EVE General Discussion

I agree with the title, I'm hoping that me and the CEO of SONRA can make it out to the 2014 Fanfest

[quote=Viceran Phaedra]Hey all,

I'm writing this because I had a little epiphany at Fanfest this year that I wanted to share with the community in the hopes that some of you will come to the same realisation I did. We've all been guilty of the EVE community's 'little princess' syndrome at one time or another; shouting 'HTFU' or 'I'm unsubbing!' for whatever reason (your in-game profession didn't get any love, CCP isn't moving fast enough for you etc). 2013 was my first Fanfest. It sure as hell won't be my last. One of the major things I really wanted to do was actually meet a bunch of CCP staff and have candid chats with them about their work and the perceptions they get from the community. This I achieved both on the Pub Crawl (Art Team, you ******* rock) and during all the Round Tables I ran between.

I think if the community was made aware of some of the Legacy programming and issues that CCP staff have to work around and try to fix every day, about 9/10ths of the whining would stop overnight. The impression I got is that there's a lot of old non-modular programming that winds its way through EVE like a barbed hook; it needs to be dealt with very carefully in order not to break EVE when changing or releasing something new. Yes we all want new/changed stuffs, and we all want them nao, but since Incarna and CCP's newfound focus on internet spaceships, I get the real impression that CCP is working hard behind the scenes to get EVE's programming sorted so we're not trying to build a shiny new space elevator (thank you CCP Seagull!) on an old, shaky foundation.

Trust me when I say that CCP gets as excited about cool and shiny new things and fixing broken/outdated features as we do, and they want to do this stuff. But I believe the leadership is set on them doing it the right way. Fix the foundations first. To this end I want to offer an apology (personally to CCP Greyscale from myself) to all CCP staff on behalf of those in the community who have had our eyes opened to the situation. I really see EVE in a new light now, and I'm content with the direction in which we're heading.





CCP alt spotted

The question of slow EVE development resonates through community for quite a while now and if the answer was as simple as accumulated technical debt CCP could just publicly acknowledge it to make situation clear for everyone. Problem is such explanation just does not cut it.

For example UI: UI framework, if I'm not wrong, was redesigned more than once already, last time very recently with "Carbon UI". Yet UI work proceeds very slow, often making it worse and usually touches elements more or less in shape while places where improvements are clearly needed are ignored. It is understandable why they can't quickly fix drone UI or roles UI as those connect to other systems which need fixing on their own, but why they can't improve hundreds of those minor "papercuts" which cause pain to players every day?

Another example is a game design. It is understandable that they don't want to redo POSes as starbase code is a mess as they say. But they can introduce new modules by writing little or even no code if new module consist of combination of existing effects. Yet such incentive which started in Inferno with ASB's was poorly thought-out and didn't looked like it followed any plan besides of "let's just add something new". And now even it seems to be over because no new modules were announced for Odyssey and corresponding thread in F&I was unstickied today.

It's not ours problem either if in the year 2013 CCP can not convey their point of view to the interesed parties in other way than meeting in person and lets frustration to accumulate in their subscribers. From the moment fanfest stream schedule was announced it became clear that most interesing stuff like round tables won't make it to stream while lots of useless presentations and tournaments will.

Invitation fully expected ;)

Bring gifts of alcohol, and your own sheets, and I'll let you stay in my future Icelandic flat.... as long as you swear by Chribba you're not an insufferable pillock, IRL....

If you take your time to re-read my post you should be able to understand that I was talking about new modules like Auxiliary Shield Booster, Auxiliary Armor Repairer or Micro Jump Drive which introduce new gameplay and not the modules which create just another way besides existing skills or implants to min-max some attribute while changing nothing on the bigger picture. ... At least you didn't count capital rigs as "new modules".

This is the issue I have with some people who by themselves fail to understand opponent's point but rushing to replay supposing that their opponent is stupid.

Always wanted to go, but none of my real-life friends want and/or can afford to. Kinda puts me off the idea, being that it would be on my jack. That and these damn lifeforms that run around my life that i'm supposedly responsible for bringing up.

Still, anyone else managed to make the trip solo? Those that do manage the trip all talk about how much fun they have.

I'd have gone this year were I not a broke, unemployed cripple.

Hopefully I'll be able to go some day.