In the producer session, as we try to figure out how to fix and improve our communication with teams and how we figure out who should be gone to for features and changes, we discussed the road map.OMG, what an opened ended topic!
We discussed what 'our' ideal roadmap would be. This breaks down into the individual roadmaps for each member of the CSM. After all, we are individiuals and we have different dreams for Eve. We have different goals and features that we want to move forward or go back to.
How close are we to what CCP is looking at and planning? We discussed their safety mesures to weigh the value of features. What will this feature do for Eve? It is not enough to have an ideal road map of things you want. Those things have to have value and that value needs to be enough to dedicate the time to the feature.
Do you have an ideal roadmap? A path for Eve to head in the next year or two once we move past Citadel?
Its hard to think about what comes after Citadel this spring because that expansion is going to be so paradigm shifting its not funny. Space is going to radically change as Citadels spring up all over the place and the warfare around them erupts. Capital warfare is going to change radically as the promised revisions and new Force Auxiliaries arrive on the battlefield. Its going to take months for the ramifications to fully evolve and be seen.
That being said, I have ideas about where EVE should be aiming its sights at a high level. I believe a three pronged map is ideal.
1. Players Shape Space
I think the first road of the map should be to continue giving players the ability to shape their space and continue to devolve the functions of NPC and hardwired services. By that I mean as Citadels develop and provide markets, industrial facilities, offices, services, etc, these things should start being scaled back from NPC control.
In addition, we should expand the ability of players to create jump bridges and cyno beacons on or adjacent to the new structures as long as they require real effort to protect and maintain. I don't want defenders or system inhabitants to have complete comfort, but there should be more reward for living in and developing a system.
2. PvE Overhaul
This may not be sexy, but the goal of making EVE a vibrant and dynamic place to spend time in requires that the less headline grabbing side of the game is improved. Drifters, Circadian Sleepers, and Jove Observatories were a good start, but we need to go farther. A lot farther. All the old AI for missions and rats needs to be gutted and replaced so that the rats in belts and in missions act like the are alive and ready to fight and not just die. Warp Scrambling, Ewar, switching targets appropriately, trying to escape, microwarp drives, micro jump drives, everything! Ultimately the jump from high level PvE to PvP should be nearly seamless, but at the very least it has to be entertaining and challenging.
3. New Space
Ultimately, its time for new space with new rules and new challenges. Wormhole space as it stands now has been solved and conquered. There needs to be a new group challenge that baits the imagination and draws in both the veterans and the new players. Seagull Space, as its been called, is the next frontier that can tie together the disparate regions of space (Null, High, Low, and Wormholes) into a crossroads of danger and excitement.
What's on your roadmap?
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