Blog Banter 75: What Does Project Nova Need to Be Successful?
EVE Blog Banter 75, via Sand, Cider and Spaceships:
At Fanfest CCP showcased their current iteration of the FPS set in the Eve Universe. Following on from DUST514 and Project Legion, Project Nova is shaping up to be a solid FPS with CCP taking the decision to get the game mechanics right first. However with so many FPS out there what will Nova need in order to stand out from a very large crowd and be successful? What are the opportunities and perhaps more importantly, the dangers for CCP? How can Nova compete against CoD, Battlefront and Titanfall to name a few?
I'm an EVE player, and I've played some DUST 514, too. I liked it. If it wasn't on the PS3, I'd have played a lot more of it -- I'm not much of a console gamer. I think the switch to the PC ecosystem is a smart move, especially if console editions can tag along too. I'm hoping being on the PC will allow CCP to work closer with EVE/Tranquillity, hopefully add in some CREST endpoints, and make Project Nova a much closer relation in the EVE universe family.
I think the first thing CCP should consider is actually not competing with Call of Duty, Battlefront and the like. Those guys have been brawling it out in their niche for so long, it's so hard to come to the market and field a killer-app-killer; Project Nova needs to do something else.
Personally, I'd like to see something simpler and more streamlined. I know the aim is to make a hardcore, brutal squad-based game, but I still think that can be simple. I think the gameplay models that new kid on the block Overwatch and Team Fortress 2 are using would be better suited -- easy to learn, but with plenty to master and "hidden depths" to uncover. I haven't any figures, but my gut feeling is that EVE players aren't often also FPS players; so cut down on the insane twitch, and make something beginners to the shooter genre can get comfortable with, and quick.
Project Nova's great strength is the lore and unfolding setting of New Eden, "the world's largest living work of science fiction". Make sure everything is true to that setting. Give players the tools and incentives to really dig into that world. Run events that tie into events in the wider universe of New Eden. DUST 514 had a nod towards integrating with the world capsuleers inhabit, but it never really caught on. I'd like to see CCP go back to the drawing board on that one and find a new way to tie their franchises together.
My first thoughts are to use a timers based system that should already be familiar to many EVE players. Have battles in Nova award some kind of item that can be retrieved by capsuleers within certain windows. I'm imagining something like a cross between the PI and moon goo systems; let Nova soldiers generate a resource that pilots desire and want to collect, then make that collection place and time public, so their enemies can come and try and take their winnings from them. Close the loop by letting capsuleers convert that resource into something their soldier corporation mates want. Ideally, multiple resources could be implemented, which plug into the Industry ecosystem in a number of places.
“What I’d like to do is some sort of economic link,” says Árnason. In this hypothetical situation, he sees a corporation in EVE Online and in Nova linking up, potentially by way of a structure created in EVE, and then hooking together so each side gets money or other resources. “That future is all an open map,” says Árnason. “We can do whatever we want, after we demonstrate the correct shooting mechanics.”
It's tricky, because you don't want to make playing Nova an essential part of EVE's economy, and you don't want the fabulous ISK wealth of capsuleers to unbalance a fledgling Nova economy, but you do want to connect them. CCP need to avoid the situation where it's cheaper for a Nova player to gear up by running a couple of missions as a capsuleer, or for capsuleers to feel forced into soldiering to acquire some essential ingredient. I don't envy them that design challenge, but I think it could be overcome with something along the lines of a PI-like system, or by using an intermediary currency like LP.
The danger to CCP of course, is that all this is a flop, and the development time and budget was for nothing. I genuinely hope that doesn't come to pass; I really want to be a Nova player as well as a capsuleer. Just as with EVE, I think their best hope for success is not to create a World of Warcraft / Call of Duty killer, but to create a niche product that's grand in ambition, soak it in the bloodied history of New Eden, and let it start telling it’s own stories.