Eve Online NewsEve Online Isk and News

| View Article

Source: www.warcry.com

The CSM - in hindsight and for the future

The Council of Stellar Management is a process that is constantly being revised. It has to be because as a process it serves two constantly evolving entities - you, the player and EVE. Revision can however hardly be done without information and transparency.

We want each CSM to be better than the last one, a measurement not necessarily a quantitative integer but also a qualitative measure. That is why we wish to convey the following message from the third CSM, addressed to the fourth CSM and you:

–

A retrospective of the third Council of Stellar Management

May 2009, almost a year after the first council was elected. The third Council of Stellar Management was a mix of new council members and pilots with previous CSM experience. Now, our term is over and a new council has been elected. In this devblog we look back at our term, the future of the CSM and a few personal impressions.

Looking back

The third CSM has been an eventful one. We've had our ups (most active CSM to date), downs (delayed minutes) and a scandal (Larkonisgate). Through our meetings, both internal and with CCP, we have managed to put 90 issues to CCP, which are so far the most issues put forth in a single term. The majority of these issues have been accepted by CCP, and a surprising number of issues - nineteen, in fact - have already been implemented in the Dominion expansion! Council activity was not just reflected in the number of issues, but also in the fact that our six month term had only very few unexplained absences from meetings. The vast majority of meetings the council members showed up in full and on time.

A major issue that was discussed with CCP was the infamous "industrial expansion", Quantum Rise. At the time, a number of industrial features were scrapped in favor of technical upgrades. While this has resulted in a faster, smoother Eve for all of us, the expansion left the industrialists feeling like they got stood up on prom night all over again. After discussing this with CCP at length, it was decided that the council would submit a list of industry issues to CCP which would be included in future expansions. It is not a dedicated industry expansion, but CCP committed to getting industry issues done!

Additionally, the CSM engaged in several brainstorming sessions with CCP. This is a relative new concept for the council, as the first two councils focused primarily on submitting issues in their communication with CCP. Brainstorming sessions will become more frequent, as both the council and the developers felt that the sessions were a useful tool. It allowed the developers to gain insight in the desires the players have for a certain aspect of the game, and it allows the council members - and through them you, the players - to weigh in on the overall game design.

So, after all the victories and success, what could have gone better in the last term? Obviously we cannot escape mentioning Larkonisgate here. Larkonis Trassler was a council member who unfortunately decided to use knowledge gained during our visit with CCP to buy specific items, essentially committing insider trading. This was very quickly discovered by CCP, the items seized and Larkonis resigned from the council. This allowed Issler Dainze, the first alternate, to take Larkonis' seat. And while this is a very regrettable incident, it also matured the CSM process and the swift repercussions showed that corruption will not be tolerated.

The other thing that could have been better was the publication of meeting minutes. While minutes were released quickly at the start of the term, this was unfortunately less the case later on. Internal miscommunication about the status of minutes, combined with unforeseen personal events caused several minutes to be unreasonably late. As chairman I take ultimate responsibility for the success and failings of this council, and I am forced to acknowledge I should have been more on the ball and should have stepped in as soon as a small delay occurred.

Looking ahead

With the third CSM I feel that we have cemented the procedures that were pioneered and laid out by the first two councils. This should hopefully make things quite smooth for CSM4. As the fourth council only has one member with previous CSM experience, council members of the third CSM (and indeed first and second as well) will remain available for advice on procedural matters. We wish the fourth CSM the best of luck as they take over from us, and ask that they are careful with the EVE universe; it has all our stuff in it.

As mentioned before, CCP will be brainstorming more with the council members. Additionally, we hope that they heed John Zastrow's call "Please use us!" and communicate with the CSM outside the three official meetings, as the CSM has proven to be a useful sounding board. We also hope CCP will be more consistent in actually publishing the supposedly monthly Q&A's. While we have developed the CSM concept quite far already there is still a lot of room for improvement - for both parties.

The last thing we look at is you, the players. As the results roll in from the fourth election, we see that over 6,000 votes less were cast in this election than in the previous one, and the minimum number of votes that was needed to get on the council was reduced from around 1000 to just over 700. It is true the previous winter election (CSM2) also had fewer votes than the summer election before that one (CSM1), so we cannot say for certain that voter interest is waning. However, it is the goal of the CSM and CCP to involve more players, and these numbers definitely do not indicate growth. CCP can improve this by developing a better voting website and campaigning platform, and finding ways to create more clarity for pilots who are not familiar with any of the candidates. But as players, we should also encourage each other to vote and participate. This system of representation only works as far as we put effort into it; we get the representation we deserve.

