This blog has been somewhat controversial in some circles, to utilize classic understatement. This isn’t going to be a rant, because A, rants aren’t productive, B, there have been enough already, C, I see where it’s supposed to be going. Or at least I think I do.
Rorqual changes:
These have been coming for a long time. They need to happen. Yes, they’re painful for those who have invested in a rorqual mining fleet. How much have those people made off the rorqual fleet they have? If they haven’t at least made it back by now, they either timed it really badly, or they’re fibbing. They need to happen, because the rorqual fleets hovering up the ore in the universe (and building titan fleets) was the main thing which prompted the start of scarcity. It was never going to go back to the way it was. Should they mine a bit more? I could see that. Should they out mine a hulk? I would say nope. At best a Mack. (which is the high ore hold exhumer. not the high yield one.)
It might be worth thinking about reducing the volume of moon ore, to boost its mining rate, without boosting the rate for regular ores. That way you’re not messing with the production of moon goo as much.
Orca change (and Porpoise)
Pretty much inherent in the Rorq change. These are no longer solo mining ships. They’re Mining boosting ships, which can do a little mining on the side.
Oh, and the porpoise needs a bigger cargo hold, because of:
Compression
Good idea, needs some tweaking. Waste is there to cause choices. (Who remembers the days of compressing with 425mm rails?) Takes too long for some types, should be able to load from a specialist hold. Even if that load is drag and drop. Or better, should be able to be cycled, and use ore like fuel. so you don’t need to load it at all. (problem here is, nothing which uses fuel has outcomes depending on what the ‘fuel’ is. Maybe ammo which determines fuel types or something?) Just a thought.
Waste
To blatantly steal something from someone on the forums, rename this to Tailings. and make damn sure you don’t use the verb waste anywhere, because it feels terrible. you didn’t ‘mined X units and wasted Y units’, you ‘mined X units, with Y units of tailings.’ Even if you leave it as waste, ‘mined x units with y units of waste’ feels better than being told you ‘wasted units’. Yes, it’s just a slight rewording, but it’s an important one. People are emotional creatures. The meaning is the same, but the impact is different.
Also, change the order of operations, so you get your ore first, _then_ the waste is removed from the asteroid. That way, you don’t take away ore from people. They always get what’s left in the asteroid at the end.
Oh, and add a mining boost which reduces waste. Maybe add it to the effect with the crystal preservation? probably on percentage chance rather than multiplier, but both would be interesting. Percentage multiplication of the waste percentage. so a 50% bonus would be 50% for T1, and 17% for T2. (more effect for T1)
Gas huffing
Keep this on the smaller ships. Boost it on the barges.
Barges
Don’t see why the changes in tank and fitting were done to the skiff/procurer. Shield tank makes sense there, and hacking off a sixth of the shield hp and sticking it on armour doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I do like the higher BW though 😉
I don’t expect CCP to change anything major with what they’re doing. I’ve been at this too long to this. But there’s always space for tweaks, and those can be pretty major
And there is more coming. The dynamic distribution.
I may have more thoughts in future, but this is it for now. I have a nagging feeling I’ve forgotten things.
How many parts is something I can’t yet answer. As many as it takes.
The SDE is a Static Data Extract from Eve Online. It contains information like where stars and planets are, how much Tritanium goes into a Typhoon, what skills are needed for which modules and so on. It’s a useful bag of information if you’re going to be doing any development of third party tools for the game. Much (but not all) of the information is also available directly from ESI, where it’s potentially more up to data. However, it can be a lot more time consuming to process there, and some is just not available. Like what blueprints need.
The official SDE direct from CCP
I’m not going to go into a great deal of depth on this. It’s not what most people use.
This is the main source for the SDE, and what I use to create my own versions. The main reason most people don’t use is, is that it’s a fuckton (metric, not imperial) of yaml files. Great for passing data around, not so good for looking up something.
CCP tend to update this a wee while after a release happens. Sometimes they need poked to do it. If you’re going to work directly from it, be aware that not all yaml parsers are created equal and can handle the spec a little differently. pyYAML is probably the one to use if you can, with libyaml to stop it taking forever.
