Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Once eve has finished a large part of its overhaul I would definitely appreciate more Avatar based game play as well. With Casinos, etc. Something that could possibly be intertwined with their new dust addition for PC.

That being said, although I love the concept of Star Citizen and will most likely be playing it... I also appreciate EvE for what it is and will continue to play it.

I think there a multiple thinks CCP should do before doing such things.

-1

Because developer resources are unlimited, and there's no overhead to adding additional complexity that has to be maintained?

Well great! Ponies for everyone!

Why on or off Earth would any one want EVE to have "mass appeal"?

Just looking for the laughs, not disappointed.

OP has a horrible idea, top to bottom. SC should not be something people currently point to and say they've done it right.
For one thing, it is not done.

Bearing in mind hes only specified walking out his ship on his own and gambling in station, what was so 'top to bottom' horrible?

SC is far from a sandbox and using it for inspiration should certainly be taken with an ounce of skepticism, but these two particular elements were once cited for eve, and were popular.

you're worried in case CCP will give themselves unique ships and will RMT?

cause they dont do that now...

If you like Star Citizen so much than go play it. Oh way you can't really because it's really just a ongoing scam. WiS nearly killed EVE there is a metric ton of things to fix and do before WiS is even considered again.

Adding in avatar gameplay would be good for Eve, imo. Some other ways to interact (and potentially take advantage of) environment/habits/assumptions. I also believe that it doesn't have to come at the cost of FiS Eve. That is, after all, why we're all here.

As for taking inspiration from SC, I think that's a little off to put it mildly as, 1 - game isn't out, much less done yet, 2 - these ideas of WiS have been around for far longer than SC has been a viable concept (and didn't start with Eve either to be fair).

As for joining Eve: Valkyrie and Eve: Legion, while I think it would be really cool if it worked as well as we all want it to, the likelihood of that is pretty slim. Getting multiple different graphics engines to all play well together and transition seamlessly is no small feat. And then there's the other concern of instancing having been mentioned earlier. Valkyrie already has instancing as part of its design concept. I don't recall what the limits are off hand. Dust definitely has limits to the instances, and by extension it's highly probable that Legion will as well. Perhaps a larger player count than Dust, but a very finite limit nonetheless. The system battles that could be waged, given how Eve players fight, would see thousands of players per side. This is unrealistic, imo. The only game that remotely handles this is PS2 and I'm not certain how well it even does with the battles that go up over a couple hundred. (disclosure: haven't played PS2 in a long while so it might be better, but I recall render distance being a massive PITA for larger fights).

Long story, short; would like to see CCP re-attempt some Avatar-based game design in Eve. Caveat being that it's not purely cosmetic (provides actual social interaction and/or gameplay mechanic).

The other game coming out and the threat of the vaporware will positively affect avatar play.

The other games could have an effect on the rate of new player acquisition and retention. Our vets or even newer players that have already found something enjoyable about Eve are not likely to run out and quit Eve just because of these other games. Eve players never leave. They just take breaks. And more than likely people will play both games, playing Elite while ship spinning.

The main problem is that new players expect to be able to do something with the awesome Avatars they have created. It's kind of a shocker for new players to learn that you are just a ship. Ever since the captains quarters came out the situation strikes them as kind of odd. Usually the forum posts about WiS are from newer players wanting it and then getting a bunch of responses from Vets calling them crazy for wanting it and then the threads getting promptly locked for being redundant.

I predict that the other games coming out will basically change the player attitude in Eve away from the cynical 'Eve is just spaceships' and ancient 'the game is broke, fix what's broke before you innovate' ideas that have been around forever that don't make any sense anymore. I've actually started seeing posts from vets on the forums that are kind of excited about SC and Elite having or promising to have avatar play and wishing Eve would have it too. CCP's utter abandonment of avatar play came from the extremely negative and cynical reaction to it from the players. (I know micro transactions were at the heart of incarna's problem, but let's not derail the thread into a conversation about Incarna - we have to acknowledge that there was negative reaction to the CQ.) When these features come out in other games the Eve players will start wanting it for Eve and it will eventually happen.

However, Avatar play is a very resource intensive addition and CCP is already bleeding employees (at least from Eve - Valkyrie seems to be hiring people) and struggling to grow (Eve isn't dying. In fact it's growing. Just too slow for comfort).

Ultimately, I am certain that Avatar play will be back on the map although I think it will be a couple years down the pipe and integrated with Legion. We still have the big sov fix before us, gameplay fixes and improvements, and the carrot of the player-built star gates, which could be anything from a new structure to an utter change in the Eve universe.

Anyway, when the WiS posts come up I am always excited to post and reply that I want it too. But I am certain this is what will come about. However, I encourage more posts about WiS and particularly more posts about WiS from veteran players who may have been originally opposed to it before but after contemplating SC and Elite may have changed their tune. Let's keep posting and get CCP thinking. Previously the WiS advocates were pigeon-holed ad a bunch of noobs and role-players. Let's try to let CCP know that WiS is something that a lot of players would actually like and that they should have in mind as they develop Legion.