Eve Online has some news a-brewin’. Seems that CCP t0rfifrans, the previous blog editor, has been moved on to become Eve’s Creative Director (yeah for t0rfifrans!) therefore, Senior Producer CCP Zulu (formerly known as CCP Zulupark) has taken over the reigns. With its first update under the new command, CCP Zulu offers some interesting news for Eve’s future.
CCP Zulu talked about the need for full bodied avatars in Eve stating: “To achieve our goal of EVE being a complete sci-fi experience we must have full body avatars. When we talk to people who like the concept of science fiction games but aren’t attracted to EVE, it becomes obvious that there is a need gap that can best be filled by having a character to associate with rather than a spaceship, and I would venture there are many existing players who want this option as well.”
As of August 17th, devs will be spending lots of time with this much-needed Incarana feature (avatars) as 9 teams composed of about 70 developers will be tackling the issue. Expect to see some actual results in the near future.
Another sweet idea is that a different set of devs is working on an Eve-based MMOFPS. CCP Zulu posted the following juicy tid-bit, “We‘re also committed to producing and launching an MMOFPS hybrid. What we‘re doing is unheard of in the gaming industry, namely linking together a console FPS (MMOFPS) with a classic PC MMORPG. Let that sink in for a minute. CCP is the first company in the world to do something like this. First. Ever.”
3 more teams will be taking on missions and the art/design of the game. “[T]hey‘ll be expanding and iterating on PVE in EVE, bringing together players for immersive and engaging group content. The art/effects team will be finishing up on left-over work all the way back from Apocrypha and on some level even Trinity, where we have not fully taken advantage of new features of Trinity 2.0. This will mean prettier effects that perform better, especially in fleet fights. “ Better PVE and graphics, sign me up.
Other Eve dev teams are working on flight animation and controls, AI-testing and a slue of other notable updates that will set Eve apart from other MMO’s in 2011.
Combined all this with Eve’s call for hiring even more developers and it seems that there is a lot on the horizon for Eve Online. To get more details on Eve Online and the Senior Producer taking over the blog and updates for 2011 – and even more news concerning Eve’s future updates, head on over to the Eve Inside Developer Blog and check out the updates yourself.