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This is really interesting for Eve players or fans of MMO's...
Dust 514 is a new MMO for the PS3 and is set in the Eve universe and actions in the new game will have a direct impact on the Eve world. Apparently Eve players will be able to hire mercs from the Dust game to capture systems etc and turn them to their control.
No release date as yet but should be a major development in the Eve world too.
Looks like in 2010 will be quite a few new MMO's hitting the ps3 with FF13 and DC Online etc.
Really looking forward of hearing more and more on this.
ESP the second vid there saying Its basically a free game with only a small cover cost but you get that back in the in game currency. Free game as big as this. Your ****ing right i'm in!!!!!
And i can call an airstrike in by someone playing EVE!!!!!
Last edited by chalkywhyte; 09-06-2011 at 8:25 PM.
Do you think there is a risk it could end up like MAG, the majority of console players being what they are, run and gun merchants. I agree the F2P format is very interesting, especially the purchase price converting to in game credit. I reall hope it is successfull.
It certainly does have that MAG buzz about it. Perhaps this is the game MAG should have been.
This has to be working from the off or people will just leave it as quick as they did MAG.
I think it would appeal to the console FPS gamer who wants a bit more out of the genre, and if MW3/BF3 is a fail or people just want a change then this could just be the game to get into.
Will be keeping an eye on their website/Facebook for info as the more I hear about it, the more I like and want it.
During Monday's Sony conference, EVE Online developer CCP Games made an appearance to announce that the company's upcoming MMOFPS DUST 514 will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3. The ambitious title aims to link the world of ground troops fighting over planets to EVE Online's universe of spaceborne conflict. EVE players will be able to hire DUST mercenaries as part of an ongoing territorial war, the concept for which we got a glimpse of in both the E3 DUST 514 trailer and the previous A Future Vision trailer in March.
When DUST 514 is released in spring 2012, PC-based ship pilots will be fighting for control of industrial infrastructure, planets, star systems, and whole regions of space alongside console-based ground troops. CCP's future vision for the virtual universe of New Eden is slowly starting to become a reality, and we can only hope that both games live up to their sizable potential. We caught up with CCP at E3 to find out the details on DUST 514's gameplay and how the DUST-EVE link will work.
Skip past the cut for the incredibly juicy details on DUST 514's gameplay and how DUST mercenaries will interact with the EVE universe. Before reading on, be warned that a change of underwear may be required!
EVE conflict as a driving force
Several previous EVE expansions have laid the foundation for the link between DUST 514 and EVE. Dominion introduced a new expandable sovereignty system and upgraded planet graphics, then Tyrannis gave us the ability to form industrial networks on those planets. Currently, planetary industry is a largely passive affair with virtually no conflict. Players can't attack each other's installations or intercept material transports, and owning installations on a planet's surface doesn't even affect system sovereignty. There is currently no strategic or political value in maintaining planetary infrastructure.
Giving a glimpse into how planetary control will affect system sovereignty, DUST 514 producer Thomas Farrer explained that both EVE and DUST players will be able to lay claim to planets by constructing command and control center on the planet's surface with a space elevator linking it to a command center in orbit. EVE players will recognise that command centers and the space elevator are both currently part of planetary industrial networks. Thomas went on to explain that holding dominion over a planet will contribute to sovereignty influence over the entire solar system.
"We're going to distribute the game through PSN. It will be a digital download on day one, on release. You'll pay a cover charge to get the game, but that money gets converted to in-game credits that you can spend on whatever you want to. But you can then continue playing the game not buying anything, so you can still enjoy the game without buying stuff."
DUST 514 gameplay
This is where DUST comes in, with aims to introduce the missing conflict element necessary to marry planetary industry and system sovereignty. With familiar sandbox conflict, DUST players (or "Dust Bunnies" as some EVE players have delightfully named them) will be able to conquer planets entirely for their own benefits. Once conquered, planets can be upgraded with economic and military infrastructure. Mines produce materials and therefore ISK, biomass processors create clones for respawning during a war, and automatic artillery turns passing adversaries into smoking craters.
