With the elections for the 9^th Council of Stellar Management (CSM9) coming to a close in 5 days, at Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd, we at CCP and the CSM wanted to help players get a better idea of the role that the CSM plays every day and how much they contribute the development of EVE Online.

If this dev blog piques your interest in voting, you can find a list of all the candidates and their platforms here, and the ballot itself here. If you’d like more information on the voting system, you can find it in our previous dev blog here.

Ali Aras and the rest of CSM8 have come together to give a short glimpse into the daily life of a member of the CSM.

A Day in the Life of CSM 8

EVE is real, and this is particularly true on the CSM. We are engaged in an election to office that involves in-game political skill and divisions, but once elected, participate in a role that feels more real-life than spaceships, especially when you're staring at your colleagues across a table.

It seeps into your real life, too, in a way that EVE uniquely can. The beginning of the day varies wildly based on one's time zone and whether or not we have a meeting. Sprint Reviews, in which we meet with Team Five-O once every other week for ~30 minutes, are the usual regular source of meetings. When other issues come up, we'll get pulled in, but those are harder to predict. For a hot enough issue, CCP Dolan sends a mail on <24 hours notice and we're left with whoever can make it -- and usually, the shorter the notice, the more important the meeting.

Either way, you wake up and read back on what you've missed from the night before. For euro CSMs, that's all the USTZ babbling that takes place, mostly between CSMs. For USTZ, you wake up halfway (or most of the way) through the Icelandic workday, and there's usually EUTZ business to catch up on. Our Skype channels are active, both with us talking to each other, and talking to the CCPers who just hang out. Occasionally, one of the dedicated Skype channels-- no social stuff, just business-- will have messages, and that's an even higher priority read. Devs hang out in Skype, even on evenings and weekends, meaning if there's a high-priority issue you can often get ahold of *someone*, as long as it's not 3am (and sometimes, even then).

Then it's off to the forums. The internal CSM forum is fairly active, with a few topics harboring discussion at most times. Most are started by CCP, and contain devblogs or features CCP are working on. Others (fewer) are started by CSM, as a way of preserving a topic launched on Skype and trying to get it to go places. These are the times when CSM gets the opportunity to bring something to CCP's attention and advocate for necessary changes for the community.

To get those issues from the community, CSM members have to spend some time engaged and talking to other players. This might be on #tweetfleet, on the forums themselves, on evemails, on Skype, on podcasts and blogs, on coalition services, or flying around in the game itself. It's necessary time, and if you stop putting it in, you find yourself losing touch and the people you talk to more frustrated.

While the CSM does a lot of communication from community in to CCP, bringing that advocacy back out of the internal forums is tricky, as the NDA hides the bulk of the work we do. To get around that requires a place to land it, and so we link threads in Skype and point out that these are issues that could really use a response, even if it's just a "we know and we can't get there yet".

This goes on throughout the day. Skype has the neat property where it will give you full history for a channel, even if you close the program and walk away, so it's common for CSM and CCP devs to drop in and drop out. The rhythm of activity follows Icelandic working hours, with conversations slowing after some devs sign off, and then picking up again when USTZ CSMs talk to each other after getting home. It's active, and busy, and hard to make visible, but here's an attempt: “4129 lines in the main CSM/CCP Skype channel this month, of which 60% are CSM and 40% are CCP.17 threads in internal forums active this month. Six are Industry threads relating to summer expansion, and the others are scattered: two CSM threads, a few longer-term areas of feedback, a few upcoming changes.3 meetings so far this month: one sprint review, two others.”

This covers a period (April 1st to now) where there haven't been any big EVE controversies, just active work on preparing for the upcoming Summer release. If we scrolled back to March, it gets louder. It's a madhouse, but it's worth it to see your ideas and your feedback have a real impact on GM Policy, marketing efforts, account services discussions, and most importantly the game.

CCP Perspective

CCP has the advantage of having quite a few more developers than CSM members so, aside from myself, most developers have intermittent contact with the CSM. However, when I asked for some developer’s opinions on the value of the CSM, I received an overwhelming number of positive replies. I have included some of them below to help give a sense of how valued the CSM is in our development process.

GM Pyro – Customer Service Manager

I’ve only recently found the need to run something past the CSM for their viewpoint for a project I was working on. They really opened my eyes to just how useful they can be for the customer service department and even for the company as a whole. Since then, I keep the CSM in mind for other projects that I am working on and recommend others to talk to them too.

CCP Ytterbium – Senior Game Designer

The CSM is an invaluable asset to validate designs for EVE Online – as representatives of the player base, they bring the discussion from an angle we are not always fully aware about, give much needed feedback on feature changes before they go for public review, or even spontaneously come up with good ideas that add value to our concepts.

Over the past 3 months, the CSM 8 advised designers on those particular topics:

•             Reprocessing changes

•             Nosferatu changes

•             Corporation roles

•             Drone assist

•             Ship balancing

•             Pirate faction ship rebalance

•             Remote dampener changes

•             Drone regen nerfs

•             Heat changes

•             Dev Blogs

•             Summer release features, to be revealed later

If you think the CSM has no value except as a free ride to Iceland, you are wrong. If you think the CSM are only pushing changes in favor of null-security cartels, voice your opinion and vote for someone you feel represents you to your best interest.

CCP Arrow – Game Design Director

The 8th CSM has been extremely productive and helpful this past year. They have been available almost 24/7 to answer questions and give input on design research and ideas. A special thanks to Ali for her passion and interest in New Player Experience improvements and focus group efforts.

CCP Goliath – Quality Assurance Director

My dealings with CSM 8 have been fewer than with their predecessors, but in many ways more productive.  From the offset they established themselves as helpful, forthcoming individuals that could debate internally and present a cohesive view on a problem or issue where asked.  Chitsa Jason and Ali Aras were especially useful in gathering information and reproduction cases on a few defects, particularly early in the term.  Their collective input into devblogs is a service I have come to not only enjoy, but extol the virtues of around the office.  Overall, your delegates of CSM 8 should feel very proud of themselves in having discharged their duties adequately, collaboratively, and (for the most part) professionally.

CCP Manifest – Senior PR and Social Media Lead

Over the years I’ve witnessed the CSM grow and mature as an organization through hard work on both sides of the aisle and via very very frank conversations where no punches were pulled but goodwill prevailed. While each Council has its own personality, the institution as a whole has definitely become more useful in helping to improve and nurture EVE Online. I’ve leapt in and out of active communication with the current council on a near-wikipedic variety of subjects, and I have found them to be strangely wise, very thoughtful and imminently available for conversation. They have a good perspective on a lot of things and have been able to keep their CSM duties nearly politic-free, which means they are more representative than 95% of non-internetspaceship politicians. I hope the next council is able to carry their legacy forward and find ways to improve what is already great communication with both the dev team and the playerbase.

CCP SoniClover – Senior Game Designer

I’ve communicated a fair amount with CSM 8 over the course of the last year, in person at the summits and over the net through the internal forums and Skype. I’ve been constantly impressed by the high level of dedication and professionalism shown by the members of the CSM. They’re always prompt to answer, are not afraid to voice their concerns and opinions and have a solid knack for combining constructive feedback with their own suggestions and ideas. All of this taken together has demonstrated quite clearly to me that the CSM is a valuable part of the development process for EVE, making sure that everything we release is of higher quality than otherwise would be the case.

CCP Xhagen – Associate Producer (and former CSM Coordinator)

After years of working with the CSM and seeing the institution grow and evolve, I can no longer imagine making and running EVE Online without the CSM.

CCP Bettik – Senior Content Designer

The CSM enriches each day of my life.

