20-23 January 2015 Winter Summit Minutes Day Two – January 21 Contents: * Page 2 – Wormholes * Page 5 – Team Space Glitter * Page 8 – UI Modernization Project * Page 12 – Team Pirate Unicorns * Page 15 – Cinematics Team * Page 18 – Fanfest 2015 * Page 22 – Customer Support Session: Wormholes CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Falcon * CCP Fozzie * CCP Affinity * CCP Bettik * CCP Masterplan * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Asayanami Dei (remote) * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) * Mike Azariah (remote) CCP Fozzie opened the meeting by showing the CSM some new statistics regarding activity in wormhole space. There was a large spike in kills when Thera was released. Number of jumps is steadily climbing post-phoebe. Corbexx brought up that lots of people have been concerned that mining has been suffering in wormhole space, but CCP Fozzie showed statistics indicating that it's relatively steady overall Ali Aras asked what the numbers look like for people using wormholes between k-space, and there has also been an increase. Xander asked whether there were numbers on people using wormholes for transit versus those completing content in wormholes. Sion asked what the number of people living in wormholes looks like. CCP Fozzie responded that it's been increasing overall. NPC kills in wormholes was down when Hyperion was released, but has been steadily climbing and is now well above its former level. The CSM then looked at number of wormhole jumps per ship, with the most popular being the Astero, closely followed by the other covert ops frigates. Overall CCP Fozzie summed up that activity in wormhole space has been quite healthy. He then asked the CSM if they had any concerns or questions about wormholes they wanted to bring forward Progod asked about Quantum Flux Generators, but CCP Fozzie replied that they have no plans on the table right now. He also asked whether they were happy with the use of wormholes for fleet movements. CCP Bettik replied that they're quite happy with it, as it might allow you to find a shortcut but it's not something you can rely on for logistics. Sugar Kyle brought up that there are wormholes spawning in tutorial systems, and new players are entering them and getting lost in wormhole space. CCP Bettik replied that it's something they can definitely adjust. There was also some discussion on adding it to the scanning tutorial in some way. Xander brought up the question again whether wormholes should be considered new player content. CCP Fozzie responded that it should be considered new player content in the same way that null sec sovereignty could be considered new player content (i.e. some new players will connect with the right groups and jump right in, but it won't be for the majority of newbies). Sugar Kyle also brought up the low sec to low sec wormholes. CCP Fozzie showed that the usage has been steadily increased. Sugar Kyle responded that this matched with what she has seen from groups using them. Corbexx asked about assembling Tech 3 Cruisers in wormholes. CCP Fozzie responded that he doesn't know exactly would be involved in actually getting it working, but it's something they're looked at before. It may require some other structure changes. Sugar Kyle asked about capital and battleship usage, mainly around use for collapsing wormholes. Overall carrier usage has been steady, but number of wormholes being collapsed due to exceeding maximum mass has decreased. Sugar Kyle asked how gas mining in wormholes was going, especially with the Prospect and Venture. There were also questions about the frigate only wormholes as well. The Venture is still more popular than the Prospect, but both are seeing some use. There has also been an increase in gas mining since Phoebe. CCP Fozzie also added that there are a few people living in the Sansha wormholes, but it's lower than other systems. He also mentioned that it's novel to see bounties coming from wormholes. Some questions about ice mining were asked around the new shattered systems. CCP Fozzie didn't have any numbers at hand. Corbexx asked about sites from different classes spawning in a given class of wormhole. For example, could you have a c5 site occasionally spawn in a c2 hole? and the other way around. Fozzie said that with the new distribution system the way site spawns can change, and the CSM discussed whether this would be good or confusing. The general consensus was that it would be fine, as players would look up the different sites. There were some questions concerning the population in Thera, and CCP Fozzie shared some statistics. Corbexx asked if it would be possible to increase the number of offices. CCP Fozzie said it's an option they can look at, but the office rental prices in Thera are not at a high level and still need time to grow to a more stable level. Ali asked if overall CCP is happy with the health of wormholes. CCP responded that they are happy, and that compared to a year ago they're in a better position. When asked about the storyline, all CCP Fozzie would say is there is more to come. Corbexx also brought up the topic of mining sites, proposing that they have both anomaly and signature versions. As there was some free time, CCP Fozzie also went over an unrelated plan to add Cruiser-sized burner missions. Corbexx also asked about Sleeper burner missions: CCP Bettik responded it's an option if it made sense from the story. Corbexx