Today CCP announced that on January 10, they will connect their new FPS game Dust 514 to the existing Eve Online server cluster, Tranquility. A unique event!
Recently, CCP has repeatedly billed Eve Online as a virtual world, rather than 'just' a game. It's a sentiment I recognize: when I grew tired of other virtual worlds back in May 2008, I specifically went looking for a space based virtual world - and I ended up in Eve Online.
On January 10 2013, that virtual world is set to grow in unique and very interesting ways. From a technological point of view, the mixing of PC based and PS3 based environments on one massive server cluster such as Tranquility is certainly innovative. And from a gameplay perspective, the same is pretty much true, for the same reasons. The coming months will be very interesting, to say the least.
One thing I noticed in the devblog linked above, is that CCP advises Eve Online pilots to use Destroyers for the to be released variants of orbital strikes or bombardments, and you'll need small turrets to fire the 'S' labeled ammo. That certainly lowers the entry barrier for Eve pilots to participate in Dust gameplay! in earlier trailers, we'd see expensive Dreadnaughts delivering the pain from above. Destroyers, by contrast, are very easy to train for and cheap to buy. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Dust mercenaries create Eve Online pilot accounts just to be able to do the orbital bombardment stuff themselves. I know that there are Eve pilots who really dislike the fact that CCP puts development effort in something - anything - that can't undock from a space station. Personally, I applaud CCP for pursuing such an innovative strategy. As with any CCP initiative that aims to grow and sustain my favorite virtual world, I hope it will succeed!
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