Player Features and Ideas Discussion

What was the topic now...? Oh, yes, suggestions for avatar content.

I've come up i with another suggestion to put avatars to use with "baby steps":

Integrate full body preview on the new web site.

Same as CCP Ann & al. built that 3D rendering engine to show up ships, i wonder wether the Full body preview engine could be added to the web site. Enter a section called "Meet the capsuleers" with a "search character" function and there you go, the "official" portrait + bio + full body preview so people can show up their shape and clothes. This in turn could lead to a new threadnaught about rating full body avatars (FBAs?) and very specially would add some interest to the existing content. Plus would add sense to the customization options i already posted above.

"Fast and dirty", it would show some actual commitment to adding new WiS content and not just getting a return from Incarna's leftovers, all while Team Avatar could keep prototyping the long road to Tipperary.

The development of the Incarna prototypes is being done by EVE developers. WoD is being developed entirely separately by a different team, in a different office, in a different country. Whilst you're right and gameplay can be modified to fit any scenario you fancy we are developing with EVE in mind and always have been. Don't mistake our focus on gameplay minute by minute for totally ignoring the bigger picture of how that sits in the EVE Universe and importantly what makes EVE the game it is.



We are currently exclusively committed to prototyping until early June right now.

Please see some of my replies for more information on why we don't consider incremental development of WiS to be of best value:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=675525#post675525
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=673620#post673620
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=667741#post667741

What we should definitely be doing is communicating our efforts on the Avatar stuff much more frequently.

Why put off till tomorrow what you can do now, tell us what you've been prototyping, what you have planned, and give us an idea of what we can expect and when?

The black-box that is 'Incarna planning for the last 3+ years' is incredibly frustrating for *everyone*.

One half of the problem with Incarna was, and still is, a complete lack of communication. (The other half was NEX, which was a fail idea from the outset - the players would have told you so if you had asked - and I still think you should just remove AUR entirely from the game)

It feels at the moment like CCP is spending less resources on Incarna, but they're still making the same mistakes with those resources - no communication - no asking the players what they want - just quietly working away and praying that it doesn't suck.

When is this communication that we've been promised going to start with regards to WiS?

We've put out at least one dev blog on the subject and held a roundtable at fanfest as well as posting in the forums. I spoke with the rest of the team earlier and we'll be putting out a new devblog on the Incarna prototyping effort in the next couple of weeks.

But to give some details we're currently prototyping core gameplay using Unity and concentrating on some exploration style gameplay which sticks close to the core principles in EVE. Where action in WiS is its own ecosystem with cross-links into the other parts of the game. One Universe isn't just a marketing slogan.

Sorry, but I don't get what you mean here. EVE, apparently, is not about WiS, which is exactly what we are afraid of. Where does WiS fit into CCP Torfitrans' "circle of life"?

Or maybe you mean that WiS is supposed to be as FiS is? No solo, no casual, no consequences for griefing? Will WiS end up being about camping "the door" with 50 thugs to steal somebody's implants?



Well, you see it like that , i see it as letting the avatars rot in jail for 2 or 3 years until nobody interested about WiS plays the game any longer.



Completely. For good or bad, you're like paying the tiny interests from a massive debt and you got a huge lot of attention on you.

And, to be frank, closing the GD threadnaught has been a poor job in community management. We've been taking flak form trolls for monnths and CCP just played the ultimate trolling...

The concept of exploration type game play sounds interesting, but that remains a rather tentative and vague idea. Are you able to explain what you mean by 'exploration style gameplay'? Or rather what its relevance is to what the original design for WiS was envisaged as?

C.

This sounds like an interesting way to enhance the currently cheesy archeology/hacking gameplay. The current push button maybe get bacon after 10 seconds gameplay really doesn't work very well. Maybe hacking could utilize something similar to Dues Ex: Human Revolution's hacking technique.

Archeology would be another matter perhaps use lore questions/riddles that range in difficulty but have a list large enough that it is hard to have a quick website lookup. Perhaps name that image or set of images.

Maybe use the current hacking module to open up an outer door or docking ring and then a handheld version for inside the station/complex. Would need a way to keep situational awareness so that your ship can be stolen but only if you aren't paying attention.

Sure, the basic premise would be along the lines of exploring space to discover abandoned structures then going inside them to salvage what you can whilst dealing with any surprises expected and otherwise. This should be expanded on in the forthcoming devblog

We'd also include in that all the social spaces within stations and what not you'd previously expected so this isn't a replacement for other designs but actually provides a space for meaningful gameplay. It's also not the only idea we're working on but is certainly the most developed. The exciting thing is we're seeing some overlap between different ideas so the possibilities for extending WiS gameplay could be pretty awesome once the initial gameplay release is done.

Ok, this gives us more detail to discuss and comment upon (and hopefully hear about in a dev blog). Obviously I think there needs to be careful consideration regarding transiting from your ship to another structure (i.e stations are safe havens for ships from attacks, do 'abandoned structures' offer the same state?)

Scaling may be an issue (what happens when all of PL try to squeeze into the same structure?). I rather get the impression that this exploration is orientated towards small teams or individuals? I'd be interested to hear what thoughts the dev teams have on that issue.

Certainly these structures offer both potential PVP and PVE orientated game play. And there is ample room to deliver different type of structures in different types of space (high, low, etc). To my mind it would appear that exploring such structures would be a 'high risk' venture in that a player would risk not only their clone, but also their ship? Which brings about what rewards would be comparable to such risk

Finally I would be interested to hear what correlation there would be between the gameplay of your proposed exploration (archaeology?) and the "vanilla" WiS social content. I could envisage players delving into such abandoned structures to bring back shiny items that have a relevance to WiS in station environments (and from there a natural lead onto contraband goods, smuggling and narcotic use).

Are there additional conceptual ideas you would like to hear off, or would like to propose to garner feed back on

C

Since you seem to be in a question answering mood, can you say anything about this?