BB30 – The Truth is Out There

“With the Winter expansion possibly being named ‘Crucible’, it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?

For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this “patchwork” of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package “The Crucible” together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?”

Wow. Tough one. Tougher given the fact that we’ve all been yelling for a refocus on flying in space. Now you want an additional feature? I’m beginning to suspect Seismic Stan has something of a sadistic streak somewhere in there…

OK – all brain cells to the pump!

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

Zero.

Worst case of writers block ever….

… seventeen cups of coffee later and some serious jitters… what about cosmology?

It can be linked to the new nebula. We have jump gates that take you instantaneously without issue from point A to point B… but what about all the stars and places in between? Why can’t we identify a star outside the grid of the current gate network, tune our warp drives for deep transit and head out towards it?

Who knows what we’ll find there? This is very much like gathering the wagon (Orca) train and heading out over the plains in search of fame and fortune. To take everything you need with you and blaze a trail to somewhere new…. and perhaps eventually, with significant time, effort, and research, build a jump gate to enable a connection back from your frontier post. The similarities to a land rush where you stake your claim are actually pretty good. Wild west, here we come 🙂

It could all end in an unmitigated disaster. It might make you rich beyond your wildest dreams… it may take you too close to Jovian space and elicit a response (big nod to Eveoganda btw). It’s a shame that the name Exodus has already been used for an expansion, though that isn’t quite to Stan’s brief I will admit.

Implementation wise, this shouldn’t be too difficult (in my limited understanding) as it leverages off current mechanics, nor is it too different from wormholes, though instead you may need a session change at each heliosphere or heliopause (often considered the boundary of a solar system) and something to be indicative of interstellar travel.

Cyno’s are a no no. Otherwise, once you get there, pop the beacon and call everyone through. Cheating in my book, and way too easy for Alliances to farm willy nilly. We have enough of that already. So, lets have a look at the maths.

Hmmmmm. Closest star to earth is Alpha Centauri at 4.37 light years. There are about 63241 AUs to the light year. So that translates to roughly… a big number (276363 AU). More so when you start talking about a 3AU warp speed being standard for a battleship…. that would take (carry the four, divide by the airspeed of an unladen swallow…) a bit over 25.5 hours of game time to get there. Possible…. but methinketh few are going to devote that kind of time, so it might be argued that the arbitrary distances should be a lot less, or very much dependant on where you are in the current galaxy.

On the other hand, people might actually use certain implants and rigs that I’m sure are completely ignored at the moment if something like this was implemented… 🙂 On the other hand again, the fastest ships with the right combination of gear could do that kind of distance in three to four hours or so. Hmmmm….

So, the tie in. The Jovian’s could send out a message to  the four main factions suggesting they look beyond known space for answers to the Sansha threat. The Arek’Jaalan initiave might pick up a signal from deep space and set out to investigate… or perhaps send some trusted capsuleers to do so. I suspect that’s the relatively easy part.

The various Faction States would obviously react to this new and unexpected news by going into a higher alert status. Each would be eyeing the other’s readiness levels militarily, and looking to provide a fast, relatively cheap upscaling in might (the new battlecruiser classes) as well as (in the case of the Gallente) major improvements to weapon and drone systems…

And I can’t help but thinking about about large mass driven asteroids, set on a collision course by an unknown force as in Starship Troopers. These could also be implemented like the incursions, but instead of multiple targets, sheer firepower overcoming a single massive object to save a planet or station would be the order of the day. Perhaps. It would tie in nicely with the new BCs though.

In any case – the truth is out there… if CCP will let us have another out there … 🙂

To be filed under H ranting about exploration. Again.

FS

H

P.S Dead horse? What dead horse…??

P.P.S No. That is not a whip… it’s erm… something else…. honest!

P.P.P.S Here are some other banterers – well worth a read:

CCP Ninveah – Ship Transport, D-Scan Improvements, Exploration Ships
CCP Madhatter – Stalemate Unleashed
CCP FakeDevBlogger – Faction Warfare Redesign
CCP Revenge – Joystick Control, Pirate Factions, Wormhole Changes
CCP Cozmik – Global Criminal Countdown Changes
CCP NinjaHoneyBee – EMP Blasts, New Rigs
CCP BadStudent – Navigation-Linked Market Tools
CCP Haberdasher – War Dec’ Changes, Hi-Sec PvP
CCP Ranter – Launcher and Turret Animation, PI Improvements, Motherships
CCP Anomaly – Incursion Iterations
CCP Veskin – Multiple Concepts
CCP Margin – Product ‘Heat’ Map