyshore pretty much guarantees a modest but steady income of ISK without much surprises. In nullsec however, even in places considered relatively safe, there is always an awareness that anything might happen, at any time, in any place. A roaming gang of reds may attempt a surprise attack on your system; a lonely but very dangerous enemy stealth bomber suddenly appears out of nowhere and attacks; the large alliance you rent space from may urgently request your presence on a nearby battlefield, in five minutes thankyouverymuch. You need to be ever alert, ready to move, defend or attack. And making ISK isn’t a goal in itself, necessarily, but a tool to fund the ships and goods necessary for defense.

PVP, not so bad after all
This means my attitude towards PVP has changed as well. I still maintain that PVP between seasoned PVP characters and highsec carebears is too much of an uneven fight, but in nullsec it’s a very different game: it’s about protecting your assets. I have, to my own surprise, come to enjoy the clashes with roaming gangs and solo pvp pilots! These engagements can be entertaining and exciting, sometimes leading to extended fighting and long term feuds. So far I have been lucky only to have scored kills; I haven’t suffered a loss yet. I’m sure that moment will come – it’s inevitable – but for now my Querious stats are fine. And with the steady and much larger amount of ISK now flowing into my wallet, losing a ship isn’t that much of a problem anymore either.
One of the more fascinating things about fleet engagements and nullsec pvp in general, is the wealth of options and strategies that are available to the pilots. So many different ship types and ships, each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses, with innumerable ways to fit and use them! The level of detail and expertise that can be achieved continues to amaze me, and far outstrips anything highsec mission runners are used to.

Solo versus social
On the ‘social’ side, I must say nullsec beats highsec too. In highsec, most pilots work solo, incidentally joining forces for a mining op or a few rounds of lvl4’s. CCP is aware of this, and has been trying - for years - to get the highsec pilots to work together. With Incursion, CCP is even resorting to full blown Sansha invasions, in order to achieve this goal.
In nullsec, cooperation is the norm, rather than the exception. Some activities (ratting, easy complexes) can be done solo, but even mining often requires the presence of combat ships in order to ward off ‘belt rats’, the non player driven (NPC) enemies that spawn in asteroid belts from time to time. And higher level complexes are usually done in teams as well: much more effective and the rewards get spread over a larger number of pilots. Finally, given the constant threat of external violence, nullsec pilots are generaly forced to work together much more, in terms of exchanging intelligence, countering threats or achieving offensive goals.

Take fleets, for instance. In recent months, I have experieced two types of fleets. On the one hand, there’s the semi organized gathering of solo pilots who happen to share a chat channel. This is the type of fleets that highseccers are wont to create – chaotic, made up of whatever flies and whatever each individual likes. On the other hand, there’s the organized group of pilots, each with their own specific fleet role and orders, flying the specific ship types to match those roles, lead by an FC who knows his business (if you’re lucky of course). The first type of fleet is going to be massacred if they face a better trained enemy – no doubt about it. The second one however stands a chance against any adversary: in Eve Online, outnumbered but better organized and fc’d fleets have slaughtered numerical superior forces time and time again. As for our own alliance: we were definitely of the first, likely-to-get-massacred type not too long ago. We are currently of the second type, and we’re getting better at what we do with each engagement, and with passing week. And I'm enjoying each minute of it!

Eve Online: Conga!

Last night we were called for a defensive operation in a nearby solar system. We were waiting for the enemy, but - they didn't show up. Finally, bored, our pilots lined up for a conga line in space.. when the first man started to 'approach' the last man, the circle was closed, and we rotated in space for several minutes like this :)

Eve Online: enemies defeated

One evening last week, upon returning from a meeting, I heard chatter erupting from my laptop earphone - a sure sign something was going on on TeamSpeak. Usually my alliance or corp mates leisurely talk about happenings in New Eden, but now there was a lot of excitement and urgency in the voices emanating from TS.

