tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87695858002456088692024-03-12T18:39:03.502-07:00Adventures of a Dust BunnieThoughts and tribulations of a Dust 514 Merc in New Eden.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-82505373637831635152015-05-13T02:20:00.003-07:002015-05-13T02:20:21.826-07:00So why do I still love Dust 514?I honestly couldn't tell you in a simple sentence.<br />
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Perhaps a personal history lesson might be the best way, detailing via increasingly tedious minutia the personal changes in my gaming life? But the simple truth about such details is that their peak level of interest is usually only shared with a demographic of one.<br />
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Maybe an examination of the games more singular mechanics, unique in the FPS market could offer illumination to the uninitiated... but that is likely to be an emotionally bereft composition to read through.<br />
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Or possibly an overarching essay on the games history could present to you, the reader, an understanding as to the vice like grip the game still holds over me?<br />
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However, any one of these approaches, singular or in combination, are only ever going to succeed in getting no further than the surface gloss.<br />
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And none would give you a straight answer to the question posed in the title of todays missive, why do I still love Dust 514?<br />
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It's a question that I've asked myself a lot in recent months. Not because I need to find a justification as to the time and energy I spend on it, my enjoyment of doing so is more than enough recompense for that kind of expenditure.<br />
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No, Ive asked myself that question because after two years of performing my self imposed role as an instructor for the game, my personal sense of fulfilment in the helping of others understand the game remains as strong now as it has ever been, perhaps even more so.<br />
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Yesterdays batch of new players joining DUST University wasn't noticeably different from the thousands of others that I've processed. They were still the usual mix of brand new Merc's with no employment history, freshly created that same day, returning players having had a break from the game and wanting to brush up on their skills or find out about new features that have arrived since they left.<br />
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There are even many vets of the game just wishing to pop in for a few weeks or days wanting to set up a few squads and help out for a while.<br />
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But while going through the applicants, sorting them out alphabetically and sending them the 40 emails I send to all new members detailing the game I had an epiphany. I must've send by now close to 300,000 emails to players over the past two years. It's a process that is now muscle memory, practised to level of precision that only that particular quirk of human physiology can provide. And yet my personal sense of satisfaction in helping these people through the simple action of imparting knowledge, remains as strong now as it has ever been.<br />
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And there perhaps is the key to my still loving this game. It is the human connection that those that play it share both in the game directly and in the community that has sprung up around it. It's a connection to the game that no amount of marketing budget can provide and no amount of quirky bugs within it can diminish.<br />
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It's a connection that other games attempt to claim they have with their player base but these are simply fans of a product in comparison to the bond shared by those playing Dust 514, a bond unique in the tidal mass of FPS games out there.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-41907329058946287702015-04-21T15:40:00.002-07:002015-04-21T15:40:38.877-07:00Been a while...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hello to one and all,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry for the very long gap since my last blog. I'm not the most disciplined person when it comes to writing and I've been very busy since then with a combo of real life, CPM duties and prepping for Fanfest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But being this busy has been very rewarding, especially with the CPM part of it. In the last six months we've seen further hot fixes all the way to Echo now, Dust's latest expansion, Warlords, has been released, not to full universal acclaim I grant you but certainly a surprise to many of the bunnies still playing the game and a low key but rewarding Fanfest has taken place. I even won Day Two of the cosplay competition with my Dust Uniform while there.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ATsLSon9mDL_kX3QnX6BJiyDEJnB5k4jvLAIbcbFk2_w2yatmPUfpsZSJXbJnj2_6nHcUAjHhYGAcMIkYui-aylSFNUnua6VqfOrJWo6Ec4SF6kXgEz9g4fyyqqewurMdFnmQbRyTjCt/s1600/IMG_0660.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ATsLSon9mDL_kX3QnX6BJiyDEJnB5k4jvLAIbcbFk2_w2yatmPUfpsZSJXbJnj2_6nHcUAjHhYGAcMIkYui-aylSFNUnua6VqfOrJWo6Ec4SF6kXgEz9g4fyyqqewurMdFnmQbRyTjCt/s1600/IMG_0660.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over my left shoulder, fellow CPM SirManBoy and Cross</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Low key is certainly the way to describe Dust 514's presence at this years Fanfest but that was entirely the right call to make after last years unpleasantness at Harpa's main stage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With only one Dust roundtable this year CCP Rattati, Dust's Senior Producer, made the most of it, inviting the community to further help him and his team by continuing all the feedback given to him and his team. If you've not already seen the roundtable CPM1 Member Soraya Xel recorded it and can be viewed <a href="https://youtu.be/x_RgGJpoUeg" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At Fanfest the star of the show was undoubtably Eve: Valkyrie, CCP's Dogfight sim and almost certainly a killer app for the fledging VR gaming scene. But the strangest thing was happening at this years little shindig in Reykjavik. Eve players were curious once again about Dust 514.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While my dressing up as a Dust Merc over the three days certainly gave me a higher profile than my fellow CPM who were also there, Xel, SMB and Cross, all four of us were answering a lot of questions about the game from Eve players. Other than the most popular question which was 'Dust is still going?', the question most asked was if it was coming to PC or PS4? For that we we're unable to give an answer but for myself personally I have to say I'm still very hopeful for that happy ending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My reasoning for that was one of the stories that came out from Fanfest, the now public knowledge that Dust is now making a profit, confirmed in an interview to <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/20/8263823/playstation-3-exclusive-dust-514-is-now-a-profitable-game-for-ccp">Polygon.com</a> by CCP CEP Hilmar Petursson, Dust is now a revenue stream for CCP so it makes sense to ensure that such a stream continues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was surprising actually how many Eve players at Fanfest, usually the hardest of the hardcore capsuleers, freely admitted to us CPM and the Dust team that they played Dust 514. Admittedly, they confided this information to us in such as way as to not be heard by other Eve players but still, it was encouraging at least.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqX6N8cDfgtlUInZoo3AnATWeUiwDFw9BdZxjTW76soBUqJFVI7PcjEKI40W7ou83Mw1fauydzap4rc7aerNosPQb2fV2VnrqpNpJ5npbICZXpNcUCicJOWAxHdyi1LrZIuvYh0UNbBIde/s1600/IMG_0651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqX6N8cDfgtlUInZoo3AnATWeUiwDFw9BdZxjTW76soBUqJFVI7PcjEKI40W7ou83Mw1fauydzap4rc7aerNosPQb2fV2VnrqpNpJ5npbICZXpNcUCicJOWAxHdyi1LrZIuvYh0UNbBIde/s1600/IMG_0651.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yours truely playing Project Nemesis<br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the senior members of CCP Shanghai had come over with CCP Rattati, including Rouge, Wolfman, Frame and Z, mainly to help with the demonstration of Project Nemesis, a mobile based game for the Samsung Note series of phones and using the new <a href="http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/gearvr/gearvr_features.html">Gear VR </a>hardware, a collaboration between themselves and Oculus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being and important partner working with CCP, Oculus provided them with a Gear VR to see what they can could do with it. Quite a lot as it happens. Project Nemesis is stunning achievement considering that its powered by a mobile phone and uses the latest version of UE4. A simplistic game but enjoyable nevertheless, Nemesis places you in control of a turret on a larger ship where you must defend it against waves of incoming ships, all from the world of New Eden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It all the more remarkable when you consider that its been created by just three of Shanghai's team in their spare time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Because of there being only one Dust 514 roundtable during Fanfest, the CPM members in Reykjavik got to spend a lot of time with the Shanghai team so it became a mini summit. Obviously all of it is NDA but we got an awful lot of work done while there and Rattati and the team have enough ideas for Warlords 1.2 and further beyond even.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the third day of Fanfest, thanks to my charm, wit and basic refusal to have no said to us, CCP Frame arranged for us an interview on the EVE TV live stream for Fanfest which can be found <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/ccp/b/639617004">here </a>at the 2:58:10 mark.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reason was to get a bit more out there about Dust 514 to the New Eden Community at large but it also gave us the opportunity to give CCP Rattati and the team a little token of thanks from the community for all the hard work they've done in the last year.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRnC0Wc_wJnVikfbaSKIJKMTeEOVx9-q-zsVq64bN_H9MFWnpseKcqu2ePrlxn5_Y74jmwdI_c2nfaoCORXZaxB1FX9oeWiOOBW14MrA7jyhLnPfcydhV9fdFfsrTD8gmZ2yCpxEZGajl/s1600/IMG_0669.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRnC0Wc_wJnVikfbaSKIJKMTeEOVx9-q-zsVq64bN_H9MFWnpseKcqu2ePrlxn5_Y74jmwdI_c2nfaoCORXZaxB1FX9oeWiOOBW14MrA7jyhLnPfcydhV9fdFfsrTD8gmZ2yCpxEZGajl/s1600/IMG_0669.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dust 514 Warbarges make it Reykjavik. Rattati's is the Quafe version.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Based on the original concept art shown to the CPM prior to the release of Warlords in February I'd worked on a 3D model of the ship and decided to get a couple printed in time for Fanfest. For anyone wanting the file so you can print your own, should you be lucky enough to have your own 3D printer it can be found <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:770006">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So beyond Fanfest..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In less than a week Warlords 1.1 will be here bringing with it a lot of user experience upgrades, Skins for suits and Player Trading finally comes to Dust 514. Some of this was discussed at Fanfest and Rattati had plans to do more but for now, the patch notes for 1.1 can be found in this <a href="http://dust514.com/news/blog/2015/04/warlords-1.1-overview-patch-notes/">Dev Blog</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'll try not to leave it so long next time. Till then, happy hunting.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-84843218180508600862014-10-20T06:23:00.001-07:002014-10-20T08:16:49.881-07:00So..... 1.9First of all an apology.<div><br></div><div>It's been 3 months since my last blog. And for that I'm sorry. The reasons for the delay I'm not so sorry for, so please bare with me while I explain. </div><div><br></div><div>My last blog was of course the day I was elected into the CPM. This in itself should tell you something about the delay between blogs. It's been a busy time for the CPM. Hotfix Charlie was in its final stages when we started our term and we were immediately into Delta. </div><div><br></div><div>Arguably Delta was the biggest of the Hotfixes. It most certainly didn't start that way, with Rattati wanting a smaller, focused set of changes. But finding himself with a fresh CPM, full of enthusiasm, ideas and willingness to help, Delta grew into a monster which balance passes across nearly all weapons, dropship rebalancing (which was, despite claims to the contrary, badly needed), changes to the NPE and starting skills and the return of the BPO's. </div><div><br></div><div>That's the reason I'm not sorry for the delay. Its been fantastically busy and rewarding to help influence the game directly rather than throwing in ideas from the sidelines. I spend a lot of my free time reading through the forums (even while at work), reading your feedback and either highlighting it or linking it directly to the Dev's. </div><div><br></div><div>Another underlying reason for my blogs quiet spell is summed up in three letters. NDA. </div><div> </div><div>Because of its nature, we have to try and get feedback about concerns the players have, without tipping off those that can connect the dots better. And there is a lot of you that excel at that. There's a larger number that don't however and that's a reason you might get accused of tin foil freshness. </div><div><br></div><div>And while keeping safe details of Hotfixes might be easy, our first real test of secret keeping came just over a month ago when CCP Rouge informed us of Uprising 1.9</div><div><br></div><div>Of course speaking as a player, I and the CPM were thrilled to hear the news which was a complete surprise and very welcome. Even more so as it became clear that this wasn't some drive by patch. Some substance client fixes and changes were on the way, produced by a significant amount of Dev time and talent. </div><div><br></div><div>The changes already mentioned in the Patch announce to are only a part of the content of 1.9, with the rest of the details yet to be brought to you all, I can admit to there being a couple of things on their way that I'm very excited to hear from you all about. </div><div><br></div><div>But the real point of 1.9 is that it is a result of the progress the game has made since the Hotfixes began. The enthusiasm of the playerbase for the changes made in them, proven not only in the forums but also in the stability and even growth of the playerbase, has more than proven the need for continued development of Dust 514. </div><div><br></div><div>With that continued growth and confirmed willingness of the players to invest, not only their time but cash into the game (the new Quafe suits are everywhere), the chances of a 1.10 increase all the time. And with CCP's absolute intent for an equitable transfer to Project Legion should it become an official game, I for one have no problem investing my money in a game that gives as much pleasure to me now as it has in the past two years. </div><div><br></div><div>And you shouldn't either. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-75934838397818924972014-07-27T10:49:00.001-07:002014-07-27T10:50:38.866-07:00Council of Planetary Management MemberIt's only really just beginning to sink in to be honest with you all. <div><br></div><div>How am I feeling about it now that I'm here? Stunned, humbled, excited, nervous, terrified, take your pick. I've felt them all over the last 48 hours. </div><div><br></div><div>But I guess the main thought that is overriding them all is responsibility. A lot of you voted for me as for first choice and many others had me as second or third. This shows that you have trusted me and it is something that I'm not willing to forget. </div><div><br></div><div>The other successful candidates as well as myself have begun talking to each other and getting a crash course of what it is to be in the CPM from the current members. We'll soon be choosing a Chairman and Secretary and we'll let you know as soon as we can. There's a number of details that need the i's dotted and the t's crossed and hopefully we can hit the ground running. </div><div><br></div><div>Thank you so much for involving yourselves in the process if you voted and if you didn't, well with a bit of luck and hard work, CPM1 can prove to the doubters as to the value of such an advocacy group like the CPM and get you out to vote for CPM 2.