Isogen Blues

EVE Blog Banter 75, via Sand, Cider and Spaceships:

At Fanfest CCP showcased their current iteration of the FPS set in the Eve Universe. Following on from DUST514 and Project Legion, Project Nova is shaping up to be a solid FPS with CCP taking the decision to get the game mechanics right first. However with so many FPS out there what will Nova need in order to stand out from a very large crowd and be successful? What are the opportunities and perhaps more importantly, the dangers for CCP? How can Nova compete against CoD, Battlefront and Titanfall to name a few?

I'm an EVE player, and I've played some DUST 514, too. I liked it. If it wasn't on the PS3, I'd have played a lot more of it -- I'm not much of a console gamer. I think the switch to the PC ecosystem is a smart move, especially if console editions can tag along too. I'm hoping being on the PC will allow CCP to work closer with EVE/Tranquillity, hopefully add in some CREST endpoints, and make Project Nova a much closer relation in the EVE universe family.

I think the first thing CCP should consider is actually not competing with Call of Duty, Battlefront and the like. Those guys have been brawling it out in their niche for so long, it's so hard to come to the market and field a killer-app-killer; Project Nova needs to do something else.

Personally, I'd like to see something simpler and more streamlined. I know the aim is to make a hardcore, brutal squad-based game, but I still think that can be simple. I think the gameplay models that new kid on the block Overwatch and Team Fortress 2 are using would be better suited -- easy to learn, but with plenty to master and "hidden depths" to uncover. I haven't any figures, but my gut feeling is that EVE players aren't often also FPS players; so cut down on the insane twitch, and make something beginners to the shooter genre can get comfortable with, and quick.

Project Nova's great strength is the lore and unfolding setting of New Eden, "the world's largest living work of science fiction". Make sure everything is true to that setting. Give players the tools and incentives to really dig into that world. Run events that tie into events in the wider universe of New Eden. DUST 514 had a nod towards integrating with the world capsuleers inhabit, but it never really caught on. I'd like to see CCP go back to the drawing board on that one and find a new way to tie their franchises together.

My first thoughts are to use a timers based system that should already be familiar to many EVE players. Have battles in Nova award some kind of item that can be retrieved by capsuleers within certain windows. I'm imagining something like a cross between the PI and moon goo systems; let Nova soldiers generate a resource that pilots desire and want to collect, then make that collection place and time public, so their enemies can come and try and take their winnings from them. Close the loop by letting capsuleers convert that resource into something their soldier corporation mates want. Ideally, multiple resources could be implemented, which plug into the Industry ecosystem in a number of places.

“What I’d like to do is some sort of economic link,” says Árnason. In this hypothetical situation, he sees a corporation in EVE Online and in Nova linking up, potentially by way of a structure created in EVE, and then hooking together so each side gets money or other resources. “That future is all an open map,” says Árnason. “We can do whatever we want, after we demonstrate the correct shooting mechanics.”

It's tricky, because you don't want to make playing Nova an essential part of EVE's economy, and you don't want the fabulous ISK wealth of capsuleers to unbalance a fledgling Nova economy, but you do want to connect them. CCP need to avoid the situation where it's cheaper for a Nova player to gear up by running a couple of missions as a capsuleer, or for capsuleers to feel forced into soldiering to acquire some essential ingredient. I don't envy them that design challenge, but I think it could be overcome with something along the lines of a PI-like system, or by using an intermediary currency like LP.

While running missions in Guristas NPC null, I came across this spooky Blood Raiders tower perched on an asteroid. 

Month in Review: April YC118

It’s the end of April now and I’ve been resubscribed for almost a full month, with 25 days spent in my Corp.  My liquid ISK sits around the 867M mark -- the chart above updates only once day, so is delayed a little.

I’ve had a really great time getting back into being in New Eden. I’ve spent a lot of it mining, doing PI, and performing tech I production for LUCRH. Out of game, I’ve set up a couple of handy spreadsheets, and done a bit of web development work with the CREST API. 

Mining and industry

I spent much of my time in space mining in my local system, using anomalies whenever possible, and performing tech I production. I manufactured some 5,880 items, earning just short of 150M through my corporation’s industry programme.

Mining zen with fleet boosters

A destroyed mining colony provided a lucrative ore anomaly

I ninja-huffed gas in a hostile wormhole and the resulting screenshot was liked and retweeted by CCP Seagull

Planetary interaction

I now have colonies on three planets producing a variety of tier 2 goods. I’ve based all my planets in low-sec, as the resources are more abundant than high-sec, and it forces me out of my comfort zone as I have to evade the locals while performing logistics.

Oceanic planet REDACTED

Temperate planet REDACTED

Exploration and combat

I haven’t done a great deal of exploration and combat this first month, but I have taken advantage of CCP’s offer to reactivate lapsed accounts at a discounted rate and continued training on the nullsec-roaming Caldari, so there should be more of that soon.

I took a trip to Amarr to get screenshots of the assembled Titans for the Succession Trials

Early in the month I scanned down a Wolf-Rayet C1 wormhole, and completed a bunch of Sleeper sites in a Confessor without alerting the local capsuleer inhabitants

Hacked a Blood Raiders data site

Discovered a huge Rogue Drone structure

Finally completed The Blood Stained Stars epic SOE arc

Marvelled at some abandoned Jove infrastructure in low-sec

I got a really lucky drop of a Sentient Drone Navigation Computer while running a Rogue Drone combat anomaly

Development and the EVE API

The biggest development this month is of course the founding of this blog! I did think about just rolling this content into my main website, but decided that I wanted a separate, focused space for my EVE activities. I’m really happy with the design and layout, and learning about what can be done within the tumblr templating system -- it allows for a lot of freedom, and I can host web services on my main server to add functionality here. 

Wrote a script that fetches wallet and asset data from the XML API 

Implemented item type pages and tooltips based on the CREST API 

Next month

The launch of Citadels seems to have disrupted the market somewhat, so I don’t think I’ll be manufacturing as many items next month, though I’ll continue to mine and build up a stockpile of minerals. I’m going to try and spend some more time with the Caldari alt, hopefully out in null-sec, and work on my goal of having her as an NPC pirate mission runner. 

Reports are vague as the Amarr Empire struggles to hide the true facts from the wider New Eden community, but details are emerging of a bizarre accident at the Carthum Conglomerate research facility on Saikamon VI.

Sources close to the facility are claiming a stray Fedo caused a huge power overload when it ate through cabling leading to power regulating cells. It is unclear how the Fedo -- which consumes its food by slowly dissolving it over a long period of time -- was able to infiltrate the facility and remain undiscovered long enough to eat through the cabling. 

The creature did not survive.

“Jirai Laitanen and Korako Kosakami, today better known by the nicknames they gave themselves: Fatal and the Rabbit, began their careers as promising space ship captains in the 37th (Octopus) Squadron of the Caldari Navy. [...] The two friends decided to desert. They stole a couple of Condor-class frigates, the same they still use today, and set off to a pirate-infested sector between Caldari and Gallente space. This took place in YC 86.