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New dev blog: Fiction Portal is GO!

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Louis deGuerre
The Dark Tribe
#41 - 2011-12-22 09:29:58 UTC
Now I can view it without crashing I appreciate the work even more.

Excellent job !!!

Some more pictures and bigger font would be great tough. P
Desiderya
Blue Canary
Watch This
#42 - 2011-12-22 11:24:31 UTC
This is the best EVE christmas ever. :D

Ruthlessness is the kindness of the wise.
Seriphyn Inhonores
Elusenian Cooperative
#43 - 2011-12-22 12:34:24 UTC  |  Edited by: Seriphyn Inhonores
All of this is awesome, and I love the tease you've given us regarding Gallente religion in the Caille article.

One thing, though.

The Empire pages for the four factions (GAllente, Caldari, Minmatar, Amarr) have not received much love. In fact, it does look like they're giant copypastes from the previous EVElopedia, with no new content.

Eg. The GalFed page is a hodgepodge of previous lore, yet the Gallente NPCs page provides a MUCH better introduction to the Gallente Federation than the default page. Moreover, the Sansha's Nation page is formatted very much in a way that you would expect an encyclopedia entry for a nation/country to be written out.

I imagine you have plans to come back to the four main empire pages at some point, along with some of the homeworlds? (Gallente Prime, Caldari Prime etc.)?

That said, there's enough new PF to sink one's teeth into anyway!

edit - removed hyperlinks because the forum fails or something
Traidir
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#44 - 2011-12-22 13:25:51 UTC
You mentioned updating planetary descriptions. I'd suggest adding to that updates for stellar descriptions as well. At the moment, the show info window for stars shows apparently incorrect information about just about every star out there. The most glaring bit being the "stellar classification" category. One example would be Gerek, in the overview it's a K5 red giant. In it's show info it's a K6. It's a small difference sure, but I've also seen a, very obviously blue, AO blue star show info as an F6 (a white star) in it's show info. Generally speaking the overview seems to be accurate, but the show info does not, with all the other stats in the show info matching more closely with the show info' stellar class than the overview.'s So if you could take a moment to write a script to fix all the star's show info windows that'd be "stellar"... ;)
jonnykefka
Adhocracy Incorporated
Adhocracy
#45 - 2011-12-22 15:22:45 UTC
I love the technology articles. It adds the hard-sci-fi semi-plausibility I really enjoy in my literature. I'd love to see some information about The Hyperbole Nexus rolled in to the FTL communication article, or vise-versa.

For in-game interactivity, right now all our interactions with NPCs are basically missions and mission/site pop-ups. It would be interesting to, say, be able to eavsdrop on dock workers or our ship or starbase crews to drop in little details of the lore. Optional, of course, so those that are interested can pick up bits and pieces when they have nothing better to do, and everyone else can safely ignore it. I've sometimes wondered what ship and starbase crews are like in W-space, ridiculously isolated from the rest of the universe.

Also, some lore on POSes would be cool. Right now they're just mentioned in passing in other articles.
Pierced Brosmen
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#46 - 2011-12-22 18:05:06 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
(Except, ahaha, most of you can't do that at the moment because the logon for the wiki just broke and keeps tossing up an SSL error. We'll fix that.)


Interesting. When I log into the Evelopedia site, it shows my name, but displays the immage of one of my alts Shocked
J Kunjeh
#47 - 2011-12-22 19:10:47 UTC
Kyra Felann wrote:

In other words, if I go to the in-world info portal and look at, say, the new tier 3 battlecruisers, I should see see info about them and their development history, but not that they were added in the Crucible expansion in 2011. That info should be available somewhere, but not from within the "immersion" portal. I'd also like in-world news articles and all sorts of things, but not "extended downtime" or whatever mixed in. Basically, any link I click from inside the "immersion" portal should only ever take me to another "immersion-safe" page. Also, any stories there should be info that a regular person with GalNet access should be able to find out, not things that only two people in the (EVE) universe know about.