also asked about missions from k-space to j-space. CCP Fozzie explained that it would be very difficult to make. Sugar Kyle also asked about making some agents that only gave out burner missions or increasing the percentage chance for one to be offered. CCP Fozzie had some concerns with them, such as the easy ability to chain them with the correct fittings. Corbexx asked if there were statistics on the k-space pirate data and relic sites being completed in w-space. CCP Fozzie doesn't have numbers for w-space only, but said they can pull it. Session: Team Space Glitter CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Falcon * CCP Paradox * CCP Affinity * CCP Frellicus * CCP RedDawn * CCP TomB * CCP MannBjorn * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Asayanami Dei (remote) * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) * Mike Azariah (remote) CCP Frellicus started off the session by going over the new behaviour trees being used by the new Sleeper Scouts (Circadian Seekers) to give them some new ways of interacting with players. These behaviour trees are what makes them explore systems and work in groups. The Seeker priorities are (in order) Survive, Roam, Scan. If there's nothing to scan, they'll just idle. (though generally they'll just start scanning you). Ali asked if these behaviour trees are only going to be used for the new NPCs or if they're planning to backport it to other NPCs. CCP Frellicus replied that it's primarily for the new NPCs, but it may be backported to specific NPCs. Corbexx asked how much can it let them do. CCP Frellicus said it depends upon development time available but the system has very few limitations. He went on to elaborate that it allows them to do more advanced actions including calling in reinforcements, warping around the systems. CCP Affinity asked the CSM how they thought about NPCs podding players. The CSM were open to the idea. Ali added the caveat that it should be clear that these NPCs can possibly pod. The implications regarding implants and the change to pod death costs and loss were discussed. CCP Affinity indicated that they would likely introduce it, but with a twist. Mike asked if they plan to announce they're making a change to NPCs to allow them to do so. CCP Affinity answered that no, they do not. (If you're reading this, consider yourself lucky!) CCP Frellicus then showed some Circadian Seekers and the Behaviour tree in action. The CSM noticed that when spawned, they all warped to the same location. CCP Affinity pointed out that this was their blackboard in action, they behave like a fleet. (A blackboard is a way for them to share their intentions with each other. They have a shared blackboard where if one of the NPCs posts a location or primary target, they will behave like a well organised fleet following their FCs commands.) An anecdote about a player ship worth a large amount of ISK being destroyed by Circadian Seekers was also shared. CCP Affinity highlighted that they were slowly turning on some of the behaviours to allow players to get used to NPCs taking these actions. There was further discussions about the potential of the behaviour trees and what it would allow them to do. Sugar Kyle brought up the topic of environmental NPCs and whether these behaviour trees can help with them. Sugar Kyle also asked about Incursion Scout sites. CCP Affinity said they're aware they need to make more changes, but it's not on the immediate roadmap. Progod brought up the topic of improving the existing mission content. CCP Affinity responded that it would be better to wait for new content tools to be finished before tackling any changes to existing mission content. Progod also brought up that improving the missions was important as it's one of the early things that new players commonly participate in. CCP Affinity brought up that no game has really been able to create enough content to keep players engaged over a very long period of time. CCP Frellicus also added that with a new mission system they would look more at being able to generate constant, dynamic world content rather than just static missions. CCP Affinity asked the CSM to let them know if they had ideas to try out with the new behaviour trees. Corbexx brought up them speaking in local. Sugar Kyle brought up random small events going on in the world, such as NPC pirates fighting NPC faction police in locations. CCP TomB then started to go over the new NPC authoring tools. The previous issue was that there was a massive amount of work that needed to be done to create a new NPC due to the need to set a very large number of attributes. He noted that the NPC creation system had essentially not been changed since EVE has started. However now a new template system has been created streamlining the process considerably. This allows a game designer to select a ship "hull" and fit it with pre-made attribute sets. CCP TomB also went over the improvements made to the Tale system that is currently used to drive and distribute Incursions. The Tale system essentially allows them to create conditions and then create actions based on those conditions. The range of conditions to monitor and actions that can be taken are quite extensive and even include things like disabling sentry guns. Corebloodbrothers asked if there was any interest from other teams to use these systems. CCP Affinity replied that Team Pirate Unicorns has already expressed interest in using the new AI, but