EVE Online News

[h2]Why Photon?[/h2]
Photon is a massive undertaking to overhaul the EVE User Interface. The current UI is functional, so many players have asked why we chose to embark on a large project like this.

During its twenty year development, EVE has seen many features, all with specific user interface needs. Some of these features have pushed the UI into new territory, exploring new ways to improve the interface, but not always with an established design language in mind. This has made parts of the UI less than cohesive, even confusing, and difficult to master. In addition, maintaining many UI styles is ineffective, leading to increased development time.

Last year saw the formation of a dedicated User Experience team, whose primary responsibility would be the in-space experience of EVE Online. As EVE’s user interface allows access to nearly every feature while in space, there was a lot to consider. Efficiency and sustainability need to be considered, not only from a development and technology point of view, but also on a user experience level. This is all a part of EVE Evolved and setting EVE Online up for the third decade.



At this point, all the different UI styles needed to be realigned so the actual UI improvements would build on a solid foundation. This was particularly important given that we would be touching up the interfaces of many more features in the future and tackling one of the most complex aspects of EVE Online’s interface: The HUD (which would include the Overview). The different UI styles implemented in certain features over the years were all pulling in different directions, not only complicating design decisions but also causing confusion and frustration for players.



The goal is to make the UI more intuitive, accessible, and coherent while crafting an inspiring sci-fi user experience. As such, a solid design system for the UI was needed and thus Photon was chosen as the first big project. A design system is more than a style guide for designs. It also involves looking at the UI framework and improving the underlying technologies, resolving or limiting any technical debt, and removing as many inconsistencies as possible.



It was apparent that a new way to engage with players to gather feedback was needed, as the UI must serve a multitude of different playstyles and situations, not to mention the vast array of hardware we support. Ultimately, the UI is for the players, and it was important to us to co-develop with them. We therefore felt it was imperative to get the ideas into players’ hands as quickly as possible. Test servers are usually only used by a small portion of the user base, in EVE and the gaming industry in general, so we decided to allow players to opt in to test the new features on the actual live server, using their main characters and going about their normal, daily activities. This new approach was formalized into the Feature Previews System, and Photon was released as an opt-in beta in early May.

The adoption rate of Photon UI grew steadily, while valuable feedback was gathered from forums, social media, and many customer surveys and interviews. Based on this, many improvements were made over the summer. In September Photon reached 17% opt-in adoption by the user base, which was substantially higher than expected for an opt-in feature. However, because the UI is such an important and complicated subject, more feedback from a wider audience was needed. In October, we therefore moved to an opt-out approach for Photon, allowing those players who still preferred the classic UI the ability to switch back, but also getting Photon into the hands of users that may not even have been aware of its existence. 



Photon has come a long way since that first opt-in release. Here are some highlights:

• A full re-skin of all the UI’s base components.
• All the design elements such as buttons, tabs, and window headers converged into a single, coherent style.
• Updated font style and the rules for how it is used.
• A new and more UX-focused color library, with new color themes
• Enhanced sci-fi experience with transitional screen animations
• Compact Mode for all "combat" windows
• Many quality-of-life improvements across various feature windows, e.g. Drone window, Inventory Window

At the end of the first day of Opt-Out on 11 October, 84% of players ended their sessions with Photon UI enabled. This number has grown steadily ever since and currently 91% of players have switched to using Photon UI. But we are not done yet!
[h2]Multiple overviews are coming![/h2]
On 13 December, the Multiple Overview will be available along with a variety of other updates, including settings for window margin size, updated security colors, transparency controls and an auto UI scaling option.



The Overview has been and remains the go-to tool to extract tactical information from your surroundings to stay ahead of the game, and this crucial window is now getting a respectable update.

The headline feature is beyond doubt the new ability to have multiple Overview windows open at the same time, allowing you to tailor the tactical information presented to your playstyle much more precisely than before.

