Hey everyone !
Just came back after a few years without EVE. I was sucked into EVE again because of the beauty, of the space, of the spaceships, and of the trailers. I watched a few, and I could not resist. I had to activate my account again. I did not need much action, just wanted to float trough space, and do some missions - so I decided to do, what I did almost first when I started EVE in 2011 - I started the SoE Epic arc - some flying, some fighting - I liked it. Next thing will be going back into 0.0 or lowsec to hunt some spaceships.
But after I completed it, I asked myself: “Why isn´t this so ■■■■■■■great and immersive like even Freelancer or X2/3/4 ?” I was sucked into these games and couldn´t stop playing them until they were played trough.
So what is it, what EVE is missing here ? I thought about it some days now, and I think I have my answer - there is no real connection between you / your pilot and the mission. In EVE, you just read a text, and then fly to some waypoints, and do x, warp to y, do this, do that. Its cool because it looks good and EVE gameplay is awesome - BUT - after playing missions, epic arcs, cosmos, it is hard to tell their story to anyone. The story was just not told. Not really.
In Freelancer / X-Series, you have a real feedback in your missions - after something happens, there is a voice/face on your screen/headphones giving you an update, telling you something. warp off, attack, fight for your life, or is just wondering about the story. This brings a deep immersive connection between you and the missions - after 15 years, I am still able to tell the story of freelancer out of my mind if a friend would ask me - In EVE, its hard to tell the story of an epic arc right when you are doing it ! I think you get what I mean. EVE has so impressive trailers, so full of WOW-effects. And no connection to this ingame, besides from cool fleet battles, where you create your own story.
So my feature idea is the following:
- A voice/video based feedback system for PVE - The AI Voice ( Aura? ), the mission agents, hostiles, that TELL the story of the missions. That interact with you. Via a picture and a voice, or a small animated face that does this job. This would create a connection to the missions - telling the player the story, telling him that he is going on a dangerous mission, that he should be careful when approaching a habitation module to rescue civilians, all that mission related stuff. I think this is why those singleplayer games make players so addicted.
I think this would make newer players stick more to the game, before they are experienced enough to create their own stories in the sandbox.
disclamer: not asking for the storyline here, just an immersive improvement of missions that exist right now.
Thanks for reading, fly safe o/