EVE General Discussion

I am very happy with the current refocussing in FiS content for two reasons. Firstly, it has been neglegted for too long, leading to previosly deployed bad designs either become underutilized (FW) or gamebreaking (Super-Capitals). FiS is in dire need of some love NOW, and I applaud the desision. The second reason I am happy with the refocusing is that Incarna seems premature. CCP has apparently not focused development of Incarna around the stories that the content should produce, and thus we are left with badly lit avatars in closed door closet as a sorry excuse for gamplay.

And even with 3 additional CQs added (pretty as they are), AND even with establishments (bars, corp reqruiting NPCs etc) it doesent add all that much. To but it bluntly, Incarna seems ill concieved from the start, and no amount of awesome art work are going to fix that.

So, where to go? What would I like to see in Incarna?

• First of all, CCP should be providing the framwork for emergent gameplay, like they do with FiS. Instead of giving players gameplay, they should give them opportunities for interaction, to make friends - or to screw eachother over.


• Secondly, Incarna should enhance and build upon activities players allready do in the game, sometimes with the help of 3rd party applications, and thus leverage gameplay that is allready there to make Incarna awesome.


• Finally, Incarnas primary function should be to support and enhance competition and conflict between players, not to show off pretty clothes. Less space-barbie, more EVE Online.

So what could CCP do to achieve these goals?

1) I'd like to see corporation offices, where a) I could hang out with friends and play board games on the corp bar or admire the bodies of dead enemies on display, but more importantly, b) where I as a fleet commander could gather my corpmates in the corp briefing room and use visualization tools to explain the plan for the next gatecamp, mining op or plot the route for the next roam, tell my scouts where I want them and where, go through what-if situations etc.

2) I'd like to see alliance offices, where trusted personell could gather in an alliance briefing room with the same functions, where FCs and trusted subordinate commanders could meet i private. This function should also include alliance hangars and alliance wallets, making executor corps a thing of the past.

3) In outposts and conquerable stations, i'd like to see alliance level theatre command centres, manned by full body avatars, pushing new type offensive bonuses to up to 5 fleets (new skill theatre command, prereq fleet command 5) across multiple systems (roughly constellation sized. command radius measured in lightyears). Also fusing intelligence with operational data gathered by spies, sensors and fleets through new interfaces to form a common operational picture which can be disseminated to fleet commanders in the field to enhance their situational awareness.

4) I'd like to see a mobile corporation office module giving a large POS the same functions as a station corporation office, including full body avatars.

5) I'd like to see a Defence Grid module that can be attached to the mobile corporation office, where full body avatar corp pos gunners can remotely access and operate every defensive POS module in a solar system. The defence grid can also push similar offensive bonuses as the Theatre Command centre, but only to defensive POS modules. This will greatly enhance the defensive power of friendly POSes in system.

6) I'd like to be able to destroy player constructed outpost. To balance that, I'd like greatly enhanced defences to be able to be anchored protecting the outpost and enhanced by the defence grid.

7) I'd like a mothership, price rougly equal to an outpost, with room for 200 battleships in its ship assembly array, which can cyno in, and deploy in an enemy system. As it does, the pilot looses control and are freed to board a ship or perform other functions, as the Mothership is essentially transformed to a X-large POS wherever it is deployed, complete with defence batteries, a shield, a theatre command centre similar to the one you can find in outposts and a defence grid. If attacked it will go into reinforced like a normal pos. Equipped with a clone vat bay, additional operational personell can clonejump to the mothership to man the different functions once the mothership is deployed.

8) On top of the skills needed to man these things, I'd like to see addition skills that will enable us to perform new functions with full body avatars:
- Espionage - enables me to transmit enemy fleet broadcasts to a friendly commander if I am spying in an enemy fleet, or all enemy fleet broadcasts if I as a spy manage to penetrate the enemy theatre command centre.
- Subversion - Enables me to inject false and confusing data into the enemy intelligence streams, If I manage to penetrate into leadership positions (in fleet or command centres)
- Sabotage - enables me to blow up enemy corp offices (the briefing room), alliance offices (briefing room), theatre command centre, and or defence grids if I manage to gather acces to them
- Security hacking - enables me to gain access to online corporation members captains quarters as an undercover agent
- Assasination - proficiency with weapons necessary to assasinate (read pod) characters in the penetrated corporation
- Counter-intelligence, enables me to track down and find listening devices and explosives, protecting the friendly command infrastructure

And yeah, the establishments, the stores, the bars, the shady areas where u can buy boosters etc are all cool. But not cool enough

In the future, i hope i will be able to ride a horse.

Yep, this certainly needs to be balanced out. My point however, is that spying allready happens, and the game should leverage that in its design. The new defensive capabilities provided by a Theatre Command centre/Defence grid etc could in part be offset by effective use of spies. However, I also included counter-intelligence skills to be able to detect the tools the spies need to emply to gain access to data.

As for the API, well the new customizable API should enable you to NOT share those particular skills with the target corporation

...so if a theatre command centre gives a fleet bonus or bonus to alliance ships, perhaps espionage could transfer bonuses to targeted ships etc.

I like the mode of thinking that builds on existing eve and makes FIS better.

Waiting for the move to F&I that'll kill this off

like the ideas. I also at one point made a suggestion about making spy like skills but alas it got lost in F&I

I completely agree with this... EVE is about never feeling completely safe, and the station should not be any different. Some sort of combat would be a welcome element to WIS in my opinion.

I keep hearing people talk about the fact that it is too difficult to have multiple avatars in the same environment due to hardware constraints, graphics etc. I wonder if it would be possible to have the WiS portion of EVE on a different server entirely, but still connected to TQ for communications etc. I have no idea if that is even possible though, as I am no techie.

Sign me up for OP.

Love it; the idea of a team working together in avitars to run big ship would be awesome.

Your just bitter

Its about balance really. A theatre Command Centre within an outpost or conqurable station will give the defender increased situational awarness and increased offensive capabilities vs a attacking force. So to balance that, the attacking force can choose to deploy a mothership giving them much of the same capabilities. The snag is of course that they - by having to deploy it to "POS-mode" - risk loosing it to a sucessful defence. As it shouldnt be able to re-deploy and jump out if it has been attacked and reinforced unless it is repped up first, the attacking force risk very much loosing it if the attack goes wrong. I envision the deployed mothership as a "X-large" POS, with about the same hitpoint and defences as a defended outpost.