-1 for RP Infoportal and a big +1 for one singular "Immersion Portal", such as it currently is, which includes RP stuff and RL stuff about CCP/Eve too.

"The world as we know it came about through an anomaly (anomou)" (The Gospel of Philip, 1-5) 
CCP Abraxas
C C P
C C P Alliance
#48 - 2011-12-22 19:30:06 UTC
Renan Ruivo wrote:
But now that this is out there.. when can we expect moar chronicles? I know you just released a quick sucession of chronicles, but the "final" one ended on a cliffhanger
Chrons - when we do them at all - will be tied to expansions from now on, unless we ninja them in. Keep in mind that none of them expressly end on cliffhangers; they're self-contained, so half the time the climax is actually implied or even hidden midway inside them, and half the time it is effectively the expansion itself.


Alain Colcer wrote:
Please please please, fill in the religion for gallente if you can
Funny you should say that. I've got an article waiting for me to proof the moment I get back from vacation...


Publius Valerius wrote:
I would add... maybe some technical stuff... but I dont know if it is your domain
I'm afraid that none of the general design of EVElopedia is my domain. That includes loading times, text size and so on (though I can and will forward that stuff to Ginger when I see it). I'm only in charge of the Fiction Portal basic design and content.


Publius Valerius wrote:
Some pages are now their two times like "Emperor" and "Amarr Emperor"
Yeah, there'll be older versions of some things. We'll find them as we go along, and we'll incorporate whatever content they have that fits our published lore, then discard the rest.


Aineko Macx wrote:
Very sad to hear it is a deliberate dumbing down
It isn't. That "refocus the fiction effort" directive from Torfi had nothing to do with simplifying the chronicles; it meant we stopped the regular chronicles completely, and I started designing the Fiction Portal instead.
CCP Abraxas
C C P
C C P Alliance
#49 - 2011-12-22 19:30:13 UTC

Seriphyn Inhonores wrote:
The Empire pages for the four factions (GAllente, Caldari, Minmatar, Amarr) have not received much love. In fact, it does look like they're giant copypastes from the previous EVElopedia, with no new content.
Oh, they totally are. Certain pages on the old EVElopedia were good enough for us just to do a spit and polish on them. I think I added or updated some parts about recent events, but not much beyond that. We'll eventually get around to adding more empire content, though I suspect we'll do it not by lengthening the main articles, but through doing packets of new ones and linking to them.


J Kunjeh wrote:
-1 for RP Infoportal and a big +1 for one singular "Immersion Portal", such as it currently is, which includes RP stuff and RL stuff about CCP/Eve too.
-1 to that, I'm afraid. We made a conscious decision not to mix lore and out-of-game info (item stats, gameplay info, CCP stuff). The reason is that intertwining the two will simply not work for most readers, who will be looking either for involved, deep lore, or for clear, concise gameplay info. If we mix them up, we'll confuse and annoy everyone. We're pushing for the same approach in-game, where we want to separate basic facts from deeper lore.
Riffix
Synergistic Arbitrage
#50 - 2011-12-22 20:22:02 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
Oh, one more thing: An in-game connection is definitely on our to-do list. But it will require careful design and programming support, so we won't be rushing it. What I can promise you is regular wiki updates, along with a sloooow but certain push toward a more integrated in-game presence.

This point - that an in-game connection is desirable but not a necessity for the Immersion Project - is actually a rather important one once you realize that it works both ways: Anything not purely wiki-based (in-game interfaces, added functionality, images (sorry, Riffix)) requires more effort from more people and is thus harder to push through ... but by the same token, anything that's purely a textual update, such as more wiki articles, requires no support at all other than editing. I was very careful when designing the Immersion Project to separate the text work as much as possible from everything else, which means that once we've gotten a bit more cohesion in the Storyline team (some people are moving to Iceland, and we're still sorting out our future projects), we'll be in a position where we can release more official lore in less time than ever before. We don't have to wait for someone in Art to draw a picture, or someone in Programming to fix up an interface, or someone in Web to work out the kinks in our site backend.