said that they need to keep testing and be sure everything is working properly before they can start working with it. Sion asked about procedural Asteroid generation. CCP Frellicus explained that they still need to do a lot of work before they can look into them, but they definitely want to move away from static belts that exist at the current time. CCP Red Dawn added though that the Tale system could be hypothetically be used as part of it. Sugar Kyle asked about the Sisters of EVE Epic Arc, specifically regarding the last two NPCs. In many cases new players can't kill them and require the assistance of other players. She suggested it may prove to be a barrier for some players and suggested looking into how many new players complete the missions or give up. CCP Affinity answered that they can certainly look at individual NPCs. Mike also suggested that they could look at adding text to recommend bringing along a friend. CCP Red Dawn asked about a grouping system that showed other people assigned the same mission. There was also some discussion on how group mission rewards work, and the implications around that. Sugar Kyle also brought up the example of the SoE missions where two players working together on the same missions would still need to complete the identical objectives twice. Mike brought up the idea of a police scanner showing up and incidents and world type events. Session: UI Modernization Project CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Arrow * CCP Explorer * CCP MannBjorn * CCP RubberBAND * CCP Sharq * CCP Colgate * CCP Optimal * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Asayanami Dei (remote) * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Gorski Car (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) * Mike Azariah (remote) CCP Arrow opened with the what the actual goals for the UI modernization project. The first thing that has been worked on was the creation of new Icons for the game. They also changed the look and feel of the frames and windows in the game, adding modern UI features. There were also other elements that were added such as blurred backgrounds for opaque windows. There were some issues with the blurred background due to it's implementation, and it's being looked into. CCP Arrow also added that new UI elements must keep their usability. CCP also pointed out that only about 8% of people are turning their blur off. Ali asked if it would be possible to get the old window transparency style back, as some players had issues with the new design. The reply was that it's currently possible to get something very similar in the current system by disabling blur and setting the transparency to the minimum. Sugar Kyle asked about the colour options for themes in the new system, and whether it would be possible to get more options including custom sliders. CCP Arrow discussed how the current system works and some of the options they're looking at adding, including things like contrasting themes. He also mentioned that the themes go through the art director as well. Sugar also brought up that some UI buttons are very small and hard to click. CCP Arrow agreed, and said they have a whole list of things they still want to do. Specifically with modifying window buttons, there are a lot of knock on effects that changing the size of buttons have, as each window then has to be re-designed. Sugar Kyle also further elaborated on several cases such as the fleet window where bigger buttons are needed. Mike also added that having a default chat text size would be great. CCP Optimal talked about how it's a good point that most of the twitch buttons should be made bigger. Sugar Kyle suggested that the Fleet Broadcast buttons should be detachable from the fleet window so that they're more easily positioned somewhere they're more usable for players. Progod also brought up the idea of placing the broadcast functions in a module slot. CCP Arrow talked about how mixing the different functions might be confusing to players, and some parts of this would require a new ship control panel design. Corbexx brought up the topic of allowing players to customize the UI. CCP Arrow replied that CCP has always felt that the aesthetic is important to keeping EVE consistent. Corbexx elaborated that this seems like an issue that affects more than just the UI, and seems to heavily constrain many parts of EVE. Progod went and talked about how he needs to have so many different windows open when he only needs certain elements of those windows. The end result is that there is hardly any space scene left that can be seen due to the need to keep these windows all open during combat. He then talked about how he would love the ability to only have those particular elements so that those windows don't need to take up so much space. He also brought up the point of also being able to easily switch between some windows using just the keyboard as this would also make it easier to switch between stacked windows. CCP Arrow brought up that this is a small use case, and that they need to think about everyone, but it was still interesting. Corbexx brought up again that allowing players to set up the UI that players could take care of these things themselves. Progod brought up that while lots of people have lots of different UI, everyone has lots of windows open. CCP Optimal brought up that full customisability for the UI also increases the technical complexity dramatically. Ali brought up a