Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Lots of threads coming up about exploration lately. Its always a tough choice to decide whether to throw something out deep in the pages of an established thread or to start a new one. Since I try not to be a total idea-spammer, I figured it was OK to do the latter.

Robert Caldera made a good point on another thread - there is really no exploration as all the sites are static and anything discovered has been posted to the web. A player can just look up what sites with which to bother and search them out. Of course, a player who wants a real exploration experience can just avoid reading those postings, but those that want to just make the ISK will have already been through the profitable ones many, many times before the "true" explorer might get there.

I am no programmer or game designer, but I can imagine that making exploration more random so as to be something "un-sharable" with other players would be a nightmare. But, I think there are ways to approach some randomness without causing our intrepid development team to tear out there hair.

Leave in the various sites we have now, but begin to add in unannounced exploration sites (Easter Eggs). At first, they'd have to be semi-announced as in "We have added some secret content!" or whatever for the first several expansions and patches and after a while explorers will just know to begin looking for this new stuff after each expansion and patch. The randomness of when they are added just enhances the exploration experience. Some explorers might not find the Easter Eggs from Expansion 1 until Expansion 3, but they'll still be "new" content to them.

These Easter Eggs would have static content in the form of the goal and the main loot itself. But everything else could be randomly generated - guarding ships, for instance, so players won't be able to first read how to fit their ships to deal with them. They could also be actual "Landmarks" in space that need to be explored for clues that will allow access to the next expansion's set of sites.

These sites could be made into mazes, somewhat like WH Space, but a lighter, safer version for those who want to stay in New Eden. In fact, some exploration sites could include a worm hole, locked (but unlockable through hacking or a found key) stargates to the next level of the site (could be all the way across New Eden!), an acceleration gate or even a combination of all three in the same site. The more dangerous the route, the greater the possible rewards (wormhole > stargate > acceleration gate). After several uses, these sites could deactivate and relocate to a new, random location. I think for the same of keeping player interest, though, they should stay within the same constellations. I know I wouldn't want to take 40 jumps to get to the next place.

There could also be multiples of the above to make the exploration more maze-like and random-feeling while allowing it to be somewhat static for easier programming.

There is also the utilization of all the deadspace throughout New Eden. This area is VAST. How about some of the above mentioned stargates having their other half located somewhere between systems? They'd basically be interstellar versions of acceleration gates. It sort of gives the feeling of W-space without going there. Do it right, and it may encourage more players to migrate their exploration to W-space.

These Easter Egg sites, I think, should include things you cannot find anywhere else in New Eden. No typical NPC pirates or rogue drones. Something different as well as something that makes it nearly impossible to know exactly how to fit your ship to deal with them.

This is also how some new gear could be introduced into the game. If they want to roll out a new T3 ship, make it so the design must be found in these exploration sites, then brought to a researcher who figures out the design, adapts it and sends it to manufacturing. You know, kind of how it would really go.

Some real, player-created content.

This might provide a use for Smuggler Stargates.

Also, I'm not sure how well "Lewis and Clark" works into a space game where you're never too completely far away from civilization. It might be best to work your idea into a more Star-Trek-esque sort of paradigm. We're demigods, the contents of our wallets could fund the economies of every colonized planet in the cluster for decades or more.

I don't know about you, but that kind of wealth and power insists I should fly into the unknown a little more suitably-equipped than a canteen of water, some old matches to hopefully start a fire with and a gun that may or may not work properly. A brand-new ship, properly equipped to handle whatever dangers I might find, more than sufficient ammunition for an extended journey and a crew of about a thousand sounds more fitting for entities such as ourselves.

If I understand the devs correctly, they're trying to put an end to "all in one" exploration. Either you're exploring DED sites with guns or you're exploring data/relic sites with the appropriate analysis equipment and (ideally, to the devs) doing it in ships that strongly discourage trying to fit guns.

Small addition:

Those interstellar deadspace areas accessed via stargates could have to be scanned down once reached. There could be several sites within each area of deadspace.

These interstellar dead space sites could contain everything we currently find in the solar systems except stars.

Not sure how I like this, but these sites could contain limited amounts of low/null sec ore and maybe ice. (One of the mentioned subsystems could allow the mounting of a small ice harvester?

OK...maybe not ice. :)

Gas, though....

The hard part is to not make these sites too exploitable for resources, but still have something interesting and profitable for players.

But, maybe like I mentioned with the ships and gear, these new areas could be opened up for normal exploitation with future expansion packs. Sort of like you're settling the areas and making them useful to the population through the exploration.