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you all once again and wish all seven of us good luck.</div><div><br></div><div>Dennie Fleetfoot/Kevall Longstride</div><div><br></div><div>CPM 1 member. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-70735468957046396372014-07-08T06:45:00.001-07:002014-07-08T06:45:47.223-07:00I also play Elite: DangerousAnd this selection of upcoming decals for the Eagle combat craft are just too good to not share<div><br></div><div>Enjoy!</div><div><br></div><div>To learn more about Elite: Dangerous go to http://elite.frontier.co.uk<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpQBOqmXQzVNUWvEh_wjBdDUexK6DO_awpgInhSUniCIz0Zx_DBsMzyUlx7ZmZWZtu4MvM_Lnz2JiWUMf4mP8OPZBgIg2xvY78URlRCmFTMSqRXFMD4-O5Bi8PiTcypSddJ2g9Q4wP-PB/s640/blogger-image--442501780.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpQBOqmXQzVNUWvEh_wjBdDUexK6DO_awpgInhSUniCIz0Zx_DBsMzyUlx7ZmZWZtu4MvM_Lnz2JiWUMf4mP8OPZBgIg2xvY78URlRCmFTMSqRXFMD4-O5Bi8PiTcypSddJ2g9Q4wP-PB/s640/blogger-image--442501780.jpg"></a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-26405264724286951352014-06-20T03:52:00.000-07:002014-06-20T03:52:14.376-07:00Been a while...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorry it's been a while since the last blog but RL has been very busy recently and the Legion announcement knocked the wind out of the sails of the community for a time. But the work of CCP Rattati on Hotfixes Alpha & Bravo seems to re-energised the community somewhat so I thought I'd post some thoughts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like post a little bit about what is happening in DUST University and how it pertains to the future of Dust and Legion.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right now, I'd be an outright liar if I was to say that D-UNI was as active corp as it once was. The Legion announcement hit us very hard as I knew it would when I first learned of Project Legion. For those not aware I, along with a select number of community members were told and asked for opinion about Legion prior to Fanfest. The details as to how I was told are covered by NDA. But the fact I knew beforehand became an open secret at Fanfest once the news was out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew that new player numbers would drop significantly because people would, wrongly as it turned out, just assume that Dust 514 would have the plug pulled almost straight away. Legion is at least 12 to 18 months away from being a shippable product according to what all the Dev's were saying at Fanfest and Dust is likely to continue for at least a year after that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the CEO's of the other corps do 'inactivity culls' much as I do. I personally kick members that haven't logged on in the previous calendar month on the first of every month. So on the 1 July, I will be kicking members that haven't logged on in the month of June.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why highlight this?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of the size of the D-UNI membership, the cull's I perform have a statistical value as to the 'health' of the community. I've always publicly announced the level of inactivity as a percentage of the size of D-UNI. For pretty much the last year it has remained a steady 18-22%, meaning that I'd kicked that percent of players for inactivity. But we'd be getting many new applicants to replace them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However the 1 July cull will be different. This will be the first cull that will show the direct impact of the Legion announcement. Many players logged in over the Fanfest Weekend which was the first one of May, so I wouldn't have kicked them in the 1 June Cull. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it stands right now the next Cull will show somewhere in between 40-50% removed for inactivity. This will be because the numbers of new players joining the D-UNI has significantly fallen between the 2nd week of May to the 3rd week of June.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New Player applicants are once again beginning to grow and while they are never going to reach the heady heights of the 70+ a day we once got till Legion is released, they are giving me cause for optimism for the continued growth of the player base. It will be minimal growth but growth nevertheless. And because I use the Eve Client and are able to look at a players employment history and date of Merc creation, I'm seeing a growing number of veteran players returning, I suspect because of the Hotfixes deployed by CCP Rattati and his team.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this is the main reason that I want to be on the CPM in the first place. D-UNI managed to do a great deal for new players despite the games UI and infrastructure being so NPE unfriendly. But being on the CPM would give me a chance, however limited, to ensure that Legion provides the tools required for ANY corporation to do the most important work they do, which is to provide the chance to create emergent gameplay. I can also help ensure too that the NPE in Dust is not forgotten. Some of that may require UI change, some could be done with server side changes to make running a Dust corp easier in the Eve client.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm often accused of being the most optimistic of the candidates despite the setbacks that CCP either intentionally or unintentionally hit us with. But I do see much cause for optimism with the figures I'm able to gleam from my corp data. D-UNI can still have a huge part to play in the story of Dust and continuing in Legion and I want to be at the heart of ensuring that all corporations in the in game can grow strong and effect the history of New Eden.</span></div>
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-48078636287001185622014-05-10T08:17:00.001-07:002014-05-10T08:22:22.438-07:00Fanfest, NDA's and 'Rouge Wedding?'So it's been a week now since Fanfest ended. I'm back home, getting over the tail end on the 'concolded' epidemic that is currently running rife through all the attendees. Patient Zero or CCP Saberwing as he's' more formally known, was sick as a dog at the beginning of Fanfest week and wisely didn't come out to play till the Wednesday night when he was over it. Except he wasn't quite.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">The author with </span>CCP<span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> </span>Saberwing<span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> </span></td></tr>
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The problem is that I can't really get angry at him because it's was such a genuine pleasure to meet him finally. Shahin is a really cool guy and very energised for the community and the game overall. We have one of the best Community Mangers in the gaming world with Saberwing and coupled with LogiBro and the rest of the team, we are fantastically represented. And no one should be in any doubt that these guys will always do their very best for us. Even the trolls.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those of you that follow my Twitter will know that I had a 24 hr delay to my arrival in Reykjavik due to a faulty fuel pump in the right engine of the </span>Icelandair<span style="font-family: inherit;"> flight. So of course on my eventual arrival, I immediately unpacked the Uniform (seen here) and hit the The English Pub to get a drink. Or two.</span></div>
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Reevira was the first person I recognised, having met her last year and she had already gathered a lot of the Dusters already there, most of who I'd only shot in the face at some point and not met. I was about to get that drink and meet them all, when a crazy man shouted 'DENNIIIEEE!!!' and I was up pulled into a massive bear hug by CCP Praetorian. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right: CCP Saberwing, CCP Praetorian, CCP Z</td></tr>
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Atli Mar is the Creative Director of Dust 514, one of the progenitors of the whole Dust concept at CCP and the person that I would describe as the beating heart of the game. His importance to the game is often overlooked or not known to the more casual players of it but trust me, without him they'd be no Dust. He is also an epic party animal.</div>
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Praetorian is also important to the story of this years Fanfest. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me saying this but last year while still very excited for the launch of the game, one could sense that he wasn't as engaged with it as much as you would hope to find the Creative Director of a game. He loved meeting the players and drinking with them but when talking to him about the game itself, you could detect a little weariness behind his nearly always smiling face.</div>
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What a difference a year makes....</div>
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Make no mistake, Atli is all smiles now. His enthusiasm is infectious and his mind is fired up for the possibilities that the game can now finally realise. And I'm confident that his re-engagement to the game is due to the man that he was dragging me to meet.</div>
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CCP Rouge, like nearly all Frenchmen is one charming mother fucker. JC as he prefers to be called is the near mythical Executive Producer of Dust 514, hired in October of last year to, I won't say rescue but rather steer Dust from the choppy waters of the poorly received launch of Uprising. Mythical is perhaps the wrong word but because of circumstances that would be made clear later, very little had been heard from him direct to the community. Our knowledge of him was gleaned from hints and whispered conversations with members of the CPM and the Dev's on the forums like Saberwing, LogiBro and Frame. He had become the Keyser Soze of New Eden.</div>
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JC's knowledge of the game is considerable. He plays the game a lot with various alts in different corps (including I suspect my own) and constantly reads the forums. He knows all about the major players in the game and the better known ones. And he makes a point of telling them that when he meets them finally. He greeted me like an old friend and immediately got me a drink. Later in the evening when I introduced him to Reevira, he embraced her and called her the Queen of Dust. She got very girly after that....</div>
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I'm hugely impressed with JC after spending a quite few hours taking to him over the week. I'm confident that CCP made the right choice to put him in charge and they spent a long time finding the right guy. He has already enacted many changes to how the game is developed in Shanghai. Sadly like all such transitions, some people have left the team but JC has brought in some impressive new talent to CCP Shanghai. None perhaps more important than CCP Z.</div>
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Julien is the Monitization and Progression Manager of Dust 514, a post that unbelievably didn't really exist till JC hired Z. It is also important to note that they had previously worked together for 6 years so the understanding between them is very strong and both know exactly what they are doing. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vxhrGVv0NuQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Z is very excited for the possibilities that Dust offers and has all sorts of strategies and plans for the development of the progression system of the game. That first night of meeting me, he pretty much gave a full rundown of what would be said in his presentation later in the week, which is here to watch in full.<br />
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He also went into a little more detail than he perhaps meant to for his futher plans but I'm not going to do a disservice to his typically Gaelic enthusiasm by repeating it here. I do however share that enthusiasm and really hope a lot of what he told me comes to pass.</div>
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So on to the start of Fanfest itself.</div>
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The format of this years was a change from the previous years that I've been to and while I was initially annoyed by the lessening of the round tables, it was clear that a relaxed and creative atmosphere was the goal of the organisers this year. In this, they were successful but in other areas they were as slapdash as CCP can only be sometimes. And this year they were spectacularly slapdash when it came to Dust Keynote.</div>
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So this year I didn't have to rush around trying to cram as much in as I had in the last. And that enabled me to mingle and get to know my fellow players so much better than before. It also meant that the Dev's were much more at liberty to sit down with a bunch of us and really chew the fat. </div>
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This new format is a great success and I hope it's repeated for next year. </div>
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Now, I have to mention Valkyrie. It's almost impossible to describe to you just what a game changer this is going to be for interactive entertainment. But simply put, VR technology now works well enough to do for gaming what the addition of sound did to movies. </div>
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This is the level of the huge leap that the gaming world is about to take. Until you try Rift for the first time, you won't understand that. </div>
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It is also important for the story of this years Fanfest to in regards to Dust and Project Legion. As many of you know, Valkyrie will be also released on the PS4. Sony had several high ranking executives at Fanfest as well as virtually all the demo units of their answer to the Oculas Rift, Morpheus, in existence. And these guys were wearing the biggest shit eating grins you've ever seen. When launched in the inevitable PS4 bundle with a Morpheus headset, Eve: Valkyrie will sell more PS4 than any Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy sequel ever could. If you own a PS4 in a year and don't have Valkyrie and the headset, you will be considered an idiot. End of discussion. </div>
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Right now, Sony love CCP. An important point to remember.<br />
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<u><b>NDA's</b></u></div>
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So on to the Dust Keynote and while getting to that we have to talk about NDA's. They are important for many reasons but the most important in the context of what happened at Fanfest is that they allow CCP to speak openly and be free to propose all sorts of ideas without the details being made public. And that's important. What may be thrown away after a two minute discussion in a meeting and decided to be no longer pursued by the Dev team, may cause a huge amount of forum rage to have been even considered. But ideas such as that have to be considered so that they can be found to be lacking in substance. </div>
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Everyone working at CCP has to sign one, standard in the gaming industry. As do any partners that they may work with, such as Sony or Nvidia, both in a business sense and those that work with them in another capacity, such as the CSM and CPM. Without them, creative endeavours such as Dust in a competitive industry simply couldn't happen. And they are serious documents, applicable to pretty much any country with copyright and trademark laws. The penalties for breaking them are severe and will end any career you might hope to have in an industry that uses them. Not to mention you can also get sued for many thousands of pounds. Anyone reading and then proceeding to sign one will tell you that you had better take them seriously. And I'm telling you to take them very seriously...</div>
