Two Weeks Late

I know. I suck at anything that would require an explicit, or even vaguely useful timeframe.

So what follows is my short notes from Friday of FanFest, and some opinions on some of the stuff from Saturday. I think that pretty much anyone that is interested in EVE has probably seen all the shiny videos that CCP has posted, especially the really shiny stuff from the last day, which is why I’m skimming a bit.

Friday

If you recall my nifty personal schedule, you’ll remember that I wanted to go to the Dev Track sessions. Unfortunately, a late rise on Friday meant I missed the first one, and subsequently used the remaining three session slots to just chill out on comfy sofas at the venue. I am kicking myself for not making the most of the time, but on the other hand, this was my holiday, so eh. I’ll live. 🙂

EVE Gate

  • Mobile version on the roadmap for this year – I’m pretty sure a lot of people will be happy when that happens!
  • Social networking hooks – So we can link stuff to Twitter or Facebook. There weren’t examples of this, but if it works like it does with other stuff, it might be a nice addition for ze TweetFleet.
  • I had a load written about the new forums, but a) they’ve been made live now, and b) loltiming!
  • One other thing was that while there’s a ‘like’ button for posts, they are open to the idea of having a ‘dislike’ as well, if there’s enough demand. Go forth forum warriors, and let your voices be heard!

Captain’s Quarters

  • First iteration will have 4 set designs – one for each race. This will vary depending on the station you are docked at, not the race of your character.
  • Assets (as in game assets, not in-game assets) have been developed in a way to maximise re-usability – They want us to be able to customise the layout in a later release, so that we can have a vaguely personal space.
  • Will not be able to invite other capsuleers around yet. Very much what they want, but they need to fix all of the fluid interactions and animation aspects before it can be pushed live. This is actually the main reason for people not being different heights; technical difficulties in matching animations from sender to receiver.
  • Does not override NeoCom – Everything you could do before, you can still do now in the same amount of time – Remember that changing ships takes 30s anyway, so even if it wasn’t the case, you could still switch ships in the same amount of time as before.
  • Demo video was looking unfinished. Quarters themselves looked quite nice, but access ramp+balcony was untextured. I get the impression that they wanted a playable demo similar to the one they had in 2008, but the textures weren’t finished in time. Shame.
  • Should have access to test next weekend on SiSi – lol, so last week then.
  • Will be able to sit down, rotate camera, so you can take lots of nice screenshots of your character/s.
  • Restructuring of the NPE so players are first introduced to their character and then space – should help with immersion.
  • Aura will be back and fully localised in English, German and Russian as part of the expanded game introduction.

Beer Quiz

  • Devs are crazy! 😀

Saturday

Shiny things are shiny. I like the new turrets. They are very sexy, but I’m unsure on the practicalities of it. Do they do the animation when you lock a target? Stay out until you have no more locked targets? That’s about the only thing I can think of.

I think I enjoyed seeing the nebulae more than the turrets. Its really hard to see, even on the higher resolution Youtube videos, but they are seriously impressive-looking. Gave me tingles, and I love when things make me feel tingly.

The future vision is interesting. I think we all want to be nuking console kiddies from orbit. Right? There’s a lot of issues with it, and people have pulled it apart a lot. I think its not meant to be an accurate representation of the future of EVE, but rather the direction its heading in. Its meant to be fantastical and exciting, rather than accurate. And I think on that level, it succeeds.

Party at the Top of the World was cool. I stayed longer this time, but I decided to bail with the people I was with because It got too crowded. I think in general everything was much busier for all presentations at the event this year. More players. And they let in more Reykjavik folk.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of inviting local peeps in. But this year, there were so many players, and so many locals… By about 1am, I had trouble identifying the EVE people. Some had taken up residence further away in the venue, almost far enough to not hear the music. I think this might be the strategy in future, if they end up not changing to the new convention centre, or if its not finished construction.

Overall, I had a lot of fun. Iceland is awesome, and I really recommend that everyone go at least once. Next year I’m already arranging a corporate blob event, along with renting an apartment for a week and getting as many peeps there as possible! 😀

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