CCP confirmed that just as in the climax of the E3 trailer, DUST defenses will include buildings able to attack EVE players in orbit of the planet. When DUST goes live, EVE players may find themselves at odds with their planetbound counterparts. On the other hand, CCP pointed out that EVE players may be necessary for the transport of clones, tanks and other supplies to a destination planet for war. Although there will be NPC-generated war contracts, EVE players will almost certainly also be the best way to fund wars on the ground.
In a surprising move, CCP also confirmed that DUST will be free-to-play after the initial cover charge for digital download via PSN; no ongoing subscription will be required. Even more unexpectedly, players will also be compensated for the full initial purchase price with an equivalent value of the game's microtransaction currency. "You'll pay a cover charge to get the game," explained EVE's Chief Technology Officer Halldor Fannar, "but that money gets converted to in-game credits that you can spend on whatever you want to." Players can then continue playing for free and opt not to purchase any more microtransactions if they wish, and good players will undoubtedly form links with EVE pilots who will go on to fund their war efforts.
The EVE-DUST link
We already knew that DUST marines would be able to customise their equipment and vehicles with a modular upgrade system similar to EVE's ship fitting concept, and with the recent E3 trailer, we guessed that upgrades would be purchased with ISK. What we now know is that the ISK in DUST is the exact same as the ISK in EVE; ISK can move freely between the two games, with DUST players able to spend it on ground equipment. Rather than EVE players supplying the equipment, they may just supply the ISK for a contract and it would be up to the marines they hire to spend it wisely.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that corporations in DUST will be the same as corporations in EVE. That's right -- DUST players will be able to join EVE corporations and vice versa. It's one world, and that means the same player-run megacorporations that roam the skies will want private armies to ensure their system sovereignty dominance or protect financial investments planetside. Likewise, organisations born on the ground may want to defend their planets from above, creating a new breed of capsuleer in servitude to console gamers.
"The EVE players and the DUST players will reside on the same server. They will be in the same corporations, they will share the same chat, they will share the same VOIP. They are essentially inhabiting the same world, but they have just different roles."
One massive supercomputer server cluster
Not content to simply link the two games via a tenuous financial bond, CCP seems to be going for full and complete integration. In the presentation, Halldor and EVE's Creative Director Torfi Frans Olafsson revealed that DUST players will even connect directly to EVE Online's massive Tranquility supercluster. "The EVE players and the DUST players will reside on the same server," Torfi Frans told us. "They will be in the same corporations, they will share the same chat, they are inhabiting the same world." To avoid lag, CCP will be launching geolocated battle server clusters around the world to handle the actual ground-based gameplay.
By moving a lot of what's typically done on the client to a server, CCP will be able to update the game as often as it likes without having to go through tricky console client updates. Part of the reason for the PS3 exclusivity deal is that Sony has also agreed to relax some of its rules regarding client updates and networking. Although many players looking forward to DUST 514 are disappointed that it won't be coming out on the Xbox 360, it's possible that Microsoft's tight networking rules may have made server-based cross-platform gameplay on the 360 completely infeasible.
The server structure for DUST is interesting from a technical standpoint, but it also opens up some exciting gameplay that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Players will be able to interact between the two games in realtime, so we'll have shared chat channels, voice chat, wallet tools and other services. More importantly, direct connectivity means the meaningful contact we've been hoping for between the two games could be literally what was shown in the trailers. When asked if DUST players would call up to EVE players in orbit for air strikes in realtime, the CCP representatives revealed that this will be in the game. "We have that actually working," they announced. "We've already done it; it's quite fun."
In light of this mountain of new information, DUST 514's slogan of "One universe, one war" begins to make a lot of sense. EVE players could be fighting a battle in orbit of a planet for control of an infrastructure hub while ground troops simultaneously fight over the planet below. Losing the battle on either front could have disastrous consequences for players on the other side of the fence.
