Author: Morphisat

Eve Forum Gate

This week the new forums went online. Apparently CCP uses a modified version of the asp.net Yet Another Forum software. According to the license (GPL) CCP should give back their modifications to the community (as you can read here on their forum), which should be interesting as we can see the authentication code in there. Somehow I doubt ccp intends to do this.

Anyways, the old forums were uhm well, a bit outdated, but we were used to them and readability was ok. In these new forums, readability was worse. Especially the front page and the fonts / colors chosen were not so easy on the eyes. Also the new avatars are a little too big. To me they also seem sluggish. I don’t want to diss asp.net right away (why not create something new in asp.net mvc ? would have been a better choice imho), but snappy isn’t how I would describe them.

On top of all this, through #tweetfleet yesterday came in reports (mainly by Helicity Boson) that the new forums also had several security holes. Pretty soon thereafter they were taken offline to fix those issues ! Let’s hope they also fix some of the readability issues and we’re set to go. Oh fix that like button too while you’re at it ;).

If you really miss the old forum’s look you can use a plugin in firefox called stylish to make it look like the old one.

Link: Eve24 news article

Update: The new forums were taken down again, obviously the security issues are much broad than just the signature issue. For a good timeline of the events check out Jester’s Trek.

Update II : Helicity Boson did a nice writeup in the day the forums died.

Frig Tournament

Last week we had an alliance tournament. Well mainly Hidden Agenda members actually. It consisted of several rounds. First off was the frig free for all. This time I decided to pilot a kestrel with active tanking. I only managed to take down one pilot before I was downed by about four others !

Somewhat discouraged we had a team game coming next. Using the same setup as in the solo round, this went down much better. Sitting in the back, unleashing my missiles I was involved in 3 kills of the 4. Needless to say our team won ! The fifth member that wasn’t killed pulled a Benny Hill and kept zipping around and we couldn’t kill him, Ruffio in all his wisdom declared us the winners.

Next up was a cruiser free for all. I decided to go with a tanky vexor setup, med armor rep with cap injector and an 800mm plate. I was involved in a nice one on one with a stabber with me coming out victorious. Unfortunately I was then jumped upon by Cattis in a rupture who could barely break my tank, but broke it in the end anway !

Last round of the evening’s events was a ladder frig tournament. Unfortunately it was marred by disconnects by a lot of members and other server problems. I did get in my first round and lost against a well tanked rifter using a 400mm plate. I was using a 200mm + repper. The fight was very close, I overheated all my equipment and turned to space dust in the end.

All in all a very enjoyable experience and we had a lot of fun. I certainly recommend every corp, even if you’re just industrialists to do this every now and then.

Fanfast 2011

CCP has put up the fanfest 2011 brochure at the fanfest website. Fanfest 2011 is only a week away ! I won’t be there, but for those that stay at home there is a live stream to follow the important keynote speeches. The HD stream is rather pricy at $20, especially compared to something like Gomtv’s GSL, which gives a load of content for $20,-. The recurring subs there are even only $15,-.

Luckily CCP also offers a free stream though !

Blogbanter No 25

Finally I am on the list for the blogbanter and I got nothing on the subject. It’s all about sovereignty and such and since I have no experience with that, I am not going to blabber on on something that I know very little of. But I will list the participants here ! Hold on to your hat as there are quite a few !

 

  • CrazyKinux’s Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean…..?
  • BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
  • Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
  • Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You’re a Chick?!
  • Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin’s
  • Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora’s Blog
  • Blog Banter #25 – Mad Haberdashers
  • Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
  • …Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
  • Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
  • EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov ‘n Go!
  • » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
  • Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
  • Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
  • EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
  • Who cares about Sov? – Hands Off, My Loots! ~ well sorta like an entry! :p
  • The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty – The Phoenix Diaries
  • Achernar: The space commute
  • Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
  • (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano’s Journey
  • Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 – Crappy mechanics
  • Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
  • BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
  • Boom! Hull-Shot?: It’s the End of the Eve as We Know It
  • sered’s lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 – Size does matter
  • 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
  • Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
  • Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
  • Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist’s Life in Eve
  • Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
  • >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny’s eyes.
  • Latro’s Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
  • A "CareBears" Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
  • Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc’s Ramblings
  • Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
  • EVE Blog Banter on PVP in Null Sec « Evehermit’s Blog
  • Sleepless in Space: Blog Banter #25: Moar Low Sec!

    • Sims in Space

    Finally Incarna is getting real. The blog post Captain’s Quarters reveals what is coming first. And I must say it looks very pretty. The big question of course is ‘is this useful / fun in any kind of way ?’. Unless you’re forced to dock into your own private 3D space in the station, won’t this be something you look at every once in a while and forget about it ? It seems like you can’t actually do anything in your private quarters.

    The second reason is that the last thing any of us want out of the introduction of Incarna is any detrimental effect to existing gameplay, server performance and other unforeseen but possible side effects in an environment as complex and interwoven as EVE is.

    This quote from the devblog is a little odd. I thought that CCP had always stated that Incarna will be a side thing run on different servers and won’t effect the current game. Apparently that is no longer so ?

    We haven’t worked on Incarna/WiS/Ambulation for five years. Focus has been on development of EVE. Even for this summer Captain’s Quarters are one feature among features.

    From the forum thread by CCP Chiliad

    This is a really weird statement. From fanfest 2006 on forward CCP has said they were working on Incarna or whatever it was called at the time. Seleene’s blog has a nice post that also refers to this. CCP Chiliad either expresses himself the wrong way or he’s just confused. Probably best not to read too much into it, but CCP employees should be a bit more careful about what they say in public.

    Anyways, it’s a good thing that finally after all this time Incarna is finally getting real. Though it seems that all the worries from a lot of people, CSM 5 included, that there won’t be much substance to it, are getting real as well.

    Incursion 1.2

    Incursion 1.2 will be released on feb. 15th. It involves a whole bunch of fixes / improvements to the ui and other little things that will make life in Eve a bit more easier.

    Just two examples from the Incursion’s feature page.

    Drag and Drop Into Closed Containers
    You can now drag and drop items into closed containers without having to open them first

    Character Portrait Saves Return
    Say “Cheese!” It is now again possible to capture portraits of characters in-game.

    There is more in the ccp_soundwave blog post.

    Sounds good to me :).

    Planetary Interaction Revamped

    Came across this nice tutorial for Planetary Interaction on youtube through the Eve-O forums. I tried to like p.i. and was quite enthusiastic when it was announced. Once I tested a very rough version on the test server, my enthusiasm was somewhat declining, but I figured the only way was up.

    Is the new P.I. that came with incursion better ? Yes, I guess it is. But I had to redo all my planets and I think I gave up on the third or so. In highsec it’s barely worth it, I doubt it’s much better in losec. I guess in a wormhole or 0.0 it would be worth the effort. For those that still want to get into it, enjoy the video :).

    The New Me

    The Incursion expansion brings us the new character creator. I was planning on recreating Morphisat, but that didn’t quite work out. The new hairdo, I am not a big fan off, and I couldn’t seem to get the color darker. Also a bit too much beard, the ‘facial hair intensity’ slidebar didn’t seem to do anything.

    Anyways, you can watch him from various angles in the youtube video below. I frapsed the whole thing, but I doubt anyone would be interested in that !