Live Events Discussion

Hm. The only thing I can think of for an absolutely no-code way to do it would be to have the event centered around one WH system. GM-NPC scout characters could probe (GM hacks would be faster) WHs out of the event system and light cynos to make them warpable to the general population, I guess?

I don't think it would be much fun to have an event centered around a single WH sys, though.

*Bangs head against wall* Sorry.

Thanks for the technical details. *sad face* I have been waiting a long time for features like this and it's very disheartening to hear that something which seems so simple would take so long (assuming you even get a "go ahead" on it). I cannot imagine what a real, honest to god storytelling feature would take. Honestly, if CCP doesn't get its act together, games like "Defiance" are going to start kicking your player-interactive arses.
....

In answer to your original question then, the wormhole network is pretty much designed to prevent large scale population flux. The easiest way to get a whole lot of people into one system in w-space real fast is to send them in very small ships (ideally a pod, with 32,000 kg mass... you could transfer at least 15,625 people that way). Alternatively you could get 333 people in frigates through the smallest wormhole. In either case, all it takes is one guy with a smart bomb, and things can get ugly real fast. If you take the transition slow, and have people jump through in waves this risk would be mitigated somewhat.

After the people have gotten through, you could provide a "navy base" PoS for people to reship at. You could anchor it for the event and tear it down at the end of the day easily enough without having to worry about it being destroyed. Provided you fill the stront bay, the worst that could happen is it would be sent into reenforced mode. This PoS should give you a safe harbor from which to launch the event.

The biggest problem your going to run into is people not understanding the PoS mechanics. The easiest way to get around this is probably to simply have a whole bunch of fitted ships floating inside the PoS shield.

Of course, the less scrupulous types will probably make off with a few ships, but this arrangement should get you where you need to go. The only alternative I can think of is to have event goers prepare for weeks in advance.

....

Another approach would be to distribute a special module that people can fit to anything smaller than a capital ship. This module would have one charge which instantly transports event goers to a system of your choice (one time only and only during the duration of the event). I assume this could be implemented more easily than the LCO approach. Again, the ride home would be courtesy the local static or the pod express.

....

*Edit: Or even easier than that, you import the "moveme" function from SiSi, redirect its destination, and just have people ask to join the event. (This idea makes me cry, but it sounds like its simplest thing you could do)

Hmm, your language here makes me wonder if there was some confusion. Just to be clear, the variant jump bridge I was talking about is not for release to the public. It would be one-off tool for the storytellers to use, allowing occasional mass participation of Live Events in w-space.... I wasn't suggesting a system of "player-made star gates to w-space" (cool though that might be).

OK, two scenarios, one "Standard" one "Nonstandard (Read: Better)".

STANDARD
- Assumption: CCP can use devhax to spawn and "point" a wormhole at a given J-sig system
- Assumption: CCP can create a new sig type A### hole in a future patch that gives them configurable mass limits and never occurs naturally (or they could do it the messy way and edit or force-respawn an existing hole on the fly)
- Get your group of devs in 2-6 systems to ensure fairness, put up "crazy event at k-space site x", spawn appropriate hole, respawn as needed.


But honestly, I think this misses the point, even if technically feasible.


NONSTANDARD
Let's start by questioning a major assumption: That loads of people need to be there. Why? The benefit of a small event with a small group is MUCH more appealing IMHO, especially in W-Space. Besides, -10s couldn't come to the Caldari Prime event, right? And server load kept out many more. So who cares about "fair" and "everyone ever in huge groups"? You can spread the love around over the course of a year or more to reach many people with things like the below (regardless of space type).

Have a character spawn into a wormhole system and do a small-time, big-story item. Pick a corp's home. Pick a place where you can see a battle underway. Pick one of the wacky ones with the + or - and leave a listener there, pop in when you see a likely traveler in system (Assumption: CCP has a way to pick up travelers in W-Space). Pop in when someone is running an Oruze Osobnyak. Pick an empty hole and set up a bizarre POS no one has seen before. Honestly, the spin up and investigation that will be spawned as something goes from a rumor to a "pix or didn't happen" to a dev character on IGS confirming its authenticity ... dear lord you have a lot of mileage you'll get out of about 30-90 minutes of 1 to a handful of staff's time. No more forumups and 3-hour dev roams for a live event. Show something unexpected a la Mouse Nell's discovery of Sansha in JoveLand. Let us find Burreau and her five compatriots for god's sake, just make sure some idiot doesn't blow them all up for the LOLs this time - I suspect CCP Falcon's new contacts could ensure that people in that hole who have the right mindset discover these things. Have a new appearance of the Awakened Infomorph. Hell, how cool would it be to have these drop exclusive story content (artifacts etc with no other capability than to move the story forward)? Have small amounts of Isogen-5 drop from each event and watch the price skyrocket as people speculate on what it will be used for in future releases without having to commit to anything. Have a Kuvakei sighting (or any other story character) - maybe some groups are still stealing implants for Dusties direct from Sleeper heads. The possibilities are endless.

