Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I just just reading a Youtube comment saying that EVE players should get a live view of the battlefield they are bombarding, when suddenly I got an idea.
Back when Killzone 2 had a massive player base the developers released a replay system on the Killzone website. Instead of it being a full 3D replay it was just a top down view of a bunch of blue and orange dots (that represented players) moving around an outline of the map, with lines appearing from them now and then to show were they where shooting.

If you want to see what I am talking about then click here.

Is it possible to get a small window like this, that plays in real time, when a pod pilot is connected to a district? If it is possible then this could allow for EVE players to screw over Dust bunnies, by clicking on an area of the live map to target and fire their guns at, like in the future vision trailer.

from http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.ca/2013/03/top-down-dust-battle-maps-for-eve.html

I have talked previously about the lack of game mechanics immersive enough to get anybody particularly excited about and invested in the EVE-to-DUST link.

I'm just going to talk about things from the EVE-to-DUST side of things. I don't play DUST. I'm not really into first-person shooters, so whether the link is strong on the DUST-to-EVE side, I couldn't really say.

From the EVE side of the equation, the DUST link is exceptionally underwhelming. You hover over a planet. A half-second burst of light travels to the planet. That's it. The thing you're targeting on the planet is not even a representation of anything happening in the DUST game itself. It's not representative of the DUST map. Hell, the bombardment we rain down isn't even reflective of the bombardment as it happens in DUST. What's a four to five second light show in DUST is a half second, underwhelming flash of light in EVE. That's some weak-sauce linkage from the EVE side. If the EVE-to-DUST link is that boring, why care?

The DUST and EVE servers reside in the same server farm, the same location, in London. There is the ability for more data sharing between the two games. CCP should start taking advantage of this. If they want EVE players to care about DUST, then they should start moving in this direction more quickly, making more DUST data available to EVE players.

To be fair, there is some movement in this direction. Killmails are coming for orbital bombardments. Summer expansion, apparently. That's a good first step, but is that even enough?

I made the suggestion, a month or so ago, of utilizing the district satellites, allow EVE players a top-down view of the battle as it happens. That data is certainly available. Set-up a top-down view of a DUST battle map in an EVE window, and then overlay soldier positions on to that map. Little glowy dots, blue for one side, red for the other.

That idea generated a few complaints from DUST players. "We don't get a top-down map, it would be unfair to give EVE players that ability. It would unbalance battles." It might do exactly that. Is that terrible? I don't think so. First of all, what percentage of battles would even have that advantage? And if it gets EVE players more invested in the DUST side of the equation, how is that a horrible thing? Hell, it might even get DUST players more invested in EVE. There would certainly be some DUST players that would dual-box, and having a DUST player paying for an EVE account for reconnaissance purposes, I'm not sure CCP would be too resistant to that idea.

And even given a top-down battle map in EVE, that information still has to be relayed verbally to other teammates. A skill unto itself. So, the effectiveness of an DUST battlemap in EVE comes down to the skill of a player to relay that information over comms quickly and accurately.

If CCP wants to strengthen the One Universe concept, then they have to start strengthening the connection between the games, give DUST players a reason to want EVE players involved in their battles. Give EVE players a stronger connection to those DUST battles.

How might this top-down mapping be accomplished? Well, an EVE player would target the district satellite and then start hacking it (not available to trial accounts.) I'd suggest using a current skill like Hacking, rather than creating a whole new skill. Once hacked into the satellite, the EVE player chooses a side, red or blue (team names available, so that they can make the right decision). The side chosen has to be verified by the DUST squadron leader on the planet below. The DUST team the EVE player chooses, they get perfect intel on the positions of those players (limited by EVE's one second tick.). Player names are only listed alongside the dots of friendlies. As for the position of opposition dots, these are as accurate as a pilot's hacking skill. Hacking V gives perfect intel on the opposition's locations. Hacking I gives far less accurate information. How might the obfuscation be accomplished? Time delay is an idea. Another idea: randomizing the distance of an opposition dot from their actual location, the lower the hacking skill, the less reliable the information on-screen.

I really see no particular game-breaking issues with giving EVE players DUST battlemap information. If it encourages stronger cooperation between the two games, then that's exactly the sort of connection we want between DUST and EVE. That's exactly the sort of thing that makes One Universe work.