CCP 'Sharpens its Focus' Said focus does not invovlve Vampires.

[tgr]

And what part of the game needs improvement the most for the entire game as a whole to stay healthy, viable and growing unlike what it has done the last year?

CCP's answer would be DUST.

Okay. EVE is doomed.

From my point of view I'd like to see young alliances viable for nullsec. It's a closed club. Goons were the last new alliance to force their way in against hostiles, some younger alliances like Test have got in on someone else's coattails. If someone works really hard to get 500 newbs they should be able to carve out a corner somewhere in some out of the way and undesired part of nullsec.

This is why I've been harping on and on and on about how the SOV system needs to be revamped AND 0.0 needs to be lucrative as fuck. Most likely not through pure isk rewards, because oh god the inflation.

I want more people in 0.0. I want more people who go out there all wide-eyed and full of zeal for making it in 0.0, because they're so fucking :shobon: it's not even funny. Of course, some of them are going to get their balls stomped on, but they either harden the fuck up and improve, or they go yelping back to empire like a whipped dog. But I want more than the more or less 3 coalitions that are the main coalitions in eve, because right now they're all so huge that any war between them is liable to contain trillions of isk on the line in fights that not just break the servers but anally rape them. And SOV is such a ballstomping affair to take unless you have a fucktonne of people, that it's just not going to happen for that reason either.

because you can only really mine or do missions for so long before you start to /wrist.

You're wrong. Casual, low stakes gameplay is the majority way of playing video games. Eve can be played as a low stakes casual game. Speak for yourself by all means but don't generalise that no one can play a video game unless it's heart thumping sweating tension and frenetic action.

Jesus. I'm not even talking about "heart thumping sweating tension and frenetic action". I'm talking about a friend of mine who's been a miner/builder/inventer for over a year now, and his corp has been mining and building carriers and dreads from scratch. FROM SCRATCH. They're 5 people. They're fucking sick and tired of mining, and they're tired of doing missions as well. You can only mine and do missions for so long before you have to start doing other things.

But sure, since I'm in an 0.0 alliance, all I can think of is PVP.

[Sir T]

To be honest, the first thing I would do is scrap low sec. You have high sec and null sec, that's it. Right now so many people get their balls smashed in in low sec that their enthusiasm is killed and they never bother with null sec ever. At least without that they would get their balls smashed in in null sec. and have a chance at Syndicate grade rats, which are better than low sec ones by far.

[MahrinSkel]

EVE can be played as a casual low stakes game, but mining and missioning isn't it. In both cases the stake you put up is worth months of 'work'.

You don't *have* to mine in a barge with 2 alts for hauling.  Or run level 4's in a pimped-out HAC.  You can build your way up to those organically, using lesser versions.

--Dave

[calapine]

To be honest, the first thing I would do is scrap low sec. You have high sec and null sec, that's it. Right now so many people get their balls smashed in in low sec that their enthusiasm is killed and they never bother with null sec ever. At least without that they would get their balls smashed in in null sec. and have a chance at Syndicate grade rats, which are better than low sec ones by far.

No. The idea of low sec is a good one. It's the execution/current state that sucks. I am not going to go all armchair developer and bring up my patented how-to-fix-low-sec-in-3-easy-steps-plan, but again, the concept of something more dangerous than high-sec full concord protection but not quite 0.0-sov-cap madness is sound. Eve needs some shady back alleys.

[MahrinSkel]

They tried that, insofar as less Concord ships show up in 0.5 than in a 1.0 system.  But it turned out to be a binary protection, either anyone who attacks gets concordokken, or they don't.  You can't be a "little bit" protected from ganking.

--Dave

[Sir T]

I think there was also a time lag of concord showing up as well, from instantly in 1.0 to something like 25 seconds in 0.5.

But then at one time it was possible to tank concord as well. They had to abandon that idea for obvious reasons.

Conkordorkenned!

[Kageru]

The only genuine low stakes casual games I can think of immediately in EVE are PI and flying with an alliance fleet in a tackling rifter.

Neither are especially easy for a newbie to chance their way in to.

Which is partly why flying with BAT/Goons makes the game bearable because encouraging the noob rifter and people doing what they can to extract fun in Eve is first and foremost. The idea of being "Leet-PvP" in a game as generally bad as Eve is repulsive, but people will pad their ego regardless.

Eve is effectively a tribute to all the familiar issues with open World PvP. The need for timers, blobs, imbalances, punishment of noobies and the long periods of tedium. CCP have ameliorated some of these concerns but not really tried that hard to solve them.

