Vance Alken
Commando Perkone
Caldari State
153
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Posted - 2014.05.05 01:45:00 -
[1] - Quote
I really want to see larger player counts to go with larger maps. If there's enough PvE stuff throughout the universe (surely there's quite a bit of war going on) you could just have people drop in/out at will into the scavenger zones at will with little risk of actually filling the instance to capacity. Also, with the PvE stuff, they need to introduce the ability to blue/red/neutral anyone you meet on-planet.
Then you expand that system to battles (I've said this before), if they want the game to be a lot like Eve but on the ground, teams in corp v corp warfare needs to be as malleable as Eve's warfare is. Each warbarge on the field is the top of a chain of command that leads from the barge and commander to individual squad leaders to individual squad members, you can leave and request command at will. Deployed equipment exists at the warbarge level, so without a link to a warbarge you can't do too much. If you die without a link to a warbarge you're removed from the match as you end up clone jumping to whatever station you were last stationed at. If they find that they can make the playercounts large enough, they might even be able to make "How many individual players you can get into this sector fighting for you" part of the game mechanics rather than just being a hard rule.
For example, your warbarge has module slots. The most basic use (so basic they come with one permafit) is to fit a Clone Uplink module, this is how your mind is saved and cloned when you die. The module has a limited bandwidth however, you can only have a maximum of, say, 16 soldiers per module. 16 people dying at precisely the same time maxes out the module, any more on surface and you risk dropping someone from the match. The cool part about these modules is that they provide a natural scheme for the chain of command, by default with 16 for example, 1 commander leading a squad of 3 other squad leaders with a squad of 4 squad members nested beneath each of them. Roll that back into the PvE system and you can go from running about on your own scavenging to running into someone under a heavy onslaught of drones to rolling with them in their squad after saving them to being invited into their corp to run as a squad member... sound familiar?
For all of its lore, visuals, and items, Dust never really felt like a game set in New Eden, mainly because it didn't feel like you had the same freedom of action that you do in Eve. Stuff like this, a framework that players fill out and use to their taste (1 commander, however many SLs, however many SMs per SL), is a way to give people that freedom and make it feel like a sandbox MMO, even if it is instanced. Even the B-roll they've released shows that they're going for a much more sandbox'y game, what with planetary conditions that affect gameplay. (That Scorched planet seen in the reveal increases overheat, allows weapons that normally couldn't overheat to overheat, and provides a bonus to thermal damage for instance. Straight out of Eve's wormhole gameplay, fits the universe, and provides a cool addition to FPS gameplay)
Of course in the end you still need structured matches for basic pick up and play, but that's just how future bloodsport rolls man. (I bet the Gallente hate it)
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