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Early Look At EVE Creators' DUST 514
CCP Games, the developer behind space MMORPG EVE Online, made waves in August when they announced DUST 514, a console MMOFPS which will tie into the EVE universe. Eurogamer is now running a preview of the new MMO, providing more information on how it will work and the way in which it will interact with EVE and its players. Quoting: "... battles take place on dynamic battlefields about 5 kilometers across. Unlike EVE itself, there will be a cap to the number of players per battle — CCP is 'still playing with numbers' (and presumably watching the development of 256-player MAG with interest), but assures us that this will not be less than 64 players. There will be a command structure, with infantry and squadron leaders on each side led by a player-commander on board the hulking Mobile Command Center airship. The commander will effectively be playing a real-time strategy game with living units, and will have an RTS-style view of the battlefield. He'll be dependent on the situational awareness of infantry players to clear the fog of war. He'll also be the target, with the ultimate aim of a battle — after several, varying sub-objectives — being to destroy the opposing side's MCC."
I wonder how CCP will handle issues of commanders allied with the opposing force, and commanding his/her forces to their doom? This *is* the Eve universe, after all...
This sounds very much like the Titan Assault mode in Battlefield 2142. After playing as commander a few times in that game I came to feel strangely like I had the least power to affect the outcome of anyone - being a squad leader or member in a squad that worked together and communicated well seemed much more effective in determining the outcome of a round. As commander essentially all you could do was initiate satellite tracks and dispatch UAVs, drop supplies and the occasional orbital strike, and use a large menu to attempt to give orders to the squads on your team. The problem is that nobody is under any obligation to actually follow through on those orders, and the small point rewards that squad members would receive for following orders seemed to be outweighed by the lure of "going where the kills are". The best experiences are to be had on servers where following squad leader and commander orders are mandatory or kick. If DUST 514 is going to be fun to play from a commander's perspective I would hope that the rewards or punishments for following/not following orders would be increased, or that the command structure can in some way be enforced.
Until I started following links, I thought we were going for retro I/O -- a game with lots of players, and a grunt/commander split, all rendered to ASCII and running in a terminal.
On finding the truth... okay, it's pretty, but I'm very disappointed.
If CCP spend their time listening to casual gamers EVE would likely be thrown in the large pile of failed MMOs. EVE thrives because if fulfills a niche that no other game provides for myself and a few hundred thousand other gamers - I've never played an MMO where combat against other players can be as complex and fun as EVE's. If CCP spent its time listening to casual gamers there would be very little loss, the market would no longer be player-controlled, and it would be possible to obtain every ship without cooperating with other players in any form.
EVE has been a success because it knows what its players want. Attempting to cater to a casual audience and become a space-based version of World of Warcraft would destroy it and drive away the vast majority of its players.