CCP Loktofeit – Copywriter/Editor

This past Fanfest, I had the chance to talk shop with Trebor about the CSM and the work they do. The powerful force that is the combination of sandbox, community and player passion in EVE Online became so much more evident. If you’re an EVE player and you’re not tossing your vote in the ring at election time, you’re nuts. 

CCP Spitfire – Global Sales Specialist

The Council of Stellar Management has been instrumental in the creation of EVE: The Second Decade Collector’s Edition. We have consulted with the CSM from the very beginning of the project, and it is fair to say that some popular elements of the Collector’s Edition would not have made it into the box if not for the delegates’ suggestions. The CSM is a great stakeholder for us, and their input is not limited to the development of the game itself.

GM Grave – Customer Support Project Lead

The CSM have been vital in representing the interests of our customers to CCP, thus enabling us to discuss current and future polices and how they align to the needs of the customer, our service values and game integrity.

CCP Merovingian – Software Engineer

Being new to the EVE team at CCP I found that being involved in some of the CSM sessions and hearing from the members was incredibly helpful and insightful for me. I think they are an essential part of the ecosystem and community that is EVE Online.

CCP Guard – Community Developer

EVE is a bustling universe and the CSM has been invaluable in helping me keep up with what’s going on at times. The community does a good job of selecting knowledgeable people with sound judgment which I’m thankful to have access to for advice and early feedback.

CCP Falcon – EVE Community Manager

The CSM remains an indispensable tool for ensuring that the voices of our players are heard by our development staff. The Council also acts as a rock solid sanity check for development direction and gauging community sentiment. The election process ensures that candidates with a broad range of experience in EVE Online are elected, and since coming to CCP, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with the CSM on a number of projects and utilizing their expertise and knowledge of EVE and our Community.

CCP Fozzie – Game Designer

The CSM plays an invaluable part in making EVE a better game. They pass along your feedback to us here at CCP, provide us with experienced opinions about upcoming designs, and engage with all of you in the community. One of the greatest things that sets EVE apart Is that we have a real civil society with the CSM as a key pillar. My team and I have worked very closely with CSM 8 and we look forward to working with the CSM 9 that you choose to send us.

CCP Rise – Game Designer

I really have no idea what the CSM is.  Sometimes they are a lobby group, bothering us about fixing something.  Sometimes they are a focus group, evaluating our ideas in their early stages and giving us a good idea of the way the rest of the player base will react.  Sometimes they are designers, feeding us everything from small ideas for improvements all the way to full feature proposals.  Sometimes they are just friends who come to Reykjavik to eat sandwiches and party.  I keep hoping someone will tell me what they are supposed to be, but in the meantime I’m just very happy to have them.

CCP Legion – Associate Producer

Over the last year my teams and I have interacted a lot with the CSM and they have done an excellent job in providing feedback on different areas. They have done this first and foremost with the players interest in their mind, while at the same time understanding our needs as a company. They have been a valuable asset in the development process and I look forward to continuing the work with the next CSM.

CCP Scarpia – Lead Game Designer

EVE developers are privileged in being able to both rely on members of the CSM as project stakeholders and also as contributors to our ongoing development and project direction. The CSM’s views and direct feature input gets communicated to me daily through game designers and their teams, who are in constant communication with the CSM about virtually everything they are working on. It is hard for any of us to imagine at this point where we would be without this integral part of our feedback loop which is the CSM.

And Finally, CCP Dolan – CSM Coordinator

I know that I’m including a quote from myself in my own Dev Blog, but I get to do that because I’m the one writing it. I have tremendously enjoyed working with CSM8, and am proud to call many of them my friends. I see the tremendous amount of work they put in every week, and I get to see all their successes and triumphs (as well as the occasional slip-up), and I am constantly in awe of it. CSM8 has been the most active CSM on record, easily doubling participation rates of the past CSM I worked with. With the election of CSM9 I will be bringing CCP Leeloo (who you will be hearing more from later) on to help me get the new council up to speed and back to work as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Remember to cast your ballot here before Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd to ensure that you express your voice in CSM9 and the future of EVE Online development.

With the elections for the 9^th Council of Stellar Management (CSM9) coming to a close in 5 days, at Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd, we at CCP and the CSM wanted to help players get a better idea of the role that the CSM plays every day and how much they contribute the development of EVE Online.

If this dev blog piques your interest in voting, you can find a list of all the candidates and their platforms here, and the ballot itself here. If you’d like more information on the voting system, you can find it in our previous dev blog here.

Ali Aras and the rest of CSM8 have come together to give a short glimpse into the daily life of a member of the CSM.

A Day in the Life of CSM 8

EVE is real, and this is particularly true on the CSM. We are engaged in an election to office that involves in-game political skill and divisions, but once elected, participate in a role that feels more real-life than spaceships, especially when you're staring at your colleagues across a table.

It seeps into your real life, too, in a way that EVE uniquely can. The beginning of the day varies wildly based on one's time zone and whether or not we have a meeting. Sprint Reviews, in which we meet with Team Five-O once every other week for ~30 minutes, are the usual regular source of meetings. When other issues come up, we'll get pulled in, but those are harder to predict. For a hot enough issue, CCP Dolan sends a mail on <24 hours notice and we're left with whoever can make it -- and usually, the shorter the notice, the more important the meeting.

Either way, you wake up and read back on what you've missed from the night before. For euro CSMs, that's all the USTZ babbling that takes place, mostly between CSMs. For USTZ, you wake up halfway (or most of the way) through the Icelandic workday, and there's usually EUTZ business to catch up on. Our Skype channels are active, both with us talking to each other, and talking to the CCPers who just hang out. Occasionally, one of the dedicated Skype channels-- no social stuff, just business-- will have messages, and that's an even higher priority read. Devs hang out in Skype, even on evenings and weekends, meaning if there's a high-priority issue you can often get ahold of *someone*, as long as it's not 3am (and sometimes, even then).

Then it's off to the forums. The internal CSM forum is fairly active, with a few topics harboring discussion at most times. Most are started by CCP, and contain devblogs or features CCP are working on. Others (fewer) are started by CSM, as a way of preserving a topic launched on Skype and trying to get it to go places. These are the times when CSM gets the opportunity to bring something to CCP's attention and advocate for necessary changes for the community.

To get those issues from the community, CSM members have to spend some time engaged and talking to other players. This might be on #tweetfleet, on the forums themselves, on evemails, on Skype, on podcasts and blogs, on coalition services, or flying around in the game itself. It's necessary time, and if you stop putting it in, you find yourself losing touch and the people you talk to more frustrated.

While the CSM does a lot of communication from community in to CCP, bringing that advocacy back out of the internal forums is tricky, as the NDA hides the bulk of the work we do. To get around that requires a place to land it, and so we link threads in Skype and point out that these are issues that could really use a response, even if it's just a "we know and we can't get there yet".

This goes on throughout the day. Skype has the neat property where it will give you full history for a channel, even if you close the program and walk away, so it's common for CSM and CCP devs to drop in and drop out. The rhythm of activity follows Icelandic working hours, with conversations slowing after some devs sign off, and then picking up again when USTZ CSMs talk to each other after getting home. It's active, and busy, and hard to make visible, but here's an attempt: “4129 lines in the main CSM/CCP Skype channel this month, of which 60% are CSM and 40% are CCP.17 threads in internal forums active this month. Six are Industry threads relating to summer expansion, and the others are scattered: two CSM threads, a few longer-term areas of feedback, a few upcoming changes.3 meetings so far this month: one sprint review, two others.”

This covers a period (April 1st to now) where there haven't been any big EVE controversies, just active work on preparing for the upcoming Summer release. If we scrolled back to March, it gets louder. It's a madhouse, but it's worth it to see your ideas and your feedback have a real impact on GM Policy, marketing efforts, account services discussions, and most importantly the game.

