Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Eve has evolved to the point where maybe CCP should take a page from the players way of doing things. By that I mean maybe CCP should design the game to be played the way it is actually played. And the way players play the game, is to have lots of toons. So making WiS features that make the transition and cooperation of toons more practical and quicker and cooler, would make a whole lot of sense. Maybe we will eventually jump from toon A on account 1 to toon B on account 2 while in-game, by picking up a phone in WiS and dialing a number (remember to put cap rigs on the phone or it'll be out of power always). And walking to a Matrix chair when we want to inject kung-fu skill

One idea I have for how to make the transition between toons easier is this:
Lets have a R&D room behind that door in the captains quarter. And there you can meet with all your toons (and when you log off one it stays in that room visible to your other toons). You can let others in as well, like corp members and good standing toons etc.
The point of this would be that you put a password on your toons in this room, so you can switch between all your toons willy-nilly without logging in and out (others can't take your toon and fly away with it, unless they know the password to your captains quarters). You would also be able to change between toons when not in this room somehow someway for you to suggest.
The point of this would be so that you can train one toon to do X type of research while other toons do other things.
For example, you can have 1 toon do invention of just one type of modules, while another is the manufacturer, and the last is the material researcher. So you don't need all the industrial skills on all the toons, but can for example get away with training only 1/3 the science skills on one toon, and 1/3 on another, and 1/3 on the third (this you can do in 1/3 the time by training multiple toons at one time). Perhaps changing skill requirements a little bit to make this possible (so not all the toons have to have skill X or Y "just because", at least not lots of L5 requirements).
Remote R&D skills mean holographic versions of your toons sit in this room when they sit in other stations. The holograms are projected from the station that they are in. Then you can switch between them so you control the holographic toon and use his skills, then you can exit the room in your holographic toon and voila, you are where that toon was sending his hologram from. If you walk back in you then see a hologram of the toon you changed from, and can do the same to switch back.
Remote trading skills mean you can check market prices where your other toons are etc. Remote manufacturing skills on toon A and remote hologram skills on Toon B mean you can take BPO/BPC from Toon B and let toon A use it at location near toon A while toon B is far away with his BPO/BPC. And other possible stuff. Like perhaps being able to buy datacores with toon A on location a few jumps from toon A, and then letting toon B on location B be able to use the datacores without having to move them (perhaps with waste of cores, and a skill that lowers this waste. Cores would perhaps have to be inflated a bit, like you get 100 cores for 100 RP, and what currently requires 3+3 cores now require 300+300 cores, plus waste minus waste skill).

We all know there's no real reason to use WiS at this moment because everything can better and easier be done on two-dimensional windows with spreadsheets. But I think this or something along these lines would be a good way to go.

Lots of other perhaps better features are possible, and many would be of such benefit that people would use them. I bet you have more ideas to add.

This. WiS, ultimately, boils down to nothing but a UI at the moment (and a fairly clunky and superfluous one at that). Your ideas here really don't involve anything that isn't better done with a less resource-intensive UI... and, as such, they shouldn't involve WiS. Any proposed WiS feature that doesn't meet this test deserves no further consideration. Examples of real WiS features include stuff like social interactions (particularly with NPCs), exploration/investigation of virtual environments, maybe even personal combat: these all tangibly benefit from avatar rendering, and would thus be a good use of any WiS-related effort. Anything that you can already do in-game, or anything you could do on a spreadsheet constitute a fake WiS feature (the CQ, as currently implemented is an excellent example), and should be avoided.

Also, as a side note, switching accounts without logging out altogether? That's apparently impossible.

Exotic dancers?

I think WiS could be a way for us to make new players less prone to analysis paralysis (wikipedia). Given too many options people are often gripped by paralysis. And instead of choosing one of the options, what results is to choose neither. It happens when you ask people if they want to be an organ donor. If you have opt-out most people are paralyzed and don't opt out, and if you have opt-in, most people are paralyzed and don't opt-in. And the more options you are offered in pension plans, the smaller are the chances that you will participate at all.
WiS could be a nice way to offer players simple visual interfaces that allow them to be faced with 2-3 options at any one time and like that they could be guided through research, manufacturing, fitting, mining, skill planning, career planning, social interaction and corp choosing. They could walk about in some environment looking at corp booths and taking part in minigames (260th-ish century blackjack and whatnot, even). Walls could show recruitment videos and rooks and kings videos and other epic videos. CCP should tape big battles and show them here, that and rooks and king videos are the best way to get trial accounts to subscribe if you ask me. Video screens could of course have various pay-per-minute isk sinks (or player owned?). Could have EVE TV on these walls, with competitions and lotteries, movies and shows (player made shows and movies, with player advertisement with some CCP advertisement sprinkled on top). The environment could be riddled with tips. Loading between environments could show a tip each time (I leave the veterans to choose what noobs need to know). EVE TV (ETV?) could have its own chat channel.
Maybe "WiS visual interface needs to be better than current visual interfaces" is wrong thinking, maybe simpler is the right thought. WiS could be the Tutorial system that gets more subscribers and funnels new recruits into nullsec (not a week goes by without someone moaning about highsec players staying in highsec). Veteran players will have limited use of it since they already know everything, and veterans will thus probably prefer doing things the old devil-you-know way, but it is to the benefit of veterans to have a system that makes it easier for new players to start playing and get invested in the game. Walking in Station can be that system. I for one would really like a million new subscribers in 2015.

PostScript: I got this train of thought while writing this comment.

TL;DR.

WiS? check back in like 2 years when ccp is finished tweeking space first.

True. I would rather we fix the new player experience by focusing on the current UI and the tutorials and the messages they send rather than create a WiS which would leave new players woefully underprepared for the harsh life of internet spaceships.

The majority of the eve I play does not involve me being docked in a station.

If they weren't safe and there was the possibility of some type of engaging gameplay that let me shoot at something I'd be behind the suggestion. The cosmetic and the UI do not seem like priority reasons to add WIS.

I'm for your edit to WIS.

Here is what WIS would need: Jita hold'em tables.

Exotic dancers like Mr Disposable said.


Even that fail heap X:Rebirth has holographic exotic dancers in the clubs.