EVE Online Getting TV, Comic Book Adaptations

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EVE Online Getting TV, Comic Book Adaptations

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday April 27, 2013 @08:51AM from the star-trek:-the-ferengi-chronicles dept.

CCP Games, creators of the successful space MMORPG EVE Online, have announced they will be harvesting stories from within the game to create comic books, a TV series, and possibly even films set in the EVE universe. EVE has never set records for the size of its userbase, but it's long been known as a game that generates some of the best emergent gameplay in the industry. From battles involving thousands of players to in-game confidence schemes involving currency worth tens of thousands of real dollars, it's likely you've heard about players' exploits even if you haven't played the game. CCP is now looking to bring the EVE universe to a wider audience, and rather than having a group of writers dictate all of the lore, they're letting the players take part. They've set up a site where users can share their tales and vote on those of others. CCP has partnered with Dark Horse Comics to make a comic book out of the stories, and with a production company to make a live-action TV show.

81 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Palo Alto by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 08:54 · Score: 0

Just went out to Palo Alto today. What a real cesspool, but then most of California is a cesspool.
I took a shit on Steve Jobs's grave.
1. Re:Palo Alto by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 09:06 · Score: 0
  
  Don't be such a dark skinned, disease infested demi-human (AKA a nigger).
since you brought it up... by turkeydance · 2013-04-27 09:21 · Score: 2

Lenny Bruce from the way, waybackmachine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfNhiRGQ-js
Don't all games do this? by devforhire · 2013-04-27 09:38 · Score: 2

I thought this was standard operating procedure for any game these days.
Here are two pages full of examples, many for games most people never heard about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_games
http://comicbookdb.com/user_list.php?ID=466&user=
That being said; EVE Online has done amazing things through their willingness to listen and work with fans and players. I wish more games were like that.
1. Re: Don't all games do this? by sortius_nod · 2013-04-27 10:28 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  If the right director is chosen, I dare say Eve could work as a great series. There's some deep stories behind the factions, & if the series explains why they are out there in New Eden, I have high hopes.
  I used to play Eve, but got bored of it, I'd be far more interested in a TV series to be honest.
2. Re: Don't all games do this? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  Make it like a Sci-fi version of Suits, where the hot shot space-lawyers are sorting out all the high-stakes corporate espionage that goes on in that agme.
3. Re:Don't all games do this? by EdZ · 2013-04-27 11:46 · Score: 2
  
  I thought this was standard operating procedure for any game these days.
  I think the difference is between "movie/TV show ostensibly set in vaguely the same universe, and maybe we'll throw in a character or two with the same name" and using stories that actually happened involving player actions.
  
  I'd really like to see one of the many EVE heists play out. There are remarkably few sci-fi heist stories about (the only ones that comes to mind are an episode or two of Firefly, and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – CASH EYE", but that was an Oceans Eleven homage).
4. Re: Don't all games do this? by Provocateur · 2013-04-27 16:38 · Score: 1
  
  The interesting thing about your comment is, ...and that's only *one* aspect of that universe. I'd still watch it though. I used to have that trailer loop endlessly with that mad techno soundtrack.
  
  --
  WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
5. Re: Don't all games do this? by sortius_nod · 2013-04-27 16:44 · Score: 1
  
  That's what I mean, so many levels in Eve, from corporate espionage, war zones, pirates, smugglers, & even civilians. Could be a great universe to write a series for, the capacity for some eye watering special effects is boundless. Cap battles, raiding squads destroying transports, even just a busy starbase would be impressive.
  Again, all comes down to whether there's a good director & writers for the series.
6. Re: Don't all games do this? by St.Creed · 2013-04-27 23:47 · Score: 1
  
  Unfortunately, now I've been playing it since december, it basically boils down to:
  - spreadsheets in space
  - shoot red crosses at huge distances
  The interesting stuff always happens "somewhere else", or you need to skill up more (I'm at 6 months training time and I still can't fit a battlecruiser for PvP due to skilling issues), or you're not in a big corp/alliance so you get to miss out on all the fun stuff anyway.
  Which is why I think a movie would be great:
  - No need to skill up
  - No need to spend days and days of pouring over spreadsheets
  - Great action movies and not just abstract red crosses in the distance
  - It's much cheaper to go to movie than pay for EVE online
  
  --
  Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
7. Re: Don't all games do this? by The+Grim+Reefer · 2013-04-28 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  If the right director is chosen, I dare say Eve could work as a great series.
  As long as it's not Uwe Boll.
8. Re: Don't all games do this? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-28 06:28 · Score: 0
  
  L2P
9. Re: Don't all games do this? by TWiTfan · 2013-04-29 03:23 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, Postal was pretty good.
  
