EVE General Discussion

Maybe you got right, but here is main problem, game engine and code, i think we can see all things like expolation of planets and stations even with full 3d grapic and form first perspective, but if CCP decide to make this, they need to redesign or wrote whole code form basics etc... Typhon engine is very old but is great for EvE like EvE is these days, and Carbon technology (wallking in capitan quaters) is brand new but in my opinion is (experimental field).

Ps. Imagine mixed EvE and environment similar to Mass Efect world... Dream...

Not to be a negative nancy, but how many years do you think EVE has left, in its current state, without a major shot in the arm in form of totally new gameplay elements?

The way I see it, most games have 6-8 year life cycle, beyond which they begin to lose relevance. They get graphically outdated, gameplay elements become antiquated, etc. Granted, CCP bought EVE a second lease on life with Trinity, it was a major thing they did and it paid off with dividends. Without it, I very much doubt EVE would still be around today. But that's been winter 2007? That's 5 years ago. And the core gameplay and mechanics are going back 9 years, will be 10 next spring. Another couple of years, and the true age of the game will be keenly felt. Heck, it's been keenly felt for a while now. Outdated things like inability to change the bloody font or have decent amount of control over the text size of the game is a dead giveaway.

I mean, look at WoW. The game just turned 8 years old, and it's been known since spring that Blizz has been reassigning developers that were working on the title on to the next project (presumably Titan MMO). And let's face it, WoW's really showing its age. Just go and look at WoW screenshots, the game is pretty deplorable graphically despite some upgrades done over the years (like DX11 support and some features). EVE is a year older than that. And even though Blizz claims last expansion won't be the game's last (dur, like they would admit that it is, even if it was?), it very well might be its second-last. No BlizzCon this year strongly suggests a major announcement by this time next year, which could be the beginning of Titan and beginning of the end of WoW.

So, when it comes to EVE, "no payout for a while" could mean no payout at all if the game crashes. Yes, yes, I know. EVE is dying is laughable as an argument. After all, UO is still very much alive, it still has a couple of hundred players at least. But development all but stopped for that game, it is essentially on life support and has been for a very, very long time. Same thing could easily happen here.

And it could happen for completely innocuous reasons, things that have nothing to do with the game itself. It could be very simple. Like the majority of players are older? Well, average gamer age now is 36 or so? Which means average EVE players are likely older? Well, the older we get, the more responsibilities we're likely to have, other commitments, other worries. Heck, we're pushing 40, things like health issues will start to kick in fairly soon now. No matter how great the game is, you can't play it if you're dead. And the game does not seem to be attracting new players. I heard this from a number of sources, from people who tried to create newbie training corps, only to realize that 90% of newbie characters are actually alts of old players. EVE needs to attract new blood. And it's not going to happen with rebalancing existing ships. Not that I'm saying rebalancing is bad. It's great. Fantastic. Years overdue, too. But it's not going to bring in new players. WiS might. But nothing more they do for FiS will, at least I don't see it happening. Nothing short of introducing skill-based combat with direct control over the ships is going to cut it when it comes to FiS.

Guess what I'm trying to say is, I hope they know what they're doing. To me, WiS was EVE's plan B. Something to look forward to, and stick around for. Now that I know it's not coming, or at least not for years, my desire to play the game diminished significantly. I just hope they're not putting all their eggs into Dust and WoD backets. Dust might easily flop, FPS players are notoriously finicky, and WoD, no matter how good, may not be everyone's cup of tea. The whole vampire thing has been done to death in recent years.

To answer your post I am 56. I just started playing eve in 2012. I could have been playing eve since the day it was released.
But I have been waiting for eve to mature into the game it is today before I was willing to play it. I sure hope it has a lot left to go. WiS is not why I signed up to play eve. I am also retired so I can play eve a lot and I do. Since I have been playing I have encountered a lot of players my age and older. Even quite a few newbies. None of them are playing eve for its twitch factor.

I like the skill tree idea for eve. It makes me competetive in eve even though I did not start on day one. It is the single best reason why eve will continue to pull in new players. That is what will keep eve around even after all the current players quit.
The game play and the skill developement will keep new blood coming to replace the old.

I consider WiS the wrong way for eve to go. My opinion is that is what dust is for.

Fixes and reiteration on feautures is fine. However is a low profile/conservative option CCP is keeping after the Incarna debacle. But is not what gives a grow boost.

Once upon a time in EvE there were no POS, corporation were used to anchor large groups of containers in safe spots (they had no expiration time limit) to store ammo and loot when operating in hostile systems. Finding this spots and destroy the containers of the enemy was a relevant military goal.

CCP was able to interpretate the need and introduced (I think was the Exodus expansion) a new tool for this: the POS. And this evolved in a a whole relevant gameplay. If CCP had the same low profile/conservative apporach we wouldn't have any POS now. I'm sure at that time someone moaned fot the waste of resources to do this POS.