Boo about the pictures but I know what you mean and it is a lot of work compared to writing some text. Plus I lied, pictures are oral, videos are teh sex, and interactive interfaces are threesome! Shocked

But in terms of the in-game connection, it seems like that would be pretty easy at this point. Especially given the work your team has done with the info in the lore portal. The game interface already relies heavily on a "linking" system. The hard part is already done in terms of getting the data into little chunks in a database. Now just make them available in the game. Strip out all the wiki overhead and just keep the text and related links. Then link to that data in the existing places in the game.

Go from THIS

to something that works like THIS

You could have the small blurbs be the tooltips when you simply hover over the links. You could have the new info open up a web of new windows or you could use the existing window-replaces-the previous system.

Either way, the point is that this kind of info is RIGHT THERE in the game. One curious click while looking at something should be able to pull me down into the rabbit hole of lore. Make the wiki crawl that you have referred to work for you so that players easily immerse themselves.

I also think info on how things work in the game should be available in this way. It is in a way now but it mostly just links to the wiki in the browser with all the extra bits that aren't needed while playing like discussion and all the nav overhead. The wiki is nice as an out-of-game reference but while in the game people need immediate connection to the data to make it immersive. I also think this would help both new and old players feel more connected to the world like they know what is going on.

Just sayin' Big smile

Lead, Follow, or Get the #@$!@ Out of the Way.
J Kunjeh
#51 - 2011-12-22 21:55:32 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:

J Kunjeh wrote:
-1 for RP Infoportal and a big +1 for one singular "Immersion Portal", such as it currently is, which includes RP stuff and RL stuff about CCP/Eve too.
-1 to that, I'm afraid. We made a conscious decision not to mix lore and out-of-game info (item stats, gameplay info, CCP stuff). The reason is that intertwining the two will simply not work for most readers, who will be looking either for involved, deep lore, or for clear, concise gameplay info. If we mix them up, we'll confuse and annoy everyone. We're pushing for the same approach in-game, where we want to separate basic facts from deeper lore.


Oh well, I guess that means going two places for some of us. I look forward to this new portal regardless.

"The world as we know it came about through an anomaly (anomou)" (The Gospel of Philip, 1-5) 
Sethose Olderon
Honourable Company of Gentlemen
#52 - 2011-12-23 12:42:07 UTC
Thanks for improving access, and the new site layout for Evelopedia is great, both visually and organizationally! Good work!

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Kyra Felann
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#53 - 2011-12-24 07:15:59 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
It might please you to know that half of what has been suggested so far is actually already on our drawing board, in one version or another. For instance, Kyra Felann's idea about an immersion portal might -- might -- one day find its way into reality through your monitors in the CQs. And the ideas about providing everything with info - planets, systems, etc - is something I've been strongly pushing for. No guarantees, but y'know.


Sounds awesome. I hope these things come to become a reality. I think immersion and the "virtual sci-fi world" aspect are very important parts of EVE.
Akrasjel Lanate
Immemorial Coalescence Administration
Immemorial Coalescence
#54 - 2011-12-24 10:58:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Akrasjel Lanate
Also CCP can you open the "The Vault" for us preaty please. Smile
I hope it's in the project too.

CEO of Lanate Industries

Citizen of Solitude
Ugleb
Jotunn Risi
#55 - 2011-12-24 11:56:07 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
So one of the things we'll have to decide in the near-ish future is what part of the lore to tackle next. What do you guys want to see?


I'd like to see;

More information on the differences culturally/traditions between the Minmatar tribes.

What role do Shamans play in modern Minmatar culture? The recent chronicle Particle Tracks made reference to Shamans being involved in 'Project Dreamwalk' giving instructions on how military weapons testing is being conducted. That's not a role I would expect.

I think all of the races would benefit from having their mainstream moral/ethical/religious social conventions fleshed out. What is the Jin-Mei caste system like and how does it differentiate them other Gallente?