  --
  The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
10. Re: Don't all games do this? by FreekyGeek · 2013-04-29 05:20 · Score: 1
  
  You supposed problems are easily solved. First, if you don't like poring over spreadsheets, then DON'T. Only idiot mix/maxers do that who give a shit whether their missisles do an extra 1.5342% damage or an extra 1.5368% damage. If you want to play the game, then play the game, and fuck spreadsheets. You don't need spreadsheets. You don't need fancy fitting programs, either. I've been having a blast playing the game forever (about 80 million skill points now) and I never, ever, even once, have used a spreadsheet. One only needs spreadhseets if one is has OCD. I can't express to you how little the super-high-end skills and weapons matter in the end. What matters is skill at PLAYING THE GAME. Someone good at startegy and tactics will win every time over someone who has .00032% extra damage or whatever. Being smart matters way more than massive skills or super-rare weapon drops. I've seen skilled players flying frigates with dead standard fittings decimate n00bs in tricked-out battle cruisers. In short, it's not your leets skills or your expensive equipment that matters, it's how well you play. Concentrate on that, not spreadsheets. Delete your spreadsheets and just PLAY. You'll have lots more fun.
  If outfitting a battlecruiser for PvP is your goal and you haven't done it in six months, then you aren't allocating your training time right. You're probably trying to Max skills out so you can use the Sooper Dooper Navy Version Extra FooBar Cannon instead of the regular Foobar Cannon. Don't listen to the idiots who seem to imply that if you don't fly a ship into PvP with six billion ISK worth of gear that you're bound to lose. It's FAR smarter to fit a ship with everyday run of the mill gear and use it wisely. Plus, when (not if) you get it blown out from under you, no big deal, just get another cheap one.
  And finally, if you fear that you're missing the "big stuff" because you're not in a big corp/alliance, then... JOIN a big corp/alliance. Pretty simple! It's lots of fun!
11. Re: Don't all games do this? by xclr8r · 2013-05-03 04:20 · Score: 1
  
  Join Eve University - They will let you know how to train efficiently. Also if you don't want to look at red crosses fly frigate/ interceptor or assault frigate. They are faster training time frames and more fun anyways. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Applying_to_EVE_University
  
  --
  Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.
Slashvertisement by AK+Marc · 2013-04-27 09:39 · Score: 1

Why is it that I don't see anyone complaining about "Slashvertisement" when EVE Online is being pushed? It gets a disproportionately large number of articles, compared to user base. Why?

--
Learn to love Alaska
1. Re:Slashvertisement by technix4beos · 2013-04-27 09:42 · Score: 1
  
  Are you saying Eve Online is not a suitable game for Nerds?
  
  --
  user@host$ diff /dev/urandom /dev/uspto
2. Re:Slashvertisement by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  Because it's interesting. It's one of the more interesting game worlds because of the economy and the massive effect that player action and interaction can have on the entire world, including what are technically social as opposed to game-rule-defined interactions. There's a lot more to lean about from it than there is from a game like WoW, or practically every other game on the market.
3. Re:Slashvertisement by Charliemopps · 2013-04-27 10:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Because in cases of Slashvertisement, you see some product we could give a shit less about, get a glowing story on slashdot, likely because they PAID slashdot to put the story up. In this case, it's a product a lot of readers here are interested in, and was likely posted just because people here are into this sort of thing, I doubt CCP paid anyone to post it.
4. Re:Slashvertisement by ThePeices · 2013-04-27 10:21 · Score: 2
  
