EVE Evolved: Features we want in EVE Online, part 2
3 – Tactical environments
Tactical environments are something CCP have been talking about for a long time. These would be gas nebulas or areas of space that have various effects on your ship's systems. One type of nebula might make pilots inside permanently cloak or be otherwise impossible to scan down. Others might deal damage over time, reinforce your shield or increase your ship's speed. These environments would be integrated into areas where PvP would typically occur, with the goal of making PvP in those areas more interesting. These environments may be permanent or they could be temporary effects. The possibility of allowing players to create these environments via a special ship or anchorable module could also make PvP encounters more interesting.
CCP recently made a step forward with tactical environments by integrating them into some wormhole systems. Some of the 2500 new systems contain powerful astronomical phenomena such as black holes, red giant stars, pulsars and magnetrons. They affect everything from turret damage and falloff to ship velocity, shield hitpoints, capacitor recharge and armour resistances. There are even systems where overloading bonuses are increased and smartbomb ranges are multiplied. The day that this level of diversity comes to the 5000 normal systems of New Eden will be a good day for PvP.
4 – Planetary flight
A few years ago at the EVE fanfest, CCP showed a clip of a mock-up planetary flight mode where players would be able to fly in the atmosphere of a planet and attack ground structures. This was later scrapped as they felt that they couldn't do the idea justice if they rushed and pushed it out the door right then. Planetary flight is still on the cards but won't be part of the next major expansion. This means it's at least a year away at present, possibly more. I'm hopeful that ambulation being released before planetary flight means we'll see planet-bound stations that will undoubtedly improve the immersion factor of the planet environments tenfold.
Summary:
Everyone has their own list of what they think would make EVE better. Not all of them are feasible but if you have a good idea and put forward your case well, you can be sure the developers will at least read your idea and consider it. These are my top four most wanted features in EVE, what are yours?
< < Features we want in EVE, part one of two
Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is an early veteran of EVE Online and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column here at massively.com. The column covers anything and everything relating to EVE Online, from in-depth guides to speculative opinion pieces. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at brendan.drain AT weblogsinc DOT com.
