Shadow of Cerberus
Public => EVE World News => Thema gestartet von: Aura am Oktober 22, 2013, 01:24:41 Vormittag
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Inside your own head
OK! I'm back from EVE Vegas with a lot to write about. And I'll write another post tomorrow that's more specifically about EVE Vegas as an event. But the first thing I want to write about, before that, is the new high-definition version of EVE Valkyrie.
Ho-lee shit.
I got a chance to play EVR at Fanfest... and I thought what I saw was an amazing technology demo. But what was being shown off at EVE Vegas is a second order of magnitude jump over what was shown at Fanfest. Valkyrie was being shown off in the EVE Vegas PvP room and while standing in line for PvP or for Valk itself, I got the opportunity to watch a lot of people playing it... and lots of people trying on the Oculus Rift with Valk running for the first time.
Common reactions: "My God." "Oh wow." "Holy crap." Or just whistling noises.
Needless to say, the new HD is quite impressive, immersive in a way that I have a hard time describing. In addition, while the prototype Oculus Rifts at Fanfest were somewhat heavy and clunky, the prototype HD ORs at EVE Vegas feel both lighter and much more solid. I was a little concerned about the survivability of the hardware when I saw it at Fanfest. So many of us frequently drop our peripherals on the floor, you know. I no longer have that concern. I wouldn't drop the OR intentionally, of course, but it no longer feels like doing so accidentally would be an instantly fatal incident.
Enough with the hardware, let's get to the software.
I've already said that the game is immersive in a way I have a hard time describing... but I'm gonna try. ;-) The HD version of Valkyrie is soooo immersive and soooo natural in terms of the very simple controls that very quickly, you literally forget that you're wearing sets of hardware on your head. You are in space. You look up, or to the left, and you're not seeing a room, you're seeing the inside of your spacecraft. Two minutes into my first match, I realized that I had forgotten I was wearing the hardware. My brain had just enough time to think, "Wow, I'd forgotten I was wearing this stuff!" and then I was back in the midst of an outer space dogfight.
It's been said already, but it's so true: this is the game that Wing Commander and Descent and X-Wing and TIE Fighter players have been waiting their whole lives for. I've hinted once that I think this game is the OR's killer app. That impression is reinforced after seeing this much improved version.
The controls, as I've mentioned, are still quite simple: roll, pitch, and yaw off one thumb stick and two bumpers. Guns off the right trigger. Speed boost on A. Brake on B. And a missile launcher on the left trigger. The combination of boosting, braking, and yawing/pitching in combination creates a lot of possible tactics. I myself became a fan of pitching and braking behind an asteroid when locked by missiles, waiting a couple of seconds, then boosting past the asteroid and then yawing around to find the platform that launched the missiles in front of me. I got four or five kills that way -- very entertaining! But it's the tip of the iceberg.
And the fantastic thing about it is it all feels very natural. Instead of using the right thumb stick to control the way you're looking, you just turn your head. To find a target for your missiles, you look at the target... that's it. Hold down the left trigger, look at the target, wait for target lock, release the left trigger, missiles fly. The controls quickly become completely intuitive. Instead of playing a console game, you are playing a game that seems to happen naturally inside your own head.
All in all, the Valkyrie team deserves massive congratulations for how things are going! They've made tremendous progress in the last six months.
The next thing that has to happen, though? This game needs context. I can see Valkryie being fantastic for an hour, maybe two hours. After that, to become a product, it needs a wrapper. There was various discussion at EVE Vegas by various CCP employees about putting Valkryie into the sandbox... somehow. But I don't feel like anyone has a good idea how that's going to happen yet. Will Valkyrie be skill-based? I don't think anyone knows. Will there be campaigns? Same. It's grown from a fantastic demo to a fantastic part of a game... but now CCP has to come up with the rest of the game.
I for one can't wait to see it.
EDIT (21/Oct/2013): Just to be clear: I don't think the wrapper has to be hugely elaborate or complex. But it does need something: different ships, ship upgrades, boosted skills, player levels somehow? I have no idea what that wrapper should look like but the game needs one to get players invested in the overall experience even when they're not in a match.
Source: Inside your own head (http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2013/10/inside-your-own-head.html)
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Falls Valkyrie nicht auf Tranquility kommt sollte CCP Missionen / Szenarien entwerfen, die auf berühmten Schlachten oder auch typischen Ereignissen in EVE beruhen. Wie zum Beispiel Asakai.
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Egal wie ich es mir vorstelle, es gibt nur ein einziges Szenario wo ich mir Valkyrie auf TQ vorstellen kann: Super-Carrier spuckt ein Team von solchen Spielern aus, also halt statt die Fighter, Spieler. Aber dann kommen gleich mehrere Probleme auf die das unmöglich machen.
Wenn ich mir dann noch Dust so ansehe wünsch ich mir, dass CCP Valkyrie NICHT mit EVE verbindet. Es würde nur dem Spiel schaden.
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Hmm… zugegeben: es gibt sicherlich riesige Hürden, vermutlich auch einige technische Barrieren. Beispielsweise läuft die gesamte Tranquility-Serverfarm ja auf einem „Tick“-System. Heißt: die ganze Simulation läuft in 1-Sekunden-Schritten ab. Bei einem Shooter ist eine Sekunde allerdings schon eine ganze Welt und nicht engmaschig genug. Da geht es ja oftmals um Zehntelsekunden oder sogar noch weniger.
Ich kann mir das nur vorstellen, wenn der Einsatz der Valkyrie-Spieler gar nicht an irgendwelche Carrier oder Supercarrier gebunden ist, sondern wenn es einfach eine neue Schiffsklasse unterhalb der Fregatten gibt. Nämlich Fighter mit Warp-Antrieb. Die Valkyrie-Spieler steuern dann im Prinzip ihre eigenen EVE-Schiffe, aber eben im X-Wing-Style. Sie können dann tun und machen was sie wollen.
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Bloß... "nur" Fighter? Glaube das wird für die Valkyrie Spieler irgendwann doch sehr eintötig oder langweilig. Ich mein, sind die Valkyrie-Spieler in der Lage irgendwann mal solo ein Cruiser anzugehen? Oder BC? Haben Sie die nötige DPS zum killen oder sind sie nur Interceptor Ersatz?
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Sie würden natürlich die meiste Zeit gegeneinander kämpfen, und könnten in einer größeren Horde auch EVE-Cruiser oder noch größere Schiffe angehen. Es wäre halt ähnlich wie in Star Wars: da kannst du auch nicht einfach mit einem einzelnen X-Wing einen Sternenzerstörer abknallen. Und nicht jeder Todesstern hat zwangsläufig einen eklatanten Konstruktionsfehler ;-)
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Naja, für die Zerstörer gäbs dann die Y-Wings etc.pp :P
Wär aber schon cool, wenns bei den Fighter Bomber, Scouts, normale DD's etc. geben würde...
Naja sein wir mal gespannt wie das in einem Jahr aussieht.