EVE Technology Lab

Purpose of the Post

Questionnaires appear in many forms, whether they're from CCP or your local supermarket as these tools provide the respective company vital information regarding their customers. However, it isn't very often you will see a user on the EVE forums posting a questionnaire for their final year dissertation. If I could take about 5 -15 minutes of your time please can you fill out the following questionnaire, hopefully the questions are quick to answer but please provide as much information as possible.

Project Elaboration

As most players are aware game mechanics allow a user/s to infiltrate corporations and even alliances to use various Meta-gaming techniques such as theft of virtual in-game assets. There are a number of tools which can track a user’s EVE history, however a lot of these provide far too much information or just aren’t made available to the community. So the fundamental task is to create a simple application which tracks the user/s ingame history such as corporation, assets, contracts and wallet information. Where possible, I will make the application live for brief periods of time to show you what has been implemented or changed to help provide an incentive and more importantly legitimacy of the project.

Acedemic Research Question

There is a vast number of differing marking criteria and although this has been labeled as a dissertation it isn't a typical dissertation. However, this is the marking criteria I am trying to answer through my survey:

• A clear understanding of wider context and issues, thorough investigation and appraisal of similar products/work which are cited and referenced correctly
• Clear and consistent design and development. Correct application of selected processes, tools and techniques

The two main purposes of the post is to get a clear understanding of what your opinions on popular EVE Applications and to also get an idea of design requirements of the user. Both sections detailed above need to be researched, however, although I can read about designing an application in books and on the Internet it only provides so much information. The best place to find out information is from the community this is being designed for.

Future Improvements

The below URL provides a list of known applications available to the entire EVE Community the problem I see is that all of them are on different websites and maintained by different development teams. Even alliances tend to have their own people for creating third party tools, yet these systems are usually kept in house and rarely get released to the community. One area of development for example is housing systems similar to EVEMon and DOTLAN in one web application and is publically made available to the entire community.

EVE - Third Party Applications

User Disclaimer

I apologise for this section, however it is required by my project moderators so in the interests of ethics and ensuring each participant is aware of what their contribution will provide, please read the following details.

• Research will potentially be readily available outside of the EVE Online forums. If you do not wish for your responses to be added to my dissertation, please stipulate this desire at the end of your response.
• This thread is open to the public as well as the EVE Community; please do not post any personal data within the thread. Only virtual names, a link to the original post and your answers will be written into the final report.
• If you would like to submit an API code for testing purposes at a later date, please send me a private message with this information. Any API details provided will not be passed onto the project moderators when my dissertation and application is complete, instead I will be using my own account details to show the functionality of the application.

Please refrain from posting irrelevant information, if the response is deemed irrelevant it will not be taken into account during the design and development of the application.

If you have any questions regarding this brief, please feel free to message me and I will be happy to help where possible.

Lets stick some glue to this one for a while.

Preferably in the thread please, just for audit trail reasons when I hand it in. However, if you wish you are more than welcome to send it by EVE-Mail.

I'll adjust the post accordingly.

1.
Downloadable apps:
PROS: as they usually use only API for remote access they are not subjected to any server issues other than eve api downtimes. Since database of user API's is not stored externally its safer for users
CONS: have to be downloaded, instaled, hard to share info between players, platform specific (for example: Windows only), updates have to be instaled on each computer

Web apps:
PROS: easier to access, easier to share, available in IGB (usually), can interface with HTTP headers of IGB, runs on all platform, can run on mobile smartphone, updates are automatiacally available to all users
CONS: server access problems, heavy trafic issues, database subjected to attacks

Color, interface, ease of usage - irrelevant of platform, web page can be made to look and work just like moder desktop application (look at the jitonomic)

2.
CCP is the sole owner of EVE IP. They have right to charge people for earining money by using their IP.

BUT they should not charge people if they only get ISK or if they make cash that only covers server costs

3. irrelevant, anything that looks plesant to the eye and dont disturb usage of the app

4. irrelevant, anything that looks plesant to the eye and dont disturb usage of the app

5. Not sure what the question is suppose to answer. If what You mean is: "does the information available trough API would be usefull if presented in application", than YES, altough most of that info is avalable trough other applications (EVEM ON for example adds more and more API info with each release)

6. given pros and cons i would go with WEB, IGB, Mobile - eve is played outside of game as much as inside, so access trough mobile is essential. But when you are ingame you want to alt-tab as little as you can, so IGB access is a go.

