facts, hints and some speculation (wall of text)

There has been a lot of negativity in forumspace surrounding CCP's unveiling of DUST514 based on a couple of things; players' experiences with console shooters, and reading more into the announcement than is there. So before anyone emoragequits Eve because a bunch of ADHD pre-teens are gonna control our game, let's take a couple of deep breaths... Feeling a bit calmer? Good, now we can look at what CCP has actually said. When we combine that with what we already know about the company, we will be in a position to make some educated guesses. What will the console gameplay look like? And how will Eve be affected?

Here are a bunch of facts and hints from the available information sources. ( i compiled this before I saw Grez's post)

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I: Watching the video of Hilmar Pétursson's talk at GDC, we find the the following:

a:
From the gameplay demo - a view of a battle command center, then a POV char moves about on foot, shoots an enemy who is also afoot, jumps into an aircar, watches two weaponized trucks battle, then air-to-air combat between larger ships as the aircar takes off. (00:20 - 01:05)

b:
&quot;...you play as a (freaky?) marine running around, buying trucks and extensions for that...&quot; (02:05)

c:
&quot;[Dust soldiers] are able to be cloned to some extent...&quot; (02:30) (the number 514 relates to this somehow)

d:
&quot;...permanent structures inside the battlefield...&quot; (03:00)

e:
&quot;Dust will become one of those [sovereignty] inputs. DUST battlefields will dictate who control specific planets inside the EVE MMO. If a player contracts a DUST mercenary team to go and conquer this district of a planet. Then ultimately he will be able to control the planet, and therefore the solar system, and therefore the constellation, and the region...You will increasingly have to fight with your fleet [in EVE Online] but you will also have to contract people who play DUST, the console MMO, which then feeds into the sovereignty control system of EVE. Then EVE feeds back into that again by funding the mercenaries, giving them goals, etcetera.&quot; 3:40

f:
Dust will have its own corporation and alliance structure from the outset. Alliances will be able to span both games (04:42 Powerpoint slide)

g:
&quot;[We will have] social structures that bridge between the PC experience and Dust...&quot; (04:54)

-continued

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II: Excerpts from an interview with Hilmar from later the same day

a:
K: But this won't enable one to watch fights in DUST from within Eve and the other way?
CCP: No. In the PC game you will make offers to DUST marines. This group of mercenaries, will be in the center of DUST. The marines accept the mission, if the conditions are right and the result will be sent back and influences the gameplay of the PC game. But there won't be a Spectator camera or similar things.

b:
K: And between the Employer in Eve and the soldiers only money is transfered? Or are there more ways, which would mean the Eve player could support his soldiers.
CCP: Through higher values of money the player supports his soldiers more. And yes, money will be the minimum an Eve player can transfer to his soldiers.

c:
K: The game isn't a solo shooter, but from the announcement also a MMO. How massive will be your multiplayer, how many people can take part in one skirmish?
CCP: If we take how many people can take part in one skirmish, I wouldn't call it MMO. We rather take the huge world of Eve Online in which the game takes place, and where many people account for. I can't tell at the moment how many players can take part in one fight. For one this is limited by the hardware but also which team sizes make sense and how the maps will look like etc.

d:
K: MMOG must provide new content in certain time intervals, to keep the players. Shooter like DUST consist of well designed maps which would make it very expensive. And consoles are very limited on memory space...
CCP: Like with Eve, we will deliver the tools and the information the players build their own world. This means, we don't necessarily need to deliver new content. The content will be created by the players when they are giving life to the world. Our philosophy is: The guys playing the game are more important then the game itself.

e:
K: How about the character of a player. Does he get expirience, will he advance in levels?
CCP: The character will evolve, but different from other MMOs and different from Eve.

f:
K: ...is DUST just a small step of a greater plan you want to follow over many years?
CCP: I'd say: if you look at Eve and if you imagine it as an ultimative science fiction package for all your entertainment needs, then this is how Eve should be one day. Whenever you want SciFi entertainment, this shall be your brand delivering. Not matter what.

g:
K: Will there be a singleplayer campaign?
CCP: Maybe there will be some kind of training mode, but else we limit it to the online mode.

K: Will there be only player versus player, or also a cooperative mode against NPC?
CCP: Uhm, I don't think I can answer this question. There are some things we didn't fix yet. And I don't want to but presure on the team by fixing things with a statement.

K: If I want to play late in the night online and only people with bad connection are available, I'd be happy about bots.
CCP: Yes, in such a scenario it makes sense, and I think we will provide a solution. But our goal is that players play against human players. Everything reaching this goal and not disturbing interaction between players will be supported by us.

h:
K: In Eve there are masses of technology and items. Will there be as many weapons in DUST or more like a usual shooter - ten gunz and that's it?
CCP: The plenty technologies will be also seen in DUST. There will be many technologies and items.

K: There are vehicles and air units seen, right?
CCP: Yes.