The SDE release from yours truly
For a little history, CCP used to release the SDE as a MS SQL server dump. When I got started, someone else did the conversions to mysql which I used. Then they got slower and slower, and I got impatient, finally working out how to do it myself. A few years later, CCP started converting how they did their data versioning internally, moving from what they called BSD to FSD. Which meant they moved to yaml files for much of it. At this point, I totally rewrote the converter process I was using. And because I could, I set it to target a number of different database. If I get hit by a bus, you can find it at https://github.com/fuzzysteve/yamlloader It’s python 2.7, but should be simple enough to convert to 3 if you want to.
https://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/dump/ is where I keep the conversions. I don’t promise to keep them for all time, but older versions are available if you want them. the latest version is always in the latest folder or linked to with the latest links in the root.
If you’re wondering about the structure and names, most of that is a hold over from the original SDE, so that applications needed minimal changes.
Available are:
MySQL, both a complete dump, and individual tables
SQLite, a complete database file.
Postgresql, pg_dump file for use with pg_restore
the normal one, which puts all the tables into the public schema
the ‘schema’ one, which puts all the tables into the evesde schema. I recommend this one for people starting out with postgres. Easier to update.
MS SQL server, a Data Tier Application export.
CSV files, now in gzip, bzip2, and plain format.
The Tables (In my conversion)
There are many tables (or CSV files) in the Eve SDE. However, these tend to fall into a small number of groups only a few of which are wanted.
The ‘Stuff’ tables
invTypes
This is the core table for many applications. If you have something which isn’t a unique item, then this is probably where you’ll want to look it up. Have a typeID from ESI which you want to look up? This is that table. Skills, ships, trade goods, generic planet types, all that good stuff. There’s a published column here which basically says whether it’s actively in the game or not.
invGroups and invCategories
invTypes has a groupID column. That links to invGroups, which has a categoryID which links to invCategories. invCategories contains a list of the types of stuff which exist. Like Ships, Skills, Planets, Modules, and so on. invGroups breaks that down further to things like Assault Frigates, Battleships, Science Skills, Asteroids and so on.
Example: you want all the ships in the game. you look up invCategories and find that ships are categoryID 6 (rather than always joining in the invCategories table.)
select typeName from invTypes join invGroups on invTypes.groupID=invGroups.groupID and invGroups.categoryID=6;
invMarketGroups
Much like invGroups, invMarketGroups is referred to by marketGroupID in invTypes. a little complexity is added, because each market group can have a parentMarketGroupID. This is so you can have each assault frigate in a market group for their race, that market group in the assault frigates group, that market group in advanced frigates, that in Frigates, and that in Ships. (ships doesn’t have a parent). Getting the full tree in pure SQL is a complete pain in the ass.
invMetaGroups and invMetaTypes
invMetaGroups defines the various meta level groups. Like tech 1, tech 2, faction and so on. invMetaTypes links that back to invTypes so you can list all the T2 ships by joining it in. It also has the parentTypeID in case you want to see what the T1 version is.
select typeName from invTypes join invGroups on invTypes.groupID=invGroups.groupID and invGroups.categoryID=6 join invMetaTypes on invTypes.typeID=invMetaTypes.typeID and invMetaTypes.metaGroupID=2
invTraits
All those handy ship bonuses have to live somewhere. Links to invTypes for the ship type (typeID) and to invTypes for the skill (skillID). -1 is a bonus which isn’t related to a skill. unitID links to eveUnits so you know if it’s a percentage or what.
invFlags
This is related to the asset table in Eve. If you get back a list of your assets, they’ll have flags on them. You won’t see hangars and so on. The Flags determine where they are. Something with flag 11 is in the first lowslot on a ship, for example. This is why shared hangars are painful to implement.
invTypeMaterials
This _used_ to be used for making things. It’s not any more. it’s just what you get out of something when you recycle it. typeID links to invTypes for what you’re recycling, materialTypeID links to invTypes and is what you get out. quantity is what you’d get on a perfect (100%) refine.
invVolumes
When things change size as they’re packaged, the volume in invTypes becomes less useful. This is the volume of things which are packaged (when it’s different)
invItems
A table of unique items, where they are, who owns them and what they are. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone but CCP use this.
invNames and invUniqueNames
the names for the things in invItems. Don’t know what kind of something a thing is, but have an itemID? It might be in there. There’s almost always a better table to look at to get this information, because you normally know.
invPositions
Where the things in invItems are in space. like with invNames, it’s unlikely you’ll want to use this.
