EVE Echoes | Beta, First Impressions, Microtransactions and more…
By Andrew Smith29 Oct 2019
Perhaps one of the biggest games in PC history is EVE Online. This MMORPG has one of the most thriving communities, even 16 years after its initial release. Fast forward to 2019, and developers CCP Games have decided to partner with NetEase to bring the vast world of EVE to mobile devices in a new iOS and Android game, EVE Echoes.
We recently attended a preview event for the game in Las Vegas, as part of the EVE World Tour, where we were able to go hands on with the game, as well as sit down with developers and ask some questions about the new mobile game. Below you will a full preview of EVE Echoes, along with out first impressions, information about EVE Echoes microtransactions, and more.
EVE Echoes | What is it?
Simply put, EVE Echoes is a simpler, yet still vast and expansive version of EVE Online designed specifically for mobile devices. Launching on iOS and Android, with an open beta coming later this year, players will now be able to take the world of EVE with them on the go. According to NetEase, the mission of EVE Echoes is to, “bring the best sci-fi MMO game to mobile gamers.”
While EVE Echoes isn’t a direct copy and paste of EVE Online, it’s very, very similar. At launch, there will be features like multiplayer combat, ship fitting, mining, a player driven market, and much more, with other EVE Online mechanics, such as Fighters, coming later on.
However, while Echoes will be quite similar to EVE Online, CCP Games and NetEase have promised players that there will be things specifically unique to EVE Echoes. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little bit longer to see exactly what those differences are.
EVE Echoes | Gameplay Impressions
After sitting down with Echoes for around an hour, we can confidently say that those who are already involved and engrossed in the world of EVE Online will find great satisfaction in Echoes. In addition to being very similar to the original game, the controls, mechanics, and on-screen UI feel really, really good on mobile devices.
Not only is navigating your ship and inventory smooth, but exploring the vast depths of space and mining planets is equally satisfying. We found that the best experience comes from playing on a tablet or iPad compared to a mobile phone, because the on-screen UI has more room to shine. While it still felt good on a mobile phone, the extra room afforded by a tablet really allowed Echoes to excel.
My only real complaint about EVE Echoes was that it doesn’t do enough for the new user. While NetEase wants Echoes to be “an authentic EVE Universe MMO on mobile,” (by recreatingthe ‘learning cliff’ from the PC game?-ED) they also want the game to expand the influence of EVE and attract old players who haven’t played in a while, as well as new players.
While old players who want to return to the franchise will probably be familiar enough with the game to get the hang of things pretty quickly, new players are going to feel a bit lost when trying to navigate the complex world. The demo we played, which will be very close to the open beta that is coming later this year, did not offer much in terms of tutorials. If NetEase and CCP Games really wants to attract new players to the world of EVE Echoes, they are going to need to put in a little extra effort in creating more tutorials and in-game explanations for new players.
However, we are very hopeful that developers will be adding in some extra support for new players. During a roundtable discussion with representatives from both NetEase and CCP games, EVE players were ensured that there would be more tutorials at launch, which would offer new community members an easy way to transition into the game.
EVE Echoes | Will it have microtransactions?
One of the more common questions the developers were asked at EVE Vegas, from press and the community alike, revolved around in-game microtransactions and the rich pay-to-win history of mobile gaming. As you might expect, many are afraid that the introduction of a new EVE mobile game is just a quick cash grab by developers, and won’t have the best interests of players at heart, something they addressed with us during an interview:
“The monetization plan is still in discussion between NetEase and CCP Games. Obviously, we are going to leverage the free to play experience that EVE Online has which has received quite positive feedback from our community, and we will keep listening to our players and get their feedback before we finalize out monetization plans. It will be free to download.”
