I know, what a boring topic... Only one with potential, I think...
I'm not entirely sure why this topic came to me as I was sitting down at the breakfast table to study the scriptures. (Yes, I'm religious.) But I put it on the mental backburner to write about during the day today, and the more I think about it, the more this seems like an important tool that is missing in EVE.
Sure, we can enter into hand-written contracts, kept track of in an Excel sheet somewhere on our desktops back in meatspace, and try and remember to double-check our corporation finances tabs on a regular basis to see who has paid their monthly dues, whether that is as a renter, or for 'protection' from pirates, or whatever. But would it really be that hard to build it in?
Imagine the possibilities if not only could you create contractual bills, where individuals required to pay their bill would get reminders in the notifications tab just like when they need to pay for an NPC controlled office or headquarters, but you could set up consequences?
I'll give you an example. Or two.
Sovereignty:
Ok, I'll admit, I used the S word because it gets people to read what I'm saying... *Grin* But, that aside, this really does touch on Sovereignty in an important way.
Sovereignty costs. Nowadays it costs more than it used to, and from what I understand, some folk find it harder than others to raise the capital on an alliance level to pay for all the toys they want their systems to have. But, Minuit, you ask, how can billing and consequences help us to pay for our toys? Well, I'll tell you, dear reader.
If your corporation, or alliance, is anything like mine, you get access to certain tabs of your corporate hangers based upon your skillset, the amount of trust you've earned and your needs. Well, imagine that, instead of taxing folk for their bounties/missions and hoping that none of your corp-mates earn their money through silly things like: Wormholes, Trade, Invention, Production, Mining, or any other untaxable method, why not drop that Corp-tax down to 0% and institute a corp-wide bill. Every member pays X-Million a month for the priviledge of access to Corp/Alliance resources. Anyone in arears will be visible as 'unpaid' to the corporation leadership and can be removed if they don't address the matter in a timely fashion. Suddenly, you go from 'herding cats' to get people to donate towards paying for that Jump Bridge network, to automated smoothness.
Standings:
This one has a wide array of applications, from Renters to Non-Aggression Pacts to Pirate 'Protection' rackets. Put quite simply, you pay, or your standings change.
Seems straight-forward enough to me. Pay your bill on time or lose Blue status. Pay your bill on time or have your Neutral status dropped to Red. Whichever function suits you best, you really ought to pay your bill if you don't want that carefully negotiated deal to go sour all of a sudden.
In conclusion, I believe that adding in a Billing system would be a huge asset to corporation and alliance management, would provide an effective solution to Sovereignty issues of raising capital, and also provide any number of other options in true sandbox style that the players of EVE would rally around excitedly.
What do YOU think about introducing Billing?
Can YOU think of any different uses for such a system?
Fly Straight, and post comments! ;)
Showing posts with label Making the Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Making the Game. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Making The Game: PvP Missions
Once again, the banter on someone else's blog has sparked off a diatribe of a comment that I'm turning into a Making The Game post. What can I say, I get wordy at times...
The original post comes from Letrange over at Letrange's Eve Blog, I give him a C- for blog name originality, (who am I to talk, I just translated my name for a blog title) but a solid A for content, including the two guides on Dominion projection weapon changes that I have linked on the right-side bar of my page and will until something changes to put them out of date. If you don't read his blog, start. :)
Basically, the tl;dr version is that he suggested that PvE should be given elements that make it more exciting and realistic, and offer a 'training' opportunity for budding PvP pilots, so that the flight styles aren't so VASTLY different. One or two people commenting on his post stated their disagreement, that missions are supposed to cater to a different clientèle than PvP.
I think a good compromise/workaround the various schools of thought on this sort of thing (and something more in line with CCP's style) would be to add a new agent-type, that offers advanced military missions.
They already did it for the training lines, but if they did so for missions, they could add agents that offer missions that are designed for PvP fit ships. None of this 'waves of badguys, go-go-drake-tank and wait for the money' and instead more along the lines of 'catch that Rifter for a big bounty'. Stuff that gets the blood pumping a bit more, with higher payouts for the individual kill, but the overall reward being based on the time it'll take you.