point CCP Seagull brought up which was that new players don't necessarily know they need to or how to reconfigure their UI. CCP Arrow emphasized the importance of the making sure the default UI was useful. CCP Optimal asked what some use cases there were for people who needed only specific buttons. The fleet window and broadcast buttons was brought up, along with the probe scanner. Progod also brought up that the UI also dictates how the meta can shift, giving the example of broadcast domain feature allowing them to call targets per wing.CCP Arrow brought up that the discussion does occur about how they can minimise the number of windows you need open. He further asked if there are some other elements that would be possible to integrate into the overlay. Sugar Kyle asked about adding more keyboard shortcuts for more things. CCP Arrow reponded by showing some of the extra work they've been doing around control schemes. The first was controlling EVE through voice commands, with an example of another game being given. He noted that it's something they are exploring, and that there are third party programs they can add libraries to EVE for support. Sugar Kyle brought up the idea for making a way to bind separate keys to turning a module on vs turning a module off. Progod brought up the idea of creating a psuedo bookmark watchlist. He expressed a desire to watch list any item, including a celestial in space or bookmarks. CCP Arrow brought up that they have discussed having overview type elements using the info panels. CCP Arrow also talked about how they would want to move towards a single unified area for things, rather than a single window for each. Progod summed up his position as wanting more ways to do things without having to put a window in focus. CCP Arrow brought up that they were exploring ideas around using eye tracking to augment other controls for EVE. The third part was that they were exploring some prototype text to speech technology with a professor from Reykjavik University. This would be used for feedback and information for players if implemented. Text to speech has had issues with uptake in the past due to the computerised feeling of the voices, but this would not be an issue for Aura (the voice of your ship) as she is supposed to be a computer anyway. The CSM was played some samples including some localised examples, some of which resulted in laughter due to translations. CCP Arrow talked about how the controls for your ship are next in line to be worked on by the team. The discussion returned to the icons. CCP Arrow talked about how in ISIS the ship group icons progress in size to represent the increasing size of the ship classes, but how this doesn't translate well to the overview as you don't always have a variety of icons in the overview to compare to, so they're looking to make sure that each icon is recognizable individually. Corebloodbrothers asked if it would be possible to get a fit button in a fitting preview window so you can look at someone else's fit and directly fit your ship with it. The response to this was that it might be possible. CCP Arrow talked a bit more in detail of specific things they're thinking about with their plans to redo the ship control panel. Corbexx asked more about the eye tracking, and CCP Arrow further explained that with consumer level devices possibly entering the market it may easily become more widespread which is why they are now looking into it as a part of the control scheme. Session: Team Pirate Unicorns CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Rise * CCP Skrekkur * CCP Delegate Zero * CCP MrHappy * CCP Colgate * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) CCP Delegate Zero started by introducing Pirate Unicorn's recent work and area of development. They're mainly centered around New Player Experience. Other things they have done are Notifications, Tool Tips and the new Beta map. Sugar Kyle had some feedback regarding the tooltips. Feedback included transparent tooltips, more information regarding armour repairers and shield boosters, and information regarding repair requirements for heat damaged modules. Corbexx also asked whether it would be possible to have conversation request addeded to the notification system. CCP Delegate Zero responded that they looked into it and they have some designs around windows like that. Progod had a question regarding tool tips. He asked based off previous discussions if they were planning to move away from tutorials and deliver all the information through tool tips. CCP Skrekkur replied that was not entirely accurate, and that tool tips were always intended as just part of the NPE experience. Sugar Kyle added that there were some tool tips still missing. CCP Skrekkur added that Pirate Unicorns doesn't actually do all the tool tips, they just provide the framework. CCP Delegate Zero brought up the example of the additional information button from an earlier session regarding Friendly Fire information. Sugar Kyle brought up an idea pitched earlier to Team Security regarding information that could be added to PLEX to educate new players. CCP Delegate Zero brought up that they're thinking about how they should be trying to introduce that PLEX exists. Sugar Kyle responded that she sees PLEX being discussed continuously in the Rookie Help chat and this is quite often doing the introduction for CCP. CCP Delegate Zero then asked where the gap was then that required education. Sugar