CCP Perspective

CCP has the advantage of having quite a few more developers than CSM members so, aside from myself, most developers have intermittent contact with the CSM. However, when I asked for some developer’s opinions on the value of the CSM, I received an overwhelming number of positive replies. I have included some of them below to help give a sense of how valued the CSM is in our development process.

GM Pyro – Customer Service Manager

I’ve only recently found the need to run something past the CSM for their viewpoint for a project I was working on. They really opened my eyes to just how useful they can be for the customer service department and even for the company as a whole. Since then, I keep the CSM in mind for other projects that I am working on and recommend others to talk to them too.

CCP Ytterbium – Senior Game Designer

The CSM is an invaluable asset to validate designs for EVE Online – as representatives of the player base, they bring the discussion from an angle we are not always fully aware about, give much needed feedback on feature changes before they go for public review, or even spontaneously come up with good ideas that add value to our concepts.

Over the past 3 months, the CSM 8 advised designers on those particular topics:

•             Reprocessing changes

•             Nosferatu changes

•             Corporation roles

•             Drone assist

•             Ship balancing

•             Pirate faction ship rebalance

•             Remote dampener changes

•             Drone regen nerfs

•             Heat changes

•             Dev Blogs

•             Summer release features, to be revealed later

If you think the CSM has no value except as a free ride to Iceland, you are wrong. If you think the CSM are only pushing changes in favor of null-security cartels, voice your opinion and vote for someone you feel represents you to your best interest.

CCP Arrow – Game Design Director

The 8th CSM has been extremely productive and helpful this past year. They have been available almost 24/7 to answer questions and give input on design research and ideas. A special thanks to Ali for her passion and interest in New Player Experience improvements and focus group efforts.

CCP Goliath – Quality Assurance Director

My dealings with CSM 8 have been fewer than with their predecessors, but in many ways more productive.  From the offset they established themselves as helpful, forthcoming individuals that could debate internally and present a cohesive view on a problem or issue where asked.  Chitsa Jason and Ali Aras were especially useful in gathering information and reproduction cases on a few defects, particularly early in the term.  Their collective input into devblogs is a service I have come to not only enjoy, but extol the virtues of around the office.  Overall, your delegates of CSM 8 should feel very proud of themselves in having discharged their duties adequately, collaboratively, and (for the most part) professionally.

CCP Manifest – Senior PR and Social Media Lead

Over the years I’ve witnessed the CSM grow and mature as an organization through hard work on both sides of the aisle and via very very frank conversations where no punches were pulled but goodwill prevailed. While each Council has its own personality, the institution as a whole has definitely become more useful in helping to improve and nurture EVE Online. I’ve leapt in and out of active communication with the current council on a near-wikipedic variety of subjects, and I have found them to be strangely wise, very thoughtful and imminently available for conversation. They have a good perspective on a lot of things and have been able to keep their CSM duties nearly politic-free, which means they are more representative than 95% of non-internetspaceship politicians. I hope the next council is able to carry their legacy forward and find ways to improve what is already great communication with both the dev team and the playerbase.

CCP SoniClover – Senior Game Designer

I’ve communicated a fair amount with CSM 8 over the course of the last year, in person at the summits and over the net through the internal forums and Skype. I’ve been constantly impressed by the high level of dedication and professionalism shown by the members of the CSM. They’re always prompt to answer, are not afraid to voice their concerns and opinions and have a solid knack for combining constructive feedback with their own suggestions and ideas. All of this taken together has demonstrated quite clearly to me that the CSM is a valuable part of the development process for EVE, making sure that everything we release is of higher quality than otherwise would be the case.

CCP Xhagen – Associate Producer (and former CSM Coordinator)

After years of working with the CSM and seeing the institution grow and evolve, I can no longer imagine making and running EVE Online without the CSM.

CCP Bettik – Senior Content Designer

The CSM enriches each day of my life.

CCP Loktofeit – Copywriter/Editor

This past Fanfest, I had the chance to talk shop with Trebor about the CSM and the work they do. The powerful force that is the combination of sandbox, community and player passion in EVE Online became so much more evident. If you’re an EVE player and you’re not tossing your vote in the ring at election time, you’re nuts. 

CCP Spitfire – Global Sales Specialist

The Council of Stellar Management has been instrumental in the creation of EVE: The Second Decade Collector’s Edition. We have consulted with the CSM from the very beginning of the project, and it is fair to say that some popular elements of the Collector’s Edition would not have made it into the box if not for the delegates’ suggestions. The CSM is a great stakeholder for us, and their input is not limited to the development of the game itself.

GM Grave – Customer Support Project Lead

The CSM have been vital in representing the interests of our customers to CCP, thus enabling us to discuss current and future polices and how they align to the needs of the customer, our service values and game integrity.

CCP Merovingian – Software Engineer

Being new to the EVE team at CCP I found that being involved in some of the CSM sessions and hearing from the members was incredibly helpful and insightful for me. I think they are an essential part of the ecosystem and community that is EVE Online.

CCP Guard – Community Developer

EVE is a bustling universe and the CSM has been invaluable in helping me keep up with what’s going on at times. The community does a good job of selecting knowledgeable people with sound judgment which I’m thankful to have access to for advice and early feedback.

CCP Falcon – EVE Community Manager

The CSM remains an indispensable tool for ensuring that the voices of our players are heard by our development staff. The Council also acts as a rock solid sanity check for development direction and gauging community sentiment. The election process ensures that candidates with a broad range of experience in EVE Online are elected, and since coming to CCP, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with the CSM on a number of projects and utilizing their expertise and knowledge of EVE and our Community.

CCP Fozzie – Game Designer

The CSM plays an invaluable part in making EVE a better game. They pass along your feedback to us here at CCP, provide us with experienced opinions about upcoming designs, and engage with all of you in the community. One of the greatest things that sets EVE apart Is that we have a real civil society with the CSM as a key pillar. My team and I have worked very closely with CSM 8 and we look forward to working with the CSM 9 that you choose to send us.

CCP Rise – Game Designer

I really have no idea what the CSM is.  Sometimes they are a lobby group, bothering us about fixing something.  Sometimes they are a focus group, evaluating our ideas in their early stages and giving us a good idea of the way the rest of the player base will react.  Sometimes they are designers, feeding us everything from small ideas for improvements all the way to full feature proposals.  Sometimes they are just friends who come to Reykjavik to eat sandwiches and party.  I keep hoping someone will tell me what they are supposed to be, but in the meantime I’m just very happy to have them.

CCP Legion – Associate Producer

Over the last year my teams and I have interacted a lot with the CSM and they have done an excellent job in providing feedback on different areas. They have done this first and foremost with the players interest in their mind, while at the same time understanding our needs as a company. They have been a valuable asset in the development process and I look forward to continuing the work with the next CSM.

CCP Scarpia – Lead Game Designer

EVE developers are privileged in being able to both rely on members of the CSM as project stakeholders and also as contributors to our ongoing development and project direction. The CSM’s views and direct feature input gets communicated to me daily through game designers and their teams, who are in constant communication with the CSM about virtually everything they are working on. It is hard for any of us to imagine at this point where we would be without this integral part of our feedback loop which is the CSM.

And Finally, CCP Dolan – CSM Coordinator

I know that I’m including a quote from myself in my own Dev Blog, but I get to do that because I’m the one writing it. I have tremendously enjoyed working with CSM8, and am proud to call many of them my friends. I see the tremendous amount of work they put in every week, and I get to see all their successes and triumphs (as well as the occasional slip-up), and I am constantly in awe of it. CSM8 has been the most active CSM on record, easily doubling participation rates of the past CSM I worked with. With the election of CSM9 I will be bringing CCP Leeloo (who you will be hearing more from later) on to help me get the new council up to speed and back to work as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Remember to cast your ballot here before Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd to ensure that you express your voice in CSM9 and the future of EVE Online development.

