Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Players are quick to cry "consequence!" over things in EVE, but no one seems to have a problem with tattoos that can be wiped away without a second thought, or prosthetic limbs that can be swapped out for flesh and bone. Mutilation and tattoos are the most permanent things we can do to our bodies.

What would make sense to me is requiring a new clone to reverse things like monocles and tattoos, and customization options that are unique to just one clone. This proposal would be a bit much if clone costs were a thing, but an elective clone destruction is free. Implants might be lost, but they're functional and we're already accustomed to the risk of their loss.

This would make avatar portraits more complicated, by requiring a unique portrait for each clone. Generating portraits has some delay, due to the server time required to generate them. Hopefully swapping between existing portraits is a simpler matter.

I think per-clone vanity items would be worthwhile, for reasons.

The first is the possible use of a character's appearance as an intel source. By making vanity items and character customization unique to each clone, it becomes possible to identify what clone someone is using by their portrait and full body view. People will suddenly care to look at avatars other than their own.

This would also expand the market for vanity items to several times its current size. Currently, there's no need for more than one set of vanity items per character. Maintaining a wardrobe of vanity items is a bad idea for the frozen ISK it represents.

The nature of vanity items is very superficial, but the benefit of a character's appearance is as real as the rest of EVE. Chances are we're playing EVE for an experience, and that can be felt. By reflecting a character's personality and mood, vanity items are a valid source of gameplay, albeit low on the list of EVE's thrills.

Tying a set of vanity items to a particular clone presents a logistical complexity, but it strengthens the lore. In this proposed scenario of vanity item consequence, unless an item was redeemed in place, someone had to transport the item in cargo or on their body. In comparison, the current lack of risk in jump cloning vanity items everywhere in EVE is paper thin, and Immersion-breaking.

We're already accustomed to clones becoming specialized by activity with implants. Allowing unique vanity item sets per clone is congruent with player activity. Lab coats and explorer outfits are great examples of how this proposal would enhance RP. While it's great to see professions being acknowledged, and I like the idea of clothing appropriate to an activity, I use clones for different things. Lab coats and explorer outfits are great while doing industry or exploring, but they are out of place in other activities like combat.

This proposal and a move toward consequence would be incomplete unless vanity items were destructible. We like our shinies, and a large part of that appeal is rarity. For being indestructible, vanity items are missing out.

Destructible vanity items (upon pod loss) means characters will need default portraits to be displayed upon pod and vanity item loss. This can be solved by requiring characters to make a default portrait wearing default clothing.

Destructible vanity items would also expand the market for NES items even further by allowing their quantities to diminish. Vanity item sales are great, but each purchase increases supply and there are no sinks to balance this. Considering the rest of the player economy in EVE, and especially the costs of developing vanity items, I'm surprised vanity items aren't destructible already.

And I mean involuntary destruction, beyond accidentally getting caught with vanity items in cargo. I'm talking about vanity items showing on capsule lossmails, including ISK values.

Hypothetically, more vanity item purchases could put more pressure on PLEX and drive the price up. But in practice, players will probably be risk averse with their vanity items, just like everything else valuable, and preserve their vanity items. Still, the potential loss will increase the shininess of vanity items.

Lastly, jump clone timer mechanics need to be adjusted to make sure vanity items don't hinder gameplay. Allowing a zero cooldown timer for same-station jumps would solve this problem but also that of learning implant clones. That topic was recently discussed in this thread, and my suggestion for nil timers on same-station jumps is here.

I have an easier time excusing that over the current mystery of how my clothing follows me through clone jumps.

I hear Amarr robes are still hand-stitched by Brutor slaves.

I want you to have cat ears too. That would look super cute.

Phew!

Thankfully, due to its complexity and flawed reasoning, CCP would probably never do this.
I'm not rich enough to go buying character apparel for 10+ clones.

clones

nuf said

I didn't think we were actually wearing anything Rain. It's all just sensory information fed to us through our connections to the pod.

Not physical reality.

No one sees us in stations. There's just one room and even that is clearly a poor piece of software. Not physical reality.

So I don't think we actually leave our pod when we switch to CQ. It's just fed to us too.

That's a lot of assumptions..

But that's also not the point. The reason it is not trust-worthy is because:

If I have the EXACT SAME portrait for all of my clones, then people won't be able to tell what implants I have (if any).

Or what if I'm a pilot who doesn't even have apparel? Who just uses the default portrait, but who still has implants?

Intel that's easy to acquire but which is also preventable................................ Need I add more periods?

Wow. Liaf, Scip, that kinda blew my mind.

Ferni, it's true, you can deny intel by making all portraits the same. I mentioned it because it is a new way for players to make mistakes, or rope to hang themselves. The good kind of depth and complexity.