Klivve Cussler
S.e.V.e.N.
General Tso's Alliance
223
   |
Posted - 2014.03.27 04:07:00 -
[1] - Quote
I've been playing dust casually since the beta, and I've enjoyed watching it get incrementally better each release.
It is, for all of its strengths, still not significantly connected to Eve. The promised "one universe" hasn't arrived, especially from the Eve side. Ask an Eve player about Dust, and the typical answer is "Is that still a thing?"
And I know: economy. But that's not what I want to suggest today.
Here are a series of SMALL changes/enhancements, that would significantly enhance the link between Eve and Dust, plus enhance the Dust gameplay to some degree:
1. Local Chat: The local chat channel is a staple of the Eve game: it is the chat channel for all players in the same star system. For Dust, however, it is stuck on the system that your MQ is in, and doesn't switch to the system you are fighting in. This means that as far as Eve is concerned, we never leave our quarters.
Having a local chat would give us a chat channel that automatically includes both sides of a fight, plus any eve players who happened to be in the system at the same time. The possibilities for smack talk, side bets, and anatomical observations are huge. In addition Eve players would notice us. And if they don't want, to, they've already got chat filters to filter Dust players out of their chat screens. It just never has been needed since we're all bottled up in 4 systems. Eve players could be made to care, though if...
2. Allow Orbital Strikes in quick matches. Make it simple: if you have good standing with the corporation, you can connect to the satellite and be available for orbitals. Eve Players would do this for Loyalty points and faction standings for that corporation, or possibly some isk per strike. You would need two satellites: one for each side in the fight. The defender's satellite would be static - always there. The attacker's would spawn in at the beginning of the fight, and despawn after it was over. It would be cool if this satellite looked like a warbarge, but I'm not picky.
3. Allow Eve players to watch the battle messages and get in the chat. If you are connected to the battle, why not automatically join Team Chat? Also, since you want to know what's going on, why not have the Eve player see the death messages generated by the fight? That way, they could see how things are going. As a bonus, if warbarge strikes actually were visible from Eve, that would increase the immersion.
4. System-wide broadcasts of ongoing fights. In Eve there is no way to tell if a Dust fight is going on in the system: No local spike, and no message indicating which district of which planet the fight is going on. The solution is to have satellites for active battles appear in the overview system-wide, like a beacon or jump gate does. Eve players can choose to filter it out, of course, but if they're interested, they'll know. This would be particularly useful to Factional Warfare players and pirates. Either way it gets Eve players more aware of Dust fights in general.
None of these are going to make Dust an integral and vital part of Eve. The only integral and vital part of Eve that touches all players is the economy, and others have asked for that already. This will make Dust more available to Eve players, and start cross -platform contacts and friendships that lead to greater things. |
Klivve Cussler
S.e.V.e.N.
General Tso's Alliance
225
|
Posted - 2014.04.04 17:28:00 -
[5] - Quote
I'd personally love to see some more work done in ambulation/incarna/whatever. I put a post together a while ago suggesting CCP port the warbarge ready-room to Eve to use as a Fleet Ready-room.
That said, we need to walk before we can...er...walk. The fact that the local chat doesn't switch to the system we're actually in is such a fundamental flaw that I'd be shouting in bug forum right now...if it wasn't actually stated in the manual that this is the desired functionality. In my opinion, this shows that the Dust dev team isn't as familiar with the Eve game systems as one could want.
Why would CCP short-circuit the local chat system on purpose? It's a cornerstone of the way the Tranquility system works. Imagine if local didn't switch when you undocked and jumped to the next system, but always stayed where your medical clone was?
|