EVE General Discussion

I bet we end up in a dive suit of sorts, still containing our pod goo, and our EVA helm is an external variation of the DUST implant to transfer conciseness like our pods do. (secondary use of pods as their main use is just to plug directly into the ship systems)

Well, to be honest, it isn't in any way surprising that WiS (with purpose) is a long way off. Prototyping a team based game in Unity is a hell of a ways away from being able to do the same thing in Carbon. A lot of people still struggle to run the character creator efficiently, as far as I know (unfortunately). So Heaven help us, trying to run 'teams' of avatars.

Personally speaking, I'm one of many who've really looked forward to seeing avatar-based gameplay come of age in EVE, but I'm also a realist. I'd be very surprised indeed if I saw this current prototype begin to reach the development stage even three years from now, given the level of team-dedication it would take.

Next year, hopefully, (seriously hopefully!) we'll see a complete revamp of the PoS system - and God knows, we need it.

With any luck, the development teams will be allowed to spend the year after that completely revamping the Corp Management UI; Roles, etc. Sure, it already works, but it's horrible - and I can only imagine that it'd be another serious undertaking, labour-wise...

The big question on my mind though, is what will Team Avatar dedicate themselves to, in the meantime...? You're not shutting down (thankfully) so instead of going silent for the next year or so, how about letting us know?
(INB4 'Fix Lag')

A long-ago Dev-blog told us that the art assets (Models, Textures, etc.) for building Station environments for the four races were complete, and that they were modular-based - so building 'new rooms' or whatever wasn't such a biggie... Here's some things I'd (personally) like to see from Team Avatar and T0rfifrans (who despite everything, is still my fave Dev...)

1. A proper Pod room leading off from the CQ (ffs) - that 'pod-on-a-ladder' still drives me nuts, and makes a mockery of the prime-fiction.

2. An 'upgraded' CQ - sure you wanted it to 'feel dark, cramped, and claustrophobic', but you might have well said that you wanted it to 'feel really, really annoying'... And rather than 'monetize' it, I'd suggest it be available in stations where (player) Corps have their Headquarters registered, if having it everywhere is too much work.

What would I like to see inside it?

1. Instead of that little holo-display on the coffee table, that shows your ship - a great big display in a separate room that lets you view any ship at all, even npc pirate ships, and shows you (some would say useless) stats; like, number of skeleton crew, full crew, and survival rates, etc... (Yes, Capsuleer ships have crew...) I think it'd be quite immersive for new players, and Vets could ignore it, if so minded.

2. As shown in a concept video many years ago - I'd like to see a ship hangar that lets you walk up towards your current ship, to truly appreciate the scale. With tessellation, in the future, that'd look even more impressive.

3. 'Trophy rooms' for those so minded... we might not be able to shoot anyone yet, but having a munitions supply would be pretty cool to see (steal some Dust assets) - and having some eerily-lit corpse tubes would warm even the coldest hearts, I don't doubt.

4. A Pod-room *cough*.

5. More interactivity in the environment for Machinima minded people, these CQ's have various displays; is there any reason why you can't put some triggered emote-actions onto them, if you have development time to spare? A bed you can sit/lie on?

6. Hell, even holo-displays for Corp MOTD's, etc. would be better than nothing...

There are quite a few things I could think of, without getting into mini-games (Go/Baduk, please...) - but really it boils down to the question of what exactly the Avatar team is going to be working on, now that the proof of concept is 'complete' for now, and further progress on the 'cool stuff' is effectively shelved.

I'd also be interested to know what's happening with actual avatar development from the team...

Are we any closer to seeing racial-blending?

Sleeve tattoos on Sisi looked good a while back, but any news on that? And have you done any tribal-style sleeve tattoos; that'd better harmonise with what we already have?

What about the new clothing (leather strappy catsuits, etc.)?

Letting someone else develop this would be a disaster. I'd rather wait longer.

..or:

We have additional clones specifically designed for this purpose. It's not like our implants would survive or function in that environment anyway, so really we'd just be jump-cloning into temporary host clones sort of like those used in Dust. Makes sense to me.

They already said the conditions would be so harsh as to prevent function of all but EM resistant electronics. By EM resistant, we are referring to very basic electronics that incorporate very simple designs. Sort of like a LED flashlight vs. one that has a Tungsten filament and D-Cell Alkaline batteries.

Basically, anything involving complex electronics like those found in Computer processors and SSD drives will be essentially useless. The same applies to many chips used for memory cache and HDD Storage technology. The motor on a HDD may continue to function, but it's unlikely the HDD will retain any information stored on it, so it's effectively useless.

This puts implants out, unless a way of shielding them is found. The same applies to other complex electronics.

Shielding is actually not intensely hard, but the greater the force of resistance, the greater shielding is required, so it can only be so effective. Also, radiation may break down some forms of shielding.

This means that having about eight clones on board your cruiser, (which are relatively simple clones without the knowledge you have about Spaceships and all sorts of other things), to transfer a portion of your consciousness to would be helpful. You could then deploy them one at a time in an exploration effort, replacing each as it meets some foul fate, or recalling one in use after a successful mission.

It would make sense to also have new skills available for this. Also, losing one of these clones would be a lot different from being podded. That doesn't mean some Risk wouldn't be involved as you would lose the clone itself, have to buy a new one, and you would also potentially lose all the associated gear with it. Some might be rediscovered, or it might not, depending on circumstances and design.

This is completely hypothetical of course, but it occurs to me that it isn't a bad idea. This would also save you from the immersion breaking nature of being in your ship in space, leaving your pod, and walking into a station ruin with your full clone, in what is potentially a very hazardous environment with people or things that want to kill you, or can kill you.

On the other hand, that isn't incredibly immersion breaking, and the risk might be worth taking. Also, it would probably be a lot more interesting/exciting, knowing it is your only clone, and losing it means leaving your ship in space and waking up in your medical clone somewhere.

Having both options available might be cool. Use one of those clones, or use your own - your choice.

The game and server cannot handle the kind of load this would impose on the server. This would involve twitch based mechanics rather than the ticks the server is configured to handle.

Hardly anyone, I imagine.

Still, from your earlier post here, I already gathered you're not a fan of the 'frivolous' stuff anyway, but seeing as you're presumably open to the idea of what they want to implement in the far-far-future. Let me ask you...

What do you think 'TA' should spend their time on, in the meantime?

The "big concepts" that are needed to justify further investments into wis.

- A full stand-alone wis ecosystem
- that is able to integrate and affect the greater existing fis ecosystem in meaningful ways

Just think about the above requirements, I don't know about you but it seems to be quite a difficult challenge. I have no idea of how to do this nor am I qualified this but hopefully TA will figure it out.
The challenge is two-fold. The conceptual and the tech (to be able to render multiple avatars) but without good concepts the best tech is useless, ie IDsoft's last game.

It's a shame this will never come to fruition for at least another 5 years. I would have much rather have had something like this than DUST 514.

When designing suits, think Prometheus!

Edit: For the Gallente at least. Minmatar suits would be more Dead Space.

Team Avatar FTW ^_^