Later on during the EVE Vegas fan event, developers shared that they would be looking to EVE Online for monetization inspirations and they did not want Echoes to be a pay-to-win game. So while the final details are still being discussed and negotiated, we anticipate the EVE Echoes monetization (hope-ED) plan to be very similar to that of EVE Online.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-30-2019, 02:58 AM - Forum: Windows
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Minecraft now more autism friendly with accessibility features
Anyone who has joined an online game knows chat can be a fun, engaging, and useful tool in teaming up, but it can also be an intimidating, cumbersome mechanism to utilize when there are many things on screen vying for your attention. Sometimes you want to turn chat off, mute certain players, or it may be too difficult to read what others are typing in a busy game. The simple concept of making in-game chat more customizable can dramatically improve your game experience. That’s exactly what a Microsoft Garage intern team set out to do for their winter 2018 Garage internship project in Vancouver: they built features to make Minecraft accessible to more audiences, like the autism community.
“We focused on features that would help people with autism especially, but anybody who plays the game in the future would also benefit.” Michaela Olsakova was a Software Engineer intern during her Garage internship. Stemming from the initial project pitch by the project sponsors, the Minecraft Education team, the philosophy of inclusive design was at the core of the project idea. “Even though we designed for one customer profile, there are multiple other customers who would find value.”
The interns handed their project off to their sponsors on the Minecraft Education team last year and the features were added to Minecraft: Education Edition. Now the team is ready to release the project’s chat-features to the Bedrock version of Minecraft as a suite of chat settings allowing players to customize font, line spacing, font size, and chat colors for all chat and player mentions. These new additions complement existing accessibility features like speech-to-text chat, making Minecraft an even more collaborative and socially connective environment with over 112 million players per month across all versions of the platform.
Arnaud Paré-Vogt, Henry Li, Joy Zhang, Michaela Olsakova, Rose Hirigoyen, Riad Gahlouz, Charmaine Lee
“At the beginning of our internship, we attended a conference on inclusive design, it was always at the center of everything we did.” Riad Gahlouz was a Software Engineer intern. He explained how the idea of accessibility for the autism community resonated deeply with him. “I have a few family friends that are on the autism spectrum. I’ve always been inclined to help them achieve stuff, things that may seem simple for others but can be difficult for them.” That, coupled with a childhood dream to work on Minecraft, sealed the deal for Riad when it came time for the Garage intern team to give their input about which projects to work on. “When I saw the pitch from the Minecraft Education sponsors, I thought this is the perfect match. I got Arnaud interested in the project and then everyone else kind of followed.”
Arnaud Pare-Vogt was a Software Engineer intern on the project. He shared a simple but important message that guided their approach to accessibility. “Having accessibility features doesn’t have to impact the difficulty of the game.” While working on the project, Arnaud and team encountered the misconception that making games more accessible meant making them easier. The interns demonstrated that simply was not true and that these features are independent from what makes a game difficult. “Designing a game for inclusivity and accessibility doesn’t mean you have to make it easy.”
Rose Hirigoyen was a Software Engineer and quality co-champion along with Riad on the project. “This project taught us to really learn about the customer first – in our case it was meeting and talking with people of varying abilities, understanding how it feels for them when they’re gaming, what challenges they face, and what we can do to help not just in Minecraft but in general, to have a deeper understanding of their experience.”
Rose explained how sensory overload, when a person might experience sounds, visual signals, or colors that can be extremely overwhelming, can dramatically affect their ability to play. “Usually the chat was one big, white wall of text. When you see that, it can be hard to read, hard to make out the different people that are speaking. We wanted to give options like making the text bigger, and adding spacing and color, so when you’re playing with friends it will be easier to communicate with them.” Not only text, but colors, objects, shapes, and patterns are all potential culprits.
As part of making Minecraft more accessible and enjoyable, people like Melissa Boone, a Research Manager at Xbox, explores how to design better game experiences. Melissa was one of three social and behavioral scientists who provided customer research guidance to the interns. She has been closely involved with the Minecraft team for several years, watching people playing games and talking with players to uncover what they love as well as what can be improved.
“Minecraft is one of those teams that’s super progressive and inclusive, with one of the most diverse game audiences out there. We want to continue that tradition.”
