So I was watching the fanfest stream as many others I know were, still popping after the awesome Valkyrie keynote, to see what kind of great plans for Dust were coming. We had some ideas before hand, some new maps maybe..PVE?...maybe a PS4 upgrade coming. So there it was a look back at what they learned and a big announcement of project legion, whoa legion looks cool I thought, and after the clapping and the team who worked on it took a stand I thought...alright now we get to hear the roadmap for dust and how they are going to handle transfers and when they hope to get things done for a smooth transition... End of presentation.

This is when we all got very angry and cynical.

Maybe they will have some more info in the dust progression...Still what they plan on doing in legion.

By this point everyone I know and was actively talking with washed their hands of dust and have now moved on.

As far as I know I'm the only one of my friends to watch Saturday's presentations about sand(legion still) and CCP Presents. Watched Zatara ask a good question as I had to listen to four or so people before him ask legion ones.

So out of everything, I gained that they have been working on a new project legion, most of the dust team is working on it, they will continue to work on dust, and there are no hard set concrete plans for transitioning to legion from dust or what future updates will be made to dust.

Now the blogs answer some of that, yeah we can do a character transfer maybe...or perhaps a credit program or some nonsense. Oh, we will continue developing for dust too...now here's where the logic faults the sentiment.

They can't very well compete with themselves with two similar projects...their whole idea of Dust, and now Valkyrie, was to provide other unique experiences in the EVE universe. Dust and legion are the same experience (MMOFPS in EVE) with one being more than likely a lot better than the other...so at some point they will need to make a decision on which to put the focus on. Furthermore, dust is currently the deciding factor in faction warfare and planetary conquest; so at what point will they swap that control from dust to legion? A lot of the mechanics already in dust...including it's existence on tranquility...will eventually be needed and/or taken over by legion.

I wouldn't have to infer these statements if I had been provided a proper roadmap for the future of dust and legion.

Now, assuming the stage demo was absolutely just a demo with little to no full working components and just a lot of fancy looks and placeholders it would stand to reason legion will take some time for development. Assuming they work quickly and manage to get a lot working in its core engine; and also getting a lot of the eve legion link testing we went through in dust done (I assume that since they learned a lot from that dust eve link testing it will not take as long as it did for us here in dust) things will not take the same amount of time they took to get where we are now. With a rough estimate taking these points into case we could see a product that matches the current level that Dust514 has in a year to a year and a half from now.

Why so quickly? They already have an idea of the networked architecture...it's even easier going to a computer. They already have loads of art and model design for weapons/suits/vehicles (considering the demo had the exact same models we have come to know), installations, and maps. They have balance statistics and various data points from the years of us playing in dust.

Between that time and now the transition to PS4 from PS3 will be even more noticeable especially with the holiday season coming soon(tm) this year. Without a clear and concise plan for how dust is to be handled between now and the working version of legion a lot of people decided to quit now and save the trouble of being left behind. Another large group wanted to stay on console and either quit or are going to PS4 and waiting for the port from legion. No matter what way you look at it...with so much attention and development focus on legion, along with the logical step to legion taking over for dust when it is completed...people assume dust has no long term future.

Let me clarify on "long term future," people began playing dust with various intentions but a majority entered in for the explicit point of affecting territories and sovereignty in EVE. For every amazing promise made at the start a lot of people joined. Back in June of 2012 I loved the idea of making moves in the EVE universe, I suffered through development hell with all the other closed beta testers. I played in the Testers tournament, I played in the open beta tournament. I made friends...I got some forums threads...I had loads of fun in PFBHz splashing around the pool. I took part in a lot of amazing dust only battles...like when we stole 600mil from PRO in a bad money transfer, or fought Hellstorm in a dust and EVE bet. All of this never made a huge impact in EVE; but it set de facto promise of what we could expect when we finally made it into that world, that universe. Now if we, the console players of dust, want to continue the trend...continue fighting towards meaningful actions in the EVE universe we have to move to a new platform? We may or may not have to give up our hard earned skills and equipment? We may or may not have to wait for a PS4 port even though it was the original PS3 players who set the standard?

Of course I expect legion will accomplish what we all set out to do; but for a lot of us it's a step away from what we already did. A kind of unfairness and passive ignorance of our accomplishments in dust.

So in short, a proper roadmap of development and goals for dust and legion, along with guarantees and some sense of planning would have made things a lot better.

I'll see you guys around, maybe in legion if it comes to PS4...or more than likely not.