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Author Topic: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!  (Read 2935 times)

GoGo Yubari

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In real life, a naval cruise may take months while a jet flight will be a matter of minutes/hours. Many people somehow counter to the facts assume that naval ops in Eve are similar in length, possible taking weeks or months, instead of following the jet model. Yet, quite clearly I can get in my ship and into and out of Jita in 15 minutes. I've always kind of handwaved this, because it hasn't really been relevant. You could say it's different between capsuleer ships and normal ships. Even then there's been the crew, which apparently never leaves the ship. Maybe they get shore leave when I log off.

But now Incarna the "Immersion expansion" smacks this question to the forefront once again. My character not only gets into and out of the ship pretty damn fast, but she is quick into her clothing and the game pretends to show me this.

I've always wondered that maybe the time-flow in Eve shouldn't be considered entirely linear or in-line with the real world. I'm kinda thinking about that more nowadays.
« Last Edit: 22 Jun 2011, 05:16 by GoGo Yubari »
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Mithfindel

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #1 on: 22 Jun 2011, 05:26 »

If entering the captain's quarters took time, they would need to be optional or then there would be a huge backlash. And if they were optional, they'd likely see very, very little use as long as you could do everything you can do there in the hangar view, until, you know, there would be actual content there in addition to the clumsy UI. (3D walking around before you can do what you want UI is just horrible compared to 2D click & do.)

We are also able to take mothballed ships and have them ready to undock in a few seconds. (Session timer after boarding the ship is 30 seconds, so essentially time from mothballed to spaceflight is roughly 30 seconds.) Also all kinds of modules - afterburners, reactor controls, auxiliary power, hull modifications - can be installed in the matter of seconds. Yes, it's a game.
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Mizhara

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #2 on: 22 Jun 2011, 05:32 »

Incarna is just a massive facerape of immersion as it is. Capsuleers decanting every single time they dock, even if it's just to transfer the pod to another ship or even just dumping cargo while hauling for agents or even mining ops. Decanting naked out in the open, walking on a steel grille to find a shower (which apparently isn't available where it should be), clean off, get dressed, move back to the pod area and stand there for a split second to move the cargo off, then strip, get into the pod, get into the ship and undock... all within 31 seconds or less if you don't change ships.

There's a massive disconnect between gameplay and reality here, right now. For anyone outside, we're gone for 31 seconds or a little more/less depending on whether we need to wait out session change timer. (Loading station, changing ships/dumping cargo or whatever) From our standpoint, we've done a metric fuckton in that time. Docked ship, ejected pod, docked pod, decanted, showered, gotten dressed and so on. And going from dressed and couch-potato to having launched a capsuleer spaceship in less than ten seconds? What?

I can believe modular tech like weapons and shields and so on can be fitted very quickly with automated systems designed for it. A re-usable assembly-line process of sorts. This whole thing? It's ridiculous.

Incarna is nothing but worthless, immersion-breaking bullshit and the single worst waste of effort I've seen in Eve.
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Arista Shahni

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #3 on: 22 Jun 2011, 05:50 »

The timing thing doesn't bother me too much.

Decanting and being spilled onto an uncoated metal gankplank to, one would assume, then struggle to wobbly feet and stagger to somewhere safe to cover up and clean up before all the wierdoes with binoculars watching from observation decks around the ship platform can point and laugh.. that sort of bothers me.

Just ignoring that part, to be honest.
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Saede Riordan

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #4 on: 22 Jun 2011, 05:53 »

Yeah, honestly, it might not be realistic, but I understand why they did it. At the end of the day, eve is a game, and its designed like a game. That means handwaving some things. Honestly, I'm going to handwave the entire WiS until I've seen it actually live up to what the players have created.
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Katrina Oniseki

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #5 on: 22 Jun 2011, 06:03 »

Anyone else notice that you can't even close the door to your room?

Lyn Farel

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #6 on: 22 Jun 2011, 17:34 »

Yeah I noticed that. It is the kind of little details that are not very hard to do that can add to immersion.

And for the time dilatation stuff, decanting or taking a shower at every docking, does not change anything for me. Before we had to imagine how it was, now we have to imagine that it did not happen for a short dock. Besides that, immersion is promising.
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Arista Shahni

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #7 on: 22 Jun 2011, 17:43 »

Admittedly for the moment the lack of avatar to avatar interaction - heck, not even *seeing* anyone much less waving at them - adds to the immense gulf of loneliness attached to being a pod pilot.  ;)  I suppose the commerical of the corpse floating in space scrolling by every 30 seconds also adds to the gloom.

My character and I both will need prozac ;)
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Esna Pitoojee

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #8 on: 22 Jun 2011, 19:17 »

We've long been docking multi-kilometer ships from some distance outside a station, and appearing floating docked well inside within a matter of seconds.

Frankly, time dilation has been in EVE for some time, and I think we can ignore this iteration as much as the last.
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Graelyn

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #9 on: 22 Jun 2011, 21:00 »

Seriously, people.

You'd have a point if nything in this respect had actually changed.

Now it's just heaving extra weight on an admittedly disappointing feature just for the catharsis.
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BloodBird

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #10 on: 23 Jun 2011, 02:50 »

Seriously, people.

You'd have a point if nything in this respect had actually changed.

Now it's just heaving extra weight on an admittedly disappointing feature just for the catharsis.

^This.

Time dilation has been around for years; ever since day 1. Taking a piss on Incarna simply for pointing it out even harder then it was before is a waste of time and effort, honestly.

Game-mechanics in general are immersion breaking aspects of this game. They HAVE to be. If a simple thing like docking took as long as it realistically should, people would complain about making it faster. As it does take as little time as it does people complain that it's not realistic... well, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Frankly I personally treat this as a non-issue; if I'm active in space I don't *need* CQ. I go to settings and graphics and klick-off 'load station environment' to get the 2D image in it's place. It let's me dock and do my things in 2D UI as normal pre-Incarna, only ship-spining is KIA at this point. It works for me - I cna easily hand-wave this as simply docking up, getting my cargo dumped, ship preped and undocked in a relatively short time without exiting pod - after all without CQ I don't see my toon in his quarters, thus making tihs issue moot.

If I want to dock up and idle for some time I simply go to settings and flip CQ back on before I dock, and voila! CQ is back up and I'm idling in station or chatting with contacts etc.

Build your immersion-feed around CQ in this manner and you might well be better off.
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GoGo Yubari

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #11 on: 23 Jun 2011, 04:05 »

Hehe, I didn't really intend for this thread to be hatin' on time dilation, but I guess the general sentiments re: Shitcarna are overflowing over here as well. My point is that in the past we've handwaved it, but at least for me the Captain's Closet once more slapped me in the face with it. So, instead of going "raagh raagh this is immersion breaking" I figured, maybe I should consider this a feature.

[non value judgement] Eve time doesn't flow in linear fashion [/non value judgement].

Maybe it is an RP tool.
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Myrhial Arkenath

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Re: Time Dilation : Not just for fighting vs lag anymore!
« Reply #12 on: 23 Jun 2011, 05:38 »

Anyone else notice that you can't even close the door to your room?

I think a sliding door there would be lovely, would also help with graphics issues as being in one part would not render the other. Maybe with a little config for those who want to see their ship all the time, like having it slide on approach or permanently open :)
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