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EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

I propose Eve Online takes bids for precisely delineated gaming features players pay for.

Step 1 - a player, or an alliance, wants a certain gaming feature - as an example - players want a new subcategory ship implemented. The player or group of players pose a FORMAL request and ask for a price estimate.

Step 2 - CCP - decides if the feature requested has merit, and the game masters can decide

Step 3 - the new in-game feature is at least reasonably implementable, does not obstruct current power mechanics too much, and there is little chance for cost overruns. CCP management decides how long the implementation would take. and provide the requestion party with an educated estimate how much this feature would cost - and most of all a fairly liberal timeline. CCP precisely defines how they would implement by a careful definition on their “debated new feature” page.

  1. Player or player faction (say, a billionaire Saudi sheik) finds CCP’s propsal for implementation acceptable, collects the money and makes a formal request for the feature. The monetary reimbursement is placed in escrow.

  2. CCP hires people or allocated in-house resources to implement the feature.

  3. Feature gets implemented. CCP gets paid.

Example
Khannea Suntzu, player, asks for CCP to implement a “somewhat realistic” twin neutron star system somewhere in Eve Online. The two Neutron stars orbit each other at about 3 AU, and each weighs 1.3 solar masses, which makes for an orbit of less than a month. You can literally see these things move.

CCP design department coughs up blood in abject terror, likes the idea, but is at a loss how to implement it. They decide to create zones where ships are immediately drawn in towards the stellar remnants, zones where tidal effects cause damage to the ship, varying from a bit to immediate torn apart to shreds (include animation of such process. The stars revolving around each other produces magnetic radiation that can be heard as a thundering sound effect - in-game. Around the damage zone is a variable “pull” zone where ships get pulled at certain in-game speed. This speed ranges can be hundreds to many thousands of km/s. Yes, batttleships flying in the gravitational wake of one of these monsters passing by will be drawn along like confetti., and can travel enormous distances across the system. CCP decides deciding this feature does not disturb established status quo, and says they’ll implement it for 50.000 euro. Khannea agrees, her monetary reimbursement is placed in escrow, 4 months later CCP implements the feature, as per agreed upon deadline.

Yes, CCP looks at each proposal carefully that it does not disturb established sensibilities, discusses it with the community, and does not favor certain factions with certain new features - unless everyone can effectively use the new feature, in case it should not be a major nuisance.

Red. - game designer costs about 100.000 a year. Assume that adding a feature might take 3 guys working for 3 months, let’s say all included, office space and workstation, 15000 per guy per month. These are substantial amounts of money, but I can see large alliances having a distinctive wish list and the ability to pay for specific desired features.

2

Uh, there’s a hundred problems with this but chief among them all is that CCP basically has their regular development times, except whoever is paying them the most gets to pick what they’re working on. It’s going to be an absolute mess, and I don’t think just about any player knows enough about this games development to balance existing ships and come up with new ones that fulfill a unique niche. They way you want this done is the least efficient process I’ve ever seen, CCP completes a whole bid process then hires developers for a specific item? What? I’m also sincerely curious what ideas you think players have that won’t interrupt the current power mechanics, won’t shift the meta in specific directions, and won’t be abused the instant any players get to choose how development works?

Ugh this idea is disgusting. A small part of me gets where you’re coming from, the rest of me thinks you’re giving the playerbase way too much credit and not nearly enough to CCP.

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  • Who is doing the testing and QA work to integrate it with the rest of the game?
  • Why would you pick a third party developer with a bias towards a certain outcome (ie, someone actively playing the game)?
  • Who is working with this new developer or development team to ensure hardware is performing adequately alongside other game features?
  • Who is ensuring the coding standards are consistent with CCP’s current work?
  • I assume this third party performs the unit testing. Who performs the functional testing, integration testing, system testing, stress testing, acceptance testing, performance testing, regression testing? None of those are typically done by a third party developer, and most SHOULDN’T be done by a developer.

Answer these questions relative to this idea and we can take it from there.

4

Huh? CCP decides what gets implemented. The point of this exercise is to let players make precisely defined suggestions, CCP comes with a proposal of they think would be best, outside people pay for the feature. Full development, integration.