“Everyone was excited for the opportunity to bring more accessibility into the game.” Melissa guided the interns on how to conduct user research studies, including how to recruit people for the study, having the right kind of audience to participate, determining what questions to ask, and how to have productive conversations. “Because there is a large existing community of Minecraft players with autism, it made a lot of sense to focus the project efforts there and meet the players where they are.” User research was a key component that informed what features should be built. “It was pretty cool to have the opportunity to teach the interns the research process so they could conduct actual studies themselves, analyze the results and uncover insights. It’s a skill they can use in other contexts no matter what they’re working on.”
Stéphane Morichere-Matte is Principal Program Manager for The Garage and runs the Vancouver Garage Internship. Over the years, a customer-focused approach remains an important pillar for each project, and as a result, he has cultivated relationships with diverse groups and communities all over Canada. “Our interns were very fortunate to be hosted by the Pacific Family Autism Network, where we got to work with the community to find out how to make games more inclusive. The game enhancements are not very difficult to do, but it can make such a positive impact.”
Communication can be difficult for people on the autism spectrum, which is why the interns decided to focus on developing chat features. “While visiting the Pacific Family Autism Network, we witnessed a lot of people who bonded over these games,” Program Manager intern Charmaine Lee explained. “People are making meaningful connections through gaming, so it’s very rewarding when they have a game experience that fits their needs.”
Another thriving Minecraft community of players of all ages is found on Autcraft, a whitelisted Minecraft Java Edition server. Teachers also have been using Minecraft to support special education classes and engage students in custom lesson plans with Minecraft: Education Edition.
Henry Li, the Designer intern on the project, recounted how it was his first internship experience and one that he won’t soon forget. “I worked with these really talented interns, my peers, on one of the biggest IP’s in the world. It was an honor to work on such a hugely impactful project.” The practice of embracing new ideas and continually learning was something he acquired along the journey. “A lot of the growth mindset I absorbed from everyone around me. Each day you get to learn something new and there’s plenty of things to do. In those four months I learned so much. Once you have a growth mindset, your life will be different.” The interns pushed each other’s limits and accelerated productivity, helping each other grow, learn from failure, and celebrate the moments of success. “Even though the pressure you have is from your peers – everyone has dependencies and ownership of the project, we get to decide what to do and what to work on – it’s having that great teamwork that helps foster growth.”
Echoing this sentiment was Michaela. “Somehow we all got really lucky and had the most amazing team to work on this. You succeed together and fail together. I think that’s rare. I’ll never forget it.”
Each day, gaming is becoming more accessible to people from all walks of life. The Xbox Adaptive Controller, games like Ear Hockey, and game-dev tools like Responsive Spatial Audio for Immersive Gaming, are only a few of the ways Microsoft is practicing thoughtful, human-centric design for technology that connects people. The interns can now add Minecraft accessible chat-features to the expanding list, with high hopes that everyone can benefit from easier to read, customizable chat, tailored by you, to enhance your Minecraft experience.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-30-2019, 02:58 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Red Dead Redemption 2 Online's Halloween Event Grants Special Rewards
Red Dead Online, the multiplayer mode in Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2, has gotten a spooky update just in time for the Halloween festivities. The new additions include an anxiety-inducing game mode, a new bounty to collect, more items in the shop, and even cosmetic masks.
To start, the game has added a "Fear of the Dark" limited-time mode to the Showdown Mode selection. It pits super-strong Night Stalkers against human Hunters. The deck is stacked against the mortals, but skull masks are littered around the battlefield, so the more masks the Hunters collect, the weaker the Night Stalkers become, while the Hunters have their weapon power increased. Hunters win by collecting all the masks and wiping out the Night Stalkers, while Night Stalkers win by defeating all the Hunters or just surviving until time expires.
The mode will be available through November 12. Don't wait to play, though, because you can get 3X Gold and 2X RDO$ through November 3.
The announcement also details a new bounty, the former mayor Tobin Winfield. He was caught embezzling public funds and went into hiding near Thieves' Landing. Plus this week you can get 30% off sharp objects like cleavers, machetes, tomahawks, and throwing knives.