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So while I respect the opinion of those in the forums who say that the CPM should have 'leaked' details of Project Legion, that opinion could not possibly have been formed by anyone that has ever read one and put their signature to it. So I would dismiss such opinions as being possessed by those not in full knowledge of the facts.<br />
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I would also note for anyone that has espoused on the forums that had they been in the position of the CPM they would've leaked the information, congratulations. You've just saved CCP the time they would've have wasted considering to ask you to sign one. They would almost certainly veto you, as the CPM white paper affords them the right to, from ever being on the CPM in the first place.<br />
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'<u><b>Rouge Wedding?</b></u>'<br />
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The CPM and those with advanced knowledge of the Legion announcement were very, very nervous as to the reaction to it. It has since transpired that the CPM had already unanimously told CCP, on multiple occasions, that its announcement at Fanfest was a bad idea. News of it should have already been released and more details as to the future of Dust made clear, a view that I totally agree with them on.<br />
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However for reasons we can only speculate about, CCP as a company decided to ignore those warnings. Not the first time they've ignored either of their two advocacy groups, the CSM and CPM but without doubt the worst possible time they chose to ignore warnings.<br />
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Speaking privately to CCP staff afterwards, I can tell you that internally, CCP regards what happened as a bigger self inflicted PR disaster than the infamous Incarna. I can also tell you ignoring the CPM in future, is going to be less likely.<br />
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While I have no claim to any inside knowledge on the reasoning for CCP to ignore the warning of its advocacy group, past experience has demonstrated time and time again, that the massive gaming media impact that the annual Fanfest has and its potential for marketing purposes, can, has and did in the past, cause CCP to think with their metaphorical dick and not with their head.<br />
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It is also regrettable that even though they plan Fanfest months in advance, the slapdash methodology of which I spoke earlier reared up again. It prevented them from ensuring that the new Executive Producer of Dust knew that the Q&A Round Table after his important Keynote was not going to be Live Streamed and instead left him in the belief that it was.<br />
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It was JC's intent to use a streamed Q&A to answer everyone's concerns as the continued dev work of Dust 514 on the PS3 while the team also worked Project Legion. Denied that assurance, the forums of course, imploded. Understandably so.<br />
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What of course followed was the usual self induced CCP panic to fix a cock up of their own making, with JC having to repeatedly hijack the Eve TV Live Stream to give assurance to the established PS3 based console Dust players that Character retention and transfer to other formats for the game was a top priority. This culminated in the appearance of JC at the beginning of Saturdays CCP presents Keynote to inform everyone that Dust Characters WOULD be carried over to Project Legion and the aimed for PS4 version.<br />
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You remember how I told you Sony love CCP? The deal that allowed that transfer had only been agreed to on Saturday morning. JC only promised the transfer would happen when he KNEW he had the deal to do it.<br />
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You'll all find that is how CCP Rouge works. He'll only promise what he knows is deliverable.<br />
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As to the Rouge Wedding thing, now the forums have calmed down a little and solid information as to the fate of your Dust Merc's settled, can we really in all honestly compare it all to the betrayal and murder of a fictional family from a book?<br />
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Of course not.<br />
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The PS3 had simply hit a wall. Many of the features that CCP wanted for the game were either simply technically impossible of the ageing console or made difficult by a backend to Dust that required a complete rewrite, with no guarantee of success. Anyone unwilling or unable to see that will soon learn to do so as we find out more about Legion.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gratuitous glamour shot of me and the lovely <br />
Reevira, Queen of Dust</td></tr>
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The Shanghai team, genuinely believed for the longest time, they could pull it off on the PS3. It took a fresh set of eyes to objectively look at the progress made and decide that it couldn't be done on a limited format. When CCP said they were laser focused on the PS3 at Eve Vegas, they were. JC had barely started and Project Legion hadn't even been thought off at the time.<br />
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The change to the PC format also allowed the corporate refocusing on New Eden that CCP as a company had chosen to embark on, using a format they are intimate with and using the X86 Chip Architecture that is now shared by all the next gen consoles as well as the PC. A point that JC and the team are at pains to remind everyone of but won't promise till they know its going to happen.<br />
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As to Dust on the PS3? It's not dying. But it can't be the game we all though it would. The PS3 can't hack it. But it will be worked on still. The lessons that CCP and Sony both learned from it, are invaluable to both. Balance work done on Legion will find its way to the PS3 and vice versa. Legion content that can make the journey over will do so. And it will continue for at least a year after Project Legion is out on the PC. By which time of course, it might be on another console too.<br />
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There are a fantastic amount of positives about Legion. Don't let the poorly conceived way it was announced colour your hopes for it.<br />
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Dust is not Dead. Long live Dust.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-63542193124188758152014-04-09T01:11:00.001-07:002014-04-09T02:00:45.255-07:00Fanfest. There's a plan and then there is, the plan.Hello to one and all.<div><br></div><div>It has been just over a month since my last post on the blog. Sorry about that. RL has been kinda busy over that last month so I've not had the time to post some thoughts.</div><div><br></div><div>But RL has slackened now, we've had 1.8 and in three week I'll be in Iceland, so my anticipation is beginning to rise to silly levels.</div><div><br></div><div>I've made a start on upgrading the Fanfest costume I wore last year..</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbmYM7mU2Z8EjO18uTpv-Yf708xhgZzN_MVL11j74lHuABCzr2e_nnnc6-IiSv4-K5ux2ScuOnepBkCN1OfBPFSUoNPTmcX9jbyXzTMD8NAiz9-kpNZl9f4wN-Ilep3FOx1cRqkSnZ9JO/s640/blogger-image-893475944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbmYM7mU2Z8EjO18uTpv-Yf708xhgZzN_MVL11j74lHuABCzr2e_nnnc6-IiSv4-K5ux2ScuOnepBkCN1OfBPFSUoNPTmcX9jbyXzTMD8NAiz9-kpNZl9f4wN-Ilep3FOx1cRqkSnZ9JO/s640/blogger-image-893475944.jpg"></a></div> So new boots have arrived, upgraded body armour to be painted and thanks to clarification from Icelandair, a custom holster is winging its way from the magical world of ebay for my custom Gallante answer to the Flaylock. The 'Strongarm' GL 72 Flux Pistol. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvm9_dsxFiLwlLTpWtVbFjuDXyFgMkuiImpL11u_s9v_awhmytq8coKp1UB3V85xsWvtAIBClqIs_c1rN5sjRg3S6Et4JDON01fWFT2XNzfUhoTM12ay04iOQiAs8FoRAZQW7nq4Z4YQVo/s640/blogger-image-198940882.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvm9_dsxFiLwlLTpWtVbFjuDXyFgMkuiImpL11u_s9v_awhmytq8coKp1UB3V85xsWvtAIBClqIs_c1rN5sjRg3S6Et4JDON01fWFT2XNzfUhoTM12ay04iOQiAs8FoRAZQW7nq4Z4YQVo/s640/blogger-image-198940882.jpg"></a></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> I'll be easy to spot at least when you arrive at Harpa.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So as to Fanfest, what can we expect?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Well first and foremost for the Dust faithfull making the trip, it's going to be about one man. JC Gaudechon, better known as CCP Rouge.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/10/a-message-from-the-executive-producer/</font></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The main concern about Dust 514's new Executive Producer that the community has, is that apart from his introductionary Dev Blog, posted above, we know next to nothing about him. Those that are active on the forums or who talk to the Dev's and CPM0 know a little about him, most of it extremely positive but the rank and file Dust player hasn't heard a peep from him since his arrival.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I do know that he has almost completly rearranged the whole Dust development process, that his re-organisation of the Shanghai office has been from the ground up. I know that he is a passionate believer in the concept of the CPM and he's been described as the Patron Saint of Truth, not afraid to tell his team where they're going wrong and how to fix it. 'Super Cool' is the term that get said a lot about him.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">But all of this is from from me actively looking for info and asking questions. I also hear that he has a plan. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Me and a old work colleague, who is now a film director, used to have a mantra whenever we heard that a plan was in the offing from those above us in the chain. There's a plan and then there is the plan. The latter refers to what the fates might conspire to knacker the the former. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Now whatever CCP Rouge has in store for us in that Dust keynote, to my way of thinking at least, would do well to break from the games past, which I'm sure it does. The game in the past clearly did have <i>a</i> plan but it was one that didn't take into account what <i>the</i> plan might have in store for it. And as such it floundered when it hit the rock that was Uprising. </font></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">For me at least, Fanfest is going to be less about the new shiney stuff that might be coming and more about Rouge's plan. Player market, a snazzy new UI, Corp Mechanics, a working Comms system, all will be for nothing if the new EP can't excite and energise the playerbase with where he wants to take the game. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'm confident he can. Too many people, whose opinion I trust, are telling me that he is the man for the job and Dust is in safe hands. It's now up to him show what he can do. </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-50240444166271367422014-02-28T08:10:00.001-08:002014-02-28T10:50:36.703-08:00Does Dust 514 need the PS4?With PSN.com now confirming what we already knew, that the next evolution of DUST 514 with be shown at Fanfest, speculation is understandably begining to bubble in the forums and social media.<div><br></div><div>Will it have the player market? What are Rouge's plans for the BPO questions? How will the Eve/Dust link be expanded.</div><div><br></div><div>But inevitably one question has been asked a lot. Will there be a format change or increase in availble formats?</div><div><br></div><div>Playstation4? PC? Steam Box? </div><div><br></div><div>One arguement that Dust alumni, Battlefield 4 streamer and all round good guy, DS The Drunk Heavy as well as many others, have consistently given for the jump to PS4 to be an essential move for the game and CCP, is that it would enable the playerbase of the game to grow.</div><div><br></div><div>But is it? When you sit down and look at the figures in a cold and dispassionate way, I can see no evidence that would support that hypothesis. Certainly not for at least another 18 months.</div><div><br></div><div>Sony have recently announced that they've sold 5 million PS4 since launch. A grand figure to be sure and only likely to increase to something like 15 million by the end of its first year. But the PS3 has over 80 million units still out there. Yes, the new console is the media darling and it has some great games but everyone didn't stop buying the PS3 overnight. Sony only stopped making the PS2 three years ago after all. </div><div><br></div><div>Now a figure that I've heard been flung around a lot in the various channels of chat in Dust is that the game has a retention rate of just 1 percent. This is may or may not be the truth but it seems a little off considering that that the retention rate for new staters that join DUST University is something like 35%.</div><div><br></div><div>For the record retention rates in Free to Play games is based on how many players in month 1 are still playing in month 2. For a better understanding of the mechanics of player retention I'd read this,</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/retention-rate-churn-and-duration/</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">But let's assume that this 1% figure is correct and do some hypotheticals. The record for most players on the game is 9255 during the launch of the game. If that retention rate is correct, then 925,500 players downloaded the game in total during the launch and 9255, 1%, hung around and played it long enough to be part of the figures. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Out of 80 million consoles only 1.15% downloaded and tried the game. So let's put it like this. If that figure was transposed to the 5 million PS4 out there that would be just 57,500 downloads in total. And just 575 regular players on PS4.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">575 players. If each of them spent £1739.13 on Aurum then CCP would make £1,000,000. Who here reading this, thinks the development costs of porting the game to PS4 would cost just one million quid?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Less than 1% I'd wager. And no ones spending that much on Aurum any way.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Growth of the games playerbase can ONLY be achieved by increasing the player retention percentage. Increasing it to just 2 percent is an 18,510 record for most players on the PS3. For the PS4 to match that, it's version of Dust would need a retention rate increase of 32 times that of the PS3. Very unlikely I'd think.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">There is an arguement that CCP haven't really advertised the game. That the figures are that low because players aren't aware of the game. Well, that's true. But without increasing the rentention first, the marketing budget would be wasted. Spend that money making the game better first.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">This is why I await CCP Rouge's plans with great interest. A switch to the PS4 is what players want.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">But it isn't what the game needs.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-45028261531354663692014-02-26T01:42:00.001-08:002014-02-26T02:14:54.132-08:00Entitlement? Says who?I'll just come out and say it.<div><br></div><div>The Dust 514 forums are home to some of the most unpleasant repositories of splenetic outpourings of self entitled bullshit, it has been my misfortune to wade in. </div><div><br></div><div>Granted, it's a vocal minority and most of them are clearing trolling or compensating for inadequacies elsewhere in their life but really..... grab the TV remote, watch the news about Syria, Sudan, oppression of dissenting opinion by some regimes and get some bloody perspective in your lives.