Instead of going to bed, I quickly logged in and switched my Drake Battlecruiser to the requested PVP alliance fit. Our fleet appeared to have gathered at an entry gate to our solar system so I swiftly headed over and positioned myself for a fight.

And a fight is what we got! The first enemy ship to jump in was a Broadsword; a heavy interdictor capable of warp scrambling other ships, preventing them to warp away. We tried to put as much damage on him as possible, but his tank held and soon he trapped several of our ships - amongst them one of our carriers, and my Drake. Our FC ordered a retreat to the station as other enemies arrived on the field. Unable to warp out I burned away from the Broadsword as fast as I could; I started taking damage from other incoming enemy ships and my shield started falling, slowly but steadily. With my shields 50% down, I got out of the Broadswords' warp scrambling range and without hesitation I warped to safety. The carrier got out as well, but a few other ships were lost.

At that moment, with our fleet in disarray and having lost several ships, I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Our FC, however, did! He rallied the troops, explained the new strategy, quickly had several pilots switch into ships needed to execute the strategy - and as soon as we could we all warped back to the gate.

This time, the roles were reversed. As the correct primary and secondary targets were called and destroyed, the enemy swiftly lost most of their fleet: their destroyed wrecks (and bodies..) littered the area around the gate. I got two of the kill mails, meaning I delivered the final blow that destroyed the ship; the Broadsword and a Hurricane battlecruiser are formally my kills.

With the last enemy either destroyed or chased out of our space, we stood down battlecomms - and celebrated a nice victory. A few weeks ago this enemy might have picked us apart, but no more.

Yet, in Eve Online's New Eden, a battle is only rarely just that - a single battle. Defeat often leads to rancor, hatred and a thirst for vengeance, and so most of the gang we destroyed last week, returned yesterday evening for another brawl. We knew they were coming, and when their first pilot entered our system, he was attacked from all sides. Missiles, lasers and drones hammered his Myrmidon battlecruiser and he jumped out again as fast as he could - unfortunately we were too late to stop him from exiting. After some deliberation and intelligence work, the fleet followed him on the way out; a few jumps from our home system, our fleet overtook the enemy and once again all of their ships were destroyed - again with minimal losses on our side. Unfortunately I missed that fight: I missed the FC's command to pursue, and by the time I got near the battlefield, it was already over. Next time..

Eve Online: Querious II

Just a quick note on my stay in Querious. This space is generally held by IT alliance and we're just one of the IT allies in the region. Well, allies.. I think the proper name is 'renter' or 'pet', not sure which one is applicable to us.

We've learned a lot in recent weeks. The alliance has begun to operate in organized fleets, with proper fc'ing. We have 'eyes' in the systems leading to our home system; we have intel on what's coming our way. If a roaming gang of enemies comes in, we try to have the necessary ships for the engagement we're about to have - based on incoming ships types of course. Usually it works out, we have most ship types ready and available. We are getting better at killing neutrals (my first solo kill!) or reds who enter our space uninvited. All in all, it's a very interesting process to witness, as a ragtag group of semi carebears adjusts to nullsec and tries to become an organized and effective unit.

Just a few days ago we had a roaming gang of enemies enter our home system. We had intel on them way before they got to us: we were prepared and ready. At the gate, we had a standoff, with both parties keeping their distance, about 120 kilometers. In the 10 minute engagement they killed http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftwo of us: one pilot who ignored the FC's order to maintain formation and went at it alone - he died quickly. The second one got caught in a bubble went up just after he had hit warp, so there was no way to prevent him getting caught and killed. In return we killed one of their stealth bombers, and that's when they decided to leave. We weren't an easy prey anymore..

