CCP RealX has posted an interesting dev blog delving into the music of EVE Online. RealX wrote 10 new tracks for the Quantum Rise expansion to accompany the 57 that were already in the game.

In the blog entry, RealX explains how the music creation process has changed over the years, and how it will continue to change in the future.

Much greater things are possible now: a totally adaptive soundtrack made up of musical elements which would weave up an interesting sound universe, changing to what is happening around you. We are also working on a overhaul of all the sound in EVE as it has gotten less love than it perhaps should have in the last 5 years. We are working with a whole new technology now which gives us much more creative freedom.

So while you play EVE Online, don't forget to turn up your speakers and enjoy the music. You can read the full post here or below.

If you're planning a large fleet battle, there's one new step you should take to ensure you get the best server performance possible: contact CCP at least 24 hours in advance.

If you go through the proper channels and don't abuse the system, the virtual worlds operation team will place these systems on high powered blades, which should boost your performance. All you have to do is submit your request here. Only corporation directors are able to send notifications, and the team asks to be notified if you expect more than 300 pilots to participate in the engagement.

Keep reading after the jump for the full announcement and rules, which can also be found here.

CCP had previously announced they were extending the Buddy Program to Dec. 1. Well, it's become so popular that they're extending it again until Jan. 9. What better time than the holidays to invite a friend to try out EVE Online?

Our recently announced, revamped Buddy Program has proven to be so popular that we have decided to extend the program through the Christmas season. From now until 5 January 2009 you can invite your friends to EVE Online for a special 21-day trial. If they become subscribers, you will get 30 days of game time added to your account. The invite form and detailed information can be found on the Buddy Program page in Account Management.

Keep reading for more information, which can also be found here.

We previously reported in mid-November that CCP had posted some videos from Fanfest on the EVE Online site. Well, the rest of the videos are now up for your enjoyment, bringing the grand total to 17.

You can view all the videos on the official EVE Online Web site here, or you can head over to their YouTube page, which also contains other videos, such as game trailers.

The latest dev blog from CCP Dr.EyjoG contains an incredibly interesting analysis of the Orca's entry into the market. According to the blog, the biggest surprise for the team was the huge amount of blueprints sold for the capital-sized industrial command ship.

In the first 13 days of its release, 2,935 Orca blueprints were sold. In comparison, the next highest amount of blueprints sold in that time frame was for the freighter class, which sold only 260 in its first 13 days.

Due to the massive supply of Orcas that will probably come out of these blueprint sales, the team hypothesizes that the price of the ship will fall sharply in the coming weeks due to major competition between producers. In response, many Orca producers may turn to "the production of other capital ships that require similar components but may offer larger profit margins in the long run."

Check out the full blog post here or below.

CCP Mindstar has announced the Sixth Alliance Tournament. It will consist of six days of competition.

These are the dates we have in mind:

• Tournament Signups - Dec 19th - Jan 9th
• Qualifying Round 1 - Jan 24th, Jan 25th
• Qualifying Round 2 - Jan 31st, Feb 1st
• Finals - Feb 7th, Feb 8th

Signups are not open yet, but you can read about the rules here and the format here. If you want to be considered as an expert/commentator for the EVE TV broadcast, which involves flying to Reykjavik, Iceland, to join the team at CCP headquarters, all the information is here. Lastly, the official tournament forum will be updated with the latest information. Keep reading after the jump for Mindstar's full announcement.

In addition to Thanksgiving in the U.S., today also marks the deployment of Quantum Rise 1.0.2.

Quantum Rise 1.0.2 mainly consists of changes and fixes to weapon grouping, graphics and the user interface. Patch Notes are available; updates to the notes may be added should any further items be cleared through the Quality Assurance process. These updates will be highlighted with green text.

The votes have been tallied and the first delegates of the second Council of Stellar Management have been named.

Vuk Lau (character name ‘Vuk Lau') is the Council's chairman having received the highest number of votes (2,033). The first order of business for the Council will be to elect a vice-chairman, secretary and vice-secretary.

This post lists all of the candidates and has a detailed analysis of the statistics and demographics surrounding the election. For example, there were 20,112 votes cast out of a pool of 233,541 eligible voters, and most votes were cast by veteran players who have had their accounts for almost two years.

The full results are copied below. Personally, I find it to be an interesting read.

Critical performance issues have been addressed today through a patch that fixed a number of bugs involving client slowdowns, crashes and memory leaks. The full patch notes can be found here.

EVE Online: Quantum Rise 1.0.1 has been deployed on Tranquility today in order to address critical performance issues that were affecting some of our players. Our team will continue to monitor Tranquility until we’re fully satisfied that the issues have been solved. We appreciate your patience during the extended downtime.

The full post from the EVE Online team can be found here or below.

There's some mail changes on the way in Quantum Rise 1.0.1.

To address performance issues in EVE we are making some changes to the EVE Mail system in Quantum Rise 1.0.1. You will now be able to fetch up to 1000 undeleted EVE Mails, however, EVE Mail number 1001 and beyond will not be fetched, whether it has been read or not. To gain access to those EVE Mails, you must delete newer EVE mails. In addition to this all EVE Mails sent by NPCs that are older than 3 months will be deleted.