dominion posts

In the sandbox of New Eden, rival alliances vie for control of vast swathes of star systems. The lawless nullsec regions of the EVE Online universe are home to violent alliances of all sizes and fleets with hundreds of ships clash on a daily basis. The political machinations of nullsec have produced many stories of wars fought over territory, stations conquered and fleets dismantled by force. Over the years, each story has become part of the game's living history. Recently, a new chapter in that history began as the nullsec sovereignty system governing territorial warfare received a complete overhaul in the Dominion expansion. The transition period has been rough on some alliances as a new sovereignty system requires new ways of thinking. Some alliances are falling, new ones are being forged to fill the power vacuum and the race is on for people to adapt to the new sovereignty system.

As we've been watching the EVE galaxy performing its Darwinian reshuffle, it came to our surprise that GoonSwarm, the game's biggest territorial alliance, had been disbanded. In the early hours of Wednesday 3rd February 2010, GoonSwarm CEO "karttoon" kicked almost every corp from the alliance, effectively disbanding it. There's more to this story than meets the eye and in this investigative piece, I delve into the thick of it to discover just what's going on with this troubled alliance.

EVE Online's latest expansion, Dominion, brought sweeping changes to how alliances claim and hold space, and more recently revamped capital ship warfare. However, there has been a downside of late in terms of server stability and lag. Twitter is pretty much aflame with players lamenting the server issues, not to mention the forums, and it's something CCP Games needs to address right away.

To that end, CCP is looking to the playerbase for help with "Mass Testing" on Wednesday, to determine the source of lag in large fleet battles. The devs will be looking into the problems widely reported with medium and large scale fleet combat and will need at least 50 pilots, though if 200 or more showed up this would be even better, says CCP Tanis. Players interested in helping out should hop on the Singularity test server on Wednesday, January 27, at 17:00 UTC. Mass Testing participants should join the "MassTesting" channel in-game on the test server as well. All EVE pilots who want to get involved should see CCP Navigator's announcement for more info about tomorrow's fleet combat tests and the discussion in a related forum thread.

While some are headed to space in Star Trek Online this weekend, the war for sov rages on in various parts of EVE Online. What it doesn't have in avatar combat (yet) it more than makes up for in sandbox play, putting players in total control over their own character's destiny. This gorgeous EVE Online screenshot comes to us today from Andrew, who writes in to explain what's going on for those who may not be familiar: The release of Dominion has seen a lot of freighter convoys hauling infrastructure to nullsec (player controlled space). In this shot we have a gaggle of freighters approaching a Titan, which will use it's Jump Portal Generator to send them to the far reaches of the galaxy.

From large to small, we love to see MMOs of all styles and sizes. If you'd like to show off your favorite game and give others a glimpse into one of the things you think makes it cool, why not send in a One Shots image? All you have to do is email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. Couldn't be easier!

One of the most visually striking changes that came to EVE Online with the Dominion expansion is how the devs improved the look of the planets. This was no minor facelift either, it's been a dramatic change. The graphics update breathed new life into New Eden's setting -- solar systems now have vibrant gas giants as well as planets dominated by storms, ice, oceans, or lava. Most players are probably just content to see and appreciate the eye candy, but those interested in how CCP Games created these planets will want to read the "Awesome Looking Planets" dev blog from CCP Mannapi. (And just look at that angry expression!)

Although the subject of Mannapi's dev blog is somewhat technical, it's actually rather easy to follow. He walks the reader through the tools and processes CCP Games put to use in revamping planets in Dominion. If reading about height maps, preprocessing, rendering, and textures is your cup of tea, you'll probably enjoy his illustrated explanation of these facets of planetary design in EVE.

The cries of "Free CCP Abathur" have been heard. He's one of the growing number of EVE Online developers recruited from among the ranks of the playerbase, and in Abathur's case -- he's someone very well-versed in the dynamics of nullsec warfare. His dev blog "The All Caps Ship Blog" deals with changes CCP Games is making to EVE that have long been a hot button with the playerbase.

