Technology

Ooh, EVE Online has suddenly become a lot more interesting to me. When you log in to EVE you get news stories from within the EVE universe. For example there was something recently involving the Gallente and a convoy delivering aid to a planet and something blew up or something.

I never really paid much attention figuring it was just some light fiction to keep the universe “real”. Well apparently they are a little more than that. They are actually acted out by a group called Aurora, part of the Interstellar Services Department (a volunteer group responsible for things like the buddy program and forum moderation).

I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to - I mean I can’t imagine what the controls are like for instance - but you can now get Doom for your iPod.

Unfortunately it requires you to install iPod Linux making an unsuitable option for more people. But I think it’s one of these things that more impressive than practical from the beginning…

After discovering a universal binary patch for Quake 2 (a friend has an Intel Mac), I’ve started playing it again.

We had fun with deathmatch for a while and then figured we’d give coop a go.

Since Quake 2 doesn’t have coop built in I had a look around for a mod. There were quite a few but unfortunately I couldn’t get any of them to work. It seemed they were all designed to work with version 3.1, but we were running 3.2 (and 3.21 - a fix of OpenGL support to make it work on Linux and the one the Mac patch was based on).

The reason why was mind blowing. Apparently in their last update, id software actually added native coop support. Bring up the console and type “set coop 1” and voila, multiplayer single player gameplay (rolls nicely off the tongue eh?).

Although Quake 2 was definitely not designed with coop in mind though. A lot of fighting in corridors where one person can’t fire for risk of blowing his partner(s) up. Although we certainly tried from time to time - occasionally with dire consequences. But fun nonetheless :)

Oh yeah, one more thing. Make sure you change from the default skin as it looks just like one of the enemies…

It seems Google have updated PR of their index - I’ve finally reached a PageRank of 6 for the homepage :)

I just found an interesting document released by the European Broadcasting Union (their most prominent activity is the Eurovision Song Contest) regarding the future of television, specifically relating to PVR systems.

Free-to-air Television and other PVR Challenges in Europe.

It’s quite long but definitely good. Suggests revolutionary ideas like broadcasters making EPG and programme meta-data publicly available and that they should embrace “new business models” relating to content viewed through a PVR since traditional advertising is far less effective.

At no point by the way does it endorse DRM or content protection and even speaks of “the offensive use of patents” in rather negative terms…

Yet another dev blog entry includes more information on what will be in the first two phases of Kali. Since it’s all there I’ll just summarise.

The seamless map is integral to the new scanning format and exploration. It seems the scanner interface is now built into the normal view. Lots of hidden things will now be available everywhere for people to find.

Related to the seamless map is improved combat awareness including hierarchical gangs. Have fleets of squadrons of ships along with better gang situational awareness and apparently built in voice chat.

Invention will provide a new path to tech II. Gather random materials and mix them with tech I blueprints to create limited run inefficient tech II blueprints.

Loot will be revamped. No more shiny canisters dropped from ships but actual wreckage with “components” that can be used to make rigs - things that work like implants for ships allowing greater customization.

And all this is in Kali 1, before we get factional warfare.

The Focus of Kali 1 versus Kali 2

A new post has been made in the EVE Dev blog by a guy called Redundancy about the EVE economy. Lots of interesting thing about GDP and stuff. The most interesting is that GDP per capita is on the increase - that is the average amount of money a player earns is going up. In fact is has double since January.

Firstly, some of the posts about TalkTalk problems are getting a little heated, especially now some TalkTalk call centre workers have posted. Try and keep everything vaguely cordial.

Secondly I have an update (sort of) regarding unbundling. I recently posted that the unbundling dates were 31st August. Well another post on Sam Knows said they were the dates Carphone Warehouse originally posted and haven’t actually been updated since. As such some people already are unbundled - most people aren’t.

I just downloaded an excellent little program called EVEMon. It’s basically has an item/skill database for EVE and tells you how long it will take you to train skills. You can either select the skills specifically or select an item and it selects the skills necessary for that item. It also reads the XML format that the EVE website makes available so it knows which skills you already have. It also tells you if training any learning skills would make things quicker and the optimal order.

To fly a Leviathan and be able to operate an Oblivion (the Caldari doomsday weapon) will take, at best, 298 days.

PS. Just having an item and skill database readable outside of EVE in an app instead of on a website is quite handy.

The next big update in EVE will be called Kali. This will include a few things, including contracts - an overhaul of the missions/escrow/market system as well a big graphical update. The thing that I think most people are waiting for is Factional Warfare. All I knew about it until recently was vague implications that the name give. But I just received issue 2 of EON (the quarterly EVE magazine) which has a more in depth description of what the developers are hoping for with Factional Warfare.

Firstly, it looks like all the factions will be involved. There’s a two page graphic that has the four big ones in the middle, Gallente, Minmatar, Caldari and Ammar. But the others are scattered around, including Jovian Directorate, Khanid Kingdom, Angel Cartel, Thukker Tribe and even Concord.

But what will it actually involve? Well it seems the big part is the ability to do a “tour of duty” with a faction. This gives you access to special missions of a fairly grand scale involving the factions. This has major downsides. I’m assuming it would also make you a valid kill target for anyone doing a tour of duty for a faction at war with one you’re working for.

Also, factions may eventually be valid targets for war declarations by alliances. Could we see Band of Brothers marching in and taking out a faction? I’m guessing completely destroying a faction would be impossible, but taking large chunks of space would be a laugh….

Remember the magazine is six months old and a lot of it is vague. But exciting things are definitely on their way.