Go Big or Go Home

Some games have such an enormous learning curve you need to either dig in and focus to play successfully, or just don't play at all. These games have no middle ground for casual or even semi-hardcore gamers. You have to be invested. EVE Online is one obvious example. It takes months or even years to learn enough about the game to become successful. On top of that, the character development system in the game requires further commitment: it actually takes months to train a passable frigate PVP character. Want to fight using larger, more expensive, more powerful ships and equipment? You'll have to wait more months. Probably years. I have a four-year-old character who still cannot pilot the simplest capital ship. Granted, I never really focused said character at capital ships. He's decent in battlecruisers and battleships. But still - he's four years old. One would think he had reached the endgame content, no?

So when Jester mentions DUST 514 has an EVE-like skill system that takes months or even years to develop the more fun, useful abilities, I know exactly what he means. And I agree with him; I don't particularly want to go through it all again, either. At least, not in a free-to-play action game where I'm more interested in player skill rather than character skill. That's not to say EVE isn't based on player skill - it most certainly has a player skill component. But the fact remains it's very frustrating, especially to new or casual players, to be saddled with things like slow-responding sniper scopes simply because you haven't logged a requisite number of hours in the game.

As a solution, I would recommend taking a look at Enemy Territory, the free, standalone multiplayer release based on Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It's an FPS of course, but your character earns experience and levels up based on your actions in the game. Due to the action-oriented nature of the game, your character can reach maximum level by the time a server's round rotation is over (usually between 30-90 minutes of gameplay). Once the server rotates to a new round, all characters are reset. This is great because endgame is attainable but not frustratingly long and drawn-out. Advanced characters have definite advantages, but a low-level skilled player can still best a max-level player at any time.

I want Dust 514 to play less like EVE and more like Enemy Territory.

DayZ of EVE

Disclaimer: I haven't had an opportunity to play DayZ first-hand yet.

DayZ places players in a massive, open map filled with the walking dead. Other hazards - including fellow players - are sure to appear along the way. Other players are likely to represent the biggest threat. Once you learn to protect yourself from the AI undead, how do you protect yourself from living, thinking humans?

The freedom and extreme potential for total, absolute loss is surely a big draw for EVE players. A few days after coming to this realization, I ran across an article in an issue of Game Informer in which DayZ creator Dean Hall is interviewed. His goal is to make a standalone DayZ game - preferably an MMO - and model the game and supporting business around CCP's EVE Online.

Why EVE? It's a perfectly viable niche game with a ridiculously loyal subscriber base. DayZ likely hopes to fulfill a similar niche market. EVE may not be as staggeringly popular as World of Warcraft, but EVE players are almost unilaterally more dedicated and tend to stick around longer. Besides, there are obvious similarities between EVE and DayZ: both offer a wide-open world with myriad opportunities to create - and destroy - value. In both games, the content is player-driven. Players create the experience rather than click through scripted events.

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. Of course, I should have jumped on it sooner. Immediately upon beginning this post I found at least one other article covering the topic.

Did I mention Dean Hall intends to release a standalone version of DayZ as soon as possible?

New (Old) Ships in New Eden

There's a new Dev Blog out today detailing some of the ship re-balancing taking place for EVE's winter 2012 expansion. I'm glad to see some work is finally being done on this subject.

What's the story with the Kestrel? In the past I often used the Kestrel as a quick, short-range rocket vessel (or a cyno ship). CCP plans to apply a 5% missile damage bonus and 10% missile velocity bonus per level. Why are rockets excluded? I have no idea; I also have no idea what other ships actually use rockets today. If that damage bonus applied to rockets the Kestrel could be a pretty good choice in PVP.

There's supposed to be a new destroyer for each race. I've not known many people to fly destroyers in PVP so these will likely remain in the realm of new-player PVE use. Still, it's nice to have new ships now and then.

The Tristan becoming a drone boat is pretty cool. It's a much-needed addition to the drone-heavy player's upgrade path. I approve. Unfortunately I tend to get overwhelmed by micromanagement when I attempt to use drones in PVP.

The support frigates (Navitas, Bantam, Inquisitor, and Burst) are very interesting. Currently it seems to take forever to train a new pilot up to logistics ships; this looks to be an excellent addition to the upgrade path for these players. I predict they'll be (ab)used mostly PVE such as frigate-level complexes and the like by LANers or dual-boxers, but it can be fun to play said role with friends to make some ISK now and then. That said, it's intriguing that CCP also has plans to improve the t1 logistics cruisers enough to make them worthwhile. It looks like support ships are about to become more available (and important) than ever.

That's all for now. There's a lot to say on this topic, but I think I've hit the points that piqued my interest.