EVE players winning their battle could deliver aerial support to ground troops in realtime from ships in orbit, and DUST marines with battlefield control could deliver devastating strikes on enemy ships from captured ground batteries -- all at the same time, in one massive universe and one gargantuan war. If that doesn't excite you, check your pulse because you're probably dead.
Looks interesting, i wonder if PS3 gamers will have the attachment PC gamers do to a single game? All too often when something new comes out, the old game gets sold - compared to PC gamers playing the same MMORPG for years and years... the devs better make it compelling to stick about.
I might have to check out the PC Eve forums to see if there's any threads like "Lets get all the console newbs onto one planet and nuke them all lol"
It’s been a long road from the game’s initial announcement at Gamescom in 2009 to the live prototype at Fanfest to today’s unveiling at E3. But we thank you all for the patience and enthusiasm you’ve shown for the project to date and hope that you’ll enjoy what we’ll be revealing today and in the coming months. As frustrating as the lack of information about the game might have been for some of you, I can guarantee that no-one wanted to tell you about DUST 514 more than the team that has been hard at work bringing the game to life these last few years. We began as a small team focused on pre-production but in the past year have grown into a small army.
My name is Atli Mar, but you can call me CCP Praetorian. I am the Creative Director of DUST 514. This is the first dev blog of many to come, and I’ll start things off by giving you a high level overview of the game, and some of the philosophy that guides us in the development of DUST 514.
SO ... WHAT IS THIS DUST 514 THINGS ANYWAYS
Imagine this:
You turn on your PS3, and launch DUST 514. You choose the character you created before, and log onto our servers. You are standing in your Mercenary Quarters. This is your private space and where you spend downtime between battles. From here you can access chat channels, the marketplace, fitting, the starmap, leaderboards, and much more. An icon is flashing. You have new mail in your inbox; a call to arms.
One of your corporation’s planetary assets is under attack. The battle starts in less than 20 minutes and the corporation chat channel is abuzz with discussions of the best fits and strategy to deploy. Losing will be devastating; the surface infrastructure constitutes a fairly significant percentage of the corporation’s bottom-line. A capsuleer mentions that your corp’s fleet has not been mobilized and that the enemy has already moved in and have begun capturing the OCC (Orbital Command Center). It doesn’t look good.
You are running low on blueprints for your preferred fit, advanced variant infantry assault armor, loaded with damage modifiers, a vehicle drop link and a Prototype Light Assault Rifle. Usually your corporation stocks basic stuff in the shared hangars, but this stuff isn’t basic. You worked hard getting there, training the right skills and acquiring all the right blueprints. You decide to replenish your fit from the marketplace. Just one more thing and you’ll be ready: your vehicle. You own blueprints of a standard Caldari HAV (it´s rubbish, but it’s yours) and your pride and joy, an Ishukone Black Ops variant Dropship fitted as a cloaked tackler with a faction Cloak module, two small missile launchers and a shield tank.
This fit has served you well in the past, but you wonder if this time it’ll be good enough. The battle is about to start.
Your heart is in your stomach. You take a deep breath and deploy into battle.
DUST 514 isn't simply another FPS or MMO -- it's a hybrid of these two game types: a Persistent Shooter. It takes elements from both genres to create a cohesive experience that is more than just the sum of its parts. This is a different play experience from what most console players have come to expect. For DUST 514 to work, the MMO and FPS aspects must be seamlessly merged to the point that both feed and fuel one other. It’s all about persistence. Your victories, your failures and your decisions stay with you always. For better or worse, every minute spent in our world counts. Every action you take matters.
