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[Fluff] Procedural NPC stations
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manus
Subhypersonics
#1 - 2017-04-17 23:13:36 UTC  |  Edited by: manus
An algorithm keeps track of pilots docked, number of docks and undocks during the day/week. And the stations exterior grows or shrinks accordingly. This would mean that the trading hubs would be the biggest stations in the game. Of course it would have to be done right so the stations will look awesome.
Col Crunch
Fancypants Inc
Pandemic Horde
#2 - 2017-04-18 01:56:55 UTC
From a realism point of view, stations that get a lot of use expanding does make sense, if more people want to use it, yo build an extension! But demolishing the extensions due to reduced use just feels strange.
Cade Windstalker
#3 - 2017-04-18 02:39:09 UTC
Not a fan just because of how much work this would be for zero gameplay value. Plus it would screw with people's bookmarks around the station.
Anna-Elizabeth DeWitt
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2017-04-18 09:57:24 UTC
manus wrote:
An algorithm keeps track of pilots docked, number of docks and undocks during the day/week. And the stations exterior grows or shrinks accordingly. This would mean that the trading hubs would be the biggest stations in the game. Of course it would have to be done right so the stations will look awesome.


So you complain about not enough new content but ask for more "fluff" to look at while sitting in highsec stations? You are my best freind here right now.
manus
Subhypersonics
#5 - 2017-04-18 14:53:56 UTC  |  Edited by: manus
Cade Windstalker wrote:
Not a fan just because of how much work this would be for zero gameplay value. Plus it would screw with people's bookmarks around the station.


Its not a major feature, i recognize that. But that doesent mean its a bad idea and to be honest it probably doesent take alot of work. And i imagine CCP have the staff on hand anyway. I mean what is the art department working on right now? They cant constantly be working since most of the models dont change, and not a whole lot of new content gets added that requires models and artwork afaik. So for the slow days they could be working on this. The most work will be making the models. But for an experienced team it shouldnt take long. Figuring out the right algorithm can also be done relatively easy. Bottom line is that this sounds complicated, but it really isnt. And having more varied station exteriors is a benefit to the player. It just spices things up a bit. EVE online was all about being original, and it was and still is after all these years. Things like procedurally generated NPC stations kicks it up a notch.

Col Crunch wrote:
From a realism point of view, stations that get a lot of use expanding does make sense, if more people want to use it, yo build an extension! But demolishing the extensions due to reduced use just feels strange.


This is a good point. It would make more sense to close those parts of rather than take them down. However, you could make the case that some stations sell these expansions and ferry them to other stations. But this idea really is fluff. There are probably more important things to work on. Tbh. they should have made this instead of Walking in stations.
Cade Windstalker
#6 - 2017-04-18 18:42:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Cade Windstalker
manus wrote:
Its not a major feature, i recognize that. But that doesent mean its a bad idea and to be honest it probably doesent take alot of work. And i imagine CCP have the staff on hand anyway. I mean what is the art department working on right now? They cant constantly be working since most of the models dont change, and not a whole lot of new content gets added that requires models and artwork afaik. So for the slow days they could be working on this. The most work will be making the models. But for an experienced team it shouldnt take long. Figuring out the right algorithm can also be done relatively easy. Bottom line is that this sounds complicated, but it really isnt. And having more varied station exteriors is a benefit to the player. It just spices things up a bit. EVE online was all about being original, and it was and still is after all these years. Things like procedurally generated NPC stations kicks it up a notch.


My head hurts from all the bad assumptions you managed to cram into one paragraph here...

So, starting with the one in bold font... you used the words "Procedural generation" that in and of itself means that *no matter what comes after those words* it's going to be a lot of work for a game feature. Procedurally generated graphics are especially bad because you not only need to build all the pieces, but you need to make sure everything fits together and it's extra work to build each piece in a way that doesn't look bad on its own but leaves room for other bits to tack on.

Also CCP really don't have enough people to handle it. The art team was the single largest group represented at Fanfest and the art pipeline has been full to bursting for *years* now what with the V5 ships, Upwell Structures, new effects, explosions, suns, ect.

Like, seriously, have you ever done anything with graphics or procedural generation before? At all?

This is a stupidly huge amount of work just so Jita can immediately become a huge static model and almost every other station in the game can not change much, if at all.
GoodGreyer Ayderan
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2017-04-18 19:30:51 UTC

Every station already has at least a million+ inhabitants. They are plenty big for the population and large scale industry which takes place in them.

As to whether all the ships that would be docked in a station like Jita 4-4 at a single moment could fit in there, well.... maybe not, but it's not something I really think about enough to ruin any immersion.