- Valentijn Geirnaert (Dierdra Vaal), Chairman, on behalf of the third Council of Stellar Management

Personal impressions

Allison Nixon (mazzilliu):

My experience as a member of the CSM has been a blast. In the beginning, I entered the position with little idea of what the job actually entailed, but as I learned what to do, I was able to come up with some CSM issues that I think can be used to improve EVE. During my term, I raised some issues that received popular support- but my main focus was on account security. I submitted numerous and detailed issues on the subject, and most of my time researching CSM-related things was spent on account security. I believe the devs are in agreement with me that this is an important thing, and as time goes on and these issues get implemented, players will be able to arm themselves with tools to prevent account hijackers from emptying their hangars and corp hangars. I will be running again for CSM5, and if I win I will continue following up on the work I have started in the CSM3.

Michele Boland (Issler Dainze):

I am very excited to have been part of the CSM process. While in the CSM it became clear to me that CCP really took the CSM seriously. I felt we were listened to and were definitely setting the groundwork to see some exciting changes in EVE down the road.

The CSM2 also involved in reviewing CCP's actions during the POS production scandal and it was clear the CSM performs a real service to the players of EVE in making sure that when issues like these occur that CCP deals with them in a manner that best serves the EVE community. We were able to review CCP's findings and actions. The broad range of players in the CSM2 were able to review the situation from both in game effects and in some cases the "technical" aspects of the code defect that allowed the exploit. We would have definitely made it clear to the players if CCP had not been above board in their actions.

Finally, I want to say that the fears that one class of player or several major alliances would dominate the CSM. This definitely has not been the case. The CSM has had a great range of players and viewpoints. Even in the cases when the CSM members had a strong viewpoint they seemed to be able to remain open to the ideas and viewpoints of the other types of players.

I want to thank CCP for the great opportunity to meet and work with such a great set of players. Maybe I'll run again down the road. And I also want to thank everyone that has supported the CSM process. Especially the folks that have taken the time to run for a seat. It's a lot of work to run and you open yourself up to a lot of criticism. I can tell you in the end it can be worth it. The CSM does make EVE a better place!

John Zastrow (Zastrow):

I am frankly, disappointed in the CSM. I think the idea of a focus group of players is great, and many games and MMORPGs have done similar things in the past. Some other MMOs I remember would have players elected to be their in-game profession's "champion" and talk to devs about their issues, and that was very effective at getting player concerns communicated. The CSM is an idea with huge potential to be exploited, I just don't think it's been done with EVE yet. Our contact with CCP is hilariously limited. The only time we ever had real back-and-forth talks with devs was at the summit. That's it. A single weekend for feedback. The CSM are among the most dedicated of players. We all worked and strove to make this game a better place but I feel we were and are woefully underutilized. I have no idea why this is. I do know that there are some devs who are very receptive to the CSM's thoughts, yet others gave me the impression they think we're batshit insane, and others still who act like a father humoring his child, patiently smiling as we talk without actually listening to us.

I know what the CSM is and what it isn't. We're not devs. We're not here to make decisions about the future of the game. But We SHOULD be the dev's focus group. I envision the Devs having their internal brainstorming sessions then afterwards coming to us: "Ok CSMs, what would the player base think of x" .. but that's not what happens. The CSM works independently. We talk to players, we argue amongst ourselves, and just a couple times in our six-month term are we graced with the attention of a dev to hear our collected thoughts. This system is just not effective. With a weekly or biweekly meeting with CCP we could tell Nozh that the players hate his capship changes but like Abathur's, or we could tell Chronotis how awful his Dominion devblog reads before he dumps it into the laps of a confused and angry player base. We should be half approaching CCP with player concerns, and half CCP coming to *US* for feedback. I enjoyed being a CSM, obviously, as I ran for a second term. I made good friends, I had a great time in Iceland, but I will not let these good experiences distract me from the reality: the CSM is nowhere near as effective as it could be and SHOULD be.

–

The CSM is built on the ideas of honesty and truthfulness - it might sound a bit corny (to be honest) but it is the truth. Like the retrospective above indicates we have gotten more things right than we did wrong. With the 4th CSM we will march onwards because we can gain so much more than we can lose.

- CCP Xhagen

Source: www.eveonline.com

" is a new EVE Chronicle written by CCP Abraxas. Published every other Monday, Chronicles are intended to examine the various aspects of life in New Eden. The entire list is contained here, and a comment thread for this particular story may be found here.

