Out of Pod Experience

CCP FoxFour was very very clear that there are no plans to take this forward, when talking to him.

That's not: they're planning not to take it forward.
It's: We have no plans regarding this at all. It was something fun to do.

So it's up to us to make sure that CCP are aware, at the levels where such plans can be made, that we want it. Just need to do it politely and respectfully. If loudly.

What Nimbus said :) We cannot really comment on anything for now since we simply.. don't know :)

At which point I would leave in disgust. DUSTers should stay in DUST and we should stay in EVE, and the two games should never mix. Well enough should be left alone.

It's interesting how something so well received and that has an exciting gameplay premise with an immediately identifiable purpose will get no development, but CCP had no trouble steamrolling Incarna which had none of that.

Anyway, here's my suggestion to CCP to spare this project in a way that benefits both:

Flying in Stations

That's right, let us fly fighters and do battles in low security sections of stations.

what they said.

This would be an awesome 3rd game for CCP. Make it so

no matter what - official or not, the team who made this (including myself) will continue working on this, but if it's going to be anything official or just us fooling around because we like it, nobody knows. But I'm sure we'll think of something, but let's have some time to go over all the feedback and everything we experienced at FanFest to come up with what will be the easiest for us.

Sometimes I like to play "CEO of CCP on the forums", which is a good game, and I'm playing it now.

I am just going to continue spitballing about a possible way to develop EVR. BECAUSE IT DESERVES TO BE.

Be warned, the following thoughts are more managerial thought process, not development spitballing.

I'll continue with the assumptions I had before, that

• CCP being stuck mostly in Iceland is always in some kind of bind in acquiring lots of developer talent locally (or importing them). They simply cannot easily ramp up development of a new game-prototype, even disregarding cashflow-issues. (so kickstarter isn't the real problem-solver, however much it gets you attention and some money).
• CCP has most of the stuff in place (, except a lot of developers they can throw at it - unless they take it away from Eve Online development, which I quite agree with it not being that good an idea). They have the IP, they have a lot of art assets for background/battlefield kind of assets. Tons of nifty big hulls to throw into the way of the fighters. They have the lore/storyline pretty much ready to go. Third kind of immortals - done. They have a fitting reputation and the marketing muscle that many other developers wouldnt have.

The last point would make it an almost wasted opportunity not to try it. There are risks involved and the dev-time hurdle needs to be cleared. (Also the capital investment hurdle, but CCP should be able to stem it for a small initial game development).

So, what to do?
Options, ideas, etc.

1. Keep it a small project. I think that is pretty obvious anyway. Nobody knows how succesful the Oculus Rift will be and how much of them will actually be made. It is kind of a similiar situation to an ambitious, yet unlaunched game console. Making a launch title (if not funded by the console developer) is a big risk, so you mitigate it by keeping it small. The prototype has actually shown that is possible. What does "small" mean in this concept? I don't think the scale of battle will effect development much. 3v3 or 8v8 isn't the big issue. What is? Making lots of new art assets would be. So a restricted inital set of fighters, can't go crazy with lots of stuff to play with. One or two game modes only. And so on. Be a launch title, impress with the crazy new mechanics, fun & fluid gameplay. Expand when EVR and Oculus Rift launch succesfully and you prove it's more than just a viable prototype.
2. Non-local development within CCP. Think Dust, just with EVR. I don't know how easy it would be to extend the Shanghai office. Probably - just considering demographics - WAY easier than extending the Reykjavik office. Just the bad luck of being a floating volcano. That's probably going to cause boos by all the friendly blue devs in this thread who made this awesome prototype. But as with Dust, in-Reykjavik coordination and participation is pretty much required. And the initial team should probably get a significant amount of time to contribute (more than just 20%).
3. For a small project: If a business model is difficult to get to initally (still aiming for F2P, see my last big post) due to the small development budget, do it the following way: For a limited amount of time, once deemed ready for an initial (almost-beta) release, offer it for free for Eve Online subscribers and paying Dust customers. Strike a deal with the Oculus Rift guys that every buyer of an Oculus Rift gets his game-code to access it for the same amount of time (give them some small lifetime benefits later on). You can gauge interest and will probably make some decent money (some of it by getting more clients for Eve & Dust). Being given away "for free" with the Oculus Rift is also a guaranteed attention grabber. Every buyer will try it. As long as YOU think it is a good little game, go for it. Even if it fails to break even in the end, it'll build, not cost reputation for CCP. And again, it should be a small project, so the write-off shouldn't be that bad anyway.
4. If for some reason you do not like it, scrap it. For a small investment sum, denting your reputation is not the way to go. I wouldn't confirm you are developing it either, until you decide to launch. But do not be scared to launch a good game, just because it is kind of small in scope and a bit tiny compared to EveO and Dust. Wear the indy hat, CCP should get away with it for a crazy new VR game by the vikings. It'll net you lots of goodwill (and good press) in the gaming community.
5. Then build a F2P framework around it thereafter, if it seems to be a succesful game. Once it has proven itself as a game and generated enough interest/players to make F2P a viable business preposition, expanding it for F2P should be quite possible (more/new ship-models to fly, some of which are harder to unlock for free; access to corp/clan/wing mechanics; etc. - you know how its done). Also continue gameplay development with profitability in reach, obviously (for ideas, see my big post last page )
6. For completness sake: External devlopment, licensing. Booooo. I oppose it. Still better than not doing it at all, but still boooooo. If so, keep all the IP within CCP, so you can expand on it on your own later on and don't lose control over any part of New Edens IP. (not that I think the CCP higherups would do sth stupid like that).

hey, so, I ordered one back in February with no idea CCP was participating in it, in any way

you mentioned CCP was a significant donor. any figures on the donation amount? just curious.

and yeah, I'm going to be stuck with my Oculus on my face and not see sunlight for days at a time

//any chance oculus support will be added to EVE?

I'd like to be able to free look as if I am floating in space behind my ship. would help situational awareness greatly

//RE: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/28/eve-evolved-hands-on-with-eves-virtual-reality-demo/

if eye tracking was integrated with the visor? hahah game -over- you can't argue against that. do pilot HUDs even have that? I think Apache guns are tied to the camera, which is controlled by the pilot's head, but nothing in the way of eye tracking

eye tracking would be truly future-gen ****

if you ever thought video games should surpass irl technology, this is one way to do it with hardware, not just make-believe physics

//I'm going where games let me use the Oculus... good thing EVE has a passive skill queue I should be a perfect subcap everything pilot across all my accounts by the time I get to return to EVE in my Oculus <-whoa, that was a jab.

know what motivates the people with the "go" button for this? competition, and Kickstarters are money but sometimes it takes the prospect of less-money