EVE Online: New Combat Features Interview

Stradden · January 2007

Dan Fortier sat down for a quick chat with CCP's Huni "TomB" Hinrichsen about EVE Online's New Combat Features.

MMORPG.com:

The new changes to the gang system seem to be focused on making them more manageable both for players and your server cluster. What changes do you expect to see in the way large fleet battles are fought with this new system?

Huni "TomB" Hinrichsen :

There are a lot of improvements that the new gang system creates. Broadcasts give faster and better communication between gang members whereas before they had to spend time searching for the target objective once they'd received it via voice communication or chat text. The group system allows the commanders to create squadrons or wings that are dedicated to a specific role such as a group of electronic warfare specialists or logistical support and so on.

I would like to point out, however, that this is only the beginning of our focus on fleet combat. We have been working like mad scientists on finding more group focused activities that will add more fun, versatility and excitement in the second installment of the three-part Revelations expansion. (Revelations II is coming in 2007, but we don't have a firm release date yet.) A few things you can look forward to seeing in Revelations II are massive bombs for stealth bombers, remote ECM bursts, remote force field arrays and totally revamped star base combat.

Read the whole article here.

NTRabbit · January 2007

Finally, bombs for the stealth bombers. They were in the database years ago, but did not enter the game with the bombers as was expected.

Hopefully they can add a useful and purposeful formation system too, but thats certainly a ways off.

iCeh · January 2007

Awesome, looks like i'll be training up skills to use these.

skyeater3 · January 2007

One possible option might be to allow the commander of a group to assign the gang boosting ability to another gang member but continue having the limit of only a single person per group that can give bonuses.

That would be nice. Sure I may have high leadership skills, but that doesn't mean I'm actually any good at leading gangs in reality. I would rather not be forced to do so.

Rod_B · January 2007

Look, I like the ideas behind the changes (except the gang system that mostly sucks).

But saying that the killing fo the two main lag creators had any uipact worth mentioning is nonsense. The situations where lag is most annoying and game breaking still experience a comparable amount of it, and that's a LOT.

0k21 · January 2007

I switched from WoW to EVE very recently, I have to say, they're doing ten times more than what Blizzard have done with the expansion pack burning crusade, way more features, the mere fact that they've bothered to upgrade the entire server's graphics engine throughout the year whilst people are still playing amazes me, Blizzard would never have the guts to implement this type of thing because of their huge customer base and they're content to let us play with these horrible low polygon models which is partly the reason why I quit it in the first place, kudos CCP! Your caring about your customer base!

JaimeWulf · January 2007

First off let me say this....I LOVE EVE!

Lag is much better since they introduced "Warp to 0".. It did not remove the need for Instas( BookMarks) but,

made for far fewer of them for sure...Still, I don't get it as much (Lag) but, In group encounters I get quite a bit...

Especialy where Drones are involved....During a recent Corporation Mining Op we had all deployed our drones for Rat protection...

I almost instantly had to ask everyone to dock their drones cause I was lagging badly from it.....However it may be due to my DSL and System possibly...I also run 2 Acct's as well at the same time so....

Can't wait to see the future changes!

bawldeux · January 2007

Tomb is lie'ing out his fat arse.

Lag is just as bad, but due to the lack or need for bm's, those exploiting the copying to have a few thousand bm's in their cargo hold, to induce lag, is not easy to excuse (as in, the exploiters get banned now). Why would I see lag with 15k online, then Tomb claims that when the 30k+ were online and the lag was freaking horrible in all the 18 systems I jumped into, that the server was trouble free...LIES LIES LIES.

The 30k'ish number after 3 years???????? and the servers are not lag free, nor stable....still...no matter how many lies Tomb or any ccp propaganda drone can make up.