With the elections for the 9^th Council of Stellar Management (CSM9) coming to a close in 5 days, at Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd, we at CCP and the CSM wanted to help players get a better idea of the role that the CSM plays every day and how much they contribute the development of EVE Online.

If this dev blog piques your interest in voting, you can find a list of all the candidates and their platforms here, and the ballot itself here. If you’d like more information on the voting system, you can find it in our previous dev blog here.

Ali Aras and the rest of CSM8 have come together to give a short glimpse into the daily life of a member of the CSM.

A Day in the Life of CSM 8

EVE is real, and this is particularly true on the CSM. We are engaged in an election to office that involves in-game political skill and divisions, but once elected, participate in a role that feels more real-life than spaceships, especially when you're staring at your colleagues across a table.

It seeps into your real life, too, in a way that EVE uniquely can. The beginning of the day varies wildly based on one's time zone and whether or not we have a meeting. Sprint Reviews, in which we meet with Team Five-O once every other week for ~30 minutes, are the usual regular source of meetings. When other issues come up, we'll get pulled in, but those are harder to predict. For a hot enough issue, CCP Dolan sends a mail on <24 hours notice and we're left with whoever can make it -- and usually, the shorter the notice, the more important the meeting.

Either way, you wake up and read back on what you've missed from the night before. For euro CSMs, that's all the USTZ babbling that takes place, mostly between CSMs. For USTZ, you wake up halfway (or most of the way) through the Icelandic workday, and there's usually EUTZ business to catch up on. Our Skype channels are active, both with us talking to each other, and talking to the CCPers who just hang out. Occasionally, one of the dedicated Skype channels-- no social stuff, just business-- will have messages, and that's an even higher priority read. Devs hang out in Skype, even on evenings and weekends, meaning if there's a high-priority issue you can often get ahold of *someone*, as long as it's not 3am (and sometimes, even then).

Then it's off to the forums. The internal CSM forum is fairly active, with a few topics harboring discussion at most times. Most are started by CCP, and contain devblogs or features CCP are working on. Others (fewer) are started by CSM, as a way of preserving a topic launched on Skype and trying to get it to go places. These are the times when CSM gets the opportunity to bring something to CCP's attention and advocate for necessary changes for the community.

To get those issues from the community, CSM members have to spend some time engaged and talking to other players. This might be on #tweetfleet, on the forums themselves, on evemails, on Skype, on podcasts and blogs, on coalition services, or flying around in the game itself. It's necessary time, and if you stop putting it in, you find yourself losing touch and the people you talk to more frustrated.

While the CSM does a lot of communication from community in to CCP, bringing that advocacy back out of the internal forums is tricky, as the NDA hides the bulk of the work we do. To get around that requires a place to land it, and so we link threads in Skype and point out that these are issues that could really use a response, even if it's just a "we know and we can't get there yet".

This goes on throughout the day. Skype has the neat property where it will give you full history for a channel, even if you close the program and walk away, so it's common for CSM and CCP devs to drop in and drop out. The rhythm of activity follows Icelandic working hours, with conversations slowing after some devs sign off, and then picking up again when USTZ CSMs talk to each other after getting home. It's active, and busy, and hard to make visible, but here's an attempt: “4129 lines in the main CSM/CCP Skype channel this month, of which 60% are CSM and 40% are CCP.17 threads in internal forums active this month. Six are Industry threads relating to summer expansion, and the others are scattered: two CSM threads, a few longer-term areas of feedback, a few upcoming changes.3 meetings so far this month: one sprint review, two others.”

This covers a period (April 1st to now) where there haven't been any big EVE controversies, just active work on preparing for the upcoming Summer release. If we scrolled back to March, it gets louder. It's a madhouse, but it's worth it to see your ideas and your feedback have a real impact on GM Policy, marketing efforts, account services discussions, and most importantly the game.

CCP Perspective

CCP has the advantage of having quite a few more developers than CSM members so, aside from myself, most developers have intermittent contact with the CSM. However, when I asked for some developer’s opinions on the value of the CSM, I received an overwhelming number of positive replies. I have included some of them below to help give a sense of how valued the CSM is in our development process.

GM Pyro – Customer Service Manager

I’ve only recently found the need to run something past the CSM for their viewpoint for a project I was working on. They really opened my eyes to just how useful they can be for the customer service department and even for the company as a whole. Since then, I keep the CSM in mind for other projects that I am working on and recommend others to talk to them too.

CCP Ytterbium – Senior Game Designer

The CSM is an invaluable asset to validate designs for EVE Online – as representatives of the player base, they bring the discussion from an angle we are not always fully aware about, give much needed feedback on feature changes before they go for public review, or even spontaneously come up with good ideas that add value to our concepts.

Over the past 3 months, the CSM 8 advised designers on those particular topics:

•             Reprocessing changes

•             Nosferatu changes

•             Corporation roles

•             Drone assist

•             Ship balancing

•             Pirate faction ship rebalance

•             Remote dampener changes

•             Drone regen nerfs

•             Heat changes

•             Dev Blogs

•             Summer release features, to be revealed later

If you think the CSM has no value except as a free ride to Iceland, you are wrong. If you think the CSM are only pushing changes in favor of null-security cartels, voice your opinion and vote for someone you feel represents you to your best interest.

CCP Arrow – Game Design Director

The 8th CSM has been extremely productive and helpful this past year. They have been available almost 24/7 to answer questions and give input on design research and ideas. A special thanks to Ali for her passion and interest in New Player Experience improvements and focus group efforts.

CCP Goliath – Quality Assurance Director

My dealings with CSM 8 have been fewer than with their predecessors, but in many ways more productive.  From the offset they established themselves as helpful, forthcoming individuals that could debate internally and present a cohesive view on a problem or issue where asked.  Chitsa Jason and Ali Aras were especially useful in gathering information and reproduction cases on a few defects, particularly early in the term.  Their collective input into devblogs is a service I have come to not only enjoy, but extol the virtues of around the office.  Overall, your delegates of CSM 8 should feel very proud of themselves in having discharged their duties adequately, collaboratively, and (for the most part) professionally.

CCP Manifest – Senior PR and Social Media Lead

Over the years I’ve witnessed the CSM grow and mature as an organization through hard work on both sides of the aisle and via very very frank conversations where no punches were pulled but goodwill prevailed. While each Council has its own personality, the institution as a whole has definitely become more useful in helping to improve and nurture EVE Online. I’ve leapt in and out of active communication with the current council on a near-wikipedic variety of subjects, and I have found them to be strangely wise, very thoughtful and imminently available for conversation. They have a good perspective on a lot of things and have been able to keep their CSM duties nearly politic-free, which means they are more representative than 95% of non-internetspaceship politicians. I hope the next council is able to carry their legacy forward and find ways to improve what is already great communication with both the dev team and the playerbase.

CCP SoniClover – Senior Game Designer

I’ve communicated a fair amount with CSM 8 over the course of the last year, in person at the summits and over the net through the internal forums and Skype. I’ve been constantly impressed by the high level of dedication and professionalism shown by the members of the CSM. They’re always prompt to answer, are not afraid to voice their concerns and opinions and have a solid knack for combining constructive feedback with their own suggestions and ideas. All of this taken together has demonstrated quite clearly to me that the CSM is a valuable part of the development process for EVE, making sure that everything we release is of higher quality than otherwise would be the case.

CCP Xhagen – Associate Producer (and former CSM Coordinator)

After years of working with the CSM and seeing the institution grow and evolve, I can no longer imagine making and running EVE Online without the CSM.