Finally, you can claim an exclusive mask by marking a specialization. Bounty Hunters get a Creature mask, Traders get a Swine mask, and Collectors get a Masquerade mask. If you achieve Tier 10 and 20 of the Outlaw Pass, you can get special Freak and Horror masks, too. Winning a round of Fear of the Dark will also earn you an exclusive tint for the Freak Mask. Those are available through November 3.
Plus as usual, the update brings a new selection of items for sale through the catalog, and more stipends to collect for Collectors.
The Fear of the Dark mode will still be going when the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on November 5, so presumably PC adopters will have a little time with it too--though they'll miss out on some of the timed rewards. For more details check out our Red Dead Redemption 2 PC pre-order guide.
Fedora 31 Workstation is the latest release of our free, leading-edge operating system. You can download it from the official website here right now. There are several new and noteworthy changes in Fedora 31 Workstation. Read more details below.
Fedora 30 Workstation includes the latest release of GNOME Desktop Environment for users of all types. GNOME 3.34 in Fedora 31 Workstation includes many updates and improvements, including:
Refreshed Background Chooser
Choosing your desktop background in Fedora Workstation is now easier. The newly redesigned background chooser allows you to quickly and easily see and change both your desktop and lock screen backgrounds
Custom Application Folders
Fedora 31 Workstation now allows you to easily create application folders in the Overview. Keep your application listing clutter free and well organized with this new feature:
Do you want the full details of everything in GNOME 3.34? Visit the release notes for even more details.
Fed Up Of Carrying Your Nintendo Switch Lite? Get Yourself A Neck Strap
The more popular a Nintendo product gets, the more bizarre the third-party accessories become – remember the Wii days? It’s perhaps to be expected, then, that the Switch Lite is the latest machine to get in on the weird accessory shenanigans.
That’s right, available to pre-order now from Amazon Japan with international shipping is this Nintendo Switch Lite neck strap. With a stretchy silicon grip section to wrap around your console, and a strap to wrap around your own head, you’ll be able to keep your console on your person with minimal effort.
If the pictures are to be believed, it can help to support the console while you play or droop around your neck like a super-expensive ID card. It’s certainly an interesting way to carry your console, and while we couldn’t face the idea of letting it dangle around like that, perhaps this sounds like the perfect accessory for you.
If it does, you can go ahead and pick up a Grey, Turquoise or Yellow option from Amazon for 1,100 yen before tax and shipping (approx. £8 / $10).
What do you think? Will you be getting one? Let us know with a comment below.
Nindies Showcase Platformer EarthNight Leaps Towards A December Switch Launch
One of the many games featured in August’s Nindies Showcase presentation, EarthNight, has just scored a solid release date on Nintendo Switch. You’ll be able to get your hands on it from 3rd December.
In case you can’t quite remember what it’s all about, let us give you a quick recap. The game is a hand-drawn action-platformer set during a dragon apocalypse – mankind is living in exile on space colonies orbiting the planet. The game’s star duo – a sword-wielding freelance photographer and a young student blessed with ethereal superpowers – take it upon themselves to reclaim their home by skydiving through Earth’s atmosphere and striking back against the monsters below.
Here’s a little more info taken from the press release:
“The two heroes approach their dragon-slaying mission with drastically different tactics. Stanley’s powerful legs allow him to make both high jumps and long leaps, while Sydney favours agility by making use of an air dash and double jump ability. Both heroes wield their bespoke skills to overcome hostile environments and push towards the vulnerable heads of their scaled serpentine foes.
“Each EarthNight level features procedurally-generated dragons with multiple exits and secrets rewarding exploration. Slaying dragons grants Sydney and Stanley rewards like dragon eggs and other mysterious objects that unlock powerful upgrades. With the right tools, the duo can topple even the toughest opponents while moving through stages at breakneck speeds.”
“EarthNight represents seven years of hard work from a collective of talented artists and the final product is something we’re immensely proud to share with everyone,” says Rich Siegel, founder of Cleaversoft. “We hope that Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam players are as excited to hurtle back to Earth and slay dragons as we are to watch them.”
