The largest market hub of the game, Jita, regularly has over 1,000 players in the same system. It used to become unstable with over 300-400, but about a year ago they rolled out some new code and now, even with 1,000 people, it is nice and smooth. No issues at all.
The downtime these days, while officially an hour, usually doesn't take more than 15-20 minutes anymore. Not bad when you have to maintain a database with information on over a million characters (and there's a LOT of data for each individual critter).
Haven't heard of anyone being stranded for days at a time. I haven't even heard of anyone, at all, becoming stuck for several months now and even before then it was a rare occurrence.
I have heard that large fleet battles (200+ people) can still get pretty laggy, but the fact that it is possible to have 200 people in the same location, all interacting at once with all of the different things that can be done, is pretty damn cool. The only other place I know of that can do this reliably are MUDs.
So, as a career advertising guy (15 years & counting) I don't get it either.
I have mod points, but I'd rather ask a question instead (since you have the experience!). Microsoft is universally hated and it is seen as un-cool. Their advertising schemes lately make this even more obvious. House parties? Really? And does anyone remember those spoofs of the mac advertisements, or bill gates and Seinfeld? Yikes...
So, if you were in charge of Microsoft's advertising, what would you do differently?
The more important thing to look for is the growth rate. Are jobs being created in California? Is California's economy growing? The number of companies leaving California is meaningless by itself.
And just as important is how all of these are being measured in the first place. I find any numbers - even "raw data" - to be suspect these days, which is pretty sad. If you have any experience with statistics, you know how much numbers can be manipulated... and manipulate they do. From politicians to special interest groups to think tanks to "non-partisan just-the-facts" type of people... )o:
The profit margin just ain't there, unless you're really, really good. If you're part of a large null-sec Corp that can replace your ships when they (inevitably) are wiped out when you are jumped by a much larger force, you'll get by, but if you're some lone wolf sociopathic space pirate, you'll be holding your ship together with duct tape and using hurled rocks as ammo in no time.
I'm a pirate, and though I am not rich, I do manage to not only break even, but make money through pirating. No, it isn't easy. You need to get lucky to find a suitable target in the first place, hope he doesn't have friends, hope you can beat him in a fight, hope he pays a ransom, and if he doesn't pay a ransom, hope that he at least drops some good loot when he pops. Surviving as a pirate without the income of production, mission running, or moon farming isn't easy... But it can be done. I'm not even a great pilot to be honest. The biggest part of it all: Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.
But, as others have said in this comment tree, the BIG money if in trading (margin trading, cross-region trading, market manipulation), sitting on top of Dysp moons, and holding low true-security space where every belt spawns multi-million isk rats. It is easy to make 50-60 million isk in an hour just by ratting in some of the null-sec areas.
I have never understood the fascination with classes. A person is capable of learning a lot of different things - so should a character in a same. Sure, you may start with a certain set of skills and characteristics that may make you better at one thing over another, but ultimately, nothing should stop a character from learning anything in a game.
This is why I prefer the World of Darkness rule set for PnP role playing over that of, say, AD&D. Your attributes will naturally make you able to better utilize certain skills, but you can still learn anything.
As far as MMOs go, this is also why I prefer Eve Online. Your character starts out with a certain set of skills based on your starting race, but after that, there's no restrictions on what your character can learn. I have heard that Ultima Online is similar.
In some games there may be a "Best Build", but in games with the depth of Eve (or if you have a good GM for the PnP RPGs), then there really isn't a "best" character. There is only "best" for a certain set of circumstances, which can change at any moment.
In Eve, people post on the forums, "What's the best ship for X" and "What is the best fitting for ship Y", and very rarely do the people reply with a unanimous answer. That's balance, especially in a game that has analyzed to hell and back.
Even better, I have seen month-old characters wreck incredible damage against an older character with more skill points and experience, simply because the younger player is more clever. I find that to be a good sign of balancing too - where a player's ability to think and respond actually does matter. A character's abilities on paper help of course, but they don't mean a damn thing without a brain controlling them.
I used to think this was true as well, but I very quickly discovered that it isn't. I'll use myself as an example of this.
I came to Eve after hearing about the space theme and the PvP aspect; After a week or two of play, I felt much like you do: All of these people have been around for so long, how can I stand a chance?
Well, I didn't give up right away and, after talking to a few people, I ended up in a zero-security alliance. They showed me how I can be effective in a variety of roles without needing a lot of skill points or expensive ships.
I filled several very important roles: 1. Electronic Warfare. I fly Caldari ships, and the Griffin is a very cheap ECM frigate that, even with low-grade modules, is very effective. 2. Scouting and Intelligence. You don't need ANY SP to do this - just a brain. I flew a system or two ahead of my fleet and was very helpful. 3. Tackling. Big ships aren't good at this - they're too slow. However, a cheap frigate is great at locking quickly and holding other ships down.