Siren's Call

Typically I play through a game once or twice (or five times, in the case of Mass Effect) and move on. There are a lot of games in my backlog that require attention so I try to keep moving forward. Unfortunately some games never end.

I've quit EVE Online at least four times now. Here's my history:

• My first stint was from June 2008 - October 2008. I was hooked, playing during the few moments between breakfast and going into the lab for work, during lunch, and as soon as I got home every afternoon. My friends and I were in a corp that had zero participation, but we had a good time between the few of us.
• Boredom struck and I lapsed until CCP offered five free days and a $10 renewal deal right at the end of December 2008. By then our corp CEO had finally left for good, leaving one of my friends in charge of all the corp assets. It was a field day and we quickly ran to set up our newly-inherited POS in Molden Heath lowsec. This proved to be incredibly beneficial for us even though the POS was a failure. A few days after setting it up, my corpmate and I were out there mining and shipping equipment to the POS. A -10.0 player showed up in a Jaguar and wiped the floor with us (Wolf + Kestrel). He mostly only spoke German but we happened to be German minors in college so we could vaguely communicate. Turns out the guy was really cool and he invited us to join his corp. So we did, and started playing PVP in earnest. A good thing too because the corp was actively scouting the region for a noob POS to bust with their dreadnaughts and ours was the next target! The corp moved to 0.0 and joined the alliance Wildly Inappropriate for a time. We left after less than one month due to a variety of reasons, then began searching for a new 0.0 alliance. We ended up helping found AGGRESSION. We tried to take some 0.0 space in Wicked Creek and succeeded for a short time, until Tau Ceti Federation showed up. AGGRO collapsed then and I faded away from EVE in August 2009.
• My friend dragged me back from February 2011 to June 2011. We joined a corp made up of old AGGRO members in a southern alliance. The alliance atmosphere was awful but we made some money and had some fun in wormholes and PVP for a bit. Eventually the Russian alliance grew too hostile to its non-Russian members so we quit playing again.
• I joined EVE once again in late January 2012 through March 2012. I left 0.0 and started up some semi-passive industry and trade work. Knowing full well how lame it can be, I tried my hand at ninja salvaging (i.e. ganking players who don't understand aggression mechanics (or who simply don't care)) to some success. I have a terrible hard time finding fights. It seems everywhere I go is empty or everyone is a pacifist. Boredom hits and I left the game yet again.

I still follow the EVE blogosphere, however, which constantly threatens to drag me back into the game. I recently read a post at Jester's Trek which turned me on to a relatively new blog called Diaries of a Space Noob. I recommend you read it from the very beginning, if you're interested. It follows the out-of-character experiences of a new EVE player who recently left World of Warcraft for our fine game of internet spaceships. It's endearing and, like so many other players, it reminds me of my early days in EVE. It's calling me back into the game and I'm not sure I can continue to resist.

The Value of Currency

I’m often perplexed by the state of in-game economies. Usually I end up with absurd amounts of cash and the shops have nothing worth purchasing, so my useless fortune grows pointlessly, laughably large. That fortune has no value because it cannot be exchanged for any tangible value.

The Mass Effect series is a recent offender (Mass Effect 1 to a slightly lesser degree). I never once worried about having enough money in these games; I was always able to purchase everything I wanted and then some. I often wonder why developers included credits (space money) in this series. If there were more compelling items to purchase (or a need to purchase supplies) the credits might have been more meaningful. As it stands, however, credits are not the primary currency in Mass Effect. Your character’s skill points are.

Oblivion represents another case of too-much-money syndrome. I found gold everywhere, but I rarely found anything worth buying in any shop, anywhere, throughout the entire game. The shops simply never sold anything better than the gear I already had, even early on. I found all of my equipment and supplies while adventuring (and I never found anything good, which is another tale). The gold economy was mostly worthless, though for some reason I continued to collect it obsessively. At least you could buy houses and furniture with it. Again your character’s skill points represent the only meaningful currency in the game.

The too-much-money syndrome is a common issue in games, but it’s more than just a balancing issue. I think it stems from a lack of intrinsic value in in-game items. This is clear in the previous examples I have discussed. Do any games handle this properly?

Consider EVE Online, where any and all player-owned items are subject to sudden, irreversible destruction. Items in that universe have value because they can be destroyed and must be replaced if you intend to continue playing. As an EVE player I always feel pressed for cash. As a side note, the vast majority of items in the universe happen to be player-created. EVE’s ISK economy is bustling as a result because players can not only create value, but destroy it as well.

All three of the games mentioned have a character skill point economy as well as a more traditional credit/gold/ISK-based economy, but only one of these titles manages to make both types of economies meaningful. Notice how the possibility of loss makes value greater? I’ve mentioned this concept before, only in slightly different terms.