One of the great things about EVE is it's 'toolkit' nature. Far too often I read cries of 'nerf this' 'change that' 'this is boring, fix it'. While in some cases that can be appropriate, (if 1 ship is out there defeating all comers, regardless of situation or opponent, there's obviously a balance issue) for the most part the 'toolkit' approach suggests addition over subtraction.
In other words, when you find missions grievously boring (I do) and only run them for money, don't suggest changing missions and driving off the folk who enjoy them, suggest ADDING something new that can allow you an outlet of PC vs NPC violence that YOU will enjoy.
Another possibility. What if they introduced PvP missions that could let you pew pew on other players and make money doing it?
Interested?
Here's a sample.
Capsuleer A is hired by Agent A to take a frigate sized hull out to a rendezvous point, carrying a valuable trade commodity. Naturally, they don't trust Capsuleer A, so they make him put some money down and tell him to 'come alone'. He flies out to the mission coordinates and finds a rusted old Minmatar jump-gate leading into the deadspace. He activates the jump-gate and slingshots out into the complex.
Inside, he finds silence, and receives an incoming communication from his agent. "Agent B is trying to horn in on my deal. Kill his Agent when he shows up, then make the deal."
Here comes the tricky part (from CCP's standpoint), the jump-gate 'sorts' people into different 'instances', the first 2 people to enter arrive together, the next two, the next two, and so on. This way, numerous people can be running the mission, and they'll get their chance to complete it as soon as a second mission-runner shows up. Entering the later half of the complex also gives aggression to you and the other party, keeping Concord out of the equation.
After a set amount of time, the contact shows up and drops a can for his swag.
If no-one else is running the mission, you get to drop off an item for an easy, though probably not large, reward. If someone else is running the mission, you get to drop off an item for the small reward, AND get some 1v1 PvP action, complete with the possibility of recouping the very item you had to put money down on when buying it from your agent, which you can then turn around and sell on the market.
Obviously it needs tweaking and goodness knows I don't know squat about the programming that would be required. But in my head it sounds awesome.
What do you think?
Fly straight!
The original post comes from Letrange over at Letrange's Eve Blog, I give him a C- for blog name originality, (who am I to talk, I just translated my name for a blog title) but a solid A for content, including the two guides on Dominion projection weapon changes that I have linked on the right-side bar of my page and will until something changes to put them out of date. If you don't read his blog, start. :)
Basically, the tl;dr version is that he suggested that PvE should be given elements that make it more exciting and realistic, and offer a 'training' opportunity for budding PvP pilots, so that the flight styles aren't so VASTLY different. One or two people commenting on his post stated their disagreement, that missions are supposed to cater to a different clientèle than PvP.
I think a good compromise/workaround the various schools of thought on this sort of thing (and something more in line with CCP's style) would be to add a new agent-type, that offers advanced military missions.
They already did it for the training lines, but if they did so for missions, they could add agents that offer missions that are designed for PvP fit ships. None of this 'waves of badguys, go-go-drake-tank and wait for the money' and instead more along the lines of 'catch that Rifter for a big bounty'. Stuff that gets the blood pumping a bit more, with higher payouts for the individual kill, but the overall reward being based on the time it'll take you.
One of the great things about EVE is it's 'toolkit' nature. Far too often I read cries of 'nerf this' 'change that' 'this is boring, fix it'. While in some cases that can be appropriate, (if 1 ship is out there defeating all comers, regardless of situation or opponent, there's obviously a balance issue) for the most part the 'toolkit' approach suggests addition over subtraction.
In other words, when you find missions grievously boring (I do) and only run them for money, don't suggest changing missions and driving off the folk who enjoy them, suggest ADDING something new that can allow you an outlet of PC vs NPC violence that YOU will enjoy.
Another possibility. What if they introduced PvP missions that could let you pew pew on other players and make money doing it?
Interested?
Here's a sample.
Capsuleer A is hired by Agent A to take a frigate sized hull out to a rendezvous point, carrying a valuable trade commodity. Naturally, they don't trust Capsuleer A, so they make him put some money down and tell him to 'come alone'. He flies out to the mission coordinates and finds a rusted old Minmatar jump-gate leading into the deadspace. He activates the jump-gate and slingshots out into the complex.
