Bam-zine

Database Issues on Tranquility Resolved; Tranquility Open

Due to an issue with our database, we temporarily took down Tranquility and restarted it. We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that Tranquility is stable before returning it to service.

Update: Tranquility has been returned to service. We are currently monitoring the situation closely and will temporarily throttle logins to ensure that Tranquility’s database is playing nicely.

Apocrypha 1.5 this August

Things have been silent on the dev front since the release of Apocrypha this March. Apocrypha was a major success for EVE Online. We rose to new heights in terms of concurrent players and subscribers, and more importantly, we are very proud of the new features and functionality it provided.

Now we are working hard on our winter expansion. Winter is quite far away, and we felt because Apocrypha was really early for a summer expansion, we should put out a mini-expansion, rather than wait until winter to release all the stuff we are working on. It should come out mid-August if all goes well. We refer to it as Apocrypha 1.5.

Small, Medium and Large rigs

Ever wanted to build the ultimate speed kite frigate but couldn‘t afford the rigs? Tank your cruiser to the max? Mod your little hauler? Now you can!

We are adding small and medium sized rigs ( existing rigs will be considered large rigs ), which will be cheaper to buy and make. With this we are hoping that more people may get introduced to the joys of rigging and the sorrow of losing your specially fitted beautifully rigged ship. CCP Chronitis will explain further in an upcoming blog.

Level 4 epic arcs in Apocrypha 1.5

Apocrypha 1.5 will be rich with content. We have several new epic mission arcs, which unlike the level 1 epic arc we introduced in Apocrypha are all level 4, meaning they will be more challenging, but also more rewarding. With each themed around a specific race, these captivating stories deal with moral ambiguity, intrigue, honor and some people’s lack of it. This should come as no surprise to those who know EVE and what we are about. As before with the epic arc that was released in Apocrypha, they provide a deep, interesting story, where your choices influence the outcome.

Specialized Cargo holds – Fuel bays on black ops

We are introducing a system that allows us to author specialized cargo holds on ships. We will start by adding fuel bays on black ops and possibly other ships. This means we‘re adding more space for your fuel, without the ships becoming horribly unbalanced haulers of death. The technology behind this opens up doors to making other types of bays, just for ammo, just for livestock or whatever. Those options will be explored in future expansions.

Factional Warfare improvements – LP for kills

We have been closely monitoring reports on lag in Factional Warfare, analyzing the network behaviour, player behaviour and scrutinizing code. The reported lag does not always occur and is elusive to track down and resolve. We currently have engineers allocated to the resolution of the problem, working tightly with the quality assurance department and our bughunters.

Meanwhile, in an effort to make Factional Warfare more fun, we are looking at introducing Loyalty Point rewards for kills and captures, with special LP stores for each militia, offering unique goodies for hard working militamen and women. More details to follow in an upcoming blog by CCP Ytterbium.

50% features versus 50% maintenance

A recurring question I get from players is “How much time is spent on new features versus fixing and improving existing stuff?”. The answer is simple. We allocate 50% of our developer time to new feature development and the rest to polishing and iterating existing systems and resolving defects. We feel this is a healthy balance between moving forward and maintaining what we have already built. EVE is over 650.000 lines of source code today, compared to 280.000 lines when it was first released, so there’s a lot to maintain and refactor. Apocrypha 1.5 will have a considerable amount of fixes and polish coming out from this work.

The Winter Expansion

We will be reporting on the winter expansion as it draws closer. All I can say, is that it is focused on sovereignty and you will not be able to walk in it. Check on the dev blogs in the weeks and months to come for more updates. Those who are into RSS and those kind of things can also subscribe to our RSS feeds.

Thanks for reading!

- Torfi Frans

EVE Online Apocrypha 1.3.1 to be deployed Tuesday, June 30

Apocrypha 1.3.1 will be deployed Tuesday, June 30, 2009 between 1100 and 1300 GMT, extending downtime by one hour. Please feel free to continue providing feedback regarding Apocrypha 1.3 in this thread, and discuss any issues you may find in this thread.

New Chronicle: Taught Thoughts

They say that history is always written by the victor; sometimes it is also written by those who wish to be victorious. And when you are a Gallente teacher teaching Caldari history, sometimes it’s you who will lose in the end.

“Taught Thoughts” is a new EVE Chronicle written by CCP Abraxas. Published every other Monday, Chronicles are intended to examine the various aspects of life in New Eden. The entire list is contained here, and a comment thread for this particular story may be found here.

EVE Online Apocrypha 1.3 deployed Monday June 29, 2009

The EVE Online Apocrypha 1.3 deployment has now been completed and Tranquility is open for business. This deployment focuses on improvements to the network stability of Tranquility, Tech 3 production, reverse engineering, starbase improvements and much more. Patch notes are available for review and we would encourage anyone who is experiencing any game play issues to submit a bug report and we will investigate the matter as soon as possible.

