Bam-zine

COSMOS: How the puzzle pieces fit together

Why a social networking tool for EVE now?

First off, something that we as EVE players can be proud of: EVE was a social network when Facebook was still just a way for Mark Zuckerberg to assess whether his  classmates were more attractive than farm animals.

COSMOS is about giving all players the tools they need to organize, plan and share their EVE experiences. As we all know, playing EVE on your own is never as fun as playing with a group of likeminded folks. Whether you’re on a mining op or roaming low-sec in a wolf-pack spoiling for a fight, nothing beats having a group of guys and gals to shoot the breeze or share the kill with.

Until now organizing these groups hasn’t always been straightforward. Unless your corp has a resident programmer or guy willing to host a server the only real option has been EVEmail. 

Over the years the development team has been amazed time after time by the dedication and ingenuity of EVE players in coming up with tools and applications that help to make EVE easier and more fun to play. COSMOS is not intended to replace these applications. Indeed, we plan to add as many of the new features as we can to the API to help you make even more cool stuff. However we do feel that an easy to use, CCP-made toolset is overdue.

How is COSMOS being constructed?

This is a very unique project in that it aims to blur the line between the in-game environment, and out-of-game with not just communication features but expansive game related features. I’ll leave it to some of my colleagues to get into the specific features planned in following dev blogs (yes you can call me a tease) but what I want to discuss today is the technical underpinnings of what is a typically ambitious CCP project.

As this is a site we expect to see heavy demand on, and which we intend to continually enhance over time we have some very serious challenges to tackle. COSMOS has to be able to handle a heavy load, we have to be able to scale it as the load changes, it has to be of extremely high quality, we need to be able to easily maintain and enhance it and it needs to handle full real time data flows with the EVE backend systems without inducing any lag or performance impacts for those in-game.  Achieving this requires a totally new architecture using the best components that we can put in place.

As a general overview, the COSMOS system consists of a number of key elements. There is a web site which contains a content management system; a data service to retrieve data from EVE, databases or caches; integrated applications such as a new forum solution and a custom COSMOS.web application that integrates and controls all of it. We also have a robust distributed caching cluster to handle caching of sessions and back end data to maximize performance and reduce back end load. Finally we have a new application which we call “the Nexus” which resides on the SOL clusters that run EVE itself. This coordinates the flow of real time data between COSMOS and the virtual world and the back end TQ database keeping everything in synch.

A very simplified overview diagram:

The web application itself is a .Net (C#) application written by our web development staff that utilizes the MVC architecture. This approach allows us to more easily handle scaling the various components as need be, provides greater support for automated testing and gives us a lot of future potential for such things as different view layers (mobile devices anyone?). We can also bolt in other applications such as forum, blog, and media gallery solutions through .Net authentication and shared use of our data services and caching solution. This is being developed in an environment with continuous integration, automated test suites and forced code quality inspections to keep our quality as high as possible and reduce the chance of regression bugs in the future.

Of particular note in this application is the Data Service Layer. This is its own .Net WCF application which handles data requests from COSMOS for information from our web database (forums, blogs, news, mail) or from the EVE cluster (game related data – characters, corporations, and in the future fittings, skills, market data, etc). It also interacts with the caching cluster to handle caching and retrieval of data as well as updating the cache when any data becomes invalid.

We are utilizing Umbraco as a Content Management System which will allow us to handle localization of content as well as providing our marketing and content folks with the tools they need to make website updates on their own without the need for any developers. What this means for you the player is that over time we will be able to roll out different language versions of the site much more easily and that we can provide better and more frequent content to those sites.

