Gooder Eve is an on-going series that attempts to prod the Eve Universe into motion by suggesting ways in which it could be made gooder. These suggestions range from the serious to the silly, but each one is intended to start a discussion, engage your brain and hopefully start the ball rolling in new and interesting directions.
Recently the concept of Time Dilation has been introduced to the Eve Community. Or, as fans of The Matrix might call it, Bullet Time. The concept is simple, the Eve server acts in an adaptive manner to constrict "in-game" time when the load becomes increasingly heavier. The heavier the load, the slower time acts within the game. It is hoped that by manipulating the fabric of space-time, server lag can be better dealt with.
Which is all fine and good, and a subject worthy of an additional post.
But it brought to mind something else that has been nagging at the back of my brain. ( And credit to Angor Mau for bringing it to my attention earlier this week. ) If we are going to be warping time in relation to server lag, perhaps now is a good time to think about time in Eve on a more majestic scale.
New Eden is a big universe. The scale and wonder of what CCP has built for our enjoyment is truly remarkable. But have you ever noticed how small it is starting to feel? This is just a perception, which is the heart of space-time relativity in the first place. The perception of time has as much to do with actual time as the hands on a clock. Eve might be big, but you can sure get from one place to another PDQ.
And this isn't just a function of Jump Bridges, Cyno Fields, Jump Freighters and other instantaneous modes of transportation either. Although they certainly play a role. It also has to do with warping from one place to another. The other night I went on a quick jaunt North in my Vagabond. 17 jumps in less than thirty minutes. I wasn't burning, it could have gone quicker.
My suggestion isn't radical. It is simply this, to slow Eve down about 10-15%.
To return a touch of the majestic to the Universe we love. Eve has sped up over the last few years and no doubt the universe has gotten smaller. Maybe it is time to pull that back a tad? To give us all a little more time and room to spread our wings? Room you say?
Well one way to achieve this would be to simply (lol) make New Eden 10-15% bigger. To stretch it out a bit overall. This would screw with jump distances and bridges and cynos and whatnots, but maybe that isn't such a bad thing? Another way would be to make everything slower, but I prefer the bigger method.
Ok Rixx, this is weird. No one is asking for this and you've gone off the deep end. Possibly. On the other hand, just because no one is asking for something doesn't mean it is a bad idea. I think the more you consider this the more you'll start to think it makes sense. Or perhaps you have an alternative solution?
Majesty. Size. Wonder. It is space after all and it should take some effort to get from one side to the other. A little more effort, just a touch, could return some much needed majesty to the universe of New Eden.
What are your thoughts?
I've made my share of mistakes in Eve. And I've always been man enough to admit to them, learn from them and try to avoid making the same ones again.
Leaving my Corporation back in the early Summer when my son went into the Hospital was a mistake. I should have just gone AFK and let the chips fall until I could get back. Of course, at the time I wasn't sure I would be coming back. I came closer to quitting Eve at that moment than I have before or since. Hindsight.
That decision effectively killed my Corporation. It wasn't a decision made in a vacuum however. At the same time as my son's illness, two of my Directors were threatening to leave the Corporation. Those threats also led to the decision to leave.
I've been back now for over three months. Nine months since I re-started the Corporation. The person I started it with, Angor Mau, is not playing Eve anymore. My Alliance Exec has been gone for over two months. I have a blank portal page that I don't have access to. I cannot get to my TeamSpeak server, the forum, or the killboard. There are two Corporations wanting to join the Alliance that have a combined 97 members, more than doubling the current size of our merry little group.
It felt like the Chinese Hell of a Thousand Paper Cuts.
And then Steve Jobs died. And I was reminded of a quote of his, which I paraphrase, "Look in the mirror every day as if it was your last, would you be doing what you are doing?" I had to answer no.
As hard as it is to admit to yourself, Lucifer's Hammer died three months ago. It died when two people you wrongly trusted took half your members with them, under what turned out ( I discovered yesterday ) to be a false pretense. It is also hard to admit that you can't do this alone, that bringing new member corporations into this situation is wrong. That every day you keep hoping the course will be corrected, all while feeling guilty for those that have come on board.
I know. This is Eve and I should just do it anyway. But I can't do that. So instead of watching it all die a horrible death, like a beautiful race horse with a broken leg, I decided to kill it myself. Not violently, like some rage quitting fool, but honorably and with some amount of dignity. No one will probably care one way or another, but I will.
We had an awesome run. From January to early Summer Lucifer's Hammer was on fire. We had a great team of pilots and we all worked extremely well together. We had a blast in RK and with giving them Hell for the whole stupid small neuts thing, we enjoyed our day in Muppets and the subsequent trolololololol over the lost blue freighter, and we really built a decent Alliance with some great Corporations.
For every single pilot that came thru those doors, for every Corporation, I say thank you. Thank you for believing in us, in me and our vision for Lucifer's Hammer and the Burn Away Alliance.
