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EVE Online to drop "classic" graphics News
MMO PC News by Oli Welsh
Icelandic space-MMO iconoclasts CCP have announced that they'll be dropping support for the Classic version of EVE Online, which has simpler graphics than the Premium version and enables the game to be run on very low-spec machines.
In a developer blog titled "I can totally run that on my Amiga", an EVE developer explained that it was costing the company too much time and effort to maintain two versions of the game client, and produce two versions of every art asset. Freed of the need to support Classic, CCP thinks it will be able to push the game's graphics further in future.
When the next EVE expansion, Apocrypha, launches on March 10th, the Classic game client will be discontinued. This coincides with the release of the Premium version of the game for Apple Mac.
Although this will raise the minimum requirements for EVE, those with lower-spec machines shouldn't worry, since CCP will also release a version of the game they're calling Premium Lite. This should work on all but the most ancient graphics cards and scale well to low-powered machines, whilst not requiring CCP to support two discrete versions of its game.
It's all change for EVE this year, with the introduction of Tech 3 and new unexplored space in Apocrypha, a box copy arriving in shops at the same time courtesy of Atari, and a completely redesigned starting experience for new players. We'll be reporting on them all in depth in March.
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Comments: 1-19 of 19
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Having just finished the 2 week free trial I have to say that they really need to work on the initial experience for new players. It's too overwhelming and so many people must just give up.
Having said that I've just signed up for my first month, so they must be doing something right... /checks remaining time till skill upgrade |
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*RRRRRRRK*
...is the incorrect answer! Silly CCP. Have they learned nothing from WoW? One of the biggest reasons the Other Big MMO has been so successful is its inclusive approach to hardware requirements. Stripping out the old experience might make sense from a code maintenance point of view, but it'll hardly make it easy for your average punter to get into the game. That said, as bicky316 mentions, the game's initial experience is very overwhelming for the completely uninitiated. Maybe they're ringfencing their current subscriber base and don't intend to draw anybody else new in? |
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jonthepymm
19/01/09 @ 16:06
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Part of the steep learning curve works to Eve's advantage - only those with perserverance and intelligence continue on past those first few hours / weeks. Makes for a somewhat mature user-base without LOL teenagers everywhere.
As for the article - I run on a Mac so am looking forward to premium graphics at last! |
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AphoticCosmos
19/01/09 @ 16:43
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Premium Lite will only exclude the very bottom of the pile of machines, it's about time that they stopped developing for classic - it's a small percentage of players who actually use it, often for performance reasons, and Premium Lite should hopefully offer similar performance on most relatively recent or modestly aged PCs. There has to be cut off points like this occasionally - it's not economically viable to keep developing for hardware that has long fallen out of common usage.
Also Bicky, they are reworking the entire new player experience for the next expansion, Apocrypha. |
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PuppyFiddler
19/01/09 @ 20:41
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Bugger. I use my failry sh*tty laptop for mining missions while playing other games and it works perfectly for it. Looks like i'll just have to run Eve in the background on the desktop now - which it does nicely i have to say - i can easily have CoD4 running and Eve at the same time..which is nice.
Roll on the virtual space stations. Can't wait. |
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Vertical Stand
19/01/09 @ 22:45
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I didn't even know there was a classic version, let alone that it could work on laptops, otherwise I'd have been playing and paying for this a while back, and then complaining I could no longer play it ^_^.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 19/01/09 @ 22:45
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shamblemonkee
20/01/09 @ 08:07
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The entry bar for premium is Shader Model 3 iirc, and Shader 2 for this lite version.
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actionfitz
22/01/09 @ 12:38
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aye you would think that anyone still playing Eve long term would have by now made the investment in a modern machine to play it on.
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Comments: 1-19 of 19
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