|
|
|
Pentium
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 00:27:03
Posts: 9,529,
Visits: 10,271
|
|
You haven't mentioned Colossal Cave for decades, but do I complain?
Dave R
XP Pro + various VMs: Q6600 @ stock, Asus V3-P5G33, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GT
XP Pro: E1200 @2.4Ghz, GA-G33M-DS2R/S2, 2GB DDR2 800, 3450 on HDMI
Mandriva S 2008 + XP VM: S939 3800+, 1GB DDR, 9550
Windows Home Server: S3000, ASUS V2-M2V890, 512mb DDR2 667, 1TB
|
|
|
|
|
Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 04/09/2008 09:16:41
Posts: 1,444,
Visits: 2,310
|
|
Frequently 
PC No. 1
C2D E8200@3.6ghz - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 - SapphireHD3870- 2GB Crucial Ballistix PC6400 + 2Gb Patriot PC6400- SEAGATE BARRACUDA 320GB - SEAGATE BARRACUDA 500Gb - HIPER TYPE-R 580W - Antec 900 - Running Vista x64 SP1
|
|
|
|
|
186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 26/05/2008 19:12:47
Posts: 16,
Visits: 33
|
|
|
|
|
|
186
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 11:23:14
Posts: 51,
Visits: 154
|
|
| Just a quick update on this - EVE Online and the Empyrean Age piece will be appearing shortly in Gaming. ...I may or may not have spent last night mining and carrying out missions on a 14-day free trial....possibly. 
************
Kevin Pocock
Reviews Editor
Micro Mart
************
The word is my oyster 
|
|
|
|
|
186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/07/2008 12:42:50
Posts: 12,
Visits: 26
|
|
MartenReed (20/05/2008)
I don't kick up a fuss that WoW is rarely mentioned, except for info on the new expansion
I really hope that was sarcasm, WoW is mentioned in every edition. It is the largest mmo out there, well largest in subscribers, Eve is the largest single server mmo.
As for Kevin doing the 14 day trial, hope you enjoy it but the trial accounts are a little nerfed, to stop the alt abuse (you could create a number of disposable accounts to suicide high value ships).
It seems the new expansion has attracted a 'lot' of players into the new content, I was watching battles with over 100 players on each side the other night, so many numbers has is downside, the framerate drops to a slideshow 
Rev
|
|
|
|
|
186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/07/2008 12:42:50
Posts: 12,
Visits: 26
|
|
Woot!!
Eve-Online gets a mention  Even screenshots! (very old ones, maybe 3-4 years out of date)
Anyway, I said I would knock summat up and try to explain Eve so here it is...
In the world of MMORPG there is an 800lb gorilla called 'World of Warcraft' all others seems to be tipping a hat towards this monster of a game, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
However there are a few games out there that challenge that view, and do things differently, one of these is Eve-Online produced by independent outfit CCP based in Iceland.
It has a number of things to make it stand out from the crowd, it's the largest single shard game server in the world, that means all players are connected to the same server, the record for simultaneous players at once is over 40k! each player can interact with every other in the same persistent virtual world. The server hardware is based in London, and is amongst the largest clusters of computers running a single game in the world, it uses solid state disks (and has done for a few years) currently CCP are looking to implement infinband technology to the server cluster.
[June 2008 - Ongoing] Infiniband Internal Test Cluster is live, development ongoing
[June 2008 - Ongoing] Cisco virtualisation project underway (speeds up Eve website)
[September 2007] 420 CPU cores housed in IBM X-SERIES 3950 and BladeCenter servers
[August 2007] CCP has deployed a fourth RamSan-400 taking SSD capacity to 256GB
[July 2007] Database upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise SP2
[July 2007] Core engine upgrade to Python 2.5 with Stackless 3.1
[March 2007] CCP confirms they are moving everything to a 64 bit architecture
[November 2006] Third RamSan-400 deployed, cluster confirmed at 168 nodes.
[March 2006] Second RamSan-400 deployed
[October 2005] First RamSan-400 deployed
One major way in which Eve is different, is the skill training. In most games earning skill points (or experience points) means doing a task, sometimes repeating that task many times hence the more you play the more skill points you earn. Eve does away with that, instead skills are real-time based. You can train a skill simply by obtaining the appropriate skill-book, and 'training' it. You then learn the skill over time regardless of wether you are playing or not, it even trains while you sleep. All skills have 5 levels, and the steps between levels is roughly exponential meaning it may only take a few minutes to train to level 1, but many days to get to level 5. This method of gaining skills can be a blessing for those not willing to spend hours 'grinding' or 'levelling' it can also cause headaches when skills finish training at odd times, I must admit to setting my alarm clock to get up in the middle of the night to change skills.
