Snuffmuffin
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Posted - 2010.01.20 08:23:00 -
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Let's all agree that STO is nothing like EvE. If anything, STO is pretty much exactly like Champions Online. It's a casual hyper-kinetic PvE fest with a few novel ideas that are worth looking at.
One thing that STO doesn't compete with EvE on is ship configuration - STO is just an old-fashioned paper doll with very specific slots for very specific items. All you can do there is try and get a tiny edge by outfitting the definably best module. You'll never see the sheer variety and downright nifty fittings that you can have in EvE. There's no such thing as a bad fit in STO, just a less-than-optimal one.
The idea of bridge officers is interesting as yet another way to tweak your ship, but in STO's space game these are the equivalent of specialized modules which provide novel effects. You level up the attack by spending points to improve the officer, but if you decide you don't want that officer later on you'll have wasted your time and effort with no compensation. I'll take EvE's skill training over that, thank you, and I'd rather buy the modules I need then grind away on PvE content hoping that the "right one" becomes available.
Most of the weapons in STO have firing arcs. That sounds neat, but it's reflective of STO's button-mashing positional combat. You maneuver at a slow speed and try to get in a position to use your powerful guns. In EvE we have a wide variety of weapons and have to deal with optimal range, transverse velocities, ships moving at enormous speeds, explosion radius, and so forth. That's a lot more interesting than a simple firing arc, even if it's less intimate and immediate.
One thing that STO has which is nearly absent from EvE is power distribution. It's not a new idea - the best early implementation goes back to the Star Wars space combat games in the 90's. The closest thing EvE has is overheating. It's worth considering how EvE's combat would change if pilots had options to allocate energy between shields, weapons and engines, though it would add a whole lot of grief to devs trying to balance combat.
Another STO concept is boarding parties, though it's really just another "special attack" that's been given its own button. Is there a place in EvE for a proper implementation of boarding parties? How would it work? Would it be possible to forcibly eject a pilot from their ship? I'm sure *that* idea has been brought up dozens of times on these forums and promptly squashed for a multitude reasons, but I mention it for completeness.
Are STO's missions demonstratively better than EvE's? After playing STO for a few days I don't think so. Missions in STO really are just "kill ten rats" for the most part, though they've made an effort to create the illusion of variety. While there is a nice story-like progression to some of their missions, it's actually a miniature quest chain with each part taking no more than three or four minutes to complete. While most everyone agrees that EvE could use a bit of PvE polish, at least the combat missions present a modest challenge and have a real risk associated. EvE's new NPE missions and epic arcs indicate that there is much to look forward to in this area.
There's really no point in commenting on STO's ground play or running around in stations in relation to EvE, since it just doesn't apply. I can say that I didn't find it compelling or interesting - it was something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
The only place where STO really shines is in their auto grouping for missions, but I really can't see any way to make that work in the context of EvE - this is a PvP game at heart and it'd be way too easy to exploit any system that puts players together randomly, though perhaps the devs will prove me wrong :)
Anyway, that's as much as I can offer at this point. It's always worth looking at other games to see if there's anything that might make EvE better, but in the case of STO there doesn't seem to be much fruit worth picking.
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