EVE-Online: Tyrannis Expansion Announced (Planetary Exploration)

[crimsonheadGCN]

Well, looks like EVE Online will finally have planetary exploration. No planetary combat is planned for the expansion though:

EVE Online: Tyrannis Announced
Feb 19, 2010 at 11:40 AM - Andrew Burnes - 3 Comments

Out this Summer, EVE Online: Tyrannis (http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=733&sp_rid=MzA1NTUxODc5NgS2&sp_mid=34643329) will allow players to build facilities on a planet's surface for the purpose of generating minerals, and ultimately, ISK:

For a long time we have had people asking us for more options to build up their own infrastructure. It‘s something that comes up frequently at Fanfest, in past CSMs and during casual conversations with players. There seems to be some deep Freudian desire to erect something monumental. To make stuff. To create something new. At last Fanfest we announced our plans to allow you, the pod-pilots of New Eden, to shift your foci away from the heavens for a moment, onto the planets. In Dominion, we gave the planets a facelift, updating the graphics with beautiful landscapes, awe inspiring deserts, peaceful Ewok-friendly green worlds and violent burning lava fields. But that was just eye candy, right? Well, not quite. In our upcoming expansion, Tyrannis, ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS.

OMG did you say all of the planets!?

That‘s right, you will finally be able to survey for juicy deposits of minerals and other goodies, build infrastructure to harvest them, store them, process them and launch them into space. Build complex networks of facilities and fine tune them for optimal production. All in a very massive single shard sandboxy way as only EVE can provide. And it‘s not just the terran planets. It‘s ALL OF THEM. The gas giants, the lava planets, the ice worlds, the water worlds and even the elusive plasma planets. Each type with their unique properties. Maintaining facilities on gruesomely hostile planets will be tougher and more demanding, but the rewards may be so much more “onturning.”

More will be revealed in upcoming blogs and on our test server, Singularity. Make note however that Singularity is a test server, primarily intended for testing of code in development and nothing is final until it hits Tranquility. All graphics, UI, balancing and mechanics are subject to change, iteration and polish...

Is there combat on planets?

No, not in this expansion. This expansion is about exploration and industry. When something goes bad or breaks it is because of the owner‘s mismanagement, and when things are awesome and perfect, it is because of skill and hard labor on part of the player that runs the facilities.

In future expansions you will be able to project military force for attack and defense of planetary installations. That will be where DUST 514 will connect with EVE. But DUST 514 will not be coming out at the same time as Tyrannis, so that is at a later date.

Overall improvements

We are working on other optimizations and improvements throughout the game, as usual with our expansions. A task force is working on reducing fleet fight lag, often working deep into the night chasing action around on TQ, while another team is developing an advanced simulation environment for load testing on our local servers.

There is a sense of excitement in the air here at CCP. Today our development teams finished the first of their three week sprints, ending in a demo where we saw parts of the both the planetary feature and EVE Gate already running, with mocked up UI and graphics. Our engineers, artists and designers are deeply committed to continue to deliver a compelling EVE experience to all of our players, deepening the game with exciting new functionality while iterating, polishing and improving existing systems and code. We truly look forward to delivering Tyrannis to you. Soon.

http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/thumbs/06/28/62811_thumb.jpg (http://ve3d.ign.com/images/62811/PC/EVE-Online-Special-Edition)http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/thumbs/06/28/62810_thumb.jpg (http://ve3d.ign.com/images/62810/PC/EVE-Online-Special-Edition)

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/53228/EVE-Online-Tyrannis-Announced

[driv4r]

That sounds good - even more to explore :)

And it is kinda obvious that there is some sort of interaction with planets in universe (instead of them being just unaccessible places for moons and stations to orbit around), I think it is good time for New Eden to get into next level of realism. Hope there will be life on planets one day, not just for exploration, mining and other methods of making money but for purpose of living. Because it is a bit strange that all the pilots in the universe live in stations, which are owned by corporations, universities etc. Everyone basically lives at work, no private life at all. I hope you get my point, if not then ♥♥♥♥ off!!! Just joking :D

It is probably too much to ask now and there are more important things to implement/fix/improve but maybe in a year or two...

[spire17]

So is it going to be like you can click on the planet and see a list of facilities you can put on it? Or are you going to be able to fly around on the planets?

[pureobscure]

It would be pretty sweet to be able to build corporate facilities on the planets. A great alternative to a POS.

And a direct tie-in with DUST that allows you to go into FPS mode when your planet-based facility is attacked, might just make it the greatest game ever.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

screw the planets thing... i wanna be able to fly my frigate like i'm in X-wing vs TIE fighter...

[Goggalor]

Great, basically a Civ IV withing EVE, as if I'm not already addicted.

[rumplemintz]

screw the planets thing... i wanna be able to fly my frigate like i'm in X-wing vs TIE fighter...

Never gonna happen, the point-n-click mod' style is probably going to be around a long time. This expansion caught my interest, but nothing quite interesting enough to make me pay again. It's just an MMO thing...too much time, too much grind, now if someone could make the grind fun...