5

CCP decides what they implement. If they think the proposal is a shitty idea they don’t implement it.

Point is CCP is back against the wall in development. They are holding so many balls. My idea charts out very specific features all of eve can use. CCP gets EXTRA development funding and at any stage has full power to accept or reject proposals.

6

Yeahh, not gonna happen. CCP makes the game and we fund it by paying the subscription

7

Eve is under continuous and fairly rapid development and we have a say through the forums and events like Fanfest and Vegas. It’s less noticeable with monthly patches than it was back in the day of semi-annual expansions and a lot of it is work we don’t see - replacing 15 year old “legacy code” to provide a solid foundation and structural support for new features. Look at the posts from people returning after taking a few years off - it’s a whole new game!

It’s also important to remember that features aren’t independent - they need to fit together into a consistent whole. Eve is a complex system and I think CCP have done a remarkable job of keeping it going for more than 14 years.

8

t20 times a thousand anyone?

I don’t fancy having devs in the hands of players who will threaten to pull funding if they don’t get what they want or will bribe devs under the pretense of payment of a feature.

If you don’t think this will happen you’re very naive. This already happens to your politicians and with ‘independant’ research/investigations/audits.

9

We have routes to make suggestions. Between the various paths I do not think we should also ratify the golden rule of ‘he who has the gold, rules’ anymore than is already there.

Ideas CAN be put in players features and idea, like yours is, now, OP. They can be suggested to CSM members to advance during summits. Heck you can try to corner the right dev at a meetup and bend his/her ear a little. (Buying them a beer may not help but it couldn’t hurt)

I have used all of there methods, at one time or another.

m

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10

Legalizing rent seeking will simply end in a disaster.

No.

-1.

In fact, you should be horse whipped, tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

2 Likes
11

I make the suggestion. Lots of players add to their in-game options by throwing money at the game. A rich millionnaire buying bulk timecards and PLEX can have a dozen characters with 100M+ skills in days.

If CCP likes this proposal, I am certain they will take notice.

12

It’s also important to remember that features aren’t independent - they need to fit together into a consistent whole. Eve is a complex system and I think CCP have done a remarkable job of keeping it going for more than 14 years.

There is nothing in the above suggestion so far that contradicts this. There are five basic categories of player sponsored responses by CCP.

1 - Your suggestion is completely unworkable and/or patently undesirable. It might even destroy the game altogether. We can not implement this feature. Feel free to make a completely different suggestion.

2 - Your suggestion has been taken in to consideration but we see no immediate pathway to realizing it. A possibility is that your suggestion, though a good idea, would increase server and client load beyond acceptable margins, and it may actually be a valid suggestion in a few years. Feel free to make the suggestion at a later date.

3 - Your suggestion has been received, we are open to implementing it, the estimated implementation price is 40 million euro. As in, it’s a good suggestion but nobody in the core team wants it implemented.

4 - Your suggestion has been received, is found a worthwhile addition to the game that will not interfere with planned pathway. We like it and it can be done, and it will be a fairly well received addition to the game. We need 2 freelance designers and 4 in-house designers working 4 months to implement and integrate it. We estimate this to be worth , including workstation and office spacing, 175.000 euro.

5 - Your suggestion is already planned in the existing pathway for development of new game features. You do not need to pay for this, we got you already covered.

13

Soft moan

14

Players make suggestions all the time - it’s what this forum category is all about and it’s one of the main benefits CCP gets from their investment in Fanfest and Eve Vegas - developers and players talking to each other. Player suggestions do shape the game but we don’t always get formal recognition from CCP.

The economics are also a little difficult to understand. Who is simply going to give tens of thousands of dollars or euros to CCP expecting nothing but an in-game feature in return? Bear in mind that the feasibility study will cost money and will need to be paid for whether or not the project is approved.

15

This sounds like a messy, worthless way of trying to control developer time.

16

all request get denied from player empire groups. null sec group fills form empire should be safe, ccp says $X, alliance raise money, empire becomes lawless alling all trade hubs perma camped until death. rip

17

What do you know. This idea in itself falls into the first.

18

You don’t even know what I’m talking about do you?

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