EVE Information Portal

Awesome read so far! Special thanks to ISD Mercury :D


Uhm, and.. I'll just leave this here :p
"for better of for worse" ( http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Luminate_Era_of_the_Gallente_Federation#Elite_Purges )

Very nice. I'm a big fan of this game's fluff hope to see more of it around

In the sense there is significant back-and-forth between Mercury writers and CCP, yes. The objective was to expand upon existing PF in chronicles and articles etc, by filling out the blanks and answering questions (with even more questions!), all without deviating from the core themes of the EVE IP. You can rest assured that anything in-house that is "secret" regarding back story is probably published in the new articles somewhere, at least with the Amarr and Gallente

/me loves mercury.
I just wish they could have done something about the immersion diminishing aspects of certain expansions and features, like the non-sensical mining turret bonus on the new barges/exhumers. I guess CCP removed the RPG suffix for a reason.

And I also hear complaints about the silent move of In Character and roleplayed news articles to a different category, as far as I can tell there's no RSS feed for it (or very hard to find), and the ingame billboards and news ticker in the CQ are also not up to date (presumably) because of this. Some people interested in following that stuff did not know about the more recent IC World news articles until I mentioned them.
Parts of the news page have been gathering dust for years now, and that looks rather unprofessional. Please do something with the neglected sections or archive and remove them.

Jeez, I look like I'm ungrateful now. Really I'm not, I love new lore, and Mercury and the IC can probably do little about these things, but there are some things that I think really and finally need to be looked at, so the IC can shine all the better. So, ISDs, go poke some devs about this.

Anyway, how many words/month would a Mercury volunteer need to produce? And can volunteers write on the topics they prefer, or are they assigned to projects

I like to think of changes to ship design/bonuses/slot layout similar to changes in automobile design in the real world. A car might have the same name for years and years, but successive generations aren't static. Think of how the Ford Mustang looked and what features it came with in 1964 vs 1974, 1984, 1994, 2004...

Some expansions like, say, Tyrannis could be explained away by blaming the sudden access to PI resources on cluster-wide bureaucracy. Baseliners fear and revere capsuleers but (generally speaking) governments are loathe to relax policy on anything that might hurt their tax dollar or local big business. Suddenly opening up planetary resources to capsuleers might just be the culmination of decades of red tape being cleared away. And no one empire is going to be left out if all the other ones are doing it! (This is just off the top of my head though, and not an official explanation of anything. :p)


The existing RSS feeds haven't had articles published to them since July or so, but I don't know why. Not sure we can really do anything about it (nor the outdated areas of the news pages) but it's good to know people are looking for that content. Perhaps an actual CCPer will take note and pass this up the food chain. :)


No one looks over your shoulder to count how many words you've done in a given month. This is a volunteer position, after all. But having said that, there is of course a certain expectation of activity and accountability.

Some of us have particular areas of interest, while others might be interested in anything and everything they can get their hands on.

Two examples: For the wiki project, we compiled a huge list of topics; we've since had the freedom to individually claim the ones we wanted to write on first, and after those were done, claim more, and so on. Team members with overlapping interests have collaborated. For other things, CCP might ask us to contribute to a specific topic/assignment regardless of our individual areas interest, or at the least, assist others on the team with developing their ideas. Depending on the nature of a project, we may or may not have a hard deadline to meet.

It's quite fluid, actually. :)

Just driving by and bomb altot of people with "+1 likes"

Just love all the new work, is just great stuff. Big bear huge from me to all of you.

Curses! As much as I would love to write something for my favorite game, I have a novel of my own I've been working on for the past 3 years. And I'm in college. I'm often forced to choose between studying and working on it...and I choose the latter far to often already.

I'd love to dig through the backstory again, I haven't done that in years. Nor have I picked up the novels! I just haven't had the time

Maybe...maybe one of these days. I was always interested in those scientific articles. You know, the ones from years ago, which explained the origin of jumpgates and such. And if I had the opportunity I would love putting a spin on a chronicle. If I did this...I would have no life...