The game is only hitting 30k players online after 3 + years, and only about 100k active accounts...while other games are in the MILLIONS of players online and 10's of millions subscribers..oh yes, CCP and their private sandbox sure as fsck isn't impressing me.

in the truly successful games, the employees are not allowed to abuse the games mechanics to favor the group they play with...i.e. cheating via their special tools and inside knowledge. (having been a GM in two mmo's, I know the successful companies do not allow staff to influence the outcome of the game as a participant taking sides, )

To improve the game, and achieve the numbers in the millions other games seem to achieve with ease, CCP needs to look at their 'sandbox', pull heads from their butts, and stop forcing violence on all the players (and allowing selective use of exploits as long as it makes the grief style players/corps/alliances happy, which the ccp staff have admitted to be a part of)...or they can settle for a very very very limited number of players,all that like to cheat, scam, lie, sell credits from the game on ebay (as well as characters, ships, other items...hell, some think it is ccp themselves selling those things on ebay because their subscription numbers just won't grow fast enough...)

Ask why CCP allows players to buy loads of GTC's then sell them for isk in the game....no matter how you look at it, CCP sells isk in their game. (isk = in game credits). With twisted logic and morals, who can say CCP is not selling things on EBAY just to fatten their wallets.

I was happy to play for a bit, put up with a few bugs, even a bit of lag here and there....but when the staff of the company running the game, lie, use their powers to help their pet corps and pet players, while fsking over other paying customers, then I draw the line, and have canceled my 3 accounts. (been with the game since it was in beta, hoping CCP would pull head from arse...tired of waiting)

CCP = lies

CCP = encourage grief play

CCP = censor happy goons (see how fast anything that isn't a fanboi post on their forums, is removed, threads vanish, and the threats run rampet from their 'staff'. you don't have to violate a forum rule, you just have a negative comment about ccp or their game and poof, your post vanishes...can't have bad opinions in their own forums...people might see it and think the game has issues...)

goodby to CCP, they can kiss my fsking arse, and use their tounge to clean my bunghole.

btw, out of 15 people I got to try the game, none stayed...having been griefed out of the game within a month...so back to the other mmo's we go ( )*( ) <--plant your lips here ccp!

The person that turned me onto the game quit for the same reasons I am after 3 years...too many lies and the encouragement from ccp to be grief players (not wars, just pure fsking grief play)

Looking for a 'good' game, then look to FF series, or even WoW, just steer clear of grief play based games like Eve-online.

so CCP, go get your clubs, bash some baby seals to death while on coffee break, slaughter some whales, and then back to the fun of your little sandbox, minus 17 players (Iceland pasttimes, wonder if those two things influenced the CCP staff to enjoy senseless grief style play...nothing like killing those that are unable to defend themselves huh???)

Ahotare · January 2007

Very nice. While EvE isn't really my cup of tea (tried the free trial for a bit), I have to respect them for addressing issues that plague the existing player base, rather than adding content to keep the min-maxers and draw in new blood to replace unsubs.

Ahotare · January 2007

To poster above:

Not to say you are wrong, but:

Practically every PvP game I have heard of, from UO onwards and including FPS games have the issues you mention.

Your post clearly is hostile in tone, and thus is not one to be taken seriously without some data to back it up.

Can't you just feel the love?

DaCrusha · January 2007

I love what CCP has been doing to the game lately. Most of the changes have been for the better IMHO. As far as I can see the Revelations upgrades take the game in entirely new directions that even established players can enjoy. Some things work better than others, but I cheer CCP trying different things out rather than churning out more of the same (i.e. Blizzard, SOE, etc) I think that is why EVE continues to grow despite it's maturity, while most other MMO's that have been out as long see declining subscriptions.

XXen · January 2007

Originally posted by bawldeux

Yada, Yada

1. The most devs dont play activ atm, stated several times, as they dont have the time to.

2. There are cases when ISD Staff or GMs influenced the game their way, they were banned and expelled (and yes, the community was told about)

3. Why do you play since Beta when you so fu**ed about it ?

bawldeux · January 2007

1) as shown by the interview, devs lie. (lag and other bugs are rampet throughout the game...and they say it is 'ok') hell their own forums have yet to fix the "!" avatar issue, that has been there for over a year...but no, there are no problems, all is 'ok'....

2) players only know of those times we actualy had witnesses...how many times was this done and never caught by players? (dev mentioned below, said they know there were more instances, but they don't monitor their own people)

3) you failed to read the content and missed that part....patience, I liked parts of the game enough to over look other aspects that were wanting...until a member of ccp staff admitted to me that they did in fact actively played with intent to destroy what we had built, all due to a dislike towards a few members in our group...that quit the game due to the grief they were subjected too...that was the decision maker to QUIT.

