MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood makes use of this editorial to discuss CCP's recent announcement of Dust 51 and how that game, combined with EVE Online, has the potential to change the virtual world space.

Since yesterday's announcement that CCP would be launching Dust 514, a new First Person Shooter MMO for consoles, it seems as though nearly everyone has had an opportunity to weigh in, and not all of the user feedback has been positive.

The bulk of the opposition to Dust's announcement seems to be coming from two somewhat related issues:

The first issue is that, as we understand it right now, the new FPS will be available only on the current generation of consoles. This means that the PC, Mac and Linux audiences that have made EVE Online the success that it is today, will be left out in the cold (unless of course they are one of the many, like myself, who own both a PC and a console or two). The second is that Dust's players will actually be able to influence the EVE Online universe through alliances and 0.0 Soveignty meaning that those who are used to EVE players having sole control of their universe now have to share with another crowd.

Read What Dust 514 Means For Virtual Worlds

I really hope and think Dust 514 will also be coming to PC.. its just going to be on console as well. Hopefully.

Eve bores me but I love the politics of it.. if i can play Dust 514 as a mmofps and be involved in eve politics as in eve corps sending dust mercs to conquer planets and things that will be amazing.

So i really am hoping this is the case, PC > console.

It really is an exciting time to be a Eve player and CCP supporter.

With the improvements to Eve, the developement of Dust 514 and World of Darkness the future seems bright.

I don;t know how Eve and Dust will interact with eachother but I'm sure it will be a fun experience.

I own both a PC and 360 so i'm sure ill be be taking part in all three games.

It means CCP are shafting their fanbase by not releasing it on PC.

I agree, this development has ramifications beyond just Eve Online. It could change the way MMOs see their entire development.

The oldest cliche in RPGs is starting out as a lowly worm and getting more powerful as one comletes quests and acquires items. And while this is all well and good (and something we aspire to in real life as well), it creates a problem with expansions and the future of any game. How can a company continue to ramp up the power level of players? What does that do to the previous content of a game?

In this case, instead of offering more power, there are new experiences and new ways to do old things. There is more depth and more diversity. This breathes more life into a universe and makes it much more interesting.

As for the apparent decision to release it only for consoles, I honestly can't say that I blame them. Bots and hacks are rife on PC shooters. And no, I don't own a console nor do I have any plans to ever buy one.

Finally, after all these years, MMORPGs are changing.

CCP is the new King of MMORPGs if they pull this off successfully.  I think MMORPG would be an outdated term actually.

Great innovation, CCP.  Proud to be a member of your community these last few years.

I agree. My first thought when I saw the Dust 514 announcement was that if this succeeds it will truly be something new. I'm certain other developers will watch closely and if successful it will be an option for them as well with future projects.

I'm really exited, even more so then over sw:tor actually. Good luck CCP, I hope this becomes a killer!

I don't really see it as EvE players getting the shaft if Dust is console only.

What I do see is a nice bridge being formed between console and PC players. FFXI did a good job with the Multi Platform model. EvE is taking it to a whole new level by turning 2 games into 1. PC players will be relying on console players and vice versa creating a bridge that never really existed before. Even with FFXI there was that division between console and PC even though there were in the same world. With EvE and Dust this has the potential to simply bridge the two together now that they are relying on each other. PC for the "Fly Boys" and Console are the "Infantry". Its almost beautiful what they are trying to do in a way lol.

This alone is could possibly be one of the greatest advances in MMO's to date. We will have to wait to see how it turns out, but man just imagine the kind of change that could come to the industry if this was successful. EQ and FFXI both proved an MMO is viable on console, so it is possible.

I mean imagine having a Star Wars MMO based on this model?

One game is for ships, fighter pilots etc. The other game is about the ground units. One fights for dominance in the space, while the other fights for dominance on the planets. You can even incoperate some neat things into that. Imagine your group waiting on another player to fly you to a planet to, or delivering Cargo for you. The player made content would pretty much be exponential with two completely seperate games working as one. The idea is brilliant!