I jumpcloned back to highsec earlier this week: boring. Glad I made the move to nullsec! I'm sure I'm going to regret it one day, when we get serious opposition or a full blown enemy fleet instead of these small roaming gangs and all my ships get blown to smithereens, but until that day - I'm not going back to highsec. And you shouldn't, too :)

Eve Online: Querious

About a week ago, we finally moved out to a system in Querious, our new nullsec home. Of course I wasn't entirely clear about what to take with me, but a jumpfreigher service had been arranged so we could take plenty of stuff with us. But not everything: I had to fly my Drake battlecruiser there myself - 53 jumps - because it has a few rigs fitted. Fortunately most of the other nullsec systems along the way were deserted and I got my ship in one piece in our new home system. Corp member Dadellus was already there, and we quickly started ratting and running complexes.

But there's a lot of new stuff to get used to! For the first time I live in 'not blue, shoot it' space; anyone who's not explicitly your friend, is presumed an enemy and must be dealt with on sight. To facilitate the 'dealing with' part, all pilots must join the home fleet. In highsec you only join a fleet when you are planning on doing stuff together, but here it's a permanent.. Lots of new stuff to learn!

(forgot to publish this when I wrote it - sorry..)

New York!

Yesterday I wrote a short blog piece at Koinup about New York, which can be visited in Twinity as of today. Metaversum recreated a part of Manhattan, including parts of Central Park, Madison Avenue, 5th Avenue etcetera. It's a work in progress, but even so it's really worth a visit!

More snapshots - again - at Koinup.

Eve Online: changes coming

I've been in Eve Online for over two years. In most chat channels, that makes me a seasoned pilot - definitely not a n00b anymore. In these two years, I have mined, ran missions, fought a few PVP encounters, did some trading, did some diplomatic stuff.. and that's about it. And I have loved it! Yet, I wrote elsewhere:

"We are mission runners, miners and industrialists. We are carebears at heart, but still we're growing tired of the predictability of highsec. We have killed Kruul so many times we lost count; we probably looted enough of his DNA to rebuild him without using DNA sequencers. And having to bring that stupid damsel back time and time again.. it's getting a bit stale."

This is from a forum post, where we asked for a nice piece of quiet nullsec space to live. We were looking for change, excitement, nullsec ratting and plexing, high end mineral mining and exotic ores to mine! Even though we didn't get many usable offerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs at the time, we now have found a new place.

A few members of the MPA alliance have joined to form a new corp (ticker: NOFAD) which has since joined the Saints amongst Sinners alliance (SAS), and we are currently packing our stuff for the long haul to Querious, where our new nullsec life awaits us.

The funny thing is - I'm feeling n00bish again! Nullsec ratting and pvp requires other ships and fits, other tactics. For the first time we are flying in an alliance that does *not* primarly consist of miners and industrialists. This really is a different experience, and I am anxious to see what will happen.


(before I forget - anyone interested in a 21-day free buddy Eve Online trial, contact me!)

Eve Online: if Bruce and Lance..

If Lance Armstrong and Bruce Willis were ever to have an illegitimate love child, it would look like this:



This is an example of a Gallente male, according to the new Eve Online character creation tool, which is available for public testing on CCP's Singularity test server. I am impressed with CCP's willingness to throw something so obviously in early beta stage to us, the wolves:

However, the assets and the technology is far from finished. Singularity is our test server. We put things there to see how they break. You will be able to play around with a total pre-release client full of temporary assets, clunky UI, strange behavior and slow loading. You will be able to create incredibly bad looking characters, dressed funny and posed silly. In a way it‘s a marketing faux pas, since the character creator on Singularity is far from being ready. This, however, is the way we roll. We publish unfinished stuff to our test server to allow you, the players to have a go at our new technology, to find defects, to have it tested on all kinds of different hardware configurations so that we in the end deliver a higher-quality product. With your feedback, we make the game better, but be warned, this is not the final product. Some avatars will look awful and ridiculous, with glaring visual artifacts and defects. Did I mention that some of them will look awful?

..And I'm sure the results will get better over time.