DUST 514 shares its setting with, and is connected in real-time with our PC MMO, EVE Online. The setting is one single, open galaxy with thousands of solar systems, where players continually struggle against each other for territorial control and access to the most valuable resources. Those battles rage in space and soon, in DUST 514, on the planets themselves. EVE Online capsuleers and DUST mercenaries form alliances of thousands of players and take collective action on a scale unknown in any other game.They strive for greater power, greater control over the galaxy, and greater immersion in the EVE universe.They take the setting we provide and truly make it their own; this persistence of world events is what awaits you, the DUST mercenaries,as well.
SANDBOX
With DUST 514 we intend to provide an open setting and give players the tools to define and be part of the experience. We do this instead of spoon-feeding the player, as is the case with "theme park" games where everything is a directed experience and an individual’s impact and influence on the world is minimal. Producing directed content is not scalable and so many MMOs fail because of their inability to keep things fresh.
For many FPS players, it’s enough to play the same maps in the same way. Like a sports event, the rules and where the game is played remain the same; the only difference each time being the result. But that’s something many FPS games already do very well. What we're bringing is not only providing fun FPS matches, we're empowering players to define and influence their world. We're giving them the tools to alter the play experience in their favor; increasing versatility, re-playability, and reinforcing the concept that actions in DUST 514 have consequences.
SOCIALIZATION
We want to foster more meaningful interaction among DUST 514 players (beyond lobby smack!) and one of the basic ways that DUST 514 players will self-organize is through corporations, the core social unit in DUST.
Your corp is also something that you can collectively build upon as your membership grows. In regular FPS clan terms, it's like your clan being able to not just have the bragging rights of leaderboard rankings, but you're also gaining wealth, prestige, and influence upon the actual game setting through your successes. Or losing these advantages through your failures. As with an FPS clan, a good corp will be something you can be proud of but it's also something you create and control the fate of. Corps will offer you the ability to collectively prepare for battle, unwind after combat, and discuss what you all want to do next.
This degree of socialization becomes even more significant when you factor in how vital corps are to both EVE Online and DUST 514. That’s because EVE and DUST share the same player-run corporations. That is to say, EVE Online players can join DUST 514 corps. Likewise, DUST 514 players can join EVE Online corporations.These social institutions are crucial to the long-term prospects of DUST 514.
ECONOMY
Our business model for DUST 514 differs from single retail purchase and optional premium DLC of other games on the market. Instead, DUST is designed to utilize virtual goods sales. I will leave details of the economy system to our resident economist, Eino Joas, who will go over all of this with you in a devblog soon-ish, but here is how this works on a high level:
DUST 514 will, as EVE Online does, have a dynamic virtual economy and market that offers the tools that will give you a competitive edge, when used skillfully. Players are able to purchase different gear to equip before deploying into battle, using InterStellar Kredits (ISK), the in-game earned currency of the EVE universe, or through real money currency, called Aurum (AUR). This provides players with flexibility and adaptability in how they approach a combat scenario. Certain items are only available through ISK transactions, while others are only available through AUR. These are then traded freely on a player-driven secondary marketplace.
Of course, your rivals will aim to do the same, fueling a perpetual arms race between merc outfits, with an expanding range of options available in lockstep with your character's progression. Each side of a given conflict will create character armor and vehicle loadouts with a mix of raw killing power, physical augmentations, and sophisticated electronics. Those choices will factor into your strategy for defeating your opposition.
DUST 514 will be continually developed and improved upon over time and there will always be new features and aspects to DUST just around the corner. Oh, and all expansion packs will always be free.
PS.Blog: With EVE Online, CCP already has a huge, engaged community. Why are you now trying to break into the console FPS market?
Brandon: EVE Online is an incredibly deep MMO and, for better or worse, that comes with a typical perception that it is complicated. The common joke is that you have to overcome a ‘learning cliff’ to get involved. Part of the thinking behind DUST 514 is to address those preconceptions; we accept that there is a barrier to entry with something as deep as EVE Online and we wanted to make it more accessible, providing another portal and dimension into the EVE universe. What’s more accessible to a gamer in this day and age than a shooter?