Other improvements include:

• Column visibility, order, and width are now configured and persisted per tab, instead of globally before.
• “Presets” have been renamed as “Filters”, in hope that the clearer terminology helps people better understand how the Overview works.
• Improvements to how Filters are authored in the Overview Settings window.
• Improved Overview right-click menus.

The improved Overview is already available on Singularity (test server). To begin with, the feature is being offered as a separate opt-in (if you have Photon enabled), which you simply enable through the Escape Menu’s “Feature Preview” panel (as with Photon, but no reset of the client is required for this feature).



Other notable updates and additions coming with the December release are:

• Window Margin Size - A setting that allows you to change the size of the margin and header on all windows. This option can be found in the General Settings section of the Settings menu.
• Security Colors - The Security colors have been updated with higher contrast so that they are more distinct from one another.
• Auto UI Scaling - An option in the UI Scaling dropdown that when selected will automatically update the UI Scaling each time the resolution of the client is changed.
• ’Light Background’ Transparency Controls - Separate controls for the transparency of windows set to ‘Light Background’
• Window Resize Indicators - Indicators in the Photon UI style that become visible when hovering over the edge of a window, which makes it easier to adjust the window size.   
• Updated Scrollbar - The scrollbar in Photon UI is now static and no longer expands and collapses when hovering over it.

These updates are aimed at addressing some of the main areas of improvement pointed out by the community. Thank all of you that have been a part of this back-and-forth process, as it is an integral part of the process of developing a kick-ass user experience. As always, any and all feedback is appreciated!

o7

Please Note: Due to the number of changes and improvements made since the Opt-Out release in October, we will be resetting the Opt-Out state of all clients on December 13th. If you still wish to use the Classic UI instead, you will need to opt out again. We hope that you give the new improvements a try and then give your feedback on our forum: Multiple Overviews Feedback Thread

Socially minded Capsuleers,

A spread of striking new EVE-themed items has been added to the Points Shop.

That means you can customise your Steam profile with new backgrounds, avatars, animated frames featuring Empire logos, and more – each inspired by the world of New Eden.



Released to coincide with the debut of the new Uprising expansion, the new Points Shop items let you show off your devotion to EVE to all Steam users. Equally, they allow fellow EVE players over on Steam to know where your loyalties lie, and who you are fighting for.

How does the Steam Points Shop work? Every time you shop over on Steam [you earn points that you can trade in for cosmetic items that you use to personalise your Steam Profile, or even award others. You can also earn points by contributing to the Steam community in various ways.



The new EVE items added to the points shop consist of animated Empire logo frames, animated avatars, profile backgrounds, and mini profile backgrounds. You can check out some examples below, or head over to Steam now to see the full range.

Insatiable capsuleers,

The season of giving is upon us, and there’s no better way to celebrate than to load up a hefty space turkey and generously dispense firepower upon your fellow capsuleers in the next Proving Ground event!

This event begins at 11:00 UTC on 25 November, and runs until 11:00 UTC on 28 November.

The ruleset is as follows:

• Only the Prophecy may enter this event.
• 200% bonus to turret and missile damage.
• Overheat bonuses for turrets & missile launchers as well as tackle, propulsion, repair, resistance, and energy warfare modules are doubled.
• Pilots receive 30 million ISK payout per match where they deal at least 7000 damage.
• Sensor dampeners, weapon disruptors, and shield boost amplifier, recharger, power relay, and flux coil modules cannot be fitted.
• Maximum of two local repair module per ship (shield or armor).
• Modules and implants are restricted to meta level 5 and below.

Load up on stuffing, munitions, and Proving Ground Filaments (found in Abyssal Deadspace, Pochven, or the in-game market), and prepare for poultry pandemonium as you cook the competition, climb the leaderboard, and earn special rewards!

Greetings music loving capsuleers,

We are beyond excited to announce the long-awaited arrival of Permaband, CCP in-house rockers, and pioneers of the “Thukk Rokk” musical subculture, to Spotify and beyond. Four of their popular songs, HTFU, Killing Is Just A Means, Warp To The Dance Floor, and Wrecking Machine are now available to everyone for free, on all major streaming platforms.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Permaband was the CCP in-house band, and their soaring sound should be known to anyone who has attended EVE Fanfest. The band’s music videos have been fan favorites for years, and now music loving capsuleers will finally be able to add them to their daily music rotation.