Finally we have the Nexus component. This is being written from scratch to handle the flow of data between COSMOS and the current EVE systems. It is important that any ‘new’ data not just be written to the TQ database but immediately be available within the SOL cluster so that it is always working with the latest data. Nexus handles this coordination, utilizing XML-RPC to communicate with the SOL cluster but interacting with the TQ database directly when that makes the most sense (such as in large data reads like Corporation member lists). This component is written to scale horizontally across the SOL cluster so that the load can be easily managed and its access to the TQ database means that there is still a sufficient degree of functionality on COSMOS when the SOL processes are brought down for maintenance. If need be the Nexus can even be put on its own dedicated cluster for further scaling or isolation of load.

So that’s a brief look at the guts that make up COSMOS. As we are developing this in a highly agile process, this will continue to evolve over time. We will be sharing additional information regarding COSMOS in the coming weeks to give you a better grasp of what it is and how much it will add to your EVE experience.

Vote for the ENnie Awards!

White Wolf has been nominated for a number of ENnie Awards this year and voting is open until this Saturday, August 1, 2009. Game companies from around the world send in their products, and a panel of judges chooses their top few in each category. But, after the nominations are determined, the general public casts the deciding votes. You can be part of the process by going to this URL:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/voting/ballot.asp

Our Nominees are in the following Categories:

*Cover Art – Scion: Ragnarok
*Best Writing – Hunter Horror Recognition Guide
*Best Rules – Hunter: The Vigil
*Best Adventure – The Rose Bride’s Plight
*Best Monster/Adversary – Night Horrors: Grim Fears
*Best Supplement – Hunter: The Vigil & Scion: Ragnarok
*Best Aid or Accessory – Hunter Horror Recognition Guide
*Best Regalia – Art of Exalted & Hunter: Deadly Prey
*Best Electronic Book – Collection of Horrors: Razor Kids
*Best Free Product – Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart
*Product of the Year – Hunter: The Vigil & Scion Ragnarok

While we would love your support and hope you would vote for us, the important thing is to vote! Please pass the word on to your friends and give them the URL as well.

Fanfest 2009 PvP Tournament: Pre-registrations are open!

There will be 64 team slots available for the Fanfest tournament; pre-register and guarantee your team a slot, head on over to the signup page and sign your team up now!

EVE³: The EVE Online Fanfest 2009 tournament will consist of a series of fights between two teams, with each team piloting three Strategic Cruisers to victory or death in some explosive EVE PvP action. Yep, that’s 3v3 Tech3!

EVE³: Fanfest PvP Tournament 2009

Ladies and Mentlegen,

It is with much yarr in my heart that I bring tidings of yet another excellent EVE Online tournament. Another chance to blow your friends and enemies to smithereens. Another chance to test your leet spaceship skillz. Another chance to fight for glory under the exacting gaze of your esteemed peers.

The tournament will take place in the fabulous and famous EVE Fanfest PvP room, this year new and improved (I didn’t think it was possible either, but CCP Tyr is pretty epic) with even more awesome sound and lighting. Battle your foes in an awesome atmosphere while the CCP dev team looks on, or take a seat in the battle gallery and watch the fights on the screens!

EVE³: The EVE Online Fanfest 2009 tournament will consist of a series of fights between two teams, with each team piloting three Strategic Cruisers to victory or death in some explosive EVE PvP action. Yep, that’s 3v3 Tech 3.

Strategic Cruisers are the most flexible-role EVE Online ships to date, and as such this tournament really requires players to think seriously when making their setup decisions. Should you fit for all out annihilation and take the fight to the enemy? Will you field enhanced electronic warfare ability? Will speed be your ally? Or will you choose to roll up to the arena like a mobile brick of armour? All of these decisions must be carefully weighed to ensure success!

The top four teams in the tournament will fight for ultimate victory on the main auditorium stage in front of the entire population of Fanfest as well as those sitting at home across the internet. The glorious victory of the winners will be immortalised in our memories. And there are prizes too…..including awesome goodies from the EVE Online store and more!

There will be 64 team slots available for the Fanfest tournament; signups will be taken at the Fanfest. However, if you wish to pre-register and guarantee your team a slot, head on over to the signup page and sign your team up now! Whilst only three players may compete in a match, your team is free to switch members between games. Full rules for the tournament will be announced closer to the event.

