Summer Expansion - Incarna

[Morfiend]

Dev Blog post now up.



The blog post only made the rioters in game more pissed off. Hell, if I really cared about the stuff they are angry about, I would be more pissed too. That was pretty insulting. Considering they have CMs constantly talking about gathering peoples issues and how they are going to answer everything. They said nothing. They didnt answer a single question or concern the people are voicing.

Really to calm people down all their blog post had to say was "We will never offer items that provide in game benefits in the NeX".

[tgr]

Funny bits:

People have been shocked by the price range in the NeX store, but you should remember that we are talking about clothes. Look at the clothes you are currently wearing in real life. Do you have any specific brands? Did you choose it because it was better quality than a no-name brand? Assume for a short while that you are wearing a pair of $1,000 jeans from some exclusive Japanese boutique shop. Why would you want to wear a pair of $1,000 jeans when you can get perfectly similar jeans for under $50? What do other people think about you when they see you wearing them?

Yeah, that's going to go well.

[Comstar]

SWG announced *today* it's closing down this year.

Eve Online just pulled a SWG level extinction event. And I was going to come back for the Newbee drive too.

[Sparky]

They have now locked down Jita with numbers, and have fleeted up in Amarr (the system) and are podding anyone not fleeted with them.

I think this is the first instance of a successful in game riot I can think of.

All the trade hubs are flooded with angry mobs right now and are basically locked down.  Don't think this is really the kind of emergent gameplay that CCP likes to boast about but it's fun to watch anyway.

SWG announced *today* it's closing down this year.

Eve Online just pulled a SWG level extinction event. And I was going to come back for the Newbee drive too.

They could easily pull back with a grovelling climb down unless they bet the farm on monocles.  But Eve-O is going to be popcorn worthy this weekend after that non-answer of a devblog.

[Modern Angel]

That was one of the most amazingly clueless dev responses I've *ever* read in my 30 years of gaming. I don't even know fully what the fuck is going on with the clothing but "these virtual clothes are just like name brand REAL clothes" is fucking insane.

[Amaron]

That was one of the most amazingly clueless dev responses I've *ever* read in my 30 years of gaming. I don't even know fully what the fuck is going on with the clothing but "these virtual clothes are just like name brand REAL clothes" is fucking insane.

No shit.  I thought my eyes were going to start bugging out when he mentioned that shit.   My feeling of glee shot up with each passing word.   I wish there were some dev trackers for EvE.   I feel like I'm missing some truly good tidbits out there.  Every time they post something without even promising some changes is sort of hilarious in it's own way.

[tgr]

[Sparky]

Back in the day Soundwave was a Goonfleet director.  Turns out we really did ruin EvE!

[Kageru]

All the Eve contacts and PvE mobs just seemed like auto-generated filler.   The Eve player races (factions?) looked like they had a backstory, and there was an advantage to levelling up contacts, but I never could figure out what it was.  Maybe if they tweaked that, they might get new subs?

They still are absolutely minimal effort and feel like they were designed on a spreadsheet. The sheer lack of effort in modernizing something that the bulk of their paying playerbase spends most of their time doing is why it is impossible to take CCP seriously.

[eldaec]

Heh, now CCP got Pann to post in General Discussion to try to manage the "feedback" they're getting from their players, and if my calculations are correct that thread went to 90 pages in 10 hours.

I honestly don't understand what people are complaining about. CCP have been promising that Incarna would be a worthless piece of shit for months. To complain now that Incarna is indeed a worthless piece of shit seems a bit late.

[Amaron]

I found this gem posted in one of the threads.   It's an employee review site.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/CCP-Games-Reviews-E159347.htm

Reading through the comments is pure gold:

The lack of professionalism is mind blowing. Procedures that are common in other companies are not used here and considered a waste of time. There is no solid vision for EVE which leaves employees with no other option than to start work and find out what is wanted by trial and error, this is what CCP means with Agile development.

there is little or no documentation for older areas of development and documentation is still considered optional by many

It may not be easy to understand as an outsider, but if you are not an icelander your promotion paths simply do not depend on your professionalism or your performance reviews. They pretty much come down to whether you are 1) Icelandic and 2) make people laugh. It is acknowledged by many mid level managers, unfortunately there is nothing they can do about it.