Point is, in case you missed it, that ccp lies to the public and their own playerbase.

I can not abide lier's and will not support them.

I find the direction they are forcing all to take is not worth it.

The game is supposed to be fun, and I do not find fun in the act of ruining the game for others by destroying what it takes weeks if not months to build, in a few seconds...i.e. violence and grief towards others players is all that is left to do in the game, there is no other way to play it now...not what they advertise, "choose your own path, free form professions.." what a bunch of b-s.

the game is nothing more then a mmo style of quake in space now...with the game 'masters' at the controls, acting against those they dislike. (it is their private sandbox, and they like to be bullies and power mongers, and F-ck the paying customers if we don't like it)

30kish after 3 years...HAH, pathetic performance for a company....lets see what spin they can put on that fact.

pihlssite · January 2007

Yea this news are good.

Now I just wait for the next good news when I can walk in stations

Minsc · January 2007

Originally posted by bawldeux

1) as shown by the interview, devs lie. (lag and other bugs are rampet throughout the game...and they say it is 'ok') hell their own forums have yet to fix the "!" avatar issue, that has been there for over a year...but no, there are no problems, all is 'ok'....

In my experience the server has been running much better since revelations was released. No it is not always perfect and those that think it ever will be are foolish, but I've encountered very little lag over the past months, and I've been travelling throughout the universe a lot lately. I don't viist the hub systems at all though as there's no need to and the people who DO spend all thier time in the hub systems should move a couple jumps away or stop complaining about the lag.

2) players only know of those times we actualy had witnesses...how many times was this done and never caught by players? (dev mentioned below, said they know there were more instances, but they don't monitor their own people)

The devs have stated in both of the incidents where it happened that they are constantly auditing their staff to prevent them from misusing their powers on the Live server. I don't know where you got the idiotic idea that they don't police thier own staff from, but unless you have proof I'll just assume your full of shit. The first incident was a GM that was new and was quickly fired and the second incident was a ISD VOLUNTEER (not staff) that was also quickly removed. There are numerous instances of players claiming that one alliance or another has devs or gm's in it giving preference to their alliancemates but it's all just unsubstantiated whining.

3) you failed to read the content and missed that part....patience, I liked parts of the game enough to over look other aspects that were wanting...until a member of ccp staff admitted to me that they did in fact actively played with intent to destroy what we had built, all due to a dislike towards a few members in our group...that quit the game due to the grief they were subjected too...that was the decision maker to QUIT.

I'm assuming you have proof of a dev stating this that you can link to right?

In other words: Proof or STFU

Point is, in case you missed it, that ccp lies to the public and their own playerbase.

I can not abide lier's and will not support them.

I find the direction they are forcing all to take is not worth it.

The game is supposed to be fun, and I do not find fun in the act of ruining the game for others by destroying what it takes weeks if not months to build, in a few seconds...i.e. violence and grief towards others players is all that is left to do in the game, there is no other way to play it now...not what they advertise, "choose your own path, free form professions.." what a bunch of b-s.

the game is nothing more then a mmo style of quake in space now...with the game 'masters' at the controls, acting against those they dislike. (it is their private sandbox, and they like to be bullies and power mongers, and F-ck the paying customers if we don't like it)

30kish after 3 years...HAH, pathetic performance for a company....lets see what spin they can put on that fact.

30k is the concurrent connections on ONE SHARD without instancing dumbass, and yes that is impressive. And so is having 170,000 subscribers considering they are an independent developer who only publishes online, has no shelf presence, limited advertising and one of the most hardcore open PVP rulesets.

LordSlater · January 2007

Have to say the bombs for stealth bombers is a great feature as before now these bombers didnt have such a big role. Now tho they will be very valuable in fleets for breaking up blobs.

XXen · January 2007

Originally posted by LordSlater

Have to say the bombs for stealth bombers is a great feature as before now these bombers didnt have such a big role. Now tho they will be very valuable in fleets for breaking up blobs.