Industry Tables
When Crius came out, CCP changed up everything. And had a new yaml data file just for making shit. So I created a number of totally new tables from it. If you don’t like the format, it’s all my fault. Try and do better. I dare you.
A common column in these tables is the activityID column. This is to split them up into the various things you can do with a blueprint. Like manufacturing, researching TE, copying, reacting, inventing and so on. Yes, reactions are just blueprints like anything else now.
1
Manufacturing
3
Researching Time Efficiency
4
Researching Material Efficiency
5
Copying
8
Invention
11
Reactions
The Activity IDs
industryActivity
typeID is the blueprint typeid in invTypes. time is how long it takes to do that activity before modifiers.
industryActivityMaterials
Which materialTypeIDs from invTypes are used for an activityID when using a typeID (blueprint) from invTypes and the quantity before modifiers
industryActivityProducts
What quantity of productTypeIDs from invTypes are produced per run of a typeID (blueprint) from invTypes for a specific activityID
industryActivitySkills
What skillID from invTypes is required to do activityID on a typeID (blueprint) from invTypes and what level it needs to be.
industryActivityProbabilities
Invention has different probability depending on the typeID of the blueprint (invTypes) with a handy productTypeID to work out what it makes.
industryBlueprints
maxProductionLimit is how many blueprint copies can be on a BPC.
Planetary Interaction.
planetSchematics
The various things you can make on a planet and how long they take.
planetSchematicsPinMap
Just links the schematics to the kind of structure on planet which makes them. Like basic industry. though it is by planet type as well.
planetSchematicsTypeMap
Takes the schematicID from planetSchematics, and tells you the quantity of what typeIDs you need to put in (isInput=1) to get typeID out (isInput=0)
The Dogma Tables
Dogma is Eve’s engine for knowing stuff about things. What slot does a module go into? Dogma. What skills are required for something? Dogma. How much damage does a gun do? Dogma (though it’s hard to work out. yay)
dgmAttributeTypes
The table with the description of the various dogma Attributes. by attributeID
dgmTypeAttributes
The table which links dogma attributes attributeID to item types invTypes typeid. These days, just use valueFloat for the value. everything is condensed into that now. Handy for things like how many low slots something has. Or which skills are required. (with a separate attribute for which level it’s needed at. yay)
To see all the attributes and what they do, for a Rifter (typeid 587) try:
select * from dgmTypeAttributes join dgmAttributeTypes on dgmTypeAttributes.attributeID=dgmAttributeTypes.attributeID where typeID=587;
dgmEffects
The various bits of dogma which are just flags on items, rather than things with values. like if it’s a low slot module or not. This describes those flags.
dgmTypeEffects
Linking typeID from invTypes to effectID in dgmEffects
dgmAttributeCategories
Just splits the various attributes up into categories. Like if it’s a fitting attribute, shield, or so on. categoryID in dgmAttributeTypes
dgmExpressions
This is stuff which relates to how things actually work in eve. the code behind it. I don’t understand it well enough to explain it.
Map Tables
mapDenormalize
This has pretty much every celestial in it, and where it is, in meters, in its star system, with the star at 0,0,0
Links to invTypes so you know what some is (planet etc) by typeID and invGroups by groupID. links to mapSolarSystems with solarSystemID, mapConstellations with constellationIDmapRegions with regionID.
What might not be obvious is wormhole effects are here, with a groupid of secondary sun.
mapJumps
Less useful than it might sound, it tells you which pairs of stargates link up. You probably want mapSolarSystemJumps
mapSolarSystemJumps
what solarSystemIDs have stargates to what other solarSystemIDs. also has regions and constellations
mapSolarSystems
So you can find out information about solarsystems by solarSystemID. Names, regionIDs, ConstellationIDs, where they are in the universe in meters. (yes, light year ranges stored in meters) and their security rating.
mapRegions
Simiar information, but for Regions.
mapConstellations
Take a wild guess 😉
The end, for now
There are still a bunch of tables which I’ve not talked about yet. Most are pretty self explanatory, but I’ll get to them another time. This should be enough to get you going.
