You got your FPS in my MMO! You got your MMO in my FPS!
Man, this is wigging me the crap out.
Since DUST 514 is set in the same galaxy as the core MMO, with the same planets, EVE players will have the option of contracting DUST (player) mercenaries to gain control of planets.
When you bring these two communities together, that "one universe, one war" means that the EVE PC MMO and DUST 514 console MMOFPS gamers will form interconnected social structures and meld over time.
More info to come out during Eve FanFest October 1-3. Apparently it is three years into development already, so 2010 release for Xbox 360 and PS3?
Alright, so at Fan Fest they're announcing more stuff.
The model is essentially persistent Counterstrike mixed with Natural Selection marines. Shoot stuff, earn money, buy vehicles, shoot more things. The vehicles instantly get dropped on your location (no spawn camping or trudging back to a spawn point). The individual matches revolve around your commander's ship which is movable, defendable, and blow-upable. You can do instant-action and get warped into some random battle, or you can hang out in your corp's orbital war barge, participate in the planning for an attack (ie what stuff is going to be committed to this attack, etc.), and then get dropped on the planet and take over a district with your corp. The deployables you can place in the theater of war depends upon whether you have control of the energy in a particular location; infantry has to go in and hack the grid first. A planet is divided into multiple districts each of which can be contested individually.
The war barge orbits a planet, and is really expensive (probably only big established corps get one?). If you want to attack a different planet (because your corp accepted a new contract from an Eve player in a different system) then you have to move the war barge. No word on whether Eve players can see and/or attack the war barges.
They seem to be sticking to the 360/PS3 only model (for now). If I had a system which could run this I'd buy it; maybe I'll convince my friend with a console to buy it!
Oh, and I don't think they came right out and said there would be a subscription fee or not. They did say they would sell certain consumables like new blueprints as microtransactions (either physical cards, or maybe online). New players won't be able to use them, and the list didn't sound like they give combat advantage, really. Just more toys, and I think they could be purchased with the money you earn from Eve player contracts anyway.
Money you earn from shooting stuff is a different currency (like war points vs. isk).
The deployables the commander can place include spawn points. All the spawn points are dynamic, determined by the commander.
They showed like a ten minute long gameplay video. It seemed like the player spawned with several guns, picked up another one at a supply depot at his base, and then was able to buy a jeep (with large gun on the back and room for more players) or a plane whenever he felt like doing it (though they said he had like infinite war points for the demo). The guns were pretty twitch it seemed. No lock-on. There was a sniper scope, but he never fired through it? There was an anti-armor gun and a normal infantry rifle. You could get consumable health packs from your base to carry around with you.
Oh, they also mentioned the vehicles will have fitting slots like Eve ships so you can make a vehicle for a particular role. I guessing that happens outside of combat.
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.