Source: www.eveonline.com

New Chronicle: The Mercenaries, Part III

When last we saw our intrepid band of mercenaries, they were daringly breaking out of jail. We return to our merry band of mercenaries as they prep to catch their prey.

"The Mercenaries, Part III" is a new EVE Chronicle written by CCP Abraxas. Published every other Monday, Chronicles are intended to examine the various aspects of life in New Eden. The entire list is contained here, and a comment thread for this particular story may be found here.

Source: www.eveonline.com

, in which capsuleers compete to destroy the most exhumer-class vessels, will begin at midnight on 07.01.112 and run until the 14th.

The event offers a grand prize to the corporation destroying the most Hulks and Mackinaws of 3 billion ISK, an Armageddon battleship and a Shadow Serpentis Large Smartbomb, with further prizes for second and third place. Other awards are offered for success in certain specific categories, such as achieving the most kills in a single region, with a total prize pot in excess of 8 billion ISK.

While all methods of obtaining kills against exhumers are considered valid by the contest, the coming week is expected to show a dramatic increase in the number of so-called "suicide ganks" - that is, destruction of ships in high-security space by one or more fully- or over-insured tech 1 vessel without a declaration of war or other legal "killright." The attacking ship is then destroyed by CONCORD for its criminal act; such attacks therefore only have a few seconds in which to eliminate their target. They also usually (but not always) aim for the total cost of their insurance to be covered by the value of modules salvaged from their target's wreck after destruction.

Last year's Hulkageddon event saw destroyers sell out in many systems and prices on tech 1 cruisers and high damage ammunitions are also expected to rise.

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

Source: www.eveonline.com

Tenth CORPS Briefing

---

Previous CORPS Reports 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

---

IC References

War in Geminate Continues

Northern Coalition Engaged On Second Front As Triumvirate Invade Pure Blind

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

Source: www.eveonline.com

War in Geminate Continues

Geminate - ATLAS and allies are successfully taking control of the strategic resources in the region while Widly Inappropriate. [WI] and the Northern Coalition forces strive to retain sovereignty.

The war in Geminate has had several hundred ship engagements taking place across the region, with two major engagements in systems K25-XD and Y8R-XZ.

Roughly two weeks ago in K25-XD, WI. reports that Solar Fleet [SOLAR] used a battleship heavy fleet to drop SBU's on gates in the system and incapacitate the K25-XD/Q-TBHW jump bridge and cyno jammer. Positioned on the Y8R-XZ/K25-XD jump bridge, the combined WI. and RAZOR fleets waited for the jump bridge on the other side to be clear and then moved inside the structure's shield. Meanwhile, Morsus Mihi [RAWR] staged from Akora and titan bridged into K25-XD, to combine with WI. and RAZOR and form up for sniper duels with SOLAR; multiple battles were fought around the SBU's and structures.

After several movements and engagements in the system the RAWR fleet was bubbled, at which point the WI. and RAZOR fleets started heavily damaging the SOLAR fleet that then proceeded for the U-L4KS gate to open several cyno fields and drop a capital fleet of carriers, dreadnoughts and motherships. Reports of spatial anomalies heavily affected the SOLAR capital fleet and allowed the Northern Coalition fleet to take down several of the opposing vessels. At this time ATLAS opened cyno fields dropping yet more carriers and dreadnoughts while at the same time trying to get away from the spatial distortions by warping out in random directions. [Around 30] dreadnought and carrier class vessels of SOLAR/Cult of War [-COW-]/ATLAS were destroyed, with no capital losses for WI./RAZOR/RAWR.

URDEAD2ME of RAZOR reports that "we were out numbered and we stayed and fought, then they escalated the fight to capitals, we stayed and still managed to still kill [several] of their capitals. We killed the battle ship fleet first, when the capitals cynoed in we killed what we could of them to hold the field and gather the wrecks."

An anonymous source close to ATLAS reports that the "K25 battle saw less than 30 losses in a fight which was [heavily affected by spatial anomalies interfering with our fleet operations]."

A week after in Y8R-XZ, WI. reports that initially they broke into the system and took control, with ATLAS and RED Alliance [RED] never making any effort to prevent the uncontested removal of their structures. When the only two WI. staging towers were coming out of reinforced and also the station was on its last reinforcement timer, "[a massive presence allowed taking] control of the system, [saving] the towers and also [destroying] the enemy SBU. A fleet of 700 allied pilots were on hand for the destruction of the SBU including multiple Northern Coalition titan class ships that flew in a 'V' formation over the hostile structure as a show of force."