Both of these will probably go away when the full release is out, as the main versions will be updated.
https://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/discord – A link to get an invite to my brand spanking new discord server. Just make sure to get some roles from the acl-management channel 😉 Mostly an experiment to see if anyone will actually use it.
The voting for CSM 15 starts on June 1st, 2020. Please remember to vote during the time that it’s open. If you think “I won’t vote, because it’s all just null blocs who get in”, you’re contributing to that (unless you’d just be voting for null bloc people 😉 ) Maybe you won’t get the people you want, but at least you tried? And it’s possible for non Bloc members to get in. I did. For six years.
No, I’m not running this year. It’s been six years. I think I deserve a rest from it, no?
Onto the candidates:
The Alumni:
We have a few people coming back. I’d suggest you think about these ones. (Not saying the others are bad, but they generally wouldn’t need your support.)
Mike Azariah– I’ve worked with him before. He’s a bit of an institution (should be institutionalized? 😉 ) in highsec, running his Magic School Bus for newbies.
Brisc Rubal– But “Brisc is a Goon!” I hear you tell. That’s true, yes. If that’s a deal breaker for you, move on. If it’s not, he does actually listen, and he did bring stuff from non-Goons to CCP.
Exooki– He’s a somewhat polarizing figure right now. And can be accused of being a goon, due to the Initiative mercenaries thing. But he did a reasonable job talking to CCP about wormhole stuff. If you care about wormhole stuff, maybe keep him in mind. If you think wormholes (and/or potential Goons) should DIAF, then move on.
The Rest:
These folk haven’t been on the CSM before. There’s upsides and downsides to that. One of the downsides is that I won’t be there to see the hope die in their eyes when they see how the sausage factory really works. I kid. Mostly. I don’t really known these folks, so take any recommendations with a dose of salt. Do some research, if you can.
InsidiousSainthood– Small gang/Solo PVP advocate. While fleet combat is important, so’s the little stuff. You don’t want to have one destroy the other. Always handy for an alternate. Keep an eye on them for FW too.
January Valentine – Community type. Which can be handy, as part of the CSM job is keeping a finger on community sentiment. (There can be a bit of sentiment guidance too, but that’s entirely a personal decision. CSM members tend to have seen more of the reasoning behind things. Which is why there can be a degree of ‘white knighting’. It’s never been requested by CCP.)
Kenneth Feld – He seems to have his head screwed on when it comes to industry. As that’s one of the legs of Eve, it’s kind of important.
Pandora Singularity – I’ve met her, while she was organising Eve North. Which went without (from the outside at least) a hitch. More community connections, and generally a good egg.
Stitch Kaneland – If FW is your thing, maybe take a look here. FW’s been needing work for a fair time. Maybe CCP will finally be able to dedicate some time to it.
Conclusion
Now, just because I haven’t suggested someone, doesn’t mean they’re not worth voting for. While yes, I’m stuck at home at the moment like many of the rest of you, I can do my entire job from there. And it’s been hectic, and draining. My research has suffered because of this. A few of them reached out to me for an endorsement. They got a little more attention because of that. They didn’t all get it. I will have missed worthy candidates.
Either way, please vote. Put the person you want the most at the top, and then put people you’d still like to see below them. Those slots don’t cost you anything to use, after all.
The list above is in no particular order.
If you do more research on people, ignore anyone who promises you anything, other than that they’ll talk to CCP. the CSM can’t make CCP do anything. Those people have no understanding of how the CSM works.
Second day edit: I have been duely informed by people that:
I’m correct
I’m wrong
I don’t know what I’m talking about
I got the order wrong
I should stay in my lane
The first paragraph was dickish. (not intended, but…)
So… You should probably just move on without reading.
This is just a minor modest proposal, for how a nullsec group can grow and prosper. Yes, I’ve never been in a nullsec group, but I’ve been watching from the outside, without any real prejudices holding me back. If you think I have nothing to offer, you can just close the tab now, and go about your day, safe in the knowledge that you showed me, and I’ll know my place now.