Another thing that differentiates Eve from other games is the economy, no not the politician with the briefcase who lives at No.11... the in-game economy. Almost every item in the game has been produced by a player, and then sold on the market for the best price. This player driven economy has attracted quite a lot of attention in the economics field, there are university graduates studying this economy for research. CCP also employ a full-time economist to look after the game and try to avert any potential economic disasters. If you like the complexity of a large and active market economy, and have the patience, you can earn plenty of isk (Inter-Stellar-Kredits) just trading on the market. Indeed some critics of Eve-Online call it a space based spredsheet.
A far more simple explanation of Eve gameplay is that it's a like Elite for the BBC micro, brought up-to-date. A game set in space, you fly a spaceship from one solar system to another and can 'dock' at various space stations, just like Elite, you can buy goods, transport them and sell the for a profit. You can also fit guns to your ship and kill some NPC pirates, again very similar to Elite. The more you earn the better ship and fittings you can buy. So if Elite was a fondly remembered game, Eve might just be the game for you.
Eve-Online is a very complex game, it's what's called a sandbox game, there is no set path to follow, players are free to do whatever the game allows. This can lead to some players feeling a bit lost and without direction. The game has plenty of paths to follow, the real beauty is that you are not locked into that path, if you find after playing for a while that mining is not for you, it's easy to re-fit your ship for combat and become a combat pilot, or fit cargo bays and be a freight hauler.
Eve is on many levels, PvP (player vs. player). From the pirate players who waits for a lone cargo ship to pass by, to the huge fleet battles that can alter the system ownership, to the market PvP where cutthroat deals can make or break a players wallet. PvP is non-consensual, you could be minding your own business hauling goods through high security space and suddenly be attacked by a fleet of suicide pirate ships, these ships don't last long under the withering fire of Concord, but long enough to destroy your ship and liberate the cargo. Venturing into low-sec areas you often come across a pirate blockade only too willing to convert your ship into a wreck. PvP can be harsh, I remember my first ship loss to another player, I was only a month or so into the game and didn't check the autopilot route, it took me through some dangerous systems, my ship lasted mere seconds, I was gutted and almost quit the game in disgust having lost everything in an instant. Because PvP is so brutal, there are ways for the harmless industrialist to get even with the combat pilots, they can hire player mercenaries who will fight for a fee, yet another path for a player to follow.
The Eve universe consists of over 5000 solar systems, these systems can contain many space stations, or none at all, they can contain other objects such as asteroid fields which can be mined for ore, planets, moons you can mine. The central part of this universe is often called high-sec or high security. High-sec has a security rating of 0.5 to 1.0 systems with within this band are patrolled by 'Concord' who are NPCs responsible for upholding the law. The rest of the universe is 0.0 to 0.4 where the law is not present in such numbers, and players can fire upon others without suffering the wrath of Concord, systems with a rating of 0.1 to 0.4 do have a limited amount of security, for example stations and stargates often have computer controlled sentry guns that will fire upon 'criminals' but the damage they do is limited. 0.0 space is completely security free, and players can gain 'ownership' and reap the benefits. 0.0 space has high-end asteroid belts, valuable moons, NPC's that carry a high bounty, the rewards can be high but the risk is great. In high-sec space you cannot fire upon another players ship unless certain criteria are met, doing so will result in the Concord blowing you to bits, not a pleasant experience. This can be avoided by declaring war upon the opposing corporation, then Concord will not interfere.
This brings me to Corporations. These are groups of like minded players similar to guilds in other games. Each corp has a CEO, directors and corporate assets, a tax rate for members and a whole bunch of other stuff. There are advantages to belonging to a player controlled corp. The disadvantage it that competing corporations can declare war on each other, which means they can shoot each other no matter where in the universe. War costs money, a fee has to be paid by the corp declaring war each week, this limits the number of wars a corp can have active. Corporations can band together in an alliance, a formal agreement of co-operation. Alliances can be quite large and have 1000's of members. In the lawless space, alliances hold sway over great numbers of systems, and inter alliance warfare is common.
