Is This Going to be on the Test?

  CCP Tanis just posted a dev blog concerning the ever increasing efforts to combat lag in New Eden.  It looks like they have quite a bit of new gear in the toolkit which I hope makes their jobs a little easier; although I can't imagine all that data is fun to look at.  One of the really intersting bits is the upgraded test server complete with new and re-written debugging code which should make for improved testing all around.

  I also found it very interesting that the dev team plans to share more information about the testing results.

Information and transparency

One thing that we feel has been a shortcoming in our previous mass-testing exercises thus far is the lack of reports and information being relayed to you, the players of EVE. To remedy this, we will begin publishing the results of each test. Over time, we will add to what is being reported and, hopefully, even get a sub-site on eveonline.com to host the results from all these tests so that anyone can view results from recent tests, as well as historical results.

  While I will probably only glance at the reports every so often I have to say that any increase in information sharing is a welcomed improvement.  One of the only major complaints I have with the CCP team is the occasional lack of information about what is going on inside their world.  With that said, I still feel that CCP is probably one of the best communicators in the game industry and that they put a lot of effort into sharing information with us players.  To me, more is always better.

  The testing team still needs our involvement if we want to improve EvE but they will be making it a little easier on us by moving testing closer to prime time whenever possible.  They are also inviting Alliances to join up together whichshould help improve the numbers.  If you would like to stay up to date on planned testing the dev team has created a new in-game mailing list "Mass Testing Info", so don't forget to join up.
 
 
Dev Blog: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=728
Also, don't forget to join "Mass Testing Info" (mailing list) and hop on the test server when you can.


 
Getting on the test server
 Evolopedia guide to connecting to Singularity Start here, this contains everything you need to know about getting on to singularity.

Once you connect to the test server you will need to be in the test server chat channel "Singularity"

If you have trouble there are some additional rescources on the forum, start here: Singularity Post (some of this may be a bit out of date)

Getting The Beat Down

  I just got caught warping late by a pretty substantial -A- and UK fleet.


http://auf.griefwatch.net/index.php?p=details&kill=1835


  The lesson here?  Warp out more quickly when everyone else leaves the gate.  Also, avoid fleets with Ga'Len in them because the wondering druid will get you...

CrazyKinux's Blog Roll

It looks like I've made it onto CrazyKinux's blog roll over at http://www.crazykinux.com/2008/04/eve-online-blogroll-lovefest.html

That's pretty exciting and I hope I can continue to keep people entertained while they're bored at work (looking at you Gat).

Head on over to CrazyKinux's blog to find tons of good content including the Blog Banter articles and the blogroll along side CK's own posts.

~Note~ I have updated the links to include the CK's Blog Roll and my own blog feed to include almost all of the content in it.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

I was pointed to an interesting update on the Goon situation by a corpmate:

http://www.kugutsumen.com/content.php?39-goonswarm-breaking-news-update

It looks like either the Goons end comes via a of a taste of their own medicine, or a series of serious blunders have lead to collapse and PR damage control.  Either way nothing could be a more fitting end for Goonswarm.  I know they will return in a new form, just like BOB did, but not without some goon-tears along the way.  With the changes in Dominion making the large power blocks so vunerable, this year promises to be full of unrest in 0.0 politics.

It is more than a little poetic that Goonfleet will end alongside Band Of Brothers.  These two names have left their marks across the history of EvE and probably won't return as the powers they once were, but they have ended with Hollywood style.

Welcome to the Lag

  CCP Atlas just posted an interesting DevBlog concerning the degradation in fleet fight lag following Dominion.  The good news is that you aren't all crazy and the CCP team does know that Dominion has broken something in the hamster cage.  The bad news, at least in my opinion, is that the primary focus seems to be on keeping the node up and running during the fight.  While the Devs are working on both issues it appears they are more concerned with node stability than directly confronting lag.  I believe that both are serious issues but with node stability affecting all parties eqaully and lag often giving the upper hand to the first party to land in a system I feel that it should be the primary focus.  In any event; I am glad that the complete and utter pounding we took in D-GTMI gave the Devs so much data to analyze, considering that the lag so heavily affected that fight.

