Dust 514

[FireSol]

At E3 Sony and CCP announced that Dust 514 become an PS3 exclusive.

In a two words Dust is a MMO FPS in world of EVE online.
FREE TO PLAY!!!!

Features
- integration with EVE online
- cross game chat between EVE and Dust
- customizable weapons, armors and vehicles
- no class based - progression system like EVE
- no heath regen
- 20 vs 20 games in the beginning, later maybe more
- user and npc-generated war contracts
- eve players respond for supplies delivery for ground units

Here is more deep look at Dust from developers.

Phew!

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 THING 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.

Atli “Praetorian” Mar

Videos

Interview to rockpapershotgun.com

While we’ve known about DUST 514 – the console accompaniment to the PC’s grand space MMO EVE – for quite a while, yesterday’s announcement that it’s to be a PS3 exclusive has brought it to everyone’s attention once more. So I grabbed CCP’s senior producer on EVE, Torfi Frans, and DUST producer, Thomas Farrer, to try to find out their motives. What is DUST? How exactly does it relate to the EVE universe? And how will a game of EVE change once it launches?



RPS: People have been surprised about DUST 514, and its being a PS3 exclusive.

Torfi Frans: Eve players have known about it for quite a while, so they weren’t that surprised, although they didn’t know it was a PS3 exclusive. Among our hardcore community there was some rumbling, of course. “Why can’t I play it on my PC?” But you already have EVE on the PC, and what we’re trying to do is introduce the world of EVE to a larger audience. And we felt that by being on console that would open up the world to a much wider audience. And as a corporate policy we wanted to learn how to make games for a console.

RPS: But at the same time, obviously it is opening up to a wider audience, but also you’re closing it off to your core audience.

Thomas Farrer: Well, we don’t want to cannibalise our own player-base. The thing with the world of EVE Online is that it interests an awful lot of people. It’s a fascinating world. We wanted to make that accessible to a wider audience, to invite new people in.



RPS: But at the same time this is a shooter, and EVE is… is not. You’re not really introducing them to EVE, are you? You’re introducing them to a unique game.

Torfi: Ah!

Thomas: You’re introducing them to that audience. But to say that the two games are linked is a misnomer. They’re one. DUST isn’t calling into it. They exist on the same server, on the same shard.

Torfi: They share the same economy, the same world map, the same corporation structure. You can be a DUST or EVE player and be in the same corporation, and the same alliance. You share the same currency. It is the same game. It’s just different game modes.

RPS: But very, very different, right?

Torfi: Yup.

Thomas: It’s “fleet” and “mobile infantry”.



RPS: I understand that there are advantages for you in using Sony’s infrastructure. But again, cutting off half of your console audience seems, from my perspective, to be a risk. That’s 50% of your player base gone.

Torfi: Sony understand. They have an understanding, and they’re curious.

Thomas: Our vision for the future is more closely aligned. For example, most of DUST is running on our own technology, it’s running on our own super-computer, on Tranquillity. And Sony is a lot more… open, shall we say, to allowing you to do those things. It may seem silly, but on Xbox Live your identity is your Xbox Live identity. In the EVE universe, having people not know who you are is quite important.

RPS: Would you say that you couldn’t do DUST on the 360? The way their infrastructure is set up, their policies, would making doing this with Microsoft impossible?

Thomas: I don’t think it’s about saying we “couldn’t” do it. I think some of the challenges we’d meet would be tricky. But then also as a developer you’ve got to weigh the balance. It’s nice to work on one platform rather than two, because it means you don’t have to make any awkward compromises, technically. Also you get the benefit of a closer relationship with that platform. And with the production methodology that we have, we don’t fire and forget the games. It’s about continuous development. So we keep working on them, and you see the huge number of updates that have occurred on EVE in the last seven or eight years. The thinking is the same with DUST. So having that relationship with the platform holder is important for us.

RPS: So can you explain a bit more about DUST?

Thomas: It’s a thinking man’s shooter. One of the core tenets of belief and design at CCP is the sandbox, and not treating our players like they’re idiots. I’ll give you an example. You don’t go onto the battlefield and pick, say, a sniper, and be given this stuff. We give you the tools to create your fit, your loadout. You create your own role on the battlefield. And the possibilities, the ways of doing that, are endless. Endlessly terrifying to our QA department.



RPS: So what scale will these matches be?