There’s a few stages to this, some of which have to happen in specific orders, others which can occur out of order (to a degree)
Stage 1:
Pick a capital system. Ideally this will be pretty central for you. A semi reasonable jump train to highsec is worthwhile, but not totally required. Depends how much you hate your logistics people. This could change in the future, but doing so could be quite painful. This will make more sense further down.
Once you have your capital system, you need to anchor at least a Fortizar in it. A Keepstar would be better, but I don’t know what scale you’re operating at. This structure should have A Market module in it. Other structure modules aren’t so important, though I’d suggest defences. Keep your market tax rate sane. Yes, you will get income from this, but you don’t want to make it make more sense to go elsewhere.
Stage 2:
Stock your market. Initially, this will likely be from Jita. This is bad. Jita is the enemy of your logistics chain. If you’re buying something from there, you’re giving ISK to the enemy (namely, someone not in your group)
This one sounds simple until you start getting into all the fiddly bits coming out of the simple premise that the only people you should be giving ISK to, are members of your own group.
You will want to have some subsidiary markets scattered around. These are not for your line members to buy ships and modules from. These are to cut down on the required movement of resources to make stuff. We’ll get to why this is good in a couple of paragraphs.
Stage 3
You’re going to need miners. You probably already have people in Rorquals. If you don’t, you want some. Or mining barges. Or both. Mine anomalies. Mine moons. Provide facilities for them to refine their ore, with a decently low tax rate, and appropriate rigs. Compressin is reasonable, if they’re towards the outside of your space.. You also want to provide them with somewhere to sell the ore or minerals at a fair rate. This can be below Jita, as it’s significantly more convenient for them. Do not scalp them. Taking advantage of your people is a good way to lose them. These can be at the subsidiary markets.
You’re going to need industrialists. Thankfully, you’re probably not going to need a huge number of them. And you can cheat, by teaching your line members to make things for you. Sure, they may not specialize, but if they can get researched blueprints at a low rate, and there are orders for them to sell to, you can effectively outsource bits of your manfacturing to them. You will want manufacturing structures in reasonable locations. This is why you want the subsiduary markets. So a general member doesn’t need to ship things around, to manufacture useful things.
Stage 4
Assuming you’re running a decent monitoring system on your members, you can start to have production goals people can sign up to. “We need 300 of module X”, allows people to sign up to do bits of that. Give corps/people who do useful things kudos, or other benefits. Remember that T2 needs T1 to feed it. And Components. And so on. Outsource from your primary industrialists to your line members. And Reactions are yet another thing that can be spread around. You need to watch for people selling resources outside, but this is a social aspect.
You want to be as self-sufficient as possible. If you have a doctrine, and you whelp a fleet, the appropriate response is to replace it from your stores. If it’s to go to Jita to buy another fleet, you’re playing into the hands of the people you’re fighting against.
Misc notes
The phases should probably be broken up more. But you can see how it all interlocks, and this is close to a stream of consiousness, rather than a properly set out plan.
Running a trade surplus is ok. But it tends to indicate that you can grow yourself more. Don’t give your spare capacity to your enemy.
You’re going to need ISK to make this work. Line members will need to be paid, to stop them selling their shit to your enemies.
You need to be able to have basic monitoring of your members. This means you’re going to be pretty dependent on your IT staff. Welcome to modern business. The basics of what you want to monitor:
What people are making. (Did Jimbob make a Dread recently?)
What stockpiles you have
What’s on your markets. (Is Jimbob selling a Dread on the market?)
What contracts exist (Is Jimbob selling it by contract instead?)
What ISK flow is happening. (Did Jimbob suddenly get a windfall?)
What your line members are mining. (are they refining it elsewhere? Selling in jita?)
what your mining happens near your structures.
Your enemies are everyone who are not you. This should be obvious.
None of this stuff is rocket science (though the monitoring system will take some effort. As will reporting on it) But all of it isn’t being implemented in too many places.
I’m not going to talk in detail about the EULA changes wrt the alpha clones. Which is the rest of them. There’s nothing substantial in there. Even the 90 days thing isn’t. (before, it was ‘account expired; we can delete it now’)
What I am going to do is talk about the other change. That to gambling with EVE Online currency and assets. This is a pretty big change. It won’t directly affect a lot of people, who just play EVE and wouldn’t think about giving their money to another player to gamble with. But it will affect people more than some will think. I’ll explain that a bit further down.
