Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Portables (Games) Sci-Fi Entertainment Games

CCP Considering Mobile Apps For EVE Online 52

Massively reports on statements from EVE Online developer CCP Games indicating that they'll be working with MIT students to see if they can create mobile applications that will interact with EVE . They specifically mention things like skill trainers, route planners, and transaction viewers, but they leave the door open for other apps as well, saying they are "eager to hear what ideas MIT students might come up with."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

CCP Considering Mobile Apps For EVE Online

Comments Filter:
  • by east coast ( 590680 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @04:21AM (#26289487)
    As a new EVE player (a little over a month now) it would be fantastic not having to be at my laptop every time a skill training expires. That's the whole thing about EVE; it's great that you can train for skills while off line but the time it takes makes it a regal pain in the ass any time you need to switch to a new skill but aren't at your machine. I actually take the time to plan my skill training around my real life schedule.

    I understand that it's part of the appeal of the game and takes away from the grind a bit but still, I want to play when I went to play, not when my training tract says I should. I find myself putting time into lesser skills because they have large time cycles and I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.
    • I definitely agree with you, on the fly switching of skills would be an excellent addition, and if you could also add in buy/sell orders, that would be awesome. Really, when I think about how much CCCP have made and how much is directly player controlled, like the economy, I can't help but be awed. It's amazing what they've done, and a blast to play. The shooting doesn't hurt either, and the plotline is great (if you follow it).
    • They have specifically stated that they don't want to give the ability to change skills out-of-game, as that would remove one of the incentives for logging in.

      • They have specifically stated that they don't want to give the ability to change skills out-of-game, as that would remove one of the incentives for logging in.

        Okay, step back and consider what they said.

        One of the big reasons to login is to change skills? Not to have fun? Or run a mission? Or engage in combat? That feels like clear evidence of "vision over reality" where you put the customers through a PITA procedure just to maintain a pure vision.

        (I have a love/hate relationship with EVE Online; p
    • You are aware of the fact that you can switch to another (=longer) skill whenever you want without losing any skill points of the current skill?

      It's common practice to change to a longer skill right before going offline. If you log in again, switch back to the shorter skill you were training before.

    • I actually take the time to plan my skill training around my real life schedule.

      Get EveMon [battleclinic.com]. It will help you with your skill training plan.

      And don't worry -- in a short time, you'll be training skills that take days, weeks, and even up to a month.

      • And in the case of things like Gallente Carrier V, which my alt is training now, something like 65 days. =P

        But yeah, evemon is a MUST for eve. Used to be you'd put your eve username and password into evemon to retrieve your skills (that or download your xml skill sheet every few days), something that CCP tell you never to do, but because of the utility of the program, it was the only 3rd party tool that I know of that they officially endorsed. It was almost certainly the major reason that they implemented

      • I'm still looking for the app that will log in FOR ME and hit the train button.

        It really stinks that CCP can't let me just stack out my training plan. It's one reason I haven't bothered to log back in since I can really only get on once a week or so.

    • by Nezer ( 92629 )

      The skill setting is much, much worse in the beginning. I think it's one way, whether intentional or not, the developers get you to login and play a lot in the early days of a character.

      Once your basic skills (really, put a priority on learning and strong defense skills) are finishing, you will have more and more options for longer skills to train and fewer options with the short skills. Of course, by then, you're sucked-in and it doesn't matter if you login all the time.

      One other item that may help, get th

  • by NeoSkink ( 737843 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @04:35AM (#26289535)
    ...to not play the game? [escapistmagazine.com] ;-)
    • by Sibko ( 1036168 )
      Ha! Jokes on you, I play Eve.

      ...Well, not right now. Soon as I finish training Amarr Battleships III. [17 hours remaining!] But I do still play!

      P.S. Someone please bid on my 29 million ISK Harbinger. [Just look for it under contracts.] What a horrible mistake I made with that ship. : (
    • So true!
    • by XMode ( 252740 )

      As much as I love Yahtzee I don't think he can review MMOs (any MMO, not just EvE). Most MMOs require you to play for more than 30 seconds to get the idea of whats going on. EvE gives you 15 days to work it out. I've been playing for over a year and I still haven't worked it out.. Its complex. Very complex.

      Not joining a player corp in eve is like buying a car without any wheels. I'm sure it'll look nice and not get the paint scratched, but its pretty useless. Player corps in eve are about the only way to ge

      • He played what's IMO the best Massively multiplayer PvP game out there, and in doing so neither interacted with anyone, nor PvPed. His review was an accurate one, provided you realise he's only talking about 5% of the game.
  • Duh. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NeutronCowboy ( 896098 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @04:52AM (#26289575)

    I've long thought that MMOs should try to haul in players outside of the actual game engine. Example, WoW: why do I have to spend 30 minutes in game repairing armor, checking mail, checking auction house prices or guild messages? Why can't I do that through some web browser interface? The benefit is two-fold: I don't feel like I'm spending so much time grinding, and the developers have another way of hooking me into the game. Next website that I have input on, I'll make that suggestion to the developers.