A feedback thread and issues thread are also available to help make us aware of any problems or feedback in general.

First CSM-CCP Q&A Published

We are pleased to announce the first ever Q&A the Council of Stellar Management has conducted with CCP. You can find the first Q&A here, and may discuss it with other capsuleers here.

EVE Online Apocrypha 1.3 deployment Monday 29th June 2009

EVE Online Apocrypha 1. 3 will be deployed during downtime on Monday, 29th June 2009 between 0800 and 1200 GMT.

This latest patch in the Apocrypha series contains some fantastic changes for core memory and lag reduction on Tranquility. Tech 3 production and reverse engineering will be receiving a major boost in terms of increased radar sites in wormhole space, increased drop rates of Tech 3 datacores along with increasing the runs on the blueprints from reverse engineering jobs. Starbases will see significant improvements with the deployment, anchoring, on-lining and un-anchoring of starbase towers and structures to be improved for all players.

Patch Notes are available and a discussion thread for this deployment can be found here.

EVE TV Announces Expert Team for Seventh Alliance Tournament

After two weeks of applications, a day of voice interviews and a lot of debate among the EVE TVstaff, the team of player experts has now been decided upon. Returning as Lead Experts are Crovan and Kil2, veterans of the Sixth Tournament. Joining them for their first trip to the studio will be TeaDaze, Trzzbk and Ryas Nia! Congratulations to the new team who will be flying to CCP HQ in Reykjavík, Iceland for the Tournament final!

Signups for the Tournament are due to open on 3 July 2009. Keep an eye on the Signups page as well as the EVE Alliance Tournament Disccusion channel for more information as it becomes available.

Fanfest 2009: It’s going to be awesome!

So to start this off, maybe a quick introduction is in order. I’m CCP Tyr, the new Event Organizer in the CCP Marketing team, working mainly as the Fanfest Coordinator. I was the Event Manager for Fanfest 2007 and 2008 as a contractor bringing you exponentially crazier parties every year. Now I am a part of wonderful CCP dedicating my time making Fanfest 2009 bigger than ever!

Why is Fanfest so awesome:

One would guess that the main reason for attending Fanfest would be to learn about EVE’s past, present, and future, on the contrary almost everyone’s favorite part of Fanfest is meeting new people making instant friends and  hanging out with fellow pilots with whom they play a game that they all love. That commonality brings a thousand of us together to shake a strangers hand, hug a Dev, and to sit down to have a pint with a person you just met but have known for years. Whether you are traveling solo for the first time to Iceland or a part of a large corp gathering you will meet fellow capsuleers as soon as you hit the gate at your local airport as most flights to Iceland will be fully booked by EVE attendees during this time.

Using the words of Leandra Anor, E-ON #14, Postcards from the Fest;  “Fanfest is a place to put aside differences and see who the actual person is behind the avatar you might be fighting for, with, or against! It’s about meeting the EVE legends and at times about making a new EVE legend. It‘s about seeing what the future of the game might be. Most of all though, Fanfest is about having fun in a beautiful place!”

But one of the highlights for many is simply meeting the CCP employees. Some might expect that they are aloof, full of themselves and hidden off in some backroom for press eyes only, but nothing could be further from the truth. Everywhere you look you see CCP Dev’s walking about in their black short-sleeve EVE Dev Team shirts (and kilts!), meeting players, accepting and attentive, hanging out, “talking shop,” and giving away freely bone crushing Viking-hugs.

And yes! You can even bring your partner! We realize that not everyone coming to Iceland in October wants to discuss the intricacies of ship fittings or market dynamics. We invite players to bring their wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, or just friends, to accompany them on the trip to Iceland and participate in this excursion. Not only that, but Sisters of EVE pass holders are invited to join in at the Party at the Top of the World on Saturday night!

Reykjavik – Cold Beer, Hot Town, Cheap Prices

The Icelandic local currency works in your favor! Your money goes farther, buys more and keeps you partying all weekend even on the most frugal of budgets. Visitors to Iceland often find that it is enjoyably warm compared to its location in the North Atlantic and is often warmer than a lot of places in Europe during winter.

According to reporter Jim Boulden on CNN, “Iceland is back on the map as a low-cost tourist destination.” The US Dollar has gained 50% in value against the Icelandic Krona over the last year which puts Iceland in the Top 5 bargain destinations according to USA TODAY. The beauty of Iceland is the same as before and so is the hospitality of Icelanders.

Reykjavik heats up at night, countless pubs and clubs are packed with locals and visitors just minutes from the Fanfest venue. The legendary beauty of Iceland, from its landscape to its ladies, is breathtaking in every regard.

Check out the Experience Iceland, Iceland FAQ, Reykjavík Survival Guide for more information on how to enjoy your stay in Iceland to the fullest.

I found this picture on a strange website, sound familiar to anyone?