Vrain Matari
ZionTCD
1079
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Posted - 2013.10.12 17:40:00 -
[2] - Quote
I think open world is definitely possible, but the design is what will make or break it ofc. And it is a big project and will require a carefully thought out and pre-meditated rollout.
The core design principles in New Eden are always: good gameplay coupled to the strategic importance of gamemode rewards/resources. If the open world gamemode does not influence balance of power in New Eden then it's pointless, a waste of developer resources and a needless dilution of the playerbase.
I believe the area of the world most in need of relevance is Faction Warfare, both EVE-side and DUST-side. FW is good for printing ISK and obtaining Faction loot, and provides a natural home for roleplay, but is otherwise wholly irrelevant to New Eden geopolitics. And to be honest, the same criticism is true of highsec, but hisec is tricky and best saved for last, imo.
Based on these arguments, limited-theatre open-district DUST FW gameplay that supports EVE-side manufacturing stands to contribute the most to the game, imo. I would like to see lowsec as the natural home for manufacturing in EVE, but with bonuses only attainable through DUST operations that incorporate both initial strike/capture phases and ongoing maintenance phases to preserve bonuses. One area that mercs must make an important contribution to if lowsec is to become a manufacturing powerbase is secure/convenient transport of resources and products - via persistent passive transport buffs based on infrastructure or temporary highly-secure transport missions. What form these take who knows, but transportation is the primary factor limiting lowsec manufacturing in New Eden today.
Gonna stop it there because once we get into specifics of design walls of text are not far away.
One of the take-aways from the 'strategic relevance' argument for content is that everything becomes at least an order of magnitude more complicated because now we have to consider both EVE and DUST in all gameplay content decisions going forward from basically now, and anything that affects EVE-side geopolitics is a potential minefield for CCP. There is no way around this, however, because irrelevance is not an option for the mercenary soldiers of New Eden.
P.S.: Timeline is after we have made the transition to PS4 and ironed out all the kinks. So for open-world gamemodes i'd imagine a couple of years down the road. |