This was in less than a month of starting. After a week or two, not only was I tolerated in fleets, I was welcome because I was willing to learn, not afraid to die, and I was able to follow orders.
Fast forward four, maybe five months. I decided that I wanted something different; now I fly with a pirate corporation. I now do solo and small gang work - and I regularly attack players with years more of SP than me. I win more often than I lose because I am prepared, I have a plan, and I know what I can and cannot do effectively.
The whole "Skill Point Gap", while true on paper, is completely false in practice. Not all those SPs are in fighting skills anyways. Experience plays a factor. Environment plays a factor. Dictating the engagement is a factor. The more I fly, the more I realize how little SP matters and how much everything else does.
That said, the best thing that someone new to the game can do it pick one or two things and specialize. It doesn't take long, for example, to become highly proficient SP-wise in something specific such as (as an example) interceptors.
The only advantage that the six year old player has over the six month old player is the number of things he can specialize in.
But sometimes such a post, thought funny and sarcastic, really is making a good point. It is just using humor to do so. In such cases, the other moderation options make a lot of sense.
As the oft-reviled Rush Limbaugh says, "I use absurdity to illustrate absurdity." It works very well.
Eve is, for the most part, a giant sandbox. If you like the idea of a space based MMO, but you find Eve to be all work and no play, then quite honestly you're doing it wrong.
I haven't had to deal with this Scrum thing yet (dear god may it never happen), but I have lost any and all pleasure that comes from coding.
I used to have some projects on the side. I haven't touched them in, hell. Over a year now? When I get home, every so often I'll open up one of my projects. I'll look at it. Then after five minutes of absolutely nothing, I'll close it again.
I wake up in the morning already burned out because of what is waiting for me: Managers with their heads up their asses, requesting features that are worthless to the end user (and I would know, since I deal directly with end users on a regular basis), shortening deadlines to less than 25% of the original "if nothing goes wrong at all" estimate, newbie developers being sent to work on core parts of the system and screwing it up so I have to play fucking hero in the middle of the night...
I've been told that there are places that aren't like this, but I've never experienced one. I doubt they exist.
I agree. I would love to move to Alaska. Any Alaskan companies looking for an experienced LAMP developer? I scan the job sites on a regular basis but haven't found any appropriate opportunities.
More generally, mercury containing florescent lamps(mostly the conventional long-tube type) have been used in commercial and industrial applications for decades; because they are cheap and last a long time. Somehow, nobody worried at all about that, until they became associated with the evil environmental movement, at which point their mercury content became a talking point.
No, more like because in the commercial and industrial areas, people were far more aware of the bulbs, and the dangers they presented, and were more prepared for any potential problems.
Many people (myself included) did not know that the CFLs had mercury content until after they had been pushed on everyone for months. I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in bringing fragile, mercury containing objects into my home where mercury-containing particulates can get into my lungs. As soon as I found out, I removed all of the bulbs I had bought and gave them to someone who wanted them.
If you want to use them, that's fine. Go for it. Totally up to you. I, like many people, just want to have a choice and I am getting sick of being branded as some "earth murderer" because I'm not interested in having little mercury bombs all over the place.
I played for 15-20 minutes and, for me, it isn't all that fun for one simple reason: All of the weapons take only a few shots to kill someone, at most. Usually just one or two. So, it ends up being a twitch-fest. There's enough twitch games out there already.
Half-life, now there is a game that had deathmatch down. It took a while to kill someone. There weren't a lot of insta-kill weapons. A little slower paced. The "thinking man's deathmatch" if you will.
Graphically, it is pretty nice. For an open source game, it is fantastic.
I noticed that too. I also noticed that you can change the installation directory, as long as you have one of those input devices... What are they called now? Keyboards? Kids these days.
That I didn't mind nearly as much as the search toolbar they try to get you to install after the game is installed. Can't blame the guys for trying to get some compensation for their work, but I, like everyone else I'm sure, avoid those toolbars like the plague. (o:
Why? What other processor(s) should have been used, and what would have been the benefits? No, not trolling. Just interested in what you said and would like more information.
You miss the point. It is commentary on how Slashdot is hugely Anti-MS to the point of being retarded, and how posting anything supporting MS is a nice way to generate some hate.
Just make your point, and leave that crap out next time.
Just make your point, and leave out the vulgarity next time.
I'll join the both of you, too. I have Karma to burn.
At this point I don't think it has anything to do with a 'monopoly' in the browser market. I think it is just greed, plain and simple. If the EU can find MS to be 'guilty' (again) then they can extract more cash from the company.
