Good day everyone, Jezaja has started the next round of our Topic of the Month. The topic this time: How would you imagine EvE in another genre. With the background that EvE has already made it into several genres, this is of course a very exciting question. A realization as a shooter (DUST514 or all the other projects), as a flight simulation (Valkyrie) or “railshooter” (Gunjack) are at least a few genres represented.
EvE is very strategic and why shouldn’t EvE Online be considered a strategy game in the real sense? But what is the connection with a browser game now? The end of my school time and the first time in my studies were very much influenced by browser games in the SciFi area, I count Galaxywars, X-Wars, Space-Assault or Die Ewigen among them.
Probably the best known and active title is O-Game. All of them work according to the same principle. At the beginning you own a planet and you can expand it to collect more resources, build more ships and research faster. Over time, you’ll build bigger and more powerful ships and colonize more planets to expand your reach.
You formed alliances with other players and these were organized into so-called meta-alliances, if desired. And of course there were wars and to beat each other up or rob each other. So basically like EvE and just as fun. But how would EvE basically. Now how would EvE be changed to exactly this genre?
The starting point is relatively simple. We don’t play a pilot anymore but we play a whole corp directly and our corp gets bigger and bigger. Of course, there are a few mechanics that need to be changed. So we do not control each pilot individually but we research and learn a so-called pilot group. This is where the individual activities in EvE fall under. These are for this variant: Exploration; Mining, Mission/Ratting and Combat (PVP).
The recruited pilots are then assigned to a category by the player. Of course it is so that the pilots can not directly everything from the beginning but come through experience just within this activity to the next level. Each level requires certain *internal* skills and has a certain ship class, which of course must be researched by the corp before.
Fleet management is central at this point. Means that we can research the individual components of the ships basically in the Corp so that the Corp can build them. Similar to the original, the individual hulls are available, which are then fitted. These are then saved and can then be built specifically. Meaning we don’t build the ships later but we build the fitting which requires material to be produced. To be able to fly this fitting a pilot must fulfill certain conditions.
The skills for weapons, for example, can always be continued from the point of view of the Corp and the ships remain but in the construction status and only by updating to the current components, they become better. The individual fleets receive can be specifically composed and thus receive different tasks and tactical options. These fleets can then be sent on mission accordingly. In a system for a certain time miner, missions fly or however raids on other stations.
This is also the next approach. A corp always has its own station as a base, which can be attacked and looted, but cannot be destroyed. Every inactive fleet is always in defense mode and defends the current station where it is stationed. This also means that primarily only active fleets are safe, but of course they can also experience ship losses from time to time. Stations can also be equipped with defensive weapons. Since we can loot the station we also need corresponding ships and of course soldiers.
For the latter, DUST sends its regards and you can breed appropriate soldiers for defense and attack. There is also the possibility to specialize. There are also possibilities to protect the stored materials so that not everything is gone in case of defeat.
Let’s take a look at navigation. Basically, there is theoretically a player station at each moon, and everyone in highsec starts in one of four central quadrants, one for each empire. Of course EvE is huge and still the number of planets and moons would have to be increased accordingly to accommodate all players. The choice of starting area would then also determine the faction. With time around with trade, however, each corp could own ships of all factions. Each faction would have strengths or weaknesses. For example, the Amarr could have strong defenses but slower ships. Minmatar could have faster and more maneuverable ships, but worse defense. Caldari have high damage and Gallente are balanced. Basically, you can clearly distinguish the factions here in terms of gameplay.
Of course, there are other areas here as well. The Lowsec and the Nullspace. Both have advanced mechanics here, such as the ability to set up gate camps. Or in Nullspace to take possession of corresponding areas with the difference that these areas can be conquered. So that here own stations can be taken over by third parties. Playing in these areas is of course much more rewarding, because there are more resources available than in highsec for further research and specialization of the ships.
Nevertheless, it is still possible for highsec players to send missions to these areas to get them as well. The way there is just longer and more laborious, because the ships and stations are not already on site and existing gate camps may be in the way. Nevertheless it is also worth to raid the stations of players there. Compared to highsec, ongoing fleet actions in lowsec and null could be disrupted by combat fleets. The corp itself must of course have appropriate research possibilities available so that it is at all able to develop these areas due to the range and to be able to establish further stations at all.
The EvE map is also a certain challenge in such a game. Since each system is fixed in the region, the players have advantages because of the random starting position. This constellation could be broken up into the systems of a constellation are located in a circle. These are in turn connected in a circle in the region. These individual areas of highsec, lowsec and nullsec would also have to be connected accordingly. So we can imagine these levels as parts of a disk. On the very outside are the four factions. Each quadrant of the map for one faction. The next inner part would be the Lowsec, followed in the NPC Null and the one in the middle as gladly the previous Nullspace.
I think such a game would be a fun pastime for mobile devices as well.
How do you see it and what ideas do you have?