But I like the fluidity of deadlines and projects.

Grrrrr! Don't make me choose between two loves!

Sure, Rachel! Take in mind, however, that content published on the Fiction Portal is vetted by both CCP and ISD Mercury members beforehand. So don't take the below as hard canon



Interesting link. Augmentations are expensive in New Eden, and not just for capsuleers. As the Caldari believe the pursuit of technology must benefit the whole (especially if it gives them a military or economic edge), individual citizens will not have any such modifications, unless their parent corporation requires it for occupational purposes. They're not the greatest fan of trans-humanism as an overarching principle, as such things have been shown to threaten the social fabric.



Ah, augmented reality is a broad field, is it not? The applications of AR amongst the Gallente is likely limitless, which is just how they like it. In contrast, the everyday Caldari worker bee won't have much use for that sort of technology.



Plenty . The Gallente like to show off their uniqueness, and will always ensure that their most famous cities are as distinct as possible, from each other as well as from cities outside the Federation. That being said, there are plenty of Caldari cities that provide equally top-notch living standards (at least to those who keep in line), maybe even better, they'll just appear very bland, boring, and featureless to a well-off Gallente.



Because of how the Gallente political system works and the diversity of the Federation, a whole variety of factors are drawn into account regarding how well their cities are defended. Some may rely on the Federation Military, others may use their own army, etc. Some may not be defended at all. The Caldari, on the other hand, like to remain consistent. Take a look at the in-game description for "The Citadel" region. That should give you an idea



The dynamic nature of the Gallente economy and their markets means I probably couldn't deliver you a solid answer even if I wanted

Hope that gives you an idea! We like to publish our fiction as guidelines, not rules, though.

Cool. On that note, how widespread are corporate sponsored implants and cybernetics? I would imagine that administrators, bodyguards and security forces all have varying augmentations, but to what degree are they augmented and do they end up owning the implants or are they still considered property of the corporation?


That sort of attitude doesn't seem very helpful when Sansha's nation is busy abducting people. Still I would imagine that the Federation military is seeking to increase its powers in the face of Sansha's attacks. It'd make for an interesting dynamic in Federation politics, a new argument in favor of security over freedom.

Also, does the Gallente military prefer to leave strong garrisons of ships and troops within a system in order to make taking over difficult? Or do they go the Systems Alliance route from Mass Effect and leave a small garrison of troops and ships with multiple rapid reaction forces on standby in order to take a system back?

Damn pirates and their "guidelines." But don't worry, if I ever get around to writing what I;m thinking of doing, then guidelines are all I need as I'll be bullshitting my way through a lot of it.

A fine set of points. We often look at what ideas players might have, ensure that it is consistent with anything we have internally, and produce something that is consistent with the image that CCP wants to portray regarding a particular topic. There is plenty of variation in how the Big Eight operate certainly, but the variations won't be large enough to appear anything but Caldari to outsiders. One must keep a united front that can respond quickly and coherently to outside aggression! (or try to )



Yes, jobs like that will probably require implants moreso than, say, a factory worker. The average soldier won't have implants beyond what most cannon fodder troops in New Eden will have (which is to say, not a lot), while special forces will have a notable set of neural rigging to remain competitive. Caldari augmentations won't be garishly obvious, leaning more towards cranial/subdermal implants and such things.

As for the second question, personal property isn't really a thing in the State for most people. All property (including citizens) belong to the megacorporation at the end of the day, but in practice, a system of semi-permanent to permanent "borrowing" is used.



The Black Eagles did come about for a reason



Appearance and principle matters more than efficiency in the Federation, so a propensity to the latter. More militaristic communities in the Federation, however, will be more than happy to have the former. Again, this assumes the Gallente military have a presence mandated to them.

Publius, I'm afraid I'm not sure what your question is, could you re-word it?