[Ingmar]

I suspect that most empire dwellers on reading your last few messages would find the idea of going out to 0.0 to play with a bunch of people with your attitude anything but enticing.

And amazingly it got even better after that. 

[sinij]

I am trying to analyze their plan, how would they handle "tie-ins" when majority of battles are uneven fights? FPS suck with stacked teams, but that what most EVE ground fighting would be.

Maybe ship-to-ship boarding? This way initiating FPS mission can be a weapon, and you could balance around defending and attacking teams being the ship's crews that are about equal in size. If boarding team succeed, then ship is captured, but then what happens if ship is destroyed before mission finishes?

As to FPS on console - no staying power whatsoever. How is this going to affect EVE when console-side have all but 5 players total? It _has to be_ on PC.

[tgr]

Maybe ship-to-ship boarding? This way initiating FPS mission can be a weapon, and you could balance around defending and attacking teams being the ship's crews that are about equal in size. If boarding team succeed, then ship is captured, but then what happens if ship is destroyed before mission finishes?

I can just say that this will never even make it to any drawing board.

[Phred]

Maybe ship-to-ship boarding? This way initiating FPS mission can be a weapon, and you could balance around defending and attacking teams being the ship's crews that are about equal in size. If boarding team succeed, then ship is captured, but then what happens if ship is destroyed before mission finishes?

I can just say that this will never even make it to any drawing board.

Much like Dust shouldn't  have.

[Sheepherder]

Maybe ship-to-ship boarding? This way initiating FPS mission can be a weapon, and you could balance around defending and attacking teams being the ship's crews that are about equal in size. If boarding team succeed, then ship is captured, but then what happens if ship is destroyed before mission finishes?

Track structural damage in EVE, and send that data to Dust to deform the map currently in progress, then if anything cool happens in Dust (like sabotage, compartment depressurization) send it back to EVE to render it for those who have ridiculous gaming rigs?

Of course, you'd get Goon Bombers shooting holes in titans just to see the little Goon Marines come shooting out the breach, but isn't that the point?

[NiX]

Much like Dust shouldn't  have.

To be fair, the idea is the next logical step for generating revenue out of an MMO while expanding your userbase. It just shouldn't have been CCP to put that idea on a drawing board.

[eldaec]

Would have been an easy way for CCP to increase $/subscriber if they made it for PC.

[Stabs]

We've been told that there will be orbital bombardment. Ships shooting DUST players. That probably implies that there's some mechanism for the ground pounders to shoot back or else DUST will really suck (like playing as Iraqis in Desert Storm).

So we may see a long duration map (like early Alterac Valley) with anti-spaceship towers that are capturable by the Dust players.

I'd also like to see a mechanism like your ground to space laser heating up over time so it doesn't one-shot small ships (although they have to scarper fast) but builds up and up so not even a big cap ship can just ignore them.

Ideally fleet v ground force should feel like a real fight in certain circumstances, not ducks in a barrel. If they manage that then if could be quite exciting - you could have a ground v space with a friendly space fleet inbound. That would be fun.

[tgr]

Much like Dust shouldn't  have.

Actually, the whole idea of having an FPS in this game isn't automatically bad, it's just when it's coupled with a complete lack of planning for exactly what it's going to be there FOR, combined with the gloriously awesome idea of having that limited to console players, that it becomes what I'd automatically call a bad idea.

Then again, I would've loved it if fighting in EVE was more like in tie fighter or frontier: elite ii, so it was more a matter of pilot skill than lock f1 f2 f3 f4, but them's the breaks.

[eldaec]

We've been told that there will be orbital bombardment.

This has been implied in a cgi video. No one has actually said anything afaik.

[Sparky]

Much like Dust shouldn't  have.

Actually, the whole idea of having an FPS in this game isn't automatically bad, it's just when it's coupled with a complete lack of planning for exactly what it's going to be there FOR, combined with the gloriously awesome idea of having that limited to console players, that it becomes what I'd automatically call a bad idea.

Then again, I would've loved it if fighting in EVE was more like in tie fighter or frontier: elite ii, so it was more a matter of pilot skill than lock f1 f2 f3 f4, but them's the breaks.

If the tie ins are at all meaningful then PS3 gamers are going to hate being pushed around by PC ubernerds in a game they don't care about and EVE players are going to rage when they lose their shit at random.  Though I expect DUST will be kept on life support by the poopsockiest Tranquillity vets buying into DUST to dominate in EvE.

