December CSM Summit

[Seleene]

The dates are now locked in: December 7th - December 9th.

We've had one "pre-Summit" meeting with CCP and a couple more on the horizon. While I expect this summit will be much different in tone to the others, things looks promising overall. There will be no Kool-Aid drinking on the CSM, but we've been encouraged by what we've seen recently. The tone of day to day chats with CCP is unrecognizable compared with just a couple months ago. The numerous written dev blogs and video blogs should keep coming right up until Crucible's release.

One thing we want to make sure of is that we get what information we can about the Summit into your hands as soon as possible. As the Summit gets closer, we will make sure to re-post links to blogs, twitter accounts, etc... so you can follow the non-NDA stuff in real time (more or less). We're also hoping to get a much quicker turn around this time on the official summit minutes, holidays permitting.

Feel free to suggest stuff for us to ask about / discuss here and we'll post more in terms of official details / agenda as soon as we can.

EDIT - Link to the Official CSM 6 Logo

[Arele]

Tell them not to :NDA: in the same retarded style as they've made habit of doing for pretty much everything the last couple of years.

[Sponk]

Regular devblogs even after product launch. Let us never go a week without something mildly interesting to talk about. Its the cheapest way I know to get ppl talking about and excited about the game.

[Seleene]

Regular devblogs even after product launch. Let us never go a week without something mildly interesting to talk about. Its the cheapest way I know to get ppl talking about and excited about the game.

Yeah, we've hammered this over and over and they seem to be taking it to heart. What's better, as you can probably see from especially the video blogs, they are enjoying making them. I'd expect things to quiet down over the holidays in December, but a 'constant' flow of information is good.

[Mike deVoid]

The nicest thing about these devblogs has been the ability to actually discuss changes and features with the devs responsible so that the players can help the devs make informed adjustmets to their plans. See: blasters, POCOs, Scap dronebay, Ti3 BCs, POS fuels.. and probably more. For me, the POCO adjustments stand out in this regard. I hope they make POS pellets different colours though .Also enjoyed devs giving the REASONS for why they made particular choices (design or implementation) and/or why they are being partially conservative with balance adjustments.

For me, there is a feeling that we are playing the game WITH the devs of the game; rather than them coming across as guardians of the toybox.

I really like their intention to share ideas they have as individuals for what they'd love to work on, or what is in the pipeline for future development. In fact, this aspect has meant that, personally, I've been immensely impressed with their work output on many of these things and on what will make it into Crucible.

When devs share their initial broad intentions for iteration when focusing on certain areas I think it really helps focus community ideas to feedback at an early stage.

[Trebor Daehdoow]

You have an early version of the logo, mark.

The correct CSM logo is this:



Starting at 2-o'clock and proceeding counterclockwise, you see the emotional progress of a CSM delegate, ending in the center.

I had these made up as polo shirts for those CSMs who were (a) interested and (b) not too cheap to cough up $20.

[LoudSpeakly]

I had these made up as polo shirts for those CSMs who were (a) interested and (b) not too cheap to cough up $20.

I'd buy one.

Seriously.

[Trebor Daehdoow]

I'd buy one.

Seriously.

Current and former CSM members (and fearless devs) only at this point.

[Larkonis Trassler]

I'd buy one.

Seriously.

Current and former CSM members (and fearless devs) only at this point.

I'll take one.

[Seleene]

You have an early version of the logo, mark.

All fixed!

[Mike deVoid]

I'd buy one.

Seriously.

Current and former CSM members (and fearless devs) only at this point.

I'll take one.

lol

[a mitten]

I bought two, to double the facepalm 'what the FUCK, Torfi' action.

[Mike deVoid]

I remembered my question now.

Do you have, or do you know when you might be able to have the titles of the sessions you will be having. I'd definitely like an opportunity to supply relevant feedback for the devs you will be speaking to.

[a mitten]

I remembered my question now.

Do you have, or do you know when you might be able to have the titles of the sessions you will be having. I'd definitely like an opportunity to supply relevant feedback for the devs you will be speaking to.

We'll probably have the formal schedule with slots shortly, I think there's been some delay because CCP is running around with their hair on fire getting ready for Crucible, and I'm playing Skyrim and generally relaxing in the aftermath of the October War.

[E T]

are there any plans to discuss some of the features and ideas discussed in presentations at the last few fanfests? some things that come to mind are the planetary rings, comets, t3 modules and frigates.