  Why is it that I don't see anyone complaining about "Slashvertisement" when EVE Online is being pushed? It gets a disproportionately large number of articles, compared to user base. Why?
  I have an ingenious explanation which explains why nobody is screaming 'slashvertisement', *and* why this article was posted considering the mind-boggingly enormously huge number of articles compared to the userbase...
  OK, want to know why? OK,get ready....this is big-sky thinking sort of stuff, and in many circles this sort of thinking may be highly controversial, but im going to put it out there, and watch what sort of reaction happens once the world is presented with this utterly incredible, stunning level of enlightened thought.....
  "Its not a slashvertisement"
  Now, 'whoa' I hear you cry, ' this is indeed a level of thinking that goes above mere mortals, a level of genius that makes Einstein look like G.W. Bush', and I wholeheartedly agree with you, and am humbly appreciative of your kind, kind words, but I dont do this for myself, I perform these feats of stunning intellect for the benefit of the human race itself.
  Enjoy your now enlightened view on this situation.
5. Re:Slashvertisement by AK+Marc · 2013-04-27 10:28 · Score: 2
  
  "Its not a slashvertisement"
  I don't believe you. Every article on bitcoin has cries of slashvertisement. Yes, they aren't hawking a single product on a single site, but they are advertising a "product".
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
6. Re:Slashvertisement by angel'o'sphere · 2013-04-27 21:23 · Score: 2
  
  The user base might be small (compared e.g. to WoW) however they all play on a single server. 65k concurrent users online *on one server* is something impressive. (A typical WoW server has less than 2k users and often less than 1k online).
  I did fleet battles in Eve where both sides had far over 1k ships in the same single solar system, and roughly the same number still incomming.
  That is as if all WoW players on the same server would be in the same Alterac Valley (a battleground) instance.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
7. Re:Slashvertisement by RivenAleem · 2013-04-29 01:56 · Score: 1
  
  And you forgot to mention that the product doesn't really exist yet. Are they even in production? Can we still contribute? Now this is very much relevant to my interests.
Can't wait... by Bieeanda · 2013-04-27 09:40 · Score: 1

...for this to go down in history with the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
1. Re:Can't wait... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 10:12 · Score: 0
  
  Best Cartoon Ever? Sweet!
2. Re:Can't wait... by ThePeices · 2013-04-27 10:27 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ...for this to go down in history with the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
  Me neither. Its inevitable considering how internet spaceships and fantasy sword and sorcery are so alike in almost every way imaginable.
  Remember, CCP Games had to change the name of the game to EvE because they were about to get sued for copyright and trademark infringement for the word-for-word similarity that Dungeons and Dragons has to EvE Online. Almost every person who has ever seen these two games side by side actually cannot tell them apart, such is the similarity in evidence here.
3. Re:Can't wait... by ThePeices · 2013-04-27 10:31 · Score: 1
  
  *rolls*
  ThePeices places a Critical Hit against Bieeanda with Biting Sarcasm and Intellectual Dry Wit.
4. Re:Can't wait... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 11:11 · Score: 0
  
  Care to cite some of this, as a former CCP employee and having played EVE for 8 years, I've never heard of this. And if you are referrring to D&D online in any way, remember, EVE came first.
5. Re:Can't wait... by ubrgeek · 2013-04-27 11:38 · Score: 1
  
  > EVE came first.
  
  Well, I guess the chicken finally has his answer.
  
  --
  Bark less. Wag more.
6. Re:Can't wait... by khallow · 2013-04-27 12:08 · Score: 1
  
  I think there was some rend damage in there too.
7. Re:Can't wait... by JabberWokky · 2013-04-28 08:34 · Score: 1
  
  Considering CCP owns White Wolf[1], wouldn't it be better to compare it to Kindred: the Embraced?
  [1] - Yes, I know about Onyx Path, and Rich and Eddy and everything, let's keep it simple; ruleslight as it were.
  
  --
  "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
8. Re:Can't wait... by Keybounce · 2013-04-29 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  ...for this to go down in history with the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
  Me neither. Its inevitable considering how internet spaceships and fantasy sword and sorcery are so alike in almost every way imaginable.
  Remember, CCP Games had to change the name of the game to EvE because they were about to get sued for copyright and trademark infringement for the word-for-word similarity that Dungeons and Dragons has to EvE Online. Almost every person who has ever seen these two games side by side actually cannot tell them apart, such is the similarity in evidence here.
  You should see what Phil and Kaja Folio had to say about the differences between High Tech role player, and Medieval fantasy role playing: "None."
  Portal spells? Windows.
  "With this rod of power I banish thee to nothing" / "Eat hot photons, alien slime".
  That sort of thing.
  Oh, sure, some minor differences.
  "Help!" / "Sorry, we're 6 months away because of the distance of space" vs
  "Help!" / "You rang?"
  [ rummaging though my link collection ]
  http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20070617
  Read it. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll Kiss. ...
9. Re:Can't wait... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-03 09:13 · Score: 0
  
