EVE General Discussion

And what if you were in a stealth ship and do not want a grand entrance?

"Hey all you gate campers! Here I am in my cloaked Buzzard!" as electrical discharges and sparks flies around and off his soon-not-to-be-cloaked ship.

But updated graphics would be nice. As others have mentioned, let the graphic extras fit the mass of the ship - a freighter should make a huge entrance while a shuttle but a mere fizzle.

What a coincidence, only the other week whilst playing EVE with a friend they said to me that wouldn't be cool if we could actually see our ships zoom off and disappear into the distance when going through a gate rather than just the blue line/flash.

I approve and support the idea, as I am sure my friend does, of improving the gate animations.

Seeing a lot of support for the ME style graphic. Does this fit the lore?

If I'm going from what is shown here:
http://community.eveonline.com/background/jump/jump_03.asp

Here's what I've gathered that is relevant to the animation:
-Jump Gates use wormholes to pass objects between them
-Upon entering the gate, a layer of mass boson is applied to the ship (to keep the wormhole locally 'wide' and prevent the ship from crushing)
-The 'metric gradient' causes pilots to have an experience known as 'going down the drain'

Note: The current animation shows a streak of light originating from the gate, which would suggest something being propelled very fast. This doesn't make sense in accordance with the lore, where nothing would be seen between the two points as the ship would cease to exist within the standard plane.

And from the existing system, architecture, etc.:
-Animation for leaving the system that would include assets in space would last 2-3 seconds
-There is a gap between switching servers where no assets from either system are loaded (1-2 seconds)
-Assets loaded from the new system may not show up right away
-If an 'arrival' animation is played, it should be played after the movement of the ship, and not before (so as not to alert others that someone has arrived.
-The arrival animation should be almost instantly cause the ship to be visible and in motion, even if it remains blurred for a short period
-The camera should focus on the spot where the ship will appear, not on the gate, or a wormhole where the ship would come from. This is so that a pilot can know where they will land and navigate accordingly.

Perhaps the gates shouldn't be directional? If we're talking wormholes, wouldn't a jump gate be more like a drain, rather than a gun?

So here's an idea:

The gate could keep it's appearance (for art-department time saving purposes) or be changed into a sort of caged wormhole.

When the gate is activated, a liquid-like arm can reach out and produce a vortex in front of the ship, which the ship is pulled into.

From the pilots point of view, the camera pans into a 'chase' point of view and the ship and camera are pulled into the wormhole.

Re-use the 'ship travelling through a planet' animation to emulate a wormhole.

Instead of a progress bar showing loading information, the camera can travel forward past the ship, and when the ship is no longer in view, the camera leaves the wormhole (possibly in a big flash)

The idea here is that the camera has exited the wormhole but the ship has not.

The camera emerges from the wormhole, and possibly a holograph of the ship (similar to the one in the captain's quarters) is portrayed in place of the cloaked ship that we use now. When the client gives the ship new orders, the wormhole opens and the ship emerges from the liquid-arm vortex, and the hologram fades and is replaced with the ship.

Specific points on the gate could be deemed as locations the arm could come from, and they could bend to reach the ship, so that it doesn't clip when going from the wormhole, through the metal gate, and to the ship. Wormholes are generally portrayed in this bendy-manner, so it would work to the advantage.

So, more or less, you have the same as you do now, the ship gets eaten by a wormhole, and appears on the other end, but it's done in a way that makes sense to the player, and the transition hides the seams.

That's my main concern, it feels wrong and the line between technology and immersion is very rough in this particular spot.

This is also an issue with docking, but to such a minor extent that I don't think docking warrents as much, if any, work.

Awesome idea. I could always go for more immersion. Get on it CCP

In all seriousness the problem here stems from the fact that probably 90% of travel time spent in Eve happens in an uncontrollable system that is mid-warp. Jumping from system to system is exactly the same thing but without a graphic. We just disappear in system A then reappear cloaked in system B. A way to solve this would be to allow the camera to follow the pulse of light to the star (causing the screen to fade to white) but then show a "landing" with the gate receiving you and spitting you 15km off with a similar burst of light only visible in your client. This also needs to be metered... either we all jump/transition at the same speed or my SSD continues to have me loaded in a split second, I disable the animation and I'm on my way to the next gate.

I think people nth'ing this are forgetting that in Mass Effect you went through a mass relay fairly infrequently relative to how much time you spent doing missions, etc. In Eve people are jumping through gates constantly.

Having an animation like that playing every time would get old very fast.

How about something like this? Obviously you'd remain in that tunnel for however long it takes your computer/internet/server to load you in.

It's the most common activity in the game only because CCP has made it typical to jump 35j to get anywhere. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not sitting there at every gate watching the animation.

A better idea would be to update the way we travel through New Eden, like public jump bridges that require an ISK fee to utilize. Then make that animation something cool and amazing.

or

Update something else.

That which has been made can be unmade!

Personally I'd love less frequent and time consuming travel so the EVE universe doesn't feel so small.

Just announced in Odessey, excited to see it!