Given the thrust available, there is a good reason to have ships behave like aircraft. We are designed by evolution for “gravity” (either actual gravity or acceleration forces) to act in the direction we perceive to be “down” .
Our physiology doesn’t deal well with transverse g’s, (side to side), or worse, negative g’s. Excessive negative g’s can cause “red out” from burst capillaries leaking blood into the interior of the eyes, and there is also increased risk of stroke from increased blood pressure in the brain.
It would be better, physiologically, if control systems were to keep forces caused by acceleration directed through the seat of our pants and in the direction of our backs rather than out the top of our head or from side to side. That results in space craft maneuvering like airplanes.
I disagree on this one. EVE actually makes RP very easy. Pretty much everything you can talk about in- and out-of-character the same way.
The interface is rather close what your character sees in space too, except for the fact that it’s not an actual virtual reality. According to lore, the characters do not in fact fly the ships manually from a cockpit, they control them via an interface from a capsule, via neural implants. We don’t “fly” a spaceship as much as “be” the spaceship, while in space.
In space, the curves a ship with thrusters (would) follow aren’t affected by anything comparable to the significant effect of air against the wings as an airplane’s attitude is changed relative to its direction.
The same curves could be induced with over-sized maneuvering thrusters, but it’s a safe bet that pointing the main thrusters in the correct direction then using the main engine would be more efficient.
And the significant acceleration would always be in the most “passenger friendly” direction if it mattered.
Well, EvE doesn’t have ships fly either like spacecraft or aircraft. If they flew like space craft, it would all be vectors for yaw, roll, and thrust. And ships don’t act like aircraft either, which could be simulated for physiological purposes by flight control computers directing thrusters of apply acceleration forces in such a way so as to avoid either negative g’s or transverse g’s.
Instead, they have a method that that is easy to program, I suppose, but breaks immersion for roll playing purposes.
The physics was interesting, and explains much of what goes on at FTL speeds, but not what goes on in normal space where velocities are measured in meters per second. In normal space, we are still subject to physiological limitations for forces generated by accelerations.
Oddly enough, role playing in an MMORPG is sort of frowned upon. Never forget that internet spaceships are serious business…
CODE is by far the premier RP group in Eve. CODE enforcers remaining in character while some miner has a complete meltdown in real life is some of the best entertainment in New Eden.
RP in Eve takes several forms beyond being ‘in character’. The way you express your RP in Eve is by actions more than narrative. In Eve you aren’t a pirate because you selected a class or chose a definition- you are a pirate because you actually go out and attack people in shipping lanes as a freelancer, unaffiliated with a ‘side’ and taking sec status hits as a result. ‘You are what you do’ is how I’d put it.
An indirect form of RP- when I was a pirate there was a station in our low sec region that was declared a no-fire zone among the various local pirate corps. Our version of Mos Eisley, run on agreements completely outside the game mechanics. Some pirate big wigs kept it stocked and you could get what you needed and not be insta-murdered on the undock. Anywhere else the pirates would shoot each other- but we agreed to have a hive of scum and villainy where we could all hang out. We didn’t act in character, but it was in character as a local pirate to honor the no-fire agreement. If that makes sense.
We also worked together a lot. If I escaped a gate camp, I could just as easily ask to join it and be accepted on the basis of being a member of the local pirate cabal.
That is community more than RP, but it takes the same kind of effort among players to realize.
While no one would call any of the sov null empires ‘RP’, it is in the sense that we tend to be highly dedicated to our chosen alliances. Goons like being Goons and sperging propaganda in local is raised to an art form. It’s not true RP, but we treat our loyalty to our alliance as strongly as an RP’er would for one of the NPC empires’ Factional Warfare corps. Instead of an Amarr Empress we got a lawyer from the Mid-West.
This might sound paradoxical, but to me the main reason that separates an actual role-player from someone who just plays in a way that can be interpreted as a role is the the ability to go out-of-character.
What makes it possible for us to play characters that are separate from our RL personas is that we can and will show our RL-selves and the separation to our game-self as necessary. What makes us players of games is the ability to step back and talk to the other player behind the pixelated spaceship and portrayed character. It can manifest as “good fight” after a harsh win, it can manifest as “this is getting into pretty heavy themes now, are you willing to continue the RP”, it can manifest as “I see you are upset, and I’m sorry, but I still can’t let you go without the ransom”. However…
remaining in character while some miner has a complete meltdown in real life is some of the best entertainment in New Eden
I don’t actually think this is really roleplaying. Roleplaying is about enjoying interaction between two imaginary characters. In this example, the other party is not another character; it is another player. This is using the pretense of roleplaying to be a real-life jerk.
We cannot always help that people get upset when they lose in EVE (it’s a pretty harsh game that way) and yea, it can occasionally be pretty satisfactory… but still, personally I think that intentionally using another player’s, a real-life person’s, real upset as your personal entertainment is bullying, and it is lame.
