Escaping Content
Overview
Unlike most MMOs, where players frequently travel through monster-infested terrain, content in EVE is typically very localised. Players warp to specific locations with content that lives there and only there, and if they want to avoid that content they can simply jump over those locations. However, an invasion doesn't wait for you to interact with it; by definition, it forces a region's inhabitants to react and engage with it. In order to make a system feel invaded, we needed content that did the same.
Our solution was to rework NPC AI, expanding their territory to encompass an entire invaded system—to bring the Invasion to wherever the players were, and to make persistent changes to the game world as a result.
The Goal:
More so than perhaps any other feature of The Invasion release arc, Escaping Content was meant to address the design pillar Content is Alive.
The Release Schedule:
During Chapter 1, we released the core feature of escaping content: the exploratory and navigational AI, and proved the experience worked. With Chapter 2, escaping AI received extensive improvements to their server usage, enabling us to expand the amount of escaping content offered by the event. During this time, Gregor and I also experimented with new complex behaviors, testing them in classic dungeon content before adding them to escaping AI in chapter 3: Gregor worked on “choose your side” behavior logic in his Observatory Flashpoint capstone dungeon, and I experimented with NPCs deploying persistent structures in my Stellar Fleet Deployment dungeon.
With Chapter 3, these were deployed en masse, with NPCs engaging in expansive brawls with players and each other, as well as deploying weapons platforms and harvesters around invaded star systems.
Chapter 1: Escape & Exploration
The Problem:
Players in a system can ignore content by not warping to it.
Players only need to worry about content built for the site that they are directly engaging with.
Transiting players, such as traders hauling goods between markets, could do so safely with no concern for local content.
An invaded system needs to feel invaded by all players within the space.
The Solution:
Invading NPCs leave their sites and explore the system with new AI logic
NPC fleets transit from location to location, seeking out players to engage
Event NPCs will attack other NPCs, but prioritize players
If no targets are present, NPCs engage in narratively interesting activities
If no players are in the system, NPCs largely sleep to preserve server resources.
Result:
Players transiting through may be ambushed on gates and stations.
Players engaging in other content may be interrupted by event NPCs.
Players with persistent structures (stations, etc) will need to defend them against event NPCs.
Players with an active stake in the system have to defend it and themselves from the invaders.
This meant that our escaping content was heavily impactful. It could be mitigated or even fully avoided by players, but only with intentional consideration by locals. Even players across the game world were impacted by changes in trade route balance, giving them a stake in which invasion locations should be progressed with particular haste.
Our escaping content also had a bonus effect of supporting the game's economic health by decreasing the value of botting and low-effort play. This was heavily praised by players, and eased tensions with those otherwise frustrated by the need to adapt to our content.