I’ve been playing a bit of Endwar, the new RTS from Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy franchise. The big gimmick (and it is a gimmick, there is no depth to the game and very little in the way of strategy) is that you can command your troops with your voice. EVE should have this.
In EndWar you issue orders to your troops with fairly simple yet versatile commands. The number of commands is limited but has enough scope to allow the effective control of your army.
How does this relate to EVE? I hear you ask. Allow me to elaborate…
Imagine playing EVE, easily done if you are already a player (which I’m guessing you are as I seem to have alot of readers for my EVE posts 
), now imagine combat in EVE, again an easy stretch for any experienced EVE player. Now imagine combat in EVE without touching your mouse or keyboard. Imagine locking a target and activating modules on that target with just the power of your voice.
In Endwar the command structure is reasonably simple. The first command in the chain is used to determine the type of command you are issuing. “Unit” tells the interface that you want to tell a specific unit what to do, you then specify by number which unit you are talking to. Then you have a choice of commands to issue to that unit, “Secure”, “Attack”, “Move to”, “Retreat”, etc. Each of these commands then either ends the chain or allows you to specify a target for the command. Locations on the battlefield are identified using call-signs (Alpha, Bravo, etc) and hostiles are identified by number in much the same way as your units (“Hostile 2, for example).
Its not that much of a leap to extend this interface for use with EVE. Commands such as “Lock” or “Target” and then an identifier could be used to lock a target. The identifier could be for a specific ship, a specific type of ship, or for the closest ships. For example: “Lock Closest Frigates” would do just that and would populate each of your target slots (defined by the numebr of targets you are capable of locking) with the specified hostile ships. Or “Lock 3″ would lock the third item down on your overview.
Once locked, activation of modules on your targets could be achieved the same way. Again the modules themselves would have to be identified by number rather than the name of the specific module. So if you had your guns grouped in the first module slot (usually activated with the F1 hotkey) the command might be “Module 1 Fire Target 3″ with the target being assigned a number from left to right in the locked target display on your screen. Non-targeted modules such as Shield Boosters, Amour Reppers and Afterburners would of course not require a target to be specified and could simply be activated with “Module X Fire”
Approach, Keep at range, and Orbit commands could be handled the same way; “Approach Target 4″, “Keep at range Target 2″ and “Orbit Target 5″. These commands would use the default range set in the right-click menu, and whilst useful, being able to orbit at a specified range may over-complicate the system somewhat. Though the addition of multiple default ranges may be a way to overcome this (eg: “Orbit 1 Target 4.”)
Drones could also be issued commands using this interface. “Drones” would refer to all drones, or they could be commanded by group (“Group 1″, etc). All the commands associated with drones could be issued using this system, from launch to engage and return.
Not knowing how the client-server relationship works with EVE, wat follows is pure conjecture on my part. I’m assuming that as the player interacts with the interface each command is sent to the server and acted upon. If this is the case it should not matter how those commands are entered into the client. Whether the command is inputted with a few clicks of a mouse or a voice command should not matter as the output to the server would be the same. Therefore it the voice command system would be a purely client-side system and could even be made completely optional.
What do you think? Could EVE use a voice command system? The technology is now at the point where such a system is feasible (as EndWar demonstrates, even if it does suck as an RTS) but whether or not it would suit EVE is another question. I think it would. The biggest obstacle would be the multi-lingual nature of EVE’s audience, I dont think forcing everyone to use English would be very fair and coding a multi-lingual interface for voice commands would be a big job.
Till next time, fly safe and good hunting.