CCP Bettik – Senior Content Designer

The CSM enriches each day of my life.

CCP Loktofeit – Copywriter/Editor

This past Fanfest, I had the chance to talk shop with Trebor about the CSM and the work they do. The powerful force that is the combination of sandbox, community and player passion in EVE Online became so much more evident. If you’re an EVE player and you’re not tossing your vote in the ring at election time, you’re nuts. 

CCP Spitfire – Global Sales Specialist

The Council of Stellar Management has been instrumental in the creation of EVE: The Second Decade Collector’s Edition. We have consulted with the CSM from the very beginning of the project, and it is fair to say that some popular elements of the Collector’s Edition would not have made it into the box if not for the delegates’ suggestions. The CSM is a great stakeholder for us, and their input is not limited to the development of the game itself.

GM Grave – Customer Support Project Lead

The CSM have been vital in representing the interests of our customers to CCP, thus enabling us to discuss current and future polices and how they align to the needs of the customer, our service values and game integrity.

CCP Merovingian – Software Engineer

Being new to the EVE team at CCP I found that being involved in some of the CSM sessions and hearing from the members was incredibly helpful and insightful for me. I think they are an essential part of the ecosystem and community that is EVE Online.

CCP Guard – Community Developer

EVE is a bustling universe and the CSM has been invaluable in helping me keep up with what’s going on at times. The community does a good job of selecting knowledgeable people with sound judgment which I’m thankful to have access to for advice and early feedback.

CCP Falcon – EVE Community Manager

The CSM remains an indispensable tool for ensuring that the voices of our players are heard by our development staff. The Council also acts as a rock solid sanity check for development direction and gauging community sentiment. The election process ensures that candidates with a broad range of experience in EVE Online are elected, and since coming to CCP, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with the CSM on a number of projects and utilizing their expertise and knowledge of EVE and our Community.

CCP Fozzie – Game Designer

The CSM plays an invaluable part in making EVE a better game. They pass along your feedback to us here at CCP, provide us with experienced opinions about upcoming designs, and engage with all of you in the community. One of the greatest things that sets EVE apart Is that we have a real civil society with the CSM as a key pillar. My team and I have worked very closely with CSM 8 and we look forward to working with the CSM 9 that you choose to send us.

CCP Rise – Game Designer

I really have no idea what the CSM is.  Sometimes they are a lobby group, bothering us about fixing something.  Sometimes they are a focus group, evaluating our ideas in their early stages and giving us a good idea of the way the rest of the player base will react.  Sometimes they are designers, feeding us everything from small ideas for improvements all the way to full feature proposals.  Sometimes they are just friends who come to Reykjavik to eat sandwiches and party.  I keep hoping someone will tell me what they are supposed to be, but in the meantime I’m just very happy to have them.

CCP Legion – Associate Producer

Over the last year my teams and I have interacted a lot with the CSM and they have done an excellent job in providing feedback on different areas. They have done this first and foremost with the players interest in their mind, while at the same time understanding our needs as a company. They have been a valuable asset in the development process and I look forward to continuing the work with the next CSM.

CCP Scarpia – Lead Game Designer

EVE developers are privileged in being able to both rely on members of the CSM as project stakeholders and also as contributors to our ongoing development and project direction. The CSM’s views and direct feature input gets communicated to me daily through game designers and their teams, who are in constant communication with the CSM about virtually everything they are working on. It is hard for any of us to imagine at this point where we would be without this integral part of our feedback loop which is the CSM.

And Finally, CCP Dolan – CSM Coordinator

I know that I’m including a quote from myself in my own Dev Blog, but I get to do that because I’m the one writing it. I have tremendously enjoyed working with CSM8, and am proud to call many of them my friends. I see the tremendous amount of work they put in every week, and I get to see all their successes and triumphs (as well as the occasional slip-up), and I am constantly in awe of it. CSM8 has been the most active CSM on record, easily doubling participation rates of the past CSM I worked with. With the election of CSM9 I will be bringing CCP Leeloo (who you will be hearing more from later) on to help me get the new council up to speed and back to work as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Remember to cast your ballot here before Midnight GMT on Tuesday April 22^nd to ensure that you express your voice in CSM9 and the future of EVE Online development.

The 8th Council of Stellar Management (CSM8) and CCP had their second scheduled summit in the middle of January, 2014. A wide variety of topics were discussed during the summit in Reykjavik, and the table of contents is listed below. The full meeting minutes can be found here.

Update: The updated release version of the minutes can be found here.

Table of Contents:

Session 1: Tournaments

Session 2: Localized Communities

Session 3: Ship Skins and A New In-Game Store

In-Game Store

Ship Skins

Session 4: Team SuperFriends

Session 5: Game of Drones

Session 6: Nullsec

Session 7: Multi-Topic Session

NDA’d Minor Feature Discussion

Starbases and Future Starbase Replacements

Wormhole-related topics

Smaller unrelated topics

Session 8: Veteran Topic

Session 9: Ship Balancing

Session 10: Science and Industry

Session 11: Early Concept Discussion

Session 12: UI

Session 13: Marketing

Session 14: Community

EULA/TOS

Canning Gates

Naming Policy

Live Events

Third Party Support

Session 15: Future of Big Fights

Session 16: Team Space Glitter

Session 17: New Player Experience

Session 18: Art

Some notes:

CCP would like to thank the CSM for their tireless work in this endeavor and for the considerable effort put into preparation for the summit and communication of its results.

Please feel free to place your comments in the related thread. It will be monitored both by CCP and the CSM.

The few sessions that are covered by the NDA will be released as the projects that were discussed during them are announced. The main document will be updated accordingly.

New Logo!

Additionally, it wouldn't be a real Dev Blog without a pretty picture. So, I'm proud to announce the new official CSM logo. This is the CSM9 version, in celebration of the CSM9 Elections which start on Tuesday the 8th.

Make sure to get out and vote in the CSM9 Elections from April 8-22!

-CCP Dolan

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.

Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

The 8th Council of Stellar Management (CSM8) and CCP had their second scheduled summit in the middle of January, 2014. A wide variety of topics were discussed during the summit in Reykjavik, and the table of contents is listed below. The full meeting minutes can be found here.

Update: The updated release version of the minutes can be found here.

Table of Contents:

Session 1: Tournaments

Session 2: Localized Communities

Session 3: Ship Skins and A New In-Game Store

In-Game Store

Ship Skins

Session 4: Team SuperFriends

Session 5: Game of Drones

Session 6: Nullsec

Session 7: Multi-Topic Session

NDA’d Minor Feature Discussion

Starbases and Future Starbase Replacements

Wormhole-related topics

Smaller unrelated topics

Session 8: Veteran Topic

Session 9: Ship Balancing

Session 10: Science and Industry

Session 11: Early Concept Discussion

Session 12: UI

Session 13: Marketing

Session 14: Community

EULA/TOS

Canning Gates

Naming Policy

Live Events

Third Party Support

Session 15: Future of Big Fights

Session 16: Team Space Glitter

Session 17: New Player Experience

Session 18: Art

Some notes:

CCP would like to thank the CSM for their tireless work in this endeavor and for the considerable effort put into preparation for the summit and communication of its results.

Please feel free to place your comments in the related thread. It will be monitored both by CCP and the CSM.

The few sessions that are covered by the NDA will be released as the projects that were discussed during them are announced. The main document will be updated accordingly.

New Logo!

Additionally, it wouldn't be a real Dev Blog without a pretty picture. So, I'm proud to announce the new official CSM logo. This is the CSM9 version, in celebration of the CSM9 Elections which start on Tuesday the 8th.

Make sure to get out and vote in the CSM9 Elections from April 8-22!

-CCP Dolan

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.

Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

Everyone's Favorite Time of Year!

