EVE General Discussion

Since you guys started talking about WiS, you guys said we would eventually be able to have and run establishments. Even though Nex Store is not all that appealing to me for a number of reasons. And CQ seems a bit of a disappointment with the amount of hype there was for it and the amount of time and resources we of the Eve community perceive you invested in it. I am kind of curious about establishments as are some other players, I am sure.

I do have a few questions that about establishments that would be nice to have answers for. And I can see that the Blues have become more chatty of lately. Which is a good thing, maybe we can get some questions answered.

Like what will we be able to do with them. Are they all just going to be bars or will we have some more options?

Will we be able to make them VIP access only, exclude people we don't like or make them special invite only. Or even Exclude an entire race if we feel like it?

How much control will we have over them? If you want a bigger space will there be different size options? Will we be able to control lighting, shape, size, atmosphere, look? The placement of furniture, items decoration? Will the look of establishments be racially diverse or even more diverse? Or are they going to be very cookie cutter?

Will you be able to have multiple rooms in your establishment or will they all be just one room? If so will I be able to make each room different form the others?

Will we be getting min-games? Like the one you guys talked about a while back, and even showed a demo for, SecWars? Will there be others?

What will be the draw of establishments, the unique thing that you can do there that you can't do anywhere else in EvE, that would justify the cost of setting one up and or visiting them?

Will I be able to have NPCs working for me in my establishment, if so how much control will I have over them? Will I be able to program what they say, how they act? Will I be able to write scripts of what they can say based on factors like race, sex? Whether or not I like them or not? Will I be able to control the NPCs look? Will I have to pay them a salary?

Will I be able to do something with my exotic dancers finally? Will I be able to have my dancers give dances for a fee?

Can I have a live band on stage? Jukebox? Will I be able to control the music in my establishment?

What will the costs be for an establishment? Will it be rent or purchasable? If rent, what will the rental cost be? Will it be monthly or yearly, or will there be rental options, with a discount for renting for a longer time?

What furniture options will there be, if any? What will the cost of furniture be like? Will we have to rent furniture? Or will we get to buy them?

Well there be different types of establishments with different cost associated with them depending on quality of the establishment?

Will there be a limited number of establishments in each station or will there be unlimited?

How will we pay for establishments? In Aurum? Isk? Both? What will the pricing be like something absurd like 1000000 Aurum or 100 Billion isk per month or something more reasonable?

Will CCP do a better job of releasing establishments than they did with the Nex store and CQ? Did you learn from your mistakes?

Really did not know that, what an amazing insight....

So I take it establishments are like the Fight Club, and we don't talk about the Fight Club?

Am I the only one curious about establishments?

Seem CCP has been very quite about them, since things did not go as planed with the release of Incarna. You would think we would have more insight into what they will be like what we will get to play with by now. They are suppose to be a big part of why we have Incarna and Avatars, not to just stand in our CQ's alone. Maybe there is a fear that the players expectations are to high, and they need to down play them.

I know a lot of us want and care about CCP working on the flying in space part of Eve. And so do I but I also believe CCP can do a multiple things at once. Even if it seems like sometimes they get bored and move on to the next new shinny. Right now Incarna kind of feels like we were sold a car with one wheel and no engine, when we thought we had bought a car with all four wheels and a high performance engine.

And we are all looking at the car salesman, a bit sorely. Asking him what are we suppose to do with a car with one wheel and no engine, and the car salesman is pointing to paint job. Saying “isn't that pretty”.

I don't think we're going to get them. Everyone complaining about how much they hate Incarna has given CCP a valid reason to not do **** development wise and just sit back and lolbugfix.

My two cents: i am certain the other racial CQ will be here soon, would not say anything about Establishments - and i wonder, why you think there will be any statement from CCP before the oficial announcement?

Well, lets look at what could possibly be sold in establishments with what we have now.

Clothing: You can purchase closing in the NeX and sell for isk. Unfortunately, this didn't work out for precision boots which sold for less than 10% of their original purchase price in the NeX. True, everyone was looking to cash in on the free Aurum so competition wasn't motivated by profit as much as it was to convert Aur to Isk. But, lets assume that there is a true competitive market. There is no way for you to reap a profit from ANYTHING that can be bought in the NeX and then sold for isk in "establishments". The factor that prevents a profit from ever being realized in that ANYONE can purchase ANYTHING from the NeX at nominal prices in order to avoid ISK priced goods attempting to make a profit. Therefore no profit for you.

Some unknown product offerings from CCP to be available in the future: Same as above.

Some unknown exclusive product offerings in the future: It would be interesting to see how such a feature would work. But, you can expect competition to secure exclusive rights to sell an item via establishments to be astronomical. And, in order to recoup your costs you'll need to offer it at an astronomical ISK price. Lets be honest, there will be people participating in this because they have money to burn. But, the vast majority of players will not. So, your ability to profit from it is...well....questionable at best. You may even get a false sense of success as people participate to see what "establishments" are all about. But, beyond that I would expect participation to fall off to the extent that it becomes an expensive and boring 'feature' for you to participate in as a seller.

Of course, I could be wrong, but, then I have no crystal ball to tell you what CCP is doing. But, if it's limited to clothing from the NeX then expect an utter failure of a feature in what is 'Establishments'.

QFT

I have a feeling that CCP has not begun working on them or even thinking about the kind of questions your asking, which are excellent questions BTW.

You might want to try for success but, I suppose failure could be fun also...

But I agree, how much control we have over furnishings and what not is in our establishments, whether they are place-able at will, or templates. And how they will be introduced into the game are they going to be on the market, player made items for producers to produce or are we going to have to get them from Nex, or some combination.

Although I am not sure if capital gain is the main or only way to measure success in this game. Some measure it in other ways like influence or renown infamy. Or just by accomplishing whatever their goals are, be it maybe be being a successful internet spaceships bartender.

Thanks, I like to think i ask excellent questions sometimes. Hopefully we get answers.