It's not surprising that capital ship balancing is a controversial topic among players of the sci-fi MMO. Capital ship pilots in New Eden have invested significant amounts of training time and in-game wealth into piloting these massive ships, be it carriers and supercarriers, dreadnaughts, or titans. Some of CCP Abathur's ideas on balancing capital ships seemed to be fairly well-received by the playerbase, but later proposed changes from more senior devs at CCP appeared to be taking the game mechanics in a different direction. (Hence the "Free CCP Abathur" meme.) Ultimately, some of the major capital ship changes didn't deploy with the Dominion expansion launch, but are arriving in EVE today.

A substantial number of changes will be made to EVE Online tomorrow with the Dominion 1.1 patch. The supercarrier changes and introduction of fighter bombs coming in 1.1 were originally slated for the Dominion expansion's launch last month but had to be postponed. Beyond the changes impacting EVE's capital ship pilots, nullsec warfare will be affected by how CCP is altering the stats of Sovereignty structures. (Territorial Control Units will receive increased hitpoints with reduced onlining time, likewise Sovereignty Blockade Units are getting a defensive buff.)

New features are being introduced as well, like voice fonts for the Vivox-powered EVE Voice. According to the latest patch notes: "This new feature will allow you to alter your voice during chat to increase or lower pitch or to change from male to female voices. This is certainly not going to be abused in any way."

Stick with us past the jump for some highlights of how EVE Online will change tomorrow.

It was just last week when we mentioned EVE Online's new peak concurrent user (PCU) record of 54,446 pilots online. That record was smashed yesterday though, only one week after the previous PCU record was set, with 56,021 pilots online in New Eden. Beyond the new PCU record being set, this past Sunday's traffic may also make CCP raise the limit on number of players that can be in the Jita trade hub at a given time. 1400 players crowded into Jita yesterday, which is apparently the hard limit that the game's developers had set for the busy solar system. This prompted CCP Games Software Director Erlendur Þorsteinsson (aka CCP Explorer) to state, "We have been increasing the limit in the last few weeks and it looks like there might possibly be room for more in Jita."

This could be good news for the legions of traders who flock to the system, and overall a good sign for EVE Online to see the PCU climbing higher and higher. Likely a major factor in the surge of active players is the upswing in nullsec alliance warfare which resulted from changes in the Dominion expansion -- not the least of which is that a certain moon material holds great value now; the desire to control these rare resources is a major driver for large scale conflict. And of course, the recent 'get EVE for $5' sales on Steam probably hasn't hurt either.

When EVE Online players think of what's changed in the game with the recent Dominion expansion release, the game's PvE content may not be the first thing that comes to mind. (Although Dominion introduced Epic Mission Arcs -- branching storylines -- for both the Guristas and Angel Cartel pirate factions.) The Atlanta-based content team at CCP Games has put a lot of work into Epic Mission Arcs for this expansion, though, which is the subject of the latest EVE dev blog. Developer CCP Big Dumb Object walks readers through the changes in game mechanics with the Epic Arcs and gives a breakdown of their adjusted rewards (plus the introduction of faction standings rewards), while paying homage to Led Zeppelin throughout the blog.

New mission content is also beginning to reflect how player actions in factional warfare affect the game's setting, specifically the Caldari militia's overwhelming victory over the Gallente. CCP Big Dumb Object mentions two new Gallente storyline missions, adding that "each mission stems from the past year's Faction Warfare results, Heth's resultant sale of key Gallente systems to the Caldari megacorps, and the Federation's reaction."

CCP Games and Xfire have teamed up for a live video broadcast this week, a guided developer walkthrough of the Dominion expansion for EVE Online. You can tune in on December 17th at 12:00pm PDT to view the video stream on Xfire's site.

The video broadcast coincides with a contest Xfire is running, details of which can also be found on the Xfire site. The prizes look good -- up to a year of EVE game time, an iPod Nano, and a Razer Naga mouse. Entering Xfire's "EVE 'til EVE" contest, which runs December 15-31, entails signing up to join their game community.

UPDATE: The video broadcast is cancelled due to technical difficulties. Instead there will be a live text chat at 12:00pm PDT (20:00 GMT/UTC) with CCP Soundwave and CCP Guard. You'll need Xfire installed to follow along, with "Chatteox" added to your friends list to check it out.