Inside, he finds silence, and receives an incoming communication from his agent. "Agent B is trying to horn in on my deal. Kill his Agent when he shows up, then make the deal."
Here comes the tricky part (from CCP's standpoint), the jump-gate 'sorts' people into different 'instances', the first 2 people to enter arrive together, the next two, the next two, and so on. This way, numerous people can be running the mission, and they'll get their chance to complete it as soon as a second mission-runner shows up. Entering the later half of the complex also gives aggression to you and the other party, keeping Concord out of the equation.
After a set amount of time, the contact shows up and drops a can for his swag.
If no-one else is running the mission, you get to drop off an item for an easy, though probably not large, reward. If someone else is running the mission, you get to drop off an item for the small reward, AND get some 1v1 PvP action, complete with the possibility of recouping the very item you had to put money down on when buying it from your agent, which you can then turn around and sell on the market.
Obviously it needs tweaking and goodness knows I don't know squat about the programming that would be required. But in my head it sounds awesome.
What do you think?
Fly straight!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Making The Game: Planetary Interaction In Wormhole Space
Unlike my usual 'Making the Game' posts, this particular post centers less around an idea I had for making the game more interesting, and more around my growing suspicion that the new Tyrannis expansion is going to be applied only to K-Space in terms of Planetary Interaction.
So I thought, 'well, maybe we should go over the positives and negatives of letting W-Space holders have access to Planetary Interaction'. Voila, a blog-post was born. Don't mind the squalling, newborns are cranky like that.
POSITIVES:
- Consistency of realism.
- More reason for people to explore.
- More resources in riskier locations.
NEGATIVES:
- More profitability to W-Space habitation.
Now, let's discuss these points in a little more detail, shall we?
For the Positive team, we have Consistency of realism, which can be roughly explained by this question. How does it make sense that all W-Space planets and moons are completely devoid of profitable minerals? And people too? Did the sleepers strip-mine all the planets to build more of themselves and in-so-doing kill all the indigenous people? I could buy that, if there were planet-side ruins and the like, but if so, couldn't we import colonists and export archaeological finds? Maybe as a precursor to T3 Frigates? It's unrealistic and inconsistent to, in a sandbox environment, say 'you can do this stuff with planets and moons' and then say 'except the ones over there' without giving an explanation.
Next we come to, More reason for people to explore, that's right, the shiny probing interface that was installed a few expansions ago? Doesn't that suggest you WANT people to explore, find W-Space, and go searching for fun and profit? Another resource in w-space means another reason for people to want to visit. It also ties in well with my next point...
More resources in riskier locations. The key point here is RISKIER. W-Space is more dangerous than 0.0 in a lot of ways, particularly if you're at a location that isn't either a) protected by a POS bubble, or b) requiring a full set of 4 scan-probes to location. In other words, paranoia at a Mag-site, needed. Paranoia at a combat site? Really needed. Paranoia floating above a planet? Down right necessary to even the faintest hope of survival. In 0.0, you could dock up when someone comes in system, in W-Space, you have to hope you spot them as they're warping to your planet, and hope you can get into warp before they arrive. Is anyone else snickering at your odds there?
Since Risk vs Reward is what you're looking for, W-Space will have a good mix of risk to reward if PI does get implemented there. Sure, you're off the beaten path and someone has to scan down your hole to find you. But once they're in your system, you have no way of knowing if you're going to drop in on your planet safely, or if a handful of SB's are gonna decloak and fry you for your greedy ways.
Add to all that my hope that they'll design the 'launch to space' system in such a way as to give a chance (however small) for theft of your hard-earned goods, and it just sounds like a better and better idea.
For the Negatives team, I could only come up with one thing that really seemed logical to me. Call me biased, cos I probably am, but More profitability to W-Space habitation was all I could decide would hold CCP back. It's been stated that CCP didn't intend for W-Space to be colonized on a permanent basis, so maybe they won't want to give people even more reasons to want to stick around in W-Space.
But that ship has already sailed, folks. W-Space is colonized in the majority of systems that open up connecting to Our Slice of Heaven, and from what I hear, it's the same for most other colonists out there in the community. Trying to artificially coax people out with inconsistent, artificial schemes is a bit sad at best and detrimental at worst. People wouldn't do it if they weren't enjoying it, and the game you've designed is supposed to be a sandbox, and the first rule of the sandbox is that you don't kick down other people's castles just because you don't like their moat.
