EVE: A Future Vision

As most of you know by now if you're an EVE player, CCP released a new trailer - EVE: A Future Vision - at Fanfest.  Being, IMHO, one of the most awesome EVE trailers released to date and opening the door to huge amounts of speculation, there have been many blogs, articles and discussions popping up about it in the last few days.  I decided to take my time with it and take a good look at the trailer (viewed it well over two dozen times), analyze the content, and try to estimate when, if ever we could see something like this in New Eden.


For those of you who haven't seen the trailer yet (where have you been?!), here it is...



There are some HUGE implications in there that smack ya right in the face...

• Viewing windows that you can actually see through to outside the station.
• The avatar animation in both the station and on the surface is unbelievable.
• Orbital bombardment of the planet surface, from EVE into Dust 514.
• Holographic communication with Dust 514 players (and other EVE players?).
• The readouts on the battle screen showing details of the ground battle.
• Station combat!

Into that list we can add the less obvious, smaller features and the background details...

• The instant comm device that he flips open and closed while viewing the fleet outside.
• The graphics planetside of the orbital bombardment is awesome.
• The ground combat looks intense as does all of the ground equipment and weapons.

Now that is one hugely aggressive vision for the future of the EVE universe!  Just the implications of the station combat alone are enormous.  This could mean missions found only in stations, Dust players commissioning EVE players as assassins and bounty hunters just as EVE players will commission Dust players to take regions of the planets.  Just in EVE alone, this could add a whole new dimension to bounty hunting, sabotage, spying, and corporate espionage, as well as open up a whole new set of skills and new blueprints for handweapons.

The orbital bombardment could mean attacks on PI complexes, and if we EVE players can hit the planet players, I'd wager a guess that Dust players will have a way to hit ships in orbit.  Now THAT would make ya think twice before establishing an orbit above an enemy's planetary territory!

The viewing windows, holographic images, and the avatar animation opens all kinds of possibilities for player-owned establishments and quarters.  Holographic entertainment in nightspots and your quarters; direct, face-to-face communications with anyone in EVE or Dust; windows and ports anywhere; and the very real possibility of avatar/environment interaction - sitting on chairs, stools, and counches; using various small objects like the handheld comm, hand-weapons, mugs, personal items in your quarters; laying on your bed or couch; putting things on your table, shelf, display case - the possibilities are almost limitless.

Now as wonderful as this all looks and sounds, we aren't even close to this ultimate EVE scenario yet.  Considering that Incarna will be released this summer, in stages, with little more than socializing abilities at first, and Dust 514 is at least one to two years away, this vision is probably three to five years into the future.  Hopefully no more than that.  But we may start to see some of the Incarna promise within the next two years since it would have to be nearly complete by the time Dust 514 rolls out.

One thing is for sure though, if CCP holds to this vision while continuing to fix and polish the existing EVE as they have begun to over the past few months,  EVE is going to be THE MMO sandbox that everyone else TRIES to imitate and we EVE players can look to be enjoying our game for many more years.  EVE will be in a class all by itself... the ultimate, all-encompassing SciFi Space-Game MMO!

~~~ Spyke