</div><div><br></div><div>The tragedy is that the vast majority of the denizens inhabiting our digital frat house, have genuine concerns about the game. They're able to articulate their worries in a considerate, well thought out way and engage with other players and more importantly the Dev's, that will be heard and made note of. </div><div><br></div><div>Raging, name calling, unwillingness to except the merits of an opinion not your own does not mean you are heard louder and clearer than all the others. All it earns you is scorn, derision and a lessening of your arguement to the point where none is prepared to even entertain it.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm standing for CPM and I welcome all opinions. I will weigh them against others and my own and apply to them any advance knowledge that the shield of the NDA will furnish me with and help provide a conduit from the player base to CCP, that can influence the direction of the game for the betterment of all and not just a few. </div><div><br></div><div>But behind Dennie and Kevall is a person, made of flesh, bone and sinew just like you. And he'd like to be spoken to in a way that you would choose to be spoken to. In an <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">equitable way and manner. It's how I'd hope to conduct myself when speaking to CCP on your behalf. We'll get more done together that way.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stamping your feet like a child, screaming and pointing at the sweet counter only really draws attention to you pointing at the sweet counter.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It doesn't get you the sweets.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-71861903071216158962014-02-18T02:48:00.001-08:002014-02-18T07:56:36.996-08:00It's the little things that'll make or break it.Unless CCP have some big surprise, 1.8 is all about the new racial suits and if we have some sort of infantry SP refund for their introduction. <div><br></div><div>Fanfest 2014 is just 10 weeks away. It would be a major blow to the fortunes of Dust 514 if the next named expansion of the game isn't announced or made playable to those that make the pilgrimage to Harpa. So I'm going to assume it will be for the purposes of today's blog.</div><div><br></div><div>When CCP Rouge came on board in October, I believe it would be a safe assumption on our part to expect that he'd be concentrating on the next expansion of the game rather than iteration on the previous work done. CCP brought him to Shanghai to steady the ship and plot a new course. It would be a waste of his time and energy to do anything else.</div><div><br></div><div>I'll be referring to the next expansion as 2.0, even though in software parlance it would be 'insert name' 1.0, so don't pick me up on that please. For the record I've maintained that my prefered name would be Insurrection. </div><div><br></div><div>Here I delve into the realms of speculation and wish fulfilment. I claim no precise knowledge of what's coming up in 2.0. I do base some of what I say here on the tiniest slivers of intel I've heard from various sources but some of this is contradictory, so again don't hold me to any of this.</div><div><br></div><div><u>Format</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that those expecting an announcment as to the movement of the game to PS4 are going to be disappointed in May. Sony have placed the PS4 behind a paywall, meaning that the game would no longer be free to play as such. And despite the fact that Sony just announced that they've sold over 5 million units of the PS4, I don't believe the user base is yet large enough for a game such as Dust 514 to gain enough pool of players on the format, to justify the extra development costs. It will happen, just not this year.</div><div><br></div><div>We also have to take into account the recent decision of the Chinese Government to lift the ban on consoles. China is a huge potential market for Dust 514 and the cheaper PS3 is likely to the console of choice to begin with. Tie in the oppuntunity to link in the game to Eve's Chinese server, Serenity and CCP are looking at huge new market. The recent restructuring of nearly all Dust development to under one roof in Shanghai not only makes sense in term of effiency, it makes sense in light of this huge new market that CCP, either through happenstance or forward planning, are going to be able to take advantage of locally.</div><div><br></div><div>I would say that there is also a slim chance that it might move back to PC and perhaps even drop console altogether. I base this purely in the fact that non of the current CPM are standing and my own sense of paranoia. An Eve player without paranoia is a podded player. Jenza hinted in her open letter to candidates that CPM1 would have a harder time of it for some reason and by the sounds of it none of them want to be around. As a candidate for CPM1, I have to say that this is my nightmare scenario but I consider it unlikely, given the potential of the Chinese console market. </div><div><br></div><div><u>Graphics</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>Once again, I feel that there will be disappointment in the community because I'm fairly sure that CCP will be sticking with the Unreal engine for the time being. While it's limitations for an MMO have been well documented, I know that there are many game programmers in the community that are very impressed that CCP have got it to do what they have at all. CCP seem to be getting much more out of the engine than was thought possible, which to me demonstrates an affinity for the engine that they'll be unwilling to ditch just yet. Certainly, till they are ready for the inevitable upgrade to the new formats.</div><div><br></div><div>I am expecting some major optimisation to the coding of the game however. Dust already has some very nice lighting effects but it's animations for the Merc's themselves are very 1990's. Having them teleport into vehicles is very offputting. And of course, having a stable 30 FPS during gameplay should be a given by now. Compared to the closed beta, its silky smooth at the moment but it needs to be stable.</div><div><br></div><div><u>Audio</u></div><div><br></div><div>Seriously, if there isn't a fix for the Voice Comms and it works all the time, I may have to slap someone in the chops at Fanfest. Other than that, I'm not expecting anything other than new weapons noises and refinement of what we have now. The in game audio is pretty good, but I'd like some some better rear channel steering for locating vehicles, especially Dropships. </div><div><br></div><div><u>User Interface</u> </div><div><br></div><div>You all knew I'd get there eventually.</div><div><br></div><div>For as long as the Eve Client is required to properly run a corporation in Dust, then the UI in Dust must and should be considered an abject and dismal failure on the part of CCP. Make no mistake, they should be ashamed of what they given us to make do with. For as long as a CEO or director is required to subscribe to Eve then the game is not truely free to play. </div><div><br></div><div>They must also break free from the ingrained design dogma that perpetuates their thinking in terms of the UI. The current design of the UI with its drop down and pop up menus is as a result of using M&KB for so long in Eve. At what point is CCP <b><i><u>finally</u></i></b> going to realise that it <u>must</u> adopt an 'in the box' mentality when designing a console game. </div><div><br></div><div>At this point I have to swear, there is no other way to adequately get across my frustration on this issue but when consoles come with a mouse and keyboard in the fucking box, then and <b>ONLY </b>then, will mouse and keyboard have any claim of parity with the gamepads that come with <i>every</i> fucking console. Until then, M&KB is a secondary consideration and should only be worked on once everything else works perfect with the sodding gamepad!!!!!</div><div><br></div><div>Rant over.</div><div><br></div><div><u>New Player Experience</u> </div><div><br></div><div>In a non twitch game such as Eve, a slower and more intense learning experience is possible because the format of the game lends itself to that. And having the social aspects of a player run corporation are a huge plus in player retention.</div><div><br></div><div>An FPS game can't afford to be slow in this regard. The type of player that Dust attracts are used to the pace and speed of franchises such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. The other problem with these franchises is that they have, for lack of a better term, dumbed down the need for the kind of tactics that player trying Dust for the first time would need. </div><div><br></div><div>The lack of tactical thought that those that claim excellence in CoD when confronted with Dust sometimes show is frightening. </div><div><br></div><div>The NPE must demonstrate to a new player the complexity of Dust without putting them off it. I would hope that there has been a lot of progress on this in the last few months as its vital to the long term growth of the game. I look forward to seeing what CCP have done in this regard.</div><div><br></div><div><u>Suits</u></div><div><br></div><div>I think we may see the fabled pilot suit in 2.0. CCP have had plenty of chances to remove mention of it in the marketplace and have not yet done so. I hope that when they do arrive, CCP have the good sense to release all the racial variants. There could be no claim as to the need of a respec at a later date if they do that.</div><div><br></div><div><u>Market Place</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>A player driven marketplace is essential for the game at this point. However, two things are by all accounts, making it difficult to implement. First of all are the BPO's. In terms of earning CCP money via purchase of Aurum and the various packs, BPO's can be considered a success. And were very popular. In terms of the fledging Dust economy, they are a disaster. The games central premise of purchasing fits that are lost on death is undermined by BPO where there is no ISK being pulled from the ecomomy. </div><div><br></div><div>The second reason is the amount of ISK that there is in Dust right now. CCP were far too generous as to the financial rewards of Planetary Conquest. There is currently trillions of ISK in the game, held by a select few and with nothing to spend it oon as yet. Being rich in itself is not anything to be ashamed off in New Eden but right now these two factors are in danger of destroying the games economy before it starts. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm going to very interested in how the CCP economists intend to deal with this issue.</div><div><br></div><div><u>Vehicles</u> </div><div><br></div><div>Its a given I'd hope, that the Amarr and Minmatar MCC will finally make their game debut in May as well as their ground and air based brethren. I like to think that their logistical variants would also arrive but my gut tells me that CCP are still not happy with the game mechanics that underpin them and with current misgivings regarding the AV capabilities of the infantry, adding them is not a good idea till that is addressed. </div><div><br></div><div>MTAC's, speeders and jets.... Not happening before Christmas at least.</div><div><br></div><div><u>PC 2.0</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>I'm not a fan of PC. The UI, the timers, the lag, the high profit margins for a limited few while not providing an alternative revenue stream for those not doing it. I expressed an opinion last Fanfest as to how PC would end up and I was about 90% right. </div><div><br></div><div>I personally wouldn't mind if it dropped altogether and forgotten about. </div><div><br></div><div>How I'd have it is current pub matches remain in High Sec, FW in Low Sec and a player contracted version of FW in Null sec where only the very best equipment and skills would be enough to compete.</div><div><br></div><div>PC 2.0 is going to have to be something very special for me to be convinced otherwise. </div><div><br></div><div><u>Wild Cards</u></div><div><u><br></u></div><div>I think that we will see some expansion of the forums capabilities including with some luck, integration with the Eve forums. This will be an important step in the social connection between the games being strengthened. </div><div><br></div><div>Last year, CCP promised that by next time we all met again in Reykjavik there would be a companion app for Eve on mobile and tablet. I'm going to hold them to that promise and hold onto the hope that their will be some form of companion app for Dust 514. I said earlier being limited to the Eve client for proper corp control is a failure but I'd be happy for it all to be done via a web based or actual App.</div><div><br></div><div>The current map designs are not great and give too much free reign to ground based vehicles while restricting infantry in its ability to do close to medium range combat. The current problems with redlining can all be traced back to poor map design and was the topic of many alcohol based chat in the bars of Reykjavik last year. And nothing has been done since. I'd hope that this has also been addressed. </div><div><br></div><div>Right then, that's enough waffle for the time being. It'll be interesting see how right or wrong I am in 10 weeks. And I hope that some of you will be there to see it all with me.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-17879195339383517102014-02-15T01:47:00.001-08:002014-02-15T01:51:26.366-08:00Do you read the credits of a film or game?Well, you should.<div><br></div><div>I'm one of those people that watch the credits at the end of a film. And not just to see what the next Marvel film will bring us.</div><div><br></div><div>I don't do it all the time but enough to see the same names popping up in the scrolling texts. Not the big names like director and star but the ones that get overlooked but whose contribution often makes or breaks a film. Director of Phototography is one I watch out for a lot because although the director will often dictate what goes in a frame of film, it's the DoP that will make sure how it looks. </div><div><br></div><div>There has been many a time that a DoP has determined for me to see a film of not. The really good ones seldom choose to work on a film that ends up being a car crash.</div><div><br></div><div>I also watch the credits of a game once completed. Many games give you an achievement for not skipping it as well, little tip for you there. And some of them are long, very long. Assassins Creed: Black Flag, which I just completed on the Xbox One had a credit list that went on for 10 minutes! That's five minutes more for the credit list of the last Bond film to crawl past.</div><div><br></div><div>If you're in any doubt as to how big a business gaming is now, just watch the hundreds and sometimes thousands of people that are involved in making just one. It's rumoured that the last couple of COD games pushed past $200m to make each. Knowing that puts the recent decision of the publisher of the franchise to switch to a three year development cycle in some context. These games are a massive financial investment to undertake and it's better to spread that risk over a longer time.</div><div><br></div><div>It had nothing to do with taking longer to make the game better.</div><div><br></div><div>So now we come to the credits of Dust 514. CCP employ in total just over 500 people. Less than half that just worked on AC:BF alone for Ubisoft. Split equally over the four projects that they currently have live or in development that's just 125 each. Compared to the bigger guns in the industry CCP is a cottage industry. Admittedly a very swanky cottage over several floors and with a superb aquarium. Ask Hilmar about their aquarium. You'll never find a man so proud of his salt water pumps. I'm serious. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">They have offices in multiple country's but still, a cottage industry in comparison. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So the fact that thay have done what many considered a fools dream and created a living breathing virtual world with consequence in Eve on PC then added to it an FPS on a different platform is truely remarkable. The fact that Eve: Valkyrie will also tie into New Eden eventually should come as no surprise to anyone. So how do they do this?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It's all about using what you have and placing it where's its needed most. Which is why I pay attention to the credits of Dust 514. People move on to new projects all the time or get reshuffled in companies all the time. We as consumers don't often know about this and more often than not don't care. But you really should in a long term project like Dust. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Have a look at the credits as they are now. Then compare them to the ones that will be at the end of 1.8, 1.9 and then the next named expansion. You'll be seeing a lot of changes. Some you maybe know about, some you don't. Nearly all of it because of the reshuffling of resources that CCP have already done in order to give CCP Rouge, the executive producer of Dust 514, everything he needs to drive the game in the direction he wants. For instance, pretty much all development of the game is now done at CCP Shanghai, under one roof and one time zone, so ideas and the creative drive in the team doesn't have to wait for another in the team to wake up in Reykjavik. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It does mean that several of the Dev's that have engaged so well with the community are no longer working on the game directly. True Grit for instance are working now on Eve once again I've been told. I'm sure that when it comes to the link itself however we couldn't have a more qualified team at the Eve end of the link working on it. So thank you for all your work guys, I do hope that you'll be on the Dust group for the bar crawl.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I know that CCP Rouge will be telling us before Fanfest how he wants the game to progress, what he's doing and more importantly already done to achieve it. I know that confidence in his being at the tiller is high within CCP. They're excited at the route he's plotted and the energy he's given the project. Of course it's maddening that we know this but don't know the details yet, however, I'll still be trying to nudge Saberwing to spill some breadcrumbs until Rouge posts his next Dev blog.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">As the excitement for Fanfest builds so will the anticipation of finding out what our favourite FPS has in store for us. Because of the nature of change I'm sure that there will be some disappointment, features not being added as quick as we like, features maybe even getting dropped. But I'm sure the long term benefits will be obvious once explained to and e</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">xperienced by the community. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Executive Producers are one of the titles I keep an eye on for film credits. And games too</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-3297772760411965972014-02-01T01:14:00.001-08:002014-02-01T05:34:11.688-08:00Main reason I want to stand for CPM...?Over the last few days I've been working on a new starters skill plan, that I can give to every new starter in the UNI.<div><br></div><div>So to do this I've started a couple of fresh clones and started from stratch to find the best combo of skills to give using the least SP. Now its been a couple of months since I checked out the NPE, so I didn't know what to expect.</div><div><br></div><div>It is a disaster. </div><div><br></div><div>The number of 20m+ SP players as gone up a great deal and although the concurrent numbers are beginning to edge up, these players as a percentage of the playerbase, are clearly increasing.</div><div><br></div><div>I was out of the Academy in two matches. Admittedly, I know what I'm doing so a novice might take a few more matches to get through. So what they hell are these players doing getting thrown into a match with players fielding prototype suits and weapons?</div><div><br></div><div>What kind of logic is that? It's like asking a recently graduated General Practitioner to perform open heart surgery with a steak knife!</div><div><br></div><div>How are we expecting the playerbase to grow when this is the experiance we ask them to face in their second hour of the game? Even Eve, the game with the infamous learning cliff, starts all its new subscribers in High Sec space with a series of PvE (which I know we don't have yet) that reasonably breaks them in with an explanation of the basics. Dust has none of that.</div><div><br></div><div>And those that repeat the oft spoken acronym HTFU in this situation have clearly no grasp of the reality of the situation. </div><div><br></div><div>The game is now as playable as it's ever been. The suits are about to finally get the full racial variants it should've had at launch. We have one set of complete racial weapons and soon a second. UI (while still far,far short of what is needed) provides a basic ability to run a corporation and have basic communications with rest of the community. </div><div><br></div><div>So to have all that work and effort from the Dev's and the feedback given to them, brought down at the very first hurdle is so disheartening it really want to make you bang skulls together. And I want the chance to be able to do something about it, direct at the source as well as in the game itself.</div><div><br></div><div>There's a couple of things that could be done that could bring immediate relief to those new players.</div><div><br></div><div>First of all, like the Acadamy, a couple of modes that allow only those players with less than a certain number of WP to enter, to prevent the Protostompers from getting in there. I'd say any more than 10,000 and you don't have access. This can be done with little effort because the Academy already does it but with a lower WP threshold. Do this while giving an accelerated built in SP active boost to new players so they can get to say 3 million SP a lot quicker.</div><div><br></div><div>The other thing that should be done but I know from sources is difficult to do at the moment, is remove vehicles from Ambush altogether. The cheapness and effectiveness against infantry of Militia tanks is putting a lot of new players off. And in the Academy, Veteran players are using the militia tanks with new clones to get their KDR jollies at the expense of new players. Seriously guys, you're killing the games growth. </div><div><br></div><div>So like I say, someone needs to stand up for the new player. These are the backbone of the future corporations in the game and we need these guys and gals to stay.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-29327773785764492312014-01-30T02:00:00.001-08:002014-01-30T02:01:14.737-08:00The Year of the HorseAs the Shanghai office of CCP winds down for a few days, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, I thought I'd use the animal of this new year, the horse, as a ridiculously tenuous link to my real life occupation.<div><br></div><div>For I am a purveyor in false hope and dreams....</div><div><br></div><div>I manage a betting shop.</div><div><br></div><div>I also know something about odds and percentages and now a good long term bet when I see one. Just over two years ago I paid off the flight tickets for my first trip to Fanfest. Back then I was an enthusiastic but still limited in experience pilot in EVE University and Eve Online. It was to be honest the only game that I played a lot on the PC. I'd dabbled a bit in Civilisation V on the format, a couple of bargains on Steam but the format I'm most comfortable with is consoles. </div><div><br></div><div>At the time specifically the Xbox 360. I didn't own the PS3, not because I'm xbox fanboy, though I admit choosing the Xbox One over PS4 for reasons I'll came back to later. No, I chose the Xbox 360 for two reasons. First of all it was cheaper and secondly for Xbox Live.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm a proud owner of the number 10 on my Gamertag tenure, shortly to be 11. In fact I was one of the UK beta testers for Live before it was launched. It was easy to be in that beta if I'm honest. Fast and stable broadband a decade ago in the UK was the heady speeds of 120kb a second. Ooooooo. And the cabling of the UK was still going on, so it was fairly rare to have broadband, almost by default I was in the beta. </div><div><br></div><div>Halo had already fired up a love for FPS games which had started in the seedy seaside Arcades o my youth, so when Halo 2 (still the best in the series) arrived with the Live option it's predecessor lacked, I was hooked. I swear that disc didn't leave my Xbox for 9 months. </div><div><br></div><div>So you've noticed that so far I've owned all three Xbox consoles and claim to not be a fanboy. How does that compute. Well, put simply there were no games on the PS2 or PS3 that I wanted to play that there wasn't an Xbox version of. Don't get me wrong, there's been some great games on the format but nothing that floated my boat so to speak. </div><div><br></div><div>So back to the Fanfest of 2012. I'm a console gamer, in a place full of PC players. Who'd just learned that the FPS that CCP had been working on wasn't coming to PC but was going to be a console exclusive. And not only that, on the most consolely of consoles, the PS3. </div><div><br></div><div>They weren't happy. Not happy at all.</div><div><br></div><div>Seriously, the day they opened to door in Harpa main hall, to show the hastily gathered PS3 demo units and allow us to have a go, you could feel the contempt, heavy in the air. It condensed on the walls and you'd think you could hear it drip. As someone who was a console gamer at heart, that happened to love playing Eve, it was a very uncomfortable feeling. I dared not tell anyone. </div><div><br></div><div>It was like getting a cheap ticket for an FA Cup match and finding you're the only Leeds fan in a crowd of Man Utd seating. </div><div><br></div><div>The problem was for me however was that I liked the game. Don't get me wrong, it was a festering pile of kak in terms of the problems that build had. The controls, the UI, map design, the lack of variation in the them. It was using an inferior controller... It was bloody awful. </div><div><br></div><div>But I still liked it for no good reason I could identify. Part of the package for those that attended Fanfest that year was a beta key. Well I'd had some experiance of beta's, the last one prior to that was the Open beta for Halo 3 (I flipped when that email arrived), I couldn't play the game on the 360 and I'd heard rumour of some survival game featuring a middle aged man and a young girl coming onto the PS3 that was promising. The price had dropped since launch, so I took the chance and got a PS3 slim. And waited.</div><div><br></div><div>The closed beta started. Some improvement since Fanfest. An active forum for testers. Chromosome came. It was going good. And I'm still playing the game now. Like I said, I know a good long term bet when I see one. It's survived its first year despite the hurdles it's had to jump and a poor launch build.</div><div><br></div><div>It's as playable and as enjoyable as it's ever been. The last couple of point builds (other than the over enthusiastic AV nerf of 1.7) have been really good and the promise of 1.8 and its full racial suits has me giddy.</div><div><br></div><div>So back to the choice between Xbox One and PS4. I'm a home cinema nut. Pretty much everything is routed via a really nice Sony Reciever and a fabulous Panasonic LED TV. My music is streamed to it all and I needed a console to fit in with all that with little fuss. The Xbox One.</div><div><br></div><div>Also, the PS4 is again not offering me something that I can't get on the Xbox One. Nothing floating my boat in Sony's immediate road map.</div><div><br></div><div>Unless CCP change that of course. Let's be honest I didn't get a PS4 because I can't play Dust 514 on it. But I think I'll be getting one this year...</div><div><br></div><div>I know a good long term bet when I see one.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-20427851578921474602014-01-25T01:20:00.001-08:002014-01-25T03:50:43.601-08:00CPM Election Fever.So election fever is upon us in New Eden thanks to CCP Saberwing firing the starting pistol a little early perhaps...<br />
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The Council Chamber is now full of candidate threads from the full spectrum of players in Dust. From the established big hitters to the smaller guys whose opinions are just as valid. I look forward to the inaugural CPM elections for many reasons.</div>
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First of all, because all the rumours are saying that it will be STV, single transferable vote. For a community as varied as Dust's but limited in number, its essential that such a system is in place to avoid the bigger Corps and Alliances filling the positions on the council. Secondly because there has been a perception, incorrect in my view, that the current CPM have no mandate purely because CCP chose them.</div>
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While its true that the players had no real say in the matter, the fact that they had benefited from the work and meta content that the CPM members had and still produce for the game, did give them a mandate by implied consensus. </div>
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And part of the work of CPM0 was to create the white paper and processes that the future CPM's would need to do their job in the future. With the gun being fired we can safely assume that they've succeeded in that role and the community team, headed by Saberwing can proceed with the elections proper.</div>
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And it's important that this CPM do have a direct mandate from the players. Current CPM member Jenza posted an open letter, stating that CPM1 would have a much harder time than they did. Completly understandable considering.</div>
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It's beginning to come clearer now as to to the direction that the new EP CCP Rouge is wanting to take Dust and he's not afraid to ruffle a few feathers to do it. The frankly over the top reactions to the equipment and suit changes is indicative of the job that the new CPM members will have on their hands.</div>
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For the record, I have little sympathy for those that specced into FOTM in pursuit of KDR, a measure of excellence that for me is on par with middle aged men buying Ferrari to compensate for inadequacies elsewhere.</div>
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1.8 it would seem to me is the where the game that should've launched on May 14 last will finally be available for us to play. With a quick hotfix for problems found in 1.9, I'm confident that Fanfest 2014 will be the introduction of 2.0, a build of the game that demonstrates Rouge's vision of the game and how it grow from there. </div>
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Whatever format it's on...</div>
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As to my CPM candidacy. I still intent to stand but I feel it rather jumping the gun to post a manifesto or announcement thread till finalised details are released by CCP. I'm old fashioned like that. Plus I don't want to bore people with a protracted campaign. That allows cynicism to creep in with the electorate and I want the community to be as engaged as possible without that. </div>
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But I think with what I've spoken about before in the threads and with the Dev's themselves over the last two Fanfest's should give you some clues as to what I'd hope to promote within the CPM. </div>
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<b><i>An expansion of the New Player Experience to make it easier and more enjoyable for the new player to get to terms with the complexities of the game.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Helping to promote the growth of the games playerbase using the expanded NPE, an enhanced and valid Eve/Dust link and introduction of a form of PvE.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Working to ensure the continued expansion of the game onto new formats and the value that can be goined from that.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Engaging with the CSM and Eve playerbase to show them the potential value to them of the Eve/Dust link.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Pushing toward the ultimate goal of making the UI for Dust more robust and better suited for the running and expansion of Corps and Aliiances on the Dust side of New Eden, free from the requirement to use the Eve client.</i></b></div>
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There are a few other details that I want to speak on but for now that should give you some clue as to how I stand on various issues. </div>
