EVE Online: Walking In Stations

It's a no-brainer, you'd think. Senior producer Torfi Frans Olafsson admits that players were asking if they'd be able to walk around and socialise inside space stations before the famously complex science-fiction MMO was even released; it's simple, natural wish-fulfilment, a limb the game has always been missing.

Nevertheless, it carries with it serious risks. EVE Online may be an incomprehensible formula to many, but it's a successful one: with almost a quarter of a million subscribers, it's a solid performer that's still steadily growing in popularity five years after release, something almost unheard of in MMOs. As the producers of Star Wars Galaxies will tell you, a radical change to an established game can easily destabilise it, and alienate its audience. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Olafsson claims that they always wanted to do this, but that PC graphics simply weren't advanced enough in 2003 to portray characters in the serious, hard-sci-fi mode - comparable to film and TV - that they wanted. Disingenuous that may be, but the first live demonstration of the game proves it was worth the wait. As far as realistic human avatars (and their clothing) goes, Walking in Stations is right up there with Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. There's still a certain plasticity to faces, and you can expect the rather stiff animations to improve, but in anatomy, shadowing, lighting - even light reflections on PVC and leather clothing - these characters are second-to-none.

This is the only official avatar screenshot that exists at the moment. We're chasing CCP for more.

If you're particularly attached to your current 2D visage, you'll have to do your best to create it from scratch. "Rather than write a hugely complex non-linear algorithm that would translate your existing avatar, we decided that the best such filter that exists is the human brain," Olafsson says. Character customisation wasn't shown at the EVE Fanfest.

Film visuals are constantly referenced as a benchmark. The initial costumes created by artists "were very gamey - although they were cool, we felt that you wouldn't see this in a science-fiction film". Out they went, replaced by a costume designers' work that could actually be made in fabric, accurate down to the stitching. Similarly, the environment designs created by "level artists from popular FPS games" were scrapped for the work of architects and industrial designers, since stations wouldn't be used for combat, but shopping and social interaction - the things real-world buildings are used for. Film animation studios are creating assets for Walking In Stations, Olafsson boasts.

(Visit Fanfest, and you quickly learn that CCP, while a very friendly company, is also an obsessive elitist like no other. It prizes measurable performance and bragging rights above all else. Just check out yesterday's insanely detailed presentations on graphics and server performance, if you don't believe us.)

Walking in Stations will also make EVE the first game to take advantage of a new lighting technology called Enlighten from Cambridge's Geomerics. In technical terms this means real-time radiosity - the bouncing of light from surfaces to other surfaces. In practical terms, it's supposed to allow games to take advantage of the kind of dynamic mood lighting of film, and especially film noir. A Geomerics representative showed clips of Alien and Blade Runner as well as a deeply impressive tech demo. Enlighten wasn't built into the demo shown, but regardless, there were some stunningly subtle lighting and shadowing effects on display already - ambient occlusion (softer darkening of obscured areas, as opposed to hard shadows) was spectacular.

This is actually a hangar, but gives you some idea of the scale and aesthetic of stations.

When you dock your ship, you can choose to exit your pod to your captain's quarters. Your large, organic pilot's pod leads to a dressing room for choosing costume options, and a generically curvy and antiseptic space-lounge with open-plan kitchen (and a box of "protein delicacies") and animated news screen. An elevator takes you down to the station itself.

These fairly standardised digs will allow some limited customisation - sofas, tables, pictures on the wall, "frozen corpse display cabinets" - but they're mostly there as a default showcase for your avatar, and somewhere any player can immediately call home. Appropriately enough for this rapaciously capitalist game, your real investment in Walking In Stations won't be as a home-maker, but as a shop-keeper.

CCP is taking its own idiosyncratic approach to content in Walking In Stations. Instead of designing lavish environments and writing hours of NPC dialogue for players to enjoy, the game's space stations will largely be blank canvasses: promenade rows of empty sockets for players to plug their own businesses into, and even write their own content.

"Building EVE has always been about empowerment," Olafsson says. "So in our initial release we're not going to be jamming storyline down the throats of players or having loads of missions. Some might say it's relatively empty. But my perspective is providing tools and options for the player." All very trendy stuff right now, but it's worth noting that player-driven content has been part of EVE's and CCP's philosophy since day one.

You'll be able to rent a "socket", buy a bar blueprint and insert it. Set your own restrictions on the clientele, hire NPCs to populate the bar (including dancers), even craft dialogue rules for them to create your own little quasi-missions and adventure storylines. Then sit back and watch the beer money roll in. Maybe.

"Drinking beer doesn't get you anywhere in EVE, just as in life," Olafsson says. "If you drink too much beer your avatar will grow fat. There are methods to grow thinner." It's not all booze - Olafsson also mentions tattoo parlours, plastic surgeons, gyms and places you go to "purge" your body. It's all about booze and vanity then.

The idea is to use the players to solve a perennial problem with social spaces in MMOs - that nobody but hardcore role-players uses them. If players want to make money, they'll have to advertise their bars and services and find ways to draw other players in. "What's beautiful about that is rather than 100,000 bars with nobody in them, you'll have a few bars with people in them because owners promote them," Olafsson says.

"Although the invisible hand of economics doesn't work outside of EVE currently, I'm hoping it's going to be working inside of EVE," he adds. An Icelander ought to know.

CCP claims it's seeking to avoid videogame influences in the art style, looking to films like Blade Runner and 2001 instead.

Crafting clothes will be another new source of income in Walking In Stations, although it's likely to be done via the regular market than clothing boutiques. Crafting and trading in general are going to be left out of Walking In Stations at first, as well as agent missions. CCP reasons that what you can do with a few mouse-clicks now, you're unlikely to want to spend five minutes walking around to do later. "It's important that we don't create gameplay mechanics that are just there for realism and are hugely annoying," Olafsson says.

Of course, there's more serious business to be done in EVE than selling alcohol and facelifts. Corporation offices will probably be the true hubs of station activity. They'll be split into two areas, a foyer open to everybody where programmed NPCs spout recruitment slogans and give away stuff, and a meeting room for members. You'll be able to communicate via standard local chat, but there's also built-in voice chat with "voice fonts" to distort and alter your tones to something suitable for your character. CCP is also working on a reputation system, so that pilots with a high standing will draw the gaze of other avatars in the vicinity, and determine their attitudes.

On the development agenda, but not promised for the first release, is a shared tactical map, fed by information from scouts, that can be used to organise logistics and battle operations on a macro level. On a micro level, there will be mini-games, including a tactical strategy game played out on hexagonal board ("very good if I say so myself", says Olafsson). It can be played against other players and AI for money. Other games will also tend towards multiplayer strategy, to reflect the cerebral nature of EVE itself.

Yeah, you're just going to have to picture it. Sorry.

Taking a hands-on tour, what immediately strikes you is that the title is quite literal - you'll be walking, not running, everywhere. It feels painfully slow, although it gives the environment a sober and credible feel that the usual manic dashing and jumping would ruin. There will be airport-style walkways to speed your progress on longer trips. In a neat touch, the camera zooms into an over-the-shoulder view to allow you to study the detailed interiors (first-person is also planned). Although the promenade was a predictable expanse of smooth, sculpted steel, the bar we visited had a darker, grungier, more lived-in and jerry-rigged look. CCP say they want players to be able to role-play Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca - the cool owner who adventurers want to drink with.