Please can some more users respond to the survey, I have received 2 responses but require about 10 so I can fulfill the project requirements correctly.

Thanks for your time.

[quote=Kenji Balthazar]Questions

1. I think the platform dependency of the application lies in the urgency of its data. Tactical data such as DOTLAN are more useful as a web application for use with the IGB to maximize flexibility to the user in a time critical setting. Market data, skill management, and in your case player history tracking, are generally activities performed while docked. Thus downloadable applications fit this role better as to leverage local system resources and allow more of the applications functionality independent of server state.

2. I have never had a problem with advertizement monitization so long as it is non-intrusive. However, if given the opportunity to donate for an ad-free version i would gladly pay. Im not sure if this option was covered within the license but it merits some consideration.

3. Honestly, color schemes are largely irrelevant so long as its not loud and eye-shattering. Keep the colors on the cool side of the spectrum and i think youll be fine.

4. A fair question. Backgrounds in my book dont increase or hurt interactability, as they are generally (and imo should be) static images. However implementing a "minimal" mode for people who are colorblind, or simply prefer simple schemes should be considered.

5. How often a user lets their account lapse would be very useful to track. I and many other (Ex)CEO's and Dirs would have loved to know beforehand that PlayerX frequently lets his account run dry before i recruit him.

6. I would more likely use this as a downloadable application than web. Its non-time-critical, bandwidth independent, and if it allows exporting of data, could be useful for other data analysis projects. If you want to support a web version, i suggest using a similar tactic that ECentral did with their market cache uploader: Allow users to set their application to volunteer information to your server, therefore only tracking characters that users have explicitly tracked.

1. As a developer myself, I think people do a great job with all tools out there. The one I know/use the most is Eve-central, which I think is great.

2. I think monetizing is a good idea in order to get better quality software developed and I also agree with that it should not be intrusive. Very few developers who have jobs, families etc that could dedicate time and effort to personal projects like the ones I see online. Usually they invest spare time in freelance jobs, so an opportinuty to mix the pleasure of building something Eve-related with the need to increase income would be very attractive.

3. I prefer simplistic websites, although I don't think Shatteredcrystal is a good example: its layout is a bit confusing at a first glance.

4. It makes no difference, as long as the layout makes the tool easier to use.
A suggestion, if I may? It is more important to think about how your website is going to look on a smartphone or tablet.
It is better to have a simple and functional layout that allows people to use your tool anywhere than an awesome layout that works only in certain browsers/platforms. After all, the purpose of a tool is to be used =)

5. As an Invention/Manufacture - oriented player, I focus on market value vs production cost and the API does not provide anything close to that. The only thing I could think of are contracts / wallet but I wouldn't bother using a tool just to check that, since I could log in and manage things directly.

6. I would prefer a web application. I don't like the hassle of monitoring/updating versions of software installed on my PC - the ones I use for work are enough.
Also, since there are many different tools for different purposes, web applications allows me to access them all in the tabs of the same web browser, or even in-game.

Thanks to the people who've responded, as an update the preliminary decision is that people would prefer a web application with the functionality towards smartphones and tablets. Baring this information in mind some basic designs are provided in the below links.

Index Page
Account Details
Kill Log

Colour Scheme

Please note, the potential hyperlink called 'Recent Changes' will be changed, however it relates towards website changes. Also, these designs are not yet final and may change,so please use them as a basic representation.

Thanks.