[Jester's Trek] Fighter v. fighter
Fighter v. fighter
Just a quickie that almost got tossed into the junk drawer, but I think it deserves its own post.
One of the things that happened at Fanfest and that's been happening since is we've been treated to some of CCP's dreams and ideas about the future of DUST 514. And from mechs to ion cannons to war barges to weapons, there are a lot of possibilities. But because I am an EVE player, the one that kind of intrigued me were fighters.
From a DUST perspective, it's a fairly logical progression, and even better you could build a whole skill tree out of the concept. There could (and should) be fighters that operate like Harriers, and fighters that provide close air support like Thunderbolts, and dual-role fighters like Falcons, and pure air superiority fighters like Raptors. And that of course adds the possibility for new types of personal weapons, turrets, and vehicles to combat the threat. A lot of RL fighters have been brought down by a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile. There are lots of sci-fi precedents, most notably Stargate SG-1 where having air superiority was a big part of their larger set-piece ground battles. Having those additional assets would add a great deal to the richness and complexity of DUST battles.
But as an EVE player, the possibility that really intrigued me was the potential for cross-over.
Now even the possibility of what I'm thinking of is several years down the road. But suppose one of the DUST fighter types was trans-atmospheric, able to climb into low planetary orbit. And let's further suppose that that's where the eventual war barge is going to park. It's logical: ships in space, MCC close to ground level, war barge in between. And over time, EVE players could be given the ability to pilot carrier-based fighters. I think this one is coming, too. Star Citizen is going to have it, and it makes enough sense that this was the basis of EVR, the game that CCP demoed at Fanfest.
If both games were developed in this direction, then it would be perfectly logical and possible for there to be EVE v. DUST player battles over the war barges, each player in the fighter type appropriate to their game.
It would require a huge amount of development work to make this happen, comparing the skills of the players involved to calculate to-hit chances, damage, and eventual destruction of one or the other. And who knows if the two games are even architected to link together in this manner in real time. But I think it would be incredibly fun and add an incredible amount of richness to both games.
Again, this is YEARS down the road. DUST would need a lot of time to develop its own style, player base, audience, and to fix and balance the myriad of issues that exist in the game already. And EVE would need a lot of new capabilities as well, most notably the ability to pilot carrier fighters. You could try this with frigates, but I'd be very concerned that it would be difficult or impossible to balance the two games since EVE player frigate skills have such an enormous head-start. Game balance would be the biggest concern of this type of play.
I'm not going to hold my breath. The DUST devs have a lot of work to do. But it's kind of fun to think about. Maybe someday.
Source: Fighter v. fighter