Kyle then elaborated that it was regarding that PLEX should only be purchased from CCP or their authorized sellers, but that other people had expressed concern regarding breaking immersion in game. CCP Skrekur brought up the ideas of player specific messaging that would be aimed at players rather than characters. These messages would show up on the character selection screen. Corebloodbrothers brought up that this doesn't solve the issue present here as it doesn't target those new players looking at PLEX. He suggested that CCP add a link to an external page giving more page. CCP Delegate Zero talked about the reasoning behind the three dots button being that they don't want the information to be densely cluttered. This option allowed denser information to he more elegantly presented. Sion asked about whether the opportunity system could be integrated into a more solid achievement system. CCP Delegate Zero indicated that those types of systems were one of the direct inspirations for the opportunities system, and that those sorts of things are still in mind for design, though much of it hasn't been nailed down. CCP Rise also added that the primary goal of the system is also different, as achievement systems are aimed more towards longer term player progression versus helping new players get comfortable. He also asked the CSM how interested in achievements. Sugar Kyle responded that while she doesn't have much interest in them, there are many people that are. Sion suggested that to test the system it would be nice to roll out short term achievements to start. CCP Rise replied that this is already mostly the case as that's what the NPE will be in many respects. Ali then asked about corporations creating their own opportunities and discussed that some consideration has been given to that, and asked if any consideration could be given to personal opportunities that players can create for themselves as a more sandbox way to deal with creating long-term goals. Progod then talked about how some of the players that are leaving are often without any specific goals, and that having these achievements might help them bridge the gap towards being a long term player. Corbexx then gave an example of an API based system his corporation used similar to achievements. Sion then talked about something along the lines of a rotating corporate task list that players could complete and get a reward. CCP Rise liked the idea and had previously been talking about stuff and had been thinking of the opportunities for corporations to use this tracking system to organize themselves and reward their players. Progod brought up the example of RvB's loyalty point system where doing specific things within RvB which they could then use to purchase ships and other items from the corporation. Progod continued that one of the main focuses should be in many respects aimed towards those people who don't have the ability to create and support these systems as these are the players that are leaving. CCP Delegate Zero stated that they really need to focus their effort right now on that new player bit, but all this is good thinking for later. Sugar Kyle then moved onto map feedback. She suggested the ability to share things such as the exact route. CCP Rise responded that route sharing is something they're looking at. Steve asked if it would be possible to have planets in their approximate position, and the response was yes but it's disabled for performance at the moment. Xander then asked about the 2D map and why they're working on something that already has a very viable alternative. The response was that this type of basic functionality should be present in the client in a good fashion: the third parties would still provide more detailed data and tools. Corbexx then asked if it would be possible to have a wormhole mapper built into the game. CCP Delegate Zero responded that a wormhole mapper is outside the area of the team's work as they focus on core features. Xander then asked about EVE Voice. There was some debate between the CSM about whether EVE Voice is actually should be classed as part of the core features. CCP Rise replied that EVE Voice is not really practical at the moment and it's not something their team is currently responsible for. There was some further discussion regarding the value of trying to replicate the functionality of existing third party tools. Steve offered a summation of get basic functionality into the game. Progod asked about what other non-NPE features they were considering for the new map. CCP Rise responded that at this stage they were focused on bringing it to parity with the current map. There was also some discussion regarding the intel capabilities from the map. CCP Rise went back to the topic of out of character notifications, and asked what the CSM thought, and asked where the CSM expected them to be and what control they expected it to be. The CSM generally agreed that they need to be in game. They did agree that there needs to be a way to opt out of them. CCP Rise gave an example of mirroring the current notifications to the character selection screen. The CSM did not like the idea of it being on the character selection screen, and would prefer it to be available when actually in game. Sugar Kyle said and others concurred that when a player signs into the game, they typically skip through the login and character selection screens as fast as possible in order to get to the actual content. Sion brought up the issue of people not being online and not getting the messages. The reply from CCP Skrekkur was that you could still get it via in game mail with this system. The CSM emphasized again that it would be better to have it in game rather than on the character selection screen. The idea of A/B testing character screen versus in game came up, and CCP responded that it was possible. CCP Rise then asked if people would get upset if people started getting this type of news. The CSM agreed that some people might get upset, but as long as they can turn it off easily it would still be worth it. The CSM also brought up the importance of being able to break it into categories so that people could turn off receiving messages about livestream starts, alliance tournaments, advertising for NES sales, etc but still want information about dev blogs. The CSM brought up other methods of trying to filter and display these messages. Sion brought up that in some ways it seems desperate that CCP is trying to squeeze an extra channel into the game. There was also a suggestion to make the system default to opt-out. Several other CSM members disagreed with this idea. CCP brought up that when they had done this kind of thing before (the CSM8 election reminder mail), there were many complaints and concerns about the spam and immersion breaks. The CSM acknowledged this, but thought the potential ability to reach previously un-aware players for important information like upcoming patch changes was likely to be a big enough payoff to make it worth the difficulties. The discussion changed to ways to mitigate this issue, with suggestions floated to add a new notification stream inside the client to encompass only the "out of game" content. Session: Cinematics Team CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Zond 3 * CCP Prawn * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) * Mike Azariah (remote) The format of this session was structured as a Qusetion and Answer Session The first question was how are the cinematic team going to top "This Is EVE", with the answer being it will be difficult. There was also discussion regarding representation of other play styles in EVE, and that it would be something the team is wanting to do. Sugar Kyle asked what the actual process to create a trailer was. Marketing usually gives the direction for the next trailer, at which point the cinematic team will generally come up with the story themselves, bouncing their ideas off of marketing. The first deliverable is an anamatic using clips of other video to represent the basic idea of the trailer. Any models are usually developed in Maya and then imported into Jessica and the Trinity engine. Xander asked about the possibility of players using Jessica to create their own trailers and videos. The response was that the tool is not in any sort of state for anyone outside the team to be able to use as it takes months of tutoring even for experienced digital filmmakers. Sugar Kyle asked how long a trailer would take. The response was that it might take a month and a half for the pre-production. Production varies from 1 to 3 months. Some trailers take longer such as the Prophecy trailer which required a lot of custom assets. Progod asked about whether gameplay videos could be hosted or promoted by CCP through their website that they have curated. The cinematic team responded that they liked the idea, and asked whether they thought it would be better to be something CCP entirely produced or something made with the help of players. Sugar Kyle expressed that one of the good things about the This Is EVE trailer was that it shows something much more realistic for EVE and avoids a disconnect that other trailers may experience. Sion asked what the team is currently working on, with the team responding that they're working on the Fanfest trailer. There's also another very small group of people working within CCP that do the in-development videos, the o7 show, livestreaming, and related content. The cinematic team asked what the CSM thought about the more lore-heavy trailers. Sugar Kyle replied that one of her favourite trailers was Origins. She also pointed out that the lore trailers have more opportunity for making something that doesn't conform to gameplay as it's more of a narritive. Ali pointed out that this doesn't necessarily hold true for new players as they have no reference for what to expect. She also went on to say that they're not as useful for outreach to those people that don't play EVE. Xander added that at the moment the lore interest around the recent events was something they could really use. The cinematic team agreed. There was also some discussion about the cinematic team following fleets around and recording the fighting to post or use as clip footage. There was support from the cinematic team for this idea. The cinematic team asked the CSM if they had to pick one event to record, which one would they pick. Progod suggested a fleet fight on the level of 200 v 200, as this is just before TiDi and still very action packed. Sion pointed out though that someone will feel excluded no matter how many they do or who they pick. Sion also pointed out that there is already a lot of fleet combat videos out there, and asked would it really be the best type of activity to focus on? Sugar also asks would this be the most interesting. Progod responds by saying that small gang stuff with people stalking through systems wouldn't be as interesting for most people. Sugar responded that it's the job of the cinematic guys to cut it together to make it interesting. A lot of discussion on potential story points followed. The CSM also gave a lot of information, details, anecdotes and perspectives about their own experiences in fleet combat. The cinematic team found all these details very interesting and was hoping to hear more info from the CSM at a later time. Session: Fanfest 2015 CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Falcon * CCP Curtis * CCP Ruffige * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) * Mike Azariah (remote) The meeting opened with a debate between who was more Iceland famous between CCP Curtis and CCP Ruffage, but the matter was left unsettled. The meeting actually opened with CCP Curtis outlining the changes being made to Fanfest this year. Registration will be open this year from the Monday so that people don't have to queue for as long. The keynote times are changing so that the EVE Keynote can be earlier so that round tables and presentations that would be related to the keynote can't restricted by it. EVE: Valkyrie keynote on Thursday at noon and EVE Online Keynote on Thursday evening. CCP Legion explained that the program will also include a lot more player presented content, though they haven't decided how much they want to use. None of these are intended on replacing any of CCP's presentations. This will include lightening talks lasting about 5 to 10 minutes each and longer presentations. CCP Curtis is also gathering details about venues and people around Reykjavik for people to use for their events and gathering events players are running to help promote them. CCP Legion explained that they're also looking to drive player to dev interaction. CCP Falcon also explained that there will be a community area and testimonials booth. The community booth is where people can chill and talk to some devs. The Testimonial booth will be inviting players in to talk about what Fanfest and EVE means to them that we may stitch together and use in videos later. The Arcade machines will be in the community area as well. The Community area will likely be where the Valkyrie area was the previous year. CCP Curtis also explained that the Party at the Top of the World will not be open to non-attendees this year. When prompted by the CSM to explain why this was done, he explained that they want to go back to basics. he also got the feeling that Fanfest attendees wanted to come to chill with other EVE players and and their friends with a bit more intimacy. CCP Falcon explained that the first year they opened it to the general public there were a lot people there. Additionally, he said they had heard complains that there were lots of people there that don't play EVE. CCP Curtis explained as well that the original intention of letting the locals in was to allow people to get a feel for EVE players and CCP, but that now he feels that they can still get that downtown. Ali asked what the mood from Icelanders was towards Fanfest, with CCP Curtis explaining that most of them love them. CCP Falcon provided some anecdotes about his interactions with various business owners who seemed to love Fanfest. Sugar Kyle also described her feeling at a previous Fanfests and how she really enjoyed it. CCP Curtis also explained that there will be an EVE themed Flybus. Corbexx then asked if someone was organizing an event if they could ask CCP if a developer could come along to them. CCP Falcon said it's definitely something they could look into. Sugar Kyle also asked if CCP also could help with finding restaurants for these evens. CCP Curtis said CCP would be providing a listing of venues. Corebloodbrothers asked what the ticket sales looked like, and CCP Curtis replied that they have now sold more than last year. CCP Manifest also went over some of the other speakers who would be talking about non-EVE topics this year. CCP Falcon went over the planned auctions for this year, which will also include all of the special CCP t-shirts (totaling about 50), mockups for Scrambler Pistol and Nova Knife and some more things to be announced. CCP Curtis continued details for the pub crawl that there will be no flags, and that the final destination will be for Pub-Crawlers only. CCP Curtis also included that the Charity Dinner will be moved from Harpa to a reception at the CCP offices and dinner in the Maritime Museum right next to the EVE Monument. This is due to attendees in general expressing their desire to see the CCP Office. The floor then opened to the CSM for any questions or comments they had. There was a request to have the round tables recorded. CCP Curtis replied that there were issues of having someone in every room to record the sessions, and that there was some exclusivity that they still wanted to keep to the attendees. There were also some concerns raised about some people being apprehensive asking questions when they know recording is going on. Corbexx asked if the wormhole roundtable could be in a bigger room. CCP Legion said there isn't really a bigger room to put them in, but they would look into what they can do. Sugar asked if it could be looked in to having a microphone ready should it be needed. Session: Customer Support CCP Attendees: * CCP Leeloo * CCP Falcon * CCP Mimic * GM Thunder * GM Acade * GM Nova * GM Lelouch * GM Dagon * CCP Manifest CSM Attendees: * Ali Aras * Sion Kumitomo * progodlegend * Sugar Kyle * Xander Phoena * corbexx * corebloodbrothers * Mangala Solaris (remote) * Steve Ronuken (remote) The session opened with the present GMs introducing themselves and what CS does. They then presented a range of statistics to the CSM, starting with the ticket creation rate showing a spike around Rhea. They then showed a break down of tickets on a day by category and explained each of the ticket categories. They then covered the responsibilities that CS covers including Hacker Monitoring, Server and Node Monitoring, Player Feedback, various project work and Defect Feedback. GM Arcade elaborated on the node monitoring and remapping process at the request of the CSM. GM Arcade then covered some of the new things CS is planning to do over the next year, including player self-help resources and Zendesk integration. He briefly went over the new Resource center which is currently in beta and being used for technical tickets and topics. GM Dagon then covered Team Hangover, which is a group of GMs that monitor what development does so as to make sure that it doesn't unnecessarily create extra load for GMs and to internally document them for GMs. They also take responsibility for training other GMs on these new features. He also covered Team Schindler who are responsible for working out solutions for any new issues that GMs may encounter. They're also responsible for reporting new defects to development. GM Dagon also covered the changes in handling player feedback in tickets. Previously they sent the players to the forums and closed the ticket. Now, they will actually take the feedback, collate it and forward it to development. He also introduced CS Trends, who discuss topics and trends from all the received tickets to see what issues may also being on. Examples of topics discussed include safety in highsec, AFK cloaking and bumping. He explained the GM top 10 issues list, where the GMs get together and vote for the most difficult to resolve issues, the most annoying tickets to players, and the total number of tickets received on that topic. Examples of topics that have come up are NPE, the Character Bazaar and Blueprint Locking/Unlocking. There was some brief discussion on AFK Cloaking and Customer Support's experience dealing with the tickets about it. Ali asked quickly about the Report a Bot function and if it would be possible to add extra information with the report. GM Arcade indicated that it goes straight to Team Security with lots of info, and that if you wanted to submit more information you can always email Team Security. GM Nova then started explaining the Co-Pilot project that CS is starting. It's a video series that shows players how to do most of the basic things in the game. The goal is to have an extensive library covering a large amount of stuff new players will need to learn. The videos are produced in cycles with plans for 6-8 videos to be produced per cycle. The first cycle will cover corporations and missions. There are also requests from other teams to produce videos to cover features they are developing. There is room for player participation in these videos, particularly in capturing game footage and writing scripts. The player participation will also help increase visibility of the program. There was some discussion regarding the need to constantly update some videos as features change and evolve. CCP is aware of this and is planning to deal with it as it arises. GM Nova then showed them a demo video. CCP Mimic emphasized that the initial set of videos would be heavily new player based. Progod asked whether it might be possible to have one of these videos or a link to it could be embedded into the client. GM Thunder replied that if they wanted to CS would have no issues with it, but that would be up to the other teams. Xander added from his experience that the Script is the most time consuming part, and GM Nova agreed that they found this was the case. CCP Mimic had a few more questions she put to the CSM. She asked the CSM if there were specific points of feedback about the GMs that they had heard. Sion said that some people had complained that sometimes players have asked for escalations only to have the same GM review the ticket and close it. Progod brought up that inconsistencies seem to be the biggest issue they have seen from players. Various CSM members gave examples of the same ticket topic being handled differently. Sugar Kyle brought up that some people seem to get no feedback from GMs about what their ticket status. Corebloodbrothers asked what the ticket waiting times look like at the moment. Sugar Kyle brought up the topic of a number of internal structures and processes for dealing with specific issues such as name changes that players don't know about that if communicated would help increase transparency and understanding in the community. Sugar Kyle also brought up that there should be information available for players for what to do if they believe that another player is suicidal, namely filing a ticket. Ali also brought up the topic of harassment tickets and how they're handled, and asked if there was some way of give more information to the ticketing player. While she stated that she understood that ban results couldn't be discussed with other players, she suggested that there should be more transparency about the process and escalation options for what to do if your ticket is closed and you're still having a problem.