EVE Online – Tranquility Million

•September 22, 2007 • Leave a Comment

Speedy delivery of EVE Online ISK
Your EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK will be delivered to you in less than 45 minutes! We strive to offer the fastest and most reliable service on the web for all your gaming needs.

EvE Online ISK Store Open 24/7
EVE Online just came out, and you can expect to see EVE Online ISK at low prices very soon in our store! Make sure to check back in a few days

EVE Online Story
As we Know there are people play EVE Online, but most of them don’t have enough EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK. Then it comes up that we don’t have good items in the game. We also don’t have much time for playing the game. Where can we get EVE Online ISK or Cheap EVE ISK? Now,Let’s Choose Usfine!Join us,Be Rich Now! We are fans of game. We pursue the enjoyment that games can take to us. Whether get Cheap EVE ISK or Cheap EVE Online ISK via our effort or purchase it, it can make us stronger. Have a try, maybe it fit you. I am not saying that we should Buy EVE ISK or Buy EVE Online ISK, because you will loose the interest in game. That’s the same truth as in our real life, if someone gives you much money, you will loose your value. addthis_url = location.href; addthis_title = document.title; addthis_pub = ‘runescapegold’;

Buying Eve Online Isk

•June 25, 2007 • Leave a Comment

The Inter Stellar Currency (ISK) is the driving force behind all the action in Eve. There will be those who’d say they do things just for fun, but the amount of fun that can be had without an ISK account to cushion your needs, in Eve, is minimal. In fact, the fun begins just as the cushions swell!

A Lesson in Economics

The prices in Eve go up and down according to the demand and supply rules. Not being a ‘fixed prices’ game, the Eve economy teaches the gamer a free firsthand lesson in economics as well! As a result, there are just as many people complaining about inflation and interest rates, as there are complaining about game play issues!!!

The Eve Professions

To match the inflation levels, the residents of Eve get massive opportunities to earn more and more. While most people think of mining as the only way to get rich, trade route running and manufacturing ships are some basic ISK earning professions as well. Being a persistent world, there are as many less documented jobs in Eve as there are brains to think them up!

For the gun slingers, the job of guarding a miner or a trade runner in low security deep space can earn some good money. Or hunting down MPC pirates and claiming the bounty could earn quick money while being fun in itself.

The Shady Side

While some prefer to uphold moral values, others live out their fantasy pirate dreams in Eve. Needless to say, the shady side of the law offers a more lucrative income than the morally correct professions. Being a pirate, or an assassin, in eve can be a very rewarding job. You can hunt in packs, which is always safer and less costly when you divide the booty while keeping in mind the fact that fewer of your ships were damaged.

Buying Eve Online Isk

As with all MMORPG these days, there seems to be no shortage of websites where players are able to buy eve online isk. While we don’t really condone this, there’s enough interest out there that it’s worthy of mention.

Making Money, from Money

The oldest saying in the capitalist’s book is that you need money to make money. In EVE this is doubly true. Often taking a loan can be a crucial, and necessary, business decision. If you need a couple million ISK in order to make the purchase you need, and you know that your profit margin will be 9% or 10%, then paying the lender their 2% – 5% daily interest won’t be such a problem, especially if you can make multiple trades in one day. In short order, you can be self-sufficient. But then again, there are no safe options in Eve.

Loan Sharking

Once you have a nice cushion of cash in the bank, a good way to rapidly build up your account is to get into the lending market. The beauty of a game like EVE is that you have the option of being as nice or as evil as you want. If being a badass loan shark is your dream, you can be as mean and extortionate as you want. Or, if you believe in helping out a fellow gamer, you can give them a low interest loan as a helping hand up.

The Risk

There are two types of loans you can offer. The first is what is called an unsecured loan. What unsecured means is that if the person you gave a loan to doesn’t pay you back, then you will be a few ISK lighter. You can choose to ignore the whole episode, or you could hire an assassin to get even. The second option may cost a bit, but heck, you have to earn your reputation, right?

If you are not the really trusting type, you can offer secured loans as well. Meaning, you hold onto something of value as collateral. So, even if the loan isn’t repaid, you can recoup your investment.

A Tip or Two

With any profession, there is always the opportunity to grow. And in Eve, you grow by spending your ISKs. Get better equipment to support your lifestyle and of course, buy skills to enhance your abilities. That way the earnings per unit time will increase.

Though things might be fun as they go smoothly, but Eve isn’t the safest place around. So it’s always a good idea to maintain an up-to-date clone, and a ship insurance, to keep the damage after an unfortunate encounter to a bare minimal

Finally, plan ahead. Immaculate planning can serve well to save you the most precious resource in Eve, your time!

Sidrat Flush’s guide to Eve online

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!

