Sneaky CCP, Sneaky
Hi All,
Woke at unfeasible AM, and grabbed coffee. Booted the PC and decided to log. And lo and behold, on the launcher screen I spotted not one but two Dev Blogs.
http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/quick-give-me-manual-control/
The first is very much about the Rhea release, including Thera and the other new wormhole based systems. Tempted I must say, tempted. Though I do note that in the patch notes it says that sleeper scout drones are beginning to roam known space. Makes me wonder just what Concord already knows….
It was the second blog that made me sit up and laugh though. Manual control? MANUAL control?!?! Did I read that right? MANUAL CONTROL!?!??!?!
If there was any one single move that I’d have never anticipated, it was that. Talk about a blind siding.
Now I have to admit, I’m no pvp-leet kill ’em all player, but I’d be really interested in seeing how both the old guard and the newer combat pilots find the new functionality. It will also be interesting to see how the server load and (for people like me living in the NZ/AUS TZ) lag affecting things.
Anyways, didn’t see that one coming at all. Good going CCP 🙂
Travel safe,
H
Aggressive Logistics 
I was thinking the manual control idea is simple and worthwhile, but that I probably wouldn’t use it. Then I thought about making station undock bookmarks, where clicking in space can be problematic for making small adjustments to your direction. Then I thought about flying around objects while trying to remain cloaked, or through mission sites trying not to get caught up objects in space and losing your transversal, or untangling yourself from a busy undock in Jita, and all of a sudden I realised it was a must have feature that I didn’t know I needed. My goodness CCP seems to have come alive in 2014.
I don’t know if it’s CCP Seagull specifically, or whether the team has changed a couple of key players and the resultant synergies are quantum, but holy moly… oO
Frankly, the Rhea release is almost the size and quality of their old cycle… and they’re hitting every two months or so. Staggering.
Hell teeth, they’ve surely thrown down the gauntlet for other developers…. now the only question is can they (and we) keep up…?
Indeed. The changes are coming thick and fast. A lot to keep on top of.
I agree the ping issue will make it less useful for southerners, hell, even jumping gates the delay hits hard, but it will still be useful I think.
I had the same thought about the ping issue (NZ country internet here), but it’ll be quite interesting. Even if I only use it for PvE as a gimmick thing 🙂
I wonder if this manual control idea might be in response to Elite: Dangerous. The game will likely garner quite the following, particularly from older players who remember the original Elite, when it goes gold and cross-platform.
Entirely possible. But I do remember when I first started playing EvE and found that I was totally unable to move my ship in the way that all games had controlled them previously. Flummoxed me for a little bit.
In other words, WASD may also be to help rookies and lessen that parabolic initial learning curve.