  Selene is that you?
Gotta be there by ThunderBird89 · 2013-04-27 09:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

For most of the content in EVE, you simply need to be there, on site, to experience it to its fullest.
Sure, you can watch a live stream of the Battle of Asakai, where enough ships were present to instate a time dilation factor of 90%, and force the movement of the system to its separate physical node, but it doesn't capture the pure awe at the number and size of ships, the cacophony of fleet chatter, and such.
You can read a comic about how a young, intrepid explorer (yours truly, in fact...) went through a decaying wormhole to explore the hostile system on the other side, forgetting about the 1-hour timer, then found that the wormhole vanished, forcing him to take the "clone express" home, but it doesn't capture the terror upon finding no trace of your exit, and the realization that you're alone in a hostile system, with no chance of rescue, and any moment, hostiles may come hunting for your little frigate.
You can read about how an organized wormhole raid got stuck inside when their salvaging Noctis went through the low-mass wormhole first (instead of yours truly's scanner ship, which could have found the new exit), followed by some combat ships before the wormhole vanished, stranding the rest of the fleet outside, but it doesn't really do justice to the uproarious laughter of the fleet, then the creeping dread that the enemy knows we've arrived and are actively hunting us, and we don't know where to run, nor the relief when our commanding officer begins negotiations for the location of the new exit, and we return to known space 10 million credits poorer, but with our ships intact.
Most content in EVE is like real life - you gotta be there to fully appreciate the joke/story.

--
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
1. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-27 10:04 · Score: 2
  
  to instate a time dilation factor of 90%
  I love it when fanbois tout shitty hacks and game limitations as main features of the product
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
2. Re:Gotta be there by Dyinobal · 2013-04-27 10:07 · Score: 2
  
  I don't think that is what he was doing. He was just trying to give a sense of just how many people were there. Time Dilation is a good way to gauge that.
3. Re:Gotta be there by ThunderBird89 · 2013-04-27 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  What Dyinobal said: the server cluster employs time dilation to cope with the load of many characters present in one system or constellation (one level up from systems in the three-tier location system) - the greater the load, the greater the slowdown (which, by the way, is only indicated to players by a small dial on the screen, not an actual slowdown). In extreme cases, such as the 1000+-ship Battle of Asakai, the system or constellation may be moved to a separate server node to avoid crashing the entire cluster the game runs on.
  
  --
  Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
4. Re:Gotta be there by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 10:51 · Score: 0
  
  ...what?
5. Re:Gotta be there by SuricouRaven · 2013-04-27 10:52 · Score: 1
  
  My favorite moments:
  - Running a successful career in L4 missions with a ship that can't really tank them, warping away every time the damage gets too much, and then one day discovering the hard way that CCP just introduced scramblers in mission targets.
  - Seeing a bunch of obscure tags on contract for $200k each, with a market buy order for $10M each, and buying them - then realising the market order was for 100 units, and just canceled, put by the the same person who you just purchased them from. Followed by successfully tricking some other sucker into buying them for $1M each.
  - Strolling through a gate camp in a transport ship with a covert ops cloak, while singing 'I'm the gingerbread man and you can't catch me' in local.
6. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-27 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  Apple store was so popular and packed with people I couldn't hold my phone "the right way" hence no reception.
  Club was so cool we spend whole night dancing .. while standing in line in a parking lot.
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
7. Re:Gotta be there by PingXao · 2013-04-27 11:41 · Score: 2
  
