The grand vision that made DUST 514 such an inspiring and unique property; the narrative that underlies CCPGÇÖs most successful advertising, reflected in their slogans and interviews; Is a dream as yet unrealized. It will continue to be so until a few basic issues are addressed.

Mercenaries must have the ability to participate directly in the eve economy. Players must enjoy some economic and/or political benefit from the appropriate and inspired strategic application of Dust forces.

Meanwhile, to be invested in the dynamic of the player narrative, they must be able to fully participate in the social milieu of New Eden. The individual mercenary must fit seamlessly and purposefully into the the social dynamic of the corporations and alliances of New Eden.

In brief:
1.) Dust players need to be able to buy and sell on the market with an intrinsic scarcity of goods that inspires trade between mercenaries and between mercenaries and capsuleers.
2.) Dust players need to be able to fulfill contracts from Capsuleers that affect the political landscape of Nullsec, the territorial balance of Faction Warfare, and/or the industrial engine of Highsec in a way that is predictable enough to be strategically applied and countered.
3.) Dust players need to be fully integrated into the corp/alliance structure of eve with a full API, robust communication, and a proper mirroring of roles.

These are certainly not the only issues that plague our game. There are issues of balance, of content, and of the monetization and distribution of skill points that pose serious challenges to the development of DUST. The solution to those issues, though, must be informed by and in service to the fundamental and foundational philosophy of DUST as a facet of the New Eden metagame, and the player base needs a constant and concise sense of feedback on our progress towards those goals.

...We know CCP already has the ability to move the MCCs around on the field in real time, they could do that all the way back in Skirmish 1.0... and it was COOL AS HELL. imagine your on the surface of a FW district, you're messing around, practicing flying dropships or squad tactics, and in comes the enemy MCC. BATTLE COMMENCES....

Why not let us choose which planet and district to attack and defend whenever we want? Why not make FW matches take, say, two or three times as long to complete, but if you choose a district that is undefended you can just walk up and take it? Sure, it might be "boring" to have matches end up as 16 vs 0, but those people that want a fight will choose to fight. Isn't that the whole point of New Eden, giving players THE CHOICE to do what they want? The player base of Dust 514 wants the same feeling of player agency that the players of EVE enjoy. Even just a taste of it. Allowing us to choose our fights in FW would give people that feeling of being able to "walk around on the districts" that we hear people ask for over and over again, it's just if you do so you have to keep an eye out because an enemy faction could roll in on a warbarge and start blasting you in the face.

Great thread and discussion.

Just yesterday, I filled out the latest survey which CCP inviting me to take part in via e-mail. I couldn't emphasize enough the need to have clear and consise communication regarding any and all future plans for DUST 514. "Currently no plans to..." and "SoonGäó" just don't cut it!


Survey link - http://ccp.questionpro.com

Survey Structure - Section A = CCP / Section B = EVE / Section C = DUST

Questions? Contact the Research Team - [email protected]


EDIT: Make sure all your corpmates take the survey, especially those who don't use the forums!

Great thread and discussion.

Just yesterday, I filled out the latest survey which CCP inviting me to take part in via e-mail. I couldn't emphasize enough the need to have clear and consise communication regarding any and all future plans for DUST 514. "Currently no plans to..." and "SoonGäó" just don't cut it!


Survey link - http://ccp.questionpro.com

Survey Structure - Section A = CCP / Section B = EVE / Section C = DUST

Questions? Contact the Research Team - [email protected]


EDIT: Make sure all your corpmates take the survey, especially those who don't use the forums!

I kind of get the feeling that mobile MCCs were removed (at least in part) for being buggy as all hell. If they could have them show up out of the blue like you describe, I agree it would be ridiculously awesome.

Frankly, I think worrying about Dust mercenary's impact on EVE is putting the cart before the horse.

How about CCP start by finding ways in which Dust mercenaries can have an impact on Dust 514.

sounds like a FW conquest mode where capsuleers and dustbunnies to decide what locations to take over. we likey.

This is poor thinking. DUST and EVE are not separate games and separate universes. New Eden is the world, and each game is the window. DUST will have DUST things and EVE will have EVE things, but thinking of them as separate beasts is what makes one lose sight of what will make DUST unique and survive beyond years.

I see your point, and I respect your opinion. But on this particular issue I agree with CCP, and I think it's a waste of time to push against what CCP wants here. They want the games to be able to both stand on their own before they integrate them more fully, and I completely understand that line of thinking. EVE already works well without Dust 514, but Dust 514 does not stand on it's own as a complete experience.

If I had the choice of being able to sit on the couch, or switching my local to a different location, I'd rather move and try to run scams on a different batch of pubbies.

This is kind of the gordian knot at the heart of the whole issue. I feel the best way around it is to create stand alone content for dust that gives us a sense of agency, while increasing the social links (mainly through a strong API and market) cross culturally. Then, once you have a healthy dust community with communication lines to eve, can you implement cross platform objectives that provide benefits to both parties.

Bumping this thread back up to the front page. It needs to remain there and get as much attention as possible.

Hey guys, CCP are aware of this thread and have already stated that they intend to respond, but it's currently the weekend. Have some patience, there's a lot of content to read through, and formulating an "official" response to this kind of thing can be tricky.

I wonder when the blie tag will come

For actual content: http://dustmercs.blogspot.com/2014/02/eve-sitdown-part-1-goons-talk-dusts.html?m=1 Here's an interview Paradox and I did prompted by this thread.