Eve Online: becoming more social

It must be about four years ago, that I first set foot in Second Life, to see for myself why IBM was making such a fuss about it. And while I have (obviously) enjoyed it, there was one thing bothering me: I didn't enjoy being in SL if I didn't have a clear goal. I need something to do, to see, to take care of.

Same with Twinity, which I first entered in early 2008. It is developing nicely, shaping up to be a nice social virtual world, but I need something to do. Chatting with Monica is always a good reason to be in Twinity, as are the mirrored cities and places. Those, and the community as a whole, keep me engaged.

I enjoy Eve Online because there's always something to do, but it's not a social world. It's a scifi themed sandbox universe, aimed at player versus player combat, player versus environment, industry, market manipulation. Large scale combat and politics between large player driven alliances color the eve online news. Yet the social connections are there, too; players meet in corporate and alliance chat channels or even in the local solar systems' channel. These connections are often quite meaningful, as corporations often have a core of seasoned players who've known each other for years.

But now space is about to become much more social, now that Incarna (also known as 'ambulation' and 'walking in stations' is finally announced for Eve Online's summer of 2011 expansion.

Finally, real avatars will be able to meet at a bar in a station and talk things over, do some games - it's not yet known what will be available in Incarna's initial release, but you get the idea. Especially in highsec trading hubs, I expect the social aspect of Eve Online to become more important.

A beautiful universe, with plenty to do and countless choices available - with meaningful, immersive, social structures in place. What's not to like!

Twinity update

At the Koinup blog, I have published a new update on Twinity. It's about real estate, shopping and gambling, as Twinity's first casino opened. Interesting times in the mirror world! Read about it here: Twinity: developing, shopping, gambling...

Eve Online: perspective is lagging

Much noise has been made, recently, over Eve Online and the way CCP deals with it's flagship product. One of the focal points of the emo rage directed at CCP, is the lag experienced in large fleet battles, which occur mostly in lowsec or nullsec space. This lag is a true issue as these kind of massive battles rank high amongst the features which make Eve Online an unique environment. Yet, what I'd like to point out, is that it's an issue that's not affecting everyone.

In my highsec industrialist corporation, I have not heard one single complaint about lag. It's simply not an issue we are confronted with, in our day to day gameplay - unless we visit Jita, which I try to avoid anyway. Part of our corp in in wormhole space, which is quiet by nature; some are mining in Gallente or Amarr space, where lag doesn't occur much either.

On page 14 of the recent Quarterly Economic Newsletter, we gather that most Eve Online pilots reside in highsec - over 88% actually. It is my guess that many of these players rarely, if ever, are affected by the much decried lag issues.

CCP should fix the lag issue (and they are working on it), as it is hurting one of their most important assets in terms of gameplay, and because it yields a lot of negative publicity at the moment. But in all the noise and bile directed at CCP, it wouldn't hurt to remind ourselves that for the majority of Eve pilots, fleet battle lag may not be 'the most pressing issue' after all.

Oh and while I'm on it: if you're technically inclined, do yourself a favor and read this Gamasutra article on sharding and the Eve Online infrastructure. A good read!

Eve Online: 500 pilots in local

Yesterday evening, CCP and more than 500 volunteers executed another mass test on the Eve Online test server Singularity. Participating was easy this time as no client patch was needed, just a copy of the current Eve Online client.

The test involved several phases, all in the Syndicate region. First, we gathered at the F6 jumpgate in MHC where the X and W fleets, each consisting of about 240 pilots, were formed; we jumped a few times, ending up in X-B, where we up a gatecamp. Finally, we had a few rounds of fleet battle. Between the test phases, CCP staff were busy tuning the system, testing certain fixes or settings, and evaluating the results as we went.

During the first mass test a few months ago, we couldn't even gather at the gate before crashing due to lag, but this time that went much better, although my corpmates reported an increase in lag upon the arrival of the Ragnarok.