Slashdot Mirror
The largest market hub of the game, Jita, regularly has over 1,000 players in the same system. It used to become unstable with over 300-400, but about a year ago they rolled out some new code and now, even with 1,000 people, it is nice and smooth. No issues at all.
The downtime these days, while officially an hour, usually doesn't take more than 15-20 minutes anymore. Not bad when you have to maintain a database with information on over a million characters (and there's a LOT of data for each individual critter).
Haven't heard of anyone being stranded for days at a time. I haven't even heard of anyone, at all, becoming stuck for several months now and even before then it was a rare occurrence.
I have heard that large fleet battles (200+ people) can still get pretty laggy, but the fact that it is possible to have 200 people in the same location, all interacting at once with all of the different things that can be done, is pretty damn cool. The only other place I know of that can do this reliably are MUDs.
More like something out of We3.
I have mod points, but I'd rather ask a question instead (since you have the experience!). Microsoft is universally hated and it is seen as un-cool. Their advertising schemes lately make this even more obvious. House parties? Really? And does anyone remember those spoofs of the mac advertisements, or bill gates and Seinfeld? Yikes...
So, if you were in charge of Microsoft's advertising, what would you do differently?
And just as important is how all of these are being measured in the first place. I find any numbers - even "raw data" - to be suspect these days, which is pretty sad. If you have any experience with statistics, you know how much numbers can be manipulated... and manipulate they do. From politicians to special interest groups to think tanks to "non-partisan just-the-facts" type of people... )o:
The profit margin just ain't there, unless you're really, really good. If you're part of a large null-sec Corp that can replace your ships when they (inevitably) are wiped out when you are jumped by a much larger force, you'll get by, but if you're some lone wolf sociopathic space pirate, you'll be holding your ship together with duct tape and using hurled rocks as ammo in no time.
I'm a pirate, and though I am not rich, I do manage to not only break even, but make money through pirating. No, it isn't easy. You need to get lucky to find a suitable target in the first place, hope he doesn't have friends, hope you can beat him in a fight, hope he pays a ransom, and if he doesn't pay a ransom, hope that he at least drops some good loot when he pops. Surviving as a pirate without the income of production, mission running, or moon farming isn't easy... But it can be done. I'm not even a great pilot to be honest. The biggest part of it all: Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.
But, as others have said in this comment tree, the BIG money if in trading (margin trading, cross-region trading, market manipulation), sitting on top of Dysp moons, and holding low true-security space where every belt spawns multi-million isk rats. It is easy to make 50-60 million isk in an hour just by ratting in some of the null-sec areas.
I have never understood the fascination with classes. A person is capable of learning a lot of different things - so should a character in a same. Sure, you may start with a certain set of skills and characteristics that may make you better at one thing over another, but ultimately, nothing should stop a character from learning anything in a game.
This is why I prefer the World of Darkness rule set for PnP role playing over that of, say, AD&D. Your attributes will naturally make you able to better utilize certain skills, but you can still learn anything.
As far as MMOs go, this is also why I prefer Eve Online. Your character starts out with a certain set of skills based on your starting race, but after that, there's no restrictions on what your character can learn. I have heard that Ultima Online is similar.
In some games there may be a "Best Build", but in games with the depth of Eve (or if you have a good GM for the PnP RPGs), then there really isn't a "best" character. There is only "best" for a certain set of circumstances, which can change at any moment.
In Eve, people post on the forums, "What's the best ship for X" and "What is the best fitting for ship Y", and very rarely do the people reply with a unanimous answer. That's balance, especially in a game that has analyzed to hell and back.
Even better, I have seen month-old characters wreck incredible damage against an older character with more skill points and experience, simply because the younger player is more clever. I find that to be a good sign of balancing too - where a player's ability to think and respond actually does matter. A character's abilities on paper help of course, but they don't mean a damn thing without a brain controlling them.
They're for male lactation.
I used to think this was true as well, but I very quickly discovered that it isn't. I'll use myself as an example of this.
I came to Eve after hearing about the space theme and the PvP aspect; After a week or two of play, I felt much like you do: All of these people have been around for so long, how can I stand a chance?
Well, I didn't give up right away and, after talking to a few people, I ended up in a zero-security alliance. They showed me how I can be effective in a variety of roles without needing a lot of skill points or expensive ships.
I filled several very important roles:
1. Electronic Warfare. I fly Caldari ships, and the Griffin is a very cheap ECM frigate that, even with low-grade modules, is very effective.
2. Scouting and Intelligence. You don't need ANY SP to do this - just a brain. I flew a system or two ahead of my fleet and was very helpful.
3. Tackling. Big ships aren't good at this - they're too slow. However, a cheap frigate is great at locking quickly and holding other ships down.
This was in less than a month of starting. After a week or two, not only was I tolerated in fleets, I was welcome because I was willing to learn, not afraid to die, and I was able to follow orders.
