CELESTA AUNGM
Kang Lo Directorate
Gallente Federation
645
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Posted - 2015.09.17 13:50:00 -
[1] - Quote
Salutations, Dewie. And I agree with your perception that there's a dream that we (yep, not only you) climbed on board a train for.... And we knew as experienced RPG players that this "fps" game was actually an experimental hybrid shooter, and that we were agreeing to be experimental players in it, so the ride might be long and maybe rocky.... but it would always be getting nearer to that interesting innovative objective.
I disagree that EVE and Dust should have their economy redone into some kind of single system. I'm not bothered by the fact that it takes a whole different proportion of monies to accumulate spaceship resources, compared with the "comparatively" minute (but still viscerally powerful) money-struggle required to accumulate dropsuit resources. Although it prevents both games from "trading" with each other, it doesn't stand in the way to both games "doing business" with each other.
I also disagree that shooting is all that Dust is. Many players "just zoom and hunt stuff to blow up" in EVE Online. They are not into the economy, wealth management stuff AT ALL. "Mining? Please, be real! I want your spaceship go boom!"
So although there is a growing boat-load of wealth-accumulation grinding in Dust (second-hand resale to NPC, resale pricing adjustment through "agents", player-standing adjustments to manipulate percentages, strategic scrap resale to fund FW no-ISK component, personal warbarge preparation for future productions)... ....wealth-grinding that takes a good 2 or 3 years for a player to be fully matured into, players don't need to recognize any of that wealth-grooming stuff in Dust, and many just use Dust to "just run and hunt faces to blow off". And it's cool that the game is trying to be innovative, but still allows the player to play the game for the personal pursuit she is interested in, and not have to care about the innovative objective.
But Dewie, I do fear that Dust is not being innovative in that original pursuit to "merge" with EVE as much as it used to.
The first "crew" of Devs were steady-focused on what EVE Online is (pursuit-wise, and lore-wise), but apparently were too rigid in the stubborn idea that the two games should be "identical" in gameplay.
This second "crew" achieved so much more problem-solving than the first, arguably because this crew didn't see that phantom need for the two games to mirror each other--Bravo for them, they really have done wondrous things to give our game a real "Dust" personality and capability of its own.
...But this new crew often reveals they have members who don't even KNOW much about EVE ONline's personality or lore. So, how can you get us nearer to that common New Eden gameplay, without knowing those key things? It seems as though they are starting to play catch-up, and learn more about EVE Online, and bring some of it's "feeling" back into Dust (...'back', Celesta?).
I'm worried, but not going to jump ship on this game.
The essential "Link" idea was easy for me to understand, and I think it's still available to acheive:
 ---the EVE Online population has a hunger to control its wealth-through-mining portion of their game. Those who drool for making money that way MUST control squaters and ownership of whole solar systems. Dust gameplay is (only?) way to control a system right down to the granular, DISTRICT level. And since mercs are a cheap commodity relative to the monies that Capsuleers make, there's a huge profit opportunity to for EVE players to want to hire Dust players, and for Dust players to make way more ISK marketing themselves for hire by EVE players, than to sit around grinding our wealth through the tiny salvage and marketplace purchases available in Dust---- That's the EVE-to-Dust Link idea.
"Pay my price, and I'll strike down the Heavens" is the only real interaction EVE and Dust need between each other. The rest is just sugar and dessert stuff.
I just hope the Dev crew is as focused on this single idea as the previous crew seemed. With that focus, and the clearly-displayed fact that they haven't let themselves get handcuffed the way the first crew did, Rattati and his people CAN still achieve what players like you have been waiting for, Dewie.
Either way, I'll be sticking around to witness the outcome.
Universe of good wishes for the 49, especially CCP Eterne...
No story can have life without writers and publishers.
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