Mabrick: Take Your Time. I’ll Wait.

CCP Pokethulhu had an interview this week with VG 24/7. Nosey Gamer mentioned it here. That led me to Neville Smit’s post about it on his blog. Now that was a post well worth reading three times, so I did. I’ll probably read it again.

There is not much I disagree with in the post by Neville. I too am looking forward to making ISK in a bastion mode enabled Maurader running level IV missions, as well as buying my first SoE Stratios blue print. Then there is the rest of the article, the bit about plans and visions. You really need to read the post all the way through. The tl;dr is it will take all of the CCP 5 year vision and planning time before we see our first player built gate.

There’s an implication in that timeline. The implication is we will not see any new regions of space introduced during that period of time. The whole point of getting to where capsuleers can build gates for themselves is to open up new “galaxies” as CCP Pokethulhu put it. And to get there once the gate is build will require a “prepared” capsuleer and a “prepared” ship.

That all sounds fairly restrictive to me. not to mention it might not mean any map expansions until it’s complete. But that’s okay by me, because just the idea of player gates to new galaxies brings up a whole series of questions that need to be answered first. I don’t think any of them really have answers right now. I am sure there will be plenty of secrecy around this topic so no one gets the straight answer until CCP is ready to tell us. But still, I’m already curious to know.

So what are those questions? Okay, since you asked (*wink*) here they are.

1. Jump gates work in tandem, as do jump engines (you have to have that Cyno remember.) The only structure I know of currently that does not cross vast distances without a link on the other end are Acceleration Gates. That said, aren’t we really talking about something more like an Acceleration Gate than a Jump Gate?
2. Once competed, will the gate builder have the ability to lock out other players as is currently the case with Outposts, POCOs and other player structures?
3. If they can lock other’s out, what mechanism will prevent a group like Pandemic Legion from just leaving New Eden altogether and never coming back? How will that affect the overall sandbox?
4. If we are talking about giant Acceleration Gates, will whoever activates the first one leading to a new system have to build a gate on the other side to get back?
5. Is never coming back even an option? Is it the only option? Could this be a method of introducing shards to EVE Online without calling them shards, or will all gates lead to the same new Galaxy just in a different region?
6. Can another player group blow up the newly created gate thus stranding any who’ve already gone on ahead? (To be sure, the answer to this is one we may already know is a resounding “yes!” Unless CCP makes completed gates invulnerable. That would be very unlike EVE Online in my book.)
7. If other’s are stranded on the other side without the means to construct a return gate, what does that mean for them? Could they blood jump back to New Eden?
8. If blood jumping is an option, will there be a new, better jump clone that capsuleers will have to “discover” through the Ghost Sites that will allow a capsuleer to move between galaxies?
9. Will the other side be completely empty so there are no stations, no market, no anything and the entire event will be the largest player created content ever, or will we find new human tribes left behind when the Eve Gate went unstable?
10. And most importantly, if there are new civilizations discovered, will they have cool new shinies for us to spin!?

These are just a few of the questions running through my brain. The complexity in what CCP contemplates is writ large across these questions and the corollary questions they invoke. You know, I think I’d rather see CCP take five years to sort this all out than rush into it without answering them. So go ahead guys and gals in Iceland, take your time. I’ll wait.

– Mabrick

He’s been around the block a time or five. With over 15 years of MMO playing under his belt and a memory that reaches back to pencils and dice, he offers his insights into the not so virtual reality we call Eve Online.