-continued

III: More things we know about CCP (in no particular order):

a:
Dust514 has been in development at CCP Shanghai for more than 2 years (CCP press release)

b:
Dust is a hybrid of FPS and RTS elements, &quot;equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, allowing commanders and ground infantry to work together, utilizing the real time configurable modular weapons and vehicles at their disposal...&quot; (CCP press release)

c:
Hilmar's keynote &quot;illustrate[s] to investors the strong ROI in business models other than retail sales&quot; (GDC Europe website)

d:
CCP defines success differently than other game companies. Lower subscription numbers with higher player retention is working well for them.

e:
Eve appeals to a different demograhic than other MMOs; Eve's avg. player is in his late 20s, other MMOs avg. in the teens

-continued

A picture of the gameplay is starting to emerge. New players will do tutorials in single player mode, learning their way around and how to operate the equipment they start out with.Then the multiplayer capabilities will be available. Players will advance their capabilities and specialize. In the video we see foot soldiers, ground vehicles, air transport and air combat.

There will be PVE content as well as PVP. Players will be able to join corporations and alliances, or not. The more risk-averse will have PVE content the way hi-sec carebears in Eve do. What this will be isn't finalized yet. (IIg) But there will have to be ways for players to earn ISK before they are ready/willing to take contracts from Eve entities. They will need experience and good equipment to qualify for the better corporations.

There will be a market, though we can't say yet how player-driven it will be. We have a hint that Eve entities will be able to supply more than ISK, though.(IIb). Resource extraction and manufacture? It would make sense to use planetary resources to build infrastructure.(Id) Two way trade with Eve? Likely.(IId)
Since DUST514 is so closely tied with Eve, we can be sure that dying will have similar consequences. My guess as to the significance of 514 - 14 day free trial, 500 clones available before you need to buy the equivalent of a PLEX.(Ic, IIIc)

And I'm sorry to break it to you Istvaan Shogaatsu, but you're not going to be able to carpet-bomb the planetary battlefields like you hoped. But it's a safe bet that Eve pilots will have to deliver the troops and materiel to where they can shuttle planetside. It would be game-breaking for Dusties to move about in 0.0 space risk-free. Once they've established bases onworld I'd expect that Dusties could clone jump as Capsuleers do.

-continued

It's starting to sound like a pretty cool game. The depth, complexity and level of organization required to interact effectively with the Eve side will select out the kiddies the doomsayers are worried about. The fact that consoles don't provide the same twitch factor as PC games will help there too. Dust will give more fluid combat gameplay than Eve does, with a healthy dose of strategy thrown in. It will appeal to those who are attracted to the Eve universe, want to PVP, but are turned off by 'Spreadsheets in Space'.

With planetary control becoming a factor in sovereignty, Eve alliances are going to have to adapt. Dealing with Dust corps and alliances at arm's length will not be nearly as effective as having one's own members actively playing Dust. How else to determine the quality and reliability of the mercs you're hiring? Putting good recruiters and FC's in Dust will confer advantages also.

Strategy and tactics will evolve to meet the new challenges. Alliances will have to concentrate as they lose the space where they can't quickly provide air superiority to fend off invaders. Will the boredom of POS bashing/repping give way to the boredom of fleet picket duty? Only time will tell... One thing is certain - Eve needs a sovereignty mechanic that falls somewhere between time zone ping-pong and the too static, defense-biased system we have now.

CCP started small with Eve and grew the game's content and player base gradually over time. Now the revenues from Eve are supporting not only Eve's continued development but the development of Dust and World of Darkness, their vampire MMO. This time around they have greatly increased visibility in the gaming community, which should speed adoption of Dust. The success of the Eve franchise going forward depends now on two things: the quality of game play in Dust itself to populate the planets; and a more dynamic, better balanced sovereignty system for Eve as a whole. Dust cannot stand alone, and Eve will wither and die if Sov doesn't improve.

-continued

So, what do you think? Did I smoke too much crack before I wrote this? How do you envision DUST 514? How do you see Sov. mechanics changing?

[quote=&quot;dachucky&quot;:das8g9js]Now they just need to make it so that I can bombard tanks with my Rail-Guns from Orbit [/quote]

I agree with you on the game concept being totally revolutionary to anything we've seen before (in terms of combining two complete polar opposites with each other), but unfortunately the &quot;Order Exterminatus&quot; option should rightfully be denied to EvE online pilots. I know DUST players can call for off map support but that obviously is instanced within their particular battleground map and not something which controlled manually from an EvE player in orbit.

Plus, if OB was allowed in the DUST-EvE interaction - you'd just have a huge number of capital ships firing constantly into the surface of a planet. Realistically a few salvos from a Dreadnought would probably take out a huge chunk of the landscape, never mind an area the size of a Battlefield 2142 map. Those crazy enough to pilot their Titan in and aim a DDW into the planet would probably claim sovereignty over the celestial body by completely vaporizing it into space dust.

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