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So hopefully you agree with me on a lot of that and think my current work in DUST University have contributed to the community and its growth. </div>
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Thanks for reading.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-36053749089064802282013-12-27T11:03:00.001-08:002013-12-27T11:07:31.851-08:00In with the new.....So 2013 is nearly over and the first anniversary of Dust 514 joining the Sisi test server prior to the beta going open is nearly here.<div><br></div><div>January 10 is also the date I consider DUST University being 'born'. It was when we could finally accept people into the UNI proper, without the need for my temporary corp 'Kevall's UNI Dust Bunnies' which served us well in the closed beta.</div><div><br></div><div>Nearly 8 months from the official launch of the game I'm relieved to say its in a much better state. Oh, it's still buggy as hell and has quirks that I no longer consider as those of personality but rather as just annoying as hell and wonder why they still haven't been fixed yet. Yet despite of these handicaps I still enjoy playing and raging against the game in equal measure and I still can't shake off the potential future that the game has.</div><div><br></div><div>However, it is also clear to me and to anyone else that plays it, that future is not on the PS3.</div><div><br></div><div>This is a debate as old as the game itself but the truth of the matter is that it was business reasons that the game has started its journey on the Playstation 3. And it's those same business reasons that ensure that its future MUST be on console and console only.</div><div><br></div><div>I don't claim to have inside information, it's just simply what I would've done if I'd have got the job. But I think its a safe bet that that the first thing that the new EP CCP Rouge did, once his feet were under the desk, was to re-evaluate all design decisions made with the game up to the point when the EP role became vacant.</div><div><br></div><div>It's no secret that the game started development on the PC. But if the history of game design proves anything at all, it shows that the beginning is never set in stone. Halo, that seminal Xbox shooter, defining an entire genre for over a decade, started life as an RTS game on the Mac. </div><div><br></div><div>The brutal truth is that had CCP continued developing the game for PC, it would never have left beta. Some might argue that it still hasn't but there simply isn't a business case for it to be on PC. </div><div><br></div><div>In a bloated freemium FPS PC market, it would remain a niche product, of only any interest to Eve players. It could not survive as a Freemium game on that format only, once the economic link between the games becomes established. The way the game funds itself, Aurum, would be rendered moot by the vast ISK wealth available to the players of Eve. And as to the notion that Aurum items allow you to use items earlier than your skills would allow, well, you'd have to get rid of the passive SP accumulation for a PC version and make all SP gain active.</div><div><br></div><div>I've been playing Eve for nearly five years and ISIS came in Rebicon and showed me that I needed 80 days to gain mastery of a Veletor. But I'm patient. I set up the skill plan and I'll wait 80 days for that to happen, while I tootle around New Eden in my Assualt Frigates. </div><div><br></div><div>You seriously think that Eve players would stand for having play a game to earn SP for it after a decade of the Skill Queue? Not going to happen. And besides, CCP have those players subscription money anyway. </div><div><br></div><div>And what about those players that fund their Eve time paying PLEX in game. That would be two games that CCP would be providing free of charge to them. </div><div><br></div><div>Not a good way to make money I'd hope you agree.</div><div><br></div><div>It's future is on the consoles. It's earning ability and expansion beyond a niche product can only be found on the consoles. Because despite its problems, there is still nothing that will provide a link to a gaming universe as rich and diverse as New Eden. And that is nothing that console players have experienced before.</div><div><br></div><div>And as to those that cling to the hope that it will at some point arrive on the PC, well the truth is that such a move would kill it dead within a month on both formats.</div><div><br></div><div>The console players with their controllers wouldn't last 5 minutes against the gaming mouse and keyboard rigs of PC elitists and they'll leave the game. By the same token, those same PC elitists wouldn't stand for having their precious KB&M gimped so that the console players had a chance. CCP would be spending all their time combating player hacks to get over the gimping. </div><div><br></div><div>Waste of development time all round putting it on PC now. The PS3 can't hack it anymore however. It doesn't matter how 'laser focused' CCP are on the PS3 when you keep banging up against its technical limitations and mind-buggeringly complex programming language. </div><div><br></div><div>In order to ensure the game can show its true promise, it needs to jump to the next gen consoles. The Xbox One would be my prefered option if Microsoft allowed CCP into its 'Walled Garden' of Xbox Live but we all know that is unlikely to happen. A shame because despite the huge improvments to Sonys Duelshock 4 (a fine controller by the way), the controller for the XBox One STILL kicks the snot out of Sony's. </div><div><br></div><div>Both the next gen consoles are based on PC's and so are easier to programme. We know from experiance just what CCP can do on PC. </div><div><br></div><div>But this transition must happen sooner rather than later. And don't tell me that CCP haven't already done at the least a feasibility study about a move to the PS4. It would remarkably dumb of them to not have done that. The galling thing is that I'm reliably informed that the compiling of the code and port over the PS4 is not an insurmountable task given the power of the newer console.</div><div><br></div><div>With the monthly iteration pattern now ended (don't expect 1.8 before the tail end of January) and the subsequent longer gaps between patches now expected, CCP need to announce some movement of the question of a move from the PS3.</div><div><br></div><div>And what better time of the year is there to signal change than in the new year? </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-62752072184779743722013-12-19T12:37:00.001-08:002013-12-19T12:47:50.579-08:00So.....Where's my flying car?So for those of a certain age, growing up in the UK in the Seventies and Eighties, Micheal Rodd was the technological equivilant of Yoda. He, along with his fellow presenters on the seminal BBC show 'Tomorrow's World', showed us the future. And the future was cool.<div><br></div><div><a href="http://youtu.be/vix6TMnj9vY">http://youtu.be/vix6TMnj9vY</a></div><div><br></div><div>Some of it, like the example above they got spectacularly right. I'm still waiting for my flying car however Michael.</div><div><br></div><div>But to be honest, would my life be vastly improved should such a marvel be finally here. Not really, I'm reluctantly forced to admit. The mobile phone is a different matter...</div><div><br></div><div>Now why do I speak of such things? Well, I'm using it as a analogy I hope. The fact that something that seemed so cool as a flying car, could be completely usurped by something as mundane as being able to make a phone call from a wood. </div><div><br></div><div>Dust 514 is suffering from a case of the 'Tommorow's World' syndrome as well. What seemed so cool just a year ago like the Rail Rifle hasn't really blown me away or effected my day to day enjoyment of the game like the simple ability to delete all my mail. It the easy to navigate mundanities that conspire to make the biggest impact I find. And I've found that this way of thinking is making the glacial development of the game almost bearable.</div><div><br></div><div>That may sound defeatist but I assure you it it not. Just two days ago in my previous blog, I admitted that that I'd pretty much lost all hope of the MTAC's making it to Dust anytime before the inevitable arrival of the game on the PS4. But thinking back to the flying car and Tommorrows World, is my current level of enjoyment of the game diminished by them not being here yet? And the answer is no, it is not.</div><div><br></div><div>So is there anything else in the games future, as yet not arrived, that could withstand that level of inspection, one is forced to ask. The answer is that there isn't. They are an unknown factor. They're merely cool to have if possible.</div><div><br></div><div>And they are the product of a design process that was being led by another who is no longer in charge of the game. Should they made surplus to requirements? The answer is of course not. They are cool things to have as aspirations for the future. </div><div><br></div><div>But they shouldn't shackle the current man in charge to a course that he might not want to go or more importantly, a path that he thinks is unnavigable. CCP Rouge has been brought in for a reason. You don't hire someone of his qualification to steer a course charted by another. Particularly if the compass was too close to a magnet when that courses was charted in the first place.</div><div><br></div><div>As to what course Rouge may chart for Dust 514, we are not yet sure. CCP likes to keep things close to its chest, always has. But I think its time that we as a player base should no longer hold him to promises made by another. We are likely to come away disappointed and disillusioned. </div><div><br></div><div>But I'd still like Tomorrow's World to have the odd flying car some time...</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-9382709218922026062013-11-09T10:47:00.001-08:002013-11-09T10:47:53.498-08:00'We want ponies in our dropships'<div><a href="http://youtu.be/wE3fmFTtP9g">http://youtu.be/wE3fmFTtP9g</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>So the word around the campfire is that the marketing team is finally getting round to having its first real meeting with the CPM.....<div><br></div><div>Skipping past the fact that its taken a full six months to get to this point and leaving that to others to explain as to the reasons for it, this is an excellent oppotunity to get some SERIOUS <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">monetisation into Dust. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The simple fact that the current offerings from the store are to be blunt.... piss poor.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With the removal of the BPO's there is nothing of value to a player. Burning through an earned in game currency with a system that costs when you die is no problem. As long as you earn the SP and actually learn to play the game well, you can comfortably budget for your drop suits and should you wish to use Aurum items till you're skilled enough in SP to purchase the ISK equilivant then there is no problem and still a market for them. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That need for those type of items is going to around for as long as the game is. But burning through real money once your skilled enough to fund your needs in game is kinda dumb.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The stampede to purchase the militia BPO's and the Veteran and Elite Packs before they 'retired' should make it obvious to even the most jaded marketing suit, what it is that the Dust players want....</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Permanence. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seriously, since the packs were announced as being phased out, how many Drens, Covenant and Blood Raider LAV's have you seen? A hell of a lot is the answer. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now, without going into all the economic reasons for this, trust me when I say that keeping the BPO's as sale items was going to scupper CCP's plans for the player market in Dust. They had to go and they're going to cause some problems till CCP decide what to do about them. For the record, I'm in favour of them being used for manufacturing in Dust and Eve but that is some way away. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But what of permanence? The beauty and value of the BPO was that you could create a free fitting that, with the correct use of Skill Points you could make it as good as an advanced level suit. How it looked was irrelevant.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the Dren suits do look rather drab don't they.... </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If only there was some way to add a bit of colour to your suits. Suits that relected the NPC corps and factions of New Eden. Suits that reflected the player corp you are in. A Mercenary quarters that better reflects your tastes. Art on the walls perhaps? Spoils of war, kept on a shelf...</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And what if thet were permanent and you had some way to show them off to other mercenaries? Not only in your corp but others as well as you fight on the planets of New Eden. How much would you pay to have the latest designs to chose from? </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How much would you pay for a Golden Gun?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How much would a CEO pay to have a corp Uniform in game? An MCC decorated with the flag of his corp on the walls. How much is a Limited edition camo pattern for your troops worth? Corp insignia on your Vehicles? Patches and ranks on the suits of your officers?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They wouldn't have to just be purchased with real money. Perhaps a discounted price in the store for the cost of some ISK (another handy possible ISK sink to control inflation in game). </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This kind of vanity item market has proved very successful for other Fremium titles in the past and continues to be so. The only mystery is why haven't CCP pursued this before now ans an Extra income source..</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And how annoyed would the Eggers be if the Bunnnies got Ponies before them?</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-56102624728000029822013-11-07T03:03:00.001-08:002013-12-17T11:36:53.626-08:00From a drip to drinking from a fire hose.For those that are unaware there has been some movement on the CPM's role and how it works with CCP. The main problem is that a lot of the playerbase are currently saying 'CP...What?'. <div><br></div><div>Now this is not the fault of the members of the CPM and indeed CPP Dolan posted a sit-rep on the status of the CPM here.</div><div><br></div><div>https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=117975</div><div><br></div><div>In it he makes clear that the CPM have been working hard but that CCP have dropped the ball, so to speak, as to how they integrate an advocacy group such as the CPM into the daily working practices of the development team's. As I've said before, this was likely the result of the change over to a monthly iteration pattern, to quickly address the problems that were evident in the release of Uprising in May.</div><div><br></div><div>But how should the working relationship between the CPM and CCP progress in the future now that the Dev's have acknowledged the problems of the past and spoken about rectifying them?</div><div><br></div><div>Before that however, we must first reveiw the reasons as to why there is a need for the CPM in the first place. In the above discussion thread there has been some heated debate as to the legitimacy of the CPM and some calling for its removel. Some of the reasons given on both sides of the arguement have a good deal of merit and some has been tin foil millinery of the finest quality. But ultimately I think the pro's of such a group, far outweigh the cons and that the playerbase should really have no fear of embracing it. </div><div><br></div><div>The main need for a small advocacy group is one of speed and turnaround. There are many ways feedback can be gained from the playerbase in a detailed way. Forums, questionares, mailshots and such like. But the main problem with them is one of time. It takes time to organise, distribute and analyse the data this sort of data collection returns, which is so much better used in terms of long to medium term goals and objectives. In the case of day to day development when a problem may crop up, such methods are useless. Feedback may be needed in a very short time and a fresh set of eyes may spot a potential problem that hadn't been envisioned.