Have Clone, Will Travel: An EVE Online Wish List

With Empyrean Age and and Ambulation just around the corner, CCP is about to make a lot of its EVE Online subscribers very happy, including yours truly. The idea of walking around in a space station has been a wish of mine for quite some time, ever since I got word that CCP was looking at doing something like it.

Of course my EVE Online wish list is much longer and probably won't get fulfilled for some time. Indeed it would keep the Icelandic developer busy for a number of years! Instead, let's narrow the list to the 5 top items and see what we've got.

Ship Setups that can be saved – This is almost a given and I'd be very surprised if even one of the more than 250,000 EVE players would disagree with me on this one. In EVE, ships have modules that can be fitted in either low, medium or high slots. Modules can be anything from weapons to shields, to armor, or even modules that have various functions (speed boost, repair armor, etc). Logically smaller ships like cruiser have a fewer slots; where as bigger ships have a lot more.

Since the same ship can be fitted with different modules depending on the role that it's about to play (scout, mining, attack, electronic warfare, etc.) the same ship will have different sets of modules - or ship setups as they're are referred to. The problem is that each setup has to be manually switched. That is, if your ship has 10 modules, each one has to be removed and placed in your hangar. Then you've got to fit a new set of modules in their respective slots. One module at a time!

So what I'd love to see is the possibility to save a setup once all the modules have been fitted to the ship. As you save different setups, you would be able to switch between them at the click of a button, and have your modules automatically fitted. What a time savior that would be!

Customizable Ship Exterior – Until Ambulation comes out every EVE player will still be a ship. Which means that if I meet another player outside a station who is flying the same type of ship as I am, we'll both look exactly alike. We'll have the same color, with no markings, or colors, or stickers to set ourselves apart. As a member of a manufacturing corporation, Phoenix Propulsion Labs, I'd love to be able to come across a player who's bought a ship from us and see a marking that says "Made by PPL".

I do understand that, though this is currently technically possible for CCP to introduce, it does add a lot of data for the EVE client to deal with. Maybe we'll see this eventually when EVE's graphical engine, Trinity 2.5 or 3.0, is released. Customization is always a good thing. CCP has understood this and the proof is in Ambulation. So keep your fingers crossed.

EVE Mobile Edition – Here's something I thought we would have by now. We first heard about this during E3 2005 and then at the following Fan Fest, almost 3 years ago. In the EON issue that followed that Fan Fest (issue #002) there was a small blurb on a "Wireless EVE" version. At the time the project was just at the research stage and was being conducted in partnership with the Reykjavik University. There was a GSM prototype running on an actual handset. But since then we haven't heard much. Actually, we've heard nothing at all from CCP on this.

The community hasn't been twiddling their thumbs though with the release of the EVE Mobile Skill Planner. It's a step in the right direction, but CCP will need to get involved for a light EVE client to go mobile.

We could imagine that a mobile/wireless/light version of EVE would allow players to update their skills, read and answer evemails (EVE's in-game mail client), move assets between hangars and maybe even talk with members using EVE Voice. I know this is asking for a lot, but it's something that would bring EVE's immersion (some would say addiction) to a whole new level.

Graphic Novels – We will soon be able to able to read Tony Gonzales' Empyrean Age novel when it ships out in late June. The book has been a long time coming, and judging by Mr. Gonzales' previous work – Theodicy and Ruthless – we're in for a great ride. But what about publishing a graphic novel? With all this amazing art that CCP has got, I'd sure love to see such a novel published? Maybe the fine folks at MMMPublishing, the people behind EON magazine, would be interested? Or maybe this will come from the community itself. We do have Winterblink's WDA comic, which is now into its 158th edition. Or maybe the author of Far From Homeworld – An EVE Comic would be interested in looking into this.

Who ever decides to pick up the baton on this one, I promise to be one of the first to pre-order. Unless you can send me a free copy so that I may review it here!

New in-game Music – Ever since I've started playing EVE, I've always played the in-game music, despite the fact that there are ways to add your personal playlist. Of course there's always EVE-Radio, but when I truly want to feel immersed in EVE universe, I'll play John Hallur – EVE's original soundtrack composer.

But recently Mr. Hallur has gotten some friendly competition from an EVE player going by the acronym of AlienHand. This fellow from Denmark has a real talent for majestic ambient pieces that truly fit well with the feel of EVE. He's published 8 tracks so far, and each one is excellent. I wish CCP would look into including his music into the in-game roster, or any other community created tracks which are as good as Mr. AlienHand's. In the mean time I'll continue adding his music manually to enjoy while I mine asteroid fields.

So there you have it, 5 items that would enhance my experience of EVE Online. As I've mentioned earlier, these 5 wishes are but a small part of a much longer wish list that includes: getting a stand-alone evemail client, video tutorials, a history of EVE's lore, books on Races, Ships and Factions, a feature that would allow you to change skills from EVE Insider, and much more. Maybe I'll elaborate on these in a future article.

One thing's for sure, if the above 5 features all get done, I promise to revisit the list and add 5 more!

Until then, fly safely, or die trying!

David, aka CrazyKinux, fell in the EVE cauldron many eons ago, and has been simmering in a Veldspar soup since then. When not playing EVE, he's either talking about it on The Drone Bay podcast with Crovan and Alsedrech, reading about it, blogging about it, and most often daydreaming about it! He keeps his own EVE blog at www.crazykinux.com. You can also reach him at david.perry [at] weblogsinc.com