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[IzzyChan]

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=777

Massively also talks about it: http://www.massively.com/2010/07/17/new-devblog-reveals-only-54-developers-working-on-eve-online/

Working hard towards making EVE better or stretching themselves too thin? Discuss.

[Casiella]

The Massively article pissed me off (I'm "Darkdust" in the comments there). First, "only" 54? What makes it "only"? How do we know that's not a huge number? I don't have context for it.

Second, Incarna is EVE. That's like saying that only X devs worked on EVE, the rest worked on wormholes. That wasn't part of EVE before, so clearly it's not core gameplay.

[Kaleigh Doyle]

70 developers for Incarna? 

[lallara zhuul]

Incarna is the beta for WoD online.

[IzzyChan]

It's not unusual to see smaller teams working on features in mmos.  Too many cooks in the kitchen spills shit everywhere, as they say.

I just hope CCP doesn't try to do too many things (dust, incarna, WoD) at once and get confused. ._.

[Lillith Blackheart]

...I don't follow what peoples' issues are with the team size. It seems pretty good to me, and they look to be trying to add about 10-20 more based on their "jobs" page.

100 people for 1 game spread about its various aspects?

So what's the problem, exactly?

[Casiella]

The problem is that some folks hate the very idea of Incarna so much that they criticize CCP for focusing on it, to the exclusion of current gameplay.

I firmly believe that CCP needs to return to its theme of 'excellence' and quit leaving things half-complete, but I also understand that they've thrown so many resources into Incarna that stopping it now would be a colossal mistake.

[Lillith Blackheart]

Things to understand: Incarna is coming down to the wire, it's the last few bursts before release. Once that is done that team is going to shrink and other teams are going to grow. Incarna has been a goal of CCP since pre-WoD Online, so anyone who says it is "WoD Beta" is talking out of their butts. They've wanted to give us walking on stations and flying through atmospheres for a really long time, longer than they were going to be building a regular style MMO.

That they're almost done with it is commendable, and they will continue to commit more people to it as it nears the release point.

Once it releases and they get the first few patches into it, anyone that thinks that team won't be spread elsewhere has no understanding of how MMO development works.

And also might need to be drug out and shot.

[Saede Riordan]

The big issue people have, and that I have, is that CCP is ignoring the problems, ignoring even the bugs, and leaving features to wither and die.
COSMOS
Faction Warefare
T3
Sov mechanics
Game Balance

They've done things like leave game balance out to dry, I mean come on, where is a Rocket fix? for that matter where is the hybrid weapon fix? When are the Faction Warefare bugs and imbalances going to be fixed? When is COSMOS going to be revamped and possibly brought into the epic arc system?

Its not that CCP is focusing on Incarna that people are raging over, its the fact that they're focusing on new features while letting existing ones lie sallow.

I would have no problem with the 7 teams they have on Incarna, if the 3 content teams on eve weren't also focused on some tba new features. If those three teams were focused on iterating upon existing content and cleaning up the mess left from previous expansions, then I'd give CCP a hug, and tell them they were the best developers ever. But as it stands, they're entirely focused on glitz and glam and have left the existing content to rot.

[Kaleigh Doyle]

It's easy to make assumptions like that when you ignore the fact that you're not apart of the design process or planning.

[Lillith Blackheart]

The big issue people have, and that I have, is that CCP is ignoring the problems, ignoring even the bugs, and leaving features to wither and die.
COSMOS
Faction Warefare
T3
Sov mechanics
Game Balance

This is a horrible assumption.

I would have no problem with the 7 teams they have on Incarna, if the 3 content teams on eve weren't also focused on some tba new features. If those three teams were focused on iterating upon existing content and cleaning up the mess left from previous expansions, then I'd give CCP a hug, and tell them they were the best developers ever. But as it stands, they're entirely focused on glitz and glam and have left the existing content to rot.

So is this.

You're in a situation where they've had new content coming to roost and it's very near release day. Obviously this will become the attention focus during that time period, just like every other development company around. When Civ4: Beyond The Sword was nearing completion, patches for Civ4 Vanilla and Civ4: Warlords came to a straight halt. Upon completion of BtS, focus was reshifted to something else.

This does not mean that they have "ignored the bugs and left them to wither and die". It means that they have focussed on final polish of imminent-release content.

This is game development, this is how it works. Upon the release and first few initial patches of Incarna, it is incredibly likely (as even CCP stated multiple times according to the meeting minutes with CSM) that they intend to refocus on balancing and resolving issues with current content.

As it should be.

[Casiella]

Given Noah Ward's comments at the last Fanfest roundtable on FW, I don't think it's an assumptio nto say they aren't working heavily on it.

[Kaldor Mintat]

Not really waiting/longing for Incarna anymore. Not that i do not want it as such but its been a long time now and also my main worry is that it will not bring much. Freemoving avatars would be nice but gone need to be some real substance also.

I mean how many players are really gone be able to be bartenders, hairdressers, sit play poker for any longer amount of time.

If its just gone be that you can wander around, take a drink and chat wothout much else available to do it will be a huge waste of effort.

Hopefully it all will turn out better than i expect though.

[Dex_Kivuli]

If its just gone be that you can wander around, take a drink and chat wothout much else available to do it will be a huge waste of effort.

It's about making it a full space simulation game, and I think it's cool, regardless of what it tangibly adds.

And either way, it's better than station spinning.   

[Lillith Blackheart]

Think of it as foundation for more to be built on top of.

For the most part it's primarily something that benefits RPers. So really none of us should be upset about it, as it adds more to what we do.

For the basis of things, though, it gives the option for missions to spread to the ground. This can only be beneficial long term.

CCP's development type seems to be "build a solid foundation, then build on top of it" for better or for worse.