Player Features and Ideas Discussion

This post is actually the same as a reply to a tread started in the Assembly hall CSM forum named Walking in Stations. https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=267 . I have brought it here as I also want to bring the topic to the Features and Ideas forum.

I like the idea started in the original thread.

Having read all the replies it is understandable that a purpose is asked for. It should allow for something more than the UI today.

Having thought about what this purpose could be, I have some ideas.

One purpose for an expansion of the gameplay when in station, would be in the interaction with other players who are in the same station as you, so that these places would be a meeting ground. The channels are currently the way of meeting, and when in a station it is in the local channel that this is possible, but it is not so "precise", it is also for the local system you are in as a whole. Today this serves as a purpose for communication of everything that is happening in the local system outside of corporations and alliances and except direct player to player.

It can be a hurdle to meeting players, outside of corps and alliances. Most communication happening is in a way "restricted" to be in and between corporations and alliances, I at least rarely meet someone outside, though I see many people in local.

So a benefit of an in station open world UI would be a system to facilitate meeting other docked players in an informal way, one thing it could lead to are new acquaintances but it also opens up other possibilities.

I imagine when docking at a station, from the captains quarters there will be a choice to go out into an "open world" UI, skipping the walking if you want to, where you can see all other docked players plus possibly npc's in a station's concourse or centre.

From the open-world UI it would be several different "scenes" you could choose to participate in. Walking would take you between these scenes, that could be places for meeting NPC's, bars, clubs and trading offices, for example. Or you could skip the walking just selecting one of the scenes, directly from your quarters. The scenes in their own wouldn't be the most important thing here, it is what they facilitate.

The design of these scenes itself would in many cases probably have to be different from the open world one and not even being linked to the concourse or centre, though it is here where you would simultaneously see all of the characters currently not being in a scene. For example meeting NPC's could be a first person view and engaging in local live trading/selling, could be a local dedicated trading channel (reminiscent of how the local channel works today when being in Dodixie, Amarr and the other trade hubs). If anything, this would free the local channel for general purposes, especially when being in one of these trade hubs, though for these places in particular I guess people mostly come to just to buy and sell.

(The section below needs to be referred in the light of some good points from the original tread, written in post 37 and 39)

Someone earlier said he would like more options for posture and gait, I agree in this. This would give at least partly a way to show how your character is feeling. Some common emotes of the least personal ones could also be implemented, I can think of two but likely more will work, one is saluting in the military way and the other already exists, which is sitting down. Like someone also said, actions works better than expressions, which is probably due to that they aren't so personal.

A system I have had in mind for the more personal expressions, is that when entering the open world UI, you can choose to fill out a line of text describing how you feel, though this can be changed at any time. For example if I wrote " downhearted", then in the open world UI, if you walked up to me and faced in my direction, a line of text would appear on top of your screen (which could be called the "expression area") "She looks downhearted" or just the word "Downhearted", or if I am in your contacts list, you see my name "Aina Aideron looks downhearted", this would represent your impression of my expression. If you invite me to start a conversation and I accept, both you and I would get a window containing two places to write, one for expressions and one for text (saying). I could write in the expression field, "appreciative" and in the text, or say, field "Hi, thank you for coming up to me". When I press send, the text "She looks appreciative" or just "Appreciative" would appear on top of your screen. The text for what I say appear at the same time but next to my character. Then depending on your response I would get an expression text and talk text to your character on my screen. The next time I enter an expression and write something back and press send, my earlier expression and saying would be replaced on your screen with what I entered now. This would replace the private conversation text window while in the open world UI.

I wrote at the top that this system would open up some other possibilities. Apart from a meeting ground, another purpose of the new UI would be as a part of a political system (see another tread called "Political system" I will soon post for details) involving among other things meeting npc's firsthand. Not primarily to receive missions or rewards from agents, but to gain influence with them and their corps. Meeting firsthand can often be more convincing.

A new UI system should be able to evolve. And it should perhaps also have to make sense in regard to Valkyrie and Dust, though I don't know if there are any plans of merging EVE with them.

It is just in case a different crowd follows the CSM forums from those following this forum.

I too would like to take a WIS, ideally with a Chloe dressed up "fancier than a gay peacock threesome"
Space bars and zero g nightclubs, I'd totally be forgiving if they stuck with collision spheres for the avatars

Plenty of WiS threads within this board. Please review those and contribute where you see fit. The CSM forum with the thread you linked, may be the best way to advance this discussion further.