Player Features and Ideas Discussion

One of the most glaring absences that has bugged me from the beginning of Eve (and I mean literally from launch), is the abscence of any signs of civillization on the planets or traffic inside the station.

Idea #1: Planet surfaces
Problem
Even core systems and Empire Homewords are distrubingly barren and desolate. For example, look at any image of the Earth at night from space. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights2_dmsp_big.jpg (curtesy of Nasa.gov website). You'll see a vibrant civilization on the surface. Now compare that to a view of the planets of Eve and you can see the emptyiness/barreness of the Eve planets. Even in systems that are supposedly the core homeworlds/system of interstellar empires.

Solution
I propose that the next upgrade to the Eve Universe focus on bringing more life to the surfaces of the planets in the form of lights/cities on the surface. Not all planets of course, but at least empire homeworlds (Luminaire for example) and select planets the High Sec systems.

Designers that want to go the extra mile could even upgrade the planet descriptions to include population statistics, gross planetary product, Planetary leaders, etc.


Idea #2: Station Traffic.
Problem
Alrighty then. Now to the next step of immersion. The inside of stations are deserted without a semblance interior activity. Most market hubs in RL have considerable hustle/bustle, and all RL ports have regular traffic in the docks. For example, here is a youtube example of a busy port Singapore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBTDiD-9W1E&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL7E980B469ABCA361 .

Solution:
I propose that we upgrade the interior station environment to add more interior traffice. We see a small example of this with small ships of the Amarrian stations (and a previous version of the interior Gallente station a few years ago, but was removed), but I propose that we take this to another level with large ship traffice. Floating frigates docking and undocking and large freighters/BS being towed to dock, only to undock some minutes later.

This could also be viewable from the Captain's Quarter. Now only could the player walk to the viewing deck and see his ship, but he/she could also observe the local station traffic flying by. The amount of traffic could vary depending on the typical average number of player inbitants in the system/station.


Hopefully you'll keep this in mind and would be a great addition to the next big patch.

1. DUST 514's development won't change Eve graphics.
2. Graphics and immersion is what this game is about. Otherwise you might as well make all the ships look like square boxs, the stations without textures and the players stick figures. Any upgrade to the graphics/environment makes Eve that much better and more eye candy means more subscribers/endurance to the game.

Nebula typo fixed.

It does look good in that video. That close then perhaps even recognizable large buildings (Faction capital buldings, monuments), structures or even space elevators.

What if the ships passing your dock in the station where actually representative of those actually docking and undocking?