EVE General Discussion

I wholeheartedly support the OP.

So a few days ago I dropped by the local used bookstore. They had a copy of Empyrean Age sitting on the shelf, so I snagged it. I had never seen any of the Eve books on shelves around here, and it was a hell of a read.

I've been playing this game on and off since 2004 or so, I remember that original intro video quite well. I remember the days when the expansion releases generally included some form of story progression, if nothing else to give a background context to *why* certain gameplay changes were being introduced. But now...What is the story in Inferno? It doesn't seem like there *is* any.

Now going back and watching those Empyrean Age videos that I hadn't watched for quite a while, I can't help but be impressed. That's the way to introduce an expansion and a storyline! "Why do we have faction warfare now? (Insert Scope news report)"

I enjoyed the hell out of the Incursion pre-release live events. CCP folks leading capsuleers into battle as Republic Fleet admirals? Sansha himself posting on the forums? Yes please. But since then I admit I haven't kept too much abreast of the story, and it seems there isn't much story to keep an eye on anyway.

What happened to background events happening, that information influencing the game world? Was all that just forgotten?

See, when I finished the Empyrean Age book I picked up, I was a bit confused when it just ended on a cliffhanger. Heth invades Caldari Prime, Sarum returns, the Minmatar and Amarr are at war. Then I realized...That's basically where those storylines have been *since this book came out*.

That's just sad.

EVE doesnt need a storyline though. Its all historical. I suppose incursion was a bit of storyline, but that was more if anything giving something to do. EVE's storylines are more to do with the epic arks tbh. Most people dont play EVE for the story hell most people dont even know the full story of EVE tbh

Hey Red Overlord guy, "most people" don't play EVE in nullsec. Does this mean that nullsec doesn't matter?

would however come to think of it be interesting to see stuff done with the Jove but meh if that just turns out like Sansha Incursions pretty much would ruins the Jove Maybe open abit of their space not all and have missions there instead of having them pwn the **** out of concord lol

The discussion between being the players the living storyline of Eve's universe versus being the sum of its parts is a moot point. Neither side is "right".

Players (null-sec, low-sec, high-sec and WH ones) make epic storyline because they have an incredible backstage in which to tell their struggles, victories and falls. That backstage has existed since we began playing the game roughly 9? years ago.

What most of us (RPers), in this thread are asking CCP to notice, is that the backstage has remained the same for the past 4 years.

You can capture an audience with the epic story of Leonidas against Xerxes in one setting, but you canot tell 500 different other stories across several years using the same "props" on the set. The magical context in which the story is told, looses appeal.

On the other hand, if you look closely at RPer groups, they also work hard to create their own content, their own epic storylines, interaction between ally and foes, but it reaches a certain threshold where it is no longer possible to create an "evolving storyline" if the backstage is not moving along with your efforts or failures. Even if said efforts or failures represent the 0.000001% of the universe, the rest is stil there breathing and changing.

The way to set focus on the NPC storyline could be considered easy, writing scope articles, small snippets, bringing more description to mission briefing or just placing more into the whole UI of the game, but one also needs to consider that writing all that additional info needs to be done cohesively, with context, continuity and common sense.

I can see why CCP writers and content related staff might be slow in publishing stuff that we could use and salvage for roleplaying or evolve our own storylines as pilots aligned with the NPC factions (either empire or pirate ones), but the absolutely lack of plot advancement is depressing.

Just as an example:

Goonswarm might not be interested in knowing Jacus Roden has established greater efforts with his security fleets to impose a better control on drug trafficking, but you bet they would be interested in knowing if such "statement" did bring any changes to the way custom control works at gate, and BOTH are quite inter-related.

So you see, a change in storyline, a plot twist or minor adjustments in the overall context, paired with changes in the game CAN bring interesting storylines for all, null-sec and high-sec dwellers.

Wouldn't you be entertained with such things if they ever happened in game?. i would

The cluster-shattering events we have been reading about lately are generally not accessible in-character and they typically have had little connection to the game. A monumental piece of fiction takes longer to be digested by the community and it's a problem for character interaction if only a handful of people know how things officially are. Using a narrator who knows everything has the additional disadvantage of giving rise to frequent "that's not how it works" moments.

In contracts, vague, small news articles leave a lot of room for your imagination and the wait for the next part keeps you hooked into the story. They are exactly what it should be about.

For instance, if we hear there are miners trapped in an asteroid, we can actually go there and either mine all the belts to find them or make sure no one will ever find them, depending which choice would be more beneficial for the interests we represent. If there is a food riot, we can start delivering some LLR's in the system or deplete all the food resources from the area, whichever option suits us better. Since the story is official and well-publicized, a lot of players are going to flock to the area and emergent game play can begin. The event will serve as a perfect excuse for us to throw accusations and threats at each other. The more we can interact with the story, the more we care.

Great thread with lots of goodpoasts!

Just wanted to add that the backstory is not only important to dedicated RPers, it's a vital part of EVE and should not be neglected like this. I've chosen not to think about it for now because of the huge holes and inconsistencies present in it.

- ship crews, both NPC and player ships, yes/no? Billions of truely dead people monthly?
- incursions, wtf?
- dynamic world?

etc.

Respectfully disagreeing here... snippets of local news make this universe a living place for me.

Imho every CCP employee should have a "home world" of his own and create a news snippet of it once per month

The thing is, with such a detailed and colourful backstory it would be very easy to come up with new content built into the game that DOESNT destroy immersion or defy the history. You just have to be sensible.

For instance take incursions, tbh I dotn care about incursions but that was truly an opportunity lost. Why? Lowsec. From a storyline point of view it would be where Sansha attacks first - No concord, weak security but still very populated ideal for incursions. And from a gameplay point of view, what an opportunity to pus something in lowsec worth going there for! Keep the rewards very high, high enough to make people want to go there, high enough to fight for. And take incursions away from everywhere else. Hisec makes no sense due to concord and the navies. Nullsec makes no sense because why would he invade nullsec? Its generally pirate space anyway adn isnt highly populated.

Start taking the storyline seriously, and also tie it all in to make better gameplay not just shiny features.