Voting for the 9th Council of Stellar Management (CSM9) is now live, and the polls will be open until April 22nd. If you need help determining which candidates will best represent you, you can check out all of the candidate's platforms, websites, and YouTube videos on our Candidate Page. Once you know which candidates truly represent your views on the future direction of EVE Online, you can fill in your ballot with up to 14 candidates at our Ballot Page.

Changes to the Voting Interface

Veteran Voters will notice some improvements to our voting interface. We've added a multiple search and sort function to our candidate search bar. Simply place a comma in between the names of the candidates you'd like to search for (no spaces) and they will all be brought to the top of your ballot page. Additionally, we know a lot of voters like to share their prefered candidates with their friends and assosciates, so now when you search for candidates the URL in your browser will change on-the-fly. Once you have a search that you like, simply have your friends copy and paste the URL into their browsers (make sure they are logged in first) and then they are free to drag the candidates into their ballot in whatever preference order they wish.

For those of you who are unaccustomed to Single Transferable Vote (STV) voting, more info can be found in our previous Dev Blog. However, the most important thing is that you fill out as many candidates as you like, in order of preference, until you have filled your ballot or have run out of candidates that you wish to support.

The CSM is Vitally Important

The CSM serves as a major part of the players' voice in EVE Online development, and work with CCP every day to help shape our designs and inform our decisions. You don't just have to take my word for it though, throughout the 2 week election period, we will be releasing content from both CSM8 and the CCP Developers themselves that demonstrates the vital role the CSM play in making EVE a better game.

I also encourage everyone who is interested in voting to check out the tremendous wealth of content that 3rd party fansites and podcasts have been creating to help inform players on the role of the CSM and all of the candidates in the CSM9 elections.

If you have any questions on how voting, or the CSM itself, works then I encourage you to stop by the comments thread for this blog. I will try to answer as many questions as possible.

Everyone's Favorite Time of Year!

Voting for the 9th Council of Stellar Management (CSM9) is now live, and the polls will be open until April 22nd. If you need help determining which candidates will best represent you, you can check out all of the candidate's platforms, websites, and YouTube videos on our Candidate Page. Once you know which candidates truly represent your views on the future direction of EVE Online, you can fill in your ballot with up to 14 candidates at our Ballot Page.

Changes to the Voting Interface

Veteran Voters will notice some improvements to our voting interface. We've added a multiple search and sort function to our candidate search bar. Simply place a comma in between the names of the candidates you'd like to search for (no spaces) and they will all be brought to the top of your ballot page. Additionally, we know a lot of voters like to share their prefered candidates with their friends and assosciates, so now when you search for candidates the URL in your browser will change on-the-fly. Once you have a search that you like, simply have your friends copy and paste the URL into their browsers (make sure they are logged in first) and then they are free to drag the candidates into their ballot in whatever preference order they wish.

For those of you who are unaccustomed to Single Transferable Vote (STV) voting, more info can be found in our previous Dev Blog. However, the most important thing is that you fill out as many candidates as you like, in order of preference, until you have filled your ballot or have run out of candidates that you wish to support.

The CSM is Vitally Important

The CSM serves as a major part of the players' voice in EVE Online development, and work with CCP every day to help shape our designs and inform our decisions. You don't just have to take my word for it though, throughout the 2 week election period, we will be releasing content from both CSM8 and the CCP Developers themselves that demonstrates the vital role the CSM play in making EVE a better game.

I also encourage everyone who is interested in voting to check out the tremendous wealth of content that 3rd party fansites and podcasts have been creating to help inform players on the role of the CSM and all of the candidates in the CSM9 elections.

If you have any questions on how voting, or the CSM itself, works then I encourage you to stop by the comments thread for this blog. I will try to answer as many questions as possible.

Schedule and Election Process

The time has come to elect a new Council of Stellar Management (CSM). "What is the CSM?" you might ask. It is a democratically elected player council that represents the community and acts as an advisory body to CCP, providing valuable feedback regarding changes and updates to EVE Online. You can read more about the CSM on CCP’s Community Page or on EVElopedia.

The Council of Stellar Management elections are on the horizon, and we will be making some minor changes to the election process this year.

We will be removing the pre-election that we used last year. The CSM and CCP determined that it wasn’t really meeting our expectations for performance and was putting excess strain on voters. We trust that our community will take the CSM, and therefore stepping up as a candidate, as seriously as we do. Being a member of the CSM takes a tremendous amount of work and commitment, and those entering the elections should understand the responsibility and expectations of the office.

The election itself will use a Single Transferable Vote (STV) format identical to last year, with some updates to the user interface. In an STV-based voting system, instead of voting for a single candidate, each voter chooses up to 14 candidates and ranks them from 1 to 14. The Wright System is then used to calculate how each voter’s ranked votes are applied to the field of candidates. (The exact code we use can be found here.)

Additionally, after discussion with the CSM, we will be adding a new rule regarding the selection of officers. This year we will delay the selection of officers until the first CSM summit. We found that selecting officers immediately after the election meant that people were selected on their reputation instead of their actual contribution to the CSM process.

Finally, let’s talk about this year’s election schedule. Here it is:

-          21 March: Announcing the CSM9 elections and the updated rules

-          21–31 March: Candidacy application period

-          8–22 April: CSM9 Election

-          3 May: Election result announced live at Fanfest 2014

This CSM white paper lists all these rules and more.

Candidacy Applications

In addition the changes to the election system, the candidacy period for the next Council of Stellar Management (CSM) election is now open. If you’re interested in running for a seat on the Council, please fill out the form here and be sure to read and follow all instructions. Also, please be sure that all your account ownership information is up to date.

An application will result in an audit of the accounts belonging to the applicant and a general background check. In cases where EULA violations have occurred, the application will be assessed on the basis of the severity of the violation and the length of time since the violation occurred. More information on candidate eligibility can be found in the CSM white paper. CCP reserves the right to deny any candidate for extra-ordinary reasons, and will publish our reasoning at the request of any applicant who was denied candidacy.

Candidates will receive notification by email when their applications are approved.

On 3 April we will post a full list of the candidates for the ballot, and provide more detailed information about voting in the full election.

Good luck to everyone running. We’re certain that this year's campaigning will make for an interesting election!

New to EVE Online? Start your 14-day free trial today.

Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.

 

In the universe of EVE Online, players from every timezone around the globe have been waging wars on a massive scale for nearly 11 years. Some conflicts have been relatively small grudge matches between rivals from adjoining solar systems with maybe a dozen or so frigates and cruisers facing off in fast-paced combat. Others, like the Great War, are fueled by tens of thousands of players and blossom with all the same propaganda, diplomacy (and espionage), supply-chain logistics and military tactics that might fuel a real-world conflict, taking months to resolve and changing entire industrial patterns across the star map.

In all that time one kind of ship has always been the most coveted target for any fleet, thirsted after for the glory of defeating it as evidenced by this recording of the first one to die in combat.

Titans, the largest ship class in EVE Online, take thousands of man hours to produce, take months to train to fly, and are capable of fitting massive doomsday weapons that obliterate lesser ships with a single volley.  To get a good understanding of the size of these Sci Fi monsters, check out this comparison chart (the Amarr Avatar is the brownish “mushroom” looking behemoth with the similarly sized Erebus above it and Ragnarok and Leviathan below it. Other EVE ships are found throughout) or watch this to-scale player-made video comparing several classes of EVE ships.

Each Titan is a prized strategic asset of the Alliance that controls it, and up until now no more than 12 had ever been destroyed in any single battle. That recently changed in the largest, most destructive battle in gaming history.