Click here to check Permaband out on Spotify.

Greetings, Capsuleers!

As you might remember, in summer we released a Team Security update where we talked about RMTers, botters, fraud, and other related topics, followed by a Q&A session in the official EVE discord. We are tremendously grateful for all your attention, questions, reports, and your engagement with us. The questions were tough sometimes, but hopefully we managed to provide some answers.

Summer and autumn have been rather busy for Team Security, as there are always more bots, RMTers, and account hackings to tackle. Your help in identifying these is, as always, tremendously important.

In this entry we’d like to talk about some rules and policies, to clarify and to discuss the End User License Agreement (EULA) and hopefully make it more clear. There are many rumors within the community – and we thought it’d be nice to clear up the more contentious ones. After all, the EULA is so complex that sometimes even we forget where to look for a certain passage – so without further ado, let’s jump in!
[h2]ACCOUNT SHARING[/h2]
EULA: "You may not share your Account with anyone, or allow anyone other than you personally (or your minor child, if you have registered an Account on behalf of your minor child) to access or use your Account. Joint or shared ownership or use of an Account by more than one user is prohibited."

Rumors:

• “If I share an account with my beloved friend, the vigilantes from Team Security will ban me at once.”
• “Nothing will ever happen if I share my login details with that guy who I totally know and trust.”

In reality, account sharing is a complex topic. We do not encourage it, but it is also not something we actively pursue. Essentially, sharing an account is not a problem for Team Security until it is. It can seem natural to trust a friend to organize your skill queue when you are away, to get you ready for an important fight, etc – but the more people have access to an account, the higher the chance that very unfortunate situations will occur. Account sharing can go unnoticed for many years and there might be no issues at all. But there have been thousands of cases when the character that was shared for many years became a source of quick cash or got into other’s possession permanently. And this is where the problem starts.

Some of you might have been unlucky to return after an extensive break, only to discover that your character has been left with 5 million skill points; some might have discovered it sooner. There are many stories where trust between pilots has been broken, and we have heard all those stories, unfortunately. Team Security will not be able to help you in cases like these.

It may seem appealing to claim that your account was hacked and damaged by hackers – but hacked accounts and shared accounts are very different cases, and we can easily see this difference when the investigation starts. We cannot share more details of how exactly this is determined, but this is always identifiable to us.

To conclude, account sharing is a EULA violation and always done at your own risk. If this ever goes wrong, we will not be able to help you.

Here are some statistics to give you a perspective. Mind that some shared accounts are represented in these statistics. While we do not treat them as hacked, they contributed to the final numbers:


[h2]ISK BUYING[/h2]
EULA: "You may not transfer, sell or auction, or buy or accept any offer to transfer, sell or auction (or offer to do any of the foregoing), any content appearing within the Game environment, including without limitation characters, character attributes, items, currency, and objects, other than via a permitted Character Transfer. The buying, selling or auctioning (or any attempt at doing so) of characters, character attributes, items, currency, or objects, whether through online auctions, newsgroups, postings on message boards or any other means is prohibited by the EULA and a violation of CCP’s proprietary rights in the Game."

Rumors:

• “Nothing will happen if I buy ISK from this cool-looking website and will get a ship that I always dreamed of.”
• “This is just another fellow player earning money by selling their excess wealth.”
• “No one will ever know!”

We’ve touched on ISK buying in our previous blog, in our last Fanfest presentation, and in the Team Security Q&A. We want to stress once again that there are no legitimate methods of RMT. All the ISKs and items that are purchased on the third-party websites are gained through illicit means. They come from credit card frauds, hacked accounts and bot farms. No exception.

Whenever the account gets hacked and the character gets extracted - all those extractors go to someone who has purchased them on the third-party websites. Stolen credit cards are used to purchase PLEX which is distributed to the same buyers later. Botters create hundreds of accounts and generate ISK by using all sorts of automation. This is how RMT is funded.