    • I've long thought that MMOs should try to haul in players outside of the actual game engine. Example, WoW: why do I have to spend 30 minutes in game repairing armor, checking mail, checking auction house prices or guild messages? Why can't I do that through some web browser interface?

      Because you'll pay a subscription fee regardless of whether the mechanic to do as you wish you could exists. That type of feature wouldn't overly attract new players, it would simply appease the customer base.

      Not to mention the fact that the mechanics of such a service would probably be somewhat difficult to achieve in real time and with impossibly flawless functionality (as the wow userbase demand).

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I've long thought that MMOs should try to haul in players outside of the actual game engine. Example, WoW: why do I have to spend 30 minutes in game repairing armor, checking mail, checking auction house prices or guild messages? Why can't I do that through some web browser interface? The benefit is two-fold: I don't feel like I'm spending so much time grinding, and the developers have another way of hooking me into the game. Next website that I have input on, I'll make that suggestion to the developers.

      I'm sure the developers of various MMOGs have a whole pile of reasons why they don't want to allow out-of-game access.

      Maybe it would be too hard to hook the game data into a web page... Maybe they're worried about cheating... Maybe they just want to make sure people are actually logging in...

      But developers are starting to hear that people want to be able to do more with their games. Look at the functionality that's slowly being integrated into the WoW Armory. [worldofwarcraft.com] You can now check a character's calendar fro

  • Disclaimer:
    I don't play EVE-O.
    I'd like to, it looks good; leveling up looks better than other MMORPGs.
    I'm not even that interested in the RPG part... I've been having fun with capitol ship fighting in megamek recently (and I dug out Homeworld to play again a couple of weeks ago).

    I've read here about one needing to be logged in when a skill update happens or it's wasted,,,
    This is wrong... If it's progressed, you should get it.

    My idea for EVE-off-line would include some kind of tamogatchi-type thingamajigger.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Ixokai ( 443555 )

      You don't have to be logged in when a skill update happens exactly, but you can't schedule a -new- skill to be updated after.

      So if you're training your Frigate skill and it takes two days to complete, after those two days you have it if you're logged in or not-- but you have to log in then to set what skill to start training next.

      There's already some iPhone utilities fans made (in addition to some great Windows ones for planning your future skill update path in the most efficient way possible), but they're

    • You don't lose anything that you were already training. The only time wasted is between when the skill finishes (you get the skill whether you're logged in or not) and when you start the next one (there is no way to start a new skill train automatically).

      Not wuse where you read otherwise, but it was either misunderstood or outright wrong. Until just recently, you could even start a skill train, cancel your account, wait for the training to finish, re-activate and log in again, and you'd have the skill. CCP

  • I want IMAP/POP3 mail outside Eve for Eve mail. The ability to send to character@tranquililty.eve-online.com would be awesome also. Skill training changing would likely defeat their protectionisim against robots building characters and such. I'm sure if they have MIT on it they will come up with something useful. I currently use EveSkillPocket on my cellphone which is a great way to keep up with skills, including multiple characters.
    • This sounds awesome, but it would also result in a lot of spam incoming. Your charactername is visible to anyone, so your evemail-address is an easy target for any spam bot. And I dont think the current ingame evemail-system can handle spam as good as my Thunderbird can. It would be a mess. This goes for any out of game app by the way. The interface needs to be very carefully designed, so that macros/bots cant exploit the hell out of it.
      • How about if they lock it so that only other EVE email addresses could mail EVE email addresses?

        With an automatic marker on the account for excessive mailing, to help them stop spammers. They probably have something similar for the in-game mail already, as they have had trouble with currency-buying spam, which they have cleared up.

        • I like this idea, with one caveat: you need to use CCP's own SMTP server to send the mail, using your account credentials (or perhaps API key). This prevents the otherwise trivially easy spoofing of the sender name, since CCP's own server could verify that the credentials used match the username the mail is supposedly from.

          Even better, this then allows use of the in-game anti-spam mechanism, the CSPA charge (CONCORD Spam Prevention Act, basically a user-configurable fee that a player pays using in-game curr

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Your first 6 months are spent training to get into decenttly-fitted Tech2 frigates, or (if you're the smart type that actually plans your skill training), maximizing all your support skills so you'll be doing OK in a Tech 1 cruiser and plowing through missions.

    It's incredibly hard to make decent money to get your fittings, unless you're a market wizard or you have a second account where you have characters dedicated to be either market whores or invention monkeys. Missions and mining are just too time-cons

    • by MindlessAutomata ( 1282944 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @07:55AM (#26290015)

      Someone is probably going to mark the AC as a troll, but his assessment is quite similar to mine. EVE is an extremely long-term investment. You don't just jump into EVE, you have to actually *work* a long time to get anywhere. It's great for really hardcore number-crunching players that are hooked on the metagame (spying, so forth) and PVP wars than anything else. But to have to play so long to compete at all--and do anything of value, other than slowing other ships down? It's really not worth the time.

