Marlenus
Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
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Posted - 2010.02.20 16:23:00 -
[1]
People in EVE care about two things: making ISK, and getting fights.
The word is, no combat on planets and no projection of military force to attack or defend these new installations, not until DUST time. So, it sounds like this expansion is not about getting fights.
Now, there are thin reeds to grasp at. "This expansion is about exploration and industry." Exploration means, I hope, somebody has to go to each planet and drop some probes. That means, traffic to be killed. Unfortunately, it probably means covops/cloaky traffic, but still, more traffic is good for the PVP game.
Industry, too, usually means goods being transported. Everybody loves shooting at transport ships. But here, the planetary/space interface matters. Another thin reed to grasp at: "launch them into space." The goodies have to appear SOMEWHERE in the shootable universe, and hopefully it won't be in a hangar at a station. (That would be epic dumbth.) My guess is that they'll magically appear in a silo inside something that looks and smells like a POS. That will be boring.
What would be fun? Seriously: launch them into space, where they appear, on orbit, in cargo containers with the usual 1-hour life span. Scattered all over multiple grids, where somebody has to collect them with haulers and tractor beams. Now, THAT would be something to fight over! You could try your own ninja-scooping in your cloaky blockade runners, you could attack the planetary overlords as they work to collect their loot...suddenly, lots of low-scale PVP fun. This would even bring PVP to high sec, due to the can-ownership agro mechanics.
Pray for this. But do not hold your breath.
ISK-making: We don't need faucets unless they are balanced by sinks, and if the sinks are too close to the faucets (which is to say, the income from planetary development is balanced by the costs of it) nobody will do it due to lack of profit. So the sinks have to be off-planet somewhere. There's no hint of this in the dev blog. So the conclusion is, either it will be an economy-breaking faucet that can't be shot at (more epic dumbth) or there won't be much faucet there in the first place. That's what I expect, but it doesn't make a lot of sense, because that leaves little incentive for anybody to play this part of the game, and nothing worthwhile for the DUST players to fight over when they finally arrive. Would they really add another expansion that makes the Faction Warfare mistake, and offers no persistent reason to use the content?
After PVP and ISK, what else could there be?
Still grasping at straws, here, but I'll tell you what went through my mind when I first read "For a long time we have had people asking us for more options to build up their own infrastructure." When I think "personal infrastructure" I think of other games and "houses". Lots and lots of us want a place we can call ours (solo, single, personal) where we can stash our stuff in a personalized environment. Hangars do not cut it, and are (practically) unavailable in most 0.0 systems anyway.
But, think about this new planetary management screen. Where will "you" be while you "play" it? Surely CCP wouldn't let you dock up and manage your planets from a station, would they? Surely they'll make us fly to the planet in question and "land" there, right?
When that happens, where does our ship go?
If the answer is: "Your personal planetary hangar" then we have a winner, folks!
Customizable personal hangars, anywhere there's a planet? That cannot be nuked from orbit? Suddenly people would use this feature. And *fight* for the ability to do so.
Power blocs out where hangars are scarce will hate this, rightly. The whining will be epic. They will hire DUST teams -- once they can -- to sanitize these "houses" off "their" planets. But meanwhile, it will add both fun and conflict, as every expansion ought to do.
Pray for this. But do not hold your breath.
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Marlenus
Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
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Posted - 2010.02.23 03:38:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Chiralos
Originally by: Marlenus
But, think about this new planetary management screen. Where will "you" be while you "play" it? Surely CCP wouldn't let you dock up and manage your planets from a station ...
Yeah pretty sure they would. I hope you're right though, personal planetary hangers would be way cool. Hangers ? Bah ! I want a palace. With slaves.
Sadly, it appears you may be right about playing from a station, or just a screen you can pull up anywhere. Folks who have been to FanFest are reporting some sort of omniscient management screen such as that. Bah!
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