Phreeze of RAZOR further adds that "we were able to easily brush aside the combined ATLAS/SOLAR/RED attempt on the station through mobilizing the entire Northern Coalition, they were unable to match our numbers and their SBU' were destroyed on the final reinforcement cycle."

An anonymous source close to ATLAS reports that "[in Y8R-XZ] Northern Coalition forces lost over 550 ships in a three day period to [ATLAS] less than 70 losses… K25-XD and Y8R-XZ were just sovereignty contests to draw out fights. WI. are still on the defensive, they are down to only 3 of 13 Technetium moons and their jump bridge infrastructure is either reinforced or destroyed. As originally intended we are here to provide [engagements] for our members, there is nothing at the moment going on in the South so we chose to seek alternate areas to engage hostiles. WI. is currently jamming all of its stations which has created an excessive sovereignty bill for them to maintain while currently running a deficit from having all of its Technetium moons either in hostile hands or in reinforced."

Asked to comment on the overall Geminate situation, Caladain Barton of WI. stated that "the spatial disruptions have [lead to the loss of] capital fleets and titans [in New Eden], it has boiled down to 'who is in system first holds the field'. WI. has not lost a single station system, nor suffered SBU's to live in our space thus far in the conflict. While we have lost a good number of Technetium moons, this has not significantly affected our income stream or our war fighting effort. Our morale is high, and we would like nothing more than to engage ATLAS in force. But due to the random spatial anomalies affecting the area, we have decided not to suicide our fleets by jumping into heavy numbers, thus the lost moons. The moons we have defended are the result of the Northern Coalition fleet getting in system before ATLAS. The ones we have lost are due to them getting in system first. We came to Geminate to get fights and we are liking the war. We came to fight and are very happy."

GalNet References

Wildly Inappropriate. Battle Records – K25-XD
ATLAS Battle Records – K25-XD
Wildly Inappropriate. Battle Records – Y8R-XZ
ATLAS Battle Records – Y8R-XZ

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

Source: www.eveonline.com

EVE Online Dominion 1.1 and EVE's 2009 - MPOGD.com
EVE Online: Dominion 1.1 will be available for free today to players after an extended downtime. All Mothership-class vessels in New Eden have gone back to the shipyards to emerge as Supercarriers–redesigned behemoths of the frontlines of battle. At
Source: mpogd.com

EVE Online: Dominion Hangars Media Blowout - Cinema Blend
CCP released a series of new videos of their MMO in accordance with the patch for the latest expansion of EVE Online called Dominion. Each of the videos offers a different look at new ships and the hangars in which they ll reside. The four trailers
Source: www.cinemablend.com

.

Source: www.eveonline.com

(BURN THEM ALL!), our video team took a bit of time to put together this beautiful, Sagan-esque tour of the new planets. We hope you enjoy.

Source: www.eveonline.com

Fleet Fight Planned? Let CCP Know!

Is your large corporation or alliance planning a huge fleet fight in the near future and you're a CEO or director? Let CCP know by filling out this fleet fight notification form 24 hours before your battle is set to begin. More information about fleet fight notifications can be found in this thread.

Source: www.eveonline.com

Chronicles Returning 2010

Our ever-popular Chronicles, which examine the various aspects of life in New Eden, will take a short sabbatical and return January 11, 2010. In the meantime, please feel free to re-visit the universe's best short stories by checking our our EVE Chronicles archives.

Source: www.eveonline.com

Infinite Climax Action! - Gamasutra
agency ( skill caps, if you will) due to restrictions mandated by the developer (the primacy of items over skills in WoW or the obligatory time sink of skill learning in EVE Online come to mind). Such experiences often [feel] fake or
Source: www.gamasutra.com

Fun Inc., By Tom Chatfield - The Independent
Those of us who have been dented in a tender financial place by the latest tera-byte crunching games platform may be up for a little intellectual justification of our Xmas spending. So here are two crackers: Tom Chatfield's Fun Inc. is the most
Source: www.independent.co.uk

EVE Online: Dominion Hangars Media Blowout - Cinema Blend
CCP released a series of new videos of their MMO in accordance with the patch for the latest expansion of EVE Online called Dominion. Each of the videos offers a different look at new ships and the hangars in which they ll reside. The four trailers
Source: www.cinemablend.com