I think all of that sums up as religion and culture tbh.

http://uglebsjournal.wordpress.com/

The Jotunn Risi are now recruiting, Brutor ancestry required in order to best represent the Brutor interest.  Join channel JORIS to learn more!
Cailais
The Red Pill Taker Group
#56 - 2011-12-25 19:50:32 UTC
Riffix wrote:


Go from THIS

to something that works like THIS



Definitely something I'd like to see. Quite a comprehensive project but one worth the effort.

C.
CCP Abraxas
C C P
C C P Alliance
#57 - 2011-12-29 22:11:57 UTC
Cailais wrote:
Riffix wrote:


Go from THIS

to something that works like THIS



Definitely something I'd like to see. Quite a comprehensive project but one worth the effort.

C.

Real brief followup to this thread: I'm still on Christmas vacation, and am running on rather little sleep thanks to having gotten a puppy (OMG!), and trying to raise him in a three-cat house. There is never a single moment here, not even the briefest of momentary breaths, when all five organisms are asleep at any one time. Never.

Once I get back to work I'll comb through the responses in this and the dev blog thread and figure out where to go next.

Since it has been brought up a few times, though, note that any comments on articles (including 'this is broken' flags) can always be entered under said articles' Discussion tabs. I will continually monitor those.

I suspect I may put up a sticky thread or two in this forum section for people to add comments, but the Discussion tabs are and will remain your primary method of quick-flagging things.

Also, I'm digging your idea about in-game linkage. It's very much along the lines of what I'd like to do. Just keep in mind that in-game changes will take longer than purely wiki-based ones, for all sorts of reasons, so we may not see this right away - but I'm certain we can figure out something like it later on.
Cailais
The Red Pill Taker Group
#58 - 2012-01-03 11:40:01 UTC
CCP Abraxas wrote:
Cailais wrote:
Riffix wrote:


Go from THIS

to something that works like THIS



Definitely something I'd like to see. Quite a comprehensive project but one worth the effort.

C.

Real brief followup to this thread: I'm still on Christmas vacation, and am running on rather little sleep thanks to having gotten a puppy (OMG!), and trying to raise him in a three-cat house. There is never a single moment here, not even the briefest of momentary breaths, when all five organisms are asleep at any one time. Never.

Once I get back to work I'll comb through the responses in this and the dev blog thread and figure out where to go next.

Since it has been brought up a few times, though, note that any comments on articles (including 'this is broken' flags) can always be entered under said articles' Discussion tabs. I will continually monitor those.

I suspect I may put up a sticky thread or two in this forum section for people to add comments, but the Discussion tabs are and will remain your primary method of quick-flagging things.

Also, I'm digging your idea about in-game linkage. It's very much along the lines of what I'd like to do. Just keep in mind that in-game changes will take longer than purely wiki-based ones, for all sorts of reasons, so we may not see this right away - but I'm certain we can figure out something like it later on.


Many thanks for the update whilst on your hols. Have fun with the hound!

C.
Ciar Meara
PIE Inc.
Khimi Harar
#59 - 2012-01-04 12:32:56 UTC
There is just so much awesome there it should be contraband. Keep up the good work and I hope and pray it will make it into the game eventually in an immersive natural way...

- [img]http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/janus/ceosig.jpg[/img] [yellow]English only please. Zymurgist[/yellow]
Publius Valerius
AirGuard
LowSechnaya Sholupen
#60 - 2012-01-04 13:03:09 UTC
I think it is more the domain of CCP Ginger than yours... but I was thinking maybe... CCP can add some more links to the blackline under the EVElopdia logo... I mean something like:


EVE | EVELOPEDIA
___________________

HOME | ITEM DATABASE | CHRONICLES | EVE FICTION | FACTIONS

___________________


I know the fiction portal is just one double click from home... but It would make the Portal:EVE Fiction more of an hub. The second link "factions" maybe to the Portal:NPC Factions....

P.S. Maybe change on the Main Page "EVE Community" to "EVElopedia:Community".

I would love to have those classes ingame. See here:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/376566/march-07-2011/joshua-foer