EVE Central Intelligence (Application)

EVE Central Intelligence (commonly known by its acronym "E.C.I.") is a web-based 3rd party application designed to display automatically gathered and player-submitted information about in-game characters, corporations, and alliances. Its current primary purpose is to provide subscribers with lists of characters in corporations or alliances (a function not available in-game without being a member of the given corporation). Additionally, E.C.I. acts as a recruitment tool by allowing users to vote characters on different categories, which assists recruiters in background checks.

History

E.C.I. was created by Kronus Heilgar in 2011 as a central repository for information about in-game characters. It received a successful launch in July, 2011 with 85 accounts registered within the first 48 hours. Several weeks later, the upvote/downvote system was introduced, providing another boost in registration.

Features

The original intention behind E.C.I. was to provide a search function of all in-game corporations and alliances, and to provide lists of characters in each. Since initial coding began, that has been expanded to include providing info sheets on each specific character.

If viewed in the In-Game Browser (IGB), users have the option of viewing character lists as game hotlinks for ease of use in adding contacts.

Account holders have the option to submit character names to the database in return for receiving free account time. For every character an account holder submits that does not already exist in the database, that account is credited a pre-determined amount of time.

Each character, corporation, and alliance has 6 categories that they can be voted on by users. Examples include PvP skill and fleet leadership ability for characters, and recruit friendliness and supply program ratings for corporations.

Upcoming Features

Several additions to the service have been proposed, the most popular of which is to include a "commenting" system. Account holders would register an API key, and then could comment on other characters, corporations, or alliances. All users would be able to read these comments, allowing E.C.I. to act as a central, public "notes" repository.

After more historical data has been gathered, an "employment history" section will be added to character info sheets. Corporations will also have a "previous employees" section that will show ex-members.

Other possible features mentioned include the ability to upload .CSV files containing character names (for account credit) and the ability to upload chat logs (to be parsed for character names).

Pricing

E.C.I. is based on a subscription system, where subscriptions are extended by in-game ISK payments to EVE Central Intelligence (ECINT). Users may also extend their subscription by submitting character names that are not in the database.

Payments have a required minimum amount, and must be sent with a specified payment "reason". Payments that do not meet these criteria are refunded.

Links

• EVE Central Intelligence website
• Official Forum Thread