  On a related note CCP Atlas did share some tips for operating in high-lag environments. The major point he stresses is PATIENCE which is very important when your client is responding slowly.  Beyond that the guys in Fatal Ascension have been sharing their tips since the D-G fight and I thought I would post some of the tips on preemptively combatting lag that my CEO shared here:

The Client

  Can't See Can't Fight

  It is absolutely imperative you setup your client properly before a capital battle. You may be using a NASA supercomputer in some basement in a government complex in Florida, but that still does not mean you are going to have the bandwidth to function in a capital engagement with hundreds and hundreds of ships on the grid at one time.

• Turn off ALL effects.
• Turn down ALL graphics.
• Zoom out!
• Close unnecessary channels.
• Do NOT play in windowed mode.

The Overview
 Holy Brackets Batman

  You can easily find yourself lagged out for thirty seconds if you so much as flip over to a new tab in your overview that has all brackets showing in space. In addition to that, without a proper overview setup, you'll play hell even finding the primary target regardless of whether it has been broadcast or not. 

• Turn off ALL brackets on ALL tabs.
• ONLY reds and neutrals on your primary tab.
• Create the following overview settings:

•  Planets, Stations, Sun, Control Towers, No Ships
•  Only carriers
•  Only dreadnoughts
•  Only battleships
•  Only interdictors and heavy interdictors
•  Only super capitals

 ~Mendolus (AU-F CEO)

Edit: Manasi chipped in a few good ones which I can't believe I overlooked:

1) remove the timer animations from the HUD


2) ungroup your guns

Aside from turning off auto repeat the next most important thing to remember is to ungroup those guns.

Where are all the Goons?

  In the news this morning we have a bit of a breaking story.  It seems that Goonswarm has broken up in the dark hours of the night.  Of course we will all have to stay tuned to see as the true details of this come out.

  I am going to be watching the political fallout of this because it is going to be very interesting.  With the null sec regions of New Eden already burning fallowing the sovereignty changes in Dominion, this only adds fuel to the fire.  Will the former Band Of Brothers return to prominence in the region, or will some other power be able to beat them back?  I suppose we will all have to stay tuned.

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3683&tid=7

The Fight for D-GTMI

  For once circumstances lined up properly and I was able to participate in the CTA to protect D-GTMI yesterday.  Sadly it did not go as well as I had hoped; in the end we were not able to hold the system as we battled a superior force and incredible lag.

  As our forces gathered in the staging area spirits were generally high throughout the fleet.  We had large numbers and I found myself in a battlecruiser sub-fleet of more than 200 pilots.  I had hoped to get a battleship to the fight but timing was just not on my side with that.  After staging was prolonged by a server reboot we were able to titan-bridge into D-GTMI and I loaded the POS grid surprisingly quickly.  In forming up for battle I felt as if, by some miracle, the node would be able to do this; boy was I wrong. 

  As the battle began I got word from a corp-mate flying in the capital fleet that they were under attack.  It seems that the newer capital pilots were struggling to properly fly their ships and losses began to mount unnecessarily.  As the lag hit many in the capital fleet were disconnected; unable to login again most of them only learned about the fate of their ships through the killboards.

  We got the order to warp to the FSW gate and take out the anchored warp disruption bubbles before turning to the SBU.  As we arrived some pilots began to load the grid but during the whole fight I was never able to fully load all of the enemy pilots.  After removing some pilots from the field we focused on the warp disruption generators and took them out.  With our dreadnaughts still on the field we turned to the SBU but at this point the lag was truly becoming a problem.  Personally I was able to get off a grand total of 3 more shots over the next half hour, even with my settings designed strictly for lag reduction.  Despite the complete inability to actually fire at the SBU we continued our effort to destroy it untill Atlas reinforcements arrived and our own dreadnoughts were removed.  I finally loaded the enemy dreadnoughts as they were already warping away from the battle, then we got the heads up that 100-150 sniping battleships were jumping in.  As we began to load those battleships our fleet was ordered to retreat as the fight was largely lost by now.

  Our force was outnumbered and in some cases outflown.  In combination with the horrible lag we experienced there was little to be done but fight to the bitter end.  The combined enemy fleet did an excellent job in this engagement and won the day.  I did see Wensley of Rifter Drifter fame fighting in red fleet so I look forward to his report.

  As we received the after action update from command the station fell and I commited ritual suicide in my despair (actually just to get home but that sounds much more grand).

  I would like to note that our fleet commander (CVA Battlecruiser Fleet) did an exceptional job of managing a group that included many pilots participating in their first true fleet action.  I would like to commend his patience and leadership.