  In EvE there are no "1-hour timers" on any wormholes. This kind of throws the rest of your paean into the "unreliable info" category.
8. Re:Gotta be there by WCLPeter · 2013-04-27 16:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  For most of the content in EVE, you simply need to be there, on site, to experience it to its fullest.
  In the context of the game what you say makes sense, but we're talking TV or comics here. A medium where we're going to be introduced to a band of characters, their ship, the people they run with, and a familiarity with their histories all as part of a long story arc leading up the Battle of Asakai. By the time we get to the battle we'll have had so much invested in the characters we've come to know and love, the outcome of the battle will be just as important to us as it was to you when you played it.
  I didn't need to live in the 24th century to feel connected to the the battle for DS9, my investment in the story of the people who lived there made me feel connected. If the cast and crew of EvE Online: The Series do their jobs right I won't need to live there to feel connected to the Battle of Asakai either.
9. Re:Gotta be there by mellyra · 2013-04-27 18:33 · Score: 1
  
  For most of the content in EVE, you simply need to be there, on site, to experience it to its fullest.
  I disagree completely. You bring up Asakai as an example so let's run with that: Pressing F1 on whatever square bracket your FC tells you to while everything feels like you're moving through syrup (10% TiDi doesn't make a submarine sim any better) is not a fun or "full" experience. Dealing with lag, desync, bugs (drone control, argh), the terrible EVE UI, .... is not fun in any way. The only reason you undergo that ordeal at all is because it is embedded in a somewhat interesting metagame (which takes place OOG).
  To experience EVE to its fullest you need access to jabber, IRC and forums. Having an EVE subscription and logging in every now and then is strictly optional (*someone* has to log in because there's no metagame without a game but that someone emphatically doesn't have to be you).
  As I write this I have a person in mind who cancelled all his accounts almost a year ago but is still a very active EVE player by staying super involved on kugu. He doesn't have to deal with "EVE Online: A Bad Game" in order to experience EVE. He probably has a much fuller EVE experience than those 80% of players who have never looked beyond shooting red crosses and white square boxes.
  Being on site only makes you realize how flawed EVE is as a game. The core EVE experience - the politics, the scheming, the socializing, ... - takes place entirely out of game.
10. Re:Gotta be there by ThunderBird89 · 2013-04-27 20:40 · Score: 1
  
  Not one hour straight away, but if you scan it down, find it says "Reaching the end of its life" (0-4 hours remaining), then come back about three hours later and it's still there, you can be pretty sure it only has one hour left of its life.
  
  --
  Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
11. Re:Gotta be there by angel'o'sphere · 2013-04-27 21:46 · Score: 1
  
  I hear people often say "bad UI" but no one comes up with hints of improvement.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
12. Re:Gotta be there by khallow · 2013-04-27 22:17 · Score: 2
  
  Given the alternatives are something like: "Club was so cool that fire marshals closed it down due to overcrowding. We're waiting in the parking lot till it opens again." Graceful failure is preferred to ungraceful failure.
13. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-27 22:25 · Score: 1
  
  You know what is even more proffered than graceful failure? Moving into >2000 year and finally supporting more than one CPU thread per solar system
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
14. Re:Gotta be there by Idaho · 2013-04-27 22:33 · Score: 1
  
  Randomly change anything and it will probably be an improvement, is how bad it is.
  Despite that, I played the game for over 5 years. That's how good the meta-game is, if you're in the right alliance at least ;)
  
  --
  Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
15. Re:Gotta be there by angel'o'sphere · 2013-04-27 22:46 · Score: 1
  
  Well the changes they did the last two years are a pain, I still hate this new Font ... and where is my. hangar and my items, lol. I have to "open" my ships cargo to find the hangar ... how do you do that in a capsule? (I go via assets then, but it is so retarded)
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
16. Re:Gotta be there by sg_oneill · 2013-04-27 23:07 · Score: 1
  
  Randomly change anything and it will probably be an improvement, is how bad it is.
  Less intuitive than Dwarf fortress but roughly as engaging, is how I'd describe it.
  Also: Elephants need 75 days of gameplay till your skilled enough for your dwarves to ride them, for no good reason.
  Ie a total nightmare to get past the learning curve, but when you do, it's possible one of the most engaging and intricate games available.
  
  --
  Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
17. Re:Gotta be there by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 23:28 · Score: 0
  
  Most things in Eve is griefing, scamming and power abuse. I'm not sure people wan't to be there to experience it first hand. I have heard some funny jokes in local though but nothing good enough to remember.
18. Re:Gotta be there by Sollord · 2013-04-27 23:36 · Score: 1
  
  I would think Eve would support more than one CPU thread per solar system or what would be the point of moving other systems off the time dilated server
19. Re:Gotta be there by khallow · 2013-04-28 00:16 · Score: 1
  
  Interactions square as the number of players. And a big limiting factor in the current size of the biggest fights is the lag. Lower it and more players will show. So "time dialation" will always have a role.
  
