CCP's giving every EVE Online player a free facelift in January, courtesy of the game's new character creation tool slated for release with the third part of the Incursion expansion on January 18th. We've got four exclusive before-and-after shots of player avatars that highlight the huge graphical update, and a brief Q&A with the brains behind its development.

Amarr male


PCG: What was your biggest goal that you had in mind when you set about remaking the character creation tool?

Craig Scott, Senior Game Designer: We wanted to push the boundaries with what a character creation system could be, both in terms of fidelity of the characters and the user interface. The characters had to look amazing. It’s that simple--we wanted to make them look as good and then better than what is out there now. As for the interface, we knew there had to be a better, more immersive way of customizing a character than a wall of sliders. Sculpting the characters face directly seemed like the most personal and artistic way of doing so.

Sveinbjörn Magnússon, Art Producer: It had to be the best….. Nothing more. Nothing less.

PCG: Was there anything in the process that proved to be particularly more difficult than anticipated?

Magnússon: Often it is what you think of as the simple things. Tying all the small elements together and taking that extra step from great to perfect.

Scott: I agree. The devil’s in the details. We nailed down the big stuff pretty quickly but the details they took a bit longer. It was a case of taking all the elements we had and making them fit together into one cohesive and useable whole. When making anything new, we were thrown a few curve balls during development features that we thought would be really easy. Those easy additions came back to bite us pretty hard, but even they were worth the pain--they made us step back from what we were doing and re-evaluate things in a way that lead to a better solution .

Caldari female


PCG: What existing character creation tools did you look towards as good examples of what could be done when redesigning your own?

Magnússon: I would say that we were set on making it unique and more immersive than other games and based on the original ideas from the old character creation system.

Scott: Playing with Mario’s face at the beginning of Mario 64 was the first time I saw the potential for using the character itself as an way of manipulating how it looked. I would be lying if I didn’t say we didn’t look at APB as the pinnacle of character customization systems when we first started, yet we didn’t quite take direct inspiration from it. It became more the benchmark we’d use to determine our success, if that makes sense.

PCG: Is there a way to calculate exactly how many different variations a player could possibly build in the new tool? If so, what’s the number?

Scott: It makes my head hurt thinking about this the variety of characters we are getting out of the system , but to give you an idea we have over 10,000 NPC agents in EVE. We are using the new character customization system to create them and they all look unique and they are just scratching the surface of the amount of variation available.

Magnússon: I would say no. You can do so many different things that the permutations are staggering.

Gallente male


PCG: Are you 100% content with the tool as it stands now? Is there anything you have in mind that you want to update in the future?

Magnússon: You can never be 100% content with how it stands, always wanting more time for polishing and perfection. For future updates we will have to see. There are of course a lot of thing that we want to-do, but only time will tell.

Scott:Yep. No matter how good it is just now we would love more time to polish it, so we won’t ever be 100% content. There are a number of thing swirling rounds in our head about how we can make it better and what additions it deserves but I can’t say too much other than it will make it even better.

Minmatar female


Update: See the character creation tool in action with these two player-made videos.

Those lucky subscribers already know because they've heard the pleasing sound of an issue of PC Gamer UK sliding through their letterboxes, but the remainder of you will be delighted to discover that our latest issue hits shelves today. Read on to discover its secrets...


Yes, it might have released back in 2003, but the seminal MMORPG EVE Online has been evolving ever since. We sent Rich to Iceland so he could catch up on the latest from developers CCP. Turns out they’ve been busy and still have a five-year plan of concepts and mechanics that they’re yet to implement. That’s a half a decade of content folks, all deciphered by Rich’s brain, using words.

But don’t fret if you have no interest in space, or MMOs. We still love you. We've got our hands on the most exciting games coming to PC and written hands-on previews just for you: Crysis 2, Total War: Shogun, Guild Wars 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Batman: Arkham City all feature.

Then there's our Game Of The Year Awards. 2010 proved the PC's strength and diversity. We reward PC Gaming's new classics over 18 pages. You might be surprised at some of the choices too.

Onto the reviews; recently described by a reader as “simply astonishing”. This month you’ll get our verdicts on Call of Duty: Black Ops, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Deathspank and more.

In our Extra Life section, Jaz searches for a wooden leg in Arcania: Gothic 4, Tom writes a letter to God after taking Supreme Commander to the next level, and Craig feels the true stress of a Football Manager. We take a look back at League Of Legends in Update and suck all the replay value out of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.

You can buy the magazine and have it delivered with free postage right here, but if you're the kind of person who likes getting things early, for minimum of effort, why not subscribe?

