Member of the EVE Tweet Fleet

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Freedom Looms

  To my readers in the States, Happy 4th of July. I hope you enjoy grilling in the hot sun, drinking, and then sating your innermost pyro with grand displays of disregard for safety by exploding things on our day of Independence. Gotta love it.

  And for those of you outside of the States...Happy Wednesday. Hope your week is just as fun.

  I just got back from a short vacation/family trip back home in the north and it seems I missed something very interesting while I was there. A thread about disappoint over WiS garnered a response promising an upcoming devblog, as well as giving a video link (demo starts at 10:12) showing a feature that is being prototyped. Walking around with your avatar in structures you find throughout the universe.

Funny since, I just said something to that effect.

  This prototype has been around for a few months and gives a fair amount of excitement for those who want to actually utilize their avatar in a meaningful way. But it also gives rise to a few questions.

Why not DUST?


  The immediate question is simple. If you are creating a whole game based on this sort of thing for DUST, why not integrate that into a system built around people fighting? The reason given so far as I have gathered that capsuleers are getting out of their pods to explore dangerous environments is: "They are radiated and only capsuleers can survive!" The exploration is also supposed to be dangerous in other ways, at least that seems to be what's implied. Why not DUST mercs or robots since, you know...this is the future?

  One may say, why not capsuleers? They are known for doing a multitude of things just because they can and it amuses them. Alright, I can buy that but there is another lore issue that needs to be dealt with first.

What happens when you die?

  DUST implants and EVE implants are not the same. A capsuleer needs to be inside a pod so that when they get splattered, their grey melons get scanned and immediately sent to the new clone that is sitting in a station waiting to be loaded up.

  So what happens then if you are walking around? You still get sent to that clone but your ship is chilling where you left it, read to be taken? You lose everything, as is the way of Eve? Or will you need to do a bit of training in order to leave the ship at all. New implants appear on the market that you plug in for the new fun? Capsuleers are only immortal in the sense that they can just keep swapping to new bodies. But if they run out of bodies or can't make that transfer, they disappear.

  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with getting this added into the universe since it just gives one more aspect for me to explore. If CCP does a great job and makes it really creepy/suspenseful/engaging/worthwhile and as long as they polish it to perfection before trying to send out some half done piece of crap, this could add depth and approachability for new subscribers.

  Then again, this will be something that existing players will want as optional. Something that doesn't impact or take away from their Flying in Space adventures. Part of me understands that, but the other part of me says grow up and learn to embrace new things. Eve is CCP's IP and they have a vision that may not be identical to every one of their users'. That's ok and they have shown they can be flexible and modify their vision to our tastes. After 2 years of flying around, I really wouldn't mind stretching my pixel-y legs for a bit.

  As in all things, time will tell how this develops with the rest of our universe. I have high hopes, however. For now, I am relegated to signing in long enough to swap skills. I just finished Gallente BS V so there's another horizon of progress met, eh?

  Keep an eye on this space
-Mem
 
 


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