That’s it from me y’all! I look forward to seeing you all at Fanfest, and in particular seeing you at the tournament – and of course, the Party at the Top of the World, during which we will celebrate PvP victories, commiserate PvP losers, and undoubtedly debate the nature of existence beer.

Introducing: The Butterfly Effect

Today we unleash a video unlike any we have done before: a video showcasing the essence of EVE. This story could be your story or it could be your friend’s story–the friend you showed this video to which inspired them to check out EVE and pilot a lone Wolf through a remote asteroid belt…

This is “The Butterfly Effect.” This is your EVE. Show everyone you know.

• YouTube
• Facebook

New Chronicle: The Ever-Turning Wheels

In its ongoing war with the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation has suffered grave defeats at the hands of the capsuleer forces. Life on the backwater Gallente colonies, often mismanaged and impoverished, is already a challenge. After the Caldari ‘liberate’ one of these colonies, will Tibus Heth’s infamous meritocracy make a difference, or will corruption continue its stranglehold?

“The Ever-Turning Wheels” 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.

New Chronicle: The Ever-Turning Wheels

In its ongoing war with the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation has suffered grave defeats at the hands of the capsuleer forces. Life on the backwater Gallente colonies, often mismanaged and impoverished, is already a challenge. After the Caldari ‘liberate’ one of these colonies, will Tibus Heth’s infamous meritocracy make a difference, or will corruption continue its stranglehold?

“The Ever-Turning Wheels” 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.

Our upcoming novel: The Burning Life

“We will eat the body and sanctify its blood, to let it be born again.”

That’s the start of it. They don’t really eat the body, though.

“You’re dead,” the capsuleer replied, fear giving its easy way to anger. “You’re both dead.”

  “We are,” the woman said to him.

And that’s near the end. They really are dead, or soon will be.

*

I’ve been writing EVE fiction for a few years now. I’m the primary writer for the EVE Chronicles, short stories published every other week on our website. Along the way I’ve written various other things, including plays for our Fanfests, RPG fiction,  item descriptions, a few agent missions, and a bunch of non-fiction texts.

If you work for CCP, you put your talents to use wherever you can; and if you’re someone who likes to write, you always want to do more of it.

So I’ve written an EVE novel.

It’s called The Burning Life, it’s 100,000 words, and it comes out November this year. I still can’t quite believe that it’s done. Writing a novel is an obsessive task, not unlike going on a long, long expedition through wild and remote places: you get your matters in order the best you can, you prepare to what little extent is possible, and then you disappear. If you’re lucky you re-emerge months later, dishevelled and half-crazy, blinking gloomily at the sunlight and muttering incoherently about copyedits. Tony “NO SLEEP TILL DEADLINE” Gonzales, who wrote the first (and considerably longer) EVE novel, will back me on this.

It’s a novel set in the world of EVE, much as the Chronicles are. Since it’s written by the same guy who’s done most of the Chronicles for the past three years, anyone who likes them will (hopefully) like the novel, too. It is not a horror novel, although there are a couple of gruesome Blood Raider scenes in there. It’s part drama but there’s plenty of humor in there, dark-tinged as it is most of the time. It is, to me, simply an EVE story through and through.

Even though it doesn’t star the capsuleers, it’s very much about them and the effects they’ve had on New Eden. It picks up some of the themes seen in Black Mountain, a series of Chronicles we published last year, and while most of the people in that extended story perished in interesting and fiery ways, we’ll see at least one character return. The four Empires are involved, but the main focus is on the pirates and other outlying factions. The Blood Raiders. The Angel Cartel. The Guristas. Sansha’s Nation. The Servant Sisters of EVE.

