So, I'm out of the ship. Now what?

[dudemanjac]

There seems to be a decent lump of the population that wants to be allowed to dock and walk around in the station. Personally, I could do without it unless there is actually something to do in the station. So let's hear it. When you get in the station, what things are going to make it worth while to you to actually step out and stretch your legs.

I've mentioned in another thread that it really annoyed me that there were casinos in a couple of stations in Earth and Beyond that you could not interact with. How about a bar where I can actually buy a drink? Maybe some drunken flying? Crafting areas where there are actual machines building the parts.

Point is I don't just want eye candy. Otherwise it's a wast of resources and time, ours and theirs.

[Parallax]

I wouldn't mind it as a way to interact with my clan buddies in our clan station's bar.

I still think that everyone being in their own space ship is very impersonal, but when you have your player character you can be more personal with your mates.

And when I mean personal I mean the "sex" emote from Neocron.

I did enjoy walking around in E&B, but as you say, unless there is any point to it, then I don't see why resources should be used in implementing it.

[reanor]

In Earth and Beyond it didn't really work. Also even in EVE that plans to add walk in station there are some concerns about the usability and either this will be helpful at all or not. I guess the game like EVE can't be affected in a bad way by this add-on. Existing alliances and corporations most likely long for this kind of leg-stretching experience after being in space for more than 10 years.

What BP has to do before they even consider walk in station in my opinion is integrated a dock with station animation at least. I mean at this point you just select the location, select the station and by pressing dock you just accessing station interface. Like a flying beacon of a huge size. There could be just a dot in space that you approach and access that dot's interface. Stationary location in space for players to interact with. I wish stations were more interactive than they are now.

[Doc Holliday]

get out of the ship and straight in to neocron. :S


now joking aside. yes it would be nice but lets concentrate on getting the space side of things before going earthside even in a star base.

[reanor]

Agreed. I'd rather see them expanding and balancing the existing content since that was the initial focus and game is not even released yet. Too early to dream about what comes in the future. Most likely game will need more missions, more ships / parts added to modulation system. Since game is focused on leveling there are most likely gaps like in any other game focused on levels.

Those gaps need to be addressed, more missions and space sectors added etc. Otherwise it will be like with AoC. I've played it till 50 and then stopped. First of all the level grind was pretty boring and there weren't enough quests available for 52-57 level range. I know personally a few people who took a break because of this and actually never came back because other games came out.

[CMaster]

My feelings about this are pretty strong: Don't bother with one exception.
Seriously, as cool as it would be to hop out of my ship and wander over to the station bar or something, it's not something I'm going to be doing very often. Lots of players probably wouldn't do it at all, with the meat of the game being in space.

Yet developing it - well, that's a big challenge. You have to animate all the character models (we'll assume that the 3D avatars already made are up to the job). You have to code all the physics and UI of walking around. You have to make detailed maps of all the internal environments. You then have to populate all these maps with models, NPCs, events and textures, which all have to be made in themselves. This is a stupid amount of work for a fluff feature, which could instead have been spent on adding oodles more content or some neat new features (trade/commodity systems, if the playerbase want that? patrol craft?) to the game proper.

The exception? If KK make an exceptional foot-combat side of the game. In reality, this adds up to an entire new game, just one that joins up with the old one, so I don't see it as very likley. And it needs to be good. Inevitably, boarding enemy ships and stations would become necessary to certain parts of the game. So it needs to be fun - otherwise it's just something that gets in the way of the fun stuff. It needs to be balanced and work - otherwise people will exploit the ground side to gain an advantge space side. Etc. Look at Eternal Silence (the Source Mod linked to elsewhere) for an example of where the ability to board the enemy ships actually spoils the game, because the foot combat isn't actually that great.

Edit: And oh, my first thought on reading the thread title was "Dying of asphixiation?"

[RabbidFerret]

I agree with Cmaster. Although I think walking adds a little bit more immersion (only if it is done right), there is just bigger and better things that need to be done first.

Follow CCP's example and wait a while before tackling this problem.

[Fascination]

Did this really need a new thread from the "No Docking" one?

[wannie]

Docking casino where one can play blackjack and poker and lose the money the just missioned

[dudemanjac]

Probably not, but I thought it would be nice to keep this separate from the yay or nay argument. I wanted this one to be more about if we do that what should be there.