Braving the Storm : Legion, Dust, and the CPM's Hand

So.  This blog has obviously not seen some posts for a considerable amount of time, and Cast514 ceased.

Now that legion has been unveiled, I hope you guys can understand why.  It was incredibly hard for all of us on the CPM for the last few months to know this, to hear all of the feedback from the players and feel their passion for the game, knowing what this day would feel like when it came and exactly how those people would react. Writing a blog or doing podcast that was generally focused on speculation about the future was something I simply could not do under the circumstances.  

Needless to say : The information was released in an incredibly poor way, and the shitstorm cascade of torn emotion, fear, and confusion was the only possible result.


This is kind of amusing in a way though, because for the last several months CCP has talked to the CPM in great detail, involving us in discussions about "Project" Legion and the future so early in the process, that we knew about "Project" Legion before the dev teams that were going to work on it. That level of involvement was previously unheard of in the CPM's relationship with CCP, and was completely refreshing for us.

That being said, it should be noted that our initial reaction was quite similar to the one rippling throughout the interwebs now. Fear, anger, confusion were obvious in our responses as we were told and questioning everything about the decision, what it would mean for Dust 514, and what it would mean for the current players.

We had countless meetings regarding messaging and how and when to unveil "Project" Legion. Among the very first things we said to CCP, was an emphatic, and unanimous;

 "DO NOT WAIT UNTIL FANFEST TO TELL PEOPLE. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TELL PEOPLE AT FANFEST"

During these discussions, a plan was laid out to reveal the project much sooner.  However... this is life, and things happen to even the best of plans to ruin them. Even so, this could not really have been unveiled in a worse way. The obvious questions and fears were not allayed, and the a lot of the fears that players are experiencing could have totally been avoided.  But.. I digress.

The other main topic of these meetings was transition :  When will it happen, how will it happen, would dust514 keep running, and how was CCP going to protect the monetary, emotional, and time investments of those among the playerbase who would stick with it. Additionally, a topic of note we have not relented on is "when is the project going to transition back to consoles"

As a council, our primary concern in the transition process is to make sure that the people who stay are taken care of, and that for as long as dust514 keeps running (It will) that those players are not in the cold either.  CCP will not openly commit to specifics because they are learning from their past mistakes....  However, they are totally on the same page and they want to do everything possible to make the transition as smooth as possible.  Things like preserving character names, progression, and assets have been discussed, but a lot of those systems are changing so a simple copy/paste wouldn't really make sense. 

This is still very much an ongoing discussion regarding the transition, and we're urging CCP to talk more in public about how this will all work, ASAP. As soon as this stuff is nailed down internally, you can expect the CPM to be on CCP about releasing it immediately.  I'll just note that for those biomassing your characters, you might want to keep them if you have any intention whatsoever of even trying out the Project when it become playable. You're just throwing away free shit by biomassing. For those that have already biomassed, be advised you can get them back via support ticket.

On a more positive note, I will summarize with my personal feelings. (Bolded, just because.)

Like said above, we were all livid when we found out. There's actually a story to how we found out, but that will have to get NDA approved to share. (I'll ask, don't worry) I was afraid, I was angry, and I was confused.

Knowing more now after these past few months... That anger and confusion is gone, but the fear remains. Now though, there is also excitement. It is hard to describe, but I feel now, very much like I did four years ago, anticipating and speculating about Dust.  Hearing all the cool things that they are working on -right now- and not in some far off dreamland, all the things that were not possible for technical reasons on the ps3 suddenly becoming possible.... It's exciting as hell.

But, despite excitement... there is still fear, and it is a legitmate fear I expect many of you share and a message we have strongly urged CCP to be aware of. That message is :

A new platform equates to new possibility. But just because we can now do more, does not mean that past failures will not be repeated. New does not equate to good in and of itself. Dust -must- be learned from or these past four years will have been for nothing.

I don't really want to end on a "Doom and gloom" note, so I'll tack this on:  For people who aren't aware, the CCP is holding a two day summit this coming Sunday and Monday. Minutes will be recorded, and we're hoping to have them out ASAP with as much transparency as possible. CCP might NDA some of it, but we feel strongly that the rest of the playerbase -needs- to know what is going on in as much detail as possible. We'll do everything in our power to make that happen.

All I can say now is this  : Keep watching the streams and watch for blue posts, Fanfest is not over yet and we're pushing hard to get CCP  to tell the public all of the important stuff.

Cast 514 - Episode 11 "The British Are Coming!"

It's that time again, folks!

In this episode, we sat down with CCP Wolfman and CCP Hybrid, who work on the control input methods in dust, among other things. They tell us about how controls are created, challenges involved with the playstation move, and discuss changes released in CCP's latest devblog about aiming & controls, found  Here!


Youtube upload in progress, that'll show up here as soon as it's done.


Dropbox download: Here!

Kicking back in gear!

Greetings, readers! It's been a while since something was posted here, as things have been pretty hectic. Since the last post, we've had Fanfest, Dust officially launched with Uprising, and the first two point releases (1.1 and 1.2) were also released. Several devblogs have been released, as well! CCP also established the CPM, which is one of the reasons I haven't had as much time as I'd like for blogging.

 However, enough of that. I've got news! To make up for this horribly long silence period, I will be hosting an ingame Ask-Me-Anything! Eve Online and Dust514 players will be able to find me in the ingame channel "CPM-AMA" where they can feel free to chat with me about anything their heart desires to know. I will answer any question or talk about any topic that is not restricted by our dreaded NDA or the bounds of good taste. This will take place this Wednesday,  July 24 at roughly 18:00 UTC. Duration will be at least an hour. I'll try to have it streamed for those who're unable to join ingame, but can't promise I'll pull questions or topics from any other sources than ingame.


