EVE General Discussion

Apocrypha was an oustanding expansion concept, but it also took a level of crunch effort that's not realistically repeatable now. And it laid up a store of problems that contributed to a lot of the grief in the following :18 months:

Realistically, we're not going to see another Apocrypha class expansion released in a single 6 month cycle.

CCP Seagull laid out her vision at fanfest last year in the keynote speech.. That's what's going to happen. Rubicon, Odyssey, and the expansions that follow them will all be building up to that. CCP have a "to do" list that needs to be completed before we can see that vision of player built stargates and new space finally realised, and they're on it. For exapmple, one of those items is ship balancing, and that project has nearly completed its first iteration. Another was exploration, and that was addressed in the last expansion. There are other items of similar magnitude, and I'm sure that you can probably guess most or all of them if you think about what still needs doing. Meanwhile, CCP are gradually introducing the new tools that will be part of that vision, such as the deployables.

If CCP deliver what they showed us, then a lot of people engaged in everyday EVE activities are going to be very happy with the summer expansion. People expecting another "Apocrypha" will be disappointed. They're always going to be disaapointed. I think if CCP execute it well, it'll be more like another "Retribution".

And don't forget that a significant percentage of the next expansion will be delivered in point releases; the days of giant expansion changelogs and patchnotes are over. (It's worth remembering that we haven't even had all of Rubicon yet!) There is an emphasis on making sure that the core game experiences are good, and gradually infiltrating new features rather than a sudden dramatic "OH WOW" change as we got in Apocrypha.

I know it's not as exciting to anticipate, and it sure does make the marketing guys job harder, but it's a better and more productive way to develop the game. It's a change that the players begged CCP for years to make.

"balancing 3% here, 2% there
nerf that and that and also that"

taadaa >> new expansion

You should count up the number of new ships, modules, gameplay mechanics and features that have been added since CCP's "Road to Damascus" moment after Incarna. I think you'll find the list is longer than you assume.

As I said, now that they're releasing expansions gradually as point releases, we don't get the big dramatic reveals.

"balancing 3% here, 2% there
nerf that and that and also that"

taadaa >> new expansion

Adding a few new niche ships, dumb modules and fixing mechanics that have been broken for years != an expansion.

i dunno about you but after 2 years of good fixes and slight changes to the game I am totally ready for a baby jesus feature like the one ccp bagull talked about last year.