1.1 Corrections and updates.
1.2 Aims and remit guidelines. (GOTTA STICK TO IT!)
1.3 Usage terms and short cuts

2 Basic game tips before you start your Eve Journey

2.1 Your first character.
2.2 Tutorial

3 Basic advice for your new character.

3.1 System Security.
3.1b Player Security.
3.2 Clones and Death.
3.3 Market.
3.3b Market Regions.
3.4 Skills and Implants.
3.5 Universe Map.
3.6 Agent Missions.
3.7 Rat Loot
3.8 General advice that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

4 Options for 14+ day old characters.

10.1 thank you’s and eff you’s.

1.1  2 November 2005.  First write up.  Leave the numbers till last.

1.2 The aim of this guide is to enable the first time player to get a better
grasp of this online universe.  Most people have no problem answering the same
twenty thirty questions a new player asks but after three months it can be
tiring.  I will never claim to have all the answers, but I’m an opinionated guy
and if you feel like bringing something to my attention please feel free.  If
we disagree I know a perfect .2 system we can debate it like reasonable people.

1.3 USAGE TERMS AND SHORTCUTS

ISK = In game Currency.  Doesn’t matter what it stands for, without enough isk
life is hard.

Pod = This is where you live.  You can own as many ships as you can afford, you
don’t even need to know how to fly it.

Pod Kill = Bone of contention but I use it to signify the pod being blown up,
shortly after your ship goes critical and you awake in your clone.  Pod kills
are NOT committed by AI pirates

Clone = Clones can be purchased, these are necessary to store the amount of
skill points you have up to a maximum depending on the grade of clone you
purchase.  Keep your clone up to date and you’ll be happy in death

Skill Points = The number of skill points your character has.  It’s like
‘levelling’ but it’s not.  Really it’s not.

Skills = Very important!!!  Skills are the only way to upgrade your character.
You can’t use equipment or fly ships without the right skills trained to the
correct level.  There are five available levels per skill.  KEEP TRAINING over
night.  You DO NOT have to be logged in to keep training.  You can swap
training half way through without losing any points you’ve got so far.  Read
the section, I’ll try to make it as concise as possible, but it’s the most
important factor in this universe!

Ship Lose = Losing a ship if it’s uninsured isn’t that big a deal, it’ll just
cost you isk to replace it.

Corporations = There’s player owned and controlled ones and npc ones.  Your
starting corp is full of new players like you and the odd spattering of very
helpful individuals who’ll answer any questions you chuck out to the corp chat
window.  Be nice. (at first, shoot em later when you’re stronger)

Sec Status / Sec Sys = Security level of systems.  And also a players security
status.  See relevant sections.

Rats = NPC pirates.  Of varying levels of difficulty, depending on how low the
sec sys is.  To this date I don’t believe any rats spawn in asteroid belts in
1.0 rated systems.  Don’t take this as gospel as rules can change.  They use to
spawn around gates from .9 and below.  I have not experienced this until I
reached the .4 systems.

Concord = The NATO of the Eve Universe.  Patrolling systems from .5 to 1.0  NPC
corps and empires will have their own police forces.  Speeding is not
controlled so feel free to go as fast as you can.

2  Basic GAME TIPS BEFORE YOU START YOUR EVE JOURNEY

2.1 Your first character

Doesn’t have to be brilliant.  This is a very big game, and you’ve got three
character slots available with your single account.  Its fun making the
portrait look how you want to portray yourself to other people but you may not
have a clue, so just go with whatever you?re happy with.  The portrait bears no
real weight to your in game life, be it opposite sex or not.  Your character’s
name WILL be important as no two characters can have the same name. So a
surname might be useful, e.g. Sidrat and Sidrat Flush.

Sidrat is my old character, Sidrat Flush is my current character.  Choose
wisely because you can’t change it for free afterwards.  CCP charges for that
privilege.

2.2 TUTORIAL.

I can not stress highly enough how important this chore is.  I don’t care if
you’ve played every other MMORPG (MUD, if you’re 30+) on the market, this game
is unique.  The tutorial will also reward you with a semi valuable implant
which although I believe quite random might be worth selling for the isk alone.
At the end of this tutorial, you should have a very very basic idea of the game
as a solo player.  Say hello to your corp mates when instructed to do so.
Listen to what’s going on.  Some corporations are better than others, it does
depend on the current crop of the players though, so I think the line treat
people the way you want to be treated and you’ll get to where you deserve to go.

Be grateful for this tutorial as the original post retail version was rubbish.

3 BASIC ADVICE FOR YOUR NEW CHARACTER.

3.1 System Security.

EVERY solar system has a rating ranging from 0.0 to 1.0

There is virtually zero player versus player fighting from systems rated 0.5 to
1.0
You may see people fighting each other, but that’s their business.  From 0.4 to
0.0 its pvp all out be afraid, or at least as fast as you can.  See the term
Pod kill and Ship Lose above.  The only fighting you’ll see will either be a
corp war sanctioned by Concord or an inter corp fight.  Keep out of their way,
but feel free to watch the fireworks from a distance.