</div><div><br></div><div>People can become myopic when laser focused on a particular problem and concerns for the 'bigger picture' often not come into the equation. Games developers are not immune to such problems and need the occasional reality check from an outsider to slap them back onto course.</div><div><br></div><div>Another reason for the need of a CPM is the sheer scope of a game such as Dust 514. Changes in design don't just effect individual players, but large groups of players, each with a different way of operating, that because of the sandbox nature of the game, the Dev's aren't even aware of. A small group of players, picked/elected from the whole playbase can identify problems that CCP didn't even take into consideration. And thats before we even take into account that we are being integrated into an established gameing universe..</div><div><br></div><div>Now, I've been chipping away at this blog for a few weeks now and its seems that in the time since Dolan's above post there has been a substantial upsurge in the CCP/CPM relationship. Indeed from his own weekly reports thread in The Councils Chamber CPM member, Heinrich Jagerblitzen, has stated that they have have gone from a drip to drinking from a fire hose.</div><div><br></div><div>https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1579391#post1579391</div><div><br></div><div>This all very encouraging and for those planning to stand for CPM, knowing that CCP are now actively involving them in the future development of the game, after so many stop and starts, and that the CPM is now having an impact. The main problem however is that, short of the for lack of a better term, politically motivated hard core of players, the general community is unaware of the turnaround of the CPM fortunes. </div><div><br></div><div>And this is of huge concern to me. As someone who is going to stand for the CPM the very fact that the majority of my potential electorate are oblivious to this is deeply troubling. It plays to to fears of those against the concept of the CPM because they're worried that it will become an Elitist group, serving only themselves and those that voted for them. We've all seen the lack of faith in our real life elected officials grow more with each suscessive election after all. Why should internet politicians be any different?</div><div><br></div><div>With this growing involvement of the CPM in design changes to the game, its now time for CCP to start really pushing the CPM as a way to work with the community. They already have several ways to do this that I've mentioned before. Mailshots, questionares, forums and such like. But these are a scattershot business, reliant on the recipiants taking part.</div><div><br></div><div>But a more direct approach is needed for the electorate of Dust 514, to ensure they are made aware of the CPM and they job they do. We now have the Daily Update when we first log into Dust. This should be used more often for items of interest to the community, Extended Downtimes, hotfixes, reminders to read the forums for the up to date news from CCP and New Eden. For the December Events, special contracts have been coming up to fight the Dev's. Why cant this be extended to members of the CPM or those standing for election for it? Emails, direct to each Mercs mailbox (a hint from me that mailing lists in Dust would be a good idea), direct from CCP would be a huge help as well.</div><div><br></div><div>We now have a dedicated community Manger with CCP SabreWing, who has been making great inroads in his time at CCP already. CCP Logibro, a respected former member of the community, is now acting as the CPM liaison. And with the regular tweets and forum trolling of CCP Foxfour and CCP Nullabor, those that take the time to find out, know what is coming up.</div><div><br></div><div>But its important that CCP now play their part in this exercise, to promote the CPM becuse its members have a handicap of CCP's making. The NDA.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm not going to debate the merits of the NDA here. I perfectly understand the reasons for it being there but with a community, as hungry for infomation as the citizens of New Eden, it causes real friction between the CPM and the community they represent. </div><div><br></div><div>For many, the explanation 'It's covered by the NDA', is one so infuriating that it's makes them question the need of the CPM in the first place and resent those that are on it. This is counter productive for CCP as the CPM is an important tool and to have the player base resent them is not at all helpful.</div><div><br></div><div>Now I'm not saying the wall of the NDA should come crashing down but CCP should learn from the mistakes of the past and be more a Reed in a breeze and less Oak in a tempest. It would be enough for CCP to say that something is being worked on and the CPM are involved. Nothing given away but acknowledgment that work is being done and the concerns of the community are being addressed. </div><div><br></div><div>For too long we have had an eduring attitude of secrecy from CCP and its work on Dust. I understand why. We've had so many promises that are yet to bare fruit, CCP are now afraid to say anything at all. I personally now dont believe for a minute, that the mythical MTAC's and Fighters will make an appearence in Dust, till it makes it debut on a more powerful system. The fable of attacking the ships of Eve from within, will remain just that for at least 3 years at the current rate of development. We still just have the one racial knife after all...</div><div><br></div><div>Ultimately, the success of the CPM is up to CCP themselves and how they promote its real value to those that doubt its need. It's not up to the CPM to do that job and until CCP make the effort to educate the community as to its value, the real life attitude to 'politicians' is the likely winner in any election.</div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-68503939910549695922013-11-05T02:41:00.001-08:002013-11-05T09:42:56.537-08:00'I want to praise you like I should'So the song goes.<div><br></div><div>But I cant do it without exception CCP. Oh, don't get me wrong. The work you've been doing since the flawed release of Uprising has been great. I've been loving all the point builds that have fixed the core stuff and if the foundations that 1.6 today will put in place, will allow for the 'content heavy' 1.7 to have just some of what I suspect is in it, then I'll be very happy.</div><div><br></div><div>But its the little things. Those features that have fallen through the cracks because they should've been added to make new features work even better. But for some reason, they've been overlooked. Missed and more worrying perhaps, not even been thought of as being required.</div><div><br></div><div>Like the Roles of 1.5, many in the community would consider them as merely 'Ease of Life' stuff, not real content in any way. But I assure you, the <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">cumulative effect of them would be a massive boost to the game and to the community. And while not an expert in any way, I can't imagine that it would require a huge ammount of Dev time to add them in a hotfix rather than wait till a point build.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><u>Corp Mail</u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><u><br></u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Now hang on I hear you all cry... we got that in Uprising and you Fleetfoot, was the one that was screaming the loudest for it! What more do you want?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Well, that is all true of course. But it's introduction and how it was implemented necessitated the addition of two support features for it, that inexplicably and for no good reason didn't get added.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Mark all as Read and Delete All. (<b>UPDATED</b>) CCP FoxFour tweeted me shortly after this blog first went up with a picture </span><a href="https://twitter.com/regnerba/status/397773742232727552" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">https://twitter.com/regnerba/status/397773742232727552</a> Hows that for service folks!</div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Seriously guys, why did these get overlooked? And what makes it so difficult to add them? Now, to a new player these don't mean nothing to them. But to the veteran player base... they would be awesome. Why?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">This all starts on the 10th January 2013. The day Dust 514 went live on the Tranquility server. Now, without boring you with the details, the mail system in Eve is quite extensive and when the game was moved to TQ then mails that were in the system, including any corp mails sent the old way, welcome mails, Alliance mails and notifications started to build up in in players mailboxes.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">All of them.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">So come the day of the Uprising we had a LOT of mail to sort. Hardly the best use of a Merc's time. And if you were a CEO or Director in a Dust corp you got a notification for every application and one for every acceptance of a player that had happened since the 10th of January to the 15th of May.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">By the time of Uprising, we'd had around 1500 players go through the Uni at that point. That was a lot of mail to delete. And with no 'Delete all' option.... I shudder at the thought of how bad it would be now it the mail system came in now. We've had closer to 4000 players in the Uni by this time.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The silly thing is however, that the Dust Mail system uses the Eve Mail system and most if not all its functionality. It's why I use the Eve client to send a corp mail. I can increase the font size and colour. Use paragraphs and formatting and when it arrives to the members on the PS3 it's easier to read on a TV screen. The Dust side is just lacking the UI to access it all. But seriously, how hard to add the delete all button.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">It's also limiting the use of the corp mail in Dust. There are players who aren't as OCD as me so see the red circle with 900 mails and dont even bother reading them. Sort it out CCP.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><u>Chat Channels</u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><u><br></u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Again, something that is not thought off as content but it is the primary way that Dust players co-ordinate operations both in and out of corp. They, like the mail, share the same system as Eve. So why can't a channel created in Dust have the same admin controls as in Eve? We don't perhaps need much but surely the creator of a Dust Channel in the Dust client could have basic mute and kick powers of those in their channel? I'm sure Drunk Night would love that. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Inviting to Channel shouldn't mean having to add a player to you contacts first either.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">We have a couple of channels in the Uni created Eve side so as to give us more control. We could have passwords Dust side to stop unwanted players joining the channel. But its better to create it Eve side and change the settings so that only members of your own corp can join it. You can also block known trolls as well. Ease of use perhaps but still bloody useful to have in your quiver. So why should only those corps that have access to Eve have that advantage.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><u>Forum Access</u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><u><br></u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Directors and the CEO have access to 'The Board Room' in each Corps forum on the offical Dust Forums. It would've been nice to include the option for Non directoral roles to be able to access The Board Room too. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><u>Message Of The Day</u></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The average TV screen size is now 40 inch or above. Thats a lot of screen real estate that can be used for informing your members of chat rules, procedure, standing orders, whatever you want in fact, at the top of a chat channel when they log on. It can be added on the Eve side no problem. Why can't it been seen on the Dust side? Why can't it be added Dust side while we're at it?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Theres probably a lot of other things that I could think of as well as others that the player base could mention too but these are the top 4 that annoy me. None are very big in of themselves but combined they would make corp building much easier, prevent burnout and provide much needed polish to a UI that is in need of a newer finish.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-80289879181720380832013-10-15T05:42:00.001-07:002013-10-15T07:19:56.076-07:00'What we have here is failure to communicate...'As some of you know, I'm not much of a forum warrior. I prefer to read them, take ideas on board and make my point if I feel I have something to add or contribute. <div><br></div><div>What makes it more difficult as well, is that the forums are in something of a toxic state at the moment. There are a number of 'Open Letters', usually the same QQ'ing as normaly happens but writen in a semi polite manner that tricks you to read the full post before you realise that what they really want is the pony that their Dad always promised them. There's the more upfront 'CCP are morons' types that mistake abuse for the language of diplomats and the weekend warriors that provide mathematical 'proof' that every weapon, save one is OP in the hope that CCP will not notice and leave the one they've skilled into alone.</div><div><br></div><div>All this is of course symptomatic of an underlying concern of mine which I'm sure you can guess from the title of this blog. Communication between CCP and its Dust player base is in a considerably bad place right now.</div><div><br></div><div>Now this would normally not concern me as much as it does now but things are becoming apparent to me, that I feel it would be remiss of me to not speak of my concerns. I say this not only as a long term player myself but as the leader of the largest Corporation in the game.</div><div><br></div><div>One of the forums I do read regularly is the Council Chamber, the forums where the players can post questions and concerns direct to the CPM. It's one of the few places where a certain level of civility and decorum is still practiced in the Dust forums. Its also where CPM Member Heinrich Jagerblitzen posts the excellent CPM weekly reports. </div><div><br></div><div>It's always been something of a concern of mine however that there has never really been the equivalent of these reports from a member of CCP. It isn't the job of anyone member of the CPM to do that. Their side of the story in their dealings with the CPM is always as important and does get reported with the Eve version, the CSM.</div><div><br></div><div>But I've been trying to remember a Dev Blog or meaningful post by CCP regarding their interactions with the CPM since Fanfest. If anyone could point me to the drection of one, please do. But does this not worry anyone? Seven months since Fanfest and even I dont know with absolute certainty which of the <i>Shanghai</i> team is responsible for the daily interaction with the CPM. I can reel off a list of the Dev's that communicate all the time with the player base via the forums and Tweets but not the one that has the full responsibity of liaising with the CPM?</div><div><br></div><div>And Heinrichs weekly reports are long past being weekly. And indeed the other members of the CPM don't post as often as they once did. Now, those unfamilar with the members of the CPM might say, well CCP chose the wrong people clearly. But they didn't. They couldn't have picked a more passionate group of players to work with. I'm not going to dismiss the chance that real life issues may have impinged on the time they may have to dedicate to CPM duties for a couple of them but all of them? Statistically unlikely and as a bookie I know all about whats unlikely. </div><div><br></div><div>So two options remain as the logical explanation for this slowing down of information from the CPM. Either the NDA is tighter than a ducks arse and they're unable to tell us anything, in which case why have a CPM in the first place? Or the second, more likely option in my opinion is that the CPM aren't being told anything of consequence or even worse, not being utilised by CCP at all.