EVE: Tyrannis Explored

EVE Online, the space-based single-server MMO where players take to the skies in a craft, form alliances and corporations, and execute Machiavellian schemes and takeovers, is possibly the most complex game there is. With an entirely player-driven economy, thousands of star-systems and only a single server to house tens of thousands of players, EVE's complexity is also its biggest hurdle -- a fact that not even EVE's developers at CCP Games deny. The learning curve for EVE, although made a little smoother thanks to the tutorial added in Dominion, is still almost vertical, and the players that make up the 330,000 odd subscribers tend to swing to the extremely-hardcore end of the gaming spectrum. Come May 18th, with the launch of EVE: Tyrannis, CCP is going to add yet another layer of complexity to EVE's intricate quilt.

"For Tyrannis there will be two cornerstone features, one of which is EVE Gate – which is basically Facebook for EVE," Tony Gonzales, CCP's IP Manager told us. EVE Gate allows players to message each other from outside the game, allowing players to communicate from both within and outside the game. EVE Gate shares so many qualities with Facebook in fact -- like status updates -- that it is even referred to within CCP as "Spacebook."

"What we wanted to do was make this community grow organically and make this community that was already there stronger." EVE Gate profiles are linked to a player's in-game profile. As such, the ability to interact with other players will become a great deal simpler, and the temptation to infiltrate and sabotage your rivals – something EVE is known for – even more tempting. Gonzalez also envisions EVE Gate as a means to streamline the economic side of things. Players will be able to remain in contact with alliance and corporation members even while at work or while commuting, allowing the people still in-game to tip them off to the best deals on EVE's active commodity market.

For now, EVE Gate is strictly going to be a social platform, but other uses may be introduced down the line. "In terms of priority list an EVE mobile platform keeps getting bumped down because of the time constraints of putting out two expansions a year," Gonzales informed us. "At some point you'll be able to check your skills and check manufacturing jobs." It's unlikely that players will ever be able to tamper with their skills outside of the game, though, as they still want players to log in.

EVE Gate is only the first part of Tyrannis, however. The other "cornerstone feature," and the feature that most players are both excited for and anxious about, is "planetary interaction." "Planetary interaction is being launched in light of the announcement we made at GDC Europe last August – that we're doing a console title called DUST 514 that's going to link to EVE Online. We want meaningful interactions between the both of them." The first step, he told us, was to make planets significant to players, to give them a reason to want to fight over them. The reason in this instance, as with many conflicts both within and outside of EVE, is money.

EVE Online's planets, once little more than enormous and decorative set pieces, are now a source of raw materials, as well as a potential location for manufacturing and distribution lines. Players will be able to set up installations that harvest five randomized base materials, and – if they're clever, careful, and resourceful -- will be able to produce highly sought-after items such as Nanite Paste and Starship Fuel. "Before you add a combat layer to things, you better be damn sure that planets fit into the game's economy. We have created something that caters to the industrialists, the traders and the manufacturers of the game," Gonzales said, before acknowledging that the economy-side of the game had been "ignored" as of late, with combat being the focus of more recent updates.

So how does it work? Players begin by approaching a planet – any planet at all – and scanning the surface. A heat-map shows up, with high-yield areas tinted red, areas devoid of resources not tinted at all, and areas with middling yields tinted anywhere from green to orange. Players then choose a spot to throw down a command module, which is capable of basic extraction and shipping, but is primarily used as a source of power and processing for other, more specialized modules that players link up. Modules also include extractors to pull out the resources, which are typically linked to starports which fly resources to a hangar that floats in orbit above the planet. Finally, manufacturing plants can turn the resources into something more useful before being brought to the hangar. "The gameplay is designed to be a lot like civilization," Gonzales said, noting that each individual aspect was quite simple, but to get them to work in unison and at an optimal level is much more complex.