The game will be available for $14.99 / €13.99 / £12.59 / $21.00 AUD when it launches in December.
Do you like the look of it? Will you be adding it to your collection? Tell us below.
New Pirates Of The Caribbean Movie Finds Writers, And One Is Unexpected
Disney is reviving the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, and now the media giant has selected two writers for the job.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has hired a pair of writers for the job, one of whom might come as a surprise. The first is Ted Elliott, which comes as no surprise given he wrote the 2003 original Pirates movie and some of its sequels. The more surprising hire is Craig Mazin, who recently won acclaim for creating the HBO show Chernobyl. Mazin also wrote the comedies Scary Movie 3 and 4, as well as The Hangover: Part II.
It appears the new Pirates movie is going through another draft revision, as Disney originally hired Deadpool and Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to pen the script for the new Pirates movie. They left the Pirates movie earlier in 2019.
It sounds like it's still very early days for the new Pirates film, as Elliot and Mazin are said to be first working on finding a direction for the movie, and then the story.
Johnny Depp famously played Captain Jack Sparrow in all the Pirates movies, but whether or not he would return for the new one is unknown.
The Pirates movies are big-time blockbusters. The latest one, 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales, made $795 million at the box office, and stands as the second worst-performing of them all, which says something about how much of a juggernaut the franchise is. Across the five releases dating back to 2003, the Pirates franchise has made around $4.4 billion at the box office.
Heroic Nightmare Hunts went live this week. Guardians must confront familiar foes from their past along with powerful Champions who will become more challenging over the next few weeks as the additional difficulties unlock. Keep a look out as new Nightmares emerge for the Legend and Master hunts.
That wasn’t the only event that started up this week. The Vex didn’t take too kindly to us venturing into the Black Garden. They have begun their own invasion and can be found mobilizing on the Moon. Fight off the Vex in our new six-player activity, the Vex Offensive. It’s available now for all Season Pass owners.
Too Heavy
Earlier this week, we issued a server-side change to reduce the amount of Heavy ammo spawning in the Crucible. The change affected Control, Clash, and Supremacy. We also have Heavy ammo changes planned for 3v3 Survival in a future update. You can read the full details here.
That wasn’t the only quick reaction we made to the Crucible environment this week. We also issued a server-side change that affected matchmaking in 3v3 Survival. You can read about the change here.
Experimentation with the 3v3 Elimination game mode is ongoing in the Crucible Labs. The first settings we deployed saw Heavy ammo spawning 90 seconds into every round. Revive tokens were also enabled. There was a bug causing Heavy ammo to spawn in instantly, but we were able to get that fixed with a server change. This week, these settings were slightly adjusted. Instead of receiving revive tokens, players can revive as many times as they are able—but the revive timer grows longer each time a player goes down.
Two additional configurations will be introduced in the weeks to come. Our plan is to gather feedback on what you like the best. If you played Elimination back in D1, next week’s settings might be familiar to you.
Iron Banner
Lord Saladin is about to make his first appearance in Season of the Undying. The great fires of the Iron Banner will burn again as Guardians face off against each other for bragging rights and new rewards.
Iron Banner and Valor Bonus
Start: 10 AM PDT on October 15
End: 10 AM PDT on October 22
This season, willing combatants have a chance to earn the new Iron Will armor set. Here is a look at what you stand to gain in battle.
The way you earn rewards in Iron Banner is changing this Season:
There is a new Seasonal pursuit, which must be completed prior to being able to turn in tokens to purchase packages from Lord Saladin
This pursuit is character based and rewards the new S8 armor set
Each step of the pursuit awards Iron Banner weapons or armor
Most of the objectives within the pursuit track progress at any point during Season of the Undying, even if you have not yet acquired the pursuit
Until the Seasonal pursuit has been completed, all rewards will be obtained from completing matches and bounties
All rewards are weapons until the Seasonal pursuit is complete
The existing seven bounties that offered powerful rewards have been adjusted to offer pinnacle rewards (960 Power max,) but only four are available per event
We are tracking a bug in which the four bounties offered as pinnacle rewards rotate each day allowing more than four to be completed during a single event
Because Iron Banner has its own version of Control, the Heavy ammo spawning changes we made early this week will not be reflected in this Iron Banner. We are planning to make this change in a future update before the next event.