While the Dominion expansion for EVE Online has been focused on changing how alliances claim and hold territory in New Eden, CCP Games has also given the game quite a facelift. We've mentioned the updated starry backgrounds and shown you a bit about how the planets have changed before, but we came across something new today.

While the footage put together by the players was great, CCP has put together a "Planet Tour" video that's quite stunning. It flies the viewer past the different planet types that players can now encounter -- lava and ice, planetary rings, green continents and swirling clouds. We've got a video embed of the EVE Online Dominion Planet Tour (check out 3:34!) for you after the jump.

CCP Games has made some sweeping changes to how players claim and contest territory in EVE Online, with the recently-launched Dominion expansion. These changes haven't been without issue, however, and a significant problem with the new Sovereignty Blockade Units (SBU) has arisen. SBUs are anchored by attackers at stargates in a solar system belonging to the territory-holding alliance and disrupts the control of the Sovereignty holder, providing opportunities for attackers to usurp the space holding alliance. Issues with the SBUs prompted the devs to declare an exploit over the weekend. EVE's Community Manager CCP Wrangler stated:

"An issue has been discovered that makes outposts and infrastructure hubs vulnerable to attacks without the attacker having adequate Sovereignty Blockade Unit (SBU) coverage in the system. Attacking outposts and/or infrastructure hubs without adequate Sovereignty Blockade Units in the system is an exploit and any incidents will be dealt with accordingly. Situations where attackers have the proper SBU coverage are not subject to this rule. The problem is under repairs and will be fixed as soon as possible. We thank you for your understanding and patience in this matter."

The sci-fi MMO EVE Online set a new record this past weekend for users logged in at a given time: 54,181 pilots, up from the previous record of 53,850 set in March of this year. This new peak concurrent user (PCU) count is a significant milestone for the single shard setting of New Eden, where all of those players can (potentially) interact with one another. New Eden is a big place though, a galaxy with thousands of charted solar systems and thousands more uncharted, accessible through wormholes. Given the size of New Eden, those 54,181 pilots may not interact directly but their actions can impact everyone else in the game, regardless of whether it's through trading, establishing or toppling industrial empires, or alliance warfare on a massive scale.

The new PCU record comes in the wake of EVE Online's Dominion expansion launch on December 1 which focuses on revamping the game mechanics of territorial control, or sovereignty, in New Eden's lawless tracts of 0.0 security (nullsec) space. CCP Games Senior Producer Torfi Frans Ólafsson told Massively: "With Dominion, we've made zero security gameplay so much more engaging. We're seeing a lot of people are taking the leap, updating their clones and jumping into the deep end of the pool. They are realizing that taking risks can bring big rewards, and lots of adrenaline pumped moments as well. Co-operation and having good allies is the key to success in the dark and brutal world of zero point zero space. We're seeing players communicate more, team up more and generally have more fun. Each day since release has been exciting for the developers as they watch this expansion unfold and take on a life of its own, in the hands of our ever-creative playerbase."

[Thanks StMistaken!]

When faction warfare went live with EVE Online's Empyrean Age expansion back in the summer of 2008, It was a magnificent success. It was intended as a way for newer players to get into PvP and as a stepping stone from the safe haven of empire to full-on sovereignty warfare. It wasn't long before large fleets were duking it out in low security space and for a time, it was great. Eventually, problems began to come to light that demanded developer attention. Capturing exploits and a lack of rewards were causing players to leave the war and after a year with no development, faction warfare was looking abandoned.

Rewards were eventually implemented in an attempt to revitalise the ageing faction warfare system and promote PvP. With the Dominion expansion came the most anticipated of those rewards - new tier 1 navy battleships available only from the faction warfare loyalty point store. Since the announcement that they were coming, mission-runners have been farming faction warfare missions like crazy for loyalty points. The promise of unique rewards from the missions was intended to revitalise the game and give pilots something to fight over. But did the rewards really improve faction warfare and promote PvP or was it a huge mistake?

In this three page exposé, I run down the history of faction warfare missions, from the development mistakes to the EVE corp that made almost enough ISK to build a titan. Did the mission buff revitalise faction warfare or did it put the final nail in its coffin? And just how did mission-runners make billions of ISK?