Blackback Starkiel
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Posted - 2007.09.15 13:56:00 -
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I think a lot of story problems would be avoided if the capsuleers didn't actually left the pod when going into the station. I think it's important for CCP to be future-proof. Even if combat is not allowed initially, it might be in the future, and then it must fit with the lore of the game. As many have stated, it makes little sense for the wealthy and extremely powerful pod pilots to put themselves at risk if they don't have to. And having 50 guards surrounding you is not really a technical option for the game engine, I imagine... 
No clones need to be involved. Rather, the capsuleer rent a android body from the station services, and control it remotely. The terminal bot is customized to look exactly like the character (think "Ghost in the shell" remote bodies -- not some metallic android thing, but a fully artificial human form, mimicked in perfect detail). The puppet is outfitted with the basic clothes and equipment you specify, for a fee. The remote terminal would thus really be a disposable "avatar", also from the perspecive of your character, who remains emerged in the pod, still learning whatever skill is set to train.
This rather elegantly suggests there would be "terminal handling" skills to train, to improve your control over the remote body. You wouldn't need to train this to use the terminal, but if there were indeed things like station combat or various actions to perform, features like reactions, speed or whatever could be improved for an edge. This would then naturally be skills trained by the pod pilot himself, and no separate skill tree would be needed.
This could resolve the problem of death or other dangers in stations, should CCP decide to include it in the future. The problem with walking in yourself would otherwise be that people with expensive implants and the like would simply stay in their pod and not risk it.
But the terminal cannot be completely disposable either -- if death is cheap, EVE will become a very different game, with people jumping back with guns blazing at first opportunity. A suggestion for a possible in-station fighting system (this must of course be standing/security based, I take that as granted) would be to make remote body destruction a quasi-permanent thing. If there was a delay of several hours before the station could rent you "a new terminal customized properly to your cybernetic link" (or something), the destruction of your remote body would really matter and you'd be out of any combat going on. It would be inconvenient and sting, and people would know that rushing in would be useless -- but the actual pilot will still be unharmed in his pod -- all implants will remain intact. Station services are still available from the neocom, and he can leave in his ship as normal -- but he won't be able to send another terminal body into that particular station for a while.
(Of course, the "remote body" could also be a sort of quick-clone grown for you in the station. It would work the same, but I would say that also in this case the clone too would also just be some sort of empty puppet being remote controlled from the pod rather than the full sentience of the pilot being inserted into the clone. Otherwise this would not fit with the background and the reliance on the pod for attaining immortality. )
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Blackback
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