ZAM spoke with Jon Lander and Halldor Fannar about CCP's future

The ramping up of DUST’s content is more than just a thematic one with the game undergoing a variety of changes due to the lessons learned in beta. On the surface, the first noticeable change will be a visual improvement.

“It’s more graphics, faster graphics and better looking graphics. We’re releasing a host of new dropsuits for the mercenaries and simplified that [choice] so we’re just going to have light, medium and heavy classes.

We are also adding more weapons. Think of weapons in DUST as you would space ships in EVE.”

At which point I was shown the Minmatar Flintlock pistol, which looked like it could do a lot of damage and retained the beauty through practicality mantra that permeates CCP’s design choices in the EVE universe.

“Another big change on the visual front is you’ll notice that if you play DUST on the PSN today there is not a lot of variety in the battle grounds. There are a few maps but not much. There was a reason for that; we wanted to gather telemetry data from the players to understand what was working well and what was not before we invested in building a lot of environments. Our goal was always to build environments which correctly matched the planets of EVE.”

I was then shown a variety of landscapes such as rocky terrain and sand covered vistas to demonstrate the new look the maps will have. I also saw the maps at various stages in the day/night cycle showing just how much the new facelift that DUST will receive will be integrating the game into the same universe as EVE. The game will definitely be much sharper with Uprising.

With DUST’s current exclusivity on the PlayStation 3, it is obvious that being able to pick up a joypad and jump in-game is a big factor in attracting a large audience for a shooter.

“With DUST we wanted to improve the accessibility of our games. Our character selection and character creation is much more simplified. Character creation in EVE today virtually requires you to read pages on the internet to avoid making asinine decisions. With DUST we want you to have all the information you need to make an informed decision right at your fingertips. 

What we’re hoping is that with some of these changes, as we see them working well with our players in DUST, we can learn from that and adopt some of that in EVE.”

The new UI for the array of skills available to DUST players is getting a huge overhaul.  From the brief glimpse I got of the new system, it looked much more visually appealing and, most importantly, informative. This new approach had become obvious after the issues players had run into in beta:

“When we put into DUST the seven years of skill training that we wanted in the game initially, we noticed there was so much complexity there that players were actually buying things they could not use. They were training for things where they had no way of actually taking advantage of with their skills. So we changed it to a node-based graph system which informs you much better as you progress through it.

We’re hoping as we polish this we can take it back to EVE.”

Though Halldor stressed that wasn’t a commitment, it would be very cool to see such an intuitive system make its way to help overcome the learning cliff of EVE’s new player experience.

Next up was a look at the new star map, which again looked fantastic and really opened up a wealth of information in a very easy to comprehend and pleasing manner.

“We’ve taken the star map of EVE and turned it into a 2D image, much like you would see in subway systems in metropolitan cities. This allows us to give you a lot of information about what is actually happening in space.”

One region was pointed out and its icon was broken down to easily show, including color coding, which factions were holding what proportion of the area. All updated in real-time, so as things happen in EVE it updates on the map to make DUST players realize they are playing as part of a shared universe.

Drilling down further, we took a look at specific systems where crossed swords icons revealed that conflict was occurring, making it easy for mercenaries to decide where they want to go if they want to jump into some factional warfare. All of these fights were accessible via another page so if people wish to quickly access combat that way they can, or they can use the star map to view the battles on a galactic scale.

Even more interesting was the corporation view available on the map. White flags showed that certain districts had been claimed by corporations, with their names also visible. The reason for the importance of this feature is that corporations will be able to claim districts on planets and build their own structures. These corporation-owned buildings will give different advantages, as Halldor described:

“You could build a research lab that will conceivably speed up your clone manufacturing. You can put a manufacturing plant in there that will allow you to build more clones over time.”

Halldor then explained that you can take part in a “Risk” type of game where you can transport your clones but will lose a certain percentage as they travel between regions. You can “jump-clone” them to other planets and you will lose more; in each instance you will have to pay for it. In fact, at a certain distance, you can lose all of your clones.

This makes it a strategic choice of where you will base your operations. As you own more districts it becomes increasingly hard to keep what you have. This will open up an even fiercer territorial conflict, as owning planets will have prime importance for players in DUST and EVE. I was promised we would know more about the effect this will have on EVE at Fan Fest.

The upgraded graphics, better frame rate and streamlined, more intuitive and informative UI will bring a lot of added crispness to DUST 514 when Uprising lands on May 6.

It was a pleasure talking to Jon and Halldor about the ever expanding universe of EVE and from our conversation, they hinted that DUST is just the first additional game that might become a part of New Eden. Where this could go is anyone’s guess; but as per usual for CCP, even the sky has no limits.

ZAM will be in attendance at FanFest, the wildest gaming celebration on the planet from April 25-27 in Reykjavik and we will bring you all the EVE and DUST news direct from the floor.

Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief