Ecliptic Rift

Massively has a good review of the community backlash regarding the CSM. I know I wanted to stay away from this topic, but I at least thought I’d sum up my comments from the article here. For future reference, if any of you hang out on Massively, I’m “Darkdust” over there.

CCP assigns their developers to spend 20% of the time on bug fixes. This does not include design defects, situations in which balance issues and other game decisions come under review. Bugs are situations in which the actual implementation does not match the intended design.

Players may not like the answers they get through the CSM, but clearly the transparency (if not the accountability) has improved. This means a lot, since CCP formed the CSM explicitly as part of the response to the T20 in an attempt to increase transparency.

And I don’t understand the folks that complain that CCP focuses on the “vocal minority” of nullsec and lowsec PVPers. By the end of this year, three of the last four expansions (Apocrypha, Tyrannis (Planetville), and the “invasions” coming in the Winter 2011 expansion) will have had large PVE components. And I’d like to see what constitutes giving attention to lowsec. Just because 0.0 folks speak up more vocally doesn’t mean that’s what the CSM focuses on to the exclusion of all else. Read their minutes and issues and you’ll see that they take a broad view, because they understand that all aspects of EVE need to work for the game to flourish. Ankh had other problems beyond just preferring to engage in PVE, certainly.

EVE isn’t dying. It’s just going through a transition right now, and in the end I believe our “lifestyle” will have improved for it.

Per CCP:

Today Eva “Ankhesentapemkah” Jobse was removed from the Council of Stellar Management due to a breach of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA). We are deeply saddened but feel that it was the only possible solution in order to protect the integrity of the Council of Stellar Management. As this is a matter regarding confidential data we do consider this to be a private issue between Eva and CCP, therefore we are unable to comment further.

Discussion thread available.

Obviously I don’t believe CCP removed her because she “stands up for the playerbase” or promotes “transparency” (for the record, I don’t believe she does the latter). I don’t know what they considered as the NDA breach, though I’m fairly confident it wasn’t her blog.

If anyone has any actual information (and not endless screeching for or against her), please let me know.

UPDATE: “I want to emphasise that the NDA breach was not related to CSM5, and happened well before Ank took office in CSM5.” (per Dierdra Vaal). Hmm.

UPDATE 2: Massively’s article by Brendan Drain has a statement from Ankh:

All I can say at the moment is that out of respect for the CSM, the players of EVE, as well as the good people at CCP, I cannot give any details besides my personal conviction that CCP’s statement is not in relation to any of my recent publications, and that I do not share CCP’s conclusion that there has in fact been an NDA breach. I am currently engaged in following up this situation with CCP.

Still working to get more info.

UPDATE 3: DV has edited the post I quoted, which now reads as follows: “This is an unfortunate occurance. Also this would make mazzilliu CSM member.” However, eve-search has the original.

UPDATE 4: Ankh has updated her website with the following: “Today, CCP has posted a publication announcing that I have been removed from the CSM. An update will be posted tomorrow. You are encouraged to contact me personally through the contact page on this website.”

Overview

Everything starts with biochemical gas clouds. Mykoserocin clouds get used for the weakest (and only legal) variety, synth boosters, while cytoserocin clouds get used for standard, strong, and improved boosters. These clouds reside in ladar sites, particularly in null sec but also in some limited high/low sec regions. Harvesting this gas requires you to train one level of Gas Harvesting for each harvesting module you want to equip. Note that specialized mining ships like barges and exhumers cannot use these modules. Generally, you should use a tanked cruiser or battlecruiser for this activity. Mining bonuses don’t generally apply, though those from mining command links (e.g. on the Orca and Rorqual) do.

The Syndicate produces a faction version that has lower fitting requirements but does not mine any faster. It only requires 26 tf of CPU (reduced from 60 tf for the stock tech I version or 70 tf for the tech II). The Gas Cloud Harvester II, however, pulls 20 m³ every 40 seconds instead of 10 m³ every 30 seconds, giving 50% better yield. It also requires 5 MW of powergrid (instead of 2 MW) and the rank 1 skill Gas Gloud Harvesting trained to V (instead of I). No other factions have specialized gas harvesters available.

The Syndicate harvester arose out of a joint research project undertaken by dozens of Station owners across the region. The residents and industrialists of Syndicate appreciated, more than most, the latent potential of the underground booster industry. Although their modified harvesters offered no improvements in yield, they were easier for newer pilots to fit. Their investment in more accessible harvesting technology paid off, when eventually the empires quietly backpedalled and legalized the production and sale of Synth boosters.

Note that some ladar sites actually contain facilities and NPCs rather than gas clouds. These sites provide the blueprints, reactions, and sometimes skillbooks needed for the production post.

Once you’ve acquired gas, you’ll need a reaction and a blueprint to actually produce the booster. Using a biochemical silo and reactor array, you react the gas with water (or other materials, depending on the quality of booster to produce) to produce a pure version of the booster. Producing the final booster requires cutting the pure booster with megacyte in a drug lab at a low-security starbase.

While customs officials will not like standard boosters or better in high-security space, the market administrators don’t mind. So you can either sell the boosters at a market hub (assuming you can smuggle it successfully there) or via alternate methods, including direct trades or in low-security space.

References

• EVE Evolved: Combat boosters – description of each booster’s effect
• Combat booster manufacturing – excellent overview from EVE Wiki (eve-wiki.net)
• Boosters Part 2: The Secrets of the Drug Cartels – older overview by Kirith Kodachi
• Getting high on your own supply – dev blog detailing changes in Apocrypha
• Meanwhile, back in the exploration bunker – slightly older dev blog about synth boosters
• Booster production – support page explanation

Image credit nick_russill