WiS would be the same. Give to corporations the chance to anchor habitative modules, offices and lobbies to their POS or POCO, give to the players the chance to chat in a 3d social envinroment instead of an IRC channel, give them the option to burn their ISK in some poker game/lottery or to use their kill-rights inside the stations.... and you'll see if is not a kickass feauture able to expand the gameplay and open new frontiers.

As you say EVE needs to keep moving; however bug fixing and ordinary mantainence is not enough for this, a strategic vision is needed, and I don't see many other possible candidates to become a groundbreaking feauture .

better then nothing after all this time

@oldbutfeelingyoung: I disagree.

@both of you:

Imagine if you will, stepping through that door into a long hall, walking down that hall into a large room and seeing a group of friends standing by a fountain. These friends are laughing and chatting, making emotes that you see pop up regularly in local chat as you walk across the room. Chat flies like Jita spam as more characters in the same room keep doing the same. This one is licking that one, that one over there is jumping and cheering while another dances, while somebody claps him on the back and another sleeps with him.

The room is thick with emote trolling and merriment and you stand back for a moment to take in the clamor. It is a room, big, and vast, and it encompasses the stars through it's clear glass roof. There are no ships outside because you can't see them from here, in this place outside of space, but the cheering and conversation is deafening in its textual silence, drumming like a heartbeat, regular and strong. Someone claps, another sighs, and still another heaves his shoulders, and yet one more flexes in text as you turn and stare at the great brass columns and admire the great glowing fountain in the center of the room.

There are no exits but the one that you came through, and that one leads back to a single door, where you all came through in getting here. Banners wave in the breeze created by a synthetic environment, and the warmth of a false sun shines down on your cold face, but you feel little of this, enamored by the sensations of forward slash clap and forward slash sleep. It is wonderful is it not, and so bright and vibrant too. Clearly there is life here, and the game isn't truly dying.

How long was it since you last went outside? Do they still fly ships in the space around this place? You know not; nor do you care, for this is what you came for. A place of joy and merriment with contextual music playing wonderful music in the background and characters of all walks of life striding about with vibrant, aloof steps.

Ah, there they are. Your group of friends. By the fountain.

The protests weren't anti WiS, they were a backlash lead by people like me who wanted WiS, we trusted all of these light expansions would all lead up to something. We waited 2 years, through light expansions, 2 fanfests, showing us more and more of WiS! OMG BARS! you can see the ships! Oh man you can play that cool board game and bet stuff. I know that's light on features, but it was a going to be a huge 1st step.

And then after a demo 4 years ago and 3 years of waiting, A single , badly lit, minmatar only room comes out. It runs slow, it's ugly, like wait, we waited 2 years and this is what we get? BS, we wanted stations, stores. And all of the models were on the test server, I put up a bunch of screenshots of the bars.

But after all of that time they took from space, we were mad. Being lied to kinda pisses people off. Not to mention the NeX store not even having a dev blog and just getting 70$ MTs suddenly added to a game where no one else can even see your pants, wtf? We wanted to make the clothing, and have 2-5$ extra special skins. Who in their right mind would pay 40$ for a pair of shoes that look like something you'd buy at macy's. Greed is obviously kittening stupid.

The WiS haters always hated WiS, but they never amounted to anything, until all of the WiS lovers saw the minmatar room with a trash bag by the door. Like a trash bag CCP? seriously? going to make it that obvious?

I think the stations look good now, and I'm glad it's been fixed and worked on by a SMALL team. I don't want grand promises at the expensive of FiS. BUT, once EVE gets all of the new ships, and all of the new effects and drone controls. I WANT walking in stations, not walking in a room.

Rumor is we'll get to met up with dust players face to face since that game will share the creator and CQs. Plus the plan to add actually WiS combat is great. Honestly I'm happy They took a step back, I fear what they had planned sucked. And the fact that the door is shut might be a good thing.

But by god do I want the day to come when A dev blog is released saying the door is opening. I think leaving the unfinished feature in the game only confuses new players, so the sooner it means something, the better.

I can 'imagine' whipping out a plasma SMG and hosing down everybody standing by the fountain, too.



Really, at this point, I just want to be able to 'access the station camera drones' so I can see who the hell is camping the station undock.

At least let me look out the damn windows, apparently there are quite a few......

See, that's awesome. But what about kids, grandkids, etc. It's great you retired, but some of us will be stuck working for a while yet in this economy. And we are slowing down. I discovered just a year or two ago that I really can't play full-on FPS games like Counterstrike any more. My reaction time is not where it used to be, and neither are my eyes. So I totally get why twitch would be a turnoff.

However, WiS does not necessarily even mean twitch combat. EVE doesn't really have twitch combat (compared to titles like Age of Conan or Guild Wars 2). So it's possible WiS combat might end up being a lot more tactical and "target" based same as EVE's combat. Heck, they could use the same UI and turn it into a tactical shooter with cover, or even a turn-based shooter similar to X-Com. The devs mentioned that the inspiration for the gameplay prototype came partially from Space Hulk, which was a real-time tactical strategy game. It didn't have twitch, it required planning and execution.

I watched it live. Must have missed that.