      Worst of all, EVE's skill points system, while it does clearly have some really big upsides, unfortunately encourages the worst type of min-maxing imaginable. Want to specialize in a few things, maybe work a bit in production and fighting? Waste of time. You have to specialize completely to really start off on a good footing. They don't separate ship production or item production etc against fighting skills, so you can't really be a producer or inventor and a really effective fighter unless you joined a long time ago and blew points into them anyway, and even then you'd be less effective than if you'd just gone into specializing one of them from the get-go.

      And, of course, the infamous fact that CCP devs have been known to buddy up to certain guilds and give them freebies, as the AC mentions as well.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by tibman ( 623933 )

        I have heard many people say what you're describing. That it takes years to get equal to players already in the game. I have two Characters that are several years old (one PVP+Capital, the other a Carebear), what you describe is exactly true. But i also think people are stuck in this mindset of "He's older so he's rich and stronger and i can never beat him." Which is very untrue. EVE is like rock-paper-scissors with spaceships on steroids. Get into a BlackBird (t1 cruiser) and your buddy in a Rupture

    • by Skal Tura ( 595728 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @12:01PM (#26291031) Homepage

      There are worse (or better, depends upon your point of view) than EVE, for getting a second job where You pay to get shitted all over you.

      It's called Second Life, a virtual world of "ultimate freedom" and kind-of real currency, and demands a HUGE time investment, and eventually money investment to get anywhere, and all the skills you use are your own personal skills.

      You work for Second Life in a form or another, if you use it, you most likely increase the value of their service, and you have to pay for it.

      and for god's sake, IF you buy any land, Linden Lab (maker of Second Life) won't stop at anything to fuck you over upside down sideways. There's people who's lost literally fortunes in Second Life by direct actions of Linden Lab, and no one is willing to do shit about it, and those who would be willing to do shit about it are already too damn broke to hire even the cheapest lawyer there is.

      It's an excellent business plan to ass rape their customer's wallets indeed. Afterall, when they realize that the business Linden Lab condones is blatantly illegal (creating a market place, and then manipulating it freely to maximize their own profitability by utilizing a monopoly status which cannot be challenged), they won't have any money left to fight back!

      Nevermind that Linden Lab has literally an money printing press, they even pay some of their salaries using the inworld currency L$, and when converted to USD other user's of SL will be the payors, and Linden Lab never ever buys a single L$ back, they only confiscate(steal) L$ and charges you L$ for some things. and naturally every L$USD exchange has a fee collected by Linden Lab (3.5% + 0.50$).

      Yes, it seems to be insanely good business plan, where they can loose only by having mass exodus to a better service.

  • Oldnews (Score:1, Redundant)

    by ShakaUVM ( 157947 )

    This is oldnews. I think they mentioned wanting cell phone apps for Eve since, well, it launched.

    I think the ideas I heard were: ability to switch skill training without needing to log on, and updating your auctions.

    So, yeah.

    Personally, I'd just love an EVE plugin for Excel. "Ooh, I just killed 2 space pirates! See! Rows AA1 through AA7 confirm it!"

  • OOG Client: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sobrique ( 543255 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @09:24AM (#26290327) Homepage
    Here's some ideas that I'd be glad to get:
    • OOG EVEMail client. Actually, how about just POP/SMTP access and let me do it myself
    • Market/Contract/Industry management - let me use my 'remote access' skills to full effect whilst I'm at work
    • Corp Management stuff. (Actually, that doesn't have to be mobile only either)
  • by Quarters ( 18322 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @09:28AM (#26290357)
    already created Excel for mobile devices.
    • by Mascot ( 120795 )

      If only I had mod points.. Anyways.

      When I read someone describing Eve as "a very pretty spreadsheet", I couldn't have agreed more.

      Not that I think there's anything wrong with Eve. It just isn't my cup of tea. But even so it's pretty enough that I have logged two months of subscription time since release. I'll probably make it a third month once ambulation arrives.

  • by NinthAgendaDotCom ( 1401899 ) on Thursday January 01, 2009 @09:36AM (#26290393) Homepage

    Interesting premise, the thing with everyone on one server. But it's a grind. I found myself just waiting for the next skill to complete. What they really need is skill queueing -- queue up multiple skills to train sequentially. I have no idea why this isn't in place. Lots of players want it.

    • not trying to be fanboy here, but you can barely scratch the surface of Eve in two weeks. once you get farther into the game, there is far to much going on to stand around waiting on a skill to train (which soon end up taking days or weeks to complete anyway). for me the vast majority of the fun centers around corporate activities, and you're not even going to see that side of the game at 2 weeks or probably even 2 months. sure Eve has it's issues, and one of them is that it starts out slow, but compared

    • My suggestion, if you want to really get into EVE, is start out with somebody who already plays. Get them to mentor you a little, and more importantly to sponsor you for a corp. Some of the main advantages:

      1) They've been through the learning curve already (and it was harder when they did it - CCP keeps making the new player experience smoother) and they know the tricks like how to make collecting loot really pay off on the market.
      2) They can help you specialize your character for maximum short-term potenti

  • In the CCCP, Mobile Apps consider YOU.

"Been through Hell? Whaddya bring back for me?" -- A. Brilliant

Working...