DoP...

~or “Driving on Planets…”

It aint WiS, but it just might lead to something BETTER…

You see one (there an many ATM) of the reasons I have been playing Elite Dangerous more than EVE lately is greater “personal” immersion.  Not that EVE isn’t immersive, we all know how deep that great game is… and E:D is no replacement for EVE, again comparing a watermelon to a grape… both round n food n tasty n all, but NOT the same by any means.

However as Mynxee recently discussed in her post, Walking In Stations: An Impossible Dream?, CCP was at one point going to expand EVE in a moar personal direction and give us ‘Ambulation’ (horribad name that, sounds like we're all shuffling over to an ambulance…) moar colloquially and better known as WiS or “Walking in Stations”… IE we could get out of our PODs, scrape off the goo and wander ‘bout and kill shit as PEOPLE for a change. But CCP screwed that pooch without Vaseline or a reach around… I have said my piece many times on my desire for WiS and feelings about how CCP horribly mismanaged it. But at the risk and desire of repeating myself once moar…

The Why...  

On The EvE of Contention…
On The Bone of Contention…
On Getting Back in Contention…

The Dream… 
Worlds and Stations

Watch this just once moar to see what we missed... 
A Presentation by CCP T0rfiFrans

OK, so that’s what happened in EVE… and it does not seem like CCP wants to do a helluva lot about it either, or, at least they are keeping their mouths shut about it if they are looking at a WiS feature for EVE… and after Incarna, that would be best. I just hope and pray they are because the competition is heating up… really heating up.

My title reference to DoP, ‘Driving on Planets’ is about Elite Dangerous and the Horizon expansion coming THIS YEAR… and as there are only 4.5 months left in 20and15 and the beta for Horizon is out NOW then we will actually see this SOON™. The Horizon expansion is a very reasonable, logical and workable first step into a fully immersive First Person SciFi Space MMO game.

You will be able to fly your ship, from space down to the surface of ‘airless’ planets and moons (leaving dealing with atmo flight etc. for a later iteration, smart that). Once down you will have a vehicle… a Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) called the ‘Scarab’. That’s what depicted in the Title pic above… we get a teaser glimpse in the Horizon trailer… fast shot, speed blurred, of a Scarab BLASTING in 8 wheel glory over a moonscape… OH HELLZ YES.

Per the Horizon site’s blurb… “The first expansion, Planetary Landings introduces players to planet surfaces and the first all-new Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) the ‘Scarab’. Scanning airless planets and moons brings new gameplay as players detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses.”

All good stuff IMHO and a great step towards one day landing, getting out of your seat, walking to the cargo bay, getting in the Scarab, dropping the ramp, finding a wreck and getting OUT in your EVA suit and Walking On Planets… and in stations, and in our ships… oh hell man, I wanna walk ALL OVER the place, and fly all over space, and drive it like I stole it!!

And in Elite Dangerous… it looks like the Devs at Frontier want the same thing.

Now…

1. Should EVE have the same thing or at least something similar?

B. Should CCP “copy” Frontier?...

A. Yes.

2. Not if they had done it first…

Some things to consider though… E:D aint EVE and EVE aint E:D.

E:D is far more a PVE game with PVP allowed but somewhat heavily restricted (as compared to EVE’s open world sandbox), and with few mechanics for really cooperative gameplay and with player Emergent Behavior affecting the verse to a greatly lesser degree. So is E:D gonna sway huge swathes of players from EVE?

I don’t think so due to the different gameplay and goals. However, those who want a vastly moar solo game with reduced yet still existing risks will be drawn to it. Add to that a greatly expanded gameplay ABILITY… First Person, flying and driving and one day walking about… so yeah, I think CCP needs to read the writing on teh wall and get to coding on teh screen.

Should WiS in EVE be like E:D? Nope… it should be like WiS in EVE and take into account EVE's basic nature and playstyles and Emergent and NPC lore and playerbase. Before I just really wanted WiS in EVE for myself… now I believe it really needs to happen… for the game.

Fly reckless and see you… on the Surface =/|)=