[tgr]

If the tie ins are at all meaningful then PS3 gamers are going to hate being pushed around by PC ubernerds in a game they don't care about and EVE players are going to rage when they lose their shit at random.  Though I expect DUST will be kept on life support by the poopsockiest Tranquillity vets buying into DUST to dominate in EvE.

If the planet bombardment actually makes its way into EVE, then chances are I'm training up a moros. Precisely for that reason.

[TripleDES]

Would have been an easy way for CCP to increase $/subscriber if they made it for PC.

As soon the DUST player counts start to taper out, they're going to release the PC port.

[eldaec]

I do hope so, the tears of console players attempting to play competitive FPS with a fucking controller would make the whole fiasco worthwhile.

[tgr]

I do hope so, the tears of console players attempting to play competitive FPS with a fucking controller would make the whole fiasco worthwhile.

Just imagine the tears of those who are so committed to their eve sov experience they actually went out and bought a ps3 specifically for dust. Only to find that the PC version was released a few months later.

Actually, I'm not so sure the PC version will be all that forthcoming. If it had been released on the 360, then I'd have no problems seeing it, but the PS3's core architecture is rather different, and I'm not sure how much work it takes to convert a game from the PS3 to the PC... Unless they're planning for both contingencies by developing for both platforms in parallel.

[TripleDES]

Some proper code layering (hah!) would enable easy porting. In theory, with proper modular design, there'd be a small rendering core that would need changing, same for the physics. And AFAIK, it was initially planned for Xbox and they even showed first demos on it. The only reason they're heading for PS3 now is that Microsoft requires you to use the Xbox Live network for multiplayer.

[Rendakor]

PS3 has a recent success story of cross platform play (Portal 2) while the last (only?) Xbox 360 game that allowed cross platform was the godawful Shadowrun remake; given this, I can't see why anyone is surprised that a game designed to interact with a non-XBL game isn't showing up on Xbox.

[Phred]

Would have been an easy way for CCP to increase $/subscriber if they made it for PC.

As soon the DUST player counts start to taper out, they'll panic and start work on a PC port.

FYP

[Count Nerfedalot]

Would have been an easy way for CCP to increase $/subscriber if they made it for PC.

As soon the DUST player counts start to taper out, they'll panic and start work on a PC port.

FYP

This.  lolccp

[Engels]

Does FYP stand for Five Year Plan? That sounds about right...

[tgr]

Fun experiment: open up the eve map and look at average pilots in space in the last 30 minutes, number of pilots currently docked and active, and jumps in the last hour.

I, uh, have seen a healthier and more vibrant 0.0.

[Nevermore]

I know this might sound radical, but perhaps the game is different now from when you were 2 months into the game.

We still have uses for newbies in rifters. We may prefer people who are in maelstroms, scimitars, claymores, hurricanes etc, but we'll always take a pilot in a rifter along.

If the alliance says otherwise, then they're probably more focused on ~elite pvp~ or small gang pvp, where a small rifter may or may not survive to be remotely useful.

Sure, goons may but do you think goons are the norm in that respect at this point in the game?

[LC]

Don't know if this one has been linked yet. Here it is anyway:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/21/interview-eve-onlines-kristoffer-touborg/3/

[Fordel]

I know this might sound radical, but perhaps the game is different now from when you were 2 months into the game.

We still have uses for newbies in rifters. We may prefer people who are in maelstroms, scimitars, claymores, hurricanes etc, but we'll always take a pilot in a rifter along.

If the alliance says otherwise, then they're probably more focused on ~elite pvp~ or small gang pvp, where a small rifter may or may not survive to be remotely useful.

Sure, goons may but do you think goons are the norm in that respect at this point in the game?

NOTHING about the Goons is a norm, and I don't mean that in a 'lolderp' kind of way either.

[Flatfoot]

As CCP's financial situation has been discussed here (or in other EVE related threads) I thought you might find it interesting that CCP says it has refinanced the 12 million dollar bond that was to mature tomorrow. In today's Viðskiptablaðið (Icelandic financial newspaper) there's a piece where CCP is quoted as saying they have  secured foreign financing that is due in "a few years". This should give the company until the middle of 2012 to turn things around financially, unless there is another capital injection forthcoming.

[Kageru]

Don't know if this one has been linked yet. Here it is anyway:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/21/interview-eve-onlines-kristoffer-touborg/3/

"I’m a massive fan of Darkfall." 

It certainly explains why they thought the amount of effort they were investing into Eve was reasonable.

[Mrbloodworth]

How DUST 514 and EVE Online Bridge the Gap Between PC and PlayStation 3

[Lantyssa]

So what if no one has initiated battles?