Hope they do, otherwise they might be pretty nice suicide-ganker/sniper

UggaeZero · January 2007

Originally posted by bawldeux

Tomb is lie'ing out his fat arse.

Lag is just as bad, but due to the lack or need for bm's, those exploiting the copying to have a few thousand bm's in their cargo hold, to induce lag, is not easy to excuse (as in, the exploiters get banned now). Why would I see lag with 15k online, then Tomb claims that when the 30k+ were online and the lag was freaking horrible in all the 18 systems I jumped into, that the server was trouble free...LIES LIES LIES.

The 30k'ish number after 3 years???????? and the servers are not lag free, nor stable....still...no matter how many lies Tomb or any ccp propaganda drone can make up.

The game is only hitting 30k players online after 3 + years, and only about 100k active accounts...while other games are in the MILLIONS of players online and 10's of millions subscribers..oh yes, CCP and their private sandbox sure as fsck isn't impressing me.

in the truly successful games, the employees are not allowed to abuse the games mechanics to favor the group they play with...i.e. cheating via their special tools and inside knowledge. (having been a GM in two mmo's, I know the successful companies do not allow staff to influence the outcome of the game as a participant taking sides, )

To improve the game, and achieve the numbers in the millions other games seem to achieve with ease, CCP needs to look at their 'sandbox', pull heads from their butts, and stop forcing violence on all the players (and allowing selective use of exploits as long as it makes the grief style players/corps/alliances happy, which the ccp staff have admitted to be a part of)...or they can settle for a very very very limited number of players,all that like to cheat, scam, lie, sell credits from the game on ebay (as well as characters, ships, other items...hell, some think it is ccp themselves selling those things on ebay because their subscription numbers just won't grow fast enough...)

Ask why CCP allows players to buy loads of GTC's then sell them for isk in the game....no matter how you look at it, CCP sells isk in their game. (isk = in game credits). With twisted logic and morals, who can say CCP is not selling things on EBAY just to fatten their wallets.

I was happy to play for a bit, put up with a few bugs, even a bit of lag here and there....but when the staff of the company running the game, lie, use their powers to help their pet corps and pet players, while fsking over other paying customers, then I draw the line, and have canceled my 3 accounts. (been with the game since it was in beta, hoping CCP would pull head from arse...tired of waiting)

CCP = lies

CCP = encourage grief play

CCP = censor happy goons (see how fast anything that isn't a fanboi post on their forums, is removed, threads vanish, and the threats run rampet from their 'staff'. you don't have to violate a forum rule, you just have a negative comment about ccp or their game and poof, your post vanishes...can't have bad opinions in their own forums...people might see it and think the game has issues...)

goodby to CCP, they can kiss my fsking arse, and use their tounge to clean my bunghole.

btw, out of 15 people I got to try the game, none stayed...having been griefed out of the game within a month...so back to the other mmo's we go ( )*( ) <--plant your lips here ccp!

The person that turned me onto the game quit for the same reasons I am after 3 years...too many lies and the encouragement from ccp to be grief players (not wars, just pure fsking grief play)

Looking for a 'good' game, then look to FF series, or even WoW, just steer clear of grief play based games like Eve-online.

so CCP, go get your clubs, bash some baby seals to death while on coffee break, slaughter some whales, and then back to the fun of your little sandbox, minus 17 players (Iceland pasttimes, wonder if those two things influenced the CCP staff to enjoy senseless grief style play...nothing like killing those that are unable to defend themselves huh???)

LOLZ somone got ganked 1 time to many, if your lagging its your fault not theirs I rarely see lag

Agrikaan · January 2007

Yes Bawldeux and Minsc (edit). Go back to Mama, you baby. Go back to big green pointy arrows so you know where to go, and no death penalty at all - i.e. no challenge, the only things you need to do to get rewards is wasting time and doubleclicking.

And lies... Yes, wake up to the REAL world. No one says the whole truth when it comes to marketing. No one. Not individuals applying for a job, not the presidents, not the corporations, not the devs. Grow up and get a pair. Start by learning how to shave.

player321 · January 2007

support!!!

Schneppi · January 2007

What CCP is doing for our Comunity, letting us play on one big Cluster, is just awesome.