3.1b Player Security.

Every player has a security rating ranging from -10.0 to 10.0.  Different rules
apply depending on what the sys sec is. Basically if they have a rating from
-10.0 to -5.0 and are in empire controlled space they’ll be floating in a pod
because they’ve been very very bad and the gates and local police will start
firing on them.  From -4.9 to -0.0 (it is possible), they should appear with an
orange box on the overview screen and in your main view. Feel free to check out
everyone’s information that you come across.  They may have an interesting bio
who knows?  You could see a beer truck or a bunny (which must die!).

3.2 Clones And Death.

You’ll have the basic clone which should be fine for the first 10 days or so.
Death is inevitable.  Losing your shiny ship to rats is unfortunate but we all
get over excited in a new toy and try to take on too much that we can handle
(ohhh, the shame!).  But don’t worry TOO much. If your ship is destroyed, fly
to the nearest station and you’ll be given a new ship with the basic equipment
that you started off with.  IF your pod is blown up you’re travelling in pvp
enabled system .0 – .4 and at this stage you shouldn’t be there, however you’ll
soon wake up in your clone with a new ship and you’ll be ready to go again.
See tips under Universe Map just in case you want to visit for whatever strange
reason.

3.3 Market.

The market is HUGE.  There’s a lot of things to buy and use, to build and sell
and to trade from one system to another.  When you click any item there will be
two panes the top one is the stock available for purchase and the bottom one is
what other people and npc corps are willing to pay for the item.  This is the
screen where you could waste all of your hard earned isk that you got from the
tutorial by buying something you don’t have the skills to use.

My advice on this screen is to click the header titled “Price” so it’s sorting
cheapest to most expensive, and vice versa on the bottom pane.  Also note that
the location of the item is listed.  Items do not magically appear at your
location, you have to collect them yourself.  1st column is how far away they
are “distance”, the second column is the number of units they have on offer.

The market is DYNAMIC, which is why I’m being vague.  Sorry. But if Eve
universe suffers a total collapse in the availability of Scordite then the
price will go up.  If there’s a lot in the market region, then the average
price will come down.  Some people or corporations will pay over the odds if
THEY require “it” desperately.

3.3b Market Regions.

The universe is a very big place.  Empires are quite big, spanning 50 or more
solar systems.  Each Empire has several different market regions.  What you pay
in one market region may vastly differ in a neighbouring region.  Do you want
to travel five maybe more minutes to get something that is available in your
current station for 5% less? Up to you.  Ask in your corp for prices of what
you’re looking for in different market regions.  Make sure you can use it, or
at least fit it in your ship first.  If you’re really nice, you might persuade
(bribe) them to buy it for you and bring it to you.

3.4 Skills and Implants.

The be all and end all of Eve.  Okay so you’re a new player in a three year old
online game.  Do not despair. During the first couple of days it can be argued
that you train your current learning skills.  This will speed up the time you
have to spend learning other skills in the immediate future.

There is no uber character level in Eve.  You will not reach a skill point
ceiling within the next two years, thanks to the introduction of more advanced
Clone technology.

Skills are bought as any other commodity from the Market screen from NPC
stations usually or from people and corps who may have purchased doubles by
accident.  Don’t bet on finding cheap skills though, because it’s too rare.

Skills have to be TRAINED to at least level 1 in order for them to have any
effect.

There’s a lot of skills available, enabling you to use better equipment, use
different ships, be more efficient in cpu, power grid and capacitor usage.
Basically speaking, without the right skill you can’t pee.

As a guideline, purchase all six of the basic “Learning” skills in the set and
train them to around level 3 preferably level 4 over the first two or three
weeks.  There’s very little point in my way of thinking to train them all to
level 4 when you could be flying a better ship, shoot better and use
missiles/drones and plant implants.

Implants.

Not a big fan myself, as the good ones cost a lot of isk, and are not
insurable, i.e. you lose them if you get yourself pod killed.  However before
you can use ANY implant, the basic ones and the excellent ones you’ll need
several skills trained up to certain levels before you can fit them into your
cranium.  To my knowledge you can’t take them out after either, so you’re stuck
with that version in that slot forever, or until you wake up in a clone.  Make
up your own mind and let me know how they go.

3.5 Universe Map.

The best tool for an extended life, especially if you need to pick something up
in the more riskier systems.

LEARN where you are what’s about and play with all the different options under
Display>>Stars that you can.  These include but are not limited to, services,
agents, number of pod kills in the last hour/24 hours, number of ships
destroyed in the last hour/24 hours.  Number of jumps ditto, average pilots in
space…. Do you see why this is essential before deciding to buy that skill in
a .3 sec system?  The options in this setting do make your life easier, and can
save your shiny ship from getting blown up.