Thomas: We don’t have a technical limitation in terms of size of maps – we’re not doing entire planets, but we can have maps as big as 5k by 5k if we want. We won’t go that big to start with. At the moment we’re looking at 32, but we haven’t decided. And this changes with the mode of match – if there’s vehicles we’ll open up the maps lots. A purely infantry mode would take place in a single outpost.

RPS: How do you have persistence in a match-based game?

Thomas: We have, much like EVE – in fact exactly like EVE! – we have different security levels. We have high security, low security, and nulsec, where anything goes. And that’s where we’re pretty much hands off. When you’re in highsec we have NPC generated battles, so you’ll always be able to find a battle, you’re able to grind and get money, but without being exposed to the depth building an infrastructure on the surface of planets, things like that. But then as you play through into the lower levels of security it starts to be about: okay, I’ve got the hang of the game, I’ve got a group of friends, we’ve formed a corporation, and we’ve got backing from some EVE members for the corporation, so we’re going to hire a war barge, we’re going to load it up with supplies, and we’re going to try to attack this location. We’re going to get our first foothold on a planet. And that is all scheduled and controlled. Those matches are planned, and the defenders are warned in advance so they have the opportunity to defend. Once you get into that kind of game you’re making a larger commitment in terms of time to be able to defend your things. And so the more you invest, the more commitment you have to have to protect what’s yours. But there’s always matches rolling in highsec.

RPS: So, if I’m an EVE player, how is my game going to change after DUST is released?

Torfi: Well, you have the ability to be more strategic when you are conquering planets and solar systems, in nulsec. Those are the main touchpoints. Highsec carebears need not worry. The same for lowsec. The main touchpoint upon the launch of DUST, will be in nulsec, will be in sovereignty, will be in inflicting damage and destruction and death upon your enemies, destroying their infrastructure and their means to survive, either by means or scorched earth or by stealing their installations on the surfaces of planets. There will be more going on on the surfaces of planets. We’ve introduced mechanics allowing people to manufacture goods on the planets, but planets will play a more pivotal role in sovereignty mechanics further down the line.



RPS: For the nervous EVE planner who fears the change, will it dramatically affect their game?

Torfi: It will certainly add to the game of the high and the nulsec EVE player. He can choose to ignore it, but as with any tactic if anyone else is doing it, then he will probably not be very successful. But we believe that the DUST players and the EVE players will have a truly symbiotic relationship. And EVE alliances will be strongly incentivised to recruit DUST players into their corporations. They will just be more capable of waging war and fighting with the enemy. So yes, the game will change. It will become more interesting, more visceral, more real, and more brutal.

RPS: Do you think there’s evidence that there’s a hardcore in the PS3 community? This isn’t Modern Warfare.

Thomas: If you look at Modern Warfare or games like that, you see players dedicating enormous amounts of time, and what we’re offering players is that they’re not just going to be endlessly fighting the same battle and moving up and down some abstract leaderboard and unlocking gear. You’re actually going to be part of a universe. It’s not just another battle. It’s actually your planet and this bugger over here is trying to take it. You didn’t just spend the last two weeks moving up to position 58 and unlocking this gear. You spent it investing in this space! And these other guys over here, if you lose, they’re going to lose! And they’re not even involved, they just happened to be there. So there’s more at stake. I think it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of player it is going to attract. We were really interested in this idea. We thought, this is the kind of game that I’d like to play. We feel that there’s got to be other people out there too.

Torfi: We’re pretty sure that they want to do this. They just haven’t had the opportunity yet.

RPS: I get that, and obviously no one can yet prove otherwise, but I’m sure that your core audience – even the people who’ve stopped playing EVE – it just seems so strange to not offer this to a PC audience. So what is the reason? You were saying about cannibalising from your playerbase, but I’m sure there are people who would play both, or pick up DUST after having formerly played EVE.

Torfi: It is a different experience though. It is a different means to access the EVE universe.

Thomas: And never say never, of course.

Torfi: Sony do have a number policies about how you present the user interface, and how accessible the game is. For us it’s somewhat healthy, to have those policies in place, because let’s face it – EVE is not the most accessible game in the universe. Although we have made great strides to make it more accessible over the years. So the answer is, we feel that working with Sony we can deliver the EVE world to a bigger audience, and partnering with them exclusively makes it a more meaningful relationship.