Buying ISK is a EULA violation. While we do try to fight with the source and eliminate it, the easy ISK gain seems like a good idea to many.

Many buyers eventually face the complete deduction of the purchased goods (sometimes billions of ISK). Accounts get banned, penalties are applied, and something that seemed like a simple way of gaining an advantage can turn into a massive drawback. There have been many stories where we had to recover illicitly purchased items and relocate them to their original owners, leaving the buyer with neither ISK nor the money they spent, as well as harsh penalties on their accounts.

As with the account sharing, we always see the illegitimacy of the transaction no matter the claims and we are always familiar with two sides of one story. ISK buyers are reported just as sellers are, and all exchanges eventually come to light.

Here is a simple example to make things clearer (because we love examples!). Let’s say player A has purchased ISK on the illegitimate website from the seller. We have caught this seller, he has contacted us and confessed to all his wrongdoings. We know why he did it, we know the bot farm that supplied him, and we know all his clients. Player A has contacted us as well, claiming that unfortunately their cat walked over the keyboard, resulting in a purchase that he was not aware of. Player A is not aware of our investigations behind the curtain and the confession of a seller.

Another example: Player A has decided to purchase a shiny character on a shady website. He receives the character, and everything seems to be perfect – except that in a couple of days or weeks, his account gets banned. We inform Player A that the character he purchased (legitimately, he thought) had been taken from a hacked account, and will be returned to its original owner. Even if Player A paid thousands of dollars to a third party, the character still goes back to where it belongs, and Player A is left with neither money nor a new character.

Overall, Player A does not seem to be having a good week.

We cannot stress enough that you should never buy ISK or other assets from third parties, as it hurts your fellow players more than you can imagine, and can hurt you as well. In the long run the momentarily gain might get you locked out of many features and in-game possibilities. And in the end we, Team Security, really want you to enjoy the game and be safe while doing so.

For curious readers, these are the approximate numbers of bans that we have issued from June/July through the end of September:

This image can be enlarged by clicking on it.
[h2]BOTTING[/h2]
EULA: "You may not use your own or any third-party software, macros or other stored rapid keystrokes or other patterns of play that facilitate acquisition of items, currency, objects, character attributes, rank or status at an accelerated rate when compared with ordinary Game play. You may not rewrite or modify the user interface or otherwise manipulate data in any way to acquire items, currency, objects, character attributes or beneficial actions not actually acquired or achieved in the Game.”

Rumors:

• “I will just try this super safe program that my buddy has recommended.”
• “It’s only a temporarily ban, I can wait it out.”
• “Team Security does not have the tools to prove me guilty.”
• “If someone reported me through bot reports, I will be banned immediately.”

In past months, our team has been prioritizing bot hunting, as our old tools and procedures were in need of a review – and while we have not remade them from scratch, we have adjusted them and iterated on our process to better tackle botting. Now we would like to cover what happens when someone decides to start botting.

Our take is quite simple. We treat it as a two-strike policy:

• 1st offence: 3-day ban and certain limitations for the account.
• 2nd offence: permanent ban.

Macro usage is very much obvious, even if the process is being concealed. The logs do in fact show a lot, and we wish we could share them without the risk of exposing our methods – but sadly, it is not possible. But ultimately any configuration and any change is very much visible to us and our tools.

Fun fact about bot reports: they do get looked at, but the action itself is not automated, meaning that the report on its own won’t do anything if there is no violation. We do not issue bans just because someone was reported through this tool; every player who has been reported is checked the same way as any potential bot. It is simply a different way of receiving information, that’s it. Long story short: if you are being reported by someone, but you know for a fact that you did not use any macros or third-party software, you have nothing to worry about. The only time we take action is when the report corelates with our internal data and the tools show that something shifty has been happening.