As for me I am staying in Lucifer's Hammer. I said before that I wouldn't be leaving and I meant it. A few of our pilots are also staying, but we won't be actively recruiting any time soon, if ever. Right now I just want to simplify my Eve. My RL is more complicated than ever and I just want to focus on becoming a better pirate, pilot and player for the time being. Goodness knows, for some reason, I'm apparently not very good at anything else.
It has become standard practice over the last 24 hours to say how much Apple and by extension, Steve Jobs, changed the world. No doubt that is indeed true. More importantly it is infinitely true for me personally. As a young man I was consumed by creative passions that had no real focus, scattered amongst many, many interests, desires and possible paths. I knew my life would be a creative one, but I had no locus around which to build that life.
I had been involved with computers from an early age, the TRS-80, PET and others, including the early Apple I and II. I had even taught myself programming, my Brother and I wrote a boxscore machine language program to keep track of Baseball stats. But computers were tools, not creative devices.
That all changed one day. I can still remember cracking the box on the Macintosh. And even though it was still an early, prototype, baby step machine - it changed my life. Right then and there. Since that day I have not been without a Mac. I have never owned a PC and I never will. I can't explain that to you. The mere proximity to a PC sucks the life out of my soul, literally. This isn't a tech thing, a performance thing, a price thing, it is in its purest form, a LIFE thing.
If it wasn't for that Mac and all the ones that came after, I wouldn't be where I am today. I certainly wouldn't be writing these words, I wouldn't be playing Eve and I wouldn't be creating art for the Eve community. Every single piece of creative energy that I have expelled in the last 26 years has been expelled thru a Apple product. You may not believe me and that's your right, but, if not for Apple, I would be doing something else. In the early nineties, when we all believed Apple might no longer be with us and we all seriously contemplated a world without Mac - I knew I would quit my job and find something else to do. And I meant it.
If I had to stare at a Windows screen every day my soul would die. I've tried, on friends computers, at client offices, and other places, but I cannot create on a PC. I honestly don't believe anyone truly can.
I can't explain that to you. And for all the talk over the last day and the days to come, it is that single unexplainable element, the locus of technology (and not always the best technology), art, culture, and life itself, that defines for me the power of Steve Jobs and the vision he had for the world. It is unexplainable.
I was very fortunate to once spend some time with Woz, the co-founder of Apple. I tried explaining the above to him briefly and he smiled that big Woz smile and I knew he knew what I meant. It was a profoundly moving moment that I will never forget.
As much as Apple has changed every aspect of our lives, the only important one is that it changed mine. And for that I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to a man I never got the chance to thank in person. So thank you Steve.
Our Norse God Hilmar Veigar ( close enough, the Norse had something to do with Iceland y'know! ) threw down the hammer today with this heart-felt, honest and game-changing letter to the Eve community.
It seems that many of my assumptions about CCP losing sight of the goals that made them a great company were not far off the mark. And I am extremely pleased to see that they've taken a much needed deep breath and are trying to re-focus.
Thank you. It is one huge step in the right direction, and while much remains to be seen, it would be extremely difficult to imagine anyone going back on such a strong statement. As if to prove the point, we immediately got a follow up dev blog that laid out the re-focused attention that FiS will be getting this Winter. And while the blog was light on details, it does offer some hope that within the next 11 weeks or so, space will be getting some much needed attention.
Hybrid weapons balancing - long time coming. Maybe now I can fit a Hybrid weapon on a ship without feeling like a dufus.
Factional warfare - doesn't affect me directly, but I know a lot of people care about this, which means I do as well
Assault ships - What about them? I wonder.
Capital ship balancing - Huge issue, pardon the pun.
New T2 modules - Could be interesting.
Starbase logistics management - I don't even know what this is, but if they're fixing it someone will be happy
New EWAR-Drones - Ok, I think the ones we have just need balanced, but let's see what you have in mind.
T2 Rigs manufacturing - This is about making stuff isn't it?
Ship spinning - yeah!
New font
More captains quarters
Time dilation
And while this might not be a complete list, it is certainly a large one. Maybe too big? Or have some of these things been in development for awhile? I guess we'll all find out in the coming weeks. I'll have more to say about some of these in coming posts, several of them stand out to me one way or the other.
But for now, let's not dilute what has been an important day. The Eve community has spoken and CCP has listened. Some people are already re-subbing, The Mittani seems to be taking more credit than he deserves, Twitter is on fire, the feedback seems extremely positive, so all seems right with the universe again.
Whew. Summer is officially over in New Eden.
"EVE Online is renowned for it's depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?"
( Blog Banter Home Land )
"But whether the plan of immersion Is better than simple aspersion Let those immersed And those aspersed Decide by the Authorized Version, And by matching their agues tertian."- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Undocked into the void scampered across the sea of darkness whimpering metal torn and flung far against the cold empty death, plunged and penetrated, enveloped without and within the very soul foundation of life... Consider the herculean efforts imposed by a world in which a vast universe of players, developers, designers, and pixels collide across the vastness of the internet vacuum tubes and pulleys, to create a complex, interactive, three dimensional playground. Consider that.