Thomas: It’s certainly a much more beneficial relationship for us. And this is the first time we’ve worked on console, so this is what we need to get our heads down and focused on doing it. And then like everything we do we’re going to drop it into the hands of the players, into the EVE universe, to see what happens. How do people want to play with this?



RPS: I know that EVE has surprised you again and again with what it’s become. Obviously you can’t predict surprises, but are there directions you can see DUST going in from where it is right now?

Thomas: There’s an awful lot of ideas. One of the nice things about this model of development is you don’t have to cut features, you just don’t do them yet. So you have this huge backbone of concepts and ideas available to you. All sorts of people have a pet idea, saying this should be the thing we do next. But I think the most important thing we can do is leave them there and see what the players want, what becomes most popular. And I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll have an idea for it.

Torfi: If I was to predict, then there would probably be more meta-gaming than we assume, and more organisation. That is what we sore in the behaviour of corporations in EVE, the deep, intricate meta-gaming and meta-meta-gaming on top of the meta-gaming, with the plotting and the scheming and the double-agents, and economical and logistical warfare. And also the scale of organisation and the skill of the players was amazing. That people managed to build alliances of six or seven thousand players, and coherently command and control those alliances to destroy their enemies, it was, and it still is, hugely impressive. I have a lot of respect for the people who manage these alliances.

RPS: When I first heard about the idea of DUST and EVE, I felt like there was a class structure to it. You have your upper-middle class people flying ships, and then they employ the grunts on the surface. Now, that sounds massively appealing to an EVE player, but how do you sell that to a DUST player?

Thomas: It’s actually not quite the case. It’s not a one-way relationship. The way we’ve designed it, and the way we’ve iterated on the design, is that if you have a corporation that’s pure mercenaries, pure DUST players, then sure, an EVE corp can say, “I want you to go over here and destroy this guy’s infrastructure. I’ll pay you this much to do it. And if you don’t do it I’m going to be kind of pissed at you.” But then you can also have that DUST corp load up their war barge, go to any planet, and just attack it themselves. And they can take control of that infrastructure. There’s no difference between the infrastructure being deployed between the games. So a pure DUST corp can come in and just start attacking, or if it’s a virgin planet they can deploy planetary infrastructure themselves. So they’re not slaves. They can be self-sufficient. But unless they cooperate they’ll never get the full benefits, because the orbital constructions and the surface-based constructions, they do literally need to be linked to form a space elevator, to gain the maximum benefits and impact sovereignity, so that encourages players to act together.

RPS: So can you see it happening the other way around? Can a DUST corp hire an EVE corp?

Thomas: It’s funny, a lot of the talk has been the other way around. But there’s absolutely no reason why not. Right now there’s not an awful lot a DUST corp can do about orbital control centres and things like that. So it could go the other way.

RPS: Thanks for your time.

Gametrailers interview
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...ust-514/715865


VideoGameGeek interview

I will add new info about this one. And i think games need to give this game a chance, because this time we can get something more, than just leveling up.

[rbrtchng]

If there's no subscription fee, color me interested. Otherwise, I'm out.

[XSpike_SpiegelC]

This sounds amazing! IF they can pull it off. I have no experience with this company, but i do like the sound of the way they explain things. However, i have been duped before! Just have to wait and see, me thinks. I heard this was entirely free to download, does anyone know how true this is?

[FireSol]

This sounds amazing! IF they can pull it off. I have no experience with this company, but i do like the sound of the way they explain things. However, i have been duped before! Just have to wait and see, me thinks. I heard this was entirely free to download, does anyone know how true this is?

i havent info abut this, yet. But im afraid that game will have subscription fee, but the game itself and all dlc will be free

[REEEPR]

Please no fees. Look, a rhymy phrase. Say it with me now...

[Thorzilla]

Indeed, no fees! PS+ subs could get free subscriptions...now THAT would make me go plus for life!

[Thorzilla]

Indeed, no fees! PS+ subs could get free subscriptions...now THAT would make me go plus for life!

[FireSol]

OP is updated with GT interview.
Fot lazy ones main points
- cross chat between games
- free to play with 1 time fee, that payment will be transform to in-game money, with possibility to invest real money to game isk

[Mael Duin]

This game looks very interesting. It's like MAG but much, much more. I demand more information!

[Ps3NInJaTEC]

Yes!! thanks for making this thread! cant wait for this!