Reaction
When I saw the devblog (Same time as the rest of you. The CSM didn’t get advance notice.), I was a little surprised. But not as much as I would have been a year ago. Over the last few months, there has been much more coverage in relation to gambling in video games, with some high-profile (in the industry) court cases. I was surprised, not because of the content, but only because of the timing. On reflection, with Alpha clones entering the scene, I shouldn’t have been surprised at that either.
CCP have a very big incentive to clean house. The removal of a subscription fee being required to play means that we’ll probably have a number of younger players joining us; younger players leading to greater scrutiny in this time of elevated concern about gambling in video games. CCP seriously don’t need that attention. It could prove very expensive for them, especially as it’s not something that they control.
While it’s unfortunate that some sites, such as EVE-Bet, are being hit by this, I fully understand why CCP are taking this tack. Unless you take the stance that all gambling sites are banned, you have to ban them one by one. White listing isn’t possible. Only black listing. So the ‘well behaved’ sites go down with the ones with a shadier reputation, instead of CCP opening their selves up to
Side Effects
This is where I have my only real problems with what is happening. Regardless of how you feel about them, some of the sites being forced to close did a lot of good for the EVE community, funding a variety of projects, and allowing for a richness of content which it will take time to recover. The common example is EVE-Bet. They’ve stayed above getting involved in the meta-game of EVE, instead funding a variety of streamers and other community content providers, such as EN24, Crossing Zebras and Eve-NT.
That’s something I’ll miss. I seriously doubt that donations will match that income. Even when you have something like Patreon, the number of people who will kick in real money is low. Probably because it is real money. The number of people who will donate ISK is similar. I’m lucky. I don’t run up much in the way of EVE expenses. Some of the other sites, well, they’re going to have to seriously change how they do things.
Long story short, this is a positive change for the game. But not one without collateral damage.
Surviving Fanfest isn’t particularly difficult. Staving off Icelandic Death Flu (also known as Con Crud) is a trifle more difficult. And not being lynched for poor hygiene appears to be difficult for some poor souls. So here’s a few basic guidelines.
If anything appears to be insultingly obvious, then it’s not directed at you.
Hygiene
A small refresher course:
Shower in the morning, using soap or shower gel. You won’t melt. The water can smell a bit, but it dissipates rapidly (and beats body odour hands down)
Apply antiperspirant after showering. Not deodorant. Antiperspirant helps stop the sweat which leads to BO. Deodorant just tries to cover it up (and either fails, or chokes anyone nearby)
Change your clothes at least once per day
Remember, the human nose is good at getting used to scents. Just because you can’t detect it, doesn’t mean other people can’t.
Health
This one’s less obvious to people who haven’t been to any large convention.
Eat. Ideally at least three meals, but at least a large breakfast and dinner. Snacking throughout the day isn’t a bad idea. Starving people have weak immune systems. Ideally you’re not eating things which are just sugar. Complex carbs, fats, and protein are what you want to go for. If you see them, protein bars aren’t a bad idea.
Stay hydrated. You’re probably going to be drinking a lot of booze. Make sure you have water too. Having at least a water bottle with you is a very good idea. keep drinking throughout the day. Starting the day with at least a glass of water is good. (Your urine should be pale yellow or clear. Dark is a sign of dehydration, which is just asking for infection and discomfort)
Wash your hands. Soap and water.
Try to avoid touching your face. If you have to, your off-hand is probably the cleaner of the two (as you use your primary hand to touch things). You will fail to avoid touching your face.
Hand sanitizer (High alcohol based please. Anti-bac trends to tougher bacteria) as backup.
Fistbump beats a handshake. Not touching is better, but not always practical.
Consider extra vitamins. A healthy balanced diet means you don’t need this. Are you going to have such a diet at Fanfest?
No licking people.
Shower at night. Good way to get rid of anything you missed earlier. 2 showers are better than one. Go for the morning if you only go for one.
