EVE's planetary graphics kicked up yet another notch for Dominion expansion
by James Egan 
Oct 29th 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Expansions
We pointed out last month that EVE Online will get a new look to its planets this December, when the Dominion expansion launches. There's now more footage of the improved planetary graphics which is even better than what we saw in September, with a closer look at the swirling clouds, continents, and oceans, as well as light and shadows on the horizon. The footage is courtesy once again of EVE Online player Flamewave -- who may just live on the Singularity test server.
We've got a video embed of Flamewave's footage of the new planetary graphics as seen on the test server, so stick with us after the jump for a stunning look at New Eden as it will appear in Dominion.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
RyanK said on 11:31AM 10-29-2009
Ohh, Sexy
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jkjudgex said on 11:58AM 10-29-2009
Fix the skill system, make getting modules and outfitting a ship 10 times faster, implement a system that keeps 5 year vets from dominating 2 or less year vets at all times (AKA, a place to go fight people within some reasonable range of your skill level)...
Then this game will be worthwhile.
Until then, my few billion ISK will be sitting quietly. I don't need to play pyramid scheme the MMO.
Maybe if integration with Dust is decent, I will check it out, but, many of the underlying problems with EVE's system make playing it a worthless investment.
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mandrill said on 12:11PM 10-29-2009
Good greif, you obviously don't understand EVE at all.
If you gave a 3 month old character and a five year veteran a frigate each and exactly the same fits I would not bet on who would win. The reason being that in that three months the newer character could have topped out all the skills needed to fly that specific ship and all the requisite fittings. The only difference between a Vet and a n00b in EVE is versatility and breadth of skills.
Thats not going to change anytime soon.
Bearing that in mind and that you probably won't be back, can I have your stuff :P
Firebreak said on 12:38PM 10-29-2009
I don't understand how you could have gotten as far as you got in terms of money only to end up hating it for its core game play. That is like getting to level 50 in another game and then deciding that you don't like how the level advancement works.
One of my alts is 1 years old and I run around and kill stuff all the time with it. I love popping the really old guys clones as it is not going to be cheap to replace. Flying the right ship is more important then how many skill points you have.
ChromeBallz said on 10:39PM 10-29-2009
Explain to me how your level 5, 2 million sp battleship skill affects your ability to fly an interdictor. Explain how your 8 million sp in drones affects your ability to fly an Amarr frigate. Explain how your Gallente spaceship skills affect your ability to fly a Raven.
I got to a total of about 25 million skillpoints, if you have all relevant skills at level 5 (many of which are plain unnecessary) which can possibly affect your ability to fly a Zealot. What is the difference between a 50mil sp and a 500 mil sp character if only 25m sp matter when theyre flying a specific ship?
This is what many people simply don't understand. More SP doesn't mean better, it just means more options. A concrete example would be that a 25 mil sp character in EVE equals one level 80 character in WoW, and a 100 mil sp character in EVE equals 4 level 80 characters in WoW. You can only use 1 at a time, so when a new player reaches a certain amount of SP (around 20-30mil usually) they can easily keep up with 5 year vets in terms of effectiveness, they just have less options available.
mpdivo said on 12:02PM 10-29-2009
Lets hope that all the planets don't look like that (with oceans and clouds)...just like how all the systems have glowing gas.
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Jack said on 12:24PM 10-29-2009
Boring without can land on the planet and explore it. It does not matter...
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Dirame said on 12:52PM 10-29-2009
Development in Eve is a step by step process, putting too many improvements/new things out at once is not what CCP does. If they did that we'd be complaining how mediocre and underdeveloped the ideas in Eve are..
Kalex said on 12:59PM 10-29-2009
It's not the actual skills trained and time played that dictate most fights, its usually REAL player experience.
How often does each person expose themselves to the circumstances the two engage under? Do they know what fittings and ship/types will trump what in said circumstance, and do they fully understand the tactics that are best utilized in the circumstance of question. These things win EVE engagements. It's not just "veteran" beats "noob" all the time, but yea, rightfully so, the veteran has a better chance because of the fact that he is often more experienced. How could that be a problem? Real experience dictates a lot in this world, and in the world of gaming. The great thing about EVE is, you start it, and you can go right for the throat and start getting experience in any type of thing you want right out of the gate. Sure skill training slows you down and makes you have to set goals and slowly achieve them, but the game appropriately makes you pace yourself. Go out, and actually play in whatever venue it is that you want to own and I promise you, you will be surprised when you trump people at things that have years of time played. And you will feel that you have worked for it all the same.
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Tyranor said on 1:00PM 10-29-2009
You think that's awesome?
I give you....AWESOMESAUCE!
http://oeg-home.ru/blog/2009/10/testserver-pic-2/
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8bitgeorge said on 1:12PM 10-29-2009
I still have a problem with the sense of scale in EVE... it just don't seem right. CCP should also take into account moons orbiting planets; they shouldn't just be another coordinate to warp to, they should be visible within planet's range.
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Halldorr said on 1:29PM 10-29-2009
I really wish I was able to get into EVE more. I mean the concepts, the freedom, the setting, it all sounds so very amazing. The only thing I see lacking for it (at least for what *I* enjoy in a game) is being able to walk around, maybe explore planets etc. I swear the walking in stations (or whatever it's called) expansion was announced ages ago and is still forever away.
Admittedly I only made it past the first set of tutorials, but I don't know if it was horribly overwhelming or there seemed to be a lack of what to do next or what it was (new player experience maybe?) but I just kind of put it down and went back to WoW (*yawn*).