This is major Tom to ground control. Five sets of Eve Online prizes have been secured and are ready to be distributed to five lucky PC Gamer readers. The goods secured are of the highest quality. Repeat: highest quality, including three months of Eve Online game time, the Eve Online board game, a deck of poker cards and fine canvas carrier bag. Requesting permission to pose readers a question so that we can proceed with giving these great prizes away ASAP? Over.

This is ground control to major Tom. Roger that. Permission granted.


Three whole months of Eve Online game time is up for grabs. That's plenty of time to grow from being a rookie to a card carrying corporation member, cruising through the lawless regions of space in a spaceship bristling with cannons and bad attitude. Or maybe you'd rather set up your own mining emporium, or dabble in some corporate espionage. Whether you want to be a spy or a space pirate, Eve's universe offers plenty of opportunities to ruthless adventurers.



If you like your space operas to take place on a larger scale you'll likely enjoy the Eve Conquests board game. Two to four players can take control of one of Eve's major factions and battle with each other for control of the universe. With 400 sculpted game pieces and a huge game board that contains more than 60 areas to command, the Eve board game offers space strategy on a grand scale.



We won't be able to see Eve's characters wandering around space stations until next year's Incarna update, but until then we can imagine what immortal spacers get up to in their free time. I bet it involves seedy space station bars, a few tumblers of whiskey and long nights of poker. If Eve's characters were to play poker, they would play with this stylish deck of Eve Online cards. Each card is adorned with artwork depicting a different class of starship from the game.



This heavy duty Eve canvas carrier bag is almost rugged enough to survive the vacuum of space. It comes with plenty of pockets and its sizeable main compartments should be big enough for small laptops and netbooks, perfect if you're looking to do some gaming on the go.

Here's how to win. In Eve Online, spacers learn new skills just like we would. They buy books full of knowledge. This being the future, they then inject those books into their brains and absorb the knowledge over a day or so. Your task is to post in the comment thread below with a new skill book that you'd inject into your brain to help survive the universe of Eve Online. The funniest entries will scoop one of each of the above prizes, and remember, you must live in the UK to enter. Winners will be announced at midday tomorrow. We've got five sets to give away so get inventing.

We've got some great prizes lined up next week, with new competitions daily all the way up until Christmas day. Keep checking back for your chance to win.




Winners!

talon03

Lukasa

RobCoxxy

Randomcheese

JonnyBoy74

The second major segment of the free, three-part Incursion expansion for Eve Online will go live tomorrow. The update will give all players the new Echelon ship and remove all learning skills from the game. Read on for more details.

In Eve Online, skills aren't earned through experience, they're trained over a period of time. Learning skills would let players gradually increase their character's attributes, allowing them to train other skills faster. As of tomorrow they will be gone. CCP decided that the long term return for learning skills wasn't good enough, and that they ultimately added unnecessary complication to player advancement. As well as reimbursing skillpoints, CCP will be giving all players extra attribute points to ensure that nobody trains slower as a result of the changes

There's a full FAQ on the Eve website explaining the ins and outs of the decision to scrap learning skills. Like many things in Eve Online, it involves graphs. Check out the patch notes for an overview of the changes tomorrow's update will bring, and the Eve Online blog post for more information on the new ship. The update was due to go live today, but technical issues have delayed the patch for 24 hours.

On December 14th Eve pilots will get a very special gift from space-santa in the form of a brand spanking new Echelon class spaceship. Read on for an overview of the new vessel and information on how to retrieve the prize.



The new ship will be available to anyone who logs in between December 14th and January 3rd 2011, and can be applied to one character of your choosing. It won't work with trial accounts, however.

The Echelon is a Frigate class vessel that sounds as though it has some handy espionage abilities. here's how CCP describe the new vessel: "Constructed in secrecy, the Echelon is a minor masterpiece of engineering, integrating otherwise incomprehensible Sansha technology into a frigate-class capsuleers vessel. The advanced cryptographic processors on board provide superior hacking capabilities for use on most known password-secured devices. However, the true beauty of the Echelon is in the adaptive synchronization of capsuleers and Sansha codebreaking components, creating a system predicted to give capsuleers an edge over even the strongest of the Nation's encryption locks."

For details on how to claim your free ship come December 14th, check out the guide on the Eve Online site. Hopefully it'll have that lovely new spaceship smell.

A new edition of Eve Online aimed at new players is set to be released in the UK this Friday. The Commissioned Officer edition will come at a budget price, and will give new characters free stat-boosting brain implants. The new edition won't offer anything new for players who already have characters, but if you've always fancied trying CCP's interstellar MMO, the new edition could be a good way to get started.