Fast forward four, maybe five months. I decided that I wanted something different; now I fly with a pirate corporation. I now do solo and small gang work - and I regularly attack players with years more of SP than me. I win more often than I lose because I am prepared, I have a plan, and I know what I can and cannot do effectively.
The whole "Skill Point Gap", while true on paper, is completely false in practice. Not all those SPs are in fighting skills anyways. Experience plays a factor. Environment plays a factor. Dictating the engagement is a factor. The more I fly, the more I realize how little SP matters and how much everything else does.
That said, the best thing that someone new to the game can do it pick one or two things and specialize. It doesn't take long, for example, to become highly proficient SP-wise in something specific such as (as an example) interceptors.
The only advantage that the six year old player has over the six month old player is the number of things he can specialize in.
I can't think of any scientific topic more political than the climate.
But sometimes such a post, thought funny and sarcastic, really is making a good point. It is just using humor to do so. In such cases, the other moderation options make a lot of sense.
As the oft-reviled Rush Limbaugh says, "I use absurdity to illustrate absurdity." It works very well.
Eve is, for the most part, a giant sandbox. If you like the idea of a space based MMO, but you find Eve to be all work and no play, then quite honestly you're doing it wrong.
I haven't had to deal with this Scrum thing yet (dear god may it never happen), but I have lost any and all pleasure that comes from coding.
I used to have some projects on the side. I haven't touched them in, hell. Over a year now? When I get home, every so often I'll open up one of my projects. I'll look at it. Then after five minutes of absolutely nothing, I'll close it again.
I wake up in the morning already burned out because of what is waiting for me: Managers with their heads up their asses, requesting features that are worthless to the end user (and I would know, since I deal directly with end users on a regular basis), shortening deadlines to less than 25% of the original "if nothing goes wrong at all" estimate, newbie developers being sent to work on core parts of the system and screwing it up so I have to play fucking hero in the middle of the night...
I've been told that there are places that aren't like this, but I've never experienced one. I doubt they exist.
I agree. I would love to move to Alaska. Any Alaskan companies looking for an experienced LAMP developer? I scan the job sites on a regular basis but haven't found any appropriate opportunities.
No, more like because in the commercial and industrial areas, people were far more aware of the bulbs, and the dangers they presented, and were more prepared for any potential problems.
Many people (myself included) did not know that the CFLs had mercury content until after they had been pushed on everyone for months. I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in bringing fragile, mercury containing objects into my home where mercury-containing particulates can get into my lungs. As soon as I found out, I removed all of the bulbs I had bought and gave them to someone who wanted them.
If you want to use them, that's fine. Go for it. Totally up to you. I, like many people, just want to have a choice and I am getting sick of being branded as some "earth murderer" because I'm not interested in having little mercury bombs all over the place.
Would it kill you to try one, and if that doesn't work, then try the other, and then file a bug report?
I played for 15-20 minutes and, for me, it isn't all that fun for one simple reason: All of the weapons take only a few shots to kill someone, at most. Usually just one or two. So, it ends up being a twitch-fest. There's enough twitch games out there already.
Half-life, now there is a game that had deathmatch down. It took a while to kill someone. There weren't a lot of insta-kill weapons. A little slower paced. The "thinking man's deathmatch" if you will.
Graphically, it is pretty nice. For an open source game, it is fantastic.
I noticed that too. I also noticed that you can change the installation directory, as long as you have one of those input devices... What are they called now? Keyboards? Kids these days.
That I didn't mind nearly as much as the search toolbar they try to get you to install after the game is installed. Can't blame the guys for trying to get some compensation for their work, but I, like everyone else I'm sure, avoid those toolbars like the plague. (o:
ModDB also has download links.
The main site seems to be slashdotted out of existence, but I was able to find a download link as GamersHell.
I asked for information, and I sure got it. This is why I love Slashdot so much. Thanks, everyone.
Almost makes me want to learn 68000 assembly. Almost. (o:
Why? What other processor(s) should have been used, and what would have been the benefits? No, not trolling. Just interested in what you said and would like more information.
Is this anything like Time Cube?
You miss the point. It is commentary on how Slashdot is hugely Anti-MS to the point of being retarded, and how posting anything supporting MS is a nice way to generate some hate.
Just make your point, and leave out the vulgarity next time.
You know, I think it is unfair that Microsoft bundles this command line FTP client with the operating system. The end-user deserves more choice here.
Ha ha. Just kidding. But you get what I'm saying, no?
I'll join the both of you, too. I have Karma to burn.
At this point I don't think it has anything to do with a 'monopoly' in the browser market. I think it is just greed, plain and simple. If the EU can find MS to be 'guilty' (again) then they can extract more cash from the company.