  Further, what's the point of a fancy remake of the parallelism architecture? They already get substantial increases in capacity over time from better server equipment.
  
  Sure, they can make a moderately better game at great cost, but that's not much of a case.
20. Re:Gotta be there by Shinobi · 2013-04-28 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  No, it doesn't. EVE is hard-designed to be one thread per system. The other systems just get less hardware resources. If the node is put into reinforced(which is done manually by CCP admins), the other systems are "rebooted" on other nodes for the duration, which can cause people to lose connection.
21. Re:Gotta be there by Shinobi · 2013-04-28 05:12 · Score: 1
  
  The point is to make a system that can be dynamically reconfigured for increased performance on the fly. Currently, nodes need to be put into reinforced mode manually, which requires a reinit, and thus is generally only done during downtime.
  At great cost? Why would it have to be at great cost? It could even save them money in the long run. Also, if done Erlang-style, they'd also get better reliability/fault tolerance.
  Instead, CCP are wasting a lot of CPU cycles, pissing about bragging about being "Agile", instead of doing proper software engineering.
22. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-28 11:15 · Score: 1
  
  Interactions square as the number of players
  No it doesnt. How many times does your ship 'interact' with ships next to you in your fleet? How much do you interact with ships that are on ANOTHER GRID in same SOL?
  Of course that doesnt mean CCP wont suck - I also remember one blog post boasting about leet Python hax0r discovering every single additional missile on the grid was generating exponential load because of the data structure they decided to use.
  
  And a big limiting factor in the current size of the biggest fights is the lag. Lower it and more players will show.
  Let them. Space itself is the limiting factor, just like in a big crowd you reach a point where you cant add more people. Remove area of effect actions and you are left with many maany A-B point to point interactions. PERFECT for parallel processing. Your average GPU can solve 500-700 of those MILLION TIMES PER SECOND, or million of those 500 times per second if you prefer. 500 million of those every EVE server tick.
  
  So "time dialation" will always have a role.
  Yes, its so revolutionary they should introduce it into FPS games. Who needs 10Hz server tick when you can have 10 second ticks! We could call it Chess.
  
  Further, what's the point of a fancy remake of the parallelism architecture? They already get substantial increases in capacity over time from better server equipment.
  What remake ? Remake would suggest there is something there already. Also you fail math if you think its financially more efficient to buy top of the line servers (only those have high clocks) just so you can run PYTHON single threaded garbage code on them.
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
23. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-28 11:25 · Score: 1
  
  Also reinforcing before the fight usually means moving SOL from "slow" (3GHz) blade onto top of the line Xeon X5698 4.4 GHz servers (even faster than the Jita node).
  This model is not sustainable and pretty much sucks donkey balls.
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
24. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-28 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  > Your average GPU can solve 500-700 of those MILLION TIMES PER SECOND, or million of those 500 times per second if you prefer. 500 million of those every EVE server tick.
  umm im off by 3 orders of magnitude, its billions not millions :)
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
25. Re:Gotta be there by citizenr · 2013-04-28 12:30 · Score: 1
  
  the greater the load, the greater the slowdown (which, by the way, is only indicated to players by a small dial on the screen, not an actual slowdown)
  wait what? no actual slowdown? Have you ever been in TD system?
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
26. Re:Gotta be there by khallow · 2013-04-28 13:51 · Score: 1
  
  The point is to make a system that can be dynamically reconfigured for increased performance on the fly.
  They already have that. The game segregates everything into star systems and stations. That's easy to parallelize and under normal loads a server handles several star systems.
  
  At great cost? Why would it have to be at great cost?
  It's a huge change in the architecture. As I understand it from about a year ago, they cut out a lot of the player interactions in heavy battle conditions, introduced time dialation (which is a remarkable innovation, I might add), and pumped up the servers that are intended to handle battles.
  
  But you still have a large number of interactions between players. If you hide some players from each other, then you can end up with situations like battlefield commanders unable to target critical ships because they can't see them (focus fire or everyone shooting the same target is a key tactic). Ships can have many drones apiece (5 for normal ships, 10-20 for "carriers" and "supercarriers"). And of course, someone will want to see the pretty explosions and pew pews.
  