The Commissioned Officer edition will only be available in stores, but comes with a poster's worth of introductory tips and tricks for new players. The Cerebral Accelerator can be used on the first character created on an account, and grants a considerable boost to all of that character's abilities for 30 days. The edition also comes with a free 30 day subscription to get things started.

With the gradual addition of the Incursion update happening over the next few months, it's a great time to create a pilot and jump in. For more information about the game, check out the Eve Online site. The Commissioned Officer Edition has been out in the states for a few weeks, but will be released in the UK this Friday and will cost £15.

The first part of the three stage Incursion update for Eve Online is due to go live tomorrow. CCP have released a massive list of changes, including details on the new Noctis class salvaging ship.

The Noctis has been specifically designed for salvage work, with a large cargo hold and faster tractor beams. Check out the Eve Online dev blog for the low down on the new vessel.

Most of the changes are aimed at fixing bugs and implementing changes the community have been requesting. Some of the most important of these include optimisation tweaks that should reduce the lag many players have been experiencing in large fleet fights.

Other changes include a boost to rocket damage and a collection of UI improvements. The full patch notes can be found on the Eve Online site.

Eve Online developers CCP are planning to introduce the sale of vanity items such as additional clothing and furniture to their space-warfare sim, with plans to sell further features further down the line.
CCP employee Zulu made the announcement on the Eve Online blog, saying "Virtual goods sales in EVE Online will evolve through sales of vanity items, first in Incarna but later in-space features. The scope will be (and there‘s no design has been done around this, we‘re just talking strategy now) that anything that doesn‘t affect gameplay directly can be, potentially, sold for PLEX or other means."

Talking about the kinds of objects that could be sold, Zulu mentions "clothing and furniture, logos on spaceships and swapping out portraits. This is by no means a comprehensive list, nor is it a commitment that said items will be available for sale, I mention these as an example for what type of items we‘re thinking about."

Zulu also explains CCP's thinking behind the new direction: "It‘s important to clarify that virtual goods sales isn‘t an arbitrary - or particularly greedy - decision. There is a constantly decreasing number of MMO‘s out there that don‘t incorporate virtual goods sales at some level. - games that aren't responding to this trend are dying out." He adds "if we don‘t react to the wishes of the market we will simply become the dinosaurs of the industry. And everyone knows what happens to dinosaurs."

The news comes ahead of the release of the first part of the new Incursion update, scheduled to hit on November 30th.

Eve Online's latest expansion, Incursion, will unleash the Sansha race upon the universe. Many sectors will suffer attacks from huge fleets of the invading aliens, and it'll be up to Eve Online's players to fight back against the invading menace. The Sansha are the subject of an epic new trailer, full of scenes of incredi-space pew-pew that Eve does so well. That trailer is embedded below.
Eve Online's Incursion expansion was recently split into three parts, to be released incrementally over the next few months. The first update is set to go live on November 30th, and is will bring some much requested lag fixes to the game, along with new missions. For more information on the update, check out the Eve Incursion blog. The full invasion is set to start in January next year, and it'll look something like this:

Eve's free Incursion update was supposed to be arriving later this month, but CCP have changed their plans, and are now planning to release the update in three stages, with the biggest update set to arrive early next year.
CCP have said they're delaying the release based on player feedback from recent playtests, saying that major aspects of the expansion, such as the huge PvE event, the Sansha invasion, "needs more polish" before it can be released. With that in mind, CCP have decided to release the update in three installments. The first will hit on November 30th and has been labelled the "precursor release". CCP have said that most of the following changes will make it into the first Incursion release at the end of the month:

80 new story line courier missions
Rocket balancing
Tech 2 ammo balancing
Adding faction ships to the market
Fighter bomber missile visual effects changes
Anti-aliasing support
Window resizing, camera offset
Meta-item indicator icons
UI optimization to contract delivery filtering
Cargo can now be dragged to hangar by dropping on Neocom
Toggling probes in overview
POS gunners now receive notifications about control towers under attack
Sorting deliveries according to distance in jumps or regional locations
Unique icons for Microwarpdrives and Afterburners

After that, there will be another release just before Christmas, though CCP haven't revealed what's planned for that update. The bulk of the new PvE content, in the form of the huge Sansha incursion that will see most of Eve's universe invaded by alien forces, should arrive early next year, along with the revamped Incarna character creator. For further explanation, check out the Eve Online blog post explaining the plans.