In fact, this is one of many reasons why I’m happy I can finally talk about the novel. For quite some time I’ve been dying to put more focus on the pirates. They’ve been there with us all this time, like creepy nannies – watching over us when we mine, hanging out to greet us at the gates, dying happily by the thousands when we get it in our heads to play – and yet we’ve neglected the poor things. There is a wealth of story material to be had from them, particularly if we look beyond the initial facade of evil ratting scum. How can a society like the Blood Raiders, driven by such grisly traditions, function on a daily basis? What kind of person would ever willingly join Sansha’s Nation, and how does it feel to be one of the True Slaves? What are the Angel Cartel and Guristas factions like, different as they are?

These are stories that take place in EVE, but they are not the sole story of EVE. One major difference between this novel and the last one we published is that The Burning Life will not be the focus of an expansion, nor will it be the culmination of that particular point in our storyline. It’ll be part of EVE lore, but we’re going to weave in its plotlines through a myriad of smaller threads.

One way we’ll do this is through in-game content: primarily missions and other PvE content, and possibly also in-game items and descriptions. We want to add depth to the game, make you feel like these are real, living, breathing people you’re reading about, and these kinds of fiction-content connections aid us in that task. We will also use the novel as a partial base for the ongoing storyline – there’ll certainly be plenty of connections between the two – but it won’t be the prime focus and center of those efforts.

What’s it about? On a pirate colony deep in losec space, a man suffers a great loss that fills him with sorrow, and then an even greater loss that fills him with hate. Elsewhere, a mission agent – someone who might easily have asked you at one point to transport a piece of precious cargo, or to take out forces of the opposition – starts to quite spectacularly lose her mind. Neither of them can live with who they’ve become, and thus they leave behind their old lives to look for ways to make a difference.

And maybe blow up a few things along the way.

Hjalti Daníelsson / CCP Abraxas

Avatars United EVE Online App Contest

Are you an EVE application developer or have a cool idea for a killer app but can’t code it yourself? Then we have got the contest for you!

Beginning July 27, 2009, Avatars United is giving talented and inventive developers a chance to win:

- $1000 in cash
- $1000 Amazon Web Services credits
- Asus GeForce GTX 295 1792MB PhysX CUDA
- Asus 24″ VH242H Wide Gaming LCD TFT Monitor
- Popcorn Hour A-110 Media Tank
- 1 year subscription to EVE Online
- 1 year EON subscription
- EVE Online special edition box signed by EVE Dev team
- 1 ship model from the EVE store

Idea submissions can win:

- 32 gig iPod Touch
- 6 months subscription to EVE Online
- Avatars United Goodie bag

The contest ends August 15, 2009.

More information about this contest can be found on their Web site. You can discuss this contest in this thread.

COSMOS

A while back, at the last (incredible) Fanfest, you may recall CCP Oveur dropping a word or two into his keynote speech about an EVE Online community site called COSMOS. Since that announcement, we have been quiet, but we have been working like squirrels researching and designing COSMOS with the goal of creating the most reliable and awesome backend system tied to the wonder that is EVE.

The first time you will get to play with COSMOS will be with our winter expansion, but to stop you from being utterly overwhelmed by the greatness of a fully functioning social network website coupled with EVE interactivity – oh alright, and so that we are truly Agile in our development process – we will be releasing features bit by bit.

The starting platform will have your character, corporation and alliance profiles, a new mail system and a new contacts system, which brings in two-way agreed friendships. The mail and contacts system will have parallel functionality on the all-new COSMOS website as well as in-game, so you will have the same mail and other information both in- and out-of-game. Following the first release, we will be churning out additional features and will have an ongoing team of developers and designers working full-time on COSMOS.

You will, no doubt, have many questions about this huge new part of the EVE community. This will not be the last blog you will see about COSMOS. We will be giving you information every couple of weeks with more details. To clarify a few points in advance: yes we will be tackling new forums for you; yes you will be able to “do” EVE game stuff but not on the first nor second COSMOS releases; and yes it will look very sexy.