Team Avatar Feature Release Planning

Come in, come in, Team Avatar. I'm your new Product Owner (PO). What? You didn't get the memo? I'm sure Hilmar or John just forgot to forward it.

Today we're going to go over at a high level the stories and epics I'm putting together for the next release to familiarize yourself with what I'm thinking for the future of Incarna and the NeX store. Shall we get started?

Noble Exchange

Story #22314 - More Items In Noble Exchange
Description - As a user I want access to more character personalization items in the NeX at varying price ranges.
Conditions  of Acceptance -

Comments - I know I need to break this one out into many different stories to cover the various items we can develop and add to the NeX, but I thought one story to start with to cover the commonalities would be useful. I want more clothing options, more exotic choices (visors, cybernetics, dresses, robes, etc), more tattoos (arms, body, more exotic colours, etc) more accessories with more variety (nose-to-ear ring, dangling earrings, RINGS, collars, bracelets, etc). And I want the prices to vary from cheap to expensive in terms of Aurum (but not Monocle expensive).

Story #22315 - Ability to Transfer Aurum
Description - As a user I want the ability to transfer Aurum from one character to another.
Conditions of Acceptance - Character A can give Aurum up to his balance amount to Character B. This transaction is logged both in the player journal and internal servers.

Comments - Originally it was planned to keep Aurum bound to a character (and thus an account) as a prevention measure from hacking, RMT, and legal issues (since Aurum actually have a measurable real money value) but player advocates on the CSM have convinced management that its an acceptable risk for the convenience of being able to use Aurum as an actual secondary currency in game rather than an obvious microtransaction gimmick. The legal issues can be sidestepped with the usual "all in game items and values belong to CCP" as usual our lawyers have assured us.

Story #22316
Description - As a manager I want to be able to add ship skin blueprints to the NeX store.
Conditions of Acceptance - An application that a CCP manager can use to add ship skin blueprints to the NeX store and set their Aurum costs.

Comments - As the art department finishes each custom ship skin model, Team Elite Hackers has built a tool to package the new model into the right objects in the database. I need a tool to get that object in the NeX and set the price so the delay from "art assets complete" to "available to players" is the shortest cycle possible.

Incarna

Story #22317 - Sharing Space

Description - As a user I want the ability to invite another user into my captain's quarters.
Conditions of Acceptance - Provides the other character is in the same station and online: a user can send an invite to them. If accepted, they appear in the user's quarters (transition method can be immersion breaking for now).


Comments - I know there are some technical hurdles to overcome but social interaction in a shared space is fundamental to Incarna and its pivotal we get there even in a baby step. If we can have the new character walk in through the door, that would be awesome, but I'll settle for a teleport at this stage.


Story #22318 - Sitting Down With Other Character
Description - As a user I want to be able to sit down on a couch that another character is sitting upon.
Conditions of Acceptance - I can sit on a couch that already has a character sitting on it.

Comments - Would be nice if the couch in captain's quarters had two-three sitting spots you could pick from, and you can't pick a spot currently occupied by someone else. This is story is to allow players to have their avatars look comfortable while socializing.

Story #22319 - Add prototype Tic-Tac-Toe Minigame
Description - as a user whose character is sitting on the couch, I want to click on the holoscreen and choose to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe (our prototype minigame for testing and development purposes)

Comments - This story is to develop the infrastructure for launching mini-game interfaces. Assume the user can pick from multiple mini-games.

Story #22320 - Allow two players to participate in Minigame.
Description - As a player with a visiting player, I want to play the minigame with the visiting player instead of against AI.
Conditions of Acceptance - The resident player (i.e. the player who owns the captain's quarters) can start a minigame and allow the second visitor player to take the position usually played by the game AI. The player avatar names are listed indicated who is who on the minigame interface, and the winner is obvious in a screenshot.

Comments - Once we have two people in a captain's quarters and a minigame interface, it makes logical sense to allow the two players to play again each other.

From Ten Ton Hammer

Epic Story #22321 - More Minigames
Description - As a user I want to have a choice of multiple minigames
Conditions of Acceptance - Mulitple minigames are added to the interface to choose from.

Description - This epic is going to be broken down into stories for each of the minigames we are developing such as Sec Wars, Jita Hold 'Em, and Rogue Drone Invaders.

Story #22322 - Gambling
Description - As a user playing a minigame against a visiting player, I want the ability to wage bets on the outcome.
Conditions of Acceptance - The bets can only be in ISK at this time. There must be a confirmation after both players have made their bets and hit OK so that they can make sure they were not cheated in the betting by a last second edit by their opponent. The winner wins the total pot of the bet. A draw will see the bets returned to the players. A forfeit through quitting or logging off will count as a loss and thus the other player wins the bet.

Comments - Eve players love to gamble, let's give them the ability to. NOW Incarna will have the compelling content to encourage players to use it.

* * * * *

We're way beyond what we can fit in this release (and maybe the next!) but let me through up the future epics to give you an idea of where we are headed.

Epic Story #22323 - More Visitors
Description - As a user I want to be able to invite and host up to 5 other players in my quarters.

Epic Story #22324 - Persistent Quarters
Description - As a user I want to be able to rent a permanent Captain Quarters in a station such that I can decorate it and furnish it as I see fit.

Epic Story #22325 - Upgradable Quarters
Description - As a user I want to be able to upgrade my quarters to a larger and more luxurious model so that hosting 5 other players does not feel crowded.

Epic Story #22326 - Furnishings In NeX
Description - As a user I want to be able to purchase furnishings for my rented permanent quarters,  to decorate it to my tastes.

Epic Story #22327 - Establishments
Description - As a user I want to be able to leave my captain's and go to a station's public establishment where other players docked in the same station might also go.

Good luck team Avatar, I'm available for questions any time, just drop in. :)