Agree 100% w/ the last sentence.

I cannot tell you how many hours I spent "playing" DUST w/ 1NC0R and my previous corp just shooting the **** in my ****** MQ (griping about how uncomfortable the bed and couch looked, mostly), making autistic jokes, and laughing at all the poor bastards who got scamming in trade channels. Hours upon hours.

Socialization. New Eden is the most social world in gaming.

1NC0R

autistic jokes

Expanding on the social aspect of DUST / EVE, what makes the social experiences for these games better / different from any other online game? In broad strokes what makes you feel like you have a community in DUST as opposed to having any other shooter that allows for some form of communication between players?

I think this is mostly due to in game corp structure. Sure, Destiny has its clans (which are kind of a joke) but DUST/EVE corps make you go and find people to join your corp to strengthen you and your corp. Other online games, not so much. For example, I am currently playing Hawken on the PS4. I hardly ever plug in my mic because there's almost nothing but smack talking and/or whining going on; no strategy or worry for loss (beyond pride) like DUST provided.
I think that is why I am waiting for Project Nova like I am. I don't plan on leading a corp this time around though.

Exactly, Byte. Once you can have an unlimited supply of a certain kind of gear, it reduces your investment in the fight and also means that win or lose you still get paid substantially thanks to not having to replace lost gear.

If Project Nova were to have industry elements that blueprints could be used for, and BPOs worked like they do in EVE Online, I would be fine with them.

Agree 100% w/ the last sentence.

I cannot tell you how many hours I spent "playing" DUST w/ 1NC0R and my previous corp just shooting the **** in my ****** MQ (griping about how uncomfortable the bed and couch looked, mostly), making autistic jokes, and laughing at all the poor bastards who got scamming in trade channels. Hours upon hours.

Socialization. New Eden is the most social world in gaming.

Exactly, Byte. Once you can have an unlimited supply of a certain kind of gear, it reduces your investment in the fight and also means that win or lose you still get paid substantially thanks to not having to replace lost gear.

If Project Nova were to have industry elements that blueprints could be used for, and BPOs worked like they do in EVE Online, I would be fine with them.

Taking a quote from CCP LogicLoop:



So this brings up, in my mind, an interesting point of discussion that warrants its own thread. What feature or features distill the universe of New Eden into a tangible form for you? How can somebody make a game that feels like it belongs in that universe, and what components are core to it's setting.

I think that is a topic we would have the best shot of answering, and hopefully bring insight to the devs who read the forum (or at least LogicLoop if nobody else)

To that end, I feel New Eden is best defined by its sense of Consequences.

By that I mean that choices you make in the game have a weight and importance to them that have meaningful impact down the road. This is done by having them affect all levels and types of play, from the minor details of skill application defining your character, to the larger politics of entities that affect the power balance of space.

New Eden's history is, in my opinion, defined by player action and the consequences those actions carried. DUST was able to achieve this through a number of ways, from the skill point system, to the ISK cost of suits, to the tug of war between Faction Warfare and Planetary Conquest.

When these features fell flat for the players was only when that sense of consequence and impact was disrupted or began to ring hollow. Such as when people had enough money to not care about it, or when the FW battles seemed arbitrary and had little impact on the greater war, or when Planetary Conquest felt it had no real benefits aside from the fights it generated.

To that end, I feel that any game that wants to feel like it belongs in New Eden needs things that tie together individual play experiences to feel like they are impacting a greater whole.

• There needs to be player progression that involves choice, not just a static level that dictates what you have for you.
• There needs to be an ability for player's moment to moment gameplay affect some meta aspect of their experience that goes beyond simple statistics. DUST did this with consumable fittings that impacted the player after a match.
• Activities need to be in place for a group of players to impact larger aspects of the world in a way that has some degree of persistance. DUST tried to do this via FW and PCs.
• Players need a variety of ways to impact other players beyond simple combat mechanics. This can be done via trade, industry, politics, or any other activity that touches upon the play experience of other players outside of matches.
• The world / universe needs to feel as if players can impact it in some way. Some aspect of the world needs to be able to be changed by player action. Such as ownership of a system, availability of resources, or generation of missions.

All of the general points I laid above help to create a setting that is more distinctly New Eden, even if it lacks some of the more familiar trappings of EVE or DUST. The important things about New Eden and the experience players seek from it lie in a perception (not necessarily a reality) that their actions can ripple through the universe and some consequence of their actions affects future events which can be limited to themselves, a few others, or the entire cluster.

- EPIC, and the world does not revolve around you, you are a tiny forgettable speck

Soraya Xel made a good point on the Biomass podcast.

Part of what makes EVE epic is that although everyone starts as a forgettable speck, it is possible to became famous, or infamous, and incredibly powerful. The movers and the shakers in EVE are better known than the NPC characters of EVE Lore. You can build organizations or effect events that effect large percentages of the game's population, weather it be building a powerful Corp/Alliance, developing a player run financial institution and/or scam, or organizing an event with hundreds of participants that everyone is talking about.

Building your reputation can be part of the game, and it very much ties into both how Epic the game feels and the persistence of New Eden.

DUST had this too, to a more limited extent. I know I got to experience squadding with people who got all excited to be playing with "Fox Gaden". I managed to make myself relatively famous without even having to be good. I mean, I was good at what I was famous for, but I was a terrible shot.

That just reminds me of all the people who would join squads with my friends and I and say things like "Wait, you're Cat Merc from the forums? Your voice is REALLY deep!". That was always fun.

Or how it became nearly impossible to get a team going for Gallente Faction Warfare without Sgt Kirk being online because everyone was obsessed with having him lead.