EVE General Discussion

CCP is lagging way behind what is trending today in gaming. Just like with Dust, this is not going to be a success story and if CCP bosses cant see this then one is really out of the loop. With all those resources we could have had already WiS in EVE on top of current EVE changes. Imagine that.

Look, I get the angst over this but with DUST they already had the engine and now it's just some spiff up and swap out. All of these TPS/FPS games are hyper similar and relatively easy to do once you have the foundation code operating, which CCP does.

Moving it out of New Eden will allow CCP to see if it can stand on it's own, and not impact EVE like DUST has/did. If it can stand on it's own and be successful, then you might get things like boarding actions and planetary landing actions back in EVE, bringing things full circle.

It's very important to understand that CCP must KEEP trying to make more games and get traction in the markets. If they don't, they will live and die by EVE's success and while not going down soon, they have to have more irons in the fire.

I do agree that going up against the big boys (HALO, COD, etc.) is not all that much of a guaranteed success story. In fact, it's probably another failure in the making but rolling the dice on this one is fairly cheap for what they have already in the code safe.

I also agree with the sentiment that they need to ask their EVE player base what a good bunch of ideas might be.

I, speaking only for myself, think that making a parallel "New Eden" that was more ground pounder and planetary colonization based, then merging them at some time in the future would be a good idea. You'd have a massive infusion of gameplay to EVE at some future time but being parallel in story and worlds, it would have no impact on EVE until it was fully operating at perfect capacity. That would fix the WiS conflict, the TPS/FPS side and PI/Colonization engines. EVE would be the monster space game with no rivals at all.

Speaking of colonization, Maybe allow Mercenaries to have planetary bases they can name, build, upgrade and defend, bases generating passive income over time and giving bonuses. Bases that have vulnerability windows and can be attacked and raided for resources, or destroyed, or even captured.

The only thing that brought people into Dust 514 in the first place was the link to the New Eden universe. Without that, no one would even have played the game after they realized how poorly developed it was.

The whole point of having multiple games in the New Eden universe is to use that as a draw to bring in people who love the universe but want a different way to play within it. That's what EVE: Valkyrie is and the more people are actually finally receiving the Rifts they pre-ordered, the more people are experiencing Valkyrie and the player count keeps going up. I've now talked to several people who say that even with all the games that came with the Rift, Valkyrie represents most of their playtime.

Project Nova is going to start out as a 32-player game inside of EVE ships so it has a far deeper thematic tie to the EVE Universe than Dust 514 did. Everyone I talked to who tried Nova at FanFest said the gameplay flow already feels solid, and they're going to work on that as much as they can to ensure that the thematic link and the gameplay draw new players in and keep them invested.

Once they have that essential foundation in place, CCP Rattati said he's going to bring back planetary warfare, and we're already working on a lot of ideas to present to them as far as vehicle balance for this new game as soon as the new Community Crowdsource Trello goes live.

(Just a note: you know that public Trello board that Valkyrie has? They got the idea from CCP Rattati because that's how he collected and collated balance suggestions for Dust 514. Those hotfixes he made were what made the game playable up until the end.)

For all that some people are inevitably going to jump in here and talk about how CCP should completely divorce the game and make it a unique IP, or that they should scrap it completely because FPS players will poison their perfect EVE universe, I believe that finding ways to link Project Nova into EVE in a meaningful manner that is beneficial to both games can only help EVE Online in the long run.

New Eden can feel kind of huge and empty sometimes, but it'll feel a lot less empty with more people to share it with. Besides, the more customers CCP has, the more income they have to keep pushing the capabilities of their simulation. We could someday actually see gameplay like the trailer "The Prophecy".

If you think about it, they could even achieve firing from cover by just having a leaning system like the original Crysis or Arma. Just lean left or right to shoot around cover. That way you don't have to deal with some kind of crappy "sticky cover" system which would probably just frustrate people.

Obviously the former Council of Planetary Management members are still under NDA as they are now being involved in Project Nova's development, but when asked about PvE they've been making responses with a positive lean even though they can't confirm or deny anything.

Actually, the Dust team had a basic version they were working on up until a few months before the shutdown that sadly never actually got finished. I would be VERY surprised if that wasn't a current priority for the team. After all, a big retainer for MMOs in general is having a variety of available experiences.

Have it mess with PI too, then things'll get interesting.

Things DUST 514 Did Wrong:

1. Promised more than they delivered: Dust 514 wasn't judged on the basis of what it actually was but on how far it fell short of what it promised to be. People wanted one universe but the presence of orbital bombardments really failed to create that feel in any meaningful way.

2. They released on the wrong platform and never updated it for PS4: DUST 514 severely limited it's audience. If you didn't own a PS3 you couldn't play. Even after the release of the PS4. PCs have a larger audience, and the change in console generations wouldn't have been an issue.

3. Took too long to release racial variants of gear: For the longest time you couldn't play a Minmatar heavy or an Amarr scout. While that was eventually fixed there were still no Minmatar or Amarr vehicles, Amarr heavy weapons etc. when my PS3 bit the dust. Which was at least a good year or two after the game's release. It made the game feel horribly half-finished and the slow progress in fixing it grew distressing over time.

What Dust 514 Did Right:

1. Highly customizable builds: I've played other FPSes with customization such a Planetside and none of them hold a candle to Dust 514. Dust 514 had a much variety in what you can do with a suit as EVE has in what you can do with a spaceship. I LOVED that aspect of Dust 514 and it kept me coming back for more.

2. Well paced combat: In a market oversaturated with FPSes where a couple stray bullets from an SMG mean instant death and everything is about who sees who first Dust 514 stood out as a game with some really epic fights that weren't always over in half a second. The pacing of this game was perfect IMO.

3. The ISK factor: I carefully considered the ISK cost of every item that went into my builds, how expensive of a build I would use for different situations, and when it was worth it to call down an expensive vehicle. I've never experienced anything like that in an FPS before and it was AWESOME.

What I Want From Project Nova

I want Dust 514 back. I bought a PS3 just to play the damn thing and never regretted that decision even though Dust 514 was the only game I had ever played on it when it met an unfortunate watery end. It was an FPS experience unlike any other and the standard by which I now measure other FPSes. (All of which fall short)

Just this time, do it on the right system, don't give people unrealistic expectations of what it will be, and get me a damn Minmatar HAV.

CCP has already made a big mistake by making DUST514 PS3 exclusive, i hope they dont cripple their next FPS game Nova with another stupid decision. No one needs generic FPS games anymore. The 90s are over. If they design Nova to be just another shooter, with nothing special, it will fail like all the other generic FPS games in the last ~15 years.

The concept of Legion and "1 universe, 1 war" was unique and very promising, i dont know why they have abandoned it.

Well said.

I want casino.