Even the people who like working there are clearly bashing it. 

[Mrbloodworth]

You know, other than the cash shop prices. None of this should have been a surprise to the player-base. They asked for better graphics, so they got them, and requirements went up. Players asked for avatars, so they added them, and again requirements went up.

Is this a case that the walking in stations was just not enough, as in should they have waited and not laid the ground work for all of it until the rest was done?

The issues I see people complain about are the increased requirements ( I can't run 5 clients anymore ), cash shop prices, and lack of "ship spinning" ( The old dock view ). Even though all of this was known and asked for by the player-base. I'm somewhat befuddled and can understand why they won't talk about it, they have been talking about it for years now.

I have just concluded they should have waited, and instead of adding the ground work ( Major engine changes ) they should have waited until they had more features. Other than that, I don't think any of this very loud group would have been happy anyway. There is a HUGE case of old timers simply resiting change here.

[Sparky]

I don't think many of the core multi accounting types were clamouring for WiS.  Most of them seem to dismiss it as Space Barbie and at best a distraction.  CCP only ever added this stuff as a spin off from their work on World of Darkness.  Probably to justify putting spaceships on the backburner.

Also live from the Jita riots: http://www.justin.tv/deamosseraph#/w/1380742320/3 GMs are gagging people fast but there is still plenty of rabble rabble in local.

[Mrbloodworth]

This was all asked for, and being worked on well before world of darkness or dust. Years before. They have intended to expand into walking in stations since launch.

[tgr]

At this point, the main reason I really care about it is

1) The direction they're taking is probably a game-killing one
2) oh dear god the threadnaughts are awesome

[Amaron]

Players asked for avatars,

 

[Sparky]

This was all asked for, and being worked on well before world of darkness or dust. Years before. They have intended to expand into walking in stations since launch.

Comet mining and system wide asteroid belts 

[Mrbloodworth]

Players asked for avatars,

 

Look it up. Its been something people have wanted since 2003.  Beyond that, They just put a completely different game, at least the raw basics, into another game. They have even taken great pains to make sure its not required, but is a supplement to the space game. Performance issues can be dealt with in time.

[Sparky]

EVE Radio is great right now.

[Amaron]

Look it up.

Look up how many people have thought for quite a while now that WIS is an utter waste and not worth letting the rest of the game decay over.    Tell me how that works out for you.   I thought you didn't play EvE anyways?

[Setanta]

They have now locked down Jita with numbers, and have fleeted up in Amarr (the system) and are podding anyone not fleeted with them.

I think this is the first instance of a successful in game riot I can think of.

I do remember people on Blackrock (WoW) flooding the Argent Dawn server everytime the Blackrock server died in protest and refusing to RP. Much tears were had and many bannings took place.

[tgr]

bloodworth: I don't see the point in whiteknighting CCP at this point. Yes, there have been people asking for various things like avatars etc, but guess what? that doesn't matter when they manage to completely fuck up both their PR and their prioritization of features for several years in a row.

[Mrbloodworth]

Look it up.

Look up how many people have thought for quite a while now that WIS is an utter waste and not worth letting the rest of the game decay over.    Tell me how that works out for you.   I thought you didn't play EvE anyways?

I don't ( Being just a ship being one reason ), but I have always watched it for various reasons. I did not see the reaction of utter waste of time when it was heavily revealed publicly in 2008. Let the game decay? Like the graphical overhaul, or the new turret enhancements? How many free expansions have happened in its lifetime? Hint: Incursion 1.1.0–18 January 2011, 14 total expansions.

The CQ is leggy, I get that. The whole thing to me reads as a very loud portion of the player-base is resistant to change that was always going to happen one day.