3.6 Agent Missions.

The first eight or so story line missions are an extension of the tutorial,
these should be completed so you can get a feel for your immediate surroundings
and get used to the control system.  The isk early on helps out a lot too.
Even if you don’t buy a new ship, you should try to purchase a better weapon
(don’t forget the ammo if required or crystal if using lasers).

Successfully completing agent missions will also increase your security
standing and you will gain loyalty points with that agent that can be exchanged
for items they offer you, or ISK in exchange for an item and loyalty points.
Be careful of illegal items.  Ask in corp channel if you are unsure of the
legality or value of the offer.  Some are suspect.  You can safely refuse any
offer and keep building the points up.

Agents are fickle things, they don’t mind you refusing a mission they offer you
at least once or twice a day, but they HATE it if you fail the mission.

3.7 Rat Loot.

Kill missions may result in the rats dropping cans, fly to with 1.5km of a can
(or crash into it and stop your ship), and see what’s in the can.  The items
can be sold or recycled in to minerals at your local station (with a market
screen and refinery respectively).  Prepare to fill the station hanger with a
LOT of rat loot.  If you CAN and want to use it, go ahead.  The rat drops are a
bit of a lottery though so if you find an item worth 1.1 Million isk in your
first couple of missions congrats.  I know of a three – four month old
character who found a 50 million isk implant.  I don’t know if he sold it or is
using it.

3.8 General Advice That Doesn’t Fit Anywhere Else.

- If an offer sounds too good to be true, you’re probably being scammed.  It’s
not illegal in Eve Universe to scam people.  Caveat Emptor.

- Jet Can Mining in empire space can result in someone coming along and
stealing your ore.  This currently is allowed and there’s nothing you can do
about it.  I’d avoid mining until you’ve got the skills, weapons and ships that
can anchor a secure can currently only allowable in .7 systems and below.  Also
note that the can has to be 5km from anything else.  DO NOT forget to set a
password and ANCHOR it.  I don’t bother with anything less than a giant secure
can, so if mining is your thing, get an industrial ship transport a couple of
cans to a nice belt, position your ship wisely launch for self, anchor set
name, set password and very important BOOKMARK the can so you know where it is!!

- Isk isn’t everything in Eve, Skills are more important than current wealth.

- There’s a lot more to Eve, than what has been mentioned.  Talk to people,
real wealth and power comes when you join or set up your own corporation.  This
is a social game, if the people you see regularly in your first corporation are
a bunch of dorks and idiots, there’s several different starting corps
available.  Don’t take crap off anyone instead create a folder in your address
book call it Kill on Sight and drag and drop the portrait into it.  When you
see them in non empire space it’s open season.  Right click ignore is your
friend too.  If you don’t get on with ANYONE in your first corp, don’t panic.
Minimise the chat turn the blinking off and get used to the game for a couple
of days, then create a new character in a new school.  Sorted.

- Right clicking is your BEST friend. If in doubt right click.

- One last thing.  Eve is played in a SINGLE universe. 12000 + players are
flying around in the same universe as you.  There are no shards or instances.
If you really wanted to and I would NOT recommend it, but you could try to say
hello to as many people as you can, without having to re-create a new character
on a different server.  Of course that means the person you step over might
meet you in a dead end system one day with their more armed corp mates.  What
goes around comes around, and the Eve Universe is DEFINATELY ROUND.  No ring
doughnut shaped universes here!

4 OPTIONS FOR 14+ DAY OLD CHARACTERS

The universe is your preferred mollusc.  Have fun, blow things up, build
things, and be rich.  HAVE FUN!

10.1  Thank you’s and eff you’s.

Thanks and appreciation goes to all the characters and people that have made
Eve fun over the last three years.  Including the ore thieves, scammers, p-rats
and the misc role players that make Eve a Real universe.  Eff you’s go out to
all the macro miners out there you sell the isk you make for real money.  Such
a shame.

Copyright for Eve Online and CCP and the not so hidden Terry Pratchett
references are their copyright not mine.  I just like their ideas.

CCP 10th Anniversary Thread

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

We would like to thank everyone for participating in the worldwide toast. The turnout for this exceeded our expectations by far. At midnight last night almost 1000 players had posted you would join us in a toast and as we’re writing this the toasting is still continuing. We saw people toasting with everything from a glass of water to some really expensive drinks. The toast thread will be moved to the EVE Information Portal to preserve it for posterity, though it will be left open.

From all of us at CCP to everyone out there, thank you for making this 10th Anniversary celebration the best ever! And cheers to all of you!

E-ON Awards Tickets on Sale Now !

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

Oh, happy day! Tickets are now on sale for the E-ON Awards in London on July 8th for £59, (or rather $118, as the EVE Store doesn’t do good old pounds or pence, for some reason). It promises to be a spectacular night and we’ve had a fair few meetings to discuss the audio/visual requirements and deciding what banners to hang up around the place for when the crowds come gushing through the door to see who won what, who failed miserably and what they actually look like in real life. The whole enterprise is becoming quite a logistical headache, but a nice one, insomuch as any headache can be pleasant.

