EVE General Discussion

Eve is an emergent sandbox, it lets players do whatever they want, build their own empires, etc, etc. Its basically what makes this game good. The PvE is crap, the Exploration is crap, and the mechanics have just never been that good. What keeps people coming back to eve, and keep playing eve, is that CCP gives people the tools to create their own worlds, their own governments. Everything is done by the players, for the players.

However, in recent years, we've seen, what I think could be called 'feature creep' wherein CCP adds in gameplay mechanics they think will be cool, without looking at how exactly those gameplay mechanics actually contribute to the emergent gameplay. Faction Warfare and Incursions are great example of this. These are huge features that are entirely on rails, dictated by game mechanics, with little room for player innovation. Can a minmatar FW player invade Amarr highsec in any sort of noticeable way? No. Can a Sansha-aligned player support the NPCs in incursions? No.

I would like to point to Minecraft as an example of what may possibly be the perfect sandbox. There's a huge toolkit to let players do whatever they want with the world, and the game boots you into this world and says 'have at it'

What I think will benefit eve longterm, is if many, many complicated existing mechanics could be removed in exchanged for giving players the tools to do these things themselves. Instead of asking, wouldn't it be cool to have Faction Warfare, what should be asked is, how can we give players the tools to wage wars on the other factions or defend their own, or not, of their own discretion. Instead of creating complicated nullsec capture mechanics, what if there was no sovereignty? What if sov was decided entirely by who lived in the system, who built up infrastructure ingame, and how fiercely they defend it?

Much of nullsec is 'claimed' though barren. There's nothing to build. There's not enough tools in the player arsenal for creation, customization. There needs to be ways to actually build empires. Everything from farms, to villages, to cities, all customized to player discretion. Stop giving us POSes, start giving us building blocks to construct our own structures, from automated asteroid farms, to space cities, to solar power collectors. Don't give us anything except for the tools to do what we want.

Less mechanics, less rules, less NPCs, more sandbox.

SWG pre-cu. How I miss thee...

I think we should be able to write on planets using our lasers, so when you look at them they say stuff.

TIA

Kilroy was here.

So introduce automated defense turrets? Or cloaking devices for POSes? Or some sort of module that spawns defense drones? Or armour plates that make your structures harder to kill? Yes, the people that play more should have more opportunities since they're more willing to invest time into the universe. However, why can't there be ways to protect the people that are only around part of the time? Stealth poses, hidden complexes in deadspace, etc

While obviously we should question people who can play EVE 24/7 about their reason for existence, why exactly shouldn't the game reward those who are more active and available? Why should someone who plays 18 hours a day be handicapped for the benefit of someone who plays 30 minutes a day?

Less content = better, sandbox without NPCs? You might want to check "battleship" game - it require just couple of paper sheets and a pen. Pure, refined, genuine PvP sandbox game without a single NPC. You even have to draw "ships" by yourself.

I don't think anyone is suggesting unilaterally making all stations destructible, so you're safe there.

+1, great thread.

This is literally the opposite of what the OP suggests. We don't want CCP to add pre-determined options to do X, Y, or Z. We want an open world where anybody can do X, Y, Z, or if they so desire come up with their own A, B, or C - without an NPC telling them what to do.

You already can do most of the things you ask for. Just because there is no NPC, no popup, no little window, no "click here to receive ISK" button, doesn't mean you can't. This is what the sandbox means:

Do you want to help ship ammo and fuel? Do so! Put it up on the player market, or strike a deal to sell to a player corporation!
Do you want to support the incursion? Do so! Sit on the acceleration gate and shoot people trying to run the site!
Do you want loyalty points to an imaginary NPC corporation? Why can't you be loyal to a group of real living friends?