1.) Rattati said something about "players made it clear they wanted better gameplay" --- I worry that CCP now thinks players care MORE about smooth gameplay than all the grand meta stuff of Dust, and that Nova might turn into a fun little lobby shooter, but be missing economy, player groups, eve-link etc... It needs all of the above!

2.) I worry that CCP is going to be reluctant to take risks with Nova, based that Dust wasn't as successful as it could have been. Really tho, Dust had a winning formula, any other shooter should be envious of the persistent universe of Dust. THAT'S what keeps players long-term.

Compare that to the player retention gimmicks of other shooters: unlocking customization options in RNG loot drops... And you have them all beat! Your player retention system is better, that's how you kept a player base for nearly 4 years in this free ps3 shooter. Maximize that!


3.) Ultimately, I worry that CCP thinks that a shooter can't be done in their universe, and are half-heartedly working on "nova" while some higher-up suit-and-tie has his finger on the "abort" button waiting to axe the whole thing at the first moment of trouble...

Really if it werent for a handful of specific blunders Dust would have been much more successful than it was.

I think Nova should be the opportunity to learn from all the mistakes and do it properly from the beginning!

With Star Citizen on the horizon, however far fetched as that project may be, it is a looming threat to CCP in the sense that players have in their mind that a space based universe can have a wide range of gameplay available, may that be a tactical spaceship combat, or a dogfighter, or an FPS game.

Even if Star Citizen flops, the expectation is in the mind of gamers now and any company in that genre of games knows that if they are to remain competitive...they need to develop on that level. Already we see CCP diving into 4 distinctively different types of gameplay set in the same universe with EVE, Valkyrie, Gunjack, and Dust/Nova.

1) Poor Dust gameplay led to horrible retention rates. Gameplay is the cornerstone of any game. Its the reason Dust failed. Rattati also recently mentioned that what they were currently doing was taking our feedback and making what game play they had and giving it New Eden and Dust flavor. I think that it is best to give the benefit of the doubt this early on.

I came from EvE. I started with it way back, I now count myself as a long-liner, even though since Dust I have hardly played it. My first impression of Dust was through the EvE interface as it was going to be - Walking In Stations. That ultimately never came to fruition, other than being able to walk around the Captain's Quarters, which was the EvE version of the Merc's Quarters in Dust. Probably the best thing about that was the ability to fully customise your avatar, something Dust never actually got.

But I saw this as the logical launch point for a FPS to grow out of EvE Online, that EvE pilots would have the option to put on a suit of armour and go planetside and duke it out with other EvE pilots and mercenaries to really make a difference to the ongoing wars in New Eden, through actually taking territory. The high point of that vision was of course, the battle over Caldari Prime, yet it involved no EvE pilot mercs on the ground - they were all still in their ships, thanks to a tremendous amount of negativity from the EvE community themselves. They simply never saw the massive potential in expanding EvE to encompass these other modes of game play, and so Dust was relegated to being a separate game, with minimal EvE link., at least in my mind.

I still think the concept of having separate logins for different games is flawed. There is simply no reason for this. My EvE characters, particularly my main, Nalianna, should be able to just don armour and go fight with guns, just with a flick of a switch to turn on that functionality. Additional payment through micropayments or subscription, a function that already exists in EvE would allow the training of an EvE character to fight in Nova, to fly a fighter in Valkyrie, whatever. Since they all share the same database, it just makes sense that this should be possible, but for the differences that exist in the payment options and methods for each. The move to F2P for EvE is a major step towards allowing everyone to do everything on the one account, with appropriate subscriptions and micropayments.

I don't expect SC level design from CCP, I strongly doubt they've got 127 Million dollars to throw into the project lol.

I just don't want another generic lobby shooter with an EVE skin, that's all.

I really doubt too many EVE players will take the time away from EVE to play a game that doesn't remotely resemble EVE. Making a game that directly competes with your primary source of income doesn't seem like the greatest bet to me. It would serve them far better to make Nova worthwhile to EVE players while they're still within EVE, through a stronger connection or even the arena matches we were teased with so long ago.

Making an FPS to appease EVE players is just destined to fail, or at the very least fracture the community. Making an FPS that draws people further into EVE, that feels like a better direction to take.

But you'll never have a spread sheet style FPS, and if you want to get good in this style of FPS, you have to commit a good amount of time.

The more time you spend getting good at Nova, the less time you spend blowing up things in EVE. Even if Nova were the best thing ever for EVE players and made their spread sheet condoms fill with joy, it would just mean they'd move from EVE to Nova. It just seems odd to make your target audience one that's already invested in your primary game.

Don't you want to expand the player base of both games, rather than dwindle one while helping to exclude the average gamer from the other? If the game is simplistic and easy to pick up, it will probably not appeal to EVE players. Yet, if it's as layered and complex as EVE, it will naturally push away the more average and casual player.

I guess I just don't see the sense in primarily targeting EVE players, instead of giving EVE players a reason to invest EVE side.

Actually running it that way wouldn't be entirely nonsensical. Keep SP pools seperate of course, and given how Valkyrie has a unique currency (VISK) I could see them using the same concept for Nova to get around that issue initially. Existing Dust characters could also be converted to EVE Alpha Clones as well as Nova clones if characters are shared.

It would effectively let Dust players use their name in EVE and EVE players in Nova, which is kinda appealing.

I can sort of see the appeal to that but it seems like a ton of work to basically give your Nova character your EVE name. You're always in your dropsuit, and I could be wrong but I'm fairly certain DUST clones used an entirely different process of cloning than capsuleers.

Wouldn't it just be easier to link your accounts so when you sign in you have the same name? None of your EVE skills or assets would apply so aside from RP, what would be the point in developing that tech?

That's exactly why I think it's a mistake not to leave the FPS on consoles.... There's too much overlap in the people who play PC shooters, and the people who already play EVE.

Consoles are a completely separate player base to tap into.

But hey, what do I know.