Elroy Cruise
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Posted - 2004.05.03 07:45:00 -
[1]
One of the nicest aspects of Eve for me is that it manages to be at once casual gamer friendly and involving, while still rewarding dedicated players.
Offline training and the way skills works play a large part in this.
Adding some level of web-enabled gameplay could only improve Eve on this side of things and would not be detrimental to the overall experience:
- Out-of game skill training/queueing has a lot of benefits and no factual downsides whatsoever. (The dead-beaten "people won't log in anymore" is a non-sequitur, as stated earlier: players already routinely drop in game just long enough to switch their skills.)
- Web-based auctionning/trading would be nice, too, allowing to cut deals and set auctions while away from the game.
- It wouldn't cost much in terms of coding since most of user-viewable text/numbers in Eve is already embedded proto html.
- Schedule/meeting tools to arrange playtime in groups would be even cooler, even though it means implementing actualnew features, hence more coding/debugging load.
Before it turns into a turdstorm, let me state the rationale for what may arguably look like an invite to afk:
It is an obvious fact that until - if ever - Eve implements "real" playable 3D avatars, gameplay in stations amounts to no more than what can be achieved over a web interface with chat enabled.
While this may be a current limitation of the game, it actually could be leveraged to improve gameplay for both casual players and hardcore gamers, bakers and pilots alike.
More out-of-game game action means more action happening in Eve at a very low cost server-load-wise, which is good for everyone.
More trading and auctionning means more business, more hauling, more courier missions, more production and outlets for products.
Players with limited access to the game (time and RL constraints), could better schedule their gaming time with their friends/partners, and get the most of their in-game time, while contributing more to the ongoing action while they're not in game, thus creating play opportunities for others, too.
It could also help smoothen a lot of the peak-hours off-hours scheduling and load issues, in teh mid to long run.
Dedicated players, those who spend more time in game would still (and even more) be able to find interesting player-driven stuff to do, due to the higher number of transactions and business action.
Of course, there is an objection: it would allow about anyone to max out all their skills in a fairly predictable timeframe.
Well, that's about the only thing I have a grudge with in Eve's design. Skillpoints should be capped (I don't think they are), most likely in a "soft" way, making it harder to train high skill levels (and low skills to a lower,yet non linear) extent as one nears the cap.
That would probably entail the ability to forgo some skill branches to improve others or take new skill paths, and/or using some usage-based decay-over-time mechanics to allow any character to eventually become pretty good at anything she sets herself to, but not master of all trades, no matter how long spend in game.
Well... did I stray away ?
TTFN, anyways,
Cruise Elroy, your friendly ghost.
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N.A.G.A Scout, bookie specialist, and diagnosed drone maniac. |