EVE General Discussion

CCP Bayesian, can you tell us what Team Avatar is actually working on now? No details, just the area you are working on? Is it still some sort of avatar based play, or something else?

lol don't ask don't tell

It seems odd that CCP management has said they want to be more open and transparent to the community, but on this one issue we are all left in the dark.

Really? People are complaining about a health bar for your character? How else would you do it? Same health bar as you have in space. Makes sense to me.

Why is the dev blog being silenced? Dangit...I was really looking forward to reading the info. This lack of dev blog bums me out... =( Sad sad face...

Why the sudden gag order on something as big as WiS?

I think it's a good thing. In the past CCP has been extremely open with us but there are just too many people that can't just look at the info and be happy or give constructive feedback. Too many are far too critical and make demands of CCP where they should have no right to do so.

Dev blogs are still nice and updates on work in progress is cool but now CCP has to be careful of what they disclose for fear of everybody overreacting and throwing a tantrum.

CCP was burned, quite badly, by WiS/Incarna on the first go-round. You may or may not have been here, but Monoclegate was largely caused by promising too much and not delivering enough. CCP is being understandably cautious in preventing it from happening all over again.

From my seat, CCP appears to be keeping things a bit quiet until they know they're in a position to deliver. Like you said, WiS is a big issue -- if CCP stumbles again like they did with Incarna, the damage will be even worse than it was during Monoclegate.

There may be some of that. Team Avatar has said there is currently no plans to implement their work into the game. Its more like they are making a proposal for a game expansion, and until that proposal has been accepted by management, management does not want the work published. The mere act of publishing it may make many think it has been accepted, and is coming.

On the other hand, at Fanfest they always show ideas for what might be coming, along with the disclaimer that inclusion of what is being shown is still being decided.

For me, I wanted to see all clothing items crafted and sold by "we" the community. This could be completely reliant upon the existing game where you would have to obtain materials to craft within the existing game. The crafting in MMO's today is terrible. Eve could fill this gap. Even sheep could be transported and sold on the market with PI, you need wool to make clothing, or cows to make food. It could lend to a more "Eve" like experience for a player economy that is already amazing. The setting is all there and could intertwine with Dust 514 as well. I don't need instant gratification in this Universe. Nor do I want that micro transaction store in Eve. I want the store to be run by the player market.

In addition a clothing crafted system would have to be designed, coded, and implemented. Skill books could be established that would allow certain colors or types of clothing. This should also work its way into Certifications.

I also was hoping to play "Sec Wars" in a tournament setting for Eve an down a cantina. As far as CQ go I like them and think the evolution of the avatar in Eve must intertwine with the pilots. A item store is a bad idea for the community of Eve Online. Put that power in our hands and you will see more subs. We believe in you CCP and understand how the game helps Iceland, and we now know FiS comes first. I think its time to move forward with avatars.

I also hoped there would be more PI to add to the game.

And that pretty much summarizes it all.

Currently my thoughts are on the grim side, but as unoriginal as they are after spreading them for over a year, they hold as much truth as when I first vented them off my head.

WiS was the only chance to keep interested the majority of players who refuse to play EVE endgame content and keep falling off the boat. So far the numbers looked pretty because there was a supply of players that reached the point where EVE becomes a suitable game, but EVE has been burning out those players faster than new players reach that sweet spot.

Now CCP has abandoned any chance it had to keep the WiS appreciators interested until they could deliver WiS, and in the process is going to lose the subscriber count needed to develop WiS. EVE is a little niche 25,000 players game that temporally enjoyed the 350,000 users count, but now that it definitively will not cease being a little niche game, that's what it will be until the end.


By the way, I began rambling in the forums again a few days ago when I noticed that the UI is not accesible from the CQ. Not because it is not accesible, but because this means that the CQ has effectively become abandoned... although it haves a great interfac from which you can open your cargohold in one window and your ships hangar in another, totally and gloriously pre-Inferno.