CCP posted an interesting dev blog entry today that takes a look back at the third Council of Stellar Management from the viewpoint of its members. According to Chairman Valentijn Geirnaert, the council put 90 issues to CCP, "which are so far the most issues put forth in a single term." Nineteen of these issues have already been addressed in the Dominion expansion.

Other members of the council also posted their personal impressions from their experiences. Michele Boland said "CCP really took the CSM seriously," while Jogn Zastrow said he was disappointed in the CSM. " The only time we ever had real back-and-forth talks with devs was at the summit. That's it," Zastrow said.

You can read the full dev blog entry after the jump.

It looks like the Dominion expanansion is doing a good job of enticing players to log into EVE Online. According to the game's Facebook page, Sunday brought a new peak concurrent user record of 54,181 pilots in New Eden at one time.

Considering many of these pilots could be new players, CCP has launched play.eveonline.com to introduce newbies to the world of EVE Online. The site goes over the features of the game and includes a link to the free trial.

In addition, Dominion 1.0.2 will be deployed tomorrow, Dec. 8, from 9:30 a.m. to noon GMT. The patch notes can be found after the jump.

The Dominion expansion has been deployed on Tranquility, but that's not the only big news for EVE Online players. CCP just revealed the delegates for the fourth Council of Stellar Management, and it looks like Tomas "ElvenLord" Ljumovic of Serbia is the new chairman with 1,553 votes.

The first meeting of the council will be held in-game on Dec. 5. It will be closed to the public, but you'll be able to read the minutes in the CSM forum or on the EVElopedia. The members will be flown to Iceland from Feb. 24-28, 2010 to meet with CCP to discuss prioritized topics.

CCP loves to put statistical data in its dev blogs, and this one is no exception. There were 21,158 votes cast by eligible voters, amassing a turnout of 7.36%. Most of the votes were cast by veteran players of two years or more, and a whopping 13.32% of Finland subscribers voted in the election.

Dominion will be deployed on Tranquility tomorrow, Dec. 1, and it looks like EVE Online players will have a lot of time to kill while they wait to dive into the new expansion. The maintenance is scheduled to begin at 2 a.m. GMT and will last until approximately 9 p.m. CCP suggests that you set a long skill training for tomorrow since the server could be down for 19 hours.

You can discuss the deployment of Dominion in this thread on the official forums. As CCP Zymurgist said, "Dominion will be introducing a new sovereignty system, new player experience and tutorials, new epic arcs, new EVE-mail features, the fleet finder, graphics overhaul with new planets, and changes to capital ships." For more details on the expansion, check out the lengthy patch notes after the jump.

CCP has released a new Dominion trailer in preparation for the launch of the free EVE Online expansion on Dec. 1. Here's how it's described on the company's YouTube channel: "Dominion is true power born from the broken hulls of a thousand starships, the genes of the ambitious and the hubris of the greedy. The Dominion trailer looks on as one such tale unfolds."

The trailer deserves to be watched in high definition, so make sure you click that little HD button on the video window. For more information on the expansion, check out the newly launched official Dominion page.

CCP has been pumping out dev blogs regarding Dominion, the upcoming 11th expansion for EVE Online. Today, Abathur posted a blog entry that delves "a little deeper into the inner workings of the upgrades of space available to you through the new Infrastructure system." For example, Abathur explains how players will have to destroy their enemies' Infrastructure Hub in order to gain access to their upgrades.

In addition, Jasonitas published a blog entry this week that outlines the two new epic arcs that will be introduced in Dominion. The arcs focus on the Guristas and the Angel Cartel pirates factions and will allow you to "fly with the 'rats in 0.0, looting and plundering and fighting like only they know how."

Check out both blog entries after the jump.

As we reported earlier this week, CCP has released the list of applicants for the fourth Council of Stellar Management. In order to provide players with information on the candidates, Luminus Aardokay (aMUSiC) and Quivering Palm (Spirit) held a CSM debate last night on their Planet Risk radio show.

Candidates Helen Highwater, Mike Azariah, Song Li and TeaDaze presented their platforms in the three-hour show, which you can download as an mp3. More information on the CSM candidates can be found in the Jita Park Speakers Corner forum on the official EVE Online site.

CCP has posted the results of the candidacy application period for the fourth Council of Stellar Management, and the company has accepted 49 of the 60 applications. The rest were rejected due to passport issues, EULA violations and "Internet lolsters."

According to the post, "the age range of the candidates is between 21 and 54 with the average age of 33 years." Only one female player is running for a seat on the council. You can view the list of applicants here in preparation for the upcoming election, which will be held from Nov. 12-26.

CCP announced today that it will be adding a PLEX timer in an attempt to strengthen its anti-fraud measures in its Pilot License Extension program. According to the post, a maximum 60-minute delivery delay will go into effect for all PLEX added to the system after downtime tomorrow, Oct. 20.

For more information on PLEX, check out the system's EVElopedia page. As the entry states, "PLEX offers an alternative way for people to pay for their subscription without the use of our more conventional payment methods. Using PLEX, pilots can earn game time simply by playing EVE."

While the Dec. 1 launch date for Dominion may seem to be in the distant future right now, it's actually only about seven weeks away. In order to test out the upcoming changes in a live environment, CCP has announced that the team "will be running a series of fleet fights and other mass-tests on our main test server, Singularity."

The tests are tentatively scheduled to begin on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. GMT. However, an issue has been found on the test server that may postone the testing. Keep an eye on the thread for any updates to the testing schedule. If all goes according to plan, CCP is going to need at least 100 pilots (preferably more than 400) on Thursday.

The full announcement can be found after the jump. Also, check out the rules of the test server before logging in for the event.