A new, and very well done forum for asking questions and giving answers. This is certainly something we need more of in the EVE community. Join it, use it, promote it. Lets get the word out and make this a really great resource.
You probably have already seen the new Tyrannis trailer. If you haven’t, put down the crack pipe, and go download it from the Tyrannis teaser site in HD glory. Personally, it’s my favorite EVE trailer yet.
After a very casual few months in New Eden, I’m finally gaining some momentum in the in-game activity department. My EVE time got casual because, well, life was not. But now my plates are cleared and I’m getting hungry for some piloting progress.
A few things have led to this:
I recently broke a modest milestone of 15 million skill points. Somehow, it helps me feel like Rettic is finally becoming a versatile, rich character. This gets me itching to utilize these abilities to the fullest.
Last night I finished training for my Ishtar, and purchased one. I’m still 22 days or so away from Heavy Drones V, so I won’t be doing anything risky in it for a little longer. But from what I read on this ship, I think I’m going to really enjoy it. Nearly the versatility of a Dominix or Myrmidon without the clumsy size, a nice looking hull, and a deep history of fits to explore. Frankly, this is the first ship I want to know through and though. It may just be my Serenity.
And lastly, I’ve been itching to take on a few more responsibilities in the game. Now that I have the time, I want to take ownership of my gameplay and make something happen. I’m in talks with a few other capsuleers, that you all surely know, about some possibilities. Once something comes of it, you’ll read it here first.
So, yes, it feels good to be plugged in once again. Take me out to the black. Tell ‘em I ain’t coming back.
Unlike a few other projects that have taken some of my time recently, one that has been scratching at the back of my brain for over a year now has finally launched. If you’ll indulge me, I want to shamelessly plug a non-EVE, but still video game related blog project I’ve started called HUDburn.
You’ll find plenty more explanation as to what HUDburn is about if you read the first post, but I just want to post here to say a big thanks to the EVE community that has so graciously supported The Chronofile so far, and just ask that you help me out a little further by giving HUDburn a chance to feed your RSS reader.
It’s certainly a different flavor than this blog, but if I’ve learned anything about the you guys, it’s that I can’t pin you down. The EVE community’s interests are as wide as New Eden, and it’s among the most deeply intellectual communities I’ve known. So, naturally, I come to you pilots first with an invitation to my latest (other) endeavor.
So there it is. It’s all an experiment, so we’ll see how it goes.
And if you’re on Twitter, give @HUDburn a little creepy follower love.
Great interview. Not a lot of new info on the expansion front, but some interesting talk about the nature of EVE at the start. Olafsson on why more MMO’s don’t attempt the elusive “EVE model”:
It would be incredibly hard to do a big launch on a sandbox game. These kinds of games rely on social structures to work. You can’t go straight to a million players in this way when there are a million strangers. A million subscribers… you need to grow from a smaller number, to grow relationships, not just the world.
I wholeheartedly agree. The closest I can recall of another game doing this the right way is Fallen Earth, and it’s arguable how ‘sandbox’ that game is.
This is a new installment in a series of music compilations at The Chronofile called Sounds for Flying. You can find all of the volumes here.
Unfortunately, also, this will be the final installment in this particular round of Sounds for Flying mixes. This isn’t to say they’re gone forever, but there probably won’t be another download for a few months. Other side projects call, and lets face it, I can’t churn out the nasty space jams forever.
Sounds for Flying will return in a few months with an entire new series, and an entirely new concept. Four-part suite for each faction, anyone? Look forward to it.
For now, I leave you with a slightly tongue-in-cheek, but seriously head-nodding mix I’ve wanted to do from the start. Without further adieu:
Download Sounds for Flying Vol. 6: SpacePop Suite.
…Because even New Eden has to party like it’s 1999.
The following is a tutorial for Mac users only. I wouldn’t know where to begin with how to do this on a PC, so look elsewhere for those answers.
I’ve complained about the in-game jukebox before. It’s clunky, glitchy (mine still randomly jumps to the next track in the middle of a song), and very un-ready for Mac users (adding tracks requires a Windows-based directory path—not an easy thing to figure out in OS X).
And, as you may have guessed, I’m big on flying with good, immersive music. So alt-tabbing out to iTunes to change a track, or having to open iTunes each time you launch EVE isn’t really ideal.
Well, this weekend, with some help from Capsuleer programmer extraordinaire PyjamaSam, I finally figured out a way to click one icon that launches EVE, launches iTunes, and starts playing any playlist of choice.
Finally, my dream of the Firefly theme song starting as I log in has come to fruition.
And it’s actually really, really easy. Steps go as follows:
Open “Automator”. You’ll find this app in your Applications folder, or just search for it with Spotlight. It’s a program that lets you save automated (aha!) functions out as apps, among some other really helpful things.
Just select “Application” and hit “Choose”.
Search for “run shell script” in the left panels and you’ll find the action. Drag that icon into the right side to make it first in the flow of events. This is where you tell the app to launch EVE. To do so, just enter this small bit of code in the provided text field:
open -n /Applications/EVE\ Online.app
Note: If your EVE app is not in your Applications directory (where it should be), you’ll have to change this file path accordingly.
Now you want to tell the app what you want to play in iTunes. This also launches iTunes if it isn’t already open. In the left panel again, just search “Get Specified iTunes Items” and drag it to the right.
Now click “Add…” and find your EVE playlist. I personally have tons of music in an EVE playlist that I want to play at random, so in iTunes I set the iTunes DJ to pull from that folder, and in Automator I chose iTunes DJ as the playlist to run.
As far as I can tell, you can only choose one playlist. Any others you add in the list will not play “next” as you might think.
Now just search “Start iTunes Playing” and add it to the right panel. Your final window should look like this:
Now simply go up to the “File” menu, “Save As…” and name your new file (probably not exactly EVE Online as you don’t want to confuse this one with the real client). Make sure the file format is set to “Application”.
Now just open the icon and watch the magic happen. If you have an Apple keyboard, you can control iTunes in-game with your function keys, so theres no more need to ever tab out of game. As far as you realize, your music is now New Eden’s music.
Hope that helps someone else out there. And if you need some more space jams, you know where to find them.
So CK, Crovan, and Alsedrech are returning with the Drone Bay once again, and this time they’re bringing along a welcome female voice to the mix, the wench herself, Maeve Trinity.
I’ve noted on my site many a time before how truly essential the early Drone Bay episodes were to my development in EVE. I simply wouldn’t have made it without the noob-centric “Don’t Panic” segment. So, yes, I am especially excited to welcome them back to my podcast library.
Cheers guys!
Update: Episode 25 is released and can be found at thedronebay.com
I now have a Flickr account where I’ll be posting some of my favorite screenshots from my travels, along with a sampling of some EVE related design work I’ve done. Check it out!