</div><div><br></div><div>Now, I'm not on the CPM and nor do I claim to have some inner window on whats going on behind the firewall of the NDA but I do have the experiance of playing Eve for over four years and Dust for over a year and I know that CCP have a really lousy record for this sort of thing. They are not good at it and it could be reasonably argued that CSM8 was the first that CCP actually figured out how to use effectively after eight years of trying.</div><div><br></div><div>But CCP have an excellent chance to remedy this for Dust. A new EP is now in place and a number of key roles in the Shanghai office have been filled (keep an eye on the job postings for CCP if you really want advance knowledge of what they're planning). The monthly development plan is likely to revert to a more managable 3 month release cycle when the vehicle balancing is in place. Once the more hectic monthly cycle is done, CCP can have more time to bring in the CPM earlier on design decisions so they can truely be the sounding board we want them to be and stop issues such as the Flaylock happening again BEFORE they get to Tranquility.</div><div><br></div><div>Using the Squad Finder, they can now have Dev created Squads. We can now see them playing the game from time to time, asking questions and getting feedback direct from the players while in the game. Use Twitch TV. Have matches with Dev's streamed or recorded so we can then give time references when we see the problems that they might miss.</div><div><br></div><div>But the single greatest thing that CCP could do is give us a figurehead for Dust. Someone who is responsible for dealing with the concerns of the CPM, pointing them to the right developers in the team and engaging directly with the player base via twitter, forums and Video blogs. And that's all they would do. Dust 514 NEEDS its own CCP Guard.</div><div><br></div><div>When the avenues of communication are clear to all, without the filtering or excuse of an NDA getting in the way, when a publicly accessible and regularly updated roapmap is visible to us and when we have full confidence that the CPM are being utilsed as they should (And how I'd want to be engaged should I find myself on it) then CCP's job will be so much easier. The toxin in the forums will subside (some will still want ponies) and the player base will be much happier and more willing to engage meaningfully with the makers of this game that we love so much.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-27123346320085473422013-10-12T09:06:00.001-07:002013-10-13T04:00:20.365-07:00I went to Fanfest and all I got was this patch....Following the disappointing news that vehicles were not to get their rebalancing in 1.5, it emerged that nearly all my Christmases were coming at once.<div><br></div><div>Corp Roles were on their way. </div><div><br></div><div>Not only that but the member list was getting a coding revamp, eliminating the need to make a cup of tea while waiting for it to download. A Squad Finder, familiar to those that play Eve Online was making its debut too. Along with several needed nips and tucks and a rendering improvment. And the beginnings of a relevant and considered New Player Experience was being added and will grow based on feedback.</div><div><br></div><div>Not exactly the new content that many have been clamouring for... 'where are our new weapons?' was the refrain being wailed in the forums, like the loss of a beloved pet. And yes, in the traditional sense of what is expected in the gaming world, it wasn't new content...</div><div><br></div><div>It was far better than that.</div><div><br></div><div>This is the begining of a new phase in the development of Dust 514. The beginning of its true integration into New Eden. Dust is maturing. And corporations will pave the way. The creation and development of new corporations in Dust are vital to it's long term growth. It will be where new players can come in meet others with similar goals in the game and create their own Corps. And making these corps easy to run and maintain is essential.</div><div><br></div><div>We have seen many corps in the game burn out and blow away in the wind. There are the usual reason given by those who chose to gloat about the demise of an enemy. 'We ran 'em out of Molden Heath.... We beat them every game.... We scared them.....' blah, blah, blah, bblllaaaahhhh.</div><div><br></div><div>The truth is far more mundane, dull and really only known to those who run or have run a Corp in Dust 514.</div><div><br></div><div>Running a large Corp or Alliance is hard work.</div><div><br></div><div>Seriously, once you get past fifty memberrs, the work load leaps up to the point where it's a second job. And then when you have to take several time zones into account.... you start jumping at sudden noises. Security is the main bug bear for many in New Eden but an essential part of it. The meta game is strong and there are plenty that would stab you in the back for a few million ISK. But for the longest time the only role was Director, other than the CEO. A complete nonsense if all you wanted was someone to process applications while you doing something else important, like sleeping.</div><div><br></div><div>Obviously there comes a point where you have to start trusting people. And thankfully I did. I've got a great team of players wanting to do what the Uni does. Help others. Some have moved on to do their own thing in Dust 514 but the work they've done carries on. And I want players to move on. It's how this game will continue to grow.</div><div><br></div><div>And grow it will. We will likely have player trading in place by Christmas. In order for that to work its logical to asume that some sort of revised inventory system needs to be in place in the game. Once thats in place, its only a small leap of faith to imagine a corporate inventory to be be needed. All of these steps will and have always needed roles in order for a corp to funtion at its best. </div><div><br></div><div>You still going to say that all this isn't content?</div><div><br></div><div>We also have a new Excutive Producer joining the good ship Dust 514, CCP Rouge. The appointment of such a senior figure should speak volumes as to CCP's long term commitment to the game. There are still those with a narrow minded field of vision that believe that CCP should ONLY be concentrating on Eve. That the distraction of Dust, Valkyrie and World of Darkness is taking funding from the parent game and its development. Well, a quick check on the Sisi test server of some of the stuff coming up in Rubicon frankly rips that arguement to shreads. Eve's development is being harmed by CCP's spliting of focus? I'm calling out bullshit on that one. It's just the bittervets bitching as usual.</div><div><br></div><div>Its like saying that Blizzard should ring-fence all its profits from WoW, only using them for further development of that game and not on Starcraft. Or that Apples iMac profits shouldn't have been spent on the R&D of the iPod. I think we should be thankful that these folks aren't in charge at CCP.</div><div><br></div><div>So welcome CCP Rouge. It'll be a while before we are able to see the direction he wants to take the game. But I'm liking the future as he see's it from the interviews he has done and the attitude he showed, when I tweeted him about the community poking CCP with sharp sticks because we care..</div><div><br></div><div>'Bring it on. Thats how great games are made!'</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-61510990204005306372013-09-10T06:19:00.001-07:002013-09-10T06:20:07.246-07:00Turning a corner...Well, its been a week. <div><br></div><div>A week where I've personally been really busy in Real Life and not had as much time with the latest point build of Dust, 1.4, that I would've liked. But after a shaky start with the matchmaking I've become very impressed with this latest iteration </div><div><br></div><div>Theres been the usual whining about certain things. The aim assist for DuelShock users is too strong is my particular favourite. Almost exclusively, this particular whinge has been uttered by M&KB users. Well you got your chosen control method buffed to the point that there is none of the restriction you first had in the game. And as its the best control method ever according to that small electronic xenophobic core of you that considers controller users as fools, finding that your having to work a bit harder just tells me that the aim assist is now just about right. Helps that the hit detection no longer seems to use a D20 as well.</div><div><br></div><div>The new maps are too big..... are you kidding me??!!</div><div><br></div><div>1.5 is all about the vehicle balancing. They're going to get the love that they so desperately need and they need some maps that are going to allow them to shine and become indispensable. And we need to be introduced to those maps first. The snipers aren't happy about them either. Lets be clear now, the ONLY reason some are complaining is that they maps are of such a size they have to come out of their precious redline to hit anything. That's right, they have to become combatants rather than KDR whores and cowards. Well, boo-boo for them. </div><div><br></div><div>Splash damage from explosive infantry weapons still needs a bit of a nerf with Massholers becoming prevalent again. The removal of squad shared Tacnet info has been a big success with the active scanners finally finding their feet and becoming as important as drop uplinks in an equipment slot. </div><div><br></div><div>New rendering effects, removal of memory leaks and the Neocom getting some love, with my usual spam of mistaken replies to the welcome mail almost disappearing over night with the new send box rather than just pressing X and just being a little faster overall. </div><div><br></div><div>Theres still a couple of problems. Corp Tax income should filtered to find the info you might want and the history of it needs to go back a few days rather than a few minutes. Corp chat channels need admin powers being granted to Dust players rather than just Eve players in that channel. </div><div><br></div><div>As mentioned, 1.5 is all about the vehicles but CCP Wolfman confirmed that new weapons are coming too. My own expectation on that point is that the Caldari and Minmatar equivalents of the AR and Scrambler Rifle will be joining us with maybe a surprise or two. </div><div><br></div><div>1.6 has been hinted at as being about the Corp UI with roles finally making an appearance. My own hope is that we might be taking steps towards the fabled Eve/Dust finally become important with some introduction to the economy of Eve and maybe beyond towards the the end of the year. </div><div><br></div><div>But who knows as to CCP's plans. All I know is that 1.4 seems to have turned a corner in the development of Dust and it finally knows which way it needs to turn.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-44407083814129683542013-09-01T07:19:00.001-07:002013-09-01T07:19:51.214-07:00'Idleness is the parent of psychology' NeitzscheIdleness.<div><br></div><div>Its corrosive powers can be devastating to an unengaged mind. It can lay low the most focused of intellects, groups and even entire economies.</div><div><br></div><div>So is the case in Dust at the moment. Players are starved of content, playing with the same friends, day in, day out, can lead to repetitive strain of the mind. </div><div><br></div><div>Without a constantly evolving and expanding gaming experience, MMO's can die a premature end. That is not to say that Dust is dying. Far from it. There is content coming, some really good content in fact. But Dust players are currently playing the role of a dog, looking up the street from the window, waiting for its master to come home and chuck it a stick.</div><div><br></div><div>And that ain't no way to play a game. </div><div><br></div><div>Like that waiting dog, we jump at the slightest glimpse of movement at the corner of the street, returning to our barely restrained desire to play and ready to pounce when we do finally see that stick.</div><div><br></div><div>So what do we do in the meantime?</div><div><br></div><div>We do what is expected in New Eden, we play the meta game. Or rather, we attempt to. A lot of the Dust players, freshly arrived in New Eden are not used to this level of intrigue. And most are failing miserably at it. But this is through no fault of their own. Expectations of the meta game in Dust are high. But these expectations are fuelled to a unreasonable level because of the history of the meta game in Eve. </div><div><br></div><div>Why unreasonable you ask?</div><div><br></div><div>Eve has a decade of content, history and participation. The opportunities for the meta are vast, practiced and unrestrained in imagination because the content is there to support it. Content that Dust simply does not have in place yet. The most exciting thing to happen in the meta game is the current PC war. Player generated, involving hundreds of Merc's but gossamer thin in depth and barely papering over the cracks in a game mechanic that after 3 months of iteration still can't fire the imagination of the majority of the games population. </div><div><br></div><div>Oh we have a couple of Districts to be sure. But ours is not a occupation based on the thrill of conquest, rather a way for us to create a form of meta game from the only spade available in the sandbox. A way to pursue our educational goals. </div><div><br></div><div>But rest assured, when that first bucket finally drops into the sandbox, we're going to be very practised with that spade.</div><div><br></div><div> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8769585800245608869.post-46468391252447918202013-08-20T02:48:00.001-07:002013-08-20T04:19:17.695-07:00CPM move forces CCP to finally gets its arse in gear?While not exactly a cause for putting up the bunting just yet, it would seem that the recent CPM meeting with senior members of the Dust development team has resulted in a 'clearing of the air' according to CPM menber Hans Jagerblitzen in his latest post in <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Counci's Chamber.</span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is of course should still seen as good news for the future health of the game and should be welcomed by the community as a positive step in the right direction.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It should also in my opinion, finally put a nail in the coffin of the debate about if the formation of the CPM was just misdirection on the part of CCP. There has been a number of times now that the CPM have proved their value. Changes to PC, the Academy, the open statement that led to this clearing the air. Their value has also been shown when they've not been consulted. Had they been asked, the current debacle of the Prime Tourney would've have been entirely avoided.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yes, they weren't elected. And <i>perhaps</i> some have been less visible or as effective as they could've been. But the question of should they be here in the first place is now an answered one. I for one have been grateful for their service so far. As for those that still continue to pour scorn over them purely because they weren't elected as the beta CPM and should only be concerned about setting up the voting process for CPM1.. Well, you're beginning to sound like a broken record now and generally being ignored by the majority of the community as someone who can't get over that they didn't get an invite to a party.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Any elections for a CPM1 would follow the same pattern with the CSM. Voting would be in the weeks building up to Fanfest 2014 and the result announced there. Meaning that the term of the beta CPM0 would be at least 10 months in length. To expect them to <b>just </b>concentrate on a voting system is frankly a nonsense. The CPM1 won't want to waste their time 'clearing the air'. Procedures need to put in place for not just the next CPM but the ones that come after. And that is what CPM0 are doing as well the voting system.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17526063703823988610noreply@blogger.com0