The venue is booked, the food is ordered, and we have a schedule of what’s happening when – more or less. What I’m most nervous about is having all my shaggy locks cut off, seeing as I’m probably going to be dressing all smart and posh-like for the ceremony. Long hair does not look good in a dinner suit.

We’ve got a website set up (www.eonawards.com) to give you more details of the event, the venue, maybe research a few hotel arrangements and to link straight to the ticket sales page so you can beat the rush. It’s quite a thrill to be doing this actually, I mean, it’s not every game that has a dedicated awards ceremony and to be associated with the first of its kind (unless anyone knows better?) is an awesome prospect, and not a little daunting. But the potential for both a rewarding experience to the benefit of EVE and a rollicking good night of beer, food, community and beer is what keeps us all going.

Jove

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!

The most mysterious and elusive of all the peoples of EVE, the Jovians number only a fraction of any of their neighbors, but their technological superiority makes them powerful beyond all proportion.

Although definitely human, the Jovians often seem to the other races as though they are not, the reason being that they embraced genetic engineering as the way to solve any and all the problems which plague the human race. Over the thousands of years since, the Jovians have experimented with every kind of genetic modification their technology allowed. As their powers grew, they began to believe they were capable of anything, and this led them into increasingly more bizarre mutations of their bodies and minds, a policy rigorously backed up by strict governmental control.

But one fateful moment in their history made them lose this control for a few generations, and the results were catastrophic. By this time the Jovians had begun interfering with their basic instincts, curbing their aggression and sexual instincts and cultivating strange new ones instead. Since the Shrouded Days, as the Jovians call their momentary social eclipse, they have been trying to put the pieces together again, but their DNA-structure has in many ways been damaged beyond repair. The consequence is the dreaded Jovian Disease. Genetic in nature, it is not infectious to other races, but among Jovians it causes a depression so deep and serious that the victim loses the will to live, and death results within a few days or weeks.

Despite this, the Jovians escaped the chaos that followed the closure of EVE remarkably well. Within the space of only a few centuries they had recovered, and were once again running a hi-tech society. They settled in a number of systems and founded an empire lasting for nine millennia, but even if the Jovians are by far the most technologically advanced of the races of EVE, they have still not recovered the splendour of their first empire. The disease within them keeps them in a reproductive straightjacket, preventing them from increasing their numbers sufficiently for their current empire to flourish.

The Jovians crave knowledge, any knowledge at all. Their superior technology has enabled them to infiltrate the other races with bugging devices and sensors, giving them unrivalled access to information, which they use to maintain their strong position among the races. The Jovians sell a lot of their advanced technology equipment to the other races and it is this, more than anything else, which keeps the others at bay.

Jovian society is mysterious and difficult to comprehend. For this and other reasons it remains very much closed to the other races, and few foreigners reside within the Jovian Empire.

Gallente

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!

The Gallenteans. Self-righteous, meddling, pompous and tiresome, or virile liberalists and defenders of the free world. Love them or hate them, you simply can’t ignore them. Everybody has an opinion on the Gallente Federation, it all depends from which side of the table you view them. For many, it is the Promised Land, where any dream can become a reality. Descendants of Tau Ceti Frenchmen, the Gallenteans remain strong believers in free will and human rights, despite numerous setbacks in their long history.

It has been said that, once you have seen the Crystal Boulevard in Caille you’ve seen it all. True, the view is spectacular, but if there’s one thing you can never see in its entirety, that is the Gallente Federation. You may travel its length and breadth, marvel at the Sunspiral on Troux, climb the Akat Mountains on tropical Intaki or thrill to the Mendre dancers on Sovicou. Wherever you go, you will always see something new and exciting, even when you visit the same place again. Gallente society is in a constant state of flux, vigorous, vibrant and progressive.

Few societies display such stark contrasts. Many of the wealthiest people in the world are Gallenteans, creating a constant demand for luxury goods. At the same time, the ranks of the poor number millions, because while the liberal market-driven economy and individual freedom may allow everybody the chance to advance to the top, they make it just as easy to plummet to the very bottom of the social ladder.

In the world of EVE, the Gallentean are the kings of entertainment, mass-producing everything from cheap porn-flicks to elaborate stage-shows for an ever-hungry public. They boast the most elaborate luxury space yachts, and the most glittering hotel reservoirs. Anything your mind or body could ever crave, the Gallenteans have plenty of it.

The Gallenteans are not alone in their Federation, whose boundaries are home to pockets of residents, varying in size and representing all the other races of EVE, most of whom left their own empires due to political or ideological differences, or simply in search of peace and prosperity. In addition to these there are two human races, the Intakis and the Mannars, both of whom the Gallenteans found while exploring and expanding their empire. Both were at a very primitive level when the Gallenteans found them, but since coming under the protection and guidance of the Gallenteans, both races have flourished and are today a full-fledged members of the Federation.

