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The universe is expanding again. No, it’s not the second “Big Bang” or some strange cosmic phenomena. I’m talking about the universe of EVE Online and the upcoming expansion being released by their development and publishing company, CCP|White Wolf. The expansion, gamely titled Revelations 2, is set to hit EVE Online consumers in late June and it brings with it a host of enhancements and improvements to the general gameplay and new player experience.

With around 210,000 players, EVE Online is one of the largest MMOGs on the market, and many expect that the game will continue to expand well into the future. To gain a glimpse into the content in Revelations 2, Ten Ton Hammer phoned Magnus Bergsson, CMO of CCP, and quizzed him on all the new refinements that are scheduled for Revelations 2. Get comfortable, because Magnus willingly answered all of our questions, which ranged from the recent Goonsquad debacle to the upcoming enhancements to exploration. Enjoy!
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http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/8355

Revelations: now you can spend more hours of your life jumpgating across the galaxy and getting blown up by pirates.

New and exciting ores!!!

Someone obviously never discovered the beauty of setting ressurection clones to the right destination.

Heh, I did after my first podding.

Having read the interview I wonder if it is time that CCP thought about opening a second server.

I know one of the attractions of Eve was that everyone is on the same server, but that really went out the window when they opened the Chinese server.

A lot of changes are "need for speed" changes, but if they opened a second server that wouldn't be so much of an issue anyway, they may also need to spend less time trying to stop Blob-wars!

I also think it would be a good time to do it since the way the skills work it would give new starters a chance to join a server where they are less behind, I don't care what they say about skill > skill points, there is no way that a newbie can compete in all areas the same way that a 30mil skill point character can. To compete you need to start specialising, but that doesn't help the newbie experience all of the game and decide what they do want to specialise in!

Given that when I first started there were less than 10k people online at once, and last time I played a few months ago there were over 30k I am sure there is the active population to allow 2 servers to thrive.

I've just remembered what it was I didn't like about the PVP - it was too time consuming.

In DAoC, you could (if you were lucky) join a group, bind, port to one of the BGs and be involved in PVP in under 10 minutes.

My experience with EVE was more "hang around for 30 minutes waiting for everyone, spend 20 minutes jumping to the right place then another 10 waiting for the scouts. Then get podded 5 seconds into the battle".

I'm sure it's more fun if you've trained and got a good ship, but getting to that point takes too long in my opinion.

Edit: I think a second server to give the newbies a chance would be a good idea. Although it would probably be flooded and taken over by the big established corps in a matter of weeks.

My PvP experiences were generally getting ganked whilst doing something else

I am not the worlds biggest PvP fan, so going out to PvP isn't something I did often, and my few experiences were very similar to yours, spend ages getting ready and going somewhere and getting podded before even having time to target anything, let alone shoot it!!

I never really got to the stage of being able to fly a good PvP ship well as my skills were more PvE / mining orientated, and given how long I played I would certainly agree it takes too long.

What attracted me to Eve however was the aspect of PvP whilst going about day-to-day business, which is actually more about PvP avoidance but with an adrenaline rush thrown in

I tend to stick to Empire / Low-sec though so I can PvE without worry when I want too

I can't see established players really wanting to change servers, I've only got about 10 mil Sp but I don't think I would want to change server and lose it all!

Ovi wrote:What attracted me to Eve however was the aspect of PvP whilst going about day-to-day business, which is actually more about PvP avoidance but with an adrenaline rush thrown in

Think that's what was so good about UO before they changed everything, could get PK'd whilst going about your business and they could loot your corpse dry, so if you were transferring a valuable rare somewhere it really did help if you had some friends to play armed guard! They changed it so there was a no-PvP facet to the game, so the old PvP facet was rarely used by anyone except, well, PvPers.

They changed it back a bit eventually, rare ores were a little more common if you were willing to go to the PvP facet to mine them and such, trees gave more lumber, animals gave more leather etc. but I'd quit by this point so not sure how effective it was! It generally made people behave better, if you were a well known community black smith who made high quality armour for everyone for example then everyone knew you and would leave you be, even if the odd person who didn't know you killed you somehow there'd be people more than happy to get revenge for you.

to be honest the experiences your describing are newbie experiences and I am all too familiar with those in Eve. My brother has been playing there for 3 years now he owns 1 30million and 2 20million plus SP characters (he is a trader to fund his PvP). He says that the experience of newb PvP is wait around then get ganked.

All the really good corps have backup ships ready for their PvP'ers so once they die they are stright back out again and so on. They move around with the right gangs and are well organised.

I have been through the ganking experience countless times and I have got frustrated as well. The point is it is a very different game to DaoC its a big boys game where the long game is what matters. You mould your character over months and it is not about grinding in the sense people portray it. It is about relaxing and taking the game at a different pace and learning what it is to be an individual, that individuality is what is valued more than anything in Eve and its what most of us struggle to understand when we start to play.

So for example to get one of the really good PvE social skill books (Military connections) took me about three weeks playing and a month waiting for the offer from the agent. When I got it I was overjoyed - I could have bought it in that time (65 million ISK) but no I got it through my own in game playing developing and running missions. I was s pleased and my character is very good at getting good missions as a result of training that to 5. These skills make such a difference its nice to see your vision of the character slowly take shape. It is satisfying because that is not totally dependant on levelling in the conventional sense.

What I am currently working on is a new corp for relatively new players. Too many big PvP corps run with 20million + sp rules (i.e. you must have more than that to get in). That kind of elitism needs a good kick in the goolies. But to break into the scene you have to have a decent corp concept that sets you up as unique. You then have to show to others that you are different. I am working on the concept and have spent about two weeks on the website and the ideas. I have even started on some fiction to back the concept up, its about 'creating' a culture and Eve allows you to do that like no other game.

Thats the addiction of Eve. This is a game where you build an identity, where celebrity is everything as evidenced by EON's focus on player celebrity characters. Where you write your own story and where forum politics is as much part of the game as the game play. It is not just about PvP its about PvP in style.

At the end of the day the adrenaline rush from PvP in Eve kicks the ass off DaoC so the really good people are junkies for it. They figure out how to get their PvP fix as best they can. People like us who are still hooked on easy come PvP find it hard to understand....

nice news, will be fun to see what Revelations2 brings us

Last night I got into some PVP for the first time, lost a domi to waaay more skilled players that was 3vsMe and I wasnt even combatfitted since I was getting my butt down to my corp in 0.0.. unfair, hell yes! Did I grind my teeth after the loss? Absolutely! Will I pay back as soon as I get the chanse? Yes of course! I dunno but, I really dont mind loosing a ship at all, on the contrary, its part of the concept imo.. True PvP at its best. Its not fair nor pretty at all, its unfair and its merciless and if you are an idiot, you simply will not survive other than in empire and even there people will get you if they really want to, I find that charming haha and even my wife think its exciting