[jadecougar]

Seleene,
Thanks for putting this up.

First of all, I agree with mike about the current style and content of the devblogs being made in such a way that we get the feel of playing WITH the devs. The fact that they're following it up by putting the feature/s on SiSi for us to test AND that they're following up with the comments via the forums is a welcomed change that I hope will be continuing for weeks and months (dare I say years?) ahead.

Second, my biggest question / concern is, "Will this new focus on FiS and engagement with the community be seen only for Crucible or will this continue with new expansions beyond?" On Lost in Eve, I often use the example of the epic expansion Apocrypha, only to see some pretty shyte releases since then. Will Crucible be the same or will this new focus and shift at CCP really be continuing for expansions beyond?

Obviously there are other aspects of EVE that could use some effort. The list is still long and not appropriate due to the purpose of this thread, but yeah, I'd like to see this be the new (old time) CCP. :-)

Thanks for the efforts you guys are putting in!

--Jade
Lost in Eve

[Sponk]

Play styles
Eve has a traditionally older player base, and being ~niche~ it must cater to player retention more than other MMOs.

Increasingly, players I know are having trouble finding the time to play the way they did a few years ago, mostly due to offspring. They *want* to play; they just can't find the contiguous time except perhaps on weekends. I find myself in the same situation, which is why my power of 2 account is a science/trade alt whose key skills allow me to 'set and forget' until next I get the opportunity to login. It's not as good as hours-long roams, but it's sufficient.

Has CCP recognised this alternative play style and factored it into its game development plans? The new way PI works seems to allow this form of behaviour, since after a certain point, spending extra time provides no marginal gain over other players, but it would be nice to see whether this was intentional or just serendipity.

[Seleene]

Second, my biggest question / concern is, "Will this new focus on FiS and engagement with the community be seen only for Crucible or will this continue with new expansions beyond?" On Lost in Eve, I often use the example of the epic expansion Apocrypha, only to see some pretty shyte releases since then. Will Crucible be the same or will this new focus and shift at CCP really be continuing for expansions beyond?

Well, first of all, let's just be honest and admit that Crucible is the 'low hanging fruit'. This expansion is full of everything that should have already been taking place over the last 2+ years. It's great stuff and I take nothing away from the hard work being done to get it all done but it's also the 'easy' stuff in the sense that it really wasn't that hard to find things to do / fix / iterate. The hard part starts after Crucible. It's still up to us as players and the CSM to help keep CCP ummm... 'focused'.

Now, you mentioned Apocrypha. As I've said previously, what we're looking at right now with the amount of resources that have been refocused on EVE is the potential for an 'Apocrypha' every 3-4 months. That's not bullshit, it's actually possible due to the fact that there are literally five times the number of teams working on EVE today as there were two months ago. The actual content of what is to come is certainly going to be the subject of most of the December summit. I saw a comment on Twitter a couple days ago that referred to Crucible as a 'tactical' expansion in preparation for the more 'strategic' stuff still to come. That's pretty accurate. As Mittens said, in the aftermath of the 'October War', everyone is gearing up for the inevitable 'Feature War'.

Will CCP stay the course? Based on what we've seen recently I'd say, for at least the next year, yes. What will happen over the next year is anyone's guess but, aside from the 20% stuff, morale within the office is way up primarily because folks are getting a chance to work on the things they've been banging their heads against the wall about for years. I'd say we're looking at a solid 12 months of full throttle EVE EVE EVE before CCP takes their foot off the gas. That's fine with me for now because when the people working on the game are doing stuff that they WANT to do and actually have the resources and mandate to do it on a level that's never existed before, we'll probably see EVE evolve quite a lot in the next year.

I'm not all starry-eyed and rainbows about it all, but the immediate future looks good and we should all do everything we can to use this opportunity to help get the game where we want it to be.

[Marlona Sky]

They should focus on changing the way combat works. Instead of 500 people focusing fire on one person; deciding who to shoot should be more strategic. Hundreds of people checking off the same target and seeing who can finish the list first is fucking retarded. A large battle involving hundreds of ships should consist of a hundred or so smaller battles.

[Yankunytjatjara]

Something that the CSM could bring up now, in the light of the re-subscriptions, is the proposal to publish the devblog in a crowdsourcing tool, or simply something like redmine or bugzilla.

Such a degree of transparency would be great for 's name with the bittervets. It would make it also a lot easier for everybody to follow what is going on.