However, the game is absolutely beautiful graphically and I always find myself with an urge to keep going back to try it but never do. Maybe it's because none of my friends play it and therefore have nobody to kind of lean on and ask questions of.
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Chris said on 2:23PM 10-29-2009
Actually its closer than you think, Dust 514 is secheduled for late 2010 release to consoles, and CCP has confirmed Incarna (walking instations new name) will be released BEFORE dust goes live, it will have all the general goodies, NPC's, businesses, corp offices, bars games etc... but it wont have any form of fighting or anything like that, YET, they say since its based off the same system that dust is getting it will be a possibility in the future.
Also planetary exploration has been on the drawing board for future as well i hear, and as well as planetary interaction (sort of like simcity via planets)
Halldorr said on 2:42PM 10-29-2009
God bless CCP :-P
Yeah I kind of wanted to get into a sandbox game and do less combat and focus more on non combat activities like business or whatever but that graphic of the EVE learning curve (http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/0901/LearningCurve.jpg) is pretty accurate :-P
Chris said on 2:25PM 10-29-2009
ya you really need to get past the tutorials, and into a player corp, the first few PvE missions and tutorial are truely boring as hell, eve has a nasty new player experience, the last expansion helped it a little with the epic arcs, but supposedly dominion will improve it a little more, but i think until we see Incarna release we won't see a 100% improvement in New Player Experience.
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jkjudgex said on 2:31PM 10-29-2009
@mandrill:
Actually I do understand the game. And what you say rings slightly of truth...
BUT, in 3 months, you cannot MAX OUT your engineering, electronics, shields, and all other related secondary skills AND max out your primary weapon - EVEN IN FRIGATES. Grab a copy of EVE quickfit and do the math yourself. That level 5 engineering and level 5 electronics etc allow for the fitting of more stuff, so, your argument that the "same fitting" would be an even fight is invalid, because NOBODY WOULD EVER UNDERFIT A SHIP LIKE THAT.
Furthermore, not to pick on you, but, the real crux of the situation is that in reality, the new player will be flying a frigate, while the veteran will be in something like an assault frigate (tech 2 frigate type), where the new player's "maxed out" frigate won't be even close to able to overcome the shield regen of the tech 2 guy... it's like pitting a level 30 WOW character against a level 80 WOW character.
@Firebreak
I earned my money with market skills. The gameplay is dry, and rewards ganging up with as many people as possible way, way too much. There's no way to find a "good fight" except by hoping you stumble across one. Gatecamping is a horribly stupid institution which is only fun for the camper (I've done both the camping and the getting camped). 0.0 politics are stupid and contrived. Tech II BPOs were removed from the game but if you had one because you've played forever, you get to keep your tech II BPO, thus, you have to compete in those markets by using the crippled invention system (you will get undercut every time).
There are a whole, whole lot of things that I didn't go over in either of my posts, but, probably the biggest problem with EVE, is that there's no way for your friends to really "catch up" once you've played a while.
They will join and play and you could go hang out with them, but if you do that, you're re-living a bunch of low-profit, boring, learning content that you've already done... for like a year, again, before your friends are really able to become useful to you. No other MMO takes a year to bring people up to speed. I dunno, nobody I brought to the game enjoyed it as much as I did, and, I quickly saw their point.
It's a pyramid scheme where the devs are in bed with the 5+ year vets, and the community tries to feed on this very high school "hardcore" mentality that doesn't really work out in a game that you are essentially "paying" for your power.
Say your goal is to have a level 80 in WOW. Depending on how much you play, that can be done in 1-6 months. So, your cost is between (15 and 90 dollars), and you're probably just about top dog (Depending on how much you played and if you raided a bunch or did a lot of PVP).
Say your goal is to fly a battleship in EVE. No matter how you play, flying a Tech II equipped battleship is gonna take you about a year... and even then you're still a chump in 0.0. So your cost to be a whopping $180, and no matter how hard you played, when someone plops in a couple dreads against you and your pals, your ship's worth is pretty much instantly popped, mainly because they've played for 3 years.
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Firebreak said on 11:27AM 10-30-2009
While I do agree that it would take a year or so to get into a Battleship I don't think that is a good example. Just because they for some freakish reason pulled out the dreads does not mean they will win the fight. As I am sure you know that a larger size ship will not necessarily be more effective against a smaller size ship. The perfect example is that when I am in a HAC (cruiser side ship) I love going after Battleships it is almost unfair for them. A dread is going to have a really hard time hitting the Battleships and they could leave at any moment that they want. That really just sounds like a great way to lose a dread. Now if the dreads a few frigs flown by much much newer players to trap the battleships then the dreads have a chance to lay down the hurt.
I am not saying that the disparity is not there I am just saying it does not matter nearly as much as you think it does. I usually recommend that new player concentrate on one ship class at a time and not worry about bigger ships until they are really good at their current class. It makes them far more effective far more quickly and very useful in PVP.
Blacknimbus said on 2:33PM 10-29-2009
Off topic a bit, but can any current players tell me if their sound works? I stopped playing earlier this year because I couldn't get the music and turrent sounds back and there wasn't a fix available. I'd like to jump back in again, but hate to spend 15 dollars just to find out the sound and music still doesn't work.
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GaaaaaH said on 8:38PM 10-29-2009
There was a patch note recently saying sound issues had been fixed, but I haven't noticed it happening recently (then again i have the sound muted most of the time).
InfamousBrad said on 2:38PM 10-29-2009
Hmm. I would have expected more city glow on the night side of the earth-like worlds. EVE's planets are supposed to be crowded places; this fails to convey that.
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