The Bloodbath of B-R5RB

In the early hours of January 27^th, 2014 CONCORD (the NPC “police force”) came to collect the sovereignty bill for a dead-end system in the Immensea region called B-R5RB. One of over 7,500 in game, this particular system – with its 9 planets, 66 moons and 12 asteroid belts – had recently been transferred to a player corporation called H A V O C, a corp used by the alliance Pandemic Legion to handle sovereignty transfers between Alliances (which are collections of Corporations). Unfortunately, when CONCORD tried to extract the ISK (EVE’s currency) that would maintain sovereignty in the system for another month, they found that H A V O C had left their automatic payment unchecked. Without the necessary payment, sovereignty in the system immediately dropped leaving the system up for grabs.

Missed bill payments are certainly not new to the human experience nor are they to EVE Online. Human error has caused many a system to lapse. Sometimes it merely means that another Territorial Control Unit (a flag of sorts) has to be anchored in space to regain control of the system. Sometimes it means that an entire region is lost and an Alliance is disbanded.

This particular system however happened to be the staging system for all Pandemic Legion fleets in one of the largest wars to ever be waged in EVE Online. The Halloween War,  having waged for months, had been punctuated by many engagements across the vast EVE universe. This single missed payment sparked off what would become the most expensive battle in EVE Online history. One pilot’s action (or inaction) had repercussions for the entire universe—a butterfly wing causing a massive typhoon of destruction. Coincidentally, this occurred a year to the day of another infamous battle where a single mistake by a single player offered destruction on a galactic scale—the Battle of Asakai.

Sensing this moment of unexpected weakness in a strategically critical location, the opposing Coalition comprised of the CFC Alliance and Russian-heavy coalition forces scrambled to get a foothold in the system. The message went out. Thousands logged in and fleeted up. If the CFC and Russian fleets could capture the station in system, they would trap Pandemic Legion assets inside, including hundreds of capital and sub-capital fleet hulls, rendering them unavailable for the wider conflict.

Meanwhile the forces of Pandemic Legion and N3 (a coalition made up Nulli Secunda, Northern Coalition. and assorted other allies) tried whatever they could to maintain control of the system. Despite anchoring Territorial Control Units all over the system, opposing forces destroyed them before any of them could online to regain control. In an attempt to at least secure the station, Pandemic Legion and N3 deployed what capital and super-capital forces they could muster in their patented “Wrecking Ball” formation just off the station.

Upon seeing that Pandemic Legion and N3 had a smaller capital and super-capital fleet (due to the surprise nature of the fight and it occurring during a Monday work day) CFC and Russian forces decided that it was time to seize the opportunity for a decisive fight. Taking into account lessons learned in the massive “Battle of HED-GP” earlier in the week, which had been a resounding loss for the CFC and Russian Forces at the hands of the “Wrecking Ball,” they chose this time to seize the initiative and deploy the entirety of the Capital Fleet to gain field superiority before PL and N3 could respond. Meanwhile, their sub-capital fleets were deployed to N3 staging systems to delay any reinforcements.

Unlike nearly every other large scale super-capital engagement up till this point, both sides thought they could win. They continued trying to get every single pilot into system with the most powerful warships they could bring to bear. After a few hours, the field was being lit up by doomsdays and the glittering hulls of hundreds of Titans and Supercarriers and thousands of Dreadnaughts and Carriers and smaller ships.

The battle was relatively even for some time with CFC and Russian forces holding moderate lead at first and only have a slight lead in Titan kills. Then came a turning point in the battle. Manfred Sideous, the initial Fleet Commander for PL/N3, handed over command to the CEO of Northern Coalition., Vince Draken. After successfully focusing fire to destroy several CFC/RUS Titans and causing some Russian Titans to jump out of the system with shields and armor depleted, PL/N3 began to overestimate their success and the primary target was switched to the Titan of Sort Dragon, one of fourteen members of the current Council of Stellar Management and the man coordinating all the Russian Forces left on field. His Titan successfully withstood the onslaught more than any so far with the assistance of his entire fleet actively working to repair it and very high damage resistance bonuses. By the time his structure was finally breached, the CFC/RUS forces had killed 5 Titans in return. From this point on, every volley cycle of the CFC/RUS Titan doomsdays put them further and further ahead.

Here’s what it looked like—a particularly good video by a neutral third party witness.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCK-E5AopVI

Eventually, after nearly 12 hours of brawling in what had clearly become the longest engagement in online gaming PvP history, the PL/N3 forces sounded the retreat. In the ensuing evacuation several more Titans, Super Carriers, and Capitals were lost, many trapped by warp disruption bubbles that covered the field

Here’s a shot with the in-game UI showing the action. Each red or orange dot is either a ship or a drone.

Throughout the fight, related battles also raged across the universe. Fleets tried to prevent reinforcements, kill wounded capitals and super-capitals attempting to flee, or trap the brave few who were trying to enter the fight and tip the scales.

The entire fight was watched live on Twitch.tv courtesy of Nick_Fuzzeh of Pandemic Legion as well as a host of other marathon streamers. In what can only be considered a meta-SciFi moment of more than 12,000 people watching a virtual war unfold live across the internet, his music news ticker, and……spooky dancing skeleton graphic entertained  as the fight raged on.

Commercial break for more spaceships

When the dust finally settled and daily server maintenance downtime ended the conflict, all involved were shocked at the devastation. The winning side alone had lost more Titans that in any battle seen before. The losing side had lost more Titans than anyone had previously thought possible.

TITANOMACHY: COMMEMORATING THE FIGHT

Almost immediately following the fight, players universally clamored for an in-game monument. Actually the emails amongst EVE developers demanding the same had already begun. Something of this scale, where the players had left an indelible mark on the universe through their extraordinary actions, needed to have something more permanent in game to commemorate it and we are proud to highlight the bravery and commitment of our players to their craft of blowing up spaceships.

“Titanomachy” has been created using the brand new Titan wreck models that were introduced with EVE Online: Rubicon’s 1.1 release that was (coincidentally) deployed immediately following the battle itself. A permanent site in the game, it will be placed around the seventh planet in the B-R5RB solar system and be “off grid” from the station. Thereafter, any player who plays EVE can make the dangerous pilgrimage there and marvel at the scope of destruction.  We expect some of the “travel” bloggers to do full write-ups on it almost immediately and EVE videographers to make some moving tributes as well.

We’re aiming for installation of Titanomachy during downtime of January 31^st, and are hard at work placing the wrecks in a hauntingly beautiful arrangement.

You can read more about the process of creating the new Titan wrecks in this newly published devblog by the EVE art team. A couple are pictured below. For more information about Rubicon check the feature site. For Rubicon 1.1, check out this in-development video, scan the past few dev blogs and read the patch notes. As always, new patches and expansions are free to all paid subscribers.

B-R5RB BY THE NUMBERS

·         Around 21 hours of total fighting

·         7,548 unique characters belonging to those two coalitions participated in the overall battle (i.e. landed on at least one killmail).  6,058 participated directly in the B-R5RB system with 2,670 in system at max

·         717 unique player Corporations

·         55 unique player Alliances

(the two dips are missing data)

The butcher’s bill by the end of the fight was staggering:

Totals destroyed:

·         Titans – 75 (74 in system, one on its way to the fight) N3/PL lost 59 titans and CFC/DTF lost 16 titans

·         Titan losses by type: Gallente Erebus – 37, Amarr Avatar – 25, Minmatar Ragnarok – 13, Caldari Leviathan - 0

·         Supercarriers – 13 (12 in system, one as it tried to escape the system)

·         Dreadnaughts – 370 (356 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)

·         Carriers – 123 (109 in system, 14 in connected skirmishes as both sides attempted to stop the other from bringing reinforcements)

·         And lots more smaller ships and probably a bajilion drones and fighters

In comparison, the previous record for largest single battle Titan losses was a tie between battles in “O2O” and “Uemon”, with 12 total Titans destroyed in each.

