Most Wanted List

Some people are misunderstanding the point of the new top ten thread I created over in the features and ideas forum, maybe because they didn't read the thread that I linked to. That thread is only for top ten lists, nothing else. Also many people I've spoken with didn't realize that the old top ten list and the report I posted about it was from a year ago. A lot of things can change in a year. I decided to blog and look at what we've changed based our vision for EVE and on the things that were in the old top ten.

1. Remove Instas

We added the warp to 0 option and deleted bookmarks. This was the simplest of the many solutions available and has received primarily positive feedback.

2. Remove T2 Lottery

The invention feature was implemented. Based on the community's feedback invention was too difficult but we're tweaking it in upcoming patches and continuing to monitor how it progresses.

3. Module Balance

We're constantly monitoring the balance of everything in the game. With the release of new ships, modules and rigs the challenge of keeping EVE balanced continues. We realize players still have concerns but that's partially what this post is about. We want feedback from players in a format other than a 50 page thread where one guy has an agenda and is going to reply to every post until he gets a pat on the head from a dev. One player, one vote, many head pats.

4. Environments / Exploration

We’re working on this one. We’ve introduced the seamless map and the exploration system. We’re monitoring the situation and tweaking we see a need. There are a lot of CCPers that are enjoying exploration on their player accounts. We get co-workers coming to our desks and telling us personally how they feel about not finding anything after 2 hours of scanning. We really want to do environments that affect combat, but tnat might not happen in Revelations 2.

5. More Corp Tools

There were some small additions to corp. tools and more changes are coming in Revelations 2 as its major focus is on improving corporation warfare. One addition which was made that should ease headaches for a lot of directors is the remote management of corp. assets. If you weren’t aware of this new feature let me tell you about it. Open the corp. window then browse to Accounts > Assets > Offices. If you have the proper roles you can move items between hangar divisions or drop items into member hangars.

6. More Prime Fiction

We’ve hired a full time story writer who you know as Abraxas and a full time events manager who you know as Ginger. Not only does this mean there are more stories and more events but it has also freed up Gnauton to focus on ingame news and prime fiction. Also the full length novel is nearing completion and will give everyone a lot of role-playing ideas to sink their teeth into and will really flesh out the back-story.

7. Dynamic Content

We didn’t do a whole lot for this in Revelations 1 but Revelations 2 is slated to contain improvements to system and constellation sovereignty. I’d like to see Victory Conditions in both player wars and in Factional Warfare have an effect on the landscape as well but frankly I’m a little scared of letting things get too out of hand. My fear is that in a year from now the entire map is comprised of half BoB and half Caldari State sovereignties. (not that that could happen ;-) )

8. Warp Core Stabilizers

‘Stabs were nerfed. Many people were happy about this change and yet there were some people who were upset by it. I trust that players will adapt to the change and in time ‘stabs with no drawbacks will seem as silly as Scorpions with 8 microwarpdrives or Kestrels with cruise missiles seem to us now.

9. Factional Warfare

There are many features that need to be implemented before we should release FW. To name a few: Overhaul starbase warfare, add new starbase structures both for players corps and for empire factions, add outpost upgrades, improve solar system sovereignty, add constellation sovereignty, add visible ranks with badges to corporations, add more corp. improvements, add factional flavored agent missions, add alliance improvements, add victory conditions to war declarations, and add visible medals of achievements. Of course all of those features aren’t needed for the most basic version of FW but we do want the majority of them in before FW is released or it won’t live up to expectations.

10. Local Chat

The Local chat channel still exists. Some day it might disappear but there are multiple issues with just taking it out. There is also discussion of removing it only in 0.0 and forcing people into constellation chat. That would of course make certain systems tactically more important than others. The issue of cloaked pilots showing up on local still needs to be addressed as well. System scanning could be used to address some of the issues related to the local chat channel. We would also like to add an optional news ticker which could help replace some of the functionality of local chat and make your local area of space feel more alive and unique.

So there you have what we’ve done to address your concerns from a year ago. I hope that goes to show how important we view your feedback. Please take some time to come up with a top 10 list of your own and post it to the thread. Keep to the rules of the thread and just post your top ten, use the comments threat that kieron posted to comment on the blog.

Oh, and in completely unrelated news I’m heading to China for two weeks to act as an envoy helping with the Revelations launch. Serenity is still on RMR and will be jumping straight to Rev 1.3 that we’re releasing on TQ on the 30th (tomorrow at the time of this writing). The reason Serenity is so far behind is because everything needs to get translated and that takes a while. I’ll be bringing a laptop, a copy of Ender’s Game and a copy of Woken Furies. I recommend the Takeshi Kovacs series if you haven’t already read it.