“EVE W-Space” Map Tool Alpha Test Now Open

In my 2012 awards I recognized Marbin Drakon as the recipient of the award for the most useful w-space toolset.

Most of you have no idea who Marbin is.

I’m pleased to introduce him to you. Honestly I’m a little twitchy about doing so – I think he – and his tools – are the secret weapon of our alliance. Marbin is the guy who helps Future Corps/SSC with tools to map our wormhole chain in pretty colors and stunning detail. It makes travelling wspace more intuitive and comprehensive than Dotlan.

And I’m pleased to announce that for his upcoming version, he’s going public. You have a chance to help him alpha test his mapping tool, “EVE W-Space”. He has a thread posted on the Wormhole forums as well – go there if you’d like to chat with him directly.

Here’s a taste of what this great tool has to offer:

EVE W-Space Preview

We actually used the new version of the tool for Operation Walla Walla, aka Wrath of Bob (see header image). The tools worked great. Click on any of the below shots to enlarge.

The home page shows info feeds from TheMittani.com, EVE News 24, Reddit, and an awesome little blog called Interstellar Privateer.

As you add systems to the map, you are able to track members and which system they are in.

My favorite feature, being a scout, is that when you jump into a new wormhole not already on the map, you get prompted with a box to add the system to the map, with all necessary info ready to go.

After I add the hole (now automated!) I generally start cloaky-hunting for POS towers. They can be added to the tool with a D-Scan cut-and-paste!

Scouts and scanners are easily able to populate data from scanned sites.

Known site types pop up a spawn list appropriate to the system class.

Each system generates a pulldown list of possible actions within that system, as well as links to third-party tools for additional data.

Mousing over a system shows all the intricate detail that exists about that system.

Mousing over a wormhole between systems shows all the data known about the connection.

As you can see, this is an incredibly powerful set of tools for a wormhole corp.

How to Participate

EVE W-Space is open source. Source code is available at http://marbindrakon.github.com/eve-wspace

The preview is available for anyone who wants to check it out at https://alpha.evewspace.com. Use Registration Code: alpha

The real power is in use in a private setting. Private testing instances may be available for active corps – if you are interested in one, contact Marbin Drakon in game or email ‘marbin <at> evewspace.com’. Also check his forum thread.

I can say definitively that Marbin has been very specific in ensuring that private info remains private. In my continual quest to predict wormhole behavior, I’ve asked him for aggreggated/de-identified data. He has flatly refused to provide it to me for anyone other than Future Corps, and has built his offering to segregate the data so there can be no crossover between private instances. My loss is your benefit.