EVE General Discussion

Hopefully yes, the realistic probability is no.

I think it's likely that they'll be taking a bit of a rest after Crucible launches.

What we've seen for this Winter is a truckload of individually minor (in the sense of dev resources to implement - quite a few of of them will have quite significant gameplay implications) new features and fixes, which is basically what we've been asking them to do for ages. The long awaited "Fix patch".

The dozens of minor gameplay improvements, combined with the fantastic work done by Team Gridlock, will give CCP a great foundation to build on if they want to go ahead and produce another Apocrypha style Expansion this summer. Nothing would make me happier than to see CCP settle into a regular habit of alternating gameplay expansions with iteration expansions. I can't think of a better way for them to get EVE back on track and start producing that ~10% yearly growth again.

CCP is no different then any other Corporation.... When they find what works they'll beat it to death if it leads to positive results...

Results = Moar SUBS

Pleasing the elders in this game is important right now becuase it was a very real possibility that if they didn't change course in a hurry it was all going to come to a screaming halt... That being said I think CCP will adjust thier course to try to keep the Elders happy while trying to find ways to expand the base... They will search for more positive results...

Results = Moar SUBS

So the phrenetic 'fix the broken stuff and give them new ships!' pace will slow down and ideally be more thought provoking and measured while the WiS and more mainstream facing concepts will continue to be invested in albiet more quietly. When we see a big WiS enhancement next it will be forceful, deliberate and polished...

Well assuming the CCP folks are paying attention... I for one think they are.

I hope not. Poor CCP Greyscale looks like he hasn't had a good sleep in months.

If we get flooded with changes to the game, there will be no time to reflect back or time to enjoy them
before something else comes along.

I think it's best to let us have a moment and feel the changes before drowning us in new ones.

i love your name, your sig, and your portrait.

I reckon they could, not sure if they will. Hopefully though they will, im not a bittervet yet!

Really nice post, Wolfcan. I will attempt to address as many points as I can.

So the main question seems to be, 'Is this a flash in the pan from CCP or is this something which will continue?'. From a Community Team point of view we will be maintaining a strong presence on the forums and bringing you news and answering your questions as often as we possibly can. We understand how important Dev Blogs, video blogs and replies to important questions are to you so we will maintain that. Dev Blogs will slow up a little after the release but will pick up again in January. The reason for this is that many Devs go home (if not Icelandic natives) or go on vacations as the holidays approach. The management at CCP are also very focused on EVE Online and making sure we provide quality flying in space content.

The plan post Crucible is for us to work on as much stuff as possible which did not make it in for this release. We would love to get things like Assault Frigates ready for that release but this will depend on manpower.

The next expansion has not been decided yet, as far as I know, and will be decided when we do release planning. I can tell you that CCP Soundwave is currently looking for your little things so that his teams can start to fix all the stuff you guys request.

Once release planning takes place we will probably be in a much better position to let you all know what is coming in the next big expansion

This expansion seems to have been somewhat hurried, and I mean that in the nicest possible way since a quick change of priorities was badly needed. It looks, at least from the outside, that the decision to go all-in on a 'Thousand Little Things' expansion to placate the disenchanted existing playerbase and some excellent graphical improvements to draw in new interest was made fairly late in the development cycle, in the wake of the Jita riots, revelations about declining subscription and PCU numbers, and Hilmar's grand apology. Of course, some of those improvements may have appeared anyway, but I doubt the intention was to devote quite so much development time to relatively small tweaks.

The original intention of this winter's expansion (Soundwave made comments about a 0.0 revamp during the Alliance Tournament coverage - Dominion 2.0?) has presumably been pushed back into the summer. That, unlike Crucible, will have a full development cycle devoted to it so we'll have a chance to see how CCP's commitment to Eve holds up and what comes out as a result. But, for Summer I don't expect another Thousand Little Things, but maybe more like a Hundred Little Things, and 1 or 2 Really Big Things.

Due to the pre-planned launch of Dust514, in next Summer 2012, we can be fairly sure the next year first expansion will more or less revolve around nullsec sov, PI and all the little pink ponies...