I can just envisage fighting tonnes of Sansha forces while scanning finding a WiS spawn with a generic WiS site name, entering and finding out that the complex is full of Jove spies, or Cheeky Talocan Sturmovik's.

This thread was obviously thought to be controversial, so unifex had to come out and endorse it :)

CCP, I think you have the playerbase a bit wrong here. The majority of the playerbase is not opposed to avatar gameplay, in fact I think most of us think it would be awesome to have a seamless ship/avatar experience like the one portrayed in future vision and this year fanfest video.

What you delivered in Incarna wasnt avatar gameplay, and it was disapointing, but what made the playerbase RAGE was not this at all. It was 3rd party developer fees, PayToWin, the hilariously hopless NeX store, 1000 dollar pants - i.e. the feeling that you planned to monetize your playerbase, coupled with a certain "we wont listen unless you unsubscribe on us" email, that spraked the riots.

Dont confuse these two things. Incarna was dissapointing as hell compared to what players were expecting, but it was not what caused the BIG crisis.

The critical thing moving foreward will however be a question of resource allocation. You have done :18 months: on us before to develop Incarna with little to show for it, and I dont see the playerbase have that kind of patience again. So, if you are going to do this - and I actually really think you should - you cannot ignore the ship game in the meantime.

Also, CCP, why do you develop prototypes of new features then pitch them to management? Management does not pay for them to be developed, we do. Pitch them to us, get our approval.

I'm glad to have some clarity on the issue. The exploration content sounds awesome, and I like the general old-school horror theme that you're vulnerable and exploring a dark and dangerous landscape. I don't know if anyone at CCP has played Penumbra, but that general vibe would be amazing. Maybe have the courage to have things in there that are not necessary designed to be overcome, but avoided and routed around--when possible. If you think fast.

The two team limitation is an acceptable start, but for maximum mayhem you should consider finding ways to up that.

(And, to answer something from Scatim Helicon's good post, I do not want Dersen traipsing around Sleeper ruins in an open leather jacket. That will shatter immersion. Some kind of environmental suit is obvious--especially if they could be dyed or badged in some way so that it was possible to recognize your team.)

It makes sense that solving this problem makes social spaces and stations much, much easier by comparison. I'm glad you're leading with this, though. This promises to be fun.

(And, to answer something from Scatim Helicon's good post, I do not want Dersen traipsing around Sleeper ruins in an open leather jacket. That will shatter immersion. Some kind of environmental suit is obvious--especially if they could be dyed or badged in some way so that it was possible to recognize your team.)

Oh and to someone that asked if it can be safe. Sorry, nope. The EVA gameplay is not safe, it's as safe as going into a wormhole. That's also what makes it interesting.

How do you think it will work in the various security statuses?

We actually didn't go that deep into that part of the design, the prototype we built focused on the minute by minute exploration, looting, overcoming obstacles and fighting turrets and random encounters of other players. It would vary in difficulty in risk, but one thing about EVE is that you are only ever fully safe when docked or logged off. Even mining in hisec is not without risk, as many can testify to. It can be annoying for some, but it adds so much more depth and dare I say it, verisimilitude to the experience of living in New Eden.

Good to see CCP is focusing its talents and not smearing them out over lord knows how many projects.


Sounds great tough! Meaningful avatar play.

Don't forget to use one of those bars you see/saw floating in some missions to put those in use as well, when ever you get to allocate the sources needed for this. When ever I ran into those I always thought of 'Porky's in space'.

Although it would be greatly amusing to see capsuleers just running around in their regular clothes soaking up radiation and toxic waste and not giving a damn because their human bodies are just disposable shells that can be trivially replaced at any time.