  That means your multiserver infrastructure will have considerably more interaction than the current Eve cluster experiences. And if you're going to bother with that, why not just have a really beefy server with multiple CPUs which has built-in the necessary communication network?
27. Re:Gotta be there by Shinobi · 2013-04-28 22:14 · Score: 1
  
  They already have that. The game segregates everything into star systems and stations. That's easy to parallelize and under normal loads a server handles several star systems.
  Every star system and the stations in them is limited to 1 thread, ergo load cannot be spread over multiple cores. The activities that run independently of star systems are things such as Market, Contracts, Chat etc. Also, it cannot be dynamically reallocated. Moving a system to a reinforced node can only be done during a restart, with the system being reinforced started on a separate node with beefier processor(And even then you can only use a single core....)
  
  It's a huge change in the architecture. As I understand it from about a year ago, they cut out a lot of the player interactions in heavy battle conditions, introduced time dialation (which is a remarkable innovation, I might add), and pumped up the servers that are intended to handle battles. But you still have a large number of interactions between players. If you hide some players from each other, then you can end up with situations like battlefield commanders unable to target critical ships because they can't see them (focus fire or everyone shooting the same target is a key tactic). Ships can have many drones apiece (5 for normal ships, 10-20 for "carriers" and "supercarriers"). And of course, someone will want to see the pretty explosions and pew pews. That means your multiserver infrastructure will have considerably more interaction than the current Eve cluster experiences. And if you're going to bother with that, why not just have a really beefy server with multiple CPUs which has built-in the necessary communication network?
  It's a major change, for sure, but it doesn't have to come at a great cost, since it'd also increase reliability and fault tolerance if done right. Time dilation is a band-aid, nothing more. There was actually a period around Dominion where TiDi didn't exist, but there were larger battles with less delays than now(Think BoB's MAX and MAX 2 campaigns).
  
  As for the interactions, I'm well aware of how many there are, having played since 2004, and they haven't really reduced the combat interactions. What they do is that they reprioritize non-combat actions(swapping ships in station for example), and reduced strict sequential combat process.
  
  As for multiserver, EVE already runs on a cluster. The change I'm proposing would enable a star system to use multiple cores if certain requirements are met, and low-priority systems migrated to other nodes without requiring a restart of nodes etc. That would, however, require them to upgrade from Stackless Python to something that would actually make sense, as well as performing proper software and system engineering.
28. Re:Gotta be there by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-30 00:47 · Score: 0
  
  Instead, CCP are wasting a lot of CPU cycles, pissing about bragging about being "Agile", instead of doing proper software engineering.
  It's a damned shame they didn't hire you to be their architect. Undoubtedly anything you designed would have been much better. From what you've said, it's clear CCP only hires hacks.
29. Re:Gotta be there by xclr8r · 2013-05-03 09:32 · Score: 1
  
  They added the ability to change up your icon locations and pin stuff out of your NeoCon/taskbar. Find it once, pin it to where you want it, done. They still have improvements to be made though.
  
  --
  Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.
30. Re:Gotta be there by angel'o'sphere · 2013-05-03 21:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yes did that. But the pinned windows get so often lost :)
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Reaction to Star Citizen? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 10:24 · Score: 1

Wonder if this was already in works, or if they are trying to further market and entrench due to concern of Star Citizen and the new Elite games possibly stealing some of their user base.
Accountants...in...SPAAAAACCEE by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 10:40 · Score: 2, Insightful

Finally, a sci-fi movie where Microsoft can sponsor Excel placements.
1. Re:Accountants...in...SPAAAAACCEE by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 12:38 · Score: 0
  
  A TV adaptation of EVE Online? I thought we already had the financial news channels...
  A comic book adaptation of EVE Online? You mean someone printed out and bound a spreadsheet?
2. Re:Accountants...in...SPAAAAACCEE by St.Creed · 2013-04-27 23:59 · Score: 1
  
  If you're playing EVE without a spreadsheet... you're doing it wrong.
  Actually, I think they should integrate Google Docs with EVE. Or even drop the entire GUI and just keep Google Docs as main EVE interface.
  