Don't underestimate the power of a mystery propagated by rumor and speculation that starts with a small group. The Mouse Nell thing is what drove me to say, "I'm going to go find stuff like that - what an amazing game that a lone player could find that!" There's your Odyssey.

If you do one every two weeks for a year, you get 26 "favorites" (or 1 a month for 12). Don't repeat groups, and that covers a whole lot of people, and thus isn't really favoritism, now is it? Or do it in a neutral location (as stated above) and let people find you. Or bolt every "H296" wormhole to the same system for 12 hours. IMHO, "favoritism" complaints are a cop-out unless CCP is delivering something of game-mechanic-altering value (note above it says "with no other capability than to move the story forward". Here's an example). Remember, the only thing Mouse Nell got was a screencap. If you're crying "unfair" about that I can't help you ... I couldn't get to Caldari Prime, I was stuck in a wormhole with nothing but null k-space connections. Lots of -10s weren't able to go either. So what?

Now, if they delivered an amazing new module to a handful of people, then I could see a problem.

But let's be honest. All that the "mass combat" ones do in-game (obviously there are storyline effects as well) is enrich PL and pad their killboard, right? How is that "not favoritism"?

we've been down that road before. and i don't think anyone wants to see that kind of thing happen again.

I guess one, solution of sorts would be to have a WH system created specifically for an event. make it so there are no routes in/out other than those provided by the event etc. this would mean there would be no potential penalty or gains for anyone inhabiting the area.

I have to echo CCP Goliath's points here.

While it's all well and good to say "if you don't have this resource or tool, just create it", sadly that's simply not possible. It means pulling our programmers, who already work flat out and do an awesome job, away from other vital projects in order to work for us.

I'm no game development genius, but I have an extremely strong background in project management from my former field of work, and its simply just not feasible given our release schedule.

People are also forgetting that Live Events aren't simply a case of "bring a few ships to a location and shoot things" or "bring a few ships to a wormhole and shoot things".

Live Events are there to support storyline. During the run up to the Incursion expansion, the focus was very much on Sansha's Nation and wormholes, because that's where the storyline narrative was centered to provide logic and reasoning for Incursions in terms of backstory.

Now, we've moved away from w-space for the time being and we're focused on advancing the storylines of the four core empires.

Live Events will always follow the ongoing storyline narrative, it's not just a case of "oh, lets have a live event here this week, it'll be cool". Whether it be a massive firefight, or a simple sighting of a political figure, or maybe a speech with no combat involved, then the direction of New Eden's storyline will always dictate the layout and format of Live Events.

While the ideas put out here are great, and we can't thank you enough for the enthusiasm you guys are showing, even something that you guys see as simple as creating a single tool or feature that may be used for 10-20 seconds in an event to bridge people into a system needs a massive amount of resources.

In a perfect world, I'd love to have every tool we could possibly think of available to us, but right now it's just not feasible given how hard our game designers and content developers are already pushing to make sure that both EVE and DUST evolve the way they should.

It is not on everybody's "Must do" list. It would be cool, but hardly required.

It's not a hot potato at all.



It's favoritism when we put a halt to our live events schedule to give a particular demographic attention because they ask for it on the forums, yes.

Just an idea, but could you create some kind of structure on the wh space side that i dunno is ancient technology, from sleepers/pre sleepers, which allows the wormhole to be controlled, so there is no mass at which it is destablized, as long as this structure remains in player hands.

You could use how i believe the FW system works in that when the sleepers are present/ gain the upper hand the wormhole becomes more and more unstable, and pve players have to fight "super" sleepers in order to keep the hole open, however the pve experience has to be one hell of a challenge. There could also be super valuable sites such as mags or radars with extra valuable loot or something like that to make it worthwhile to keep the wormhole open?

And of course the many pvpers amongst the wormhole community could feel free to wreak havoc amongst the players, at the risk of attracting the wrath of the sleepers themselves of course ;) You could make it so that the longer the hole remains open the stronger the sleeper presence gets as they attempt to close the hole, leading to it eventually closing. In order to stop campers you could have some kind of distortion field (dont know if this is possible? :)) that stops targeting and then players warp from the wormhole to a beacon on the overview which is where the sleeper control center is (where the fight to keep the hole open is occuring).

I dont know how much of this is impossible, but in my mind it seems to be stuff that already exists but feel free to correct me :p Anyway thats my two cents :)