Why did you specifically choose PlayStation as your partner in making that happen?
Obviously, we were attracted to the power and the feature set of PlayStation 3, but it really came down to Sony’s willingness to work with us in bringing an MMO to the platform. There have been attempts to bring MMO games to consoles in the past but we believe we’re now in a position to do it properly, using existing features on PS3 and the PlayStation Network, and collaboratively developing new features to support our vision.
Can you elaborate on your vision for a ‘proper’ MMO?
We’re breaking so much ground with DUST 514: we’re not only building a full console MMO; we’re building one that feeds into another MMO on a completely different platform [PC]. We’re breaking more ground by bringing the microtransaction business model to a console shooter for the first time. All of this was inconceivable not too long ago, and it’s the partnership between CCP and Sony that’s finally making it happen.
Talking about the connectivity between DUST 514 and EVE Online, is this something that’s going to most benefit EVE players or is there equal benefit to those players first experiencing the universe through DUST 514?
It runs both ways – you can be sure that we’re very conscious of that in our design, we run through all the different use cases constantly to ensure its well rounded. EVE Online players can continue playing just the way they are and new players can jump into DUST 514 and get a traditional shooter experience, if that’s what they like. There are aspects that are consistent between the two platforms, such as in-game currency, and there are ways that EVE Online players can impact events in DUST 514 and vice versa, all without harming the overall ecosystem.
Because we have this living universe we call EVE – a single shard server, where all EVE Online players and all DUST 514 players are literally in the same universe, not a bunch of split instances, with a huge variety of dynamics and interdependencies within the ecosystem of the sandbox we’ve created – people playing DUST 514 and people playing EVE Online are essentially providing user generated content for each other, just by their sheer presence and their actions in the game world. To give an example, for a player fighting on a planet surfaces in DUST 514, the actions of the EVE Online players can trigger epic moments and provide support that is completely user-driven. Similarly, a DUST 514 player could trigger an event from the ground and do something spectacular in EVE Online. This emergent behaviour and gameplay is only possible with our level of connectivity. These are the broad strokes, the gameplay and interactions run a lot deeper than that.
In that case, what’s to stop an EVE Online veteran blowing my corporation out of space?
We have some rules of engagement that ensure nothing drastic happens without some kind of fair warning and time to prepare, this is basically carried over and expanded upon from large scale player-driven warfare in EVE Online, where sometimes users are coordinating battles involving tens of thousands of players at once. Additionally, there are things that you can earn or build, independently in DUST 514 and / or EVE Online, or collaboratively between the two, that will mitigate those scenarios.
Putting the philosophy to one side for a moment, what is DUST 514 going to be like to play when you’re on the ground, in battle?
Essentially it’s a vehicular combat game on an extremely large scale, and then when you move into installations and outposts, it’s more infantry based. We’re using Unreal Engine 3 and we’ve incorporated a Mega Terrain engine into it that lets us create huge levels with varied terrain, with a vast array of vehicles ranging from buggies to tanks to aircraft. Typically, you would use vehicles to traverse the landscape and engage in closer combat when you deploy into outposts, but there is a huge amount of tactical freedom, way outside of those broad examples.
There’s some familiarity for players of shooters in that we have general classes or playstyles that we’ve worked out, such as light infantry and heavy weapons, but we’re hesitant to label them that way because we have something called the Fitting system – something that has been entirely ported over from EVE Online – where you can attach all manner of weapons and equipment to your character and your vehicles. It’s better to think of it like the character systems found in the deepest role-playing games; you can have the broad classes that are familiar to shooter fans, but there is massive freedom to expand on or go totally outside of them.
What’s the plan for expanding content in DUST 514?
