Community Beat for 21 July

Hello spacefriends and welcome to the latest Community Beat! New Eden never slows down and neither do you! Once again we’re spoiled for exciting developments from the community to talk about but here are some of the highlights that caught our attention over the last two weeks:

Guristas and Angel Cartel Data Fragments

Eagle-eyed EVE players have recently noticed that certain Guristas and Angel Cartel NPCs are dropping data fragments that, when stitched together, seem to show schematics of unfamiliar ships.

One such capsuleer is HongsamCandy who has been collecting fragments of a Guristas ship and by reconstructing them has hit upon what appears to be some kind of destroyer-class vessel, apparently based on the Corax hull:

Scattered fragments of what seems to be an Angel Cartel destroyer have also begun to emerge although at the time of publishing not enough pieces have been put together to definitively establish its appearance. Based on what has been seen so far though it’s possible that this ship does not conform to a previously known hull configuration.

Interestingly, during the recent Capsuleer Day event, these same two pirate corporations - the Guristas and the Angel Cartel - were shown collaborating as the Guri Malakim pirate cooperative.

Hopefully EVE players continue to diligently seek these data fragments and collaborate on assembling them to resolve the mystery.

The Alpha Guide to Pochven

Pochven is still a relatively new region of space, having been carved out of systems held by the four main empire factions (with the assistance of capsuleers) as recently as YC122. It remains a realm of danger and mystery - except for those who have invested the time and effort to master its secrets, and they have profited wildly as a result.

However many capsuleers tend to steer clear of it; the fear of the unknown keeping them away due to the perceived difficulty and risk of living there, while incongruously accusing the residents of benefiting from easy income.

Now one capsuleer - Datan Aideron from the alliance Kybernauts Clade - has published an instructive guide to introduce curious players to the region and demystify its mechanics. What’s more this guide is aimed at Alpha characters, meaning that even the newest EVE Online players may learn how to exploit Pochven’s bounty for their own benefit, if they’re brave enough.

When Multiboxers Collide

On the subject of Pochven, this incredible video crossed our desks this week. It shows a 3-way battle between players in Pochven who are running multiple clients simultaneously. They're competing over a lucrative Observatory Flashpoint site and decided to battle it out to see who will get to exploit the site and who has to go home.

Running multiple clients has been a fixture of EVE Online since its earliest days. Usually "alts" as they're known are used to cover supporting roles for a player’s "main", such as scouting, spying or industry. However some players have chosen to use alts as a force multiplier for their activities.

Multiboxing can be a sensitive subject since sometimes EVE players will conflate multiboxing with input broadcasting. Input broadcasting - also known as input duplication - is when a single player takes their interaction with one EVE game client and uses a third party tool to duplicate their keyboard inputs, mouse movements and clicks across several other clients, thus lessening their workload by replicating their inputs. Input broadcasting is considered akin to botting and is explicitly forbidden by EVE Online’s EULA and cases where it is identified and confirmed can result in bans.

However multiboxing - where the player is manually controlling multiple EVE clients independently, as demonstrated in the video above, is not prohibited. Managing all these clients individually means the player is assuming the cognitive and mechanical burden of doing so, and pulling that off effectively is not considered an exploit.

EVE Online: The Marriage Machine

It's happened again! This week we were greeted with happy news when EVE players Utari Onzo and Lasairiona Raske announced on the EVE Online forums their upcoming, actual, for realsies, IRL wedding.

Utari and Lasairiona met through EVE Online several years ago and since then have added a brand new capsuleer to their family.

We send you both heartfelt congratulations from all of us at CCP and wish you all the best for the future!

Upcoming UK EVE Meetups

Glasgow - there's an EVE meetup happening on 22 July (that's tomorrow as we write this)! Head to the Coopers Bar, Great Western Road at 1pm and go say o7 to your spacefriends. Jump on to the EVE Glasgow Discord for more info.

EVE players Lups and Ryuichi Tigh are restarting the Manchester meetups. If you’re in the North West of England (or are an enthusiastic traveler) then you should join the EVE Manchester Discord server and the in-game channel EvE Manchester UK to be kept up to date on the plans for the next player gatherings in your neighborhood!

While we’re on the subject of UK player gatherings, several CCPers will soon be traveling to Nottingham for the Alliance Tournament XIX broadcast. While we’re in town we intend to host a meetup one evening to hang out with EVE players, have a few beers and maybe leak a lot! In attendance will be CCP Bee, CCP Zelus, CCP Swift, CCP Overload and CCP Convict as well as the cast and crew of the EVE_NT Alliance Tournament broadcast team.

The actual date and venue is still TBD but we’ll let you know in the next Community Beat on 28 July. It will be in Nottingham and it will be on either 14, 15, 16 or 17 August. That means it’ll be mid-week and therefore a “school night”. Sorry about that, but we’ll be tied up the rest of the time with either AT prep or actual broadcasting. So keep an eye out for the Community Beat next Friday when we’ll announce the actual plans and if you can make it we’d love to see you in Nottingham!