It’s the Little Things…

CCP spends a lot of time working on features that have wide-ranging effects on the game. But it’s nice to see that they don’t neglect the little things, either.

I just fell for a null-sec procurer bait trick, and managed to escape with a nearly burned out MWD in about 80% hull.  This was the first time I escaped a fight in hull, so it was the first time I could see the new hull damage effects for myself.

 I absolutely love the new pock-marks and burning circuitry. It’s one of those features that helps you feel as if you’re really living in this world.  Immersion, I believe, is what the kids call it these days.

But that wasn’t it. When I docked up to repair the damage, I expected the image of my ship to suddenly shift from a damaged ship to a repaired version, the way it does when you swap ships.  But no, instead, the damage gradually repaired as if nanobots were running along the hull and effecting repairs. It wasn’t immediate at all, but rather gave an organic feel to my ship “healing”.

That’s one of those features that absolutely was no necessary, but shows that CCP takes their work to a whole new level. It’s a neat little treat for players that didn’t make it into a dev blog or even get any media attention.

But somewhere, there was a group of designers who a) thought to put that in, b) fought for time to develop it and “went to bat” for it with management, and c) spent man-hours designing and testing it, all so we’d feel more like we were playing a fully fleshed out game.

CCP, if you’re reading this, please let me know who we should give credit to. I hope they see this, and know how much we appreciate little touches like this. Somewhere, in a weekly meeting following the holidays, I hope someone brings up this little bit of appreciation so they know that their efforts directly improve my experience. Without them, this game just wouldn’t be as awesome.

Thank you!