My Great Grand Father appeared to me in a Time Machine that he had built back in 1933, the contraption popped into my studio office in a great clang of Twilight Zone shimmering effects. The young man exhaled and looked me square in the face. He said, I only have three or four minutes before the time vortex pulls me back to my own time! Show me the wonders of the future Grandson!!! I swung my monitor close and I showed him Eve ( I also told him a black man was President and we had landed men on the moon ) but what better represented the future than a world united in a virtual playground, many nations, many people, experiencing something together. At least in my home studio? Sadly my Grand Father snapped and called me names before that damn time vortex sucked his sorry ass back to lame old 1933. Not sure if it was Eve or Barack Obama that tipped him over the edge.
Flipping through the channels of my youth, the click buzz of wonderous three channel variety, my fingers raw from the serrated plastic ribs on the big dial. Click Logan's Run, Click Planet of the Apes, Click Kolchak the Night Stalker, Click Project Blue Book, Click Battlestar Galactica, Click Buck Rodgers... I ate at the table of science fiction and devoured every fast food meal, the self-indulgent clap trap crap of a generation without imagination and the early wanderings of pure Rod Serling genius. I watched models fly sideways against stain colored planets, die scape oil drug induced trips and polyester skin tight lunacy. I lived it, ate it, and shat it all out on pen and paper. And now I undock in it. I SPIN IT! So damn you nineteen seventies, damn you to HELL! Eat my Eve you goddamn decade of waste.
Jump, splash, swim.
I am logged on. Logged in. Jacked into a virtual playground of the mind, visualized on a pixel level that spins, twirls and twists. Surrounded by the world, my friends from far-flung Scandinavia, Upside down Australia, Vodka swollen Baltic nations, and heat-induced Camel Spider infested occupying forces. Immerse yourself. I owe no one an explanation. I have jumped in. And I damn well plan on swimming further out to sea.
Udder Banter:Shall We Not RevengeEve HermitSand, Cider and SpaceshipsVive VirtualAmarrian Pilot BlogSered's LivesEnder Black's Pod Goo
Click on the image to be taken to Flickr where you can download various sizes. This one also has a print quality version available, look around you'll find it.
Thanks to Szilardis for asking me to work on this project for him. And to all those still waiting on me to get around to your project, thanks for being patient. This stuff doesn't happen over night.
Enjoy.
When I first started playing Eve I wanted the answers, how do you do this? How does that work? What is the best fit for this ship? How? Why? Where? When?!!!
And while Eve is full of answers, there is no right answer. Only wrong ones.
Harrigan said it in his comment on the last post about the Nano Gang recipe, PvP in Eve is not baking... it is cooking. If you've never had the opportunity to cook for yourself or for loved ones I highly recommend it. There are so many life lessons involved in cooking food for others, that it is an experience not to be missed. I can honestly say, I can't imagine living life without it. I don't get to cook as much these days as I used to, but I still enjoy it when I can.
Sure there are recipes in cooking, guides, do's and don'ts. But the real joy of cooking comes from trial and error, guess-work, intuition, creativity and pure fun at your craft. ( Like life itself, creepy huh? ) Cooking, like PvP in Eve, is full of answers. But there are no right ones, only wrong ones.
I've been fiddling with my own recipe lately. I've spent some time going back thru my fits and twiddling, tweaking and making changes. This is something that I do all the time. The recipe changes, the flavor, the aroma, the desired mix of ingredients changes. And while the ingredients haven't changed in a long time, the mix, the level, the amount, the heat, the stove itself is constantly changing.
For example. I've been tweaking my Rifter fit while avoiding flying the ship at all during the last few weeks. Mostly I just needed a break from it, to take some time to enjoy some other food. A constant diet of even the best steak can get old fast. And not that the Rifter is steak, it is more like a Hot Dog. I enjoy a good hot dog. But I also enjoy it many ways and with many toppings. The Rifter is like that. I took it out last night and eventually found a 1v1 with someone. We sparred, but neither of us was able to deal the killing blow quickly enough. Sadly the other guy managed to get outside my scram range and he ran off.
So I warped back to my station and took the damn scram off in exchange for a long-point. Next time, someone like him won't be able to just warp off on me! I'm sure I'll regret that decision, which is why I have multiple fits up and running. That's just one of many. Tweaking the recipe. Adapting.
There are no perfect fits in Eve, only wrong ones. And you'll only know you have the wrong one when you need it the most. There was nothing wrong with my Rifter fit, except that it failed me in that specific situation. They will all do that to you eventually.
But only if you cook. Listen to the Masters, learn your craft and then be brave enough to do it your way. You will find success. And the results will be yummy I bet.