The Caldari were initially part of the Federation but deep-seated differences and mutual animosity between them and the Gallenteans drove them out to found their own empire. For a time, the two empires warred against each other, but as neither could gain sufficient advantage to claim victory, peace was settled in the end.

Minmatar

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!

A tough, no-nonsense race, the Minmatars are a determined and independent people. Their home planet of Matar is a natural paradise, although centuries of abuse have taken much from its beauty.

For the Minmatars, the most important thing in life is to be able to take care of yourself on your own, and although kin and family play an important role in their society, they prefer identifying themselves by the clan or tribe to which they belong. A clan can have any number of people in it, and its size is largely dictated by the main activity of its members. Most specialize in one area of activity. While those who live on a planet can focus on agricultural or industrial activity, others who travel around the world of EVE concentrate on trading, pirating, and suchlike.

In the distant past the clans constantly warred against each other. Since then, however, Minmatars have learned that cooperation is more important, and although the clans still try to maintain their regional and ideological identities, they act as a single unit towards other races.

The fortunes of the Minmatars have ebbed and flowed continuously. At one time they had a flourishing empire with a level of mechanical excellence never before or since seen anywhere. Later, however, they had to endure centuries of enslavement, toiling and dying for the benefit of foreign masters. Today most of them have regained their freedom, but the legacy of their enslavement has been the diaspora of the race.

The Minmatars are the most numerous of all the races in the world of EVE, but their vast numbers are divided into many factions. While the Minmatar Republic is the official state, only a quarter of all Minmatars are part of it. The largest proportion, almost a third, are enslaved within the huge Amarr Empire, while a fifth resides within the Gallente Federation, creating a powerful political bloc which keeps relations between the Gallenteans and the Amarrians in a constant state of tension. The remainder, who are not part of any formal organization, live as freemen throughout the world. Many are itinerant labourers, roaming from one system to another in search for work. A fair number make their living on the darker side of the law, acting as pirates, smugglers and peddlers in all kinds of illegal goods, and many of the larger criminal groups in the world of EVE are run by Minmatars.

CCP on the Freedoms of EVE Online

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

Buy EvE ISK

Icelandic developers CCP are based in the northernmost capital city in the world; tiny, friendly Reykjvik, with its black mountains, expensive beer and icy seas. It’s a geologically dramatic backdrop for a community whose continued success is doing much to redefine the landscape of MMOs. This is not a project that has relied on predefined templates for its success, and CCP are forthright in their opinions as to the significance of the directions their project has taken. Now independent and publishing online, CCP are writing their own future with the beautiful and foreboding EVE Online – a game whose beauty, like Iceland itself, is something of an acquired taste.

Answering our many questions on the growth of the iconoclastic space RPG was Nathan Richardsson, who left Iceland Telecom, the company that handles CCP’s server hosting and customer support, to become senior producer on the EVE project in early 2004. He first talked a little about the origins of CCP’s attitude toward game design – an attitude that has created a game in which real losses are possible.

“The founders had two passions which they wanted to join,” explained Richardsson. “The sci-fi feel and vastness of space from Elite and the social interaction of massively multiplayer and player vs. player gaming from Ultima Online. I should also add that they were quite active PvPers in UO and this is the main reason for our emphasis on PvP. We feel that the emotions involved with losing something of value is just as important as gaining something of value, it makes a very immersive experience. There have to be lows to make the highs more enjoyable. PvP allows us to achieve that.”

It’s worth noting that EVE has two strands of character development: one that simply adds skill points hour by hour as the character gets older, and one by way of actively building up assets in game. Learning can only be erased in the very worst situations, but losing assets is all too easy. Huge losses, potentially setting back the accruement of wealth by days, or even weeks, are a regular feature of gaming life in EVE. For this reason alone, the game has seemed awkwardly intimidating to many gamers.

This interest in player versus player competition has set EVE apart from other MMOs. In terms of ruthlessness and the intensity of conflict over the game’s resources, no other game comes close. A recent heist, initially an in-game grudge but escalating to a mass infiltration and betrayal in one of the game’s player-corporations (guilds), led to the ‘theft’ of around $16,000 worth of game assets (based on Ebay prices for traded game cash). All of this took place entirely within the game mechanics, with a touch of out of game collusion. In fact, CCP had always expected players to come up with events like this by themselves. Their faith was not unfounded: events like this are a dramatic illustration of both the commitment of EVE players and the complexity of the game world that allowed them to pull off such a plot. Player alliances, player economies and player wars have emerged in EVE since the earliest weeks of its launch, and with CCP’s most recent content patches, which allow for mass player-organization and the creation of player-owned structures, these socio-political machinations have reached a new intensity.

Gamasutra: Are these events a direct result of CCP’s (rather vocal) dissatisfaction with contemporary MMOs?