Scheduling
Plan which events you’re going to go to, in advance. That way you’re not running round like a headless chicken. The mobile schedule is a good way to plan, using the regular schedule to decide which to see for each bracket. Leaving gaps to go to places like the PvP room, or to eat, isn’t a bad idea, if there’s nothing on at a particular slot.
I’ve been to a couple of Fanfests now, and my least favourite part of it has always been Registration. With the long line outside Harpa, in the freezing cold, just by the North Atlantic.
Now, registering a couple of thousand people is never a fun job, especially when you have a bunch of different accents to deal with. I’ve dealt with systems for events in the UK, where English is everyone’s first language, and those don’t run quickly either.
So, what would I suggest in my vast experience? Bar codes. The moment you have to type something in, or speak, you’re introducing a possibility of misinformation.
So
Send out a mail to everyone, containing a unique bar code, ideally one which isn’t a contiguous number.
They print this out (or have it on their phone)
During registration, attached to each of the machines being used, you have a cheap hand-held barcode scanner
When it scans, it first sends a key combo which sticks the cursor into the right field, enters the number, then hits enter.
At this point, you have their details up on screen. You confirm it’s them, it updates the (hopefully central, but you could consolidate later) database showing they’ve registered
You then hand over the tickets.
If you want to get really fancy you could throw in printing for the badges as well, but that’s probably excessive, and increases the initial cost significantly. Black onto plain white credit card sized plastic is around 9p per card, amortized over the lifetime of the card printer. Preprinted cards increases the cost. Thermal printing onto the tickets is possible, but also not cheap.
Might only shave a few seconds per person, but that stacks up when you’re doing a thousand people.
In case you’re wondering, most barcode scanners these days act as usb keyboards, just typing a preamble, the code, then a postamble. You could get fancy and use QR codes, but those scanners are more expensive and slower. Basic barcode scanners will set you back around £40 each. I had to put together a solution for work for this kind of thing, which has been pretty successful.
This may seem a trifle self serving, in that I already have a fan site account from CCP (more for the tools, than the blog, I think). I don’t deny I like getting things (like the spiffy monocle I’m sporting in game, which I won from the pre-Vegas blink promo)
Part of me likes the idea of getting neat in game stuff, without ‘soul binding’. The whole idea of items which you can’t sell to someone else kinda goes against the grain in the ultimate capitalism of Eve.
On the other hand, anything that’s rare is valuable, regardless of the actual utility, and just ‘gifting’ that kind of thing means interfering a little in the sand box. I don’t think it’s as major as some people think, a few billion here, a few billion there, it’s not a major deal. It may be worth asking the community in a survey, rather than depending on the forums for this.
As my prescience is currently in the shop for repairs, I can’t say what the community would say it believes. But I can make some suggestions about alternate options, which cement people into the story of Eve. Options which confer no in game benefit, or a benefit which while tangible, makes sense why it’s not transferable. The second category is a lot iffier as it still involves changing the rules of the sandbox. Or rather, adjusting the variables.
Everything would be with CCP’s approval, of course.
No Benefit Rewards:
The right to name a High/Low/NPC Null Station/Planet/Moon
A monument to that person, or a something that they designate, as a permanent landmark in Eve. You want a monument to a particular someone? Get that instead of to you.
A new module with your, or your corporations name on it. Perhaps a replacement for a standard meta module. Or a ‘reskin’ of it. An ‘Otherworld Enterprises’ Strip Miner?
Your name on something everyone gets at Christmas. A meta version of a ship. A trading card.
The right to name an Agent.
Being able to pitch a mission to the CCP Staff. Fancy yourself a writer? Reduce the chance of people having to save that damn damsel.
In game Benefits:
More controversial.
A boost to standings with a particular corp or faction. Corp would be less problematic. Ideally not one of the corps for a trade hub. Though that’s a reward in itself. Reduced taxes.
Reduced taxes in a particular station.
A blueprint for a branded module. Ideally T1 or Meta 1 stats. See the ‘Otherworld Enterprises’ Strip Miner. A GoonFleet Rifter? Ships should just be skinned T1. Modules Meta 1 could work.
Have any comments? Suggestions? Vile imprecations on my lineage? leave them below.
Fuzzwork