Jim Rossignol s This Gaming Life - Popmatters.com
An in-game protest against Japanese artwork in a Chinese MMO, the Blood Plague in World of Warcraft , or EVE Online s long war between Goon Swarm and Band of Brothers all highlight the unexpected results of these games. Watching people play
Source: www.popmatters.com

Infinite Climax Action! - Gamasutra
Mr. Isigan posted an interesting article yesterday about stagnating plots affecting the player s sense of progression (my thanks, Mr. Isigan, for providing a good read and a topic of discussion). He mentioned two axes of experience in that article
Source: www.gamasutra.com

Fun Inc., By Tom Chatfield - The Independent
Those of us who have been dented in a tender financial place by the latest tera-byte crunching games platform may be up for a little intellectual justification of our Xmas spending. So here are two crackers: Tom Chatfield's Fun Inc. is the most
Source: www.independent.co.uk

According to sources inside Pandemic Legion, the clash began when IT alliance attempted to seize Y-2ANO following a botched sovereignity transfer between the system's former holder - Sons Of Tangra - and Goonswarm alliance.

Preliminary reports indicate that IT Alliance pilots discretely onlined a Tactical Control Unit yesterday afternoon. After that, they set up several staging points and ammassed a fleet of over 600 ships to defend the unit. The fleet reportedly comprised several titans along with capital and support vessels.

Pandemic Legion and its allies rallied to storm the onlining TCU to prevent the system falling to IT Alliance. Pandemic Legion's fleet reportedly comprised 5 titans, several capital vessels and support, totaling around 700 units.

With so many massive vessels in close proximity, spatial distortion can ensue. Xodius Raldari, a titan pilot who flies under Pandemic Legion's banner, described how the fight was influenced by the distortion. "Most of our capitals [succesfully jumped into the system]… then a spatial distortion happened… there was no fight at all, apart from some few support and bombers we managed to kill."

Viper ShizzIe, CEO of Pandemic Legion corporation The Illuminati, added "Those who managed to jump out… still died… their hulls appearing where the cyno was lit hours later, unpiloted!"

AJ Regard, an IT Alliance pilot, confirmed that there were 3 titan wrecks on the field after the battle. "Locator agents have [searched for the pilots of] all 4 titans, showing their pilots now in stations. So, unless titans can now dock, there are 4 dead titans," he says.

The Y-2ANO battle is framed in the larger-scale conflict between IT Alliance, Pandemic Legion and Goonswarm. "Y-2ANO was rather important as it's close to Goonswarm's territory… We tried, we lost, [we] didn't want that titan anyways," Xodius Raldari ultimately says.

Due to the extremely chaotic situation following the clash, battle reports are still flowing from the region and the presented figures may change in the next hours. Interstellar Correspondents will monitor the situation and report as soon as further details are available.

GalNet References

Pandemic Legion Battle Statistics
IT Alliance Campaign Statistics

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

Source: www.eveonline.com

BREAKING NEWS: Suicide Attacks Expected To Increase As Hulkageddon II Begins

Teonusude, Molden Heath - Helicity Boson from The Jerk Cartel has announced that the Hulkageddon II contest, in which capsuleers compete to destroy the most exhumer-class vessels, will begin at midnight on 07.01.112 and run until the 14th.

The event offers a grand prize to the corporation destroying the most Hulks and Mackinaws of 3 billion ISK, an Armageddon battleship and a Shadow Serpentis Large Smartbomb, with further prizes for second and third place. Other awards are offered for success in certain specific categories, such as achieving the most kills in a single region, with a total prize pot in excess of 8 billion ISK.

While all methods of obtaining kills against exhumers are considered valid by the contest, the coming week is expected to show a dramatic increase in the number of so-called "suicide ganks" - that is, destruction of ships in high-security space by one or more fully- or over-insured tech 1 vessel without a declaration of war or other legal "killright." The attacking ship is then destroyed by CONCORD for its criminal act; such attacks therefore only have a few seconds in which to eliminate their target. They also usually (but not always) aim for the total cost of their insurance to be covered by the value of modules salvaged from their target's wreck after destruction.

Last year's Hulkageddon event saw destroyers sell out in many systems and prices on tech 1 cruisers and high damage ammunitions are also expected to rise.

---

Are you affected by the events in this article? Do you have information regarding another event in New Eden? If so, please contact us with any information that you may have.

Want to become a news correspondent with IC? We are recruiting.

Source: www.eveonline.com