Jerec Bratt
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
19
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Posted - 2012.02.29 13:35:00 -
[1] - Quote
[tl;dr]Most activities are either do not affect the sandbox being purely cosmetic, or can be performed without having an avatar, be it accessing the market or a board game. The only gameplay reason to have an physical body in the sanbox game of EVE is for this avatar to be affected by the other players in the sandbox.[/tl;dr]
First I'd like to explain, that I really want to have avatars in EVE. Srsly.
Second - no matter what is said, there will be avatars in EVE - CCP already put them in and they're not going away. So "No WiS" is not an option.
In EVE we can already do multiple things without avatars. Buying things, selling them, researching, producing, refining, getting missions, fitting ships - all that stuff and more is done without an avatar. All that stuff allows us to affect all other players in the sandbox.
So now the question should be, what would you need an avatar for? What can an avatar actually do?
There are two groups of activities that open when avatars are introduced in a game. One of those are quasi-gameplay, where you don't really play a game, but actually watch your avatar do things (animations) and interact with objects and other avatars. Problem with these is that most of these interactions can be done via a computer terminal, and that actually means these can be done wothout you watching them being done, so without avatars. In this group I pu all the /dance /showfinger animations, the corp hall meetings when you watch everyone sitting in the chairs instead of simply using teamspeak or walking up to a bar to play boardgames, gamble and watch NPC dancers. All of these are possible without an Avatar and are ONLY called for, if there are other activities that bring in actual gameplay, and not just eye candy cover up for gameplay.
The other group are the activities that avatars allow is actual gameplay. Having an Avatar allows you to move it, so racing other players becomes an addition to gameplay. So is kayaking. But it actually also means, that you now have a hand i can break.
Melee combat is impossible without Avatars. If we both have avatars, I can hit you in the face with my fist, and, given a gun, shoot you in the head. This is certainly affecting another player in the sandbox. If I can use a paralyzer, or hold you in a cell, it's certainly affects you.
My point is, that I can't figure out a reason for CCP to have Avatars in EVE other then combat. Every other way presented is a cosmetic (watch only) addition, be it watching the Avatar dance or watch him ake part in a Corp meeting or play a board game I could easily play in an interface that does not involve avatars.
My idea is for CCP to implement combat that would not require FPS shooting. We fight in space all the time. Why not implement combat that is controlled in a similiar way, requires more strategic planning and preparation?
The means to do it are twofild - for once, the character models should have a resource costly Level Of Detail algorithm when within combat - that would allow more models to get displayed. The other thing is getting those dogs, slaves, Sansha's Cyborgs, CONCORD guards and other enemies modeled and animated as well as many medium-detail space interior blocks to rearrange them randomly.
My bet is, that seeing a trailer of running, shooting and avatar based combat in cloning bays, ship cargoholds, space platforms and running refineries will pretty soon get CCP all the subscriptions they need.
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