Right off the bat, we have literally thousands of in-game items built into the system; likewise, in terms of scale, you’re looking at a conflict taking place across thousands of planets, so we’re not just talking a dozen maps – we’re talking an entire universe of planets and areas of engagement within them. That’s the difference in scale we’re looking at here, and taking our experience with EVE Online and also, some inspiration found in the best microtransaction based MMOs, social and mobile games, and we’ve set up our workflow so that we can iterate and add new content very quickly. In terms of scale, depth and volume of content, DUST 514 will easily be the biggest multiplayer FPS on the market – also by virtue of being an MMOFPS, not just an FPS.
Talk us though how your beta is going to work.
Just as we have done with EVE Online, we’re going to be telling a story with each of the events that happen in our game. To give a bit of context, in EVE Online you play as the pilot of a spaceship – a capsuleer – and in DUST 514 you play as a mercenary on the ground. It’s going to be a bit weird if, all of a sudden, we release the DUST 514 beta and all these mercenaries suddenly show up in the EVE universe, so the setting is that the first small group of players that get access to the Private Trials will be the first trial of this new mercenary technology in the context of EVE Online. Just as you’re helping to test the game in the real world, in the EVE world you’re taking part in war games organised to test this new mercenary technology.
With our Private Trials – we’re not calling it a Beta, but Private Trials in both the real world and the EVE fiction – we’re not taking the usual “on / off” method of rolling out a build and then taking it back and tweaking it, then rolling it out again; when we roll out with those first few users we are introducing mercenary technology to EVE, our “game as a service begins”, and the story will continue from there as that technology develops, further empowering the DUST 514 mercenaries from test subjects in war games to ultimately allowing them to take hold of their own future. It’s what we call a thematic rollout
There will be people out there who will look at DUST 514 and assume it’s an EVE Online spin-off. How would you counter that?
We’re not thinking of it in that way at all, I suppose is the easiest way to respond to that. The EVE universe is comprised of three experiences: one is the classic EVE Online play, “flying in space” or what we call FIS; there’s WIS or “walking in stations”, where you can now get out of your ship and explore the interiors of space stations; and the final piece is DUST 514 and we’ve nicknamed that SIF, or “shooting in face”. None of those three are spin-offs, they’re experiences of equal value that can be played independently or fully connected. If you’re connected then you’re going to get the rich emergent gameplay that runs through all three.
We have so much to talk about, much of which is new territory for me. Is there anything we haven’t mentioned that you really want to get across to our PlayStation.Blog readers?
I hope it comes through that what we’re developing is a truly new experience on PS3 – on consoles in general. It is the deepest shooter with the richest universe ever conceived and, on top of that, by bringing to market an MMO with microtransactions, we could be changing the face of console gaming forever. This is groundbreaking stuff, but user choice is at the core – it’s playing the game however you want to play it. If you want a quick experience, you have it; if you’re looking for something deeper, it’s there. If you want to pay a very small amount of money to play, you can; if you want to be heavily invested, you can do that too. We’re providing a more extensive array of options than has ever been seen in a console game.
I liked MAG Alot which appears to be similar to this, shame that Zipper and Sony closed down ALL servers Outside of the U.S. This game - Dust514 should have European servers cause EVE online appears to have them
There should be an Update soon on the Official Dust514 website and the BETA can not be far off since this game should be out Early - 1st or 2nd quarter of Next year, in theory before the summer holidays. I also saw that it was posted that games will start with 64 players so that is 32v32. This doesn't mean that they will be limited to only 64 players, even if I think 64 is fine and beats many games in numbers of player. Do we want quantity or quality?
I Hope more people help to provide info on this game cause it should be better than MAG and maybe even Battle Field - Only time will tellIt does look VERY promising
Also sounds sort of Unreal Tournament 3, which i liked.
Definitely give this a go, but it all depends on how well the clan/corporation stuff works in reality. If you get the equivalent of spawn camping, so your corporation never takes off, it wont be much fun.
It appears that Beta sign-ups have begun if you have a valid EVE Online account, i wonder how us mere mortals can get in, on the proper Beta side of things, rather than a marketing Beta
09-06-2011, 8:18 PM
E. & O.E.
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