Speaking of shifty things, let’s talk about REPORTING:

The best way to report something is still a ticket. At this time, there is no email inbox being actively monitored by Team Security, and we can only take action against bots through in-game reports – or via support ticket, if you’d like to report something specific. If you need to let us know about something shady happening, please send us a ticket instead of an email, and we will investigate it as soon as humanly possible.
[h2]ISK SELLING[/h2]
EULA: “You may not transfer, sell or auction, or buy or accept any offer to transfer, sell or auction (or offer to do any of the foregoing), any content appearing within the Game environment, including without limitation characters, character attributes, items, currency, and objects, other than via a permitted Character Transfer as described in section 3 above. You may not encourage or induce any other person to participate in such a prohibited transaction. The buying, selling or auctioning (or any attempt at doing so) of characters, character attributes, items, currency, or objects, whether through online auctions, newsgroups, postings on message boards or any other means is prohibited by the EULA and a violation of CCP’s proprietary rights in the Game.”

Rumors:

• “They’ll never find out!”
• “I know someone who’s selling ISK on a side, and they’ve never been caught, so this is totally safe.”
• “CCP is allowing this to happen.”
• “Selling a character on a third-party website is not RMT.”
• “If I sell my character, he/she will live on when I quit EVE. My legacy stays.”

There is a lot of ground to cover here. No matter how much we talk about ISK selling and RMT in general, there will always be more questions, and we in Team Security welcome them all. So, let’s talk about rumors:

RMT is a large problem and no, it is not permitted in any form. Some of the saddest RMT stories in New Eden involve players who start selling ISK on the side, growing wealthy in the process, building a corporation, training characters, forming connections and friendships, and more – only to one day find out that everything is gone. It’s the human factor - people tend to relax when there are no immediate consequences to their actions. And though initially players that decide to get involved in shady business may have no emotional investment in their characters or the game, it can change with time.

We differentiate RMT, as we briefly mentioned in our Fanfest presentation – so let’s try to cover these types with more details and examples.

Organized RMT groups are the easiest type to cover. You see this very often – worthless contracts in Jita, blown up rookie ships packed with skill injectors, etc. Those contracts, ships and everything behind them is connected with bot farms, hacked accounts and credit card frauds. Their trail is easy to follow, and the offenders are always banned for good. They do come back eventually with new accounts and new ideas of how to make themselves invisible on our radar, but they are inevitably rediscovered. Many RMTers are banned with tremendous quantities of ISK in their pockets, which also means that involved ISK does not get distributed further.

Next, we have the curious capsuleers of New Eden who want to try and get a bit of cash on the side, selling skill injectors, perhaps a titan, or even beloved characters. While this type isn’t as consistent as organized groups might be, this is precisely the type of player who gets into trouble most of the time. Many characters who are sold for real money have their skills completely extracted, which is no secret, but we still want to emphasize it. This is particularly sad to see in the case of characters created ten, fifteen, or even nearly twenty years ago, as they have a very real history and lots of assets that may be worthless on the market, but carry sentimental value. As soon as an account or characters are sold on a third-party website, Team Security will not be able to help, not to mention that the seller also risks the following:

1. Compromised transactions. There is a high chance that buyers will claim back the price they paid for a character with a chargeback through their bank/paypal/another payment platform. This is more common than you might think and it leaves the seller with neither money nor their character. Team Security will not be able to intervene and restore justice for obvious reasons.
   
2. Compromised hardware. Earlier we established that sold characters will most likely be extracted sooner or later. Injectors go to ISK buyers, and these deals can pop up on our radar immediately. Investigations will inevitably lead us back to the player who sold the character, and then the trouble starts. In most cases involving RMT, we will be forced to cut off the seller’s access to the game and treat their hardware as malicious, making it difficult to return to EVE.
   

If we didn’t manage to cover something you’re still curious about, we welcome you to ask questions on the Forums. Mind you, there may be some edge cases where other things are being taken into consideration; we are always happy to discuss these as well, but the conversation might be a bit more brief.

The EULA is dark and full of terrors, but we hope we have been able to clear some things up for you today.

Fly safe & secure, pilots – we’ll see you in space!