Richardsson: Our strong belief in PvP and a single universe is probably the main differentiator between us and other MMOs. We strongly believe that MMOs should focus on social interaction between people, but many MMOs tend to go in the opposite direction. We don’t like instancing and we don’t like sharding and we believe that too much focus on player versus environment is taking us more closer to the newly coined term ‘Massively Single Player Games.’

We fully understand the reason behind sharding, instancing and the PvE focus. A lot of players want this kind of experience and these tools are far more commercially viable to fully control the experience and content created. We however decided to take the more difficult path and try to take on those obstacles head-on. It certainly has a lot of unpleasant side effects and EVE will never be a mainstream game. We’re complex, we’re open ended, we’re fully PvP oriented and you can lose six months work in a second. But we believe this is what makes EVE so unique and we’re trying to follow this vision and principles as well as we can.

Gamasutra: So CCP has a distinct philosophy with regard to game design?

Richardsson: Power to the players. Nothing compares to a player that is enabled to affect the universe. We create tools for players to create content. For example, a massive alliance of corporations – our versions of guilds – with real, legendary players, leading them, controlling large areas of space and building up infrastructure is truly awesome content. We can never create that, but we can create the environment and tools enabling to happen.

We’re also very iterative in our work and keep continuous feedback cycles on the features we do, then regularly improve them based on that feedback. The community is an incredible source for how to improve the game and what they do within the game gives us constant inspiration for what we should implement next. Being so open-ended means the players do what they want and we try to keep up and add support and tools to take emerging behavior further. Embrace and evolve are the keywords here.

Gamasutra: The activities of the players really do seem to have had a major effect on the direction of EVE – the loophole of ‘can mining’ (which made mining asteroids far more lucrative than CCP had intended) is well documented as an unforeseen consequence of players exploring their environment – but to what extent do you think that the players actually define the developmental direction of EVE?

Richardsson: The players are the foundation for what we do next in EVE. We follow what they do and listen to their dreams and again: ‘embrace and evolve.’ When playing ourselves, we try to put us in the position of “what would I really like to do here?” and then try to develop that.

We set the course a long time ago on what we wanted to do and we are very open about ideas. Openness creates a certain atmosphere where early in the development cycle you get player reactions and suggestions, which help make the feature better. It’s kind of like “open source” development of ideas and as a result, players have a lot to say about the features.

Of course, it’s not all as peachy as this sounds. We do lots of mistakes and in most cases we simply can’t do what players ask for. We regularly have to do bad things, nerfing some aspect of the game or changing it. It’s constant balancing and we often piss people off, but it’s a necessary evil with PvP games, you always have to be on your guard for imbalance and as a result, we lose a lot of customers for it. But it’s something we accept for following our vision.

Gamasutra: Many people have criticized the limited number of quests and missions in EVE. I seem to remember a few of the reviews at launch complaining that there might never be much to do in the game.

Richardsson: Yes, we’re only 50 people here at CCP and we haven’t had the personnel to create very much PvE content. We’ve also been more focused on creating tools for the players to create content than us creating content for them, but recently we’ve stepped up content creation and we realize that we must supply a higher level of PvE content to be competitive. It’s also part of player behavior, we see that even the most hardcore PvP players want some form of PvE experience, destroying huge NPC installations or working for an NPC faction to be able to buy faction-specific equipment from them. We are however looking into creating an environment and incentive for players themselves to create “dungeons” and missions for other players.

Gamasutra: And player owned space-installations are part of that.

Richardsson: Player owned structures which create resources for a player needs to be defended. Since it’s profitable, it will be attacked by players that want to either take that profit from you or own the location himself. By creating more locations where you can put player owned structures and defend it in more innovative ways, players start creating content for other players.

Gamasutra: Even without extensive PvE experiences EVE has managed to attract a large complement of risk-taking, dedicated players – there were over 14,000 concurrent users online together just a few nights ago. Is CCP surprised by this success?

Richardsson: Yes, we’re always surprised with EVE. That also makes it more fun to work on. Having such a steady growth is not something we directly expected, our churn is incredibly low and our players stay for very long times. We believe that the community and large social structures within the game are the main reasons for this. Many play MMO’s to be with friends and to achieve common goals with them. The original plans were off the charts of course, it included world domination, bestowing world peace, the cure for cancer and the question to the answer 42… (A reference to Douglas Adams’ answer to Life, The Universe & Everything that has a special significance to EVE, since it was the arbitrary number on which the algorithm that auto-generated the galaxy structure was based.)

We quickly became more realistic as the project evolved and according to our down-to-earth version of our plans, we’re above the projections. We expected growth to stop and lose a considerable chunk to World of Warcraft. Blizzard is a very strong brand with sci-fi players but fortunately we still had positive growth. However, we played WoW quite a lot ourselves and we noticed a drop in our concurrent user numbers so we think a lot of people tried it out. Now we see them coming back in droves.