It's out here in the 0.0 security systems that the huge battles take place. Sometimes the number of players involved can run into the hundreds, these fleet battles are an awesome sight, they can also be rather disappointing as the number of players in the field increases, so does the amount of data you PC needs from the servers, and there is obviously bandwidth issues which can cause the screen to be sluggish, often called 'lag' and is the most frustrating thing in these engagements.
Other activities a player can engage in are numerous. You could become a miner, seeking out asteroid belts and mining the ore, which in turn can be processed into minerals, this can then be turned into items for sale on the market. Every ship and piece of equipment on the market has been made by a player, due to the PvP aspect, the demand for new ships and equipment remains high. You could become a scientist, involved in the research of 'blueprints' the other item required to build something. Blueprints can be researched to improve the efficiency and maximising productivity, more advanced research can produce a variant of the blueprint which will enable the manufacture of expensive 'T2' equipment or ships. T2 means 2nd tier technology, and is usually far superior to plain T1 variants. Players can also make contracts, so you could earn a living just hauling goods for other players from place to place. You could run 'missions' for an NPC 'agent' similar to quests in other games, these missions increase your 'standings' and lead to better missions with greater rewards. The downside is that you standing towards the opposing faction decrease, if they fall too low, you can be attacked by the hostile NPC's when travelling in their space.
Factions and standings were relatively unimportant, until now. With the introduction of the new expansion "Empyrean Age", faction warfare is the next big thing for Eve, you can align yourself to a faction and fight on their behalf against other players earning rewards and ranks etc. It also allows PvP on a smaller scale, with restrictions on ship size etc. So far the general consensus is the expansion is a huge success.
There are a few criticisms of Eve, which should be mentioned for a better picture of the game.
The learning curve.
To say this is steep is an understatement, it's more of a cliff and can be baffling to a new player. CCP have done a lot of development on the new player experience, and the tutorials are much better than they were. Even so, it helps if you have a more experienced friend to help you out with the many questions.
The complexity of the game.
Over 5000 solar systems, 200 different ships, each with different roles, 1000's of items from guns, to consumer goods for trade, ammunition to tourists. An overwhelming array of ship fitting options, you can turn a ship into a cargo vessel, a warship, a support ship, a mining platform... eventually your head will spin.
The sandbox.
Once you finish the tutorial, you are free to do what you wish and faced with this is a bit like a kid in a candy store, you want it all, now! the reality bites as you realise that to fly that asteroid stripping mining barge will take months to train for. Most players end up doing a little of everything, only a few are single minded enough to train for one specific task.
The lag.
Sometimes in a busy system there can be 500 players or more, this makes some tasks rather slow as the server trys to keep up with the thousands of interactions happening at once. In the system of Jita, for example, hitting the undock button to launch your ship into space can take minutes to actually display, leaving you looking at a black screen and wondering if the game has crashed.
In large fleet battles, you can 'warp' to the battle area and see your screen freeze as there are hundreds of objects to display, frame rates can drop to 1-2 frames per second or worse. You can often be killed before you realise what's happening.
The PvP
This aspect of the game is unlike most others. You can be attacked anywhere, even in the safest system (although very rare). PvP is non-consensual, so if you don't want to fight, the only way to remain safe is to never undock from a station. PvP in eve is harsh. Imagine having played for a couple of weeks and can now afford to get a shiny new ship, this ship has taken all your efforts to acquire, hours and hours of game-time, and it can be destroyed in moments by another player, if you are really unlucky, your escape pod can also be destroyed and you may lose that last week of training as your 'clone' may not be up-to-date. Scale that up as you get bigger ships, imagine losing a ship that's taken months to get and cost billions of isk, people get upset. That said however, the adrenaline rush from your first PvP combat is orders of magnitude greater than any FPS, the euphoria if you win, or the crushing feeling of defeat.
Eve has it all. (apart from full body avatars that move around the world, that's coming soon©).
So if you like the idea of Eve and have a couple of weeks free, download the game and sign up for the 2 week trial.
RevJim
|
|
|
|
|
Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 01:50:30
Posts: 4,742,
Visits: 4,904
|
|
|
|
|
|
186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/07/2008 12:42:50
Posts: 12,
Visits: 26
|
|
There are certain systems that have their own dedicated node due to the heavy traffic, Jita is probably the main one. So they do balance the load somewhat. As far as I know there are 420 cpu cores in the cluster, some are dedicated to some areas, and if I remember correctly CCP have been known to add nodes to 'reinforce' areas that see unexpected high traffic. I also seem to remember reading that the eve cluster was in the top 500 supercomputer list once.
Edit:-
And one of the main attractions is the si | | | |