[Yuuichi]

Was wondering what the game was all about. I may try it. Guess EVE peps want to prepare for when Titan hits, and seeing this is on a console(tho maybe a PC release to if it does well), it should pull many people away from that game(if they ever release Titan).

[FireSol]

Was wondering what the game was all about. I may try it. Guess EVE peps want to prepare for when Titan hits, and seeing this is on a console(tho maybe a PC release to if it does well), it should pull many people away from that game(if they ever release Titan).

i dont think that Titans will be ever used for planet attacks. Long range artillery is the best choice for that, and they MUCH cheaper them titan ))

Some info about ships in EVE
Titan - is the Biggest ship in EVE online, they are extremely tough and powerful, but no one will use it alone.
pictures of all EVE ships
http://ongame.on.ufanet.ru/eve/ships_new_b.jpg

[BoyBettaKnow]

i dont think that Titans will be ever used for planet attacks. Long range artillery is the best choice for that, and they MUCH cheaper them titan ))

Some info about ships in EVE
Titan - is the Biggest ship in EVE online, they are extremely tough and powerful, but no one will use it alone.
pictures of all EVE ships
http://ongame.on.ufanet.ru/eve/ships_new_b.jpg

They're the ships I was on about in the other thread but I kept calling it a Goliath. They've either paid and are waiting for it to be be finished constructed or they're about to pay for it taken them a damn long time though. It's an Amarr one though I believe.


BBK Is Tapatalking

[Yuuichi]

i dont think that Titans will be ever used for planet attacks. Long range artillery is the best choice for that, and they MUCH cheaper them titan ))

Some info about ships in EVE
Titan - is the Biggest ship in EVE online, they are extremely tough and powerful, but no one will use it alone.
pictures of all EVE ships
http://ongame.on.ufanet.ru/eve/ships_new_b.jpg

Titan is Blizzards new sci fi fps mmo. Did not know EVE had a ship named Titan lol.

[FireSol]

Titan is Blizzards new sci fi fps mmo. Did not know EVE had a ship named Titan lol.

lol )) im not follow blizzard games and have no idea what is all about ))

[Ghost-Rhayne]

This is what I love about the PS3, it has a network that is open and makes possible amazing and different gaming experiences like this. If this is free I am definitely in, ESPECIALLY as it has Move support, w00t!

[Ixion]

Definitely sounds like one of the most ambitious gaming projects ever. Color me interested!

(And if you really want to color me, then I prefer green. Thank you.)

[I OU a Beatn]

I can't wait for it. I've known about it for quite awhile, but when I saw it at E3, I was blown away. The concept of the game is awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

[Arkangell277]

So is it free to play?

[Ixion]

So is it free to play?

There's no subscription fee, if that's what you're asking. You will need to pay for certain optional "virtual goods" though, as they put it.

A lot of MMOs are starting to use that model. If I understand correctly, Lord of the Rings Online went from a subscription model to Free 2 Play model, and now they're making a lot more money.

[Yuuichi]

There's no subscription fee, if that's what you're asking. You will need to pay for certain optional "virtual goods" though, as they put it.

A lot of MMOs are starting to use that model. If I understand correctly, Lord of the Rings Online went from a subscription model to Free 2 Play model, and now they're making a lot more money.

Yeh Microtransactions is pretty much the future of MMO. Eq just switched to along with Age of Conan.

[XSpike_SpiegelC]

Yeh Microtransactions is pretty much the future of MMO. Eq just switched to along with Age of Conan.

I am kind of glad this is they way MMOs are going. That way, if you are just a weekend gamer or not really that into it, but have a lot of fun playing, you can just get the game and go with it. However, if you are super mega into the game, you can go all out and purchase what you want and such. I think this balances out the subscription. I first saw this with Navy Field, and i eventually bought a lot of crews and ships over the months.

I am glad they are taking DUST on this route, that way if people are weary of it they can just jump in and try it out, and if they like it they will end up buying the equipment. Good job CCP!

[Sir_Scud]

Sounds ambitious (which is a good thing). Might have to keep my eye on this one. And I agree, I like the microtransactions method. It was always hard to play WoW, because if I took a week off I felt like I was wasting my subscription fee.

[FireSol]

OP is updatet with new video and features list
from what i read Dust is most ambitious fps mmo to date, if ccp can do that we get our hands on most epic game ever!!!

[TDbank24]

Dust 514 looks promising. It was definitely a surprise to see at Sony's show for me.