And i truly hope they can push the amount of concurrent Players at one time to a much higher amount.

Just my 2cents...

Minsc · January 2007

Originally posted by Agrikaan

Yes Bawldeux and Minsc: Go back to Mama, you babies. Go back to big green pointy arrows so you know where to go, and no death penalty at all - i.e. no challenge, the only things you need to do to get rewards is wasting time and doubleclicking.
And lies... Yes, wake up to the REAL world. No one says the whole truth when it comes to marketing. No one. Not individuals applying for a job, not the presidents, not the corporations, not the devs. Grow up and get a pair. Start by learning how to shave.

errr....why are you bashing me, I disagree'd with Bawldeux.

wilcoxon · January 2007

Originally posted by Minsc
Originally posted by bawldeux
as shown by the interview, devs lie. (lag and other bugs are rampet throughout the game...and they say it is 'ok') hell their own forums have yet to fix the "!" avatar issue, that has been there for over a year...but no, there are no problems, all is 'ok'....
In my experience the server has been running much better since revelations was released. No it is not always perfect and those that think it ever will be are foolish, but I've encountered very little lag over the past months, and I've been travelling throughout the universe a lot lately. I don't viist the hub systems at all though as there's no need to and the people who DO spend all thier time in the hub systems should move a couple jumps away or stop complaining about the lag.

I can't. I do L4 missions for Caldari Navy - all Empire L4 Caldari Navy agents that give kill missions are in Saila, Aramachi, Isenairos, and Motsu. I believe all 4 of those systems are on the same server (Jita is the only system that has its own server afaik). The lag in Saila area is still about what it was pre-Kali.

The game is supposed to be fun, and I do not find fun in the act of ruining the game for others by destroying what it takes weeks if not months to build, in a few seconds...i.e. violence and grief towards others players is all that is left to do in the game, there is no other way to play it now...not what they advertise, "choose your own path, free form professions.." what a bunch of b-s.

I agree somewhat. I have always hated open pvp - it encourages ganking which may be fun for the ganker but sucks for the gankee. I stay in hi sec almost all of the time which does limit the game. I really wish CCP would add a permanent or long-term flag to allow/disallow open pvp (war decs should still allow pvp in any case) - would cut down on the number of griefers and allow those of us that hate ganking to actually experience 0.0 space. I don't expect it to happen, but I can dream.

30kish after 3 years...HAH, pathetic performance for a company....lets see what spin they can put on that fact.
30k is the concurrent connections on ONE SHARD without instancing dumbass, and yes that is impressive. And so is having 170,000 subscribers considering they are an independent developer who only publishes online, has no shelf presence, limited advertising and one of the most hardcore open PVP rulesets.

I completely agree with Minsc. Show me another MMO from an independent developer that is published online only with limited advertising that is doing well. On top of that, it is a very different style of game - I've gotten multiple people to try it that just couldn't get into being a ship in station/space (it just wasn't as immersive to them as controlling a person).

Agrikaan · January 2007

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by Agrikaan

Yes Bawldeux and Minsc: Go back to Mama, you babies. Go back to big green pointy arrows so you know where to go, and no death penalty at all - i.e. no challenge, the only things you need to do to get rewards is wasting time and doubleclicking.
And lies... Yes, wake up to the REAL world. No one says the whole truth when it comes to marketing. No one. Not individuals applying for a job, not the presidents, not the corporations, not the devs. Grow up and get a pair. Start by learning how to shave.

errr....why are you bashing me, I disagree'd with Bawldeux.

Sorry MINSC, my apologies. I got confused somehow (bloody terrorists). Read some parts of the Quote not as a quote.

Gamrag · January 2007

Some good changes, although lag is still a major problem. Jumping large gangs still creates problems with people not loading for quite some time. And I haven't really seen much that really makes me want to engage in large fleet battles at this moment. Still looks like ccp is heading in the right direction and I'm looking forward to all the combat changes.

netboyz · January 2007

Dude, bawldeux, if you hate things that much, maybe you should just stop playing and move to WoW!

Howdy, Stranger!

EVE Online: New Combat Features Interview

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

EVE Online: New Combat Features Interview

Comments