Jumping to the next system with hundreds of pilots still yielded hilarious results, with pilots being stuck for minutes before they could jump. I, for instance, got a 2.38 mins waiting time warning from traffic control. And when we finally jumped, many ended up without anything on grid - or even completely off grid. Effectively I was unable to participate in any activity for about five minutes. It's frustrating to read the fleet chat about the battle raging around you, when all you see is a nice default starfield background..

Using drones in the fleet battles seemed to have a large negative impact as far as I'm concerned. Without drones but with 500+ pilots in system, I was able to participate in the fleet battle, even firing some shots at CCP staff member CCP Atlas. Unsurprisingly, the CCP's are among the hottest targets in fleet, and CCP Atlas quickly got relieved of his Abaddon battleship :)


A few minutes later we were all cleared to release and use drones, and that's when the lag really hit. Modules wouldn't cycle, guns wouldn't fire anymore, and for quite some time launching and using drones was virtually impossible too. By this time however, the number of pilots in local had dropped considerably - it was past midnight in Europe and many pilots got killed - so you would expect lag to lessen. But with drones out, it got significantly worse.

And then, suddenly, I got hit by something massive: I lost shields, armor and hull in one volley. Insurance email arrived, informing me that my Dominix had, unfortunately, been destroyed.. yet I still had my ship and modules on screen. The shields even started repairing themselves! Obviously some things were way out of sync by that time. Time to logoff and go to bed!

One thing I learned yesterday, is that large scale fleet battle is a unique activity in Eve Online, with it's own rules and language. Many volunteers - including me - were not that familiar with the ins and outs, leading to a lot of confusion, undisciplined behaviour (keep firing when the FC tells to CEASE &^%% FIR for instance) and general mayhem. It was a real chaos at times! But, a nice fleet battle practice run for pilots like me.

It will be interesting to see what CCP gets out of this test. I think they are making progress - and they really need to - so hopefully we'll see some improvements on Tranquility in the near future.

OpenSim: the kids love it

Back in September 2007, I installed my first OpenSim instance, and my kids - and their nieces - have been experimenting with it on and off ever since. With the release of OpenSim 0.7, I decided to upgrade my installation, and keep it online for a while. Frankly, it was the kids who triggered that: they asked me to start 'our Second Life' again because they wanted to play.

And playing they did! For the past two days, they have been hard at work on a new camping site - probably inspired by the summer vacation season - and I am, once again, impressed with what they've made. It has everything: a reception, a terrace, shop, sanitary facilities and cabins to stay in. The cabins are decorated to each owners' taste, too.


What really amazed me, is the quality of work these kids deliver, without any training. Sure, last year I tought them the basics, such as creating shapes from prims, linking them and using textures, but once they understood how that worked, they pretty much did the rest themselves. Today I got them started on using scripts, and that is again giving them a whole new area to play with. The first really usable chairs are appearing here and there, and my daughter is working on a revolving door! Of course they didn't write these scripts, they downloaded them from wikis, blogs and such. But, I am eager to see whether they'll get an interest in scripting in general.

Obviously, these are kids. There's plenty room for improvement in their work; especially aligning prims is sometimes hard to do. Frankly they often aren't that concerned when prim alignment is a bit off; for their play purpose it's usually good enough. Although my daughter deleted her entire shop today, as she wasn't satisfied with it anymore due to the walls and floors being aligned improperly!

I have never really worked with sculpted prims, and I'm not sure those render well in OpenSim - I think they do but I'm not sure. But after scripts, sculpties is probably the next thing I'll point them to. I wouldn't be surprised if they become more proficient with them than I was!

Many of my OpenSim snapshots at Koinup feature work created by this next generation of virtual world users. Take a look! OpenSim @ Koinup

Twinity: Miami

Today Metaversum presented me with the opportunity to visit their virtual rendering of Miami Beach in Twinity, in advance of tomorrow's official opening. Of course I accepted, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with what they've achieved. More on my visit to Miami Beach is at the Koinup blog, where I am the resident Twinity blogger. Of course I have a lot of screenshots, also to be found @ Koinup!