  --
  Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
3. Re:Accountants...in...SPAAAAACCEE by fazig · 2013-04-28 05:02 · Score: 1
  
  If you're playing EVE without a spreadsheet you're probably not afraid of socializing. Plotting out every step may be necessary if you want to be successful within the game when you're alone or you're managing stuff for a corporation or alliance, but as a part of such a corporation you don't need to see the matrix. Similar to the real world you don't need to do everything yourself, but if you want to, you will encounter some obstacles. I quit EVE because it got to time consuming for my taste and didn't offer enough options for shorter gaming sessions. You can't do many things if you can't play for an hour or more straight, which is a huge downside of this game. But during my time I had been part of a communistic organized PvP corporation. All I did was to participate in their PvP efforts, they provided everything I needed, my job was to fight and to coordinate within fights, which was possible without the use of any spreadsheets. It 'only' required a potent CPU and GPU for stable performance in large battles. Reimbursing losses after a fight or a war and logistics was not my job, we had players do it who liked to do this. Essentially division of labour. But this requires cooperation and some trust in other players, at least trust so far you can afford to be betrayed.
4. Re:Accountants...in...SPAAAAACCEE by St.Creed · 2013-04-28 07:04 · Score: 1
  
  True, but it also requires a quite large organization. I don't think playing EVE outside a large corp is viable, unless you only trade/mine. And even then, mining with a mining corps means you get much more money faster.
  WoW has explicitly toned that down, and I'm not sure it's a good thing. When large guilds were no longer a neccessity, they split up in minor factions and that took away a lot of the game appeal to me. But finding a good corp in EVE is difficult. And if you can only spend some time now and then, it's no longer very much fun to be in. You're basically stuck in hi-sec.
  
  --
  Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
EvE The Movie by Greyfox · 2013-04-27 11:06 · Score: 5, Funny

A new pilot will spend the entire first half of the movie downloading skills into his brain, then will spend the rest of the movie mining an asteroid, only to have his can stolen by some guy in a destroyer.

--
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
1. Re:EvE The Movie by echto · 2013-04-27 12:48 · Score: 1
  
  A new pilot will spend the entire first half of the movie downloading skills into his brain, then will spend the rest of the movie mining an asteroid, only to have his can stolen by some guy in a destroyer.
  And to portray the annoying scam bots in local at Jita the director will use a bunch of Jar Jar Binks look-a-likes.
2. Re:EvE The Movie by rrhal · 2013-04-27 13:29 · Score: 1
  
  I'm interested to see how they portray the Goons on TV.
  
  --
  All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
3. Re:EvE The Movie by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-27 15:40 · Score: 1
  
  Probably they will be wearing Guy Fawkes masks all the time. Easy to spot and categorise as bad guys thriving in chaos and confusion - just the way the film industry likes it...
4. Re:EvE The Movie by DigiShaman · 2013-04-27 15:48 · Score: 1
  
  For an EvE movie to make it successful, it needs to focus on one aspect of the entire EvE universe leaving the viewer with more questions than answers. This is how you generate a cult following IMHO. It also leave the door wide open for other EvE movies either continuing or spawning an entirely new story in parallel. But above all, an EvE movie must *never* try and cater to the video gamer hoping they will generate enough hype to pull an expanded audience with them. It's bullshit and never works. Just about every if not all video games to movie sucks balls. Super Mario Brothers and Street fighter and Doom come to mind. God awful!!!
  
  --
  Life is not for the lazy.
5. Re:EvE The Movie by Psicopatico · 2013-04-28 07:45 · Score: 1
  
  Still a better love-story than Twilight.
  
  --
  Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
Oh yeah, XLS. by metrometro · 2013-04-27 14:47 · Score: 2

I don't play the game, but I am a huge fan of the spreadsheet adaptations. I mean, when you see a Titan stretched out on a pivot table, it's like, oh yeah. This is the medium it was meant for.
A great EVE mechinima: Clear Skies by Mt._Honkey · 2013-04-27 15:52 · Score: 2

Some people made a series of sci-fi mechinima features using EVE for exteriors and custom Half-Life 2 sets for interiors and characters. Very well done, each is better than the previous.
Clear Skies
Clear Skies 2 part 1
Clear Skies 3

Web site

--

Don't Bogart the fish sticks