Gamasutra: Of course EVE’s community is miniscule compared to WoW, representing just 1% of Blizzard’s total subscriber base. EVE isn’t for everyone; its mix of economics and complex real-time space combat can only expect to appeal to a limited number of players, but often those are players who are likely to be dissatisfied with a simpler fantasy game like WoW.

Richardsson: We think Blizzard have considerably increased the market for people that play MMOs. We get a lot of players that now have played another MMO before that want to try it out in space, earlier it was mostly newcomers to the MMO’s that were more looking for a sci-fi space games.

Gamasutra: CCP seems to have benefited from become independent, adding over 20,000 subscribers since moving to online-only publishing. But do you think you needed that publisher push to get off the ground? Do you think games can effectively be sold simply using the net these days?

Richardsson: We couldn’t have done this without support from our publisher (the now defunct games wing of Simon & Schuster) and their producer, Mike Wallis. Having said that, being our own master has contributed to a lot of our recent success and we feel we are doing so many things which we otherwise could not have done if we were working for a publisher. This can range from utilizing marketing opportunities to implementing a less-than-politically correct feature, which we feel fit with the cruel nature of the game but might not exactly be the nicest thing to do.

We’re more than confident in the net being a solid distribution method for games, both technically and financially. The technical aspects doesn’t need to be proven by us, just look at the illegal distribution scene, they have the games even before the computer store across the street. That’s what I call quick and effective distribution.

Financially, commerce over the Internet has matured very much and people are more trustworthy of using their credit cards. We’re probably in a more unique situation where we have already internet-savvy people playing our game, but eventually this should spread out and be a more accepted way of buying games and software.

Gamasutra: So far you’ve stuck to a single game, but do you have anything else planned for the near future, or are you dedicated solely to EVE?

Richardsson: We’re currently only working on EVE but we have a plans for at least one more game in the near future in addition to any sequels to EVE. That would however be a totally new team and separately funded, the EVE team will continue to grow. We have more than five expansions worth of features that we want to implement and the list is constantly growing.

I can easily see us having more than two games in commercial service. We have investors eager to participate in ventures with us and we think we have a lot of good things to bring to the table. We’re all gamers and we have lots of games that we’d like to make. We often get those “wouldn’t it be cool to make” moments; it’s just a matter of time.

Gamasutra: So in the meantime we’ll see EVE deliver ever more complex spacewar?

Richardsson: We think that constant evolution of MMOs is required. We have the full team still working on taking EVE further – and all our expansions are included in the subscription. We consider it something which should be included in the subscription, because that’s what you’re paying for: Evolution.

Amarr

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!

The largest of the empires in the world of EVE, Amarr spans 40% of the inhabited solar systems. The Amarr Emperor is the head of a ritualistic, authoritarian imperial state, and below him are the Five Heirs, the heads of the five royal families from which a new Emperor is chosen. The Emperor’s authority is unquestioned and absolute, but the archaic and bureaucratic system of government makes it difficult for him to exert his rule unless directly in person. Otherwise, the Five Heirs rule in his name, dividing the huge empire between them.

The Emperor and the Five Heirs can expect to live for at least 500 years. Extensive cyber-implants keep their frail bodies alive, even when their organs begin to fail. These cyber-enhancements date back many millennia, and have become a symbol of royal divinity in the eyes of the Amarrians.

Always a deeply religious people, religion remains of great importance to every Amarrian, a fervour which at various times has been responsible both for great good and great evil. Shortly after recovering from the closure of EVE, they began to expand their realm at the expense of neighbouring states. The nations they conquered were enslaved, a practice justified by their religion. Ever since, the Amarrians have enslaved every nation and race they have encountered, and today slavery is an essential part of Amarr society. This has, of course, tainted their relations with other races, especially the individualistic Gallenteans.

The Amarrians were the first of the races in EVE to re-discover Warp technology, notably Jump gate technology. After accomplishing this more than 2,000 years ago, they immediately began expanding to nearby solar systems, slowly building up their empire in the process. On the way, they encountered two human races, both of whom suffered the fate of being enslaved by the far more powerful Amarrians.

In recent years, however, the Amarrians have begun to run into serious opposition. First, they met the Gallente Federation. Although much smaller than the Amarr Empire, the Amarrians soon found the economic and military might of the Gallenteans a match for their own.

Soon after, the Jovians arrived on the scene and the Amarrians made a futile attempt to subjugate them, resulting in a humiliating defeat. To make matters worse, the Minmatars, enslaved for centuries by the Amarrians, used the opportunity to rebel against their slave-masters.

Since these fateful events almost two centuries ago, the Amarrians have learned restraint. They have slowed down their expansion and are less forceful in their dealings with other races, but still view themselves as the most powerful race in EVE, if only because of their sheer numbers.

If You Want to Buy EVE Online ISK or EVE ISK,Please Go to Usfine,Cheap and Fast Delivery!