EDIT: I'm not white knighting anything, I'm just pointing out the backlash is rather absurd. Most of the threads I read: "Why did you put avatars in my space ship game". Like it was a surprise. Like they have not been saying for almost a decade they are making a universe that would include more than just ships in space. I understand portions of this patch are buggy, as for prioritization, I can't make that call, but considering the population has been increasing, they must be doing something right.

[Setanta]

Best quote I've seen from the Jita Lockdown so far "discosheibe: peeps who are shooting the torps could have used the isk for a shiny monocle"

[Sparky]

The last really good expansion was Apocrypha, the wormhole expansion, in 2008.  Dominion turned 0.0 into Supercaps Online and it's been downhill since.

[Setanta]

Performance issues can be dealt with in time.

This is CCP - do you REALLY believe that? 

[Sparky]

Performance issues can be dealt with in time.

This is CCP - do you REALLY believe that? 

Right after they iterate Faction Warfare.  Juuuuuuust you wait.

[Mrbloodworth]

Performance issues can be dealt with in time.

This is CCP - do you REALLY believe that?  

Yes. I'm not saying that the avatar system is not ambitious, but its quality level of visuals that eve has always held and still maintains after the recent asset revamps. Its still one of the best looking space games out, and its a MMO, and on a single cluster.

After saying that, imagine if they had launched with all station interiors? I would think the measured approach in releasing just the base changes and one room would be welcome, it also happens to be the point of agile and "iteration".

[Setanta]

Performance issues can be dealt with in time.

This is CCP - do you REALLY believe that?  

Yes.

The way Dominion "fixed" the lack of fleet lag in Apocrypha?

It fixed it so well that CCP has never been able to go back to Apocrypha's standards.

[Morfiend]

It seems the one major thing that people are upset with is not Incarna, its the little things in Incarna along with the leaked internal doc talking about RTM. Basically, people keep asking "Are you going to put in RTM for game advancement?" and CCP wont say no.

They are talking about adding the ability to buy skill points to a degree and faction standing with AUR.

[tgr]

EDIT: I'm not white knighting anything, I'm just pointing out the backlash is rather absurd. Most of the threads I read: "Why did you put avatars in my space ship game". Like it was a surprise. I understand portions of this patch are buggy, as for prioritization, I can't make that call, but considering the population has been increasing, they must be doing something right.

Yes, you are, and you're wrong about what the backlash is about. Sure, some are whining about walking in stations, but they'll be proven wrong unless CCP actually finishes a feature for the first time in god knows how many years. What people are complaining about is the fact that CCP are not denying plex/aurum/whatever for skillpoints, even though they did a 180 less than a year ago the first time they tried to push this through, and after they did their :18 months: fiasco. And after the game was literally unplayable after dominion hit. I think it took them 6+ months before they began making headway there.

It all adds up. This, I think, is the culmination of all of that. with the major point being that CCP won't say no to trading money for game enhancing stuffs.

[Mrbloodworth]

The "leaked memo" is a recent development. I'm talking about the expansion reaction before that.

[Comstar]

This was all asked for, and being worked on well before world of darkness or dust. Years before. They have intended to expand into walking in stations since launch.

The rage was built on a foundation of crappy updates, removal of in game features and wastes of everyone's time.

What ENRAGED the player base is the bald faced lying to their faces. The dev blog blew the spewing volcano sky high. Just SWG NGE betrayed the existing player base, so has Macro transactions and the future that it is Eve Online. Unlike the T20 disaster, CCP is putting all their money into macro transactions. And is STILL ignoring the demands of the player base.

[Mrbloodworth]

So they added skills for sale already?

[Morfiend]

So they added skills for sale already?

They talk about several methods of RTM in the leaked memo, and they wont come out and deny a lot of stuff. Personally, as a newbie way behind the curve, I wouldnt mind a few skills for $, or a race respec so I dont look like Senior Chang from Community. I'm just stating what this protest is about.