EVE Information Portal

Suggestion to CCP: implement a mechanism similar to IETab or Google Chrome Frame, launch what the user has installed (Chrome/Opera/FF/etc.) inside the game. Look here for more info: http://www.geek.com/news/google-chrome-frame-run-chrome-inside-internet-explorer-911361/

I don't think that "forcing" users to have Chrome installed in order for the "new" IGB to work will be an issue for anyone. You can force the IGB to always launch the browser inside it by using the aformentioned technologies, while disabling any other option to use IGB natively . This should be both as secure as Chrome is at the respective time, and functional. My 0.02

Do NOT remove the IGB.

They don't. The only response from devs has been either:

A: Alt-Tab - Inappropriate and inconvenient, I should be able to access the tools required for the game IN the game.
B: Overlays - Third party tech and so not necessarily compatible, has its own attendant risks and no guarantee of continuing support or TOC compliance by CCP and so completely useless as suggestions go.
C: Buy another monitor - Elitist and insulting.

I think that pretty much sums up CCP's insulting responses to the points raised by a large proportion of people who pay their wages.

A suggestion wrapped in questions;

When I click a link I'm asked if I want to open this in my out of game browser. When prompted yes, I'm being forwarded to a new tab in my browser or the browser itself opens from the system. So technically, eve online accesses something outside of it which quite accurately pinpoints the browser (probably by the magic of default browser system settings).

Why does this need to happen outside of the game? Can't you create a window in the game which does nothing but mirror or launch it's own instance of the system browser?
That way it depends on the user which kind of content s/he can see or can not see due to what is compatible with it and what not, depending on which browser is mirrored / instanced and which version it has. Eve third party developers can decide how far they want to go in downwards compatibility as if designing for a regular web browser. I'd even go as far as to prompt a selection as to which browser installed should be used inside eve, at the player discretion, so we can freely throw out stuff or block that we don't want to have it as lightweight (or not) as we want.

I'm pretty sure something like that is absolutely possible, code-wise. The question now is, how much effort would it take? Was it up for debate? Why was it ditched? Any estimate in terms of manpower? Any takers?

I'm still all for an image-viewer implemented into the game (proper ingame crest servicing probably in the third decade).
I mean, let's be real here; they're streaming the Flight academy videos through the web into the client for viewing. These videos are not on your computer. So they have some form of video playback system already inside the client. How hard can it be from there to display web images?
If I was to make an educated guess, they're streaming straight from youtube, but I can't confirm that.

PS: I have played, and still play, eve online with one monitor and without third party applications and am not missing out on any of my personal fun.

Developers have been talking about getting rid of the IGB for _years_.

They've just not been in a position to do so.

(considering how little work has been put into the IGB for the last few years, this is hardly cost cutting)

Developers this, Developers that. Why do I get a feeling you're just a CCP member and not a representative of the Players?

Removal of the IGB is starting to make sense to me now as CCP wants to make EVE Free to Play.
I would not be surprised if removal of the chat and mailing systems as we know it were scheduled for removal next.
I guess lots of inappropriate links and information will be posted.

My and other Players questions remain unanswered though:
What is CCP going to do about all the lost functionality that the In-game Browser has offered for years?

(And no, using overlays, smart-devices or buying another screen is not an answer to that.)

You know Foxfour doesn't work for CCP any more right?

Nice spin, pumpkin, but their own reason given for doing this was resource cost.

By any chance were you one of the CSMs that helped cost me my watchlist? I just want to know what level of disgust I should level at you, general disgust for your clear spinning here or more specific disgust for being a terrible rep overall.

Until someone can tell me how they are able to gather all manner of game related info in real-time & IN-GAME, then removing the IGB is incredibly short-sighted and a horrible idea . The folks at CCP have discussed pushing key functions to CREST so 3rd party devs a chance to migrate but you neglect one huge glaring issue. Unless I'm mistaken, overlay apps actually run outside of the Eve client so the IGB is the only way any 3rd party app (web-based) can run in-game - am I missing something???

This is a huge deal for many players including myself. The only other way to gather such info during gameplay is:

• Keep EVE running in a windowed environment - i.e. NOT full screen.
• Have a multi-screen setup.
• Jump out from the game to your desktop and then back again.
• Possibly a new set of apps with a new set of overlays - this would be per OS type and therefore totally kills x-platform.

None of these "options" is really an option at all - they all serve to diminish the gaming experience and make playing it unnecessarily more difficult. It's more than awesome (in fact imperative) to have Eve be a difficult & challenging game to play and impossible to master. But the difficulty\challenge should only relate to game-play - not having to juggle application windows and desktops. As for new apps using something like an in-game overlay - is it really even possible or realistic to think all the devs are going to migrate all their hard work to a new set of per-platform apps using a new API? The only other alternative I see would be to start allowing 3rd-party apps to somehow run natively within the Eve client which I gotta think would be an outright disaster (security, stability, etc.).

I'm not sure whether or not CCP is doing this due to resource constraints but what I am pretty sure of is that CCP has failed to fully understand how ALL players - not just the hard-core alliance\corp types - play the game. I also believe any IGB usage stats being tracked by CCP (assuming they do this) are possibly skewed to the negative thereby implying the IGB is not a good idea. However, I think this is an erroneous conclusion to draw because the issue isn't having an IGB - the issue is that the IGB in it's current state is too anemic. Therefore, the better response is to double-down and ENHANCE the IGB - not kill it. Make it run more like Chrome or FF - then I bet it would get used by a whole lot more players AND make the game better for those of us who don't have multi-screen rigs but still wanna maximize our Eve playing experience. And the beauty of Eve should never be diminished by running on anything except full-screen...nunca nunca nunca...

Again, I could be missing something and if so, then I will surely eat a large plate of crow. But absent evidence illustrating how things like market data analysis, efficient system mapping\analysis, detailed killmail analysis, etc. are done real-time and in game, then kicking the IGB to the curb is a bad move...

The floor is yours...

Thank God my corp left WH space before this change , the manner in witch i scan , and i think any citizen in WH scans like hell , i would have a stroke changing from one moniter to the next .

Furthermore i usually scan while watching videos so i would do more clicks per hour scanning , i know CCP stated that the IGB was going to the gutter but dam today i logged and spent like 10 minutes trying to find the IGB ;( .