Approximately 775 doomsdays were fired, which is about 24% of all the doomsdays fired in the last two years inclusive. The Battle for HED-GP, which preceeded this one in the Halloween War, had about 200 doomsdays.

The Economic Impact

11 TRILLION ISK.

According to some PLEX conversions that could equate to approximately $300,000-$330,000 USD.

Intel!

Note that these are filled with EVE Online-specific jargon and terms and can at times include colorful language. The light that they shed on the operations of these massive fleets by the people behind them is nonetheless fascinating.

Manfred Sideous’ AMA on Reddit. He’s a Pandemic Legion Fleet Commander: http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1wcxbr/hi_im_manfred_sideous_pandemic_legion_fc_who/

“We will retake it if possible….I hope nobody quits over this fight. It has been truly epic to be part of as its the largest fight in the history of online gaming. Its a shame if someone quits this is all part of the game and a ship hull is the price of admission for fun fights. This is Eve HTFU ( eve saying Harden The F___ Up )”  HTFU Reference Link (NSFW language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvM7av1o1Q

Battle Report from Manfred Sideous: http://pastebin.com/ckTidP48

"In my wildest imagination did I or anyone else expect hostiles to prosecute B-R in the way that they did or to counter escalate in the manner they did so.”

Statement from Elise Randolph, another Pandemic Legion Fleet Commander: http://pastebin.com/t7CQufG7

“The lost momentum in the Soutnern conflict due to the B-R fight is a far greater loss than the isk assets.  Because try as you might, you cannot buy swagger.”

Lazarus Telraven’s AMA on Reddit. He’s a CFC Fleet Commander: http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1wdtzq/cfc_fc_lazarus_telraven_copying_manny_ama/

“I called his phone and woke him up when things looked like it was going to escalate because when you need someone to bang drums to get numbers you get mittani. He was skiddish and hessitant and I think came close to trying to get me to not go in but had he told me not jump I would have jumped anyways GOTTA TRUST THE GUT”

Battle Report from Lazarus Telraven: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pJZfRhXnAaAYqxwDw_KZJ6RPfcg6LXGOfjDczDkkL8k/edit

                “Every titan that is primaried is killed from this point forward on both sides until downtime.”

Statement from The Mittani, Leader of the CFC: http://pastebin.com/AX6Crp2b

“The CFC offers the following as its official statement on the battle of B-R5, posted three weeks ago by Pandemic Legion member Richter Belmont….”

*NEW* Crossing Zebra's audio discussion with the two main Fleet Commanders involved: http://crossingzebras.com/b-r-the-fc-perspective/

Ali Aras’ TheMittani.com recap—Council of Stellar Management member that makes the battle report approachable for the uninitiated. http://themittani.com/news/b-r5rb-biggest-battle-all-eve

*NEW* Alizabeth's TheMittani.com writeup, an amazing explanation of sov warfare, the ships involved and the fight itself, also approachable. http://themittani.com/features/largest-virtual-battle-ever

More Gorgeous B-R5RB Image Galleries

Take your pick…

• http://imgur.com/a/10lG2#20
   
• http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1wcbch/some_4k_shots_from_b5rb/
   
• http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1waix5/highres_album_from_the_ongoing_fight_in_br5rb/
                        
•  http://imgur.com/a/c3IM4#0
   
• *NEW* Another video shows a compelling "beginning" of the battle. http://youtu.be/lvB2nRGMl2c
   
• *NEW* A couple of animated gifs of the action: http://i.minus.com/iB6JjNGJ5ry8Y.gif & http://i.4cdn.org/v/src/1390879466341.gif

Time Dilation

If a 21 hour, 2000+ player battle sounds like a lot of work for a server to handle, that’s because you have a good sense for how much load a 21 hour, 2000+ player battle is.  Without some help, it would have been entirely too much to take and we wouldn’t be here talking about a bunch of exploded spaceships.  In EVE, we know that fights like this are a major deciding factor in large-scale warfare, so in order to support them the best we can we introduced a system called Time Dilation.  Its job is to give the server the means to control the amount of load an insane-scale fight like this causes.

The mechanism behind Time Dilation is reasonably simple – if the server cannot keep up with the load of simulation, it slows down time in the solar systems it’s managing.  For example, if there’s twice as much going on than the server can normally handle, it’s got the ability to run that heavy simulation at half speed, bring the rate of load back to something manageable.  Due to how we set up our universe, the effect of this slowdown is localized, often applying to just the problematic system and allowing the vast majority of other online players to continue on as happy as can be blowing up ships, mining, trading, exploring etc as long as they didn’t come near these massive fights.

With the length and intensity of this fight however, this slowdown was not enough to completely cover it, so it hit our limit of running the simulation at 10% of normal time.  Consequently, over the 21 hours players experienced of the fight, the server was put to task to run just over 2 hours worth of simulation.  It was much more able to fulfil that task than if it had to handle it all in real time, which ultimately gave players a smoother, more predictable experience than would take place otherwise.

Fly Safe

This wasn’t the largest single battle in terms of numbers of participants in system at once. That record still belongs to the battle for 6VDT-H, which reached 4,070 pilots in system.

A final note.  EVE has been growing in subscribers every year since it started, for nearly 11 years straight. The way the game is set up you could join now and possibly be at the forefront of one of these battles. Or you could avoid this level of gameplay altogether and forge your own path. If any of this intrigues you at any level, you should try it out with a free 14-day trial at www.eveonline.com

Who knows, you might find your home amongst the stars. You might find people around the globe you enjoy flying with and find worthy of slugging it out for 21 hours straight on behalf of. You might be the next person making that single mistake that causes thousands of people to hurtle their ships at you or you might be the person that catches that next mistake and becomes the hero of the day.

Advice for new players: ask questions of vets and advice from them, don’t be afraid to look for answers on the internet,  and try to find someone to fly with whether a friend from another game that starts at the same time, someone you know in real life, or one of the many corporations that recruit in game. It is a multiplayer game after all. EVE is a game that challenges you in a way that others just don’t, as I’m sure you gathered from this writeup. Be bold pilot.

o7 in anticipation of the next thing our pilots will dream up and on behalf of “the game science fiction warned us about.*”

CCP Dolan and the EVE Online development team

*Kill Screen 

The 8th Council of Stellar Management (CSM8) and CCP had their first scheduled summit in late August, 2013. A wide variety of topics were discussed during the summit in Reykjavik, and the table of contents is listed below. The full meeting minutes can be found here: http://cdn1.eveonline.com/community/csm/CSM8_August_Summit_Minutes.pdf

List of Sessions:

1. Basic Introductions and Design Theory
2. Review of Stakeholder Process
3. EVE Security
4. EVE Economy Part 1
5. EVE Economy Part 2
6. Art
7. State of Balance
8. Future Plans
9. Team Five-0
10. Personal Deployables
11. Project 2
12. Team Game of Drones
13. Team Super Friends
14. Team Kuromako
15. Team True Grit and DUST 514
16. Sales and Marketing
17. Reasonable Things Review
18. PvE
19. Project 3
20. UI Modernization
21. Language Support and the CSM
22. Launcher and Web Teams
23. Chat with Hilmar
24. EVE Valkyrie

Some notes: 

CCP would like to thank the CSM for their tireless work in this endeavor and for the considerable effort put into preparation for the summit and communication of its results afterwards. In light of this year’s minutes, the process will be undergoing an overhaul in preparation for CSM8’s second summit.

Please feel free to place your comments in the related thread. It will be monitored both by CCP and the CSM.

The few sessions that are blanket NDA’d will be released as the projects that were discussed during them are announced, and the main document updated.

-CCP Dolan

 

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