A: My name is Hrafnkell Oskarsson, commonly known as Clover on the Eve boards and elsewhere. I'm of the race Icelandic - we come in peace. EVE is my first computer game project. Up till now gaming has only been a hobby for me - I've played strategy board games and CCGs for a long time. I'm a game designer at CCP. My job is two-fold: implementing and testing game systems; and writing stories for the web page. In my spare time I like to answer interviews with some banal inanities.

2. How are you planning to deal with super guilds and the farming of good weapons?

A: Regarding super guilds: we're not all that worried about some mega-guild that takes over the world. Human nature simply doesn't allow it. And besides, even if it did happen, would it be all that bad? Wouldn't it just mean the rebels vs. the evil empire? That doesn't sound too bad. Regarding farming of weapons: do you mean farming out weapons? We're not gonna discourage it at all, in fact we want to encourage it. The focus of the game is relations between players, in combat, economy or community. The best items will be manufactured by player corporations and one of their main source of income is selling their stuff to other players. We foresee that the basic rules of the market will apply here.

3. Will there be deterrents to camping? Say a rare part can only be bought at this one station, what is to stop more powerful people from waiting out side to nab the person who bought it, kill them, and then take the part?

A: The main deterrent to camping is that there is never only one fixed place for spawning, but many. Lets say Weapon X spawns every hour, it is linked to several stations and randomly spawns on one of them. So camping is still theoretically possible, but much more difficult. Besides, most things are bought/sold on the market, this means its not first come-first serve, but simply the highest bidder gets it. So Weapon X appears, on market, any player in that market zone can bid for the weapon and after the bid period is over (several hours at least) the highest bidder gets it. The item is transferred to the personal hangar space of the player on the selling station. So it is still possible to ambush a player that just bought some fancy item, but in empire space attacking him will have legal repercussions. In the outer region ambushing players is a way of life.

4. Will quests span multiple security zones thus increasing the difficulty and reward for completion?

A: Missions can span several locations, and these locations can have different security levels.

5. Can you buy planets? If so what can you do with them and can you land on them and explore?

A: Corporations can buy uninhabited planets. They can start a mining operation on the planet - linked to an orbiting station they own. You can't land on planets - only orbit them.

6. How will the money be broken down? Will each race have its own kind of currency? Or will it all be equal throughout the entire game-world?

A: There is only one currency.

7. How will you deal with tweaking or "twinking"? Example equipping a new ship that can access newbie areas with a powerful weapon and go on a kill spree?

A: Advanced equipment requires advanced skills, which newbie characters don't have. You can always enter newbie areas regardless of the power of your ship/character as long as you're security status is good.

8. Will there be designated "GMs" to help with problems that arise?

A: Yes, we've just started training them as we speak. They will operate in similar ways as in other MMOGs.

9. Is every entity in the game able to be destroyed? Such as massive space stations etc?

A: In essence, yes. But don't expect every Tom, Dick and Harry being able to shoot down suns :-).

10. Why did you opt to remove basically any kind of NPC enemy from the game and make it solely Player Vs Player?

A: Well, there are still plenty of npc enemies around, we simply don't envision them being the central theme in the game as in some other games. We want to emphasize player interactivity (because dealing with other humans is always more fun than dealing with a computer), so the npc element is more in the background - it's there for players that want to dabble in it, but you're not required to deal with them.

11. Will a player's hanger be able to be destroyed and looted? As well as their un-occupied ship?

A: Only if the station they're on is destroyed - a possibility, especially player stations, but not all that common.

12. Are you planning to implement disastrous space effects such as star collapsing, supernovas, solar flares and the like?

A: Yes. Some of these will be large-scale phenomenons that will be advertised long before they occur, other are constantly active (like space rifts in some systems). Then there are random phenomenons that can occur anyplace, anytime without a notice.

13. Will combat take place in open space only? Or will you be able to fight in massive debris field/asteroids fields?

A: You can fight in asteroid fields, close to stations, wherever.

14. Are you planning to have massive events that will take a huge amount of players to over come? For example, a huge meteor is going to hit one settlement and you have to stop it. Stuff like that

A: There will be large-scale events linked to the grand plot, players can participate in them if they want to. Otherwise, we're more focused on fostering the player community through the corporation system and player-run economy, rather than endlessly force players to react to the environment. Don't count them completely out, though.

15. What are the different types of clone images you can purchase?

A: There are three levels of clones - grade-A, grade-B and grade-C. Each grade has several different clone types. The grade dictates the quality of the clone. The better the quality the more skills are retained at death, but the more expensive it is.

16. If you do belong to an organization, will you be able to call in reinforcements to help if you are receiving a beat down or get ambushed?

A: Sure, all corps have their own chat channel. You can use that to call other players in for help. But if you're referring to npc factions, then no, you can't order npc ships around, ever.

17. I am assuming this will be a subscription based game. Any ideas on the pricing per month or package deals that allow you to pay for months in advance?

A: This is something that will only be decided at launch. Expect the pricing to be similar to other MMOGs on the market.

18. How are you planning to deal with complaints of game bugs that accidentally strip a person of their weapons, money or anything else of value?

A: If it can be confirmed that the player lost items or money due to a game bug he will be fully reimbursed. This will be handled by the GMs.

19. How are you planning to deal with players that are dropped from the game in the middle of a battle and are killed and loose their stuff because of it?

A: Nothing, if they lose connection in the middle of a battle, then tough luck to them. There is no way for us to determine whether the lost connection was 'self-inflicted' or an accident, so we must take a tough stance here.

20. During character creation you speak of being able to mold your own face. Will there be limits to that or can you make them as ugly as you want? For example one big eye or just one big nose? You know give them a face only a mother could love?

A: There are limits to how big/large/ungainly you can make things, but there is no 'beauty-detector' :-).

21. Are you planning to limit chatting? For example shouting, everyone can see it in the zone, Out of character only people with in a close proximity etc

A: There are spam- and foul language-filters, otherwise people will be expected to behave themselves. Idiots (and there will always be a few) will be dealt with by the GMs. People can also choose to ignore chat messages from certain people.

22. How will you deal with auctioning? Will there be designated areas or will it just be free roaming?

A: The world is divided into market zones. Items going up for sale can be bid up on any station within the same market zone. Some items are only on local sale, meaning they can only be bid on in the same station as the item is in.

3. Are you going to develop EVE on any other platform or is this PC exclusive?

A: This will depend on the game's popularity.

24. Any last words to the wise ?

A: The alpha-tests have been going splendidly. The Beta test will start real soon.