Now go control those zones!
First to Finish
Last Saturday, the race began to complete “Garden of Salvation,” the newest Destiny 2 raid. As is tradition, players prepared the best they could and waited at the starting line to see if they could rise above the rest and finish first. We watched on as fireteams fought their way through the mysterious Black Garden. Reaching the final boss was only the beginning, as several teams all stacked up and began to try to put the pieces together and be the first to take it down. In the end, Clan Ascend emerged victorious, finishing an astonishing 2 minutes before the second team. We asked them to share a bit about their experience.
Congratulations on being World First for Garden of Salvation! Tell us a little about your clan.
Popped Corn
Welcome back to Movie of the Week. This is our chance to highlight cool video creations from the community. What’s at stake? Winner will receive a special emblem. You like emblems. Don’t you?
Speaking of winners, here’s this week’s favorites.
Movie of the Week: Saw something weird on the Moon 2
Honorable Mention: Breath
Honorable Mention: Fly me to the moon
That’s all for this week. More Nightmare Hunts are coming up, and Iron Banner is about to begin. It’s an exciting time to be Destiny player!
Good luck on fighting back the Vex, and happy hunting with those Nightmares.
Minecraft 1.15 has had it’s first snapshot, and this one adds bees. This snapshot also includes bee nests and hives for those little bees to live in, and honeycombs. I’ve not been able to play with this snapshot, but honey is always nice.
On the technical side, Java Edition now requires OpenGL 2.0. If you have a computer that’s at least not 10 years old, you should be okay.
Loot tables have a new function called copy_states, which copies states. I mean, what else would you expect?
Play Surviving the Aftermath on Xbox Game Preview Today
Hi, everyone! I know we shared some exciting news last week when we revealed the newest game in the “Surviving” series from Paradox. We mentioned that the game would be available to check out soon via Xbox Game Preview, but today I got to announce the crucial answer to the inevitable question of when: Surviving the Aftermath is available to play today as an Xbox Game Preview title on Xbox One.
Xbox Game Preview lets us share this game with our fans much earlier than usual, which is going to be fantastic for a creative game like Surviving the Aftermath. Players have their work cut out for them in this post-apocalyptic survival game: yes, you’ll need to deal with crises at home, from supplying food and water to ensuring your colonists can withstand several potential catastrophes. However, handling your own colony is just the beginning — once you get your colonists ready to start scouting the world around them, you’ll discover that you’re not the only ones fighting to survive. Visitors, new colonists, and hostile bandits are out there waiting for you, and it’s up to you to decide how your own survivors will handle these new problems!
Just as in the game, this Xbox Game Preview title launch is just the beginning. We think you’re going to enjoy what we have so far in Surviving the Aftermath but joining us in this early phase means you can take part in shaping this game for the future. We want to hear your feedback: what parts of Surviving the Aftermath feel fun to you? What parts should have been left behind and destroyed in the apocalypse? How many meteors are too many? We’re working with Xbox Game Preview to allow you to supply direct feedback and comments from inside the game via the lady bug menu at the top right of your screen, and join us as our game grows, changes, adapts, and ultimately thrives as it faces the world of tomorrow.
Surviving the Aftermath is going to be an intense, exciting, and inspirational journey for us. I’m talking about both the game and the development process, mind you! Players who join us for this experience will get Surviving the Aftermath at a reduced price while it’s in Xbox Game Preview and can look forward to regular updates and new features as the game grows and improves with feedback you have provided.
I hope you’re as excited to build something amazing with us!
Surviving the Aftermath is available now for Xbox One on the Microsoft Store as an Xbox Game Preview Title. Click here for additional information.
