Friday, August 26, 2011

Could "Instant PVP" work in EVE?

I have read with interest the posts regarding WoT and EVE here.

As well as the link in that post to the idea of a "Virtual Combat Simulator" in station when the door in the CQ ever opens.

I also listen on Comms most night to a core of players in the alliance that play WoT while either "fittings spinning" or mining or some other mindless task in EVE.

I am intrigued by the thought of "Instant PVP" within EVE, but in the end I just think no matter what they do, it will never match real PVP for one reason.  Finality.

Sure, CCP could find a way to introduce some "Station Based PVP Simulator", but there does not seem to be a way to make it a substitute for PVP as it is now, because if it ends up like every other "spawn type" combat game, than it has no finality and will become nothing more than a "video game" to me.

If the Simulator  makes you grind combat to get to new tiers, to use better ships and mods, but at no risk to ever losing anything, then whats the point.  The "thrill" of most EVE PVP to me is stalking the T3 running combat site, finding the Covetor mining and getting to him before he sees you.  Being able to use Probes quickly to not spook the prey.  Sure going on roams looking for a like sized fleet and either taking their bait, or engaging them is great, but not the heart of PVP to me.

But the main thing that real PVP has that makes it so great is the finality.  The ship lost is really lost.  Time to make that isk is gone.  It "hurts" to lose that Zealot, that Covetor, the mined ore in the can, the implants, and everything else.  It causes emo rage, tears, people to flip out and do stupid stuff, classic convos and evemails.  It is why we PVP in the first place.

Its also why certain people just will never PVP.  They just can't handle the thought of losing stuff, even if the corp gives them the ships.

I would love to see CCP spend some effort to come up with a class of "realistic" missions, with skills that don't just involve shooting bigger and bigger red crosses.  Have missions where you have to use D-Scan, probing, cloaks, hunting, warp scrambling.  Have missions that you might actually fail if you don't find where the target is in time.  Make more realistic AI fight back.  Role out Sleeper AI to all L4 missions.  Make random triggers, how hard could it be to have spawns be one of 2-3 with different triggers.

There are so many things CCP could do to improve the game play more than adding a zero loss simulated PVP simulator to the game.

Fly Safe,
Mick

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