Anyhow, if YOU have any ideas on a good Positive or Negative on the 'PI in WH' argument, post it in the comments and lets chat. I'm sure there's plenty of arguments for both sides that I've missed!
Fly Straight,
So I thought, 'well, maybe we should go over the positives and negatives of letting W-Space holders have access to Planetary Interaction'. Voila, a blog-post was born. Don't mind the squalling, newborns are cranky like that.
POSITIVES:
- Consistency of realism.
- More reason for people to explore.
- More resources in riskier locations.
NEGATIVES:
- More profitability to W-Space habitation.
Now, let's discuss these points in a little more detail, shall we?
For the Positive team, we have Consistency of realism, which can be roughly explained by this question. How does it make sense that all W-Space planets and moons are completely devoid of profitable minerals? And people too? Did the sleepers strip-mine all the planets to build more of themselves and in-so-doing kill all the indigenous people? I could buy that, if there were planet-side ruins and the like, but if so, couldn't we import colonists and export archaeological finds? Maybe as a precursor to T3 Frigates? It's unrealistic and inconsistent to, in a sandbox environment, say 'you can do this stuff with planets and moons' and then say 'except the ones over there' without giving an explanation.
Next we come to, More reason for people to explore, that's right, the shiny probing interface that was installed a few expansions ago? Doesn't that suggest you WANT people to explore, find W-Space, and go searching for fun and profit? Another resource in w-space means another reason for people to want to visit. It also ties in well with my next point...
More resources in riskier locations. The key point here is RISKIER. W-Space is more dangerous than 0.0 in a lot of ways, particularly if you're at a location that isn't either a) protected by a POS bubble, or b) requiring a full set of 4 scan-probes to location. In other words, paranoia at a Mag-site, needed. Paranoia at a combat site? Really needed. Paranoia floating above a planet? Down right necessary to even the faintest hope of survival. In 0.0, you could dock up when someone comes in system, in W-Space, you have to hope you spot them as they're warping to your planet, and hope you can get into warp before they arrive. Is anyone else snickering at your odds there?
Since Risk vs Reward is what you're looking for, W-Space will have a good mix of risk to reward if PI does get implemented there. Sure, you're off the beaten path and someone has to scan down your hole to find you. But once they're in your system, you have no way of knowing if you're going to drop in on your planet safely, or if a handful of SB's are gonna decloak and fry you for your greedy ways.
Add to all that my hope that they'll design the 'launch to space' system in such a way as to give a chance (however small) for theft of your hard-earned goods, and it just sounds like a better and better idea.
For the Negatives team, I could only come up with one thing that really seemed logical to me. Call me biased, cos I probably am, but More profitability to W-Space habitation was all I could decide would hold CCP back. It's been stated that CCP didn't intend for W-Space to be colonized on a permanent basis, so maybe they won't want to give people even more reasons to want to stick around in W-Space.
But that ship has already sailed, folks. W-Space is colonized in the majority of systems that open up connecting to Our Slice of Heaven, and from what I hear, it's the same for most other colonists out there in the community. Trying to artificially coax people out with inconsistent, artificial schemes is a bit sad at best and detrimental at worst. People wouldn't do it if they weren't enjoying it, and the game you've designed is supposed to be a sandbox, and the first rule of the sandbox is that you don't kick down other people's castles just because you don't like their moat.
Anyhow, if YOU have any ideas on a good Positive or Negative on the 'PI in WH' argument, post it in the comments and lets chat. I'm sure there's plenty of arguments for both sides that I've missed!
Fly Straight,
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Making the Game: Mobile Small/Medium/Large _________
Currently, when you see the above, you'd think I'm writing a quiz and asking for the words Warp Disruptor, but I'm actually proposing something completely different.
One of the things I like about EVE is how small things make big changes. This is often the case in the market, but just as often appears on the battlefield. How often has a new ship warping into a relatively decent sized fight made all the difference between 'we got this' and 'uh oh'? I'm willing to be often is the answer most of you come up with.
