Musings of a Casual Industrialist

In response to CrazyKinux’s call to action:

Tyrannis will see some new industrial and planetary interaction opportunities like we’ve never seen before in New Eden. It’s a step in linking EVE Online and DUST514 as well. So I need you to write what you believe are the short and/or long term consequences of this development, in terms of the new industrial capacity it presents to players, in terms of the opportunities for pirates, for industrialists, for sovereignty, etc. Surprise us!

My brothers and I are an argumentative lot.  Go ahead, drop a hat. I dare you. We also like to take a what we feel is a shortcoming in a game and pick it to pieces, not to denigrate the game, but to see if we can come up with a better way of doing things.

So when we heard that Planetary Interaction was coming, we asked ourselves what we would include with it and what we would change.

First, let me identify what I feel are a few ‘immersion breakers’ in the game, then I’ll tie them back into Planetary Interaction.

First, I hate the fact that we routinely warp through planets. Similarly, we warp in straight lines from place to place. Straight lines are usually not the shortest distance in space, but becuase I’m not familiar with the physics of warp, I let it be.

As a developer, I understand the monumental task of trying to reposition all the warp points in the game so that every warp point has LOS (line of sight) with all other warp points in a given system.  There are two fixes for this. The first is spectacularly obvious and very practical, but boring in most respects: Place the warp points at the top and/or bottom of objects (with respect to the ecliptic plane).  The second fix is much more difficult from a coding perspective, but much more immersive: Curved warp trajectories.

Let’s take a relatively familiar system, Pator, and see how this would pan out. The system has four stations.  Republic Security Services Assembly Plant (Pator III Moon II) is occluded (astrometric term for ‘blocked from view’) from two stations, Quafe Company Factory (Pator V Moon I) and Republic Fleet Logistic Support (Pator V), by the moon it ‘orbits’.

The same station has LOS to two other stations, Republic Fleet Testing Facilities (Pator VII) and Republic Security Services Assembly Plant (Pator VII Moon I) and the gates to Lustrevic and Ammold, but the direct path skims very close to the moon’s surface, possibly within 100km.

The other stations are  similarly plagued by occluded paths.

Flying a curved warp trajectory between the stations would avoid all of these obstacles.  When the stations on both ends of the path are occluded, flying between the stations on a one-jump route may not even be mathematically possible

So you’re thinking “what the hell does this have to do with Planetary Interaction, you fool?”

Just this: Having played with the new system on Singularity, it feels odd that you can warp through (and in fact fly through) the very same planets you can create industrial complexes on. It feels disconnected and makes the intended planetary interaction feel contrived, as if it’s an afterthought instead of a major component of the game.

“So it’s a curved warp path.  So what? It’s not like it’s going to do anything but make coding difficult” I beg to differ. Lets dig a little deeper. Lets assume for a minute that warping is affected by gravity, thus more power means a larger warp arc and therefore a longer warp time, and the same goes for mass. We all know and acknowledge the fact that you can put a bigger engine on anything to make it go faster.  However, in terms of interplanetary travel, faster isn’t always better. Sometimes you can get there quicker with a more efficient drive that allows a better trajectory. The same goes for mass.  Less mass is more maneuverable, and can make tighter curves at a given speed.

Lets also introduce a means of actually computing the warp jump.  Yep, this would take actual time to compute and could replace the ‘align and hit 75% max speed’ mechanic.  It would have several key impacts:

• mass, warp multipliers, and align time would still be valid factors in warping
• jump calculation time would vary depending on the difficulty of the jump itself: what objects are in the way and is the ship physically capable of clearing the obstacles  based on mass, velocity, maneuverability?
• based on the previous point, some ships will not be able to make direct jumps between two points, and will instead be forced to take a multi-leg path

What would this accomplish? It would introduce a facet to the game that has been glaringly missing: system-based tactics. Thus far, warfare is generally in favor of the larger side with no regard to the physical aspects of the planetary system itself.

Lets add another feature: the ability to save a limited number of jump calculations, specific to two points or a short path, up to (arbitrarily) three jumps.

“WTF are you about, dude? This is dumb!” Simple.  The ability to save a few jump calculations means getting into warp faster on jumps you make often. 

1. For the highsec capitalist, this means that a freighter can get to and from Jita a little quicker because he can ’store’ the calculations for jumping between the gates (or at least some of them). 
2. For pirates in lowsec, it provides the capability to quickly and efficiently prowl the system is search of prey and the ability to quickly move off a gatecamp to a difficult-to-calculate position if a superior force arrives. Theoretically, you could also store calculations for changing from a frontal assault to a double-flanking maneuver simply by having squad/wing commanders warp their group on a stored multi-leg path.
3. for pilots living in nullsec, it can provide a very distinct home-field advantage with the ability to quickly place and manouver assets within the system.  Being able to place large ships faster than the attacking force can turn the tide of battle in the local side’s favor. Having a stored calculation could also be the difference in whether or not you loose a strategically important ship.
4. In every battle-related use, it provides a mechanic for developing system-specific tactics that are not blob-centric.  It could, in fact, discourage blobbing in some systems where there are paths between planets/moons/etc that are difficult or impossible for capital ships to make in a single jump. 

 One last feature for the day: introduce a mechanism, whether it’s a skill, ship, or module, that can ‘guess’ where a target has warped to and plot an intercept course.  As an intercept course, it would be inherently more dangerous (as regular courses are plotted to balance safety, economy, and speed).  A pilot flying an intercept course could fall victim to a number of hazards; from being dragged out of warp for passing too close to a planet or moon, to impacting a ship or other celestial body that doesn’t show up on standard navigational charts.

Some clarifications:

• autopilot can use the calculations to speed up getting into warp, but is still subject to the 15km deviation on warp-in location, ergo no autopilot warp-to-zero
• executing a route can only be done manually, similar to choosing a destination for the autopliot. The autopilot cannot execute a route – the autopilot is used for inter-system jumpgate navigation, while routes are strictly an in-system mechanic
• Routes are system specific, meaning that a route cannot include jumping through a jumpgate
• When executing a route, the first jump executes normally.  Upon reaching the destination, the second leg executes automatically, as do any additional legs up to the maximum number CCP would decide to allow. As there are many factors involved, I would aslo defer to CCP in whether or not intermediate jumps land with the 15km deviation that the autopilot is subject to  
• storing the calculations simply means that a given ship can get into warp faster than the very same ship type piloted by someone who hasn’t stored the calculation

So we’ve gone to curved warp paths that take into account the positions of celestial bodies, the physical characteristics of the ship, and calculations that account for the difficulty of the warp. We’ve looked at some of the possible tactical impacts it could have on pilots of different security regions, and a warp intercept mechanism. If your brain doesn’t hurt yet, I’ll dredge up my ‘interstellar freight train’.

That’s my vision, fellow pilots. Having to actively interact with the system you are flying in and take it’s ‘personality’ into account.  If that’s not Planetary Interaction, then I don’t know what is.

As a direction for discussion, what other things could you conceive to do with this system if CCP implemented it exactly as outlined?