[Disodium]

Obtaining pixels can only be so fun. :)

[Col. Hamilton]

This would be awesome, on a side note I'd rather put my beam laser to the back of a goons head and pull the trigger however many times it takes to empty the capacitor.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

at that close range a pulse laser would be better then a beam laser...

[pureobscure]

^ a full salvo of T2 weapons. It's the only way to be sure.

[phxbadash]

screw the planets thing... i wanna be able to fly my frigate like i'm in X-wing vs TIE fighter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOJIyTHgwGQ

Watch this...then tell me it makes sense to fly thise ships with a joystick.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

it makes sense to fly the frigates with a joystick... it'll be just like flying the x-wing against a star destroyer...

[spire17]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOJIyTHgwGQ

Watch this...then tell me it makes sense to fly thise ships with a joystick.

There is a lot of space in space. Should be easy to move around with a joy stick.

[phxbadash]

The smallest of ships in EVE are as big as a 747, how often do you see 747's dogfighting?

This isn't about the amount of space available it's about the size of the ships, they don't have cockpits they have bridges get it?

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

all ships are controlled by a your pod... learn to eve...

[phxbadash]

Capsuleers are relatively new to the EVE lore, before that ships had full bridges and crews.

Even still anything larger that a frigate still has a crew according to eve lore. Learn to backstory.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

all i said is i want frigates, so bigger ships are irrelevant... learn to read posts...

[phxbadash]

Frigates are not small ships, no player flyable ship is.

Beyond that is the fact that ships in EVE use turrets which can hit at 360 degrees so having a bridge view is pointless and frankly would be a disadvantage.

what you want is a game like freelancer where the ships are tiny compared to the ships in EVE.

or Dust514 maybe.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

don't forget the missiles... if you actually asked me to elaborate a little i have already thought about the turrets that can hit in a 3D half spere, not just 2D 360 circle and how it could be balanced...

also the size of the ship is not important in space, as long as you have the thrust to propel the vessel and manoeuvre it, the ship can be large but also quite agile.

[phxbadash]

I can't even begin do describe how badly you don't understand both the game or physics in general.

Firstly the turrets in EVE fire within two 360 3D hemisphere's on on top and one bottom, depending on where the target is located either the top OR the bottom turrets with fire but not both. Essentially turrets come in pairs.

As for the size of a ship in space not mattering, totally wrong. In order to start moving in space you need to apply a certain amount of thrust in whatever direction you want to move and in order to stop you need to apply the exact same amount of thrust in the opposite direction. The more mass the object has the more inertia it will possess and the more inertia it has the less maneuverable it will be.

[T@T-2-MoNk3y]

i have been playing the game for over a year, i do get it...

you stated turrets cover 360 degrees which is just 2 dimensional thinking.

turrets can also be paired on the sides of ships... see apoc, geddon, rev etc...
1 single turret fires in a 3D half sphere, its matching turret covers the 3D sphere which is blocked by your ships hull.

i get the whole mass linked to inertia, and needing more force to change it's direction.
i stated if you have sufficient thrust you can make it manoeuvrable.

i mentioned the size of a ship, not the mass...

btw you thrust in the opposite direction you want to go... you want to go forwards, your engines thrusters fire backwards...

[hamzta09]

There is a lot of space in space. Should be easy to move around with a joy stick.

Youre not gonna fly a slow battleship with a joystick.. whats the fun of that? The only ships worthy of flying with a joystick would be frigs and destroyers and perhaps all other super tiny ships.

[Jadolerr]

It doesn't have to make sense to fly with a joystick. Its more about putting you into the game rather than flying with double click of the mouse. Although I still don't see joystick for combat all that much unless maybe for the real small ships, but it seems to be built around ordering the ship around to do stuff with the mouse.

[phxbadash]

well beyond that factor the other reason is that joystick and wasd input takes considerably more bandwidth than the mouse-click movement does because it's constantly sending positional updates to both the server and ultimately EVERY other player on grid. For every player you add to the grid the amount of data transfer needed goes up exponentially. It's one of the reasons why the game is able to have battles with hundreds of people in the same grid.

[DHAMPIR]

This has been asked by may a player. The fact is that the game would need a huge amount of changes to allow for the joystick to be useful. Also for the turrets on cruisers and larger to work would need some sort of auto fire and drones would need a new command interface. Put nicly lag city also its not like we need it.

Back to the topic.

The interface with planets is the first stage for linking in to dust. By bring out the industy option early there will be something to take over for dust players. When they have added dust we can start taking over planets using other people.

I hear that there maybe planet bombment instead of taking over a planet we can just blow up those nice people below. However that is a rumor take it with a bit of salt. (My idea hire some one to take it then bomb them)

We then may get that walking in stations thing they been banging on about. However CCP have said no killing (dam no groting the ceo).

[ProjectExile94]

Wow Awesome now I want EVE Online even more :)