But wait... There's more! I'm sure, dear readers... a chance to talk with me is all well and good, but what you guys come here for, what you crave is that juicy goodstuffs from CCP, that delicious taste of news. So... I'm happy to announce that the next episode of Cast514 has been scheduled, and should be landing on a website near you sometime this weekend. Our special guests this time are CCP Wolfman and CCP Hybrid, The experts within CCP about all things control and movement related, among other things!

 Last but not least, I'm putting out a recruitment call for people interested in dissecting devblogs and videos, blog posts, community events, and more. Those interested can chuck an email to NovaKnife.Dust@gmail.com

Cast514 Episode 10: Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Peppers!?

It's that time again, Sportsfans!

In this episode we kidnapped CCP Foxfour to tell us about his work on Planetary Conquest, a feature coming out with the newest expansion of Dust514 on May 6th. Stay tuned for the next episode, which will be released during or very shortly after Fanfest, featuring all kinds of news bits!






DropBox Download : Here.

Observations on IGN "Its happening" video

So its been a very busy weekend!

The Caldari Prime Titan "Shigeru" Crashed into the planet causing massive damage environment and at least 10 million lives lost. To celebrate the catastrophic loss of life, IGN and CCP posted a new video of the event dramatising an exchange between some attacking Gallente capsuleers and Mercs. For the not so eagle eyed, there where several new things that made its way into this video. The most obvious being the scrambler rifle which thus far, we had only recieved very basic information back when it was first announced during the closed beta testers tournament.

More after the break.

Cast 514 : Ep 9 : "Uprising Imminent!"

In this episode we talk to CCP Praetorian, the creative director for Dust 514, and CCP Nullarbor, a senior programmer working on the connection between Eve Online and Dust514.

We apologize for the dips in quality at times, we were plagued with network issues throughout the entire effort to record this.

In this cast, we discuss various things in the upcoming major content build such as their new terrain system, as well as things to come in upcoming hotfixes including a fix to ambush spawns, the very soon addition of racial dropsuits, and more!

Dropbox Download : Here

All current weapons and their variations in Dust 514

Want to get a demo of every weapon in Dust 514? Dust 514 101 has you covered!

Community Charity Tournament Announced!

As part of the upcoming community organised charity event for the open beta, CCP has given the organisers of the event 3 merc pack codes and have decided to use them in a tournament. Here is the thread from the forums that can be found here. The copy and paste of the event is after the break.

Dust 514 Charity Marathon

Hey bunnies!

As many of you know, on the 22nd, DUST 514 will finally be going to open beta.  As such, a few of the awesome from the community are planning a charity live streamed  24 hour marathon to celebrate. More info after the break!

So, the worlds collided, and stuff...

But what does that mean for you?

It means now is the time to take note... and prepare.

In the past week,  CCP has successfully completed the transition from Dust operating on their test server Singularity (SiSi) and is now fully running on Tranquility (TQ) their live Eve Online Server.  Eve players are now seeing infantry pop up in chat channels everywhere, and we're well on the way towards solid interactions between both games.

The most notable of course, being the ability to carry out Orbital Strikes. With this latest move, players in Dust 514 can participate in Factional Warfare (FW) that is located in the highly disputed low-security systems in Eve Online. During these battles, players can request orbital support from Eve Online players, using specialized ammunition.

It doesn't stop there, either!  The FW system in Eve is  for all intents and purposes a massive and public war. Anyone who wants can join in any of the four factional milita and fight for either the Caldari State, Minmatar Republic, Amarr Empire, and Gallente Federation.  Players battle over control over low security systems, which have little to no NPC protection against PVP attack.  People go to lowsec to fight.. and fight they do.


Without going into it in too much detail (As this is an article about Dust) The objective in FW in Eve, is to conquer  systems from the opposing militia. This can be done by earning certain amounts of victory points (By various means), until enough points are earned by one faction to render a system 'vulnerable' after which they can bombard an installation in space. Getting this installation to near death will render it invulnernable again, and system ownership will change to the conquering militia until enough victory points are earned by the opposite side to attempt to conquer it.  Victory points are earned in many ways, but this is the cool part where Dust comes in.

In Dust, you're not just participating in FW so people in space can shoot you. Winning these battles actually has a lasting effect on the ability to conquer the FW systems you fight in! This effect is simple.  Dust514 players are battling over 'districts' on planets. Winning a Dust FW battle changes ownership of the district to the militia who started the attacking contract.  The more Dust districts owned by a militia, the easier it becomes to conquer the system in Eve. Alternatively, a defending militia can hire dust mercs to conquer the districts which will make it slower and harder for their enemy to conquer the system in question!

This back and forth system will see lots of action in the next coming weeks, especially with the announcement of the upcoming open beta on the 22nd of January.

But I'm an Eve player and not interested in FW. What can dust do for me?

Currently, the interaction between both games is intentionally limited. CCP doesn't want to break both games coming out of the gate, right?

However, any good CEO would be remiss to not take this opportunity to begin recruiting Dust players (Or Eve players, if a dust corp) in the meantime, as more interaction features are well in the works and not far off.  Establishing a good infrastructure between both games as a CEO now, will ensure that in the coming days your corporation will be ready to take full advantage of the interaction and use it to make all your members richer!

ISK being the primary motivation for doing anything in Eve, it's a similar thing here. A large focus on the integration of Dust514 is ensuring that it's well received by the majority of players, to truly make this "One Universe//One War".  CCP has said in the past they intend to do this by having most of the integration features somehow augment or benefit other mechanics in Eve Online, and the opposite is true  from the Eve side looking at Dust.

While there's not much details to be shared because of the soon to be lifted NDA,  You can rest assured. If there's one thing to be certain of in the coming days...

The ISK must flow.