 If people can not see the true innovation and revolution this could bring about for MMO's they must be blind. This will change everything if they can deliver what they say they will, and for once we have the word of the only truely great indie MMO company saying it. 

I have all the faith in the world in CCP, im not even an EvE player (Not yet anyways haha), I played for a month or so and then my PC crashed for a long time. I plan on getting EvE back when I get my comp returned this week, im going to work hard to make the game the best it can be, and my characters just so I can see the day DUST releases for myself.

-Jive

Originally posted by jiveturkey12

 If people can not see the true innovation and revolution this could bring about for MMO's they must be blind. This will change everything if they can deliver what they say they will, and for once we have the word of the only truely great indie MMO company saying it. 

 

I have all the faith in the world in CCP, im not even an EvE player (Not yet anyways haha), I played for a month or so and then my PC crashed for a long time. I plan on getting EvE back when I get my comp returned this week, im going to work hard to make the game the best it can be, and my characters just so I can see the day DUST releases for myself.

 

-Jive

Yeah i agree, great idea and CCP is paving a way for totally new progression of MMO's.

One qualm though: FPS for CONSOLES ONLY????? WTF????!!!

Well, I for one hope more MMOs are developed for consoles. I prefer console gaming to PC gaming and its a shame we have very few for consoles (FFXI being one). I play PC games not because I like the platform, but because out of necessity. I feel the same way about Windows. I only use Windows because most of the games I enjoy don't have native Linux clients (sorry Wine supporters, it's a poor solution).

But then I ONLY use Windows for games (Linux is my main OS). I strip Windows to the bare bones and turn off most services so the Win partition is really a pseudo-console anyway. Just the way I like it.

For the life of me, I do not understand all the fanbois reaching for a kleenex over this.  Even if it was brought to PC, it simply does not fit in with the Eve Universe and makes no sense.

Seriously, consider Eve for a moment - just how do you see any sort of FPS fitting into it?

Clones?

Ability to move troops to a planet?

Ability to reinforce those troops?

Etc, etc, etc?

Who cares if it is for console or PC/Mac/Linux; if the simple concept of it makes no sense for the game universe itself?

In regards to console MMOs, sure - just drop the crappy controllers and add in a mouse and keyboard.

Originally posted by VirDan

For the life of me, I do not understand all the fanbois reaching for a kleenex over this.  Even if it was brought to PC, it simply does not fit in with the Eve Universe and makes no sense.

Seriously, consider Eve for a moment - just how do you see any sort of FPS fitting into it?

Clones?

Ability to move troops to a planet?

Ability to reinforce those troops?

Etc, etc, etc?

Who cares if it is for console or PC/Mac/Linux; if the simple concept of it makes no sense for the game universe itself?

I'm sorry but you're not making sense to me how does it not fit?

clones? ever hear of respawning?

ability to move troops to a planet? enough ships in eve i think

ability to reinforce troops? what?

and what else?

I'm just not grasping your point.

oh and do I think it fits the background? sure it does.

Originally posted by magister87

Originally posted by VirDan

For the life of me, I do not understand all the fanbois reaching for a kleenex over this.  Even if it was brought to PC, it simply does not fit in with the Eve Universe and makes no sense.

Seriously, consider Eve for a moment - just how do you see any sort of FPS fitting into it?

Clones?

Ability to move troops to a planet?

Ability to reinforce those troops?

Etc, etc, etc?

Who cares if it is for console or PC/Mac/Linux; if the simple concept of it makes no sense for the game universe itself?

 

I'm sorry but you're not making sense to me how does it not fit?

 

clones? ever hear of respawning?

ability to move troops to a planet? enough ships in eve i think

ability to reinforce troops? what?

and what else?

I'm just not grasping your point

The Eve Universe is based on purchasing medical clones, which are located in certain stations or certain ships.  If you get podded 40 jumps from your clone, guess what?  So how will a "respawn" happen in the FPS?  Will they completely ignore clones?  Will it be a case of saying that a "clone bay" of some sort is part of the drop on the planet to facilitate "respawn"...?

