EVE General Discussion

Hi internet people!

I'm here to talk about love and hate, I'm here to talk about our unwanted kid for certain, or about the prodigal son for the others … I'm here to talk about the main feature (yeah I know) of Incarna : Walk in Station (WIS).

I'm not here to argue about WIS itself, so if you want it to disappear from the game, it's not the right topic, sorry. No, I'm here to talk about gameplay that CCP can (must?) implement to WIS to make it more interessant for the everyday player even if there's only Captain's Quarter (CQ) for now.

I apologize, if sometimes I write this in poor english, i've tried my best

I'm dividing this into 4 categories that are :
1) More interaction with the Environement.
2) Real Computers, and TV must live !
3) UI and Immersion.
4) Housing and Nex

1) More Interaction with the Environement.

This is, I think, one of the most disturbing thing when you first enter your CQ. There's Quafe bottles on a shelf, bottles you can't take, books you can't read, and even a bed where you can't rest ! I don't want to teach Game Design to CCP, I'm no Game Designer, but I can remenber hearing from Chris Crawford that an element of a game that it isn't used in the Game Design is just useless (Link).

So why can't we more interact with our bed, or with our TV screens for exemple ?

2) Real Computers, and TV must live !

I remember my first steps during the first public launch of Incarna on the Test Server. I was like « Oh boy, it can be so cool if it's well handed ! », so I asked the Devs about how cool it will be if we could interact with those three big TV screen on our CQ and he replies that it will surely be done. Well … It's not afterall. But why ? I may remind you that games like Doom 3 (Link) had so much better ideas about (again) interaction than this poor enlightement of the screen when you pass the mouse on.

Why can't we use that screen as a real alternate UI ?

3) UI and Immersion.

Because one of the deepest problem of WIS is its lack of immersion and certainly the fact that devs didn't think that re-thinking the UI for a non-spaceship part of the game is relevant … Wrong, it is relevant ! Actual UI have its problem but it works for Spaceships and things we actual make in space, but for a third person game, it's just awful. Too much windows, and the UI is also too much present for really enjoying using WIS without removing it. The proble is when you remove UI, CQ is useless, because everything you clic on takes you back to the spaceship UI.

With wise use of « Real Computers » as mentionned earlier, and several adds like this awesome phone we could see in the Eve Forever video (Link, 0:26). I can dream of a use like we could see one in GTA IV (Link), where the phone can open an Eve Voice Chat with anyone in the game, or to a group like your alliance or your corporation.

And if you want to Chat ? Using the Market or view a Contract ? Why are we still forced to use old Spaceship UI and not a cool tablet like an EveOnlinePad ©. Think again of Doom 3, with the PDA (Link), or if you old like me, think of the PipBoy in the first Fallout, there's tons of things that can free WIS of the FIS UI, and tons of things that can reinforce immersion, like being seen as not log while you're not in your pod (Please CCP remember this Link) or having a Podroom, etc.

And btw have you notice the UI of Third Person or First Person games ? Discrete.

4) Housing and Nex

Oky, CQ is'nt our home, we get it, but why can't we buy a home (or two) ? A special CQ where we can add or remove stuff and having a real personnal Quarter somewhere in New Eden, i can see that tons of MMO have their housing as a real part of the game (i heard that SW Galaxy was one of the best housing before the NGE btw), so why, instead of clothes, can't we buy something cooler like this totaly fashion rocking chair I saw on the Dodixie Wallmart the other day ?

It is just ideas of making real what you (CCP) gives us as a feature.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks, I'm thinking about all this since the beginning, and now i'm pretty sure some of those ideas aren't so bad, and certainly possible to add to the Carbon thing.

Thumbs up from me because you seen like a nice guy and the other stuff seemed pretty relevent

Good ideas!

A housing system like in SW Galaxy can be awesome, with some corporations appartement :D

A well thought out point of view. Several of those things have been discussed (to one degree or another) when talking about future WIS development. Keep in mind the hurdle we just got over is actually getting the bare framework for WIS into game and running (albeit not very smoothly yet).

We are going to run into problems on the UI front from this point on however. A UI that actually works for an environment like WIS will be deemed redundant by those that wish to stick with their nuts and bolts UI from the FIS part of the game.

I suppose we could have a button to enable a strictly WIS UI when we are going to be doing (future) WIS only content. I"m not sure how practical that would be in application. Perhaps it should be just as simple as:

1: If you are going to be interacting with your ship (in the hanger), entering and exiting a lot, and do not want the WIS UI then you stick with seeing the hanger environment.

2: If you are going to be doing WIS content and activities, and will not be interacting with your ship in any significant way for a while you hit the load CQ button and the interface changes.

People will still complain that it doesn't have everything the FIS UI has, but at that point you've made the decision to work with WIS content... and can switch back to your hanger view and your familiar FIS UI instantly.

@Ranger1 :
The thing with UI is that it must be design for a specific way of playing a game.
Moving items from the Cargo to Corporate or Private hangar ISN'T something you can do while outside your pod. Your on your ship, spinning it again and again and moving stuff with love vith the good old UI.

You've said those point were discussed, but i haven't see a devblog about this or any dev post, but i admit that i don't read every post on the forum

But yes, Eve is in perpetual devlopement, and devloping all the parts of the game takes time.

that's exactly what I want !

@Angeliena :
I think you haven't read the first post it's not about the right for WiS to live or not, it's about what must be the actuel WiS. Don't quote South Park man ! I hope CCP could continue to develop every part of the game, WiS, FiS, WH, Incursion, FW, etc.

Fair enough, and as a dedicated carebear I had similar hopes.
But, as has been said above, 99% of Eve's player-base do not want WiS in any way shape or form. To ignore this would be commercial suicide.

I'm sorry, but you need to face the fact that WiS is dead, and that what little of it we have seen (especially the memory-wasting CQs) will shortly be rolled back and comitted to Outer Darkness.

All I can suggest is that, if WiS is essential to your enjoyment of a game, play something based on this, not on Spreadsheess in Space.

I don't like that statement as I find that to be too biased. You're assuming that 99% of the player base doesn't want WiS without providing evidence to back it up. Personally, I would say that a large portion of the player base doesn't want WiS to be worked on too much at the expense of FiS. From what I have seen since the summer launch of Incarna, players wanted both WiS and FiS. Just each want to come in different ways than others.

EDIT: Fixed grammar

Exploration using WiS could be interesting. Abandoned ships, mining outposts, that sort of thing.

Stop right there. That is total bull**** and you know it.

This thread is about sharing ideas of what would make WiS usefull and entertaining.
If you dont have anything to add besides you hate of growth and change, dont bother
posting please, not that I will notice anyhow, I have started blocking all the WiS haters,
this whole 99% I hate 'sapce barbies" BS is getting way too old. You may have thought
it was funny/cute at first, but now you are all just making asses of yourselfs.