What I'd like to see are environmental effects that do the same sort of thing. Because I couldn't come up with a way to add in environmental effects just out of the black, aside from my 0.0 Spacial Anomaly Generator, (if anyone can, please, speak up!) I have instead come up with the following suggestion.
Mobile Target Painter
Mobile Sensor Dampener
Mobile Tracking Disruptor
Why is it that Warp Disruption is the only effect we can deploy in a bubble-like fashion on the battlefield of New Eden? Doesn't it stand to reason that wily technologists would work on creating differing effects that could otherwise reshape the face of a battle?
Perhaps this could require Anchoring 4, the currently unused rank of the Anchoring skill, because really, we all LOVE training something for an extra few days without any benefit.... Yeah, sure we do... ;)
Fly Straight, but not into a bubble!
One of the things I like about EVE is how small things make big changes. This is often the case in the market, but just as often appears on the battlefield. How often has a new ship warping into a relatively decent sized fight made all the difference between 'we got this' and 'uh oh'? I'm willing to be often is the answer most of you come up with.
What I'd like to see are environmental effects that do the same sort of thing. Because I couldn't come up with a way to add in environmental effects just out of the black, aside from my 0.0 Spacial Anomaly Generator, (if anyone can, please, speak up!) I have instead come up with the following suggestion.
Mobile Target Painter
Mobile Sensor Dampener
Mobile Tracking Disruptor
Why is it that Warp Disruption is the only effect we can deploy in a bubble-like fashion on the battlefield of New Eden? Doesn't it stand to reason that wily technologists would work on creating differing effects that could otherwise reshape the face of a battle?
Perhaps this could require Anchoring 4, the currently unused rank of the Anchoring skill, because really, we all LOVE training something for an extra few days without any benefit.... Yeah, sure we do... ;)
Fly Straight, but not into a bubble!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Making the Game: Spacial Anomaly Generator
I've decided to get on the bandwagon of many other bloggers and occasionally put out a post on what I think would be a great addition or change to EVE.
Today, I'm talking about the Spacial Anomaly Generator. No, EVE-fans, this device doesn't exist, yet. But here's my thoughts...
Many wormhole's have spacial anomalies present that drastically alter the way ships within are fit and go about their fighting. What if, as a new upgrade module for 0.0 space, alliances could generate Spacial Anomalies of that nature for their space?
Obviously, how any given anomaly would be determined would be something CCP would need to look into, but, assuming the anomaly would be either permanent or relatively long-living, it would alter the face of almost all warfare in the system.
Residents, well aware of the properties of their anomaly, would have their 'local defense' and even ratting ships fit to take into account the bonus, offering them home-field advantage against intruders. Said intruders would infiltrate the system in small ships prior to the main event to scout out possible anomalies, and would attempt to take that into account when forming their fleet.
Battles would be different.
I'll stress that one, big fleet battles would HAVE to take the anomaly into account or risk destruction, and the fleet that did not would be at a significant disadvantage. This would give even more options, more changes, more interest, to these large battles, which could easily be won or lost in the planning stages.
I think the Spacial Anomaly Generator should be introduced to the game, what about you?
Today, I'm talking about the Spacial Anomaly Generator. No, EVE-fans, this device doesn't exist, yet. But here's my thoughts...
Many wormhole's have spacial anomalies present that drastically alter the way ships within are fit and go about their fighting. What if, as a new upgrade module for 0.0 space, alliances could generate Spacial Anomalies of that nature for their space?
Obviously, how any given anomaly would be determined would be something CCP would need to look into, but, assuming the anomaly would be either permanent or relatively long-living, it would alter the face of almost all warfare in the system.
Residents, well aware of the properties of their anomaly, would have their 'local defense' and even ratting ships fit to take into account the bonus, offering them home-field advantage against intruders. Said intruders would infiltrate the system in small ships prior to the main event to scout out possible anomalies, and would attempt to take that into account when forming their fleet.
Battles would be different.
I'll stress that one, big fleet battles would HAVE to take the anomaly into account or risk destruction, and the fleet that did not would be at a significant disadvantage. This would give even more options, more changes, more interest, to these large battles, which could easily be won or lost in the planning stages.
I think the Spacial Anomaly Generator should be introduced to the game, what about you?
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