Enough ships, eh?  So will it be a case that before any FPS action can take place on a planet, that sufficient forces in space will have to run the gate camps - get to the planet - be able to hold an orbit there while fighting the enemy - so that troops can be deployed?

I mean, all of this is pretty freaking obvious as an issue.

Imagine, there you are - you have SOV - your gates are camped 24/7 - not even a spec of dust moves without you knowing it - and then suddenly, you are fighting on one of your planets?  Um yeah...

You know another MMO this model might have been good for. SGW oO, Do it as an RvR style thing. Have PC players the space combat being able to pick Ghoul'd or Asgard, then Concole players are the planet forces and could be Jaffa or Human. Idea would have to be fleshed out a great deal, but man that would have been neat. Maybe MGM should pull the liscence and give it to CCP if they do well with Dust lol.

Originally posted by VirDan

The Eve Universe is based on purchasing medical clones, which are located in certain stations or certain ships.  If you get podded 40 jumps from your clone, guess what?  So how will a "respawn" happen in the FPS?  Will they completely ignore clones?  Will it be a case of saying that a "clone bay" of some sort is part of the drop on the planet to facilitate "respawn"...?

Enough ships, eh?  So will it be a case that before any FPS action can take place on a planet, that sufficient forces in space will have to run the gate camps - get to the planet - be able to hold an orbit there while fighting the enemy - so that troops can be deployed?

I mean, all of this is pretty freaking obvious as an issue.

Imagine, there you are - you have SOV - your gates are camped 24/7 - not even a spec of dust moves without you knowing it - and then suddenly, you are fighting on one of your planets?  Um yeah...

You didn't watch the little movie did you?  The whole point of Dust is that there's been a major advancement in cloning technology allowing cloning outside of the pod-pilots.  One would assume that in NPC space you respawn on the station just like everyone else and jump to planet from there.  They mentioned specific (and undisclosed mechanics) for nul-sec so we've got to guess at something like a dropship with a clone bay on it.  Likely something far less than Titan or Mothership class but then again you can cram a whole lot of dust clones into the space a single Pod takes up.

Watch the video.  You get a whole lot of info from it.

Originally posted by Delwin9999

Originally posted by VirDan

The Eve Universe is based on purchasing medical clones, which are located in certain stations or certain ships.  If you get podded 40 jumps from your clone, guess what?  So how will a "respawn" happen in the FPS?  Will they completely ignore clones?  Will it be a case of saying that a "clone bay" of some sort is part of the drop on the planet to facilitate "respawn"...?

Enough ships, eh?  So will it be a case that before any FPS action can take place on a planet, that sufficient forces in space will have to run the gate camps - get to the planet - be able to hold an orbit there while fighting the enemy - so that troops can be deployed?

I mean, all of this is pretty freaking obvious as an issue.

Imagine, there you are - you have SOV - your gates are camped 24/7 - not even a spec of dust moves without you knowing it - and then suddenly, you are fighting on one of your planets?  Um yeah...

 

You didn't watch the little movie did you?  The whole point of Dust is that there's been a major advancement in cloning technology allowing cloning outside of the pod-pilots.  One would assume that in NPC space you respawn on the station just like everyone else and jump to planet from there.  They mentioned specific (and undisclosed mechanics) for nul-sec so we've got to guess at something like a dropship with a clone bay on it.  Likely something far less than Titan or Mothership class but then again you can cram a whole lot of dust clones into the space a single Pod takes up.

Watch the video.  You get a whole lot of info from it.

Do you mean the short Golem clip or are you referring to another one?  Because there is nothing in the Golem clip.

Reading different articles on other sites, there are only vague references to restructuring sov.

I have not seen anything about where any of this would take place in NPC space.

It has been about combining corps in space with mercenary troops on the ground; with nothing said about how those troops get there and stay there.

It is simply brilliant. 

This will bring a whole new group of people to eve through the vehicle of consoles.

How they establish the link will be very interesting, and will be ground breaking stuff for MMOs

Best of luck CCP